I originally wrote this post a few days ago, but shelved it because I don't like preaching or discussing beliefs on here. But then I read this on CNN.com:

"The overwhelming majority of the American people support traditional marriage," said Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colorado, sponsor of the amendment. "And the people have a right to know whether their elected representatives agree with them."

Wow. Since when has anything in this country been able to remain "traditional?" Progressive(?) and progression is where the future is. Humans are not a stagnant species when in a huge group. We progress, evolve, and mature. This includes culture and beliefs. "Traditional" is, and always will be, a little bit dusty.

Original post:

It amazes me how ensconced with anger and fear and rage people get when talking about gay marriage, especially those who are deathly against it. Nebraska recently upheld a ban on gay marriage, as have other states. And while that's not a problem with me, per se, it is the people who make the weak defense that gay marriage threatens the sanctity of "real" marriage as seen in the eyes of God.

I have two points for that:

1) Most of today's religious beliefs were determined and VOTED upon by men. Not by some divine doctrine or even the Bible. It was men's interpretation of the Bible. Some believed it said things one way, others believed another. They voted, and majority won. Those who couldn't accept it, left and made offshoot denominations. Simple stuff...and certainly not divine. So don't bring "God's Will" into this. (And yes, I had all of this forumated before The Davinci Code...)


2) I love hearing even important people say that gay marriage will reduce the value of their own marriage (either outright, in in between the lines). My beliefs are rooted very much in the self. I try not to define myself and my happiness based on outside influences, i.e. other people. Why would you do that? Why would you place your own happiness in someone's else hands? Likewise, when I get married, my marriage will not be devalued because gay people get married around me. That's ridiculous and weak. That tells me that marriage to those people, is already not a huge thing, does not mean much to them, and they are obviously not seeing marriage as what it is: a public union between two people who love each other. The marriage is a public formality, nothing more. It holds as much importance and value as those people who are in it, give it. It is shallow to think that a gay marriage between two unknown people in another state threatens one's own marriage.

Live and let live. People who are gay do love each other and do deserve the same benefits of straight people who marry and want to show the world their love for each other. I am really considering not posting this, I don't like posting my beliefs because, like I said earlier, my beliefs are based in me, not what others believe or think about my beliefs...but maybe I'll leave it up...but I will say it saddens me to think people, including our President, want to defile and use (abuse) the Constitution by making a gay marriage ban amenment. How can you take one of the most pure and wholesome and important documents in our lives, and abuse it and defile it like that? Something that gives peolpe so many rights and good feelings...and use it to limit other people's rights? I just can't get over how disappointed in people that makes me feel...

I have a firm belief that most people just don't...think...very much. They don't truly think.

Must...update...site! There are parts that are just begging to be updated around here...and what is sad ismany parts have no date or context associated with them, which is terribly misleading! My About > Me section was written when I was still in college 4 years ago. Oh...such pain!

Soon, soon, my precious...

Wow, I totally forgot I had a section of my site with links in it! Crap, another part to keep updated...or to just flat out purge...

Of note to myself, just today I have moved the server box over from my old Qwest DSL line to my new Mediacom cable line. Every since my move to my own apartment, my Qwest DSL service has been completely unreliable at best. They had no real options to fix it that didn't cost me more money (and still might not have fixed it) so this past week I moved over to Mediacom. Mediacom can't give me a static IP, but at least the install technician let me know that they don't renew their IP settings regularly at all, and even if the modem is unplugged and plugged back in, chances are I get the same IP. Wahoo! And no inbound filtering either. Wahoo! Although it does cost just a tad bit more than my DSL + ISP bill, in the short term this is better because the DSL was ureliable and would have cost much more to get fixed (new modem or work on the phone lines of the apartment).

(The DSL connection "loses" it's connection on the modem every 30 seconds to 6 hours. This disconnect sometimes allows the modem to retrain in 30 seconds but sometimes can sit at trying to associate with Qwest for hours upon hours. And then repeat. It happened a month ago for about a week before it went away after I had them check the lines to the demarc. Now, it has been back like that again for the past 2 weeks. I've had enough.)

A side benefit of this? I no longer need to use my Actiontec DSL modem (piece of crap) and I can now get to this site using DNS instead of needing to use the internal IP address when at home inside my network. Obviously the DSL modem was the component that was unable to route back inside itself...

Information Overload. Kind of hard to admit that I am nearing that point, since I completely love learning things and absorbing knowledge. But the IT, techie, world has been doing that to me lately...really kicking my ass. I want to learn so much, catch up on things over the years that I missed because I wasn't a packet geek or into coding as a child (yeah, right!). I have an entire different part of this site dedicated to postings and news and links and tidbits of knowledge that I have happened across in the past few years (I keep these separate because, well, it's just for me). I have a huge list of bookmarks in my web browser that are "pending" things to check out, usually tools, large sites, or long papers that I didn't have time to fully deal with back when I was made aware of them. I have dozens upon dozens of books that are half-started or not yet read...as if just owning them means I can somehow claim the knowledge locked away.

I don't have enough hours in my day, enough days in my life, to learn all this stuff like I want to learn it. That's frustrating beyond belief.

Couple this with my recent soul-searching about my career. I love my career to date and where it is going, but I've had some thoughts that maybe specializing a bit more would be beneficial.

Now that I was working on "that other" part of my site that will remain mysteriously locked away, I have realized that my categorizing of information is almost manic at this point. It is still a mess and I'm not happy with having all this knowledge in front of me and just not having the time to get to it. Maybe I should specialize that too?

It kinda makes sense, but while I am happier to do this with my young career, I'll likely not adopt that quite too soon with my thirst for knowledge...but I certainly need to slow down and instead of blitzing this realm, to sit back, clear off the desk, and focus on a few things at a time and truly enjoy and experience them.