pogoism

It took years and years for the first state in the US to recognize sames-sex marriage, but this week both Iowa (yes, Iowa) and Vermont both did it. Iowa made the decision as other states have done, and legalized it through the courts, but Vermont approved it through the legislature. This is significant, as it’s the first time sames-sex marriage has been approved by elected officials rather than a court, making it much more difficult to overturn (as Prop 8 did in California back in November). Also this week, the District of Columbia said it would give same-sex couples married in other states the same rights as straight couples, which brings the number of states that recognize same-sex marriage up to 5, three of those just this week. It’s looking good for the future of gay marriage here in the US.

Nate Silver did some magic with numbers which produced the following map that predicts when the other states will reach the point where ballot measures that ban same-sex marriage would fail.

And look! 2009 is the year for Nevada! Which is pretty exciting, I’m sure you’ll agree. UPDATE: The Senate bill has just been approved by the Nevada Senate committee, and now just has to pass the Senate floor where Democrats hold a 12-9 majority.

So, that’s all good news, right? Right. Except then the National Organization for Marriage put out this horrendous anti-gay marriage ad.

“Bring the issue into my life”?

“My freedom will be taken away”?

Churches punished by the federal government for not supporting bigotry?

Seriously?

After the jump, watch the HRC President Joe Solmonese and NOM’s Maggie Gallagher battle it out on Hardball…

Read the rest of this entry »

Alonso, Jaime and I went to Starbucks this morning to get some breakfast (I’m a big fan of their “perfect” oatmeal). We were waiting in the queue, and a random lady comes up to us, and hands Jaime two Starbucks cards and says “use whatever is on them. I’m not going to be using them”. Now, quite why she thought she’d never have another Starbucks is a little beyond me – there seem to be very few people here who *don’t* have Starbucks on at least a weekly basis.

But anyway, we bought our drinks and told the barista to keep using them for the next customers until they ran out, which resulted in one confused barista and many confused, but happy customers.

If you’re the mystery disgruntled Starbucks customer – thanks for brightening up our Sunday morning!

Photo via Flickr user miskan.

It’s April, and I’ve only got 5 months left in Reno before I have to head back to the UK. I feel like I haven’t really seen much since I’ve been here – I’ve been to San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Monica and some smaller places, so I’m in the process of planning some road trips…

The first one I’m going to do with Melissa before she heads off to Turkey in May. We’re going to try and do it for little money as possible, so here’s the plan… We’re starting in Reno, and driving down to Yosemite. I’ve been wanting to go to Yosemite since I got here, and it’s still the only place I really want to go before I leave. We’re going to spend a few nights there camping, eating bad food and hiking around. Then after that it’s off to Los Angeles. When I was there before, it was the weekend of the wild fires, so I hardly got to see any of LA, just Santa Monica. This time we’re planning to stay with one of Melissa’s friends and do the whole LA experience. When we’re LA-ed out, we’re going to drive up to Big Sur, on parts of the Highway Costal route, and camp there for a few nights. There are some great places within an hour of Big Sur – Monterey, Hearst Castle, whale watching and Big Sur. Depending on how far we think our money goes, we may go to San Diego too…

The second road trip won’t really be a road trip at all, as most of it will be by public transport. My brother is coming over for a month in June/July, and whilst I won’t be able to spend the whole time with him, we are planning to go north of Reno. First stop will be San Francisco, my favorite city. We’ll spend a few days there, probably not long as I’m sure we’ll be there again, but enough time for him to get a feel of the place. Then it’ll be onto the train and on our way to Portland, OR. I know absolutely nothing about Portland, but I’ve been told many times that it’s a great city. Then, after a few days there, back on the train, and off to the the rainy city of Seattle, WA. After a couple of days drinking Starbucks and getting wet, we’ll start on the final leg – Vancouver. I’m really looking forward to this, I’ve never been to Canada, and I haven’t been out of the US since I’ve been here, so it’ll be great fun.

Now just to figure out how I’m going to fund these trips…

I’m now more than half way through this placement, which worries me. When I came out here, previous placement students told us how the first 6 months go really slowly, and it seems like you’ve got all the time in the world. Then “bam”, its after Christmas, it’s February, and I’m starting to panic about my final presentation. It doesn’t seem like I’ve been working on any one project, and the results I’ve got are varied – plus I’m learning a completely new technique at the minute.

It’s not long until I’m in third and final year. I’ve been fairly complacent with my degree this far – I’ve got good results, but I know that I haven’t done the very best I can. It looks as though I’m heading for a 2:1, but as my degree is split 25% second year and 75% third year, it could go any way. I’m waiting to be sent the pack of possible projects for my Honours project, hoping that there’s one that involves the intracellular technique I’ve been doing this year. I’m actually really excited about it, I can’t wait to get stuck into a project and apply all I’ve learnt in the last few years. And then I’ve got to be thinking about postgraduate studies! Do I do a PhD? If so, where? Do I want to come back to the US? Do I want to stay in Belfast? Maybe I want to go to the south of Ireland? If I come back to the US, do I want to come back to Reno? So many questions, and I haven’t got a clue as to the answer to any of them. The only thing I do know is that I don’t want to go back to England. I lived there for 18 years, I need to do new things and go new places.

My friends are graduating in a few months, and I’m upset that I’m going to miss out on it all…

As well as all that I’m looking for an apartment to move into in September with Sarah and Stef. It’s proving to be quite tricky. We’re not fussy, all we want is a 2 bedroom apartment, new(-ish), at the bottom of Stranmillis, city center or the posh bit of the Lisburn Road for under £600 a month. Can’t be that difficult, can it? I really don’t want to live in any student areas next year – been there, done that. Certainly don’t want to do it again.

Anyway, just an update on what I’m up to at the minute. Sorry it wasn’t anything too exciting, but I’m trying to save money. I got my tax refund the other day (which made me feel very grown-up) and I’m trying to not spend any money so I can do fun stuff in the summer. Like skydiving! And white water rafting! And hopefully lots of kayaking. I can’t wait :)