A North West View

With only a week left until ballots mail out in Washington state, Protect Marriage Washington has started airing their first ad in what is doubtless to be a series of ads to run threw the election on Nov 6.  as the Seattle times says about this time in the election cycle  "for a ballot measure that isn't up on the air now is missing a big opportunity. Ballots mail out next week"  and it  appears  that even though they are late to the race compared to the  Approve   campaign  that has had ads running for months between Washington United for marriage and an ad run by Seattle Pride during the summer  Olympics   they seem to be  coming  out of the gate swinging using some of the same old  tactics  that have proven so  effective  in the past in scaring the public into voting their way.   although  this time they seem to have  thrown  in another tool to their  approach ...

There is something missing in the adds for marriage equality in Washington State (and in the 3 other state facing marriage equality measures this year) and that is the total lack of gay people in the ads, instead like in Washington they seem to have every one and their uncle from pro equality republican positions to clergy and family talking about why marriage equality matters, how gay people want the same things out of marriage as every one else in society and why they are deserving of the right to marry. Yet there are no gay people making the case, which even thought the ads that are being put out are good and do carry the message well and pull at the heartstrings of the views (like the video after the jump) it would seem to me, and meany others that to have gay people make the case would be a good way of going about it.  As we are the ones that this decisions ultimately affects why aren't we the ones ...

Missing by Drake Braxton This book grabbed me from the very beginning and never let go.  It starts right out in the mist of the action as Blain realizes that his Husband of 15 years Manny has gone missing at Blain's 20th class reunion. So starts the search of the hotel for his husband, first asking some of the reunion attendees, then checking her room, in the hopes that he had become bored with the reunion and returned to the room to rest, things grow expediently more frantic after Blain discovers Manny's cell phone discarded in a potted plant.

While being balanced mode wise is something that is good and something that I am glad to be, although I do wish that my medications made me feel less drained like I have been dragging a heavy weight around with me while I do things, in part because my mind seems to be sort of slow and just not totally with it at times leaving it to take a lot of energy to concentrate and get things done and that mental energy also has a physical manifestation as well, and is what tends to make me feel the most drained. while it is good to be balanced it is hard to not want to have a taste of the forbidden fruit that I have been brought down from having a minor taste of and that is to be on the more manic side of things.  It is times like this when I know that the meds are keeping me from an amazing natural high, that it is so tempting just to stop taking my medications.

Maybe I am weak, maybe I just can't do whatever it is that is the best for me, and damn the outcome!  Maybe that is what I need to do not to live not only in an awkward limbo with myself,  but also wanting something that i very well may never get. However it also seems to be the very thing that I can't do when it comes to my dad. Even though he had a "talk" with me after I posted this youtube video about feeling shoved back in the closet,

Being able to control one’s own finances is one of the important parts of being able to be a independent adult, and is something that is supposed to come along with being one as well.  It means being able to live within a budget and spending one's money wisely within that budget.  It also means having a realistic idea about what your income is and how much money you have to spend and being able to weigh that against financial decisions and the merits of purchases that one wishes to make keeping in mind the required purchase that one has to make and the cost of them.   Which is why the realization that I seem to be utterly incapable of controlling my finances is coming as such a blow,

One of the newest groups to throw their support behind marriage equality in Washington state and take an official stance that Ref 74 should be a proved is the Seattle Chamber Of Commerce which represents 2,200 company's, it joins the ranks of company's like Microsoft and Starbucks, as well as many faith groups and Labor groups like my union UFCW 21, in voicing their support for the right of all citizens of Washington to be able to marry.   Of course being the chamber of commerce their reason boils down to the economics of it, in that it creates a simpler system of providing benefits to employees who have same sex partners, as well as helping to make it easier to attract and keep talent, especially when competing with other states (and countries) that have marriage equality. In addition to gaining another voice for equality Washington...