Haydennet.com, personal site of Joseph A. Hayden, J.D.

Heading up to Petaluma tonight to hang out with friends and a welcome change of scenery.

I find it very interesting that for the price of parking my (shitty, old) car downtown in the FiDi, I can RENT a car for a day in comfort, so that’s what I’m doing.

When did people start forgetting the United States President is the de facto Commander-in-Chief of the military?!  That is clearly stated in the Constitution and it has worked to prevent us from having coups in this country.  Countries with coups have an army ”independent” of the executive branch.  Obama said repeal DADT!  End of discussion! This should have been handled 17 years ago, but hypocrites like McCain who said he would follow “military leadership” (as if Bill Clinton himself wasn’t the Commander-in-Chief) reneged even when people like Colin Powell have changed their minds.

I know at least three active duty servicemen who I keep in regular contact with who are very comfortable with the fact that they are gay, even though it is not discussed where they work.  I don’t think they are particularly afraid of losing their jobs, but it sure would be a lot less stressful ON THE BATTLEFIELD if they didn’t have to worry about their own colleagues turning their backs on them.

I’m excited about IBR starting next week, but miffed that my bear411 profile was inexplicably dismantled!

Ironically I didn’t take the regular flu shot earlier in the winter that my job offered, and I ended up trying to get it at my regular doctor’s office, but they were out of it!  I’m not sure if it will even be worth taking it a month from now, but fortunately I’ve not been ill this year.  I just need to get my blood sugar under control, because my blood pressure and cholesterol are really good now.  Losing weight is part of the goal, so I’m taking some prescription and over the counter appetite suppressants.  I’m also eating a lot more from home, but probably not getting any exercise as of late.

So much for having the highest IQ in the country!

Had a perilous commute into work today (usually, of course, I take the train).  I was trying to get to work two hours early for a special project, but didn’t make it until one hour later than expected because of traffic, but what made it so treacherous was that it was still very dark at that hour (which was not helped by the cloud cover), there was an intense rain storm and while I was defrosting the windows, the driver’s side windshield wiper completely stopped working right before entering highway.  I pulled over and the wiper portion basically came right off, but the arm had stopped moving anyway.  I had to sit in a precarious position to see the road and changing lanes was scary.  It was almost a blessing that traffic came to a standstill far sooner than usual because of the backup at the bridge, but then of course there were high winds and the problematic S-curve which is currently on the Bay Bridge during the reconstruction.  The garage attendant said all I had to do was pull up the windshield wiper from the passenger side and pop it in the driver’s side, but I don’t want to risk having no windshield at all when I drive home today!

I hope the kid/childhood photo fad as one’s primary picture on Facebooks ends damn soon; weirdos with no other public picture are trying to add me, and that’s just creepy and screams insecurity.  Like I don’t have enough time wasted by closeted people expecting me to spill my guts to them without having another excuse to avoid showing themselves accurately?  It’d be one thing if they had up-to-date pictures publicly posted as well, but I really don’t want to have to walk around with my phone ringing and texting from people who look like kids.  Someone’s going to think I’m a pedophile if they see me communicating with kid photos, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole thing was started by one!

Diaspora – Such as my Haitian friends in New York.

I feel a bit hoodwinked that Ellen Degeneres wasn’ there from the onset, but I guess the announcement that she was on the show wouldn’t have been there in time for the first recordings.  I guess she  isn’t going to start until the live shows commence?  That was not made clear to me; there wasn’t all that much talent yet, but many of the guys were hot.  It was strange to predict their ages so inaccurately, though.  Some of the women were beautiful, but not that many had the chops.  I hope they’re holding out on us, because last year became unwatchable for me and I totally lost my interest in it.