I never thought I’d say this, but the Supreme Court is actually making me proud to be an American lately. Today’s decision overturning Texas’ anti-sodomy (and, specifically, anti-gay) laws is an example of the better angels of our collective psyche shining through. Here’s a good line from Kennedy’s majority opinion:
The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives. The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime.
And from O’Connor’s concurring opinion:
A law branding one class of persons as criminal solely based on the State’s moral disapproval of that class and the conduct associated with that class runs contrary to the values of the Constitution and the Equal Protection Clause, under any standard of review.
Meanwhile, Big Tony is somewhere in the wilderness screaming about the “homosexual agenda.” How sad.
Speaking of obnoxious, mouthy conservatives, today is Michael Savage Day. Read this. Then read this and this. Laugh and be merry.
I finished the first chapter of my book. I’m happy with it so far. I just hope I can keep the momentum going.
I e-mailed this cute girl I met at a CLE yesterday and asked her (clumsily) for a date. I say “clumsily” because I always get this shrill voice in the back of my head, kinda like Gollum in The Two Towers. I suspect this happens to quite a few people with disabilities when contemplating dating. For me, it goes something like this:
Positive Mark: Hm, she’s attractive. Perhaps I’ll ask her out.
Extremely Negative Mark: Stupid cripple! Ugly cripple! Hasn’t we’s taught you anything?
Positive Mark: What? She might be interested. I’m moderately articulate. Hell, I’m an attorney! That has to count for something!
Extremely Negative Mark: Nobody likes you! Go on, ask pretty lady! Watch pretty lady get uncomfortable! Pretty lady never speak to us again!
Positive Mark: Stop it! Go away!
Extremely Negative Mark: Go away? Ha ha ha! Where would you be without me? I keep us realistic! I keep us from looking foolish! Silly cripple! Now go crawl back to our precious computer and write in blog! Yes, precious…
Or something like that, anyway. So the whole dating thing makes me a bit self-conscious. But that’s probably not much different from most guys.

We’re having some exciting weather here in Minnesota with a few twisters touching down in the outer metro area. I’m not too worried as it would take a Category 5 hurricane to take down my building. Tornadoes have fascinated me since I was a kid, but I’ve never actually seen one in person. Here’s some “torn porn” for all you storm chasers.

Because I have no life, I read lots of other blogs. I’ve listed them under “Vital Blogs.” Go read interesting things written by interesting people with actual lives. Enjoy.

As an early b-day present, my dad snagged me a 10 GB iPod on eBay. I was really stoked when it arrived in the mail yesterday. I thought I’d have it crammed full of music in an hour or so. Twelve hours later, I had it working. First, I discovered it wouldn’t work with the FireWire port on my Audigy, so I had my sister run to Best Buy to get a FireWire card. Then I had to install the damn card, which isn’t exactly easy when you have to verbally direct someone else who has never even cracked the case of a PC. After that, I hooked up the iPod to the new FireWire Card, only to have my system crash every time it detects the iPod. Now I’m mad. I poke around Usenet and then uninstall some software that might be the culprit behind the crashes. I reboot…
…Windows won’t load. All I get is an arcane error message. I feel nauseous. I can’t even access Safe Mode. I pull out my Windows XP CD. After some incantations, conjurations, the sacrifice of a small goat, and much gnashing of teeth, I manage to restore my system with pretty much everything intact. By this time, it’s after midnight and I’m now on a personal vendetta against my iPod. No way am I letting some pretty little piece of plastic and silicon kick my ass. I reconnect it to the FireWire port.
It works. Within a few minutes, I have a couple gigs of MP3s loaded up. Victory is mine.
Thanks for the great product, Apple. But fuck your easy-to-use rep. And fuck your crappy MusicMatch software. Ephpod rules.

It’s almost 1:30 in the morning and I’m still up. Not sure why. But it’s a beautiful night and if I look out my window, I can see the city stretch out under a clear and dark sky. When I first moved in here, I instantly fell in love with the view. There are moments, like at dusk when the sun is casting rosy light through my window, when my life just seems really cool.
Anyway, blah blah. Oh, remind me to write about earlier this week when four firemen came to my door. Sounds like the opening of a gay porn film, doesn’t it? More later.