Hagrid is in the House!

(Note: The Bellingham Radical Faeries will be participating. Gabrielle from Whatcom 1QC came to our coffee this morning to personally invite us.)


Whatcom One Queer Community (1QC) Hosts

A Rally for Human Rights:
REPEAL The Defense Of Marriage Act (D.O.M.A.) and Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DaDt)

Saturday, April 4th, 2009
3-6PM outside The Blue Horse Gallery
301 Holly Street in the Bay Street Village
Bellingham, WA

Senator Maria Cantwell will be guest at a Reception at 4PM on the 4th in The Blue Horse Gallery.

This will be a PEACEFUL HUMAN RIGHTS RALLY (it is not a "Protest', please avoid using negative terms)

We will host a Human Rights Rally asking her to support Human Rights by Giving Voice to LGBTQ issues and voting to Repeal Defense of Marriage Act (D.O.M.A.) and Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DaDt) We will ask her to listen to her Constituents, Friends, Family members and Allies of Human Rights and LGBTQ Rights and to ACT on our behalf, and in support of President Obama's Promises.

*A Sign-Making Party will occur on Monday March 30th at 5PM at the Administration Office of Planned Parenthood, 2300 James Street across from the Avenue Breads Deli.(Volunteers WELCOME!)
*Signatures will be collected in support of REPEALING D.O.M.A and DaDt at the Farmer's Market in the street from 10AM-3PM on April 4th. (Volunteers WELCOME!)

It appears that Google has finally sent its Street View camera car to Bellingham.

I was just browsing the new Mac update of Google Earth (which has a really cool new feature that lets you see what parts of the Earth are in daylight and night right now) when I saw they finally have some street view photos available of The City of Subdued Excitement.

It's not very comprehensive coverage (no surprise there), mostly consisting of I-5, the Guide Meridian, Sunset Drive, Chuckanut Drive, and a few other random places, but at least it's a start. My neighbourhood isn't covered. Sorry, you don't get to see me standing on my porch in the buff smoking in this release.

Here's a nice video about Saturday's same-sex marriage demonstration here in Bellingham. It was wonderful to see so many people show up in a city as small as ours, especially when Seattle's demonstration was drawing off so many.

Robert appears at about 4:35. I show up at about 6:55.

Hmmmmmm.... This just published today. Wonder why they waited so long? Interesting timing, given what's going on in my life...

From the
Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Washington
Published Nov. 07, 2008

==============================================
COLLEGES: WWU names summer graduates
Dean Kahn

The following Whatcom County students were 2008 summer graduates at Western Washington University:

Bellingham: Kali Albin, bachelor’s, psychology; Abdulsala Almarhoon, master’s, business administration; Matthew Anderson, bachelor’s, business administration; Aspen Gaia, bachelor’s, interdisciplinary; Brenda Apt, bachelor’s, human services; Edward Arthur, master’s, anthropology; Melissa Baldwin, bachelor’s, human services; Lisa Bates, bachelor’s, Spanish; Christopher Bauer, bachelor’s, philosophy; Ryan Beatty, master’s, educational administration; and Joshua Benham, bachelor’s, geology.

Libby Berg, bachelor’s, community health; Laura Best, bachelor’s, communication sciences; Erik Bies, master’s, human movement; Victoria Bigelow, bachelor’s, psychology; Rebecca Bowles, bachelor’s, accounting; Evan Bridges, bachelor’s, art; Edwina Broadway, bachelor’s, accounting; Cannon Brooke, bachelor’s, history; Ian Callaghan, bachelor’s, interdisciplinary; Joseph Carpenter, master’s, business administration; Kristin Chambers, master’s, business administration; Lindsay Christopher, bachelor’s, general studies; and Amy Collins, bachelor’s, political science.
Click here to find out more!

Megan Copenhaver, bachelor’s, psychology; Erin Cross, bachelor’s, sociology; Russ Cunningham, bachelor’s, p.e.; Marissa Darlingh, bachelor’s, psychology; Maxwell Davis, bachelor’s, history; Maeghan Demmons, master’s, student affairs; Angela Dittmar, master’s, business administration; Andrea Donley, master’s, business administration; Timothy Douglass, bachelor’s, biology; Sarah Duffy, bachelor’s, English; Benjamin Eilers, bachelor’s, self-designed; Rebekah Engley, bachelor’s, physics; Amanda Enlow, bachelor’s, English; Joshua Frazier, bachelor’s, business administration; Joanne Granger, bachelor’s, English; Kevin Green, bachelor’s, communication; and Joshua Grubb, bachelor’s, recreation.

Christopher Haas, bachelor’s, business administration; Sara Helm, bachelor’s, psychology; Kim Hendricks, master’s, education; Jessica Hughes, master’s, speech; Katherine Imus, bachelor’s, art history; Dana Irwin, bachelor’s, psychology; Robert Isaacson, master’s, geology; Kevyn Jacobs, bachelor’s, general studies; Amanda Johns, bachelor’s, journalism; Brian Johnson, master’s, student affairs; Nancy Joseph, master’s, business administration; Jon Junell, master’s, business administration; Patrick Jung, bachelor’s, anthropology; Eric Kingery, bachelor’s, sociology; Andrew Knox, bachelor’s, politics; Jeanne Koetje, bachelor’s, history; Kyle Koger, bachelor’s, geology; Casey Lawrence, bachelor’s, business administration; and Stephanie Lewis, bachelor’s, human services.
( Like you care about the rest... )

This month, the WTA bus passes are green!

(Thanks to DVR for providing this for me.)

Self-portrait I made with my cell phone camera in June. I looked at my reflection in the patio door and thought, "I'm pretty hot!" So I took a picture. ;-)

This month, the WTA bus passes are blue!

(Thanks to DVR for providing this to me.)

Well. It's been a long time since THAT'S happened!

I was just down at Haggen, spending my food stamp money, and I was in the checkout line behind an older woman with a strong Southern accent. She looked back at me and chatted about how big I was, and how I reminded her of a wrestler. She asked where I was from, and I told her Kansas, originally, and she was pleased to hear that because she was from Oklahoma. I noticed she had an "I love Jesus" keychain, but of course I didn't say anything.

After I finished, I met her again in the parking lot, and she asked me if I had a church. I politely said no, and she insisted on inviting me to attend her Southern Baptist church here in town. (They have a Southern Baptist congregation in Bellingham? I had no idea. And of all the denominations to attempt to proselytize to me!)

I politely thanked her and said "no thanks, ma'am," but she wouldn't take no for an answer. The Radical Faerie in me was half tempted to retort with "Will my husband be welcome, too?" or with "I'm a gay Catholic Pagan Atheist. They wouldn't like me," but the Canadian in me won out, and I just chuckled nervously and said "no thank you" again. As we parted, she called after me, "I hope I'll see you Sunday morning at 11!"

Um, right.

It's literally been years since something like this has happened to me. At least since I left Georgia in 2001. But when I was living in Augusta, just three blocks from the birthplace of the Southern Baptist Convention, it happened all the time. Complete strangers on the street, asking if I was saved. And even Kansas had its share of proselytutes.

But when I moved up North, all that stopped, and I forgot what it was like to have to be constantly negotiating the minefield of conservative Christianity in casual conversation.

Today's encounter reminds me of why I moved out of the South!

Team Observation #1
Observation Notes
Interpersonal Communication – COMM 327
Hagrid Jacobs
2008.04.19
( Click for the observation notes )

Wow, Bellingham got a mention on Keith Olbermann's Countdown. "Relatively obscure," he calls it.
(Click here to watch, it's the third segment about radioactive cats).

Aside from the fact that it's amusing to see Bellingham mentioned on Countdown, albeit in a less-than-flattering fashion ("Obscure?" griped the Captain. "I'm a little insulted. We're a town of 76,000 people!"), I'm a little nonplussed by this. This is the first I've heard of the incident -- the Bellingham Herald never reported it -- so it took Countdown to break the story that the border guards are watching traffic that is going past Bellingham on I-5 with monitors that can remotely detect radioactive materials.

While on the one hand, that makes me feel safer, that they have instruments that are that sensitive that they can pick up a radioactive cat inside a car traveling 70mph down I-5 from a car in the median, in order to prevent dirty bomb parts from coming over the border from Canada... on the other, I'm a bit creeped out. What other ways are we being monitored -- even here in Bellingham -- that we don't know about?

Also , if they have nuclear detectors that sensitive on our highways, why are our borders so tight? Shouldn't that be enough to prevent dirty bombs from getting in?

And, I just had nuclear medicine heart scans a few weeks ago. I was warned not to cross the border without a note from my doctor. Had I been driving down I-5 during the time I was most radioactive, might I have triggered a border patrol agent's monitoring device?

Welcome to the surveillance society... Big Brother is watching you.