Insignifica

Blah, I hope I get the site back up soon - these manual updates are getting tiresome, and my friends are also not able to post. I may end up reinstalling MT, and hoping that works - we'll see.

In other news, congrats to my favorite sports team of all time, and new World Champions, the Anaheim Angels. They played some nailbiters, but came out on top in their first trip to the big show. As the kids say, Mad Propz.

In related news, I placed a $10 bet in November 2001 saying the Angels would win the World Series. Getting 50-1 odds rules when you win. Who's up for a trip to Vegas?

The Third Annual Halloween Mikestravaganza was awesome - had about 35 people there, and it seems a good time was had by all. Images from the event are available at http://www .chrisaclark.com/images/halloween2002/index.html - look for your Savior - that's me!

Rant of the moment - re: the Boy Scouts of America. I really, really dislike this group of people, at least on the leadership level. Today I read about the Boy Scouts of America looking to kick out an Eagle Scout because he's an atheist - forget that he's earned 37 merit badges, been a quartermaster and three-time senior patrol leader, and now he's an assistant Scoutmaster and a field leader in training as part of the Search and Rescue Program. In his senior year in high school, he racked up more than 1,000 hours of community service.

Of course, he's not worthy of staying in the BSA - a group which gets priority in state-funded schools and government funding - because he doesn't acknowledge the existence of some personified higher power. Everything else he's done, all the hours he's put in (over 3 hours PER DAY on average just in volunteer hours during his senior year of high school), and none of it matters, apparently, because he doesn't believe in a fairy tale everyone else does. Also check out this speech by Jesse Helms about gays in the BSA - eye-opening to say the least.

Site's still down - we're having some weird problems with saving changes. Can you help?

Also, the Halloween party is this weekend. There's still room for guests, so if you'd like to go (especially if you're young, single, and female, or famous), shoot me an email. Really, you can probably come if I know you. It'll be a good time.

Well, hello there. Having some problems with the Movable Type system, so I just typed this in notepad. I'm horrible addicted to this, it seems, otherwise I'd let my page sit there with old content. Oh well. Just hoping to be back up and running soon. Some highlights since I've been away:

I got my driver's license!

I won $100 on an online casino, then wagered $50 of it away 3 days later!

I'm famous! Not bad for a kid who's never acted in a film that anyone other than an English class has seen.

That is all.

Posted by Michael Doss at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)

Diana Van Horn of Fountain

Diana Van Horn of Fountain Valley appeared in today's Steve Harvey column in the LA Times (which you can find here).

More strange searches used to

More strange searches used to find Insignifica:

"calories in a taco bell reba mcentire did in college" - I don't even know what this means. I don't know if I want to.

"teachers inspiration of lisa kudrow" - I don't know what this one means either. She doesn't seem that inspirational to me.

"elizabeth hurley smoking crack pic" - That's just awesome. If anyone finds these, let me know.

Here's an interesting article on

Here's an interesting article on polygamy in a political race in Arizona. Basically, one of the candidates is accusing the other of potentially being soft on polygamy because he's a Mormon. A couple points:

The Mormon church (the main one, and almost all offshoots) no longer encourages or supports polygamy and excommunicates polygamists.

What's wrong with being "soft on polygamy"? Why is it someone else's right to tell me how to conduct my personal life? I touch on the issue in my essay on marriage - why is marriage reserved for 2 people? Plenty of cultures throughout history have practiced polygamy...we have some twisted puritan ideal that marriage is holy, unacceptable to be outside of, and limited to partnerships between one straight male and one straight female. For many people, this works - whether culturally influenced/pressured or not, many people like such a situation. But many people don't, or wouldn't mind a different situation if it was culturally acceptable. But not only do non-monogamous groups have every social pressure against them, it's illegal for them to marry. It's time to get the government the hell out of personal relationships, which means getting them out of:

Marriage - If someone want to marry two people, or 20, let them. If two men, or two women want to marry, let them. Why the hell is the government allowed to decide what constitutes a "legal" relationship with all the rights and responsibilities?

Sex - A whole lot of places still have sex laws on the books. While most aren't enforced, they are often used to deny gays rights (as they practice sodomy), and as additional counts when someone is on trial for something else. If someone has a justification for sex laws between consensual persons that doesn't involve some sort of mythology, I'd love to hear it.

Public Nudity - They're natural body parts...we all have them, or have seen them. They're in all the medical texts. Why can't I show them in public? Better yet, why can men have bare chests in public, and women only can if their nipples are covered? That's just silly. Hint to conservative types: The reason they're "taboo" is because we've made them so, culturally. How about letting people wear (or not wear) what they want?

Pornography/Sex toys - Related to sex laws, above, this one simply doesn't make sense. There are all sorts of laws in many states that say you can't sell pornography to adults. Reasoning? It's "immoral", "offensive" or "obscene". I happen to think the Bible has all these traits too, but I wouldn't want it banned. Does it hurt you that I look at porn? Does it damage the community? No. It gets people off. That's good for society. Similarly, many places in the country make illegal the use/sale of sex toys. We're not talking about selling to kids, or peddling them on the street...they're illegal in age-verified locations and via the mail. Why? I honestly don't know.

There are other issues in this vein, but only marginally related, so I won't expand on them here. All the above examples assume consensual acts - of course non-consensual parties don't fit in the above. I fully realize the religious history of western culture, and why, historically, we have such laws. But we're passed that, more reasonable, and hopefully less dogmatic about things that really don't have anything to do with the government.

Posted by Michael Doss at 12:39 PM | Comments (4)

The Angels are going to

The Angels are going to the World Series!

For the first time in history, the Angels won the ALCS and are going to the World series, to face either the Giants or Cards. W00p!

Well, hello there. Having some problems with the Movable Type system, so I just typed this in notepad. I'm horrible addicted to this, it seems, otherwise I'd let my page sit there with old content. Oh well. Just hoping to be back up and running soon. Some highlights since I've been away:

I got my driver's license!

I won $100 on an online casino, then wagered $50 of it away 3 days later!

I'm famous! Not bad for a kid who's never acted in a film that anyone other than an English class has seen.

That is all.

Posted by Michael Doss at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)

A very merry birthday to

A very merry birthday to Gary, who turns 24 today. Happy Birthday!

Garrett reminded me today of

Garrett reminded me today of a very important thing: Kind Words Are Free.

Does this disturb you like

Does this disturb you like it disturbs me?

Blurker (BLUR-kur): n. 1. One

Blurker (BLUR-kur): n. 1. One who reads many blogs but leaves no evidence of themselves such as comments behind; a silent observer of blogs. 2. One who reads many blogs but has no blog of their own; a blog-watcher or blog voyeur.

[swiped from Jessy who swiped from Christine made up by Mike]

You know what to do.

When my friends and I

When my friends and I are joking with each other, we often will present insults that aren't all that insulting, but may have been in the past ("I bite my thumb at you" is a good example). The most prevalent of such insults, however, is calling each other a "Commie" (or commie bastard, pinko, etc.). I've always assumed that calling someone a commie (for communist) is funny because it's so outdated - it's something people did in the 1950s and 60s because of the red scare, and we were past the times when someone's economic system preference was cause for a 'hurtful" insult. With our mocking of the term also came mocking of the people who used it.

Apparently, I'm wrong.

It seems that many places in this county (and others, I'm sure), calling someone a Communist today holds the same hatred, fear and insult as it ever has. Communists are still the enemy, they still represent everything evil, and the term, apparently, is still largely misunderstood. I've heard it used mainly in hate mail (I've been reading through the hate mail sections of dubyaspeak.com and gwbush.com), but also in chat rooms and on other websites. Even hate mail to me has flirted with the issue.

What's up, people? Why the fear? Why is it still an insult? First off, there are no true communist countries in the world - because of greed at the higher levels, there never were. Even "red" China is much more repressively capitalistic than communistic - and those terms can't be used interchangeably. Second, communism, as an economic system, is considerably kinder, more compassionate and beneficial to a society as a whole than just about anything else. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on a large scale because of greed (which is why capitalism works so well). As a theory, and on a small (commune) scale, it's awesome and mutually beneficial.

I see people trying to insult by calling others "pinko liberals", "commie bastards" and "red democRATs" - it seems very childish to me, and just screams "uneducated". I'm not against insults, but I just don't understand these - perhaps because I'm a native Californian (though there are plenty of non-liberal Californians), or perhaps because I'm pretty close to a socialist. When I have a beef with someone, I call them on it, and use their position as reasoning. But using "commie" as if it's supposed to hurt is plainly absurd. I don't understand. Do you?

Hello and happy Sunday evening

Hello and happy Sunday evening to you. Though they mean pending workdays, I like Sunday evenings quite a bit. Some thoughts:

Halloween is coming together nicely. Just heard from an old friend who moved back in '95, he and several friends will be able to make it. I haven't seen the guy in 7 years. I'm excited. If you'd like to come, and I know you (or you're a regular reader), email me. There's still a lot of room.

In other Halloween news, I just did a good deal of party shopping at Home Depot. Yes, Halloween shopping for me means trips to the hardware store.

The Angels will be playing the Twins for the ALCS. I'm very excited about this, though not excited by the fact that if we make it to the World Series, one of the games very well may be on the day of the party.

Posted by Michael Doss at 09:33 PM | Comments (4)

W00p! The Angels are going

W00p!

The Angels are going to the ALCS!

I'm thinking about inviting some

I'm thinking about inviting some celebrities to my Halloween party. So...

If you're a celebrity, and you'd like to come to The Halloween Mikestravaganza, send me an email.

If you're not a celebrity, but you'd still like to come, email me.

If you have some ideas as to which celebrities I should invite, leave a note.

Check out this game -

Check out this game - lets you play god, throwing satellites at the terra system, to see which will stick and maintain orbits. Awesome.