A few weeks ago, our challenge for the Blogwhore game was to create a meme. Rannie’s meme was to Show Your Pride.

I wanted to write something back then, but what could I write? I’m not gay. I’m not bisexual. But today it hit me. And I realized, we should all have some Pride. I have pretty much always been the type that looks at people for WHO they are, not the color of their skin or their sexual preferences. When I was a little girl I adopted the black lady who lived down the street from us because she was the same age as my grandmothers and they lived far away. I called her Grandma Ruth because that was who she was to me. When others asked, I would explain that she was my black grandma. Being a blonde-haired, blue-eyed child, I just didn’t get why this confused people. The first time I saw an interracial couple, Grandma Ruth asked me if I thought that was ok. I said sure, why not? I was 6, and in my eyes what difference did race make? I was about 9 or 10 the first time I met someone who was gay. Back in those days he would have been stereotyped because he was very feminine in nature. But what did I care? I was told that he liked men instead of women. So what? I still thought he was a nice man. When I was in my early teens my mom’s best friend had a step-son living in San Francisco. He got AIDs. At first I don’t even remember if we knew what he had, but I remember the first time I heard the words on the news. Again, I never looked down on him for his sexual orientation, I just thought it was sad that he had a deadly disease.

And this is why we all need Pride. We need to learn to tolerate one another. We need to live in peace, and no one should have to live in fear. No, I may not be gay, but I will never scorn someone who is. Instead I will stand by them and be proud that they are my friend.

Happy Pride to Rannie and all the other blogwhores. It was fun playing with you and I’ll be cheering you all on until the end. (Isn’t it ironic that on Pride Day they would vote off the only straight person? Oh well, I’m just happy I made it as far as I did.)

Our country was set up as a system of checks and balances. We have three separate and distinct branches of governement to keep things flowing through the proper channels. So it really annoys me to read that Senators call Pledge decision ’stupid’. Hello? It’s not up to you. It was a court ruling, and it should stay within the court system.

“This is obviously an unbelievable decision, as far as I am concerned, and an incorrect ruling and a stupid ruling.”

Well, as far as YOU are concerned, Mr. Senator, it’s not your choice. It seems that studying the Constitution and the Bill of Rights should be required of all government officials as they strip away our freedoms and attempt to force their beliefs on us more and more every day.

What are you doing for the 4th of July? Me? I’m going to Boston to see Jennifer! Whee! Sam and Rachel too, of course! Tuesday night, I’m Boston bound. So much to do! So little time! We’re working on coordinating getting together with Susannah and Erika and it might just have to turn in to a Boston Blogger party! (I owe Jess and Brian e-mails about this still!)

Speaking of e-mails, I’m having a hard time using the laptop this weekend. I turn it on, and about 5-10 minutes after it powers up the monitor goes dim, 1/3 of it almost dark gray. Oh, wonderful. Just what I need this week. It has happened once before, but I just thought it had overheated. That was back in May. Since yesterday, it’s happened every time I turn it on. Grumble, grumble…

Ok, positive thoughts. Back to Boston. If you were going to Boston, what are some of the “must see” things that you would just have to visit? If you were my tour guide, where would you take me? Suggestions, feedback, all are welcome!

Why on earth do the people that go on Blind Date seem so surprised when their date completely sucks? Why? Have these people watched the show? Almost every date ends in date hell. What makes them think that their date will be so special and that it will work out? I think I can count on one hand the dates that have gone well. And yet every time they seem surprised that their date sucked! Why?

Running through the Gold Box, I wonder if it will have anything I want?

:: 4-piece Crib Bedding set - Huntington. Nope, no baby.
:: First Toys. Nope, see above.
:: Nutty Elephant. Augh!
:: Antiques Roadshow Board Game. Why is there an Antiques Roadshow game? I like the show - but a game? Who ever thought of that one?
:: Who Wants ot be a Millionaire Board Game. Ok, finally - I would actually consider buying this one! Well, if I needed it. It’s $9.97 and if I was buying something else I would toss this in too probably - but I’m not.

What’s up with all the kid stuff? I’m glad they figured out that I don’t want power tools, but I don’t need kid stuff!

I don’t normally post things here that I post over at Blogwhore: the Webgame because you really should be there reading the posts. We are down to the final 5 and tomorrow there will only be 4. I’m still in the game, but it’s getting close and the race is truly on.

I liked this post though - I wrote it in response to Nancy’s question, asking us what, back when we were kids, we wanted to be when we grew up. I still wonder too what it is that I want to be when I grow up. Let’s see where I’ve been:

:: I wanted to be a banker. I was young (like 4-5), I have no idea where I got that idea from. Maybe Mary Poppins?

:: I wanted to be an airline stewardess. The travel would be cool. Then I realized that I didn’t want to be a waitress in the air, and Barbie got a new job so I did too.

:: I wanted to be a lawyer. For a long time I wanted to be a lawyer, and as a Libra I can argue with the best of them. Hell, I can argue with myself! I over analyze everything until it reaches the point that I have beaten it into the ground and killed it. When I grew up I discovered that lawyers have to go to school for a long time and have to pass the bar and … screw that. Find something new.

:: Then I wanted to be a teacher. Little did I know that the classes to earn an elementary education degree are so absolutely mind-numbing that I wouldn’t bother to go. I have this little problem - if something isn’t a challenge I’ll just blow it off. That’s what I did with my college classes - so in spite of the fact that I earned a 3.75 one semester, I ended up tossed out on the streets after 2 years because Texas A&M doesn’t give out a degree to those of us who major in Aggie Tradition and minor in the Dixie Chicken. Oops. (More on the college years below and the huge irony of my life.) In this process I also learned I have absolutely no patience for stupid people and trying to teach someone anything frustrates me to no end. Elementary Ed was NOT a good choice, because when you’re in third or fourth grade you simply don’t know that much, and teachers can’t be really mean until kids are in high school.

:: After leaving college behind, I became an Army wife. It is a career in and of itself. We moved to a small base in Germany (Peyton Place for all practical terms, the biggest rumor mill you’ve ever seen) and I traveled while he worked. It was a pretty ideal life in a lot of ways … why the hell did I ever get divorced? I tried to find a job while we lived there, but I was overqualified for everything, or I was white. Yes, reverse descrimination does exist and it sucks when you can’t get a job because they have quotas to fill. Whatever. Married white women don’t need to work too. Ok.

(Fast Forward a few years over little trivial jobs that don’t matter in this post)

:: Worked for a law firm (wow, went full circle!) first as a receptionist, then moving in to the Litigation Support department … where I worked on databases and was the protege of the Network Admin who had me surf the Internet back in 1995 so I could tell him when the firewall crashed. After two years I said to myself, “why don’t I have a web site?” and I learned to hand code HTML … moved in to developing Extranets for our clients … left the law firm, made & sold soap full time (through the Internet, of course!) and eventually went back to work in the real world selling websites to people.

And that’s where I am today. I enjoy it and I imagine that I’ll stay working within the Internet field for years to come. I want to go back to college, but have no idea what I would major in now. Something related to programming? Or go with the marketing/sales side of things? Double major? Or just keep doing what I do now? Hmmm…

OH! You were waiting for the ironic story, right? Ok, here it is.

1987, freshman orientation at Texas A&M. I’ve already taken 2 years of computer programming in high school but Pascal kicked my ass and I don’t know that I could handle a full course load of that stuff. Mom asks me, “Why don’t you major in computers? You really liked your programming class last year.”

My response? “Why would I major in computers? What would I EVER do with THAT degree?”

Yeah, that jokes on ME in a big way. Oops.

So … what did YOU want to be when you grew up?

I don’t get this whole “trackback” thing, so now I’m making a post to link to Todd’s post about the feature and Kristine’s too so maybe then I’ll understand…

Edited: Nope, linking like that doesn’t work either. Can someone please speak slowly & clearly to me and tell me how this thing works?

SatireWire’s Response: One Nation, (Sponsorship Opportunity Available). God bless SatireWire. [via Daypop]

I hate pop-up ads as much as the next guy, so I found it quite amusing to see this headline… “Publishers of Web Sites File Suit to Stop Pop-Up Ads” (NY Times, Free subscription required) These are just web site publishers - they are publishing companies and they have filed a suit against Gator. Seems that if you are a Gator user, when you visit the Washington Post, the New York Times, or other sites - the ads will come up. And the publishers want your eyes to be on them - so they want their real estate back. Should be interesting to see how this plays out.

I have a migraine and I’m tired of working on this proposal. Just thought I’d share that moment with you. Meanwhile, the purpose of this post is to say that if you’re one of the 8,000 people that I owe an e-mail to from earlier this week or maybe even last week (ok, not really - more like 10 or 12), my apologies but I promise I’ll write you back within the next two days.

There is a full moon right now. I had a strange dream last night, Kymberlie had a strange dream last night, Todd had a strange dream last night, one of my co-workers (Krista) had a strange dream last night. What’s up with that? Did anyone else have strange dreams? I don’t get it. Full moon and yet no new posts at Snarky Bitch. I have a migraine and I want entertainment. Hopefully someone will post something there soon - I can’t believe no one feels snarky anymore… I know *I* do!

My post about the Pledge of Allegiance issue was pretty tame compared to the awesome post that William wrote today. William? You’re my hero.

Yesterday Kymberlie posted about one of my all-time favorite commercials, EDS.com’s Cat Herding. So I asked her if she had found a source for the “Clinton’s Final Days” video since AdCritic.com shut down. Today she hooked me right up … and you can watch it too here!

So if you go to MSN an do a search for “women of enron” my site comes up as the #1 result. What’s up with that?

Want to know when your favorite blog has updated without looking online? If you have MSN Messenger, the BlogToaster will pop up with a notification for you of the update! I am so there! [via Kristine]