Daily Doings at the Line of Death Bar & Grill

Yesterday, allisona posted about the history of her group, Urban Tapestry, and all the people who have influenced the group from its inception until now. She also asked about everyone else's musical links.

( Here's my filk music history. )

I'd like to get back into the swing of things, but I have a daughter to raise (with the help of her mother), an uncertain employment future, lots of stuff to do at home (namely, the ongoing decluttering project), and a parent to keep track of.

Just got back from Ohio Valley Filk Fest 26. I was there only today. HIghlights for me:
* Chamberfilk with 10 players (and 2 bass clarinets! Thanks quadrivium!)
* The dinner with autographedcat and kitanzi at BD's Mongolian Grill
* Playing a duet written by peteralway
* [Finally] meeting a few more filkers I hadn't met before, like sweetmusic_27, ladymondegreen, judifilksign, and shadowriderhope

Thanks to all who reached out to me and made me feel a welcomed member of the filk community once again!

I don't often record my dreams, but this one was so neat I want to capture it.

I was at a week-long festival, like Pennsic or Starwood. Most of the days were pure vacation; there was nothing going on. But Friday afternoon, people start showing up in medieval costume. And the launched into some sort of interactive play with me and other people who were there. This caught me completely by surprise, which added to the drama and enjoyment. And I made some fast friends that afternoon.

October 14th is always a tough day for me.

It was 23 years ago today that Randy, one of my fraternity brothers, fatally shot himself.

I'm not passing the Spirit Day meme around. It has come to my attention that the pictures of the young men used in the meme were used without permission of the parents involved.

Instead, I will post this graphic, which kshandra graciously assembled:

Earlier this week, I was looking for Houlihan's Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio to have a nice dinner after work. After driving up and down the road it was on, I couldn't find the restaurant. I later did some web searching and it confirmed my suspicions: the restaurant closed, back in 2007.

My first exposure to Houlihan's was back in 1992 or thereabouts, when a group of us from GEnie got together in Columbus for a meet-and-greet. At the time, the restaurant was at the Continent, a plaza built to resemble a small French village or neighborhood. I remember the restaurant having good food -- American fare such as steaks, chicken, and their wonderful "shrooms" (a stuffed mushroom appetizer).

Years passed, and I found that the restaurant moved out of the Continent to a spot on Dublin-Granville Rd. (Route 161) just east of Sawmill Rd. And they still had the same great food I remember. I also remember an active Delta Chi from the Ohio State chapter noticing my Delta Chi fraternity crest sticker on the window of my car and greeting me as only a brother could. (This was rather bittersweet; at the time, the OSU chapter was being investigated for a hazing incident.)

There is a Mexican restaurant on the site of the old Houlihan's. And there are still Houlihan's in the Cleveland area, and one in Buffalo. But I'm not going to drive 2 or more hours for dinner. When I want to eat, I usually want to eat now.

I'll miss the place.

The election ads have begun. And so has the mudslinging.

It started with Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland, saying his oppoent John Kasich worked for Lehman Brothers (the failed Wall Street brokerage firm). The Republicans shot back, using Senatorial candidate Lee Fisher as the scapegoat for losing 400,000 jobs in Ohio.

I really don't know who to believe or trust anymore.

I lean toward the Democratic side of things, because they support the social liberal position.

Bottom line: Do I hold my nose and vote Democratic this November? Or do I risk pissing away my vote and voting Libertarian all the way?

A few weeks ago, I was selected to be on call for jury duty by the county court. I was a petit juror, being on call for three days.

And so I called the phone number on Friday night per my instructions. The message: "Jurors are not needed for Monday 9/20. Call back the evening on 9/20 for further instructions." And so I repeated the daily call. Ultimately, I wasn't needed and didn't have to report for the three days I'm on call. On last night's message, the court thanked me for my service.

It'll probably be another 10 years before my name comes up again for jury duty.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the crazy idea of getting another bare-bones Dell Latitude CPx laptop and outfitting it with the spare parts I had on hand -- battery, hard drive, and memory -- and using it as a "loaner" laptop.

Yes, it's an older laptop -- it has a Pentium III 650 MHz processor in it -- but when I'm on the road, it mostly gets the job done. Web surfing, email, playing short videos, playing music -- it does all of that.

Last week, I found one on EBay for about $40 (plus $10 shipping via Priority Mail). It arrived today. I spent a little bit of time swapping in the spare parts, along with a CD-ROM module I picked up at Laptop World yesterday for $5, and voila! It worked. Well, sort of. It booted, and didn't do anything more because the hard drive was blank. So I installed Ubuntu Linux on the laptop. Now it's working.

I still need to get a wireless network card, a USB 2.0 card, and a power adapter in order for the laptop to be truly roadworthy. I'll probably be going back to EBay for these parts.

I'm finally responding to catsittingstill's suggestion that we post about relgious tolerance today. I think this is important, so I'm not going to cut-tag this.

Tolerance? filkertom posted in his LJ today about that word: "Tolerance" is an interesting word. By and large, it means putting up with something you don't agree with. You tolerate it. On some level or another, you believe it's wrong, or at least not for you. In a previous post of his -- and I wish I could find it -- he suggested that we replace "tolerance" with "acceptance". I wholeheartedly agree with him.

Today, I attended Dayton Pagan Pride Day at a local park. One section was "Tradition Row", where various pagan paths -- Wicca, Druid, Asatru -- were represented by symbolic altars. There was even a Buddha status and a shrine to Ganesh.

And this is where tolerance and acceptance begin: learning and understanding. (Sidenote: A great resource for this is religioustolerance.org.)

It's my long-standing observation that people fear and demonize what they don't know. And it's often the case where the most vocal critics of something are often the ones who know the least about it. Case in point: that preacher in Florida who was threatening to burn copes of the Koran today. (Thankfully, he recanted.) Has he even read it, or parts of it?

Many years ago, a group of people practicing a minority religion were threatened by the people following the mainstream religion. There were no holy books to burn, so they burned the people instead. Pagans like me know this period as "The Burning Times".

And what of my religious background? I was born and raised Catholic. I've had Jewish friends from elementary school onward. I married and divorced a Wiccan. I am currently a member of a Unitarian Universalist faith community. And I consider myself a pagan.

A very good friend of mine -- and the best man at my first wedding -- is a Sikh. He has told me numerous stories of religious intolerance, from being harrassed at Buffalo Bills games because he wears a turban, to his family being publicly lambasted by Pat Robertson on his TV show, "The 700 Club" all because his family dared to propose to their school board that Christmas concerts be re-branded holiday concerts and thus be more inclusive.

While things like book burning and flag burning are protected by the First Amendment, such actions are what I would conder hate speech and therefore disrespectful.

I am proud to have friends and acquaintances of many differing faiths.