Spurred by the fledgling economy and California’s budget troubles, marijuana legislation has become a hot issue lately.  I say lately because although stoners have been bitching and whining about legislation for what, fucking decades?, politicians are slowly starting to take the realities of marijuana legislation a bit more seriously (RI has medicinal marijuana, as does CA, AK, CO, HI, ME, MD, VT, WA and a few others.  MA has decriminalized small amounts and is pushing legislation for legalization.)

I’m not a statistician.  I couldn’t begin to pull numbers out of my ass, and I’m not going to pretend to.  After all, I am just a US citizen with an opinion.  And this opinion is based on my personal reality.  I am  consumer, I am  tax payer, I am a voter.  Come, sit a spell and listen.

Anti-marijuana legislators and special interest groups have very weak and unfounded arguments that appear to be residual effects of years of anti-marijuana propaganda.  I can assure you no one has gotten high and beaten their mother to death with a frying pan.  Not when a mother and a frying pan are two important proponents to making delicious, delicious munchies.  Think about it.

First, legalization will not increase pot use dramatically.  Ask anyone who smokes weed or is curious to try it: they know where to obtain it.  Its not hard to get.  It can grow anywhere with a little love (not that I speak from experience, I have trouble keeping my bamboo plant alive.)  If anything, having pot available with the same regulations as tobacco makes the entire purchasing experience a whole hell of alot safer.  Most pot dealers I know are pretty friendly, but they’re still drug dealers.

Second, marijuana is not dangerous and does not turn you into a burn out.  Nothing pisses me off more than the stoner stereotype.  Especially those god damn “above the influence” commercials.  Yes, there are lazy potheads with no motivation in life, but if they stopped smoking pot, they’d just be lazy alcoholics with no motivation in life.  Marijuana does not shape your personality.  Marijuana is not physically addictive.  If you want to talk about national addiction, how about caffeine?  I have suffered from caffeine headaches for years as a symptom of withdrawal (I’m trying to get off the shit since soda isn’t the healthiest, and its hard!) I am also a sufferer of migraine headaches, and I have found that small amounts of marijuana have been more effective and less dangerous than prescriptions (notice how there aren’t warning labels, but warning PAMPHLETS?).  Immitrex and Maxalt may as well be placebos with side effects in my book.

Now, I’m not stupid, and I will admit that smoke inhalation isn’t a very healthy habit.  However, there are these wonderful things called vaporizers and brownies which eliminate harmful effects of smoking.  Plus, really, if the government cared about us SO much they just don’t want us inhaling smoke, you’d think the tobbacco industry would be shit out of luck.

Our current marijuana policies are ridiculous.  The fact that it is a schedule one drug is absolute bullshit.  Have you seen someone go through heroin or crack withdrawals? THOSE are schedule one drugs, they are dangerous and destroy lives (although, the government really shouldn’t control how we choose to kill ourselves.)  Heroin, tobacco, they all end the same way. Don’t legislate based on what industry funds your campaign.  Find me one case of someone dying because of marijuana usage.  Like, cut and dry, they smoked a bowl or two then dropped dead, no other factors.

Right now, marijuana is COSTING everyone money, when it has obvious potential to be (and off the records, pretty much is) America’s cash crop.  Corn will have to deal with its jealousy I suppose.

What bothers me is the incarceration of people who are found selling/buying/possessing marijuana.  Last I checked, the idea of prison was to protect citizens from violent criminals.  Someone wearing pajamas at 4PM selling weed in sandwich bags is not going to brutalize anyone.  That is far too much effort on their part.  Incarceration is for murderers, rapists, and white collar criminals who should really just kill themselves (sorry, I think white collar crime is just terrible.  I live comfortably on $30k, I have no sympathy for greedy dickheads who fuck hard working people over.)

Prohibition of marijuana (and all illegal drugs, for that matter) is also only helping fund criminal organizations.  The DEA will even back me up on that one.  Remember how prohibition of alcohol spawned a whole generation of criminals?  How did we rectify that? Oh yeah, legalization and some semblance of control.

Its good to see we are making baby steps towards ending prohibition.  Last week, the Obama administration announced that the Justice Department will no longer be raiding medicinal marijuana dispensaries where they are not in violation of state law.  Yay for progress, am I right California?

Anti-marijuana lobbyists and supporters can dismiss this as just an angry rant from a subculture that is not important.  Yeah, I’m some burn out who just wants a fix without being thrown in prison.  Yeah, you sure got me there.  But as I said before, this is my opinion based on the reality that I deal with.  And you can ask the question “Well, who the fuck are you?”, but I’ve told you.  I’m a citizen, a tax payer, and a voter.  And last I checked, I live in a country that was built by and is supposed to serve and protect people like me.

It is understandable that judgment is part of the human defense mechanism.  We judge people to protect ourselves from cruel intentions or violent outbursts.  As any local newspaper police log will indicate, our defense mechanism isn’t exactly stellar.

People use associations to understand the world around them.  Unfortunately, associations are often broad generalizations of things we don’t take the time to try to understand, things we deem as irrelevant or even down right evil.

Socially and politically the practice of what I like to call “Social Taxonomy”, or the categorization of large groups of people by interests, beliefs, or activities, is creating a schism in modern society that can be easily avoided by a little reason and understanding.

Modern America is a victim of decades of terribly false propaganda.  Most of us see old World War II propaganda posters and giggle a bit at how ridiculous it was (I hope anyways.  Don’t fear the Japanese, they’re awesome people when you get to know them, really.)  But it is astonishing how much has stuck in the national, and sometimes international collective conscience.

There are two reactions people have to things they don’t understand.  They either dismiss large factions of society as irrelevant, or they respond with fear and anger.  The fear and anger is really what takes the cake, because we all know that fear mongering is a key strategy in Western politics.

The Republican party carries a stench with it created by the religious right that is going to take years of cleansing if they plan to actually recover from it.  You see these ridiculous pundits who only have jobs because what they say is so fucking ridiculous and infuriating it generates viewers, and therefore profit to their new agencies.

The ridiculousness of the Right does not make the Left any less guilty.  The Left has a habit of putting minorities on a pedestal, which is so counterproductive to social progress it isn’t even funny.  Treat people like people and stop making such a spectacle of their differences and struggles.

And its not just pundits, figureheads, and politicians who use these hateful generalizations, its everybody.  Read a local newspaper online or in print.  Read letters to the editor, or worse yet, anonymous comments from people too afraid to put a name on their ignorance and arrogance.  Some of the shit they say is so out of left field I wonder where some of the bullshit even *originated* from.

I find myself targeted by such hateful accusations from people who don’t agree with what I do or what I believe.  I am a pot smoking, non-partisan, pre-marital relations having bisexual and I am absolutely okay with that.  Even by moral and religious standards (notice how I separated those two things) I lead a good life.

I’m not selling drugs to your kids (but I know who is.) I’m not sleeping with your husband (I am completely faithful to the man I have loved for *years* now.)  I don’t support your political parties (though I usually vote Democrat, I am a fiscal conservative and I have very long political debates with myself.)

What it boils down do is that I’m not a dick.  I don’t screw people over.  I don’t do hateful things out of fear or a need to feel superior.  I like my laissez faire do what you will lifestyle and I wish more people would do the same thing, but not enough to judge them or force them to see my point of view.  I do what Jesus would do.  I just… don’t think he was the son of God, so suddently I’m just a terrible person who must be violent and unloved.

Sometimes I miss the illusion of living in a country that was founded on and supports people who think differently.

Looks like a certain silly piggy enjoyed her red pepper.

Whats that under your chin?

Oh I see what you did there.

Beard-hance!

That's just silly.

I can’t judge, I’m just as bad with open bar situations.

Ah yes, the quintessential Twitter entry.  Can’t blog without it.

Twitter is a microblogging service.  That’s it.  Its so simple yet people try to make it overly complicated.  There are “Twitter Celebrities”, “Real” Celebrities who use Twitter, real people pretending to be celebrities on Twitter, and then there’s the rest of us.

There are many ways to go about using Twitter.  Some people use it as a very stream of consciousness life feed (hi!).  Some people use it to pimp whatever they’re doing online.  Some people use it to chat about their interests with other Twitter users (hi!).  Some people use it to spam the hell out of anyone dumb enough to follow them.

So with all this hemming and hawing about how to “effectively” use Twitter, I’m throwing my two cents in the ring.

In general, I don’t seek out people to follow.  I don’t care much about my counts.  I don’t get off on my Twitter status.  I would rather only have people follow me who are actually interested in what I have to say and engage in occasional banter.

If someone follows me, I will check out their profile and see if they’re worth adding back.  What makes them worth adding back? Well, there are a few things that automatically make me close the window, such as:

• Heinous grammar
• A foreign language I don’t speak (It better be English, French, or Spanish.  Maybe Portuguese if its interesting enough, but that’s it.)
• No Tweets.
• Obvious spam (porn, get rich quick, get a huge dick, etc..)
• Obvious and annoying self-promotion.
• Contradictions to my interests/morals (for example: “I love Sarah Palin!” or “I kicked a puppy today!”)
• Jesus Freaks.  Its OK to be religious, but not fanatically so.  I follow people of all religions and enjoy their outlook on life, however if God is the reason for everything ever happening and you dismiss logic and reason, I just… I can’t get behind that.
• No personal information.  No name, location, bio, or website = no follow.
• Tweeting once a month.

The last one is key since I’m seriously on Twitter like, all day.  I like to have active conversations and be engaged by the people I follow.  There are people who don’t fall into any of the above bullet points that I still don’t follow back.  Sometimes I just don’t think they’re interesting.  Sometimes a single tweet will rub me the wrong way.  Sometimes I’m just not in the mood.  I’m not a program, I’m a human, I don’t have a set schema of rules that I obey to preform actions :P

If I so choose to follow someone, it takes a lot to make me unfollow them.  If a person becomes inactive or never tweets, I don’t unfollow them, its not like they’re annoying me or wasting my endless digital attention span.  What does get me occasionally though, is the people who seem really chill at first, then turn into your classic annoying ass Twitter user.

The shorty awards tend to bring it out in people.  The constant vote for me tweets are a bit much.  Then there are the people who post their “TwitterGrades” or other bullshit dick measuring standards on a daily basis.  Though I must say, Twick is an amusing site.  Mines 9″, woot.

So when you hear these self proclaimed social media experts extolling the virtues of having a twitter account for your self or business, stop and think about how YOU personally would use the service.  There’s no rules to follow (well, aside from the service TOS, which is pretty simple) so by all means, use Twitter as you see fit, not the way some faux-hawk wearing “Media Expert” tells you to.

With the advent of new media, we find ourselves redefining how we get our multimedia.  On Demand or online, we can now choose what we watch and when we want to watch it.  This is an advertisers conundrum, as advertising and marketing agencies struggle to understand, study, and profit off of new media trends.

There is no reason that networks cannot upload full episodes of their shows online.  Most viewers do not mind seeing a few ads if it means they can watch their favorite shows wherever and whenever they want.

We already see legit services like Hulu popping up, and ABC.com has its own episode player for its primetime shows.  Both services provide ad supported, high quality full episodes.  But thats just the tip of the iceberg.

Why isn’t every network doing this?  The only reason I can think of is because its a financial risk to the networks.  After all, the golden question is “how much money will it make us?” This is where advertisers come in.

This trend should appeal to advertisers for several reasons.  Advertising during online video eliminates paying a premium for primetime slots.  Advertisers can reach people viewing media at any time of day for one price.  They can also target their audience by individual shows instead of broadcast networks.

Also, there is an element of interactivity that online advertising provides that television cannot.  Instead of putting the company website on the screen or saying “visit our website at blah blah blah”, a user can click the ad, and in most cases have the company or product website deploy in a new window.  That is going to be a better return on advertising dollars than television.

After all, isn’t the point of advertising not only awareness, but consumer engagement?

So why am I writing about this?

Really, truly and honestly, I just want to catch up on Top Chef online.  Fuck you and your fucking clips Bravo.  Clips? FUCK CLIPS.  NO ONE LIKES CLIPS.  WE WANT EPISODES.  I’m never home when my favorite shows are on, and I get into my shows damnit.

You would think networks and advertisers alike would want to have a young, affluent audience.  Well guess what folks?  Young affluent people work all day and then go out and do things with their friends that don’t involve sitting in front of a TV watching cable television.  We catch up on our obsessions on our laptops in bed at 2AM the way God intended us to.  Don’t leave us with the infomercial crowd, kthnx.

Here’s to another year.  2008 was crazy.  2009 is going to rock. Out.  With its cock out.

A couple things I would ideally like to accomplish in the next 360ish days:

• Punctual blogging (har har)
• Finishing making a WordPress template
• Redo my professional site
• Lose a little weight (nothing crazy, I do like having tits and an ass)
• Get my saxophone fixed and start playing it again
• Compose more music
• Write more

Most of which should be much easier now that I’m not a full time student in another state (and I have time to cook instead of binge eating at McDonalds while speeding over state borders to get to my minimum wage job on time).  I also have some truly amazing friends now, and I’ve dropped a lot of dead weight.  And I still have my amazingly sexy boy shaped life partner ♥.

So yeah, if you actually routinely visit this site or get here via some social networking mechanism (hi! thanks for clicking the link!) please excuse the lack of sexiness while I make up my fucking mind as to what I want this site to look like.  I mocked and sliced a layout for BrittanyTurcotte.com, but as you can tell I didn’t get far past the WordPress install.  But hey, coding the theme is half the work, right?

I mentioned this to one of my friends, but now that I’m a professional web developer I’m just too worn out to code when I get home.  Like how chefs don’t really cook for themselves, they go out to eat.  I don’t code for myself, I enjoy the rest of the internet.

I can understand why some people cling to religion.  Its a crutch.  Its a point of reference.  But most of all, its a grand delusion to make us stop asking questions about our existence.  Some crave the complacency of not having to worry about why we’re here or what the point of life is.  I can understand that.

What I cannot understand, however, is using the name of God to mask seething hatred of human difference.  Everytime I see some Baptist with a “God Hates Fags” sign, I can’t help but thinking “what god is this? not the one in the Bible for sure”.  Has anyone read the Bible?  I’ve only read a few chapters myself, but enough to say this: uh, hi, metaphor anyone?

They just love quoting Leviticus though.  The do all end all of Bible books.  Right there in the divine print of whatever publishing company printed their paperback Bible, they love to point at it and shout damnation at adorable gay people. (I don’t say adorable to be condescending, in my experience every gay person I have personally encountered has been absolutely adorable.  FACT).

Lets enjoy Leviticus some more, since is such a reference point on the radical Christian agenda.

Here’s the one they love, Leviticus 18:22

“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”

Fair enough. Don’t be gay Sparky.  We get it.  But I don’t see an order of importance here.  Shall we move back a few chapters?  How about a little bit of 12:6?

“And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest:”

How many Baptist women have you seen bringing in scorched baby lamb to church every time they pop out another god fearing anklebiter?  Its right there in Leviticus guys.  Granted, if you continue reading, there is a pussy out option:

7: Who shall offer it before the LORD, and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that hath born a male or a female.
8: And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons; the one for the burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for her, and she shall be clean.

But either way, you have to kill something.  Depends if you think turtles or lambs are cuter.

And of course, my favorite sin, eating shellfish, as damned in Leviticus 11:12

“Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.”

Seriously. If you take the time to read Leviticus, its almost like a really cruel drinking game that God came up with at a rager. Please don’t take it to heart and use it to spread hatred to good people who just want to love one another.

So, who’s in the mood for anal and scampi?

Last Saturday I visited the oft questionable yet still wonderful citadel of Providence, saw my wonderful friends that still dwell up yonder, and got my first tattoo.

Yes, I know its upside down, but trust me, its supposed to go that way. And my wrist is twisted to it looks a little off. You know what, its just a bad photo, but I'm lazy and PhotoBooth does the job.

So yeah. Its power symbol. Nothing fancy, but I’ve always liked simple body art, since I don’t plan on making myself a canvas (and I also don’t have hundreds of dollars to spend on tats).

However, I think I should get something on my other wrist.  I have this compulsion for symmetry.  So right now the two ideas floating around in my head are either a Jolly Roger (a skull and cross swords, for ye who are not well versed in the way of the pirate) or an XML tag that says “<wrist />”.

They both have the potential to become dated but I do like the XML idea.  Even if it becomes obsolete, there is a small chance it will remain retro geek.  That and it will help people learn English if they see my wrist.  How selfless is that? :P

Congratulations to President-Elect, Barack Obama.  I am excited and honored that I was able to be a part of this election.  I hope everyone realizes that this is history, regardless of who you supported.

I watched John McCain’s concession speech last night, and while McCain was a true class act, the same cannot be said for those who attended his rally.

It is unfortunate to see some McCain supporters react to this news with pettiness and an almost childish rhetoric, like a rich kid who didn’t get what they wanted (which in a lot of scenarios, is exactly the case).  What I’d hope they would remember, is that those of us on the other side of the fence have put up with 8 years of Bush.  Welcome to democracy folks.

Obama will be everyone’s President, even if you don’t want him to be.  All you doomsday theorist conservatives can buy a pretty pair of shoes for when you have to stick your feet in your mouths.  He is a thoughtful, courteous, intelligent, and charismatic leader who is only going to do what he feels best for the entire country, not just his supporters.

If he just does such a horrible job that you can’t bear to call yourself an American (kind of like how some of us have been feeling for the last 7 or so years), then either flee the country or wait patiently for the next election.

The election is over and done, lets move forward as a country, not apart.

And on a local note, I’m pretty stoked that Question 1 was shot down here in Connecticut, as much as I’m sure the Catholic Church and the rest of those right wing interest groups would love to tear up our constitution and use it to fire spitballs at happy gay couples.  Try again in 22 years guys ;)

This year I’m entering NaNoWriMo in the hopes of getting back into creative writing (as opposed to blogging, which while a form of writing, isn’t usually creative.)

I’d like to maintain this blog at the same time, which is going to be hard.  I’m still designing a new theme (Dedicated to my motherland.  You’ll see.) and I have a bunch of draft posts.  I think part of my problem is that I’m a perfectionist.  By the time I’m happy with what I’ve written its no longer current or relevant.  I’m hoping the NaNoWriMo experience will help me relax and just write without being overly critical of myself.

There was a point in time where I wanted to be an English teacher, but I don’t think I could do it without being fired.  If there’s one thing I can’t stand its voluntary ignorance, which unfortunately seems to be a trend in this great country of ours.  Besides, being a web developer makes it easy to hide from the public :)

I have no idea what my novel is going to be about yet.  I don’t want suggestions because I want it to be completely my own.  So it probably will not make much sense, and will be a horrible novel, but the competition is all about word count, and that is something I excel at.  I was always that douchebag in class who asked the professor if papers longer than the required length would be penalized.  Understand though, that I went to Johnson & Wales, where a 5 page paper was considered “collegiate”.  I can barely finish a thought in 5 pages, especially on an academic paper.