Another fun strip from Sinfest: Your Corporate Masters.

I find it a little funny that New England seems up to speed on this while California, a place most associate as being our country’s own little version of Hell on Earth is really falling behind. What’s next, Nevada outlawing gaming while Maryland trucks in the slot machines?

I will no longer deny that I am hooked on the mermaid’s bean–I bought the Starbucks Gold Card. However between the free drink it gets me, consolidating some past gift card balances and the 10% on most every purchase, I’m tracking how long it actually takes to pay for itself. A co-worker’s said she’s been getting free drinks from it with online surveys as well, so the initial shakedown period might not bring that many complaints from customers. We’ll see how it goes when that $25 annual fee hits a year from now. I like that the card works like a loyalty card first and a Starbucks card second, you don’t have to load it with funds, it’s just easier that way. But you can pay for your purchase using any method you like, even that archaic paper stuff. If my regular weekday morning habit continues, it shouldn’t take that long to recoup my money via discounts.

A while back during a happy hour, Michael, Fredo and I were discussing the “emergency call” that you set up with a friend in advance of a first/blind date. Since Fredo and I both have iPhones, I called him and he took a screen capture of the incoming call, saying that if necessary, he could make it his wallpaper to look like he was getting a call. Naturally, someone has developed an iPhone application to take it one step further. Of course, there’s always the direct approach:

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Ok maybe that can only happen on tv, but I’ve heard many a tale of ways to give yourself an escape clause for that coffee date. Rather than wisely limit it to a specific time beforehand, I’ve seen people tell of wearing caps or sweaters, only taking them off once they’ve spotted and approved of their date so that they can be found. There was a time when you could easily observe this behavior taking place at the Dupont Circle Starbucks.

Since my blind dates have generally gone pretty poorly, I actually started a little guidebook to help friends set up their friends, maybe I’ll post a bit from that this weekend. But I figured that since this election was lining up to be a sign that anything is possible in America, that I’d put the same optimism into finding a date. In so doing, I decided to go the old-fashioned route–pay.

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Of course this week has been pretty bittersweet, having an enormous victory at the same time as major setbacks. At the very least, we will have a Democrat in the White House that is at least willing to recognize that the nation contains all kinds of people and they are deserving of equal rights. Sadly, many of the same people who voted for that candidate don’t feel the same way.

First the “funny, but sad and true” from The Foggy Dew, WTF California?:

Are you seriously kidding me?

California voters outlawed gay marriage yesterday, but approved a ballot measure giving egg-laying chickens more rights.

cheap blue guitar wrote a very nice entry on it as well, pointing out that $73 million dollars were raised by both Prop 8 camps. Unconstitutional:

I have a message for all who supported California’s Proposition 8, Arizona’s Proposition 102 and Florida’s Proposition 2.

Gay marriage will happen.

It is going to be reality and there is nothing — NOTHING — you can do to stop it. You can spend all the money you have and tell all the lies you want to slow it down, but mark my words, one day, every citizen in this country – gay or straight – will have equal rights for all. Every single one of us.

It will happen.

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To be honest, it would be impossible to say that there’s no way he saw this one coming. Chad Hardy–creator of the Men on a Mission Calendar, featuring former Mormon missionaries posing bare-chested–has had his diploma held by Brigham Young University due to his excommunication from The Church of LDS.

Hardy’s excommunication for conduct unbecoming a church member was rooted in his failure to pay tithing, a lapse in other religious obligations and, according to Las Vegas regional church elder Frank E. Davie, his involvement with the 2008 “Men on a Mission” calendar.

Hardy says that the calendar is supposed to shake up stereotypes often associated with Mormons, that the purpose of his whole Mormons Exposed project is to be tongue-in-cheek. But when I look at some of the t-shirt designs available in his store… Again I say that there’s no way he couldn’t have seen this coming.

But at the least, I’m sure he’s made enough money from merchandise sales to cover his upcoming legal fight. Seriously though, collegiate honor codes–especially BYU’s which only recently clarified theirs on allowing homosexual students, “BYU will respond to homosexual behavior rather than to feelings or orientation”–are not to be trifled with.

I absolutely love this ad produced for No On Prop 8:

More videos here. Like many things, this issue should be a no-brainer, but I really like the simple analogy presented above. I also marvel at how the simple staging for Apple’s Mac vs. PC ads so resonates with people that it has been copied time and time again for various issues. Whether producing haterade about Apple and their smug ads or something completely unrelated to technology.