Two Cents and a Thousand Words

I was driving this work this morning, going about 60 through Bangor (the speed limit’s 55). I saw a car with a blue license plate approaching behind me quickly. I was immediately disappointed; I really don’t like how police always seem to go above the speed limit, since they’re supposed to be role models for everyone else.

In Maine, though, there are two kinds of cars with blue plates: state police and state representatives. This morning, it was the latter. I was still quite disappointed; representatives should also act as role models and probably shouldn’t be speeding down the highway at 70 or 75. My annoyance was multiplied ten-fold when I saw one of those idiotic bumper stickers plastered to the back of the car that has a picture of a figure standing straight and then a picture of a figure in a dress and then an equal sign pointing to the word ‘marriage’. I’d link to a site that sold them, but I don’t really want to give them that much publicity. (I’ve always wondered if the people who designed that sticker were telling gay people that one of them needed to wear a dress before they could get married.)

Most people realize that I try to stay open to others’ viewpoints, but I definitely break that rule when it comes to the issue of gay marriage. That said, I still realize that some people don’t favor the practice, so I tried to keep that in mind as the representative passed. Then I noticed the license plate - 114. House District 114. Dixmont, Hampden, and Newburgh. Brian Duprey.

Only a select few people have heard my long rants about Representative Duprey. He started angering me when he decided to be the vocal, firm opponent of the Maine laptop initiative (he homeschools his children, but somehow knew what was best for the state’s children in public education). Speaking of his wide range of knowlege about technology and education, he also attempted to “protect children from indecent material on the Internet” (grrrrrrrrr). I mean really, how in the world are you going to enforce a law that states that “an elementary or secondary school in the State may not allow a person under 18 years of age to access obscene, pornographic or other material that may be harmful to a person under 18 years of age through the use of a computer or computer server of that school” without taking away Internet access?

He’s also supported fingerprinting child care facility employees (not sure how I feel about that one either way) and, of course, defined marriage as a guy and a girl (BDN article, and another since he apparently didn’t realize the first time that nobody liked the idea). Generally, his history generally gives a perfect picture of everyone who lives in our district. *cough*

It’s things like these that make me wonder why, when millions of people can vote on who the next American Idol will be, only 538 people decide who will be president (note, though, that Maine does it a bit differently). Or, at least, why we can’t be better represented. There was one thing I liked about that license plate: the right said “02 04.” I can’t wait until November.

I spent yesterday afternoon down by Deer Isle at Amber’s roommate’s grandparents’ house. It’s a great location, with a great view of the ocean on a little cove. The highlight of the day was kayaking in some Old Town kayaks. I’d never been before, and I’ve always wanted to try it; I finally had the incentive to go out on the water with one yesterday. I thought it would be a lot harder to do than it actually was, since I had always heard of people falling off. The water was choppy, but not unmanageable (though my shoulders and back are pretty tired today). We went around the coast and paddled under the Deer Isle bridge, landing on a small beach filled with sand-dollars and very small rocks. All in all, a great time; I really want to go back, a lot, many times. Yes yes fun.

Today I started the first of a few workshops I’m doing with Max at ASAP on databases, PHP, HTML, Flash, and XML. Today I introduced all of the languages (except Flash) and helped the students (other ASAP workers) set up their first databases. By the end of the two-hour conference it had gotten pretty easy for me, and I felt pretty comfortable. Nice to know that I’m not completely terrified of teaching - or public speaking - anymore.

The last time I did a full-fledged workshop was in 10th grade, educating (paying) people about TI-83 calculators and programming.

So it’s been well over a month since I updated this thing, and that’s probably because I’ve been really busy.

But Justin, you might say, tomorrow you will have been out of school for a month. It’s summer!

To that, I’d reply… ha! My busy-ness continues. First of all, I’m working full-time at ASAP. Also, I’m trying to get various stuff done around the house and up at school… including finishing the work from last semester on the Pool (sometime soon, hopefully). And most importantly, I’ve also been hanging around with a girl named Amber since April 30. The wonderful matchmaking powers of Bumstock.

School finished out all right this semester, and I ended up getting all A’s and B’s (even in the couple of classes I really didn’t like). I’ve got an incomplete for the Pool for now, but we have some time to work on that and get what we have to get done finished.

I also went to Kelley Caskey and Ian Muir’s wedding, and that was a lot of fun. Nice ceremony, and I got to see a new city (Concord). It definitely helps to have someone to drive down and stay the night with, too.

There’s really too much stuff that’s gone on in my life to write it all in one entry, but I think this covers the basics. More will come. Sometime.