Bone Marrow Drive TOMORROW (Friday) in Washington Heights: Margarita's friend and coworker Yajaira Mercedes, a young mother of 3, has been battling leukemia for years. She's a strong candidate for a bone marrow transplant which could be lif...esaving, but she needs as many people as possible to be tested for a match as possible donors. PLEASE read the pamphlet (PDF) linked to below to learn more about Yaji, the surprisingly non-invasive donor procedure, and how you can QUITE POSSIBLY HELP SAVE HER LIFE by heading up to the Heights tomorrow.

Two notes: many of the same fucked-up and not-so-fucked-up restrictions on donating blood (e.g. men who sleep with men, having had a seizure within the last 2 years) apply here, so call or read up before going to the Heights tomorrow. Also, Dominican@s and other Latin@s are most likely to be a match for Yajaira so if you're Latin@ please try to make it out!

http://surblimity.net/yaji_marrow_drive.pdf

nez put it in my head, it just had to be played.

I would've scored higher on tech had they asked about some more relevant programming languages. I mean, come on, BASIC and FORTRAN? How about JavaScript and PHP, huh?

What is the biggest fashion crime you can think of?
The only one that I really feel strongly about is culturally appropriative fashion, including hairstyles of course. I suppose that looking like the only place you could possibly live in this world is a loft on the L somewhere is also criminal.

What do you think is the difference between fashion and style?
Fashion is what's on the runway; style is what's on you.

Which is the hottest: a crisp white shirt, an unique accessory, or great shoes?
Oh, it really depends on the situation. Most likely to be hot? Great shoes, I'd say.

What one item encapsulates your vision for your personal style?
The cap that I'm wearing in this picture:



I acquired the cap in 2005 in Dublin, though it was made in Donegal, Ireland. It's a wonderful shade of blue, it's wool, it's soft, it's comfy, and it's ridiculously well worn. It's jaunty, classic, and perfect. I'll be heartbroken when it gets lost or just falls apart. I'm frightened of getting it cleaned but will probably need to bite the bullet one day.

Who is your favorite designer?
I used to be really into Ben Sherman, more because I was an Anglophile and really want a Vespa than for any other reason. Nowadays, not so much since it tends to be too expensive and I am less of an Anglophile. Otherwise, I don't really pay attention or care.

If money were no object, describe what kinds of clothes you would wear. Be specific: designers, cuts, fabrics, etc.

I would own bespoke suits, in a variety of fabrics, colors, and styles, that would perfectly fit my short butch body. At least one would come from Savile Row, just because. I'd also have more "grown-up" casual clothes - more blazers, jackets, button down shirts, non-sneaker shoes. Of course, I'd also have more & better jeans, more & better sneakers. I'd have a lot more hats, a few really nice watches, and a pair of ridiculously expensive sunglasses (for me, that means over $50). And finally, I'd go to Donegal, track down the maker of my hat, and get like 30 more of the same exact style, so I no longer have to live in fear.

Do you coordinate your hair style with your outfits?
No. My hair cut is my hair style.

What do you think about hats?
Hats rock, but they are tricky. You gotta know which ones look good on you.

What is the most outlandish outfit you own?
My black velvet blazer is probably the most outlandish piece of clothing that I own. I'm pretty mellow.

What is your favorite fabric?
Er... cotton? Heh. Maybe wool? I dunno.

What is your favorite pattern?
Thin vertical stripes, usually in subdued, subtle colors.

Which is hotter: impeccable style or impeccable grammar?
Oh, impeccable style, no doubt. The former is highly subjective, of course, but the latter is highly fraught with racism and classism. This is not to say that I'm not prone to being a bit of a grammar snob at times; I just know that it's wrong and try not to overly indulge!

Last night I attended my first queer wedding ever, that of ninabeans and snarkophone. The ceremony was beautiful; between that and the toasts later on I probably cried on 10 or so different occasions throughout the night. It was pretty amazing to be at a wedding surrounded by friends. It was definitely one of those events that drove home the feeling of community I have here in NYC. It's quite something to be at a celebration like a wedding and see so many of the same faces that you see at rallies, at meetings, at work, and at parties. Maybe that sounds insular but to me it feels like home. I count myself lucky.

The reception was a blast. I was the DJ! I'd never DJ'd a wedding before. Though it still consisted of me plugging in my laptop and playing playlists, it was much more involved than anything I'd ever done. I spent a lot longer crafting the list, the play order (usually I just throw stuff on random), the transitions from song to song. The actual event was also more involved than usual, with starting and stopping and cueing special songs up for the toasts, the dances, and the cake cutting. I ran around a whole lot and was so caught up in it all that I somehow managed to miss the amazing-sounding cakes - not only did they look incredible but I hear they were also RED VELVET and CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER cakes. Those are pretty much my favorite kinds of cakes ever. Alas, I couldn't have it all! But the joy and pride and sense of accomplishment in being the DJ and seeing so many people, especially Mickey and Nina, have so much fun made it all very well worth it. My favorite moment of the night: when Mickey's wise suggestion of playing Michael Jackson ("Don't Stop Til You Get Enough") directly after we were all gathered on the dance floor for the group picture paid off big time. EVERYONE was dancing. It was awesome. I also got plenty of time to tear myself away from the DJ booth to dance with my gorgeous girlfriend and with many friends and fellow revelers.

I got home drunk and exhausted and thoroughly happy. Today the happiness and joy - from the party, from the people I got to spend last night with, and most of all from seeing two wonderful friends celebrate their love and commitment to one another - hasn't worn off. Plus my thighs ache from dancing. Definitely all signs of an awesome night.

We're thinking about joining a CSA. Anyone have any recommendations on a) how to generally pick a good one and b) any specific CSAs that you like that deliver to the Flatbush/Kensington/Prospect Park South area?

I always think that I'm going to write about trips I take after I get back home, but there's always so much to write and I never really get it done. So this time around, I'm going to try to write on an (almost) daily basis.

( day 1, with pictures )

Tonight's the opening dinner of the training session, here at the hotel (boring). Tomorrow's all day trainings, but we're let loose in the evening for dinner. I hope to head someplace excellent with my dinner allowance; any suggestions?

(from shomithemess

Instructions: Open up your iTunes and fill out this survey, no matter how embarrassing the responses might be.



How many songs total: 5196
How many hours or days of music: 15.1 days
Most recently played: Juicy, Notorious B.I.G.
Most played: Cienfuegos Tiene Su Guaguancó, Ibrahim Ferrer & Buena Vista Social Club, 53 times
Most recently added: Across the Universe, The Beatles (from Let It Be ... Naked

Sort by song title:
First Song: A.D. 2000, Erykah Badu
Last Song: !, Ghostface Killah

Sort by time:
Shortest Song: "I'll call the coachman, sir" from The Rake's Progress, Igor Stravinsky (00:11)
Longest Song: Chapter One: Destiny, Jean Grae (45:09)

Sort by album:
First album: Abbey Road, The Beatles
Last album: 2400 Fulton Street, Jefferson Airplane

First song that comes up on Shuffle: La Bamba, Lila Downs

Search the following and state how many songs come up:

Death - 19
Life - 57
Love - 233
Hate – 8
You - 352
Sex – 55

If last week's numerical entity of the week was 18-1, tonight's is most definitely

4 for 4!

As in Louisiana, Washington, Nebraska and the barely mentioned Virgin Islands. As in, Obama won them all! Hells yeah!

Just took a look at the NY State county-by-county primary breakdown (be warned, that page can take forever to load.) Clinton only lead by 2% in the city, according to the Gotham Gazette. Here's the percentages that Obama and Clinton came away with in each borough:

Bronx: C 60%, O 38%
Brooklyn: C 50%, O 48%
Manhattan: C 54%, O 44%
Queens: C 60%, O 38%
Staten Island: C 61%, O 36%

Woohoo, Brooklyn! I'm happy to have been part of that number. That's a really strong showing. I'm only surprised and a little disappointed that Obama didn't win Brooklyn. Ah well.

When I saw the numbers for the Bronx, I immediately thought, "Ugh, Latinos!" with a groan. I'm allowed to do that because I'm Latina. I also recognize that's probably a little simplistic. But over and over and over yesterday, I heard that Latinos were overwhelmingly in favor of Clinton. Her campaign also pointed out Latino support in New Jersey, my home state, as one of the factors in her win there. My dad was one of those Latinos who voted for her there.

The Latino-Clinton connection also came in to effect big time in the Southwest and especially in California. While I was watching CNN last night, the commentators (is that just a sports term?) said that, according to exit polls, Barack had a healthy lead amongst both Black voters AND white voters. "So why is Hillary winning?" they asked. Well, according to them, it was thanks to Latino and Asian voters. I can't remember the exact numbers but I think 60-something% of Latinos and 70-something% of Asian voters supported Clinton. When I saw those numbers, I groaned even louder, because it made me think of this article that bias_cut posted the other day. I have a whole lot of problems with the article, primarily that I think the article doesn't really get at how white racism against Latinos and Asians is what causes the desire for assimilation. But when I saw those numbers, I couldn't help worry that, at least in part, that article was getting at something true.

My question, though, is this: why, exactly, do Latinos like Clinton so much? The pundits keep talking about this supposedly long-standing connection between the Clintons and Latinos, but why is that there? What did they ever do for us? Is this kind of like my mom's (and apparently, many Latinos') inexplicable obsession with Kennedy? That, at least, has the Catholic connection to explain it. But the Clintons? I just don't get it. Anyone?

Today, for the first time since i pulled the lever for Fernando Ferrer, I felt genuinely excited and proud about the candidate for whom I voted, Barack Obama. When I voted for Nader a while back, I felt happy for voting with my gut, but sad that he had less than a chance in hell. When I voted for Kerry, I felt not so much pride or true hope as desperation. I felt a little bit of pride when voting for Hillary's second term as NY state senator, primarily because she's a woman, but have mostly felt let down by her. But this time, I felt both proud and really hopeful that Obama has a damn good shot.

Yeah, of course, his politics are nowhere near stellar. Neither were those of Edwards, who was my second runner up. However, I've come to terms with the fact that, as long as we have this sort of two-party system, no viable presidential candidate is going to make me very happy politically. Every time I vote with my gut for a national candidate whose politics match mine, I know I'm voting for someone who's simply not going to win. Every time I vote for someone who's likely to win, I'm know voting for someone with whom I disagree far more often than I'm going to agree with them. I truly hope that changes sooner rather than later, but that's going to take some massive systemic changes in the way we vote and I'm not holding my breath on that.

I disagree with Obama on a whole slew of issues. Lots of them are sorts of issues on which candidates are pretty much required to parrot the same old bullshit in order to have a real shot at winning (marriage equality and other queer issues, relatively pro-Israel leanings, health care proposals that shy away from single-payer system, etc.)

However, there's also a lot that I like about Obama's politics. I think that, though he's certainly not nearly as left-leaning as I'd want a president to be, he's certainly to the left of Clinton. That candidate selector thing told me so, at least, hehe. This article (thanks, cixous) and this one (thanks, naughtyfox) lay out a lot more reasons for why Obama is a better choice politically than Clinton (coming from my political perspective, at least.)

I absolutely prefer Obama to Clinton on foreign policy, especially the war in Iraq. He didn't vote for it, he doesn't support it, and I really believe that he'll work harder to end the war quicker than Clinton will. (Success is, of course, another story. But you can't have success unless you try, and I think he'd try sooner and he'll try harder.)

And I gotta say, the whole dynasty business is really off-putting for me. Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton is not only creepy, but it also strikes me as downright wrong. It makes me shudder that just two rich white families have been at the head of this country for the past twenty years and, were Hillary elected, would run it for at least four years more. Shouldn't there be some sort of rule against that?

And finally, I just like him. I really do like him. I like his speaking style, I like his energy, I like his message. I like that he excites people and inspires people. I have this possibly deluded hope that he'll actually move farther left after he's elected, because he'll have the leeway to do it once he's actually in office. (Imagine a more leftist Black candidate making it this far? Yeah, that's a stretch.) I love the idea of a Black president. I saw a picture of him and Michelle Obama and their kids and thought, WOW - Black children will be running around the White House and won't get in trouble because they're just there on a class trip or something. Something about that thought was profoundly moving for me.

Come November, I'll probably vote for the Democratic candidate, whoever that may be. (Though who knows, Cynthia McKinney is apparently trying to get the Green Party nomination...) If Clinton is the Democratic nominee, I'll most certainly prefer her to the Republican. And I won't lie, I will get some joy and pride out of finally having a president who's a woman.

But today I voted for Obama, and I did it with a whole lot of pride and hope. And I absolutely hope I get to do that again in November.

GUESS THE SONG MEME
Step 1. Put your playlist on random.
Step 2. Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing. (You can skip songs that are instrumental.)
Step 3. Strike out the songs when someone guesses correctly.

( so random that i'd only be able to guess a few... guess that's what happens when you have about five times as much music than what you actually ever listen to. )

This is possibly the most awesome thing I've ever seen. Few things make me happier than listening to Nina Simone's piano AND voice virtuosity. Watching said virtuosity is one of them.

103 words

Touchtyping

see, i told my parents i'd get SOMETHING out of all those hours i spent playing online text-based roleplaying games!

ETA i keep on taking this over and over again. this needs to stop.

111 words

free Touch typing

(don't worry, i'm googling him now.)

100% Mike Gravel
98% Dennis Kucinich
82% John Edwards
77% Barack Obama
76% Chris Dodd
75% Joe Biden
74% Hillary Clinton
70% Bill Richardson
32% Rudy Giuliani
28% Ron Paul
20% John McCain
16% Mike Huckabee
15% Mitt Romney
14% Tom Tancredo
5% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

I've got one of these and one of these. The first one, the Palm TX, is actually really awesome, nice big screen, WiFi and Bluetooth. The only reason why I'm not keeping it is because it's not a Blackberry. The second one is older, more basic and a bit more used, but it's a perfectly fine device for someone looking for basic PDA performance. Plus, I'm selling it for hella cheap. I'm trying to sell them on craigslist but that's always a pain in the ass, and I'd much rather sell them to someone I know. So let me know if you want one!

Also, uh, happy new year's, everyone! Been meaning to do a new year's post... might get to that sometime before January's out.

(as if playing both Gandalf AND Magneto brilliantly wasn't enough)

from Wikipedia:

In 2003, during an appearance on Have I Got News For You, McKellen claimed that when he visited Michael Howard, the Conservative Environment Secretary (the Environment Secretary had the brief for local government at the time), in 1988 to lobby against Section 28, Howard refused to change his position but did ask him to leave an autograph for his children. McKellen agreed, but wrote "Fuck off, I'm gay."

The amendment in question, Section 28 of the Local Government Bill, proposed to prohibit local authorities from promoting homosexuality 'as a kind of pretended family relationship'.

my right eyebrow is (was?) pierced. recently i bought a new piece of jewelry for it, since my old one, blue with pointy ends, had some of the paint (probably not actually paint, but you know) chipped off and was looking crappy. i got what i thought was the same exact piece in silver instead, but it was both longer AND extremely sharp. margarita would joke that it was a deadly weapon, which was funny until it cut her nose one night when we were cuddling. woops! (don't worry, it was a tiny cut and more amusing than anything else, but still!) so i'd started taking it off as a precaution, and one morning i left her apartment without it, then never wound up replacing it. it's been a couple of weeks now, and i'm guessing that the hole's closed up now.

i feel ambivalent. on the one hand, that thing was dangerous and i didn't feel like buying another one (though i kept saying i'd just file down the points, but i never did), and occasionally i thought that i was kinda over it. but now i feel a little bit of remorse every time i think about it. i suppose i could always get it repierced, though. but there's still something sad about accidentally letting it close up. a sentimental attachment to my first piece of body modification, i suppose. well, the first body modification that wasn't done to me when i was an infant (earrings) and that i still actually use/like.

hmm. just got a brilliant idea while writing this. every year i take a box of change that i've saved all year to Commerce Bank's counting machine, and this year i got $72 from it. that'll just about cover the new tattoo i want:



it's the international symbol for power on computers and other electronics, and i love that it both means "power" and references my techie-ness. i'll probably get it with no background color, and in either black or blue. and winter's the perfect time to get it (it'll heal before i start wearing less clothing outside). so maybe i'll ease my body modification loss remorse by getting more body modification done! just gotta pick where, though. i was thinking the back of my neck for a long time, but am not completely sure, in part because i love being able to look at my current tattoos all the time. plus, that'll probably hurt like a motherfucker. and i don't think i want to do anything else to my arms or hands until i figure out what i might get on my shoulders/upper arms (i really want something, just don't know what.) so where else? any suggestions?

hehe, maybe i can get my new logo instead.

thanks to everyone for the great feedback! i'm glad that it was a quite recognizable image, though i suppose it's a somewhat biased crowd since everyone who responded is technologically-inclined enough to have a livejournal! still - it was great to get and reassuring of my choice to go with this design. logos can be tricky and readability is so subjective.

luckily, my friend and colleague Jamie, graphic designer extraordinaire, is great at what he does and both came up with a great idea and executed it expertly. (anyone need some design work done? hehe) we're still working on the whole package but here's what we've got thusfar:



for folks who don't know so much what i do for work, i do tech consulting for non-profit, mostly grassroots, mostly social-justice-oriented organizations, and the word "palante" means "moving forward" and is associated with Latin@ social justice movements, so all of the evocations of activism and raised fists and solidarity + technology are spot on.

woohoo, i almost have a logo! which will mean a much-needed site redesign in the near future! and new, better looking and accurate business cards! SWEET!