A moment to reflect

My 37th birthday is coming up next week, and like I do every year, I wonder "What the hell happened to my body"? Actually, I know what happened - way too much beer, and only playing sports once or twice a week. This pic is of me (on the right) almost 20 years ago, April of '86, during my final high school game. I was in damn good shape, and kept it up all the way through college and my early 20s. And then, metabolism slows down and my six pack became a keg. Not a full keg, mind you, but a nice pony keg. Now, instead of being built like the striker I once was, I'm built more like an NFL QB - 6ft. 4, 217 lbs.

RANDAL!!

"It's the Apprentice, not the Apprenti"!!

Ford Does The Right Thing

Sane minds prevail over the wingnuts:

Ford announced that it will continue to support gay organizations and gay events in the coming year and beyond.


Ford is going to run advertisements in the gay media NOT ONLY promoting the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, but the ads will promote ALL of Fords brands, by name, including Jaguar and Land Rover.


Ford states unequivocally that it will continue to tailor its ads for the specific audience it is trying to reach, and then goes one step further. Ford challenges us to keep an eye out on their upcoming ads in order to verify that they will in fact be tailored.

Human Rights Day

Today is International Human Rights Day, marking the U.N. General Assembly's adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948.

Today, I marked Human Rights Day with hundreds of my brothers and sisters by picketing the White House. You see, workers in the United States still have to fight for their rights.

Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Workers in the U.S. have the right to form unions under the National Labor Relations Act, but some employers thwart their efforts through firings, intimidation and harassment. To strengthen protections for workers’ freedom to choose a union, a bipartisan coalition created the Employee Free Choice Act.

Introduced into Congress in April 2005, the act would:

require employers to recognize a union after a majority of workers sign cards authorizing union representation;
provide for mediation and arbitration of disputes that arise when management refuses to bargain a union's first contract; and
authorize stronger penalties for employers who violate the law when workers seek to form a union.

In honor of International Human Rights Day, show your commitment to our freedom to form unions as a fundamental human right. Ask President Bush to re-establish the United States as the world's leader in protecting human rights, including the freedom of all citizens of the world to form and join unions, and ask Congress to adopt the Employee Free Choice Act.

Ford Sucks Too

Don't know if any of you have heard about this, but Ford Motor Company has stopped advertising in gay publications for its Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands, caving in to demands from the crazy MFers at the American Family Association (AFA). Not only that, but Ford has agreed to stop sponsoring gay events. Here's a question - Would Ford betray Blacks and Jews if the Klan objected? This is totally fucked up. AFA tries this shit all the time - AFA's boycott of Disney didn't go anywhere, they threatened Kraft, but Kraft had the balls to tell the AFA to screw off.

Dan Savage, a columnist and author I really like (you may have seen his "Savage Love" column in the City Paper), says the following:

HereÂ’s a list of Ford dealers (use the link to find your local dealer). Call them, tell them you're pissed. The "Built Ford Tough" boys collapsed into a puddle when the AFA assholes threatened them with a boycott. So let Ford know what you don't buy cars from companies that caves to right-wing hate mongers. And when the local dealers tell you that they didn't make this decision, tell them that's too bad. Tell them to scream and yell to Ford HQ and get this decision reversed, or you will never, ever consider buying a Ford.

And corporations can reverse themselves. Microsoft caved to right-wing Christian bullies, and then reversed itself. Tell them Ford can too. Tell them Ford better.

The FW and I have a Volvo, which is owned by Ford. I'm going out to buy a rainbow sticker today to put on our car. I'm also going to call Don Beyer Volvo and see what they have to say. Don Beyer was the former Lt. Governor of Virginia and headed up Howard Dean's fund raising efforts during the last campaign - he's a good Progressive and I doubt if he's very happy about this.

Shouldn't Today Be A National Holiday?

On December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, was ratified. Seems to me this date should be a National Day of Celebration, right alongside Independence Day. What say you?

Hilary Sucks

My wife thinks Hilary Clinton is awesome. I thinks she sucks - well, not really. If she did, Bill wouldn't have gotten into trouble. Anyway, Hilary:

is supporting new legislation to criminalize desecration of the United States flag _ though she still opposes a constitutional ban on flag attacks.

She'll obviously do anything for a vote.

How do you

Get back in touch with old/lost/former friends? It's the holiday season, so I'm feeling a bit nostalgic for old friends and family.

I used to hang out with a group of friends and had a major falling out with them about several years ago. I would go into detail about it, but I'm still not exactly sure what happened. I pissed them off, apparently, so much so that they pretty much cut off contact with me, but not until after one of them, who was my best friend at the time (best man at my 1st wedding, hung out with him all the time) told me I pretty much sucked.

Now, at the time, I was going through a pretty rough patch. Within the span of a little over a year, I was in a pretty serious accident, got divorced and lost my job. So I probably wasn't the best friend to have at the time. However, since then, I've gone through some pretty incredible personal changes, and feel I'm a much better person than I used to be. My ex-wife and I are on friendly terms - I would even say that we're friends, except I don't really see her or interact with her that much (though we do share the occasional e-mail). So I don't know why I haven't been able to reestablish contact with my former friends.

My relationship with them, looking back, was like a lot of my friendships growing up - I was pretty much a follower. There were 7 of us, including 2 couples. One dominant male personality, one dominant female, and the rest of us. We were very tight, though also very cliqueish. I often got into arguments with my ex-wife about them, she felt that they didn't like her and that I always took their side on any difficulties that arose (she was right, I totally took their side all the time).

I should clarify that and say that I do have a good relationship with one of them, Vicki, but it's more of an e-mail every few months, check-in kind of thing. The rest of them, nothing. I've tried e-mailing, inviting them to parties, baseball games, etc. Not a nibble. That's not exactly true. My former best friend responded to one of my e-mails (I sent a mass e-mail to everyone I knew, saying that I had a spare Nationals ticket and wanted to know if anyone wanted to go)with a really ugly response. It was pretty cryptic, actually, saying something along the lines of "some things are never forgotten nor forgiven". Whoa!! Let me reiterate that I never physically harmed, stole from, or anything else from him. I have no idea where the vitriol comes from. The last thing he said to me was that I wasn't honest with them during my divorce. I'm not sure what exactly I was supposed to have been honest about - my wife and I had some serious issues, neither of us were equipped to deal with it, and we broke up (it's a lot more complicated than that, but you get the idea). If the 2 of us were able to deal with it, move on, and remain friendly, then WTF is going on with my former friends? My response to him was basically this -

Dude, I'm sorry you feel this way, but I've moved on with my life, have a great wife and family, awesome friends, and just wanted to go to a baseball game. Sorry you feel that way. Take care of yourself.

I told my little brother about it, and he was probably more pissed than I was. I had to talk him out of calling my old friend up and cussing him out.

My circle of friends has grown immensely since the break-up with my old crew, and one may wonder why I feel this need to reconnect. I guess it's partially closure, partially a genuine concern about what's going on their lives.

Christ, this has been one long, rambling post. Lucky for me hardly anyway reads this, eh?

I Knew It!!!!

It took our friends in the British press to break the story of the year!

I love this game!

This is a compilation of some incredible soccer moves. Check it out (you'll need a high speed connection).

Big Brother is watching

Right to privacy? Ha!! Not only are the CIA and FBI digging around in our business, but now the military has joined the party.

Withdrawal?

If the American people want us out of Iraq, and the Iraqi people want us out of Iraq, why the hell are we still in Iraq?

CAIRO, Egypt -- Reaching out to the Sunni Arab community, Iraqi leaders called for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces and said Iraq's opposition had a "legitimate right" of resistance.

My New Ride

In addition to having a date with my niece on Saturday, I also bought a new car. It's a Saab 9-5, my 2nd Saab. I've loved Saabs since I was a kid, mainly because they looked different. I had an old 900S for a few years, but got rid of it last year, it got to the point that it was just expensive to care for. I bought it used and it had major problems from Day 1. I had to redo the entire wiring for the car, get a new clutch, brakes, etc. The final straw was when the radiator cracked. No wonder the previous owner laughed as I drove off. Anyway, the 9-5 is a really nice car, easily the nicest car I've ever owned. What's funny is that the FW and I are now stereotypical liberals - mixed marriage, working for non-profits, driving a Volvo and a Saab.

Fun Weekend

So this past weekend, I gave up my tickets to the UVa - Va Tech football game (thank God, it was ugly) to spend the day with my 5 year old niece Kennedy. We originally planned to go bowling with her Daisy troop, but that got postponed until the spring, so we had a "date" instead. My sister dropped her off around noon and Kennedy looked so cute! She dressed up just for her Uncle Charlie - my sister said that she picked her clothes out herself. I took her into the city to show her the White House (Is that where the President lives? We don't like him, do we?), my office, and the monuments. Then we went to Petsmart to buy some treats for my dog, Kaleb, and look at the animals. She was fascinated by the lizards. Me, not so much. The highlight of our date was going to the movies to see "Chicken Little". She loved it, and I thought it was pretty cute. She was most excited by the popcorn and M&Ms. This was my first time going to a movie theatre filled with kids since I was a kid. It was actually pretty enjoyable - I love the sound of kids laughing. Afterwards, we went to Target (I needed some new hair clippers) and I bought her a new coloring book and a My Little Pony Christmas DVD. We got home just as the FW was getting back from class. We had Spaghettios for dinner (Yum!) and watched her new DVD while she did the FW's hair. I love my niece!! And can't wait to meet my newest niece Maya - I hope my brother and his wife can make it to the East Coast for the holidays.

The Pot and the Kettle

Today, W's people had a lot to say about democracy in Venezuela, accusing the Chavez administration of:

"subverting democratic institutions by using them to restrict the rights of those who disagree with it, slowly undermining economic freedoms and rejecting the opportunities of globalization"

Newly appointed Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon said that Chavez was centralizing power in the executive and politicizing the judiciary. Um, HELLO!! What the fuck is your boss doing, stupid-ass?

"The impact on the civic, political and economic life of the country is evident in increased self censorship by the media, lack of public confidence in the electoral system, reluctance to express disagreement with government policies for fear of retribution and capital flight," Shannon said.

In a classic example of irony, Vice President "Dick" Cheney said earlier this week that the suggestion that Americans were misled on pre-war intelligence was "one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city". He added: "The president and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory or their backbone. But we're not going to sit by and let them rewrite history."

Wow!!

Tonight's "Lost" kicked all kinds of ass!

Let's get together and end this.

From the ONE Campaign:

This week, Congress will decide how much America will contribute toward an important international effort called the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Let’s keep up the positive pressure: Please email Congress today and ask their support for $100 million in the Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill for the Global Fund-- an effort that fights back against three killer diseases and encourages other countries to do their share.

Please make the message as personal as you like -- these officials need to know that people from their hometowns, the people they represent, want them to help.

Oh, yeah

Kaine won!!!!!

Welcome Maya!!

The newest addition to the family has arrived, a bit late, which proves she is indeed a Hundley! Say hello to Maya Florence Hundley, everyone. Her parents couldn't be more proud, nor could her proud Uncle Chaz!

I'm back

I'm back after a week's hiatus - I was in Phoenix for work and then spent a day in San Diego visiting my little brother and his wife. They're expecting their 1st child, and I was hoping the little one would make her appearance while I was in Cali. Oh well, I'll see her at Xmas!

Tomorrow is a huge day in Virginia, Election Day. Vote for Kaine, you'll be happy you did!