narcimund

Democrats: Social freedom and economic enslavement. Republicans: The exact opposite. You all sound like gazelles having a pitched battle over whether you'd rather be eaten by the lions or the tigers. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Yeah. We need to hurry up and allow more gay marraiges followed up with them allowed to have children. That would be productive. Ten thousand successes. One spectacular failure. I see your point. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Together 5 years. Got married. Still together 5 months later. Haven't pursued a divorce. I guess I'm not newsworthy. First Class Citizen Twice Over

I don't know why you're so concerned about my marriage. I'm not concerned about yours. First Class Citizen Twice Over

There's a sad story though. One couple got their license yesterday, went to the courthouse to have their ceremony in judge's chambers, then returned to have the paperwork filed. But they were too late. The judge hearing the arguments (not the same judge who married them) issued his order while they were in the car between the courthouse and the county records building. Imagine having your ceremony, saying "I do!" to each other, hearing a judge in robes pronounce, "I now declare you married," and then finding out you missed the deadline. Oops! Of course just about everyone agrees they'll be able to file the papers later, but it's still a pain in the ass. Something's definitely wacky in this world. Oh wait. A LOT of things are wacky. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Well, we got married about 6 weeks ago (thanks for all your congratulations!) but the paperwork was held up in political wrangling. What a screwball situation. The good news is today a judge cleared up the political wrangling about our marriage licence and ordered the state of Oregon to stop stalling and officially register our licence (along with approx. 3000 other licences.) The bad news is that he also ordered the counties to stop issuing new licences until the matter is clarified by the state Supreme Court. He believes (like most other lawyers and judges who have ventured an opinion) that the Supreme Court will order the marriages to resume. So those of us who got in before the door closed are officially, completely, legally married. Those who held out for later will have to wait a while longer. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Role Playing Time: You're a US Senator. The following bill comes up for a vote: Do you vote for or against this bill? If you vote against, you can be SURE you'll be described on TV as hating your mother, tormenting little girls, and destroying the environment. Just one more reason to destroy your TV. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Timing is everything. When will they pull the curtain aside to show off their freshly minted ("Made in USA") Gen-U-ine Iraq Weapons? Everyone knows it's coming, but when? First Class Citizen Twice Over

My husband and I own our business together. I started it ten years ago. Of all the strange things to say about the experience (and there are a LOT) maybe the most inexplicable is that whenever I tell someone new we own a business, the first question is always, "Do you work from home?" Me: "No. We have the entire floor of a downtown office building." Them: Deer-in-the-headlights speechlessness. Shock. "Huh?" Why do people assume owning your own business means part time wearing a bathrobe in the spare bedroom? Do they think we're some dorky herbalife pyramid scheme distributors nailing up recruiting signs on telephone poles? "Owning your own business" is a phrase that's been co-opted and cheapened. When people then come to our office and see the thousands of square feet of desks, glowing computers, whiteboards with project status notes, file cabinets with paperwork, telephones ringing, the conference room, and buzzing little workers merrily making a living under our direction, they look absolutely shocked. They seem to be thinking, "Wait a second. This isn't 'owning a business'. This is a REAL company." Every night 16 people (employees, spouses, and kids) eat dinner that's paid for by money we provided. And that's not counting the hundreds of employees of our clients whose businesses make money solely because of the e-commerce websites we build and service. No, we don't resell some corporate offering. We actually do work with our minds to create brand new things. Somehow the phrase "owning your own business" has become dirty and sleazy. People have very strange and very small expectations. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Then when you're done, read "Skipping Towards Gomorrah" by Dan Savage! MUCH more fun. First Class Citizen Twice Over

I just gave an employee a 20% raise after two weeks on the job. He is obviously vastly smarter and more useful than I predicted. I doubt that is the last one he'll get, too. Our policy is that employees are money machines. If an employee is fed $1.00, they should be able to create (for instance) $1.50. By that logic, it's in our best interest to feed them as much money as their capacity can support. If they are capable of turning $10 into $15, or $10,000 into $15,000, or $1million into $1.5million, then that's how much they should get. The first time I can get an employee earning $1million, I will be a happy business owner :) First Class Citizen Twice Over

We currently have two deals outstanding either one of which will require us to hire a new full-time software engineer. Aside from those, we're split between needing a new engineer next or a new designer. Unfortunately we're really only interested in local talent for full-time jobs. We're not experienced enough managers to feel comfortable with telecommuting. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Wow - how does that feel to say, LJ? Congrats again! Gary, it sounds wonderful and odd. The odder thing is watching the company grow. There are seven of us now! Tomorrow we're hosting a meeting with a new client. There will be 6 of them visiting which means THIRTEEN people in our office. First Class Citizen Twice Over

I own (with my husband) a seven person web development firm. I've been through experiences like this myself. The proper business move at this point is to review what your verbal or written agreements were, then present your situation to the client. "This work has gone beyond the original scope. We must discuss how to get either the workload or the fee back in line." The client should be understanding. If they aren't, then immediately cancel the project and cut your losses. Giving customers what they ask for is often very different from giving them what they need. Part of the art of doing business is getting good at discovering which customers want which of those two kinds of service. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Luckily Oregon is just a quick hop away. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Actually, the marriage is already completely legal. Some places in the country are performing marriages in apparent conflict with their state's "Defense of Marriage" legislation, but Oregon has no such law. This is a done deal. Unless of course the state sometime decides to reverse itself and dissolve our marriage... but that seems extraordinarily unlikely. And cruel besides. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Does your laughing icon indicate that you're joyfully anticipating a massive gay divorce rate? First Class Citizen Twice Over

I refuse to agree or disagree from principle. I don't know enough about "society" in general and I suspect you don't either. Generally I assume any individual claiming to see a long-term, wide-spread social shift from their private little vantage point is overreaching their evidence. That being said, I will commit the same error: I believe American society is generally inclined to needless fear and panic and self-importance. Everyone wants their opinion to be the only key to survival of the species. Not everything we believe actually matters in the end. People don't understand the difference between "I believe something but it's not an important belief" and "my position is CRITICALLY important!!!" For instance, I believe yellow is a better color for emergency vehicles than red, but I wouldn't suggest a constitutional amendment about it. First Class Citizen Twice Over

Maybe 66% are against gay people marrying, but apparently 64% of them don't care enough about it to crash a wedding announcement to try to ruin the party, friend. First Class Citizen Twice Over

I expect we will! But not if Screamer insists on carrying on his affair with Raist. First Class Citizen Twice Over

ooooof.... that was a close call.. lol There's definitely an advantage to having wineries and wine shops as clients. They love it when we let them pay part of their invoices in wine. We even walled off a section of our basement to be a properly chilled cellar room just for the collection we're accumulating that way. First Class Citizen Twice Over

We emptied the cellar of all of our Veuve Clicquot (orange label) and were about to start scraping the bottom shelf (misc German and local bubblies) when a friend who owns a wine shop arrived with a magnum of Tattinger! Hurray! First Class Citizen Twice Over

Which one first? First Class Citizen Twice Over

Yup. First Class Citizen Twice Over

No video, but we did get a lovely Suitable For Framing certificate. Does that count? And yes, it's the first marriage for both of us at least of the legal-type. I suppose we could buy some beer, but everyone seemed to want the champagne last night. I think beer would have been politely ignored. But then again there weren't any skydivers at the party. First Class Citizen Twice Over