A Conservatives' Guide to Staying in the Closet

Happy National Coming Out Day!!!

MyTunes Monday: Hide & Seek

September Ratings (& Other Stuff)

I'm not really sure how it happened, but managed to have a record month of ratings for my blog political Commonwealth Commentary last month. The previous high was about 5400 in July. September, I managed to rack up almost 6200. I'm quite happy about that. Whether or not I can approach those numbers this month, I'm not so sure, but I'll give it a try  One thing that I haven't been doing so much of lately is original content. Pretty much all of what I've posted of late has been videos and news articles and not so much of my own stuff. In other words, I have not been putting the "commentary" in "Commonwealth Commentary." I need to change that. Since I have several free hours tomorrow before I have to be at work, I'll get started then. It's the end of an election cycle, so there should be tons of fodder.

~

In other news, I'm supposed to be going to a mates wedding this coming weekend. The reason that I sound uncertain is that there are a bunch of obstacles in my way. First: travel arrangements. I have no car, so I can't just drive there myself (it's in Northern Virginia...or somewhere thereabouts). I friend in town is going so I hope I can hitch a ride with her, otherwise, I'm screwed. Second: work. I requested that weekend of but got scheduled the day before and the day after the wedding. Bovine excrement. I'm seriously pissed off about this because of the way requesting time off works at my job. This is primarily because it doesn't work. I don't want to delve into that too much because it will just get me pissed all over again and I'm trying to get to sleep soon.

If you remember my various posts about a person I called "N," he becomes relevant here again. It's his sister who is the bride at this wedding. Though I don't feel for him the way I once did (FYI we're not talking about love), something about the fact that he'll be there makes me a bit nervous. I'm really looking forward to going to the wedding other than that, I'm just dreading potential awkwardness.

One thing is for sure though. Assuming I actually make it to the wedding, I'll be looking good. This past Monday I picked up a green dress shirt and a silver tie that catches the light in a really nice way. I may or may not be wearing my waist-coat (the one I was wearing in the wedding photo I posted a week or two ago). Green and silver are my two favourite colours. I also have some super dressy shoes to wear.

I should probably learn how to tie that tie...

NOOOOOOO!!! NOT YET!!!

I'm supposed to be going to a wedding in a week and a half and I've known exactly what I wanted to wear for quite some time. The thing was that I didn't own much of what I had planned. Since I had today off, I hopped over to the next town (which is where the nearest mall is) to pick some stuff up. So I'm in this store looking for the specifics I had planned. At some point I looked up and what did I see across the store? Christmas decorations. Seriously. Christmas is just short of three months off and this store is already putting up decorations. I can't handle this. I may have already said elsewhere on this blog how I'm one of those people who despise the extreme commercialization of Christmas. I don't even like hearing Christmas music before Thanksgiving (with some exceptions...very few though).

The good news is that I found just what I was looking for, so that cheered me up. I'll be looking good for this wedding. ;)

MyTunes Monday: Black & Blue

Butt Chugging

This is why I weep for humanity. Ironically when I was in university, my fraternity (Pi Kappa Phi) was in a rivalry with our campus' chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha, so I find this a bit on the funny side. Still, these people are idiots and I feel like either their synapses will start firing or Darwinism will take care of them in a very unpleasant manner.

Bovine Excrement

This football season is not going well. In fact, I would go so far as to say that  it is a joke. Monday night's game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers is exhibit A.

For those who are unaware, there is a contract dispute going on with the NFL referees. Because of this, the league has had to bring in substitutes which are from...wherever (I'm not sure where offhand). They have been screwing up royally across the league. As to the aforementioned Monday night game, it ended up coming down to the last play with the Seahawks driving while being down 12-7 with only seconds left. The call on the field was...dubious. One ref said touchdown, another said the Packers intercepted the ball. It ended up being ruled a touchdown, giving Seahawks the victory. Everyone I know, including people who have no love for the Packers, is calling bullshit: from friends to commentators.

I'm left thinking that if this is how these "refs" are going going to operate, I would just rather not watch games until dispute gets resolved. Hopefully, this doesn't take long.

MyTunes Monday: I Saw the Sign

Morandir: The Dark Rider

It's been about a year and a half since my last bike was stolen. Besides the fact that it had cost me just south of $600, not including maintenance, parts and such during the 2.5 years that I owned it, I loved that thing. Lorindol I named it, which is Sindarin (common Elvish, I know, I'm a nerd) for "golden head" because of the bike's colour. Most likely some drunken asshole took it and stupid me didn't lock it up properly. Well, what's done is done.

Now I have a new bike yet to be named, though I have a name in mind.

I worked a double today but had a few hours between shifts. I got out of the first one in time enough to head to the place where I got Lorindol and all of its maintenance. It's that as soon as I walked in, one of the guys said "How's it goin' Rob?" I was seriously surprised that he remembered me by name after not having set foot in the place (East Coasters) for 18 months. Then again, they are really nice guys, great service and I never had any complaints about them. Another one of the guys said that he finally got why he had seen me walking around town so much (since I am sans vehicle).

I managed to get almost everything I needed since I knew exactly what I was looking for unlike the last time around. I got the bike, a new lock, some lights, ordered the fenders (they didn't have what I needed in stock) and some lube...for the chain (get your head out of the gutter). I was in and out in about 40 minutes. I rode the quarter mile home. It was the first bike ride I had made since Lorindol was stolen, and my quads were on fire. It didn't really help that most of the ride was uphill and I haven't gone running in too long a time.

I said to the guys at East Coasters that I felt naked not having a bike. Seeing people ride by on theirs always made me a little sad. 18 months of that really took its toll. Luckily, I'm finally a rider again. Sooner or later I'll post a picture of my new baby.