Scott Sherman Online

CA Says My Family Deserves "Equal Dignity and Respect." Them's Fighting Words to Some!

Is this how people felt when horse drawn carriages were being replaced by motorcars? I feel so lucky to be living in this time when so much progress is happening right before my eyes. 

With fairness in their hearts and the law on their side, the majority Republican California Supreme Court ruled that is was against their Constitution to deny same sex couples the same rights and privileges granted their straight brothers and sisters.

"An individual's sexual orientation -- like a person's race or gender -- does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights," Chief Justice George wrote.  "Reserving the historic designation of 'marriage' exclusively for opposite-sex couples poses at least a serious risk of denying the family relationship of same-sex couples . . . equal dignity and respect..."

Unfortunately, my family doesn't live in CA, we're in Maryland, where the justices of our Supreme Court, just this last September, heartbreakingly upheld a 1973 ban on equal marriage rights, even though it was clear they knew it was wrong. Absent clear evidence of discrimination, the court declared (because, God knows, LGBT people aren't discriminated against in housing, jobs, family court, hospital visitation rights, inheritance laws, tax status, insurance matters or anything like that...) "judicial intervention is generally unwarranted no matter how unwisely we may think a political branch has acted."

In other words, if the people in the majority decides to merrily oppress the minority - have at it! Why would the courts - of all institutions - show an interest in Constitutional principles? Why, the whole thing is just silly.

Luckily, the California Supreme Court still thinks it has a responsibility to enforce equal protection under the law. You go, CASC!

Meanwhile, I can't wait to see that the nutters in CA - not to mention the rest of this great, free Nation, have to say about the prospect of people of whom they don't approve enjoying the same basic marriage rights that only they're entitled to abuse through adultery, divorce and domestic violence.

Already, the charmingly named Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council explains

MySpace is YourSpace

Many people have told me I need to join MySpace, so I did. (I'm easy that way.) Apparently, MySpace is very helpful when marketing a book - like this one!

I like the way you can "meet" people, but I don't really get what MySpace does. I suppose I'll have to educate myself.

But why do MySpace pages have to be so butt ugly? I've never seen more cluttered design in my life. They look like electronic ransom notes. Check out the mess below. Yikes! And this isn't just my page - most of them are this bad. Ugh.

I don't mind some advertising on a free service, but the entire right third of this page looks like Google Adwords threw up on it. Horrible.

 

And the functionality of a MySpace page - sheesh! When I was writing my profile, there were no rich formatting text tools - no way to make fonts italics or underlined or to indent a list. You had to either write your post in HTML or something called CSS sytle sheets or some such. What?

I though MySpace was supposed to be for the masses - they can't have a button to make your text bold?  I have to code simple text in HTML? Am I writing an online profile or going for my Microsoft.net certification?

Anyway, if you want to be my MySpace friend -and Lord knows I need friends - look how cranky I am - you can find me here: myspace.com/scottshermanonline.

Worst Sale Ever?

I took my kids to the toy store today - in a struggling economy, it's nice to see Toys R Us slashing prices like this:

Can A Good and Decent Person Be Anti-Gay?

What makes a person good and decent? Its a question I  asked myself when I read the following story in my news feed. (The story is after the break). It's a question that prompted me to sit down at the computer and write the following rant, which poured out over 45 minutes on a rainy Saturday morning when I should be playing with my kids.  This is probably my longest post ever, but I had to get it off my chest. I feel better now.

People fighting for equal marriage rights have long argued that so called "defense of marriage" acts will have unintended consequences. By passing laws that, by their very definition, label LGBT people as somehow "other," alien, lesser, as not deserving the same rights and responsibilities as other human beings, you were setting up millions of Americans for a future of legalized discrimination and persecution.

Now, to be fair, I know some good and decent people who struggle with the idea of two men or two women getting married. I get it. It's new, it's different, it's not something they ever considered. Change is scary. They feel threatened. Maybe it's not what they learned in church, or in school. I get it.

Now, to my mind, that's where a good and decent person starts. But a good and decent person is open to forming new opinions and beliefs. They'll realize that a strong and moral society evolves, that people become more free, not less, and that the prejudices of the majority must never be used as excuses to oppress a minority. They'll understand that equal marriage doesn't threaten anyone -  more loving couples and families strengthen our culture.  That, even if they'd make different choices for themselves or their family, even if there religion teaches otherwise, it's wrong for them to use the law to force their beliefs on their neighbors. A good and decent person can change.

Anticipation is Making Me Wait

About a month ago, the publisher of my first novel, First You Fall: A Kevin Connor Mystery, called to tell me that they were moving the book's publication date up from mid-August to late May.

Incredibly, they're doing it because they really like the book!  They think it's a great summer read, and they want to make sure it's on the shelves as beach-goers get ready to hit the shores. Woo-hoo!

This is great news, as  I can't wait to finally hold my own book in my own hot hands. But, due to the rush to get the book out the door, we only had a short time in which to get review quotes for the back cover.

Luckily, I got two wonderful blurbs.  One came from my fellow podcasters at the top-rated, award-winning Feast of Fools. They're great guys and I really appreciate their support.

The other blurb came from bestselling mystery author JA Konrath. (If you want to read the first book in his suspenseful and laugh-out-loud Jack Daniels series, and you should, go get Whiskey Sour.)

It was incredibly kind of JA to review my book. He is one of my favorite authors, and I never imagined he'd read anything I wrote - let alone like it. But check out what he had to say:

"Funny, intriguing, and exciting---everything a great mystery should be. There's also a warmth, a passion, a sexiness here rarely found in novels of this genre. Kevin Conner is a terrific hero, and I'm looking forward to his next adventure. Scott Sherman is the gay Janet Evanovich."  JA Konrath

I don't mean to sound insipid, but if no one else ever read my book, JA's words would probably be enough to keep me smiling. To have one of your heroes praise you is a heady and humbling experience.  I am truly grateful.

I can't wait to hear what the rest of you think!

Now, My Novel Seems Real

When is a book "real?" For me, not when I wrote it and not when it sold it. 

By book seemed real the day it appeared on Amazon.com. Here.

Holy crap. I'm going to be a novelist!

More about the book in the days to come.  Iwant to let you know where it is in the process. But right now, I'm too busy kvelling.

Good Eats, Good Company

I'm writing this at a California Tortilla restaurant. This shizz is da bomb. For $8, I just had a delicious steak fajita platter that really hit the spot.

Assuming I don't get violently ill later, I'll be coming back.

I'm here alone, enjoying my own company, because my partner's taken the kids to NY to visit his parents.  I love my family, but I also love the occasional opportunity to send them off and have the house - and the restaurant - all to myself. 

With the kids gone, I'm going to buckle down to finish the digital photography book I've been working on for a couple of months now. I plan on marketing it on line as an e-book, so that you can download it right away and have it in your hot little hands. Well, in your hot little hard drive.

It's geared to DSLR users, and I think it answers a lot of questions that new and intermediate users have. 

I hope its a good read, but the writing is tedious. I'm doing a lot of research and fact-checking because I want to get it right. And since those aren't my strong points (lounging and the memorization of useless trivia, are) its slow going.

Speaking of getting it right, as I write this, I'm listening on my MP3 player to the latest episode of The Digital Photography Show - #63. It's pretty much done, but when we were taping it yesterday, I remember thinking "I have to go back later and cut that part out."

Of course, now I can't remember what the heck I was supposed to cut out.

So, I'm listening to the whole thing to catch whatever it was that had me worried. The ironic part is that its our longest show ever - an hour and half.  So, for those of you who say you want a longer show, you got it. For those of you who are easily bored - listen in two or three parts.

So far, I haven't found anything that I need to take out, and seeing as how I'm hardly paying attention to it, there's a good chance I'm going to miss it. If you hear something crazy this week, please forgive me.

More Levenger Loving

If you've been reading this blog, you may remember that I'm addicted to the superfine products made by Levenger, a company that bills itself as a purveyor of "tools for serious readers."  They also make a full line of sensuous, high-quality tools for serious writers, and I've come to depend on them as much as I rely on my computers.

My first love is their heavy weight 3X5 cards, which I carry in a pocket-sized leather notebook that they call a Hipster. The cards are hole-punched using their cool Circa system, which allows you rearrange your pages without opening any rings. Nice.

My cards wind up in all kinds of places, including on my card bleacher and in my "Action Folio." ( I love that name).

I love my 3X5 cards to an embarrassing degree. They're the perfect size for a short list or for capturing a single idea. I carry them in my Hipster and transfer them to my bleachers or my folio. You can sort them by priority or date and really get a visual picture of your to do list.

But, like all fickle lovers, I'm already planning my next conquest. I've been making serious eyes at their new "Circa Book Author Kit."

 

My first novel is coming out next year August and the publisher has already expressed interest in a sequel. I'm thinking this kit might be just the thing for mapping out my scenes. There's enough room for a good description of the action, and since they're easily rearranged, I can move them around at will.

And have I mentioned how smooth and inviting Levenger's paper is to write on. It's like gliding your pen against ice.

But less messy. And warmer. 

Oops, I Misplaced 190,000 Guns!

I understand that strange things can happen during an occupation, but here's one that really gets your attention:

The US has lost about 190,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security forces since the 2003 invasion, according to an official report published in Washington.

The weapons include AK-47 machine guns, pistols, body armour and helmets, some of which will have ended up in the hands of insurgents.

The disclosure adds to the picture of the chaotic and clumsy administration of Iraq that has been emerging over the last four years.

Apparently, about 30% of the weapons that we've issued that have disappeared into thin air.

So, how do you lose track of almost 200,000 weapons, many of which may be used against our own forces? It doesn't look like answers are coming soon. According to the UK's Guardian:

No one in the Bush administration knows what happened to the weapons or where they are now.

You Really, Really Like Me!

Back in 1985, when accepting her second Oscar, an overexcited Sally Field enthused "I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!"

In popular culture, she later would be paraphrased, and ridiculed, as saying "You like me, you really, really like me!"

Given the fact that one of the things we hold against "celebrities" is their perceived insincerity and phoniness, it's weird that Field received so much mockery for being totally honest about what she was experiencing.

And I know it to be true, because I'm feeling it right now.

Anyone who's ever been picked last for the baseball team, or next to last, or turned down for a date, or teased (which is to say, most of us) goes through life expecting, at least at times, to be rejected and left out. We're all so "in our own heads," so critical of our own achievements, that it's hard to believe everyone doesn't see us for the big losers that we are.

At least that's how I sometimes feel.

And so, when I found out last week that the audience of The Digital Photography Show had nominated our show for not one, but two, Podcast Awards, I was truly overcome and moved. On the episode we taped shortly afterwards, #61, I was often at a loss for words and stammering.

When you realize that there are over 30,000 podcasts out there, to be nominated as one of the top ten in two categories, well, what can you say?

I wrote about this on The Digital Photography Show's blog, and talked about it on the show, but since the show is about digital photography and not about me, I tried to keep it brief.

But I can tell you here that being nominated for those awards really has made a difference in my life.

There's something embarrassing and naked about telling people that. We all want to come across as self-contained and confident. Admitting that we need outside validation, that we need others to tell us we're "OK," is tough. Needing things like praise and awards makes us feel shallow.

But I do need those things.

In many ways, I am confident and self-assured and strong. I feel good about myself and blessed in my life.

But still inside of me is still the kid who really was picked last for every team, who was often teased for being different, and who, to this day, still vividly remembers Tricia Reagan at a party in high school saying to her friend Randi Miller "I'll make out with anyone here except Scott." That I had no desire to make out with Tricia, who made it through four years of school without ever having a good hair day, let me just add as some small measure of payback, did little to blunt the pain of that rejection.

Later, my first lover would not only have the bad manners to give me crabs, but would say to me "you know, you'd be kind of cute if you weren't so skinny."

I guess all the most scarring incidents really do happen in adolescence and that we spend the rest of our lives with that hurt teenager still trapped inside our heads.

So, no matter how well we do or no matter how good we feel there's that lingering part of us that's waiting to be tripped in the hallway or teased on the school bus. Or just ignored or left out or chosen last.

Which is why it's so amazing when someone come along and tells you that you're appreciated and valued.

When they say "we like you. We really, really, like you."

That's what the people who nominated us for two Podcast Awards were saying. It's a message that can be hard to convince the inner-teenager is true.

The thing that staggers me the most about these nominations is what a large percentage of our audience must have voted. Some of our competition is huge! Especially in the People's Choice category – these are literally some of the largest, most popular and best know podcasts in the world!

So, not only does our audience like us, but they're so kind!

This has meant the world to me.

Of course, the only thing left is to win.

So vote early and vote often. You can enter once a day until voting ends.

Just being nominated is an honor. But winning will rock!