All right, you gadget nerds and geeks! Here it is, a real Blu-ray player! Okay, it’s still a prototype, but compared to the other Blu-ray “players” we’ve used, this one actually plays the video off a Blu-ray disc and not a hidden hard drive.

The unit was incredibly buggy, but it worked enough for us to use it in our sales meeting last week. The image was blown up to the huge movie screen at the El Capitan theatre, and it looks astounding. The monitor you see there is a newly-released Panasonic professional HD LCD monitor. It is a gorgeous monitor! We bought four of them for use here at work.

Okay, have at it. The pics are clickabe so you can see larger, more drool-worthy pictures.

Well, this just about wraps up the recent themes presented here on The Wren Forum: Religion, healthy food, and design.

It’s the California Milk Processor Board’s new campaign, Brittlelactica. The TV spots are hilarious, the Da Iry translator is fun, and the entire site is the first time I’ve seen Flash put to really, really good use.

Do yourself a favor and take some time to play around on the site. And also be sure to click on the Got Milk? in the upper right corner. From there, you’ll have access to another milk-sponsored site, cowabduction.com. Just watching that little cow get whisked into the distance is enough to make me laugh away the Friday blues! There are some funny pics and videos there, as well.

Oh, and since John and I seem to be posting so close to one another, I want to ask you to make sure you read his latest post, wherein he presents another of his letters to gay bashers. This should be interesting.

Remember a couple of years ago when I got into that e-mail exchange with the woman who hated gay people?  Well, after reading a news story about another ridiculous anti-gay effort, I decided to write to the head of the Capitol Resource “Institute”. (I use that “Institute” term loosely.

Below is the text of my letter. I’ll let you know if she responds!
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Dear Ms. England,

I read your comments about the “gays in textbooks” issue in California, and while I certainly applaud you for standing up for your ideals and beliefs.

I hope you will agree that other Americans deserve to be able to do the same.

As a gay man, I can assure you of this: I have ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST in “promoting” my “agenda” to anyone, least of all children. Given how much animosity, hostility and humiliation we must endure from some sectors of society who believe we are “faulty,” I would not want anyone to “be gay” — unless, of course, that is how they were born.

I do realize that the idea that people are born gay is a difficult concept for people to understand. Just as I cannot conceive of being left-handed or being tall (something I sadly am not) or being Chinese or being a woman, it’s certainly equally difficult for someone not gay to understand that being gay is part of our genetic makeup.

But being unable to understand or empathize with an individual is very different from being able to respect and value that person.  I cannot imagine for a moment that you would want to instill values like hate, prejudice, hostility and intolerance in any child.  I hope you agree with me that the values we want to instill in children are acceptance, harmony, understanding and respect.  Why would you want to promote an agenda (and, yes, it appears that you definitely have one of those, just as you accuse “us” of having) of fear and ignorance, which can only lead to unhappiness and anger?

Can you imagine what the world be like if Michelangelo, Cole Porter, Oscar Wilde, Dag Hammarskjold, Socrates, Walt Whitman, Alexander the Great, T.E. Lawrence and Tchaikovsky had not been in it?  All of them were gay or bisexual, and just as YOUR most significant personal relationships have impacted your own accomplishments, theirs were informed and influenced by who they were as people.

Such important figures in California as Harvey Milk and Randy Shilts have impacted history far beyond this state and influenced the course of events around the world — and their very existence is the definition of modern history.  To not name them as gay, particularly in light of their accomplishments, would be like not naming you as a woman in a textbook in which your name appears.

I urge you to continue looking into your own heart to realize that California and the United States are founded upon the contributions of people from all walks of life, not just straight white people.

I absolutely PROMISE you that, unless s/he already is, not one child will “turn gay” because s/he has learned about a famous gay person; if it were that easy, I would have become a physician by learning about Dr. Jonas Salk, and I’m afraid I never even made it past basic chemistry.

My best to you,

John Singh