Happy Ho-Ho!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas today!

*Gives hugs to my five readers!*

The Broken Hearts Club

I forgot to mention this movie in the last post, The Broken Hearts Club. This one's a real gem. Finally a gay-themed movie that isn't about someone who's dying of AIDS or drug addicts or hustlers... Well, it's about as good as it can get. It's got such a wonderful script, so I don't wanna ruin anything, but there is *some* heartache and *some* drugs involved, but there are so many other things going on. It's a really wonderful story with lots of different characters, each one with an obstacle to overcome. Once you see it you're probably gonna want to buy it show a friend later.

Memorable Quote:

Howie: "Dumb, gorgeous people should not be allowed to use literature when competing in the pick-up pool. It's like bald people wearing hats. It's deceiving."

Recent Reels

I haven't been watching a whole hell of a lot of movies recently, what with all the Christmas preparations and all. So I have just a few recent rentals to mention.

Eating Out 2 was well worth the rent (and I ended up buying it right afterward). Admittedly, I didn't buy it for the superb acting or the well-developed storyline, but I sure as hell bought it for the well-developed characters if you know what I mean. HAWT boys in this one, more gratuitous nudity and make out scenes. Lots of the guys in the movie are actually straight in real life, so that only hightens the eroticism for me. Is that a little odd? Oh well. I don't care, LOL. 5 Sparkly Stars.

The Royal Tennanbaums. Someone at work told me I should see this one, too. God, it was torturous. This is by far some of the worst acting by a star-studded cast I've seen in a long time. The first half of this boring family melodrama had to be narrated and set up for the mundane and pathetic series of events that followed. It was just awful. I'm positively shocked I saw the whole thing, but thankfully I did find other things to occupy my attention while it played in the background. Zero stars.

Zodiac was a bit of a creepy movie. I mean, it would have to be since it's about a serial killer. The last half of the movie or so is about the newspaper cartoonist's obsessive hunt for the killer after the police department has long given up hope. By the way, that cartoonist is our favorite BB cowboy Jake Gyllenhaal. Definitely rent this one if you're into horrors or murder mysteries. 4 Stars.

Locked Up is a little-known German film in both German and English about a fucking gorgeous 20-something guy who gets locked up in prison for a couple years for credit card fraud. While in prison he explores his sexuality and becomes all too familiar with the other inmates'. Like any good Eurpoean movie, there's plenty of nudty and muscles to go around; it has the real feel of an amateur porno movie. I'm not really into interratial prison sex or gang rapes, so it wasn't really up my alley, but DAMN was that boy haaaawwwwt! Definitely worth a rewind and a slow-mo' for when he sheds that t-shirt at the beginning. W00t! 3 Stars.

Finally, Pride and Prejudice I thought was a wonderful 19th-century British (hetero) love story. Within 2 minutes I had to turn the captioning on account of their accents and within 20 I was pausing to look up obsolete British words on an online dictionary. Do you know what a phaeton is?? Neither did I! Perfidious and pernicious were two other good ones. I thought it was had a beautiful script, great acting, and some really good directing in there too. Call me a big girl, but I liked it and I didn't cry too much, hehe. 5 Stars.

One final note, there are lots of new movies out at the end of the year that I'm anxious to go see including I Am Ledgend, Alien Vs. Predator - Requiem, Beowolf, National Treasure 2, The Mist (maybe), Hit Man (maybe), and in January 10,000 B.C. is gonna be hotness.

Guess what

For our company's Secret Santa, I drew my boss's name and had to buy him something. What an ironic, cruel world this is. I guess it was worth it. I got to read everything he put down on the survey, including his answer to "What are your favorite hobbies?" .... He wrote, "Is drinking a hobby?" LOL. I dare say it is. And "What Music CD do you want?" .... He wants the new Fergie CD?

*ROTFLMAO*

And I don't get to do that often. The last time I actually fell to the floor laughing my ass off was when a friend at work, who we always poke fun of because of her West Virginia heritage, said, "I come from a real high class family."

But FERGIE?! Never would I have pictured this guy even listening to Fergie and not dismissing it as something his daughter might listen to. Anyway, he seemed to like the Bourne movies, so that's what he got, since he didn't mention any liquors he might like.

Let the Shopping Begin!

Okay, maybe I'm a little behind on my Christmas shopping if I'm just now starting. I went tonight and got a lot of it done, except my brothers I need to pick up something for and a certain someone who hasn't told me what he wants yet. I personally only have 5 real shopping days 'til Christmas with my crazy work schedule, so let me know what yous guys wants.

As for my wishlist, this year it's mostly books and movies. I'm an easy guy to buy for I like to think. You can never go wrong with an iTunes, Best Buy, or Target gift card, of course. But it's much more meaningful if you actually get something the person will love, something they wouldn't buy for themselves or something they would have never thought to buy for themselves. For instance, at work, we're doing a Secret Santa thing. We all filled out generic questionnaires and drew them out of a generic receptical such as a hat. I thought the questionnaire idea was brilliant. We aren't supposed to go much over $25 or so but sombody, some "Santa" character went out and bought me an expensive bottle of top shelf Tequila from Mexico, and I can't thank Santa enough. He's awesome in my book. Did I mention I LOVE Tequila? Cuz I do.

This year's Christmas WishList
Books:
     1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
     2061: Odyssey Three (to complete the series collection)
     National Geographic: Encyclopedia of Space
     A Short History of Nearly Everything
     Childhood's End
     The Light of Other Days
     Firstborn (released 12/26/07)

Movies:
     Stanley Kubrick Collection
     Planet Earth

Games:
     Empire Eath 2
     Empire Earth 2: The Art of Supremacy Expansion Pack

Gadgets:
     4GB Flash memory thumb drive

So as you can tell, I'm a HUGE dork and proud of it. (Hence the name.) Anything from the History Channel or Discovery Channel I would love. Anything having to do with space, history, ancient cultures, geography, sociology, physics, and math, I'm down.

But for those who know me well enough to know what's in my drawer of underoos know that I love a variety as much as Eva Gabore adores her penthouse view. I'm talking colors, textures, cuts, you name it...except boxers, how hetero, lol, unless they're cute boxer briefs. This all reminds me I need to reorganize my dresser to designate more underwear space. =)

Google Earff gets a lil som'n slipped in

For those of you who have Google Earth 4.2, Turn on Geographic Web, spefically the National Geographic web. Then cruise on up to extreme northern Manitoba and you'l find a National Geographic orange rectangaloid. Click on it and you'll wonder, like I did, how this made it past the filters. I think some boi over on the Google campus is having his way with the National Geo. additions. =)

Blog Update (Internal Memo)

As some of you guys may have noticed, I've recently found a new image hosting website since Photobucket got all G-rated on me. I'm now with ImageShack.us and loving every minute of it. Now, I still can't upload pornographic files onto ImageShack, Blogger does allow nudie pics as long as they're on a page placed behind a disclaimer page. I'll just have to give those pictures special treatment I suppose.

Though that aspect hasn't changed, there are a TON of awesome features on ImageShack that Photobucket doesn't have. Photobucket is litteraly just that, a place to dump your photos, with hard-to-navigate folders and few features. ImageShack, and now I sound like I'm plugging it, has unlimited space, it's free, you can upload 1.5 MB or smaller pictures or movies. It features folders and tagging capabilities, thumbnails, auto-resizing, and slideshows (with a froggie in the corner). You can upload single files, multiple files, zip your files together or upload via the toolbar that combines all those features and then lets you append those pictures to a Blogger post all in one shot. Pretty slick, huh? And if you want to see all of them, go can follow this link: http://profile.imageshack.us/user/ruodyssey/ from any hosted picture. It's fairly new, so there are few so far. This site saves me an HOUR of building a RockYou screensaver only to have IE crash and lose it all. Nothing major you guys will notice except maybe more pics. =)

He likes whaaaaa??

I just stumbled across this video of Mario Lopez getting caught shirtless by the paparazzi on his jet ski with his girlfriend all shirtless, and did I mention he was shirtless? Cuz he was. Shirtless. ....... *drool* ........ Then he says the darndest thing, that he's "only good when he has a woman tell him what to do."

.......

I have to go use my wild imagination now. Later! =)

Ernest Boozes Up Christmas

I took Friday off and ventured up to Raliegh to see Marcus, a friend of mine from our Computer Science days at Radford. He's just moved there not too long ago and bought a house. Maria, Travis, Grandpa, and his wife Tammy, and their baby Dylan showed up for a few games of pool and huge dinner that Marcus cooked up for us. It was two nights of getting all sloppy drunk, moreso Saturday night than Friday. I came back Sunday afternoon feeling like I'd taken a beating. And singing with the ipod was the only thing that kept me from going bored to sleep on the way back.

This is SO me!

POOKIE!!!

To you, Pookie, I send

MAD HUGZ!




and I have something else just for you ......

New Car

Ok, I'm in dire gays (get it?) for a new car. Right now I've got a 1995 S-10 Chevy pickup truck. I know, me in a pick-up truck. Can you imagine? It's falling apart all over the place, and granted it's probably all because of me, but I take care of it to the best of my knowledge. It's got just over 160,000 miles on it, and the expenses for it are becoming more and more like paying a loan off for a new one. So, it's time to get a new one.

My requirements are:

• a car (no truck, no SUVs)


• 30+ mpg highway


• around $20,000 or so


• automatic transmission


• some "umph"


• something slightly sporty


• something I'll be able to find in the parking lot (a.k.a. not something that you see every third car on the road like a Corolla or Accord)

I'm taking any and all suggestions into consideration. Lay 'em on me!

Any Objections?

I'm debating whether or not to widen the face of my blog. It currently stands at 800 pixels wide, measured by the uber-geeky banner at the top. It would allow for side-by-side, medium-sized pictures, and entries that don't look like you're reading the newspaper. I figure nowadays you guys would all be using at least 1024 x 768 resolution if not higher, especially with all the widescreen monitors out now. Mine's 1680 x 1050 widescreen, but I'm a programmer and gamer. =) That's why I'm thinking of maybe going out to 980 pizels wide, the widest a 1024-pixels-wide screen will comfortably show a webpage.

Let me know what you guys think!

Sky Captain and the World of Who Gives a Shit

God, that movie was just awful! I'm not usually one to walk out of theatre usually, but if I'd seen this in the theatre I would have at least yelled "Fuck this shit!" before I left. I mean, what a complete waste of fifteen minutes. Okay, the first ten I thought it was bad, ten seconds that is. The first ten minutes I thought it was cheesy and campy (stupid campy, not gay campy) , and the last five minutes I was giving it a chance but it just got more boring instead. It took me waaaay too long to pop that out of the DVD player. I mean, 15 minutes of my life are gone that I'll never get back. All that time could have been better spent listening to country music or holding my head under water, LOL. Negative 5 stars.

Adam & Steve I rented, too. That was a funny, gay movie with a nice ending. Played by straight characters I believe. I was not expecting to see Chris Kattan from SNL in it, but I'm so stealing his line, "Hey, gay doctor roommate! Hard day at the orifice?" LOL. And what a breath of fresh air to have a happy ending instead of a depressing one with a drug overdose, AIDS death, or rejected lover. Geesh. Five stars.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was a really great show. I'm not even going to attempt to tell you what it's about or what it's like. It's not like anything I've ever seen before really, and I don't want to give anything away by comparing it. You just have to see it. Five stars.

Disturbia. Boring movie for straight boys. It's like an hour and a half of bikini girl then 10 minutes of psycho killer. And Transformer boy didn't even get shirtless. What's up with that??? And I thought it was supposed to be a scary movie. One star to you! Blah!

The Big Lebowski. I'm still not sure what all these people are raving about, it being a "cult classic" and all. It was no Spaceballs or Office Space. It was decent, interesting. Poor Donnie though. 3 Stars.

Vacancy. Again, boring. I skimmed through this one just enough to vaguely find out what happened until the end. And could the beginning BE more slow?? One star only.

Phone Booth. Decent. At least it held my attention (which is so difficult these days). Now, what's that movie with Colin Farrell swinging both ways? ...Ah, Alexander, I'll get that. Three stars.

200 American I watched last night. It was actually pretty good. Looked cheaply made, it didn't have anyone I'd recognize it, but the plot was believable and it too had a decent ending, I thought. 4 stars.

Race You to the Bottom was decent. A lot more pissy quibbling and a lot less hunky Aquaman than I would have liked. Oh well, we'll always have his underwear modeling pics. Two stars.

The Next Best Thing. Worth seeing, maybe worth having. It has Madonna in it if that makes a difference to you. If it does, I guess you should already have it; it was as made in 2000. It had its moments, ups and downs, happy and sad, and even a pre-out Neil Patrick Harris playing a gay character, hehe. 4 stars.

Eating Out was a feast for the eyes. Oof! Ryan Carnes makes me perspire and release the pheromones! Guuurl, him and the other hottie did full frontals in this one. *Freeze Frame* I hear in the sequel, Eating Out 2, there's another hot guy, Brett Chuckerman, who also does a full frontal scene. The plot was interesting and the acting was pretty good, and I was happy to see Jim Verraros in this one along with some of his songs playing in the background, stuff I'd already been buying off iTunes. Lemme tell ya, this hour and a half flew by and I think it counted as cardio! 5 Stars!

Okay, that's enough for a month or two, LOL. I'm currently working on a CILF list (Celebrities I'd Like to Fuck) but it's only got 3 right now. Maybe when it grows a bit I'll share it with you all. =)

He said I could!!

So here's some more of our denim biniki brief boi, again, lying around the house in his underoos.

SkinTube!

I decided my blog has gone too long without some just gratuitous skin slapped up on here...too much readin' n shit. And with the recent organization of all my porn, I've just seem to have gotten more and more. So, here's a few. Enjoy!

Demian

I recently finished reading Demian, a novel of self-discovery by Hermann Hesse. And by recently I mean in May. It was a good read. It is a narration by its main character, Emil Sinclair, who leaves his church-going family on an odyssey of soul-searching. He recognizes a darker, uncertain side to life that coexists with the brighter, definitive, Christian viewpoint, a life not discussed at home or in his studies at school, and it consumes him and draws him out of traditional dogma. With the help of a classmate and friend, Max Demian, he soon feels himself forever branded as was Cane, the murderous son of Adam, and he learns to question everything. Question the church and its teachers. Question the Bible and its Genesis, man's existence and the existence of God. He abandons all these closely-held beliefs in his philosophical quest in exchange for his own internal and intrinsic understandings. He later becomes a believer in Gnosticism and the god Abraxas, the god that is good and evil, God and Satan combined into one. The symbolic words are repeated in the book:

The bird struggles out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever wants to be born, must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas.

Pretty deep, noncanonical stuff. And then at the end, something suprising yet somewhat expected happened that left me with a very satisfying and homoerotic culmination. It was as if it was a sub-theme so subliminal I had not yet picked up on it until the very end, but when it happened and it brought a huge smile to face that made me realize I'd been waiting and hoping for it all along. Surely in a pre-WWI German novel the main characters could not be gay! Emil Sinclair had longed for the company of two women throughout the novel, but at the end the two boys -- ... well, I don't want to give it away if you haven't read. =)

This essay I read snippets of offers an explanation to the homosexual themes in both Demian and Steppenwolf as well as carefully-worded extrapolations on how the these novels may have served as outlets of an autobigraphical nature for Hermann Hesse himself.

Gay Old Politicians

Once again, and all too soon, I have to ask: What is up with all these ultra conservative, right-wing, anti-gay Republican politicians getting caught with their pants down and some other guy between his legs?

I don't know if I even talked about Larry Craig before, because I was just kind of waiting for it to all unfold. (And I can't believe they even let him in the Capitol anymore. My God, where does he take a dump nowadays??) But this new guy, Richard Curtis, a southwest-Washington congressman, has a steamy story that's too hot not to touch! This guy is an old, married Republican from the Northwest. He's voted three times that I know of against my peeps: against an anti-discrimination bill, against civil unions for gays, and against a hate crimes bill. On a side note, what kind of human being votes against a hate crimes bill?? Way to kick 'em while they're down.

Anyway, so the story is a sordid one indeed. According to the police report, reported apon here and here, Curtis provided to the Spokane Police Dept., he was in a porn shop where he met 26-year-old Cody Castagna who he later had sex with at a downtown hotel. He says he was dressed in women's clothing, red stockings, and sequined lingerie. Apparently Cody has posed for some gay porn and is known in local circles as "Stallion." He does look kinda hot, too, so that helps the believability of the story along.

Now here's where the fact and fiction starts to get really blurry. Here's what I think happened. Curtis didn't have all the $1000 Cody wanted for sex (doing porn makes your price go up apparently), so Cody took his wallet as collateral. Then while Curtis went and told police the whole story and got the rest of the money, Cody found out that this guy was actually an anti-gay, closeted Republican congressman. That's when the story busted out into the press from both ends. Curtis said he was being extorted, and Cody got his well-earned money and a lawyer.

Last I heard, no one was actually charged with anything yet, although Curtis has resigned from the state house of representatives, and he told the press he wasn't gay and didn't have sex with "a guy." Bullshit. And one last thing: I heard the most fucked up logic from another conservative on the Lou Dobbs show the other night. He said that Curtis and Craig were not hypocrites because they feel their behavior is wrong even though they continue to do it. So they say they're straight, but they still hook up with guys? I hate to be Captain Obvious here, but that is what being a hypocrite IS !!

Nightmare on Chernobyl St.

A friend of mine showed me this website, http://www.janikarvonen.com/digicam/10-12.6.2005_Ukraine/. Okay, tourists are now going into the towns of Chernobyl and Pripyat in the Ukraine, site of the world's worst nuclear reactor meltdown in history in 1986 and the cause of some 58 deaths (though accounts vary) and source radiation exposure for people throughout Europe.

These are the pictures of those morbid tourists. It looks just like a horror movie, like Resident Evil or something. You've got some just horrifying event that happened in this little power plant town one day that kills a bunch of people, contaminates everything you breathe, touch, and taste with a radioactive fission particles, and causes thousands to flee in fear. The place is abandoned, in ruin, and left to decay (so to speak). There's overgrown grass and trees, abandoned, weathered buildings with crumbling bricks and glass strewn about. They have hotels...



and classrooms...



and a theatre...



and in one of the baby's cribs lies this eerie thing...



*shivers*

LOLCats

Lolcats are awesome. And here's a website FULL of them!

ICanHasCheezburger.com

Like FuKing.net they even have a "Random" button to take you to some random kitty in personifying circumstances.

Some favorites:

Don't you hate that?

That shit happens to me, too! I hate it! Not the sneezing, the other thing. Just ask Stevie!


http://youtube.com/watch?v=EmODpYPP5nY

Sing it, Gurl!!

A girl at work today was watching this on YouTube today and it brought up some early gay memories for me. *blush*

***** FLASHBACK to 1994 *****

I had this song on tape and I sang to it several occassions I'm certain of it. *blush* And, NO, Stevie, I didn't sing into the mirror or anything .....okay, maybe into a toothbrush or something, but that still doesn't support your drag queen in training theory you're already conjuring up. =) But I did sing to it .... and maybe an occassional hand-wavie thing when doing arpeggios, BUT THAT WAS IT!! I was a very confused 13-year-old boy. Leave me alone. =)

Incidentally, while this song was extremely popular a girl at my brother's graduation (class of '94) sang it absolutely beautifully....you know, where you have to applaud in the middle of it it's so good like with Mariah singing it here.


YouTube Link to Mariah Carey's song "Hero"

Ummmm.....yeaaaaaa

Thanks to Steve's email for alerting me to a small problem:

Richard,
You've turned off comments on your blog? How will Greg and I say "hi"?
Cheers,
Steve

Indeed, in my finagling with the comment settings the other day, I have inadvertently turned commenting off somehow. The setting that is supposed to allow it again does not appear to be working for me tonight. And seeing as how I just spent my free hour for the year working overtime, I'm just gonna say fuck it and fix it later. I'll just pretend Greg has now commented "Hi." =)

Bye Bye TV-Links

Apparently, I'm just now catching wind of this one. Gawd! I'm SOOO 15 days ago! It's been a long time since I've gone to the site, but now it is no more. The website previously addressed http://www.tv-links.co.uk/ has been removed and its 26-year-old webmaster arrested by Glouchestershire Police in their silly, phallic hats as so factually described in the Guardian's 10-19-2007 article. Apparently the kid didn't actually create the site's content by illegally dubbing the movies or tv-shows but rather he provided links, hence the name, to places where the content had already been uploaded onto the internet somewhere, and he neatly organized them all together in one page. Sounds somewhat innocent to me. They should really be going after all those who actually recorded and/or posted the content, right? Of course not, that's too difficult. So under the same logic, if I were to post a link to even one internet address where some copywrited material is posted, I could be arrested for facilitating copywrite infringement. Geesh! You know how many YouTube videos are contantly deleted because they're copywrited materials and how many people pass those links around to everyone?? And what about all those people who have linked to TV-Links? Aren't they also guilty of indirectly facilitating the yadda yadda yadda...

This arrest is just the first. There are others out there, but I dare not link to them for fear of the Spanish Inquisition.

The Revolution will not be COPYWRITED!!!

Feast of the Ass!!

Who says you have to wait until the official date of January 14th? You can celebrate the Feast of the Ass any time of the year! The tradition feast includes a tossed salad, rump roast, and ... I forget.

You see, it's a Chrisitan tradition that goes back to the medieval France, celebrating the donkey's trek from Bethleham to Egypt when Jesus was just a wee lad ... that and other ass-related occassions ... none of which come to mind..... *ahem* ....

.... hmmm, I wonder if the Catholics celebrate this one ...



... with the altar boys ....



... in the confessional booth ....


OKAY! I'll stop! Geez! Ruin my fun! =)

My Resimay

I just wanted to share an something this girl from work sent me the other day, because it's right up my alley. And UP YOURS, TOO!!


Resimay


Deer Sir,

I waunt to apply for the reporter job what I saw in the paper.. I can Type real quik wit one finggar and do sum a counting.

I think I am good on the phone and no I am a pepole person, Pepole really seam to respond to me well. Certain men and all the ladies.

Im lookin for a Jobb as a reporter but it musent be to complicaited.

I no my spelling is not to good but find that I Offen can get a job thru my persinalety. My salerery is open so we can discus wat you want to pay me and wat you think that I am werth,

I can start i meditely. Thank you in advanse fore yore anser.

hopifuly Yore best aplicant so farr.


Sinseerly,

BRYAN nikname Beefy

PS : Because my resimay is a bit short - below is a pickture of me.



Dear Beefy-- I mean Bryan,

It's okay, honey. We've got spell check. You're hired!

LOADS of free porn!!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

I do this all the time....

YouTube Link

Only I make sure I'm the only one in the house!!

Dogsitting

I'm watching after my friend's poor little old doggie while she's out of town for the week. Poor thing's not doin too good. She claims to have all this food for me stocked up, but it's all like frozen shit, so I went and bought lazy people food. =)

Ok, the NASA channel is awesome. I don't get it at home, but I'm watching it now. Not only did I see live footage earlier today taken from the Discovery space shuttle of the fires in California, but they were tracking the shuttle on the tv as it was catching up with the International Space Station which I was tracking on the internet....AND I just saw an astronaut pick his nose and wipe it on his shirt!! LOL

Everything's Cooler in Japan

Even the dirt devils


YouTube Link

Think of the Pumpkins!!

And I thought it was all just in good fun, until I saw from their own eyes, the pain we put them through!


YouTube Link

What will vegans eat now??

Sometimes my parents scare me

Dad: How do you say it? Tes- ... Thes- ... TES-or-us?

Me: Thesaurus?

Dad: Yea, that's it.

Mom: Isn't that where you go to look up a word when you want another word that kinda means the same thing?

Me: You mean synonyms?

Mom: Yea.

Me: *pinches the bridge of my nose*

This is why I don't work fast food anymore

Check out this local news story out of Statesville, NC.

This happened right up the road from me about 15 minutes away. A masked robber with a rifle walked into the KFC just after close with the manager, and with the alarms blaring he made the manager open up the safe. When the manager didn't do it fast enough,

the robber put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

Luckily, the gun misfired, and the robber took a step back to try again, but the manager lunged after him, trying to wrestle the gun out of his hands for what must have seemed like forever, eventually leading to the parking lot. The robber took off and the manager ended up only getting cuts and bruises.

Way back in the day about 4 years ago, I was working around midnight at a pizza place when two robbers dressed in all black burst in the side door with handguns and made us all get down on the ground. They robbed us and the safe, put us in the cooler (which have been equiped with glow-in-the-door doorknobs and silent alarms ever since that scene from Short Circuit 2) and escaped on foot through the backdoor, leaving a trail of loose checks, presummably to a hidden getaway car at the nextdoor auto store only to ditch their clothing in the median a mile down the road.

New Regimen

So, I'm going to try this for a while and see how it works. My goal is to gain 15-20 pounds by June of next year. I've always wanted to pack on about 20 pounds, but I decided to put a date on it and work toward it. I think it would fill me out nicely. So as it stands right now in order to reach that goal I've set a few guidelines to stick to:

1. Eat at least 2,000 each day, preferably in the 2,500 to 3,000 range.
2. Keep track of calories, protein, fat, and carbs to make sure I'm eating enough of each.
3. Work out for 30 minutes each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, rotating between Chest, Back, and Legs, working on abs each of those three.
4. Reevaluate my progress by weighing each Sunday and taking measurements once a month. Each 3 weeks, reevaluate the diet to compensate in the areas I'm lacking or eating too much of and mix up the exercises I'm doing.

I've intentionally left this all wide open for me to eat whatever I like and work out whatever exercises I fancy that day. I just have to eat 2,000+ calories and work out the specified days so I don't get behind...plus, the gym is only open 24 hours Monday through Friday, so I'll have to work out those days.

Being a hardgainer...(Wikipedia article not available *gasp* I may have to write it!)...that is, someone who finds it difficult to put on and maintain muscle mass often characterized by an ectomorphic body type, a high metabolism, and a propensity toward hyperthyroidism, .... where was I?....Oh! right, I find it hard to put on and maintain muscle mass. I love exercising, but it's a double-edged sword. The more you work out the higher your metablosm for the rest of the day, thus, more calories burned. Also, the muscle mass you have for your size, the higher your metabolism and they more you will need to eat.

Before you people come at me with your naive suggestions such as, "just eat more" or the patronizing "you can have some of my weight" bullshit I've heard so much of, over and over again, let me just tell you that despite the fact that the vast majority of overweight people in this country, not counting those who are obese or have other health issues, need only to eat less and exercise a little bit every day and they will gradually see those pounds begin to melt off. It's as simple as that: eat less energy than you expend. For myself and other hardgainers, it is quite the opposite: eat more food than you can burn off. But unfortunately that's where the simplicity ends abrubtly, because in order to gain any weight that isn't just fat you have to stimulate your muscles in order for your body to overcompensate for the damage and add additional muscle fibers where needed. For those with high metabolisms, there is a delicate balancing act between hormones and thus the timing involved, not to mention compound exercises stimulate more muscles than isolated ones, and varying exercises stimulates different regions of the same muscles disproportionately more than others....I could go on and on. It's all very overwhelling sometimes. It is for this reason and the fact that I have tried and failed at very strict diet/exercise regimens that I have decided to make mine reeeeaaal simple:

Eat a lot and don't work out too much. LOL. Ok, that's the basis of it, but the quantified boundries I already listed. Today makes 2.5 weeks I've been on it, and I think I've done pretty good so far. I'll see at the end of this week how it all adds up.

Educate Yourself!

So I decided I'm way behind on movies. Every time somebody asked me if I'd seen something the answer was no. So I signed up for Netflix and loaded up my queue. We'll have to see how good its AI is at picking its recommendations for me...only thing is that assumes I'm being completely honest with myself when I rate all the categories. (I try.) I had to face it: I like watching gay boys, LOL go figure. The first two movies I rented were gay-themed. Other categories are futher down the queue, I swear.

First was The Next Best Thing, staring Madonna, Rupert Everett, and an honorable mention of the pre-out Neil Patrick Harris. This was made back in 2000.....waaaay before the out me. For those who haven't seen it, I'd recommend renting it sometime. Nothing urgent. Not really a tear-jerker, but it did make me well up a little bit at times. (It's not too hard anymore.) Madonnna is her usual psuedo-British self, and it doesn't help that Rupert Everett is there co-starring with her.



And second was Eating Out, a comedy about a straight guy who pretends to be gay to get with this fag hag, I mean fairy princess. =) He goes out on a date with her best friend, the delicious Ryan Carnes who you might recognize from General Hospital or more recently Desperate Housewives where he played a gay boy named Justin who had a thing for Bree's son. Not to mention Scott Lunsford who plays Caleb is a hottie in his own right.


YouTube Link

The movie as a whole was kinda cute but somewhat blah, but it had some hot boys in it I guess, and we get to see the boys' dangily bits. Kyle is played by Jim Verraros whose music is featured in the show. I've actually bought a few of his songs on iTunes before I found out that he was on American Idol and tried his hand at acting in this movie. Eating Out 2 is somewhere down on my movie queue somewhere...

Anybody got any suggestions for must-see movies??

FuKung.net

Go to FuKung.net and see

some really funny, often completely wrong, but always extremely

random picture...

after random picture

after random picture

after random picture

after random picture



Somebody please stop me from clicking!!

Nothing like soft porn on YouTube!

I don't know if this gorgeous boy is wearing a cup or not....I think I'll have to re-examine the video over and over and over....

YouTube link

Take it from me, overdying your suit will do that.

YouTube Link

Speaking of hot jock boys, I added a link to the movie trailer to Peaceful Warrior on its post from a couple days back, and you can check it out here, too.

Sure you don't wanna frisk me?

So I got pulled over last night on my way home from work. 11:50pm. 1.5 miles from my house. No idea why...maybe it's because my tailgate's down. He comes to the window and says, "I pulled you over. 'cause your registration's been out since February." I assumed he meant expired.

..."what?? are you serious?" I look up and I get my first glipse of the cop and he is hot!

"How much have you had to drink tonight, sir?"

"Uhh, well, none, I mean, I had one at dinner like 6 hours ago." (I studder when I talk to hot guys for the first time.)

"Step out of the car please, sir."

Ah, here goes five minutes of my life I won't get back, I think as I step out and follow him to a nice camera angle for him at my flopped-down tailgate. Soon another cop arrives (don't they always?), he throws on his lights as well, so it floods the little cul-de-sac with a dizzying circus of blue and white lights. I'm completely exhausted from a long day of boring meetings at work and just want to crawl into bed, but I figure I'd better tune up my cognitive skills the next few minutes so he can do his little roadside sobriety test...then the thought occurs to me: This is my first ever, lol. I felt honored almost, plus I had it beat for sure.

"How come you changed your story and didn't just tell me upfront that you had been drinking?"

"Uh, because it was one drink six hours ago." It did come out a little more "uh, duh!" than I intended, but I had just gotten through saying those same exact words. Too bad, he was kinda hot, too.

He had me stand facing him, blue strobe lights directly in my eyes, of course, and he says, "Now follow my pen, but don't move your head; just move your eyes." Center to right. Right to Left. Left to Right. Right to Center. Oh! Back to right again! Right to Left. Left to-- oh! he switched again. I almost felt like giggling and drooling on myself like an infant entertained by dangling keys, but instead it bored me. I realized my ever-expressive face had scrunched its mouth to convey that I was bored to tears with this experiment as it was just a big waste of my time. Just then he turned to the other cop and said, "He's good. I'm just going to write him up for the registration."

Five whole minutes later he has returned with my $150 fine for something the DMV had never notified me and I went on my way.

Way of the Peaceful Warrior

The other night I went into Blockbuster and rented a few movies. One was An Inconvenient Truth, which literally put me to sleep last night. I was exhausted anyway, but it didn't help. Yea, I agree with him mostly, but clearly his information is biased. Don't get me started on global warming; that's another blog for another time...(I think I might have before.) Two things I did bring away from this movie were that Al Gore is inconsolably bitter about Florida and the election and that he totes around that little Mac like it's his purse puppy!

On to more important matters!

I also giddily snatched up Peaceful Warrior, based on the best-selling novel Way of the Peaceul Warrior by Dan Millman. See the movie trailer on YouTube here.

*Flashback to college* I was taking a religion course and was heavily weighted down with other classes and simply didn't have the time to devote to read and study all the things she was requesting, so I met with the professor lady one day close to the withdrawal deadline. I explained my situation, and she suggested I take a summer class in philosophy instead. In fact the philosophy professor was available at the moment, so I walked down the hall of the little tudor-style converted chapel to meet with her. Me and this young woman just chatted it up for a while about the class, and her class sounded way more interesting and thought-provoking than just memorizing the doctrines of the world's religions. She gave me the book list for the class, and I read this novel well in advance of the class at my own slow, absorbant pace. It really was a joy to read. It maked me stop and think even if I didn't really believe some of the ideas presented. It's only 200 pages, but it's not something you want to just skim through quickly; if you really want to understand its message use a highlighter and burn those important phrases into your memory. My philosophy class that summer was a breeze and I really enjoyed the material and the class discussions. The book and its themes were fresh in my mind, and that allowed me to ponder on it more than rush through just trying to read it.

Of course with any movie adapted from a novel there will be quibbling over the differences between the two....I just have one. =) There was a scene that was edited down a bit, and understandably so with the dialog that was somewhat unnatural when compared to the two characters' normal dialog. However, there was a crucial line that was deleted that Socrates said during that conversation that remains a part of my MO ever since reading it (and before though it was just not expressed in writing or speech before); it was one of those lines that behooved me to chew on it a bit. It simply said, "Be unreasonably happy." It reminded me that happiness is not obtained after accomplishing some goal but it can exist at any time. It's not an end result that brings about hapiness, it's taking joy in the journey. This idea was expressed in the film but the quote was removed, even when it may have been thrown into the hiking scene.

Of all the many things I enjoyed about the movie, I loved that it was true to the novel, it did incorporate many exact quotes from the book, and also the director took his own liberties in creating the scene behind some of the dialog from the book. But the one thing I didn't expect and was SO happy to learn was that the main character is Eurotrip's hottie Scott Mechlowicz, all buffed up for his role as a gymnast...standing in the shower naked in one scene! *vidcaps* So even if you end up dismissing all the philosophical themes in the movie, at least check him out! Here he is about to ride my pony the horse!

Feast of Fools!! Gay Fun Show

It's long overdue, and I feel like a cheap copycat when I so badly want to post something from their show, so I resist the temptation. What the hell am I talking about?

The Feast of Fools!!

Of course! They're the most downloaded gay podcast on iTunes and they just won a People's Choice Podcast Award for Best GLBT Podcast. In a few short days they'll be on their way to Ontario, Cali. to accept their award for Best GLBT Podcast and then to sunny San Francisco to accept the People's Choice Podcast Award. This will be their first ever even though they've won the title of best GLBT Podcast two years in a row already. The Best GLBT Podcast award has been announced, but the winner of the People's Choice Podcast award will be announced in person in the City by the Bay

There are so many great reasons why I love listening to the podcast: its variety, its flare (its sassifraction) and the intrepid way it gets right to the gut of the tough issues. It's no wonder Whoppi stole that line from the show to use as her own. This podcast is not only a look at poignant news in this country and around the world but also a fountain of useless information.

If you still don't have any idea what I'm talking about, go to their website or better yet, just go to iTunes and listen to one of their podcasts. I, too, have listened to other podcasts and come running back to this one (I couldn't stand the other guys after hearing FOF) and I listen to them on my drive to and from work. Look 'em up, people!

I Solved the Rubik's Cube!!!

Yup, for the first time in my life I actually solved the Rubik's cube without removing the stickers or taking it all apart. =) Actually it was kinda cool just to take it all apart and put it back together again.

Eight years I've had this same Rubik's cube, often sitting on my computer desk in my room wherever that may be. When I first got it I was in college, studying Java, so I wrote a Java program to solve it with its own Rubiks class, methods and properties. I put each state into a 12-tree for each possible move and wrote a recursive algorithm to do the solving...but I soon realized a huge oversight in the program design when my RAM filled up within 3 seconds, requiring a complete rewrite of the data storage mechanism, perhaps to a file or database. But instead I gave up on the program and didn't much fiddle with the cube itself.

Years later, a whimsical search on YouTube for the words "How to" led me to a solution. (YouTube has a great Do-It-Yourself section, by the way.) Just a few hours of trial and error later, I solved it! Yay!


Part 1 YouTube Link


Part 2 YouTube Link

Now that that mental obstacle is conquered, I'm bored with it.

NEXT!!

Rejected by eHarmony

I saw this commercial while watching "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style" on Bravo today, and it made me laugh so hard.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgxOhG2nDOA

They say eHarmony has rejected over 5 million people so far for whatever reason, and yea, I was one of those that took their little online questionaire only to find out 500 questions later that they wouldn't let me sign up because I'm gay. I'm apparently I'm just one in millions possibly.

And then as if that wasn't enough, they dared to tell me what kind of woman I would be matched up with! I forget all the boring characteristics, but one big thing was missing -- a penis! =)

Open for Business!

News from the European Space Agency!

The Artic's Northwest Passage is now open for business! All that pesky sea ice has final melted enough for whole ships to pass through the narrow corrider of Canada's Northern Territories, finally connecting East Asia to Europe, thereby bypassing much of the need to traffic the Panama Canal. Countries are already staking their claim to the new shipping lanes that have opened open.

Let's just hope the world's shipping harbors aren't completely under water by 2040 when the whole of the Artice ice cap melts.

August 21, 2017, 1:24pm, Hopkinsville, Tenn.

What in the hell am I talking about? What's so special about being in bum-fuck Tennessee at 1:24pm on August 21, 2017? Well, if you're about 15 miles northwest of town on route 91, you'll see...

It'll be first time in my lifetime that you'll be able to see one of these in the lower 48 states, but as a fantastic circumstance, it's happening again in nearby Paducah just 7 years later.

What is it, you ask?

A TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE!!!

and you bet your ass I'll be there. =)

Expanding Earth

I spotted something interesting browsing around YouTube today. The idea behind this is that the Earth's techtonic plates are not moving apart so much as the Earth beneath them is expanding like a balloon. It's similar to the universe expansion theory and its classic model of ants (stars) on a balloon (universe). The ants aren't moving apart from each other, the ballon itself is expanding beneath them and the stars appear to be moving apart. This video defines the core of the idea:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjgidAICoQI

The creater of these videos, Neal Adams, then applies these the same principles to the Moon and Mars and Ganymede.

It's certainly a curious idea, but I'm not convinced. Sure, it appears that the continents fit together and all as I'm sure you'd have agreed beforehand, but the model he uses is not exactly representative of the scientific concensus of Pangea. The problem with this theory, like any good theory, is that it opens up more questions than it answers...like where did all the salt water come from that now comprises the world's oceans? He offers no explanation or this OR more importantly, HOW is the Earth expanding? and the Moon, Mars, and other planets and moons? Are the stars? I'm not dismissing or agreeing with this one just yet, not until I hear from those reallly hardcore, socially inept geologists. Until they can come together and really provide some evidence for or against this theory, it's going to remain to me like one of those Leonard Nimoy episodes of "In Search Of" that just leaves you completely puzzled at the end...

What now?

Thanks Steve for your coming out story. I suppose ours share a common "discovery" theme, but in addition your step-mom got to read about all the sordid details whereas mine was just a statement of the fact. I have that to be thankful for at least. I've heard of some really embarassing coming out stories like the boy that waited for this parents to leave home so he could watch a gay porn in his parents VCR in their room...he would've gotten away with it if only he hadn't been discovered asleep on their bed, cum-covered, porn still playing... Yeah.

Two really dumb-founding things said between us just struck me. I asked my dad in that car ride home if him or mom had ever suspected, and he said no though they had suspected about Robert, my oldest brother...LOL! I couldn't believe my ears! There's no way they could have thought he was gay....ok, well that was that time when he was 18 he dressed up like a girl for Halloween, but that was Halloween! You can't hold that against him! And the second thing was something they asked me, "Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Shit! I ask myself the same thing all the time...I guess it's because they're so fucking religious, but mostly because...well, they're my parents! And you don't just talk to your parents about sexual stuff. That's between me and the guy I'm with...or the girl that's barking up the wrong tree, lol.

So I guess it's "What Now?" time, time for me to just be me without divulging any sordid details. Hopefully by me just being me, they will see that, firstly, I'm still me. Secondly, maybe they will begin to see that it's not all about sex or religion. Dare I say, it's about being open-minded, thinking for yourself, coming to your own educated opinion and cultivating your own ideas and creatively expressing yourself without regard to tradition or social expectations. Maybe that's what makes us "queer." That's how I feel about it. And to answer mom's question, IF I could choose, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Big News

I know some of you have been anxiously awaiting the news, and I'm terribly sorry for not having blogged a damn thing about it in far too long; I just haven't had the energy. It's been an emotionally exhausting couple of weeks, and what little time I haven't been working, I haven't exactly felt like thinking about it or talking about it with everyone.

When I came back from Florida on the 23rd of August, I was still a little stressed from the traveling. It's not that I'm afraid of flying; I'm bored with it actually, but it can be stressful. Mostly, it's because you get shitty airport food or peanuts, and your biological need for contrant hydration is reduced to an in-flight beverage cart. I was starving and thrirsty and had to pee most of the return trip. I'd much rather just sit behind the wheel and drive, but that takes all day long. But enough bitching. So I landed and thought, now I can finally relax for a little while before I go to work tomorrow. I called up my dad to come pick me up at the terminal, got my bags and met him outside.

We started driving home, and we're talking. He asks how the trip was, blah blah blah, and then he tells me mom got her new computer in the mail. She got it all set up (dad did it I'm sure) and they got her on the Internet. She went on MySpace and found my page....I knew what this meant instantly....

For those who haven't seen it, go to my MySpace page now and see for yourself. It's nothing spectacular, just a geeky background, a couple comments, a few videos...but there's three little letters on there that made all the difference: Gay.

So that's how my parents discovered that I'm gay. They read about it on MySpace, not something I'm particularly proud of as I would have rather told them myself in person, but life comes at ya fast, right? Anyway, there's no going back now. Actually, a friend later asked me if I told them it was a joke or something like it wasn't true, lol. That would have been worse.

Ok, so back in the awkward drive home...I gathered that they learned this news earlier that day or the day before possibly but no sooner. The first thing dad asked me after he beat around the bush as to what he was referring to, as if saying the word "gay" was profane, was "Is it true?" And I told him it was, and so ensued the awkward conversation with my dad. Eventually he told me that he loved me and that whatever happened I was still his son and neither of those things would change. So, yay for dad. =)

Mom, on the other hand was "very upset" according to dad. We didn't know if she was going to be awake when we arrived home from the airport. She wasn't; she had gone to bed. I worked the next five days in a row, and my 10-hour shifts and 1-hour, one-way drives to and from work don't allow much time at home during the workweek, so the chances of me seeing her for the next 5 days were slim. But I saw her the next morning on my way out the door as she was coming in from watering the flowers outside. She looked sad, upset, maybe disappointed. She said when I had a day off we needed to talk. I went and sat in my truck and she soon appeared by my door. She gave me a big hug and told me she loved me and walked back inside the house.

I was on autopilot for the next five days at work, my mind always drifting to the situation at home and what I was going to say to mom when I got a chance to see her. I couldn't decide whether all that time she had to absorb the news was good for her or if it just let her mind wander. Finally the first day I had off, the three of us talked at dinner.

Now, I don't want to bore you with the details or expose the intimate, embarssing details of my personal life on the internet for the world to read, but I just wanted to share the news with Greg and Steve, lol...and with the blog of the news. Things are going to be different from here on out. I just hope that time will be on my side with them so that they can see there's nothing different about me, that I've always been gay and they just haven't noticed, and that it's not a choice. The latter will probably be the hardest as their religious beliefs have beaten into them that everyone is straight but gay by choice or something, I don't know. Reason and religion are like oil and water; they don't mix. We'll just have to take it day by day, I suppose.

Long time no blog

I just wanted to jot down a quick note to let you all know that I'm back from the second Florida vacation of the year. Actually I've been back since last Thursday, I've just been at work all these 5 days and dealing with a lot of stress and work. The only downtime I have had I've been working on my own computers.

If you haven't heard from me personally already, since I know 4 out of the 5 of my readers have my phone number, lol, there's BIG NEWS coming up very shortly .... I just don't want to jump the gun before I have all the details ...

Adios Amigos!

So, I'm here packing up my things, preparing to spend my last night in my own bed, my far too large and sometimes lonely bed. I'm flying and taking it all on board with me this time so I won't be checking any luggage for them to lose. I have my one-quart-sized, zip-top, clear bag filled with all the less-than-3-ounce liquid-containing...containers. I'm carefully packing and deciding what I'm going to wear to the airport, and then a silly thought occurs to me as I'm folding my clothes: what's to stop me from wearing ALL my clothes to the airport? No luggage, no suitcase, I just wear everything I've got. There's no law against it, but I'd look silly and I'd burn up. Besides, they may not let crazy people on the plane.

Anyway, I wanted to tell all my loyal readers, all five of you, that I'm leaving for another vacation down in sunny Florida to visit with friends. No, it's not another Gay Days, geez, I don't think I have any more gay left in me after all that. Good thing it only comes once a year. No, this time I'm just going to be with friends and take a .... well I'm not really sure I even NEED a vacation or that it's well-deserved for that matter since my PTO is now negative, but I'm taking it anyway. =) I'll be back next Thursday.

Peace!

Researching Dennis Kucinich

It's ironic how when I read someone else's blog and it starts talking politics I usually just scroll my mouse wheel right on passed it, but here I am, doing it myself. I did a little research for myself so I could get a feel for one of the candidates I haven't heard much about and thought I'd share the highlights with ya. I'll be brief this time so you can all hold down your lunches. :)

Anti-War approach:

Link to this video

Renewable energy:

Link to this video

Gay Rights:
http://www2.kucinich.us/issues/gayrights.php

Marijuana Decriminalization:
http://www2.kucinich.us/issues/marijuana_decrim.php

If you want to learn more, his official website www2.kucinich.us is very informative and lists his positions on each of the dozens of issues, and he's also been consistently responding to YouTube posters' questions.

If you want my opinion on the guy, I'm still developing it. So far, I've decided he's a pretty left-ended guy, even further than Hillary or Obama. The marijuana decriminalization article was...interesting. One commentor of one of his YouTube videos called him a "blatant socialist." I'm not sure I totally agree with that just yet, but he does have that air to him. He speaks of ending the war in Iraq by cutting off funding and instead of fighting a "war" on terror, tracking down individual terrorists. Assumably after the Iraq withdrawal, he'll attempt to hold diplomatic discussions with countries like Iran and the like. "Peace" is echoed on his website...sounds too good to be true to me honestly.

I hate to call it too soon, but I think he's too far left for the nomination even following Bush due to the candidacy of Obama and Clinton. Perhaps Gravel would make a tougher yet similarly positioned candidate. We'll see...

See how the sun shines brightly in the city

Oh, how it brought a smile to my face to hear what Commander Scott Kelly of the now-in-flight Space Shuttle Endeavor mission to the International Space Station requested to wake up the crew one morning:

ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky"

And thanks to NASA you can hear it, too!

HRC Hosts 2008 Presidential Candidate Interviews

The Human Rights Campaign recently sponsored a presidential debate on the Logo channel. Each candidate was give 15 minutes and asked questions by a panel of GLBT folks. The candidates on the show included in no particular order John Edwards, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, and Hillary Clinton. Realize, of course, this whole show is centered on GLBT issues; what to do with the fiasco of Iraq is a whole 'nother debate that needs to be had.

My original intent was to post a video or two from each of them so that I could present an unbiased, all-inclusive videoblog so that you all could hear the whole truth and come to an informed opinion of your own. But unfortunately, after much searching, I was unable to dig up videos for Dennis Kucinich or Mike Gravel, which is particularly unfortunate because I hear they are the only two candidates who have spoken out in support of gay marriage. (Please comment with links if you find any.) Also, not all the videos online are completely unbiased and have been chopped up to the liking of the person posting it; the one of Bill Richardson comes to mind.

I hope for my loyal reader's sake (I'm talking to all five of you now) that I've still managed to stick to my initial intent of presenting you with all the information in an biased way so you can come to your own decision.....but then again, this IS my blog, and it's where I get to voice my own opinions. But let's hear what they have to say first.

Hillary Clinton, clip 1 of 2:
These two videos show Clinton's interview in its entirety, all 15 minutes of it.

Link to this video

Hillary Clinton, clip 2 of 2:

Link to this video

John Edwards, clip 1 of 3:
These three videos show Edwards' interview in its entirety, all 15 minutes of it.

Link to this video

John Edwards, clip 2 of 3:

Link to this video

John Edwards, clip 3 of 3:

Link to this video

Bill Richardson, clip 1 of 1:
This interview has been edited by its uploader.


Barack Obama, clip 1 of 2:
Obama's interview was hacked into so many pieces on YouTube, I decided to only post the ones that didn't bore me to tears. =)

Link to this video

Barack Obama, clip 2 of 2:

Link to this video

---

Okay, if I still have anybody's attention after all that, let me just put in my two cents.

Bill Richardson has lost my vote. First he said homosexuality was a choice, then he said he didn't know, he skirted around the issues, and didn't answer the questions. He was sweating bullets! For myself, I can't believe a word the man says anymore. It just appeared to me like he was trying to play the field much like I would if I was trying to hit on a hot guy at the gym and he starts taking about cars, a topic I have no clue about really. I'd try to play it off, sweating profusely, and I'd blow it....in the locker room, LOL. So I wrote off Richardson.

Too bad Gravel and Kucinich don't have videos on YouTube (yet) because I would have loved to hear what they had to say on the issues. They're not only for gay marriage which is fine and dandy, but they're for equality and full civil rights which I believe is more important and probably an easier bill for Congress to pass than shoving another marriage amendment at it again so soon. One thing I do like about Gravel though is that he comes off as a real straight shooter. He isn't fake, and he doesn't pause every few words and smirk at the camera. He doesn't spend 5 minutes shaking everyone's hands and waving at the audience, Hillary. He doesn't skirt around issues and leave questions unanswered. He actually answers the questions asked of him directly and even challenges other candidates to define their stance as they so often intentionally fail to do. So I'll keep him on my list for now. I just wish I knew more about Kucinich at this point; I'll be on the look-out.

John Edwards, one of my own Senators, ... part of me wants to like him, but I just can't bring myself to do it. He just seems so on-the-fence with everything. His position is this one day, and he's "on a path," but doesn't know what he'll decide tomorrow. Sure, he believes in civil rights but not gay marriage today, but tomorrow who knows. I just find it hard to place my trust in someone so flippant.

To me Hillary and Obama seemed to be the same candidate in these interviews. They generally take the same stance of being for civil unions and not exactly for gay marriage, not yet anyway. They both seem very genuine in their opinions and their stance on these issues. Hillary, dare I say, articulated her reasons WHY not moving forward with gay-friendly marriage ammendment in her presidency, and I see her point. Don't get me wrong, I would love to live in a country that cuts through the red tape and accepts gay marriage across the country (Canada, UK, Spain, South Africa, Belgium, Netherlands) but I know it's just not realistic in the Southern Baptist, God-hates-fags country that we live in until people start treating us equally regardless of what the law says. I do have to disagree with her point that gay marriage should be a state issue. Straight marriage is a federal issue that involves federal rights and 1,100 benefits. Civil rights should not and could not be a state issue and neither should marriage. There are two many strings attached to marriage to sever them all at the state border. And you better damn believe no law is going to keep me from seeing my would-be husband in the hospital. Honestly, that's just fucked up.

God, I hate politics.

We Didn't Start the Fire

Link to YouTube video

Lyrics by Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

[Chorus:]
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dancron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

[Chorus]

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou EnLai, Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkwether homicide, Children of Thalidomide
Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, Payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

[Chorus]

Hemingway, Eichman, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

[Chorus]

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

[Chorus]

---

Thanks to Billy Joel for this chronological trip through recent world history and Wikipedia for so many of the links (though not all of them).

It was after much debate that I decided to post a video instead of just the lyrics by themselves. First, you need to hear the song, and second, a picture says a lot and might ring a bell. I looked at a number of videos on the net where people have put this song to video. Some were silly, some were just wrong about a lot of the lyrics and their true meanings, but I liked this one because it suggests meanings to "it goes on and on and on on..." and I'm sure you can think of a few more yourself.

Paintball fun

Okay, somehow I managed to get a bunch of people at work playing this game. First I played a little of it and showed it to the guy behind me, and we tinkered with it a bit. The next day, today, I walk in and I see it on like three people's screens.

A friend of a friend of mine is a lucky bastard and gets to think up and make this very type of computer games for a company here in Charlotte...uses Flash and Java applets and whatever else they use, C#, Java, several things. I believe this one's Flash. I hear Ebaum steals their games from hardworking, game-developing yuppies which is a real shame. They need that money to buy smores, Visine, and cologne.

Pretty neat little game, though I had to admit. Makes you think that's for sure. Good damn thing it has an ending though, or it'd go on forever. The cool thing is that you can make up your own levels and let your friends try them out to see if they can beat them.

The Paintball Game by ArmorGames