I’m Glad and All but…

I still don’t get that people think separate but equal is okay.  Saw a story on the local news that ‘Same-Sex Parters are to get Federal Benefits‘ but in reading the story, you see that they still do not get the same benefits that their heterosexual co-workers, colleagues, etc. get.  Why is that?  Don’t get me wrong, I think it is a WONDERFUL step forward for LGBT Rights but, what would/could be the logic behind:

the partners would still not have access to primary health insurance or to pensions.

Soooo after you bust your ass for them for 30 plus years, make it to retirement, enjoy that for a while and pass on, your surviving spouse – That’s right…SPOUSE – is not eligible to benefit from your pension.  Fine then take away that benefit for married, heterosexual Federal employees if it is not such a big deal.  Betcha that ain’t gonna happen.

I do agree with the Obama administration in that the LGBT community needs to chill the f%^$ out a little bit and give the man a chance to do what he can.  We’re sounding no better than those pesky neo-cons who are giving him a raft of shit for not being able to fix in 6 months what Dubya screwed up in 8 YEARS.

Oh yeah and the “poll” on the WTVR site saying 60% thing same-sex benefits for federal employees is a bad idea and only 30% think it is okay…why am I not surprised?  I DO live in the state Commonwealth of Bubbas.

Mom and MP3

I love my mom, I really do.

Recently, after seeing her lug around a CD Walkman (OMG HOW absolutely archaic is THAT) and those big ole padded headphones for far too long, my father broke down and bought my mom a nice Sony MP3 player.  I guess he got tired of seeing her with that sac purse – yes she bought a sack purse to carry around the house with her to hold her CD walkman in while she cleaned the house – God love her.  So, now she has this thing and doesn’t quite know how to work it.  She asks my ‘never without her iPod’ niece to help her with it.  Amber apparently explains that she doesn’t know how to work anything but an iPod, wow so young and already in that Apple Cult I guess, and cannot help her grandmother.

Mom calls me, the son, Jr. – cause well….I’m kinda a big deal …… in Japan.  Nah, I am the only one in the family that really knows much about technology.  Wait…isn’t that my 13 year old nephew Alex in there on his wirelessly connected laptop surfing MySpace?  And…and….isn’t that my 6 year old nephew Antonio rocking that DS game? Hmmmm I guess she just has more confidence in my…cause…well…I’m the shit….. in my mind.

Back on topic.  So mom wants me to come over because she has this mp3 player but cannot get anyone to help her actually get music onto it (makes for a really swank paperweight I reckon) and can I help her.  SURE!  I’ve had an mp3 player, I know how to read instructions that come with electronic merchandise, I’m sure I can figure it out.  After arriving at moms place, I quickly show her just how fast it is to rip her own CDs onto the laptop that I gave her and then sync her mp3 player to her music library.  Color her stunned.  She’s amazed at how fast it is.  Before long we have all of her Travis Tritt, Elvis, and other music I know nothing about on her mp3 player and she’s THRILLED.

No more going around the house with a bag around your neck holding your CD walkman, the 8 foot cord, and other accessories – just stick the little mp3 player in your pocket and away you go.

I love my mom.  It’s so great seeing her get so amazed at things that I sort of take for granted.  Is this a glimpse of what it will be like as she and dad move further into their golden years – me the parent and they the child marveling at the wonders of … well….stuff?

Who knows – I just know it makes me feel needed by my parents and it’s a way of letting me feel like I’m able to help them out, even if it is only something as silly as loading songs onto a music player.  *shrug*

I’m Alive, I Swear!

I’ve just been busy with work, family, and a couple of other projects I’ve been working on.  I have promised myself that I’ll make the time to try to blog every couple of days.

Soooo what’s happened recently….

Um California courts upheld Prop 8, no surprise there, I just wish my ‘brothers and sisters’ would take a step back from all the angry protesting and such and take a look at what the court had to rule on.  If I’m understanding correctly, they were ruling on whether or not Prop 8 was an amendment to the California Constitution or if it was a change to the document.  I think it is just going to take some couple filing a suit and showing that this garbage piece of legislation still flies in the face of California’s Equal Protection Clause and should be stricken.  Again, our founding fathers did NOT mean for the majority to vote on the rules of the minority, that is why we do not have a pure democracy – we have a federated republic.  Most people don’t really know that sadly, even though they know the words to The Pledge of Allegiance, which contains the words “and to the Republic for which it stands”.

Susan Boylelost BGT to Diversity – don’t get me wrong, those dancers are good and I could never begin to do what they can but…..street dancers? Really?  I mean I can see Susan selling out concert halls but, do people pay to go so a street dance troupe?  Well, other than ballet and stuff?  I guess you can tell who I was rooting for, huh?

Well, time to get ready for bed.  Gotta be up at 5 AM – weeeeeeeee fun.

Who Says Military Guys are Homophobic?

Saw the first one on one site and of course I had to see what other fun things there were on YouTube.  I gotta say, these guys look like they are having a shite load of fun.  I guess you can’t blame them, especially the guys stationed in the Middle East – if I had the potential of getting shot at each day I’d pretty damned stressed myself.

The two main guys in this video are so damned adorable.

Good looking and a good lip syncher…has a future at Drag Brunch?

LOL I’d never heard this song before…but…me likey, me likey!

Ummmm when one hot, shirtless dancing guy isn’t enough.

Yeah…slow day and I didn’t feel like writing…just an eye candy day….or summink like that.

So this is what 3:30 AM looks like.

Or….Adventures in House/Pet Sitting.

So I’m house sitting for my best friend Ben and his husband Tim while they are in Phoenix visiting Tim’s parents, not a bad gig at all.  The house is great, tons of movies, the dogs are easy, takes less time to get to work than driving from P’Burg, etc. but, this morning the house alarm starts beeping at 3:30. 

Now, maybe … just maybe, watching the extended uncut version of  The Strangers was not my best idea last night.  When the beeping starts all I can think is “OMG WTF do I do now there might be someone in the house!”   I cannot explain just how weird it felt to have the fight or flight thing kick in and the adrenaline rush.  Let’s quietly open the bedroom door and see if we hear anything downstairs in the totally dark 3000+ sq. foot house.  Out onto the landing I creep and turn on the foyer light still listening – what if they are in the shadows?  I summon my inner ‘butch’ and yell out “Hey, is someone down there?!” (Yes, like the criminale’s are gonna answer me?)  No answer.  I start realizing that if the alarm had actually been set off, surly the alarm company would have called by now asking if everything was okay, right?  Next I decide I shall pull a Montgomery Burns and order Smithers to ‘Release the Hounds!’ (Said hounds being a teacup Chihuahua and 2 small Cockapoos).  They don’t exactly go charging downstairs either….nice.

NOT what I wanted to see.

NOT what I wanted to see.

I decided to butch it up even more and try to find something to bash possible intruders with – now Ben and Tim have lots of nice things, a collection of ruby glass, various pottery pieces (yeah I’ll throw a piece of Roseville pottery…NOT), and other decorative objet d’art but nothing really usable as a weapon.  I finally settle on a metal finial/obelisk that I could use as a club…I guess and start downstairs with telephone, alarm fob (panic button FTW!), dogs (even remembered that I had to carry Lucy – the Chihuahua – downstairs).  Wow if a burglar had been there, imagine the site…..white guy in t-shirt and sweat shorts with pockets bulging from stuff; a chihuahua in one hand and an artful club in the other – I could disable the intruder with fits of laughter maybe?

Walking around turning on EVERY single light in the house and checking all doors and such didn’t take much time and I started to calm down.  Maybe it was a power surge/outage – nope, the clocks on the stove, microwave, dishwasher, etc. were not doing that flashy thing.  I did, however, draw the line at creeping around outside to see if anyone was out there but, surely a brightly lit house would deter them if they were still lurking.  Certainly the alarm company would have called if someone had set off the motion detectors or one of the window/door sensors.

Now I was wide awake sooooooooo let’s get the girls breakfast and make coffee … since we’re already up (I doubt I can convey the sarcasm strongly enough).  I guess this means that I will get an early start to head to the ‘burg to visit with Keith, my pups, and my bed today.  Tomorrow, he’s going to come up to Richmond and spend the day with me here. 

So yeah, that’s my day so far and it’s only *looks at clock* 5:41 AM now.  YAY the coffee is ready!

Happy Trails Davis & Nyczepir

But, is it art?

But, is it art?

 So I think (read as hope) that today’s visit at Davis & Nyczepir will be my last follow-up visit.  It has been about 2 years since my braces came off and I’m tired of the whole ordeal.  I mean it’s like any other doctor appointment – you wait for about 30-45 minutes or so, you see the doctor for maybe 5 minutes while he looks at the retainer and yer done. 

I have absolutely no regrets about getting the braces and I’m kinda glad that I didn’t have them when I was a youngster.  The 2 years FLEW by as an adult – though I can tell ya, I cursed the metal brackets MANY times when I wanted to eat out.  There really is no delicate way of trying to pry food out of those things and you hate to excuse yourself from the table every few minutes.  Leafy green things (spinach, kale, turnip greens, collards, salad) were the absolute WORST for me, not to mention 2 years of no popcorn or chewing gum.

My big thing now is remembering to wear my retainers at night when I go to bed.  One of the three of them is fixed so no worries there and putting the other two in my mouth really doesn’t take any effort – it’s just REMEMBERING to do it.  I need a little night time check-list like a 5 year old I guess.

As I said, I have no regrets about doing it – it is really amazing the amount of confidence it gave me.  I don’t cover my mouth like a little Geisha girlwhen I laugh anymore either which I REALLY like.  Now I have to work on making them super, uber white (I guess about 40 years of tea, smoking, and coffee do tend to take their toll on how lustrous your chompers look) – maybe one of those Zoomlaser whiteners?  Then again….lasers…..in my mouth…..mmmmaybe notsomuch.

Gimme My Tights!

 

City of Heroes

City of Heroes

City of Villains

City of Villains

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I’m getting sucked back into CoX (no – you dirty minded sods, CoX is what we who play the game call City of Heroes and City of Villains instead of saying CoH and/or CoV – we’re cool like that) like a good comic book nerd combo MMORPG gamer.  I took a year off of CoX and played WoW (World of Warcraft) but got a bit tired of not being able to team easily.  Really – that’s the whole point of a Massively MULTI-PLAYER Online Role Playing Game.  With CoX, you can get a PUG (Pick Up Group) in no time flat.  This lets me live out my inner hero – really, where else can you fly, teleport, have super speed or super jump?  Fire blasts of electricity, fire, ice, negative energy from your hands or control the elements or plants or or or or…..*boggle* 

Man….there was a time when I would have thought I was an even bigger freak that I am – a gay guy? who like comics? who likes online gaming? OMFGWTFBBQ!!11Eleventy-One!!! Oh Noes!  Then I happened across Gaymer and realized OH SNAP there are actually a TON of gay guys (and a few lesbians too) that are into sci-fi, anime, comics, superheroes, pc and console gaming.  I am not alone! 

Well – gotta run, I’m working on leveling up my level 43 Illusion Controller by doing Portal Missions on Peregrine Island.  

….tights are a little confining…..

Maybe it’s Us?

I swear, yesterday we noticed that the house behind us is now for sale.  So – the house directly across the street; the one diagonally across from us; the house beside us (although I believe this has FINALLY been closed on – at the bargain basement price of $72, 500) and now the house behind us – all for sale.

It’s like those Verizon commercials with the creepy folks saying, “It’s a dead zone” *squinty eyes*

I’m not sure if it’s just folks not being able to afford their houses or if they are just leaving the ‘burg.  The folks across the street had maintained a condo in Richmond for many years and finally said they needed to have one household so they sold the Petersburg house.  The house next door to us has been vacant since the young lady that owned it got killed in a motorcycle accident in October 2007 and her parents figured they would just let the bank repo the house. (Kudos to us for maintaining two yards!)  Not sure what the story is with the folks diagonally across from us, they sort of keep to themselves and Cheryl (behind us) and her husband are an older couple – figure they just don’t need that much house (3100+ square feet) for just the two of them.

Sooooo I doubt it is us – no, really, we’re pretty cool neighbors.

Dreamin’ of Sand and Eggs

My Heaven on Earth.

My Heaven on Earth.

I know that sounds quite unappetizing but to me it is/was a WONDERFUL combination.  This time of year I start reminiscing about Easters and Spring Break in the Outer Banks (OBX for those that know) of North Carolina.  When my sisters and I were young, our paternal grandparents would take us to Nags Head for Easter.  I remember thinking at the time it was a HUGE deal because, if I recall correctly, we usually got out of school a day or two early.  I just remember thinking how neat it was that we got to miss school to go to the beach.

We would always stay at Travelers Inn, which was right across the street Jeannettes Pier (which was MUCH more impressive back in the day – before a hurricane took most of it away), and it had a swimming pool so we thought we were just the cat’s ass – hey we were KIDS what did we know.  My grandmother would hide those individually wrapped Brach’s marshmallow eggs out in the sand and shrubs around the hotel and the kids would hunt for them – making sure we didn’t step on or grab those evil little spinney seed pod thingees. *shudder*  I would always, ALWAYS try to wake up extra early to run across the street and see if, over night, the tides had brought any cool treasures to the beach that I could collect.  I was usually rewarded with bits of driftwood, some mermaid purses, broken shells and the like but, I vividly remember finding a conch shell that was only slightly chipped.  I don’t know what happened to that shell but, for the longest time, I had it in my bedroom while I was a boy at my parents house.

I think those initial trips to the Outer Banks were what started us on – well my – life long love of the place.  Some people like Virginia Beach; some like Myrtle Beach; some like the Florida coast – me….I’ll take the OBX over all of that.  I know my mom loves the place as much as I do.  Eh, I even remember our very first beach house that we rented in Salvo it was the Wimbledome.  We actually were repeat renters at this particular house but then as the years went by, we tried different homes.  The last one that we rented was the Idler – Keith and I rented that for mom because she had always wanted to stay at a house “on the beach” not 1 lot back, not ‘Ocean Side’ but, ON the beach.

We usually prefer to go down a bit further than Kitty Hawk, Nags Head, and Killdevil Hills to places like Salvo, Waves, Rodanthe (yes the recent Richard Gere movie is about this place), Avon etc..  No matter which house we stay in there are 2 prerequisites for a week long vacation in the OBX, we HAVE to go to The Blue Whale or Jobobs Trading Post- it’s in the rules…we just have to – and it wouldn’t be a summer vacation in the OBX without to me (or mom).

I need to start planning for one or more 2010 OBX trips.  I want to take more trips with my nieces and nephews and my parents and such but, I also want to take vacations with “My” family – us, our son & daughter-in-law and of course our granddaughter.  I’ve decided that it’s going to be part of Audrey’s life too once she gets a bit older – going to the OBX.  I hope she falls in love with it as much as I did.

In the meantime I’ll just wax sentimental with my childhood memories of sun, sand, and easter eggs.

Sand and Eggs and Sand

Sand and Eggs and Sand

Wow. Desperate Much?

This morning, the “National Organization for Marriage” launched a disturbing ad using actors to push lies claiming that marriage equalty threatens personal freedoms. The ad is going up on the airwaves across America — eight times a day in California — as NOM seeks to build what they are calling a “rainbow coalition” against equality.

What is REALLY laughable is that they say the people in the ad are not actors but, here are the audition reels – wow some people will do anything for money I guess.  What a bunch of asshats.

Audition Tape 1:

Audition Tape 2:

I guess with the passage of legislation in Vermont and the new same sex ruling in Iowa coupled with MA and CT and the potential for CA to go to same-sex marriage these wackos are getting desperate.