Category: Uncategorized

…but after a little over two years here, it’s simply become a case of “it is what it is.”

Of course it doesn’t help matters that the past nine months have, in general, simply sucked.

0 comments

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…

Why?

June 26, 2008

One question that’s gripped me in regards to the current situation in this country is a simple, “Why?”

Why are the Republicans and their supporters so hell bent on destroying the planet? Why are they hell bent on everlasting war in the Middle East? Why are they so obsessed with what everyone else does in their bedrooms, when their own desires are so often revealed to be festering cesspools of hypocrisy?

Why is McCain such a fucktard? I mean, seriously. Eight years ago he was someone who—while I did not like—I at least had a modicum of respect for. But now? The man can’t even present a consistent message from hour to hour, much less day to day. This is the best the Republicans can come up with? And for the love of all that is holy, why is this man following George Bush’s playbook when the smirking chimp is riding on a 23% approval rating that’s falling by the hour?

Why is the Republican Wingnut Brigade so vehemently attacking Barack Obama, a man who by all rights has done nothing but rekindled hope in this country, something that has been absent from our collective consciousness for nearly a decade? (Nevermind. I guess I answered my own question there.)

Why are so-called Christian leaders in this country acting in ways completely opposite the teachings of their savior, and why haven’t the true followers of those teachings risen up and denounced these screeching harpies for what they are? Why has “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” turned into “Hate everyone who doesn’t agree with you?”

The question of what causes men to do evil has perplexed philosophers for thousands of years, so I seriously doubt I’ll ever have any rational answer to any of these questions, or even an answer to what can be done to enlighten these poor souls who seem so wrapped up in their own darkness and destruction.

When I started upon my spiritual path nearly 30 years ago, one of my very first teachers told me, “Evil has no power over you. It is impotent. In order for it to flourish you must first give it permission.” It’s a lesson that’s stuck with me and has been perfectly illustrated during the last eight years as the people of this country have blithely handed the proverbial keys to the kingdom over to the forces of darkness.

Now the question is, how do we get those keys back?

0 comments

2 comments

As those of you who come here directly (vs. using a RSS reader) may have noticed, I’ve changed the visual theme that the blog uses. It has only recently come to my attention that you can no longer comment directly from the main pages, but instead have to open the individual posts. Sorry for the confusion. You’re still welcome to leave your thoughts…you just have to go through an extra click to do it.

An extra click? OMG, I know, right?

4 comments

Oh yeah, it’s because our going-on-eight-months-now “houseguest”—who apparently was never taught how to close a door quietly when she was a child—can’t sleep and therefore believes that no one should be able to.

1 comments

Just once, I’d like to open up my RSS reader and see this for realz. Imagine a day without anything stupid going on in the world; no war updates, no stupid religious bigotry, no rumors of Apple’s NEXT. BIG. THING., no pr0n resembling gymnastic competitions…

What an awesome day that would be!

I guess there’s always the option of just not opening the reader…

0 comments

1 comments

0 comments

0 comments

“I’m not retiring until every American agrees with me.” ~ Talk Show Impersonator and Oxycontin Addict Rush Limbaugh, July 2008

0 comments

“If Obama wins, I’ll leave the country.” ~ has been actor and right-wing born again nutjob Stephen Baldwin, July 2008

1 comments

0 comments

Maybe if you’d join the rest of us in the 21st Century you wouldn’t be the world’s pariah. From the looks of it, even your so-called friends think you’re an asshole.

3 comments

0 comments

0 comments

0 comments

0 comments

0 comments

0 comments

 globalmovement:

An intelligent human would ask the question, “Why are our governments completely ignoring the Japanese Nuclear Meltdown from the #fukashima reactor? The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) admitted enormous leaks of radioactive water are pouring into the Pacific Ocean. What is the worse is the water leakage everywhere else – not just from the tanks TEPCO is storing of radioactive water. It is leaking out from the basements, it is leaking out from the cracks all over the place into the groundwater. Nobody can measure that.
They are entering the oceans at levels that then will accumulate in seafood and will cause new health concerns. This is a disaster. The Japanese are asking for immediate help. No foreign bankers seem to care. They’re too interested in starting WWIII. Obama’s got no control of the White house. And millions of people have no idea of anything going on outside of TV Land. Those who act unreasonable get the government they deserve. People gotta come together with the wisdom out there if you expect to survive with goodness for all. Point blank. The end is always on its way. Life is finite. It is our duty to uphold the Universal Law, “The Will to do Good.”

3 comments

0 comments

I’m not obsessed. Really.

Hands off, bitch! He’s mine!

Okay, maybe a little obsessed.

3 comments

…of my insurance before it runs out at the end of August.

I’ve been a bad boy. I haven’t seen a dentist since we left Phoenix. I was reasonably confident that everything was okay, because I brush, floss, and rinse twice a day, but I really wanted a cleaning, so I made a last-minute appointment with the dentist my primary care doctor recommended. The hygienist complimented me. “Whatever you’ve been doing, keep doing it!”

There were a couple very minor issues; an ancient filling that should be replaced and a chipped incisor—but nothing that can’t wait until I’m working again and fully reinsured.

1 comments

It was a very toasty 108℉ in Phoenix on that late spring day when I popped into the world. The sun was in Gemini and the Moon was in rising on the eastern horizon in Libra. I could tell you the position of every other planet as well, but what’s the point? I now believe in that stuff as much as I believe that a Jewish community activist rose from the dead 2000 years ago.

While I have no conscious recollection of it, there are plenty of family photos to prove that shortly after my first birthday, my folks and I flew back to Green Bay, where we met up with my mom’s side of the family and then drove to my grandparents’ home in western Massachusetts where we spent the remainder of the summer. This was to become an every-other-year family tradition (sometimes with my dad, sometimes without) until they relocated to Arizona in the early 1970s.

My earliest memory was noticing the way the light fell from below the drawn window shade on the painted concrete block wall next to my bed while I was supposed to be napping. From this, I can ascertain I was probably less than two years old, because the next oldest memories are of my second birthday. My folks threw a backyard wading-pool party and invited all the neighbor kids (it was a recently built neighborhood full of new families, all part of the baby boom).

The next year, we made the trek to Wisconsin and Massachusetts and moved from our home in Scottsdale to central Phoenix, where we took up residence in an adorable bungalow built in the late 30s located in what was to become 40 years later the very trendy—and very expensive—Willo neighborhood. During our time there however, it was neither. (I remember it being full of working families and retirees who’d probably moved into their homes when they were new.) It was a cute little place with two bedrooms, hardwood floors, a huge back yard with orange trees and a detached garage—and which now possessed a very curious three year old who recently learned how to use a screwdriver and wasted no time in sneaking off to remove the dials from the backyard gas meter. True story! (My mom and recently gone back to work, leaving me in the care of a part-time housekeeper.) Needless to say, it was a miracle I didn’t blow the house—and myself—to smithereens that day.

After that little incident, Mom quit her job and I never saw the housekeeper again.

Two years later, just as I was starting kindergarten, I was told there was going to be an addition to the family. My sister was on the way, necessitating yet another move. I was thrilled at the prospect of having a sibling, but not so thrilled at the though of moving away from the friends I’d made in the neighborhood. I hated kindergarten, so that was also a plus, but it meant that I would forever be branded a kindergarten drop out.

Susan was born the following April, and I adored her unconditionally from the moment she appeared in my life.

1 comments

Aardman Animation director Darren Dubicki created this surreal video to promote BBC Radio 2′s tribute to Pink Floyd’s classic Dark Side of the Moon, by playwright Tom Stoppard. If you have an hour or so to spare, the entire radio play (starting at 4:12) that inspired this video can be heard here.

0 comments

We wash our sheets religiously every week. When I was single it was every other week.

But only once every three months? That’s disgusting!

From Towleroad:

A new study released by the UK mattress company Ergoflex recently revealed, after documenting the linen habits of over 2,000 British men and women, that young, single men change their sheets the least often, reportedly only doing so once every three months on average. Most also report only owning one set of bed sheets, as opposed to women who reported owning an average of three different sheet sets.

Time helped summarize some of the results of the study based on certain demographics:

“Single women reported swapping linens every two and a half weeks, while couples claimed to change sheets every two weeks. Of those couples, the study found 81% of those washing the sheets were women. Of the 2,004 interviewed, on average men admitted to owning only one set of sheets while women estimated around three selections.

“Though it’s clear that females are cleaner overall, the results found that age is a factor as well. For those who answered once every three months, 55% were ages 18 to 25 with men accounting for 71%, while those who claimed to wash sheets once a week were in the 35 to 50 age range. Of the weekly washers, 62% were female. Indeed, 17% of single men participating in the study admitted that partners found their unhygienic practices unnerving compared to just 2% of women.”

Young mens’ unclean bedroom habits can lead to a buildup of dead skin, dander, body secretions and bacteria, according to experts. Such a buildup can potentially lead to respiratory problems. According to Time, those same experts recommend that people change and/or wash their bed sheets once a week for that very same reason. “One person can perspire as much as a liter in a night—even more if you have a lot of covers,” said Philip M. Tierno Jr., director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, to the Wall Street Journal. He also explained how fungal mold, fungal spores, lint, fibers, pollen, soil and cosmetics can all accumulate in the fibers of bed sheets. Those, along with other bodily residues, can potentially serve as food to microscopic mites, which can nest in your sheets and leave their feces behind.

Jed MacEwan, a spokesman for Ergoflex, told the UK’s The Daily Mail how he was absolutely taken aback by the results. “We were quite alarmed at the apparent lack of basic hygiene from some respondents,” he said. The shade…

5 comments

While we’re on the subject of early works…

Both were done as gifts, and no longer in my possession.

0 comments

Y’all didn’t know that I painted, did you?

This was done over the span of one particularly emotional weekend; each of the stars was individually dotted in by hand.

2 comments

My bedroom at my parents’ house, 1978. Yes, I was a gay geek.

Those espresso walls were an experiment. They lasted about 3 months. My mom used to joke that the only thing holding my room up were layers of paint.

I wish I still had that Donna Summer poster—not to mention that original Hildebrandt Star Wars…

1 comments

Gotta be some kind of record.

1 comments