Better now

Though I just heard yet another employee was informed yesterday afternoon of their imminent departure, and I become more certain by the hour that my days here are numbered, I need to rectify yesterday's impression that I'm upset by this news.

It's a complication, yes, and the reason I've stayed in this town as long as I have is completely due to the security of this job and the possibility of retirement, but seriously...if it ends today. So what.

I'll eat. I'll live someplace. And everything is not a life or death crisis. I'll try to keep the apt and the car, and make arrangements to relocate as soon as I can. What the hell? I may as well get started doing the things I have left to do on the current list.

I'm working on plans as I write, so there's always a future, and if there isn't I don't need this fucking job anyway.

Today's morsel:

The Search Begins...again

It's interesting the things you pick up when conversing with co-workers. Today I was visiting with my co-worker in the know, and she told me what happened last week when they pitched out the latest casualty. It apparently wasn't pretty.

But, what I have gleaned from these few conversations I've had this morning is that the new regime is interested in two things, and two things only.

1. To hold as much power as possible and to wield that power with an iron fist.

and

2, To only have people on staff who are so afraid they're willing to say yes to any request.

Obviously my days are numbered.

Now, the person who got pitched last week assured me that I was not on a list. That there are others who are on that list. Unfortunately, the professional demise of two of those people would directly impact me. I can rest assured that I'd wind up doing both of their jobs in addition to my own, and of course wouldn't be able to keep up. This is their plan I guarantee it.

So, starting Monday on such a grim note does not bode well for the rest of the week, but I'll forge ahead. What else is there to do?

It's gray again. After this weekend's non snow event. It was primarily a slush storm. As I always say, "When the weather people give it the big buildup. It ain't gonna happen." That axiom proved true again Saturday.

Happy Trails:

George George George

Pataki just doesn't get it I guess. There seems to be some flap over the people who catually own the new buildings at One World Trade Center not using the name Freedom Tower, which sounds like something George W Bush's cronies came up with.

The people marketing the thing are saying that the address is One World Trade Center and that's what they're using.

George says:

"I think One and Two World Trade Center are sacred names which should never be used again."

What he doesn't apparently understand is that the best tribute we can give to those people is to replace those buildings and use that address in defiance of the people who knocked them down in the first place. But noooooo, we gotta get all in an uproar about sacred words and shit.

What the fuck do you think incited those folks to begin with George?

Happy HGF!

On this gray rainy Friday morning I thought I'd continue to celebrate the regular guy. He's the best anyway. Who really wants that buff movie star except in our fantasies? Not me.

Our little rain shower is supposed to turn into a full fledged snow storm later today. I thought it was spring? Well, it'll give me time to catch up at home. I'm certainly not going to the stables in the fucking snow.

Class was very cool last night. I appear to have a bunch of students who though they haven't made the leap from english comp, to cogent analysis are very interested in doing so. Always glad to play with intelligent people who think that stuff is fun like I do.

Corection-it's not rain it's sleet. Ought to be a charming drive to stress filled work today. TGIF.

Here they are-

And so it goes...

The bloodbath has apparently begun here in library-land. Yet another person with whom I was aligned is carrying her things to the car as we speak.

It wasn't pretty.

oy!

What is it about apartment living?

What is it that people don't understand when they live in apartments? They seem to think that it's their personal domain..all of them...and that whatever they do we're supposed to tolerate.

I'm a little cranky this morning, my neighbor was banging on the walls at 4:30, quite the feat considering that it's all but impossible to hear your neighbor in our complex, but he managed to get me awake. I was so grateful. Then just as I managed to doze off I was again awakened by another neighbor who runs some kind of construction or painting business out of his apartment, without a business license I might add, which I know since I called the city last summer about it. Anyway, his employees gather in our parking lot and visit while warming up their 3 vans and preparing for the days work. I've spoken with the landlord about this numerous times and he's addressed it with the guy. They at least don't do it under my deck anymore, which I guess is about the best I can hope for. But all this activity ended about 6am, by which time I was up anyway, so I was wide awake for the 7:30 trash pickup.

A word of advice. DO NOT live on the parking lot side of an apartment complex. I'm sooo awaiting this summer when I get an apt on the wooded side of the complex.

But today is more putting out fires, more meetings, and more catching up. Oh there'll be some teaching in there too. I hope. I'm gonna be good and worn out by that time so they're watching a video.

Here's today's morsel...enjoy pervs:



I realize he looks like he knows how good he looks, but seriously, if you looked this good wouldn't you be proud to flaunt it?

Love

Oh God! I'm officially a victim of generation gap!

I just read an item on Towleroad.com that made me feel really really old. Well, not the item, but the response to it.

ABC put two guys in a sports bar and hired an actor to play a raging homophobe and go off on them when they made PDA. Most of the guys in the bar came to their defense, but then they chose relatively safe New Jersey. I'd have liked to see them try it in oh, say, Arkansas, or Indiana, or hell, even here in the land of OZ. I doubt they'd have had such a lukewarm reaction then.

But what surprised me was the debate of the commenters on towleroad. So far today there have been two debates about things that happened in the past and I find it interesting the views that younger gay men and women hold on the past. I don't know anything of their knowledge on the subject so I can't speak to how informed they are, but it was notable that the past seems to hold little of value when it comes to experience.

Shit! I'm old. I Just knew that would happen!

Yes indeed times have changed, but I have to wonder if the testers aren't skewing the results for ratings.

Let's see some real world events and THEN we'll see what experience teaches.

Researching Macbeth for my Thursday class. I'm trying NOT to go over their heads, but there is just some stuff I feel I have to say. I've got all of April to work on it with them, so, though I hope they have a good time, I guarantee I will.

Here's a little morsel for your viewing pleasure.


I'm thinking of starting another blog just for this purpose. I can warn off those who're squeamish and then misbehave a little. Sounds like fun to me. Let's see if I have time.

Love

Put out that fire!

I can already tell that today is going to be damage control day. I have three issues so far that are on fire and there is someone pacing back and forth outside my door.

It's gray and rainy, though this afternoon promises to be springy. I wish I could just go get my bike and ride all afternoon. But NOOOOO, I get to stay here and put our fires.

On top of which indignity, I'm on the second day of a weight loss program. It's fruit day, and not the good kind. I start the day with a meat sandwich, which is totally gross for breakfast. I assume that's the plan, you take a bite of the meat sandwich, you yak into the sink, you go to work and eat nothing but fruit the rest of the day.

And my damn boss won't allow me to drink gin in my office.

So unfair.

Maybe I'll mount a protest, if I still have the strength after nothing but fruit all day.

Speaking of fires...

Busy, Busy

I loved spring break. It's effects lasted all of 40 minutes when I returned to work this morning.

On the way in I noticed that gasoline, whose price, mind you, is not tied to the price of oil has risen another fifteen cents. They must think we're pretty fucking stupid.

Got myself a cute new Chiropractic student. Actually he seems like a nice guy, but I'll nee to train him how to crack these old bones. He's way too gentle. He got a little leverage working there at the end, but there needs to be some oomph in the early stuff. I'll learn him.

Speaking of learning, I start a computer class today. It's an easy one I'm sure, It's that prereq I'm always getting yelled at about when I try to sign up for other stuff, so I better remember to visit that website today and see what's up with it.

Came back to work with no changes noted. Everything and everyone still running in circles with their hair on fire and their panties up their ass. In other words a normal monday.

I spring cleaned the apt this past week. You know how house projects go awry at the worst possible moment and in the worst possible way? Well, I was washing windows and Monica was cleaning the kitchen cabinets and I thought, "well, I'll just remove this plastic grill from over the window in this door leading to the deck and wash the window and put the grill back. I got out my trusty DeWalt cordless drill/driver and took out all the screws, except one. I tugged on the grill and saw there was one more screw down low I needed to get out. This was when the moment came. There I stood, rather squatted, and watched this double pane window pitch itself outward toward the deck, and away from any possibility of me grabbing it, in slow motion, as I kept thinking, "Now HOW will I explain this?"

If you recall I'm always bitching about how everyone overuses the word miracle, well now it's my turn. The damn thing fell straight out and onto the deck without a scratch. IT WAS A MIRACLE!!! Demeaned, but undaunted I grabbed it took off the outer grill, washed the window and put the damn thing back into place. Never to touch it again.

Well, off to attempt to catch up on work that's two weeks late.

Is my islander friend heading for the mainland and Tennessee in a few weeks? I have to wonder with all the silence from the Pacific.

It's so absolutely New Mexico and a late HGF!

Hi! I'm back, I vacated a little too much, and now I have to make up for lost time. So I'll be busy all weekend doing all those things I swore I'd do while I was on spring break. All I really got done was a lot of riding.

But today I ran across a story that could only happen in New Mexico. If one has a time capsule and wants it buried in New Mexico, make sure you do it right then and in full public view or:

"Santa Fe's 1960 time capsule was never buried
Project ditched 40 years ago; tube was used as shelf for 'useless objects'"
Msnbc

Apparently in 1960 they celebrated the 350 anniversary of Santa Fe and though they were off by more than a few years, as they found out later, they intended to bury a time capsule. However,the mayor at the time just put the shelf in the back of his shop and used it as a shelf, never buried it, never put anything in it, so New Mexico. Ya gotta love 'em.

Sorry I wasn't around yesterday for HGF but here is a little something to makeup for that. Continuing the theme from last week.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Ok,look. I'm on vacation but apparently stupidity doesn't have vacation so I needed to stop by and weigh in on the AIG bonuses.

"Contracts can't just be abrogated?" Larry Summers says.

Who're you kidding?

They've got some real powerful ammunition they're holding us hostage with or this would not be happening.

Contracts are canceled,altered, set aside, and ignored ALL THE FUCKING TIME!!!! Anyone ever heard of contract law? Do you think attorneys would invent a whole arm of their profession for something that WASN'T lucrative?

Don't give me that bullshit!

What I'd like to know is what they're NOT telling us. Cause they REALLY REALLY do not want us to know. It must be pretty scary.

Write your representatives and senators and even Barry himself and tell them all that you know this is bullshit and you've had enough. It'll do little good, but just maybe we can keep others from making political hay out of this ridiculousness.

I'm so tired of getting indiscriminately screwed...and not in a good way.

Well, that's all for now, I'm off to the stables.

Enjoy St.Paddy's day...don't drink too much, tomorrow is a work day. (for you)

Love

Hot Guy Friday!!

Today I thought I'd celebrate the average college guy. He gets a lot of attention and rightly so. A lot of them are F-I-N-E!

Some of their activities are suspect though-



Seriously.

Have a great weekend.

I'm vacating til the 23rd.

Love

BTW I need to mention a comment I received on my post "I Love Chi-town" I really really wanted to publish it. BUT! as you will see in a minute it wouldn't do most of us any good cause it looked like this.

中部人聊天室,聊天室交友

After I parsed it and translated it to english (sort of) I noticed a web address, which I went to. The author of the comment doesn't get the point of this blog AT ALL. Turns out the comment was a link to a heterosexual porn site in chinese. Wow, someone is clueless huh?

I love Chi-town!

The obviously not unattractive young men of Alpha Delta Phi were on hand this week to welcome Fred Phelps' kin to Chicago. Enjoy the video. I concur with Andy Towle, Red shorts and white bathrobe is a hit.



-video courtesy of Towleroad

Quite the week

After teaching ALL the librarians in a local school district new software, and discovering that librarians are quite the sexists, (men do technical stuff and lift and tote, creative stuff isn't for them) AND giving not one or two, but THREE mid term exams, along with working two evenings at the grocery, I've had quite the week.

But I'm back, and though I'd love for things to settle down to normal today, I now get to do ALL that work I neglected while training this week. Isn't this fun???

But next week I'm GONE DO YOU HEAR ME!!! G-O-N-E!!!!!!

It'll be me a horse, a laptop, and an Ipod. That's it. No communication with the outside world will take place. I'm taking a tent and a sleeping bag and some food and heading off to camp and sleep. It portends to be a bit colder than I'd hoped, but I'm doing it anyway.

As we know I do not love the Republican party. A few Republicans and a few reformed, absolutely, but the party...not so much. However, today I read something on Towleroad quoting Michael Steele as saying he doesn't believe that gay is a choice. "I think that there’s a whole lot that goes into the makeup of an individual that, uh, you just can’t simply say, oh, like, 'Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being gay.' It’s like saying, 'Tomorrow morning I’m gonna stop being black.'”

First time I EVER heard a black person make that equation. Perhaps there is hope that African Americans' will not forever look upon civil rights as their personal territory. That would be nice.

Tomorrow is Hot Guy Friday and I can't wait. I'm thinking college guys. For all the obvious reasons. So I'm off to shop.

Love

It's Monday!?!?!

How is this possible? I watched a mediocre musical at the school this weekend, viewed a very mediocre film called Harry and Max (puhleez,) and got thrown by a green-broke three year old. Oh and it rained a lot too.

Other than that the weekend was uneventful. Oh, wait, not true. I also spent Friday with friends that was fun.

Bryce Johnson is a cute straight boy who somehow keeps getting cast as a gay boy doing wrong. In Nip/Tuck he was a married solider who went to Mcnamara/Troy to get some war scars repaired, and wound up having sex with one of the dr's. And in Harry and Max, he was cast as a boyband brother who has incestuous sex with his brother. at first he doesn't want a repeat performance, but then he changes his mind...I think. The movie was such a damn mess I couldn't really tell.

I mean if a film is about incest it really has to be about that. It's something of an attention grabber. Yet this film persisted in being about as many things as the director/writer could think of. It was about boy bands and their pitfalls, it was about bad family relationships, it was about brotherly bonds and crossing lines. It was about sexual confusion. It was about familial relationships, and relationships with women...oh and men, I forgot about the older guy Max was sleeping with on the sly, whom Harry seduces. It was about...well you see what I mean. At over an hour into the proceedings we were introduced to a new character who made an appearance that was all of 2 minutes long and we never saw her again! How do you explain that?

It was reminiscent of the incident last week in which this straight guy at work informed me that some of his best friends are gay. I just stood there with my jaw on the floor. And the longer this mess of a movie went on the closer to the floor my jaw got. Munch (the director) might want to stick to directing, this foray into writing...not so great.

Big week. Midterms today and Thursday. Which I should write btw, I've already decided the questions, but they need to be on paper I guess. Big project at work every day. No day off from any of the jobs, and somewhere in there I have to pay bills and do the checkbook. hehe, we'll see about that.

Have a nice week I can't promise I'll be around but I'll try.



See, there was every reason to pay attention to this movie, but the script made it damn near impossible. How do you make a guy this cute unwatchable?

Hot Guy Friday

You knew this was coming, and you've probably already seen it. But I don't really care, this IS about me after all.


To quote Sylvester the cat...

Thaketh!

Bashing Bashing

Acquittals over gay bashing in Spain, Murder on the street in London, demonstrations in California and New York. And the rest of us sit here doing nothing.

Yes, I always think the motives of coastal gays are suspect. Yes, I always think we're sitting on our hands. Yes, I think that revolution I've talked about is being foreshadowed. And yet...we do little to nothing to change the course.

That's not to say that the course of revolution needs to be changed. I think it's a good and necessary thing. It clears the cobwebs, as it were. And we've certainly been blinded by some cobwebs these past few years.

Blabbeando: "27 year old Isaac Ali Dani Peréz Triviño was born in Spain. 32 year old Julio Anderson Luciano was born in Brazil. They lived together in the Spanish province of Vigo and were planning to get married. Both were stabbed to death by Jacobo Piñeiro Rial in their apartment in the early morning of January 13th, 2006.

Demonstrations are planned in Vigo, Spain this weekend, and now one has been set up by New Yorkers in solidarity.

Vigils were held across California on Wednesday night in anticipation of the Supreme Court arguments on the constitutionality of the voter-passed Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state and revoked the marriage rights of millions of people.

Yesterday I posted about the anti-gay attack at Robert's Lafitte, a gay-friendly bar in Galveston, Texas. Three men (photo, below) were arrested after one held open a door and the other two hurled rocks at the customers inside. The men are now being held on $120,000 bond and hate crime enhancements have been added to their charges.

A man and his partner were attacked in the Bromley area of southeast London last night. One of the men died of stab wounds on his doorstep. His partner managed to "stagger" to a neighbor's house to call for assistance. He is in critical condition.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the state capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina to attend a rally sponsored by Return America and NC4Marriage yesterday.

And perhaps the most sure sign of revolution or the apocalypse I'm still not sure which:

Vanilla Ice apologizes — for everything!

Levity aside, these developments need to be heeded. Something is very wrong in a country that cannot stop debating the phrase "Pursuit of Happiness"

I cannot imagine the founding fathers had only hate, heterosexuals and Christians in mind when they drafted the Declaration of Independence. I realize this country was founded by just such zealots, but maybe it's time for even THAT to change.

I do honestly consider all the time how possible it is that I could be targeted by someone who's crazed by my sexuality. I don't curtail my life nor activities for it, that would be giving in to their terrorism, but it's always there in the back of my mind. I have, many times thought, "How many times in my life have I gotten into strange cars with guys I did not know and gone off someplace secluded to smoke dope?"
That's likely what Matthew Shepard did, and look what it got him? Poor thing got crucified for his troubles. And because he was young he got martyred. Us old people seem to "get what we deserve."

Puzzling that we get worth less as we get older.

It's also puzzling to me that the mayor of San Diego looks at his daughter like she accomplished something he never thought she would. It seems to me that because of who we love we are handicapped. That we are automatically limited in most people's minds, no matter how talented, how creative, how intelligent we are, we are thought of as incapable of overcoming the odds and accomplishing anything. What does who we love have to do with our abilities?

Perhaps that's why we always wind up dead or crazy in films. Except in The Talented Mr. Ripley, in which we got both.

I have to wonder if anyone will take a stand today. If anyone who feels oppressed will empower themselves even for a moment and stand up and be counted as a member of the human race. Not a disabled homo who can't get there cause they love someone who's not acceptable to most of society. I have to wonder if the revolution will extend to us all.

I'd like to see that. Unfortunately, I have to talk about Death of A Salesman, all day. Love the play, but it's NOT what I want to talk about today.

(-all references in italics courtesy of towleroad.com)

Sometimes the Gods smile upon me

And smile they have.

HGF has been decided by the Hot Hunky Gods.

I can't wait. I'm almost speechless.

Almost.


Perhaps it's the effort required not to drown when I'm salivating so much.

Back to reality

Had a meeting yesterday with someone more in the know on the grapevine than I am. After that I'm pretty sure that July 1 is going to be a bloodbath around here. It amazes me the number of people who are interested in stirring up trouble at a time when one should be keeping their head down and their mouth shut. Alas, there are those who fly in the face of reality like I mentioned the other day.

The meeting, which I could not believe, was about the stupid Issue I think I've mentioned here before. The extremely simple job that has been turned into a THING THAT WILL NOT GO AWAY. I'm stupified over it all.

The person in the know assured me that I was not one of those on the chopping block. Yet! I don't believe her. Not that she isn't sincere and wouldn't tell me anything she knows, but that there is something more nefarious going on around here than we're aware of, and we won't really know until July 1.

I keep mentioning that date but in reality I'm thinking that ther is some law that requires they give 60 days notice to people getting laid off and info about those getting laid off with them. So that moves the date back to May 1, when I would know for sure.

One of the many things I find interesting is that we've always operated 18months ahead on our budget AND with a slush fund to cover contingencies. All that is gone now apparently. This tells me that someone has done something ever so slightly illegal in moving those funds from our budget to that of the larger agency that we operate under. But no matter, I'm not a crusader against graft in one of the most graft-laden municipalities in the country. Let someone else take up that mantle.

I'm hoping not to be working at a convenience store by the end of the summer. I bet they'd make little use of my Master's degree.

But here's something to cheer you. At least it did me.




why so serious...

Like THAT'S News!

Suddenly it's news that DADT was a put up job.

Like no one knew that we were, as usual, getting raped in public with the full cooperation and assistance of the United States Congress.

I'm a bit dumbfounded as to why, suddenly when all this is coming to light, that people are surprised.

We got screwed on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and we've always known it.

I doubt Obama will get much more done. It's now public knowledge that it was religious fervor that made DADT happen in the first place.

I'm tellin you, there's gonna have to be a war about this shit.

It's not gonna be resolved any other way. Neither side will give an inch, and the middle won't side with us.

Let's hope it's not necessary and that someone comes to their senses.

question

Has anyone in the democratic party paid taxes in the last decade?

Anonymity

I think my recent theme of ignorance may have been a bit prescient. This weekend I came across several incidences in my own experience that demonstrated to me how ignorant our populace really is.

These are people I know and love so I won't name any names, and I won't tell the stories of what happened, but I learned that people really do believe that Barack Obama is a muslim and that this is their way of taking over the United States. I learned that people really do think that George W. Bush was well intentioned in his actions the past 8 years, and that his first concern was for the American people.

I have to ask, how is it that people can honestly be blind to reality? How can they think that an administration that plain lied to us, by telling us they weren't listening to ALL of our communications, when they were, by telling us we don't torture when we were, by telling us "the foundations of the economy are strong." when they weren't, AND THEY KNEW IT! By responding to the statement that "2/3 of Americans say the war in Iraq is not worth fighting." with the single word, "So."

My issue here is not so much with George and Dick, they're history and I'm not so into railing about them as I was when they were in office. I'm really going to try not to be one of those people who rails about the last guy a decade after he left office. Like some people still do about a blow job. But my issues here are with our government in toto.

How can our government say it acts responsibly, no matter WHO is in the White house, no matter WHO is in the majority in congress when people are allowed to be as stupid as the American Public apparently is.

We chose them to lead. We chose them to provide us with the basic tools necessary to succeed in being and remaining a superpower. We asked them to give us the tools to hold that position. And they not only fail us, they willfully deprive us of the very thing we should be given a surplus of. Education.


If he succeeds in giving us health care, more power to him, if he succeeds in halving the deficit, more power to him, BUT, he needs to expand and empower the educational system. He needs to rid us of all these egotistical bureaucrats who currently are running the system into the ground and re-create our educational system so that no child really is left behind. So that the system that is geared to the lowest common denominator will also serve those who CAN succeed. So that those who are willing and interested in excelling will be able to do so and not drowned in the mediocrity they're forced to endure every single day of their lives in classrooms all over this country.

It's not just his responsibility, it's everyones. We have to stand up and demand our right to a quality education. Not one that's handed out by people who happen to have a B.A. and passed the certification tests, but by people who earnestly believe in the value of learning and are passionate about sharing that belief.