October 2006

Clueless, As Usual.

Since I didn’t come home for lunch yesterday and because I had school last night, I am catching up on my daily blog reading this morning. It has been very interesting, and as usual, proves yet again that I am completely clueless about some things as I exist in my own little rosy world.

Apparently some bloggers are accused of plagarizing material from another blogger. They change the names, alter the location, and viola “the very same thing happened to them!”. Word for word! To me that’s just wrong. Now I will admit that I have found other blog entries quite inspiring over the years, inspiring enough for me to write a similar story of something equally as interesting/humorous/etc that happened to me. But the thought of lifting material from another blog without giving the original poster their props has never crossed my mind. I’ve borrowed pictures, I’ve lifted quotes once or twice, but I’ve always directed my gentle reader to whereever I lifted the stuff from.

I guess I’ve never thought of blogging as a competition. But then again, I’ve always lived in my own little existence.

Spam.

I think I’m going to go ballistic about spam. Lately I’ve been getting several hundred e-mails a day offering me all sorts of pills, potions and other mists and assorted self improvement items. Then we have the wainkers telling me my Key Bank ATM card expired. Of course it did, I closed the account in 1988 when I moved to Massachusetts. It’s funny how these things catch up to you.

I’m thinking of relying solely on the .Mac e-mail account and getting rid of my jpnearl.com e-mail account for a month or two so that I can tell the spam to basically shove off. But then I feel like the spammers have actually won.

Do people really believe these spam messages or are they just out there now to annoy people? I can’t imagine anyone really believing that they can forward an e-mail and get paid by Microsoft for doing it. Hello? Where did Microsoft get your mailing address to send the check? Please people, think before you click. I blame AOL. They’re the ones that brought the internet to the masses with their caps lock nimrods and ridiculous abbreviations. Personally, I don’t believe a single person that says LOL to something I type. I find it hard to believe that they actually laughed out loud. They might have smiled, perhaps giggled, but if I was “LOL” funny I’d be doing stand-up as the warm up act for Rosie O’Donnell or something, not sitting here venting in a blog that probably no one reads.

Spam? Feed it to me, don’t send it to me.

Dreams.

It’s a little after six in the morning and I’m fully showered, dressed and ready to kick off my day. I’m sitting here, in complete darkness save for the light from my computer, still a little dazed from the sound sleep I had last night and the ensuing dreams that accompanied it.

Earl is always amazed when I tell him about my dreams almost every morning. He’s surprised that I can remember most of my dreams. Is that normal? I remember my dreams from almost every night and every catnap I take. Some dreams are very vivid and memorable in their detail. On the other hand some are very foggy, almost as if I had watched the action through a thick haze or participated covered in molasses. Nevertheless, if I can’t remember the detail of the dream, I can remember the impression that it made upon me and how I felt or currently feel because of it.

I think dreaming is the main reason I love sleeping. For me it’s like going to a movie where I’m the star of an infinite number of shows and I have no idea what’s going to be playing on the big screen.

Goodness, I’m weird.

Decisions.

Earl is heading to Tampa this weekend to catch the Eagles game. I was originally suppose to be on-call this weekend, but I swapped with a co-worker to be a nice guy, so I won’t be going to Tampa with Earl.

What to do.

I see a road trip in my future this weekend. A really long road trip so that I can enjoy the Acura before buttoning it up for the winter. I’ve narrowed down my choices to Indiana, Massachusetts or Tennessee. Maybe Maine.

Such decisions to make.

And Mother Nature Was There Too.

So last night I DJ’d for the first time in a long while in the fine city of Buffalo, N.Y. Still recovering from their early blizzard the day before, many parts of the city were still without power and there were downed trees everywhere. And I mean *everywhere*.

Despite this, there was power in the downtown area, so we met up with our friends Steve and Tim and Tony and Bob and went to dinner at a little place called Fat Bob’s. The food was pretty good and the company was excellent. It had been way too long since we’d seen our friends in Buffalo, so we had a lot of catching up to do. Afterwards we went to bear night at Buddies where I played music for a small crowd. A really small crowd. Like 50 people tops. Nevertheless, I had a good percentage of those in attendance on the dance floor. Our friend Steve even tipped me for a request: “You Spin Me ‘Round” by Dead or Alive. (Note to self: while the tip was much appreciated, I need to buy Steve a drink or two). I played all my music from my PowerBook, Hercules USB DJ console and the program Traktor and it performed flawlessly. I was quite pleased with my performance last night, if I do say so myself, and the bar owner asked me to come back out there again.

Now Earl and I are installed back at home and ready to take on the work week. And I’m ready for my next DJ gig.

Saturday Night 70s Chic.

Long before Destiny’s Child butchered this song a couple of years ago, we had Samantha Sang’s (with a little help from the Bee Gees) “Emotion”.

Here’s the video on YouTube. Enjoy.

Buffalo, N. Y.

The sign on the Thruway proclaimed “Exit 48, Route 98, Batavia, 1 mile”. Having already driven 2 1/2 hours, sat in a traffic jam and seen two accidents along “New York’s Main Street”, we were still headed west toward Buffalo. Notorious for their cold and snow, the Buffalo area had already had a major snowstorm within the past 48 hours, where over two feet of snow had fallen.

And it was a wet, heavy snow.

Even though we’d only gotten as far as Batavia, with almost 40 miles to go until we reached the Buffalo area, there was evidence of a winter wonderland all around us. The colors of the fall foliage was punctuated with a background of white. And it was beautiful.

As we made our way into the city, everywhere you looked was snow. Snow, snow, snow. And lots and lots of downed trees and tree limbs. And dark traffic signals. It seems kind of extraneous to be DJing at a bar in downtown Bufffalo tonight, when large sections of the area still are without power. But, as they say, the show must go on, and tonight I’ll be doing my thing and trying to keep the party goers pumped for a fun evening.

Let’s hope the power stays on.

October 13, 1996.




October 13, 1996.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

We’d only been living together for a month. Heck, we’d only been dating for six months. He’d met the family once or twice and my father still referred to him as “the guy with the tattoo on his leg.” I’d met his family and they didn’t know what to think of me. They were wondering how the two of us fit into a single bed that one weekend we’d spent with them. And here we were climbing a mountain in the Adirondacks together.

What had Earl gotten himself into?

“There better be something worth looking at up here”, he proclaimed. “There is, I promise”, hoping to sound reassuring. I was loving the experience, the smell of the autumn air, the unusually warm October day, the vibrant colors found at this time of year in this part of the state.

A small notion at the back of my head made me wonder if Earl really had known what he’d gotten himself into when he saddled up with the likes of me. We traveled the well-worn path hrough the trees. The climb was steady, but not terribly difficult. There had been enough traffic through here to keep any sort of wildlife quiet. I had to remember that I had fallen in love with a “city boy” of sorts who, while not afraid of a challenge by any means, still had to wash his hands after petting a cow or still was amazed at the “hair styles” on the chickens at the State Fair.

And here I was taking him to the top of a mountain.

After the half hour or so climb, we came upon a rocky, flat area. We had reached the top. Twenty or so people in groups of different sizes, some accompanied by their dogs, had already reached the same destination. And they were overlooking the Fulton Chain of Lakes just as we were. The beauty was inspiring. The vibe was serene.

The moment was *perfect*.

We took in a few moments of scenery when I turned to Earl, took him by the hand, and led him off the rocky area and onto a bed of pine needles. The evergreens loomed majestically over us.

I looked at him for a moment, my stomach churned as I took a breath and he looked at me, and almost instinctively knew what I was about to do.

“Don’t do it unless you mean it.”, he cautioned. He was already tearing up.

It was at that moment that I got down on my knee, in front of twenty people in groups of various sizes, some accompanied by their dogs, and said, “The past six months have been amazing. I think I’ve been looking for you all my life. Will you marry me?”

I was tearing up myself at that point.

It was then that he responded with a “yes”.

It was kind of odd that I proposed to him, or that he would even propose to me, because Earl and I don’t really fit into the “traditional roles” that most expect of gay couples. We both can be very aggressive. We both can be very passive. We both can lead and both of us can follow. It’s a matter of synchronization I guess, and well, because it was meant to be, it works for us.

So it was ten years ago today that Earl and I said that “yes, we will get ready to say ‘I do'”. It’s not really your traditional anniversary, but then again, we’ve always done our own thing.

And yes, I’d do it all over again without hesitation. What can I say? I’m in love.

Friday SAW Quota.

Enjoy a little retro Stock-Aiken-Waterman on your Friday with the help of Sir Cliff Richard.