Bits and Bites.

I’ve been having a little bit of writers’ block lately. Over the past couple of days I’ve sat down on several occasions to write a blog entry but I start overthinking the topic; what I have formulated in my head doesn’t seem really important enough for public consumption. It’s rare for me to worry about such a thing, but I think recent events in our world has kind of skewed my perception of my place in the world or something.

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The Orlando shootings last month really rocked my world. I haven’t really been a gay pride gay for a number of years; there’s a certain amount of outrageousness to me that I don’t really find appealing. As I get older my Myers Briggs INFJ tendencies seem to be getting stronger; crowds just don’t do it for me anymore. But with the Orlando shooting, I have found myself a little bit bolder about speaking my mind and just being who I am. I still didn’t feel the need to attend a Pride event but I’m a happy, if somewhat atypical gay man.

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My friend Jeff likes to use the word “Prideful” a lot. The word was not really part of my lexicon before I met him. He lives in North Carolina and it seems to be a popular word down there. The drawl is optional. We got into a discussion about prideful tendencies lately. I think he was surprised when I remarked that many of the gay men that choose to have these big, voluminous beards seem quite prideful to me. I likened the beards to peacock feathers and the men strutting around like they’re quite the pretty piece as they make their way through a crowd. I made these comments from experience; when I had the larger beard (in ginger no less), I know that I was quite peacocky about it. Now I’m not saying that I set the tempo when it comes to beards and peacocks, but I know a prideful strut when I see it and there’s too much of that in the world. What many of these men need (and please let me be clear that I’m not speaking about ALL the men with huge beards) is a shave and a good dose of humility.

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My love-hate relationship with Facebook continues. I went and followed some political comments from “friends” and sat back and wondered why I’m friends with these people in the first place. I’m so tired of reading about why the other candidate is wrong. I want to read about why their candidate is the right candidate. We need more positivity in the United States. That’s probably one of the biggest problem we have in the States right now.

Facebook has that Passive-Aggressive feature where you can remain friends with an individual but not see their posts anymore. I say screw that. Piss me off enough times and I’ll just unfriend them. I still maintain my steadfast rule that if you promote a Kardashian in any way, you’re off my list, no matter the social network, social settings or place setting at dinner, for that matter. The same rule applies to game requests on Facebook.

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Earl and I have continued our binge watching of “Scandal”. We are currently three-quarters of the way through Season 3 and I can say, without a trace of hesitation in my voice, that this series has turned into a typical Shonda Rimes serial where there’s more Shock! Awe! and OMG You Won’t Believe This! moments than entirely possible in any sort of reality based universe. “Scandal” jumped the shark midway through Season 3. People are killing other people. Teeth are being pulled. Men are licking women’s faces. A prisoner is eating her own wrist. Blood is being thrown about. Screaming. Twists. Turns. The Shock and Awe is non stop. We are continuing through Season 3 and then going to decide if we want to continue the series. It showed such promise when we watched the first and most of the second season, but with the third season it’s just gone completely off the rails. In reality, Season 6 starts sometime this fall, we are now not so sure that we are going to try to binge our way to catch up in time for the latest season premiere.