Barbara Eden joined several other celebrities at “Life Ball” in Vienna. I have to admit, she’s looking good at 78 years old and she can definitely still pull off her ‘Jeannie’ costume.
Photo courtesy of New York Daily News.
Gayish.
Future?
I recently stumbled across the short film from last summer. It’s a graduation project from two art academy students. I love the technology demonstrated in this film and it’s impact on society, and society’s impact on the direction of the technology demonstrated.
Do you think we are headed in this direction?
A.
Fellow blogger Dave2 from Blogography recently posted a new music video on his Facebook timeline. Not seeing the name of the artist when I clicked through the link this morning, it was a few moments before I let out a gleeful squeal. I recognized the voice instantly.
Agnetha Fältskog is back! In May, one of the “A”s from ABBA will be releasing her latest album, “A”. In the meanwhile, here is her first release, “When You Really Loved Someone”.
I have already pre-ordered the album on iTunes. And I’ll probably squeal again.
At 2:45 in the video, I am very much reminded of Agentha and Bjorn back in the day.
Anniversary Weekend, Part 1.
Cub has joked that Earl and I tend to celebrate a variety of anniversaries. There’s the anniversary of our first date, the anniversary of when I told Earl I loved him for the first time, the anniversary of when we moved in together and the anniversary of our commitment ceremony at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia. This weekend we are celebrating a new anniversary, and that’s the anniversary of our legal marriage. One year ago tomorrow Earl and I exchanged our vows in front of family and friends at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in the lovely hamlet of Verona, New York.
We have returned to the scene of this commitment to spend some time together this weekend.
We are staying at The Lodge. I am told that this is a five-start resort. The folks here are quite friendly and quite good at the whole hospitality thing. The music is playing as I type; the music being part of the turn-down service. Our slippers and bathrobe await. I’m ready to get comfortable.
Earl and I have reservations for our official anniversary dinner tomorrow night; tonight we opted to eat at the steakhouse on the property. The dinner was quite good, though probably too many calories. The conversation with my husband was effortless as it should be and we proudly told our server that we were celebrating our wedding anniversary. She brought us desserts with a candle. I thought that was nice.
Gambling at the casino is not high on the priority list for the weekend, but we are doing a little gambling and I’m currently up about $50 from where I started. I can’t complain about that. Earl has done better and he decided to stay a few moments longer while I type this blog entry. He asked why I cashed out early; I told him that I was adding to the computer fund because I’d like to get a new laptop one of these days. He just smiled knowingly.
I was chatting with my friend Sandy at work today and she couldn’t believe that Earl and I had been together for 16 years. That’s a long time in this day and age! I told her that it feels like forever but it also feels like only yesterday when I first went crazy over this gorgeous redheaded bear. I fell head over heels for him in 1996 and I’ve done it every morning since that life changing day.
My life has never been better. And this is the weekend to celebrate the reason for that.
I think the wine from dinner is making me a little sappy.
REPOST: Pride In Yourself.
This blog entry is a repost from this day in 2005.
Today is National Coming Out Day, the day in which closeted gay men and lesbians are urged to come out of the closet and announce to the world, “yes, I am gay.” The tradition is led by the Human Rights Campaign, which has designated this day to show others that there is a huge support mechanism for LGBT folks.
National Coming Out Day started in 1988, three years or so after I came out to myself and started peeking out around the closet doors. Who am I kidding. I had always known of my attraction to the same sex. It was late in 1985 that I actively began admitting it to myself. I’m not going to go into my whole coming out story this year. If you’re interested in the sordid details, feel free to read last year’s Coming Out Day entry.
I just know that someone, somewhere is doing a Google search on being gay today. Perhaps he lives in a country where he could be shot for his homosexuality. Perhaps she is being forced to marry a man because that’s how she was brought up, when she’d reallly like to marry her female teacher or pal from high school. You’re afraid. You’re afraid that you’ll be shunned by your friends, disowned by your family and burned at the stake at the next neighborhood barbecue. And I’m sorry you feel that way. The world is a scary place and there’s a lot of ignorance in the world. But know that you’re not alone. Know that while there is a lot of hate and negativity out there, also know that there is even more positive energy, love and acceptance, often in places that you wouldn’t expect to find it. We know that you didn’t *choose* to be gay, regardless of what others may say about that fact, and we know that you don’t have to live a certain lifestyle simply because you’re attracted to the same sex. Do what your heart tells you to do. Do what feels right to you. If you’re not ready to live your life “out loud” and admit to everyone and anyone that you are gay (I can just picture Billy Bob stopping Thelma the hairdresser on some rural street and saying “I like those queer boys!”) then just do one thing today, actually go ahead and do two things. Look at yourself in the mirror and be honest with yourself. Look at yourself long and hard, reach for your true inner feelings, without any masks, without any fear, without any worries of reprisal. Then say it out loud. “Yes, I am gay.” Then follow it up with “And that’s o.k.”. It’s a baby step. But you’ll feel better for being honest with yourself. Allow yourself that dignity today.
Patriotic.
I bought these workout clothes in 1990 from International Male. I keep them around for patriotic occasions.
Strike A Pose.
I was going through old photos on the hard drive and I had completely forgotten about this poster photo from 2008. Ah, the old DJing days.
Angry.
There are some things in this world that make me very angry, even though I have no connection to these things, that it makes me want to spit nails. One of these occasions have occurred. I wasn’t going to write about this, but I feel that I need to.
There is a teacher in the Mystic Valley Regional High School (in Massachusetts) named Kevin Hogan. Well liked by his students, Mr. Hogan is a sports coach and I believe an English teacher. Earlier this week, Mike Beaudet (Twitter handle = @channel_mike) from Boston’s Fox affiliate, Fox 25 went “Fox Undercover” and confronted Mr. Hogan, on camera without warning, about a couple of gay porn videos he had participated in a few years ago. Apparently these videos were released to the public last year. Caught completely off guard by this confrontation, Mr. Hogan denied everything but was then put on administrative leave from MVRHS after the news story ran on the Fox affiliate. The reporter was kind enough to share some clips from the videos during the newscast. The teacher has never exposed his students to porn, by Mike Beaudet gleefully exposed the world to it by sharing it on the Fox News broadcast.
Here’s where I get angry:
1. The teacher has done nothing wrong as a teacher. He hasn’t been inappropriate with any of his students and no sort of accusations of this sort have come forth. He is well respected by students and faculty. Because of this, his life is now destroyed. What is gained by this?
2. The reporter is painting this behavior in the same light as the recent sexual allegations at Penn State and Syracuse University. THAT IS BULLSHIT. The teacher had sex with a consenting adult. Nothing illegal happened, there were no goats involved and everyone was well above the age of consent. The man had sex with another man; it just happened to be in front of a camera. Has anyone noticed that most pedophiles are not gay men but rather heterosexual men? Why doesn’t anyone ever notice that.
3. The teacher has never discussed this part of his life with his students nor was he recruiting anyone to become a porn star. He wasn’t doing anything wrong. Some argue that a teacher must uphold a higher moral standard. Show me a teacher that smokes and I’ll show you someone that doesn’t meet my standard. It doesn’t mean they’re unfit to teach. Having sex with a consenting adult is far less damaging to a person than smoking is.
4. This was a ratings stunt, plain and simple. A man’s career was destroyed in the interest of garnering higher ratings. THIS IS WHAT AMERICAN MAINSTREAM NEWS HAS BECOME. Every time I read or hear something like this, a little part of the American inside of me dies, because we are drifting so far away from what made this country great it’s not even funny. American mainstream news does this all the time. They’re after ratings to generate more ad revenue. Accuracy and solid facts have little to do with the story.
I have retweeted a couple of the thousands of comments to the news reporter on my Twitter feed. Dignity is preventing me from formulating my own tweet and saying how I really feel about the reporter. Many are calling for the firing of this reporter and the support for the teacher far overwhelms the “shock and outrage” of the teacher’s past.
I’m sorry. I don’t think that a teacher’s past should be held against him, especially when it has no bearing on who or what he is today. Shame on Fox 25 and especially on Mike Beaudet, the “investigative reporter”. This is blatant homophobia under a thin veil of disguise. And quite frankly, it disgusts me.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Out.
It’s National Coming Out day today. I’ve told my story before and will probably link to it tonight. So to keep it brief, as I’m typing this on my iPhone in a bathroom stall at work…
I’m gay.
I have always been gay.
It used to be hard to tell people but it’s not anymore.
If you’re not out, tell just one person today, even if you tell yourself in the mirror.
You’re okay. And you will be.
Intensity.
The Big Project™ at work is coming to the crunch time for the next 40 days or so. Luckily, the Powers That Be™ are completely understanding when it comes to our wedding so I don’t have the stress of having to a do a wild juggling act. This is a good thing, because they don’t really have a choice in the manner.
That’s the way I roll, baby.
I worked this past weekend as it was my on-call week and on Saturday I found myself getting way too stressed out about work. Saturday night we went out to dinner where we talked and relaxed and I was able to find my center again. There’s no reason to get stressed out about this stuff. Life is suppose to be enjoyable so I might as well start enjoying it again. It’s still the best gig for me at this time in my life and my career path shows a lot of promise if I just do what needs to be done, so there’s nothing really to get worked up about.
I’ve had several Mac users dump me from Twitter since I’ve been talking about my Linux obsession more on there. I still think Macs are great products and I encourage people to get them. Personally I’m liking Linux on my ThinkPad and I like sharing my experiences with this on Twitter. Hence the username, “TheTechBear”.
On the other hand, maybe these people dropped me because I talk about tech instead of bearish and/or flirty stuff. I love me some bears, but I have plenty of other ways to indulge in that sort of discussion. I use Twitter as a broadcast medium more than anything, though I do enjoy chatting one on one with likeminded people from time to time (and did it ever cross your mind that I might have more than one Twitter account? I have like five or something like that.) One thing that I don’t enjoy is when people try to use Facebook (and now Google+) as a hookup site. There are plenty of sites out there for that sort of thing and I tend to save my Facebook and Google+ connections for my family, friends and folks I plan on meeting in real life someday, so don’t get offended if you can’t find my underwear shots on either of those sites. Besides, the underwear shots are very old. They’re even in black and white.
There is the one shot I took a few years ago of me naked with my PowerBook G4. Perhaps that would please the masses, though the PowerBook is strategically placed.
