No Day But Today

Looking for My Blog?

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:50:07 GMT

As I posted a while back, I've been in the process of moving my blog entries to my permanent domain. The process is near completion, and if you are wondering why there haven't been many blog entries here, it's probably because they are over here.

Never fear. This blog will stay put (for historical purposes), even though all the entries have been transferred, it will just revert to a free account (I've had a paid account for a while, and can't really justify it any more, especially when I have a ton of bandwidth available to me over here.

So reset your bookmarks or your RSS/Atom feeds to point to my new journal, and I hope to see you visit soon!

Blue Skies & Sunshine

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 14:44:46 GMT

See, I told you :). The weather has been superb over the last two days. In fact, I have some burn going on - courtesy of KW sun!

After my little burn out the other day, I got a lot perkier. I ended up dropping my classes for the short summer period, and that reduced my stress levels down A LOT. Those classes had the potential to really ruin this vacation, so it turned out for the better.

So far this visit I've had two drag queens reach into my shorts and check things out. Not sure what the purpose of that is given that nothing would ever come it. Still, it was something to blog about.

And now we can get back to more relaxing.

LJ Transfer Discovery

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 17:29:02 GMT

I discovered today, that when I transferred all my blog posts over from LiveJournal to my new blog tool, that the private messages all became public. Never fear, I've gone through and passworded the posts, so you can see it exists, but can't read it. I'm not sure if this is how I'm going to handle blog posts like this, and I've discovered that one of the downfalls of the new blog tool, is that unlike LJ, I can't have groups and then choose to display certain posts to just those groups. I guess that is where the password protects come in.

HIV/AIDS Prevention (Part II)

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 05:40:20 GMT

Earlier in the week, I made a post about UNAIDS new report on the Global HIV/AIDS Pandemic. Part II of this posting theme relates to the current activities occuring in New York city. The United Nations is holding a summit on HIV/AIDS prevention, with the intention of updating a 2001 declaration that provided the momentum for a worldwide campaign against AIDS.

According to the Guardian, "[m]ore than 140 nations are attending the UN summit in New York which began on Wednesday", however it appears that the United States is opposing measures to reference homosexuals, prostitutes and drug addicts in the resolution as it provides for support in the use of condoms and needle exchanges. "The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which represents Muslim countries, vehemently opposes references in the declaration to homosexuals, prostitutes and drug addicts, saying these should not appear in a public document. The US is supporting the OIC."

The OIC is also working with other mainly patriachal governments to reduce the requirement of signatories to "promote gender equality and empowerment of women and girls," and instead "promote and protect the rights of the girl child." (Source: Washington Post). The article notes that "[s]ome observers see that as a subtle expression of patriarchy, which might be threatened if girls, too, were empowered."

Indeed!

Frontline: The Age of AIDS

Tue, 30 May 2006 18:20:05 GMT

On PBS tonight, FrontLine will be showing the first of a two part series called "The Age of AIDS." If you are in the DFW area, this will be shown on KERA13 at 8PM.

More information can be found by clicking on the link (or on the the logo). Also, to coincide with this program, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) released its 2006 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic earlier today.

While the report outlines some progress in the treatment of HIV/AIDS throughout the world, one area which is not improving is the level of HIV prevention education that is being made available to those at greatest risk. One figure from the report, states that "only 9% of men who have sex with men received any type of HIV prevention service in 2005" - nine percent! Education is an important - if not the most important - component of an effective treatment against the ongoing spread of HIV, so why is this number so low?

Super X-Men

Sat, 27 May 2006 16:39:46 GMT

Last night, we saw X-Men: The Last Stand (otherwise known as X-Men 3, or X-Men³). Of course, I just went for the dinner.

Being a huge X-Men fan, I couldn't wait to see that guy in the wheelchair, or the other guy that turns things to ice (I've followed their careers religiously). To my suprise they inroduced this very cute character (well the guy who played the character was cute), and my fan-ness was becoming more engorged than I thought possible.

As for the movie - engorged fan status aside - I enjoyed it. I think this film made a good final movie, though they did leave a remnant of hope that a further sequel could be possible if needed. I will have to rewatch the other movies over the summer, just to make sure.

What really suprised me about the previews - and maybe it was because of the movie we were seeing, but there seems to be a large number of movies being made based on comic books (am I catching on to this trend a little late perhaps?). Superman Returns & Ghost Rider were just two of the previews we saw prior. One "super-hero" movie that is coming out - not based on a comic, as far as I know, is My Super Ex-Girlfriend, which we saw the short for (trailer at the link). It looks like it will be a funny movie!

Being the fly...

Thu, 25 May 2006 04:35:59 GMT

We've all said at some point in our lives, if only I were a fly on the wall. Normally, it's referenced when we are interested in learning about things that you may not be exposed to if you were in the same room. Today, I was that fly.

Some of you may have heard of MySpace. For those of you who haven't, it's an online social networking site that has become a phenomena amongst anyone under 30, band/music types, geeky types that have to be on everything, and tramps (the category I fit into).

For those of you who have, you'll understand - and probably seen - how those of us in this world are becoming even more closely connected. Which brings me to being a fly. Today, I joined Chris in meeting up with a guy he knew way back when (we're talking elementary school) who now lives in the Dallas area. Chris "found" him on MySpace. A feature of MySpace is the ability to enter your high school, college or university education history and then click on that school name and find people who you may have gone to class with. Interestingly, this seems to work better than ClassMates.com; due in part to there being over 80 million accounts on MySpace (double that of ClassMates).

The evening was focused on catching up on the past (and Jeff - the MySpace connection - has a few good stories to tell about his), learning about the present, and developing (hopefully) an ongoing connection. I'm always amazed at how small the world has become, and feel great when it works out as well as it can.

So being this fly, I learned more about a guy called Jeff, I learnt a great deal about growing up in the small East Texas town that Chris and Jeff shared a history with, and I learnt what it was like being a fly on the wall.

Losing Focus on Our Values

Fri, 19 May 2006 20:58:14 GMT

Have the recent discussions about illegal immigration triggered a reaction from CCGLA’s board of directors that now has this community organization discriminating against immigrants?

Recently the CCGLA board amended its’ bylaws to prevent anyone who is not a registered voter to be eligible to be a director or officer of the organization. To become a registered voter, a person must be a United States citizen. People who can’t become citizens include temporary workers (H1-B visa holders), international students, green card/permanent residents, and undocumented immigrants.

This action reinforces the widely held (and destructive) view that immigrants are second class citizens. While immigrants may not have the same protections under the law as citizens, they deserve the same levels of dignity and respect. How can an organization that advocates equality, dignity and respect, offer none of these to a group of residents in Collin County? Isn’t this new bylaw in conflict with the values for which CCGLA stands?

One of the original purposes of CCGLA was to bring together a community that reflected the diversity of people and their backgrounds that lived and worked within Collin County. I believe the founding CCGLA board reflected this diversity. I also now believe that the current board does not.

It is a concern to me that CCGLA now appears to support what many of us on the founding board were fighting against: discrimination. Discrimination is not just a GLBT issue. Everyone can be discriminated against for any reason. It happens every day, but should it happen within an organization that’s purpose is to fight against it? As one of the founding board members, I am disgusted that the CCGLA board has written such a discriminatory rule into their governing documents. I am equally surprised that the only founding board member remaining on the board supported this change.

With the annual meeting only days away, let’s hope the membership of CCGLA hold this board accountable for their actions, and refocuses the organization on its core values of advocating equality, dignity and respect in our community.

Evolution fo Dance

Mon, 15 May 2006 05:50:27 GMT

This guy is amazing with his act on "The Evolution of Dance" - check it out on YouTube.

Rants and Raves Weekly Update

Sat, 13 May 2006 16:25:54 GMT

Online Social Networking Under Attack: A bill introduced into the US House of Reps that will make life intolerable for younger folks looking for a place to call "my space" is in the process (currently in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce). House Resolution 5319 is the bill that has been introduced by Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick, PA.

AIDS Awareness, French Style: Thanks to Beautiful, I found these two advertising campaigns (2005, 2006) relating to AIDS Awareness.

World AIDS Day 2006: Speaking of AIDS, I've joined the planning group for the AIDS Services of North Texas World AIDS Day 2006 event. For those of you that don't know, this year marks the 25th Anniversary of AIDS. The theme for this event will be the "Voices of AIDS" and I'll be hunting out people who might want to get involved in this year's program (so start monitoring your caller ID now). I'm particularly interested in finding a talented musician who might be willing to write a piece of music for this event (and performed on December 1). Email/IM/Call me if you want to assist, or know of this talented musician(s).

Webby Awards: The Webby Awards for 2006 have been announced. It was great to see that Remembering Segregation won their category (Best Home/Welcome Page), definately worth a visit.

On NPR today...

Wed, 10 May 2006 05:19:57 GMT

On NPR today, I heard a brief update on an interesting article in The Boston Globe, by Charles Savage, about President Bush's claim to have the authority to disregard over 750 laws that have been enacted since he took office. In the article, Bush is reported to assert that "he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution."

Further in the article, "Many legal scholars say they believe that Bush's theory about his own powers goes too far and that he is seizing for himself some of the law-making role of Congress and the Constitution-interpreting role of the courts."

Interesting read. Helps explain some of the reasons about issues that have been in the press recently.

Happy Birthday Layton

Tue, 09 May 2006 04:58:16 GMT

Send an enormous birthday wish to Layton who is celebrating cheaper insurance rates as of today!

Do you believe in kismet?

Tue, 09 May 2006 04:03:46 GMT

Kismet is another word for fate.

I do. Not in the sense that my life is mapped out to take a certain pathway or destiny (although I don't know if that is not the case), but more like the "things happen for a reason", or "being in the right spot at the right time" kind of fate.

Why fate? Why now? Well over the last few weeks a number of things have happened in my life that lead me to believe that I should make a particular decision. At first, all of these seem to be unrelated, but then Saturday (as I was cleaning my office) I had an epiphany.

This realization came to me as I was pondering my future, having just received a scholarship that requires me to continue my education through spring 2007. It has always been my intention (well my recent "always") to continue directly onto a graduate program after I complete my BA later this year, but lately with the tuition rates going up, and not having direct access to scholarships to help out, I was starting to think that maybe I could take some time off to work, and then return to school. Of course, this would delay my goal of completing a masters before I turned forty, but I was giving it some serious thought. That is, until Saturday.

Now it is all perfectly clear. To me at least.

I have often been troubled by the natural progression that a community organization has to "eat its own" (to put it crudely). (This may be related to the ongoing issues that have been surrounding CCGLA, the Foundation and myself.) A community organization often forms as a result of a need being identified by a person, or group of people. The initial phase is one of excitement and a great deal of activity. We keep busy doing things to make the organization a reality, and we work with each other often blissfully unaware that under different circumstances "this group" may never have evolved with its composition. At this stage, the group evolves into either a system of multiple personalities each trying to get what they can from the organization, or the organization starts to feed on other organizations - to bring them under the umbrella. Of course, this is primarily my observations within GLBT community organizations, though from discussions I've had with other involved volunteers, it does not appear to be that different.

The question that is fascinating to me is "why?" Why is it necessary for a community to splinter itself, rather than bond itself together? Why does one organization feel the need to destroy another organization when both organizations have similar missions or goals? And the most important question, and the political one, is why do community organizations fail to get their acts together when it comes to political involvement?

These thoughts were floating around in my head, and it was this point (the epiphany) that I realized that my graduate thesis should revolve around these questions, and determine if there is a reality to my thinking that GLBT community organzations work against more than they work with each other.

Isn't it interesting how it all comes together?

Revised Garden ?.0

Mon, 08 May 2006 00:44:41 GMT

may07-006
Originally uploaded by MelbGuy.

You know its finals week coming up when the garden gets a make-over :-) In an effort to not study for finals, I decided to work on the garden yesterday and today. Today was unexpected, especially given how achy I was last night after going through and tearing out weed, grass, and who knows what else.

Today, after lunch with some friends, we managed to visit Lowe's and picked up a bunch of plants (I think 36 in total). All but five are in the ground or in a pot.

I hurt!

Woo hoo!

Sat, 06 May 2006 18:27:14 GMT

I just got notice that I was selected for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally (GLBTA) Scholarship in Honor of Mary Finley at the University of North Texas. Today, just got all that much better!

Women's Suffrage

Sat, 06 May 2006 07:24:22 GMT

I just got through watching Iron Jawed Angels, a movie about Alice Paul (primarily) and Lucy Burns, and their fight for the right for women to vote. The Netflix guide gives the following summary about the film:

From 1912 to 1920, a group of fiery young suffragettes led by Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor) band together to wheedle the United States into adapting a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. Along the way, they incur the wrath of President Woodrow Wilson (Bob Gunton) and anger other suffragette leaders (Anjelica Huston and Lois Smith). Directed by Katja von Garnier.

The movie was excellent. It provided an opportunity to see the struggles that women had to endure to obtain a basic right. The movie also explored the tragedy that surrounded this fight, along with the blatant hostility that was used by men (and in some cases, women) against women citizens. The music in the film was incredibly well placed, and mixed modern music into the film, without detracting from the time period of the film. I was thrilled to see Ida B. Wells-Barnett featured in the movie, as I recently did a project on her contribution to feminism, and in particular the extension of rights to women (of all color).

The movie has some intense moments (mainly in the women's prison), but you learn later in the film that this was a critical part of the story line.

Of course, given the apathy that is shown by many women and men today, perhaps it would do some good for everyone to see this film to remind them of the struggles that were had to obtain simple rights, like voting. It is also comforting to know that if pursued long enough, change is inevitable.

Highly recommended!

Free Credit Report

Sat, 06 May 2006 00:23:47 GMT

If you are interested in getting a truly free copy of your credit report, visit https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ and get a copy of all three credit reporting agencies information they hold on you. You can request these reports once a year.

Men Want Pussy?

Fri, 05 May 2006 04:48:23 GMT

My friend Damir (dsomic) shared this with me. It's a little dated (as in, October 2005), but it was an incredible read and inspiring!

I'm intrigued enough to now go exploring the rest of this blog.

Cock in a Frock on a Stage

Wed, 03 May 2006 05:11:53 GMT

For some of you that know me, you may recall that one of my favorite movies to force straight boys to watch is Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Well it appears that it is becoming a stage musical, with the opening scheduled for Sydney later this year. Thanks to ModFab for the heads up.

Porn, Bed Partners, Pussy and Booze

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 14:47:57 GMT

I normally don't get into straight "porn" but yesterday, I found this link thanks to Jared over at Completely Naked. You can see some screenshots at Casual in Istanbul but I downloaded the movie just to see "what it was all about." Something that would please all my friends who like watching people have sex.

Speaking of sex, over at Beautiful blog, we can see some new pictures of one of our favorite fantasy bed partners, Ian Somerhalder and Nick Beyeler. You can also see some other stars (not in the fantasy bed partner category) including Kylie, George Michael and Rupert Everett (well the last picture of him, might move him up to the bed list).

Moving on, over at BoysBriefs blog, we learn that Leslie Jordan and Lady Bunny will be featuring in a new television show, Laugh Out.

Cinco de Mayo is this coming Friday. I wonder what if I could use that for a reason to get drunk?

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Challenge Fails

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 21:59:45 GMT

The court challenge to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy (Cook v. Rumsfeld) was dismissed today by the U.S. District Court forthe District of Massachusetts.

According to the Service Members Legal Defense Network website,

The U.S. District Court forthe District of Massachusetts has granted the government’s motion to dismiss in Cook v. Rumsfeld, a constitutional challenge to the military's "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual service members.

Visit the SLDN website for more information.

NewsTrove

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 03:58:48 GMT

Found this site today called NewsTrove which aims to group searches of news sites, blogs, etc based on your preference (conservative, liberal, catholic, etc).

From the site: "NewsTrove provides a news search service that employs qualitative ranking and filtration of news content. NewsTrove indexes internet news content, such as news articles, personal weblog journals known as blogs, audio and video content known as podcasts, newsfeeds, and websites."

It's Your Birthday ... For Real Real

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 12:56:14 GMT

Bobby & Skylar
Originally uploaded by MelbGuy.

It's Bobby's birthday today! Woo Hoo!!

Google Calendar

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 21:37:11 GMT

Last Thursday, Google released their Calendar tool.

http://www.google.com/calendar/render

I've checked it out, and it seems to have a bunch of features that I've muttered to myself from time to time would be nice to have with an online calendar. Still trying to figure out the public calendar tool, but it has two options for that: iCal or XML.

I imported all my data from Outlook into the calendar, and that seemed to be rather seemless. I guess I'll have to play around with it a little more to see how it works. What is particularly cool, is the option to have your daily agenda (planner) emailed to you each morning ... well, may not that cool :-)

Weekend Recap - Camp Version

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 05:24:21 GMT

Over the weekend Chris, Bobby, Ian, Jonas, Josh and I headed north-east to Broken Bow (near Beavers Bend State Park) for our annual camping trip. Also joining us were Bosley, Caleb, Colby, Dawson and Skylar - los perros adventureros.

Bobby, Ian, Chris and I have been going since every year since 2000 (well we did miss one year), and we have "camped" in East Texas, the Hill Country, Lake Texoma and Beavers Bend. By far, this year's camping environment was the best. The cabin was phenomenal - very large, huge kitchen (very important for our camping trips), sleeping for twelve people (mostly on/in bunk beds), large porches and a good distance between the next cabin. I think the only negative (and to me, this is very small) was the closeness to the highway, so you could hear traffic (sometimes causing a barking frenzy).

The company is always good on these weekends, and we were lucky to have Jonas and Josh join us for the entire weekend, and on Saturday, our friend Travis drove up for the night.

One thing we always say during, and after our trips is that we certainly eat well. While this is true, and I love everything we eat, I especially look forward to breakfast on our final day. This is where we take all the leftovers and assemble them into a feast. There are the staples (like eggs, biscuits, bacon, etc), but then you add the remaing chicken and vegetables from the kebabs, or the baked potatoes (to create hash browns) and you have the most incredible smells meandering through the cabin to wake everyone from their late night drinking slumber.

As previously reported (2003, 2004, 2005), we always have fun on these weekends, and it is a great time to just unwind and relax.

Highlights (and lowlights) from the recent adventure:

The food (as mentioned) - we ate like queens pretending to be kings
The friendship - loving friends that laugh with you and at you
Our dogs - for sharing quintereophonic barking at the best times
The booze
Bosley's accident
My starting the weekend with a migraine
The nature trails, and the beautiful weather
The cabin
The fire gods and fairies - for given us the joy of wathcing you dance

Of course, in the techy age that we live in, there are plenty of pictures to be shared (as my three previous posts suggest). Not only can you view a selection of pics from Chris and I, but also Bobby has posted some images.