September 2009 Archives

GOOD MORNING - my view from the 3rd floor bedroom at 6:30am:

This gingko tree is gonna drop stinko berries on our sidewalk:

Note the absence of Honey Bun wrappers on the sidewalk.

Where is my landlord/housemate? The last time I saw him in person was on my housing search months ago checking out new places to live. The keys for my new place were delivered to me so I haven't actually interacted with the guy since then. Umm...would you like some rent or something?

I shouldn't complain - a good roommate is an absent roommate and so far the new pad is working out great. But there will be no sleeping in for a while because the morning sun shines DIRECTLY INTO MY BEDROOM on the 3rd floor. I will get photos soon. Hopefully ultraviolet radiation in the sunshine will kill all the mold spores on my clothes. I didn't realize what squalor I lived in until I took a whiff of my clothes in their new closet. They reek of mold, which was probably masked by the predominant mold smell while I was living in the basement unit. And when I cleared out all my belongings, three more moldy areas were discovered and a few slugs were seen crawling around too. I am not kidding about the slugs - several of my clothes have slime trails on them. That place has more issues than National Geographic magazine. Fortunately I wasn't that allergic to mold, but I question the livability of that place. I think the mold presented an even greater danger than the hoodlums going back and forth to the quickie mart. At least hoodlums don't kill you from the inside.

In my rushed housing search it was hard to remember what a nice place this new address is. It's pretty sweet. My room is huge, has a gas fireplace, big giant windows and a hatch to the roof. What is it with me and trap doors? The kitchen is humongous with oven technologies I've never seen before, and apparently the housemate/landlord also does not eat. There are vast tracts of unused shelving with enough space to unpack all my cookware that I never use. But perhaps I will cook a pie or make cookies soon, now that I can. The oven in my old place was little more than a cheap Home Depot Easy-Bake Oven that usually just burned things.

I accumulated a lot of shit that needed to be thrown away. Eight large contractor bags later I'm still purging. But it needed to happen and now I'm a little bit lighter. While I don't have time to burn all my CDs to pure data, OMG DJ TM™ suggests I throw all the cases away and put the CDs in a binder. Anyone suggest a fast, easy or reliable binder to order or some other way to condense CDs down to something reasonable?

This just in: the sons of two Duran Duran members (both Taylors of course) are working on an electropop album. And the Avett Brothers have some new stuff out as well, this time produced by Rick Rubin. You can sample the whole album for free on the NPR website.

While I am loathe to link to that blog that has never reciprocated a mutual link, I must draw your attention to that blog's recent entry about my future husband Ben Cohen.

However, I am concerned about Ben. He's starting to become "ripped" and I don't like that look on him. I like my rugby-playin' Ben with a 'lil bit of something to hold onto. I'm not talking morbidly obese, just not emaciated like how Seann Scott and Ryan Reynolds have become lately - more like how Scott Caan has been looking , you know? Anyway, I'm off to make a sandwich for Ben because he's looking too skinny.

The sad thing is here in gay DC if you mention you like that sort of thing on guys, everyone assumes you're into morbidly obese guys because in DC there is no in-between, only extremes. And when I mentioned how I liked that look on one particular date he ran away and cryed himself to sleep. Apparently I crushed his self-esteem for months after that. Sorry, but I think it looks good on you, but next time I'll just say "I think you're attractive" because we are not allowed to express our true feelings or thoughts to other gays in DC, only the most diplomatic and inoffensive statements are allowed else psyches are devastated.

Besides, if you are a normal person with a normal work/life schedule, you may not be able to maintain that ripped look. Sure, some gays do, often from a strict low-carb diet and full exercise schedule, but keep in mind not everyone defines that as perfection. But I'm ripped like that right now because I've been moving and packing shit every day and am out of food and stressed out so I'm totally starving but at least I'm ripped and I won't cry myself to sleep tonight. I'll just be awake from starvation. Come to think of it, the only other time I've ever been ripped was when I was unemployed, depressed from a breakup and totally stressing about paying rent. So in that case that healthy ripped look wasn't necessarily an indicator of mental health.

Season 3 of Isabella Rossellini's 'Green Porno' is out, more clever and educational than ever. These video shorts about sex in the natural world are funny and highly informative.

Like salmon, eels from Europe's freshwater streams go out to sea to spawn. But scientists could only guess where they went. But recent innovations in tracking technology may solve this old anadromous mystery.

My neighbor in the adjoining duplex basement unit has suffered two floods since she moved in a month ago and now has a mold problem. The house that I've lived in for two years rests above an underground stream in Shaw, and can be flooded from below during heavy rains. It's part of the reason the unit is so moldy - and moldy wood foundations inevitably attracts termites.

She says the contractors found signs of termite infestation when they tore down her moldy bathroom wall. It's not a surprise...I've seen little holes in the brick wall that separates me from her living space, and a telltale sign is finding tiny piles of frass outside of these holes. Although I had some doubt because I didn't think they could burrow through brick, but apparently they can.

This will be the second rental I've lived in that has termites. Apparently both were inspected, yet both had long-term termite infestation, as in over a decade of residence of these pests. What's up with that, DC inspectors? My last rental was literally about to collapse with major sections of the foundation that had to be replaced. It's a lesson that makes me feel very happy to be a renter, and now I know how to spot the signs and I have some insight on how much of a hassle home ownership can be.

Elitist real-estate owning gays in DC are excruciatingly smug when they repeatedly announce "We gutted it!" during cocktail parties, boring the pants out of everyone else. But from what I've seen the gay social fantasy of buying a dump in a shitty neighborhood and flipping it can become a total nightmare for the home owner. During the recent real estate boom many of the home owners were only interested in flipping their houses and completely ignored or were unaware of major foundation problems. Judging by the cosmetic fixes to the current place I will soon move out of, the homeowners were only interested in painting a pretty picture and getting rid of a product that was rotten to the core.

But they couldn't flip it and now they're stuck with a rotten house that needs major foundation repairs, on a sketchy block with a resident noisy drug-dealing gang. Jeez I just hate it when that happens. It's a case study that the whole home ownership thing is neither a cakewalk nor a fantasy and is rife with peril and cost. Sure, I may own a home some day, but I keep seeing over and over again that when you rush into something like that or only intend to flip such a property it doesn't always work out the way you'd like it to. So think these things through carefully and the next time you hear some queen at the bar bragging about how much they made when they flipped this or that in 2007, keep in mind that the ones who didn't do so well tend to be very quiet about such things.

San Diego Dan takes nice photos of hot gay cowboys and animals.

Perhaps this year I will go to the gay rodeo, although I'm not sure they're having it this year in our area. It's on the list of the things I tend do in autumn in addition to rugby. There's also the annual Miss Adams-Morgan Pageant in support of Miss Arizona Bon-Bon Guacamole, the 17th Street High Heel race, and of course the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Maybe I'll meet those hot Viper pilots at the pageant or meet Mr. Tumnus at the festival again.

I have been missing rugby practices because I've needed to pack, but I'm happy with my packing progress so I think I will go to practice on Tuesday. I've decided I'm going to keep my 30-gallon aquarium and I've prepped it for the move and a safe refill after re-sealing the corners this weekend. All of those weird time-consuming breakdown tasks are done and about all I need to do is clean and pack boxes. I am getting movers who come at 3 on Saturday. While I feel I'm on top of things at the moment, I haven't asked for help from anyone but it's always appreciated if offered!
>; )
There was a Blowoff this weekend and it was good to have it back after summer hiatus. I somehow managed to stay out until 2 or so, actually dancing and having a good time. I talked to many cute guys but no one wanted to make out. Maybe it's fear of H1N1 or something. Carl and I fled from a parasitic isopod that attached to my back, and we eventually had to leave the club because he didn't get the hint.

I've rediscovered a favorite short story of mine written by Lord Dunsany, who inspired many fantasy authors including Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and H.P. Lovecraft. He probably lifted many of his ideas from Irish folklore, but he was one of the first to put into writing stories about elf-kin piercing the twilight barriers, diminishing into the west and all that faerie stuff. A friend pointed me out to this chilling podcast that introduces the possibility of a notorious gothic horror writer from Wisconsin. The article is great, mentioning many of my old stomping grounds including the Norske Nook in Osseo, Wisconsin.

Pop Quiz: Cheese or Font?

Do you remember the tragic news story about the 48 year-old man who opened fire in a Pennsylvania fitness center in August, injuring 12, killing three women and then himself? Since then it was discovered that he had a blog and videos on YouTube. It turns out he was very fixated on his status as a single person, or at the very least terribly lonely - anxiety patterns which may have led him to eventually go postal. Listening to what he was saying certainly made me reflect and review any concerns I might have about my own status. Some of the things he said were chilling and I came to the conclusion that he needed to get some far more often than he did, but couldn't for various reasons.

At least I'm getting laid once in a while. I don't think he was gettin' any, and he's a good argument for legalization of prostitution. Sex is good for you, and while we all would love deeper intimacy and that connection with someone, it's a big help to get help with shooting a load once in a while even if he or she isn't your soulmate.

Now a person's single status is never a good excuse to go postal, but I can kind of see where his thoughts are coming from. In addition to loneliness, there's also societal pressure and assumptions that go along with being single. Such pressures are even stronger for straight people. I've seen the pressure on the remaining single straight females in my high school peer group. Once one of them got married and pregnant, the rest fell like dominoes in the subsequent years. For the last one who felt that she had to get married, the pressure must have been enormous. I think in the minds of most heterosexuals in the U.S. it is assumed that you will get married and have children as soon as you are of legal age to do so. There isn't much room to think otherwise, which to me is unfortunate. I believe it is this assumption that leads to premature marriage and such a high divorce rate.

There isn't always such pressure when people know you're gay. Although these assumptions are changing, it's still not always assumed the gay man is going to hook up and get married just like his/her straight peers. It's one of the nicer freedoms about being gay - no relative or group of friends is [strongly] hassling me to get married or have kids. At least I don't feel such pressure and I kinda like that. While the idea of a mini-me is amusing I'm not really interested in having or raising kids. I am interested in getting to know a person I respect better and learning to share my life with that person as long as I can. On the other hand I'm also learning that perhaps I may also be just as happy going solo. But again, aside from a few comments here and there no peer group is on my case about it like they might be for heteros.

Regardless of the different levels of societal pressures on various orientations, I still advise you not to ask any single person the dreaded obnoxious question "SO WHY ARE YOU STILL SINGLE?" We hate it when you ask that and it's kinda rude.

While I went to my recent graduate classes on a campus adjacent to the main University of Maryland flagship school, I learned yesterday from my advisor that I am not officially a Maryland Terrapin. Upon hearing the news I was crushed - the school I got my degree from is an adult education satellite institution within the University of Maryland system that has no mascot. But it is not technically part the University of Maryland - College Park campus - it's just a campus that happens to be next to UMD proper. However, I did work at the main UMD campus for 4 1/2 years, so perhaps I am a Terp in spirit - but still not officially an alumnus even though I took a few courses on the main campus.

I'm pretty sure I'm not yet a Redskin, but I no longer feel the need to identify with the Packers either. The Ravens are nice but I don't live in Baltimore. The only thing I'm sure of is that I am still a Pointer. The mascots of the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point (where I got my undergrad degree) are German shorthair pointer dogs named Stevie and Stephie Pointer. My alma mater was a land grant institution that trained game wardens back in the day, so a hunting dog was an appropriate choice. UWSP recently adopted a live mascot named McKenzie. We probably have a battle cry but I will choose to just say "WOOF!" because I say it a lot anyway, particularly when my honey pot is on fire. I just noticed that they now have a women's hockey team! Go Pointer Grrrlz! No doubt the stout Polish girls of Central Wisconsin make sturdy adversaries on the rink.

Official Dungeons and Dragons soft drinks are now available. I haven't tried them yet so I can't say how they taste. Flavors include Potion of Healing, Sneak Attack, Bigby's Crushing Thirst Destroyer, Dwarven Draught, and my personal favorite Eldritch Blast. Purchases include a free drow assassin miniature while quantities last.

The Alice in Wonderland trailer has me excited for the latest Tim Burton creation.

Check out the images at the bottom of the article about a vile parasitic isopod that replaces the fish's tounge with itself.

Here is a nice image gallery of summer scene photos taken by photoman Dan from San Diego. I think they're nice.

I needed to keep track of all the training I've received at work - and other educational pursuits - to put together a list that screams 'A.D.D.' But damn I'm trained and educated up the wazoo. No wonder I've been feeling underutilized lately:

Incident Command Structure (ICS) - FEMA

• ICS-400: Advanced ICS for Command and General Staff
• ICS-300: Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents
• ICS-200: Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents
• ICS-100: Introduction to Incident Command System

Emergency Management

• Wildfire 101 for Emergency Managers, FEMA - 09/2009
• Hurricane 101 for Emergency Managers, FEMA - 08/2009
• S-203: Introduction to Incident Information/All-Hazards Public Information Officer, FEMA - 04/2009
• Communication Strategies for Addressing Radiation Emergencies, CDC, Atlanta, GA - 01/2009
• IS-00811 Emergency Support Function (ESF) #11, FEMA HQ/NRCC - 01/2009
• Rift Valley Fever Exercise, State Emergency Operations Center, Tallahassee, FL - 11/2008
• Principles of Preparedness for Agroterrorism and Food Systems' Disasters, APHIS/DHS - 09/2008

M.S. in Management - Public Affairs track, University of Maryland,graduated 08/2009

• MGMT 670 Strategic Management Capstone
• PRPA 650 Public Relations Campaigns
• PRPA 602 Public Relations Techniques
• PRPA 610 Crisis Communication Management
• MRKT 601 Legal and Ethic Issues in Global Communications
• MGMT 650 Research Methods for Managers
• MGMT 640 Financial Decision Making for Managers
• MGMT 635 Organizational Leadership Decision Making
• MRKT 600 Marketing Management
• PRPA 601 Public Relations Theory and Practice
• MRKT 600 Marketing Management
• ADMN 625 Organizational Communication & Group Development
• ADMN 601 Manager in a Technological Society
• UCSP 611 Introduction to Grad Library Research

Bachelor's Degree - University of Wisconsin, graduated 5/1994

• Majors: Biology & Resource Management
• Minor: Environmental Education and Interpretation
158 Semester Hours

Internet and New Media

• Government and Web 2.0 Expo Showcase, Washington, DC - 09/2009
• National LGBT Blogger and Citizen Journalist Initiative, NGLJA - 12/2009
• Fundamentals of E-Commerce - 08/2001
• Basic, Intermediate and Advanced Web Design - 02/2000

My Peace Corps training group also voted me as "Most Likely to be the Benevolent Ruler of a Third World Nation." All this plus ten years of blogging and new media experience, and they still won't let me start a Twitter account for the agency to notify the public of what's goin' on. Go figure.

Even after an exhausting three-hour long breakdown and cleanup of my thirty-gallon aquarium last night, I'm still sitting on the fence as to whether I want to keep it or not. It's heavy, is a pain in the ass to move and clean, and probably needs re-sealing. And I think I'm kinda burnt out on aquariums.

But it's a nice kit, and I could start anew with something simple like goldfish. I got everything I wanted with breeding angelfish, but they were mean and aggressive and you couldn't have any other fish in the tank or they would be killed by the evil cichlids. Guppies were fun but after the 3,000th baby they weren't fun anymore. Plus it was sad to see the hypersexual males harass the females until they died.

Hot contractors have been coming in and out of the house a lot lately. They remind me of someone from an Old Spice commercial - they definitely don't smell like wildflowers and shame. While I can't complain about the hotness, I haven't yet moved out yet thank you very much! So get your hot self outta my home until I'm outta here, thanks. The hot supervisor contractor has close-buzzed hair and super-furry arms and is always sweaty. His hot assistant contractor looks like a younger, shorter, dark-haired Michael Shanks with scruff and is very nice. Regardless of their hotness, they do a good job albeit underfoot.

My buddy VJ Tre will be putting his vast retro video archive to the test at Cobalt tonight. It's his first night there and he's very nervous...so stop by for a drink. If you're lucky he'll play some O.N-J or old skool Kylie for you.

The upstairs is almost clear of the Seans, and TekSkwurl is taking the Internets with him tonight. That means while I can post comments to Facebook via Twitter, I cannot respond to messages or comments on the Facebook interface. I can't use it at work and I probably won't have regular access to the Internets in the evenings until I complete my move and set up some sorta connection to teh Internets. So FYI if you have to get ahold of me please do so via Ye Olde Fashioned E-Mail. I hope to get the Internets in my new place up and running as soon as possible. Until then it's limited access at work, for the pterodactyls in my machine are tired and slow.

My new place is a few blocks south of Howard University, still close to the Green Line, but on the 2nd floor with sunlight and a gas fireplace! The roomate/landlord is also from Wisconsin, and is also away often, which will be a nice plus. I didn't have to go up in rent too much either. I move on the 26th of this month and am not looking forward to starting the packing, moving and unpacking process.

I am currently obsessed with Australian rugby league player David Williams, who grew a big bushy beard in 2008. I somehow missed it and/or my facial hair informant network failed me. One thing that turns me on is contrasts. For a guy to go from preppy underwear model to shaggy beast really turns my crank. Plus the whole shaggy beast look is exotic here in the compulsively clean-cut city of Washington, D.C. Anyway, photos shown below of his progress from smooth to woofy were lifted from here and here. Don't miss the delicious video embed at the end of this entry, or just go here.




Speaking of wolfmen, there's a remake of the classic movie starring that del Toro dude, so the role is not much of a stretch. It's due in February 2010.

More rugby woof: the 2009/2010 London Wasps Squad. I think the flash tech aspects of the player gallery are like whack-a-mole. Click on 'em all to embiggen!

For a short time after the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center towers in 2001, seeing planes in the sky freaked me out a little. But after a few months that feeling went away. You just can't carry that fear around with you every day. If you do I guess then it's called post-traumatic stress disorder.

I felt the same way after Matthew Shepard got the shit beat out of him and was left for dead by a bunch of heterosexuals. For a few weeks after that incident I looked at every heterosexual as a potential threat. Does that guy across the street hate gays and not hesitate to beat my skull in with a pistol if he could? But that fear also went away, and reason trumped my irrational responses upon seeing heterosexuals all around me every day.

And I suppose I should be more alert when I walk home from the MetroRail station to my place in Shaw. People get shot and beaten there, but if I was paranoid and freaked out twice a day beelining it from home to subway and back I would be an emotional wreck. I try to be alert, but not fearful. Fear gives me acid indigestion and makes me cranky so I try to avoid it.

Yeah, maybe we should always be vigilant and on guard against potential terror in our world, but then we'd all be like Dick Cheney and waterboarding everyone in sight too. You just can't live that way 24/7, and we Americans like our freedoms on a daily basis. It's something we're comfortable with. I think on 9/11/2001 we got caught with our pants down in a very bad way, but since then we have made some improvements in how we look out for such dangers. It was a terrible tragedy but it's not something that happens every day.

09/09/09:
District 9.
99 Luft Balloons.
1999 (no link because Prince is retarded).
My 9" Is Easy To Load.
September '99.
867-5309.

I'm back from the beaches, and I can now say that I fulfilled my recreation quota for the summer. It was a very beachy summer indeed. But I'm still kinda beat from the flight back early this week. I'm lookin' forward to sleeping in in my own bed this weekend.

We had a good time down in Lowcountry, and I took lotsa nature pictures. Thanks to Doug for identifying this Duskywing Skipper. I thought it went well with the flower:

My shoulder is back in action, and the pain did not increase after last night's rugby practice, which is a good sign. I'm glad for that because moving time is coming up fast, as fast as a blue-tailed skink in the sun:

Kiawah Island was very family-oriented. We were constantly dodging children who were always underfoot. The only way a gay could catch crabs was at low tide:

It was a refreshing end of the summer, now I'm prepared for another fast-paced fall as they always are in DC.

BOO!

Last night the rugby team arrived at Stead Field to find the part of the field that's often used by youth baseball layered high with gravel where the bases would be as you can see in the photo at left.

The gravel renders about half of the field unusable for rugby, as it is piled at the pitcher's mound and bases posing a danger for tripping. And gravel and tackling don't mix very well. Pea gravel tends to get under your skin when you grind up against it. So we played the best we could on a pitch that is already too small, now rendered unfit even for practice scrimmaging. Basically all we can do safely now is warm-up and practice drills. But we must have the ability to scrimmage in a game-like situation to be prepared for our fall season matches.

We've been playing on Stead Field for years, have paid for our reservations on time, and have on occasion seeded, watered and conditioned the turf with no help from the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) even after the sprinkler system quit working years ago. We had also just paid up for field reservations through November, and now we're screwed. And the DPR had not informed us of the "improvements" that would make the field unusable for rugby practice.

A few of us had thought it was odd that gravel had been added, particularly so high on the pitcher's mound and bases after the DPR had left it alone for so many years. But today a teammate spotted the reason for the odd "improvements" - kickball.

It's possible someone from DCKickball got inside DPR and had this done without community knowledge, and obviously without community input. Nobody asked us about it. I wonder if anyone from Friends of Stead Park are aware of this alteration of the field and would take our concerns seriously if we approached them for help. Stead needs to be fixed back to how it was, or DPR needs to help us find a suitable replacement field quickly. We had high hopes for a successful follow-up in the Potomac Rugby Union fall season to our 11-0 wins in the spring but the DPR screwed us.

Here's a photo from a spring practice, before everything was ruined for kickball:

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.