Listen to this!

A few years ago I had a special opportunity to visit New York City for a weekend. So totally not long enough to take in all that is the thriving, full of life, a story around every corner, metropolis. The group I was part of were given a private sightseeing tour of Manhattan and one of the places we stopped was the site formally known as the World Trade Center. It was a powerful and reflective experience. It was at the site that I first learned about StoryCorps. This fascinating project's mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening. I dig that. So when I learned of the National Day of Listening taking place on Friday, November 28, I jumped right in head first.

Now if that date sounds vaguely familiar, you might recognize it better as Black Friday…the day of the humongous day-after-Thanksgiving Day sales where people camp out waiting for stores to open where they can then proceed to elbow, push, and trample their way to the limited-quantity half-off old-fashioned kettle corn popper they never knew they needed or will ever use more than once. Needless to say, there's going to be some competition for time that day.

Well, I don't know about you, but this year I've learned to embrace the simple truth that "the only thing you take with you when you're gone is what you leave behind." —John Allston. So maybe this year is the year to start thinking more about the quality of our actions rather than acquiring more possessions. Heaven forbid the economy gets any worse because people stop buying things altogether, so please feel free to get out there and spend some money. All I'm suggesting is that maybe society would be a little happier, the world a bit nicer, if we made positive actions as much of a priority. Actions like listening, truly listening, to someone.

I've used StoryCorps' online tool to build my list of questions to ask the various important people in my life. My family will be easy to interview, but my friends and I will be separated by many many miles, making for a bit of a challenge. We'll just have to wait and see if technology can come to the rescue. (I'm not worried at all.)

So if you're at all interested, even just a little bit, in participating in the National Day of Listening, click on over to the website and get ready to make a new personal connection, or deepen an existing one, and start building a positive legacy that will out live the two dozen tube socks you scored for a dollar.

One week from now...

One week from now Americans will be faced with some of the most important decisions of our lifetimes.

One week from now Americans will decide what's next for the country.

One week from now we will vote.

I've been so wrapped up with work that I've slacked on posting these videos supporting the causes I strongly believe in.

One of the biggest decisions facing Californians is whether or not to take away the right for same sex couples to marry. It's a heated debate, and one that I've found discussing with my own family who are staunchly religious. There's nothing new that I can really add to the conversation, but I did find some interesting campaign videos on YouTube that might be of interest, including an interesting spin-off on a series of ads a certain Silicon Valley company — which has also come out against prop 8, along with Google — you might be familiar with…







This next one was created by a clever person who just happens to work at Pixar. Smart and adorable. Why isn't this on TV?!?



Turning attention now to the national front, we have the Presidential race featuring Obama and McCain/Palin. While neither are perfect, I really can't tolerate the deceptions the McCain/Palin campaign are passing for the truth. Not to mention, Palin is just a stroke away from running the country, and that's more of "when" than an "if." And while I'd love to see Tina Fey back on SNL every so often mocking Palin, I really don't think it's worth the havoc she'll unleash on this country. Things are bad enough already, and yes, they can get worse, and McCain/Palin will see to that.

I've never been into politics, but in the past year I've gone from passively interested to eager promoter. And so help me if anyone votes for that damn Nader jerkwad and throws their vote away. Being a fan of showtunes, I was instantly drawn to this one for the Obama campaign. Enjoy! Oh, and vote Obama.



So, what have we learned today? Vote No on Prop 8, Vote Yes for Obama.

Most adorkable new TV host this season

Not that I've had a whole heck of a lot of time to actually watch much TV, but I did happen to catch The Works recently on the History Channel and found host Daniel H. Wilson to be utterly adorkable. Being that The Works is a brand new show and we're at the start of a new TV season, I'm ready to proclaim Mr. Wilson to be the most adorkable new host in all of the kingdom of television. I realize that such a proclamation might be somewhat ironic being that he is a man of science (or at least mechanics, the popular ones to be sure) and I, having not exactly complete exhaustive and comprehensive research into the matter or followed any sort of scientific method whatsoever, am so eager to make said proclamation. What can I say, I go with my gut. There's a lot of it these days, it's hard to ignore it so I usually just go along along with it.

So there you have it. As promised a new post that managed be both geeky and gay. And short. Wow! It's a three-fer!

The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Kenny Ray

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Life imitating art imitating other art. No, that wasn't a typo. Here's how it went down…

A recent phone call with Hooters (the person, not the place) inspired me to break out my Camp DVD and enjoy another viewing of it. The lead actor, one Daniel Letterle, was just so — and I know this is going to sound even gayer than I want it to — intoxicating that I ended up googling to see if he'd been in any more movies. Fortunately he had a couple follow ups and so I loaded up my Netflix queue and waited by the mailbox. With the amount of quality TV running thin these days (can't believe it's still almost 5 months until Lost returns with new episodes) I've been working my way through my Netflix queue pretty fast so in almost no time I opened my mailbox to find "The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green" waiting for me. It's a low-budget (in a good way) film based on the popular comic strip of the same name. A comedy peppered with hunky guys was just what I needed to keep me pushing out of the funk I'm in, but in addition to the laughs, the sighs, and the "holy six-pack abs" I found was a wake up call.

Smack dab in the middle of the movie Ethan has a little walk and talk with him mother (played so gloriously by Meredith Baxter of Family Ties fame). Ethan has been steady downward spiral and Harper (his mom) finally levels with him. And me. This is what I heard…

Consider for a moment that you're having the Kenny Reflex. You get close, and then you pull back. Kind of like a rubber band. Just when you have something good … you do something to sabotage it. That is the Kenny Reflex and you've been doing it all your life. You're afraid of getting close, you're afraid of what you're going to hear, you're afraid of what you've got. And you are going to live in this little box of fear unless you change. Get some courage, darlin'.

I got called out. By a character in a movie. A movie based on a comic strip. Maybe it was because the lines were delivered by Mrs. Keaton, er, I mean Meredith that it made me pay attention. While certain semi-recent people have definitely deserved the boot because their part in the relationship had become toxic, she was totally right. I live in a box of fear. Fear of rejection. And, this is where it gets weird, fear of acceptance. That last part is way too deep for me to get into right now as the ear ringing is back and tearing my brain in twain. But it's giving me a good deal to think about over the next couple weeks while concluding what to do about the "glum chum dilemma."

Go rent or buy Camp and TMUSLOEG, both are very enjoyable flicks! Besides, supporting independent cinema is good karma.

Something I've always wanted…and finally have.

When I was but a wee tyke, TV commercials had a pretty powerful impact on me. They made me want things. They made me beg for things. Sugary breakfast cereals. The latest whiz-bang toy. Fishing rods that collapsed to fit in your pocket. Unfortunately for an active pre-preteen consumer like myself, I had to rely on good ol' mom and pop to finance such pursuits. And 99 times out of 100, they failed to recognize the enormous significance of the item requested.

My mom being somewhat of a health-nut never bought us anything even remotely fun for a breakfast cereal. If we were lucky, we'd get granola with raisins, but the rest of the time it was puffed millet or Uncle Sam Cereal. I would have to sneak over to my neighbors house and covertly raid their Fruit Loops and Cookie Crisp supplies when they weren't watching.

As far as toys went, anything involving guns or violence were always passed on, and again, I would have to turn to the kids in the neighborhood for a little GI Joe action. Or in a pinch, there was always my sister's Barbie dolls. Hmmm…I wonder…

While my family would drive the hour to the lake to go waterskiing, that was the extent of our aquatic sportsmanship so I never learned out to fish, which means that now I have a fear of getting lost in the woods and not being able to survive because I can't catch a fish to literally save my life.

It may seem odd that after 30 years I'm just now living out a childhood dream. Sadder still is that I probably could have done so much sooner, but simply didn't realize it. That dream? To have a Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker of my very own. Growing up I had a love of all things Peanuts, partly because there's a narrow connection in our extended family to the creator of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang, Charles M. Schulz. For some reason I just figured they had stopped making toy long ago and thus, never really thought about it again until I saw it advertised at the bottom of an email from CreativePro.com. Instantly I flashed back to my youth and could vividly remember how much I wanted one. Within minutes I was smiling at the order confirmation screen, brimming with self-satisfaction.

When it finally arrived, Betty helped pop my sno-cone making cherry — apparently she's a pro when it come to making sno — and after a quick assembly process we started cranking away. Maybe the shaving blades of the original version were sharper back in the day because honestly making sno for one serving took more than a lot of effort, it took a long time. How on earth did kids power this twenty or more years ago? Oh that's right, they were all amped up from the sugary breakfast cereals. As my first taste of the icy and sweet treat hit my lips, I felt like a part of me had been completed.

A random passerby asked what we were doing (all that ice scraping produces an obscene amount of noise and can attract the wrong kind of attention) and Betty filled him in on the fulling of my childhood wish. He saw it as me trying to complete a bucket list, which brought a whole mortality level into the conversation that was kind of a downer. Fortunately all it took to distract me from thoughts of my now apparent doom was another cold. syrupy-sweet jolt of cherry flavor. That, and a muscle cramp in my forearm.

Something I've always wanted…

Can't wait to whip this puppy out on Friday. Methinks I should invite Betty over to enjoy a cool and refreshing icy treat too. Hope she likes grape.

TiVo, will you marry me?

Two posts in as many days? And both "Nerd Alerts" to boot?? No, hell hasn't frozen over, so let's not panic, OK?

Tonight I came home late (again) and being Friday meant that it was time to watch my Thursday night shows. And until Mythbusters returns in a few days) the only TV I watch presently. "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List" is pretty much the maximum amount of TV I'm watching these days. Or nights. When I actually have time. Thanks the universal higher powers (and the universal remote control) for TiVo. But now I have one more reason to thank the powers, the remote, and the software engineers over in Alviso. I'm referring, of course, to the Summer 2008 software update! And it brings the love of my life — TiVo Series 3 — several steps closer to perfection.

"So what's the big deal about some software update? How big of a nerd are you?!"

A really big one. And this update brings with it a great new feature to TiVo: YouTube.

"Really? You're working yourself up into a gay tizzy over YouTube? YouTube?!? My freaking phone has YouTube on it. Geez!"

Well, my phone has it too (and it probably looks better for reasons I won't get in to. BUT... I bet your phone doesn't have a 42" widescreen and pumps out 1080p resolution! Well, YT videos don't actually come in that resolution, but my TiVo and TV both do a great job upscaling it and the results a totally watchable (provided the video wasn't captured on a cheap camera phone). Now I can watch Criso Zills, Michael Buckley, and Match Game clips from the comfort of my sofa. The navigation ain't horrible, but it's definitely not the same searching experience as on a computer (or even an iPhone). And I'm disappointed that for whatever reason, Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, the full 1 hour and 16 minutes of it, is no where to be found (this probably has something to do with it not yet being updated with the new codec). But I can make do with the tons of other videos already out there. Maybe in a future update TiVo will be able to subscribe to YT broadcasters. That would be neat.

There's several other nifty enhancements, many of which really should have been there to begin with, but better late than never, right?

So at this point in my life, TiVo has crossed the threshold of something I love, to something of marriage material. Perfect? No. But far better than anything else I've seen out there.

…

You may have noticed that this post has a ton of links in it. Well, you can thank MarsEdit for that. Adding links (and other tags) has never been simpler! I'm having to say that using it is starting to restore the fun found in blogging. My full review of it will be coming at the end of the trial period. Stay tuned…

Blogs are from Mars

I hadn't planned on posting anything tonight. Not even the sick stuff I learned about Superman and Spiderman over pizza. But I found some tasty software that I'm using to compose this post with, and you know me, if it is in the least bit geeky, I'm there.

So what is this delicious morsel of blog writing goodness? It's an app called MarsEdit. It's been around for a while, and while I hate to admit that I'm familiar with the name, for whatever reason it never clicked that it would work with Blogger allowing me to compose offline and post later. Mmmm, now that's appealing!

I've been using it now for all of 5 minutes so I can't really give a review of it just yet, but I will say that so far I'm impressed. Drafting this post has been a lot faster than the web interface I've been used to. Over the next 30-days (which is how long the trial period lasts) I will hopefully have the chance to put it through its paces. Now if they'd only come up with a version for my iPhone I would be in blogger bliss.

Why aren't you re-watching: American Beauty

I'm so ashamed. I'd forgotten how excellent American Beauty is. I had been putting of watching it for years. It's literally been sitting on myself, still in the wrapper, since the day I bought it 5 years ago. What a fool I've been for taking it for granted all of this time. The storytelling. The characters. The performances. The music. The cinematography. The art direction. It's a modern masterpiece. Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening could not have been more perfect. Thora Birch is entrancing. Wes Bently is engrossing. Chris Cooper is gut-wrenching. And Allison Janney is surprisingly heartbreaking even in the scenes where she doesn't say a word.

The DVD has been retired back to its case for an hour already but the high you feel from watching something truly exceptional and so utterly captivating is sticking with me. I feel so inspired to create, to reinvest time into the pursuit of the film making ambitions of days gone by, to remind everyone there's a experience waiting for them on DVD that outshines brainless summer television broadcasts and big-budget popcorn flicks at the theater or pretty much anything made in the past 10 years and you owe it to yourself to watch it as soon as you can. And apparently I was inspired to write the longest sentence in the history of this blog. Phew! If you've got a DVD player and receiver capable of processing DTS 5.1 soundtracks, I highly recommend watching the movie with the DTS 5.1 soundtrack over the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. I won't bore you with the details, but your ears will thank me.

Open a nice bottle of red wine—it isn't required to make the movie amazing, but trust me, it ties in perfectly even if only from a color pallet perspective— and watch this movie tonight!

Why aren't you eating this: Tofutti Cuties Mint Chocolate Chip

I've been addicted to these for quite some time. Dairy and I don't always get along so having such a delicious non-dairy frozen treat that tastes BETTER than many of the dairy varieties is a dream. I've enjoyed all the basic flavors of the Tofutti Cuties, but I have to say that the mint chocolate chip is my hands down favorite. They're also just the right size, which is good when you're trying to improve portion control in your eating habits. Then again, because they're so small, it's almost too easy to rationalize having a second or third in the same meal. (Don't tell anyone but I may have polished off and entire box in a single day before.)

I first became familiar with the wonder that is Tofutti because back in the day I was addicted to getting veggie sandwiches at Noah's Bagels and they used to offer Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese as a spread option. It was magical! In fact I stopped eating at Noah's when they stopped offering it.

My local TJ's (Trader Joe's) sometimes carries the basic flavors of the Cuties, but for the supremely refreshing Mint Chocolate Chip I have to slum it Safeway. The sketchy one away from my house. One day soon I hope to try their fancier flavors such as peanut butter (which could become my new favorite, I love PB that much!), Coffee Break, and key lime pie. Oh boy, I'm getting hungry just thinking about 'em!

So there you have it. I've awarded them my special "Luv this!" rating and suggest you go out and find some as soon as possible or your life will always feel like it's missing something.

Now this is what I call Summer Camp

What can I say, I'm a design junkie. Amazing typography can make me salivate. True, you have yet to see any drool-worthy typography here, but that's because it just doesn't match the whole white-trash persona. On the other hand, I don't suppose many (if any) of the posts here support it either. Oh well, it is what it is. And now I'm going to go wash my hands to clean them after typing that wretched phrase.

Imagine my surprise and delight to find that there's a summer camp up in Canada just for typography! Would you believe it's called Type Camp? Well, what else would it be called?! Mind you, with such an unassuming name it costs a pretty penny (especially with the US dollar as weak as a kitten these days) but holy kerning, it would be the summer camp experience of a lifetime. Well, for a certain type of folk I guess…no pun intended. Okay, pun intended, but only just a little.

I wish they had camps like this back when I was a kid. Back then the choices were the summer camp out in the woods with the horse back riding and the archery and ticks with their lyme disease, or you could spend your summer mornings at the local high school in front of an Apple II learning how to program in BASIC and such. Guess where I spent two summers between the ages of 10 and 12? Exactly. I wouldn't come to fully appreciate the art that is typography until I was in college and waist deep in it. Believe me when I say that it's easily one of the most overlooked and under appreciated forms of design in the world.

Well if I happened to have nearly $1,300 lying around and the flexability to take a week off in the late summer I would really consider going. Having to fling out the projects like I do these days, my typography skills are no doubt pretty rusty. And because it's so easy to just let the computer's defaults for leading (line spacing) and kerning (letter spacing) be good enough (even though they never are) because you're up against deadline after deadline and it takes time to go in and kern every character to look just right next the each other, how can one not get a little rusty? They also offer (or have in the past) a camp on information design…another one that I should start saving up for.

Hopefully after reading this you'll start to look at type as more than just letters on a page, and start to notice the spacial relationships they have with one another, and maybe even think twice before typing that next document in Times New Roman. May I suggest something in a nice humanist sans serif?

Guess what I've been doing in the shower!

I'll admit, I didn't come easy at first. But after hearing about it on the radio I just had to give it my best effort. The first couple days were almost painful; it just didn't feel natural or even right. I wanted so badly to tell someone about my experimentation, to see if they've tried it before, but didn't in fear that I might jinx myself and never fulfill my goal. After a couple weeks of careful and conscience effort it started to become enjoyable, and finally just a regular part of my morning routine. What can I say, it feels good! But I still kept it a secret. Actually, I did mention it to Betty midway through my third month, and she was very encouraging but also understanding why I hadn't told anyone. Now, nearly five months later, I'm ready to come clean, so to speak.

I've been successfully practicing the art of the Navy shower! Why? What were you thinking it was? Oh, well now that's just dirty…

I didn't tell anyone sooner because a cookie told me not to, and I'm not one to go against the advice of a fortune wielding dessert. And while I could do a bit better — extra long hours at work has me all tied up in knots and it's taking more mental fortitude not to slip back into the old "Hollywood shower" ways — and conserve even more water, I'm still proud that simply by turning off the water when lathering up or brushing my teeth (yes, I'm one of those people, but I multitask by conditioning my sexy mullet at the same time) or shaving has saved over 1500 gallons of water in the past 60 days, an average of a little over 25 gallons a day! Unfortunately my water company charges a hefty flat service rate with a tiny metered fee on top of that so even though I cut back 33% on my daily water use I'm really only saving a little over $2 each month. But knowing that I've saved that much water already by simply changing a small part of my routine has me wondering how else I could be saving water. Or electricity. Or fuel.

Sure, all the big company's these days are touting about how "green" they've are because it's a buzzword in the media right now. I don't buy it. It's all for show. I bet none of the execs in these "green" companies would ever think to turn off the water while sudsing up. I may not have an MBA from Harvard, or drive a flashy $100,000 car, or make multi-million dollar donations to offset my carbon emissions, but at least I've taken the first step to actually live green in my own life. Well, a little more green. Baby steps, ok?

By the way, I won't even tell you how long it took I spent looking at iStockphoto.com for photos of sailors in showers. But diligence pays off…and I'm all about sharing the wealth, all $2 of it. Enjoy! And when your done, don't forget to take a Navy shower.

Better understand cats through the eyes of an engineer

Suddenly, it's all becoming so clear! Angel is no longer such a mystery. I just needed a reference I can relate to. But sadly from my own experience "corporal cuddling" is a no-go and "cat yodeling" will ultimately result in the very shredded face of yours truly. Angel is quite good at generating static electricity so maybe that's something worth pursuing, balloons or not. The only thing that I'm really missing now is a video showing how to get engineer TJ to curl up in my lap for some heavy petting, or vice versa… me-ow!

I'm sorry, I thought I would be able to let this go, but I just can't. Bear with me… The decor in the house in the video is going to give me night terrors for at least a month. I hope they somehow make enough money off of that video to afford a complete living room makeover. TJ, you can stay at my place while the makeover is in progress.

That's some trunk you're packing

Guys, now that you know what not to wear, take a look at the vintage fashion Style Dash found up for grabs to the highest bidder on eBay. Like the great pachyderm , you're not likely to forget them any time soon. I wonder if the winner would be up to model such a fashion(?) statement.

***

I was originally going to post this last night, but out of nowhere I got smacked down with a headache that through me for a loop. This is the second time this month that I've been laid out with a headache like that. Hopefully it's just stress related and will not come around again. Could it be allergy related??

Put down the collar and back away slowly

The funny folks over at Arabian Monkey have posted a handy flowchart to help you make sure you're not dressed like a, well, a douchebag. Just in time to help you plan your spring wardrobe! And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go pick up my suede ensemble from the cleaners.

What was she thinking?

As promised, here's the non-kitty post… and while it's not exactly breaking news, you'd better have a seat, this is going to be a long one anyway.

What year is it? Oh that's right, it's 1958. Which is why the following is presented as fact rather than misguided opinion:

"Studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades. So it’s the death knell of this country. I honestly think it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam - which I think is a big threat, OK?"

Wha??? Was I in a coma for the better part of a century when a gay civilization came to power and then disintegrated?! I sorry I missed out on hearing about those gay-friendly countries that have gone the way of the dinosaur. Death knell?! Really? Really?? Wait a minute, in 1958 politicians weren't throwing around words like "terrorism" and "Islam" so it can't be 1958. The way those words are being thrown around, I'm tempted to say it feels like sometime in the early 2000s, when those FUD words were being thrown around to scare people into believing what was being said. Maybe this next quote will clear up the confusion.

"Cause what's happening now is they are going after, in schools, two-year olds...And this stuff is deadly, and it’s spreading, and it will destroy our young people, it will destroy this nation."

Hold on a second, let me check a calendar. Holy cow! It's 2008! I'm sorry I was thrown off by Oklahoma Republican House Representative Sally Kern's horrific candid remarks to a small audience earlier this year that I didn't believe she, or anyone, could possibly have said that in this day and age. Her vile words were recorded by someone who is not gay, lesbian, bi, or trans—in other words they're straight—but who is supportive of the LGBT community. Have a listen.



I know what you're thinking…maybe what she said has been taken out of context. Apparently not. As an openly gay man who just celebrated being 10 years of being "out" last year, hearing this kind of talk from our elected officials doesn't just worry me. It's chills me to the core. (She's not apologizing for what she said, either.) I've had to deal with teasing, insults, threats, and rejection before and after coming out. But that was just family and friends, and they only have a limited impact on my ability to live a good and happy life. Hearing this from a stranger, a stranger in a position of power, now that grabs my attention. And listening to her spread untruths, misinformation, and what basically amounts to fear mongering, well now I'm not sleeping well at night.

Now, I've never understood why a pretty large segment of the population that identify as heterosexual are so frightened by any who does not identify as hetero. So frightened that they engage in hate speech, aggressive behavior, and violence. And what really boggles my mind is that so many of them also call themselves Christians. Excuse me, but I was raised Christian, I read the same Bible as everyone else, and I don't seem to recall Jesus ever killing someone because they were gay. Or for any other reason, actually. I don't remember Jesus ever preaching that violence was ever the answer. If I'm missed a chapter or a verse, please let me know. Instead people apply their own interpretations to the Bible (which, by the way was written by men and not God) to serve their own purpose and agenda. As far as I know, we gays do not have an agenda. Like other groups of people seeking equality in the past, we just want to be allowed to live on the same terms as straight people can.

Wow! This might be one of the deepest and most depressing posts in the history of this blog. On the bright side, if you look hard enough, you can find humor hidden in just about any sad story. And in this situation, I found Ellen Degeneres' response to Ms. Kern to be just that little bit of funny I needed. Thank you, Ellen, for helping keep it all in perspective and positive.



I have such an amazing group of friends right now (mostly straight believe it or now), and a family that is, more or less, accepting that I sometimes take for granted that there are still a lot of people out there in the world that hate gay people. I'm just glad that I still live in a country that doesn't imprison or kill you for being gay. But if Ms. Kern had her way, that might be the case for long. Why should straight people care? Because even though you are straight, there's a good chance you belong to another segment of the population that could be singled out for being "different." Just pray that society doesn't wake up one day and realize how much money could be saved in not having to make products for left-handed people. Or overweight people. Or female people. Um, oh yeah, been there, done that last one already. Thank goodness history never repeats itself, right? Right?

*Sigh*

I've got chills

Movies like this get me all excited. This clip literally gave me chills. Just 3 more days!!

Gay Robot

Found this while surfing Funny or Die, which you probably remember from the video that really launched the site, The Landlord. It's a 20-minute pilot for Comedy Central and it looks like it may actually have made it onto the schedule in 2008, if IMDB is to be believed. I've got to say it's pretty good, and I can only imagine how they'd be able to make this into a weekly series. So keep on the look out for Gay Robot on Comedy Central. Enjoy!

Looking for a pattern

Over the course of my free-time websurfing, I came across a link to a site that helps you track, among other things, your morale level on a daily basis. Being that mine has been a bit less-than-ideal for a longer than is probably healthy, I immediately jumped through the link to see what it was all about. It's called Morale-O-Meter and it's pretty simple, really. I like simple. Heck, since it has a place for notes it could almost be like a blog with the bonus of charts and graphs. I like charts and graphs. But you probably deduced that already. Anyway, I've going to see how long I can keep it updated daily. But since I've been doing a decidedly lackluster job keeping the blog up-to-date, the expectation is starting pretty low. Perhaps I'll stick to it long enough that I might be able to see some patterns day to day, week to week, and find a way to get out of this emotional muck, or e-muck, that I've been stuck in.

---

Speaking of pattens, I'm both fascinated and dumbfounded at how people come to find this blog on the interwebs. Really, it just makes me realize that maybe I should be more careful about how I title certain posts. Or not, since it's apparently bringing people to my blog. Then again I'm sure they're leaving just as quickly, and disappointedly, once discovering that they really haven't found what they were looking for. Honest to blog, no one is ever looking for this.

So here's just a few of the top Google search queries in December:

#1 - "don't cum in me" — probably linked to this post. "In"..."On"...close enough, yet so very different. This blog is for external use only. And yes, I realize that the very act of including this phrase in a post is just going to exacerbate the issue. Hey, I'm just happy I could spell "exacerbate" correctly without spellcheck!

#3 - "bedtimehigh" — a very hot site, that is if you like hot guys

#5 - "why can't we be friends" — ah, good times.

#9 - "that is one doodle that can't be undid homeskillet" — Juno!

#13 - "deal with a straight guy who acts gay" — not sure how this ended up linking here. Maybe this post? Or this one? Though it's probably got the most in common with this one though even though it's only obvious to me.

#14 - "hair whorl gay" — maybe you should wear a hat

And as for what other sites people clicked through to get here, well, that's a little more tame (after stripping out all the google links)...

#1 no referring link - thank you all you direct accessers.

#2, 3, 9 - bedtimehigh.blogspot.com - yay! Thanks for the linkage, Mr. Darcy, you hot sexy thing you!

#14 - ask.com — this blog got linked in an image search for Bethany Hamilton, guessing it t'was to a pic on this post

#16 - bettyunderground.blogspot.com — I'm so lucky to score a link at Betty's site!

#20 - www.mideastpiece.com — A wonderful site that has since been retired, though you can continue to read all the previous entires. 10 points if you can find yours truly mentioned in one of the posts there. Wishing you the best, Matt and John, and hope to see you posting somewhere in the blogosphere soon.

And with that I wrap up my 2nd post of 2008. I know, I'm off to a miserable start, and not just bloggily. With any luck I'll be in a better head space soon and feel more motivated to write.

"That's one doodle that can't be un-did, homeskillet."

So, just what exactly broke my two week non-posting streak? What got me back on the blog horse? Would you believe it was a four-letter word? Those letters would be j - u - n - o.

So, you've seen Juno already, right? What?! You say it's not playing in your neck o' the woods yet? You signed up to get attend one of the free screenings (and free t-shirt!) for Juno, right? No?! Then you'll just have to wait until it opens nation-wide on December 25th. Yep, xmas day. You've been a good boy/girl/somewhere-in-the-middle/all-of-the-above so you deserve to treat you to this unique little film. Consider it a cinematic stocking stuffer. While all the other movies out during this season are filled with either holiday "magic" or CGI effects by Industrial Light & Magic, don't you want to see something different? And have I mentioned the soundtrack yet? It's, whimsical and oh so very listenable. Like over and over again. Right now I can't stop listening to "Anyone Else but You" by The Moldy Peaches. I have to thank Betty for her generosity in gifting the entire album to me in iTunes. It was about the only thing that got me through work on Friday.

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Worst thing about today: Finding out that my kitchen needs to have pipes moved.


Best thing about today: Betty's musical generosity.