my weblog

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Random items...

Got an hour and a half to kill and wanna watch a truly cheesy old B-movie? (You mite hafta hit refresh on your browser)
The Naked Kiss

What I'm reading now:
The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft, Ulrich Boser
The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century, George Friedman

A few recent pieces for the open-minded:
New England's Gay Marriage Compromise Could A Deal In New Hampshire Help End The Debate, Or Is It Just A Marriage Of Convenience?
I Choose Risk Instead of banning bikini waxing or harmless toys, let people take control of their own choices.
Bringing Sunshine to the Nanny State Urban progressives are infecting our cities with totalitarianism. A little sunshine is the best disinfectant.
One for the guys: Study: More sex may help damaged sperm ...If you were looking for another reason ;)
And one last one: Type Dirty To Me

I saw this recently on the Biography channel: Animal House: The Inside Story. More here (I gave my love a cherry that had no stone...) 30-odd years later still the funniest movie I've ever seen, always makes me laugh... Dusty Springfield was the female Tom Jones (or Tom Jones is the male Dusty Springfield!)... For those who want to get down early or simply can't wait- the Pats are currently a 10 point favorite in their opener vs. the Bills (I'm waiting).... David Carradine. Ed McMahon. Farrah Fawcett. Michael Jackson. Billy Mays (a giant.) They're dropping like flies...

"Tuesday's gone with the wind..."

Sunday, June 28, 2009

The Voice of a Generation has been stilled...

RIP Billy Mays

Monday, June 22, 2009

A soggy evening sipping on an Ipswich ale...

A good friend of mine recently told me he and his wife have child #2 on the way, due near the end of the year- congratulations, you! ;)

We've had some miserable weather. It has been mostly gray and damp and cool since last Thursday, and is supposed to remain unsettled for most of this week. Where is summer?! More and more weather seems to affect me, affect my mood, not to the extent of SAD (a guy I used to see had it bigtime, really affected him in the winter... either that or living isolated up in Glawsta!) but gray, dreary, drismal days have been tougher and tougher to take... I've always thought living in the Southwest would be great, sunny skies with a dry heat (I hate humidity... as does my hair!) almost year-round, but I'd miss a lot around here... Let's just have a stretch of nice weather, 'k?

One negative effect of hormone therapy has been a small but noticeable loss of cardio stamina; while I've been able to maintain my morning runs and my cardio sessions, lately they've seemed a bit more difficult. I haven't experienced any weight gain (as can sometimes occur while on 'mones) and I can still do my 6.5 or so miles at the same pace and my 45 mins of cardio at the same levels, but they've been tougher. Curiously, my strength hasn't decreased. Hmmm...

It's interesting sometimes to realize how often people we've known for a long time stay pretty constant; stability can sometimes be a reassuring, comforting thing. I recently signed up for and activated a Facebook profile (I believe you hafta have an account to view it) and hopefully I'll find several friends I've made thru "this" part of me, as well as make new ones. And of course I also perused other profiles, seeing who may have them from my "other" life (co-workers, acquaintances from college, from high school, etc...) And I found many. But I only found two people who were/are among my circle of friends. Which, in some perverse way, was oddly reassuring; knowing them as I did and- apparently- still do, I'd have been surprised if most of those folks were into "social networking," especially of a non-professional type (some are LinkedIn;) they're not that type. To find that there are people who remain constant in an ever-changing world, people whose actions and such I can still largely depend upon to act as expected (note: my "other" side hasn't created a profile, either. It's really not "me", or at least that residual part of "me.") is, again, oddly reassuring. (Of course, this part of me- my transgenderism- is likely the last thing that they'd expect of me!) Simply an observation...

A couple of discs to recommend:
Middle Cyclone, Neko Case
Rattlin' Bones, Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson

"I can't give up acting tough/It's all that I'm made of/Can't scrape together quite enough/To ride the bus to the outskirts of the fact that I need love..."

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Another busy week... beyond the usual, had to take my mom to the dentist earlier today, as she had an unexpected- and painful- tooth problem... Sometimes I feel as if I'm just treading water, racing 100 miles a minute, getting no place fast... have a bunch of email to catch up on, again. Ack. And a rainy evening out my office window, with what looks like several more days of damp, gray, drizzly weather ahead... Alright, enuf of my bitching...

What I'm reading now:
The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart, Bill Bishop
Nightwalker, Heather Graham

I've had some- I don't know if I want to say unwarranted, but certainly un-sought, or unexpected- um, attention shown my way when in my "other" mode recently. Perhaps I can blame it on the scalping of a haircut I alluded to in my previous post, or the fact that I'm looking reasonably tanned and fit... I don't believe I'm sending out any particular "vibe" and- obviously with the meds I'm taking- straight male isn't something I'm especially aspiring to these days; I had never been too ept in that department even when I did somewhat aspire to that, but... Flattering I guess, even if I'm more interested in their outfit or where they had their hair done...

One from the crime blotter: Police: Man attacked in Okla. for bologna sandwich It must've been a really yummy-looking sandwich!

And forget air-guitar: Air Sex Championships!

10 on shuffle
All Mixed Up, The Cars (side two of the Cars' first album was a great junior high make-out disc!)
Wishin' and Hopin', Dusty Springfield
Because The Night, Patti Smith Group
It's Five O'Clock Somewhere, Jimmy Buffett Live @ Fenway
Good Girls Don't, The Knack ("and it hurts!")
Love Is A Rose, Linda Ronstadt
Green Grass & High Tides, The Outlaws
Driver's Seat, Sniff 'n' the Tears
She Really Wants You, Aimee Mann
More, More, More, Andrea True Connection

"She's always out making pictures/She's always out making scenes/She's always out the window/When it comes to making dreams..."

Monday, June 15, 2009

My "good" knee has been bothering me my last few runs and workouts, a pain on the outside of my left knee- bummer. I've mentioned before, I had my right knee, aka my "bad" knee, scoped during my senior year of high school, and it has been virtually trouble-free. But I've had many problems with my left foot, leg, knee, etc... over the years. I broke my left foot my sophomore year of high school and- probably because I resumed doing too much too soon on it- it never healed quite right. My left foot severely over-supinates, throwing off the entire bio-mechanics of that leg, resulting in periodic minor- and not so minor- nagging pains. Not enuf to keep me sidelined, just enuf to make it uncomfortable on occassion.

I've really been into this lately: Muscle Milk (my fav- chocolate malt!) 25g of protein, 10g of non-fiber carbs, 230 calories/14 oz serving, with a re-sealable twist top so I can have half and save half for next time. Satisfies my sweet tooth (a nice change-up from my unflavored soy protein powder blended with plain soy milk- that can get boring after awhile!) while allowing me to stay pretty consistent on my higher protein/lower carb dietary regimen. Give it a try!

I had to attend a funeral in my hometown earlier today- one of my uncles passed away. I saw several of my aunts and uncles and cousins I hadn't seen since, well, since the last family funeral I attended there, about four years ago. I took my mom... The funeral was at the church we all attended, the burial at the same cemetary where my father is buried... Sometimes I feel a lil sad that I never kept in better touch with many/most/almost all of my relatives; family and all should be important, deserving of more attention, than I've given it and them over the years... many of 'em still live where we all grew up... it's not as if I had any falling out with any of them, even if we didn't hang out all that much growing up (different neighborhoods, social groups, interests, activities, etc...) Truthfully I just don't get down too often to where I grew up; again, no particular reason, things have just happened that way I suppose... Several of them thought I looked good, a few asked if I'd been sick (I'm a little-to-a-lot smaller than many of 'em remember me being!) A few awkward moments ("So you're still not married?!" Um...) I was really po'd about a week or two ago; I got the worst haircut I've had in years- the stylist I had been seeing was gone, and I needed something done, but the gal who worked on me cut it waaaayyyyyy too short, but I suppose it, um, disguised or somewhat minimized some of the changes going on with me from the folks I saw today... Times change, people change, people grow and move forward, move on, but I've never been one who has wanted to completely forget or deny the past, either... things like this serve to ground me a bit- not a bad thing!

Curious tidbit that occurred to me; I've never attended a non-Catholic religious service. Not especially difficult to do in heavily-Catholic Massachusetts I suppose. It's not due to any anti-Protestant, or anti-anything else, prejudice or fear- one of my very oldest and best friends is Protestant ('course, he married a Catholic gal, in a Catholic church.) But every wedding, christening, funeral, etc... I've ever attended has been a Catholic one- go figure.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Odds and ends...

I found out recently that Yahoo will be ending its- free- Geocities website hosting later this year. I haven't updated my site in awhile as is, but the elimination of the free site hosting will most likely change my online presence (does that sound pretentious or what?!) a bit, most likely keeping a Yahoo profile and IM identity (I may create a new email and ID- stay tuned!) as well as creating a Flickr account for my pics, but no longer maintaining a "full" website. In addition I recently created a Facebook profile (still trying to master the logistics and how-to's of it) and might create/maintain profiles on a few other social networking sites (no, not MySpace- I had one there briefly, it wasn't for me!) I'm sorta saddened to hafta be ending the website, as I had a lotta stuff there that gave a pretty good glimpse into what makes me me, my silly lists and all (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) as well as what I thought were pretty comprehensive and varied pages o' links (1, 2) and especially my To Whom... page. That kind of stuff would be harder to replicate on a scaled-down social networking site. Truthfully I hadn't updated much of my site (links, lists, and- I know, I know- especially pics) for awhile now anyway. Maybe this change will motivate me to, if nothing else, make the effort to snap more pics again- I really should. One thing I wish I had mastered back when was editing pics better; I look at the horrible job I did editing so many of my pics, just waaayyyy too distorted. And I didn't save the unedited originals. Some gals do a great job with that; maybe I just was trying to do too much with 'em. I dunno, but I cringe when I see some of 'em! But it was fun building and maintaining a website, even one as idiot-proof as Geocities. So I dunno... unless I feel like shelling out the $$$ to maintain a site I'll probably have that scaled-back web presence I mentioned. (I'll be keeping the blog! It's still free, and easy!)

What I'm Reading Now:
The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy- If We Let It Happen, Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, Peter J. Tanous

10 on shuffle...
Intuition, Feist
Reason To Believe, Rod Stewart
Promises In The Dark, Pat Benatar
Rapture, Blondie
No One Needs To Know, Shania Twain
Dead Flowers, Townes Van Zandt
Hello Again, The Cars
I Love A Rainy Night, Eddie Rabbitt
You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), Sylvester (Gotta feed my inner disco diva!)
Breathe, Kylie Minogue

"The pull is in my muscle/The ache is in my bones/It's hard to be alone (breathe, breathe)/It won't be long now (breathe, breathe)...."