Questioning your orientation

Saturday I went to Bookmans. Bookmans is this great used book, CD, videogame store. You can trade in your old junk for new junk.
I walked in with over $100 in credit, so I really wanted to splurge. I was browsing the DVDs and noticed a guy holding the Alien Quadrilogy set. Alien, Aliens, Alien3 and Alien Resurrection. I've been wanting that since it came out but I didn't want to spend 8 billion dollars to own it. Fortunately, the guy put it down and I snatched it.
I also bought Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Nirvana CDs. I'm slowly replacing the CDs that were stolen from my car last year.
Anyway, when I purchased the stuff, the girl who checked me out mentioned in passing that I must be a new fan of Pearl Jam. I told her no, that I've been a big fan since the beginning and showed her my Pearl Jam tattoo.
She freaked out and told me she had one too (but couldn't show me because it was in an inappropriate area). We talked for a few minutes and she gave me $20 off my $90 total bill!
So, I almost asked her out. I was so excited, I almost did the straight thing. Of course, it would never work out but why can't I connect with a guy like that?
There's got to be a gay man (besides me) who likes hard rock, sports and videogames. Right?

Say It Ain't So

I went out with my friend Rob the other night. Rob is one of the smartest guys I've ever known. He's not just book smart--he's world-smart. Anyway, while the rest of us have been sweating it out over the Michael Jackson case and watching with bated breath to see if our favorite singer was getting voted off American Idol, Rob has been building democracy in Angola.

So while I was celebrating the Red Sox World Series victory with beers and friends, Rob was celebrating for getting warring tribes together in the same room.

Anyway.... We were at Roscoes watching the U of A game Thursday night when an Apple Shuffle commercial came on. He turned to me and said, "Isn't this the greatest commercial? I need to get one."

My face blanched, my heart stopped and I think I started swallowing my tongue.

Rob-- say it ain't so. You're falling for a commercial that makes a really overpriced MP3 player look like it's the best thing since sliced bread?

This is why I hate iPods so much. They are generally 20 to 30 percent more expensive than other brands with less features and they have a horrendous battery life. Plus, they will only play MP3- and Apple-formatted music.

And Apple won't allow other MP3 players to play Apple-formatted music. So if you spend a fortune on iTunes songs, you're stuck either listening to them on your computer or you're obligated to buy an iPod.

But there's another reason why I hate the Shuffle. A year or two ago, Steve Jobs said that flash-based MP3 players (like the Shuffle) were dumb, impractical and Apple would never make one. So he decides to make one and pretend that he never said those things.

The Shuffle has no screen, so you can't skip around to find a song that you want. Apple (and all of the dumbass tech journalists who drool over everything Apple puts out) calls this design "elegant." It's not elegant if it's not useful! You just have to keep hitting forward and pray that you find the song you want. And Apple says that the Shuffle is so unique because it *gasp* shuffles music. As if this is some outrageously clever feature never thought of before.

Guess what Apple. My MP3 player has twice the storage, an LCD screen (so I know what song is playing and what is next), an FM tuner (Shuffle doesn't), a recorder so I can record conversations or music off the radio, longer battery life and costs $50 less.

People--please stop watching commercials. If something looks trendy and cool, it probably sucks.

I'm so tired I can't sleep

Have you ever been so tired that you can't sleep? That was me last night. I laid in bed all night and eventually fell asleep after 1:30. SOOOOO SLEEEPY today.

Kudos to the American public

I guess they're not as dumb as I thought they were. When Congress met to discuss ways on how to get that feeding tube back into that poor woman, I envisioned tons of stupid Americans cheering.

Boy was I wrong! And happy that I am. A poll by ABC news indicates that a majority of Americans disapprove of Congress' actions. Americans also believe that the politicians are using this case for political gain (impossible!).

The funniest part in all of this (if there is one) is that Bush cut his vacation short and flew back to Washington. Read the accounts on times when he couldn't be bothered.

Very Ape

Kurt Cobain in the Heart Shaped Box video

So what the hell is Very Ape? It has nothing to do with hirsute men. My friend Jeremy got it instantly--it's a great song by Nirvana and it's also my Xbox Live gamer tag. Very Ape is a song "About the macho male in all its stereotypical splendour of stupidity."

Kurt Cobain got sick and tired of all these dumbass frat boys going to Nirvana concerts. Cobain identified with the weak and the powerless -- the geeks and the individualists. He was very anti-estbliashment. He did NOT like the jocks who were being glorified by school officials and their peers.

Take the lyrics for Stay Away:
Monkey see, monkey do
I don't know why I'd rather be dead than cool

So, Very Ape is one of my "theme songs."
Lyrics:

I am buried up to my neck in
Contradictionary lies
I take pride as the kind of illiterature
I'm very ape and very nice

If you ever need anything please don't hesitate
to ask someone else first
I'm too busy acting like I'm not naive
I've seen it all I was here first

Out of the ground
Into the sky
Out of the sky
Into the dirt

There's no crying in baseball

Isn't it hysterical that Mark McQwire broke down in front of Congress crying and still wouldn't admit that he did steroids? By not denying he did steroids he basically admitted that he HAD done steroids. Which, to me, is no big deal.

I've done illegal drugs before. If Congress were to question me, I would not break down crying and pointing out that I gave 3 million dollars to kids. I would say, "Yes, I smoked pot before. I've also driven faster than the posted speed limit." End of story.

Moral of the story? Don't do something of which you are ashamed. If you might be embarrassed by it--don't do it.

But isn't it even more hysterical that Congress is holding hearings on this? I mean Bush can get away with lying to the American people every day, but you've got some cheaters in baseball and all of a sudden, Congress feels the need to fix it.

What's odder in all of this is: Sports makes grown men cry. Take me for instance. Every time Lindsay Davenport plays a tennis match--I'm screaming at the linesmen, I yell at Lindsay for not going to net enough, for not being aggressive enough, etc. And if she loses? Forget it. I'm in a piss-poor mood. I don't want to talk to anyone and I really am on the verge of tears.

Today she was up 4-0 in the first set and lost it 4-6. Then she won the second set. But lost in the 3rd set to Kim Clijsters. Clijsters is only playing in her second tournament IN OVER A YEAR!!!! After she lost I had to leave the room. I was either going to cry in front of Kevin or I was going to hurl the TV out of the window.

What's wrong with me? I don't know her. She makes millions of dollars and yet I feel like the world ends when she loses. Is it her cute little barrettes? Is it the fact that when she started out people called her fat and I felt sorry for her? (My friend Ted used to call her Davenportly. I wanted to hurt him everytime he said that!)

Or do I feel so strongly about her because she hits the ball so damned hard that I'm in awe? I don't know. I guess I'm just weird.

The same goes for basketball. I can still feel my heart ripped through my chest when John Paxson shot the winning 3-pointer in game 6 of the 1993 NBA Finals against the Suns. I was in Germany at the time, so the game didn't start until 2:30 in the morning. George, Greg and I would get up at 2am to watch the game, take an hour nap and then do physical training. Needless to say, there was no nap after game 6.

Let's get this started

OK. So, I've been talking about doing this for over a year. Today, I'm finally going to start my blog. This will be a chance for my friends and family to keep up with what is going on in my life or what I'm thinking.

I just wanted to comment on this situation with the Diocese of San Diego.
Link
They refuse to perform a funeral for a man because he owned two gay bars. Now, considering that priests have been known to frequent gay bars (you can tell who they are because they end each sentence with "my son"), I find the whole thing ridiculous.

It just seems terribly hypocritical of a church that has murdered and tortured all in the name of Christianity (for those who have forgotten there were a couple of wars in the past called The Crusades--I won't even mention The Inquisition).

The truth of the matter is, God created us all--the liars, the cheaters, the murderers, the Catholics, the Jews, the Muslims and yes, even the gays. The only difference here is the liars and cheaters and murderers were born with free will. They chose the incorrect path in life. And everyone either is born into a religion or finds one that matches their needs in life.

But pretty much every scientist and psychologist has proven that gay men and women are born that way--even a lobotomy won't change sexual orientation. It's the way we were made--by God.

Which brings me to this question.

If God can accept us--why can't the Catholic Church?