Just for the heckuvit I'm sticking a video in here. A friend of mine likes to spend his days searching music on YouTube so that he can send thousands of Myspace bulletins per day(okay, maybe just several-ish) containing those same videos. Much of my Myspace time is spent opening then ignoring his bulletins as I just don't have time in my life for the doom filled black metal he too often enjoys.

One of today's video offerings was New Bomb Turks Leaving Town

As soon as the song began playing, okay after the little piano sort of sound, The Boy immediately began dancing. The thought suddenly occurred that the friend responsible would enjoy seeing what his video offering had caused. I filmed The Boy, nearly thirty seconds worth, and now I share with you.

finally

Remember this post from just over a week ago in which I complained about a pain in my chest from hanging halfway into the bath tub so I could wash my hair? If you don't remember feel free to go back and look. It's easily one of my more recent posts. Seriously.

Okay, the point here is the picture of the hair. I swore then something about cutting it, and I finally did. It's not as short as I originally thought I might go, but it's also not bad.

Yes, I also agree that this isn't the greatest picture. I took it myself, and this is the best of the four. The only one that doesn't have the light in the background is also the very worst one of the four, and this is the one in which you can best see the hair while also best seeing me in a somewhat less than greenish cast.

Also, please do not point out that the haircut gives me a certain big nosed Shirley Temple quality without the dancing or being annoying. I too have eyes.

tears and questions

My family has a message board that we use to keep in contact with each other, and if you know my family then you also know that they are Christian. I no longer claim any religion and in fact am quite agnostic in my lack of beliefs. Knowing this it should come as no surprise that I don't really believe in prayer. Sometimes however it doesn't hurt to ask for it anyway, so I'm posting my prayer request to my family here, though I'll add a bit at the end to help explain yet another reason that this has touched so many lives.

Sunday morning at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church the main service was a play being performed by children. In addition to church members, several non member families with children were in attendance. A man entered the church with a shotgun and began shooting later revealing that his initial plan had been to shoot as many people as could before the police arrived and killed him.

Two men were able to subdue the gunman while other people were able to lead the children away to another church next door.

We have many friends who are members at this church and who were in attendance. We've also used some of the church facilities for homeschool meetings, bad weather days, potlucks, etc.

Everyone involved needs prayers at this time including the gunman as well as so many random people in this town. So many people who are not members of this church know and have friends who do attend. This church has quite a reach so that so many people have been affected without being directly involved.

Because it doesn't really have a place in my family's message board I didn't add that the shooter's motivation in picking this church had to do with the liberal leanings as well as the openness to and acceptance of the gay community. This is why it touches so many people, because this church is such a presence in our community in fighting for social justice, acceptance and equality.

Again, I'm not a person who prays or tends to believe in prayer, but if ever a community needs it I think now is that time.

This post is also posted HERE at my other blog.

get mom out cuz she like totally needs to get some

Below find the newest spam message I've recieved via Myspace. It's a new one on me. I love the way the writer/sender starts out, complementing my weapon grade eyes, but they what follows is sort of a dick-in-the-dirt kind of let down.

Heya there! Do you carry another weapon with you besides your eyes?

Well, I know, it's sweet. You'll have a great time but not with me, I'm just helping my mother find a nice guy to date. She's entirely new to online dating. So don..t be shy and write her back, but not directly to this address. Instead, send your reply to her e-mail address at perettefmarie at yahoo. I'm positively sure that you will enjoy talking with her. She's easy-going, friendly, loyal, outgoing, funny, smart and kickass. She enjoys relaxing, she loves listening to music from iTunes, trying new exotic recipes, reading, painting � she's very talented and when she has time, she likes taking leisurely bicycle rides around town. She loves guys who are smart, charming and adventurous. Surprise her with chocolate or with some flowers, she'd really be pleased with that!

I hope you write back, ask her for pictures. She's beautiful. I havta run, thanks for your time btw! Bye.

Yeah, that's awesome and totally the sort of thing that's going to lift someone's soul and let it fly free in a rain of joy and love and good feelingness. The ol' switcheroo. The ol' you're-cute-meet-my-mom. Yeah, just what one needs on a Sunday morning.

I actually slipped away from Myspace for a moment to post this, leaving another message that I was sure was spam, knowing I'd go and flag it as soon as I posted my funny. Wouldn't you know the next spam message was nearly the same thing. The message was worded differently, but it was the same. It began with the same claims toward my beauty and hawtness, but very quickly we get the bait and switch and it's all about getting mom a man. The mother in the secong message enjoys wine and tequila, so maybe I should . . . or likely . . . yeah, let's go with no.

more tales of balance

As Momma has continued to mention, and as I've come to realize has more merit than I've given credit, there is a certain beauty in striving for balance. I can't say it's always easy, because it's actually seldom easy. It's . . . well . . . it's a balancing act.

There is a certain balancing act that I face a certain five days of the week. I call these work days. There are myriad semi-battles with balance I face that don't occur each work day, and honestly those semi-battles could easily hinge on which particular server happens to be working that particular shift and whether or not it's that one guy I can't make myself not have a crush on, but that's a whole other story for a different day and a different blog.

My underwear of choice has been boxers for everyday wear and boxer briefs for soccer. Not finding ourselves in soccer season, I've worn only boxers for quite some time. I have two choices of them, one slightly thicker/heavier than the other, and I have an equal number of pairs from which to choose between the two different fabrics. When I took my shower yesterday, I found that my only clean option was the last of the thicker fabric pair.

On a whim I chose to go with the boxer briefs that I tend to save for soccer. They are snug fitting though thicker than the less thick boxers. I hoped that perhaps the boxer briefs might be more comfortable for work.

Work . . . unless you've done the job you can't really appreciate what I have in mind when I think of choosing underwear based on work. It's a hot and sweaty job, and if you are even close to as anal retentive as I am then it only makes sense.

We finally get to discussing balance with my anal need to have my clothes fit just so. I have to wear pants with a belt, and if you are familiar with typical chef's pants then you know you don't get that. I wear jeans, not the wisest choice, but I'm okay with it. Add to this the chef's coat and the apron. I'm not comfortable unless my apron is tied below my belt. For this to work I have to give myself plenty of space in the chef's coat.

Plenty of room in the chef's coat means that I raise my arms and shoulders, stretching and pulling the chef's coat up. The apron goes in somewhere above the tail of the chef's coat but below the belt. If I get everything right the apron keeps everything in place while the stretching gives me enough extra space to reach as far as I might need to without pulling the chef's coat out of the apron string.

Add to all of this the fact that underwear never tends to ride down. Boxers are the worst for riding up. When the waste of your boxers are approaching your ribs and your apron strings are slipping past the belt, you realize you've lost your balance, and everything is riding up and away from where you(I) really want it. You can try to ease everything back down, or you can accept that you don't have time to fix anything and there's food that needs to go out. Finally, at some point, I'm just too anal to deal with it. I have to take the apron all the way off and settle the chef's coat and the boxers and reapply the apron.

But with the soccer underwear, the boxer briefs, the underwear doesn't really quite ride up. It is nice to run your thumbs around the waste band at the end of the night when you finally get a chance to pee, loosen up the sweat stick. But that's the same anytime you finally get a chance to pee. The point is they didn't ride up. I can more slightly easily deal with the rest of my gear riding up if my underwear isn't in my armpits.

I might have just sold myself on my soccer britches being my new work britches too. I don't know just yet as I'll have to experiment more, but we'll know soon enough.

ouchie

My chest hurts, and I know why. I washed my hair in the bathtub, and the rolled up beach towel on the edge of the tub wasn't enough padding. Or maybe it's just a bad idea to lean over the side of the tub. It's easier than the sink though.

I worked yesterday(Saturday) and actually worked later than I generally would have on a Saturday, but Momma was really busy Friday night, and she and the rest of the kitchen used up nearly everything we'd prepped for them.

Yesterday was also the day of Ska Weekend, an annual, local ska music festival I've blogged about before. It's even had its own tag for maybe a couple of years. Last year even saw me posting videos of some of the bands I was looking forward to seeing. I wasn't that good about it this year, but as an excuse I'll offer that it happened about a month earlier than usual. Also I wasn't horribly interested in most of the bands playing.

As it turns out, the new venue that hosted Ska Weekend this year is truly one of my least favorite of all the venues I've visited in this town. I'm just not a huge fan of the south lawn of World's Fair Park, especially when you sit in the middle of the sun baked field and remember past shows in the Old City.

I imagine having worked nearly nine hours before rushing home to wash my hair and change clothes before rushing back out to stand in more heat didn't help. Having friends in from out of town helped, and it was nice to be able to sit back on the lawn while the boys had plenty of space to run around. Really the only thing missing from WFP is some nice big trees to make some shade.

And now, my chest hurts. It was all that leaning over the side of the tub. And really, the blame goes to me for not having gotten a haircut. It's still growing, though that part really isn't a surprise. I even have to pull my hair back at work because I can't stand the feel of it sticking to my sweaty neck, and then I leave it tied up. And it really is a tiny pony tail and most ridiculous looking I'm sure. I can't actually see it, but I'm quite certain it's at the very least ridiculous.

I've said this to Momma many times, but I'm about ready to cut it all off and end the stupid experiment once and for all. It's crazy and gets big kinks in it and half the time is like a cloud floating around my head. It looks okay right after a shower when it's almost all the way dry. The rest of time it's just . . .

I don't know. It isn't really that long yet, and summer is almost over, so the heat thing won't be a factor. I don't know.

insert classic monty python line about not beind dead yet here

This blog is not dead. Yes, I haven't posted in about ten days, and it was probably about ten days before that that I posted last before that, or something.

I have in fact had quite a bit on my mind, stuff that I should probably post about, get it out of my head a little bit. Sunshine is a great disinfectant, and airing out my consciousness would probably help me think through things a bit. I might save all that for the gay blog, because I want to get this one back to what it was when I was happiest with it.

What do I need to get back there?
-mindless rants with lots of cussing
-word of the day? what ever happened to that little fucker?
-book sort-of-reviews-nothing but gay fiction lately and an autobiography of Edmund White (totally gay)
-videos of awesome music that you probably ignore
-mindless rants about things other people post that I should read more deeply into so I don't rant and sound like a douche

Yeah, that about wraps up all the stuff I miss doing. It just feels so often that my head is filled to overflowing with thoughts of things I can't quite control, so instead of placing them in a place where I don't obsess, I let those thoughts take over and push aside all the things I should be doing and/or thinking about.

And that's where we find ourselves as of now. I'm working on getting back to this. I'm needing more than ever to just get my thoughts out of my head. That's what writing is to me, and that's what I need.

That and a tall dark hair/eyed boy, but that's a whole 'nother post for another day.

two songs in my head

I became aware of Webb Pierce as a person a few short years ago. A local radio station would play songs he'd written being performed by other people from a tribute album title Caught in the Webb. They played a very few of the songs, and I happened to catch them randomly as I so seldom listen to the actual radio.

Caught in the Webb was one of our recent library finds, and as soon as I saw it I knew I was checking it out. Momma and I have both fallen in love with the album. The very first time I listened to I realized how many of Webb Pierce's songs I've known and how few of those songs I'd known he'd written.

One of the songs that jumped out from the very first listen is the song that's been stuck in my head ever since. The song is Wondering and is performed on the album by Emmylou Harris. I've been aware of her as well, but I never really paid a lot of attention. I know I've heard her. I know I've enjoyed her, but I just didn't bother doing anything about.

Then the album was there at the library, and then it was in the cd player of the car as we drove away from the library. Then Wondering came on, Emmylou Harris singing in her voice that I can't even attempt to describe.

A quick search around the dusty corners of YouTube proved that I would not be able to share Emmylou Harris's version of the song, but I did so want to share her voice. So I present two videos, the first being Webb Pierce singing Wondering and the second is Emmylou Harris singing the song Making Believe, another song I love, written by Kitty Wells.