Sitting here on Saturday Night

It has been another one of those "earn a few more gray hair" weeks at work and it seems the stacks of paperwork  and demands on my time grow and I can't seem to get time to work on projects that are important to me.

I am going to take the third week of March off and a friend from the "net" will be flying down to visit. It's still amazing we are finally getting to meet. We have chatted for years and helped each other through some major life ups and downs. Being an introvert, I am still a bit nervous about the face to face meeting. As odd as it sounds, i can stand in front of 200 people to do an inservice and never break a sweat but one on one personal interactions completely unnerve me. Stupid eh?

I am still trying to learn how to use this blog thing and it's still a bit of a challenge for me to reveal what is going on in my heart and mind. Oh well, I guess this is cheaper than paying for a therapist to vent to.. I seriously doubt anyone reads this thing anyway.

Just sitting here

I've been sitting here for hours trying to get motivated to do some work on a paper on evolution and genetic drift of influenza viruses that have successfully become pandemic flu. The object of the paper is to make the paper readable by a non-scientist and yet describe the beauty of genetic drift that makes these magnificent organisms so effective and elusive. For me, they are a thing of beauty and mystery since there many that can't even agree if these little collections of RNA are living or simply chemical process factories. 

Boring stuff for most folks but then again I am a simple person and often become fascinated by the oddest things. I wish I had been smart enough to save some of the humorous emails from another journal that we will not refer to by name again when I was experimenting with shaving creams and brush shaving creams. There are entire groups who have devoted themselves to shaving creams and lotions and they are as passionate about the topic as many are about religion and politics.

Last night, I was procrastinating again and was watching various video blogs from young people around the world and I stumbled upon groups of young people that were discussing their experiences being young and "coming out"; how very strange it strikes me. I look back to my youth and how things have changed. I am the generation of "Stone Wall" and to see the strives and accomplishments that have occurred over all these years and wonder where the world will be in the next twenty or thirty years. I do hope these kids I see online will having a better life than many of those in my generation. No fear, freedom and the right to be themselves - those are my hopes and dreams for them. It's unfortunate that the world is so full of freaks and a mature person talking and offering advice is viewed with such paranoia and suspicion. If only the generations could talk and help the next avoid the many pitfalls we incurred. I guess it is really for the safety of the young still, there should be a way in this modern world. Would I have ever been so brave as to record other than on paper my deepest thoughts and desires?

I guess my ADD or whatever the current politically correct term for it is, is showing. Yes, I really do sit here at my desk and read and think. A lost and strange art I believe but still one interesting to practice. Perhaps some of those from "that other failed journal" will decide to pop in and setup homestead. I miss their insight and words of wisdom.

To work now.. no more goof-balling around.

Lonely in Outer Space

Touchdown.. long time off - I think it's going to be a long, long time

Targeted Arrests Prompt Outrage, Protests in NYC

02/14/09-02/16/09

Protesters are planning to gather in front of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's residence in response to a series of arrests targeting gay men.

A group calling itself the Coalition to Stop the Arrests says there has been an epidemic of false arrests of gay men because they were solicited by undercover police masquerading as prostitutes. The Gay City News reports that at least 27 men were arrested for prostitution in eight porn shops in Manhattan in 2008. Since 2004 there have been 52 such arrests in eight difference businesses.

According to a statement by the group, the arrest is usually set up so that an attractive younger officer is sent out to approach middle-aged gay men. The officer allegedly entices the man to have sex. If the man agrees, the undercover officer says he wanted to pay the man for sexual favors, and then, before the man can accept or reject the transaction, he is surrounded by police to make an arrest.

Linda Poust Lopez is legally representing five men who were arrested in fall 2008 at Unicorn DVD in Chelsea. "Generally, these are people who are not working as prostitutes and even when they are confronted by the undercover they may be intending to have sex, but not take any money," Lopez told the News.

The rally is scheduled to take place on Saturday at 17 E. 79th St. from noon to 1 p.m., according to Towleroad.com (Advocate.com)

Gay Immigration Bill Heads to Congress

February 11, 2009

New York representative Jerrold Nadler will reintroduce a bill on February 12 that would allow gay Americans to sponsor their foreign-born domestic partners for U.S. citizenship.

The 2009 version of the Uniting American Families Act, which is to be introduced on Thursday, has 43 original cosponsors, according to Nadler's spokesman Ilan Kayatsky, with the list of cosponsors growing as the date of introduction approaches.

The bill is currently unchanged from Nadler's original House bill, introduced in May 2007, which ended up with 118 congressional cosponsors.

Gays cannot currently sponsor their partners for citizenship because, in the eyes of the federal government, same-sex partners cannot be considered spouses. The proposed legislation would require binational same-sex couples to prove that they intend lifelong commitment to one another as permanent partners, that they are financially interdependent, that they are currently unmarried to anyone else, that they are unrelated to each other, and that they are unable to "contract with that person a marriage cognizable under the Immigration and Nationality Act," according to the original bill. The bill would also change terminology to define those couples as "permanent partners" instead of "spouses." (Michelle Garcia, Advocate.com)

Interesting World

Last week I meet one more of my JS friends.. not exactly in a way I would want but things are better for him. He actually surprised me. It's odd how we have these mental images of people and they turn out to be 180 of what you expect. He's the second online friend to become a real world friend - who would have thunk it?? 

Just today I got an email from another friend that lives in New York talking about coming for a visit in March.. This is a total surprise but a wonderful one!! 

Well, up to the roof in a bit. We have the possibility of severe weather and are under a tornado watch. So far, the only ones on the ground have been to the north and to the southwest. Weather events fascinate me and I do spotting with RACES on the ham radio. 

Finding Those We Miss..

It is amazing.. after a couple of hours, I have managed to find many of my JS family once again. This may seem rather silly to most people but some of these folks helped me survive some of the most difficult times of my life. I hope in the following days we can play that 6 degrees of separation game and find some of the others and maybe convince them to take the chance again and try and journal again. I know several friends have felt so burned from JS that they no longer have the emotional energy to start again which is a terrible shame and a loss to all of us. I do give thanks that I've found at least a few of you.. let's not loose touch again - Please