Okay. . .here we go. Man of the Week. First though, a disclaimer, I freely admit that my taste is wide and varied. Who and What I find attractive usually changes on a daily basis. I won't take offense if you simply don't like what I do. . .though one thing I don't like are twinkish boys, so don't expect a lot of those around here. :-P

So onto our first entrant. Few would believe that I actually do enjoy sports. . .just not the sports normally associated with the red-blooded American male. I usually like soccer and hockey more than basketball and football. The other night I was watching the MLS Cup 2009 and I was reminded of an American soccer player that I first found attractive back in 2006 when he was on the American World Cup team. Thus, our man of the week is. . .drum roll please

Landon Donovan



( More Landon Hotness )

Somehow I don't know how to start today's Miscellanea. Last week was a very tumultuous week for my family and we're all just a little upside down still in our feelings. Where to start, where to start? I suppose it's just better to start at the beginning.

• Saturday night my Aunt Sandy died from complications of pneumonia brought on by the H1N1 flu. I urge everyone who is able, to please get your H1N1 immunizations as soon as possible. Especially those of you on my friends' list that have compromised immune systems. I once thought that H1N1 was something distant. . .it was happening elsewhere in the world and the US. Now it has hit home.
  
• Wednesday I am driving my grandmother down to Jacksonville so that she can fly out to California for my Aunt Sandy's memorial service. My Uncle Jim will be flying out with her and meeting us at the airport. Since she's going to be around people that have been exposed to H1N1, we are going to drive to the Naval Hospital today in Beaufort and attempt to get my grandmother immunized. Our local health department isn't taking any appointments so the Naval Hospital is our last shot.
  
• Since I'm already going to be in Florida I'm most likely going to be spending my Thanksgiving with family and friends. I'll have to pick up grandma when she returns on Sunday so might as well stay in Florida.
  
• On a lighter note, after some urging over on jj79's page after my selection of Cheyenne Jackson as his Man of the Week, I shall attempt to do my own Man of the Week. As brotherflounder said, "Double the Hotness". I will roll out my first installment most likely tomorrow.
  
• Two more photography sets were completed this weekend. They of course are now available for viewing on my Flickr page. They are of the St. John's Lutheran Churchyard and the Unitarian Universalist Churchyard, both in Charleston. Yup, more graveyards. *sad smile*
  
  Well that's about it for now. Going to shower and get ready to head out. Ciao.

Today's miscellanea is brought to you by the beginning of the holiday season, and the unexpected mishaps that come with it. . .

• Last Friday, my mother, grandmother, and I took our annual pilgrimage to Christmas Made in the South at the Savannah Int'l Trade and Convention Center on Hutchinson Island. Of course for the third year in a row I didn't really have any money so couldn't really buy any of the interesting crafts and foods offered. Maybe next year.
  
• After we wandered around for a couple of hours we took the ferry across the Savannah River to River Street and had lunch. There's a great little Greek Restaurant that we each at every year. Of course after lunch while we were waiting for the ferry back across the river my mother decided to inadvertently take a fall upon the brick steps and ended up breaking her left humerus near the shoulder. We ended up spending the rest of the day in the ER while she got it x-rayed and immobilized, it's too far up to cast so she's stuck with an immobilization sling.
  
• Over the weekend I ended up processing and uploading two sets of pictures to my Flickr account. Now I only have six more sets of pictures outstanding. And the biggest from Cades Cove during my trip to Tennessee over Halloween has nearly 200 pictures. OY!
  
• Final on Thursday for Tax School. . .so much to remember it's hurting my head. Not a fun thing, especially with the memory issues I'm experiencing due to my medication.
  
• Speaking of heads hurting, I'm in the process of switching anti-depressants, weaning off of one before I can start the other. All I can say is I've never been so emotional in my life. I'm crying at the drop of a hat at just about everything. Music videos, commercials, movie trailers, television shows, I've cried at just about all of them in the past two weeks. Anything with even a bit of emotional heart tugging and I'm a mess.
  
  Well that's about it for this week. . .think I'll go take my daily nap now.

Saw this episode of Golden Girls today on WE and I just had to find and share this clip with you all.

I know have haven't posted much lately. Part of the reason is that I feel that my life has gotten so mundane that there's nothing much different to post from the day to day boredom. However I'm going to try and rectify that. Every Monday I'm going to try and post just a miscellanea of various things that have happened to me over the past week as a way to try and see past the mundane aspects of my life. As this is the first post of Monday Miscellanea it will most likely cover things that have happened in the past couple of months.

• Back in October I started Tax School with Jackson Hewitt. While it is not a guarantee of employment it is hoped that I will be doing taxes for the first three and half months of next year. True it is only temporary employment, but at least it is some form of employment and a way of bringing money in.
  
• During the middle of October my best friend from High School Bonni visited and we had a great weekend wandering around Savannah and Charleston. We even did a Haunted Tour in Charleston. I do have pictures.
  
• Speaking of pictures, I am still doing my photography off and on. I've a lot of picture sets that I do need to get processed and posted to my Flickr account. Hope to be doing that sometime this week.
  
• Went to the doctor last week for my quarterly appointment. Everything's going along swimmingly. I switched my anti-depressant and will start taking Cymbalta when it arrives from ADAP pharmacy. I also got my H1N1 vaccination, as I got my Seasonal Flu back in September I'm now covered for the flu season.
  
• I'm still knitting. Recently I've finished an Antler's Scarf which was my first attempt at Cabling. I must say that I did very well indeed. Here's a picture of my wearing the scarf while talking with friends while I was in Knoxville over Halloween weekend.
  
  
  

Well, I think that's it for now. I'm sure I've forgotten some things as I've started having memory problems due to the medications I take for both my HIV and Psoriatic Arthritis.

2. Finish all knitting projects currently on needles. Shawl, Antler Scarf, and Shrug.

I've finished the Shawl and Antler Scarf, but have written off the Shrug as I've lost the interest in finishing it and doubt that I'll ever get back to it. . .RIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP.

15. Read at least 10 books I haven't read before.

Finished the last book The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne on 11/07/09.

17. Take 5000 pictures. (586/5000)

As always you can view my photo sets here.

26. Hopefully find gainful employment.

I'm currently enrolled in Tax School. While it's not a guarantee of employment, it's a start. And even if the job is for 3 1/2 months at least it's finally a little money hopefully coming in. :-)

31. Hang up clothes immediately after laundering for at least 3 months.

46. Go on Savannah Ghost Tour.

Went on a Charleston one instead. Since I live relatively close to both I figured six of one, half dozen of the other as to which city I haunt after dark. :-)

50. Locate 15 geocaches (1/15).

As I have purchased the GPS I'm now working on the second half of this goal. Found the Hidden Charleston: Bridges & Boats cache on 10/17/2009.

54. Visit my Friends dragonangel1369 and bellaland in Knoxville.

Went up to Knoxville for Halloween weekend. Went "trick or treating" with bellaland and was there for dragonangel1369's wedding and then spent Sunday with her and other friends up in Gatlinburg and Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

Wow. . .now that I've written everything out it seems that October was definitely a busy month. Five goals completed, go me.

I saw this PSA on The View today, and as a person who also suffers from a mental health disease I wanted to share this all with you. It brought a tear to my eye.

Change 2. Finish Monk Travel Satchel to Finish all knitting projects currently on needles (Three of them) before starting any more projects.

I've frogged this particular project since I had so many projects going, besides I didn't have the right type of yarn and it wasn't going to work out good anyway. The projects currently on needles waiting to be finished are a shawl for Grandma's Christmas present, an Antler Scarf, and a Shrug.

15. Read at least 10 books I haven't read before. (9/10)

Finished A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 by Simon Winchester on 09/18/09
Finished The Book of Love By Kathleen McGowan on 09/20/09

17. Take 5000 pictures. (550/5000)

Flickr page.

30. Keep my room clean for at least 1 month.

50. Purchase GPS and locate 15 geocaches.

GPS has been purchased as of 09/14/09. One half down.

54. Visit my Friends dragonangel1369 and bellaland in Knoxville.

Planning on attending dragonangel1369's wedding end of October.

71. Spend quality time with my Grandma once a month.

Last month we went to dinner and saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs at the movies.

92. Organize my books.

Part of reorganizing my room was putting in a larger bookcase and getting all the books together in one place. :-)

I was going through some boxes in my closet the other day and I found a stack of papers I thought I had lost. They were print-outs that I had made of my first website I had put together bay in 2000 after teaching myself HTML. One of the pages that I had but together back then was a little essay I wrote on being gay. I had written it about the time of my five year anniversary of coming out, and as I near my fifteen year anniversary of coming out, it still seems relevant to today. I thought I'd share it with you. Now don't crucify me because these were feelings I had nearly ten years ago (though I must admit, most of my thoughts haven't changed all that much I guess).

( So follow the cut if you want to read the essay. . . )

Well that's the essay. It's a little rough I admit. Thoughts have changed, but pretty much thoughts have stayed the same. Remember this was from my observations of the gay community in Orlando, I really did not have any experience with the gay community in bigger cities, the gay meccas so to speak. In some way I still don't. . .in fact I'm probably in the smallest community so far. . .the community of one.

I know I haven't written much of anything lately, but maybe it's because I've felt I haven't had much to write about lately except the same old stuff. I've told myself that I needed to post, but just could never bring myself to post. Lately though I've been in da funks. . .and have also found myself tearing up at the smallest things. I just finished watching the last five minutes of "Little House on the Prairie" on Hallmark while waiting for M*A*S*H to start and there I was, wiping tears from my eyes.

Part of these funks is I can't seem to bring myself to do anything constructive, yet I look back and I have been doing stuff. Albeit little stuff here and there. For instance we got three bushels of tomatoes a couple weeks ago and I canned quarts and pints of whole tomatoes, chili sauce, and diced tomatoes. I also made some spice blueberry jam and blueberry/cherry jam.

I started a wellness program at the local physical therapist's office. For a small monthly fee, they allow me to use their exercise equipment. The exercise helps, but sometimes it just compounds the pain in my joints even more. I really can only do it in moderation.

I did though rearrange my room a couple of weeks ago now. Moved the bed from off the wall and underneath the window so I can have access to both sides now. I seem to have more room now too. At night now I spend more time in my room doing knitting and less time on the internet. Speaking of knitting right now I'm knitting a lot of autumn leaves using a pattern I found on Ravelry. I'm thinking on actually sewing all the leaves together and forming an afghan. This of course is just another added project to the already three other projects I have on needles.

End of October I'll be going to a friend's wedding in Knoxville. It'll be nice to take a little trip to the mountains in fall and get away from it all. Speaking of getting away, my brother will be stationed over in Europe starting in January. So I might be taking my birthday trip next year in Europe rather than driving to Montana. It all depends on whether he's going straight from Europe into Afghanistan or not. If it's not next year it'll definitely be the year after that. I'm starting my Europe fund now and asking for no gifts for Christmas or Birthday, just money. I'll keep you in the loop kishenehn, I'm sure you'll understand that if I get a chance to do Europe I'd take it. :-)

Well I suppose that's it for now, it's taken me over an hour to actually write this. Shows you how kind of out of it I've been lately.

17. Take 5000 pictures. (525/5000)

23 more during month of August. Flickr as always is where I keep my photos posted.

29. Rearrange my room. Completed 08/30/2009

83. Pay off at least 1 Medical Bill.

Sent final payment on August 26, 2009. One bill down, Ten more to go. *sighs*

85. When I buy a new DVD actually sit down and watch it.

Bought a new DVD player for my bedroom which should make this goal a little easier to accomplish. Actually watched two DVDs over the weekend. So actually only behind by 1 DVD and both seasons of Pushing Daisies on this one.

Again a rather light month, but then again I just haven't been feeling very motivated lately. We'll see what August brings.

15. Read at least 10 books I haven't read before. (7/10)

Finished The Fire and the Light by Glen Craney on 07/18/2009.

17. Take 5000 pictures. (502/5000) Flickr page.

19. Scan all my old hard copy pictures to digital format.

Have started this project. Didn't realize how many pictures I had until I started scanning them all. Then again at 35 years of age I would then have 35 years of photos to scan. *smirks* Or at least until digital started becoming the more prominent medium. LOL

28. Finish building Grandma's desk.

Rather than building a new desk, we ended up rearranging and reappropriating pieces of furniture to give my grandma a bigger desk space. It works well for her and that's what really matters

My grandmother has accumulated enough points for a free round-trip ticket on Southwest. It's is transferable and she has offered it to me. I would like to take a trip this fall with said ticket. Question is where shall I go? The biggest determination is close in location to some of my LJ friends and whether or not there will be a couch I can crash on or very very very very very CHEAP hotel accommodations. I might also have to budget in a rental car depending. So in the spirit of helping me decide I've posted a poll with those locations I want to go to that Southwest flies to. I'm sure I'm going to get a wide variation of votes as those LJ friends recognize their cities and of course want me to visit. . .so points will be accorded proportionately to those able to help in my other determining factors. :-D


Poll #1429308 Fall Travel Destination
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

Where Should I Travel This Fall?

EDIT: Just to be fair I'll be picking Chicago as that is a hub city and I'd have to fly through there anyway for most of the Western US and Boston/NYC/Philly.

June was a very light month. . .not much action on the list.

15. Read at least 10 books I haven't read before. (6/10)

Finished The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon on 06/02/2009.

17. Take 5000 pictures. (460/5000)

Technically more pictures have been taken but I only really count them when I've processed and uploaded them to my Flickr account, so only 14 made this qualification in the last month.

As always pictures can be viewed HERE.

75. Try to keep T-Cell counts high and viral load counts low.

As of April 6, 2009, CD4 is 871 and viral load is undetectable. I know that the numbers can always change, but for right now I will consider this one completed.

I really HATE NBC coverage of Wimbledon. All the matches they are showing have been played already so I know the winners from earlier LIVE broadcast on ESPN. And because NBC is contract to broadcast Round of 16 during this time I'm missing LIVE matches that could be broadcast on ESPN at this time. *grumbles*

Got a hold of my April test results today. And let me tell you they are music to my ears. CD4 is at 871, and viral load is the most magical word in the world. . .UNDETECTABLE!!! Let's just say that's made my day, and my month.

I just got read by a Drag Queen. Via a Facebook message no less. I found it so amusing that I am posting it here along with my response. I realize my response might anger some on my friends' list and I will expound upon that at the end.

From the NYC Drag Queen ---> "You agree with Mutchnick's remarks? Well with that faggoty scarf you embarrass the gay community far more than any drag queens!"

My Response ---> "First off, it's a Dr. Who scarf, so that would make me a gay geek. If that makes me an embarrassment, oh well. Secondly, I don't necessarily agree with all of Mutchnick's remarks, but I agree with the sentiments behind the remarks. Pride no longer really represents it roots. It's no longer is an event that commemorates our history, our efforts to be free and prideful in who we are. Pride, like Mardi Gras, has become just another reason to be drunk in public and make asses of ourselves. I can say this because I have participated in Pride events, I have helped organize Pride, ridden on floats WITH drag queens, and year after year, it is more drunken debauchery, public sex, and drugs as with any circuit party. It is not the drag queens that embarrass the community, it is what Pride has become that embarrasses the community.

Even with all that, I would give anything for some sort of gay community to be a part of right now. Currently I live in the ass-crack of South Carolina with no community to speak of. I live openly even with the daily threat of lynching. This openness has led to losing jobs and currently being unemployed and being able to do nothing about it because there are NO protections in employment discrimination. I live with HIV and Rheumatoid Arthritis, in where what little immune system I have wants to attack my own joints. I knit that "faggoty scarf" myself and it took me over a YEAR to do so because of the arthritis, so it is something that I am PROUD of. You have the advantage of living in a gay mecca such as NYC, I do not.

And just so you know, drag queens have been some of my greatest friends. I have sewn dresses for them, repaired items, helped them choreograph numbers, and hell even have slept with some. So don't think for a moment I am going to let myself be read by one such as yourself.

Now with that out of the way, we are both intelligent individuals and I'm sure we can find some common ground, even if it is the common ground that we both disagree."

This of course is the scarf in question.


Addendum on Response: Now before you respond, my response comes from my own personal experience with Pride. I do know that not ALL Pride events are glorified circuit parties. There are some very good Prides out there I'm sure that still try to celebrate our history. These Prides I would love to experience and be a part of, but I also know that is something I can't ever afford to do. The Prides I've experienced have spend a majority of funds collected on alcohol and parties than actually celebrating Pride or donating to worthy causes including their own organization, and they wonder why they can't pay their bills to keep the organization running afterward. I also freely admit that most of my disgust on this issue comes from a form of self-hatred, which I deal with on a daily basis. I also admit that I have had some negative personal experiences with alcohol itself, one of the biggest being something I have to live with every day now for the rest of my life. I know that sometimes this shouldn't affect what I think about things, but it does. I will understand if some of you finally decide to defriend me after this entry. It will hurt, because the few friends I have, even those I have found online via Livejournal are important to me, but I will ultimately understand that we just don't view things in the same light, especially when it comes to alcohol.