TetRefine

Sometimes we just have to accept we cannot understand everything quite yet. There are things we don't have the technology and ability to understand, and we should continue striving to eventually understand them. I think it's irrational in this day in age to still believe the stories 2,000 year old nomads made up to explain the unexplainable. I mean, what makes Christianity special from the thousands of others? Nothing really. It simply got adopted by the right cultures that, by chance, flourished long enough to pass it on. People hate uncertainty so they look for anything, however delusional, to explain it. They are terrified of death, so they desperately look for stories that tell them that death is not the end. It conveniently explains away our most basic human fears, which is why so many people find comfort in it and cling to it despite it being simply made up. Life is nothing but chance, luck, and meaningless existence. I feel sorry for people who live their life in fear of a magical man in the sky in hopes that it'll be better in the "afterlife". You only get one shot on this Earth, so it's foolish to waste it. As to the actual lines from The West Wing, it does a perfect job of illustrating the ridiculousness of taking the Bible literally. It also points out the obvious a-la-carte picking and choosing many Christians do when deciding what constitutes morality "according to the Bible".

It's interesting, because the Starbucks where the whole thing happened is right in the middle of the most tony neighborhood in Philadelphia. Very wealthy, very exclusive area to live with lots of high-end shopping and dining, so it does not surprise me that they got jumpy when two black guys "dressed like black guys" came in. I cannot tell you the number of times I've used a Starbucks bathroom without buying anything. Whenever I'm in New York City and need to go to the bathroom, my first thought is "where is the nearest Starbucks?" Yet I'm young and white so they've literally never once bothered me doing it. The city took care of this issue in a heartbeat, and settled. If only they could be that efficient about solving the true problems this city faces. Another topic for another forum though...

I have a three-way bromance with two of my old roommates from college. One of them is bi, and the other one is the gayest straight man I've ever known. I also have a good friend of mine who is gay who, in the most accurate way, can only be described as my Saturday night soulmate. We go out to the clubs and parties a lot, and for some reason we just totally click. We actually are two very different types of people, but what we really bond over is our care-free, live it for the moment attitude that we fully embrace. I can tell him anything I've done, am doing, or want to do without any fear he will judge me or put me down, and he the same with me. We've gotten up to some wild things in the time we've been friends, but I know I can always trust him and count on him. We often get mistaken for boyfriends when we go out dancing together, because we dance so intimately with each other. To us, it's not necessarily intimate but rather just the level of comfort we feel around each other. It's never gotten sexual and it never will. Neither one of us wants that. Andrew Holleran once wrote that "The friend you danced with, when you had no lover, was the most important person in your life." While both of us have significant others, in certain ways we are the most important people in each other's gay lives. It's hard to describe the kind of bond we have over the lifestyle we live, but to me it is very much an intimate one in it's own unique way.

Congrats guys! Hopefully the next time I come your way or you come mine we can have dinner again.

Yessss!

Yeah its crazy that he had to retire from performing in 2016 because of health issues at only 26. Though knowing the EDM/club scene, I can definitely see how being totally immersed in that world non-stop can destroy your health.

He was so young, so talented, and was the artist who first got me interested in EDM. I have so many good memories of dancing long into the night to his songs. RIP my man.

This song is amazing.

The Church and the Tradesman sounds interesting! I will have to go check that one out.

I’ll have to try it! Thank you!

Hah, I've been to The Cock several times on my trips down that way, and it is still pretty raunchy, though obviously I don't know what it was like back in the day. There is a monthly party in New York called MEAT that has a heavy BDSM/leather theme to it, and a lot of what they portrayed in the bar scenes in Cruising happen at this party...very openly.

Yeah I actually saw it before I saw the movie itself. It was interesting when I first saw it, but forgot totally about it until a friend and I were talking about good gay movies over dinner and he brought it up. I went back and watched it, and while the plot was a bit choppy, it's a fascinating anthropological look into a bygone era of gay New York.

While Clancy wasn't necessarily the best writer (his characters were as flat as carbon paper), his scenarios and how he played them out were awesome. Red Storm Rising and The Cardinal of the Kremlin were my favorites. While I've seen the movie adaption of Patriot Games, I've never read that one surprisingly. Maybe I'll have to go do that sometime soon.

I just saw Cruising (1980) with Al Pacino for the first time. While the editing made the plot choppy and a bit confusing at times, it was a fascinating look into the hardcore leather/BDSM scene of New York in the 70s. That kind of stuff is rarely seen nowadays.

Nope. Again, he’s just another generic clone white boy that they plaster literally everywhere as the standard of “hot” or “attractive”. That is not my type at all.

I usually hate superhero movies. The last I saw was Batman vs. Superman, and it was so boring I fell asleep, and I vowed never again to waste money on going to see another one. Yet, I keep hearing how great Black Panther is, and how just about every movie theater in the city is selling out its weekend showings. I'm very tempted to give this one a try to see if it breaks the mold of the same generic crap that is just about every superhero movie in the last ten years. On a side note, the one superhero movie I did enjoy was The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises wasn't bad either. But Captain America, Avengers, Thor, Superman, Spider-Man, etc. have literally all been the exact same plot and scenes rehashed ad nauseam.

I once read a book that had a section of it set in Philadelphia. The first mistake they made was saying that numbered streets run east/west. Wrong, they run north/south in most of the city. Named streets run east/west. Secondly, it described the first neighborhood I ever lived in here as an ethnic-white, working class neighborhood run by the Mafia. While that neighborhood certainly used to be a Little Italy where the Mob controlled everything, that hasn't been true since the 80s, and the book was set in 2011. It's now a very desirable, diverse neighborhood where you can find people from just about every corner of the globe. Also, the Mafia hasn't controlled much of anything in Philadelphia since it murdered itself into oblivion decades ago. I was so annoyed at the lack of even basic research that I stopped reading after that.

Just about every train running into the city for the parade that day was already crammed to capacity after leaving the terminal station. Some people who had tickets couldn't even get on if they didn't go to the first station. It was absolutely crazy. I had friends from the suburbs come to stay with me Wednesday night for it, and some of them had to park 20-30 minute walk away from my place. I live very close to South Broad Street, and unfortunately my neighborhood got absolutely flooded with trash and people peeing in the street before/during/after the parade. All in all though it was a lot of fun.

Well I just got back from the parade. They estimated almost two million people lined Broad St and the Parkway for it, and I think that's a pretty damn good estimate. It was beyond packed for miles.

One good thing about the Eagles winning is that the entire school district is closing Thursday for the parade, so I get the day off. It is expected to literally shut down the city. Ironically, despite living through 10 major sports championships as a Boston fan, this will be my first ever championship parade.

Oh yes, the tired old trope of blaming millennials....

The reports of Philly fans have been way over exaggerated, and a few incidents have been used to paint all fans, which isn’t even close to the truth. Minnesota fans came into downtown Philly, started talking trash, covered the Rocky statue in purple and then took a giant group photo on the Art Museum. They purposely antagonized Philly fans, and then wondered why they weren’t welcomed with open arms. Sorry but that fake “Minnesota nice” crap doesn’t pass the smell test of the East Coast attitude.

Ehhhh, he's blonde, with a beard and generic white-guy "good looks". Not my type at all.

Funny enough, I wrote a letter to Kurt Warner when I was in 4th grade as part of a writing assignment (circa 2001). I got a hand-written letter and a signed football card of him back less then two weeks later, both of which I still have.

I'm a Patriots fan living in the beating heart of Eagles country. If the Eagles win, I'll never hear the end of it. If they lose, people are going to hate me even more.