PrivateTim

The "Come as you are" campaign has actually been ongoing since 2008. Here is one of the early "Venez Commes Vous Etes" (Come as you are) video ads.

Who hasn't??

So think of the extension of your line of thinking.... if the father DOES know and says "it is too bad your class is all boys, you could get all the girls", that is just awful, it means he doesn't accept his son's sexuality. In saying to his son "that Marcel is quite nice looking too, don't you think?" he would gently be prodding his son and saying, I know and it is okay. I don't find it awkward or creepy, if my parents had let me know a lot earlier they knew and they were okay with me as I was, it would have saved me a lot of sneaking around. And DON'T buy fast food..... you'll wreck your girlish figure Read AdWeek's Take on the Commercial

So okay, if you aren't Hawaiian you may have zero appreciation for this. This is the great Aunty Genoa Keawe, one of Hawaii's most beloved performers ever playing with one of its newest stars, Kamaka Fernandez. Aunty was 89 years old in this video. The story of how an African American from Little Rock, AR became one of Hawaii's top singers is an amazing story of its own. This post has been promoted to an article

Mmmm, I dunno, look at his eyes..... I can see a cutie there 40 years ago (assuming he is 55 now).

Sorry for your loss James, I know the attachment we can get to our pets.

Imperfection is part of the beauty of baseball. They don't need a plate umpire, they can have machines call balls and strikes perfectly as defined by the rules of the game, but the human element of each ump having different strikes zones, some being a pitcher's ump and some being a hitter's ump is part of the 19th century charm of the game. It is too bad Galarraga lost a perfect game on the last out, umpires are supposed to go the opposite in a situation like that, to give more benefit of the doubt to the pitcher, not less. But how many other outcomes of games or no hitters have been disrupted early in the game by bad calls, not just bad calls on the final out. Baseball is slow enough already, they don't need more to slow it down.

I thought being gay in France and places like that wasn't a big deal? Why isn't he out to his father? I like the ad, but I would have been more impressed with it if his father at looked at the picture and said, "you look just like me at that age, quite the handsome lad", followed up by "that Marcel is quite nice looking too, don't you think?" Indicating that his father had noticed who he hung out with, that he understood what was between them and that it was okay.

I use Excel spreadsheets because they have multi tabs. I'll keep my Cast on one tab, when were they born, how tall, what color hair, what color eyes, etc. It is amazing when you are in Chapter 7 and you try to remember what color hair or eyes someone had in an earlier chapter. Another tab holds the outline and timeline to maintain continuity, it has what month, what year, what major actions occur and what chapter it happens in, which is also helpful to go back and review a scene as you write a new one. Other tabs can hold miscellaneous information that is relevant, description of locations, rooms, etc so you stay consistent.

Red, yellow, green, red, blue blue blue Red, purple, green, yellow, orange, red red Red, yellow, green, red, blue blue blue Red, purple, green, yellow, orange, red red Blend them up and what do you get? Cerise, chartreuse, and aqua Mauve, beige, and aquamarine and every color in between Hazo ka li ka no cha lum bum Color has it's harmony and just like I have said Red, yellow, green, red, blue blue blue Red, purple, green, blue, purple, red red Blend them all and what do you get? Cerise, chartreuse, and aqua Mauve, beige, and aquamarine and every color in between Ing za ri ko fo zi brun brun Color has it's harmony and just like I have said Red, yellow, green, red, blue, pink, grey And white, and plaid and blue, green, white, yellow and toodinz 'n' and and and Right and and strips with blue and a black and plaid and a....a Oo and ...vut vut, wait a second, what what's going on with all da colors? Blue, red, green, green, white, white, black.... Whatever happened to just plain old lavender blue dilly dilly dilly dilly... dilly ...Silly

My cousin the lesbian and her partner of of 37 years are both deacons in the Episcopal Church, my ex is a lay reader in his Catholic church and doesn't hide who he is and neither do any of the other gay congregants, what happens 10,000 miles from the Vatican in local churches is very different from what happens on the ground with individual churches that serve their community. I think you would find a good gay community in the pews at many Catholic churches in San Francisco. The Congregational Church (now UCC), my mother's main church, is actually open and affirming, there is the MCC (gay church), the Methodist Church has strong statements about accepting homo's but not the behavior, but it amounts to a wink and nod policy, ditto for the Presbyterian Church, my father's primary church, and they are debating full acceptance like the Congregationalists. Our last church, the Dutch Reformed Church (goes by different names in dif places) is much more conservative and much further away from "open and affirming", but is also strong on "treat everyone well".

Has anyone noticed how damned expensive it is to eat healthy? Why is that? How can Mickey D's charge $1 for a hamburger that I can't make for less than $4? (meat, bun, lettuce, pickles, tomato, cheese, onion plus sauces).

I found remarkably that there didn't appear to be any forum discussions of this very good Mark Arbour story. I am not sure what the over arching theme is, but here is what I got out of it. It is easy to hate people you don't know. The British Lt. hated Germans and Germany because they killed the love of his life. It was very easy to hate Germans and Germany because Lt. Bellairs didn't know any Germans until he met Gerhardt. When he finally did meet Gerhardt his 'enemy' now had a face, a soul and really gorgeous pale blue eyes. So it should be pretty obvious and on some level we all get that it is easy to hate groups, but much harder to hate individuals. I hate "illegal immigrants" they have totally messed up California schools and hospitals and our state prisons are chock full of them, but I really like my parent's gardener of twenty-five years. I see what he has accomplished in those twenty-five years from one old broken down old truck and going door to door in my parents neighborhood to find clients to a fleet of six fairly new trucks and a 'landscape maintenance' company that employs about 20 people. He was single when he started cutting my parents lawn and trimming their trees. Then he got married, somewhere along the line, his son, about ten years old when I first met him, would join him during summer. That first son went off to college. Two other sons also worked summers beside their father, one will go off to a four year college next year and the other opted for community college to stay home and work leading a crew for his father. So yeah, I hate "illegal immigrants" and will continue to clamor for the government to do something about it, but it isn't as easy when you know one. (by the way, Arturo did become legal and then about ten years ago became a citizen, he may still root for El Tri to win the World Cup, but will also be pulling for the U.S. when not playing Mexico). Maybe Mark could write a story where a gay activist falls in love with another man, only to discover he is a Republican and a Christian? P.S. A follow up story with Bellairs and Gerhardt in a Paris cafe in 1946 would be lovely.

Have you read any Vince Flynn novels? Not as good or sweeping as Clancy, but still pretty good. Vince Flynn Books

On Saturday I went for a run with a running group I sometimes hang with. I ran with a man who has been married 46 years (yes to a woman), has three children and five grandchildren and he is gay. When he was a young naval officer, being gay wasn't an option, so he did the straight thing. I am sure he loves his wife, I didn't ask, but I assume 46 years going on 47, you do and he spoke fondly of her on the run, but as he also said "she does her thing and I do mine". He self identifies as gay, not bi. A lot of gay men, especially younger ones don't get how the man can call himself gay, he has had sex with a woman. A lot might even call his names because he "sold out" and played the straight role, but a 22 year old can hardly grasp what the world was like for gay men in 1964, especially in the navy in 1964. A Map of the Harbor Islands in in Google Books.

What if we get the answer wrong?

I would start with either Desert Dropping or The Lo(n)g Way and in fact probably not the Lo(n)g Way because then you'll want to read In the Fish Bowl right away. I also wouldn't start with With Trust because it isn't finished yet. So Desert Dropping.

And another, sad angsty song from someone taken too soon. http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/mycourses.html And another, sad angsty song from someone taken too soon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s5r2spPJ8g

OMG! The angstiest!! It is about how fast life flies by, can't you hear the angst in his voice? "33 for a moment.... but you see I'm a 'they, a kid on the way".... he is a they now, an adult, responsibility, something he never thought he would be, he thought he'd be a cool kid for ever...... "45 for a moment..... chasing the years of my life"... It is the same theme as Our Town kinda in the sense that it is about how you never appreciate your youth or life until it is gone. There is even a reference to Robert Herrick's, To the Virgins, Make Much of Time I'm 15 for a moment Caught in between 10 and 20 And I'm just dreaming Counting the ways to where you are I'm 22 for a moment She feels better than ever And we're on fire Making our way back from Mars 15 there's still time for you Time to buy and time to lose 15, there's never a wish better than this When you only got 100 years to live I'm 33 for a moment Still the man, but you see I'm a they A kid on the way A family on my mind I'm 45 for a moment The sea is high And I'm heading into a crisis Chasing the years of my life 15 there's still time for you Time to buy, Time to lose yourself Within a morning star 15 I'm all right with you 15, there's never a wish better than this When you only got 100 years to live Half time goes by Suddenly you're wise Another blink of an eye 67 is gone The sun is getting high We're moving on... I'm 99 for a moment Dying for just another moment And I'm just dreaming Counting the ways to where you are 15 there's still time for you 22 I feel her too 33 you're on your way Every day's a new day... 15 there's still time for you Time to buy and time to choose Hey 15, there's never a wish better than this When you only got 100 years to live

Ultimate angst song for me. Also could be in songs that make me cry.

Aspri petra xexaspri ki ap' ton ilio xexasproteri. or Mia papia ma poia papia? Mia papia me papia.

Shoot, I lose the pool at the office. I had Camilo as our first immaculate conception!

I think you misunderstand the point of "Rose's Turn" in both Glee and Gypsy. It was always about Rose (Kurt), in Gypsy. Rose says she just did it for her girls, but her girls left because they knew better, I mean she turned her little girl into a stripper for God's sake. Ditto for Glee, Kurt says "I did it for you Dad", but he didn't, it is how he justifies his selfish actions in his own mind. Listen to the great Patti LuPone on how the song is sung and note her inflections.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfK2BQCIIes

I was impressed with Idina Menzel. Damn can that girl sing. Oh and i would have been impressed with Kurt, it he'd told his dad it wasn't all Finn's fault, because he had been hitting on him, that getting his dad together with Finn's mom wasn't to help stop his dad from being lonely, but so Kurt could be closer to Finn. I think Finn was pretty patient with Kurt's antics.