AFriendlyFace

I hope it was an awesome day! Out of curiosity do you ever have trouble convincing people that it's really your birthday when you tell them if they don't already know?

Wow, dude!! You look gorgeous. It's also amazing because you always see pictures of really attractive people and wonder if they're as good looking on the inside...in your case I already know you are Nice pics, Rose! Actually, surprisingly I think you look much as I'd imagined!

Chevelle - I get it! "It all makes sense; you're the perfect person."

If I'm understanding that correctly then would that mean that the "two" time zones would be two hours apart? It does make sense in almost all ways and it would probably be nice that the East and West coast would be closer in time, but I could see one problem this would cause. Wouldn't that mean that somewhere near various borders you would be TWO hours different from your next door neighbours or the town right over? I wouldn't like that at all. Other than that though it does make a lot of sense. I'm sure he had a few other ones that he wisely chose not record I've heard that it's usually bad for traffic/accidents because it messes with people's biological clocks and they're more inclined to be sleepy when they wouldn't normally be.

Happy Birthday, Lugh! I hope it's a nice one

HAHA, I was like WHAT?! Very good

Love that Is that from American Idiot? Low - Flo Rida

So very moving and powerful. Well done, Corvus.

Interesting that his final 'selling out' wasn't prostitution but losing himself to the demands of his parents and their counseling. To sell out in body or in mind? A painful decision for anyone to make. Who knows if he really made the right decision?

God, what an awesome story! Great job, Menzo, I thoroughly enjoyed it and made a point to read it first. It was haunting and evocative, nothing less than what I was expecting from you.

I well understand. I personally can't imagine having any gender identity issues myself either. I thing a big concern for many trans and gay people alike is that these issues are often tied together when really they're quite different. As I said I know you meant no offense at all Exactly! I thoroughly agree with this post!

This makes sense to me. I can't stand how time oriented society is! I think it would be better to be more laid back and casual about such things. That makes sense too I suppose. I guess I really couldn't judge unless I had also gotten a chance to see what life was like without daylight savings. Otherwise I just have half the picture.

Well, I'm a woefully irresponsible and lazy computer user. My general approach to these things is to completely ignore them until it gets so bad I have to do a system recovery, and then when that quits working I buy a new computer. Like I said, lazy and irresponsible, but I justify it by pointing out how quickly old computers become obsolete anyway.

Hmm, so far DST seems pretty unpopular! I wonder what % of people actually like it? Would you be willing to add a poll to your thread, Old Bob? It's always been something which it seems to me that at least 9/10 people dislike! I wonder why we really have it at all, other than a general inertia when it comes to bothering to legislate it out. I've heard in the past that it had good effects in terms of energy conservation, but then I believe I heard reports that countered that, or downplayed it. So I really don't know. My personal attitude has always been as follows: "Oh I love falling back!" "I hate springing forward!" It's always nice to get that extra hour, but I hate losing it, it would probably make more sense to just leave it alone in the first place.

Ronnie!! **smiles and waves** I know neither of you mean any offense at all to transgender individuals, but implying that an FTM trans individual who presents and thinks of himself as a man is not an "actual man" or "is really a she" is something which the majority of trans people would find very objectionable. It's better to use Graeme or Greg's "Biological female"/scientific approach in terms of sensitivity to the issue. Anyway, I just point this out in an effort to let you know the likely perception trans people would have to those statements so that perhaps you won't accidentally offend anyone. As I said, I know neither of you meant any offense (all the more reason to tell you!), also please note that I say this as a fellow GA member who's fairly well-versed in trans issues and not as a moderator. This is my reaction too, Mike. Anyway, I'm delighted for them and I hope their little girl is very happy and healthy. Take care all and have a great day Kevin

Hey everyone, I just thought it would be good to get people's thoughts on this. I have a friend(s) who I think may have for me, and I don't really feel the same way so I don't think it's necessarily an issue having to do with the fact that we're friends, but on the other hand, a big part of it is simply that I have a general hesitancy to date friends (well really it's not though, because I just don't feel that way, but in general I do have a hesitancy to date friends). I mean I think that can potentially lead to some of the best relationships, but I also think it can screw up some really good friendships. Obviously I think that you should 'be friends' with anyone you date, and you should probably even feel that way about them a bit before you start dating, but as I'm sure most of you will agree there's this 'line' or something which after you cross it you know you're friends with that person and that it's not romantic...and of course there's the opposite line for once you're romantic with someone and not just friends, but in any case I think in general if you're both single and somewhat interested in dating you start relationships with people that aren't on the other side of either of those lines and move them over accordingly...at least that's sort of how I do it. When I meet someone I find attractive and interesting that's also available I think "Okay, so the possibility of dating this person is on the table" and then over time they cross into one of the two camps. I dunno, maybe I'm just weird, and that's by no means the extent of my thoughts on the matter so I'll probably add more later, but what do you guys think about this in general? Take care all, Kevin

Like We Never Loved At All - Faith Hill and Tim McGraw

So life goes on, the world turns, and predictably young gay males find themselves surrounded by drama. I think it's just the way of things. Only I just really want to sit this round out. I mean I always try to avoid drama anyway, but quite often I get sucked into my friends' problems and thrown into the middle of things. This time I'm just NOT going to do it. Things with William and Scott are continuing to get worse. I can't even mention William's name without Scott making a sarcastic, bitter remark about him leaving. Luke is siding with Scott and actually told me straight out last night that he'd 'black listed' William I mean what the hell? Cut the guy some slack! It doesn't matter if you agree with his decision try to muster a least a little support. The way I see it he's leaving soon and we should make the best of our time left not spend it sniping. Anyway, due to that position I'm the only one willing to help him load up his things and move, and I almost feel like Scott and Luke are pissed at me for doing that much. I also feel uncomfortably like Scott is making all this about him. He's pretty much just focusing on how this sucks for him and what he's going to do. He only seems sad about losing William in his life as sort of an after-thought. And while I'm also sitting here thinking he may be making a mistake, hoping I'm wrong, and wondering what he's going to do if it does all blow up in his face, Scott is practically taking bets about when it happens, and while I'm sure he will be appropriately sympathetic if/when the time comes I swear I suspect he's going to get this "I told you so" self-righteous feeling. Scott and I's own individual relationship is great though...but actually I'm starting to get paranoid that he has feelings for me again. He and his boyfriend broke up about a month ago, then for awhile he was 'talking' to this other guy and that didn't work out. He's just majorly bummed about the whole relationship/dating scene, and we've been having a lot of fun hanging out and he keeps telling me how much my friendship means to him - and his friendship means a lot to me and I always tell him that - and I just get the feeling he's entertaining ideas of us being a couple again. He once again brought the topic up. My reaction was honest albeit a bit weasely "I've just been really enjoying our friendship. Boyfriends come and go, but friends are more enduring and important." That's really how I feel about it right now too. I mean sure one day I might like to do the whole 'in love, life-partner' thing, but right now...I dunno, right now it just doesn't seem that tangible and it isn't something I'm especially yearning for either. The most random thing was when we were in the car a few nights ago and he was talking about how a good friend of his was being ordained in the Episcopal church. He was like, "he can marry us" I just sort of had a non-reaction to it and eventually he went on "I mean to whomever we end up with". But still... *note I have no idea if gay people can actually marry in the Episcopal church in the first place* Meanwhile Luke has been on this crazy, desperate tilt lately to find someone...and he seems determined to make that person someone from our circle of friends. If you remember me discussing 'former friend' from previous blog entries you'll know that the whole thing just sucked big time for all of our friends, and as crappy as it is it pretty much resulted in this big line being drawn down the middle and everyone splitting into two camps. This was further intensified when about a month ago (I remember because it was also the time he broke up with his boyfriend poor guy ) Scott had an almost identical incident to the one I had with 'former friend's' best friend. Basically the guy randomly sent him this text one day that was like "I don't think we should be friends anymore." I even feel slightly guilty because the whole thing is so weird where else would he have gotten the whole 'breaking up with your friends' idea but from what 'former friend' did? Anyway after that things got even more firmly divided. Luke's been sort of going back and forth or whatever and still hanging out with both groups. Well over the past couple of weeks Luke and 'former friend' developed an "almost" relationship which Luke carefully hid from Scott and I because he thought I would freak out or something, and he figured if Scott found out he would tell me...and he was right about the 2nd part, as soon as he finally did tell Scott, Scott was unable to avoid telling me (even though I really wasn't trying to make him when he hinted that he had something he wanted to tell me but couldn't). Anyway, the truth is I really didn't care, in fact I was very happy for both of them and actually thought objectively that it could be a really good relationship, and when he finally did tell me I was supportive and told him I thought it could be really good. Meanwhile Scott was actually having more trouble adjusting to the idea, but it all proved irrelevant a few days later when they broke it off :wacko: Which really did surprise me because I really did think it had a good shot at working out. Anyway, now Luke is being all bitter toward FF too, BUT he's now immediately trying to pursue another of their mutual friends and someone I slightly know and like (he's a nice a guy ), but if you ask me it's just sort of a desperation, plus because they were doing the whole keeping their relationship on the DL thing the other guy doesn't know that Luke and FF almost had a relationship (I know it's confusing, honestly I don't know what they were to each other). And as little as I know the guy I think it's a really bad idea for Luke to keep this from him because I think he will be upset when he finds out, and I think he will find out because I think eventually FF will tell him. I don't think he'd care that much if Luke were just upfront with him. Anyway, meanwhile Luke also seems to be trying to keep his options open. Scott told me he's convinced that Luke has feelings for him again. They're going to be moving in together after William leaves, and I guess Luke has been acting a little differently toward Scott, so I believe him. Also I actually suspect he (Luke) is starting to have feelings for me again as well. Last night the three of us hung out and Luke said something that ticked me off. He made this...not really racist but racially stereotypical remark, and that kinda trash really irritates me, and I was already sort of on a short fuse from other things that happened earlier in the day that didn't have anything to do with him, and so while under normal circumstances I'd have probably just told him I didn't agree with him and left it at that, instead I like went off on him and gave this big anti-prejudice speech. Anyway from then on things were just tense between the two of us and we kept having minor arguments all evening. Well at the end of the night we decided to watch this movie, and he suddenly got all cuddly and apologetic. And I actually was in a cuddly mood anyway, plus it was nice to be 'making up' or whatever, so I went with it, but I just got the impression from some of the things he said and did that it might be meaning more - or at least different - things too him. Basically I just feel like he's reached this point where he's essentially screaming "I can't be alone anymore!" and he's looking for anyone who can fix that. Anyway, after all that I was on my way home when I realized I had a missed call and a voicemail...it was an ex and the voicemail consisted of "I love you, call me back." So it was like 1:30 or something when I got that, so I didn't call him back I just sent him a text asking him if he was okay. Then when I got up today I called him and he didn't answer. I guess I'll call him again, because I do care about the guy, just not in that way anymore, but I don't really know how I'm supposed to handle this. Anyway, despite all this I almost feel like I'm not involved in all these things. Like I am just sort of watching it all unfold. Which is just as well because I really do feel like sitting this round out.

Thanks, dude! I'm definitely enjoying it

Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz

DST is just something I've sort of gotten used to. I mean it's been around my whole life so I never knew any different. However, I definitely agree that objectively it seems like a bad idea, and I certainly wouldn't be sad if they got rid of it. -Kevin

Oh I love that song! "What's My Age Again?" - Blink 182

WOOO HOOO! Have a very safe, fun trip, Dalmatia! You must be so excited! I'd be so elated to take a trip like that -Kevin

Welcome back King It has been a long time, but I'm sure Dom will be sneaking back up when we least expect it (quick everyone quit expecting it! ) Great to see you again! -Kevin

Well I just have a no sex and friendship rule. If I'm friends with the person I'm not going to have sex with them unless we're trying to start a relationship or something. So I don't worry about sex complicating my friendships because I don't do that with my friends. I'm thinking you probably mean in a more romantic way or something, but I certainly think you should worry about your friends' feelings in general - regardless of their orientation or gender.