Meticulously

Archie quickly tumbled a hand through all the crap in his locker, made contact with what felt like a notebook, and yanked. It was the wrong one so he threw it back amongst the rubbish and plunged in again. He knew needed to hurry; he didn’t want to be one of the last ones in the hall when the bell rang. Dropping his backpack, he shoved both hands back into the mess, churning the clutter clump, almost frantic in the search for his Science notebook. The warning bell rang and he increased his spin

How does the end begin?

I just saw the trailer for this and immediately plastered it over every social media network available to me. I am so freakin excited. I was literally just thinking about Simon Pegg the other day when I went to see Star Trek and hoping he and Nick were doing something together again. And it looks like Nick is playing the straight man in the movie while Simon's the bad boy. And not only Martin Freeman (as has been mentioned) but Paddy Considine as well, who I find rather attractive, although definitely prefer him with his mustache from Hot Fuzz. And, I don't see Bill Nighy anywhere in the trailer... And I'm done fangirling... for now... Not that Bill Nighy not being in the trailer or the movie is a good thing. Quite the opposite, really; it's rather sad.

I think I'm going to have to side with Zombie on this one. I took a twirl around the internet before writing this blog and there is actually a quite a lot of information to back up the fact that the masculinity that we Westerners crave is a relatively new thing.(by history's terms, anyway). Everyone knows that homosexuality itself has been around forever and that, by many accounts, it used to be more openly accepted than it has been in the last few hundred years. I read once that Alexander the Great was an effeminate man. Greek myths hold stories of beautiful boys like Ganymede and Hyacinth. The stories about the Sacred Band of Thebes are also fascinating to read. I don't agree that it can't change. I am living proof that even if it takes a while, change can happen; for example, I can now drink out of any water fountain I want:D

Oh, no, no. I meant I hope you stick around my blog lol:D

Thank you very much, Mike, for the kind words. I hope you stick around and enjoy your stay:)

I think we're on the same side of the coin on this one. When I said fear, I probably could have gone more in depth but felt I was already drawing out the blog. (I actually cut a good 300 words out lol). I will stick by my fully-realized comment however because I believe someone completely aware of their sexuality and its place in the world is not going to have a problem with a whole subset of the homosexual population. I think they're less likely to have a blanket hatred of effeminate men and more likely to realize that, for years, fem guys were the poster children used to scare society at large. I remember being 9 or 10 and seeing random anti-gay news articles; there were all the prerequisite shots of drag queens with their big scary 'boas of debauchery' and fem guys with dangerously hypnotizing lisps. It scared the shit out of me because I knew I had something in common with those guys and here I am hearing people talk about how disgusting these people are. There was quite a lot of propaganda back then with very little opposition and propaganda can be extremely effective.

"Masc" also seems to get mistaken for "muscle" I've noticed. At what point did going to the gym become a mark of virility?

I’m never really sure what I should write about in blogs and that’s probably why I’ll create one, write an entry or two and then meander off to some other project. But I am searching for discipline when it comes to writing and I think keeping a blog will help me gain control of a functional but rampant imagination. Well, that’s the hope anyway. Originally, I thought that my first blog should be about me but that idea sounded pretty boring. After combing the dark recesses of my brain, I came up blank; there was nothing really that stood out as absolutely needing to be said. So I decided to just wait and not push the issue because it’s not like I was required to write blog posts. Later, while killing time over on Tumblr, I stumbled upon the perfect topic. I randomly came across this pretty interesting tumblr and the more I read, the more intrigued I became. The focus of the blog is to pinpoint the homophobia and racism that happens almost daily within the gay community and honestly, if I would have found this a couple of years ago, I never would have believed it. At that time, I lived in a relatively self-sustained gay environment. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say I could go weeks at a time and not interact with a heterosexual person. It became almost like a veil in that I could appreciate the issues affecting gays but they were pretty far removed from my everyday life. It wasn’t until I moved back home to Louisiana that I began to notice a problem. It began with this guy I fancied. At first, I thought he was pretty cool; he liked anime and video games, he had nice hairy legs and a reasonable outlook on his future. He was a horrible speller (I'd like to think I'm not nearly pretentious enough to judge someone on poor spelling but this was… bad.) And yet, I still enjoyed hanging out with him. Until one day, in the middle of a department store, we passed by this adorable little baby gay and a friend. The baby gay was probably about 15 or 16 and clearly just becoming comfortable with who he was. And as he passes, my friend says, under his breath and in a dramatic whisper, “What a faggot.” I stopped cold; in fact, I took no voluntary action for a few seconds while tentative bridges we'd been building began to smoke, smolder and burn. I asked him to repeat what he’d said even though by this time it was clear I’d heard him and, I’d imagine by my facial expression, was disgusted by it. He immediately changed his sneer to a grin. But it wasn’t just an isolated event. I started noticing it everywhere. You can’t throw a pixel on a gay dating website without crashing into the words “straight-acting”. This phrase, which I find extremely asinine, seems to come pre-loaded into ‘About Me’ sections these days. And if it isn’t that “str8-actn”, it’s “masc”, another fallacy of fantasy. The very first time I ever came across the phrase ‘masc only’ I spent a good 20 minutes trying to decide if I qualified to reply. I could change my own tires and oil but I wore rainbow jewelry. I’d moved all the furniture in my room by myself but I also had vocal accompaniment by a veritable playlist of divas and provided my own choreography. I learned two important things in that 20 minute period: 1.) I was smack dab in the middle of the scale and from then on referred to myself as a ‘tweener’. 2.) I don’t care how attractive a guy, if it takes that much thought just to say decide to say hi it’s probably not the best use of my time. I also began to wonder why these terms became so prevalent of a distinction when it came to us dating one another. I tried to write it off as attraction, blame it on Hollywood’s conditioning and wash my hands with the subject. And that works… until you stumble upon the profiles that shun effeminate men. When it’s put all together, it looks something like “Me: str8-acting, masc. You: str8-acting, masc. No fems, flamers, fags, queens, etc.” but it reads as one horribly homophobic heterosexual male seeking another heterosexual male for homosexual acts, which makes no sense. Now I am going to take a little spin with conjecture here and say that there is a lot of fear in these profiles. I find it hard to believe that any fully-realized homosexual can hate another gay person because the outward manifestation of their sexuality has reached and surpassed a certain threshold. I don’t believe in “too gay” but I do believe that you can spend so much time trying to blend into society that anyone who stands out can be seen as threatening. I am not forcing anyone to be attracted to someone they just aren’t attracted to but I am saying you shouldn’t hide behind a generalization. And have a little tact. Yes, it’s the internet and anonymity means it’s possible to be absolutely awful to someone and still believe in personal virtue. But there are more than enough opponents of nearly any gay situation so why not go be awful to them? And just for the record, of all the times I have heard someone refer to themselves as “straight-acting” or “masculine", less than a handful could actually make that kite fly. However, this particular tumblr shines a much needed (albeit militant) spotlight on this situation and takes the piss out of guys who are just too rude to care. Like my date, who actually saw nothing wrong with what he’d said. And I was even more embarrassed as I think the kid might have heard him. When he tried to use the “it’s okay because I’m a gay man” excuse, I called him on the bull. It’s never ok to make another person feel like crap, especially when no gay person is really exempt from discrimination. The more effeminate among us already take enough shit from the rest of the world; as the more easily identified, they’re the first in line to be pushed and tripped in the halls, harassed and worse… much, much worse. And now they get to be the dumping ground for homophobic homosexuals? Where’s the ‘equality’ in creating a caste within the gay community?

I think the genre of gaming is wide enough that it could safely take browser games under its wing. I also think most browser games are Flash-based and thus different in their own right from video games. I usually make my decision about app games by how long I get to play before someone asks me for money. Games and apps that demand payment every 10 minutes before I can continue should, at the very least, not share a category with games that offer good gameplay with the option of enhancement. I think it’s ridiculous to throw money at rushed and underdeveloped games as well as ones that have issues with being "withholding". Not to mention, there’s very little more frustrating than playing a game for weeks only to get an update and suddenly you can’t make a move without coins/jewels/hearts/balloons/diamonds that cost 99 cents each but you can get a value pack of 10 for $15.99 (limited time only).

I feel like a dinosaur for saying this but I think that the saddest day in technology (for me) will be the day that we evolve beyond desktops. I am intrigued by every advancement we make and spend way too much money making sure I stay on top of the latest of... well, everything (like my Note 2 that I pretentiously take out of my pocket every few seconds so everyone can see!). But desktops will always hold a special place in my heart. From the first computer my mom brought home when I was 12 (that my baby brother stuffed full of pennies two days later) to my ASUS desktop I got in a trade for a laptop and have NEVER regretted. But, to wrap up my rant and answer the question, I can see where it makes sense for a company to throw all their energy into creating faster tablets. A few years ago, I worked for Dell and even then there was a noticeable market for laptops, netbooks and tablets. I can only imagine that's growing almost daily.

I realize I am new here but I just want to jump right in and say how much I enjoyed this article. I vaguely remember reading something about two-spirited people at some point in my past but I really fell into the depth of this. I grew up in the south and, having recently returned home, am starting to get the feeling that homophobia is bred into us down here. I fear my culture is creating a legacy quite different from that of the Native Americans. Here, we have “down low” guys; guys who have wives, girlfriends or children as well as “secret” Craigslist profiles. I know a young man whose only ambition in love is to find a married guy that won’t dump him and I can only think of maybe 2 others in my age group that are out and proud (or “in the life” as the ones in the closet call it). I honestly can’t imagine what it must be like to have your tribe/family/neighbors not only accept you fully for who you are but to celebrate it as well. I lucked out that my immediate family has no problem with my sexuality or my fiancé but even getting to that point took some time.