corvus

Happy birthday, O denizen of the north, with its reliable banks and caribou!

You know how birthday parties for little kids include goodie bags? You should goodie-bag another chapter or a short story. Happy birthday!

aka Billy, but I have the feeling lesfeuxdemoncoeur would embarrass you more. Have a great 21st!

Guys in tutus are equally repulsive as bodybuilders. On a purely physical level, I'm attracted to guys who take care of their bodies, i.e. who don't look like they'll be getting diabetes and heart disease in the next fifteen years. I think it's a reasonable product of evolutionary behavior. On the other hand, overt masculinity and effemininity (there has to be a better word -- but I refuse to use 'femininity') seem, to me, to be symptomatic of cultivating a sort of exaggerated persona... which is a behavior I don't really understand. Actually I do, but it's a bit of a turn off. It may be a false impression, of course, but -- well, I'm sure it's a complicated confluence of conflicting perceptions of personas and their personal and social implications... As to whether I am masculine or effeminate... I'd wash dishes before fixing the car, but honestly, who'd want to crawl under a vehicle and get all oily and disgusting? Only someone who perceived an inherent positivity in fulfilling this traditional masculine role, I suppose, but... eh. Too lazy. If I do end up dating a tutu-guy, though, I'll fix the car, I guess.

OpenOffice, because it's free.

I obviously experienced nothing of it, but I can recommend Colm Toibin's Story of the Night as an excellent work from the era. It got nommed for the Booker Prize, and is the best published novel or story I've read that deals explicitly with gays and gayness in modernity. Just thought I'd drop a note here. Your stories, btw, are a great read, at least what I've read so far.

Backstage, Dustin Lance Black (openly gay and very cute screenwriter and the othre Oscar winner for Milk) dropped some interesting ideas for how he thought gay civil rights should evolve -- he basically pointed out that no group has ever achieved equal status on a state-by-state basis, and only through a broad, federal action. If one considers that there's a threat from opponents of gay rights to do a blanket ban on gay marriage, it seems strangely amiss that there isn't a counter thrust. On the other hand, it seems impossible. Harhar.

Given that Milk has won at least TWO Oscars, I think it tops this list of good gay films...

Happy birthday!

Little House series! w000t

That's........ awesome....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Yeah, really horrible. On the other hand, it's preferable that he threw the dog off the overpass, and not the woman.

Good luck with your novel revisions -- I can't imagine going back and really hacking up a novel. It seems to require a great deal of spiritual well being. I think you're referring to me, as I haven't read anyone else blogging meticulously about their sex lives. Then again, I don't read every blog. It's probably an attention seeking mechanism, and sex hasn't lost its novel allure yet. But I do think it's better than slitting wrists and writing about it.

Good luck with the Spanish -- and do you still know N. Vietnamese? That's pretty cool; not a language people generally have up their sleeves.

I haven't seen most of the films there... But I hope Winslet wins, even though I thought her performance in Revolutionary Road was miles better. 'course, I haven't seen any of the other films. Sean Penn was great in Milk, and it'd be cool to have Lance Black recognized for his screenplay, buuut I'm not completely sure he deserves an Oscar. There was some weak moments. Maybe that's more Gus Van Sant's fault? Anyway though... I think I've seen more nominated films this year than any year since 2000? Wow, nearly a decade. Goodness.

Don't forget -- according to Eliot, April is the cruelest month. I kinda like winter, like Tob, but I'm sure the Texan spring will come around soon. Hang in there!

Aww. That's why I wish I had put my youngest brother in a stasis when he was five. Now he's 8 and plays piano better than I do.

Just remember that Valentine was this celibate priest who got beaten, stoned, and beheaded by the Roman emperor.

Aww... it'll work out on way or another. Someone who writes so eloquently can't possibly be in lack of a good boyfriend. And the spell check is kind of cute.

The last time I asked myself this question and answered it for myself, I got into a rather bad situation, so my advice is, like, defunct by default. But ideally, I think there should be a continuum between "date" and "hanging out with a friend" -- just like there is between polar ends of sexuality. Is it possible to see things as "hang-out-but-see-where-this-goes?"

I'm surprised I actually have someone in mind: Dustin Lance Black. He's cute (+), he's a driven and serious writer (+), he wrote Milk (++), but he wrote in some pretty corny moments (-). On the other hand, he loves San Francisco (+), he's funny (++), and he's from a Texan Mormon background (...). Still, just look at him! (+)

Good luck!

In other words, the article didn't posit causal relationships between masturbating and testosterone levels and, indirectly, prostate cancer. In fact, a quick Google search would suggest the opposite. From this abstract, it seems that abstinence from sexual activity actually results in raised testosterone levels. I don't think the results are controlled for normal masturbation frequency, which might be important. It might also be useful to track the effects of abstinence over a much longer period than three weeks -- if we assume causation, masturbation would probably only be significant due to its habitual nature. If these things don't matter, however, then the upshot is that masturbation, by reducing testosterone levels, would in theory lower the risk for prostate cancer. As for the study Mike posted, the reason why increased masturbation is correlated with increased prostate cancer risk is probably (again, I'm theorizing here) because genetic factors that code for increased testosterone levels more than offset the testosterone decrease from frequent masturbation. Therefore, if all this back-of-the-envelope theorizing is correct, the highest at risk demographic would be horny guys who don't masturbate. So, guys, don't be one of those... Edited to add: Real Men Get Prostate Cancer, a blog on the NY Times written by a guy who is getting treated for prostate cancer. If this were a movie, the tagline would be: "Oh, and my testicles are shrinking."

Given that I'm an ethnic minority, I should hope people aren't against interracial dating... Otherwise my sea will have drastically shrunk. Meh.