Category: charities

Karma

The committee chair for the BCC is learning just how technical the management of their domain is. He is trying to manage the domain like he does everything else, crisis control. In the latest debacle, he has attempted to transfer the domain 3 times now. Of course, the first two times failed.1 And he is still under the delusion that all of the emails setup under the domain will magically transfer with it. In the words of my deceased father, “It don’t work like that son.”

After his 2nd failure, he finally swallowed his pride and checked w/me. Just in time too. I discovered he was about to totally fuck the domain up completely. I hate to sound like I’m gloating but I did tell him.2 His attitude and lack of concern are now coming full circle to bite him in the ass. He was trying to use a 3rd party host to transfer between two other hosts. Anyone knowing enough about the net backbone can tell you what a nightmare that would have been. Meanwhile, the domain would have been down the whole time.

And, I just know, he’d rather eat a pot full of razors than admit he was wrong. I don’t expect to hear from him about the emails. I was kind enough to send him a snapshot of all the emails in use. This way I get to gloat (just a little) and my karma stays in tact.

1 The domain was locked

2 Ok, I am gloating a little.

Charity Starts @ Home

I just sent in a donation to Comic Relief. They are hosting it for Katrina victims this year. Knowing how bad a shape the city is STILL in, it is the least I can do.

Comic Relief

I figure if I have money to buy all the fraking gadgets I’m into, I can spare some for people who lost their homes. And this donation doesn’t make my brain hurt from trying to puzzle it out. No, I didn’t donate to a man who waited two years after the fact to announce to the world he was sleeping w/a religious homophobic hypocrite. Nor did I donate to man who most believe got a way with murder and is now writing a tell all book. No, I donated to people who lost everything including their home thru no fault of their own.

I know the holidays are coming up but if you can afford Starbucks once a week, you can afford to make a donation. Big or small it doesn’t matter. Please click on the link above and submit a donation.

A few things you might not know.

The public transist bus system in New Orleans is only running at 25% of their normal operations.

Only half of the existing schools that are not condemned have reopened.

40% of the city is still without power.

Just a few things that help paint a picture of how bad it is in New Orleans TODAY. If you can’t afford to send money, there is no shame in that. If you can, and I bet 90% of my readers can, you should. If for no other reason than it is the right thing to do.

*stepping off the cross now*

No More Leather

I was gonna do a vidcast of this post but since I’m not at home at the moment, text will have to do.

Gay high holy day has finally come to an end and I have never been so glad to peel out of leather.  Leather I’ve been in since 10:00am this morning. Boy was I sticky!  Who’s bright ideas was it anyway for gay boys to fancy leather?  Even though, I don’t think I’ve gotten so many comments on my butt in a long time.  I’m all cleaned up now and catching a late bite at the local feed trough.

Dore Alley was pretty good this year from what I could see.  I worked the BCC booth most of the day.  The weather was perfect!  Not too hot and not too chilly.  If you’ve ever been to Dore or Folsom, it’s your typical fare of boys, daddy’s, tourists, and freaks extraodinaire. And I say freaks in the nicest possible way.  But why is it the people you don’t wanna see naked are always the ones that are?  Ugggh!  I almost told one guy I’d pay him to put his clothes back on.

I didn’t run into a sinlge blogger though.  I was very disappointed none of the clan stopped by to say hi.  In lieu of the regular group, several previously unknown readers stopped by to say hi.   One guy started yelling half a block away.  I thought at first someone had died or something.  (See James, I told you I’d mention it.)

Other than that, the day went pretty well.  The calendar men for this year seem really good together.  No premadonna’s at all.  Which is odd.  There’s always one or two in the group.  Not only did they work well together but they were courteous and respectful the whole time.  I was very impressed.

And, if you must know, yes I was a dirty slut.  You were expecting less?  I can report my jaw is still sore today.  *smile*

And how was your weekend?

Charity? What Charity

I’m not having much fun this year w/the BCC. The committee chair has all but abandoned working on the website and it shows. The events are empty and the hits are down to a tenth of the average.

I’ve hinted a few times about it but he doesn’t really seem to care. I guess I’m annoyed because the site has so much potential and it’s being squandered. I did tell him that my free time this year would be limited however, I didn’t mean for him to abandon it all together.

Not being shy (duh), I sent him an email expressing my feelings. If it ignores it or blows me off again, I’ll probably resign.

Random Kindness

A co-worker bought me a sewing machine today. I know, you are thinking “what an odd gift.” True enough. This particular co-worker is a newer dispatcher. One I’ve watched blossom from a greenhorn into a very competent caring dispatcher. She works very hard at her job and makes an effort to get it right the first time. How could I NOT like her? I’m always of the mind if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing right. I forgot who taught me that but it’s always stuck w/me.

This all came about while we were training for the new fire deployment. Lady N (not her real name, duh!) is a superb knitter and can often be found knitting a variety of items. Knitting takes too much patience in my opinion. An opinion I expressed to her but w/interest. During our down time, we’d often talk about our lives, tribulations, etc. I confided to her that I’d always wanted to learn how to sew. I talked about my earliest memories from childhood. My foster mother was an expert seamstress (spelling?) and made all my clothes up until she passed. She would often include me in her chores of finding threads, fabrics, etc. Very good memories from a time in my life where everything was as it should be. I used to spend hours watching my mother sew. I’ve always thought making your own clothes a very noble sort of thing to do. I know many folks consider it gay but hey, I am gay after all. (Ding Ding! Whatta we have for’em Johnny?)

So Lady N, out of the kindess of her heart, decided to buy me a machine so I could learn on my own. I was am really touched. She doesn’t owe me a thing and here she is buying me such a nice gift. I checked and it’s a pretty decent one too. Not decadent as that’s not her style however, a sturdy well made one that will see me thru my beginnings and well into expertise. (Yeah, I know it’s not good grammar, get over it!) When I asked her why, she said “because you have always been so supportive and kind to me w/o having a reason to be.” My response was well that’s just who I am. She said, “exactly!” Kindness really does go along way.

Tomorrow, I get to bring it home on muni. What? You think it will fit on the back of blue?

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Again, thank you to everyone for the encouragement and support. I got so many emails I don’t think I’ll get to everyone personally. Just know I read every single email and I am grateful for the kind words.

I was angry yesterday. I’m still angry but I’ll get over it. We have so much else to focus on w/o blaming each other. And for those few scathing personal emails sent by the ‘anon’ crowd, well I pity you. How miserable you must be locked in your self-hatred and contempt.

Today, we cleaned out my friends apartment. With the exception of mementos, most of the stuff was junk and we had to throw a lot of it away. His transition thru law school here was only meant to be temporary so he didn’t spend much effort on material stuff. The stuff not thrown out we are donating to Out of the Closet.

I think today was the hardest for my friend’s ex, who is here helping. So many old memories brought to the surface was a bit much for him. My just being there brought him solace I think. For my part, I really just wanted to make sure if my friend did have anything of value it was kept away from his hate-mongering family. We discovered he did have a will but unsure what will come of it. Most of his wordly goods are still in his home back South. I’m sad that his family will probably end up w/much of it. They don’t deserve any of it in my opinion.

I was brought to tears when I discovered a variety of antibiotics in the apartment. Antibiotics that probably would have saved his life if only he’d taken them. I don’t think he really knew what was wrong w/him so it never occurred to him to take them. This hurt me as something so simple but so important was within easy reach. But, I learned a long time ago nothing good can come from the “shoulda coulda woulda” mentality. What’s done is done and I have to move on. All though, I didn’t have the heart to tell his ex. It would have devastated him.

The few items I kept were every day stuff you could pick up at target. Other than a few pictures, I don’t need mementos. He is in my heart and head and he is w/me always. If I’m lucky, I’ll find his soul again one day.

Another friend is putting together a small memorial service later in the week. Nothing fancy, just a gathering of his friends to celebrate his life. Or, at least that’s what I’m hoping for. I made it clear I was not up for a cry fest where everyone gets ridiculously hysterical. That is not what he would have wanted and it never benefits anyone.

This will be the last discussion about my friend’s death on the blog. People laugh at me sometimes when I talk about my blogging experiences. The blog has so enriched my life I really can’t see myself w/o it now. You complete strangers. You constantly renew my faith in the good of humanity. I thank you.

Moby

Nice Moby

This past weekend everyone kept saying how nice I was like it was a surprise. I must admit I was a little taken aback by that. Of course, I’m a nice guy! *g* But, I guess I sorta take that for granted. It’s pretty easy to miss if you aren’t looking for it in my writings.

Work has been a terror this week. WAY too much going on. Our contract negotiations are in full swing and the city is playing hard ball. The union is using my dept as the focus of it’s campaign. Mainly, as we are the extreme compared to other depts. in the city. No word yet on what affect our efforts have had on the process. Only time will tell at this point. We have one more big rally coming up next week. If the turnout is good, it will definitely help.

My friend in the hospital is still not doing well. On top of that, the family has shown up and causing more harm than good. Thankfully, he is still intubated so he is unaware of all this. I’m beginning to lose hope he will recover. Every step forward is met w/two steps back. It has been weighing on my mind a lot this week.

I finally got back into the gym today. I’ve only been once in the last two weeks and it’s been driving me nuts. It felt good but I only got half a work out in. Back and biceps. Tomorrow is quads and calves. I’m still working on the work out tips post and am hoping to have it up over the weekend.

I’ve been so distracted this week, I totally forgot last night was the final contest for the BCC contest. Ooops! I don’t even know who the winners are. How sad is that? Ugh. I’m glad the hard part is over. Now my work drops off quite a bit till June. Hey, I’ll take my breaks anywhere I can get’em.

Duty calls…happy weekend all.

Stick & Stones Will . . .

I thought I’d talk about something other than myself today. Yeah, I know, there’s a first.

I do keep up my blogroll even though I get behind at times. Some more than others but I usually make it to all about once a week. Lately though, I’ve been reading Steve from Bent Collective a lot. If you aren’t a heavy reader of Bent, you should be. Here you have a man in the prime of his life giving of himself to help others. He traveled half way around the world to the bodunk country of Uzbekistan, easily a third world country, to setup a clinic and care for the ravaged HIV population there. Uzbekistan is only 2 small countries away from Afghanistan. They don’t particularly like us. Of course, being so far away does present some technological issues. Enter his friend Al who often keeps us apprised of Steve’s lastest efforts via the blog.
Continue reading Stick & Stones Will . . .

Dirty Bastard

Some dirty bastard stole my towel at the gym today! Oh, talk about get my blood up. The shitty part is they had to lift up my travel bag to get it. So it wasn’t a “honest mistake”. Even worse, I’d forgotten mine so I bought a new one from the gym. Not being the shy type I yelled out, “whoever had the fucking nerve to steal my towel needs their ass whooped!” Several guys stopped me to share similar stories.

How pathetic are you if you have to steal a fraking gym towell? I only paid $4.00 for it but that is not the point. UGGH! I was already annoyed as I had to cut my gym time short. I forgot I was signed up for overtime today.

Continue reading Dirty Bastard