All posts by jah
UPDATE: Bearwww Webmaster is a Reasonable Man
After some good dialogue with the webmaster at Bearwww, I’m happy to report that he has come to see my side of the story and I will document the great ideas that we have been sharing with each other about how everyone can be happy and he continue (hopefully with my help) to improve the community even in parts of the world where men still feel like they have to remain closeted.
I highly recommend that all of those fellow disenfranchised men who thought bear411 was the only site where they could meet men of our ilk, consider just using the bearwww to increase the critical mass there, which is far more rational and just as potentially useful as bear411 is to meeting men locally and transnationally.
How Gay is Trader Joe’s?
Understimulated with my usual Safeway and Lucky choices for groceries, I decided to splurge a bit and do some really good organic hunting for food (the ketchup remains to be tried for edibility). I didn’t even bother looking through the peanut butters. There are just some things that I think are worthless without corn syrup, sorry!
The moment I walked in, I struck gold (not grocery-wise)! What before my eyes did appear? A woofy fully-bearded man in a kilt — but it gets better! He was an EMPLOYEE. This is Castro Valley, a relatively conservative suburb near a working class suburb that I actually live in, although it’s relatively progressive compared to many parts of the world and the country. Then I started observing that some of the other employees were bearded and handsome and seemed to love working there, and I know one of them did a double take when he saw me. He was a ruggedly handsome, silver-haired foxy cub type and I felt coy when he seemed to followed me down some aisles with the excuse to sort some product, which required that he step away from his register. He was adorning shorts and spandex sleeves (which are pretty sexy). I had never seen attire like that before, but I suspect they were to keep his arms warm while still being able to wear a short-sleeved shirt to mitigate the draft as the registers are right by the automatic doors. It does get brisk in the evenings in California.
We made idle chit-chat and hopefully he noticed I waited in a longer line just to have him be my cashier. Among other things I said, “it looks like it’s fun to work here.” With all the creatively-pierced guys working there, and the metrosexual and gay guys who come in for their macrobiotic food, I can only imagine that it’s a hospitable place for flirtation, even if just an oasis outside of the Mecca of San Francisco across the bay.
Venting: Closet Freak Imbeciles Are a Dime a Dozen
So on a daily basis since I first got online at the very beginning of what we now know as the internet and came out, men have contacted me without a face, even though it’s almost impossible not to have a digital image of yourself these days. I usually tear them a new one and go ballistic, and have been criticized for it, but my logic is: I’m never going to meet these people who are that closeted anyway for innumerable reasons, nor is there any chance I’d run into them at any gay venue where they’d have to show their face without adorning a bag over it, and they were de facto rude to me first, so I have nothing to lose by trying to teach them a lesson that their neglectful parents didn’t teach them about common courtesy.
Once in a great while, one of them will understand my humor and come around to realize that they are completely rude and should atone for their contacting me under those shady circumstances, but I won’t hold my breath for anyone who took the time to post a faceless profile and seek me out.
A few days ago I was asked for my email address so that one of these headless torsos could send me his picture. I had started off with my usual, “if your face is too fucking ugly to post and you’re too dumb to even post a private picture that you choose to unlock for me, you are not worth it,” but he was insistent that he could email his face to me (behind his wife’s back, no doubt).
So I feigned acquiescence by providing one of the creative addresses I come up with for these people and for my own amusement, assuming that they would get my point. This time I said:
“Sure! Go ahead and send them to yourmotherisawhore@closetfreak.com”
Would you believe he wrote back “sent”?
Hayward Xmas Dog Parade (Who Knew?)
Thanksgiving 2011
Faster than the Speed of Light (literally)
My friend in NYC just sent me an article today about neutrinos (subatomic particles) that travel have tested repeated to be able to travel faster than the speed of light (which physically is impossible for matter to do), at Gran Sasso’s underground laboratories in Europe.
I’ve been watching a lot of science fiction and a series about the universe with Stephen Hawking, in which I learned that he too is a Star Trek fan. Some of the episodes have dealt with the ramifications of speed and time in different parts of the universe, such as close to a super black hole, like at the center of our galaxy (and presumably most).
So if matter cannot travel faster than the speed of light, my question, is: Could we theoretically cover a spaceship with (fast-moving) neutrinos and then launch it to go ten times the speed of light (warp 10), for example? I realize it would affect the time of the people inside, unless some kind of chronometer was able to adjust for that, but that would certainly alleviate the problem of our short lifespans in getting us to other solar systems, where there is bound to be other intelligent life.
Yorkie Battles
Susan Boyle Unleashed!
Let me tell you that while the poignant story of her discovery was amazing, the woman is a POWERHOUSE. Don’t be fooled for a moment that she is not a talent to be reckoned with as she approaches fifty and was only discovered within the last few years. Her voice is unstoppable and there is absolutely nothing that could be done in a studio that could make her voice do the things that they do on her latest album. Take a careful listen to “Return” on her latest album called “Someone to Watch Over Me”. I also find that the song choice in this third full album of hers is quite deliberate and appropriate. She continues to move people, and I think that’s what makes the difference between her and the fly-by-night dance troop that actually won the reality TV show she first appeared on.
I lost my friend Curtis Stanton to cancer
I just found out today that after years of struggling, at 39, Curtis died of cancer. We had literally been online friends since at least 2003, and we had run into each other at various events around the country over the years. In fact, it was (and will be) odd to be any major event that bears attend and not see Curtis with his joyous life force. Embedded in this post is a picture of us in 2010 in Phoenix for Phurfest on Luau night. Despite having gone to Hawaii twice myself, this was the most authentic and magical Hawaiian traditional event I had ever attended.
Curtis was a genuinely fun guy and outrageously funny Sister of Perpetual Indulgence. I was very honored that he spent so much time with me when we saw each other.
I’d like to send a personal “FUCK YOU” to the tobacco industry ( RJR and Phillip Morris aka “Altria”, et al.) for taking away another young life way before his time. FUCK YOU for addicting the children of the world to your poison. FUCK YOU for lobbying governments to get your insidious product mass distributed and into venues where young victims start becoming your new (short) lifelong customers.