SwimFinsSF

I’ve been informed

That Don Knotts has been at the top of my blog too long and I’d better post something… So here goes! 🙂

A whole lot of the same lately, thus the lack of posting… Weeks have been spent working for the most part – LOTS going on at work though, as usual, I really can’t talk about any of it here. Joys of working on and planning products that aren’t out the door yet. Sometimes it frustrates me that I can’t talk about it more but thats the name of the game I suppose..

Last weekend was fun though. Kevin and I spent 4 days in Miami for our friend Tony’s birthday. We flew down friday AM and stayed at a hotel called the Blue Moon (name made me giggle but I can’t say I recommend it). Friday we spent exploring the beach and South Beach. Interesting town I’ve gotta say. It kinda reminded us of Vegas but with prettier people. Friday night we had dinner and hung out with Clayton who was in town for the Winter Party ( we weren’t there for that but the rest of the gay boys were )…

Saturday day we spent scuba diving off the coast of Miami. The dives were interesting but not the best once we’ve been on. The first dive wasn’t all that great. I was having equipment trouble (mask started hurting me after 10 minutes in the water) and the dive site wasn’t all that interesting. To further complicate things we had trouble keeping track of the boat so I spent a good amount of time worrying that we’d gotten lost. We never were actually very far from the boat but being the worry wart that I am I fussed about it a lot.. The second dive was much better. It was actually a dive around a bunch of 6′ pipes that had been sunk off the coast – lots of things growing on them and swimming around them. We stayed close to the anchor line and explored around them – very cool..

Saturday night was Tony’s party at a bar called Buck15 in South beach. Party was a lot of fun – we actually knew a bunch of people there as it turned out. Tony moved away from San Francisco a while ago and his friends at the party were from all over. Some friends of mine from YEARS ago who had since moved to London were there, our friend Tim who had just reappeared after a long stint of relationship-itis, our friend Adam, and a bunch of others. Aside from drama at the end caused by too much alcohol and too much flirting the part was a lot of fun…

Sunday and monday after that were pretty low key – explored a little.. Slept a lot.. Went out to dinner… Watched the oscars.. That kind of stuff…

Overall a lot of fun but I can’t say Miami is much my kinda place.. was nice havin a break from the rain though! 🙂

Anyway.. Back to my weekend.. TTFN

Gene Shalit steps up! :)

This was just released by GLAAD and i’m thrilled:

GLAAD ALERT UPDATE

January 10, 2006

GLAAD Applauds Shalit’s Response

Today show reviewer regrets Brokeback comment

On Jan. 5, Gene Shalit, in his review of “Brokeback Mountain” on NBC News’ Today show, referred to the character of Jack as a “sexual predator” who “tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts.” Based on an outpouring of passionate emails and phone calls by Today show viewers angered and hurt by Mr. Shalit’s assertion, GLAAD asked for an apology from NBC and Mr. Shalit for a comment that was certainly heard by many as defamatory.

On January 10, Mr. Shalit responded to GLAAD’s request for an apology with a statement saying, “In describing the behavior of ‘Jack’ I used words (‘sexual predator’) that I now discover have angered, agitated, and hurt many people. I did not intend to use a word that many in the gay community consider incendiary. . . I certainly had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone in the gay community or on the community itself. I regret any emotional hurt that may have resulted from my review of ‘Brokeback Mountain.'”

GLAAD thanks and applauds Mr. Shalit for clarifying his comments and making clear in his statement that his words were not intended to be defamatory to the LGBT community.

To read Mr. Shalit’s statement in its entirety, go to glaad.org or click here:

http://www.glaad.org/action/alerts_detail.php?id=3849

The man has a lot of class for standing up and issuing a statement like this. He may not have liked the movie or Jack’s character and thats fine – its his job as a critic to make such calls. But his choice of words was poor and its really classy of him to say as much…

Woo hoo… Go Gene..

Gene Shalit Followup

According to The Advocate Peter Shalit, Gene Shalit’s son, has come out in support of his father after GLAAD issued a ‘Call to Action‘ in response to his review of Brokeback Mountain. The article reprints a letter from Peter Shalit to GLAAD including the following statement:

I say this because it’s important background for understanding that my dad has always been completely loving and supportive of me, my life, my partners, and my choices. He wrote a piece about me in 1997 for The Advocate (currently posted on their home page)—and agreed to have his picture on the cover of the magazine—because what the piece says is true about how he feels and how he has always acted.

The article also makes reference to a previous article in the Advocate by Gene Shalit about his sone and their relationship.

So.. my response. First, I’m very glad to hear that he is a supportive and loving father and is supportive of the community at large and this makes me feel somewhat better that we don’t need to look at him as one of our many detractors. That said, I still believe the comments in his review were insensitive an reflect a discriminatory attitude that we have to endure on a regular basis. The real sign of his sensitivity would be for him to indicate that, while he stands by his review (if he didn’t like the movie he shouldn’t pretend like he did just to be PC), he also recognizes that his commentary was insensitive and inappropriate.

And, with that, I’ll let it lie and move on to the other inane drivel that I fill this silly blog with! 😉 :):)

Happy monday! 🙂

A meme a day or some such thing…

Just got tagged by MJ to do this meme-ey-thing and she basically dared me.. so here ya go lady.. more dirt than ya ever wanted to know! 😉

What were you doing 10 years ago?

January 1996, San Francisco:

The scary thing is that its not horribly different than now. Granted it was a different boyfriend and different digs, and slightly different job, but not like I was moose herding in Alaska… At that time I was still dating my now ex Lance and living in this tackey little apartment in the Haight (though it did have a great view and handy location – but ugly as hell and was tormented by the Landlord’s bitch of a daughter). At the time I was still at Apple however I was working on the Java VM for the Mac OS (Mac OS 9 at the time – MRJ) after having just left Copeland team (10 buck for the first person to know what the hell that was). Not remembering much more than that bout the time..

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Gene Shalit shows he’s a crusty biggot

This morning Kevin TiVo’d a review that Gene Shalit gave of Brokeback Mountain and, not to my suprise, it was … er… um… less than glowing… However what was surprising was the just nasty bigoted tone of the review. Now admittedly I’m a big fan of the movie however I also understand that not everyone will be and that its gonna get bad reviews. I even expect hateful reviews from places like the 700 club and the lot. But a review on NBC’s Today show that calls Jack’s character in that movie a ‘sexual predator’ crosses the line from bad review to being a flat out bigot. The only way you could come to that conclusion was to walk into the movie with an agenda to start AND THEN not pay attention during the movie. I’ve rarely agreed with his crappy reviews to begin with but I guess I’ve never picked up on him being hateful until now. NBC can’t get rid of him fast enough for my tastes…

I’ve got it on my tivo but i’m thinkin NBC’s lawyers will be on my ass if I post it so i’m just ganna hang on to it.. but stop by if ya wanna see it.. Screw it… Here is the clip i’m talking about. Check it out and let me know if kevin and I are overreacting.

Grrrr…. What an ass..

Happy flippin new years

Ugggg… So New Years eve was supposed to be mellow… ended up having a couple of friends over to hang out and celebrate rather than going out and dealing with parties, crowds, and all that mess.. Unfortunately, right round noon on Satruday I started feeling like crap. As it turned out I came down with the same damn flu (or cold, or crepping crud, or whatever) that ruined Kevin’s Christmas… I managed to struggle through new years eve without being too much of a martyr (although Kevin did most of the work) but new years day through today I’ve been down for the count… And I feel really sorry for Kevin cuz MAN am I a baby when I’m sick..

Anyway… I’m starting to feel slightly better though I’m still layin low for fear this bitch will come back and smack me again… But I sure do appreciate kevin putting up with my crap…

But seriously – Happy new Years folks! :):)