Monday, June 30, 2008

looks delicious...

Here is a recipe I have written on a paper and for the life of me I do not know what it is. But based on the ingredients, it looks promising. And it is very easy to make too.

Ingredients.
ginger the size of a thumb
2-4 pounds pork (with skin and fat optional)
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine (any cooking wine will do)
sesame oil (1 table spoon)
sugar (1 table spoon)

Procedure: Skin and slice ginger into thin pieces. Slice pork into bite sizes. Mix everything and simmer on low fire till pork is soft and fully cooked.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Gay Pride parade

Marie, Bianca and I had a blast during the 2008 Chicago's Gay Pride Parade. It rained several times on and off but all in all, we had fun. Here are some pics I took.Bianca and Marie with Dykes on bikes.

ROTC shot of Marie. ROTC stands for Righteously outrageous twirling corp.

Bianca and Marie chasing after some filipino they know in the parade.

Bianca and Marie with Rob Johnson of Channel 2 CBS. Celebrity sighting.

Marie with Cyon flare. A gay celebrity.

openly out celebs

Kudos to these openly out celebs. They are good examples to the rest of the world that being gay is not something you need to be ashamed of.
Tim Gunn from Project Runway. Make it work... Carry on... I am worried....

Rosie O'Donnell and her partner Kelli Carpenter. Controversial at times but she is still a great advocate of GLBT rights.

T.R. Knight of Grey's Anatomy and his partner Mark Cornelson.

Michael Kors from Project Runway. He is a daddy. A fashion daddy.

The ever handsome Luke Macfarlane. I heart Luke.

Lance Bass of N'Sync. I guess Reichen Lehmkuhl is done with him... Did he just used Lance?

Sir Ian Mckellan. If only he was really Gandalf, he would rid the world of gay haters. He shall send them to the shadows with the orcs.

George Michael is so out he is even patrolling the men's room in LA.

George Takei from the original Star Trek. Beam him up Scotty. Perhaps to a world where GLBT have equal rights as hetero.

Elton John and his bf David Furnish. I want to be Elton. He has a cute bf and he hang out with royalties.

Ellen DeGeneres and her gf Portia de Rossi. Guess we can tell who is the "man" in this relationship.

Christian Siriano from Project Runway. Fierce! Tranny!! Hot mess!!!

(all pics from yahoo)

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Wimbledon upsets... not all at least...

Others may be indeed truly upset with all of them. But I am only upset with one. That is Andy Roddick's lost to Janko Tipsarevic on round two of the play. For Andy's defense, Janko gave Federer a run for his money during the Australian Open. But then again, Federer had the Mono at that time. hhmmm...
For the other top ranked upset, it was more like a good news to me. Specially the lost of Maria Sharapova in round two to a 154th rank player!!! The closer she was to losing the game, the louder her shrieks. Same was true during the French Open. Well good thing, the game was not won by the loudest shrieks. Novak Djokovic also lost at round two but to former number one Marat Safin. He had a very valid excuse but still it gives me a reason to smile.
Among the top ranked upset that neither made me happy or sad includes Nikolay Davydenko and David Nalbandian both losing in round one. Also Ana Ivanovic lost to Jheng Jie of China on round three. I would have liked to see her go till the quarterfinals but cest la vie.
On those whose faith remains to be seen, I am glad that Serena, Venus, Mikhail and the Bryan Brothers are still in. Cross my finger...

(pic from yahoo sports page)

Friday, June 27, 2008

gay men with HIV/AIDS

Instead of giving tribute to groups like the Twinks, Muscle Marys, gay jocks, Gay white male and lipstick Lesbians who for the most part are already on the top food chain of the community, I decided to give tribute to the less fortunate members of the GLBT community.
For the last of my gay pride series, I give tribute to gay men with HIV/AIDS. Although more and more gay men are educated about HIV and more and more gay men know somebody who is infected, still a lot of us have a negative image of people who are positive. Being HIV positive is still a stigma in the community. Some became positive because of reckless behavior and drug use. Some are being careful for the most part but are unlucky and still get it. The bottom line, it is not good to be gay and positive. It is like being discriminated twice. For this blog, I am specially thinking of my good friend who is HIV positive.
I wish science will have a cure soon for this dreaded disease which does not discriminate at all. For those gay haters who still thinks AIDS is God's punishment to the gay people, they are in for a rude awakening. More and more hetero women are catching the disease that their unfateful husbands and partners get unknowingly.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Leather Gay Men

Tonight for my gay pride blog series, I bring you the gay leather men. I have blogged about this group before when I blogged about IML. It is a subgroup of the gay community that I have some experience in. I have participated in some of the IML activities and I have even gone to check out the leather market several times. Here I give you two video from the IML contest. One in 1986 and another in 2006.



Wednesday, June 25, 2008

theatre boys

I think at least half of the men in theatre are gay. The entertainment industry have always been close to the heart and sensibility of a gay man. For tonight's installment on my Pride week blog, I give you the gays in the theatre. For this group, I give you these clips from The Producer. I love that musical anyways so I am killing two birds in one stone. My beloved John Barrowman is the lead tenor in "Springtime for Hitler". The "keep it gay" clip is from the West End London cast.



Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Gay ethnic community.

Tonight I pay tribute to the different ethnic communities making up the whole gay community. First we have the Gay Asian Male. And to showcase this group, I am showing you a clip from the Mr. Gay Philippines 2007. Bunch of nice looking filipino. What's up with the latin song though???



Next with have the Gay Black Male. Noah's Arc is a cable TV show that tells a story of 4 gay black men and their trials and tribulations. I love that show. It is funny and campy. Think Sex and the City but 4 black men instead. Pic below of the Noah's Arc cast from washblade.com.

Last but not least, the gay latino. Here is a clip of gay latino men doing what they do best, salsa dancing!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Lesbians

I wish I have lesbian friends... They are the best. They invite you for dinner (practically adopt you) and they can fix any home repair woes you may have. Where are my lesbians??? sigh. I bring you a video from the "L word".

Wimbledon

Wimbledon started today till July 6, 2008. So far the players I like survived the first day. Hopefully I won't be too disappointed again. Those I want to see win are: Andy Roddick, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic, Bryan Brothers, Lindsay Davenport, Roger Federer and Mikhail Youzhny. Those I don't want to win are: Novak Djokovic (too arrogant lately), Rafael Nadal (don't want him to steal it from Roger), Svetlana Kuznetsova (just because), and Maria Sharapova (please if there is a God, not her!).

(pic from sportsillustrated)

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Transgenders

Every day this week leading to the gay pride celebration this weekend, I will pay tribute to the different members of the GLBT community. For today, I give the transgenders. And how else can I tribute them any better than by showing this fabulous clips from Kinky Boots and Priscilla-Queen of the Desert. Aren't they just fierce?!

Saturday, June 21, 2008

miso soup with a twist

Empty the contents of one Miso soup packet into a bowl. Add a dash of ginger powder, Mrs. Dash, ground pepper, turmeric and MSG (optional). You may also slice small pieces of green onion and add to the bowl. Add a cup to a cup and a half of boiling water. Stir and let sit for about a minute. You got yourself an instant soup for dinner!

Turmeric has been link to have good benefit in preventing Alzheimer's Disease. India has the lowest cases of Alzheimer's Disease because they eat a lot of Turmeric. So from now on, I always put a dash or two of Turmeric in my soup. It gives the soup that "sweetness" flavor that is yummy.

(pic from kidsregen.org)

Friday, June 20, 2008

pet peeve - unable to talk back

Customer is always right. I don't think so but that is besides the question. I work in a customer service industry so I have to adhere to that. In some instances, there are just plain mean and unreasonable customers that I encounter. And what bothers me most is I can't talk back to them even if they are verbally combatant and abusive. I can't tell them what I really think of them or the situation. I just have to shut my mouth up and take it. If I don't, I might run the risk of jeopardizing my job. And I hate that feeling of helplessness.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

I am what I am.

The gay rights movement fight for equality has still many fights it needs to forge. In this world of prejudice and ignorance, there will always be people who want to oppress the homosexuals for many reasons. I feel so fortunate to live in a climate where being gay is not such a horrible social stigma anymore. At least not so much in big metropolis. Many of us gays can be true to ourselves. We can be out at work and be seen with our bf without the fear of being beheaded or tortured. We can shout out "I am what I am" to most of our society. Here singing this special song from La cage aux folles is John Barrowman.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

What does this mean?

"One weekend, I decided to go to a carnival/fair to check out the people and the booths selling many fun and one of a kind things. There was a pair of escalator that leads to where the fair was. At the top of the escalator was a hall about 250 square feet big with tall bright windows in front and the left to let the lights in. There was no wall on the right of the hall cause this leads to the where the fair was. The said hall was relatively devoid of people except for two teenage girls around 11-12 years old and some people that would occasionally pass by. The two girls approached me asking for help citing that they were ill. Initially I was not inclined to help them but I changed my mind and ask what they needed help on. One of the girls said she needs to go to the hospital so I offered to accompany her. At this point, the other girl sort of just vanished and I did not even realized she left. She must have gone to the fair. The sick girl and I turned around to head back to the escalator to go to the hospital when she started clinging to my arm. Then she started rubbing it sensually and whispering erotic words and licentious invitations. I realized at that point that she was not actually sick but in fact was a teenage hooker. She was just using a fake sickness to lure people into engaging contact with them. Of course I was not interested with the girl sexually for many reasons I can enumerate. As I broke my arm away from her and telling her to leave me alone, she got angry. I decided to ignore her and just head home cause I was not in the mood to check out the fair anymore. I was half way down the escalator when the girl with her rage pushed me down. Luckily I was holding on good to the railing so I did not stumble down much except for 3 steps. I was so angry that I chased her up against the direction of the downward escalator. I was about 100 pounds bigger than this girl so I was able to easily grab and lift her. I swung her around and threw her down the escalator. She tumbled down the escalator. After a minute, she got up slightly dazed but appearing to be OK. For a frail looking girl of 80-90 pounds, she was pretty sturdy. As she got up, I was already at the bottom of the escalator where a hall of the same dimensions and appearance as the top one exist. As I prepare to just leave the scene, she charged to me with hands up and screaming. She was looking almost mad at that point. With my size advantage and elevated adrenaline levels, I was able to deflect her attack. In fact I was able to use her momentum towards me to flick her around 180 degree back to the foot of the escalator where she started her attack. As I look at her laying there, she slowly got up again this time with blood in her mouth. Still looking not hurt by the throw, she noticed the blood in her mouth. Then a diabolical smile formed in her face with this realization. She was about 30 feet away at the time so I had time to react to what I saw next was the intent to charge to me and spit the blood to my face. I knew she knows she has HIV and wanted to infect me with her blood. After all she was a hooker so it would be very probable. As she made her initial 2 steps to charge to me, I charged back with a flying kung fu kick but with my face turned away." Then I woke up. What does this vivid dream means?

Monday, June 16, 2008

You're so vain.

My fave openly out gay actor John Barrowman sings "you're so vain" live on a British television show. He is 41 and still looking quite the heart breaker. I am smitten.

Blogging and me (part 3)

Blogging is a continuous learning process for me. And lately, I discovered a new feature about this blog. I am actually able to label or organized my blog to different topics. For those who actually read my blog, you can check out the labels/topics on the right hand side and select the one that interest you. Then all the blogs on that topic will come out. Pretty neat huh?

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day

To all the fathers out there, may your day be a special one. Hopefully you guys got better gift than a tie or cologne!
And despite not really knowing my deceased dad very well, I still like to greet him a Happy Father's Day.

(pic from boardsgalore.com)

Saturday, June 14, 2008

June is Pride month

Most major cities in the USA and around the world hold their gay pride parade on June. This month was picked because it was in June 28, 1969 when the Stonewall Inn was raided by NYC police. Stonewall Inn was the gathering place of gay and transgender in Greenwich village. The raid resulted to a riot and eventual unification of the GLBT (gay lesbian bisexual transgender) community to fight for their rights. The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was created after the Stonewall riot. Other cities in the USA and around the world followed in creating organization to fight for GLBT rights. This resulted to the birth of the Gay Pride celebration. This celebration is primarily a way for the GLBT community to show their unity and to be visible to the world. "We are queer and we are here to stay!" is the cry that reverberates in the GLBT community during this celebration.
For Chicago, our gay pride celebration and parade is held every last weekend of June. The last Saturday of June (28th) is Chicago Pride fest where in Halsted street from Addison to Grace is closed down. Booths will be set up and there will be two stages where performances from the Chicago Gay men's chorus, ROTC (righteously outrageous twirling corp), Tifanny, Kimberly Locke, Martha Wash and many more will be held. The last Sunday of June (29th) is gay pride parade in Chicago. The parade starts at Belmont and Halsted marching north on Halsted then turning south on Broadway at Grace street. The parade continues south on Broadway till Diversey. The parade starts at noon and can last for more than 4 hours depending on the number of participants. The members of the gay community are usually represented well in the parade. Sometimes you get politicians trying to vie for the gay votes. Most of the time you also get commercial organizations participating in the parade for advertisement purposes to get more GLBT patrons. And of course you got the gay clubs with their floats and scantily clad men and women marching and handing out free stuffs like hand held fan, t shirt, beads and/or condoms! For whatever you do and see during the parade, you are bound to have a good time. Fun is almost guaranteed if alcohol is involved...

Friday, June 13, 2008

Sandwich

John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich invented the sandwich so he could eat and gamble at the same time. Interesting fact huh?

(pic from wikipedia)

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Funny signs from the Philippines

My friend Mike forwarded to me this email that originated from M. Pacheco. I thought it's very amusing so I am sharing part of it. It is about signs seen in the Philippines.
- the sign in a flower shop in Diliman called Petal Attraction.
- a 24-hour restaurant called Doris Day & Night
- Barber shop called: Felix The Cut
- a bakery named Bread Pitt
- fast-food place selling 'maruya' (banana fritters) called Maruya Carey.
- there is a Christopher Plumbing
- a boutique called The Way We Wear
- a video rental shop called Leon King Video Rental
- a restaurant in the Cainta district of Rizal called Caintacky Fried Chicken
- a local burger restaurant called Mang Donald's. In the Philippines, people call older men Mang so and so, instead of Mister.
- a doughnut shop called MacDonuts
- a shop selling 'lumpia' (egg roll) in Makati called Wrap and Roll
- and two butcher shops called Meating Place and Meatropolis

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Rick Astley - Move Right Out

I just needed some Rick just about now. And I want to share it. Listen to the lyrics, it's a very break up song. Gosh, look at the hair!

Overkill - summer outfit/winter outfit

In Chicago's boystown, I see a lot of what I call summer outfit overkill. You got the tank or cutoff shirt (usually A&F) , khaki or camo cargo shorts, aviator shades and flip flops. Even if it is 65 degrees, windy and overcast, expect to see this sometime in the spring. The Gays will take every opportunity to flaunt their muscle with as little cover as possible. Even those devoid of muscle.

Now if you go to the nursing homes, you got yourself the winter outfit overkill. That includes your long sleeves knit sweater, winter coat, a hat, cords and boots even if it is 65 and sunny. The elderly are always cold.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

I'm seeing double, triple!

THE HANDSOME AND ATHLETIC. You have Bob and Mike Bryan born 4-29-78. They are professional tennis players that plays double. First picture shows their trademark chest bump whenever they win the game. Pics below from timeout.com and bryanbrothers.com.
THE CUTE GONE BAD. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen born 6-13-86. Both are TV and movie celebrities. They both starred in the sitcom Full House. They were such lovable girls back then but now they are just full of bad publicities. Pics from classicmoviekids.com and drunkreport.com.

THE GOOD NAUGHTY. These are the Visconti triplets Joey, Jason and Jimmy born 2-28-86. They are gay adult entertainers. Let me just say gross to see your sibling naked but there are people fascinated by this. I personally would just be happy seeing one of them in his full glory. :-) Pics from Ragazzi's blogspot and ancientboy's blogspot.

Roland Garros, the conclusion

Once again, I am somewhat disappointed with the results of another Grand Slam. Like during the Australian Open, I had high hopes for the players I like for this French Open. First disappointment came when the Williams sisters each lost during the 3rd round of the Women's Singles. Then the Bryan brothers lost in the quarter finals of the Men's Doubles. And the last disappointment came when Roger Federer lost in the Men's singles final against Rafael Nadal. I have nothing against Nadal. I only like Roger better. On the Women's singles side, Ana Ivanovic won over Dinara Safina. This is a bit of a good news. At least that way, Ana is now ranked No. 1. Better her than Sharapova. Sharapova lost to Safina on the 4th round which is very good news. That should bring her down her Diva throne. Also on the good news side, Bob Bryan along with Victoria Azarenka won the Mixed Doubles category.
Two weeks to go before Wimbledon. I do hope I won't have as many disappointments.

(pics from yahoo.com sport section)

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Oh what a night...

My friday nights are usually spent in the bars drinking, smoking and checking out the boys. But last night, I spent it with the girls from work. Barbie and Millie fondly refer to themselves as old brods. It was a very wholesome fun evening of talking/eating at the Corner Bakery, window shopping at Urban Outfitter and watching the Jersey Boys. The show itself was a hit for the brods cause they grew up with those songs. I am familiar with some of them despite of my younger years. The guys performing in the show were all very easy to the eyes. Even some of the guys in the audience that sat near us! All in all, a good way to spend a Friday evening.

Friday, June 06, 2008

Manbabies

I am telling you, this site is super funny in a creepy way. The site is called Manbabies. What they do is post a series of pictures of a grown up man with a boy baby/child and then, using photo shop, interchanged their heads. Below are just example of pictures I downloaded from the site. You can check out more.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Anger or compassion?

Almost every morning on my way to work in Ashland Avenue, I see one of these pick up trucks transporting scrap metal to be sold and recycled. And in many instance, they are piled up so high and secured so dangerously. I feel like any moment, one of those metal will fall and cause an accident. From the look of the drivers, they look like Mexicans of very little means. I have seen them going through the dumpster in my alley several times looking for scrap metal to collect. And I applaud them for recycling the metal trash of others and earning an honest living. I feel compassionate for their situation in life yet on the other hand, I feel annoyed/angry that they are creating a dangerous and hazardous situation in the road.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Gas pumping tips.

My friend Bong forwarded an email to me from his friend who knows gas and has some tips on getting every penny of your buck when it comes to pumping gas. I am not sure if this is accurate but here it goes.

"Only buy gas or fill up your car/truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground; the colder the ground, the more dense the gasoline. When it gets warmer, gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening, your gallon of gas is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline play an important role. A one-degree rise in temperature is a big deal in this business but service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you are filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to run in the fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three stages: low, medium, and high. In slow mode you are pumping at a lower speed and thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes into your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked back into the underground storage tank so you are actually getting less for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your tank is HALF FULL/HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is the more gas you have in your tank, the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder to think about: If there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up. Most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered into the storage tank and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom. Hope this will help you get the most value for your money."

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

younger than mccain

With the election news mostly on the Obama-Clinton democratic contest, I barely hear anything about the republican John McCain. It is joked about that he is an old man and it is true. He is really old. I found this website/blog that is dedicated to show things younger than McCain. You would be surprise at some of the things you think are very old and have been around like forever. It's a funny site that deserved to be checked. I am also posting a youtube video about the very same topic.

Monday, June 02, 2008

It's all about the friendship.

I saw "Sex and the City" with my Ho sister Sam last saturday. While queuing up to enter the theatre, what we saw were mostly groups of either girls or gays. It made me think why "Sex and the City" resonant with so many girls and gays. At the very core of the TV series and now the movie, is the friendship the 4 girls have. And not only are the bonds of friendship between the 4 characters strong, they are all fabulous in their own ways. Men in their lives may come and go, but the friendship remains strong. They may have a quarrel between each other at some stages of their relationship but they still end up forgiving each other. It is the friendship that sustain them in this sometimes cruel world of dating and relationships. And I think girls and gays like to think themselves that way. At least girls and gays like to have what the 4 characters have (friendship, men, money and fabulousness). Most girls and gays like to think they have a little bit of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and/or Charlotte in them. I personally think I am more Miranda in my mentality and personality. Who are you like?

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Leather Market

I have posted about the fact that Memorial Day weekend is IML in Chicago. So my friend Sam, his new BF Richard and I went to the leather market at the Hyatt Regency. Here are two pictures that I can share in my G rated blog. One naughty and one campy.