Great series of articles just starting up on Salon.com about a straight man enrolling in Ex-Gay therapy sessions (requires you sit through some ads before/while reading it, but the article is worth it). Funny and at the same time horrific.

The whole thought of being “cured” sickens me (participants aren’t allowed to wear Calvin Klien) and I am saddened that people actually think they can change themselves through these outmoded belief systems. Unfortunately the Church won’t take a lesson from history (yeah a cheap plug for my brother’s book) or listen to current psychological proofs . After reading that article I am reminded of when I first started to cruise the internet and came across a cache of anti-Scientoligst sites, my favorite (and most popular) being Operation Clambake and I dove into these sites. Slowly I had my bemused curiosity towards this destructive cult changed into anger. I would hope that some closeted person would read the Salon article and have their mind changed. The right way, that is, by deciding for themselves after informed research.

Mind control comes in many shapes and sizes, kids. Now if you excuse me, I have to go unlock my Hot Coffee.

This is like standing outside the changerooms at the Gap! Choose the hefty Bear body type and don’t skimp on the facial hair!

(via Bacon N Ehs – baconandehs.blogspot.com – cut n paste kids, “blogspot” is on my banned list due to spam.)

…here this weekend! Bless Sharkboy and his insider tickets!

So long Bitches!

I just came in from lunch and my supervisor grabbed my chilly nipples through my t-shirt.

“AAWWK!” I hooted, trying to defend my chest like Sissy Spacek from Carrie. I cried, “If I did that to you, I’d be fired!”

“That’s the beauty of differences,” she said and ducked into her cube.

At home sick today, kids. Ugrh. I am sooo trendy I went out and got that cold everyone has.

Couple Halo related things for your attention:

Peter Jackson will produce the movie version of the game so you know it won’t suck…!

This Spartan Life has a short video blog update of “bodyguard auditions”. I guess they’re going to hire muscle for their next show so that the guests don’t get shot up.

All this Halo talk makes me want to re-read Larry Niven’s Ringworld first book. Or John Varley’s lesbian inspired Titan series.

I was born in Toronto but was whisked away at the tender still-soft-in-the-top-of-my-head age of 3 months to live in Brockville. Brockvegas was created as a stopping point for tired truckers between Toronto and Montreal, a way station, if you will. And that’s where I lived until I was 17.

I now reside back in Toronto after living in Brantford (finished High School with my then-divorced and out Dad), Oakville (took Classical Animation at Sheridan College), Kitchener (worked as a Night Auditor so I could get to…), London (England – travelled and you know, expeirienced life man!) and Ottawa (where I managed Hostelling International’s flagship hostel while battled ghosts).

Out of them all, I would move back to London in a second.

Somewhere in there I came out of the closet. My sexuality is a part of me but isn’t all consuming, and I don’t agree with most of what the gay community stands for, dispite my oldest brother being an activist in the 70s. Which makes some people think I am “self hating” or “conservative gay”. Whatever. I am such an atypical Canadian fence sitter when it comes to politics (government and sexual) that my face should be on a coin. Probably a plug nickel.

I was reminded just how beautiful life is.

Imagine having an albatross put around your neck and for years, you faithfully drag it around like an ancient mariner, kowtowing to it’s needs. You’re forced to pull you down, peck your eyes, hang off your neck – change you. At first you rage against the bird, tearing at it’s feathers and clawing at it’s beak but it’s not going anywhere. In time you accept the bird, the weight, and it becomes a part of you. Years go by.

One day someone comes from nowhere and takes the giant bird from you and replaces it with a much smaller, quieter, gentler bird. Would you be stunned? Would you be happy? Would you be mad?

I was. All three. At the same time.

I had a smaller bird given to me today. A weight removed and light came streaming in. And I stood there and blubbered and laughed and cried, much to Sharkboy’s surprise. I couldn’t stop. I had to get it out.

Despite the crazy people on the subway, the insane jerks who think that god and guns are a way to solve problems, the myopic people in power, the interweb freaks blogging about their opinions, the crummy weather, life is incredibly precious. I am grateful for every moment, every experience I have had. I plan to laugh my tits off this week. I suggest to you do the same. Promise me that sometime this week you stop what you’re doing and notice the good things around you, with you, on you.

Promise me that you will laugh. It doesn’t have to be complex set up. In fact to find the good stuff you need to just stop, step back, and observe. Its that simple.

Okay the syrupy stuff is done. I will bring you all drunken sea monkeys from Belize.

Have an excellent week!

I walk into my lunchtime comic book shop and the guy behind the counter is friendly. The kind of friendly that makes me think he might be confusing me with someone else. “Where were you yesterday?”

“…Uh…”

“It was shipment day!” he says pointing to the rack at the back.

“Eeeee!” I shout with my fists balled up beside my cheeks. I run to the rack.

Currently I’m tracking the following comics:

Rocketo: By Frank Spinosa, the story of a young navigator from an alternative Earth. The story is so lost in translation that it’s really hard to follow but the ink work and character structure is amazing. Gotta love a two timing, think-with-his-fists, best friend in the form of a dog.

Aeon Flux (movie tie in): Timothy Green II’s artwork harkens to Mike Kaluta and his Starstruck series.

Supreme Power: Nighthawk: drawn by Steve Dillon who brought The Preacher to life. Sort of reminds me of Dave Gibbons but creepier.

The Fantasic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan: I’m enjoying this one immensely. Especially the mix of Manga, anime and good old USofA heroism.

Whatchoo reading? Books? Manuals? Chicken feed bags?

Happy Birthday Busdriver! I hope you’re around for another half century!

I have a paranoid friend and I love him to bits.

He keeps a small, cut up meatloaf tin over his apartment door letter slot. He says it to stop people from looking in at his $10,000 worth of computer bits. Once I tried to put a birthday card through his slot and wasn’t able to because of the snail mail firewall.

He has the most virus protection on his computer I have ever seen. He was shocked when he discovered that my computer doesn’t have an Admin password. In a conspiratory tone, he tells me of a way of putting a password in twice to make sure my box is secure. His wireless router’s password is changed daily.

He tells me that the Weathernetwork.ca, under order from Tourism Ontario, puts “nice” weather stats up before a long weekend, regardless of its going to be rainy or sunny, motivating people to travel. He wonders what kind of kickbacks The Weather Network gets.

Last night, over Rolo Blizzards, he made me stare at a cut out of Ronald McDonald. Close. Hard. He tells me that for the last 10 years, TV commercial Ronald has been played by a woman. It was the closest to a “Pulp Fiction” moment I have ever been to.