Austin Original Lost Last Week

Just last week, Austin got a little less weird with the lost of homeless activist and advocate, Jennifer Gale. For those who don't know Gale, she was famous around Austin for her unsuccessful bids at elected city government positions (including mayoral races in Austin and Dallas) and for her work to better her community in general.

I'd only spoken to Jennifer a handful of times, and her ideas could be a bit out-of-touch with reality - she once circulated a petition to legalize a smoking section in the Frank Erwin Center, for marijuana smoking, that is... Regardless of her politics, her life as a homeless person, her political style (she was known to address the city council in song) or her elusive gender status (she was presumed to be a male-to-female transsexual, though she never identified her gender status in any public way - and why should she? I don't go around informing people that I was born male and identify as male), Gale was a caring and kindhearted individual with a passion for grassroots organization and the empowerment of her community. Austin is a little less weird, a little less vibrant for its loss of Jennifer.

I once gave Jennifer an impromptu elocution lesson at the campus Gatti's Pizza. She was studious in every sense of the word; she told me of how she was studying the Bible at the time and finding inspiration, as well as a few inequalities in the Word. She learned quickly, and it was my hope that she would be better listened to if only she could better express her ideas verbally - she had habit to stutter and mumble so as to make some of her better talking points unintelligible. Above all else, I could tell that Gale loved and cared for her community. I wouldn't hesitate to say that this world would be a better place if only more people like Gale took the same initiative to better themselves and the places in which they live.

Gale, who was homeless, was found dead sleeping out a church's steps early last week. The Austin city council has honored Gale by keeping her assigned time to address the council on the books and replaying a videotaped address she gave the council in which she sang "Silent Night".

Friends of Jennifer have asked that, if you wish to honor her memory, that you consider making a donation to the Austin-based charity and advocacy group House the Homeless.

Seven Deadly Things

I'm usually not one to post a meme, but I've been tagged by two of my favorite blogging buddies, Jebbica and Beej, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm supposed to post seven facts about myself that aren't common knowledge and then give you seven other blogs to check out. So, here goes...

1. Beej is the gay, blogging cousin of a rockstar with a new album out. I'm also the gay, blogging cousin of a rockstar whose band has a new album out. Can you guess which one? I'll give you a hint: he loves New York (in a fatherly way), but he's from the Midwest. We have a rocky relationship, but we were very close when we were younger. Another hint - he's six months older than I am and we have always been told that we look very much alike.

2. I have Asperger's Syndrome, which is a form of high-functioning autism. Because I've always had trouble identifying emotions, I learned to associate feelings with colors - mixed feelings make more sense to me when thought of as mixed colors.

3. I was a very messy eater growing up. I had the bad habit of rubbing all the food I ate at the back of my head before I put it in my mouth.

4. Somehow, I still hesitate to say or otherwise publicly release the names of people important to me in connection to the stories I tell about them if I am waiting on an outcome of some enterprise - whether business-oriented or personal - for fear of jinxing the whole deal.

5. I didn't learn how to snap until I was twelve.

6. I once kissed Jason Mraz backstage a concert (it was only a peck, but it was on the lips).

7. My great-great grandfather on my father's side was suspected to have been a member of the Jesse James gang.

Now, you should check-out:

1. Out With Me - Mitchel is an awesome nightlife photographer from Austin

2. BurntOrangeReport.com - An Austin website keeping Austin Weird

3. Best Gay Blogs - A great source of great gay and gay-oriented blogs

4. Gravy and Biscuits - A funny, Southern-fried take on Hollywood, run by my BBFF (blogging best friend forever), Jebbica

5. aeryn42 - She's on livejournal and you'll have to ask her to friend you if you want to see the really, really funny stuff, but it's totally worth it. I remember her from my days as weweregods

6. This is Illuminati - Okay, so Chris has been tagged by others, but I love his writing and his blog

7. Pink Sheep of the Family - Ditto for the circumstances above for this one, but I don't care. I can't go a day without my pink sheep fix.

P.S. - I'm including a picture from my youth as have others... You have to admit, I was a cute kid.

Drama-Free Birthdays

I'm twenty-nine years old today. I don't know why but it feels better spelling the entire word, rather than expressing it numerically.

You know? I don't actually care that I'm only one year away from the big three-oh. With all the shit I've been through, you couldn't pay me to go back to twenty-five. Besides, I have to celebrate every last second of this birthday, because it's got to last five more years before I decide to turn thirty. I'll just start celebrating the anniversary of my twenty-ninth.

No, no, really; I'm happy to be twenty-nine today. Mostly, I am happy that my life is becoming more drama-free with every year. So, in honor of the passing of my more emotional years, here's a list of the drama I wish other people would get over:

1) People who constantly threaten to delete their Myspace/Facebook/Livejournal account

Okay, I admit I was one of these people at one time, but come on! Grow up! I say this with all the Christian love and kindness I can possibly muster: get therapy or get the razor blade ready - remember kids; it's down the street, not across the road.

2) People who try to initiate text message conversations

Your English teachers should be bitch-slapped for letting you spell with numbers. In my book, text messaging is one step above smoke signals. If it's ease we're looking for in our communication, perhaps we should all learn semaphore and Esperanto?

3) Bikers who point rapidly in the direction they're turning, rather than learning the appropriate traffic hand signals

When I see some trog biking with a bright orange helmet and kneepads, pretending he's Lance Armstrong with Creatine in his water bottle that doesn't know the proper way to tell motorists that he's about to turn, I want to run him down just to prove my point. Don't worry about testicular cancer pal, you'll be lucky if you have one nut when I'm done.

4) This guy from Top Chef Season 4


I keep half-expecting Dr. House to hobble into the kitchen and call him an Australian homo.

5) Laffy-daffy little queens that think anyone over twenty-five is old

I'm not getting older, I'm getting better!

6) Horny midget twinks

I am 6'1". I'm only a little over average male height for a man in Texas, but I'm a giant compared to some men - especially those on the East coast. I went to all kinds of bars when I was in New Jersey (I love Italian men!) and I felt like I was walking into the Wizard of Oz during the Lollipop Guild's number.

By the by, one of the friends with whom I was traveling told the story of how he and a coworker were trying to ascertain whether or not I was gay - I'll get to this annoyance later - and mentioned that they tried to see if I would sing along with the song I Will Survive as it was playing in the sub shop across from the office, then an irksome little blonde twinkie who spent most of the night informing us all that he was the definition of a twink said, "I'll survive if I can be your top," to me.

I looked at him and replied, "Baby, you'd need a highchair just to reach my ass!"

7) Those that try to ascertain whether someone is gay or not with stupid, meaningless litmus tests

If you want to know whether someone is gay or not, ask them. It's the simplest solution. If they say yes, then they are. If they say no, then they still might be, but it's the most polite way of telling you that it's none of your business - which it isn't.

8) Women that refer to heterosexuality as "normal"

I am normal and I am gay. I am also autistic, which is also not referred to as “normal”, but non-neurotypical.

9) Women that seduce gay men

Look, I know gay men are better. We smell better, we know how to treat women, many of us like to shop and dance and don't worry about what other men think of us doing so...

Let me just put it this way: the movie Teeth just confirms everything I've ever believed about vagina.

10) People that don't think they are representatives of their communities

Look, we all live in a community, whether we like it or not. We are all apart of several different groups of people. It doesn't matter if you like it or if you don't, you are a representative of your community. The human brain is geared towards patterns; if we see one gay person acting a certain way, then it will pattern that behavior as being "gay". It's not politically correct - hell, it's not even correct! - but it's true. So get used to it and be a good ambassador for your community!

Dirty-Dirt and the Funky Bunch

In preparation for my birthday trip to Austin, I called my old friend Mike. Since we hadn't had the chance to chat in a while, we began gossiping a bit when he told me about the "career choices" of a young man with whom we were once familiar. I wouldn't exactly refer to this person as a friend. As I recall, the word whore (along with its counterparts: man-whore, slutty queen and filthy slut) were volleyed around often in reference to him.

By the by, Mike told me that this man had chosen to "work" for a sleazy, dirty old man that frequented the bar he worked in as a promoter as a nude model. For those unfamiliar with gay terminology, "nude model" is code for cheap porn actor for a scummy website. The website's name, as conveyed to me by Mike, is Boyfunk.com. Seriously? Boy funk? Sounds like something you take penicillin for... Actually, should you find yourself longing for sex - or any kind of tactile contact, for that matter - with anyone appearing on that site, precautionary measures might be a good idea.

Holy Crap, It's like Blondie meets the Donnas!

I want it. I <3 Dragonette!

Strange, But Totally True!

It's strange, but totally true: the electrochemical cell battery, believed invented by Alessandro Volta in 1800, may have actually been discovered by the Ancient Mesopotamians in Iraq more than a millennium before. The jars suspected to be batteries were dubbed the Baghdad Batteries because of a peculiar theory about their possible significance.

In a paper published in 1940, the German curator of the National Museum of Iraq surmised that some strange terracotta jars discovered in a village near Baghdad in 1936 may have been galvanic batteries used for electroplating - a process by which a chemist uses a small electrical charge to magnetize one type of metal so that it will attract small particles of another metal and plate that substance on top of the original, making it appear to have changed properties from one metal to another. This is a simple process; in fact, most high school chemistry students are familiar with the process under the guise of the "Brass Penny Experiment" in which the students electroplate a copper penny in a brass solution.

Many disbelieve this theory, despite it's overwhelming plausibility - many experiments using replicas of the "batteries" for electroplating have been conducted and successful. There is a great deal of circumstantial evidence, as well as mythological clues. Take, for example, the legend of a magical science called alchemy; the primary and legendary goal of which was said to be the transmutation of ordinary metals (typically lead) into precious gold. Now, if you were an ancient, living a millennium ago and you saw someone conducting what is now referred to as the "Brass Penny Experiment", but with a gold solution in place of the brass, what other explanation would you have for this but magic? Is the Baghdad Battery the source for the myth of Alchemy?

I'm not sure...

but I think someone memorialized a poem about beer goggles.

Strange, But Totally True!

It's strange, but true: a story eerily similar to the Titanic disaster was published fourteen years before the actual tragedy.

In the book Futility (first published in 1898), Morgan Robertson wrote about a massive British steel luxury liner named the Titan - the largest ship ever built, measuring 800 feet from stem to stern, according the fictitious account - that was deemed by its builders as "unsinkable" for its use of the latest ship-building technology: nineteen water-tight compartments. Because the fabricated ship was considered an unstoppable human triumph of ingenuity and invention, the ship carried far too few lifeboats (only 24, which was only enough for 500 of the literary vessel's 3000 passengers.) The Titan was traversing through the North Atlantic in April, traveling at 25 knots, when it collided with a iceberg on its Starboard side near midnight. The novel states the wreck of the Titan was to be the worst nautical disaster in history - a large portion of its passengers (2,987 people) drowning and dying of hypothermia in the cold Atlantic waters.

The Titanic was the largest luxury liner constructed to that point in history. The British steel ship measured 882.5 feet from stem to stern. It was deemed "unsinkable" by its builders due to the use of the latest ship-building technology: sixteen water-tight compartments that would allow the ship to remain afloat even if several of these compartments became flooded. Because the ship was believed to be the safest vessel of its day, there were far too few lifeboats aboard (only 20 for it's 2,228 passengers.) The Titanic was traversing through the North Atlantic in April, traveling at 22.5 knots , when it collided with an iceberg on its Starboard side near midnight (11:40 PM, to be exact). The wreck of the Titanic is still considered the worst nautical disaster in history - a large portion of it's passengers (1,523 people) drowning and dying of hypothermia in the cold waters of the Atlantic.

Click here to read more about the Titanic disaster.

Click here to read about the similarities between the fictional Titan and the Titanic.

Click the photo above to read, or buy a copy of Futility.

Strange, But Totally True!

It's strange, but true: Elvis Presley was a blonde! That's right folks, the raven-haired, fifties crooner that made the girls swoon was born an ash blonde. He began dying his hair black with expensive dye in honor of his silver screen idol, Tony Curtis.

Deep Thoughs

I have nothing against straight people, as long as they act gay in public.

Back From Outer Space

Well, my loves (and hates), I'm back from my novel writing adventure and plan to bring you much more on Hate Valentine. That all being said, I have some changes in the works. Firstly, I am moving my private blog here. So Hate Valentine will have a lot more information on my life, thoughts, interests, etc. Also, I am planning on opening another site. I know what you are thinking and, no, the new one will not be for profit. The new site I have in mind will be based around a social experiment and any income it earns will go to charity, but I'll give you more information on that as it materializes.

Thanks guys, and welcome back!

Rachel Ray, Thousands of Men Have A Present For You This Year!

Lulu.com, the self-publishing online platform features this little gem: Natural Harvest: A Collection of Semen-Based Recipes - a cookbook entailing the use of semen. All recipes have that added ingredient, a little touch of love. Most of the recipes are tossed-off... ehm... offered up to you with a sophisticated palate in mind. Julia Child eat your heart out! I particularly enjoy the instruction on jerked ingredients and how to whip your own cream!

The book's description:

Semen is not only nutritious, but it also has a wonderful texture and amazing cooking properties. Like fine wine and cheeses, the taste of semen is complex and dynamic. Semen is inexpensive to produce and is commonly available in many, if not most, homes and restaurants. Despite all of these positive qualities, semen remains neglected as a food. This book hopes to change that. Once you overcome any initial hesitation, you will be surprised to learn how wonderful semen is in the kitchen. Semen is an exciting ingredient that can give every dish you make an interesting twist. If you are a passionate cook and are not afraid to experiment with new ingredients - you will love this cook book!

Just in time for Christmas!