Life is What Happens When You’re Making Plans

So I’ve spent very little time working online for the last two weeks. I must admit, it’s been kinda nice to take a bit of a break from my online life, but now it’s time to get back into it and pull it all back together. After a camping trip with my boyfriend I checked all my e-mail accounts and had quite a bit of mail. Over the next few days I replied to a bunch of stuff and didn’t check it for a while, but apparently it all got denied somehow. I’m guessing there was an error with my mail program, which sucks, but I just need to tear myself away from WoW at home long enough to get to all of it.

So, in that vein of thinking, I have a number of things to do:

• Re-check and sift through all my e-mail (probably upwards of 50 new mails at this point)
• Follow up on the new reporter applications for Generation Q
• Get my new Audiogasm up (Paramore’s new album ROCKS, by the way)
• Get a few new articles started for Generation Q
• Fine some article ideas to distribute to writers

Lots of other stuff to. Add to that detailing my car, going to the gym, dealing with family, and making as much time as possible with Charlie (which has been in short supply lately), and I’m a busy boy.

Speaking of Charlie, I’m trying to take him out on a date this weekend, and I have very few ideas for fun things to do. I have some money finally, but I’d much rather not have to spend a whole lot. But I would spend every cent I have to make him happy.

And now on top of everything else, I have been presented with some opposing opportunities at work and have some decisions to make (as to where I will be transferring to). It’s actually quite stressful at the moment, but I’m hoping that I make the right decision.

Well, time to get back to work. Woo.

Disney Releases Line of Princess-Inspired Wedding Gowns

So many people dream of one day being swept away by their very own Prince (or Princess) Charming, and Disney has just the thing to make that dream feel even more realistic.

On April 15th they unveiled their line of Disney Princess inspired wedding gowns designed by Kirstie Kelly at the New York Bridal Fashion Week. They are advertised to be inspired by, and not copies of, the dresses worn by the Disney Princesses in their films. Disney Consumer Products says that “the collection combines a fashion-forward look with timeless elements inspired by the Disney Princesses themselves, including Ariel, Aurora/Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine and Snow White.”

Click Here to Read The Rest of the Article at Generation Q

Volunteering at Pride

One Insider’s Look at the State of our Community
By Luke Miller

I had never been to a Pride celebration before this Saturday, where I was volunteering throughout the day. This gave me a number of looks at the state of our queer community (and community in general).

I was working at one of the two entry gates into the Pride festival in Sacramento’s Southside Park on Saturday, June 16^th. This was Sacramento’s 20^th annual Pride celebration, and the turnout was huge. So many people came through that gate that I could barely believe it. There were a lot of families, pairs, and groups of people, which was very nice to see.

Until about an hour into it, anyway.

I was yelled at by two large lesbians, a few transsexuals, given dirty looks and comments by a number of gay men, and was confronted quite angrily by a rather imposing drag queen. Between simple things like not allowing people to bring coolers into the festival (which is pretty much standard procedure at these types of events nowadays), having entertainers and volunteers walk around to another gate, and asking people to see their tickets so I could rip the stub off, I was confronted innumerable times, which I honestly could not understand and did not expect.

Click here to read the rest of this article on Generation Q.net

Out With the Old and In With the New

So my podcast “Blonde on the Inside” is sadly at an end. As I’ve said a few times on both the podcast and it’s blog, unforseen circumstances have caused the show to end abruptly. Everyone is fine, no one is hurt or anything.

But in the same vein, I will be starting the other podcast I’ve been thinking about for quite a while, “Instant Gratification.” Edward, who guest hosted a lot on BOTI, will by my co-host on this show and it should be quite entertaining. We have a lot of ideas for what we want to do with the show, so definitely check it out. The first episode might be recorded this weekend, but might be later. I’m working on the podcast art, Myspace stuff, and all that managerial jazz right now, next up is to work with Edward on the layout of the show and to fine tune all of our ideas.

Check out Instant Gratification.

In other news, I’ve been a posting flurry over at Generation Q. It’s kinda nice to see my name up there a lot lol. We always could use more writers that can put up one article a week, so let me know if you’re interested.

New 7 Wonders of the World

I was just listening to the great podcast “Three Things You Should Know” and learned about something really interesting. Apparently a worldwide initiative is in place to vote for new wonders of the world. Since 6 of the 7 wonders of the ancient world (the Colossus of Rhodes, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Lighthouse of Alexandria, Temple of Artemis, Statue of Zeus, and the Mausoleum of Mausollos) no longer exist, someone deemed it necessary to decide what the 7 wonders of the modern world are. It’s quite interesting actually, and there are some great candidates (I’ll give my opinion on them, but I’ll admit I don’t know about some of these):

• The Acropolis in Athens, Greece
  • Impressive structure with a great classical signifigance. I love me some ancient Greek culture too.
• Alhambra in Granada, Spain
  • It looks impressive, but I honestly don’t know much about it.
• Angkor in Cambodia
  • Again, an impressive looking structure, but not too knowledgeable.
• The Pyramid at Chichén Itzá in Mexico
  • Very cool native structure. I’d love to visit this one.
• Christ Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • I’ve seen this before, but just learned some more about it recently. Awesome looking statue, would be awesome to see in real life.
• The Colosseum in Rome, Italy
  • Roman structure is amazing, and the fact that the Colosseum is still in active use today is great. Another one I will see someday.
• The Easter Island Statues in Chile
  • Mysterious statues, but to me, not really “Wonder of the World” status
• The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France
  • One of the most recognizeable structures in the world, could definitely be a Wonder
• The Great Wall of China in……. China….
  • Another amazing structure that has stood the test of time, and also one of the most recognizeable structures in the world.
• Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey
  • Very interesting structure, but again, I don’t know a lot about it.
• Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, Japan
  • I love Japanese structure and culture, but I don’t know much about the temple
• The Kremlin / St. Basil in Moscow, Russia
  • Very interesting construction, and even though a lot of people might not know it, most people equate this one structure with classical Russian archetecture
• Machu Picchu in Peru
  • I know nothing about it.
• Neuschwanstein Castle in Schwangau, Switzerland
  • Again, never heard of it before, but it looks really impressive. I love castles, and the complex design is amazing.
• Petra in Jordan
  • I’ve seen this one before, but I don’t know a whole lot about it. Looks like an amazing thing to see in person though.
• The Statue of Liberty in New York, USA
  • Of course I like this one. It’s an impressive symbol and holds a lot of meaning and symbolism for the world around.
• Stonehenge in the United Kingdom
  • A super recognizeable structure for the whole world, and so mysterious. Would make sense for it to be a Wonder since it is so shrouded in mystery while being an incredible feat of engineering.
• Sydney Opera House in Australia
  • I was surprised to see this on here, but in retrospect it would make sense as it was one of the first prominent works of avant garde abstract architecture, and one of the few things that got Australia as recognizeable as it is today.
• Taj Mahal in Agra, India
  • Amazing structure that I would love to visit one day.
• Timbuktu in Mali
  • I know why this is on the list, but I don’t know enough about it.

This is a really fascinating thing to me. I wish this were more highly publicized because I think a lot of people should be helping decide this, rather than just whoever stumbles across it. I’ll publish a story about it on Generation Q I think to get the word out a little more.

Vote for the New 7 Wonders here 

You’ve Never Had a Friend Like Me!

I am totally rockin’ out to the Aladdin soundtrack at work right now. It’s taking all I have not to sing out loud. It may be one of my gayer traits, but I love me some Disney!

So its been a day or two since I’ve posted, but as per usual there’s not a whole lot going on. I’ve been helping re-build our 1,200 square foot deck, which has been interesting. I like building things and its a good experience.

Also, Charlie and I took a trip to a really romantic little bed & breakfast here in Sacramento called The Amber House. You can check out some pictures and my Mediagasm review of it here.

Other than that, the only other especially blog-worthy thing is that I got myself a gym membership last Thursday. I went on Tuesday for the first time and then again yesterday, and I’m planning to go yet again tonight. Charlie is helping me to learn the things I need to do to lose the weight I’ve wanted to lose for YEARS (not to mention the 20 lbs I’ve gained since my car accident) and gain muscle at the same time. By far my favorite thing so far are the elliptical machines. I pretty much despise running, but the elliptical is so low impact and the time goes by so fast on it that I’m dripping sweat within 10 minutes and still feel good. I aim to be slimmed down to more where I want to be by mid summer, since I’ll be going up to 7 days in a week, a minimum of 5. Here are my measurements at the moment:

Height: 5’10”
Weight: 180 lbs
Chest: 40″
Actual Waist (I wear my jeans on my hips): 39″
BMI: 26.2%
I plan to get these measurements WAY down and finally be more satisfied with my body. I’ve disliked my body for years but never really did to much about it. Until now! I’m actually writing a weekly article over at GenerationQ.net about it. It’s an interesting human interest thing and also forces me into a measure of accountability.

Ok well I’ll cut this blog post off here, but I’m making a concerted effort to make myself post more often. No one really reads this, but it’s nice to have things that are going on on my life recorded down so I can look back on everything and remember what happened when.

Later days!

Same ol’, Same ol’

So. Basically nothing amazingly interesting has been going on lately. Charlie’s sister is out of town so he is house-sitting, which affords us a GREAT opportunity to spend some quality time together just the two of us, which we don’t get often enough. It also lets me play LEGO Star Wars II to my heart’s content, because that’s just how I roll.

No progress with the new podcast yet. Recording location is my biggest hiccup as the walls in my house are super thin and my parents are pretty much NEVER gone. I’d rather them not be privy to my podcast. There’s a kind of secret passageway behind my bathroom that runs around the side of the house to a big secret storage room that’s connected to my dad’s closet that would be perfect to convert into a recording studio (all it needs is a table, a chair, and a lamp, all of which are readily available) since it’s all insulated and therefore has pretty good acoustics. We’ll see how that turns out though.

In Generation Q related news, the site is growing so fast! It’s crazy. In the past few weeks a veritable BEVY of new features has been added, my favorite of which has got to be the Queerpedia, a GLBT-centered Wikipedia clone. It’ll be cool to see where that all progresses from here. I’m working on getting some fresh faces into the US team and have 3 good columnists lined up at the moment. So if anyone out there is interested in writing (for free) for an awesome (and rapidly growing) worldwide news outlet, drop me a line at luke@generationq.net and we’ll talk =)

It’s an interesting experience to be able to lead a team like this, with the added aspect of building and adding to the team. I’ve never done anything like it before and it’s a pretty cool deal altogether.

For any BOTI listeners that read this, remember, the next episode is the giveaway for the Red Collar EP, “Heroes and Villians!” It’s a great CD and I encourage everyone to go check out Blonde on the Inside and enter!

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Rockin’ Out To: “Love Me Too (Live Recording)” – Edward NelsonCurrent Book Fixation: “Shadows of the Empire” – Steve Perry

Insert Witty Title About How Long It’s Been Since I’ve Posted Here…

I REALLY need to devote myself to posting more often. I’ve been thinking about how little I actually post in my personal blog a lot lately, and I realized one reason I haven’t. When I first came over to WordPress, I’ve always wanted to import my old LJ journal (a good year and a half’s worth of my life that I’d like to keep around) but when I tried it was WAY too hard. But maybe I’ll make that my next project. I’m working on getting a copy of a blog-publishing client like MarsEdit or Ecto to make it easier for me to update too, so my laziness is less of an issue =P

Ok, so my life is hectic now. I was recently promoted to the Regional Producer for the US (basically leading the entire US team) over at Generation Q Media, which is a big deal for me. It’s not a paid position, but it’s a position with a lot of decision power and responsibility. I’ve been wondering if this whole journalism thing might be what I want to do eventually, but I think the part I’m most excited about is really the management position, which fits into my plan to major in Business. So oh well. But Generation Q has been taking up a lot of my thought lately and I have some work to do with getting the members of the US team back together into a more cohesive group. And on top of everything our Content Management System (what we use to post articles) went down last night and all our articles since February have been deleted, which means a LOT of catch-up for us. But like I said, it’s a challenge I’m excited for. So you’ll be hearing more about that soon, I’m sure.

My music column over at Gay Socialites is doing pretty well too, but finding the time between homework, social obligations, and my work at Generation Q is a challenge. But I really enjoy reviewing new music each week so it’s worth it. I’m attempting to pin down a constant day that I can write, but with my crazy schedule that can be a challenge.

As for this blog, I’m really going to make it something I use more often. I know basically NO ONE reads it, but having somewhere to gather my thoughts and just post stuff so if anyone is actually interested they can read it is important to me. I’m going to start posting the weird ass dreams I always have too so that mysubconcious may entertain you all.

Blonde on the Inside (my podcast) is doing really well too. I’m excited to record our 11th episode ASAP because I’m rediculously prepared for it. You should all go check it out! It’s quite fun.

Well, I’m currently at work so I should get back to hum-drum data entry. If anyone out there actually reads this, you should let me know! Leave a comment and make me feel validated =P

Exciting Developments and a Great Weekend

Hello all you out there in the blogosphere!

So this weekend was amazing. These last two weeks have been lacking in the Charlie-Luke interaction area, but this weekend more than made up for it. Saturday night he and I went to the Drive-Ins off of Bradshaw and saw Jackass 2 and Employee of the Month (both of which were good). We had our close, private time, but the rest of the time was spend just enjoying the movies together. At one point, during the intermission, we got into a tickle fight (in the back seat of my cramped 2-door Civic, mind you) and he got me laughing so hard that I made his weird laughing noise that I can’t really describe without actually making the noise. We didn’t get to spend the night together like I would have liked, but it didn’t matter in the end. That laughing, giggling ticklefest and the quiet movie time together was exactly what I needed.

Last night we went to Sean’s house for a Halloween party. I wore my Super Emo Kid costume (which turned out awesome!!) and Charlie borrowed his mom’s firefighter officer uniform (and looked fuckin’ HOT in it I might add). It was fun night all around. We all played King’s Cup and got generally all around silly. At the end of the night Charlie and I crawled onto Sean’s couch and were drifting off to sleep, and we just talked for a good half hour. It was perfect.

Our 11 month was on Thursday, and I have never felt closer to him than I do right now. It’s wonderful! Only 28 days til our 1 year anniversary, and I am SOOOO excited! We’re talking about our gift to each other and figuring out what to get. Its indescribable. I can’t wait, end of story.

In other news I was recently promoted to Associate Producer for the United States region at the website I write for, Generation Q. It’s a big responsibility for me and I’m REALLY jazzed about it. We just launched a redesigned site and its amazing. Also, along with that, Mel and I are starting a podcast in conjunction with the site. It’s called Blonde on the Inside, and you all (if anyone even reads this lol) should go check it out when we get it going. We record our first episode tonight, and it’s gonna be a blast!

Anyway, I gotta get my room cleaned up and things ready to go! I’m heading to Mel’s house to record and spend the night!

Long Time No Blog…

I’ve neglected my LJ duties… and for that I am truly sorry…

Not really.

SO. Update time. There’s some fun stuff going on lately I guess. My parents got home saturday night after being out of the house for 2 1/2 weeks (and believe me, I wouldn’t mind them going again =P) which was a nice experience with some more independance than I tend to get. But meh.

I was recently promoted to Associate Producer of the US at the queer news site that I write for, Generation Q. It’s hella exciting because I get to work a lot more with the site in addition to writing for it. We’ll see where this takes me, but it looks like a side project htat I’ll be sticking with indefinitely.

Charlie and I are about 1 week (5 days) from our 11 month. I’m still totally head over heels for this boy. We’re both really busy with work and school at the moment, so it’s been a little hard to move time around to see each other, but I’d do anything to make sure that it woks as well as possible. Kinda cool feeling, to feel so strongly about another person.

I went to Club 21 for the first time in a long time last night and saw soooo many people that I knew, some of which I haven’t seen in a long ass time (like Graham!). It was kinda fun, until Mel and I danced for like 20-30 mins finally and then got TIRED. We took off, grabbed food from Hot Rods, and then went home and SLEPT.

Well I’m actually in class at the moment so I should probably take notes.