I want Candy

Annabella was the hottest girl with a mohawk...

the House of Blues!

Hey, at least I won't need sunblock...

Third Level of Hell
the third circle, you find yourself amidst eternal rain, maledict, cold, and heavy. The gluttons are punished here, lying in the filthy mixture of shadows and of putrid water. Because you consumed in excess, you meet your fate beneath the cold, dirty rain, amidst the other souls that there lay unhappily in the stinking mud. Cerebus, a canine monster cruel and uncouth with his three heads and red eyes, dwells in this level. He growls and tears at the damned with his teeth and claws.

Dante's Inferno Test

Miss you Ann

Ann Richards
RIP


















"I am delighted to be here with you this evening because after listening to George Bush all these years, I figured you needed to know what a real Texas accent sounds like."

Canicula

Canicula…
Is the Spanish word for ‘dog days’ of summer. You can literally feel it in the air. Muggy, hot, steamy, the sun is hazy and relenting. We just got a heat wave that was intense and a crime wave that just give people another reason to stay inside. The streets aren’t as lively, the traffic is slower, even the tourists look a like they would rather be somewhere else.
We hit the dog days of this administration; with worthless meetings and a hollow leader who is memorable for his lack of table manners and personal space. We have a war going on in the Middle East, a human tragedy of Iraq and a threatening North Korea…but we are worried about gay marriages. We are a lost people, still reliving the attacks of 9/11, unfocused and depressed. America, you have PTSD. We’re like the Vietnam vets who still wear their vests full of patches and work at the convenience store; takes antidepressants and drinks, who never fulfilled our potential, who can snap at any moment.

Canicula… I’ve entered my own personal dog days. I am so tired, I have a full load of summer classes, just started a new job at the children’s hospital working as a psychometrician. I am ending my other job really, really soon. So, 40 hrs a week of work and 3 grad courses, with a 2 weeks break in august. I sometimes think I am too old for this, working really hard, hardly having any free time. Then my girlfriend reminds me what it’s all about. I will say she is my saving grace. Always there to give me a kick in the pants! Thankfully, we do have some fun together. We had a nice time on the 4th of July—DC is a great place for the holiday, saw the fireworks with our friends at the national mall. My GF’s birthday was a week ago and we spent it at Rehoboth Beach, a cute little beach town in Delaware. It has an old fashioned boardwalk, nice little boutiques and lots and lots of gays and lesbians. Not bad for Delaware! Anyway, it was nice to get away and spend it with my girl.

Canicula… I recently learned that my ex-girlfriend is getting married, not a Massachusetts kind of marriage but a run of a mill heterosexual one. My first reaction wasn’t one really. I was kind of ambivalent about it. Then I started to think about it... I should have stayed ambivalent. I won’t get too personal (I do have homework to do) but I was reminded about this essay I read by Carla Trujillo, called interestingly enough “till men do us part”. I remember reading this during the relationship with my ex and having a feeling of foreshadowing. I remember reading the last paragraph

“ It’s been over a year since I wrote that letter to Becky. I haven’t heard a word from her. I don’t know if she got married and had the baby she always dreamed of. I don’t know if her father and her sweet grandma are still with us. I don’t know what her nephew is learning in school or what’s happening with her sister and brother. I don’t know anything anymore about Becky or her family I once adopted as mine. I’ve accepted the fact that Becky does not want me in her life. What’s really hard to accept is why.”

I closed the book and felt a chill down my spine.

vote for jack

4 things

A meme that I stole (can you steal a meme?) from Republic of T.

4 jobs you’ve had:

• A "rides hostess" at Six Flags Great America
  
• Video rental clerk
  
• a reader of essays on standardized tests
  
• sold men's ties at Marshall Fields
  

4 movies you could watch over & over:

• All About Eve
  
• The Spy Who Loved Me
  
• It's a Wondeful Life
  
• Jackie Brown
  

4 places you’ve lived: (I only have 3!)

• Waukegan, IL
  
• San Antonio, TX
  
• Washington, DC
  

4 tv shows you love to watch:

• Big Love
  
• Sex and the City (guilty pleasure#1)
  
• L Word (guilty pleasure #2)
  
• Frontline

4 places you’ve been on holiday:

• New York City
  
• Las Vegas
  
• Miami
• Los Angeles
  

4 websites you visit daily:

• americablog
  
• Boing Boing
  
• dcist
• Daily Kos
  

4 of your favorite foods:

• frosted flakes
  
• fried chicken (can't have it often, sigh)
  
• tacos (if I didn't put this down, my Mexican card would be revoked)
• Lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce served in the Provençale manner with shallots and aubergines, garnished with truffle paté, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam

4 places you’d rather be:

• Beach resort in Hawaii (I assume it's better than DC in the summer)
• New York City with friends
  
• Paris, Rome, London, Madrid (any of them)
  
• happy, healthy and comfortable
  

4 lucky people to tag:

• Opal
  
• La gran Tirana
• Hiptoniq
• You reading this!
  

Head first

Found this at the corner of harvard and 16th in my neighborhood. I think it's the same artist that did this.

sometimes when I am on the bus and I hear talking I only want to say this...

in case you end up sleeping with me

I am a tetherball

Find your own pose!

Bush is Number 1!

Congratulations America! You elected the worst president in the last 60 years! What are you going to do to celebrate this achievement? Ban Gay marriage of course! God bless America!

Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. President
Come take a walk with me
Let's pretend we're just two people and
You're not better than me
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep
What do you feel when you look in the mirror
Are you proud?

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why

Dear Mr. President
Were you a lonely boy
Are you a lonely boy
How can you say
No child is left behind
We're not dumb and we're not blind
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell

What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye
How do you walk with your head held high
Can you even look me in the eye

Let me tell you bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you bout hard work
Hard work Hard work
You don't know nothing bout hard work
Hard work Hard work
Oh, How do you sleep at night
How do you walk with your head held high
Dear Mr. President
You'd never take a walk with me
Would you?

We can't all be like La Tonya

La Tonya
Originally uploaded by stripper_polaroids.

Real Mexican Included

A Poem By Messitza
(check her site!)

Real Mexican Included

real mexican included with every enchilada
(or how to tell if a mexican if authentic)

so what if i were a mexican strapped with a gun?
you know, a bandido, an insurgente
a romanticized rebel with olive skin and piercing eyes.

or if i were this hardcore troubled youth
sureña chola gangstacita
with switchblade in the back pocket
and a crucifix around my neck.
would that be good?

how about if i was serving you
some of that real mexican food
un plato de cultural purity,
un plato de mexican monoculturalism
because of course all mexicans are the same
and so is the food.

what if i were the beautiful mexican woman
the one people write songs about
like a sexy mexican maid
a tijuana mama, a hot
blooded maria garcia chichitecameca
the kind that makes mexican women look h-o-t
in a strategically torn blouse and erect nipples
like almost dead
in the arms of a seriously muscular aztec warrior
at the foot of popocatepetl,
like any of those big tittied mexicanas
in those authentic taqueria calendars
or printed onto short sleeved t-shirts.

of course let's not mention the mexicans
who are whiter than the u.s.a.
or the indios who don't speak spanish
the black mexicans
the biggest city in the world kinda mexicans
the mexican jews
the messy mestizos.
because it's so much easier to talk about
real mexicans and
real mexican food
and real mexican crafts and
real mexican kitsch
and real mexicans for sale
special limited time offer!

Mission Accomplished

From Think Progress..

	May 1, 2003	May 1, 2006
U.S. Troops Wounded	542	17,469
U.S. Troops Killed	139	2,400
Size of U.S. Forces	150,000	132,000
Size of Iraqi Security Forces	7,000-9000	250,500
Number of Insurgents	5,000	15,000-20,000
Insurgent Attacks Per Day	8	75
Cost to U.S. Taxpayers	$79 billion	$320 billion
Approval of Bush’s Handling of Iraq	75%	37%
Percentage of Americans who Believe The Iraq War Was “Worth Fighting”	70%	41%
Bush’s Overall Job Approval	71%	38%

La Queen Sucia Speaks Up

I will say I haven't read Alisa's Valdez-Rodriguez' books. My impression she's like a Latina version of Terry McMillan. She was a journalist (like Terry McMillan) and wrote novels about women and relationships (like Terry McMillan). I don't know if she married a gay guy (like Terry McMillan). I'm sure if she read this she will probably say "read my books!" It's on my list, mkay? Anyhoo..

Alisa has become a cyber-chingona of late. On her blog called La Queen Sucia , she has taken to task xenophobes like Lou Dobbs (Slobbs) and ignorant people like internet pendejos Michael and Benita .

So, I'm glad like people like Alisa a speaking up and spreading knowledge.

La Marcha

a collage of pictures I took at the March for Immigrant Rights...si se puede! 

We are Not a Minority

"We are Not a Minority"
Originally uploaded by Gilbert Estrada.

Just a friendly reminder...April 10, there will be actions all over the country in support of immigrant rights. March as though your life depended on it...

Con puro corazon

On the corner of Soto & Cesar Chavez in East LA

funny money

this is how much this blog is worth....

My blog is worth $67,744.80.
How much is your blog worth?

my luck, this thing is worth more than I make in a year...

Eye for an Eye leaves everyone blind

48 year old father goes to Iraq for revenge…

But last April 11, a year and a day after his son was killed, Johnson told his Iraq-bound Georgia National Guard unit, the 48th Infantry Brigade, he was ready to join them. They ended up at this dustblown base in Iraq's far west, pulling escort duty for fuel convoys on the bomb-pocked desert highways from Jordan.
Why did he do it? The wiry lean Georgian, an easy-talking man with a boyish, sunburned face, tried to answer the question that won't go away.
"It's a lot of things combined," he said. "One, a sense of duty. I was pissed off at the terrorists for 9/11 and other atrocities. Second, I'd only trained. I wanted combat." And then, he said, "there's some revenge involved. I'd be lying if I said there wasn't."

"I don't really have love for Muslim people," Johnson said. "I'm sure there are good Muslims. I try not to be racist." Although he hasn't read the Quran, or spoken with Muslims, he has "heard" the Islamic holy book "teaches to kill Jews and infidels. And it's hard to love people who hate you."

Wow, sexism, racism and hegemony in one article! Not only did he not read the Quran, he hasn’t read a lot of the bible either. I bet he’s read the Left Behind series though. This poor grieving father typifies how Christian machismo has become mainstream. A comic book- video game- ADHD- bible fueled view of masculinity that the president has come to typify. It’s sad and terrifying.

Time flies

Damn, time flies when you’re (not) having fun…I’ve been neglecting this little blog, not due to lack of having anything to say but due to lack of actually having time. I finally made it through the toughest round of exams this month. I must’ve had an average of 4 to 5 hours of sleep. Ever had the feeling you were treading water? Yeah, I felt like that since this semester began. This semester isn’t a breeze as my first. I love it though. I look forward going to school. Resources for things that you care about are always available. The motivation to do things that are soul-sucking however is hard to come by. (here’s comes the typical job rant).My full time job has become more dysfunctional than usual. It seems as though I have to come in at the crack of dawn to make sure that I can anticipate my boss’ needs before he has them. They are such bad managers. I can’t wait to give them the ol’ heave ho. Why not leave now? I will definitely leave in August since my practicum will start (I’ll find out if I got it by the end of the month). My gf and I are talking about finances and I still feel a little uneasy leaving a fulltime job with good benefits. So, I will put up with it for a little more. Besides I am going to an all expenses paid conference in LA, so I want to stay for that. (is that tacky?)

Let’s see, this weekend is the 3rd anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. The more things change the more they stay the same.

burning at both ends

I've been running ragged lately. School, work, relationship...it's been hard trying to juggle everything at once, and keep on top of things. Is it because I just can't do everything anymore because I am older? Damn, that doesn't sound good. I feel something has to give. It can't be my school, and it's not gonna be my relationship either. I want to quit my job, but I can't afford it. *sigh* I won't get a choice by the end of the summer, since I have my first practicum starting in the fall. I will definitely not work full time then. I am amazed I did what I did during my masters. I worked 40 hrs, I went to school, had a 20 hr practicum and kept a relationship. I think I paid a price for that. I feel this time around, I need to focus on what's more important. I come from a background that just doesn't quit jobs easily...you stick it out, work harder no matter what, because according to what I was taught, you are defined by what you produced. Fucked up work ethics keep me in a job I find soul sucking. I have friends who switch jobs all the time and seem not to worry about that. There's always another one, they say, why worry? Maybe I am too intense to leave it to the universe. How can I trust something that is chaotic in the first place? *sigh* Well, if I had more time, I would wax neurotically about my place in the world, but I have studying to do. Here's a picture of the night...

better late than never

we finally got snow! this is from last night...
 

truth to power

"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. [Standing Ovation] But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor. " --Rev. Joseph Lowery at Correta Scott King's Funeral

The HELL word

Memo to Showtime:
Here are some of my observations (mostly complaints) about the show you call "controversial". It isn't. It's as controversial as the a cup of latte being served at the Planet. It's about a group of mythical lesbians in LA who have complicated and apparently food-free lives. Let them eat something. I bet Jenny would love to eat a burger. Don't get me wrong, the women are gorgeous. Jennifer Beals looking pretty, pretty good in her post-flashdance-post-modern self. But really, can you have her have sex sometimes? Speaking of sex, where is it? Did I miss it? I mean, Shane doesn't even get any. Oh, that's right, it's been three years, you're due for the ubiquitous lesbian bed death that we all are afraid of. Sigh.
Bringing in the androgynous Max does make things interesting, but why did she have to be hooked up with the girl with borderline personality disorder? Seriously, I was happier with the illusions to the circus, or the carnival, or whatever last year was about. Please don't make Pam Grier (what did she do to her face?), into the token straight perimenopausal woman who can't get any. She deserves to get some. And what's all this about the Alice and the tennis player who probably has breast cancer (because someone in the show has to!) I have to say Alice's character is about as close to reality that I have seen, other than Carmen, who of course is representative of all Mexicans. It's LA and there's only ONE (quasi)Mexican on the show? I know it's not reality, but the law of averages, y'know? Finally, can Tina be killed off or something? I'm sure the kid would be better off having Bette being the mom, than the whiny, selfish and annoying Tina. If you can do only one thing, please for the love of god, get BETTY off the soundtrack. What blood-promise did you make in order to have them be the music for the show? Girls with sashes..or long lashes, or whatever the hell that song is...please erase if from my mind before it eats away the cortex I have left.
I'll patiently await your response next week.

time gous by con loli

the.best.video.ever

4 Rules

So, here are 4 rules that will make your life more livable if you live with a woman who leans heavily towards the femme spectrum...

1. Let the femme play with power tools. Not only will you get the project done quicker, the sight of your girlfriend drilling things into holes make it much more pleasurable.

2. Let the femme pick the colors. Black and white, as you've been told, are not the only colors that go with everything. There are more colors in the world to choose from (except for pink).

3. Let the femme take control of your, er, her kitchen. You didn't know how to work your stove effectively, did you?

4. Keep the option for the pocket/line-item veto open. As the less-than-femme person in the relationship, your only recource is to use the power of the veto on your side. Use it wisely and wear a helmet.

Finally, remind yourself that your bachelorette pad has been transformed into something better. Whatever that something is...

Picture of the day

Happy New Year

With the New Year, my new life has started.

As dramatic as this may sound, it’s true.
My girlfriend and I decided to make the plunge and move in together. We’ve been seeing each other for over a year and half, visiting each other once a month. Spending most of our relationship on the phone was not going to go make this relationship evolve. We talked about moving in several months ago, it didn’t become real until we packed her things in her car and drove 1600 miles to live with me.

This is as close to getting married as I will ever get.

Another dramatic statement but also very true. Moving in for a lot of us is as close to “marriage” as we can get and frankly for me, as close as I want to get.

Too bad I don't have the time to talk about gay people's role in deconstructing marriage and my growing ambivalence about the LGBT movement in the direction of marital rights but I have to go to IKEA to buy new furniture with my girlfriend...

We will always have Dollywood

On the way to DC we swung by Dollywood...sadly it was closed