Howard Dean has begun waffling on issues that I agreed on (like raising the Social Security retirement age, for one thing) and he is very combative in interviews; so I am not as enamored of him as I was. My new darling is General Clark. Here is a good summary of his stand on many issues (and the stands of the other candidates as well). Most of those others need to get out now and quit clogging up the stage.

Ahh, I remember seeing the mermaids as a kid, and even then it seemed cheesy. But kinda fun. Childhood memories are so weird. My sister just reminded me of a book we knew as kids: "I Knew an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." And it brought back a flood of memories! It was just a silly book, but you never know.

My co-worker Ken and I are off to the Maryland Renaissance Festival today! If I get good pictures I'll do a little website.

I had forgotten that in addition to the other things we have in common, Jonno and I are both Libras.

At last! The Boy Meets Boy Post-show interviews!

I edited last week's Friday Five. How could I have not thought of the Pet Shop Boys? Thank you, iPod.

I am sure this is just me and my weird hatred of cell phones, but...

...today I did my usual Sunday afternoon jaunt to the Java Shack, a cute little eclectic, gay-owned place where I take my laptop to get out of the house and write and have a skim latte. BUT it was closed because their power was still out in the Isabel aftermath. Two blocks over the Starbucks was going full steam (hmm) So I succumbed and went there. No sooner did I sit down than this 'princess' sat three feet from me and proceeded to have this loud (do people on cells talk louder than normal conversation? I think so!) conversation. I finally had to move because I did not want to hear her ask the guy on the phone any more about the person he was supposedly dating or 'whatever' (her word). ARGH!

Heh. This guy says exactly what I was thinking about Queer Eye. He just says it a lot better.

Another Friday Five: (Delayed because of Hurricane Isabel!)
And revised as of 9/23

1. Who is your favorite singer/musician? Why?

Timberlake is hot, but I'm not all that keen on his music. Haven't even bought the CD. I have to say that my enduring favorite is the Pet Shop Boys.

2. What one singer/musician can you not stand? Why?

Most rappers. Bling Bling.

3. If your favorite singer wasn't in the music business, do you think you would still like him/her as a person?

I'd like to think so. Neal Tennent was also in Architecture school then decided on another career. And they are gay too... Hopefully we'd have something to talk about.

4. Have you been to any concerts? If yes, who put on the best show?

Quite a few over the years. Billy Idol, Joe Jackson, Duran Duran, Van Halen(!), INXS, The Police, Gloria Estefan... and (ahem) Backstreet Boys, SoulDecision, 'N Sync... I have to say, 'N Sync puts on a pretty good show.

5. What are your thoughts on downloading free music online vs. purchasing albums? Do you feel the RIAA is right in its pursuit to stop people from downloading free music?

I think downloading from Napster and Kazaa is stealing. Some of my books have shown up on Kazaa, and that is certainly stealing. On the other hand, the record industry should have dropped the price of CDs soon after they came out like they said they would do.

I think suing people is a bad idea too. A GOOD idea is what Apple arranged at the iTunes store. is the solution. 99� a song, reasonable copy and CD burning rights. It will be available to the PC hoi polloi by the end of the year.

Pictures from the Boy Meets Boy finale party! Even Franklin was there.

And some unpublished Herb Ritts pictures of Justin. Just because they are unbelievably hot hot hot. ;-)

Current iPod Listening (from my rather extensive '80's playlists)

Joe Jackson Real Men

Kajagoogoo Too Shy

The Police Synchronicity II

Tears for Fears Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Serendipidously, a search to discover whether Joe Jackson was indeed gay (apparently so; which for some reason makes me even more glad I saw him live long ago performing songs from Look Sharp) I found this interesting NPR review of gay albums. I couldn't agree more about the Pet Shop Boys one, and now I'm off to pop open the cover...

Time for another Friday Five (and a fun one, IMHO):

1. Is the name you have now the same name that's on your birth certificate? If not, what's changed?

Yes. I go through periods of trying to use my middle name (Kevin) but with limited success.

2. If you could change your name (first, middle and/or last), what would it be?

I would 'Terence' (or Terrence) instead of 'Terry.' For some reason my mother is unable to explain, she named me just 'Terry' while my sister is named 'Tamara' and goes by Tammy. Oddly though,'Terence' has developed into kind of a nickname for me.

3. Why were you named what you were? (Is there a story behind it? Who specifically was responsible for naming you?)

No idea. Except mother said she wanted to name me Carl after some cousin of hers but my father's brother (who she apparently disliked) was named Carl and she didn't want anyone to think she named me after him. Nice, huh?

4. Are there any names you really hate or love? What are they and why?

For some reason like "J" names: Justin, Jason, Jarod, Jake. Go figure.

5. Is the analysis of your name (at the following sites) accurate? How or how isn't it? [ kabalarians.com Yes, VERY! / triggur.org Um, no. / astroexpert Huh?]

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't even a teeny bit nervous about coming in to work today. My office is 5 blocks from the White House (and I could see the smoke rising from the Pentagon from my house).

But we won't talk about it any more. Instead, my review of the season premiere of Enterprise:

Eh, it was okay. The swimming and insect aliens were cool. Tucker Smallwood's voice is SO distinctive though that it ruined it for me having him as one of the Xindi (he was Commodore Ross inSAAB and CapCom in Contact). I like Tucker, but it was like when they cast Jeffrey Combs (who played the Vorta Weyoun on DS9) as an Andorian on Enterprise. His voice is SO distinctive it ruins the suspension of disbelief.

I'm glad Daniel Dae Kim is there, and one of the other marines is Marco Sanchez who was Ortiz on SeaQuest, but he is not looking so good these days. He used to be HOT.

And Archer is just an angry ass now. He's not tough like Janeway or Kirk or Picard, he's ANGRY. He and trip are MAD. Whatever. As much as I want to like Scott Bakula, I just don't like him as captain. The weapons guy annoys me, Trip annoys me now. So now the characters I like are the Doctor and cute but bland Mayweather... and T'Pol. Sometimes.

And the gratuitous nudity was just that, gratuitous.

Oh. My. 'god.'

Hmm, cute idea about calling us 'Brights' instead of Atheists, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm curious where he got this statistic: ...there are 29 million Americans who describe themselves as nonreligious, secular, atheist, or agnostic, outnumbering Jews tenfold and all other religions except Christianity by an even larger margin.

Hmmm... There is a 1.4 GHz processor update for my G4 Cube!

Current iPod Listening:

Berlin: Pleasure Victim

Billy Joel: We didn't start the fire

Ah, the hilarious summary of Episode SIX!

Hmmm!Andy Roddick wins the U.S. Open!

Oh! More Boy Meets Boy behind-the scenes gossip, culled from television without pity. It sounds very likely.

"Apparently, the original plan for the last episode of bmb was supposed to have included a "reunion" aspect and they had brought all the mates back together in the house. unfortunately, after they told the gay boys that they had been lied to, none of them had anything nice to say about the experience (surprise), so they couldn't use the footage (because we'd hate to see their "real" reactions). hence the reason it was mostly the straight guys talking in the end, spouting the party line about "breaking down barriers." i was also told that andra kept stirring the pot (the girl has some issues) and that just about the time some of the gay guys started to get calmed down about it, she'd harp at them about how they were all used and taken advantage of and get them all riled up again. it was all a mess and none of it could air. james was also really bitter and they couldn't have him on camera with dani, because he was still just seething and it made it all uncomfortable. in fact, the shots of him waking up in bed that morning were actually from another day, they just edited them in to make it look like he woke up with a smile on his face when he really was far from happy and wanted as little to do with them as possible."

"I had heard from someone at Bravo (production on another show) that Dani was there, she wasn't fired. And certainly she wasn't cut to save money. She had a contract too! I heard from my friend that after the 'reveal' James was just so angry and she was a focal point for a lot of it. LOTS of footage had to be thrown out and not used because it revealed just how upset James was. Much of that last day was just unusable. They elected not to have Dani on hand during the final ceremony because they were trying to keep James at ease so he could do his speeches. Andra was still there too but she was constantly pushing James to his 'angry place' so she was kept from the ceremony too. Just about everything from that last day with her was thrown out too. They also did post interviews with the gay mates after they were told the twist but they were so negative on it that they couldn't be used and plans for a reunion finale were tossed as well. Which is why you only hear from the straights about how wonderful the experience was, blah blah."

James Getzlaff talks to gay.com about his experience on Boy Meets Boy! The contracts... the anger. And Brian and Dan are friends? Hmmm.

Current iPod listening: Pet Shop Boys, my mega-80's playlist.

Being Boring, Pet Shop Boys
(excerpts)

...Now I sit with different faces
In rented rooms and foreign places
All the people I was kissing
Some are here and some are missing
In the nineteen-nineties
I never dreamt that I would get to be
The creature that I always meant to be
But I thought in spite of dreams
You'd be sitting somewhere here with me...

...And we were never being boring
We were never being bored
'Cause we were never being boring
We were never being bored...

Whee! It's Friday and that means another Friday Five:

1. What housekeeping chore(s) do you hate doing the most?

Cleaning the bathroom! Ugh! Dusting is a drag too.

2. Are there any that you like or don't mind doing?

I don't really mind laundry, though, it was a drag back in the college and few yaers after when I had to go to a laundromat. Vaccuuming is fun since I got a Roomba! It does a pretty good job though once in awhile I still have to haul out the beast.

3. Do you have a routine throughout the week or just clean as it's needed?

As needed... and sometimes kinda not till it's really needed...

4. Do you have any odd cleaning/housekeeping quirks or rules?

Umm, nope. Just not that anal.

5. What was the last thing you cleaned?

Laundry and dishes last night. Place will get a big cleaning this weekend.

Well Boy Meets Boy is over.

Franklin looked appropriately miserable at the end. The best part of the whole episode was Wes and Brian taking the camera off the tripod (talk about low-budget! Bravo won't even spring for camera people 24/7!!! "Here, point it at yourselves.") and running giggling down the hall, with Brian saying "Franklin, are we going to have sex now?"). And then in their little beds with poor Brian asking Wes in that whiny voice if he kissed James, and then pushing the bamboo plant over on him. And Franklin looking miserable.

It was interesting to see James and Andra trying to figure out the str8 guys after the fact; they didn't do so well. But gaydar is something you have to use on the spot; as James said to the host chick about it, "I didn't have it on!" In the end he got it right, though it was pretty obvious.

It was weird though how Andra talked like SHE made the decisions. I guess she talked up Franklin; she couldn't have made all the decisions since James had to on the spot with the pairings he was faced with. And Andra was conspicuously absent from the entire ending. Maybe they were afraid she was going to claw Franklin's eyes out. That would have been a waste.

I felt bad for Brian and don't understand James' thing about 'not wanting to hurt him by picking him'? Huh? Interesting that James picks the guy who lives in San Diego and he lives in L.A.; I think he was already emotionally distancing himself from the whole thing.

I'd like to believe Franklin, that he wasn't in it just for the money, and to an extent he'd been duped as well. I almost got the feeling they re-edited the episode after all the negative stuff about the trickery and Dani Behr and Andra.