Busy, Busy, Busy...

So I have been crazy busy taking a couple of courses this summer on top of everything else. Summer sessions tend to be more expedited than your normal school semester, so basically I have been getting my ass kicked. I am used to working overnights where I had plenty of time to do school work, but now that I am on dayshift, there is little downtime. Yes, boo hoo, whine a little more Mark. I am not wired to be a day person, that is all there is to it. I will grind out this year and then (if there is a merciful God) I will get a transfer back to nights. One of the courses I have been taking is Cultural Geography. It is basically the study of people across the globe and the factors that influence us (physical geography where we live, religion, sex, sexual orientation, culture, standard of living, etc.). Geography has always been one of my strong points and I definitely have gotten to see a lot of the things we are discussing in class first hand thanks to my travels. We just finished our big "class project" for the semester which was a comparison of two nations of the professor's choosing. Unfortunately for me, our group of three quickly dropped down to two. Then my partner was not the most helpful in the area of research. So... Guess who got to do this project solo? One other issue was my lack of knowledge of Powerpoint. I have been out of the office environment for a long time, so I had to figure it out pretty quick. I am a perfectionist (hush all of you!), so I was not completely excited with the outcome. Some of the other presentations in class looked a lot more polished. To be frank, I am simply glad to have it over with. I spent at least four full days on the damn thing. The countries my group was given were Canada and South Africa. I did not know much about either, to be honest. I have not been to Africa at all yet. I did have the privilege of flying all over Canada during my Northwest days, so at least I had some experience there. The real shock was what a chaotic nation South Africa is. A full quarter of the population is HIV-positive. The life expectancy is 42 years old! (Canada's, by comparison, is 81.) On top of that, their electrical grid is collapsing, they are running out of clean water, and on and on. The crime and murder rates are through the roof and a full fifty percent of the population below the poverty line. As always, it makes one fortunate for the basic necessities. Clean water, food on the table, decent health care, and a safe environment in which to live.

Anthony Bourdain is back on the Travel Channel with new episodes of No Reservations. He is definitely adjusting the focus of his show to a more somber and political tone from his earlier shows that were solely about the food and a good laugh. The laughs are still there, but he is now visiting the smaller, more out of the way countries and including some great food along the way. His first three episodes have been Laos, Colombia, and the surprising Saudi Arabia. Surprising because I personally have never seen a show actually been given permission to film in the Kingdom. Even when reporters are reporting from there, they always have a cardboard backdrop behind them. The show was a fascinating glimpse into a country that few Americans have seen before. This week, he is tackling Uruguay. I cannot say enough about how much I love his show and brand of television. I suppose it is because we are both world travelers, he and I. At the end of the day, there is no better place to be than sharing a great meal with friends and family. This is true no matter who you are, where you are from, or what your politics are. If we could concentrate more on this type of diplomacy and less on the "You're either with us or against us!" brand, the world would be a much better place. I have about twenty five episodes hogging up all of the memory on my DVR, so if you are in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by.

Runway is back too. Good stuff. So far, no one has made anything I would consider amazing. It is fun to see every one's personalities coming through though. There are two female designers who look almost identical (Jennifer and Leanne) and I had to go to the Project Runway website to figure out which one was the designer I liked. I like Jennifer's stuff, but I believe it may be a bit too mainstream for her to win. In any case, her first dress of paper towels came out really cute and I liked her second dress too. No one designer has emerged with a big "wow" factor yet, but... It is early in the game kids, give it some time. On a sad note, rumor has it that when the show moves to Lifetime next season Bunim-Murray Productions will be taking over casting. The same people who have been bringing us The Real World for twenty seasons will now be casting Runway. While The Real World was great during the first few seasons, it has sucked for the last ten. Not willing to sit still and give up market share, rumor has it Bravo has picked up another fashion reality show. If Lifetime wrecks Runway, at least we will have something else to watch.

Alright, I was supposed to be in bed two hours ago. I have been drowning in South Africa and Canada, so did not have the time to post. Hope you are all doing well and staying cool.

Cuidate.

It Lives!

Yes, it lives. Guilty Bloggers Syndrome is alive and well.

After my parents popped into town last week, the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival was in full force and that seguayed into the weekend festivities. It was a Southern Comfort year. Honolulu Coolers in the morning which transitioned into SoCo Lime shots for the remainder of the day. The only thing that was not perfect this year was the weather which was cool with teases of sun here and there. I am fine with the cool, but the clouds did put a bit of a damper on things. The following day (Monday) was absolutely gorgeous without a cloud in the sky. So that was a bit of sand in the wound. Still, a good time was had by all. Everyone always bitches about the parade and shows up two hours late, but once they make it there it is good times. The parade had the usual greats (the Dykes on Bikes, Gavin Newsom, Police Chief Heather Fong, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White) as well as some great celebs this year (Margaret Cho, Cyndi Lauper and more). San Francisco is such a cool city because they throw this huge party and they do all this for free. With the exception of Mardi Gras in Sydney, I cannot think of any other city in the world that is as supportive of its gay population. It was a very marriage-themed year, lots of floats and signs promoting our newly gained freedom to marry. Still my favorite time of year.

I have kind of settled into a routine at the new job and it is very comfortable. I have ended up working normal hours (8 AM to 7 PM), but que sera sera. It is such a fun and positive place to work. I will be on this schedule until July of next year and then hopefully I can return to my beloved nights.

My thoughts lately have been of Obama and who he will choose as his running mate. I would love to see Bill Richardson (governor of New Mexico and former Security of the U.N.) on the ticket. I do not know if he and his people will have the balls to though. Conventional wisdom says he needs to choose someone more mainstream (read white) for the ticket. In truth, Obama is basically going to be in cleanup mode from the W debacle for the next four or eight years providing he gets elected. Yes, he can steer the national agenda in the right direction and hopefully tackle health care. Still, financially our country is strained at best and he is not going to have a lot of money to throw at problems. Simply the optimism generated from his positivity as a leader may be enough to give us the fresh start and perspective that we need as a nation. JFK proved to be an incredibly inspirational leader (still being talked about almost fifty years later) and Obama brings forth these same kinds of emotions.

Hope everyone's summer is going well. Cuidate.