27 Jan 2003
Ukulele update.
One of my SAs who plays guitar came by last night and made sweet, sweet love to my new ukulele — I can’t wait until I can make it sing the way he did. I’ve been practicing on it for about a week and I now can comfortably play about 9 chords, making me 3 times as powerful as many rock bands. But my strumming leaves a lot to be desired (the felt-lined picks keeps slipping out of my fingers).
My ukulele method books are unbelievable lame, so I’ve been trying to find song chords on the web and will probably order a fake book. So far, I can bludgeon my way through Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Annie’s Song. But many of the songs I’d like to play have far more complex chord progressions than I ever would have imagined. Still, I’m entranced by being able to accompany myself while I sing (that is, as soon as I can master the art of fretting, strumming, and remembering song lyrics all at the same time).
To help document the progress of my ukulele playing, I’m to record myself and post the songs on my weblog (kind of like Kevin Fanning’s LOUNGE, only not as hip). I would have recorded today had I not been sidetracked by my new cell phone).
27 Jan 2003
LG LX5350
LG LX5350. Since I need my own cellphone for my upcoming trip to NYC and (hopefully many) job interviews, I broke down and went to Radio Shack today, determined to shut down the “Consumer Reports” part of my brain that is never satisfied with any product or service. Fortunately, the LG LX5350 was on sale for $50 with activation, so the “thift” part of my brain managed to win.
It’s one of those new swanky color, web-enabled phones, so I signed up for the unlimited Sprint PCS-Vision plan. I haven’t managed to get the text-messaging part to work yet, but the web browser was able to show my weblog, including some CSS formatting (giving me some ideas about creating a mobile version of this site especially for PDAs and phones).
23 Jan 2003
Blog “Scandal.”
As mentioned on Mike’s blog, people are up in arms because “fag hag” blogger Min Jung wound up nominated for GLBT Blogger of the Year.
For the record, I don’t think Min Jung should have been eligible for the category, but I really have no one to blame but myself. Nikolai, who runs the Bloggies, has for the last 3 years pointed to my GLBT Weblog List as the pool of candidate for the category. When Min Jung submitted her blog to the list on 2003-01-03, I almost deleted it (as I have other straight-but-not-narrow bloggers), but I got busy and then forgot about it.
I’m choosing to delete it from the list now, because it’s my list and I can whatever the hell I want.
If I even end up voting for the Bloggies (which I think are silly) at all, I’ll be voting for Brad Graham, who was my weblog’s root.
21 Jan 2003
Project SCUM
“Maintaining the highest share of the gay market, Marlboro imagery is fairly instant and clearly dominated by the Marlboro Man. Among gay consumers, this image has particular importance as an overt cue to masculinity / sexuality. Marlboro’s success in this context depends wholly on the relevance of this cowboy image to the world (fantasy and real) of these gay consumers.”
Information about how the Tobacco industry targeted the gay and homeless communities in the mid-90s.
15 Jan 2003
The United States Has Gone Mad
The United States Has Gone Mad. “Last Friday a friend of mine in California drove to his local supermarket with a sticker on his car saying: ‘Peace is also Patriotic’. It was gone by the time he’d finished shopping.”