May be too intense for some viewers.

Flakygoobercub: What's up, long time no chat, I'm single again, what you up to, bla bla

Longmemorybear: how bout that, I'm teaching class

Flakygoobercub: ooo, handsome and smart

Longmemorybear: good memory too, I remember how you flaked out on me, and also one of my good friends last year, smell ya later!

Ah, those good old "man-bragging" profiles...you know the ones...the ones where someone has finally found a decent man to date and has to rewrite their entire profile to brag about how hot and awesome and true and good in the sack their new beau is (implication: unlike the rest of you whores)...and how they no longer require any interaction with anyone else on the whore site they are bragging to. 

These are usually seen in the first week or so of the dating relationship - a sort of internet jumping to conclusions where they profess their undying love and devotion to the man that has saved them from the horrible swine yard of gay dating. 

But somehow they still have a profile up on a cruise site.  With all their old pics and preference lists still up.

Damn I feel like I missed Christmas or something.  Sorry kids, I was at work.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292442,00.html  (brought to you thanks to Lt. Scott psifire)


Gee, you'd think such big tough "courageous" men wouldn't turn into such sissies so easily, but alas. 

Mmm, I love the smell of "gay panic" in the morning...

So, I didn't go to Pride this year.  I told other people about it and encouraged some to go, and even thought about it a couple times, but ultimately decided to be there in spirit instead.  I still gayed it up some this weekend - went for a group bear haircut at Crazy Dave's, looked at books with hawt menz in them at the bookstore and shot 10 dozen pics of a hawt bear here at the Manse. 

I read through a lot of blog entries about people's Super Fun Happy Pride Festival! weekend and a lot of "those fags were probably sour" posts by the "too cool to wear a rainbow sticker" crowd.

I know everyone can't attend or might not enjoy such an event but I'm glad those of you who went had a good time (assuming you had a good time) and I wish the "Bah Homobug" crowd would get out and live a little.

I've gone to Pride plenty of times - gone through my "ZOMG other gay peepulz!!!!!1" phase, my "fuck the establishment homo activism" phase, my "this parade is soooo tired and what the hell is she wearing?" phase, my "found something better to do and it was too hot anyway" phase and finally  to my "wow, I can't believe I was away so long, check it out" phase of the last couple years. I'll certainly be back - I find being obligated to go helps - running the booth made me bother to slog down there from out in the burbs and hang out all day - which was great because then I could actually see what I was missing when I was at the house hiding in the AC and internets.

I can't say I would consider myself proud to be gay - I don't feel like it's some special achievement, just an accident of birth or some quirk of development I couldn't have really been cognizant of at the time - but I'm certainly not ashamed of it - and while I don't seethe with anger that everyone in the universe doesn't value my fabulosity like I did in college - I don't put up with any shit about it either - I can still shoot a betch down with a snappy zinger when need be.  I'm glad that I am at a point in my life when being gay is not the end-all-be-all of existence, but it can be enjoyed and valued in its expression - even if that is very matter of fact.  We might not need to be proud *that* we lurves the c0xxorz  but we can still be proud of *how* we lurves it. ;)

I can remember when I would have been petrified to read magazines like Out or Advocate or A Bear's Life in the store for fear someone would know I was a homo! Oh noes!  I can remember when the only time I really felt safe to be gay out loud in public was at Pride, or maybe a bar.  The internets have totally turned that around and for the better - Gen Y, thank your lucky ISP's you don't have to take out an ad in the newspaper or drive an hour to some skanky dive bar to talk to another faggot.

I chatted with some boys this weekend that are fresh off the gay turnip truck, so to speak - and even with the internet at their command, they still lived in fear or being found out, of family reprisal, of "catching AIDS" from any form of intimate contact with a man. One of them, a Clinton-era  virgin asked me if he should get tested.  One of them asked me (meaning where in Atlanta) "where do I go to be gay?" 

Well kid, you start right in front of that monitor you're staring at - the one on which you are asking to see my cock shots and show me your butt on cam.  You start by calling up AID Atlanta and getting some real information on STD's so you can wisely make choices  - stop risking your health and life wantonly and stop freaking out over the simplest and safest contacts with other men.  You start by contacting YouthPride. You start by heading into town so your folks won't see and you go to the bookstore and the library and the park and yes...to the Pride Festival.

And you start by asking someone who has been there, which you've done.  Good first step, keep going.  I got your back.

My friend Randy and I decided not to do the booth this year due to expense-to-work-to-payoff ratio with just the two of us (couldnt seem to find a steady third, you know how *that* can be).

So now I am wide open (not THAT way) for the weekend, anyone got any plans or want to make some?

Bear Pride was a good time but it wasn't perfect of course, what is?  And since it was full of men, gays, bears there is always the risk of hi-jinks (read drama, shade and crazy) mixed in amongst the fun and frolic.  I read a lot on LJ the week before and during, from folks dismayed at the shallowness of the people, the event and the sub-culture...advice was given, advice was rejected, drama ensued, etc.  But I let it all pass by me as I already knew what to expect: that no plan survives initial contact intact.

I took special care to pace myself since I knew I'd be working a lot within my week of fun so I didn't want to be worn out and sleep-deprived.  There was hanging out with friends in bistros, pubs, and teahouses...the Party par excellence at Richie's, Kendall's performance (I got to play roadie), the trip through IML Leather Mart, a stroll down by the lake, and of course a few milkshake deliveries. 

There were of course some misfires in amongst all that, lest anyone think I had some flawless frolic-fest through the entire city.  I've learned this is all par for the course at a run.  A Bear run is like a box of chocolates (Fat, hairy, gossipy chocolates) - you take a bite of each and put the ones you don't like back in the box for someone else. 

• I was warmly welcomed by one of my favorite Windy City pups who just got back into town after the run...and dropped like a hot potato by one who had been all hot-to-trot online just weeks beforehand (always someone hotter than you just around the corner).

• One cute cubbie I met online months back was true to his word and sweet as pie.  He just wanted to grow up and be a bear and needed some daddy bear elixir to effect the transformation (in his head anyway).

• One pup who seemed to enjoy posting about how nobody wanted him and he should go eat worms but when I offered to get together seemed to be busy with other things after all, complete with lame attempt to deny it, and one daddy bear who had been all about it flaked utterly upon the realization that I was actually IN HIS CITY and talk could turn to reality.  Alas, those daddy bears can be such fragile flowers....

• I had an unplanned (and long overdue) connection with a good buddy I met a couple years ago and really hit it off with, and missed a planned connection with another buddy of similar fondness and history.

In short - When it comes to bear runs, don't count your cubs before they hatch.  Just be open to the possibilities (and don't walk alone at night around the Howard Red Line stop. ;)

***more pics to come when I recover my files from a partitioning mishap***

Peace out, yo. May Fred Phelps, Pat Robertson, and Jesse Helms be joining you soon.

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If you liked Charlie the Unicorn and are tired of Alanis' Humps already, try this. Go ahead and cry, it's ok to express your feelings. ;)

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I like how on bearciti you can tell when one of your friends has signed on just by reading through the interests list when you edit your profile or do a search

For instance:  who could have added these to the database:

• chuck taylors & daredevil

• moof

Also, I think the ghey wiki of interests would make a hilarious read - It interesting to see what interests are right next to each other on the list.  where else but in gayland will you find art right under armpits?  Or barebacking just on top of barefoot contessa? Or my personal favorite: violent anal eruptions just above visiting dave cobb. ;)