Gay men have brains like straight women, scientists claim

Striking similarities between the brains of gay men and straight women have been discovered by neuroscientists, offering fresh evidence that sexual orientation is hardwired into our neural circuitry.

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Dear Anonymous,

I apologize for responding to you here, but as your voicemail came from a blocked number and your e-mail came through an anonymizer I don't really have another way to reach you.

I get that you are upset at me and that's cool - it's not like you and I were destined to be best of buddies to start with. I know you think I am a meanie (and have an unnatural relationship with my mother), but I offer the following advice with absolutely no malice or sarcasm:

Don't fucking listen to me anymore!

It really is that simple, I swear.

Biting the Bullet

The second time is the charm right? I've reloaded some of the ideas that I had from CallBox 7 and stripped the political stuff out of it.

That leaves me with ... well crap basically. But its fun crap!

meh, click on it if you dare.

The Break up

It seemed like a logical request - it really did. I purchased my new iPhone on April 24th and rumors of the new model began showing up on the web around April 29th. They are making a slightly thinner version that works on the 3G network available sometime in the next couple of months. The kicker to all of it is that they are making it available for half the price that I was just charged for my iPhone.

I had always planned on returning the phone if I did not like it. I am locked into my t-Mobile contract until August 1st - so I was really just test driving the phone more than anything. But WOW what a test drive it was! I truly love this phone - it is a million times better than anything else on the market.

I made the phone call today; I ended up with a customer service representative named Linda. I
explained to her that I was within my 14 day return period and that I would be much happier if they would just credit me $200.00 and let me keep my iPhone.

I haven't decided yet whether her response was funny or just sad? She claimed that she had no knowledge of any "new" iPhone being released. She even pretended to make the effort to do some digging around on the internet for information (she didn't seem to hear me when I suggested that she simply GoogleNews the phrase "new iPhone").

So here I am. Packing everything back in its box and heading down to the AT&T store to return it all.

I will miss you Mr. iPhone

But I hear your younger brother is even hotter than you!

I really am a slob.

I thought I would be economical and perhaps a tad bit healthy today for lunch so I scrounged around for the ingredients to make something.

I have lived with my husband for the last 4 years. You would know this to be true if you have ever met him - he is VERY clean. The exact opposite can be said about me.

As I tried to make my sandwich today, I had to fight for counter space with: a stapler, a screwdriver set, a pile of mail, restaurant menus, and a doggy treat jar.

For the record, the sandwich did eventually get created and consumed.

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank my husband for the bajillion times he moved the mail, put my tools away, and generally cleaned up after me. I have a new appreciation for your cleanliness - and I miss you.

Why Twitter Sucks and Some People Shouldn't Use it [COMIC]

I don't think I've become this bad on Twitter ... yet, but that could have a lot to do with the fact that I am using a Motorola Rizr when I am not at my desk.

Seriously, even the cartoon folks have iPhones!

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Ok now, say it with me ...

I was caught by the gay podfather and forced to dance like a trained monkey for him. You can check it out here.

In hushed whispers.

Seriously?

Let me share with you an instant message that I got earlier this evening from an acquaintance:

"hi heard you were talking trash on ricky and herbe what is that all about"

I realize, having been a podcaster myself in a previous life that there is an enormous amount of ego wrapped up in doing a show. I also realize that it is too ridiculously easy to start bullshit rumors on the internets - and some people seem to thrive on it.

So let me "butch up" and tell you what this is all about.

I was a guest on ArcherRadio tonight, and I continued talking to Archer after we were done recording. It was during that non-recorded conversation that I stated - in no uncertain terms - my dislike of Herbe from Foul Monkeys - I find him to be ignorant, self-centered, and hypocritical.

I hinted at the fact that I can't stand Taffy from Pod is my Co-Pilot but never actually came out and said it (for the record: I think she is a loud-mouthed, simple-minded annoyance of a laugh track).

There were several people still in the ustream chat room listening when I made these comments. Which is why it is getting whispered about tonight.

What doesn't seem to get picked up in the re-telling of what was said is that we were talking about podcasting personae - not "real" people. Before you start in with the "these are real people" argument - the act of recording what you say and putting it in an RSS feed for public consumption necessarily qualifies it as a performance.

I don't think of Herbe or Taffy any differently than I do Matlock, Will Truman or any other fictional character on television that annoys the fuck out of me. It doesn't mean that I dislike the actors who portray these characters - I don't actually know them personally - I am just reacting to their performances.

There are a lot of different styles of entertainment in the world and there is no such thing as a "one size fits all" performance - good or bad.

Some things are just not for everyone.

Sunday was the last day that I will be spending in Columbia for several weeks. Later this morning, I will pack up my stuff again and reverse the 10 hour drive that I made just 3 days ago.

Friday was the first time that I made the leap to using twitter on my mobile, partly out of boredom and partly to see how it worked. Other than a few erratic swerves as I learned to use the keypad, it was an amazingly entertaining experience. After several hours of typing with people, I started to wonder what else I could do to pass the time.

I started by taking pictures at my rest stops and e-mailing them to a couple of people which ultimately proved to be clumsy and unsatisfying. I then proceeded to send voice notes to a friend thinking that he would return the favor but a voice note never arrived (thanks a lot C the C).

Of course, knowing that I will be in the car all day Monday sent me scrambling to "the google" to find some other way of sharing the extreme joy of driving through the southeast beyond plain text tweets. I had no luck with "twitpics.com" since they do not work with t-mobile, and using the "t-mobile web albums" is an exercise in tedium.

It was not until late on Sunday that I stumbled across Blogger Mobile (quick, go there and play the jingle ... it's infectious). So now I can snap a photo or take a video, and send it to it's very own blog page - how fucking cool is that? It doesn't seem to be able to handle voice notes which is odd since GMail has no problems with them - but the video includes sound, so I'm sure I can figure out something to do with it.

I spent Sunday night playing around at Harper's restaurant, taking photos and videos and posting them on the blog to see how it would work. It wasn't until much later Sunday night when I looked at Robert's face as I gleefully showed him the video of my beer glass that it dawned on me - I really am a geek.

Dining with Friends

This is a lovely back yard don't you think?

It isn't, however the yard that we went to tonight for a "dining with friends" event here in Columbia.

Unfortunately, my cell phone camera does not do a great job of taking pictures so I can't share any of the ones that I took with you. (Ok, that is a blatant lie - I was actually kind of tipsy and didn't do a very good job of taking the photo that I wanted to share for this post.)

Regardless, Dining with Friends is a yearly event where people open up their houses and allow people to come by and eat, drink and socialize. We were fortunate enough to be invited to this event even though we've only been living in Columbia for a few weeks. The Realtor that we used to find our house was kind enough to invite us (that's a picture of his back yard by the way).

To all of the great people that we met tonight - "Hello!". Now I have to go and see one of those people perform in a drag show.

The road ahead

What we have here is a long ass drive that I will have to repeat several times between now and July 1st, 2008 when I finally finish up with my business in Florida and arrive in South Carolina.

Robert has already moved there in order to start a new job, and I have the fun task of staying behind for the next few months due to a whole host of reasons (not the least of which is needing to finish my degree).

According to Google Maps, it is an eight hour drive. I suppose that is possible if you never stopped to pee or put gas in your car. So far, I haven't been able to make it in less than 9 hours.

The bags are packed, the podcasts are loaded on the iPod and I am ready to head out later this morning after a few hours of sleep. But take a good look at the route that I have to take; as I said before I will be repeating it many times over the next two and a half months. If you know of a cool place of interest (or a really good picture spot) along the way, let me know. I'll check it out.

What the F?

So my best friend leaves to go on some European cruise for a few weeks and he convinced me to babysit his dog for him while he is gone.

Well, let's be honest he paid me to watch the little beast - which is something that I appreciate since we are maintaining two households at the moment and won't have our renters in place until late June.


In theory I love the little guy, he's a Lhasa Apso named "Sparky". But since he arrived here last week he has been nothing but a massive pain in my ass! I am surprised that he has any fur left on him due to the constant licking and scratching (usually done in my bed and only stopped when I am wide awake). He growls at you when you eat food and refuse to share it with him, and looks at you with an idiotic stare when you try to get him to go "poopy in the yard".

I really am a dog lover - don't get me wrong. But it really annoys me when people fail to teach their dogs the simplest forms of social behavior. For now, I am stuck with this mutt until the first week of May.

I'm going to need some drugs.