Here I Am

I went to see X-Men on Friday with Shane and Walt. I'd have to agree with most of the reviews I've read that there wasn't enough character development, that it was mostly an action movie. By no means was it a bad movie though, I enjoyed it.

On Saturday, I went up to Palm Harbor to pick up Mark and bring him down to St. Pete. Shane went with me for the ride. I offered to take everyone to Clearwater Beach for dinner, but we ended up going to a steakhouse in clearwater. I mainly wanted to sit somewhere outside, because it was a beautiful day.

That evening, Mark, Shane and I went to Alibi. Shane was our designated chauffeur for the evening. It was pretty busy, and then, right after Mark and I had got drinks, the power went out. Not all of it, but the AC was out, most of the lights, and the sound system in the rear of the bar. We were kind of warm, and decided to go to Grand Central, it seemed like a lot of other people did too.

Matt IM'd me on Monday, right before I came home from work, and said that he didn't want a boyfriend, explained about his busy schedule, and apologized if he had hurt me.

I knew about his schedule, I had explained that I didn't want to be an extra burden on his already busy life. He had told me that I wouldn't be, that it'd be good for us to hang out. I also knew that he wasn't looking for a boyfriend, or to get back together with me.

Though I've wanted him back for some time, I assumed that there could be something in between dating and not speaking at all. Aparently not. I guess I just don't get why he decided to speak to me at all. Fences have been mended, I suppose, but I'm still left with a feeling that is more empty than before. So, we haven't spoken since Monday, and I doubt at this point that I'll hear from him anytime soon.

20 Random Songs from my iPod:

Hooked- Mary J. Blige feat. P. Diddy (Love this song!)

You Raise Me Up- Josh Groban (Can't say I've ever listened to this song, I'm not impressed though... Who the fuck is Josh Groban??)

Soldier- Destiny's Child (There was about a 5 minute period of time when I thought this song was hot.)

Poison- Groove Coverage (Don't think I ever listened to this one either, some random techno.)

Young Boys- Lords of Acid (Lords of Acid need no explanation, I suppose)

Come Back in One Piece- Aaliyah/DMX (From the Romeo Must Die soundtrack. I've never seen the movie, but I did listen to this song recently while driving somewhere.)

At The End- iiO(Louis Devito) (I love this song!)

Shut Up Remix- Black Eyes Peas (Like this song too, this remix sounds like it's just sped up a bit. I think I like the original better. Has anyone heard the remix of Madonna's Hung up and this song? It kind of grows on you...)

My Pony- Ginuwine (This song came out when I was in high school, haha. Think I prefer 'In Those Jeans' though as far as Ginuwine goes.)

Slave 4 Food- Walt Preston (A parody of Britney's Slave 4 You. OK, I have to break this one down a little bit cuz I know none of y'all have heard it

I know I may be fat, but I get hungry too. I need to eat, so just listen:
All you people look at me like I ate a little girl;
did you ever think it'd be ok for me to eat the whole wide world,

Always saying, big old girl, just join a fitness club;
well, I'm just tryin' to find out why, cuz food is what I love.
ooh, eat it eat it, eat it eat it. whoa.

Ok, how many is that... 10. Read the rest here (more).

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a class action lawsuit against AT&T for its cooperation in the government's domestic spying program. On March 31st, based on witness accounts and documents they have filed under seal.

Mark Klein was an AT&T technician for 22 years, who is now retired. During the course of his employment, he learned details of a secret room that was set up at AT&T headquarters in San Francisco. The rooms are only accessible to individuals who hold an NSA clearance, however, none of the information that was available to him was marked as top secret or classified.

Wired.com has published his documents here, and explain why they have done so here. They have joined the EFF, as well as a body of other news organizations to unseal this evidence. On May 15th, the US government filed a motion for dismissal.

Mark Klein's affidavit, claims that he observed the creation of a secret room and that the room contains surveillance equipment, particularly, the Narus Semantic Traffic Analyzer.

Narus makes network interception devices for businesses and ISP's to monitor network traffic. Narus software and hardware can capture and analyze data moving at high speeds (10GB/s). The software can recreate webpages, databases, oh, and this is comforting: VOIP phone conversations.

Mark Klein, the EFF and others have alleged that AT&T has installed these types of systems directly into live Common Backbones (CBB):

Another “Cut-In and Test Procedure” document dated January 24, 2003, provides diagrams of how AT&T Core Network circuits were to be run through the “splitter” cabinet (pdf 7). One page lists the circuit IDs of key Peering Links which were “cut-in” in February 2003 (pdf 8), including ConXion, Verio, XO, Genuity, Qwest, PAIX, Allegiance, Abovenet, Global Crossing, C&W, UUNET, Level 3, Sprint, Telia, PSINet, and Mae West. By the way, Mae West is one of two key Internet nodal points in the United States (the other, Mae East, is in Vienna, Virginia). It's not just WorldNet customers who are being spied on—it's the entire Internet.

I woke up kinda early on Sunday morning after having a rather upsetting dream. In it I was at Matt's house, sleeping on his couch. I was woke up by some random old man, who wanted to sleep on the couch. So, I got up and walked down this hallway to Matt's door. Before I had a chance to knock on his door, I looked to the left and saw him standing there, wearing a yellow shirt.

I walked over to him and asked what was wrong. I told him that I just woke up from having a dream about him and he was wearing the same yellow shirt in my dream. I don't think he responded, but I know I held him as he stood there.

In another part of the dream, I was packing stuff in a room that was trashed. It was his room, but my stuff I was picking up. I was doing it in silence, but once in a while would say something, to no response.

I woke up and the first thing I wanted to do was call Matt. I was barely functional at that point though, so I soon realized that I was hearing the sounds of my roommate having sex. Loud sex. I pushed play on the ipod, but nothing came on. I tried to open itunes on the pc, at which point I realized the monitor was shaking. I decided my only option was to make a break for it. Trying to ignore the fact that Mike's door was open, I made my way to the back deck and smoked a cigarette.

On Friday, after work, I changed the oil and filter in my car, finally. It needed it so bad. I put 4 new quarts in, but only 1 and a half came out. I'm the only gay person man I know who can change my own oil. (Thanks Dad!)

After I did that, I really wanted to drive, to see if it ran smoother and if my oil light went out. It did. Yay! So, I went and picked up saved Shane from the horrors of public transportation.

I called my mom to hear her in tears, which is something I dread. She told me that the shit hit the fan with my sister and her boyfriend, and my sister and her son were staying at my dad's. She went on to tell me the whole story, which I'm not going to get into here. Needless to say, I was on the phone for a while... Then I called my Dad and talked to him and my sister. So, more phone time.

During the time I was talking to my sister, I missed a couple calls. It was getting to be that time on a Friday night when I should have plans. So, I called Kevin back and he said that he would drive to Chambers, but we'd have to leave soon if we wanted to get there before 10, at which point you have to pay a $10 cover. He said he'd be at my house in 15 minutes. I finished my cigarette and spun into a flurry of preparation. I knocked on Shane's door and told him he had 15 minutes to be waiting outside, ready to go. So, we did it, pretty much.

OK, so Mark got into town on Tuesday night. He called me when he got here. His step-mom picked him up and brought him up to Palm Harbor.

On Wednesday, Shane, Mike and I went to this supposed new club that was opening in St. Pete. Mike drove to the address, which was in the middle of B.F.E., and we couldn't find any signs for this place. So, we finally figure out that it's a lesbian bar called Chiq.

We were hesitant to go in. It looked small and it didn't appear to have much going on. We finally walk in, Mike and I are in front, we turn the corner, see a whole bunch of lesbians. Mike turns around and is like, let's go. I followed, and Shane didn't even make it inside. lol.

It's been raining since about 9 this morning. It's kind of nice actually. During the part of our kitchen remodeling where we were under major destruction construction, and our furniture and appliances were outside, it only rained one time for about 20 minutes.

So, in 2006 so far, rain has been a rare thing. St. Petersburg famously boasts on their website 360 days of sunshine. You can do the math I'm sure.

I'm from Pittsburgh, where rain is a part of everyday life. Sure, I prefer the sunshine, but lately I've kind of missed rainy days. They are good for a lot of things; sleeping in, relaxing, reading a book or watching a movie with someone special. Sigh... Oh, and they're also good at preventing the kind of natural disaster we had last week: wild fires.

Back again after a busy/ not busy weekend. After Thursday's events, Shane and I didn't feel much like going out. I got a haircut after work and then Shane and I went tanning. Then we went to get dinner and then to the liquor store. I talked to Matt briefly and he said he wanted to hang out on Saturday after he got out of work.

After Shane and I got back to the house, we made drinks and I drank one and then was so sleepy I just wanted to go to bed.

On Saturday morning, Matt sent me a cute picture/voice MMS. I tried calling after he got out of work, but he said he'd call me back. Long story short, he didn't.

Shane and I went to Flirt on Saturday night. Shane met up with someone he had been talking to online. I got hit on by this dude who kept trying to make out with me. :( I also saw a lot of people that I'd rather not. There's a whole list... lol. I did see Casey, who I haven't seen in quite a while. He was really drunk though... So I didn't talk to him much.

Yesterday was my roommates' birthday. Yes, Mike and Shane have the same birthday. :) After work I went to pick Shane up at his job and we went to the Salvador Dali Museum.

Salvador Dali is one of my favorite artists. I was excited when I found out that St. Petersburg is home to the Salvador Dali Museum, which houses the largest Dali collection outside of Spain. I have been here nearly 2 years now and had yet to go once. So I was pretty excited.

After entering through the store and buying tickets, we hurried to join a tour that had just began. One of the first things we heard from our guide was that Dali was born on May 11th. She then told us that it was her birthday also. It was quite amusing.

The Museum currently has an exhibit called Salvador Dali and a Century of Art from Spain: Picasso to Plensa. It was amazing, to stand, up close, to such amazing artwork. To stand where the artist stood and labored for years, to look at the texture of the materials. I loved it. Any photo or image in a book of Dali's work does not do it justice.

This article caught my eye. It's about a  nomadic tribe in Colombia, the Nukak-Makú . They recently, for no obvious reason, trekked about 200 miles to leave the jungle and "join civilization."  

Child Abuse or Child Wonder? 

Toni Morrison's Beloved named the best work of American Fiction in the last 25 years.

Science Project (Magnetic Bacteria)
This article from Wired discusses how a 16 year old high-school student's science project could become a practicle source of clean, renewable energy.

Barcode of Life (Smithsonian)
Also from Wired, this article describes the Smithsonian's Barcode of Life project. The project seeks to document a specific portion of DNA, one that varies little between members of the same species, and greatly between different species. Starting with birds, the project aims to extract a "barcode" of every species of bird by 2010.

Gas Tax:
http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/cars/index.blog?entry_id=1478140

NSA recording every call since 9/11
http://wired.com/news/wireservice/0,70878-0.html?tw=wn_index_12

DOJ drops wiretap investigation:
http://wired.com/news/wireservice/0,70879-0.html?tw=wn_index_13

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