Sunday was the LGBT Life Online panel held at the PFLAG (Parents, Family & Friends of Lesbians and Gays) meeting here in Visalia. The Tulare-Kings PFLAG invited this group to speak on blogging and online activities of the LGBT community in the central valley. From left to right, Andrew, web manager for Tulare-Kings PFLAG‘s website and Facebook pages, Melissa of GayPorterville.com, Brooke of GayVisalia.com and GayCentralValley.com, Justin of My LGBT Plus, myself representing QueerLandia.com and the soon to be discontinued QueerVisalia.com, and Ted of My LGBT Plus sat on the panel. Each gave an overview of the history and objectives of their respective organizations. A question and answer period allowed the audience a chance to ask about the various groups and how they operate.
This is the first time I’ve been on such a panel, and it was not too long ago that you’d never have gotten me up in front of a crowd like this. I was amazed that I was completely calm, and was looking forward to the event before hand, and enjoyed being before the group. The past few years have seen quite the change in my personal growth, even if I do say so myself, in that I’m much more relaxed and confident. That’s a big change for me, and I think much of it has to do with deciding to be an out gay man.
So one of the cool things about Twitter is being able to follow “stars”. I’m not much of a star-struck type, I don’t try to get autographs, or buy lots of material licensed by famous people. It was cool to get George Takei, appearing at a Star Trek convention in Visalia years ago, to sign a copy of a science fiction novel he wrote, and I once walked past a television actor (Lance Kerwin of ‘James at 15′) on the sidewalk at Venice Beach. Late one night Steven Segal came into the liquor/convenience store I was working in (and behaved like an asshole. I think he was insulted that I didn’t recognize him. I just thought a grown man giggling that he loudly passed gas was a bit juvenile). I don’t really have a desire to meet actors, because I tend to think of them as the characters they portray, not as the real individuals they are. I think that sets you up for a disappointment, because the real person is probably not much like the character you know. The real person may be someone it would be great to get to know, but they could also be a self-absorbed jerk. Even in today’s over exposed world, the real character of a person who “fakes” a character for a living, could be something much less than their public persona.
October 11 was National Coming Out Day. I wrote and submitted a Letter To The Editor about it, hoping my local paper, The Visalia Times Delta, would publish it on NCOD. They didn’t, and I dismissed the hope of seeing it in the printed edition. A few days after the 11th, I went ahead and posted it in the 
Thursday night a couple of the ladies at work are chatting, alternating between being silly and serious, when the conversation turned to the relative size of their tushes. One, a rather slim one, was joking that she was going to have implants done to her bottom side. The other, a bit on the heavy side, said she’d like to have some removed. Then she offered hers to the first, saying she could spare some, and that then they’d be “butt buddies”.
What Dreams May Come…
February 25, 2012
Jim Reeves commentary, Gay, geek, Personal computer dreams, dreaming, RAID 1 Comment
I’ve known him for about 16 years now, and a better friend nobody could want or have.
A hottie, yes?
Well, the other day I had a dream about him.
Not so much about *him*, but he’s the reason for the subject matter of this particular dream.
Before I met him, I had a smidgen of computer smarts, hardly enough to even call them that, but a bit. I’ve learned a lot since then, and 99.9% of it from Ted. I’m sure he’s had to bite his tongue a time or two, and probably wonders why it takes so much repetition for me to finally learn something so simple! But after 16 years of his expert tutoring, I’m actually seen by others (folks at work, family, a few other friends) as being a computer geek who they can turn to if they need computer help. Generally, I can help them, and not blow up their machines in the process. If I don’t know the answer to what are usually fairly simple issues, I can refer them to someone who can.
The dream? I only remember a bit of it. (I’m not one who wakes up with a clear memory of my dreams) It did have to do with sliding something in and out.
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