Month: August 2010

Ultimatums Suck

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog, Friends and FamilyLeave a comment

Has anyone ever given you an ultimatum or have you given anyone an ultimatum? They are not fair. There are certain times when it is ok to give someone an ultimatum like when a husband is drinking, gambling, cheating etc. But family members should never give you an ultimatum to choose your lover over them.

When I was 17 years old, my mother gave me an ultimatum. Leave my boyfriend Robert out in the cold in a strange city without anywhere to sleep and without any transportation back home or choose her and continue living at home. The choice was obvious. I would rather be homeless myself than let a deaf person wait outside for me to never return to help him find a place to sleep for the night. He was DEAF!

How cold-hearted are you to allow any human being to be homeless for the night until they can catch the bus in the morning back home?  I told her to at least let me call his mom to pick him up and she said no, let him freeze.  What a cold-hearted bitch!  I hate saying that about my own mother, rest her soul, but that’s how I feel.

It was 1987 and he couldn’t call his mother on a cell phone and speak sign language with a video call like you can do today. He had to use a TTY which by the way was at his house in Simi Valley. He took the bus to see me after 2 years of not seeing me and waited until the last-minute after the last bus had left for the day so he was stranded without any way of getting home. I asked a co-worker who lived down the street from me if he could stay with her on her couch and she said yes, I just had to bring him there. He was out of cigarettes so I went back to my house to get him a pack and that’s when my mother cornered me and gave me the ultimatum and that’s the night I became homeless.

My cousin just called me and he went to visit his sister in another state with his wife. His wife is 15 years older than he is and because some people don’t approve of such age differences, she was treated like crap. His sister gave him an ultimatum. His wife or his sister. That’s not fair. You know? You can’t make someone make that decision especially when they are married. What if he did choose his sister? What then? Is she going to take him in? No, she’s not. So now that he has chosen you, he’s going to be homeless all because you made him choose you over the love of his life.

Why do that? Why not just suck it up? You don’t even live in the same state, just deal with it. She is the person he chose to be with so live with it. It’s not your decision, it’s his.

I am in a relationship with someone who is 21 years older than me. You know what my sister said to him when she first met him? “How old are you?” And she didn’t ask it nicely either, she had this disapproving tone in her voice. It’s like, who asked you for your opinion? It’s none of your business. This is who I chose to be with so deal with it.

I think if someone is coward enough to make this type of ultimatum then they deserve it when they are the one being rejected. If someone gave me an ultimatum I am going to choose the person they are making me leave for them. There is no doubt in my mind that I would tell them to go to hell just as I told my mom.

True Blood on Twitter

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Kindle, TV, TwitterLeave a comment

You know, I’ve been a fan of Vampires my entire life, anything supernatural actually. I make it a point to watch any movie or tv show that has vampires, witches, werewolves and anything else that is supernatural.

When True Blood came on HBO I was psyched that I had HBO to watch it on lol. But mainly I was just psyched because it was a new vampire show.

I’ve only recently discovered the awesomeness of even though I’ve been on Twitter for a couple of years now. Since I started following Sam Merlotte on Twitter I noticed that he was role-playing. I started following another True Blood character that he mentioned and notice that person was role-playing too.

Thanks to Sookie Stackhouse, I discovered there is a website with all the True Blood character twitter names. “You can find all of us here: http://tweepml.org/?t=460087 #TrueBlood”. Go there and follow them all.

I also created and then some. If you check out that list you can see that the characters are actually tweeting each other. It’s like watching the show but all text, no visual. It’s sort of like reading a book.

I love the role-playing, it’s the best way to get my True Blood fix during the week. Since there are only 3 more episodes it will be interesting to see if they continue to role-play after the season is over until the next season.

I have not started reading the Sookie Stackhouse books yet but I will be buying the 8 book boxed set soon. I was hoping that it would be the first book(s) I bought on a Kindle that I plan to buy in the next month or 2 but considering the Kindle version is $55 and the actual paper book version is $35, I might just buy the paper book version instead.

Well, back to the drama on Twitter.

Queens of Drag NYC is Official

On By Michel McDonaldIn Gay, TVLeave a comment

It’s finally official. The Queens of Drag tweeted this just now:

Hello? It’s official folks – You’ve been asking and we’ve been DRAGging our feet to release the news, so check… http://fb.me/BpZrvp4A

That link opens to the Queens of Drag page on the gay.com website. The new reality show about these “Queens of Drag” will be appearing only on gay.com. I had hoped for logo but no such luck. But the good thing about it being on a website is that you can stream it anytime you want instead of being tied down to a particular date and time.

I still don’t know what the show will be about, I can only assume it will be similar to the “Real Housewives of…” with all the drama and reality of these female impersonators.

They always say, don’t judge a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes. Well, don’t judge a drag queen until you have walked a mile in her high heels and by walking I mean watch the show lol. You know you’re drag-curious.

Roast of David Hasselhoff

On By Michel McDonaldIn Celebrities, Humor, TVLeave a comment

Tonight was the night that the Roast of David Hasselhoff was on and I completely spaced out. I totally forgot about it. I usually set the cable box reminder but it slipped my mind to set it.

Darrin was in my room and he took control of the remote (typical male behavior) and we were watching some lame documentary about fish. Like I care about fish. I don’t want to be smarter, if I learn about fish then all the other stuff will spill out and I’ll forget all of my useless Buffy the Vampire Slayer trivia. Who do you want to play Buffy Trivial Pursuit with? The guy who watches fish documentaries? I didn’t think so.

So I noticed he was sound asleep anyway (typical, change the channel then fall asleep) so I grabbed the remote, turned on the guide and found the Roast of David Hasselhoff. I immediately change it and annoying as ever Gilbert Gottfried was on telling weird vagina jokes at Pamela Anderson‘s expense.

I laughed my butt off but Darrin kept waking up from my loud laughing and he would say what’s happening? So I’d have to tell the joke and then explain it because he didn’t get it, meanwhile I’m missing the next joke or 2 until I finally said stay awake so I don’t keep missing it.

It ended, it started over again and we watched it a 2nd time. It ended at 1:08am and I thought I was going to bed but no, I had to come and blog about it lol.

Ok, I know it’s a roast and I know that at a roast they make these horrible tasteless jokes. They are really bad like the one about Roger Ebert and Gary Coleman and how George Hamiltoncalled Hulk Hogan a fag twice. Excuse me? He could wipe the floor with your ass BROTHER! I know it’s a roast, I just hate that word with a passion. Can we please stop using that word? Even the most tasteless comedians wouldn’t say that word because they have more respect for gay people.

Look I don’t mind a good gay joke. I’ve told so many that were funny without insulting people, myself at the very least. After he said that I didn’t find anything else he said funny. I waited for him to get off stage so I could laugh at all the insults thrown in his direction.

Lisa Lampanelli is the funnies one on the Dais. She laughed her butt off with every joke at her expense. She loves to be made fun of because she knows that it’s all for the show and all in fun. That’s why I love her.

Anyway, it’s late, I’m sure it will repeat for those who forgot, if so make sure you don’t forget. He sings at the end.

Twitter Is So Junior High

On By Michel McDonaldIn My Childhood, TwitterLeave a comment

When I was a teenager in Junior high school I was targeted by the bullies for a daily beat down. I don’t know what made me the target, I didn’t act effeminate but I was accused of being gay and beat up for it. These kids who beat me up didn’t even know me. They never met me, they never talked to me, they didn’t know one thing about me yet they beat me up for being gay.

Keep in mind I was in the closet and had a girlfriend as my cover (who I met years later in a gay bar, turns out she was a big lesbian using me as much as I used her).

I was threatened every single day that I would get beat up after school so every day I ran home from school. We were only 2 blocks from the school anyway so I didn’t run very far but that is the reason my calves are so big to this day.

One day I was walking to gym class and I was running a bit late, there weren’t any people behind me, I was at the tail end of the crowd going to the gym. This kid came out of nowhere, ran up to me, kicked me as hard as he could in the nuts then ran away. I didn’t know who he was and I never saw him again. There I lay on the ground in the most pain I had ever been in my entire life. I was in so much pain I couldn’t see, I couldn’t yell, I couldn’t think. I lay there on my side on the concrete with my hands on my crotch. Nobody there to help me, no witness.

Someone found me and took me to the nurses office and for some f’d up reason I got detention.

Ok, I had to tell you that so I can tell you this. Yesterday, someone I follow on Twitter tweeted this:

“If you want someone to unfollow this Saturday, @markdavidson is a good candidate. Can’t believe someone can deal with him #unfollowsaturday”

Well, without knowing who the guy is, I retweeted that. Now, don’t you think that what I did was exactly what those kids in junior high school did to me? I don’t know Mark Davidson yet I ran up to him and kicked him in the nuts without so much as a hello, nice to meet you. I never read any of his tweets, I never read his blog, I just rt’d that without even thinking.

I sent him a @ mention last night after he retweeted my retweet telling him I was sorry. I woke up this morning and looked at my tweets and remembered that he told me to read his microblog for a few days and I’ll understand why this person tweeted that in the first place. Well, it’s not necessary for me to do that. I had no right getting in the middle.

So I guess this is my public apology to him. Here I am on my quest for equality and here I am the hypocrite and for that I apologize.  This is certainly a lesson for me that I will never forget.

Necklace for Beth

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Friends and FamilyLeave a comment

Well I finally made the jewelry for Beth. I made the bracelet last night and I tried making the necklace last night but I didn’t plan it out right so I had to take it apart. I was in an ambien haze so I had to stop and go to bed because I was messing it up more than it was. I finished it this morning.

I don’t know if it is gift worthy. It looks like something a pre-schooler would make lol. I mean the bracelet is fine but the beads in the necklace didn’t come out as I had planned. They are supposed to be psychedelic but instead they look ridiculous.  They have fingerprints all over them too lol.  I’ve never bought beads with fingerprints on them.  And the holes that I stuck through them for the hemp cord wasn’t straight so some of the beads stick out further.

I need to NOT make any more beads with Polymer clay until I know what I’m doing lol.

I don’t know if I’m too embarrassed by this necklace to even give it to her at all.  Since we didn’t have any money for Toys ‘R’ Us I thought that homemade jewelry would be nice but it’s not as nice after all.  Darrin has a Sears card which works at Kmart so we’re gonna go there to get her a toy or something.

Notice how I’m not so embarrassed that I’m blogging about it with a picture?

Polymer Clay

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

We went to Michael’s today so I could buy some beads with letters on them for making my hemp bracelets for the kiddies for tomorrow. While we were there I wanted to get some polymer clay. I wanted to mix the colors to make them look psychedelic but I mixed them too much so they don’t look very good but when I mixed the yellow/green ones they came out a little better because I didn’t mix them before rolling them. I just put the pieces together and started rolling.

I bought some mini metal cutters for different shape beads but only used the heart  cutter and only made what you see in the picture above. I didn’t want to go crazy and make enough beads for a lifetime. Also they are too thin so I’m not even sure I can use them for beads at all. I may have to find another use for those.

I was told to mix them, let them sit out for 10 minutes then poke large holes with a stick before baking but when 10 minutes was up they were still as soft as they were when I first made them so I’m just letting them sit in the kitchen for a while. I’m going to use toothpicks to poke the holes through them when they are hard. If I poke holes in them now they will lose their shape and I’ll have to start over.

The clay is Smart Craft which I read is a Michael’s specific brand and I wish that I knew more about clay brands before I bought this because I just read a bad review of the clay and now I feel stupid. I hope they come out ok after baking. I don’t have time now to go back to Michael’s and buy the right clay and I didn’t buy the colored beads like I wanted to. I spent way more money than I can afford on all the stuff we did buy so this is it, I’m done for rest of the month (as far as buying craft supplies).

I hope these are cool enough beads for the kids necklaces, if not TOUGH lol. No but seriously if they don’t come out right I’m just not going to bring any of the stuff for making the necklaces at all. I’m just going to make Beth her bracelet (which I made with the letters) and necklace and that’s it.

Wish me luck. Hopefully they will be finished by tomorrow and they will make cool beads.

Update: The Craft Smart (Michael’s brand) is crap. I set the oven to 275°F for 15 minutes (for 1/4″ thickness) and it didn’t even cook the beads. 1/4″ thickness, I don’t even know what that means. Does it mean if I have 1 bead that is 1/4″ thick then it bakes for 15 minutes or 15 minutes for each bead? I guess I need a better translation. At any rate, I put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes and it’s still rubbery. I put it in for another 30 minutes and even though it was hard, it’s still rubbery.

I thought that when you bake this polymer clay it comes out like glass. Shiny and hard. These beads are neither shiny or hard. I let them cool and you can still squeeze them and you can see how rubbery they are.

I suppose rubbery is as good for a necklace. Unfortunately when I put the holes in the beads the clay was still very soft so the pressure from putting the holes in them made them lose their shape so in order for me to keep their shape I had to use a toothpick but that means the holes aren’t big enough.

I can’t win, I will have to get more next month and try again but with a different brand.

Hemp Jewelry for Children

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Friends and FamilyLeave a comment

Last night a friend who used to be our neighbor asked (on ) if we wanted to go to his daughter’sbirthday party on Sunday (tomorrow). Of course we’ll come. I asked him to measure her neck and wrist for some hemp beaded jewelry lol.

What can I say, I love making jewelry out of hemp despite how much it hurts my hands.

So today we’re going to go back to Michael’s for some children friendly beads. I’m going to buy some of the lettered beads and make her a bracelet with her name on it and since it won’t be that long since she’s only 6 years old, 4 letters (BETH) is perfect. It’s a good thing her name isn’t longer like Elizabeth lol.

Since they have 2 other children around her age I thought that I would make them something too because I know how jealous they get when one gets something and the others don’t. I know it’s her birthday party and not theirs but they might feel left out so this will lift their spirits at least.

I’m probably gonna end up just bringing the hemp spools with us and my bead box just in case the other kids want a necklace too. I spoil all the kids too much.

So, what I’m going to get is a big box of many colored beads and the alphabet beads, I haven’t decided what color yet but we’ll see what they have. They might have one of those big round containers with alphabet beads, it would be cheaper if they did.

My hands are gonna be cramped up by the time we get out of there tomorrow. I’m gonna have claws instead of hands.

Hacked Yahoo Emails

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog, Friends and FamilyLeave a comment

I got a strange email from my sister the other day with a link in it (which I won’t add here for your safety) and stupidly I clicked it but I closed the browser before anything could happen. I have wonderful anti-virus program that would’ve caught anything if I were infected.

I know that my sister did not send me that email because number 1 she’s in a bad place right now, her computer was stolen so she doesn’t have the means to send me that email and even if she had a way of sending me an email she would not send me a link with no text explaining what the link was or shy she sent it to me. Also, she wouldn’t email me, she would use to contact me.

Then this morning a friend sent me this email:

“I have a Japanese friend told me that he worked in a Japanese company. I visited the company he worked for and found the products very favorable. And there are many product versions, such as the European version, American version, and the Asian version and so on. All company’s products take photos for the true products. I suggest you should have a look in this website. There is the company website: (link omitted) , You can enjoy a lot of benefits in the second shopping time. Thank you ! k”

I know this isn’t from him because he signed it “K” and he wouldn’t have signed it with a letter, he would’ve signed it with his real name. And second, he never emails me. He doesn’t send me funny jokes or pictures of kittens or puppies or chain emails. He just doesn’t send anything. Not even an email saying hi. If he sees me online on MSN Messenger, well even then he doesn’t IM me. I usually have to IM him because he’s usually too busy to IM people.

So, my guess is that some how Matt and my sister have either clicked a link (when my sister still had access to a computer) and it gave them a virus which allows people to get your passwords or someone has hacked into the Yahoo mainframe. I don’t know which answer it is.

I am blogging about this so that if you have a @yahoo.com email address, back up your address book because what I know of hackers who do this kind of thing is that when they send these emails out to your friends they usually delete your address book / contact list. The only way to get that all back is by going through your sent folder and gathering all the addresses from the emails that were sent to your friends.

What should I do about hacked yahoo email? – Yahoo Answers

Good luck.

Shopping for an eBook Reader

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Gadgets, Kindle, Nook, Products I Like, TechLeave a comment

Someone I follow on tweeted this link today. Engadget’s back to school guide: E-readers. Naturally I had to look because I too want to buy an e-book reader. I have wanted one ever since they first came out but never could afford one because they were in the $400 – $600 range (around 2006).

In November 2009 I started blogging for pay (via PayPerPost and Blogsvertise) with the intention of saving money for buying an e-book reader, Kindle or Nook. Preferably a Nook because of the color screen at the bottom but it didn’t really make any difference. They were both around $265 or so back then.

I had a lot of trouble saving the money for one because my monthly income is so low that when I run out of grocery money I ended up taking the blogging money from PayPal to buy food. Since I have a PayPal debit card it makes it so much easier to spend the money.

9 months has gone by since I made the commitment to save the money and I still don’t have an e-book reader. However, the thing that I wanted the most out of an e-book reader was a lower price to justify my purchase.

eBook readers such as the Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook and Sony Reader have all gone dramatically down in price, down to a price that I can finally afford.

Unfortunately, they still don’t fit my needs. What I want is an e-book reader that will accept a lot of formats like .lit, .prc, .pdf, .mobi and .epub. What I want is for an e-book reader that would allow me to read those formats and still be able to use their dictionary. I don’t know if they all let you to use the dictionary with just a .pdf file which is what makes my decision so difficult.

Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6″ Display, Graphite – Latest Generation:

Pros: The new Amazon Kindle is stylish. I love the graphite color. I like the keypad on the bottom, it’s small enough that I’m ok with it considering I would probably be typing on it occasionally when searching for keywords, making notes and searching for books in the Kindle store. They have games on it, which I don’t really care about, I just want it to read but it is good to know. The price dropped down to $139 and has free 2-day free shipping which is awesome. The battery works for a full month without charging with the wi-fi turned off which is great.

Cons: It does allow me to view my .pdf books but that’s it and I can’t use the dictionary for definitions which is a big negative for me. I mean sure I can’t do that with a paper book but this is electronic and I want that ability. Also, it does not have an SD card for adding more books.

NOOK Wi-Fi, eReader, eBook Reader – Barnes & Noble:

Pros: The B&N Nook is also very stylish with its cool color touchscreen at the bottom which also has a keyboard. The screen goes black while you are reading to keep you from being distracted. It does allow me to add a .pdf, .epub and .pdb file and has a MicroSD slot. The cool thing about the Nook is that you can lend books to your friends and if I had any that had a Nook then we could lend each other books. If you are in the B&N store you can browse through a book for free for 1 hour per day. The price dropped down to $149 and although it’s $10 more than Amazon it is still a good price.

Cons: The Nooks battery is only 10 days unlike the Kindle which is 30 days. The color touchscreen on the bottom is too slow for impatient people like me. Although as I said it allows .pdf, .epub and .pdb files it doesn’t allow the others. All my ebooks are in all the other formats I mentioned above.

Sony Digital Reader Pocket Edition – Dark Blue:

The price of this is different at the Sony site as opposed to the Amazon site. Amazon charges $136.99 with free shipping but according to the Sony site it’s $149.99. I would buy it from Amazon.

Pros: Although it is a little bit stylish in the dark blue color, it isn’t as stylish as the Kindle or Nook. The Sony Pocket Edition does allow multiple formats such as .pdf, .epub, MS Word, BBeB Book (?) and other text file formats. It doesn’t say the others. The ebook store Sony uses is the Reader store which I assume is from Sony, check out books from public libraries and access over one million free public domain titles from Google Books, sharing sites and other online stores and publishers websites.

I don’t know if that means I can access the Rainbow eBooks website or not, I hope it does because that is what I want.

Cons: One of the things I don’t like about this is that it doesn’t have a keyboard for typing and I don’t know how you type anything when looking up a book to buy.

I don’t know if this should go in pro or con, it’s charge only lasts 2 weeks but I mean seriously, I can charge it every 2 weeks.

This is a tough and huge decision, one that I can think about until the first week of September when I will finally have the money saved up to buy one. I’m leaning more toward the Sony reader though but I would like it if people would leave a comment telling me what they think of each of these readers to give me more to think about. Keeping in mind that I buy a lot of books from Rainbow eBooks and ebooks.com.