Last night, Aunt Janet and Uncle Tom came to visit my parents. My parents have DSL, whereas my aunt and uncle only have dial-up. Aunt Janet asked if she could use our computer to view the following video of my cousin, Chris, running:
This was the 1 mile race at the Division II National Championships for indoor track and field. Chris (he's the one in the red shir tand black and white shorts) finished second in the race, only 0.01 seconds behind the first place runner. Way to go, Chris!
Back in November, I wrote about noticing a picture from my past while visiting my parents. While at my parents' house for Easter, I decided to scan a copy of it. So now, you can all see how incredibly good I looked back in the Summer of 1991.
I'm actually quite pleased with how well the scan came out. I commented to my parents that if I had made the printed copy I made the same size as the original, I could've just about swapped them without anyone noticing.
One thing I did note about the picture is my eyes. I didn't go in for the second surgery (the reasonably successful one) to correct my lazy eye until my late twenties. So if you look at this picture closely enough, you can make out where they were misaligned at the time. It's something I never thought about back then unless someone asked me about it. But now, it just seems so strange. It makes me wonder how much it actually did effect my feelings about myself on a subconscious level at the time.
I can still see a lot of myself in this picture, really. I have a receding hairline now, and my stomach is considerably larger, though I'm slowly working on changing the latter. (I think I'm on the brink of dropping another waist size.)
And for anyone who wants to know, the tee shirt says, "In the market for a new brain." It was my favorite shirt back then. Of course, that was also back when a lot of my classmates would ask if they could have my old one. ;)
Jonathan Rowe, one of the contributors to Positive Liberty, pointed his readers to a great opinion piece by John Corvino in regards to ex-gays. It's well worth the read and I highly recommend it.
Corvino offers an excellent and respectful criticism of the ex-gay movement, as well as those individuals and organizations that comprise it, while affirming the rights of ex-gay individuals to follow their journey towards heterosexuality. (I will note, however, that Mr. Corvino seems unaware that some ex-gay individuals are now accepting life-long celibacy as a valid alternative.) What I find more interesting about Mr. Corvino's article, however, is when he touches upon the question of whether he feels threatened by ex-gays and their testimonies:
I am not at all threatened by the notion that some people can change their sexual orientation, if indeed they can. In reality, it seems that at best only a small number can do so, and only with tremendous effort. But if they can, and that makes them happy, good for them. I’m confident enough in my own happiness that I need not doubt theirs.
Unlike Mr. Corvino, many people do feel threatened by the possibility that some people might actually be able to change their sexual orientation. And to some degree, that reaction is perfectly understandable. Many in the ex-gay movement, and certainly most of their political supporters, are banking a lot on the claim that people can change their sexual orientation. This is because many of them have the desire to make the poorly founded jump from evidence that some people can change their sexual orientation to anyone can change their orientation. And once they've made that jump, their next step is to conclude that everyone (everyonte who isn't heterosexual, of course) should change their sexual orientation.
The threat comes not from the possibility that some people can change from gay to heterosexual, but from the reality of where many in the ex-gay movement and their supporters want to lead the conversation from there. After all, organizations like NARTH still lament the declassification of homosexuality as a mental disease and would like to see its eventual reclassification.
Of course, the solution to this "threat" is to simply point out that the fact that something can be done does not necessarily mean it should be done. And I think that's where we queers as a community tend to fall down. We're so wrapped up playing defense in proving that sexual orientation can't be changed that we don't take a more proactive force and ask the bigger question: WHY should it be changed? That's why the declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder is a great thing, and why organizations like NARTH have to try and dismiss its declassification as a "political move" rather than a reasoned decision based on careful study. That hurt their entire position and we would do well to remind it.
Corvino talks about this when he admits he's happy with his life and sees no need to change. This isn't based on the fact that he "can't" change (or so it seems to this blogger), but on the realization that it's a satisfying part of who he is. It's a great place to be on a personal level, but I think it's also a great argument on a communal level.
Let those who wish to seek change have it. But those who wish to force that same change on the rest of us will need to justify that decision. And quite frankly, I think they have a losing battle on their hands.
Yesterday, I did something I haven't done in almost two and a half years. I went grocery shopping.
I tried grocery shopping and cooking for myself when I first moved to Rochester. I think that lasted for about a month before I decided it was too much bother. I just found the idea of running home after work and cooking my own food to be a nuisance. So I started ordering takeout, ordering delivery, grabbing a sub on the way home, and even eating out most of the time. I even started buying food items for lunch and breakfast at convenience stores.
And for two and a half years, this arrangement worked perfectly for me. I had the excess cash flow to support expense of that kind of lifestyle, so it was comfortable. However, now that various factors -- like starting to contribute to my company's 401k plan and the extra expense of taking dance classes -- have altered my (non-existent) budget to the point where I'm just barely breaking even each month.
As such, I've decided it's time to change my eating habits. This week, I decided to start with something simple: Buying groceries and putting together my own lunches and breakfasts rather than buying something "on the run." The net result is that I covered two thirds of my meal requirements this week on about one fourth of my typical food bill for a week. It's actually kind of depressing to realize how much money I have been wasting due to overspending.
I figure I'd start with just lunches and breakfasts for now, as well as dinner for the two nights I need a quick bite before dance class. For most dinners, I'll still buy something or eat out for the next week or two. So my spending won't be completely minimized, but I'm hoping to at least put a bit more of a buffer between my income and my total expenses.
I'm also working on bringing my own snacks to work, which is my other big expense. This will have the advantage of being cheaper as well as healthier for me. Granted, I don't expect my trips to the candy machine to disappear immediately. (If that was the case, I already failed on my first day.) But overall, I hope this will help cut down on my spending even more.
I actually got a huge compliment from the woman in front of me in the checkout line. She glanced over my pile of items, which consisted mostly of yogurts, fruits, and stuff to make salads (as well as a couple pre-made salads at real good prices) and wraps. She smiled and said that I had an extremely healthy selection. In fact, her exact words were that her nutritionist would be pleased and proud of my groceries. I smiled and thanked her. Eating healthier isn't one of my primary goals in doing this (I actually feel I do pretty good at that anyway), but it should be a nice side effect of the process.
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