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Yes, I’m still tired. I just woke up from a nap. I’m starting to get back into my normal level of social activity after taking it easy for a little while.

I went to see Muse with Evanescence and Highly Suspect. One of the best concerts I’ve been to.

Yesterday, I went to see a drag show in Pioneer Square. I saw Modest Mouse perform there last summer I think. It was a celebration of drag and trans rights. Lots of great performances and speakers. We may not have any issues with legislation in Oregon right now, but who knows what could change. The event was hoping to raise $3000 for OutMemphis, but it raised over $7000.

We got went into full summer mode weather wise for a few days, but it cooled down tonight. Looking forward to actual summer.

Life is good.

FAN EXPO Portland was February 17-19. It was forming called Wizard World Comic Con, but they renamed it. The last con I went to before the pandemic was Wizard World Portland 2020, where I got to meet many Smallville cast members. I think this event was supposed to take place under its new name in 2022, but was canceled or delayed.

My attitude about cons has changed. I don’t have to go every day and I don’t have to remain at the con all day. This con I only attended the 1st 2 days. I did what I intended to do and left. I didn’t attempt to take many pics of cosplayers. I didn’t go to all the panels I considered. Most of this was because I was just tired. I haven’t been sleeping well lately.

The con was fun overall. There were a lot of little things that I think could be improved. I noted them all in the survey they sent out after the event ended. One thing was scheduling a lot of the better guests (either for panels, photo ops, or autograph sessions) at the same time on Saturday. It made for some hard decisions. There was a lot of Star Trek representation, which I liked. William Shatner, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, Anson Mount, and Ethan Peck. I saw them all except Shatner. Nothing against Shatner, but maybe I’ve had my fill of him for now. And he comes to Portland often.

On Friday the only thing I really did was get my picture taken with Ethan Peck and Anson Mount.

On Saturday I went to the TNG/Picard panel with Frakes, McFadden, and Spiner. Because of the weird location of the main stage, they entered through the audience. Frakes and McFadden walked right past me. I saw a panel with Katee Sackhoff, before getting my photo taken with Jonathan Frakes, seeing a Leah Thompson panel, and ending the day with a Strange New Worlds panel featuring Anson Mount and Ethan Peck.

Overall, a very chill but fun con experience. Looking forward to next year.

A couple of months ago or so I noticed that so many of the gays I follow on social media were talking about Yellowstone. I guess the new season was starting. I had heard of the show and knew there was a spinoff, but I didn’t really know anything about it. I decided I would give it a try. I AM HOOKED!

I started watching around Thanksgiving and got caught up on the first 4.5 seasons earlier this month. It’s almost unheard of for me to get through a show that quickly. Every day I wanted to know what happened next.

The characters and the story are great and you find yourself rooting for people who aren’t model citizens while they are doing questionable things. The scenery is beautiful. It’s set in Montana, but I think it’s filmed in Utah. Sometimes it’s a little cheesy and sappy, but that’s the kind of show this is. I’m guessing the gays gravitate toward the character of Beth. She’s a little over the top sometimes, maybe borderline unrealistic. But it’s okay.

The second half of season 5 starts this summer. I had decided to wait until after it was over to watch the spinoffs, but I don’t know if I’ll make it that long. It feels weird not having new episodes to watch. The drawback of getting caught up on a show.

I don’t watch as much TV as I used to and I’m way behind of most of the stuff that I do watch. So it’s not that often that I get to see a series finale. Two weeks ago today, the finale of The Expanse aired. I saw it the night before because it was released on Amazon a little early.

I got into The Expanse right away when I started watching it. I know a lot of people say it takes a few episodes or that whole first season to get into. But you are rewarded for your patience. I kept saying it was the best TV show that nobody was watching, though over the last few seasons I found out more and more people I know were watching it than I realized. The characters, the acting, the writing, the special effects, etc were all top notch.

I remember being very disappointed when Syfy cancelled it after season 3 and so happy when Amazon Prime rescued it. I don’t know how true it is, but it sounded like Jeff Bezos made the decision himself because he was a fan.

My viewing of the show was erratic after it moved to Amazon. I didn’t see most of season 4 and all of season 5 until the weeks before season 6 debuted. I got to watch it week to week again for season 6. Even though it was only 6 episodes, I got used to having new episodes to watch on Friday. And now it’s sad that I don’t have new episodes to watch.

I’m going to miss following the crew of the Rocinante and the Belters and the Earthers and the Martians. I’m looking forward to rewatching the series again, maybe in a few years. I’m sure I’ll pick up on things I missed because of my erratic viewing of the show. I may even try to give to books another try. Reading that many books was a daunting task when the series was about to start. And since the show didn’t cover the last 3 books, there’s hope for more of the show in the future.

Right now I’m just trying to find something to fill the Expanse-sized void in my TV schedule. I don’t know if there’s any outer space show out right now that comes close, but I’ll be keeping my eyes open.

I remember thinking a while back that I was going to really get into and enjoy this holiday season. Reese’s diagnosis and the omicron variant put a damper on that. Reese has mostly good days, but he’s been very needy. If I go to take a shower I can hear him wining when I get out. I wasn’t getting a lot of sleep for a while. But it wasn’t all bad. I put a tree up for the first time in a while. At work we got gift cards for GrubHub so we could have a meal together on Zoom one day

I had my first Christmas dinner on the 23rd with my friends Aaron and Josh and some mutual friends. We ate a lot of food, played Bomberman and that Exploding Kittens like Star Wars card games, and did a secret elephant exchange.

I spent Christmas Day with my friend Nir doing the Chinese dinner on Christmas Day thing again, except this time we ordered takeout instead of dining in a restaurant.. My friends Robert, Alex, and Jer were there as well along with one of Nir’s friend who I didn’t know. We played Codenames and chatted and ate so much food. We never got around to watching a movie.

What did I get for Christmas and my birthday this year?

Nike shoes

plates

Sagrada (board game)

Mulholland Dr (Criterion Collection)

Wayfarer Series

protein pancakes with bourbon-aged maple syrups

Trailblazers calender

Captain America mug

chocolate candy

Star Trek pride shirt

I didn’t really treat myself to anything this year like I normally do. Over the summer I got a new TV and receiver, both of which support 120fps so my gaming consoles will be able to live their best lives. Maybe I can count that.

Overall I would say that this was a pretty good year. It was great getting out and being able to see people, go to events, and be social again. It’s hard to describe just how much that has meant, especially after 17 months of isolation.

There’s been a damper later in the year. Reese’s diagnosis, a friend passed away, Betty White died today.

Next year I have to make health a priority again. I was making so much progress, but the last few weeks my diet has gone to crap again and I haven’t been exercising at all. And of course I struggles getting around most of the year like when I went to Rose City Comic Con.

I also want to make getting a fulltime job with benefit and PTO a priority. It’ll make me feel a little more at ease and I’ll actually be able to have some real vacation time. I’ve had 2 contracting jobs this year. Hopefully, I’ll be an FTE someone by the end of next year.

Speaking of vacation time, I hope that my travel plans don’t get screwed up by one thing or another. I’m supposed to be going to Chicago in April. Let’s hope that happens.

As usual, I want to wish everyone a happy New Year. Take care of each other!

Thanksgiving weekend is ending. It was a good weekend.

I worked maybe an hour on Thanksgiving and 2 or 3 hours on Friday. Monday – Wednesday were pretty light at work as well. I’ll be glad when I’m working full-time again and don’t have to work on the last 2 days of that week at least.

I had Thanksgiving with my friends Aaron and Josh in Tigard, who I’ve been spending more and more time with lately. They ordered a pre-cooked dinner from New Seasons and all they had to do was warm it up. It was delicious. We played Xbox games and played a Star Wars themed card game that’s a lot like Exploding Kittens. I played games on my own at home before and after. The only thing I didn’t get around to doing was resurrecting my tradition of working out early on Thanksgiving day. At one point I thought I would work out at home after I got back from Aaron’s but I should have known that wouldn’t happen.

Friday – Sunday, I was at home pretty much the whole time playing video games, watching TV and movies, reading a book, and making sure Reese was okay. It was a nice, relaxing weekend for the most part.

I am fortunate.

This weekend was Rose City Comic Con. It was my first con since January 2020. Man if felt good to be at a con again.

There were times leading up to the con where I thought about not going because of the delta variant that’s been so devastating lately. I waited a while to buy my passes and I didn’t purchase tickets for photo ops until the night before. At one point I was thinking the con might be cancelled, but going into that final week I was pretty sure it would go on. PAX (which I decided to skip this year) and DragonCon weren’t cancelled, after all.

If was definitely different. Not as many people. Everyone in masks. It seems like there weren’t as many guests to begin with, but more than normal cancelled for various reasons leading up to it. By the time the con got here, there were only 3 people I was interested in meeting.

I had actually planned on being there for only a few hours each day instead of spending almost all day there like I would in a normal year. I figured there wouldn’t be as much to see and I would limit my possible exposure to covid.

I almost thought about skipping Friday, but I decided to get one of my photo ops this day, so I could squeeze in another photo op on Sunday. As I do sometimes, I drove on the first day and rode the train after that. I can’t remember how much I’ve talked about my health on here recently. I was pretty out of shape before than pandemic, but add on to that 18 months of not going anywhere and not eating badly. It was a struggle just getting around the con. I remember having to walk around pretty much the entire building at my last con and although I was tired, it wasn’t much of a struggle. This time, I had to take several breaks walking from the parking lot to the entrance. They were on opposite sides of the building. I only went to see one panel, Carl Weathers. I had to factor in a rest break when I decided when to head to the room it was in. And when I left for the Billy Boyd photo and when I left the con that day, I had to traverse the entire building 2 more times. My legs and back were killing me. I was so winded and sweaty. My heart felt like it was going to explode.

The next day I had planned to do my normal cosplay photography stuff. Luckily, the train dropped me off right next to the Premium Pass entrance. I wish I had known about that entrance the day before. I got a few cosplay photos, but I was too tired to do more. I didn’t even walk around the show floor like I normally do. I got a photo with George Takei, but decided to skip his panel because I was so tired.

Sometime Saturday night I decided to skip Sunday. I had a headache, my chest was hurting a little, and my body was sore. I ended up missing panels with Billy Boyd and members of The Boys cast. I also missed the photo op I had paid for with Jack Quaid. I hope he comes to Portland again soon.

Even though it was tough on me, it was great being at a con again. I’m looking forward to the next one. In the meantime, I really have to focus on my health. I’m sure I’ve said that before, but I mean it this time. I’ve already been working with a trainer. It’s mostly diet that’s dragging my down.

The Summer Olympics ended last weekend. They were delayed a year because of the coronavirus. As much as I thought they should have been cancelled this year because of the coronavirus situation in Japan, I was excited by the time they finally arrived. But once they started, I wasn’t all that into it. I hate to think my interest in the Olympics is slowly waning over time. I started this blog 17 years ago this month right before the summer Olympics and even mentioned them in one of my first entries. Ah, that was the year I watched every show NBC hyped up during the Olympics like Hawaii, LAX, and Medical Investigation. They were all cancelled. However, we also got LOST on ABC a few weeks later. But I digress.

Maybe part of the reason I wasn’t into the Olympics as much as I wanted to be was because I wasn’t watching primetime coverage. I usually had a stream on while I was working during the day and I watched whatever was playing at the time. I wasn’t going out of my way to watch anything in particular and I’m sure the most popular events were in primetime on NBC. I didn’t get to see any diving, gymnastics, track, or swimming that I usually enjoy other than brief recaps. I didn’t see any rugby at all, which I really enjoyed watching in 2016. I did get to see a lot of volleyball (indoor and beach), tennis, and water polo.

The time difference is usually issue. There were a couple of times at least when I was watching something and then realized I already had heard the outcome of the earlier in the day. The competitions did feel different. I think it may have been because spectators weren’t allowed in the stands. I didn’t get to hear the personal stories of many of the athletes, which makes the events more exciting. Maybe not having gamily members in the stands contributed to that or maybe all of that was in primetime on NBC

I’m glad there’s only 3 years until the next Summer Olympics and in 7 years they will be in L.A. I hope to attend the LA games. I’ve never been into the Winter Olympics as much, but maybe I’ll try to watch them in a February

This has been another busy month. Since I’ve been vaccinated, it seems like every weekend has been packed with activity. Summer always seems busy because Portland only had a few months of non-rainy weather each year. Add onto that the fact that we had go a year without being able to go out because of covid-19. Today is my first weekend day that in a while that I’ve decided I’m not going anywhere. It’s nice to relax and recharge. I just hope the delta variant doesn’t disrupt our lives too much.

I’ve seen my friends a lot and not just on weekends. We celebrated one person’s birthday 2 weekends in a row and had a wine get together on a weeknight this past week, among other things. We went to a wine tasting out in Oregon wine country (I think that was this month). An old friend, Aaron, came back to Portland to visit with his boyfriend and his (Aaron’s) twin brother. I met the brother last time he was here. I miss Aaron a lot. He’s was one of the 1st people in Portland to make me feel welcome. He invited me to so many of his parties and night out excursions. That day I met some of Aaron’s local friends I had never met before and I’ve seen them a few times since.

PDX Gaymers had an outside in the park event that I refused to call a picnic. I first scheduled this in April and had no idea at the time how open things would be or how comfortable people would be around each other. It was originally supposed to be our 1st in-person post-lockdown event. A few days before I suggested people bring food if they wanted to, so it ended up being a picnic I guess. I brought a cooler, which ended up full of drinks that I got to take home. About 35 people showed up to this event, making it the biggest since I took over as leader in October 2016. We even had to borrow a couple of tables from an neighboring picnic area. It was so much fun! A lot of the time I wasn’t even playing anything. I was just trying to make sure people were playing something. I think everyone had a good time. I learned a lot that I’ll keep in mind for next year.

I’ve seen a ton of movies lately, thanks to Regal Unlimited. I’m going to see 2 more this week.

At work, full-time employees got every Friday off in July along with a 1 week in August. As a contractor I don’t get that and technically I’m not supposed to work. However, my manager gave me permission to work those days, adjust my schedule so that I can get those days off and still get 40 hours for the week, or just take some off. I’ve done the first 2 so far. I think I will work that week in August., but I’m not sure. Either way, it’s been nice having some extra days off this summer.

I found out this week that 1 person I went to school with and 1 person I met online because of LOST are in their final days because of cancer. I hope that we really have more treatment options soon. This has been a bad month for friends and their pets and not all of them recovered. Reese has been exhibiting some weird behavior lately. Of course, over the past 13 years I’ve always gotten worried when he started acting weird.

I’m busy and happy and fortunate. Eager to see what the rest of the year brings.

How about a few pictures from this month?

This month has been amazing. Getting to go out and do things again has been great!

I went to happy hour at Robert and Alex’s place. I went to movie night at Aaron’s place. I’ve been to see 3 movies in the movie theater. I’ve gone to 2 clubs. I’ve been back to my gym. I wasn’t unmasked the whole time. I followed the rules at each establishment and sometimes wore a mask even when I didn’t have to.

Also, work has been going well. I’m really enjoying my job right now.

I was supposed to be in Sunriver with friends this weekend, but I was left without a dogsitter at the last minute, so I had to stay home. Maybe I need more close dog owner friends, not that I would feel comfortable asking a friend to take care of my dogs. It was nice to have my first holiday or vacation day off since last July. It’s weird waking up on a weekday and not working. It’s been a while.