Longklaw.com

I think it’s a good time for me to retire this blog.

This month marks 19 years since I started it. I thought about going another year just to make it an even 20, but I’m not going to. If it’s not bringing you joy, why do it? This hasn’t really brought me joy in a long time. For the past few years, it’s been mostly about keeping the streak of at least 1 update per month going. 19 years of that. I’m done. It’ll be a weight off my shoulders.

I remember when I started, blogging was all the rage, but maybe it was on a downward slope of popularity. I don’t remember. I just remember being on that Air Force base near Dayton, OH trying to think of a name for it. That was the hard part. I don’t remember if I was back in MS when I made my first post or not, but posts were a lot more frequent back then.

I’m not deleting this blog anytime soon. I may even pick a new theme for it at some point. I’ve been meaning to that for a while as well as fixing some broken links. Who knows if that’ll ever happen though.

Nowadays most of my big life events are chronicled on Facebook and there’s other stuff on Twitter, Instagram, threads, and now Blue Sky. Hope to see you around!

What a great week this has been! I just woke up from a much needed 2-hour nap. I was exhausted but in a good way.

I didn’t do a whole lot of Pride-related events during the week. I had 2 PDX Gaymer game nights. I didn’t participate in any work events because I was busy trying to make a deadline. I don’t think there were many work events. We did most of our celebrating at work last month.

On Friday, I went to a going away party for 2 friends who are moving out of country. After that, I went to my first Gaylabration with 2 friends I know through PDX Gaymers, Matt and Neil. It’s the guys I’ve been going to Blow Pony with. There were sooo many people there. And I knew so many people there. I’ve been living in Portland a long time and I’ve met a lot of people. The only complaint I have is the music was pretty bad. I’m glad to say that I’ve gone to Gaylabration at least once.

On Saturday, I went to the underU4men block party to visit my friends Aaron and Josh. Aaron was modeling. We re-started our tradition of getting a pic together that started years ago when this store would have a booth at the festival on the waterfront. I spent over $100 on underwear that I’ll probably never wear. Later that day, I hosted the annual PDX Gaymers Pride Party. We all had fun. The rental space got really hot though and the A/C didn’t help much.

On Sunday, I went to CCs the watch the parade. I met up with Matt and a slew of others I’ve known for much longer, many of whom were at the going away party Friday night. Neil was in the parade. I hated not marching in the parade this year, ending a streak (not counting lockdown years). My physical condition wouldn’t allow me to do it.

There were so many things I planned to do, but never had a chance to. One being going to the festival. Everything was pretty tentative anyway.

The only negative was the Lyft driver who took me to the Pride parade. I just wanted her to get me close to CCs and I would walk the rest of the way. She was really frustrated about street closures and wouldn’t listen to my directions on alternative routes. She made some comments that came off as homophobic to me about “the gay people” and how “they want to celebrate but don’t want us to celebrate” regarding the street closures for the parade.

Anyway, I had a great time this year as always. I’m looking forward to next time.

This has been an exhausting month. Not just because of Pride Month.

So Portland moved its Pride to July this year. Several reasons. I wish it hadn’t happened, but we just have to live with it. I guess that means a long Pride celebration. I say that because a lot of Pride celebrations still happened this month, and many during the normal weekend it would have happened. I think in some cases they may have already booked the date before they knew about the change to July. Some may be because they prefer June because it’s officially Pride month.

Anyway, went to see the Distant Worlds Final Fantasy concert with Cory. Went to a Janet Jackson concert.

Went to Blow Pony for the 2nd time in 2 months. Went to a Juneteenth party at CCs, which only included black performers. Went to the Red Dress Party for the first time. It was kind of a last minute decision. I went out almost every night for 10 nights in a row. But since that streak ended I haven’t been out at all.

More details on some of these later.

Happy Pride!

I haven’t done a lot of traveling these past few of years, but I’m easing back into it this summer.

I’m going to Seattle for a Madonna concert next month and hoping I can snag tickets for PAX for Labor Day weekend when they go on sale in an hour.

In August I’m leaving the PNW for the first time since 2015 and leaving the country for the 1st time since 2013. I’m going to Toronto and swinging by Chicago on the way back.

I already have ideas for next year. I’m just trying to narrow down where.

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.

So tired all the time. I will update more in the next month. Hopefully, I can get my sleep back on schedule.

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.

This Christmas season was bittersweet. I couldn’t help but think that it’s the 1st Christmas without my boy Reese since 2007. Max is a great companion, however.

I had Thanksgiving dinner with Josh and Aaron again this year. We watched Disenchanted after we ate. We had ‘dim the lights’ at work the first part of that week (work from home, no meetings) and of I was off Thursday and Friday.

I was ready for Christmas this year. I listened to more Christmas music. I saw some holiday commercials on TV and at the movie theater that made me a little emotional.

We had a ‘dim the lights’ week at work the week between Christmas and my birthday. We had Christmas dinner at Josh and Aaron’s, but there was about 7 of us this time. We played video games and did our while elephant exchange. On Christmas Day we had Chinese Dinner and my friend Nir’s place. There were about 5 of us, 2 who I had never met before.

I started feeling a little sick late on Christmas day. I’ve been sick since. Covid tests have all been negative. When one things starts to feel better, something else starts to get worse. Overall, I’m better than I was at the beginning of the week. It sucks because this was my vacation week and I’ve spent it all isolated inside. I’m probably going to miss the NYE party I’m supposed to be going to tomorrow.

I didn’t get as much this year as normal. I still have 3 exchanges that were moved to January because of the hectic holiday season. What did I get?

• a rainbow-colored beanie
• several video games (purchased for myself)
• God is Disappointed in You by Mark Russell and Shannon Wheeler
• Arboretum board game
• Finding Me by Viola Davis
• some soaps and creams
• Nike gift card

Update: 12/31/2022
I realized that I usually give end of year thoughts in the Christmas post and not in a separate post like I thought. At the past few years I’ve done it that way. So I’m updating this.

2022 has been challenging, most because of death. Reese passed away and exactly 1 month later one of my oldest friends died. My aunt passed away last month and last week we lost a cousin (I think he’s a cousin, but I’m not sure. I have a large extended family). Some people who I knew of in the local community passed and of course some celebrities I liked did to.

It wasn’t all bad. I got a new job, which is an FTE position like what I was hoping to find this last year. I’ve made some progress and adjustments healthwise and I still have a long way to go. I started playing guitar again. I incorporated PDX Gaymers as a nonprofit. I’ve met tons of cool people. And so much more.

I’m a little bummed out that I’m too sick to go out tonight, but the rest will be good for me. I know that likely nothing will be different tomorrow, but I am looking forward to seeing what 2023 holds for me.

Earlier in the month we lost my aunt Juanita, or Nita as everyone called her. I found out about it after leaving game night at CCs on a Wednesday night because her son (my cousin) posted about it on Facebook. It was a shock to me. My family tends to keep illnesses from me for some reason.

She was one of my favorite relatives. Very funny. Very caring. She loved her family. One memory that has stuck with me was at a family event when I was in grad school or maybe had just finished grad school. She said in front of the whole family that showed me I would have at least one person on my side when I came out, which I hadn’t at the time.

We had recently reconnected on Facebook. She liked and commented on all of my posts. Many times when she would see me out and about somewhere she would tell me to have fun. When she passed I realized it had been a few weeks since I had heard from her.

I wish I had gotten a chance to see her one last time.