Saturday, April 09, 2005

Windsor Castle

Today, two-timer Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles in Windsor, United Kingdom. Never mind that they can marry twice or fifteen times, I cannot marry in this country -- go figure.

However, when they mentioned that the couple got married in Town Hall not far from Windsor Castle, it brought a memory of my trip to Windsor. I was riding in the car with a group heading to Windsor Castle. I heard about the castle as a place where Queen Elizabeth used to stay for weekends or summer retreats once before when there was a fire that consumed one wing that billed more than 4 billion of pounds. Correct me if I'm wrong but I cannot remember the exact amount but I know it is absurd expensive.

The driver of the van pointed to the Windsor Castle which sits off the highway right outside of London. I was stunned by its massive size. It is the largest occupied castle in the world. It sits on a hill, sprawling itself like a city. When I got to Windsor, I was in awe. Windsor has 1,400 rooms. The fire that damaged was confined to very small part of the castle -- even with how small it was, it still costs billions of pounds to fix it!

The van dropped us off at the bottom of the hill, you'd have to walk up the hill AROUND the Castle, it will take you through the town of Windsor where Town Hall sits ... at the top of the hill, you'll enter the Castle.

Windsor Castle is absolutely stunning, much more than Buckingham Palace.

If you're in London, take the time out and head out to Windsor. You won't be surprised like I was with Buckingham Palace. For more information on Windsor Castle, check this out.

R-

X-ians Are Nuts

You gotta love the folks who claimed to be "born-again X-ians". They claimed that they, their church and their devotion to Jesus Christ and God will cure you of your deafness.

I wrote an entry a LONG time ago where I mentioned that one woman tried to cure my brother's deafness by grabbing ahold of his head and prayed. I grabbed her wrist and violently took it off and gave him the dead stare that could make the lady shiver with fear. I swear she'd think I was Lucifer Morningstar.

The same thing happened to Jeff Carlson. Poor him. But that was so funny entry. Ahh, he privatized his blogsite so I asked him for his permission, here it is!

OH, JESUS! Last night, I was at Kinko helping Dork with his court case. A lady there saw us signing, she slipped us a note saying, "Believe in Jesus. He will cure you. You will be hearing again. Hallelujah!" She also wrote down something about 12:6 in the bible.

I am always amused every time it happens. Why not? I get to play game with their mind. Really, those people needs to pray to God and ask Him to grow their brains. They are all morons.

Few months ago, I went to the bookstore with someone. A guy saw me signing, he came by with a note saying to seek God for His help and go to his church. Then he left. "Hello there?" I wonder. I just want to talk.

Other time, I was talking to someone and a lady wrote a note and handed to me saying, "God is good" and blah, blah, blah. At the end of the note, she said I should go to her church and God would help me with my deafness." I told her that God wouldn't help me at all. She told me to put my faith in Him and it is all a test. I told her, "No, listen... I've been bad. I've fornicated, cussed, called people names, made fun of them, gambled, and used the Lord's name in vain." She said, "Well, you can ask Him for His forgiveness." I told her, "I don't want to do that. I love every sinful things I did. It's fun. I want to try sodomy at some point." That lady left the building before I could finish the sentence.

Another X-ian nut on the loose. This time it is in Rochester. Felt bad for my friends in Rochester -- Poor Jason and Aarie.

As you can see in the last week of melodrama by X-ian nuts. We also have an All-American X-ian Terrorist in Eric Rudolph, who bombed a gay nightclub, two abortion clinics and at the 2000 Olympics, pleading guilty to all charges to avoid the death penalty. What do you call it? A coward, of course.

It is easy to scream at Muslims or others for being the Terrorists. But when you have one under your wings, you hide them and cheer them. Like Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) who said that he would not be surprised to see the killings of judges to accelerate nor blamed the "domestic" terrorists for taking things on their own -- did you see any uproar about Senator John Cornyn's slur? Nothing.

It is OK to be a Terrorist as long as it is against abortion, gays, race, women, Muslims et al as long as it is not against X-ian's ideological beliefs.

R-

Arthur Finkelstein Gets To Marry!

This is supposed to be funny. But it is not. This smacked hypocrisy, selfish and greed on Arthur Finkelstein's part. Arthur Finkelstein is 59 years old Republican Political Consultant for Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) for many years.

As you may know who Senator Jesse Helms is -- he is incredibly homophobe. He railed against the rights of gays and lesbians from day one. He even ranted that AIDS is a punishment sent to gays from God. Blah, blah, blah.

Arthur Finkelstein is Rohemosexual. Arthur worked closely with Jesse Helms for many years and even thought the Massachusetts Courts should not decide whether if gays can marry or not. And Arthur took his partner of 40 years to Massachusetts to marry so that he can be entitled to his rights and benefits, just like any heterosexual couples.

Apparently, he felt that he is entitled to that right but not everyone else. Only him and his partner, that is an exception. But not me or anyone else. Arthur does NOT give a damn if you or me gets to have the same rights and benefits, but he will take advantage of it for himself.

How dare of he to impose the roadblocks that gays has worked hard for years to break and suddenly, he basked himself with the right to marry whom we fought hard to get it for people like Arthur?!

Do I smell the stench of hypocrisy within the Republican Party? Of course.

R-

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Trying To Shoot Pope Down?

I saw the footage of Pope John Paul II's funeral. It mentioned that the Vatican is now enforcing the 24 or 48 hours of restricted airspace.

The Vatican requested the Italian Authorities to enforce the policy. The Italian Authorities agreed by dispatching several anti-aircraft batteries and a warship.

Who wanted to crash into the building that contains the corpse?

Or do they mean they wanted to shoot the Pope down should he ascend like Jesus?

R-

An Episode of Desperate Housewives

Because of Silas & Keith's insistence to get out of the apartment, I was unable to watch the episode of Desperate Housewives with Marlee Matlin guest starred as Alisa. Thank God for kaybee, she taped it.

I watched it tonight with Sarah. It presented the exact concerns that I always have with hearing persons. I'm glad that Desperate Housewives exploited the dark truth about how hearing peers often exploited deaf people's inability to hear things by talking offensive things about them in front of them. Even with Lynette lambasting Dennis for badmouthing his wife Alisa in front of others, it is *rare* that anyone else would have done that the way Lynette did.

I heard plenty of horror stories where the deaf-hearing relationships ended, Deaf people would be informed by hearing folks that they used to endure hearing their partners about how shitty s/he is but they never lambasted the "hearing partner" for badmouthing.

This always made me wonder about having a relationship with a hearing man? Would I be oblivious to these delicate, embarassing and degrading situations? The answer is obvious yes.

I already saw that in deaf/hearing relationships, especially with gays. Many hearing people thought it was "easy" to maintain a relationship with Deaf person because it is easy to deceive -- with the attitude that can go, "If he does not know about it, then do not bother to tell him -- what he does not know will not harm him at all."

To me, that is very audistic mentality. I find it very degrading, offensive and all that.

This reminded me of a tale that Helmuth once told me when he attended his friend's deaf friend's civil ceremony with his hearing partner who is a lawyer in San Francisco. This particular lawyer is a scumbag because he had the gall to pull his partner who was with his deaf friends during the reception and told him to start cleaning the kitchen while the hearie lawyer continued to mingle with his kind all night long. Helmuth and his deaf friends were enraged and nearly destroyed the reception. I would if I was there. Hell, I'm sure Beth, Rayni and I would probably firebomb the reception to smithereens, though.

However, I was disturbed when Alisa pulled her daughter to interpret for her as she lambasted Lynette for intruding in her marriage. Funny as it is, but it is ... unfortunately very common in Deaf Communities when things became desperate, Deaf people would go for desperate measures to use their hearing children to relay the messages to the appropriate persons. Hell, I did it several times with my hearing brother in order to get my message across to the hearing ones.

Loved the scene where the kid said, "She said ..." when Alisa said, "Bitch!" That was hysterical.

But the general idea of what happened on the show, especially with the interaction of deaf-hearing relationships, is often the cold reality of our lives when we attempted to forge a relationship with a hearing person.

Say, if I have DowntownLad all to myself, I'd still feel cautious and wary about it ... unless he assured me that he's all for me ... trillion of times. Maybe I'll believe it.

I know DowntownLad is going to roll his eyes at this comment above, though.

R-

Wanna Ride With Me?

After few hectic days of stress, frustration and irritation, I was bit relieved that I was left alone for some 48 hours. I felt much better.

Sarah offered me to come over and hang out at her home in Hell's Kitchen. I took her offer and alerted her that I'd be there shortly.

Little did I know that I'd have an interesting tale to tell.

When I got off from the subway at 50 Street and Broadway, I strolled onto 51 Street heading westward to 11 Avenue. When I reached 8th Avenue, I saw the horse carriage rolling onto 51 Street which is normal because there is a stable on 52 Street and West Side Highway. These horse carriages tend to take the passengers around Midtown and when they're done, they roll down to their stables for the night.

I did not smile, frown or anything like that -- just stoic. Remember, being stoic is bliss.

I saw the horse pulling up a little at the red light. The hispanic guy waved and smiled at me, I did not reciprocate. He then tried to shout something. I cordially told him that I do not hear.

He immediately, "You deaf? My brother deaf. I know signs."

I smiled a little and nodded as in "o-kay, what next?"

He motioned me to join the carriage. I shook my head and said, "No cash on me." He shrugged and said, "C'mon and we talk."

I attempted to hop in the back of the carriage, he waved me to move in front so we can talk. He's nice fellow. He asked me if I wanted him to take me around few blocks. I nodded.

We did just that. He dropped me off on 51 Street and 11 Avenue on his way to the stables as I headed off to Sarah's place for the night. The fellow, Miguel, is cool.

Only in New York, my children, only in New York!

R-

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Hurry, Yellowstone, hurry!!

640,000 years ago, Yellowstone erupted and the rocks landed as far as St. Louis. I visited Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 1997. It was beautiful park. I enjoyed staying at West Yellowstone, Montana and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

It is slated to erupt again. Yellowstone is not a simply place to have a hot bath -- it is a massive, dormant volcano -- even bigger than Mt. Rainier! There are posters and pictures posted by the boardwalk, warning people NOT to step in the boiling geysers because the skins will fall off.

When I drove eastward to Cody from Yellowstone, the drive down the massive mountain was absolutely stunning. I even stopped by the gas station to fill the tank. I turned my back to gaze upon the road that I drove few minutes earlier. I was astonished by its massive size. Yellowstone National Park sits on the top of the mountain. It is a sleeping giant waiting to erupt once again.

And when it does, it shall overwhelm Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Texas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado and the parts of Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas and Minnesota -- the hotbed of Republicans, Conservatives and X-ians. Surely, it will be delicious to witness the death of filthy Republicans, dirty Conservatives and X-ian pigs. Of course, Ann Coulter would still blame the Liberals for causing the dormant volcano to erupt in the first place.

Enjoy the interactive of that website.

R-