Dave Hunter's Disaster With Texas Highway, not Hurricane Rita

Got an email from my fraternity brother, Dave Hunter -- a guy that I mentioned in the previous entry.

Interesting stuff.

R-

* * *

hey ridor .. still see that your corrupting everyone via your blog :) hope things are going good for you. just wanted to share my experience in evacuating from beaumont.

saw your blog .. me and my family made it out of beaumont yesterday. Took us 18 hours to travel 60 miles! We left at 1030 am on thursday and arrived in woodsville, texas, about 54 miles up the road, at 630 am on Friday morning. Drove NON-STOP! It was
choas .. ppl leaving their cars on the road without gas .. the evac route - no gas stations along the way. Just terrible .. terrible planning on that part.

I am pretty sure my things at my house in beaumont will be gone or at least, very wet. I had a small woodframe house .. I am watching CNN and seeing pictures of beaumont and it just doesn't look good.

I was in a shelter run by the ARC yesterday, at a local high school in woodsville. Was with Stacey and our 3 kids and her mother. About 2 pm, the police showed up wtih 10 schools buses and evacuated everyone from that shelter to Crocket Texas. My van had no gas. was stuck at the shelter. The entire county and country next it to was dry of gas.

ARC in crockett managed to call my parents and they came and got us last night. I arrived at my boyhood home around 10 pm last night.

I know you have issues with the ARC regarding their unethical treatment towards gay men, but i just want to say that god bless them for helping me and my family out yesterday. At least the local ARC in Crockett and Woodsville.

Lamar prolly gonna be closed for a while. Lamar is about 20 - 25 miles north of Port Athur..seems that the seawall held and no serious surge storm but severe wind knocked down the trees and electric crap everywhere. I hope I have a house to go back to. I dont know how to explain that to my kids.

Anyways, we are safe in Temple, Texas! And I am not infamous :)

C'mon, Dave! Remember the M Street? The K Street? The fraternity thing? You're indeed infamous, like it or not. Glad to know that you're doing alright in Texas despite the fact that the whole state sucks big time. You need evidence? GW Bush, simple like that! :-)

AS for your kids -- how to tell them? Umm ... tell them that the house is in Oz. They'll think it's cool. Or honesty is the best policy. Tell them that the storm did it. I ain't good at parenting.

R-

Few More Tidbits for 9.23.05

Another Sex Scandal: I was notified by Michelley that in Rochester School for the Deaf, Timothy Talbott was fired for having a relationship with 16 years old. Apparently, it was said that everyone at RSD knew that they were going at it but did not get caught until recently. That name, Talbott, is familiar. Remember that, Deaf schools are not the only ones that do this. So does the public schools.

Rita Heading Straight to Port Arthur! This is a new development, Rita is not heading to Galveston but to Port Arthur. About 18 miles northwest of Port Arthur lies a bigger city in Beaumont, Texas. This is the same town where many Deaf graduates go to Lamar University for Deaf Education. Including the infamous boy, Dave Hunter, from Gallaudet old days.

How Many Did I Finish Dealing With These Storms? Check this marvelous link ... I attempted to count the storms (does not matter if it is a hurricane, tropical storm or remnant), I already experienced 21 storms out of this. Ain't that cool?

Interesting But Alex Is In It! A friend of mine forwarded me the link to the website which Gallaudet's Student Body Government provided the first online broadcast of what is happening on the campus and I checked it. I thought it was nice and cute until I saw Alex Abenchuchan in it. Naturally, I got enamore by the sight of him. Why can't I have a guy like that? C'est la vie.

Rumors Has Confirmed ...: That MJ Bienvenu is applying to be the President of Gallaudet University. Stay tuned.

Cheers,

R-

9.23.05 Tidbits

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An Interview With Michael Lucas

You know how it is with my blogsite, I try to keep things interesting as much as I can. And I managed to get the questions from friends scattered all over the nation and London for the special interview with ...

Michael Lucas!

Who is Michael Lucas? He is the gay porn star/director/producer of LucasEntertainment Company that is pretty popular with gay men, founded in New York where I heard incessant raves about his productions. It is rare that a man like Michael Lucas gets to do what he wanted. He was born in Russia and left for America, where the family settled down in Brooklyn. He has a gorgeous family which you can check this out. So I can feel that we can relate to Michael Lucas more than any gay porn stars/producers because of English as second language.

I compiled questions from friends across the nation and London so that I can submit to Michael before he flew to California today. Michael is one cool dude.

Enjoy!

I know that you're from Russia which means English is not your first language. Do you have any frustrating experiences in dealing with people or business when it comes to that? How do you manage to circumvent this barrier?

Yes, as you know I've lived in the US for 8 years, and of course, sometimes people don't understand me. Especially back in 1997/1998. It was very irritating, upsetting and inconvenient. But things are much better now, and I've taken about 20 speech improvement exercises and so it's happening less and less now. At least in NYC. :)

(from Miami) How did you get involved with the gay porn industry? Did you ever aspire to make regular movies?

I never aspired to do regular movies, because I don't have a filmmaking background. I know much more about sex than about videography. I got involved in the industry by simply sending pictures to some California-based companies.

(from Cincinnati) I would like to ask Michael which is the best swimming pool he's ever been to?

I'm not much into swimming pools, so I wouldn't even know what to say.

(from Sioux Falls) If you had to pick the best scene in any of your movies, which would it be?

There have been so many great scenes, so it's difficult to answer. The recent scene I remember best was a scene between me and Kent Larson on the special bonus disc included in the Director's Cut of Dangerous Liaisons, which is only available directly from Lucas Entertainment's website. My latest movie, Straight to Prague, is another great one. I'm in nearly every scene. Talk about a speaking barrier! Those guys didn't speak anything but Czech. We were communicating through a translator, and of course, body language.

(from Los Angeles) Don't you ever get tired of fucking some hole over and over again?

I probably would, but I switch holes all the time.

(from Sioux Falls) If you could perform with any mainstream actor in a hard core movie, who would it be?

I think Tom Cruise would make a good bottom.

(from Austin) Do you test them for STD's? And how do you screen that with your gay porn stars?

No, I don't test anyone for STDs. But we all wear condoms. there is also a risk of getting STDs, though after ten years of being in the adult industry, I've never had an STD or crabs. hard to believe, but it's the truth.

Have you ever fucked a deaf guy? IF not, ever wanted to?

I've been with deaf guys, when I was an escort. It's neither a turn-off or turn-on for me.

(from Austin) When will you put the damned captions on the videos so that we can read what others has to say on the videos?! (It is annoying to watch the non-sex dialogue for a while!)

It's all about the budget. We unfortunately don't have enough money to provide close-captioning or subtitles. I hope one day we will. But seriously- my movies aren't about dialogue. Well, I hope they're not! In quick translation: How are you? You have a nice ass. You have a big dick. Will you fuck me? Yes, sir. Right now. Stick it in. Are you in?

(from Sioux Falls) Have you ever wished you were deaf while being with someone during sex??

No, but I've wished I was blind.

Would you hire a deaf actor on your videos if he's hot and has massive cock?

Absolutely! I prefer hot deaf guys to ugly guys who can hear.

(from London) Did you shag Joe Santini yet in New York City? How do you communicate in terms of angles or postures? Do you pull him around like a lump of meat? When I went for an arty softcore photograhy session once, I couldnt lipread the photographer, so he would just push me into the postion he wanted. I hated it.

I don't know who Joe Santini is. And in any scenario, I never discuss celebrities I may or may not be having sex with. But I would never push people around like a lump of meat. One of the directors of a company I distribute is a deaf man and I communicate with him weekly through a special operating service which he uses.

(from Washington, DC) What benefits do you think by being deaf when you engage in sex?

I don't know about benefits. I think it's something one should deal with the same as when you're gay. You don't necessarily have benefits, it's just a part of your everyday life that you have to deal with. It's not good or bad it's just a fact.

(from Los Angeles) My co-worker wants to know if you had been to Puerto Vallarta? How is it? Details!

No, never been there, though I've been to Mexico.

Any advice for Deaf gays in how to hook hot guys like you or Chad Hunt? It is not easy to talk via the paper and pen -- it is unattractive to do that, man!

I think it's usually eye contact. Whenever I or anyone else has anonymous sex, you never know the name of the other person, you never talk. You just follow each other, have sex, and the most you say would be "See you around." So I guess I have slept with many more deaf guys than I first thought!

(from Washington, DC) If you were Deaf for a day, what would you do?

I'd probably do what I do every day: have my coffee, my egg whites, read the NY Times, search the internet, go to my favorite blogs, answer a hundred emails, and end the day with a good book.

Michael hoped that the readers will like his answers. I think I better get my PayPal to get something from his website. Thanks, Michael, for doing this. One day, I shall get to kiss that lips of his in New York.

Cheers,

R-

9.22.05 Tidbits

Another Reason Why I Loved Bette Midler! Bette Midler poked fun at GW Bush at a fundraising concert for the victims of Katrina in New York:

I got a letter from the Republican Party the other day. I wrote back, ‘Go fuck yourself’ . . . George Bush is a fan of mine — he came to see me in the Seventies. His coke dealer brought him.

Bingo!

Interesting Tidbits about CSD's 2004 IRS Filing: Someone emailed me to mention about few odd things that s/he found on Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD)'s 2004 Income Tax filing. Remember the entry I wrote about the salary figures of deaf agencies across the nation? Yeah, the same form that I mentioned about CSD's Executive Director Benjamin Soukup earned $729,596 in 2004.

An anonymous reader emailed me few things that I did not notice and requested that I do not mention hir name at all. I agreed. This is worth mentioning about possible discrepancies in that form. It is good enough to make you wonder what is going on within the walls of CSD in Sioux Falls.

• Page 7 - Payment of $105,417 to Tiffany Brown for consulting services. The only mention I can find of TiffanyBrown is that she was an entertainer during Deaf Expo sessions.
• Same page, $118K to R. Lytle.... who appears to be the Chair of the English Department at Gallaudet.
• Page 19 - CSD owes money on a $280K loan from a member of Soukup's family?
• Page 22 - Patty Kuglitsch, secretary, makes $140,634 per year for less than 5 hours work per week?

Now this piqued my curiosity. Anyone else?

New DeafGLBT Blogsite! I was mentioned earlier in the day that a new blog is dedicated to the Search for a new national organization for Deaf Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgenders. As it mentioned on its blog:

There has been an increasing questions against Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf and its function and how it is being run/operated. This is just a brainstorming blog to collect from deaf GLBT community where we could attempt to find the "TRUE" mission/goal for the right GLBT national organization whom belongs to GLBT community, not the Board. This probably could lead to a new national organization being formed. We reserve the copyright for any posting/discussion made in this blog.

Good idea. Let's make some kind of proactive efforts to work things out. Evidently, the RAD Board do not care much for others' concerns. They will go out to alienate and defame others as they did to me earlier in July.

Eww! Poor Kid! I felt bad for this kid!

A Surprise Entry On The Way! Suffice to say, in a short time, I shall unveil an entry that may surprise, delight and shake the Deaf Community. What is it? I cannot reveal what it is but it is going to make lots of people smile. That entry is going to be one of the coolest things that ever happened on this blogsite -- it is my hope that it will not be the last one.

Cheers,

R-

Virginia Board of Education Fiddles While VSDB Burns

The Blighting of VSDB: This is not surprising at all. The Staunton News-Leader has reported that the Board of Education has return the proposal to consolidate the Staunton and Hampton campuses to the General Assembly for further study.

Why? The General Assembly permitted the Board of Education to renovate a school for the deaf and blind up to $61.5 million. Board members studied four proposals by Tramwell Crow Co. and all four proposals went over the budget with Staunton leading at $94.8 million dollars.

I then checked the proposal by Tramwell Crow Co. and was horrified by the proposal. They proposed the destruction of Bass Hall, Darden Hall, Healy Hall, Strader Hall, Watts Hall, Byrd Hall, Stuart Hall, Bradford Hall (Infirmary), Peery Hall, Battle Hall, Harrison Hall, Swanson Hall and last, Superintendent's Home (see the luxury home beyond the playground)!

I probably have no problem with bulldozing Watts, Byrd, Peery, Stuart, Swanson, Harrison, Darden (despite the fact that it was my high school dormitory) to the ground but I cannot fathom the idea of people deciding to bulldoze Bradford, Battle Hall (which served as the social hub for Blind students -- use common sense, think they can socialize with Deaf students?), Healy Hall, Bass Hall and Superintendent's Home.

In fact, Superintendent's Home is one of the country's fanciest home for superintendents that serve the Deaf schools! One little folklore which I was told by many Alumni but was never confirmed -- the Superintendent's Home was paid by whom? The students at VSDB. How? The auditors by the state found that the Superintendent & Business Manager at VSDB once siphoned from students' accounts monthly to finance the luxury home. Needless to say, they were fired.

Many Superintendents repeatedly told me that that particular building is the one they envied the most. No Deaf school has a building like ours. Bradford Hall, the infirmary is simply gorgeous place to get sick, like it or not! It has these high windows that you can gaze at Blue Ridge Mountains on your left side.

If they proceed with this proposal, they intend to destroy one of two buildings that were named after Deaf persons. Ironically, many buildings were named after the fucking Governors and state leaders that has no problems of stripping money from VSDB over the years. Bass Hall was named after R. Aumon Bass, the Deaf person who served loyally for VSDB for more than 35 years.

Yes, we do have blind students and deaf students. Get this? We do not mingle. Not in the dorms. Not in the classes. Not in the cafeteria as well! In fact, we regarded each other as an anomaly on our campus that ought to be removed. Which is why many Deaf Alumni often said "VSD" and Blind Alumni do "VSB".

Now according to the proposal, it appeared that the Deaf students will mingle with blind students in the dorms, cafeteria and yes, school building! It is evident that the Board of Education and Trammell Crow do not know the ramifications of ASL development in school settings. You simply do not teach ASL to hearing students who are blind.

According to the proposal, they trumpeted that the enrollment probably will remain less than 200 in total for ever. There is no room for expansions. Nothing at all. And they expect the deaf students to mingle with these developmentally disabled students as well as blind students at all times. How many times should we struggle to educate the public that Deaf children are not in the same category with these multi-disabled students or blind students? Don't fucking put them altogether!

Suffice to say, the proposal sucks. If they intend to wipe out these buildings, fine with me. At least, I do not live in the state of Virginia. Besides, who wants to? I do not. But if they better not name the newer buildings after Governors or hearie fools or I'll be extremely pissed off.

You can compare the current Staunton campus with this proposal. Creepy.


But know what? Since the Board of Education returned the proposal to General Assembly for a "further study". Which means what? It'll leave a "cloud of uncertainty" on both schools for years to come. Which means what? The quality of Deaf Education will malign at VSDB as many Deaf schools like Maryland, Indiana, Model Secondary, California-Riverside, California-Fremont, Texas and Florida continues to rush ahead with changes for the better interests of Deaf students. No sane Deaf person wanted to send their Deaf children to VSDB because of this uncertainty that plagued the school for more than 30 years. Give it a rest, already.

But you should understand this ... Virginia is a conservative state filled with people who bickered amongst each other over money more than the quality of education, the General Assembly and the Board of Education will take many years, perhaps few decades, to shuffle and play the cards before they reach the final decision. This will interfere VSDB's goals to educate Deaf children and raise the standards. Comparing Virginia with many states' progress with Deaf schools, it tells me not to trust a conservative state to handle the quality of Deaf Education. They simply do not care nor refused to change to improve. Trust me.

This is shame -- but was I ever surprised that they did this? No, not at all. In fact, I joked with a friend few months ago that I predicted they would stall this for few decades. And it appeared that I am right. And the blighting of VSDB continues as of today.

R-

Billy Bean Still Sucks!

One of my favorite comic books was Amethyst. In Amethyst Mini-series #3, right after Amethyst finally stripped Mordru's powers for the time being and stopped Flaw and The Child from taking over Gemworld, there was a quiet moment where you could see Lord Topaz knelt before the ashes of his sons which were killed by Mordru.

Amethyst was ready to leave the scene when Lord Topaz muttered, "What about my sons? What do we do next?"

AS you can see Amethyst's blunt response in the image on your right. Suffice to say, Lord Topaz wept and did not appreciate her blunt response.

That's how I felt when I read Billy Bean's dumb book, Going the Other Way. I wanted to tell Billy Bean that Sam is dead, now quit moping around. Who is Billy Bean? He is former Major League Baseball player who came out of the closet a while after he retired from the post. He is certainly not the person to look up as a role model. Becaue he is fucking stupid. More on this in few minutes.

Before I run off the subject, I want to emphasize that I did not buy Billy Bean's book -- I refused to. Because of what happened three years ago in the District. What happened is that I learned that Billy Bean was to give the lecture and autograph at Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Downtown DC, I decided to call the store to request an interpreter. They said that they'll provide one. When I came in a week later, no interpreter was in sight. I was annoyed. I approached the BN staff who gave me the routine bullshit turnaround. I decided to email Billy Bean to show how much disappointed I am. Billy Bean finally responded ... 10 MONTHS LATER with cheap-assed paragraph. That was a major turn-off. Of course, his response was such a retard one.

Now back to his book, how did I get to read it? My roommate mentioned that he bought it few years ago. I decided to read 245-page book, it was such a fucking torture to read the book filled with paranoia, narcissism, naive and delusional.

I play sports in high school. I made it clear to the players that their homophobic remarks were not necessary when I was in high school. I was 21 when I have had enough of being in the closet -- I was honest with my friends and even with my family. Why? Because I'm sick of dealing with people making these crude remarks in my face. By being honest with myself, I could turn the tables on people and make sure that they do not do that around me.

Billy wrote that it did not strike him that the homophobic slurs and jokes in the locker rooms do make a negative impact on men who are in the closet -- What? He never thought about it?! That indicated what? Billy is neither naive or selfish, he may lack common sense as well. It is always about himself. He wants to please others in order to enrich himself with the opportunities.

When Sam died, Billy went on to whine about how lonely it was for him -- I'm like, "Whose fault was it? Yours! You asked to hide everything -- even, Sam loved you but you also forced Sam to hide for you, fuckwad!!" He cannot complain how lonesome it was -- after all, he had the resources to get around -- he lived in West Hollywood! He cruised guys in BALLYS' locker rooms! He lived not far from Hillcrest! He visited Castro District from time to time! And he had these opportunities to figure out things on his own. He chose to bury himself under the sand and when Sam died, he whined for a while.

And he found a sugar daddy to contend with before he retired -- then he decided to come out of the closet. Go figure. What a guy! Suffice to say, his life was pretty much, in my opinion, was waste of time, trying to please himself all the time. It is all about him, himself and his needs. Jeers to his book.

In my book, Billy Bean is a loser, no question about it. Anyone who has courage to be honest with everyone and attempts to reduce homophobia in the locker rooms are, in my opinion, winners. Billy failed.

What a narcissistic prick.

R-