IT IS BIOLOGICAL DAMNIT. WITH SOME ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE OF COURSE.

Whoa! Could this be true?!

WASHINGTON (AP)—Having several older brothers increases the likelihood of a man being gay, a finding researchers say adds weight to the idea that there is a biological basis for sexual orientation.

I dunno man. Let's see. How many older brothers do I have? One, two, three, four, five. Shit! I have five! They say though, that we all have to be related through our mother, which is not my case. But I do have lots of older brothers technically.

The full article: here.

I remember a few years back another attempt to prove that homosexuality was biological was done by a researcher who studied the brains of already dead gay men to see if there was a size difference in the size as compared to heterosexuals, or something to that effect. That study is here: brain study.

And further STILL was another study done to show the difference between certain fingers and their lengths in straight vs. gay men. While all these studies have been very interesting and have been rather accurate and indicative about the biological basis for homosexuality, the jury is still pretty much out proving all of this scientifically.

The only way to truly prove that being gay is truly something you are born with, you need not go far but ask one of your gay relatives or friends how old they were when they knew. And overwhelmingly, most will answer that they were mere children when they truly were aware. Yeah, one's environment can and probably does play a role, but it is minimal compared to just truly being born that way.

Regardless of older brothers, brain size, and finger lengths.

ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN.

To everything there is a season...

Well, this is a bit of sad news. A human being that is 16 years old is still a young immature bratty teenager.

A dog this age however, translates into: 16x7= 112 years old. It is seven years for every human one in doggy years correct?

As short as their lifespan is, these amazing animals really are a joy to have as loyal friends and companions. When they die, it truly can be devastating for an owner or family, as they really do become an emotional and important part of our lives.

Well, there goes Moose, the adorable Jack Russell Terrier who was on the enormously popular Frasier sitcom playing Eddie. He was about 16 years old and just recently died.

Forever a part of television history, R.I.P. furry little friend.

http://www.wsbtv.com/entertainment/9429218/detail.html?rss=atl&psp=nationalnews

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=392830&in_page_id=1773&ito=1490

THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE.

Well.

I came out of the closet today. Without even trying really. I almost feel like a celebrity in the tabloids:

Apparently, one of my older half brothers ran into MySpace page, and found out the truth. I’m pretty sure the entire extended empire that is my Dad’s side of the family knows my little secret now as it spreads like those wildfires raging in Sedona, AZ at this moment. I even got a call from my other half brother who was very supportive on the phone about the whole issue. To be honest, I rarely talk to these fools or see them, but this story for sure has me on their "front page headlines." Cyberspace can give u away, and quick!

Ah well. So it goes. Couldn’t hide the "secret" forever right? And I know everyone has suspected or known for years, so I kinda do feel kinda relieved to be honest. And a little uncomfortable too. I dunno man, this is such a delicate controversial issue, and I often feel as though there are still lots of people out there who claim to be accepting of gays, but behind the façade still think we’re going to hell or are just plain fucked in the head.

Case in point: my own mother. When she found out some seven years ago about her son's urge ta screw boys, she broke down, blamed herself, but then came to the conclusion she would love and accept me for who I was.

HOWEVER:

God forbid I talk about this or admit it to other family/friends, for she says her reputation is at stake and that they're gonna blame her and it's just plain embarrassing. One time, she kept saying, "I just don't understand how you can go against nature like this. Men were clearly created for women! None of your other relatives seem to be like this!" Well, she's wrong there! Plenty of fags in my family boys and girls! And more yet to come!

I love mom, but I really don't feel like she gets it, or ever will. And this is why I don't like to discuss this with certain folks and some of my traditional immediate and large extended family. They're all happily married, or have already bred and had children, whilst here I am, one of the lonely few going against the grain. I can't tell you how awful and lonely I felt at my half sister's funeral earlier this year, ta see that lots of my relatives had their own kids now and crap, and there I was...the fag. No chick, no kids, and no connection, other than to grieve for my brave sister. And to have to answer questions about my personal life really makes me uncomfortable...unless I truly get the sense that they're really interested without being judgmental; something a lot of people do to gays and lesbians is ta deal with them as if they were another species or something. Many people just continue to be judgmental, making the chore of revealing this very annoying.

Lemme tell ya, this can be a real lonely existence, and many times, our TRUE families are the friends we make. With my friends, I am myself and don't have to hide anything. I can cuss, express all kinds of faggotries, and not hide behind any barrier as I often feel I have to with my family. Even though they now know per se, I just don't think I can be that comfortable. It just feels too fuckin' weird.

From what they said ta me, it sounds like I'm gonna get lots of acceptance from at least three of the boys in my family. So all in all, this was a good groundbreaking day. I'm hoping I don't get any negative calls or overhear something really rude or just plain mean/hurtful from other blood relatives; just say it behind my back, and let me live my life. You straight boys enjoy girl-on-girl action so much, this ain't really that different.

I've already cried and suffered years ago over this, and have come to love and accept who I am. It's either that, or be miserable, and life's too fuckin' short to be.

What THEY or any others may think that is negative or wrong with male on male action, is not my problem anymore.

JACK'S BACK!

I soooooo hated Jack Black in King Kong! His character in that film was real irritating as the camera basically kept showing his face in one surprised look after another; nothing really to display his enormous natural comic talents whatsoever.

This past weekend however, it was good to see Jack Black once again in great comic form in the very stupid but hilarious Nacho Libre. The film is very simple, full of quirky characters, and loaded with one dumb gag after another. If you liked the inane Napoleon Dynamite, this is your film, directed also by the same Jared Hess.

Filmed entirely in Oaxaca, Mexico with a solid mostly Mexican cast and a really cool soundtrack, Black shines in the film because he is allowed to make all kinds of ridiculous facial expressions, sing silly songs, show off his grotesque body, and speak with the dumbest Antonio Banderas accent ever. I would say that the audience I got to see the film with (which was made up of many Hispanics), really enjoyed the film, despite some possible insulting stereotypes. All in good fun though, and if it made me laugh, then so be it.

The movie is very appropriate for kids too, as it is very sweet and innocent in its overall message without any gratuitous violence or sex scenes which are so common in today's films. I found that aspect quite refreshing actually!

I first noticed Jack Black in the mediocre Orange County which he steals, and next in the tremendous School of Rock, which still stands as his greatest and truly starmaking performance.

And while admittedly, Nacho Libre is full of some flaws here and there and perhaps is really quite stupid and banal: it is worth the fun, the silliness, the absolute innocence and overall enjoyment it brought to me.

¡Viva Jack Black! ¡Viva Nacho Libre!

"WHEN I'M 64."

Well, it's official. Back in 1967, on The Beatles' monumental album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Paul McCartney wrote and sang a song about growing older and turning 64 years of age.

Today is that day. He has turned 64!

Happy Birthday Sir Paul! Thanks for all your terrific music and for being the greatest living songwriter alive!

"MY LONELINESS, IS KILLING ME."

Did any of you see Britney Spears last night being interviewed by Matt Lauer?

Let's see here. You're a world famous very successful recording artist with minimal talent, you've got more money than most of us will ever make in twenty lifetimes over, you're still very young, and can practically live your life any which way you choose to while most of us have to struggle day to day to pay the bills.

YOU BIG GIANT WHINING CHILD! ARGH!

I don't mean to be mean or uncaring to whatever Ms. Spears' problems might be, but she sits there and cries on camera complaining about how the paparazzi will not leave her alone and that she really is a good mother and all. Well, if ya hadn't married such a loser and weren't always trying to get their attention, maybe they'd leave ya alone! And you are a public figure, so it comes with the territory! Spare me Britney!

I got a much more difficult existence than you, and most of us in the real world really have it hard compared to millionaire little you! WA WA WA!

How did this little nothing from Louisiana even become so famous anyway!? She's really not that great! And as Howard Stern and his vicious but accurate crew pointed out, no one harasses Cristina Aguilera that much as they do Spears. Good point. Obviously Britney keeps attracting the photographers to her!

As my good friend Lala so accurately pointed out:

"The thing that struck me (as it always would) about the Spears interview last night was that this bore has MILLIONS, a nice big home, security (and guards) kids, fame,apparently no personal trainer, and she is DEVOID of brain matter, BORING, UGLY,not interesting, FAKE, and definitely DOESNT DESERVE HER MONEY AND FAME! She has nothing special, no real talent, is a dim bulb of unknown origin, wants to be "normal" and doesn't realize that "being country" doesn't mean snapping gum and looking like a slob.THIS THING deserves fame and fortune? While someone with my talent and intelligence LIVES in this shithole job... I could talk RINGS around that DOLTISH IDIOT BRITNEY SPEARS.. and yet..there is something so UNFAIR about the whole process.. why would someone so mediocre have fame and fortune and not me..Oh wait.. I never tried! duh"

Amen.

I RARELY POST PICS OF MYSELF, BUT HERE GOES...

Can ya tell I have a lazy eye? CAN YA?! UGH. Well, taken just a few hours ago, here I am, in all my glory...or lack thereof.

THE THREAT.

"Now do as I say and take off your clothes or else I will have to take out my whips and chains!"

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST...

One of my favorite pastimes! This is me at Camacho's Cantina back in February of this year.

FLORIDA: THE SUNS..ER..HURRICANE STATE.

Here we go again!

It's a tropical storm at this point, but they're afraid that Alberto will turn into a hurricane as it makes landfall tomorrow morning.

I ask myself, why would anyone want to live in Florida anymore? This state now sounds like an annoying nightmare. Are they going to have to evacuate and prepare for hurricanes that constantly batter them every season from now on? I would imagine that this would become exhausting after a while. I mean, I'm sure this has always been an ordeal for them since time began, but as our little global warming problem continues to get worse, they're gonna have to deal with these large storms more often than ever in their history.

I've never been to Florida, and from what I hear it's a beautiful state, but I'd probably visit it only during winter or spring--lest a hurricane catch me while a tourist over there if I ever were to go!

Hurricanes are nothing new, and records have been kept since the Spaniards came to the Caribbean some 500 years ago. I believe they were the first to name them, hence the tradition we still hold onto today. Even with our modern tracking techniques, these storms still kill and cause large amounts of property damage regardless.

I'm sorry for ye Floridians and the Gulf Coast in general. Here's hoping this hurricane season is quieter than last year's. But it's highly unlikely. We're starting early again. And it's barely June; season ends in November.

Yikes!

SOCCER: WORLD'S MOST POPULAR SPORT WHICH THE U.S. COULD GIVE A CRAP ABOUT.

Well friends, the World Cup 2006 begins today in Deutschland!

WOOHOO! I imagine most Americans could give a flying donkey's ass about it, but those of us with strong recent foreign roots seem to care. I do, mainly because my direct heritage is Hispanic, and my brother got me hooked on watching the games back in 1982, when I witnessed my first World Cup tournament, which then was held in Spain I believe.

Soccer is really not that boring as many like to say. Yeah, I know it's a pretty low-scoring game and the ball seems to just move back and forth and never really go anywhere, but I think what makes the game so interesting are the rabid fans in the stands--their chanting, screaming, and genuine energy really gives the games quite a "kick" (excuse the pun). Soccer hooligans they call them I believe?

Another incentive to watch is that many of the players are quite young and good-looking. Okay, that's purty gay I know, but come on, it's true! HOT DAMN! There be lots of fine ass boys to watch as they play with that ball! Ahem.

And of course, when a goal is scored, it can be quite exciting, since it is such a rarity. The pride and nationalism displayed by the fans when their country's team scores can be quite an exhilarating thing to watch. The flags go up, the feet start a'stompin', and the roar becomes deafening.

By now, most of you must be aware of how hilarious the Spanish-language broadcasts are when a goal is scored. The announcer will usually hold out the call for a good minute or two as he holds out the note and hollers "¡Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooolllll!" Yeah, that is kinda cool and pretty unique. Catch some of the games on Univision if ya can, and you'll see what I mean.

So there ya have it. For the next month, soccer shall rule the attention of the world! I'm rooting for any of the Spanish-speaking countries, and our own U.S. soccer team.

Yes. Believe it or not, our team is in the World Cup. Seems to be though, that the rest of the world has better teams and they always seem to beat us early on.

Oh well, we can't be good at everything nor too much of a superpower I guess.

:)

THE OMEN.

OOOOOOOO!!!

Ya see tha date kiddies? Kinda freaky huh? The numbers synonymous with the Prince of Darkness.

Not that I'm expecting something catastrophic to happen today mind you.

BUT...

I do worry in general however, especially ever since 9/11/01, that our planet is precipitating at a faster rate than usual towards something big and perhaps threatening to all life as we now know it. People are no longer feeling safe, thinking terrible things, and being negative in general. Let's face it, does anyone really feel secure after what the world witnessed on that dark September day back in 2001? We do not trust our government, we are at war in a terribly divided and hateful region, and the cost of living only gets worse every day.

What about global warming and the dismantling of our environment right before our very eyes? The polar ice caps are reportedly melting at a terrifying pace, polar bears are dying, the weather keeps getting more insane, hurricanes have gotten frighteningly powerful, earthquakes seem stronger, and we lived to hear about that horrendous tsunami that killed some 300,000 people!

Is the world as we know it coming to an end? The naysayers will argue: "They've been saying that for centuries!" People thought this during the Middle Ages and the onslaught of the Black Plague which killed millions throughout Europe. Surely many believed the world was coming to its demise during WWII, a terrible war which savagely and brutally saw the killing of 50 million souls and unimaginable destruction.

And yet, here we still are. The problem now though is, we are more connected to each other than at any other time in history. More countries and dangerous terrorists have possible access now to destructive nuclear weapons than ever before. Our planet is massively overpopulated with six and half billion people; our resources can only sustain so many. Rapid changes in our environment are occurring right before our very eyes.

How many people have you spoken to that don't have children now, agree that bringing them into this world at this moment makes them think twice?

The sad uncertainty, fear, and overall state of affairs of our world today only makes one wonder if this is truly not the end of things as we know it.

And if not the end, for sure something Earth changing is happening as we speak.

Or is it all just hype?

"YOUR CANDLE BURNED OUT LONG BEFORE, YOUR LEGEND EVER DID."

There have been glamorous, classy, and stylish movie stars since the beginning of film: Garbo, Bacall, Crawford, Davis, Gable, and Bogart--to name just a few.

But none have reached the level of glory as did the late Marilyn Monroe.

Ah Marilyn. I honestly know just the basics on this woman and have probably only seen about two of her films, but what an impact she had in her short, but very successful years as an actress back in the 1950s.

Marilyn was and is America's greatest sex symbol of all time--a blonde bombshell who struck everyone as being an airhead and pretty dumb, but was nothing like most of the characters she played on film. It is said that she had quite an extensive collection of books in her house and was very well-read and informed; a most intelligent and profound woman indeed.

Marilyn beamed and had an extraordinary presence on camera, but sadly had a very difficult and heartbroken personal life. Her mother was mentally ill, she was raised as a foster child, had several failed marriages, suffered from depression, and quite possibly had affairs with very influential men of the time, including the Kennedy brothers. She may have even been bisexual too, supposedly having had a tryst with Joan Crawford, who it is rumored enjoyed the encounter so much that she wanted to repeat it again, but Marilyn declined, and Crawford hated her thereafter. Just like Mommie Dearest to behave like that huh?

Her untimely and shocking death at the young age of 36 was deemed an overdose of pills caused perhaps by suicide, but many to this day believe Monroe was murdered to keep her from revealing too many intimate details about her affairs with powerful men such as the Kennedys.

Marilyn Monroe never had to grow old, and will forever remain young and gorgeous in her movies and pictures. She has inspired countless other artists such as Elton John, Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Andy Warhol and continues to be admired and adored the world over to this very day.

She is perhaps, the greatest and most immortal movie star in Hollywood history. A true stratospheric icon for the ages. Not bad Ms. Norma Jeane Baker.

Not bad at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SQj005XVAQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udle1wDoeqw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IsIXP8yhSU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha3Pyt4wsGA&search=Marilyn%20Monroe

THE TRUTH ABOUT LIFE.

Ya see kids, this post is quite morbid, but something that is usually on my mind:

Death. I'm obsessed with it sometimes. Almost as much as I am with life itself. I just watched Being There with Peter Sellers and a phenomenal performance by Melvyn Douglas, who plays the dying, but lovely rich man in the film. His death scene really really touched me and made me ponder once again on the end of life itself.

I love reading celebrity/famous people biographies, and what really strikes me about most of them is the birthdate, followed by that very unnerving hyphen, which designates the person's deathdate. It's something that seems to happen to everyone unfortunately right? You're born, you live your life, and then there comes that strange and necessary finale.

Some examples:

-John Wayne (actor) -- Dead. Cancer. Born May 26, 1907-Died June 11, 1979. Duke, the archtypical Western actor, won an Oscar for True Grit.

-Sir Alec Guinness (actor) -- Dead. Liver cancer. Born April 2, 1914-Died August 5, 2000. Won an Oscar for Bridge on the River Kwai, played Obi-Wan in the first three Star Wars movies.

-Jack Lemmon (actor) -- Dead. Cancer. Born February 8, 1925-Died June 27, 2001. Wonderfully versatile actor, Felix in the movie version of The Odd Couple, teamed in movies with Walter Matthau.

-John Lennon (musician) -- Dead. Assassinated-shot. Born October 9, 1940-Died December 8,1980. Part of the great Lennon-McCartney songwriting team, John was always the most interesting Beatle.

-Florence Griffith Joyner (stylish runner) -- Dead. Heart attack. Born December 21, 1959-Died September 21, 1998. FloJo - Dazzling track star at the 1988 Olympics.

-Jim Henson (puppeteer) -- Dead. Bacterial pneumonia. Born September 24, 1936-Died May 16, 1990. Father of the Muppets, voice of Kermit and Ernie, died on the same day as Sammy Davis Jr.

-James Byron Dean (actor)--Dead. Car accident. Born February 8, 1931-Died September 30, 1955. American film actor who epitomized youthful angst whose death at a young age gave him iconic status.

It's really really weird to me. That at one time these were breathing, feeling living entities with incredible existences, and now they're gone. Where to? And no matter how iconic, rich, or famous, they all had to die. And something really bizarre or awful ended up killing them. I know, I know, why do I even bother analyzing these dark themes?

Mind you, I don't spend my entire time worrying about how or when I'm going to die, nor do I let it control my life, but the more I contemplate my short and fragile existence here, the more I try to learn to appreciate life itself more every day--for which one of us truly knows when and where we will take our last breath? In many ways, we all contemplate death from time to time, and it is a healthy thing to do, because we must learn to embrace something that is part of our lives, even though it is kinda scary to be honest.

The natural tendency and overwhelming instinct of humans is to want to live. For no matter how difficult or cruel life can be, we always hold on to the hope of life. But eventually, one day, your body will give out, and your life shall flash before your eyes, and you will leave this place.

Death: The great equalizer.

And you and I are next.

Hopefully not for a long, long time though.

And oh yeah, Liz Taylor is still alive!