CA State Fair

Katy, her kids and I are going to the State Fair today!
Haven't been in like 7 years! Yay

what's happening lately

caught a burlesque show at the Lex a few nights ago. I met K's friend J and T there. I liked them both. J was on the quiet side...but those are the people I am most drawn to talking to. K has been sharing some of her dreams for the future with me as well. I love that we can bounce ideas off of each other and that we both seem to be standing on the same plane. We're connecting very well. I adore her. My lover is beautiful, intelligent, creative, and has been wearing a rat's tail without a second thought! LOVE IT!

my motorcycle

was supposed to be my next girlfriend. oh we snuck out together around the block in this exciting/illegal/unlicensed kind of way...that was part of the burst of joy with her.

then, i met a real person..and have been leaving her sad and lonely.

AAM

Free day at the Asian Art Musuem...we caught most of it, but avoided the main Tibet exhibit. The line was unbearably long. A stop in the room focused on India and describing the caste system brough to mind a gut wrenching movie "Born Into Brothels" It was awful to observe childen who were branded from birth. Their class status as bottom rung "untouchables" limit their life opportunities.

Also went to the Bike Kitchen. what a fantastic place. fixed a bunch of tires, learned about presta and schrader valves. I'm going to learn a lot there..and earn my way to a bike =)

Reno

Rode up to Reno Sunday-Mon. We checked into our hotel(Circus Circus)..and K got really excited about aerial performers on the Midway. I won her a stuffed animal too. (big smile). K was all about her Stevie Nicks concert when 7pm came though. I hit up the slots...made 15 bucks, then lost it and another 10. The next morning was better when I had my lucky lady. We played 21 at the tables (first time for us both) and in the span of 5 minutes made 20+ bucks! Then she got 5 bucks for pushing the button on some casino promotional machine! Then I won 320 nickels($16) on the 5 cent slots! Then we stuffed our faces on buffet food! and stuffed our pockets with bannanas,apples, cereal,bread. A woman who will do that with me is a woman after my heart!
Of course the most fantastic thing is the moment when we put the special car ride song on...Paula Abdoul's "Rush Rush" and sing a mockingly passionate duet. haha

two thumbs up

for child like whimsy

today's ramble

People like K are amazing. She can walk into a room and immediately befriend people. She told me part of her philosophy is to offer trust to people until they prove themselves untrustworthy. That kind of openness is refreshing.

I am thinking about it because it took a lot of time/cultivating to let my guard down and feel a mutual comfort with everyone. She seemed to be immediately embraced.

Homosexual Activity Among Animals Stirs Debate

National Geographic News
July 23, 2004

Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. So go the lyrics penned by U.S. songwriter Cole Porter.

Porter, who first hit it big in the 1920s, wouldn't risk parading his homosexuality in public. In his day "the birds and the bees" generally meant only one thing—sex between a male and female.

But, actually, some same-sex birds do do it. So do beetles, sheep, fruit bats, dolphins, and orangutans. Zoologists are discovering that homosexual and bisexual activity is not unknown within the animal kingdom.


Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo have been inseparable for six years now. They display classic pair-bonding behavior—entwining of necks, mutual preening, flipper flapping, and the rest. They also have sex, while ignoring potential female mates.

Wild birds exhibit similar behavior. There are male ostriches that only court their own gender, and pairs of male flamingos that mate, build nests, and even raise foster chicks.

Filmmakers recently went in search of homosexual wild animals as part of a National Geographic Ultimate Explorer documentary about the female's role in the mating game. (The film, Girl Power, will be screened in the U.S this Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m PT on MSNBC TV.)

The team caught female Japanese macaques engaged in intimate acts which, if observed in humans, would be in the X-rated category.

"The homosexual behavior that goes on is completely baffling and intriguing," says National Geographic Ultimate Explorer correspondent, Mireya Mayor. "You would have thought females that want to be mated, especially over their fertile period, would be seeking out males."

Well, perhaps, in a roundabout way, they are seeking males, suggests primatologist Amy Parish.

She argues that female macaques may enhance their social position through homosexual intimacy which in turn influences breeding success. Parish says, "Taking something that's nonreproductive, like mounting another female—if it leads to control of a resource or acquisition of a resource or a good alliance partner, that could directly impact your reproductive success."

On the other hand, they could just be enjoying themselves, suggests Paul Vasey, animal behavior professor at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. "They're engaging in the behavior because it's gratifying sexually or it's sexually pleasurable," he says. "They just like it. It doesn't have any sort of adaptive payoff."

Matthew Grober, biology professor at Georgia State University, agrees, saying, "If [sex] wasn't fun, we wouldn't have any kids around. So I think that maybe Japanese macaques have taken the fun aspect of sex and really run with it."

The bonobo, an African ape closely related to humans, has an even bigger sexual appetite. Studies suggest 75 percent of bonobo sex is nonreproductive and that nearly all bonobos are bisexual. Frans de Waal, author of Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape, calls the species a "make love, not war" primate. He believes bonobos use sex to resolve conflicts between individuals.

Other animals appear to go through a homosexual phase before they become fully mature. For instance, male dolphin calves often form temporary sexual partnerships, which scientists believe help to establish lifelong bonds. Such sexual behavior has been documented only relatively recently. Zoologists have been accused of skirting round the subject for fear of stepping into a political minefield.

"There was a lot of hiding of what was going on, I think, because people were maybe afraid that they would get into trouble by talking about it," notes de Waal. Whether it's a good idea or not, it's hard not make comparisons between humans and other animals, especially primates. The fact that homosexuality does, after all, exist in the natural world is bound to be used against people who insist such behavior is unnatural.

In the U.S., in particular, the moral debate over this issue rages on. Many on the religious right regard homosexuality as a sin. And only this month, President Bush vowed to continue his bid to ban gay marriages after the Senate blocked the proposal.

Already, cases of animal homosexuality have been cited in successful court cases brought against states like Texas, where gay sex was, until recently, illegal.

Yet scientists say we should be wary of referring to animals when considering what's acceptable in human society. For instance, infanticide, as practiced by lions and many other animals, isn't something people, gay or straight, generally approve of in humans.

Human Homosexuality

So how far can we go in using animals to help us understand human homosexuality? Robin Dunbar is a professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Liverpool, England. "The bottom line is that anything that happens in other primates, and particularly other apes, is likely to have strong evolutionary continuity with what happens in humans," he said.

Dunbar says the bonobo's use of homosexual activity for social bonding is a possible example, adding, "One of the main arguments for human homosexual behavior is that it helps bond male groups together, particularly where a group of individuals are dependent on each other, as they might be in hunting or warfare."

For instance, the Spartans, in ancient Greece, encouraged homosexuality among their elite troops. "They had the not unreasonable belief that individuals would stick by and make all efforts to rescue other individuals if they had a lover relationship," Dunbar added.

Another suggestion is that homosexuality is a developmental phase people go through. He said, "This is similar to the argument of play in young animals to get their brain and muscles to work effectively and together. Off the back of this, there's the possibility you can get individuals locked into this phase for the rest of their lives as a result of the social environment they grow up in."

But he adds that homosexuality doesn't necessarily have to have a function. It could be a spin-off or by-product of something else and in itself carries no evolutionary weight."

He cites sexual gratification, which encourages procreation, as an example. "An organism is designed to maximize its motivational systems," he adds.

In other words, if the urge to have sex is strong enough it may spill over into nonreproductive sex, as suggested by the actions of the bonobos and macaques. However, as Dunbar admits, there's a long way to go before the causes of homosexuality in humans are fully understood.

He said, "Nobody's really investigated this issue thoroughly, because it's so politically sensitive. It's fair to say all possibilities are still open."

sac wasnt so whack

rolled into my hometown for the day. brought my girlfriend to meet my sister and mom. thats a pretty significant thing. Ran into ex's g-ma @ one of my fav sac stops- The Co-op. G-ma's insincere pleasantry reminded me that I do NOT miss interaction with her. There is point of politeness which can be cutting and cold.....

Saw Charlie and The Chocolate factory with K and sis. It was interesting but not up to par of the original movie. This version also left me feeling like there were allusions to enslaving or capturing 'wild savages.' Two points which stuck out to me about the Oompa Loompas being discovered in he jungle to being brought to civilization AND during the boat ride into the tunnel...they seemed like they were rowing a slave ship. I wonder if anyone else felt that?Also, I really missed the somewhat LSD induced feel of the original movie during the tunnel trip sequence and the Oompa Loompa songs.

Got my sister the sixth Harry Potter book. I don't know about this Harry Potter mania which exists among adults as well as kids. As the cashier(30s) was ringing me up for the book he mentioned "you know, the seventh one is going to be all about Jenny." me- "really, is it out?" him excitedly- "oh no, she's not done with it yet..blah blah blah blah."
I don't know who the hell Jenny is.

then we skipped rocks and dived into the american river, checked out the summer Sammies music fest @ Cesar Chavez park, and got an impromtu game of hacky sac in Land Park.

sunburned,sickly,smiles

the fog cleared right up on the other side of the golden gate bridge. its funny how dramatic the change is every time i cross the bridge. like doors. j gave away the camping before we left but there were more surprises to be had. We stumbled into Guerneville and up to the Armstrong State Reserve. Both of us loved it. I typically enjoy city life, but I do get burned from an artificial world of concrete, cars, and bustle.The trees and absolute silence in the woods was fantastic for a few hours.

Back into town, we realized we were hitting Guerneville during 'Lazy Bear Weekend.' The small resort town was overrun with large and frequently hairy gay men. There were Bear flags up, and almost every storefront had signs welcoming the Bears. At our campground, we were the only women among a sea of guys. We got a few queer stares from the queer guys. K suggested we
visualize we were in a place where we were the last women on earth. I shuddered to imagine that they'd try to mate with us. Truthfully, they probably wouldn't be able to get it up for us. We'd be doomed.

The middle of the night brought lots of burly bears snoring loudly around us..and one urban hipster gay guy in a tent next to us freaking out. "Harry! People next to us are snoring! That is NOT right! I cannot deal with this. Harry, OMG! How do i open this thing? I cant open the zipper!"

Our packs outsider the tent were also ravaged by a raccoon who enjoyed scraps we forgot to throw away.

The next day brought a trip to Forestville. I loved K's look of excitement and surprise about our canoe trip =). She thought i was taking her hiking. The 10 mile trip down Russian River was amazing!!! There were beaches along the way to stop at... There was a great rope swing into the water... periodic stops just to swim in the river. probably shouldn't have gone on the water with her chest cold, but the water was irresistable.

Of course it was fantastic.