Big Fat Hairy Living

Bears in the City is back.

There’s a guy on gay.com chat right now using the handle “9inchworm4rice.” I can just imagine the object of his affection introducing him to mom: “Hi Mom! This is my new boyfriend, 9inchworm4rice!”

According to the Toronto Star, I’ve been doing the right thing all along my treating my plants like pets. My Christmas cactus is blooming again, my lipstick plants are still blooming, and my Peace Lily and Chinese Evergreen bloomed earlier in the year. They love me!

Some miscellaneous thoughts that I’ve had the past few days, but haven’t had a chance to write down:

• I bought the dishes I’ve been eyeing at eatons for over a year. When I heard the news that eatons was going, I realized that my chance to buy these dishes that I’d never seen anywhere else might pass and then I’d never get them. A German twink with a very strong accent helped me, and he pronounced my surname correctly; i.e., the German pronunciation, not the anglicized version I use.
• I just realized today that Joe Clark blogged about me over a year ago. (Scroll down to the middle of that entry. I’m the “big bear dood”.)
• My music teacher is the best. On Wednesday, she asked me whether I’d “found anyone nice,” meaning a boyfriend. I told her that I hadn’t, and she said I would find someone because I have a big heart. She’s amazing.
• My friend Claude now has a blog of his own, and it’s funny because I can imagine him saying everything he writes.
• I’ve been seeing lots of woofy bears on the bus. Yesterday I saw a hot big cub on the subway. He got off at Summerhill and another hot cub got on. Today on the bus a bear with a nice beard and a 0 gauge curved barbell in his right ear was sitting next to me reading an Arthur C. Clarke book. Another big bear got on the bus a few stops away from my work.
• Chubs are developed at a young age. I saw a teenaged chub thing on the subway with his little friends, and even though he looked to be only 15 or 16, he already was blossoming into fully slobby chubdom: he had the Bad Chub Hair and Bad Chub Glasses, and was wearing track pants. I hope someone will rescue him from his impending chubdom and turn him into something resembling a normal human being.
• I’m really happy with my apartment with the exception of my bedroom. I need a better arrangement, but I can’t think of one given the furniture I have.
• I look really good in my Khaki-coloured T-shirt.

They never had gay orgy courses when I was in university!

Celsus, second century critic of Christianity:

More and more the myths put about by these Christians are better known than the doctrines of the philosophers. Who has not heard the fable of Jesus’ birth from a virgin or the stories of his crucifixion and resurrection?…But the point is this, and the Christians would do well to heed it: One ought first to follow reason as a guide before accepting any belief, since anyone who believes without testing a doctrine is certain to be decieved…Just as the charlatans of the cults take advantage of a simpleton’s lack of education to lead him around by the nose, so too with the Christian teachers: they do not want to give or recieve reasons for what they believe. Their favorite expressions are “Do not ask questions, just believe!” and: “Your faith will save you!” “The wisdom of the world,” they say, “is evil; to be simple is to be good.” If only they would undertake to answer my question-which I do not ask as one who is trying to understand their beliefs (there being too little to understand!). But they refuse to answer, and indeed discourage asking questions of any sort.

Eric called me yesterday as soon as he heard the news. My favourite store is closing.

Why do bad things happen to good stores? Because Canadians are cheap fucking bastards, that’s why. They don’t want quality and customer service, something I got at the new eatons time after time; they want cheap merchandise that saves you a few dollars up front. My seven floors of shopping heaven are going to be gone forever despite my best efforts to keep them afloat. The sad thing is that I knew in my heart that it wouldn’t last. The store always seemed emptier than it should have been, and it seemed lately like they were trying desparately to cut costs: all the little things, like missing price cards on the shelves, extra display tables crammed into aisles to fit more merchandise.

I’ll miss eatons.

So what are we going to have at the corner of Yonge and Dundas now? A Sears. A Sears. Barely a step up from Zellers, and not even as decent as that king of cheap merchandise, The Bay.

The recording sessions were very emotional for me. The setting has something to do with it; unlike the crappy Jehovah’s Witness who were the people responsible for my childhood religious experiences, the people who run the United Church believe in creating buildings that try to inspire a sense of awe, beauty, and wonder. Nothing makes someone feel small and humble like 30 metre ceilings. The stained glass at the back of the sanctuary is positioned so that in the morning during church services, the entire sanctuary is bathed in golden light. The acoustics at Humbercrest United were nothing short of incredible.

The main part of it was the joy of singing, but realizing that I’ll be part of a permanent record. The calibre of singing coming from the choir was nothing short of incredible. Our diction in Dirait-on was better than what I’ve heard from MP3s of performances by actual university choirs — and we are a non-auditioned choir!

When we sing that beautifully, I find myself getting incredibly wrapped up in the emotion of the song; I can feel the song in my entire body. When the song is over, I’m left with an incredible feeling. I can’t describe it in words.

You have to hand it to Christians: they really know how to design impressive buildings.

Thanks go to Ian Kirkland for taking the picture.