When I was a kid, this was seriously my favorite cartoon ever. (YouTube, 7:30, work-safe.)
- Humphrey the Bear stars in Disney's "In The Bag"
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sluggobear- September 18th, 2008
- Butterfly Ball: "Love is All"
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- sluggobear
- December 18th, 2007
Wow! I totally remember seeing this on TV as a kid! Very catchy.
I've had this song in my head as long as I can remember. It's probably cycled through my head a few thousand times, and it has always been in the back of my head somewhere. I think I even sang it to myself when I walked home from elementary school. I had never thought to look for it until now.
Anyways, check it out if you're game. Kinda fun, trippy animation and a nifty song too. (YouTube, 3:13, work-safe.)
- Sunset at the Kharkov Train Station
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- sluggobear
- July 28th, 2007
nostalgic
I ran across this photo on Flickr. I really love the photo and the colors, and it brought back some vivid memories.
I lived in Kharkov, Ukraine from 1994 to 1995. When I moved to Kharkov, I arrived at this train station. That night one of my suitcases was stolen from the platform here when I wasn't looking. (I was more upset about losing my photographs than anything else.)
When I traveled to visit other cities (Donetsk, Lviv, Kiev, Moscow and St. Petersburg), I traveled from this train station.
One night we sent a fellow missionary home from this station. As we waited for the train to depart, all the missionaries sang "Thank you for being a friend..." from Golden Girls. A few minutes later, a local church member fainted on the platform, was taken to the hospital, then died.
When my parents came to visit for a week, we arrived and departed from this station. When I left Ukraine, all my friends bid me farewell at this station. I remember waving to them... there were maybe 20 of them... from the train as we slowly pulled away from the platform.
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The photographer/artist is named Trey Ratcliff, and he has some really amazing work up on Flickr.
From his bio:I specialize in a new trend called High Dynamic Range photography. HDR enables the photographer to create a color and light palette that goes beyond the normal aperture and shutter speed of the basic shot... [This shows] what we remember in our mind’s eye: an idealized super-realistic memory of the scene.
Do check-out his work if you have a few moments.
- Toys
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- sluggobear
- February 23rd, 2007
Where was this toy when I was 12? Cuz I totally would've freaked-out for it. This is made by K'Nex:
( Behind the cut. Work safe. )
OK, well I DID have a few cool toys...
- On losing something...
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- sluggobear
- January 18th, 2007
Mike and Maxim, circa 1995.I was living in Connecticut when I came-out in 1997. It was my first New Year's Eve as a gay man, and I didn't really have any friends... so I went out to a gay bar for the evening. (It was only my second time to a gay bar at all.)
I didn't really drink alcohol at this point, so I drank soda. I managed to strike-up a conversation with a handsome Irish gent, who was polite enough, but didn't want to chat much longer than a few minutes. I didn't really talk to anyone else for the rest of the night. I didn't know what bears were... (and besides, there weren't any bears there anyways.)
After keeping myself somewhat occupied with a television screen, I sat at the bar and people-watched for awhile. Many were dancing, some with golden hats and noisemakers. They all seemed to be having fun.
I wondered about the lives of these guys. I imagined that most of them had decent jobs... maybe some had partners... perhaps they spent time with friends. Mostly, it seemed to me that they were all about partying and having fun. They could do as they pleased, really. Since most of them didn't have children, they'd have more spendable income. With more time and money than the average American, it seemed like gay men were like big kids, and the world was their playground. They could travel if they wanted... stay up late... get drunk... drive a nice car, buy nice things... anything. The notion of such freedom was quite appealing to me.
In the same moment, it struck me as a certain path to a life of self-absorbed indulgence... a life where you wouldn't have any meaningful responsibilities at all. I cautioned myself not to let this happen.
Growing-up, everyone (including me) assumed that I would one day be a father. It just seemed to be a logical progression. I never questioned it.
