Blogs
Create New Blog EntryHi friends at GBT. I wanted to post this because this member (I have redacted his name) is not the only one that feels this way. I feel very strongly about my answer to him. My answer was too long and rambling and maybe confusing, but it is what it is. I would welcome any comments or opposing views, especially in light of the fucked up world lately with ISIS and White Supremacists. I could be way off base in declaring these films harmless. At the bottom is a short clip which is typical from these group of films. After the short one is the clip I think he is referring to. I am sorry in advance for the spelling and grammar issues. I had not even a minute this morning to proofread even for major errors.
------------ original message ----------------- The boys are ubercute but the scene is disturbing. I wonder if it is appropriate to post considering the violence rife in the United States. This clip will send the wrong message to viewers who are "ting-tong" (a thai colloquial expression meaning slightly crazy)
i like the new layout of GBT, shows more vids per page, less time searching for them, looks more modern and up to date
Hi GBTers!
Its been 3 weeks since I last logged on and so much has happened, we is in a new house and I am at a new school which is really great (not like the last fucked up place!) I am out at school and no one cares and I have a wonderful beautiful boyfriend called Jack. He just came out and everything is really cool, and guess what, we just spent nearly a whole week together in adjoining beds! problem was we was both in hospital with glandular fever and a bug called cryptosporidium it was really yucky and horrible and we were both very sick and dehydrated. We got out of hospital yesterday and are snuggled up together surfing the net coz we still a bit tired. I am gonna rename my blog "Life with Johnno and Jack" as we are so deeply in love with each other! He's tickling me while I am trying to type! Jack says hi and glad to meet everyone.
I hope all you guys are well and are enjoying life as much as us!
love yous all!! xxxxxxxx
J
I'm 26 year old gay guy and I am super shy when it comes to getting to meet new people.
Attempting to put myself out there a bit more but does anyone else find this super hard or is it just me?
Thanks for reading.
Yesterday (Sunday) was the Eve of New Year, Tet. We celebrate it at the same time they do in China and here's some history of it:
Tet Nguyen Dan, or Tet for short, is considered the biggest and most popular festival of the year in Vietnam. Celebrated on the first day of the first month in Lunar Calendar, Tet’s celebration is the longest holiday which may last up to seven days (with the exception of Tet 2012 when the holiday is expected to last for 9 days!). Vietnamese New Year in 2016 will last from February 7th -14th.
How Tet is calculated?
Different from the Gregorian calendar, Lunar Calendar has a fix number of twelve months with 30 days each, and a leap-year will have a whole intercalary month instead of the 29th day of February. The new year of Lunar Calendar normally will start in late January or beginning of February according to Gregorian calendar. That explains why Tet days vary from year to year: it is because the leap month may fall shorter or longer which create a smaller or bigger gap between the two calendars.
What is Tet?
Tet is the occasion for Vietnamese to express their respect and remembrance for their ancestors as well as welcoming the New Year with their beloved family members. Moreover, in the past, Tet was essential as it provided one of few long breaks during the agricultural year, which was held between the harvesting of the crops and the sowing of the next ones. To make it easier, one can imagine Tet as a combination of Christmas and New Year: every family will get together to have big meals, decorate Tet trees and eat Tet food but to welcome the new year instead of a religious cause.
How is Tet celebrated?
Since Tet occupies an important role in Vietnamese’s religious beliefs, Vietnamese will begin their preparations well in advance of the upcoming New Year. In an effort to get rid of the bad luck of the old year, people will spend a few days cleaning their homes, polishing every utensil, or even repaint and decorate the house with kumquat tree, branches of peach blossom, and many other colorful flowers. The ancestral altar is especially taken care of, with careful decoration of five kinds of fruits and votive papers, along with many religious rituals. Everybody, especially children, buy new clothes and shoes to wear on the first days of New Year. People also try to pay all their pending debts and resolve all the arguments among colleagues, friends or members of family.
Like other Asian countries, Vietnamese believe that the color of red and yellow will bring good fortune, which may explain why these colors can be seen everywhere in Lunar New Year. People consider what they do on the dawn of Tet will determine their fate for the whole year, hence people always smile and behave as nice as they can in the hope for a better year. Besides, gifts are exchanged between family members and friends and relatives, while children receive lucky money kept in red envelope.
No matter where Tet is celebrated, it must be clarified from the beginning that Tet is not a day, but several days of celebration.
Food for Tet
The following food is often consumed during Tet; some are particular to Tet and often associated with the grand celebration:
- Vietnamese sausage - giò chả
... and we drink a lots of Bia Hanoi (Beer), Bia Saigon and of course Vodka Saigon as well Vodka Hanoi. Most families make vodka from original, put some fruits (apples, bananas, apricots etc.) and leave it like marinate for about six months in a big bottle, about 20 litres. Before the party begins we filter the vodka and put it into smaller bottles. Every family has own recipe (I think so) and 99% made by father of the family or in some cases oldest sons of the family. Then when we have lunch or dinner we taste a variety of flavors but just small shots!
Chúc mừng năm mới and cao lương mỹ vị! Cheers!
"...You measure peace with guns. Progress in mega-tons. Who's left when the war is won? Soldier of misfortune. Soldier of an angry call. Soldier on foreign soil. I'm not here to fight your war. I know what you're fighting for. Ah, boy, boy, this world is not your toy. This world is long on hunger. This world is short on joy." -- Soldier of Plenty by Jackson Browne
Its called "American Exceptionalism," the carefully inculcated notion that the United States, by virtue of its unique history, enlightened Constitution, phenomenal wealth and technological ingenuity, and even by Providential design, is immune from the restraints and consequences governing human affairs since the beginning of recorded time. Not surprisingly, in a country populated with historical illiterates, this notion has gained widespread public acceptance. Its the very air we breathe, in the land that Gore Vidal once named "the United States of Amnesia." But while we're busy scarfing down our beer and barbecue this holiday weekend, discordant notes float above the din of the hometown parades, the firecrackers, and the endless corporate-sponsored expressions of self-congratulations. Since 1990, by law, every department of the Federal Government is required to submit to an independent audit, to make sure that the American taxpayer is not being swindled. Guess what government department has never submitted to this legally mandated financial examination? If you said the Department of Defense, go to the head of the class. And it gets worse. The journalist William D. Hartung reports that in addition to blocking efforts at an accurate accounting, Pentagon officials have created huge, off-the books, slush funds. No one knows for sure how much money is involved, or for what purposes this money is being earmarked, but Hartung notes that annual "defense" spending is estimated to exceed one trillion dollars, an amount seven times larger than that of second place China, and even larger than the combined costs of the rest of the world's military spending. And yet, voices within the military-industrial complex scream for more funding. The United States military has been actively engaged almost continuously for the last third of a century, yet none of these actions have been authorized with a declaration of war by Congress, as the Constitution requires. A recent poll of people worldwide named the United States as the country they most feared, even by the citizens of our western European allies. This is the rot of militarism, and I will not celebrate it. Meanwhile, a survey of independent engineers reported last week that nearly 60,000 bridges in the United States are in a serious state of disrepair. The activist Erin Brockovich tells us that some 300 communities in America have unsafe drinking water. This week, Congress will likely authorize a bill to allow the FBI to expand warrantless searches of the private information of law-abiding citizens through the use of secret "National Security Letters." Recently, we learned that the NSA and the CIA were using their enhanced intelligence capabilities to spy on the computer systems of Congress itself, and NSA officials, when asked about this at a Congressional hearing, lied under oath. What do you call a government acting with no oversight, no accountability, and no respect for its own laws, a government that neglects the most basic needs of its own citizens, while secretly spending trillions spying on the whole world? Isn't it a dictatorship, or at the very least an incipient one? Why would any rational and moral human being want to serve it, and possibly die for it? Who's freedom is being fought for here? To again quote the late Mr. Vidal, this is "surrendering to everything evil in the society."
"...If in some smothering dreams you too could pace / Behind the wagon that we flung him in, / And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, / His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; / If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, / Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud / Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, / My friend, you would not tell with such high zest / To children ardent for some desperate glory / The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est / Pro patria mori. -- Wilfred Owen 1918
Well, I just lost my job. I went to work as usual Wednesday morning, and about 1030am was called up to the GM's office. There was his secretary and my supervisor sitting at a conference table. When I sat down, I was handed a termination form and told my job position was being eliminated. I was stunned. Ever since I graduated high school 2 years ago I had worked at this car dealership. And now this! She told me that business was slowing down, as it always did during the fall and winter months, but thisjQuery18207340021180438538_1477073251644?? They both said they were very sorry. So I got up and left stunned. My co-workers were shocked and didn't wanna believe it. I stayed for an hour saying goodbye to everyone and heard from them to "keep your chin up". As soon as I got home, I went online to apply for unemployment and food assistance. I'm still in shock...........friends promised to let me know if they know of any job openings. I'm trying to stay positive, but at times its damn hard to. Oh well, life goes on.........can't let this get me down.
Any President who would allow someone capable of doing such a thing the opportunity to actually do it is just as repugnant as the unconscionable admitted sex offender who believes he is going to be the next President. If Obama lets it happen then he was a liar from the get go having never intended to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Executive Power is Executive Power and it's purpose has never been more important at any time since the inception of our nation. OUR NATION DOESN'T NEED A MIRACLE, IT NEEDS A PRESIDENT WHO ISN'T GOING TO LET A FASCIST DICTATOR DESTROY OUR COUNTRY.
