I believe that music touches the heart and soul.  Music inspires creativity and broadens our minds so that we can be great people.  Music derives from a Greek word “Mousike” which means “art of the muses” so it’s no wonder why it gives us inspiration.  Music has always been a part of my life.  When I was a teenager I listened to music all day long to drown out the real world, I guess that is where my creativity came from.

Every year before Spring begins, I seek out new music to add to my mp3 player so that I can listen to something that will get me through my 2 1/2 hour bike rides.  Today I got to listen to an openly-gay country/folk singer named Justin Utley.  He is a New York City based singer-songwriter and he released his first full-length studio album in 6 years entitled “Nothing This Real’ on November 11th.  I really enjoyed listening to his album because I love his voice and his singing style.  He isn’t bad to look at either.

I don’t know what it is about his music but it’s soothing to listen to.  Every song tells a story and every song I listened to I was able to relate to in one way or another.  I guess that is why I know I’m going to love listening to him.  I believe that he has a true “It Gets Better” story.  I found this information about him.

“An Ex-Mormon raised near Salt Lake City, Utah, Utley is perhaps the only openly gay performing artist to have survived ex-gay therapy, a practice that he vocally opposes. His experience coming to terms with his sexuality and religion have emerged as strong themes in his songwriting and on-stage storytelling.

“I’ve been asked if I could take any of it back, you know, what I’ve experienced.  I wouldn’t,” says Utley.  “Its part of me, my story, and its been a hell of a journey.  And I’m here to share that.”

I was a member of the Mormon church when I was a baby and again when I was a teenager.  I wasn’t as involved in the church as he was, but I believe that if we were more involved I probably would have been.

This is actually something that I have come to terms with in my life as well.  I wouldn’t take any of it back because it is what made me who I am today.  Intolerance towards me instilled my ability to be more tolerant towards others.  I was taught hate, but it ended up teaching me the opposite.  It seems like he has the same attitude.  It made him a strong person and that is what I like about him.  When you know an artists story, it makes you connect with them on a deeper level.

“Released in 2005, Utley’s first album Runaway received critical acclaim from audiences and critics in the LGBT community and created a dedicated online following.

“The lead single has been announced as Great Escape and was premiered by New York publication Next Magazine on their website on November 1st. It debuted on Sirius-XM’s OutQ radio channel following Utley’s interview with the Six Pack show on November 2nd. A music video for the single is scheduled for production in early 2012.”

It is too bad that I didn’t know about him back in 2005, but I’m glad to know him now.  Better late than never eh?

His single “Stand for Something” won the 2011 award for Outstanding Country/Folk song of the year by the LGBT Academy of recording arts.  That’s something to be proud of.  He has also acted; he played the lead role of Tommy Dautry in the New York musical “Our Country” which I also didn’t know since I live in Bakersfield.  He also won best actor at the Planet Connections theater festival in 2010.  That is something to really be proud of.

His latest album was released on 11/11/11 and is available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon as well as his website and Facebook.

For more information including booking and interview requests, contact Dan Maierle – dmaierle@gmail.com.

• Official Website: http://www.justinutley.com
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/justinutleymusic
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/justinutley

Justin Utley is someone who I am going to be paying serious attention to.  I will definitely be buying his music to add to my mp3 player.

‘Meet Justin Utley’ EPK Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm4kc6zmfwI

When I heard a couple of weeks ago that Sony Online Entertainment was going to make EverQuest free to play in March I got excited.  I was acting as if I was going back home after my five-year absence, as if the game were my long-lost family.

Last night I installed the game from my old discs and ran the game so that it could start downloading updates so when March 11th came, I could just go ahead and login to the game without having to wait for a huge download.  It took me about half an hour or longer to install all of the discs.  When I finished installing, I clicked the link on the desktop and got a message saying this:

“Could not establish a connection. Please check your network connection or contact eqtech@soe.sony.com.”

Naturally I was peeved and immediately went to Facebook to find out what was wrong without going to the EverQuest website first.  I couldn’t wait for a response so I decided to go to the website and found that they had a new launchpad.  I downloaded and installed it and because it was a tiny file, it didn’t take more than a minute.  Unfortunately since my EverQuest account wasn’t active I couldn’t download anything.

I was going through the website last night and I clicked where it said it was going to be free to play in March and saw what you get when you don’t pay and I didn’t like what I saw.  You get free access to all of their expansions which was great news since I haven’t bought an expansion pack in more than 5 years.  Unfortunately everything else is restricted.

You only get 4 races and 4 classes, you have to purchase the rest.  Well, I have many races and classes with 8 characters which is the max you can have so I didn’t think I was going to make another one.  That reminds me, I would only be able to play with 2 of my characters.  They only give you 2 character slots.  So what if I had 8 characters?  Would they black them out or delete them?  I’m sure they wouldn’t delete them, they would probably just make it so I can’t play with them.  Well, Xanapus was at the bottom of the list, would I be stuck having to play with the top two on the list?  I wouldn’t like that at all because those two characters are both newbie characters that I never leveled.

You only get 250 alternate abilities, I have over 350 which isn’t a very high amount but would I lose all of those last 100 that I had already earned?

They would take 6 of my bag slots away because they only allow you to use 4.  Well, I have 10 bags and I would hate it if they took those items away from, or blacked them out so I couldn’t use them.

They have a platinum limitation of 100p per level.  My character is level 74, so does that mean I would be allowed to keep 7400p?  Well, I have over 100k in the bank, would I lose all of that?  That would suck big time.

The last ones are minor.  I wouldn’t be able to send in-game email, only receive it which isn’t a problem since I don’t know anyone anymore.  I would be allowed a house but not a guild hall.  Does that mean if I were in a guild I wouldn’t be allowed to go into the hall, or I wouldn’t be allowed to create one?  Houses?  What?  They have houses now?

Ok so today I decided that I couldn’t wait until March 11th to play.  I certainly wasn’t going to do the free account because I did not play all those years so I could lose it all.  I decided I would just go ahead and pay for a subscription of $14.99 next month when I had some more money and go back to the game that I missed so much.  After thinking about it I looked at my bank account and discovered that I have more than enough money for us to get by for the rest of the month.  I could just go ahead and pay for it and start playing again today.

I went to log into the new launchpad and it started the download.  More than 8GB of data had to be downloaded for me to play.  I figured that with my cable internet it wouldn’t take too long, but just in case it did I would probably just log in tomorrow.  It only took 3 hours to download/install all of the files.

It took longer than I thought to load the game, but I figured it was because it had to load all of the textures and whatnot.  When it finally let me in, I was back to the world that I had missed for such a long time.  The graphics were as horrible as I remembered them.  I started thinking that the Lord of the Rings graphics are so much better, but I don’t care, this is where I want to be.  Of course I’m not quitting LOTRO, I will play both.

The guy from Sony Online Entertainment told me on the phone that it is possible that some of my characters names might have a “1″ after them since it has been so long since I played.  It is possible that someone over the years created a character with a name that I used.  If my Xanapus had a 1 after it I was going to be one pissed off gnome, but it didn’t WHEW!

When the game loaded I was in the Plane of Knowledge.  Nothing had changed at all.  I clicked the Guild button and was shocked that I was still in my guild “Regnat Populus”,  I thought for sure they had disbanded.  I ran to the guild hall and it was just as I remembered it.  I gated to Greater Faydark and ran to the Steamfont Mountains and then to Ak`anon.  Steamfont was different, but they had upgraded it before I left so it was the same.  Ak`anon on the other hand was the same as it was in 2002 when I first started playing the game.  I was a little disappointed that they had upgraded all of the zones, but they left that one, at the same time I shed a tear for old times.

All of my friends were still in the friends list.  I clicked the button to find out who was online and one of them was.  His name is Mezmar.  There was a time when I was forbidden to talk to him because he betrayed my guild, but that is all in the past, water under the bridge.  It was a guild that I hadn’t been in for a very long time, I believe it was “Blades of Veeshan.”  I sent him a /tell and he didn’t even remember me.  I tried to jog his memory but he just couldn’t remember.

I ran around looking at things but I was alone.  No friends, no guild members online, nobody to talk to so I just signed off.  Tomorrow is a new day so I will get back in the game and start exploring again.  I can’t wait to get back in the game and see what is new.

My main reason for wanting to go back to the game was that I wanted to play the game again because I missed it.  My secondary reason was because I want to do research.  I want to write a fiction novel based on my main character.  It won’t be an EverQuest novel or fan fiction though.  If I make a novel with the EverQuest trademarked name, zones, characters etc. and then try to sell the book they will sue me.  Instead I will have to make up a whole new world of my own.

I don’t know if I will even get to write a book based on him, but wouldn’t it be fun if I did?  My research will be a combination of the EverQuest and Lord of the Rings games, but with my own added imagination and storyline which I will obviously make up as I go along.  I already have many ideas for a storyline, plot, characters etc., I just need to write them down.  I think it will be fun, but we will see if it even happens.  I hope it will.

Take a look at this one.  His YouTube channel is called savealifeful and he brought me to tears with his story.  When he says that the bullies taped him to a pole and then taped his hair, tears flooded my eyes, actually I’m starting to tear up again just thinking about the torture he went through.  Take a look at his story.  Perhaps he will inspire many others out there who are depressed and wanting to make that final decision.  Maybe his video can save a life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L5pIreg-7c

This is what happened.  I would be typing (as I am doing now) and suddenly lost my connection.  I noticed that my words weren’t coming out right, instead other words were being selected and deleted with every key I hit.  I would look over at the WiFi icon next to the clock and it showed that it was trying to connect, then I’d see an X.  The only way I was able to continue with my blog post, tweet, Facebook update or IM conversation was to turn 3G on.  I’d have to save my work or put the person I was talking to on hold and reboot.  At first rebooting helped, but it would disconnect again.  I got to the point that I just stopped turning it on.

What happened today was I went to play with my PSP and wondered if there was an update available.  I tried to log in to my network and it wouldn’t let me.  I noticed that it said my network was not compatible.  That didn’t make sense since Chips iPhone and my Nook haven’t had any issue logging into the network.  I loaded the Linksys EasyLink Advisor program and went into the security settings and it gave me an error.  I starting thinking that maybe that was the reason I was having issues, so I reinstalled the WPA security and viola, my Chromebook is online with no issues.

I have typed this entire post on my Chromebook without one disconnect.  Before that would have been impossible since as soon as I started typing the WiFi would disconnect.  The problem has been solved and I hope someone who is also having issues might see this and check their own network security settings.  Good luck!

I have a TON of bookmarks that I have been hoarding over the years, actually since 1997 to be exact.  Every so often I go through them and delete the ones that are no longer valid, but the problem is it is very time consuming.  I would like to replace the invalid ones with more current links, but all I can do is add to the growing pile.  I want to add a link for my favorite books or my favorite websites and be able to find them when I want them.  I have wished there was a website that had images that I can see to find the website easier.  I have good news because I found clipix.

Clipix isn’t a bookmarking website like my browsers bookmarks, it’s way more evolved than that.  Clipix is a social networking site which allows me to share my favorite websites with friends and family.

It’s really easy to work it, just go to the clipix website and watch and like the video, drag the Clip button to your bookmarks bar, go to your favorite website and click the Clip button and a new window pops up.  You have the choice of adding an image from the website by whatever is available.  Pictures make it easier to distinguish which website is the one you are looking for, even if it is an author picture and not a website logo.  You can choose which clipboard you want to add it to and click Clip!  You’re done.

Take a look, I have created two clipboards with several of my favorite websites, books and YouTube channels.

It’s a really fun website.  You can add whatever you want, where ever you want and whenever you want.  You can create clipboards, combine more than one to create a multiboard, share them with syncboards.  Create a clipboard for your favorite shopping websites, recipes, craft ideas, restaurants and/or gift ideas, the list goes on.

Say you are a private person and you don’t want anyone to see your clipboards or multiboards, no problem because you can lock it with the padlock.  Say you want the world to know everything, or maybe just the people you invite as friends, then let them see.  Syncboards are awesome because you can add links and other people can add links.  The thing that I love is that you can move the links all around within your clipboard so you can organize them any way you want them to be.  You can also rearrange the clipboards themselves in and out of multiboards.

I’m have gone through my bookmarks and have pulled out some of my favorite websites and added them to my clipboards.  Those are the ones that I want to see and share so I’m going to keep those.  I can add to it whenever I come across something new and I will finally be able to see what I’m looking for.

There is even an iPhone app so you aren’t limited to what you can do.  You can finally take your bookmarks with you.  Amazing!

If you had Clipix, how would you use it?  Leave a comment and let me know, I’m very curious to know what ideas everyone else has.  Comment, like it, tweet it… etc.

Promoted Post

You know I have to watch this.  This message has to get out there to all of the gay teens who are contemplating suicide.  They have to know that it gets better, because it does.  I am living proof of that.

Here are the air times that I can see for our cable here in Bakersfield, CA.  It’s cable so I’m sure it’s everywhere.

• Logo 2/21 11:00 pm
• 2/22 12:30 am
• MTV 2/21 11:03 pm
• 2/24 4:00 pm
• 2/25 10:30 am

I know it’s going to be inspirational to everyone.  We have to raise awareness any way we can so please watch it and tell all of your friends to watch too.

Source: It Gets Better | Trailer | Video | MTV

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

So I decided today that I wanted to see who these One Million Moms are and I scrolled down in their page.  I saw a post on their wall telling their One Mill… er um 40 thousand moms to boycott Macy’s because there is a wedding cake in one of their catalogs with 2 dudes on it.  Then they have a post to boycott Home Depot because they have supported gay pride in the past.

Don’t these people have enough to do with their daily lives than to sit around bitching and complaining about gay people?  I mean seriously, don’t they have something else to do?  Like oh I don’t know, maybe focus on their own lives than sit around bitching and complaining about whether I should be allowed to be happy or not.?  I mean, why is it their job to try to control how I live and control who gets to support who and who gets to shop where?

I can see why they are doing that though.  I mean, me being in the gay community am told that I can’t shop at Target because they donated some money to a politician who supported an anti-gay… what was it again?  I don’t even remember, it was someone anti-gay.  We’re told we can’t go to Wal-Mart because they are anti-gay, I have actually been on the side of discrimination and so has a family member who happens to be gay so that I can actually understand.

All JCPenny, Macy’s and Home Depot are doing is showing that they support gay people and they aren’t asshole bigots.  I mean, since when did being an asshole become popular all of a sudden?  Whatever happened to being politically correct?  If being political correct is no longer an option, then why am I trying so hard to not call these women a bunch of ********* (record scratch sound)… because I’m not an asshole bigot, that’s why.  I am not going to stoop to their childish level.

These Christians think that we are the evil ones because we were born differently, but it is my opinion that we aren’t the ones who are evil…

Moving here was tough but I made sure to have direct tv dubois installed the first week I was in the house. I really love catching up on the soaps I miss while I’m at work at night – it’s the way I relax – so I knew I needed lots of channels to feel good about being here. I don’t know a soul in town and all the people I work with are a lot older than me and they’ve all got families so I think it’s going to be a slow process trying to meet people and make friends. I’m bound and determined to make it work, though, because I moved here on a hope and a prayer and I know I can do it if anyone else can. I love my job, don’t get me wrong, but at the end of the day I think it’s crucial to have a life outside of work and that can’t just mean keeping up with all my favorite soap stars, you know?

Marguerite Labbe is an award-winning M/M author.  She wrote those gay vampire books that I love so much starting with  ”My Heart Is Within You.”  I really love to read supernatural fiction, especially when they have vampires, ESPECIALLY when they are gay vampires lol.  She really knows how to capture the raw sexuality of two hot gay men better than I have ever even experienced.  Let’s just say that I had to take several bathroom breaks when I read her book.

MargueriteLabbe.com: Diary of a Gay Nerd by Michel McDonald

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Diary of a Gay Nerd by Michel McDonald

“I’ve had a hard time putting into words how I felt when I read Michel’s memoir.  Many parts struck a chord in me from my own childhood, though I was far luckier than Michel was and I didn’t have the added alienation of being gay.  I’ve known Michel for several years now, ever since he picked up my vampire trilogy and we started talking.  In that time, I’ve found him to be a very kind, passionate and determined man.  After reading his memoir I have to add brave to that as well and not just for what he endured and overcame.  To be able to write something like this, with such unflinching honesty, takes a rare kind of person.  Michel doesn’t gloss over his own mistakes, but puts them out there just as baldly as the abuse he went through.

“I am honored to know such a man and call him my friend.”

How awesome is that?  When I first read her book after buying it from Rainbow eBooks, I knew I had to find her on Twitter and tweet her telling her how awesome her book was.  I was surprised that she responded, but equally surprised that she continued talking to me through Twitter.  We have been talking ever since.  I think Twitter is one of the most amazing online services ever invented.

Thank you Marguerite Labbe for writing this review.  I have added it to the Barnes & Noble website btw.

I love Tuesdays because that means that Rainbow eBooks has a sale on all of their new releases, which mine happens to be, new that is and on sale at 15% off.  It’s regularly $6.99, but you can buy it today for only $5.94.

Diary of a Gay Nerd by Michel McDonald – Totally Tuesdays at Rainbow eBooks

If you have a Nook just download the epub file, if you have a Kindle, download the mobi file.  If you don’t have an ebook reader then you can download any file, mobi, epub or pdf.  They all work with PC if you have a PC ebook reader.