"The cat is not a commonplace creature when she loves."

— M. Fee

Prepare for one of my gay moments.

Many years ago — I'm speaking in terms of a decade, give or take — I ran across some pics while exploring the then premature intarweb.  The photographs were of the blonde gentlemen you see in the pic on the left.  The actual pictures I saw were this one, this one, this one and this one.

The first time I saw his pics I was intrigued.  He's cute.  You can't deny it.  In the years that passed since then I had unknowingly developed some kind of fantasy image of him, much in the same way that one glances through a magazine, notices a model of undeniable beauty, and immediately formulates a fantasy and desire around that model despite knowing that neither is based on anything more than a random, two-dimensional picture that is solely a representation of the product in question and has nothing whatsoever to do with the person.  It's simply how the human mind works, and with Ethan (oh, that's his name), that's precisely what happened.  I never saw any new pictures of him after that, although I did see plenty of fakers using his pics.  Eventually I forgot about the pictures and the man in them.  Time has a funny way of brushing aside the random in favor of reality.

Thankfully the web is not so forgetful.  It has a way of somehow taking us to places we never thought of.  You know how it works: that inexplicable web phenomenon through which you are reading a site and click a link, click another link, click another link, click about ten more links, click a few more links, finally click another link and ultimately finding yourself somewhere that cannot possibly be related to where you started.  Whatever it is you were looking for is so far removed from where you find yourself that you cannot fathom how one resulted in the other.  Yet there you are.

It was through this process, that bizarre "degrees of separation" phenomenon that only the web can provide, that somehow I found myself reading Brat Boy School.  Even the most cursory of examinations revealed this blog had the same pics of that blonde man I had seen so many years before.  In addition to the same pics, I also stumbled across many more, some from the same time and others that were more recent.

As with all such discoveries, I was shocked, but not entirely.  This is the intarweb, infinite in size and reach, and there is nothing you cannot find out there.  Well, that's what the marketing material says.  I read the brochure, you know.

So I read the blog, going back to the beginning and reading forward until I reached the present.  It was obviously the blog of the very same person, that man I had seen so many years ago in what were essentially anonymous pictures on some random web page.  Now that I think about it, I suspect that at least some of those photos had been posted by fakers or thieves, yet, after so many years, I had somehow stumbled upon the lair of the blonde hunk himself.  What are the odds?

I was obviously worried that somehow finding the real man behind the platinum cut would be the polar opposite of what I had imagined.  I remind you that I had imagined a complete person when I had only seen a single picture.  People can be so silly; est-ce que j'ai raison?  Luckily, he didn't ruin the fantasy.  In fact, he reinforced it.

He likes sci-fi, including Star Trek, Stargate: Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica.  He's so cute (and if you thought I was kidding).  And I'm sure I mentioned he's hot.  He cooks.  Sometimes he cooks in appropriate attire.  He's not just a pretty boy; he actually thinks and feels.  He's definitely gay (when did you last pack a spare change of clothes and wet wipes before heading off to a friend's birthday party?).  He's a movie adict.  He eats healthy.  He's extremely friendly.  He's sexually aware.  He's gracious.  Need I go on?

Situations like this amaze me, while only on a very limited basis now, in that they demonstrate how the web has caused the world to shrink (virtually speaking, of course).  Someone remote and distant from many moons ago, someone only seen in a few pictures that could in no way be associated with an individual (like any model picture or advertisement with people in it), can suddenly and somehow be discovered through random and infinite clicking until magically you stumble upon a page somehwhere out there that is entirely unrelated to what you were looking for in the first place.  This page, however, has now linked you to a period in your past, helped you rediscover a friend or family member, discover those of like minds, or, as in this case, reignite a puerile schoolboy fantasy from so long ago by putting you in touch with someone you had never dreamt of actually speaking to.

There is no random fantasy here, however, as I'm not beguiled by this discovery.  Well, OK, I'll admit that the ol' schoolboy infatuation is still there, especially now that I'm provided an opportunity to know the man behind the pictures (and he's actually interesting and friendly and worth getting to know) in addition to communicating with him.  But, more than that, it is, as I said, a very cool development that is becoming increasingly common with the internets.  I've been given a chance to get to know him, not only via his blog but also via personal contact.  Perhaps a friendship will develop, even if only across digital distances (which seems likely given Ethan's personality and desire to befriend people from all over the globe).

Sure makes moving to Las Vegas seem like a really good idea…

You know of course that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.

— Somerset Maugham

I simply must.  I saw the original movie when I was but a child.  The previews look like they've followed the story well.  As a horror movie buff, I would be drawn to this film even if I had never heard of it, but I so loved the original that seeing the remake is a given, a must.  I can't wait.

In case you hadn't heard already (and because I've only seen this significant update reported by one news outlet), I thought I'd share the recent findings regarding the post-Katrina reports from the Superdome and Convention Center in New Orleans.  You may remember hearing about shootouts and murders, gang violence, rape, possibly hundreds of dead bodies lying about, crime running rampant and all manner of hell breaking loose at the New Orleans Convention Center and Superdome as tens of thousands of people found themselves stranded with no food, water or other relief.  Those reports shocked and amazed me; that survivors camped together had lost control so rapidly and that the conditions were so extremely horrific must in fact be unfounded, eh?  Even the New Orleans police chief claimed that there were hundreds of dead bodies lying about the Superdome and that survivors had become criminals within the shelters.  Then, of course, the truth comes along.

There were six dead bodies at the Superdome.  Yes, just six and only six.  Four had died from natural causes, one had jumped to his own death (most likely a suicide) and the other died from a medication overdose.  After being checked many times to ensure nothing had been missed, recovery officials made clear that there was no evidence of gun battles, no evidence of mass violence and murdering, no evidence of large numbers of dead, and frankly no evidence whatsoever that the crowds of survivors had become mad, blood-thirsty and crazed mobs of savages as had been claimed by every single major news source and many of the New Orleans officials (although not in that order), including the mayor and police superintendent.

How pitiful is is then that I have yet to see anyone save FOX News (and how surprising is that?) report this updated information as a correction to reports they had run weeks ago in the height of post-Katrina mayhem…  Is this an example of the high journalistic standards that they all claim to uphold?  Surely others must have noticed the truth beginning to sneak out from the dark corners and now realize that full disclosure is the only option they have left.

Pitiful.  Truly pitiful.  To know that government officials could so easily fall into the panic and begin spreading rumors.  I can almost understand the media outlets doing so as they were reporting the facts given to them by state and local officials during a significant crisis.  It is on that point alone that I'm willing to give them all 24 hours to issue corrections (and, I think, they all will).  The officials are another story.

In a time of crisis, as mentioned, we look to officials to remain calm and collected and to report only the facts and the truth.  We must rely on them for this since it is they who are in charge during such times (and otherwise, but more so following such a catastrophe).  In this case, we have irrefutable proof that they were passing along rumors they heard from others without actually checking them, rumors that portrayed New Orleans as a city devastated by a hurricane and then by its own people.  Sure, there was looting and sniper fire and the like, but the horrific scenes of utter mayhem and lawlessness described at the Superdome and Convention Center never actually occurred, and the idea that dead bodies were stacking up around the survivors was completely false — unless six dead bodies can be equated to an uncontrolled compilation of corpses.

I shall wait and see what fallout, if any, the officials suffer from this.  As with all of the examples of their bad judgment during this time, they fueled the fire of panic by reporting rumors as concrete proof.  Surely that's more than just a political crime.