So, we caught the (fish)tail-end of the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island yesterday.

by JMazzolaa

Lots of fun, boobies everywhere, imaginative costumes, more trannies than you can shake a stick at, and a sizable contingent of BP-oil spill-related costumes, as was to be expected.

by Bob Jagendorf

I took a small video of the proceedings, near the end.. my apologies for the horrible angle, I was holding the camera up above my head and couldn’t really see what I was shooting at, alas.

Finally got around to posting up the pictures from our trip the other day to the Central Park Zoo and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here’s links to the two photosets on Flickr. The first is the Medieval exhibition at the Met:

And here’s the stuff from the Zoo:

After last night’s plantain disaster, I could have just gone with the basics for breakfast today: fried eggs, bacon, toast. But.. we’re trying to eat a tiny bit healthier. And there’s no point in backing up, the only way to move forward is to take a chance, right? So.. poached eggs on potato bread toast with chevre and a garlic-chile sauce! It coulda been awful, I could have ended up with egg soup, but.. well, the results were so delicious (and delicious looking) that Jo and I dug in and finished it off before I could even snap a picture. So, as a consolation, here’s this:

Not my poached eggs, mine were prettier, but screw it. I ate mine before I could snap a pic.

Victory! My faith in my cooking skills is restored. To celebrate, we’ll be doing housework and laundry, and if time permits, going to the Renegade Crafts Fair in Brooklyn. Keep an eye out for that!

Crafty!

I’m usually a fairly capable cook: I can do wonders with a cut of meat, zap most veggies into something you actually want to eat, turn pasta into all kinds of awesomeness, and let’s face it, my rice and beans are fuckin’ awesome. But tonight, I was humbled, brought to my proverbial knees, by nothing more or less than this:

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The long dark teatime of the blog is over. I’ve decided to send Facebook packing, and decided that the best way and place to continue to share my links, content, ideas, thoughts, videos, etc. is going to be using this blog, combined with Twitter and Flickr. There’s going to be a lot more updates on here from now on, so, keep an eye out.

This blog was meant to be a journal of a journey, a place to document the changes, hopes, experiences, adventures, regrets and joys of starting a whole new life somewhere away from my beloved island. Unfortunately, it quickly became a silent testament to my complete lack of progress in getting my ass off the island and out to join my girlfriend and start a new life in my beloved NYC. A combination of lack of certainty in the employment situation over there, and later on, health problems, prevented me from heading over.

No longer. My main fear was my health: while it’s currently under control, I don’t know if or when out could get worse. But I’m done hiding. There are programs, services, things I can sign up to for free, that will help me not be much of a burden while I hunt down a job, and I’m tired of being too proud to beg. So this weekend I’m stepping out. Going to talk to my boss, explain that I’m leaving, and work something out with him. And hopefully by the end of next month, this little adventure will have begun in earnest.

My signed copy of Personal Effects: Dark Art, the new supernatural thriller from one of my favorite authors, J.C. Hutchins. I won the signed edition during a contest to help promote the book, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Now, my copy of the book has finally arrived, and I couldn’t help myself. Go see the full Photoset over on Flickr.

So, went out with my no-good friends, Beautiful Monster, Penguin Regina, Lord Absu, Dr. Ceejenstein, and others, to one of our regular hangouts, a little-known tapas restaurant called La Guitarra. We’ve been regulars there for a few years now, though I fear that’s about to change for me.

I’m having no second thoughts: I’ve wanted to leave the island for a long, long time, and this really does seem to be the time to finally set out and do it. But there’s no shame in admitting that there’s a few little things I’ll miss, and foremost among those are my friends, and the nights spent in warm camraderie around a few pitchers of amazing sangria, sharing food and laughs. And I sit, and I wonder if I’ll find a place like that over there, a place where the owner greets you by name when you walk in the door, where they have your table waiting, and there’s your friends, and your first glass of sangria is on the house. I hope I do.. and I hope I can invite my friends, both the ones I have now, and the ones I’m yet to make, over for a few drinks, and a few laughs.