Change is the Constant

D uring the time of this little online dating adventure, I was down and out after a recent break up. Of course I wasn't completely innocent, but who is ever completely innocent? Anyway, I was on the rebound, and in some ways I wanted someone to hurt me as I had hurt the person previous. Turns out, karma, had the same plans in mind. This is the story of "The Far too Confident Virgin" I'll admit that I'm not always a deep person. Shallow doesn't completely describe me, but neither does ugly. I met this chic through a hookup site, and I knew that no one really got my attention. Until, of course, I took the time to get to know someone.  She contacted me first and I took two days to respond. When I finally replied, she just sent back her number. I shot her a line thanking her for the gesture and waited another two days before using the number. After a day of monotony and boredom, I decided to spice up my evening. I gave her a call. We talked for

Sweet Heat Miami 2012 My friends and I have made it our duty to attend almost every LGBTQ event possible. Since our trip earlier this year to Sweet Heat Miami 2012, we've become obsessed with the idea of traveling for the sake of being gay and young, while we still are  young . Sweet Heat 2012 was a great experience overall, and if you've never gotten the chance to go it's definitely worth it. The days are filled with pool parties, women in bikinis, and drunken disasters. While the nightlife becomes an even mix of club goers, and more drunken disasters. We even considered returning for the Sweet Heat Miami 2013 festivities which are actually already in the midst of being scheduled. Party at The Dinah 2012 For this coming year, we have all decided to take a much different trip. This year we are going to venture out into the wild, wild West Coast for The Dinah Shore 2013 ! This will be my first trip to The Dinah, and this idea sprang from us watching The Real L Wo

Junot Diaz I was introduced to Junot Diaz by a college professor. She had given us a syllabus packed with books I didn't plan on buying. At the time, my focus wasn't on purchasing novels with the loan money provided to me by Sallie Mae. I sat next to a group of slacker type students that checked their buzzing blackberry's way more than they lifted their hands to answer a question. I was cool with this group, but never fully acclimated with the idea of throwing this education in the trash. The professor entered the classroom everyday, with more zest for learning in her thumb then in the class as a whole. She started off my voyage into Diaz with the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.   I was then assigned, Drown by another professor and the cycle would continue by following Diaz's short stories in the New Yorker . I loved Diaz because he was the only writer I had know to speak about parts of New Jersey that very few people frequent.

D uring Labor Day weekend, Lil' Wayne released his Dedication 4  mixtape to the web. Within hours the mixtape had over 20,000 downloads and at least 50 hip-hop blogger reviews. Of course, I was one of those people itching to download the mixtape and hear some of that Lil' Wayne sound over someone else's beat.  I got exactly what I wanted, popular beats meshed with the mixtape Tunechi I have adored since Drought 3 . What I also got, surprisingly was a bit of confusion on the song 'Mercy'   where Wayne is joined by YMCMB label mate, Nicki Minaj. Towards the end of Nicki's verse, she spat out, " I'm a Republican voting for Mitt Romney/You lazy bitches is fuckin' up the economy.. " My eyes widened immediately, and I scrambled to run that part back just so I could be sure I hadn't taken it out of context or misheard her line. Before I could even do a search on Minaj, her name was splattered across the Huffington Post, and she had succeede

Another online dating story to follow up the first one : One day, I was sitting with my mother, and we started talking about ways to meet people. I stressed to her the necessity of going out and meeting people in person. I told her that there is nothing compared to just meeting someone at a bar, while shopping, or through unexpected conversation. She told me that it's not the same for her generation. She believes dating for a middle aged woman isn't as simple as going to a bar and hoping for the best. I was instantly reminded of a conversation I had with a college friend, and he said that his father felt online dating was the only  way he would find love. We were both perplexed that our intelligent parents could be so wrong. For my generation, the internet is a means to hooking up . This phrase has several different meaning to different people, but one thing stays the same; hooking up  is NOT long term. It's a temporary thing that only leads to a lasting relationship i

M ost of my musical influence comes from the people I spent most of my time with as a child. Those influencers are people like my mother, my father, and an older cousin. My mother and father simply played what they grew up listening to, while my cousin set out to influence us. She would have the radio on all day, and we would sit up next to her, not quite sure what we were listening to, but certain that it was just too cool . I suppose this experience isn't strange or hard to imagine and I'm not setting this up to be profound. I just know that I owe so much to these people for shaping the eclectic taste I have in music. Of all the musical performers I love, the top of my list begins with Jay-Z. His music has been a huge part of my life. Helping me to understand that all things can be achieved with determination and drive. Although I strive to soak up all the institutional education possible, one of my biggest influences, Jay-Z, did so much without even a high school diplom