So You Want To Go Faster?

I saw a commercial a couple of days ago for Time Warner Cable offering 10 Mbps Internet connections. When I got my service in September they didn't offer that. So I called and asked, how much would it be to upgrade me from 6 Mb?ps to 10Mbps?

"$3.00"

It was an offer I couldn't refuse.

Masculine

Yesterday I was chatting online with guy on gay.com and the person asked if they could ask me a personal question. The question was: are you masculine?

I was a bit flummoxed by the question because it was something I never really asked myself. I guess I would be in somewhere in the middle because I am not overly macho, and I am not nelly queen. I am just me. I don't butch up my persona around certain people to fix in, but I do act a bit campy around friends who know that I am just having a laugh. A couple of minutes went by before I finally answered -- yes.

What is masculine? I am masculine by definition because I am biologically male, but would I be considered less masculine since I don't follow socially gender roles?

I decided to ask this guy the same question, and his response was that he was "very masculine." I was curious and asked what made him very masculine only receive "because I am man" as a response. I wasn't sure exactly what that meant but I didn't want to delve deeper because it may have been a touchy subject for him. In college, someone told me a story of male friend of their's who had boyfriend but didn't considered him gay because he was the "man" of relationship. Interesting, huh?

What about this feisty drag queen:

would she be considered masculine, even in long blond wig?

So here is the question, would you consider yourself masculine? This is a question for everyone (male, female, straight, gay, etc..). Leave a comment.

Tournament: Austin, TX

Well, hello again readers! It has been a while since I have posted, but I am back with stories to share of my travels to Austin, TX this past weekend.

Tennis

I was in Austin for a tennis tournament and it was my first tournament in the B division. I had a great year last year with tournaments and I felt it was time to move up a level. I had no expectations that I would get very deep in the tournament, but I wanted to at least win my first round in single. I did that, pretty easily in fact, but lost in the second round.

The weather was good compared to other years, but it was windy as heck. I would toss the all in the air in it would float, almost pause in the air and move either left or right depending on the wind. That coupled with the highest bouncing courts I've played on made the conditions a bit difficult. I didn't adjust to the conditions well and blew a lead of 4-2 in the first set of the 2nd match. I was just completely frustrated and just gave up because I couldn't serve due to the wind. My serve is my "bread and butter" and if that goes I usually have a tough time. But even with the tough conditions I served pretty clean with only 5 double faults. I have been working on developing a kick serve since January and it really helped my game.

My doubles partner and I lost both our doubles matches. It was a combination of bad play and the wind ... but mostly bad play. After winning a tournament and being in the finals in another in the C division, we decided to move up a level. It was a learning experience and showed up what we need to work on to become competitive.

I am going over my tournament schedule for the next year and I want to add a couple out of state tournaments. I am thinking of going to New Orleans, LA for a tournament in April, but more than likely I will head to San Diego, CA. I think I will be heading to Houston, TX for a club team tournament in May if I make the team. Other than that, I will be doing tournaments around DFW.

Night Life

Friday (3/14):

Since I was out of the tournament fairly early I decided to go out with some friends and do the bar thing. The first night we went out to a bar called Charlie's and it was just a simple local bar. When we arrived there around 10:30pm there wasn't many people -- but when go-go boys took the stage the place began to fill up. This when the night started to get interesting.

There was this tranny there wearing a HUGE fake ass. I mean the girl has legs like pipe cleaners, but the hips and butt of Beyonce. It was so abnormally big that she had to continuously pull down this short dress she was wearing because her ass was trying to escape. I was dared to go and grab it, but I declined.

Later we were talking and having drinks -- Sprite for me -- when we were approached by this older gentleman from New Orleans who wanted to take a picture 2 of the 4 people in our group. I was pushed aside and the photo was taken. It was just a (not so clever) ruse to introduce one of my friends to his 60+ year-old friend. My friend JH was cordial but declined his advances. About 10 minutes later the 60+ year-old guy came up to us. We all thought he was interested in my friend, which he may still have been, but he ended up hitting on me. It was a bit awkward ... for me that is, but my friends were having a ball. My friend CS mentioned that we were thinking of going to a bard called Chain Drive, and the 60+ year-old guy began touching my chest and telling me how much I would be loved there. It was all in good fun. He offered to buy us drinks but we declined and headed to a new location.

We ran into the tranny again and my friend JH was dared to get a photo of her butt. He isn't one to back away from a challenge. So he walked over to her and asked for a picture. The tranny was with her friend but she like "Girl, hold my purse." She gave her best over the-shoulder-against-the-wall-while-poking-the-ass-out pose and smiled for the camera. JH must have taken 8 pictures of tranny, and one of her friend so she wasn't left out. If I get one of the photos I will post it.

We left the bar around 12:30am and headed for the hotel.

Saturday (3/15):

After our tennis banquet, a group of people when to 4th Street and hit up a couple of bars.

We first went to Rain. When we entered the bar I expected to get carded so I reached for my wallet but the security guy just waved me in. I really thought I would get carded but the fact that he didn't kind of made me sad. I guess when I haven't shaved in a week I no longer look underage. The person after me, who was in our group, got carded and he's in his mid-thirties and had gray hair ...and he got carded ... but whatever.

We get in and we see some people we know from Dallas and begin to chat. We get our drinks and find a place to chill. My friend CS is trying to figure out what kind of guys I like but point out people in the club and asking if I am interested. This goes on the entire night. I was being goaded into dancing by my friend but I declined their offers. We watched people dance while talking and witness all kinds of foolishness.

There was this one girl attacking gay men on the floor. I am sure she thought she was dancing, but she was basically performing simple assault on them. Miming fellatio, taking off their clothes and very aggressively pulling on their jeans and belts. We thought it was fun ... until I was in her line of fire. She looked at my group and everyone was pointed to me to be her next victim. I declined, but she keep coming towards me. I declined again and the girl gave her purse to her friend, jumped over the railing onto a speaker and then leaped at me. The next thing I knew I had this 98 lbs. girl in my arms writhing wildly. So I had my drink in one hand and her in the other. It all lasted for about a minute before it was over. And to be truthful, it kind of loosened me up a bit.

After a couple more drinks and a Beyonce club mix, we went on to the next place.

We were greeted with two lines in front of Oil Can Harry's: VIP and non-VIP. We waited in line for about 15 minutes before entering the bar. I never been to OCH before and the atmosphere was a bit different than Rain: the guys were older, the music was better, and just seemed like the people were friendlier.

I was in the middle of a conversation when this guy comes up to me and start grabbing me. I seen this guy giving me "the look" at Rain but I wasn't interested. Started rubbing my chest, caressing my face and kiss my cheek. Even with all this he seemed like a nice guy and we chatted for a bit. He told me that he was from Irving, TX (near Dallas) and he thought I wasn't like the other Black guys in Austin because I wasn't weird. He asked if I was embarrassing him, which he was, but I decided to just roll with things because he doing this in a non-threatening way. We has a laugh and I broke away to rejoin my friends. It was around 2am and they stopped serving drinks it was almost time for us to go ... but not before the got a show.

There was this guy dancing around throughout the bar like it was his one private stage. He was dancing on the bar, the railing, and the stage making sure he was the center of attention. The had his target set SW, one of the people in my group, and it got kind of out control. Grind, kissing, tea-bagging ensued. I guess SW forgot he had a man at home. But I guess what happens in Austin, stays in Austin.

We were getting ready to leave when I spotted this guy. He was about 6'1" with broad shoulders wearing plaid shorts, t-shirt, and canvas slip on sneakers with socks. He was kind of nerdy looking ... but I like nerdy guys. I was going to make a move but he got pull on dance floor by some people and the dance floor is like my kryptonite. Soon after we left the bar.

Other

I was really looking forward to Austin because there is this guy I met Houston, TX, who lives in Austin and was attending the tournament. I wasn't sure of his status but I later found out that he was seeing someone through a friend, but through the tournament I felt him looking in my general direction at lot. The only interaction we had was at our banquet. I was behind him in line and he said:

"What is this? (referring to the Alfredo sauce with chicken chucks)
Maybe it's calm chowdah?
"I know, right."

Fascinating, huh?

Anyway ... I had fun and I will be returning to Austin next year for the tournament. If not sooner.