trooper6

I haven't posted in a while...I've been a pretty busy. Crazy busy.

I only want to say the following. I watched the Oscars with the Gang (the school gang) last night. I don't know how I feel about Crash winning the Best Picture Oscar...since I haven't seen it yet. Brokeback was good, but I didn't think it was the most brilliant picture ever...something about it was off for me...I couldn't put my finger on it. But it is a fave picture of many of my pals, so I think I'll just move on.

But what was my annoyance? That most of the men who attended the Oscars were dressed badly. 1) I'm tired of the fact that many of them were wearing tuxedoes that were ill tailored...their jackets tended to be too tight, and their pants were too long. 2) I'm also tired of people wearing formal wear that looks like business wear. All the standard collars and ties, combined with tuxedo jackets that have standard lapels and pants without the side stripes. This is at least a black tie occasion (if not white tie looking at what the women are wearing). Where are bow ties? Where are the wing tip collars? Where is something formal? 3) There is a way of doing the casual thing in a way that looks stylish...it usually involves wearing an interesting colored shirt...there were sadly very few non-white shirts in attendance. Just lots of boring ill-fitting pseudo-tuxedos, with a four-in-hand knot under a standard collar. 4) There were very few bow ties in attendance and way too many of them were the pre-tied variety. A pre-tied bow tie...especially the sort I saw too often at Oscars...sticks out like a sore thumb and doesn't look very good.

Overall, I dislike that women are expected to go all out to look really good at fancy dress occasions, and the men are able to get away will looking like they spent no care at all on their appearance...or are only phoning their fashion in.

Why does this bother me? Because I think it's related to sexism where women are expected to be the objects of the male gaze, but men are subjects...and being subject means not calling attention to oneself. And secondly, as a man who does care about my appearance and trying to take care...I'm annoyed that in US standards this must automatically make me homosexual. Which feeds back into some weird homophobia that places gay men in a feminized position as the object of the male gaze. Maybe I should get a job in Europe after I get my PhD.

So, I'm handsome again. After too long looking like an extra from the cast of Hair, I went to my barber and got a haircut. It was $20 bucks! But definitely worth it. This is the second time I've gone to this barber...and the second time I've gotten a great cut from him.

I think this fellow will be my regular barber until I leave LA. I'm very happy. Plus, I've been listening to Olivia Newton-John lots again. Hm...I need to have more music in my life.

I have frighteningly few days left to write my Billy Tipton article. (Let's think about that later).

Lastly, yesterday I took the day off. Monday I finished all of the grading, and got it all turned in. So Tuesday I slept in and hung out in my PJs all day. Tuesday night I started playing Advent Rising...well...it is this video game that has gotten mixed reviews...people complain about the framerate slowing down mostly -- though some have complained about the targeting system. Me? I'm having a great time. It is such a movie experience. It was co-written by Orson Scott Card and I think it's pretty cool so far. I've only played it for a few hours...and probably won't be able to play for a while (unless I get super productive on this Tipton paper). But right away...the game gave me this horrible desicion...in the opening sections of the game. I hade to choose between my brother or my fiancé. I chose my fiancé...but I'm still haunted by my choice...I can't go into too many details because of Stephan's Rule of Video Game Spoiler Avoidance.

Okay, I'm off to do some laundry and read.

Did I mention...I have a haircut.

Yeah!