this is fyf

More in keeping with the times: Unhappy Hour

(It really has nothing to do with drinking.)

I think this is a really, really good idea - and timely!

WARNING: May be even MORE cathartic than bitching on Facebook!!

From Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology:

"LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I periodically perform a public ritual called
Unhappy Hour. During this focused binge of emotional cleansing,
participants unburden themselves of their pent-up sadness,
disappointment, frustration, and shame. They may choose to mutter loud
complaints or howl with histrionic misery or even sob uncontrollably. At
the end of the ceremony, they celebrate the relief they feel at having
freely released so much psychic congestion, and they go back out into
the world feeling refreshed. Many people find that by engaging in this
purge, they are better able to conjure up positive emotional states in the
days and weeks that follow. It's a perfect time for you to carry out your
own Unhappy Hour, Libra. For inspiration, listen to my version here:
http://bitly.com/UnhappyHour."

Graphic courtesy Peter Colon and Poe Museum

I'm cleaning up my act.

 
I'm doing a cleanse/fast for a week (five days anyway).

Started today. 

It's this one.

Despite having already been doing intermittent fasting for a month or so, this first day is...interesting. It's been tougher than I expected in terms of craving food (I'm not really feeling hungry, but am just having random desires for random food stuffs?). I feel kind of weak, as well,...and a little fuzzy mentally. But then I can kind of snap myself out of the fuzziness and the weakness is fairly easy to override. I'm not pushing it though.

I am day-dreaming about my guac and marg meal last night at El Nuevo, however.

That said, it's interesting to note that food - the procuring and eating of it - is as much about being bored and wanting distraction and seeking an effect that's akin to that sought in "retail therapy" as it is about your body needing sustenance. The majority of my cravings today have been for "treats" like a frappucino, a bagel or some other silly, but heightened-consumer-experience/implicitly-socially-condoned purchase.

I figure five days ain't no big thing. I can do it that long.

I also figure it can't be a bad thing to flush my system of all the crap I've put in it over the years (I do love Popeye's!). Does this actually flush that stuff or does your body work like that (like a toilet!?)? Dunno. But if it does anything close, it'll be a positive change, I think.

And...I'll be like Bey.

Video/photo via

Above from the comments here.

4chan's Forever Alone "Fedora guy" (who goes by Keats) is fine the way he is, "Tubesteak" (Aren't you funny!). Nice work making this a) about you and b) about the fucked up body-image so many of us gays have (Hello, extremes!: Bears? Twinks? 'Roid rangers?! Not exactly modeling healthy - as in well-adjusted and not obsessive - body types here, are we boys?).

You're making gays look bad, so...STFU?

Follow the link to get a better idea of Keats' shape/need to lose anything (other than his hat).

And this... This is as purely touching as anything I've read or seen in a loooong time (Organ donor's organs saves seven lives).

I honestly can't fathom what it might be like to have someone else's organs in your body and then meet the person who's organs they were's loved one. In the end, it's all tissue, of course...the act of transplanting them to another's body and their acceptance by that body changes them irrefutably in and of itself (not even considering the fact that the former owner is no longer in existence), but...still. Watching Mrs. Garcia touch Mr. Lourenco's chest silences the cynic in me abruptly. Whether that's because the lump in my throat won't let me/him speak or because there's just no room for cynicism, I don't know, but there it is just the same.

Celebrate STD Awareness Month and get tested.

Back before HIV, getting tested fo STD's used to be a social thing, and the STD clinic was a cruisey spot.  Guys would come in, get tested, get some penicillin, and collect phone numbers in the lobby or just outside.  Going to get tested and treated was part of the normal routine of the gay man.  

HIV of course changed that immensely, as did skyrocketing health costs and the increasing resistance to penicillin for many STD's requiring new medicines.  There are still resources though where you can get free testing and treatment for HIV and STD's.  While it may be stressful to get the test, it's far more stressful not to know.

Here's a handy map to find a clinic near you.  (Via Pam's House Blend)

Bad news, bears:  Bellies beget blindness!

Meet EneMan, the enema superhero.

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Marketing departments do the darnedest things. Someone probably thought about "making the brand a hero", which is common marketing jargon and took it literally. Presented above are images of EneMan, the enema superhero. The character was used in both plush dolls and embroidered hats and shirts given to medical folks to promote the product. They even had live-action actors portray EneMan, and a calendar where "EneMan Goes to the Movies".

The character was only used for "to the trade" advertising, so imagine a couple of years later when an illustrator sees the character on an embroidered chambray shirt.  Not knowing about Fleet Enemas, she thinks the character is for a brand of white-out.  Comedy ensues.

From the comments here.

Also see: The American Dream and "pulling oneself up by one's boot straps"...then ponder how both play into the Horatio Alger myth (pay particular attention to the "Education" section in the linked article) before, finally, contemplating how income inequality in America is growing ever more rapidly, while that of many Latin American nations traditionally thought of as "banana republics" is shrinking.

Perhaps then you'll wonder, "What the hell happened to America??" before turning back to the rags-to-riches (or at least "unknown-to-fame") story of the reality show you've most recently become obsessed with only for it to be interrupted by a commercial showing you the life you could be leading, were you wealthier.

Now, what web gimmick/reality show role are you pinning your hopes and dreams on?

How is it the BRITISH are less uptight about male nudity then we are!? (possibly NSFW)

This mostly is - and could be here - an awesome campaign (other than the cheesy title.), but can you imagine any male American celebrity/sports figure getting naked?

That said, surely there are some who would be down!?

Maybe they just haven't been given the opportunity. Mr. Nardicio is doing all he can to increase the number of male celebs appearing naked, but maybe it'd be easier were it for a "good cause", like this.

Also. You can totally see his d-ckhead.

Start growing that mustache, buddy!

Sure, it's for prostate cancer and all, but mustaches are an instant +3 on my radar so I sort of have a selfish interest, too. Let us know if you participate. This Is FYF will gladly post your progress photos!

Checking in on Foursquare gets whole new meaning. MTV and Foursquare team up to encourage users to get tested for STIs.

While Foursquare is still a hard sell to reflexive privatists/those overly concerned with protecting their privacy, a new partnership with MTV to encourage users to get tested for STIs gets my approval despite its seeming undesireability. Anything that encourages (or might?) people to take responsibility for their health and the health of others is worth supporting, methinks.

Via.

Summer primer: Sunscreen

Summer is (nearly?) upon us, and while leather makes a great belt, some beautiful shoes or a nice-looking wallet, it's not the best look (on you) when you're naked.

The following links are to articles that include exhaustive explanations of what makes a sunscreen good, what to look for, etc.  so - without further ado:

• National Geographic's list of recommended sunscreens.


• Environmental Working Group's (great name, no?) recommendations.


• Personally? I can speak from experience in recommending Menscience's sunscreen, at least for your face...mainly cuz it's got other stuff in it that leaves your skin SITting! Then again, you may be a little scared of how white I am, so... (You can get Menscience products at Barney's CO-OP and probably a few other places of which I'm not aware.)

Biker Realness

As the weather finally warms up enough for biking...free helmets! 

Fittings and instruction at helmet giveaway events over the next couple of months at various locations throughout the city courtesy of the NYC Dept. of Transportation!

Image via

Someday the world will be populated solely by cockroaches with gonorrhea.

 

First, let's get something out of the way:  Yes, I've had gonorrhea.  It starts with a tingle, then a sting, and then there is goo coming from your dick.  Then you go to the doctor, get some pills and it's gone.  Now before you get Judge Judy on me about protection, let me be clear:  I am so amazingly vanilla and boring.  Because despite the popular inclination that STD's come from down below, you can get them from mouths as well.

That part of the throat in the back is, as my doctor told me, "a bacteria factory".  When you thrust your penis into a throat and start pumping back and forth you basically are creating a piston in a disease transmission engine.  So that clean-cut looking fellow with the husky voice?  It might be that his throat is husky because his throat is rife with Neisseria gonorrhoeae, or as its friends call it, gonorrhea.

Word comes today that a gonorrhea remedy is no longer as easy as popping a pill. The bacteria are laughing at your Azithromycin and ceftriaxone.   (Penicillin was abandoned as a treatment years ago.)  In fact, gonorrhea is approaching designation as "untreatable".

What to do?  Blowjobs with condoms are like eating a Green and Black's Maya Gold with the wrapper still on.  Gay marriage is illegal, and most married folks cheat anyway.  Celibacy is like going back to that Maya Gold bar and just keeping it in the wrapper and staring at it longingly.  Avoid guys with husky voices?  Seriously, there is no solution on this one.  Bacteria are taking this planet over.

Via 

"Experts believe that men with high levels of testosterone are more likely to lose their hair, especially if baldness runs in the family. Prostate cancer sufferers are often given drugs to reduce testosterone levels because they can accelerate the growth of some tumours once they develop. But this study suggests that high levels of testosterone from a young age might protect against the disease."

- The BBC is reporting that men with some balding might be at lower risk for developing prostate cancer, but the study is hampered by relying on men in the fifties remembering if their hair was thinning in their twenties.