Sunday, January 25, 2009

Skype Me

I really hate talking on the phone. It makes me incredibly nervous to pick up the phone and call someone. Something about a disembodied voice makes me uncomfortable. A voice without a face attached is only semi-human. Phones though have become so ubiquitous that we scoff at those with only a home phone.

Yeah – I have a home phone, but I don’t know the number. I mean it. I didn’t learn it, don’t use it, and don’t share it. I only remember it is there because the caller id flashes up on the television screen from time to time because it is part of the package with cable and internet. It is one of those wacky promotions where you have to get something you don’t want to get what you want at a really low price.

Skype came about in somewhat the same way for me. I needed a way to do a conference call with a technical support person and wanted my staff to be able to hear the responses and ask questions. Since there was no phone in the room and wireless Internet, I decided to check out skype and see if it would work.

This is what phones are supposed to be!

I don’t have to hold it, there is the possibility of video calling (though I have not tried it), and I can do normal other things while talking with someone and am not concerned with holding anything in my hand.

I think my real problem with a “phone” is that I have to handle it, hold it, and it limits what I can be doing while I’m also talking. With skype, as long as the microphone can pick up my voice and the speakers are loud enough for me to hear, I can use it.

Now I am trying to track down all my friends with skype to add them to the address book.

So….skype me at “roylarson” or 15126860394

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Sunday, January 04, 2009

O Holy Drag

A few weeks ago when I was visiting Wichita, Kansas, I finally visited some of the gay bars there. Let’s just say that I have been to better bars than those, but I must admit that the presence of the bars in Wichita impressed me.

And they have drag shows!

Who  knew?

Apparently, drag is HUGE in Wichita.

Who knew?

Austin has a few regular drag queens and the always-amazing Austin Babtist [sic] Women (comedy gospel charity group), but no real drag culture. I know other cities have a vibrant drag community, but they are all similar to Austin in the large urban, somewhat socially liberal cities. That Wichita has a drag scene surprises me.

I caught the show the Sunday night before Christmas.

It was the Christmas Special!

Christmas is the perfect time for drag. All the glitter and color and pageantry of the holiday create a perfect excuse for a drag show.

It did not help much here.

The first song I heard performed was “O Holy Night.”

It was performed like a drag anthem, but it’s not! How can I say this nicely: it was just WRONG!

Nothing else the performers presented in the special represented a real drag anthem. As a whole it was bad drag all around, but I had a great time. If anything else because it was so unexpected.

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