Damn, it's been a slow month around these orange-hued parts. It's not that I have the blogdrums or anything, I've just been…busy. Busy with work, busy with school and busy with life in general.

With work, y'all know what the deal is. The silent treatment has still been going on, but I am at least starting to get some answers from people. Like Stephen pointed to in my last entry, my problem is the procedure (aside from a specs sheet as long as my arm, the policies change very frequently). I think I've been getting into a groove now, even though none of the other designers will show me how to pull overtime. I guess it's every pixel pusher for themselves. Besides, I do like that I can be at home from work at 4:00 p.m., or even that I can do things after work now that I can frequent businesses during their normal 9-5 hours.

Speaking of things to do after work, I've developed this strange condition that some folks might refer to as a social life. Since I've started the new J-O, I've been going out at least twice a week (and by "out" I don't mean paying $10 to hold up the wall at some sweaty man-on-man juke joint) and actually having a good time. Goofball and I have had drinks at Trader Vic's, played board games and drunk beer until the wee hours of the morning with his friend Dr. Arcade, and I've even been on a date. Hell, a week or so ago, I was out boozing it up at my semi-casual former business associate Six Tongue's "I'm Leaving The Country" open bar party at Shout, then hung out with some of the 9rulers at Atlantic Station the next day, rounding it out with drinks in Little Five Points, bumping into an old college buddy, and finally purchased Beady Belle's catalog. Why just last weekend I caught brunch and a matineé with the venerable J. Brotherlove. We actually had an interesting conversation on blog meetups and "common blogging bitches" that I need to spin into a post one of these days.

Of course, things aren't all sunshine. That date I told you about? Terrible. It's funny how you can click with someone over the phone and online, and then when you meet them in person, they pull a 180 on you. He was much more flamboyant and passive-aggressive in person, and that made me sick. His idea of foreplay was taking me to Best Buy so he could see me buy a new TV for the living room. Worse, every other word out of his mouth was "whatever" or "I guess" and he had a real pissy atittude about everything, talking about how he was going to sue this person or curse this other person out. 31 without a clue in the world. I guess that's what I get trolling for companionship among the dregs of Black gay Atlanta. I was supposed to have a date a few weeks earlier with this German guy, but I guess there was a language barrier.

I spoke English and he was an asshole.

At least there's school, which I am doing quite well in. I'm maintaning a 4.0 right now and don't see any signs of it slipping so long as I can balance study time with sleep and work and being young. It's actually a lot easier this time around because it's class on my schedule. I can log in and do the readings and take the test during a weekly period and it's no big deal at all. The professor likes me and I never have to see any of the students in real life, so they don't ask me for help on homework or tests. It's the perfect setup!

I haven't been watching much TV, and with good reason; the fall lineup sucks more ass than a Las Vegas streetwalker on the 1st and the 15th. None of the new shows are jumping out at me as being worthy of me watching for any more than a few minutes. The trend this season seems to be adapting famous telenovelas (either in part or in theory) into series (Ugly Betty, Desire, Fashion House). I guess this is continuing the trend of cultural appropriation in former years when most shows were just direct rips from European originals. Eventually, the broadcasting lens will turn back to African-Americans, but I don't see it happening any time soon (right now shows featuring African-Americans are relegated to that sham of a network, the CW, on Sunday evening). U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

Let's see…what else can I talk about now that I'm hitting these mental ramblings of mine at the peak of freshness…oh yeah…Opportunity. Just when I thought I had forgotten about all the bullcrap he last dished out, guess where I hear about him from? Of all places…Milk-Chan. She called me last week from her college campus to tell me that she just saw him on campus and talked to him. She's a sweet thing. Mean as hell, but well-intentioned.

"You should bring him over for dinner — I like him," she said.

"I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Why not? What happened to you two?"

The last thing I need to do is try to explain to a middle-aged Japanese woman why two intelligent, handsome and quirky Black gay men couldn't work it out in a relationship. Quite frankly, I'm not sure I can even explain it to myself. sigh

I called him. I sent him a text message. Chances are he won't respond, which, I guess I'm OK with. It'd be so much easier to get over this shit if I were getting some ass on the regular. Even McQuickie — who recently decided he "really liked me" — suddenly got a moral conscience and thought that us having sex without being in a relationship wouldn't be right because he'd get confused. Confused? Please…Michael Jackson is confused. Al Reynolds is confused. His ass is just tired.

This weekend is going to be a working weekend for me. I'm putting the finishing touches on the new BGB site (since I'm going pink for October) and streamlining my portfolio site. I originally had big plans for it — a blog, a tech toolbox, a section for my writing…it just ended up being more shit to keep track of, so I'm slimming it down to just the basics. Resume, portfolio and bio. I'm also going to finish up my book outline for this upcoming project and hopefully start on my 10-page paper for class.

So yeah, that's what's been going on with me. This is the shortest posting month in the history of this blog (only 6 posts!). I need to get on it. Besides, I think my posts are pretty good.

You know, when I have them.