Come to Mama!

The long wait is finally over... and as promised, the iPhone has so far, exceeded my expectations. I am a technophobe and this phone took me about 10 minutes to set up and get it running. The Apple website provided a lot of video tutorials even before the release of the phone so it wasn't as traumatic as I thought it would be. And for the first time ever, I didn't have to know POP3, SMTP, IMAP and all that tech crap to set up my email. Yey!!!

There are three things that are readily noticeable with the iPhone:

1. There is no place for a SIM card.
2. The battery is basically inaccessible without the right tool.
3. The screen is huge!

Once you buy it, you can only activate it with ATT. As the sole service provider, ATT must have made at least a cool $40 mil for the bundled iPhone services alone (at $20 minimum times 2 million units). Then there's a $36 activation for non-ATT subscribers. Plus the voice plan. It's a pretty staggering amount when all is said and done! Then you must use iTunes to set up your account with Apple for software upgrades and registration for warranty purposes.

Apple has set the price at $499 for the 4GB, $599 for the 8GB. It has a black screen and aluminum body, slightly thinner than the 30GB iPod. When it's off, it's like nothing. When it's on is when the fun begins. The display is stunning. The device is intuitive and uses touch technology. Everything is done with a tap of a finger or by flicking a finger while lightly touching the screen to scroll up or down. Downloads are fast... the entire front page of the New York Times in less than a minute. Even Google map is fun to use. If you're used to Mac's OS-X, then the iPhone is not a big deal. Even syncing and downloading songs from your music library is painless. If you have an iPod and you use iTunes, then this is a piece of cake. The one thing that you do have to watch out for is downloading movies and tv shows. Those occupy a lot of valuable space and without an expandable memory capability, you have to be choosy on what to download.

My only complaint (if you can call it that) is I have to re-learn how to input SMS as the keyboard is the traditional "QWERTY" style. Also, depending on how fat the finger you're using, you could be tapping on the wrong letter. It will take me time but hey, that's okay, too. It has a 2MP camera which takes decent pictures. There are no adjustments (i.e. shooting in black and white or night mode) and no video shooting capabilities. I guess that would be iPhone2... The phone itself has a beautiful reception and sound quality is really good. The iPod function is way cool specially with cover flow. And where else can you get a phone where YouTube has its own icon?

That skateboarding dog makes me smile every time...

So is it worth it? Definitely. The coolness factor alone is priceless. Well, $600 to be exact. This is a classic example of a successful convergence of three multimedia devices. Once again, this raises the bar for everybody else out there. It will be interesting what the competition will come out with although LG tried with its Prada phone.

Where Is It Written?/No Matter What Happens

On the way to the 2007 San Francisco Pride celebration, these songs were playing on my iPod. How appropriate...



There's not a morning I begin
Without a thousand questions running through my mind
That I don't try to find the reason
And the logic in the world that God designed
The reason why, a bird was given wings
If not to fly, and praise the sky
With every song it sings
What's right or wrong,
Where I belong within the scheme of things

And why have eyes that see and arms that reach
Unless you're meant to know there's something more.
If not to hunger for the meaning of it all
Then tell me, what a soul is for?
Why have the wings unless you're meant to fly
And tell me please why have a mind
If not to question why?

And tell me where,
Where is it written what it is I'm meant to be
That I can't dare to have the chance to
pick the fruit of every tree
Or have my share of every sweet imagined possibility.
Just tell me where, where is it written, tell me where.

If I were only meant to tend the nest
Then why does my imagination sail across the mountains and the seas
Beyond the make-believe of any fairy tale
Why have the thirst if not to drink the wine?
And what a waste to have a taste of things that can't be mine

And tell me where,
Where is it written what it is I'm meant to be
That I can't dare to see the meanings in the mornings that I see
Or have my share of every sweet imagined possibility
Just tell me where, where is it written, tell me where
Or if it's written anywhere...

I've wanted the shadows,
I don't anymore
No matter what happens,
I won't anymore
I've run from the sunlight-
Afraid it saw too much.
The moon had the one light
I bathed in, I walked in.

For too many mornings
The curtains were drawn
It's time they were opened
To welcome the dawn
A voice deep inside
Is getting stronger,
I can't keep it quiet any longer.
No matter what happens,
It can't be the same anymore...
I promise, it won't be the same anymore...

It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's...

JASMINE TRIAS!!!

At the Asian Pacific Islander stage at this year's SF Pride Celebration, Jasmine was the featured "celebrity" guest. The poor thing with her "trademark signature" - her words - flower on her right ear sang some songs. She was freezing, the audio wasn't that good and wind kept blowing her dress. But really now... she really wasn't good, she kept saying "thank you for inviting me to this EVENT" like she couldn't remember the EVENT or can't say what the EVENT was, and she does not know how to play the crowd. She probably thought she was in front of ASAP fans or in some cheap mall tour. It was her chance to represent and she did sing a Tagalog song. Still it was a little disappointing. And may I say, what a great nose job and skin resurfacing (and a boob job?) she has had! Damn! The girl thinks she's almost white and deserves a more Eurasian nose!

The World's Biggest Party!

The cast of Teatro Zanzini
Magic Balloon man
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
Dykes on Bikes

The HOTTEST MAN on earth...San Francisco's very "gay" (wish!), very cute (no doubt!), nice (proven!) mayor, Gavin Newsom



It's the time of the year, once again, to let our hair down and be our gay selves. The rainbow banners are up on Market Street in San Francisco, the big rainbow flag at the end of Market and Castro Streets is billowing again, the lesbians are getting friskier, and gays from all over are beginning to throng into the city. Welcome to the biggest party on earth!!!


Every year, on the last Sunday of June, San Francisco hosts the biggest and best Pride clebration ever. Over 1 million people from all over the world flock to the city to watch this spectacle. This year is no exception and the weather was stunningly beautiful. No Belami boys though...=(

Someone sent me this by text. I"ve read it somewhere before but it bears sharing again and and again...

..."Live your life in a manner that best suits you. Whether you're in or out of the closet is not really that important anymore. What is important is you have accepted who you really are and try to live a decent and productive life in which you don't intentionally step on other people's feet in order to reach your goals and personal happiness. Because in the end, a person will not be remembered for being gay or straight but by the way he lived his life and the positive influence he had on people..."

HAPPY PRIDE EVERYONE!

Happiness Is...

... choosing AND getting your own birthday present(s)

... walking into Gucci in Beverly Hills and finding out that the white flipflops I want is on sale and my size is available and the perfect white Guccissima leather wallet is back on stock and I can get one now

... paying cash for my watch of a lifetime: a white gold, automatic, Cartier Santos 100

... spraying Jo Malone's Grapefruit and Pomegranate Noir perfumes together to come up with a more unforgettable scent

... receiving the Gucci Runway bag as a gift

... hanging out with a friend at Starbucks in downtown Los Angeles and talking crap about everybody else

... seeing Edouard Manet's Bar at the Folies-Berger in person at the Getty Museum

... eating dinner at the hole-in-the-wall Sanam Luang Cafe in Hollywood with a great friend and his partner

... smelling the salt-water breeze and watching the sunset in Santa Monica Pier

These are a few of my favorite things. Can't wait for next year!