Looking forward to football season

Football season is right around the corner.  I love football season.  While baseball is also one of my favorite sports, there is just something magical about the football season.  Maybe it's because games are just once a week, maybe it's because of the action involved or maybe it's just because it captured my imagination as a child.

Rivers

I'm a diehard Chargers fan.  It doesn't matter what type of season they have or how badly they choke during play-offs.  I absolutely love and support them and will until the day I die.

Do I have expectations for San Diego this year?  Not really.  I've learned that you have to take the San Diego Chargers with a grain of salt.  It's great when they're winning, it sucks when they're losing but you'll stand by them through thick and thin.  We've always had a good, solid team but they just can't seem to make it to the big game and win.

Manning

Now that I'm living in Denver, I do root for the Broncos as my "default team."  While I wasn't very thrilled with Tebow Time here last season, I'm glad to see him gone so the team can actually focus as a unit as opposed to being under him.  However, if Denver had been smart, they would've kept him on the roster as backup QB and let Manning groom him into a true QB.  I highly doubt Tebow will become that now, as he's seemed destined to be a PR piece no matter where he goes instead of actually being the total package in football.

I digress.

I'm excited to see what Manning brings to Denver.  I'm sure every Broncos fan will hold their breath with each hit he takes throughout the season, but if Manning can pull off the impossible - which I do believe he can - Denver is going to be in for one hell of a good, interesting and exciting football season.  Even more so than when Tebow was here, which is really want Broncos fans need to see.

It should be an interesting season in the NFL overall, too.  We have the Saints under a microscope, facing fines and losing several players.  We have the Packers who continue to prove they're a force to reckon with.  We have some new rookies who are really exciting and starting from the get go.  It's going to be an exciting season, and I can't wait to catch as many games as I can!

I'm just a writer

All I've ever wanted to do in life is write.  For as long as I can remember, I wanted to write something.  I wanted to tell stories, I wanted to envision things others couldn't even conceive.  I know without a shadow of a doubt it's what I was put on this planet to do.

I like to attribute my love of storytelling to my paternal grandmother or "Nanny" as we called her growing up.  Whenever my sister and I visited her as kids, she told us these vivid stories about my dad, my uncles, her family and more.  I used to sit against the wall in her room and listen to her while my sister was out playing with dolls or went to the playground.  I loved listening to her tell a story, because the way she told it, I could see it play out in my own head.  I've always wanted to tell stories like that; I believe there are no better kind.

I've been living as a writer for almost 10 years now.  I took time off from college to pursue this career, mostly freelancing.  I've written on everything from mailboxes to iPods to everything in between.  I've learned search engine optimization, marketing techniques and just about everything possible to create web content.  While I enjoy the writing aspect of it, the challenge of creating content that people actually search for, find and read, I'm starting to burn out on just writing for the web.

I've begun doing writing exercises.  Mostly prompts for 30 to 45 minutes every other day to help get myself back into the creative writing spirit.  I've missed writing creatively, and it's a joy to see what I'm producing from these exercises.  Some have turned into bigger ideas, others have been filed away because I think they're embarrassing.

I've decided by the end of fall, I want to begin shopping around what I believe will be my first professional novel.  It's not necessarily the one I want to be first, but it's the one that has a story that will get me into the door.  I'm pleased with how it originally played out, and I know some out there have read bits and pieces of it over time.  It feels unpolished, but it will get better once I take the time to truly go through it and ask for feedback.

Who would've thought I finally had the courage to make it this far?  I've been holding onto several things for awhile creatively; I'm too scared to share with just about everyone, but I'm going to take that leap and see where it takes me.  What's the worst that could happen?

Yes, I'm gay, but I don't support gay "marriage" & I will still eat at Chick-fil-A

This post is going to get me into trouble.  It's going to get me in a lot of trouble.  I have no doubt the comments will be filled with hateful vitriol, I will lose Facebook and Twitter followers/friends and I'll probably receive several e-mails attacking me, my beliefs and this post.  This is why I tend to stay away from these topics.  However, I feel like this Chick-fil-A issue has spiraled so out of control, I can't help but comment on it.

I could care less what the CEO of Chick-fil-A feels about gay marriage and gays in general.  He, just like everyone else, is entitled to freedom of speech.  He owns a private company; he can do with his funds how he feels.  As long as I don't walk into a Chick-fil-A and get asked to leave because I'm gay, I don't care.  There are those of you reading this right now that are saying that because I purchase something from Chick-fil-A, that money I am spending as a gay American is going towards "fighting" my community.

Do you know where every cent of your money goes to when you purchase a cheeseburger from McDonalds?  How about when you purchase toiletries at Walgreens?  What about when you buy a pizza from your local mom and pop pizzeria?  Did you know that many major grocery store chains donate money to politicians running for election?  How many of those candidates do you support?  Unless you can tell me with absolute certainty that every penny you spend everywhere you choose to go is not supporting this, that or whatever, then you have no right to criticize me for choosing to purchase a chicken burrito from Chick-fil-A.

I do not believe in gay "marriage."  That's the primary issue gays will never, ever have equal rights in this country.  You cannot take a religiously-backed word, such as marriage, and ask those that believe in the law of G-d to change how they view it.  Step back, take a deep breath, and ask for civil unions.  There is nothing religiously-charged about that, and it gives you the same damn rights marriage does in this country.  In fact, there are tens of thousands of Americans who are straight that are living in a civil union as opposed to marriage for whatever reason.

Is it ridiculous that gay people can't use the word "marriage" without coming under fire?  Absolutely.  It's a word.  However, when you recognize that trying to convince a person who believes in religion otherwise, you will lose every single time despite the commonsense principle behind "we are all created equal."  When you look at the bigger picture here, the idea of marriage vs. civil unions is also ridiculous.  Our country, and planet, have so many bigger things to worry about than who is with who.

I want equal rights just as badly as the next person, but let's face it: African Americans and women have equal rights under the law, but to a lot of people in this country, they are still looked down upon.  Gays are still fighting for equal rights under the law, they're still looked down upon for being "wrong."  The longer we fight over semantics and the things that don't matter, the longer it's going to take for us to achieve equal rights under the law.  That's the first step, from there, it's still going to take decades before being gay is no longer looked down upon.

If you doubt any of the above, just think how the Women's Rights Movement or the Civil Rights Movement would've played out if the Bible said both communities were an abomination, too.