Adam Sunny Flanders

The best part of being home…

And kitty pomchi love…

Just landed in JFK, flight out to Portland in a couple hours. Back to the high pace Northeast, out of the downtempo paradise of the Keys, hehe. I wish last night could have lasted forever – I met this really amazing guy at Bourbon St. Pub in Key West and it was so beautiful there – they have a pool behind the building (the clothing optional area, hehe) and a stairway to the top that overlooks Key West. The moon was nearly full and the stars were shining in the sky. We went swimming and it was just so beautiful – he was beautiful I wish he didn’t have to go back to Costa Rica.

I’ve got physics starting soon and I’ll be working in the lab. Looking to go camping, hiking, etc. this summer. I’ll try to get the rest of my Florida photos/videos posted soon. Portland and Bangor Pride are coming up in 2-3 weeks! I’m sure I’ll see some of you there. And on a side note, I promise my paleogenetics site will be coming soon – I finally have time to work on it! I think most of you will find it to be very interesting – it’s an emerging science that’s very real.

This is video from the Key West Aquarium and “CatMan” during the sunset street performance in Mallory Square. In the aquarium video you will see sea turtles, sting rays, and nurse sharks being fed – I even got to pet a juvenile nurse shark! The video of CatMan shows some of the tricks of his trained house cats, such as leapfrog and jumping through flaming hoops!

The moon is in Libra tonight, a sign of truth and justice. This evening, laying under a starry sky surrounded by palm trees and 80 degree air, is already enchanting. I love Florida and I will likely be moving here next year after I graduate from UMaine. You can’t feel alone when the stars are over your head – they remind me that I can overcome any difficulty in life and that any dream I have can come true with enough hard work and perseverance. Florida reminds me that the world is beautiful – I can be closer to nature here.

I went to r.f. orchids today. It’s an incredible estate covered by countless species of orchids. I think the owners are a gay couple, but don’t quote me on that. They also had some for sale and I got one small enough to carry back on the plane. A lot of people don’t know that vanilla comes from an orchid – the vanilla bean is the fruit of the orchid. They had a few vanilla plants on the estate. I will post pics soon, so be on the lookout!

The way we’ve been booking hotels has brought us to several different areas, it’s like an adventure in its own right. We’ve been up and down all the major keys all week long – Key Largo scuba diving, the Everglades, Islamorada, and Key West. There is an amazingly beautiful beach resort right on the beach in Key Largo called Sunset Cove – I loved staying there and definitely recommend it if you are coming to the keys. It feels like I’ve been here for weeks. I can be myself here – I can walk outside in my PJ’s and nobody stares. I see young gay couples walking around hand-in-hand and nobody cares. I like Maine’s environment (when it’s warm), but many people are still very conservative. The Florida Keys remind me a little of France – people are more comfortable with themselves and others, including affection. I think people experience a greater degree of freedom here and can better define themselves. And that is really the only true freedom any of us can experience.

Today was my second diving trip with John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. I saw a lot more variety of fish and we dove at another shipwreck. Video from Monday’s trip is below. I selected the highlights of the trip from about an hour of video. I don’t have a lot of experience filming underwater, but I’m sure I’ll get better – so please excuse the erratic movement. I was about 35 feet deep most of the time (my PADI certification allows me to go down to 130 feet).

As you’ll see in the video, I saw numerous tropical fish, a shipwreck, several coral reefs, a florida lobster, and even a sea turtle – it was so cute! I’m excited to get back in the water. Hoping to see some sharks and manta rays.

Today there were some giant fish and two giant barracuda that kept following us along the shipwreck. We saw a lot of interesting species, including a giant crab about the size of a suitcase! There were supposed to be some nurse sharks and even some hammerhead sightings, but I didn’t see any sharks today. Someone on the trip today caught a baby lionfish and brought it onboard. They are invasive species and it will likely be killed and dissected. When the boat came back in, there was a manatee waiting to greet us, but he was badly cut up from the speed boats that frequent the waters. I will post more pics and video later, but I’m heading out to dinner right now and a little shopping. Check out Monday’s diving below!

Waves were 6 feet high today in Key Largo, so scuba diving has been delayed to tomorrow. We decided to go on a glass bottom boat and kayaking in the mangroves, then to a a really awesome restaurant – Islamorada Fish Co. – incredibly beautiful palm trees, live music, right on the ocean, live shark feeding, and had my first yellowtail snapper and it was really really good! BTW, Islamorada means “purple island.”

Checkout the new pictures posted in my Flickr account and the video of the shark feeding below. I expect to dive with nurse sharks (the ones in the video) this week. I have snorkeled with nurse sharks before – even though they are usually much larger than me, they are basically harmless, even the grey ones, which look formidable!

I’m currently waiting in NYC (JFK) airport for my connecting flight to Ft. Lauderdale for two weeks of scuba diving and other fun stuff in the Florida Keys! I’m super tired ’cause I’ve been up all night – there was a drag show and dance last night, and they just opened a new gay bar in Bangor called the Therapy Lounge. The flight out of Portland left at 8am, so I didn’t get any sleep in between. I’m glad I brought my pillow! I will be posting photos every day or so on Flickr and Facebook, as well as videos of my scuba diving (yes, underwater videos) to YouTube.

I may be really tired, but the fact that I’ll be in the sunny heat, walking under palm trees on the beach in a few hours, more than compensates. Plus, I can sleep on the plane. Finally some time to relax. I am also happy because I will easily be able to graduate after just two more semesters (Spring 2011). I will be getting my Bachelors of Science in Biology, then I’ll likely be making a more permanent move to Florida.

I wanted to bring your attention to some gay rights stuff going on right now. Other than the Question 1 lawsuit dragging out in Maine, a new documentary is just premiering exposing the ignorance and bigotry behind Prop.8 and how it was hugely supported by the Mormon Church. This is their website: The Mormon Propo$ition: Equality for Some. And trailer below…

Also, this Monday, May 17th, is the International Day Against Homophobia. It’s focused on addressing the homophobia that still exists in the sporting world. Below is one of their posters

This is my presentation summarizing my work this semester, establishing a transgenic line of Arabidopsis. I am working with a rice gene overexpression of metallothionein, a family of proteins that is important to heavy metal induction, oxidative stress and drought tolerance. I will be continuing my work this Summer and thoughout the next two semesters (when I graduate). Hope you find it interesting, just like my last one concerning rice transformation!

George Allen Rekers – you’re probably already familiar with the name if you watch the news; doctor for the Family Research Council (closely associated with the Maine Family Policy Council AKA Christian Civic League), the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), and the American College of Pediatrics (not a real college, by the way). He was recently caught with a 20-year-old male prostitute who has since admitted to having sexual relations with Reker.

It is being widely covered in national media, but I really liked Rachel Maddow’s report, which is more frank and to the point. Reker, like many fundamentalists, has based his career on making life miserable for gay youth and just mailed out an anti-gay letter to American schools misinforming them that homosexuality can be cured. This is a complete lie, as most intelligent individuals recognize. There are absolutely no scientific studies to support any claim of NARTH or the FRC. In fact the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the legitimate organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics, all support the fact that homosexuality is inborn and cannot be changed.

It’s nearly the end of the semester, only one more day to go. I have one more final exam tomorrow and my lab presentation next week, and then I’m heading down to Florida for a few weeks of scuba diving and other fun things in the Keys. I passed all my classes (17 credit hours) and I will be taking a few courses this Summer as well, but nothing too intense. I just completed my first set of transgenic plants in the lab I work in on campus and they will be seeding soon. I’m excited to put together a full garden this Summer – I already have so many things growing here in my apartment, like tomatoes, watermelon, morning glory, cypress vine, and stevia. I got a really big tent and a new sleeping bag, so if anyone wants to go camping, let me know! I’m sure I’ll also be doing a lot of rollerblading, hiking, tennis, photography, and scuba diving, too. My family and I always go camping a lot in the Summer, but we take our motorhome RV, so it’s not exactly roughing it, lol. I’m sure a lot of really interesting things will be happening this Summer. And thanks to all my readers for the over 5,000 unique hits in the past year!