Month: December 2006

listen up!

what about condoms? do we just forget about those?

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Everyone is all abuzz here at CDC because there was a recent study that looks at the efficacy of male circumcision on the prevention of HIV transmission, and again, I sit here and scratch my head. Why? Because things like this really blow my mind. The efficacy was found to only be around 60% effective, and already, I can feel the decline of pushing condoms and other much more highly effective prevention techniques, all because this shows some promise in the highest infection areas of Africa.

Why does that upset me? Well, what that means, is that when our focus shifts even slightly from prevention tactics which are 99% effective when practiced consistently and effectively to a medical procedure that only promises 60% efficacy in the highest risk areas, it tells me that our priorities are not steadfast, and can crumble. Not only that, people will see these messages, and apply them to their own situations, even though they most likely do not share the characteristics of the study; i.e., the study looked at this as a last ditch method of prevention, because condoms were too expensive in these areas, and other people will simply see that as an excuse to stop using condoms. That is pretty scary, and extreme, but it is true.

I for one DO NOT advocate circuncision, period, but also definitely not as a means for preventing HIV. If you want to prevent the transmission of HIV, USE A CONDOM. It is 99% effective (when used consistently and properly), and is something that is way less invasive, and again, way more effective at preventing HIV. Having your child circumcised should be your decision, yes, but please don’t use HIV prevention as the excuse. Consider what a botched circumcision would do to your child; I for one wouldn’t want to have to have reconstructive surgery on my penis, which was completely fine BEFORE the doctors tried to cut it off when I was born.

Long story short:
Condoms prevent HIV.
Circumcision is only an effective method of prevention in extremely high transmission areas where CONDOMS ARE NOT AVAILABLE or ARE TOO EXPENSIVE TO USE REGULARLY.

DO NOT use this as an excuse to stop using condoms, nor as an excuse to cut the head of your sons (or your own) dick off. Please. And frankly, the “it looks better” excuse is unethical; let your son decide that, okay?

movie musings

for anyone else’s consideration (anyone’s other than mine)

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So, we went to see the new Christopher Guest movie, For Your Consideration, last night. I mentioned in the past about how excited I was to see this movie, and when Rich suggested it, I jumped at the chance. I had high hopes, because the previews made it look hilarious, and a part of me doubted that Christopher Guest could get so many awesome actors on board of ANOTHER stinker (yes, A Mighty Wind SUCKED). But, I was willing to give him another shot after A Mighty Wind, and especially after Waiting for Guffman (another horrible movie), because in the middle of that shitty sandwich, was the brilliance that was Best In Show. After seeing Best In Show, I ran to see his other films, and was SHOCKED when I saw how horrible they were. It just doesn’t make sense. Brilliance in the middle of pure shit. So, I thought, For Your Consideration will be another Best In Show… The pattern must be bad, good, bad, and well, then good again, right?

Wrong.

It was awful. There were a few moments that were pretty funny, but overall, the whole movie I sat there thinking, “it is going to get funny any second now”, and then the credits rolled before I knew it. Long story short, if this is on TV, and you have absolutely nothing to do, and are mildly curious about watching, I would consider it, but other than that, just skip it. It was awful.

On the other hand, if you loved those stinkers Waiting for Guffman and A Mighty Wind, you might like this one, lord knows you already like bad movies, what’s one more? I was seriously disappointed, and honestly pretty surprised that this was not only made, but is considered by everyone in it, and even by some of the critics to actually be funny. Maybe I am missing something, but I honestly think that this is the joke; they pretend it is funny to get you to watch it, and then laugh at you for sitting through an hour and a half of pure poop.

And that’s how I feel about that.

well?

so what, it’s just christmas!

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I have received some flack for my lack of Christmas spirit, and my assertions that I will indeed be boycotting the holidays this year, and this flack has made me want to take a second to truly assess; what is the big deal with Christmas?

I know that it is the day Jesus was supposedly born, and I get the need to celebrate that (if you are Christian), but what I don’t get is the mass hysteria and desire to receive gifts that comes along with it. See, for James’ family, they exchange gifts by drawing names. I am a part of this gift exchange. But I have a problem with it, and I always talk with James about it (even though I still just bit the bullet and participate anyway); if Christmas is about presents, isn’t it supposed to be about giving them, not just getting something? See, this gift exchange occurs through the mail, because the people on the list are literally spread across the country and into Canada. We don’t even see each other, it is more of an obligation to get something for someone; but why? For me, Christmas (or general gift giving, really) is not supposed to be about getting anything; it is supposed to be about giving, but because you want to. You give people gifts so you can see them be happy with what you have bought for them; not because you just need to get them something. Buying something for someone just because is quite silly, if you ask me; unless you just wanted to, not because you had to because you are part of a gift exchange where you won’t even see the person receive his or her gift.

I could go on forever about the anthropological history of gift giving and the traditions that go with it (a little talk about the potlatch anyone?), but I really just want to know if I am being so unconventional by thinking of Christmas and gift giving as a little overblown. I mean, in reality, it is just another day, and there should be no more reason to spend time with family any other day of the year, there should be no other reason to give gifts any other day of the year; yet the malls are packed with people spending tons of money to fill the requirement of gifts for others. It just seems a little out of hand to me.

And yes, I am boycotting the holidays. Bah-humbug. I am thankful, and I will give gifts, and I will visit family, but don’t see a need to attribute it to holiday spirit, the day itself, nor the need for Christmas music. What are you all doing for the non-holidays?

all about me, listen up!, mixed media, politics, venting, well?, wtf?!

do you think he has been drugged?

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That is the only thing that I can think of that would lead Bush to be open minded, and actually LISTEN to a plan about the war that doesn’t focus on “staying the course”, and pumping more and more resources and troops into Iraq. If he is on drugs, I hope he stays on them for at least two more years, so we can get our troops home, and hopefully solve this situation we are currently mucking up half a world away. My only fear, is that listening is not a guarantee that he will actually hear what is being said; let’s hope that my fear doesn’t become reality. Perhaps Bush is beginning to realize that very few people are backing him in his warmongering efforts, and finally grew a conscious!? Who knows… I guess we will see, won’t we? (source)

UPDATE: Looks like he isn’t listening. Stay the course, moron, stay the course. Fucker.

Other than that news, there isn’t much going on for me right now. Going into another weekend, I am just excited about spending time doing things with friends, rather than sitting at work. Man, I cherish my weekends. Don’t we all, though? I just wish I could have an actual vacation, and not have to use it for sick time and going to see family. One of these days, I will spend some time on a sandy beach sipping some kind of fruity drink. On second thought, scratch that, I don’t do sand, and too many fruity drinks can make you feel quite ill; trust me, that is based on experience. I would just settle for a week of uninhibited fun… anywhere. Hopefully some day…

Now, I will quit rambling, and hope that you all have a great weekend. I took some of the advice provided in the previous post’s comments, and hopefully that will solve some of my problems. I may try out WP, but not right this minute. I am also thinking of switching webhosts, so if you have referral codes or shit like that, let me know.

Also, does anyone still watch ANTM? Caridee is the best!! I am so glad she won!!!! YAY! Alright, I’m outta here!

blog on blog

calling all you computer whizzes!

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Hey! I need some help! As if I needed another reason to fucking HATE myspace, people are stealing my bandwidth by stealing my images. I still don’t understand why people are so fucking stupid that they can’t use a free image hosting service like photobucket or flickr instead of stealing the bandwidth you pay for like the douches they are, but they do. So, now that I have that out… is there a way to keep people from doing that? I mean, other than continually checking your logs and changing file names as necessary? Because that is really annoying. And it will just mean I will have missing images on my site, which is something I want to avoid if possible.

Also, does anyone have any advice about CPU excessive use? Apparently, the web host I use (which I have complained over and over about in the past) has again passed the buck back to me, and said that the reason my website continually exceeds the CPU usage has something to do with my site, and is not their problem. Is there a way I can figure out what is doing it? Also, does anyone think that I should move to a new host? If you have a host that you have never had problems with, let me know, I may move over there asap… I am tired of having issues. Seriously, I need your help computer whizzes!! I am begging!!!

That’s about all I have this morning. This whole thing is just irritating.

the catch-all-egory

interesting talks

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I had a talk with my Grandma today, and it was interesting that we ended up talking about my “life” and the “choices” that I have made. She obviously doesn’t agree with the whole gay thing, but she nonetheless assured me that she loved me no matter what, and that there was nothing that would change that, which was very, very nice. This is nice when you wonder how your family really feels about you, especially when you have a pretty good idea that they don’t agree with your life, and are just too self absorbed to say anything about it.

She did want me to come home for Christmas though, so it looks like I will be making a BRIEF appearance. I am serious… In and out!

Also, something else which really baffles me… I saw a talk that Jimmy Carter was doing the other day about his new book, which calls for peace between Palestine and Israel, and heralds that peace as one of the most important things to bring stability and peace to the middle east, and a self identified republican called in and called him a bigot and an anti-Semite because he wasn’t hugging and patting Israel on the back for all of the shit they have caused. It confuses me and baffles me, that we, as a country still don’t talk about this volatile “holy-war” that has been going on far too long about a claim on a little strip of land. Both sides of that fight are doing the wrong thing; they are both fighting over land that doesn’t necessarily belong to either of them (if you want to get right down to it). (I’m not saying that we should take a side, because there isn’t a side that is fundamentally right! Seriously, we have to just come to some sort of agreement, which is, uh, the point of trying to make a peace treaty, right?) Additionally, we have been in Israel court for so long, that any time anyone suggests trying to view it from a different perspective, that perspective being to not wipe out Palestine and kill all of the people there and chuck the land back to the Israelis, that you are anti-Semitic. That is just bull. First of all, Jimmy Carter is one of the biggest humanitarians in the world, and for what it is worth, as he mentioned to the caller, he is the only one that has brokered peace with Palestine, back in the 70’s with Egypt (which is still honored today). In my opinion, he doesn’t sound like an anti-Semite, he sounds like a man that realizes that war will not solve their problems, and reaching peace between these two volatile territories is the only way to truly secure peace in the middle east, if we could ever truly get it. Why people that ignorant still baffles me. Interestingly enough, as my friend Deb pointed out… those people usually are the same people that are against the Jews over here… go figure.

PS, I also have to turn comment moderation back on, some spam bots are overloading my CPU usage, and until I can get that figured out with my host, the inconvenience falls on you guys. Sorry in advance, ya’ll, please don’t let that stop you from commenting.

the catch-all-egory

so yeah…

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Still not that much worth talking about going on. I had a pretty good weekend, but that was all thanks to great friends being around to hang out with me. I love my friends, and don’t know where I would be without them; well, I have an idea, probably a nut house or something. I would really like to reconnect with some friends I haven’t seen in a while, though, so if you are in that category, you know who you are, and expect that I will want to try and hang out soon. Fo sho!

Also this weekend, I went to IKEA with Lori, and ended up buying a lot of stuff for the house, including a table and a rug for the living room (or as it has been known since we moved everything into the spare bedroom, the room you enter the house in, and the room in which sits furniture no one uses), and now it looks like I real room!! Loving it! Here’s a picture. I still can’t believe that the rug was only $15. It was a must have, you know?

Other than that, things have been muddling along; I actually got a bunch of stuff done at work today, and hope to continue this trend. I have been feeling very unproductive in life lately, and I can’t seem to shake that. I hope that I can soon. Also, I have been seriously thinking about what I want to do for Christmas, and so far, the consensus is skip it. Seriously, boycott it all together. Of course, I will go to parties, and have fun with friends in the “spirit” of the holidays, and I will exchange gifts with James, but other than that, it can be skipped. No lights. No tree. And more importantly, no going “home” for the holidays.

I still haven’t made up my mind, but almost every sign is pointing towards staying here, and just saying “see you next year (maybe)”. What do you guys think? What should I say if I choose to stay here? I wonder how the rents will take that news… more guilt, no doubt. Oh well. Hope everyone had a great Monday!

listen up!

a reflection on the state of HIV/AIDS, on today, World AIDS day

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Every year, I feel it is my duty to speak about something that I spend the rest of the year working hard to prevent; the transmission of HIV. Today, I want to reflect on some of the facts about HIV/AIDS, and suggest some of my thoughts about what is wrong with our current actions concerning HIV/AIDS, and suggest ways in which we can do more good, and hopefully, eradicate this epidemic once and for all. If something I say can save one person from having to deal with this disease, then that is my mission; it is why I got into public health in the first place.

Since 1981, which is heralded as the beginning of the HIV epidemic, AIDS has killed an estimated 25 million people worldwide. Today, we are more than 25 years into this epidemic, and the rate of transmission of HIV shows no sign of slowing. The main way we can stop the spread of HIV, is to make sure that everyone is protecting themselves, and continue to provide testing and treatment to everyone. We must step up our mission of prevention, by destigmatizing the acts through which transmission occurs, and not be afraid to talk with our children about sex. We must no longer be afraid to encourage everyone to understand that the usage of a condom can mean the difference between a long healthy life; or a life dealing with a devastating disease. We must change the way we prevent HIV transmission, both in this country and world wide, and luckily, it starts with us. We must take charge, and make sure that our voices are heard; the prevention of HIV cannot be subjected social stigmas and ideological barricades – it is time we get over that already. It is time we focus on the truth; HIV can be prevented, but it will never be prevented by abstinence alone. Condoms are not the enemy, sex is not the enemy; HIV is the enemy, and we must make sure this focus is both understood, and embraced by everyone. We must encourage everyone, including our nation’s youth, to protect themselves, get tested, and seek treatment if necessary. Ignoring this epidemic will only strengthen its hold on our society. We cannot afford to ignore it any longer.

(Since this is going to be a long entry, I am going to put the rest after the jump… make sure you come see it; I will be discussing how I feel about HIV/AIDS testing and treatment, two things that both excite and disgust me at the same time.)

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