Category: listen up!

I am sure you are looking at it going WTF? But I decided rather than delete what I wrote, to strike-through the non-relevant info, as to show that we were indeed, thankfully, wrong about the whole thing. It does not change the fact that everyone should in fact get vaccinated for Hepatitis A and B (especially if you are a man who has sex with men), because it is preventable. Which means, that even if you ate somewhere that potentially did have contamination (which Joe’s DOES NOT), you would be fine, because you would have antibodies to protect you. See how important these vaccinations are? They prevent you from sounding the alarm (albeit, somewhat prematurely, and ultimately incorrectly), and most importantly, from getting sick, because no one likes being sick, folks.

So, what we have learned from this:
1) Joe’s on Juniper is a great place to eat. No problems there. Check it out.
2) The incubation period for Hepatitis A and B are very similar, as are their symptoms.
3) My friend was infected with one at the same time he ate something that didn’t agree with him, which led him to believe that it was from the food, when it clearly wasn’t. This highlights the importance of SEEKING MEDICAL ATTENTION when you feel ill. You may think you have one thing, when you have something else entirely.
4) Vaccination for Hepatitis A and B are very important, because they are preventable viruses in most people. Get your vaccines now.
5) Apparently (much to my, and definitely my friend’s, surprise) some people are active carriers of Hepatitis B, and can pass it on to their sexual partners, if those partners are not vaccinated (again highlighting the importance of vaccination).
6) I realize that it is important to let people know of potential health situations (because prevention is definitely the key), but it is also important to realize that not every diagnosis is for sure. As I said in the previous post, it was never certain, and in this case, it turned out to be incorrect. Unless the message of alarm for anything potential regarding health situations and particular establishments/foods/medicines/etc comes from a health department or the FDA or other reputable establishment of public health, it is merely a word of caution and not a definitive diagnosis and explanation of what is actually going on. Sometimes it is better to say wear shoes, there may be rusty nails in here, even if there aren’t any nails, rather than let someone walk around barefooted, and find the one rogue nail that shouldn’t even be there.
7) I again want to stress that my friend has B and not A, which means that Joe’s on Juniper is FREE AND CLEAR. Now, let’s stop all this nonsense, get ourselves vaccinated, and go enjoy some wings and beers on the patio at Joe’s. I for one am going to need them after all of this mess.

BIG TIME UPDATE: My friend just called me from the doctor, and it turns out, very surprisingly, that he actually has Hep B, NOT HEP A, which means that IT DID NOT COME FROM JOE’S. I REPEAT, HE DID NOT GET IT FROM JOE’S, and Joe’s is clear and great! Unfortunately, for my friend, his partner is apparently an active carrier for Hep B, and passed it on to him, since he was not vaccinated. Damn. But, that’s good for Joe’s! Perhaps I will go eat there today! Hooray! Which means, that everything that is written below (which I am going to heavily edit) is just for your informative purposes… This just shows the importance of getting vaccinated. Get vaccinated!

Alright, this may be gross for some of you, but it is important nonetheless. A good friend of mine (who shall remain nameless), called me two days ago because he noticed that he was jaundiced. In case you don’t know what that means, it meant that his skin and eyes had a distinct yellow tint to them. Basically, this isn’t normal, so he called me to get a public health professional’s perspective as to just what might be going on. Instantly, I thought that he must have hepatitis, because that is one of the major symptoms of the disease. But, I thought to myself that he probably didn’t, because it is difficult to catch, and one of his risk factors (having sex with men) isn’t really an issue, as he is in a committed relationship and they are monogamous apparently, this doesn’t matter if your partner is an active carrier of Hep B, and you are not vaccinated. Good to know.

But after hearing all of his symptoms, and doing a little research on my own, I pretty much came to the conclusion that it most likely was hepatitis, which sucks, but if it is A, it isn’t that bad. Seriously. He went to the doctor, and they are waiting on the test to see exactly what it actually is. (I may update when I find out from him — let me be clear here; it MAY be hepatitis A, the doctor and symptoms point to a pretty reasonable certainty that it is, but I am not confirming or denying that he is indeed positive for hepatitis A, and I am not conclusively saying that he definitely got it from this place; that is impossible to definitively say). But that is not why I am writing this. I am writing this, because we traced back his disease time-line (epidemiology is fun!), and I, and his doctor, are fairly certain (again, that is NOT 100%. Epidemiology is a science, and sometimes science is wrong. I am passing on the facts that I have: possible infection, and a possible source, nothing more) that he was infected through a food exposure at a specific restaurant in Atlanta. That would mean that this place has a potential contamination issue with hepatitis A, and well, should potentially be avoided until further investigation by the health department (which he called and is issuing an investigation). For the record, it is Joes on Juniper where my friend believes he was infected (but again not with 100% certainty, but with strong belief).

Now, I am not writing this to be mean, or to slander Joes in any way. Honestly, I love the place. I have eaten there many times, and will probably go back at some point in the future; that is, pending they solve this potential issue. I myself have been vaccinated for hepatitis A and B, but don’t really want to find myself being exposed to the virus through food, especially considering that the only way it is transmitted is through stool of an infected person.

I hope that the health department rushes in and does the right thing, but if they don’t, at least my readers know they may not want to eat there for a couple of weeks until the figure this whole thing out. I don’t know if this will bring a shitstorm down on me or not (it shouldn’t, because I am not confirming anything, I am giving you the facts that have been given to me), but I felt it was my duty as a solemn believer in public health and prevention to say something. Don’t eat the poop, and you won’t get sick. You would want to know if you were eating the poop right? Well, now you know you could be. I am fairly certain that this problem will be rectified (oh god) soon, and there is no need to panic, but better safe than sorry… At least hepatitis A isn’t that serious; but regardless, it isn’t something that I would want.

UPDATE: I felt the need to add some statements to what I wrote based on Garrett’s comment, because I don’t want it to be misconstrued as an official “this place has hepatitis” report; of which this IS NOT. I am merely passing on information that a friend of mine, whom I have no reason not to believe, has potentially been infected with hepatitis A, and based on all evidence and symptoms present, potentially infected at Joes. That does not mean that he was, but that is something that I am not qualified to definitively state or not.

We now know that it was indeed NOT Hep A, and did NOT come from Joe’s. Thank goodness for my friend that he now knows what he has, and thank goodness it wasn’t Joe’s, and we all know. Again, this was NEVER meant to be a definitive “alert”, it was merely me passing on potential information that I felt other people may want to be aware of. Now that it is a moot point, I will let you commence eating at the great establishment that is Joe’s on Juniper!! Seriously, it is a great place, and I for one, am glad that things are a-okay there! Hooray! Now, enough about this A and B shit… just get vaccinated, bitches.

Today’s primary day in Georgia, and if you don’t know where to vote, go to this site, and type in your info. Don’t forget to vote! Remember, if you don’t vote, you have no room to complain!

Also, I find it interesting that they are trying to get the FMA going AGAIN, and are voting on that as well this week. The reason why I find it so interesting that they have chosen to force this issue again to “protect family values”, is because there are 1000000’s of more important issues that should be of way bigger concern, but they waste time with this shit, AGAIN. It is amazing to me how you can say that you are trying to prevent gay marriage in order to preserve family values, while at the same time completely ignoring the issues that affect many families today. My point, is that instead of focusing on gay marriage (which has absolutely no effect on anything, other than discrimination against gays) why not focus on the real issues, like working on preventing homelessness, providing health care, working on insurance reform, working on immigration laws, adequately funding education, working on tax reform, and any other number of issues that totally affect family values WAY more than gay marriage. When are they going to let this go??? I will be glad to stand by and watch this vote on the FMA keep going on and on and on if ONE person that is for it can explain to me how and why gay marriage is actually a threat to family values. And believe me, you better have an extremely great reason, none of this whole being gay is a sin shit, because that is just stupid. Just move on to something more important people! There’s people dieing in the middle east! There are people dieing in the streets here!! Focus on that! NOT GAY MARRIAGE! I completely think the law makers and leaders of this country need to stop thinking so much about gay sex and start focusing on what really matters… priorities people! You know, that makes me wonder about these people… they probably spend more time thinking about gay sex than I do; now what does that say?? Obviously gay marriage is a threat to them, because they harbor thoughts about gay sex! Shock! Awe! Oh just suck a cock and get it out of your system. Then we can move on to shit that is more important, okay?!?!

Suck on that! Apparently, I am not the only one that supports them, and agrees that the president ain’t doing such a great job. I think that sends a message personally, it is obvious who IS buying this record. ROCK ON CHICKS!!!

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FOR YELP! Yep, I am usually a hard sell to jump on any band wagon, but I am so glad that I did on this one. Yelp.com is this community, where you come together and review places that you have been; businesses, restaurants, doctors, auto repair places… anywhere! You give your honest, candid opinion of how you actually feel about a place, give it a rating, and poof! people can see what you think, and your voice and opinion are heard.

I especially love that I get to review and give my opinion about local hang outs, bars, restaurants and stuff like that; because I know, that when I go somewhere awesome, I want to share it, but there isn’t always a great way to give your opinion to lots of people. Now, with yelp, you can! Also, I know what it is like when you go to visit a city, you want to know what you can do, and where the best place to go and do what you want is, and yelp is the answer! Want to know the cool gay places to go? Now, I can find out and share that info with you, through this community! Now, I will get to see what other people think about places, and I will even be able to use that information about my own city! Who knows, I may even try something knew!!! Thanks for turning me on to yelp, Lori! Now, all of you join up, and be my friend on yelp, so we can start sharing opinions and ideas about stuff! YEAH!

You will notice there is a new 80×15 button on the right that will take you to my yelp page. Check it out!

I am going to fill you in on a little thing us gay guys can do that you may want to know about, or not, seeing as you can’t really do it. Whenever we are drinking, and out with girls, we can, um, grab their boobs, and it is cool, because we are gay. Don’t you wish you were gay now?? I thought so. HA! See, here I am in action: Maigh, Lori, even Seth (who really just probably felt left out and wanted to participate, since he technically doesn’t have boobs)!

Anyways… a lot of drunken debauchery and this “lesson learned”, came from last night’s APWBWGTTD. I have to say, people pick on me for hanging out with my “blogging friends”, and say that we are such dorks or whatever, but we have the best time. These people rock, ya’ll, and we always have a great time. I am SOOOO GLAD that I started going to these things, because I have made some AMAZINGLY good friends over the last several months, and I am very glad about that. Hell, I am even a member of Team AWESOME. That rules.

And on a more personal note: dave, I got your back!

So, um, I think that some people are really freaking me out on the comments about the tattoo (yes, it is bigger than I had imagined), so I thought a diagram and explanation of some tattoo facts regarding yours truly were in order. Let me begin. Here is the picture posted yesterday, with more of a detailed description of what the sketches that were drawn on are supposed to represent. The tattoo will look NOTHING like this; it is what he used to sketch out the design placement on my arm.

So you see, it will be a main koi fish with ginko leaves, water, and a smaller koi; not a penis or anything phallic. But thanks for thinking that I would get a huge cock tattooed on my arm.

Second, this will be my 6th tattoo. All of the tattoos I have are kind of small, and I don’t really want to go the road of trying to connect several small tattoos together where I may be interested in having a half sleeve at some point. The artist showed me what works best with the curvature of my arm, and told me that I should go this big and that I wouldn’t be sorry. I am thinking that he is right. I pretty much made the decision last night that I like the design, and that the only thing holding me back is myself. I am going to try my hardest not to let that happen, as I have always held myself back from doing what I really wanted to do in life. Not this time. Tattoo is all I have on the brain, so that is what we will be talking about until Saturday.

And, you get to see the whole process unfold, as it will take several sittings. Any more questions? How about revised thoughts on the design or how big it is?

I always talk about being involved. This time, I am. I emailed my senators, you must do the same. There is no reason why a censure cannot be supported; this is an issue of criminal action, not an issue of politics. Go here to email your senator. Here’s what I sent to Chambliss and Isakson:

Senator Chambliss/Isakson,

I am writing you today as a concerned American citizen, asking you to please support and back Feingold in his request to censure president Bush. What the president has done is criminal, and at a minimum, his actions set a bad precedent, especially if no action is taken against someone who breaks the law. When he went against the law and avoided the safe guards in place, and proceeded in conducting illegal wiretapping, he violated the freedom of the American public, and did so under false pretenses; more importantly, he broke the law. Senator Chambliss/Isakson, I challenge you to look at what is important here; the president is not above the law, and should not be allowed to conduct himself in that manner. Please, support the censure, and show your constituents that you support our freedom and believe in justice. The president is not above the law, and he cannot continue to believe that he is. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Duane Moody

Let’s get involved!

UPDATE: I don’t know how many of you care (not many people have commented), but I did get a response from Senator Chambliss, and I sent him another reply. Since it is long, it is after the jump… so click the read more.

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I don’t know how many of you out there watch Showtime’s the L Word, but I know that if you do, then you know about Dana’s struggle and subsequent death from breast cancer this season. Honestly, I usually don’t get too into shows, but with this one, I have to say, much like Queer as Folk, I do find that I relate more to the characters because they are gay, and as such, I have more of a connection with each of them than I would on a regular show. That being said, when Dana was diagnosed with breast cancer, my worst fear was that she would end up dieing; mostly because she was my favorite character, but also, because she was so likeable and, well, normal. Additionally, she was healthy, an athlete at the top of her game. She was a part of an awesome group of friends. She was out to her family, and last season, she even came out nationally as a lesbian tennis player. She was your typical woman (with the exception of being a tennis superstar), and just like so many women out there, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and unfortunately, died. But after giving it a lot of thought (I know, right?), I am honestly at peace with the fact that they killed off my favorite character; mainly because I think the purpose was much greater, and the message was much stronger.

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You know, sometimes, I honestly feel like I am drowning, but for one reason or another, I am just too lazy or unmotivated to do anything about it. And it isn’t for lack of trying, either. No matter how hard I try to break through the surface, I stay there, running out of air. I think of what is good in my life, and try to focus on how to get through that situation. I know that all I need to do is take the next step, and actually swim to the surface, but for whatever reason, I can’t. Something in me is comforted by the strange sensation of almost slipping away. Eventually, I do start to realize that I have to surface, but usually, I only come up long enough to get enough air so that I can go under again; and the whole process repeats itself.

That is how I have felt for the last year or so… drifting, treading water underneath the surface, unable to break out of my pattern of lazy desires and no actions. My friends and my partner all joke that I have too many irons on the fire to focus on one cohesive elemental dream to follow. I agree, but still I ponder those changes, underneath the surface.

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