Did Aliens Give Us AIDS?
January 31, 2011
(photo: Participant and Alien, taken by LadyBee at Burning Man in 1998)Maybe I was looking up more info on MegaPython, but somehow I stumbled across this gem on the internet and I thought I’d share it. It poses the question that all of us living with HIV have pondered at one time or another- did aliens give us AIDS?
It hits on all of the conspiracy theories, from population control to 9/11. It ties it all together with a big red ribbon! Here’s an excerpt in case you don’t want to bother with the whole two page read, which talks about how world leaders wanted to suppress the expansion of the population to keep us regular folks in line.
“…and then Roswell happens in 1947,
a brand new bag of genetic material to experiment with. As an advanced
race, I’m sure these aliens had a vaccine/cure for any disease they
had. Now this covert/shadow government had new genetic material to
experiment with.”
I love sci-fi, so I enjoyed reading it on that level. But imagine this- instead of our evil world leaders using genetic materials to destroy us, what if the advanced alien spacecraft crashed in Roswell because HIV had decimated their race? I’m not so sure the aliens would have a vaccine/cure for any disease as the writer above surmised, because maybe the aliens are great at building awesome spacecrafts but suck at medicine. Or wait, how awesome are their spacecrafts if they are crashing them in Roswell, of all places?
Anyway, this concludes my month of daily blogging. I may or may not keep it going through February, but either way I like the idea of a daily challenge each month of the year in 2011. Perhaps I’ll try to finish up a new song, or take my daily dose of Vitamin D since I’m deficient. In any case, writing a blog entry for each day in January was a lot of fun.
Hope you enjoyed reading them!
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
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Website: ShawnandGwenn.com
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Open Blog Post to Steve… A Truce for the AIDSges?
January 30, 2011
I admit it- I blogged about my War for the AIDSges with the plan to launch a slew of new barbs at you on Twitter. But a funny thing happened on the way to my laptop… I recalled all the good times, from meeting you online in 1996 and beginning our cyber-friendship, to going to NYC to see your off-Broadway smash hit The Last Session…
There’s a history outside of The Hemo2Homo Connection which, ironically, was created to bring the various factions of the AIDS community together. In the end, it tore two friends apart, sending them spiraling into the abyss of a fake 140-characters-or-less feud. Not since Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder traded barbs in the alternative press has a clash made less sense. Well, this can’t end like that…
It must not end like that.
Steve, there are no words to express how I feel. So just watch this, and think back on all the good times, and then post a Comment and let’s just see where the Hemo2Homo Connection goes from there…
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
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Website: ShawnandGwenn.com
Also check out the lovely Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
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MegaPython VS. Gatoroid- Tonite!
January 29, 2011
It can’t be all AIDS, or all me, all the time on this blog. Sometimes a light- even if it’s a pin light- must be shown on other things… and tonight, on the SyFy Network, something magical is happening. 1980′s teen pop icons Tiffany and Debbie Gibson are starring in… MegaPython VS. Gatoroid!
Don’t believe me? Here’s a sneak peak of the icons wrestling in the movie.
Oh yeah!
Gwenn doesn’t know it yet, but this is what we are doing tonight…
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
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Website: ShawnandGwenn.com
Also check out the lovely Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
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Hemo2Homo: The War for the AIDSges
January 28, 2011
Some of you may have noticed my thoughts on Black Swan weren’t the usual Hemo2Homo Connection. It’s not because Steve and I have “broken up” as your favorite living-with-AIDS movie review duo, it’s because we’re too lazy to organize ourselves.
Instead, we’ve found it easier to trade barbs on Twitter. It’s a war of words of 140 characters (or less!) that we have dubbed “The War for the AIDSges”. I’m not sure how it started, or how it will end, but it’s been a lot of fun and will likely provide fuel for the eventual return of the Hemo2Homo Connection. Here’s a taste of how we’ve been antagonizing one another on Twitter.
There was a popular trending topic about coming up with less intriguing movie titles than the original. Mine, “The Empire Strikes a Truce” was based on The Empire Strikes Back. Steve tried to RT me but instead stole my joke by reposting it without giving me the proper credit. Seeing that we were at “War”, I couldn’t let an internet mistake by an internet legend go unexploited…
As AIDS learned a long time ago, I learned how quickly Steve Schachlin can strike back…
@shawndecker I conquered you in the blog world and film criticism. Now I must crush you in twitterland. #warfortheaidsges
We’ve had some good exchanges, and I’m expecting more from my mentor in the coming months. You can follow us both and keep up with the War For the AIDSges on Twitter, which will hopefully be resolved in time for the Hemo2Homo Summer Movie Review AIDSpectacular!
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
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Website: ShawnandGwenn.com
Also check out the lovely Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
My CD, Synthetic Division, A Symptom of Life, is on iTunes!
SHARE THE BLOG. NOT THE VIRUS.
The Difference Between Self-Promo and HIV Awareness
January 27, 2011
I had an interesting conversation at the car wash last month. I ran into an old friend, who asked me how I was so good at self-promotion. It was an odd question, but I immediately knew it was probably related to the amount of “Friends” I have on Facebook or the fact that I’ve been interviewed on the local news and done some occasional mainstream press.
I explained that it’s really more about HIV prevention and awareness than it is about “Hey Look at Me I’m Shawn Decker!” Which would, of course, be greeted with a disinterested yawn. The person seemed surprised by the answer, like they hadn’t thought of that as an option. “Oh, yeah….”
I’m humbled that strangers add me as a Friend on Facebook after hearing Gwenn and I speak at their school- it means the personal way in which we educate resonates with them. While I hate it that anyone has to go through with the stress of testing positive for HIV, I love getting deeply personal messages about My Pet Virus and how the book made someone feel less alone when grappling with a new diagnosis. It’s why I keep doing what I do, I know I’m a small piece of the big HIV/AIDS puzzle, but an essential one. If I didn’t feel like I was making a difference with my jokes about myself and how HIV entered my life, than I’d instead dedicate my life to unlocking all the wrestlers on my Legends of Wrestlemania xbox game.
(Full disclosure- I tried but got frustrated at my inability to pin Hulk Hogan.)
So back to the point. When I first decided to go public with my status in 1996 at age 20, I went online believing that there would be hundreds of first-hand accounts from people living with HIV. I was shocked when I only found a handful of sites, yet that really inspired me to get my page up as quickly as possible and think about what it was exactly that I was looking for. In the end, I decided that I was looking for a safe place- one that didn’t make me feel afraid to be HIV positive. As I started to write my first pages, I also wanted to stay true to myself, the only difference being that I was now putting my medical resume out there for public consumption.
Now? I can’t imagine not claiming my HIV status as part of who I am.
Today the internet is exactly what I was expecting to find so many years ago when my dial-up modem screamed like a cat being given a bubble bath. And that is completely awesome. I love being that small piece of the puzzle, perhaps comedic relief against the backdrop of a virus that has and will continue to claim or alter millions of lives. I do my best to walk that line as an HIV educator between offering information to negatoids about how to stay safe and hope to positoids who shouldn’t have to waste years of their lives worrying about being accepted by loved ones and strangers alike.
If I have to occasionally scream “Look at me!” to get people to think about HIV, then so be it.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
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Website: ShawnandGwenn.com
Also check out the lovely Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
My CD, Synthetic Division, A Symptom of Life, is on iTunes!
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The State of the Blog Address
January 26, 2011
Greetings my fellow web surfers,
Today finds this blog to be in perfect health and unity with cyberspace. As I march towards the rarest of gems- a fulfilled new year’s resolution to blog every day in January- I can’t help but look ahead to February, March, and even April. I’m hoping that every month of blogging can be just as much fun as this one has been.
What can we look forward to here? Hopefully more good news than bad in terms of the general state of HIV/AIDS. I want to hear about fewer positoids on ADAP Waiting Lists, not more. I want to hear more about realistic breakthroughs in HIV research, and less about impractical “cures”, though I’ll take those over the fake cure stories any day. Whatever I hear that is interesting, I’ll be sure to share here.
I’m happy that Decker’s Daily has been renewed, but I’m thinking about having it be 85% pictures of me drinking iced mochas, and then 15% being other things. Look for a “Picture of the Day” link at the bottom of each blog entry soon- that will be a link to my Decker’s Daily tumblr page.
In regard to blogging every day, or more often than used to be the case, I’m going to have to investigate my page views. If they went down, I’ll have to stagger my thoughts and try to win back an overwhelmed readership. If they went up, then I’ll probably try to keep up a feverish pace.
As always, I’m honored that I’m but one of many stops on your journey through cyberspace.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
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Website: ShawnandGwenn.com
Also check out the lovely Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
My CD, Synthetic Division, A Symptom of Life, is on iTunes!
SHARE THE BLOG. NOT THE VIRUS.
Black Swan and HIV
January 25, 2011
I finally managed to see Black Swan, which is one of those movies I was excited to see until it got overexposed, as if something popular somehow loses it’s ability to be any good. That just isn’t true, but my subconscious movie buzz does seem to suffer if I hear too much about a movie before seeing it, or see too much when a trailer reveals every decent scene or character’s intention.
So, consider this sentence my spoiler alert. SPOILER ALERT. There, that’s better.
Not much to spoil by now. Black Swan is the tale of a dancer, Natalie Portman, trying to make the best of a wonderful opportunity as the lead in Swan Lake. Since my blog really shines when I make everything about HIV, I’ll focus on why this movie is really about new HIV infections…
huh?
Portman’s character is a very sheltered young woman, probably in her early twenties. She still lives with mom, has a lot of dolls in her room and even a little ballerina music box by her bed. As she becomes obsessed with her new role and strives for perfection, she rebels against her coddling mother and her own self-image by cutting loose one evening with a fellow dancer. Things get way out of hand, and Portman is left the next day with a hangover and wondering whether or not she slept with two men or her friend.
Or all of them.
Oh, and mom- she’s really pissed off, too.
Her character’s dramatic metamorphosis from sheltered girl to risk-taking party animal does provide a glimpse into how quickly a sexual awakening can occur. In terms of HIV, there’s an assumption that the newly infected, particularly if they are under the age of 24, are all just wild party animals asking for trouble. But it only takes that one weekend of dropping your guard- or a pill into your drink as Portman’s character did- to put yourself at risk..
The movie made me think: a lot of parents lock their children up, thinking it will keep them safe from the world. But you can’t lock a human’s own humanity out of them. Those thoughts and a curiosity about sex are going to happen, and the best way to protect them is sharing important information at each appropriate place during their emotional development. I can’t imagine it’s easy to figure out the right time to have the right conversations, but a gradual building of trust and a comfortable and non-judgmental attitude about talking about sex shouldn’t be as hard as it seems to be for a lot of folks. The idea should be to create that trust, and hope the child comes to you with those questions instead of just firing out lectures hoping that one or two take.
There’s no follow-up on whether there were any consequences to that wild night in the movie, of course, but it did make me think as an HIV educator. When sex education in public schools has been removed, and parents in general aren’t having the conversations they need to be having to fill in those gaps, what can be done to make people less inclined to engage in risky behaviors as a way of discovering the unnecessarily guilty pleasures of sex?
The whole issue of sexual health isn’t a black swan, or a white swan. It’s gray. And by sharing our own experiences (as positoids and negatoids, and also as parents who were once teenagers and need to remember that) we can help each other add some color to that dreary gray swan.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
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Website: ShawnandGwenn.com
Also check out the lovely Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
My CD, Synthetic Division, A Symptom of Life, is on iTunes!
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Limbaugh Rewriting AIDS History
January 24, 2011
Media Matter has posted a recent bout of verbal diarrhea suffered by Rush Limbaugh, a chronic sufferer of TOAS (Talking Out of Ass Syndrome). Last week, Limbaugh stuck up for Ronald Reagan’s blind-eye approach to the emerging AIDS epidemic in the 1980′s…
On Democrats regarding HIV and then-president Reagan, he said:
“These people blamed AIDS on Reagan. Sound familiar? They blamed homelessness on Reagan — you know why they blamed AIDS on Reagan? Because he didn’t care. Because he never delivered a speech about it. And because of that, AIDS was spread. They actually wanted us to believe that Reagan had the disease, was sneaking into gay people’s houses at night, and impregnating them with the disease and running out. And when he left their houses he went over to Grant Park, or wherever it was, Lafayette Park and stole the pork and beans of the homeless and took them back to the White House and fixed them up and ate them. That’s the kind of stuff they were saying about Reagan.”
Pretty disgusting words in defense of Saint Reagan.
In 1990, two years after his presidency was over, Reagan apologized for his mishandling of the crisis. To read some excerpts from Michael Bronski’s book, The Truth About Reagan and AIDS, and to hear an audio clip of how Reagan viewed HIV as a morality test, click here.
Now, who stole my pork and beans?
Positively Yours,
Shawn
Watch, Friend and Follow me on:
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Website: ShawnandGwenn.com
Also check out the lovely Gwenn’s Fashion/Coffee Blog
My CD, Synthetic Division, A Symptom of Life, is on iTunes!
SHARE THE BLOG. NOT THE VIRUS.
LIFE IN PHOTOS
Shit got whack at da coffee shop today.
One of my #Halo friends is a vicious monster who will attack the moment you turn your back to him. Every Team Slayer match is basically 3 on 5 with him involved. The game should have trials for war crimes as a game mode.
Yesterday the neighbor's cat paid us a visit. His name is Hobbes, and it was our first meeting. He is very friendly.
I know what you all want, and it isn't pasty European Heavyweight champions... it's me drinking iced mochas. Behold.
Speaking About Sexual Health
Since 2000, Shawn and Gwenn have been speaking about sexual health together, sharing their personal story and empowering others to be safe. If you are interested in having them speak at your event, fill out the Contact Us form.
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