Blog Posts + Articles + Happenings
Thursday (4-26) Dining Out For Life HIV/AIDS Fundraiser
Dining Out For Life is an annual fundraiser, in which restaurants from across the country donate a portion of their proceeds to local HIV/AIDS charities and organizations. For you locals, this means that tomorrow night (Thursday), you have the opportunity to help out...
Today is World Hemophilia Day
Today is World Hemophilia Day, so hug a thinblood. And find out more about bleeding disorders by visiting The National Hemophilia Foundation and the Hemophilia Federation of America. Positively Yours, Shawn
Oh oh, I—I, I’m Still Alive
It wasn't my intention to take a one-month plus vacation from this blog. So, if you read this you might be wondering what I've been up to?I have been writing even though I haven't posted much to read. At the beginning of the year I started putting in a lot of...
Greg Louganis in a Hot Tub
On Friday night I was pleasantly surprised to see a cameo on one of my favorite new shows by world famous positoid and Olympic athlete Greg Louganis. On Portlandia, he explains the Olympic games to the doubtful co-stars of the show whilst sitting in a hot...
Happy 40th, Pedro Zamora
Pedro Zamora left us all too soon in November of 1994. I got to know him through my television, and boy did he open himself up, appearing on the then socially relevant reality show The Real World. I'd just graduated high school, and had no idea what laid ahead...
Borrowed Time: The Remixes (Free Music Download)
The last week was a snap shot of my life at it's most active- I went to Florida for a speaking engagement (my wife partner and I discuss how we keep her HIV status as negative in our relationship, if you're a newbie) and I was busy working on new music with my...
Happy Valentine’s Day
Self love. Valentine's Day shouldn't be a series of dividing lines between those who are in a relationship, or those who want to be or those who couldn't give two shits either way. Aside from floating Hallmark, Valentine's Day should be a moment to embrace self...
A Week of Being A Weakling
After posting the last blog, I soon realized that it was going to take a bit longer to get well than I originally thought. That's why I had to postpone a speaking engagement that would have had me flying across the country today... just had no energy from about the...
Writing Again
Writing is one of my favorite things to do- when I'm inspired. When I'm not I've learned not to push it. It's why this blog goes through dry spells. Do I like sharing my life? Yes. But not so much when I'm not in the mood to write. Which can be often. Lately, I've...
For You Fellow Rasslin Fans
Anyone who knows me knows my love of pro wrestling. I paid homage to it in my memoir, My Pet Virus, by dedicating a chapter of the book to Ric Flair. Followers of this blog may remember my final Positoid column for Poz Magazine, which was about my interview with...
Bummer of the Week: My Bum Ankle
Apparently I have the ankle of a senior citizen who had a serious injury in their youth. On Monday morning, I got an X-ray of my problem spot- my left ankle- and the orthopedic foot and ankle specialists were pretty alarmed by what they saw. A complete...
SHOCKER: Red Ribbon Worn At Golden Globe Awards
Yes, you read that right- an actor of prominence wore a red ribbon on his suit jacket at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night. Before I laud praise, I gotta say that it was wonderful to see one of those little suckers. Really. I paused the screen to...
Labtest Contest Results and Winner
Drum roll please... my labs are in, and my t-cell count when the blood was drawn last week was 590 (30%), with a less than 48 copy detectable viral load. Which, for those of you who don't understand HIV lab talk, are very good numbers. So I'm doing alright! But enough...
Last Day to Guess in Labtest Contest
It's your last chance to win a wonderful prize by being the closest guess to my actual t-cell count! Win either a signed copy of My Pet Virus, a Synthetic Division CD or an iced mocha. Just post your guess in the Comments section of this blog post, and...
Video Tip of the Day: Check Your Meds
When Gwenn and I went to pick up my HIV medications, I made a video update in the car that was intended to be a joke of sorts about how long it can take to pick up meds. Then when we got home, and I made another video about what we discovered about my medication that...
Labtest Contest VI: Labby New Year!
Happy New Year! What better way to splash back into blogging in the new year than with a Labtest Contest? If you're new here, the rules are below. The concept is simple, every 4-6 months I have to get blood drawn to see how my immune system is doing. Instead...
Happy Holidays and New Year (Last Post of 2011!)
A very happy holiday to you, and a happy December if you're an atheist. Whatever you dig, I'm just too tickled that you check in on me from time to time here on this blog. Lately I haven't been the updating machine that I was in January when I did the "Blog Post...
Ryan White Would Have Turned 40 Today
Ryan White, the AIDS educator who rose to prominence after his public battle to attend public school in the 1980's, passed to spirit at age 18 in 1990, years before treatments were successful. Had he lived, he would have turned 40 years old today. We all owe this...
HIV Positive Student Denied by Private Boarding School
The Milton Hershey School, a private boarding school that provides an educational opportunity for disadvantaged teenagers, has denied a potential student based solely on his HIV status. A lawsuit has been filed, and the story was given legs due to the lawsuit's...
Home for the… Holiday?
Tomorrow is World AIDS Day. Aside from two years ago- when I got sick while out on the road during World AIDS Week and had fly home instead of across the country- I haven't really been home on World AIDS Day in any shape or form to enjoy it in about a decade. Today...
An Unforgettable Thanksgiving Eve
Sitting on my couch, watching Jake manage the after effects of a house party gone wrong thanks to some channel's shared love of my favorite movie, Sixteen Candles. Today is Thanksgiving Day, and I'm thankful that my own "house party" couldn't have gone off better...
11-11-11 About That Number, “Eleven”
Today is Eleven Day. I love when the calendar does something quirky like this. It made me think for a second about what the number "11" has meant in my life. I was 11 years old when I tested positive for HIV. No other event has had such an impact on me. I spent...
#GetBetterEthan Support HIV/AIDS in NYC Marathon
The crappy news of the week is that Ethan Zohn's cancer has returned. Many of you may know Ethan from Survivor Africa, the reality show that he won a million dollars on and then used the money to start an HIV/AIDS awareness organization called Grassroot Soccer.I...
A Massage With An Unhappy Ending
Halloween has come and gone. I had a great one this year- saw my friends' new band, Brighter Fires, have their first show at a house party that included the obligatory visit by the police. So funny, I had a can of beer in my hand and set it down when the car rolled...
The End of AIDS Will Come
The current issue of Poz has a compelling cover- a red ribbon with a big black "X" through it. The cover story is written by Regan Hofmann, who astutely observes: "Having 27.3 million people with HIV globally (about 1 million of them in America) remain untreated...
A Difficult Travel Experience
A few weeks ago I came down with the local cold, claimed victory on it too soon on this blog only to have it return with a vengeance... well, last week I had to travel to Providence for a sexual health HIV/AIDS program with Gwenn at UMass Dartmouth. The cough...
I Claimed Victory Crouch Too Soon
Apparently I jumped the gun on claiming victory crouch over my cough/cold. Just as Facebook had posted my blog entry as a Note (a couple days after I posted the celebratory "All Better Now"), the cough was back. I could feel the whole thing starting over again at 7...
I Victory Crouch You by Synthetic Division (Halo Tribute)
Did you hear the story last month about how a group of gamers solved a problem with HIV that has been baffling scientists for over a decade? Click here to learn more about how a University of Washington program transforms scientific problems into computer games. I,...
All Better Now
Got over the local flavor of the week here in town, the nasal drip bug or whatever it actually was. Took well over a week to run it's course, but one of the benefits of being a stay at home (not by choice) HIV educator is that it gives me an ample amount of time to...
America Needed Jobs… Still Does, Right?
Steve Jobs has passed to spirit. Another number in the massive death tolls that cancer has amassed in all of our lifetimes. I think of cancer and HIV as kin, I look to a future when science eradicates the physical and emotional suffering that both bring to our...