JamesSavik

Same here. One of the really nighmarish things about HIV is the possibility of having it without knowing and infecting someone you care about (assuming that you care about your sex partners- something that is not a given except in people with character-like most folks on this board). If I found out that I had given it to someone, it would destroy me.

It is one thing to have a choice: to know that someone is infected and have the option of safe sex or walking away. Unfortunately, this is the exception and not the rule. Unless you are very careful, or even if you are very careful, you could be have sex with someone who is HIV+ and is either unaware or in denial.

My McFavorite is the number 5 breakfast combo: Sausage & biscuit, hash brown substitute large coke for coffee. I'm allergic to eggs which makes breakfast difficult.

When AIDS first appeared, here in Mississippi peoples attitudes were, like every social trend, it won't come here for another twenty years. Unfortunately for a lost generation, they were dead wrong. People started dying in 85. By 1990 the numbers were actually alarming. In 82 & 83, the HIV virus hadn't even been isolated yet. It acted like a virus but science had never dealt with a retro-virus before. CDC nor anyone else in the medical community knew enough about HIV/AIDS to state anything definitive about it. It appeared to be a virus. It appeared to be sexually transmitted. It appeared to have a long incubation period before the immune system collapsed. It appeared that those who were infected were contagious from four to ten years before before they got sick. However- at the time no one actually had the smoking gun. Various entities had pieces of the puzzle but bureaucratic rivalries and wrangling by Nobel prize hungry scientists kept many of these institutions from working together or even sharing data. No one in the various health bureaucracies would risk their reputation by making recommendations or issuing guidelines. In 1984 I worked with an all volunteer team at the University of Southern Mississippi to create a mathematical model of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The results were frightening. Given a geometric growth rate and an average seven year contagious latency period, our model showed that by the 1990s, infections with HIV/AIDS would be in the 10's of millions in the United States alone. We had difficulty publishing our findings. Many journals wanted nothing to do with AIDS, some commented that it was alarmist while others accused us of fear mongering. I left USM in June of 1984 and the results were finally published by a European Infectious Diseases Journal in early 1985. Worse yet, opportunists like Pat Robinson and Jerry Falwell were preaching that HIV/AIDS was the righteous wrath of an angry God inflicted on homosexuals who had no one to blame but themselves. Culturally AIDS could not have happened at a worse time. The sexual liberation of the sixties came full circle in the seventies. Gay people were more accepted than at anytime before. Record numbers of people were leaving the closet with no intention of ever going back. Part of that liberation was a permissiveness about sex that by todays standards is shocking. Every big city (and even some smaller ones) had gay bars, caf

Yes- unfortunately I've known a number of people who have passed away from AIDs. Rather than address this here, I'm going to blog about it.

Every author has an agenda. A measure of that author's craft is how well he disguises it and allows the reader to figure it out on their own without the author resorting to removing their shoe and banging on the lectern.

I like playing in the mud with my trucks. It's a good thing too because trucks and mud are the only things we have in abundance in the Federal Republic of Dixie.

Wealth can afford those elective procedures that most peoples health care won't cover. Granted, you might end up looking like Michael Jackson but that is a matter for taste and good judgement. Besides for plastic surgery, there are procedures that fix eyesight, keeps weight off, tightens skin, etc. Wealth is NOT the fountain of youth but it helps to be able to afford the type of care that your typical middle class person can not..

I hates chatting. I hates it forever. Encourages rudeness it does. Makes annoying people unbearable. As pointless as an episode of Sienfield. Besides, every third person in a chatroom who claims to be a teen is actually a Fed or Perverted justice plant trying to get their ugly mug on TV. Maybe a good new game for chatrooms would be pin the tail on the Fed.

With wealth, one can obtain any of the others.

A few things to consider before jumping on the Apple bandwagon: Does the software you need exist in Apple-land? While Apple has tons of software in some areas like imaging and layout, there are other areas where the pickings are slim. Make sure to look closely at this well in advance of bringing home a Mac. What sort of legacy data are you going to have to deal with and is it going to be a deal-breaker? Got lots of data on your PC? Word processing, spreadsheets, databases, special applications software? Moving that legacy data to an Apple platform may or may NOT be a trivial exercise... and one that you need to consider carefully before you jump ship. What is the REAL cost of converting to Apple? How much are you going to have to spend to purchase new software? How much are you going to pay to integrate the Apple into the existing mix of equipment that you currently use? How much is it going to cost to integrate the Apple into your existing network? Apples are easier to use but don't be fooled: there is a learning curve. It will take you some time to become as adept at using your Mac than the PC that you have been using for years. This is a subtle part of the cost of changing platforms that you have to keep in mind. e.g. Buying a Mac a week before the most important proposal of your life probably isn't a very good idea.

Without the difficult subjects what are we left with? Dishwater? Cottage cheese? Tofu? <feel free to insert the bland and the tasteless here> The blood drawn from the jagged edges of those difficult subjects is the very engine that drives drama and dramatic situations. Without drama and conflict, how can our heroes be heroic? How can our passion be passionate? For generations the shaman/minstrel/bard/storyteller have been telling tales and sagas of heroism. Who would Beowulf be without Grendel? Would we remember Sherlock Holmes were it not for his nemesis Dr. Morority? Wouldn't The Heart of Darkness just another long boat ride without the mind-numbing monotony of that slow running river in the jungle? Those difficult subjects merely define the stakes of the game and give the reader an emotional investment in the plot- one which the reader may or may NOT be willing to ante up for.

Two of the more popular US brands are Dell and HP- with basic models ranging from 500-1200 US$ depending on configuration. They are being shipped with XP or Vista per your choice. HP is my hardware choice. I have a lot of experience with the brand and know the ins and outs of their warrenty and support systems. There are Dell users who are just as loyal. There are a lot of other big named brands but they have various issues- not something that you want to hear when you are about to shell out a pile of dollars for a lap top. Both dell and hp have web based systems that allow you to to configure and price a machine to your requirements.

Jan- Notice the way language is used here. Gay is not something that you are, it is something that you do. This indicates to me a couple of very bad things. First- internalized homophobia. This is what happens when a gay person listens to religious nuts and/or anti-gay people who stress that homosexuality is a behavior to be avoided and not a sexual orientation. Second- deep denial. If you "get gay", doesn't that indicate that you aren't gay otherwise? James

I voted NO. I've been out since I was 13 and wouldn't have anything in common with someone who is in the closet.

It has been my experience that BI is what an insecure gay person calls himself when they first venture out of the closet. When the heats on, they can, and do, leave the evil faggit that messed with their mind and take up with a whore and claim normality. Then you catch them tricking at truck stops or airport mens room. So, what do I have to say to those who would never date a bi-sexual or someone in the closet? Get over yourself, and try being open-minded Once you have been burned in such a way, only a fool would go back for seconds.

XP after SP 2 isn't so bad... In fact, it's selling better than Vista. Vista is a steaming pile of crap that can't be fixed. They tried to make it secure... and made it very difficult to modify or tweak. Best bet: pick you favorite flavor of Linux.

If your boyfriend ever cheated on you with a woman, or better yet ran off and married one, you might find it as appalling as I do. He had the nerve to be surprised when I wouldn't f*** him because he was married. I don't do Bi. Never, ever, ever.

The NFC has the power teams, the AFC has the finess teams. Besides: someone is going to have to win the AFC West. Brett's a bad ass. Most guys his age play golf or do woodworking. Brett mixes it up every week with the pros. the kitties? Ba-wa-haha

If you feel confident in swapping out a motherboard, new technology is where you want to be. If you are running XP, I would suggest at least a gig of RAM (or 2 if you can swing it). XP's performance (and any other Microsoft OS) is directly related to the amount of available memory. Video is something that I like to put in a PCI card for. Motherboard video is usually fairly limited. By putting in a card, you can add memory to it for improved performance. Network cards can add an extra port if you need one and they are cheap as dirt.

Green Bay bcause... Brett Farve is a Mississippian! Oh and yeah... I'm a rabid NFL fan.

I would love to meet some of our members from the UK: clumber, sumbloke, badly worn boy, etc. If I can do it, I will.

I'm afraid that all this proves is that the X-box appeals to some members of the shallow end of the gene pool.

Joe- Beware of guys that hang with fag-hags: they pick up very bad and annoying habits from them- like NOT knowing when to leave well enough alone or when to shut the f**K up. I tried be str8 but women were just too damned annoying and that is the LAST thing I'm looking for in a man. OK- horibly sexist rant over. On average, young gay men 18-22, are typically well behind their str8 counterparts in dating skills. Most of them don't come out until their junior/senior year in high school. Then many don't begin to "date" until they are 18 or older and out of the house. In comparison, Str8 kids may start dating, going to dances, etc as early as junior high. At your age, you are going to run into a lot of guys who simply have no idea how to act. It's not so much a matter of them being psycho as being horribly inexperienced while trying to be super-cool. This usually the formula for acting like a jack@ss. You have a choice. You can either: pick one of these awkward, annoying oafs that shows potential and hope he grows up or you can hold out for Mr. Perfect. If you thought that immature and inexperienced were annoying, just wait till you get a load of Mr. Perfect. James

Yeah- they own guns