Whimsical notions

First gay cigarette ad?

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 07:11:28 GMT

Cigarette smoking is a ubiquitous vice in the gay community, clustering around bars, alienation, "rebelliousness" and who knows what else. Cigarette and alcohol companies continue to financially support pride marches and advertise in gay magazines.

Looking through some vintage ads recently, I saw what might just be the first cigarette ad targeted at the gay community (Broadway, really, but is that such a stretch?):

Seattle bound

Sat, 17 May 2008 22:16:02 GMT

I didn't wish to jinx my new job until it was a done deal, but now that the ink is drying, I can let everyone know I'm moving to Seattle (hopefully with Charles in tow) in July!

I'm apologize to my local friends who haven't seen me since returning from Africa that I'm just now making this common knowledge. Nine months(!) after "first contact" with my employers, and 4 months after my official interview, I was offered a faculty position at the University, and am absolutely thrilled! This comes on the heels of the very poor treatment I received from UCSF, so it is really nice that The Man wasn't able to keep me down. :-)

I feel very fortunate, because I know several people at the University, some from Stanford and others through professional affiliations that I hope to extend while there. It is a unique opportunity to pursue my intellectual interests and creativity while also staying in the health sciences.

It is always nice to see friends, so if you're visiting there, drop me a line! I also hope not to be a stranger in SF, since I'll be keeping my studio (albeit rented out) for the time being. I hope y'all will stay in touch - I'll try to keep the blog active for awhile at least before I get swamped with my new responsibilities.

I will miss SF and all my friends here terribly, so please do keep in touch!

I'm back!

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:34:54 GMT

Well, I clicked my heels a few times, and now I'm back from Gambia and won't be traveling again for another month or so. I had a quick trip to Canada which prevented me from having a big "welcome back" for everyone (since, relativitistically speaking, you all went away from me :-). But I'm around now and "pre-employed", so have lots of free time to reconnect with friends. As I search for jobs (a few offers already in hand) I'm not restricting myself to SF, so don't assume I'll be around forever!

I saw Toronto for the first time, and while it was nice, I much preferred Montreal and Vancouver. Toronto was just too spread out - not a very walkable city by my standards, and the public transit, while efficient, was not sufficiently developed. (I tend to ignore bus lines, since there is no substitute for a good subway system!)

I also saw Madrid just before returning home. Like Barcelona, also very beautiful, but somehow more manageable. I much prefer Barcelona, and yet Madrid had its charms and seemed like a very serene and livable city, whereas Barcelona seemed more glitzy, modern, and active. (Madrid, as you recall, was where they held massive protests against gay marriage last year).

Hope to hear from and see my local blog-friends soon. For the others, I'll try to get some new pictures up soon.

Howdy y'all

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:47:58 GMT

Ok, so I've been probably the worst ever blogging-from-the-edge person ever. I have internet access virtually every day in Africa, and instead of posting, I'm out enjoying myself. So sue me!

Please enjoy this small token from Senegal - I call it "HayWatch"!

Chillin' in The Gambia

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 21:09:36 GMT

Yes, that's a goat on a schoolbus. It's probably better if you don't ask why (a lesson I've learned quickly here, although in this case I know why).

Had a great day on Saturday with my friends Molly and Jeff, who live beside me at "N'Dow's place" (named after the owner). We went to the Serrekunda market, which was somewhat overwhelming. Potholes everywhere on the dirt road, no sidewalks so people (including us) walk into the road, often carrying sizeable loads on their heads, while taxis and cars zoom by, squeezing in between the other 50% of the cars which have stopped in place for one reason or another. Jeff went to buy a Gambian soccer jersey for his nephews, and instantly was surrounded by SIX young men, all plying their wares and competing for his attention. This didn't stop after we left - either we were marked as jersey-buyers, or they saw the ones he had in his bag, but for the next 45 minutes guys would approach us in different parts of the market with soccer jerseys to sell.

I've been collecting seashells in my time off, and found a local craftsperson who might be able to do something with them. That way I can help her make a living wage while I get a gift to take home that has some personal meaning.

Later, we went to the woodcarver's market, where many craftsmen create their goods right in front of your eyes. Unfortuately, 80-90% of the products were somewhat mass-produced and generic. Lots of hippos, "traditional" African masks, stylized sculptures of heterosexual couples embracing, giraffes, turtles, etc. etc. However, at one point I heard a beautiful, spontaneous tune come from a nearby stall. I found a young man with one balafon (like a zylophone), and lots of other non-musical wood carvings. This was the only well-tuned balafon I'd heard. It turns out that he makes the balafons as taught by his father, and they both play and teach balafon lessons. I later found out he is from a clan of musicians/story-tellers who have passed on the art for hundreds of years. So I'm hoping to have lessons from his family before I leave.

Greetings from The Gambia

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:35:09 GMT

Well, hello everyone, from The Gambia! A lot has been happening, and as most everyone knows I have taken a contract position for a few months in The Gambia, on the west coast of Africa. I had intended to write before now, but it's literally taken 17 days to get to a place where I have unrestricted internet access. Bandwidth is limited, so the MRC blocks most interesting, personal, or useful websites. My quest to get internet access at home has been frustrated - things here happen on GMT ("Gambia Maybe Time"). Having said that, people here are mostly pleasant and helpful.

I've settled in these first couple of weeks with no small amount of help from my boss David, and my friends Kevin and Bouke, who have invited me into their homes, shared their vehicles, and included me in their social lives. So I've been swimming at the beach, played zylophone and guitar in impromptu jam sessions, and hung out at the "Banta Bar" on MRC campus while discussing their studies on infectious disease.

My work here has been challenging but equally rewarding. I've been trying to broaden my experience for some time, and so far I've been working on studies of HIV (3), TB, Trachoma, and even one measuring the effect of multiple diseases on people with HIV (some have Hepatitis, HTLV, Syphillis, etc. etc. etc. - up to six diseases!).

(I can't help but laugh at my present circumstances. A little (Lebanese?) boy is trying to moonwalk in front of me in a "French Patisserie" across the street from the American Embassy. He pretty much has it made, as his parents serve fanta and coacoa and have a huge ice cream refrigerator. This is the only place resembling an internet cafe one might find in the US (they hardly existed in Spain, so I assume it's an American phenomenon). )

Well, there's so much more to tell, but the light is fading and I have a bumpy road to bike back down on the way home. If/when I get internet access at home, I'll try to update again. I miss everyone at home (and even my blog friends, whom I can't keep up with from MRC - but I can see your replies via my email account!). Take care, happy holidays, see y'all in a few months!

PS Photos from Marrakech, Barcelona, and Gambia available at Flickr:

Do just one thing

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:56:56 GMT

If you do just one thing for yourself this week, please PLEASE go see Angels in the Dust. This is one of the most inspiring and uplifting films I've ever seen. It shows the harsh reality of AIDS orphans, but what seems like just another depressing documentary premise turns out to be a brilliant, shining example of the power of the human spirit, the rewards of compassion, and the unquenchable joy that resides in the hearts of children.

If thinking about the AIDS crisis in Africa ever seems overwhelming, if you've ever known anyone who suffered with the disease, or if you just need a break from news about Iraq/n and Britney/Paris/Lindsay, you must see this film! If you haven't experienced tears of joy in awhile, go see this film It is only here for a few more days, showing at the Lumiere. Charles and I were blown away and so grateful that we went opening night. If enough people see it now, it might get picked up for distrubution, and it will help bring needed attention and hope to the cause.

Updates

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:28:27 GMT

1) I'm giving a lecture in Seattle, for what will hopefully turn into an academic job offer. I'm not anxious to leave SF, but an offer might help me convince UCSF to advance me.

2) I will in fact be going to Gambia on around Nov 1st for three months. Woo hoo!

3) Some follow-up from the surgery: they had told me my particular tumor was very rare, but I didn't realize how rare. Through 1995, only 300 cases had ever been reported! That made me feel very lucky.

Maybe my next post will be from Africa!

Happy b-day

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:28:52 GMT

Happy Birthday Yuri (yuriverse)!

Demo(molished)crats Reason #527 why I left the Democratic Party

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:20:30 GMT

This is simply astonishing. Why did we elect these people - simply to do the same thing the Repugnicans would have?!?

WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union today condemned the House and Senate for bowing to pressure from the Bush administration and rushing to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The administration lobbied heavily to alter the legislation before Congress recessed. The White House pushed for sweeping changes to the spy law after a FISA court judge recently rejected its use of wide-scale, untargeted surveillance. The bill was passed in the Senate by a vote of 60 to 28, and the House is poised to take up the same legislation late tonight.

“We are deeply disappointed that the president’s tactics of fearmongering have once again forced Congress into submission,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “That a Democratically-controlled Senate would be strong-armed by the Bush administration is astonishing. This Congress may prove to be as spineless in standing up to the Bush Administration as the one that enacted the Patriot Act or the Military Commissions Act.”

The legislation that passed would allow for the intelligence agencies to intercept – without a court order – the calls and emails of Americans who are communicating with people abroad, and puts authority for doing so in the hands of the attorney general. No protections exist for Americans whose calls or emails are vacuumed up, leaving it to the executive branch to collect, sort, and use this information as it sees fit.

“It seems that political cover is more important to our senators than the rights and privacy of those they represent,” added Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “The administration is on the verge of reviving a warrantless wiretapping program even broader than the illegal one it conducted before. Though lawmakers claim these changes are temporary, we’ve just witnessed their lack of backbone today and, unfortunately, may soon see it again. Luckily, the sunset expires in the midst of primary season – so the voters will be able to keep lawmakers at their word.”

36-YO male with testicular cancer

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 19:41:21 GMT

The diagnosis came back today: it was a benign cancerous tumor, and all current results show me to be (now) cancer-free! I may have some hormonal issues that they are investigating. But good news is good news! Thanks for all the well wishes - my recovery is coming along quickly.

Me on the inside

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 04:31:12 GMT

Kinda creepy looking at yourself from the inside.

I should have more results tomorrow - whether it's the big C or not.

<img src="http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/240/meab4.jpg">

Surgery went ok

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 01:07:30 GMT

I am recuperating now, and Charles is taking good care of me. Dad is flying in on Tuesday. Will give updates as they are available - thanks for all the well-wishes.

Losing weight

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:31:31 GMT

Testicular mass. Orchiectomy. 3pm tomorrow. Looks like I'll be losing weight the hard way...

Yuck!

No worries, though, I'm in good spirits and prognosis will probably be very good. Updates as they are available.

One overdue stroke, one premature death

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 04:16:35 GMT

So, last week I got the news that my grandfather, at 89 years old, had a stroke. He was quite active until a few years ago - just had some vision problems and various surmountable old-people problems. But he's been going downhill, and the stroke was probably overdue. He's physically ok (except for remaining arterial blockage), but now thinks it's 1956, that my dad is stil married to my mom, etc. I'm hoping to visit him next weekend during a business trip to ATL.

Then on Saturday, I got the news that my friend Eric had died. Eric was a sweet, lovely soul who had a wonderful disposition, a feminine grace, and was somehow very comfortable financially. He was sort of a decorator-to-the-stars (or at least the rich), lived in a fancy victorian in Hayes Valley, and hung out with my wrestler-friend Lisa, the blue-haired ex-barista at Laguna Sidewalk Cafe. The Cafe was a center for the neighborhood, and Eric was always there gossiping with Lisa. They were the first of dozens of neighborhood friends I met there, and he and I got to the hug-hug kiss-kiss phase. When he had cancer a few years ago, I comforted him and kept him company at the cafe.

Well, I knew he was in the hospital recently - apparently he was worse off than I thought. It was cancer in the end, but I believe he had HIV which probably contributed. He was 41.

Now, Lisa, who had worked for him, is out of a job and her best friend, and the world is a slightly less fabulous place.

iPod recovery

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 03:33:40 GMT

This weekend, Charles told me he'd like to buy an iPod. It seems mine, which had been serving him poorly as it was, had died. I went through all the regular repair steps, but none helped. Even the secret, hidden diagnostic screen was useless, and the computer wouldn't recognize it when turned in. Just a persistent ugly folder icon with a non-very-informative exclamation mark (thanks Apple, that's soooo "user friendly"). The so-called geniuses at the Apple store were happy to inform me that the hard drive was dead and I could get a measly 10% discount for it.

Well, I wasn't happy with that. So, a few online videos later, I was armed to open up the iPod for experimentation. It was actually surprisingly easy - the only difficult part being getting the damn thing open when there was no detectable seam, without scarring myself or the iPod (90% successful on both fronts). I blew away some random bits (probably from my opening attempts), unplugged the HD, untaped the HD connector (said to be faulty sometimes), retaped, replugged, and voila! It came on without a problem. 20 minutes of opening, 5 minutes of fidgeting, and I saved the $150 for an ebay replacement.

Iraq Victory

Sun, 27 May 2007 00:08:58 GMT

Bush celebrates victory after signing Iraq war bill

Well, if he can't do a thing against the Iraqi insurgency, at least he can celebrate victory over the Democrats.

Democrats to fund Iraq war with no pullout date

Wed, 23 May 2007 00:08:23 GMT

Democrats to fund Iraq war with no pullout date

Disgusting. These Democrats are beyond useless. They get too much funding from the same pots: defense contractors, big oil, pharmas, etc etc etc. Too many of them are Republican-lite, Hilary included.

Allow me to take this opportunity to invite my war-weary friends to join the Green Party. Or become an Independent, or join the Reform, Libertarian, Unity '08, or Peace and Freedom parties - *anything* to send a message to these Dems to get their heads out of their asses (and us OUT of Iraq)!

HIV/AIDS among Men Who Have Sex with Men

Thu, 17 May 2007 18:50:23 GMT

The CDC has issued a new report on HIV/AIDS among gay/bisexual men in the US, with data up to 2005.

Some tidbits:

Since the beginning of the epidemic, an estimated 300,669 MSM (260,749 MSM and 39,920 MSM who inject drugs) with AIDS had died, accounting for 68% of male adults and adolescents with AIDS who had died and 57% of all people with AIDS who had died.
Through its National HIV Behavioral Surveillance system, CDC found that 25% of the MSM surveyed in 5 large US cities were infected with HIV and 48% of those infected were unaware of their infections.
In a recent CDC study of young MSM, 77% of those who tested HIV-positive mistakenly believed that they were not infected. Young black MSM in this study were more likely to be unaware of their infection―approximately 9 of 10 young black MSM compared with 6 of 10 young white MSM. Of the men who tested positive, most (74%) had previously tested negative for HIV infection, and 59% believed that they were at low or very low risk.

It also mentions "complacency" (due to HAART therapy), the impact of Meth/X/poppers/etc on sexual decision making, and how the internet leads to a lot of risky hookups. It's sobering - check it out.

Baby vs. Cobra

Tue, 15 May 2007 02:25:28 GMT

Bad link corrected! Sorry!

I think the baby won.

Funny

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:07:39 GMT

NPR just reported about a muslim separatist group in the Philippines called the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, or...

M.I.L.F

I had to laugh.

Weird

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 04:06:20 GMT

I found this poll interesting - implying that if Nader ran, he would draw votes from *conservatives*. (Giuliani and Clinton are the current front-runners) Or maybe there's a class of Republican-leaning people who are more anti-Democrat or anti-Hillary than pro-Republican. Or, perhaps Hillary is less polarizing when she is in between the poles, so 3% of conservatives move to Hillary while 3% move from Hillary to Nader...

I don't necessarily want Ralph to run again, but I do hope for an election where we have more choices. Fewer people will stay home, democracy would be well served.

"Thinking ahead to the next presidential election, if the 2008 general election were held today and the candidates were [see below], for whom would you vote?" Names rotated:

Giuliani (R)   Clinton (D)   Nader   Other/Unsure
46%         40%         5%         9%

Giuliani (R)   Clinton (D)   Other/Unsure
49%            40%            11%

Wow

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 05:20:52 GMT

I don't quite know what to say.

Look out Obama...I mean...Obamer! The Rainbow Flag Transgender Combat Veterans of the USA has it in for you!

New favorite word

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 12:17:48 GMT

"Chimpeach"

Wonder where that $100 billion is going?

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 05:55:36 GMT

Bush just requested $100 billion for the war, just for next year! How do they spend all of this money? Well, below is one scary example of where your tax dollars are going. Apparently
bunker busters, nuclear, biological and chemical weapons aren't bad enough, we still need to be able to shoot high-energy particle beams through the atmosphere to zap our enemies from a distance. They thought Tesla was crazy for suggesting this stuff, but if you want to be the Army's science bitch, they want you!

Chief, Battlefield Environment Division

SALARY RANGE: 132,437.00 - 154,600.00 USD per year OPEN PERIOD: Tuesday, January 16, 2007
to Thursday, March 01, 2007
SERIES & GRADE: DB-1520,0801,1301,1550-V/V POSITION INFORMATION: Full-Time Permanent
DUTY LOCATIONS: 1 vacancy - Prince George's County, MD
WHO MAY BE CONSIDERED:
All Interested Persons. Must be a U.S. Citizen.

JOB SUMMARY:

The Battlefield Environment Division specializes in researching atmospheric meso scale and micro scale modeling, nonlinear dynamics and turbulence, boundary layer processes, transport and diffusion, surface-atmosphere interactions, atmospheric propagation and radiative transfer, aerosol scattering, detection of biological aerosols, and atmospheric acoustics.

MAJOR DUTIES:
Top
The Battlefield Environment Division specializes in researching atmospheric mesoscale and microscale modeling, nonlinear dynamics and turbulence, boundary layer processes, transport and diffusion, surface-atmosphere interactions, atmospheric propagation and radiative transfer, aerosol scattering, detection of biological aerosols, and atmospheric acoustics. The incumbent of this position must possess a broad understanding of tropospheric/boundary layer processes and atmospheric physics. The incumbent is responsible for managing and leading a division of 75-125 scientists and engineers in atmospheric research relating to the Earth’s troposphere and planetary boundary layer over land. The incumbent will also manage and direct the research and development activities of the civilian technical staff engaged in a broad range of research programs that have a substantial impact upon U.S. and allied national defense efforts and the design and selection of materiel and equipment. Develops, defends and executes a multi-million dollar budget, including both in-house resources and out-of-house efforts to include contractor, university and private sector associates.