February 18, 2012

I think I contracted this a while ago. I hope the brain damage is minimal.

#academia
February 13, 2012

I finally saw Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1. I declare this this Robot Chicken parody to be far superior to anything I saw in that horrid film.

#film#parody#Robot Chicken
December 6, 2011
Amazon leveraging iOS app and discounts to lure shoppers away from physical retail outlets - 9 to 5 Mac - Apple Intelligence →

Good added price-cut bonus!

Amazon, the online shopping juggernaut, just announced that it will incentivize shoppers in physical retail stores to buy products on the Amazon.com instead by shaving an additional five percent off of qualifying products. The company urged customers to download their updated Price Check app so they could price check items as they stroll down the store aisles this coming Saturday, December 10

#tech#deals
December 1, 2011
Today, think about how you think about HIV/AIDS.

It has been over 20 years since Leo Bersani published “Is the Rectum a Grave?” in the journal October, and 15 years since we received his book Homos. I continually return to and think about these works on December 1st, when people speak about HIV & AIDS on World AIDS Day and remind us of an opportunity “to unite in the fight against HIV.”

At the same time, I return to Bersani each year as an historical measure of social movement (not to mention the ways I enjoy his sharp prose), and in Homos he is pointed about the social impact of AIDS: 

“Nothing has made gay men more visible than AIDS. If we are looked at more than we have ever been looked at before–for the most part proudly by ourselves, sympathetically or malevolently by straight America–it is because AIDS has made us fascinating. […] The normal fear of homosexuality has been promoted to a compelling terror as a secret fantasy becomes a public spectacle: the spectacle of men dying….   Others may think of themselves as watching us disappear. The heightened visibility conferred on gay men by AIDS is the visibility of imminent death, of a promised invisibility. Straight America can rest its gaze on us, let us do out thing over and over in the media, because what our attentive fellow citizens see is the pathos and impotence of a doomed species.” (pp. 19-21)

While I continue to remember and think about those who I’ve known and lost, of the people I know who no longer worry about their “imminent deaths” because they can live long, healthy lives with HIV/AIDS, I am continually reminded of the cultural logic and views that continue to shroud this virus in shame–within LGBT communities as much, if not more, as our communities at large.

Today, and beyond, I encourage you to think about how you understand HIV & AIDS, to think about the things you have said or continue to say about (people with) HIV/AIDS, and to think about why and when you get tested and continue to get tested. What remains more important than paying lip-service to a day of remembrance or awareness is what you do to change the social (and sexual) landscape around you. Change the conversations you have about HIV/AIDS, even if this means you will have your first conversation on a topic that makes you uncomfortable.

My simple suggestion, which applies to so many people I know, is to start by considering the meaning of your online profiles. If your profile includes an option to disclose an HIV status, rather than simply stating “negative” or “positive,” I urge you to change your answer to “ask me.” If this makes you feel that others will perceive your status as something other than it is, that is the point. People often assume that someone is positive in a profile that does not declare a negative status. If it makes you uncomfortable, that is the point. We cannot change our conversations about HIV & AIDS unless we have conversations in the first place, and we cannot engage in healthy dialogue unless we consider where that begins–with us–thinking about how we think–thinking about how we can think in more productive and critical ways.

#sexuality
November 26, 2011
iPhone OS apps on sale during Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend.

Lots of apps are on sale this weekend. Check out the good deals. [Links will open iTunes on your computer or the App Store on your iDevice.]

#iphone#tech#technology#deals#deals
November 18, 2011
Most Likely iPad Buyer Is a Male, Pet-Owning Gamer. →

They certainly have me pegged.

#technology