real people. real progress.

This Tuesday, NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is asking us, YOU, to wear your AIDS ribbon upside down in honor of HIV Vaccine Awareness day. *this is important* -- important enough that my friend Mark is in the campaign above.



Listen to what NIAD says:

"More than 12,000 people have already volunteered for HIV vaccine studies. Currently, more than 20 promising HIV vaccines are in various stages of testing. A large-scale HIV vaccine trial, however, will require thousands more participants of all races and ethnicities, genders and socioeconomic backgrounds, to ensure that the vaccine is effective in all groups but especially those most affected. Real progress requires we work to break down stigma and dispel the myths about HIV vaccine research. Developing an HIV vaccine depends upon individuals informing and supporting each other and promoting a vision of the world without HIV/AIDS. "



There are 20 promising vaccines out there, we need to move this ahead as fast as we can -- people are dying, countries of people are being devastated. This is not ok.

one pill.

Bristol-Myers Squib, Gilead Sciences and Merck announced yesterday that they will join together to create a "fixed-dose combination" -- "one-a-day" AIDS pill. This is remarkable news because it could potentially make taking the required drugs less complex to the average consumer and also make their distribution in heavily affected areas (like Sub-Saharan africa) much easier. Finally, some good news on the AIDS front.



Read about this here: Joint Development of AIDS Pill

wherever you go, there you are

everytime i see my best friend Anna Mae, i have an epiphany. I often wonder if the same is true for her (it isn't - i asked, but she thinks i'm tons of fun anyways). She's not your typical sage -- she's actually wickedly funny. She calls every situation just like it is and i think that type of clarity is something i don't always have. So as we were driving on Tuesday, talking about life, she said "wherever you go, there you are." and it struck me, i'm sure i've read this quote a million times, but somehow in this moment it meant more.

pictures of people i love

i am having a wonderful time in DC.







this is a picture of dana and jb in front of the Dirt campaign sign at the bus stop close to JB's work. I love LOVE this picture.





jb tried to grab something. he is being restrained.





we are fuzzy. damn my cam. Dana. Karl. Me. JB. Off to the Duplex Diner go we.





JB runs this lovely wine shop. He's very smooth. They have a really cool way of organizing their wines. definitely worth a look.



ok, i'm still kind of too drunk to be blogging.

ciao ciao.

i may never come home

oh, i'm in DC -- i may never come home i'm having so much fun! updates and pictures forthcoming -- including a special guest blogging by famed local wine enthusiast JB.

do you see what i see?

we just released a new, awesome version of Blogger -- and it now includes comments!! so please comment away -- unfortunately the link appears to be on the far left...so i need to figure out how to line it up under my permablog link...*sigh* if only i really knew HTML.

new year's 2003/4

my sister and i went out on NYE 2004. and i'm finally putting up a picture from that night (which i said i would do in Jan). We went to a dance party in SF that had a persian rug theme. Yes, a rug theme. The music was pretty good, and overall it was just fun to be out partying into the new year with my little sis.

Note: My mother wants me to clarify that I knowingly labeled the photograph "me & sheila" instead of the grammatically correct "sheila and I" -- i did this to be diagramtically correct. I am on the left, sheila is on the right.

sheila rocks.