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2008 December 24th Wednesday 20:27PST

Best of 2008 ~ end of year summary

Goodness Gracious! Three months have passed, and nary a peep from Teledildonix. After an interesting autumn here along the shore of Bellingham Bay we have now officially arrived at winter, and *oh* what a winter it is so far. As 2008 draws to an end, i've been compiling some lists of favorite activities, recreations, and interesting attractions of the year. But first, i suppose i could give a brief mention of my personal tribulations, which eventually had a happy ending.

Back on October 14th (Americans referred to it as Columbus Day, but i prefer to think of it as Genocide Against The Natives In This Hemisphere Day) i came down with a severely debilitating rotavirus. Within less than thirty-six hours i had so much vomiting and diarrhea i'd lost more than ten pounds to dehydration, so my best friend/ roommate Tony had to take me to the hospital. It took three days hooked up to intravenous rehydration to restore some of my body weight, and i had to fight a fever of 101F for a little while, but after three nights at Saint Joseph's medical center i was finally able to begin eating again, and was strong enough to return home (with Tony's help). Sadly, the story did not end there: a few days after returning home, Tony caught the virus from me. But unlike me, Tony hasn't been infected with the AIDS virus for nineteen years, so his immune system had no problem fighting the infection. He didn't lose any weight, and he said he wasn't feeling as severely ill as i did (because he never vomited), and within a couple days he was also returning to normal. So by the end of October we were both quite fine again (despite my CD4 count being only 60 to 130 per microliter during the past dozen years) and all's well that ends well.

I had my annual influenza vaccination and my usual checkups with my HIV specialist and my primary-care physician, and by the middle of November they said my viral load had become detectable again. We are hoping this was a transient problem related to the temporary viremia issues in October, but i had to go back for more blood tests this month. When the results of these tests are analyzed, we'll decide whether i can continue taking my current antiretroviral medications, or whether i will need to try a new "cocktail". Given my decrepitude caused by AIDS, the huge amount of prescription drugs in my system on a daily basis, and the fact that i'm more comfortable most of the time when i'm stoned on cannabinoids (from my Dronabinol prescription, or from the occasionally inhaled variety) i just haven't been feeling like socializing much. Most days i've been much happier just staying home with Tony, and i've only been going out once or twice per week to do my shopping and errands (supermarkets, pharmacy, etc) and to go to my appointments at the doctors', the labs, and Respiratory Therapy at the hospital. I still enjoy some chit-chat online and on the telephone with my buddies, but i haven't been making personal appearances most of the time. There was a whole year during which i went regularly to the weekly Bellingham Radical Faeries KoffeeKlatsch, the monthly Bellingham LeatherMen social, and the occasional Alternative Bellingham Wednesday dinners with various gay men in the community. But this autumn and winter i've mostly been a hermit instead. It's easy to stay inside when there's a hot Tony with whom i can snuggle and fuck around on most days.

During the rest of October i was somewhat of a slowpoke and spent lots of time horizontal or sitting around, including some time at the computer playing Yahoo MahJong. On October 23rd and 24th i won a couple of wonderful Limit Hands earning the maximum high-score on Yahoo, so i posted them on my Yahoo Lion's Lair MahJong Flickr photostream:

63210, Kevin Limit=All~Terminals (081023_0018)
and
63210, Kevin, Limit=All~Honours (081024_1128)

During early November as the faux-democracy in our country reached a crescendo of propaganda and public relations manipulations, it was time for our annual election. In case you were in a coma for the past year, i should mention this election did not only involve the usual local and state government offices and initiatives here in the City of Bellingham, Whatcom County, in the state of Washington, but some federal offices as well, such as President and Vice-President. Although i wished to vote for Green party candidates (or possibly Libertarians) on the national level, i was anxious about the possibility of a continued Republican administration. So in my loathing and anxiety, i chose to vote for Barack Obama in order to vote against the Republicans. Of course, after he was elected as our next president, what do we find? It's certainly no surprise, but the verdict is in:

Election results: We live in a country proud of its diversity, except it's still okay to hate all us queers and atheists.
Our Constitution is over two hundred twenty years old, but somehow it still isn't being respected by a majority of my fellow citizens when it comes to the topics of equality, freedom, privacy, or any kind of fair and universal application of the laws of our nation. Literally hundreds of millions of Americans-- and billions of humans around the world-- think it's okay to spread hate and discrimination against their neighbors whenever we happen to be queer and/or non-religious. Those millions of Americans even think it's okay to make up laws to officially dictate the discrimination and prejudice, despite those laws being fundamentally contrary to their nation's Constitution.

I'm referring of course to all the anti-gay legislation which was passed in places such as California and Arizona. I'm so disgusted by America, i feel as though it would be monstrously anti-humanist to be patriotic. If my country can't even live up to its obligations to defend human rights and bring equality, justice, freedom, and fairness to all citizens regardless of sexual orientation then i guess i'm incredibly disappointed. We can elect people who are different ethnicities, different genders, different ages, different religions, and differing in abilities/ disabilities, et cetera; but why can't Americans be treated as equals if they are homosexual atheists? As an American homosexual atheist, i am disgusted, appalled, and generally sickened by the level of bigotry and hatefulness which has been enshrined in law. Perhaps in future centuries people will look back at our era with the same sad shame which we feel when we look back at the eras of slavery, crusades, legalized racism and sexism, and other types of crimes against humankind.

I'm also referring to President-elect Obama's decision to have a xenophobic gay-hating atheist-hating fearmongering mountebank as the speaker at the presidential inauguration in January. Let me ask: what if Barack Obama had decided to have a neo-Nazi or an anti-Semite as the speaker? Wouldn't there be outrage? Wouldn't Americans everywhere speak up in horror at such a disgusting idea? So why on earth would Obama have Rick Warren as the inaugural speaker, after Warren worked so hard to make sure gay citizens are treated with inequality and injustice? I think it sends a clear message to us queers and atheists. The message is: "Shut up, you fourth-class faggots and unbelievers. Shut up, you heathens and homos. You don't belong with us, you aren't an equal part of this nation, and you better not ever forget who's in charge around here!"

I almost feel ashamed of myself for having voted for Obama in the process of voting against Republicans. I wish i could take my vote back. As a member of the Senate, Obama voted in favor of giving retroactive immunity to those who broke our laws by illegally wiretapping innocent citizens; so i was already suspicious about him and his intentions. At least my suspicions are now confirmed and his intentions are clear. Plutocrats, Christians, and Straights rejoice; the rest of us who aren't rich, religious, or heterosexual can all just move to the back of the bus. I'm fucking sick of this, and i'm embarrassed by my country. I don't think we'll ever see any true civilization nor intelligently-formed secular societies in my lifetime.

December arrived with some unusually snowy and cold weather for our region of the Pacific Northwest. We've had repeated snowfalls and accumulations of more than six inches in my neighborhood, which is amazingly rare for this strip of land along the oceanside. (Map to Kevin's home at South Hill Apartments). During one of our heavy snowstorms on the day after the December solstice i called Tony over to our window on North State Street to point out some wildlife. A doe had wandered into the middle of the city here below the campus of Western Washington University and the Sehome Arboretum, and was trying to find its way between the houses. It eventually found a path down the cliffside between Mrs Haskell's house and the Quinlan Quints' condominiums, and disappeared into the falling white snowflakes.

Now the days begin to lengthen again, the new year 2009 is only a week away, and we are hoping the usual rains of the Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia will wash away our snow and slush by then. As i look back at 2008 there are countless fun things i'd love to mention, so i'm making a few lists here.


Websites which i enjoy visiting include the blogs and webpages of my friends, webcomics, visual artists i admire, and the amusing writings of many people who are philosophers, musicians, photographers, authors, scientists, and representatives of other professions and arts.

Here are some of the WebComics i like to peruse:

There have been a number of interesting books and literature to read this year, many given to me by friends. I like to have something to relieve the boredom if i'm in a doctor's waiting room, or on the city bus, so i re-read Grendel and the entire six-volume series of Dune novels by Frank Herbert. Also mentionable:

Although it would be impossible to list and describe all the kinds of music i've been enjoying, i can give many good examples, including the numerous albums i purchased throughout the year. If you're looking for excellent tunes, you could begin with SomaFM.com which has more than a dozen unique channels of listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative radio broadcasting from San Francisco. My favorites are the Groove Salad and the BeatBlender; Tony and i also regularly listen to the DroneZone, SpaceStation, Sonic Universe, and Secret Agent.

Here are the CDs i've acquired in the past twelve months:

Years ago, Tony and i stopped subscribing to cable television. We receive ten analogue broadcast channels quite nicely here (one from Bellingham, two from Victoria, one from Abbotsford, and six from Vancouver) and we don't spend as much time in front of the TV as we used to, so there are only a few shows which we watch regularly nowadays. These include: We also enjoyed a few movies, although we don't rent from Film Is Truth very frequently. On TV there was a re-broadcast of Futurama: Bender's Big Score, so that was worth a couple viewings!


Our iMac computers are running Mac OS X 10.4.11 on their PowerPC G5 processors, and there are many programs which i find quite handy.

I haven't been spending a huge amount of time playing games lately, although i do enjoy some Yahoo MahJong in the Lion's Lair from time to time. Tony and i also love to play Aspyr MahJong Parlour in the "Classic Environment" on our Mac computers.


Food is such a large part of life, and i like to cook now and then with Tony. We often keep things simple, although occasionally we'll pull together something fabulous such as a homemade pizza, soups, stir-fries, noodle dishes and casseroles, salads, sandwiches (hot and cold), omelettes, and a never-ending parade of desserts. There are so many hundreds of restaurants around Bellingham, plus plenty of supermarkets with good bakeries and delicatessen fare, so we can easily pick and choose whatever we wish. Some of our favorite restaurants of convenience this year include:

What about sex? What about dildos, porn, lubricants, and bondage gear? What about all the silly ways we can fill up our free time with pleasures of the flesh? Well, some things never change, and i've certainly been quite an enthusiastic queer who's been enjoying an Ass Holiday at every opportunity. By that i mean: i like to spend some days (whenever i have a lot of physical energy) bouncing around on my giant dildos, fucking around with Tony, masturbating and generally feeling good in bodily ways. As always, i continue to endorse these fine products:

My webpages and this online journal have never really resembled an actual "blog", because i've never made them interactive with the possibility of immediate feedback, other than the obvious links to send me email or instant messages. Although i don't have much interest in virtual social networks, over time i have been invited by various friends to establish a presence in some online communities. Some of these are web-log and web-forum sites, so the contents of my diary are 'mirrored' in those places, and they generally allow feedback and commentary from fellow community members and friends who are logged-in. Here's a brief summary of how to find me online:

Okay, that's a wrap! See you in the New Year of 2009! Remember to always keep striving for equality, freedom, fairness and justice for everybody including homosexuals and atheists, and peace on Earth! Education will free us from religion. Intelligence will free us from faith and superstition. Love will bring cooperation and happiness. Spread those holes, and spread the love!!!

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