The Sermon on Sunday

"What you have doesn't change who you are. Who you are changes what you have."

Words of wisdom from my minister today. She's awesome!

Help Cheronda, Help Help Cheronda....

Cheronda Guyton, former senior vice president for foreclosed real estate at Wells Fargo, who was recently fired for moving herself and her family into one of those foreclosed properties in Malibu, CA (asking price: $12 million) for several months (for free!) this past summer, this song's (with apologies to the Beach Boys) for you:

Help Cheronda! Help, help Cheronda!
Help Cheronda! Help, help Cheronda!
Help Cheronda! Help, help Cheronda!
Help Che-ron-da, yeah! Get her out of our hearts!

Forgive Them, For They Know Not What They Do

I cannot imagine what Caster Semenya is going through right now. This is the South African woman who has been tearing up international track races in recent weeks. Medical tests confirm that she has an intersex condition. How can something so profoundly personal have been handled in such an insensitive manner by governing track authorities and the international media? Most people would go ape shit if you went through their laptop. This incident was an invasion of the most private parts of a person and yet countless people are trampling through her body like a pack of rabid dogs, on the Internet so that everyone in the world knows, for crying out loud. My heart aches for her.

I remember the time I told a "friend" about my HIV status when I had first found out. He was the only one who knew. A few weeks later, an acquaintance walked up to me in a club and asked if I was really HIV+. I felt so vulnerable and violated. I hate what happened to me that night because a part of me would never trust anyone in the world ever again.

Whatever happens to Caster Semenya, I hope she can find it in herself to overcome. And forgive.

Goodbye S

My friend S died last week of a brain tumor. He was 29. I feel so hollow. Life is so random. Last week I marveled at how the smallest things could make my day: a 3 year-old child who decided to bestow a smile on me; a Starbucks barista who refilled my coffee for free; someone who steadied my balance as the subway came to a screeching halt. And today, I hear the news that S is gone.

S ate more than anyone else I knew, relishing every last bite. He could devour four packages of ramen noodles in one sitting. The last time I saw him at the hospital, he gobbled down the hospital food for crying out loud. S was an avid snowboarder and skiier. He loved going to baseball games. When he laughed, he laughed out loud and silly.

If I had known I would never see him again, I would have asked him for his snowboard.

I don't know how to snowboard.

A Summer of Writing

Screenwriting, I'm discovering, is like going into a maze and then trying to find your way out. There are lots of dead ends, but the exercise is never boring. Having finished three stories already, I am at this point where even the writer's block feels good because I know I will find the way out. That is a terrific feeling. At any rate, this is the first story I've written where I've had to do a lot of first impression research. I recommend any of the following books and movies that have thus far accompanied me on my journey of vampires:

1. Blood, An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce by Douglas Starr
-----everything you wanted to know about blood, eminently readable

2. Police Procedure & Investigation by Lee Lofland
-----truly fascinating read that will make CSI and Law & Order that much more comprehensible

3. Twilight (yes, Twilight!) by Stephenie Meyer
-----better than the movie, though I did like the soundtrack

4. China, Its History and Culture by W. Scott Morton and Charlton M. Lewis
-----the vampires are Asian

5. Thirst, directed by Chan-wook Park
-----a vampire story that explored vampirism, love and religion (much campier than I thought it would be)

6. Buffy
-----I was never a fan when it aired, but a friend lent me the DVDs and I have to say I can see why Sarah Michelle Gellar was a star in her time

I hope everyone is having a great summer!

One Sickness is Better than No Sickness

I just finished reading Benjamin Hoff's The Tao of Pooh. What an awesome little book it is. Where it is written that it is better to have one sickness than no sickness. To have one sickness means to be aware of it and to take care of yourself accordingly; to have no sickness entails the risk of not taking care of your body at all. Being HIV+ has certainly forced me to take a lot better care of myself than I did before I knew. There's a reason to be thankful for everything--even sickness--in life.

My 4th Story

Last week I saw Blood: The Last Vampire, mostly because I wanted to take in Jeon Ji-Hyun, aka Gianna in the States. I had seen the trailers quite by chance and was stunned to hear her speaking comprehensible English. This was a girl I had once interpreted for when some Singaporean reporters came to Korea to interview Korean actors and actresses. Her command of English back then left something to be desired, so I was pleasantly surprised to see her really carry the movie. (Roger Ebert, in his review, said that he would watch anything again that featured Gianna.) Unfortunately, the movie itself was far from brilliant. And that got me to thinking, why not write a better vampire story? Right after dinner tonight, I headed to Starbucks and fleshed out the story. After two hours, there it was, on two pages of lined 8.5 x 11 paper--a tragic tale of love, redemption and vampires! I never would have thought that I had this story within me, and am really looking forward to the challenge.