Admittedly it has been a long awhile since I have blogged on the tribe. I take pride in saying that personally I have been very busy. Business is holding its own even though as a state contractor opportunities for new ventures are stagnant at best. Family life has taken on a new dynamic allure as I am one month from the wedding to an amazing woman I found a year ago through online poz dating; even as my hope for relationships were dwindling. After a dozen years of one HAART therapy I am now on Atripla & it is so very nice to be able to take one pill each evening. My programming for pill taking was such that I still think,"OMG…..did I miss taking something today?". The tribe has taken many forms for myself over many years. It was a place to vent, get advice, find friendships and sometimes laugh or cry as needed. Even to this very day I still like to log on and see which direction the tribe is taking and the experience is as unique each time as the individuals that make up the entirety of this social media outlet. I have been pondering for awhile about entries of blogs here lately. So what exactly is a blog? It is defined as a web site containing the writers or group of writers' own experiences, observations, opinions, etc. – what exactly does that mean? It means that all of these blogs are a window into the lives of each individual, a way for all of us to connect with each other, and quite possibly one of the truest forms of expression left. Admittedly I will not agree with every single blog; there have been times where they had ripped into the fabric of my soul…for better and sometimes worse. At some point in our lives in order to preserve the freedoms we enjoy you have to allow other people to express an opinion that you could spend the rest of your life trying to fight – because this is the essence of freedom. Now, what does all of this mean? Why would I bother to blog about this? …….Unless you own the domain rights to hivaidstribe.com stop complaining about what other people blog or post. Its their right to blog about whatever they feel like putting into the content box of a blog page and fighting over it is as pointless as rival gangs fighting over turf in the projects – kill as many people as they may they only rent the properties they so valiantly shed blood for. I can recall many other people on here years ago fighting and arguing with each other. There were MANY clashes over and over & I ask you. To what avail? What did it all mean?…..The answer was then and still is now – NOTHING! What I remember most was the help and advice I had recieved back then when I needed it most. There was once a point in time that counselors would tell you to get your affairs in order and make up a will if you didn't have one. There was once a time when real people you knew and had friendships with were passing away as regularly as the tides. There was once a time that we were just happy to still wake up the next day. Well, times have changed as with most things in this journey called life; and I assure you that they will change again! I do hope that the newest classes into this scholasticly diagnosed family have the opportunities we were all provided at one point in time; after being delivered the news that they too had tested positive for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus…. – B