"All your so-hard facts, painted thinly on the void; Why were you not more pleasantly employed?" -- "Puppet Song", The Incredible String Band,. At this point, the news about PositiveLite.com has been out for a few days and as you might imagine, it’s been a bit of an emotional time here at the palatial PositiveLite Editing Suite. For a long time I’ve had various ideas about how I might want to write my final blog post here, but now that the time has come, I find myself not wanting to

I thought that that my last piece for PositiveLite.com would fly off the fingers. It didn’t. I stared at my keyboard more than I clicked at its keys, and with each passing minute I worried that I would fail to meet my final submission deadline. I sincerely hope that ain’t the case. Like many folks, I am certain, I read the words, “PositiveLite.com will cease publishing on March 31” at least a few times before their immediate meaning truly stuck in this mushy brain of mine. At first, I

Winds of Change The wind speaks, moving and clearing in its silence and in its turbulence: To cleanse the air and earth, to churn the water depths, to disturb a Redwood’s roots. The winds of change provide just that. If we’re lucky. Yet we resist. Digging in deeper, resisting with more refusal, more strength. We believe we sill stand the storm. Resist or perish. Change or perish. The fight of every human, every day, every moment. At this moment of change, again life presents a choice.

It’s a weird feeling to know that I’m writing my last blog post. But here we are. As announced, PositiveLite.com is ceasing publication, having first gone “viral” December 1st, 2009. It was the first time we people living with HIV had an online forum to bring Canadians, and beyond, together. I hoped that we could better connect between the different regions and foster a sense of community. As we close this chapter I want to thank and say how proud I am of those who took the reins of

"The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. `Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?’ he asked. `Begin at the beginning,’ the King said gravely, `and go on till you come to the end: then stop.’" Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland When I got the email that Positive Lite would be stopping publication I was in shock. Shock, and I suppose, grief. Any loss is a loss and this site has provided so much valuable information by and for people living with HIV from all over the world. The "death"

I need to share with you that PositiveLite.com will cease publishing on March 31. As its publisher I’m not sad but proud, because its nine year history has been one of a series of successes. And I don’t feel the least bit defeated now but rather going out on a high note and ending our run on our own terms. This has been in the works for some time. It’s been a struggle to keep it a secret. The reasons for closing our doors are essentially twofold. First, the people who bring you Positiv

If an archaeologist at some distant point in the future wanted to explore what living with HIV (remember HIV?) was like in the first decade or two of the 21st century, they could do a lot worse than visit today’s top ten list. Like our lives, it runs the gamut – from sex to science and everything in between. It was arguably the most varied site about HIV out there. It set out, very deliberately, to explore the infinite variety within our poz lives which were never ALL about HIV but about l

Several weeks of intensely meaningful engagement, and then this… by Jeff Potts I muse, as I tidy up this third and final draft, that it is a bit odd for a guy who lives with HIV and who works in the HIV sector (almost always has) to reflect on and write about a few weeks of full-on HIV engagement immersion.  But, that’s the truth of it.  I’m a bit weary this Monday morning as we near the end of March (and fiscal year-end).  It’s a good weary though.  A weary that reminds me tha

Photo © GMFA The human papilloma virus (HPV), of which there are over a hundred strains can, in some people cause either warts or pre-cancer (strains 16 and 18 are the worst). Most sexually active people have, at some point evidence of HPV in their system, though are unaffected. In a very small proportion of people it causes problems (anal, cervical, penile, or throat pre-cancer/cancer). Living with HIV has been shown to increase the risk of acquiring anal pre-cancer for men who have unpr

The announcement came as no surprise to anyone following recent developments in the HIV movement in Canada. “Unfortunately, with the significantly changing landscape of the HIV movement (including massive cuts to government funding for HIV/AIDS community-based organizations), we will not be holding a 2018 forum due to financial constraints” said the email from CAS ED Gary Lacasse. “We have worked tirelessly in order to secure funding but as of yet have not been successful because no fund