Author: Kenn
My journey with AIDS...and more!: AccolAIDS much appreciated!
Healthline editors recently published the final list of their favorite HIV & STD blogs and I’m pleased to let you know that this blog made the list, which can be found here (in no particular order). I am very appreciative of this vote of confidence! Kenn Chaplin is no defeatist;
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: College sports governing body slams Penn State post-Sandusky, Paterno
The NCAA has handed down its sentence on Penn State University’s football program, as outlined in this news release: By perpetuating a “football first” culture that ultimately enabled serial child sexual abuse to occur, The Pennsylvania State University leadership failed to value and uphold institutional integrity, resulting in a breach
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: On “Killing Jerry Sandusky would not be enough…”
My response to this blog post: While violence as vengeance is not my style I can appreciate a good fantasy in cases such as this. Even if the thought was in jest, the most compelling argument against capital punishment, to me, is that it deprives victims of at least knowing
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: For those who loved Kyle
I’ve been wrestling all day – less with what to write than how to write it – so I thought I’d begin with an absurd fruit-plate. Leading with humour is something I’ve done for as long as I can remember. Regardless of what was going on inside, my outside presentation
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: “Stop Regret and Get back to Living” by Ashley Berges
What is regret? Regret is a verb defined as: to feel sad, repentant, or disappointed over (something that has happened or been done, esp. a loss or missed opportunity). Synonyms for regret: verb: repent, mourn, be sorry, lament, and rue. Noun synonyms: repentance, remorse, sorrow, grief, and contrition. How does
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Ashley Berges to link with My Journey with AIDS
Not one to scan this blog’s activity logs too often, much less understand them, I was quite chuffed to be contacted by Michelle Lamont, representative of Ashley Berges – author, life coach and radio host in Dallas. She/they apparently find me inspiring! That being Ashley’s stock-and-trade, we are in discussions
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Cathedral Bluffs, Scarborough (Toronto), sunrise, June 27
Hopped up on sugar and caffeine early this morning I had the bright idea of seeing if I could get to the Scarborough Bluffs in time for some sunrise photos. I won’t disclose how I got there other than to say that it involved the kindness of neither stranger nor
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Jerry Sandusky guilty, now what?
In the hours following the conviction of their once-revered Jerry Sandusky, Penn State is most anxious to move on. After my exclamation on Facebook of “Yes! Yes! Yes!”, attached to a media account of the guilty verdicts on Friday, I wondered how the victim-survivors were feeling. Having invested my emotions,
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Five Years Since a Critical Day One
It was an early night to bed on Tuesday, June 19, 2007. I had absolutely no more drinking to do and decided that the last day of this particular spring was a bitterly appropriate day to reach out for sobriety. Ruminations of suicide the past few days signalled to me
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Prom Night and Father’s Day
Skimming my home-town newspapers’ web sites I noticed that this is Prom weekend for some of the high schools in the area. Tomorrow is Father’s Day. I’m not sure if the two occasions shared the same weekend in my time. Some quick math, all in my head mind you, and
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Wherefore art thou, Cardinals – Oh!
This was a landmark day in the lives of Ontario high school students who have been exercising their democratic rights, without the vote even, for the passage of Bill 13, the Ontario provincial government’s gay-straight alliance (GSA) initiative. It passed in the Ontario Legislative Assembly with 65 votes in support,
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: A school trip to London with a Kodak Instamatic camera
I think I’ve posted these scanned photos before, but today’s festivities along the River Thames brought back wonderful memories of a class trip to London which took place during March Break in 1976. The camera was a Kodak Instamatic – not very sophisticated – and the prints have not fared
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: The mystique of Montréal’s magnolias
Have I mentioned that I love magnolias…and Montréal? One of my favourite spring walks around Toronto is in search of the beautiful flowering tree and, with Montréal on my itinerary every May, there are wonderful opportunities to see magnolias at all stages of blooming there.
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: “Neuf couleurs au vent” by Daniel Buren
Montréal’s steadfast, enviable care for public art, as a community (elected and unelected alike), is no better exemplified than in what flaps gloriously in the breeze just off the south-west corner of Parc La Fontaine in another little park unto itself – Place Urbain-Baudreau-Graveline. Nine rectangular banners are fixed on
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: The sun shines again on my final day in Montréal
I`ll soon be aboard an evennig train home. Oh, but I love Montréal!
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Craig`s timing
When Craig died five years ago today he could not have ordained that his memory would loom large during this week each year as the award in his name is presented at today`s Convocation ceremonies of United Theological College. He would not have chosen, for Mom`s sake at least, to
Continue readingMy journey with AIDS...and more!: Montréal gives me the rainy day treatment – it`s all good!
I started out at Le Château Ramezay where flashes are not permitted so my luck with photos was limited. After dodging showers in other parts of Old Montréal I took in some of the public art available in the city`s beautiful Métro system. (I cut the tour short so did
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