AIDS Walk New York 2013

AIDS Walk New York 2013

This is my second year walking with +AIDS Walk NY benefitting GMHC. Last year I walked alone, and although I had no team formed, I had a team of sponsors, amongst friends and family, but also included a celebrity. Yes! I was sponsored last year by +John Stamos. He donated $500.00 and I was the proudest walker last year. And this year I decided to make a stronger comeback by forming a team, Superhero Walkers, and beating last years' total of $950.00, which was only $50.00 from being a Star Walker. I was so close! Currently we have raised $1,385.00 thanks to all my sponsors and my Team Co-Captain, which made the Star Walkers status by the way. Although I have not recruited any celebrities yet, I have passed last years' total but I am still searching for that one celebrity to surprise me with their kind generosity. So please tick above or here, Superhero Walkers, to donate and be our hero.

John Stamos--my Champion Donor

I named my team Superhero Walkers 'cause I am a fan of them myself. My favourite one being Superman, but I do love them all, I brought the theme to the team 'cause when one is walking for a cause or one is donating for a cause, I believe they are being a hero. My team members who are walking, since I also have a few "Virtual Walkers" who, while not walking are still dedicated friends who are helping me achieve my goal from other states such as Florida and Pennsylvania, will be wearing superhero T-shirts on the day of the walk. I, as the team leader, will be wearing a Superman T-shirt, no surprise there, and my Co-Captain will be wearing a Captain America T-shirt, so you get the idea. 

 Go Co-Captain America !

The AIDS Walk New York will be held on Sunday 19 May, 2013 starting at Central Park's Columbus Circle entrance and heading up to the end of it at 110th Street and then coming back down on Riverside Drive and passing by my old High School on 84th Street, Louis D Brandeis High School, and ending back at Central Park for a total of 10 kilometres, rain or shine of course.

Now, it is hard raising funds but I also make it fun, I have offered my team members free $25.00 gift cards to the first 3 team members who raise $250.00 that I'll get from my rewards programs and just last Sunday I held a raffle for all current donors as of last Saturday who can win cool prizes that have been given away at functions to all team leaders. Watch the video to see them and the raffle itself. By the way there will be another raffle next Sunday 12 May for those of you who are in the procrastination stage so make your donations this week to be in the drawing!  

So hopefully these incentives and also this post can gather some more donations and hopefully some celebrity sponsors to help us achieve our team goal of $2,000.00!

"AIDS Walk Raffle"--Richard Michael

Cheers and Good Luck !

Not Myself

Not Myself

"Not Myself Tonight"--Christina Aguilera

Now I picked this personal favourite of mine because this post is about not being what others want us to be but to be ourselves. And I know +Christina Aguilera says she does NOT want to be herself, but listening and reading a little deeper we can find that maybe we should be this "Not Myself" more often than one night and that that side is more our truer side and we should not care to be any other way every day, and like she says, if they don't like it then F*** you !

I watched CBS This Morning and saw that this photographer had made it from the net to the news on TV. Her name is +Haley Morris-Cafiero and she is overweight and goes around the world taking pictures of herself, but the real subject of the photograph is the person directly behind her in different locations along with their reactions to her weight and her look. Check out her own website for more pictures of her project "Wait Watchers."

She is a very brave girl and I give her all the support and credit for doing what she does because I know others will have trouble finding it in themselves to look past society's judgemental eye and break free from what society sees as "normal" and "what should be," and just be themselves. And 'tis quite embarrassing, not only to her subjects after finding their facial expressions plastered all over the net, but to society as a whole that is so quick to judge and mock but with such outward display and disregard for the human heart. 

Haley has no control of her weight gain. It's contributed to a thyroid problem that cause increase in weight. She is like any other human that eats the sweets she desires. She holds a MFA in Art from University in Arizona, a BFA in Ceramics and BA in Photography from University of North Florida, and she is currently an Associate Professor and Head of Photography Department at Memphis College of Art. A curriculum that would put me to shame, I'd say, since I only have an Associates in Accounting and Business Management, so she is to be respected and not looked upon as an uneducated individual. If anything, the uneducated humans here are her subjects, and ignorant, had they any curiosity about our fellow humans and try for healthy interactions I dare say they might be saved from perils of idiocy. 

Cheers,

And be kind to one another.

Best 25 Quotes For Long Distance Relationships

"Best 25 Quotes For Long Distance Relationships"

Featured from Relationship Rules

 

 

  "Long Distance"--Bruno Mars

Never say never. We can never say that we will never try long distance relationships for it can sometimes happen to anyone without us wanting to do it. I mean, one day you are both settled into the routine of living together and working, and all of a sudden you have to relocate because of your job but your partner cannot, and there you are, apart, but you know 'tis only temporary. And then there are cases when flings occur with someone who you thought was a local now becomes long term...and long distance. How ever it started, it's worth every effort endured, every hour, every day, and every mile.

For all those loves that chose, or did not have a choice, to challenge yourselves and your love to a long distance relationship here is a cool link of quotes, that I found in Facebook, that might help along that distance. I can say that I understand from personal experience and have related to most of them in the past, and will honestly say that they are all true. (I am not responsible for the grammar or spelling errors on that link, by the way, but corrected them unto here.)

My favourite ones are:

 #23
"If ever there is a day when we're not together. There is something you should always remember.
You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
But the most important thing is, even if we're apart...I'll always be with you."

#17
"On a silent night when friends are few,
I close my eyes and think of you,
A silent night, a silent tear,
A silent wish that you were here,
Miss you every minute."

#10
"Even though we are miles apart from each other,
nothing will ever change the feeling that I have for you,
you mean everything to me and I'd be lost without you."

#4
"Sometimes I lie awake looking at the sky,
seeing the stars as bright as your eyes,
I'm waiting impatiently to hear your voice,
if it was up to me there would be no choice,
lying beside you is where I would be,
just to be in your arms is all I need."

#2
     "Missing someone isn't about how long since you've seen them or the amount of time since you've talked to them.
It's about that very moment when you're doing something and wishing they were right there with you."

Cheers,

and keep Skyping!

Colon Cancer Awareness

Colon Cancer Awareness

Me and my partner have ventured into a project together. We create designs to commemorate and/or support loved ones who are struggling with varying illnesses, including cancers. They are designs for a cause and the picture of the loved one can be placed into the design and sold in 5x7 and 8x10 frames where proceeds will go to benefit those various causes, including various cancers. So we were especially sensitive to having watched this particular film.

Over the weekend me and my partner watched "A Little Bit of Heaven." Tick for Trailer. I found it appropriate to mention it in this blog about Colon Cancer. The main character, played by Kate Hudson, avoids getting serious about any relationship through her humour and then even when something really serious comes over her, like colon cancer, she still hides behind jokes and laughs to embrace the reality of the new direction her life has taken. A definite must watch drama filled with its comic moments, that will leave you feeling the need to live a little more, to re-examine your life and your health, to find your little bit of heaven and enjoy it just a little bit longer. A clever awareness tactic was this billboard below found in Minnesota.

Plymouth, Minnesota

This billboard is found on motorway 169 in Plymouth, Minnesota, and it's an eye opener. It seems this look is not limited to plumbers alone. But we all remember either saying, or at least thinking, "Cover your butt!" Well this is Minnesota Department of Health's clever way of bringing some tough love awareness to its people. The video below is brought about by USA Today and covers thoughts of some people who work right across from where the billboard is located, and employees from the Minnesota Department of Health. It also features a second billboard advertisement. The MDH feels adding some humour to a serious medical issue they feel that people won't feel so serious about getting a colonoscopy procedure done, and hopefully relieve some butt clenching pressure surrounding the procedure. And remember, crack kills, so get your butt covered!

 Billboard's butt clenching awareness to Colon Cancer

God's Mail

Gods' Mail (2011)

by Richard Michael

Hello brother, its been a long year, there's so much to tell

I wait to hear your voice again on your old cell

I know you've made your decision to go far away

I respect it now but I miss you every single day

By now you're probably getting used to it there

it's hard here without you, I still see you everywhere

when I go to school, the parks, or even just at the mall

it's like I'm still holding on and you haven't left me at all 

I wish I could get that hour back,

set everything back on track

that I could just say goodbye

So I write songs,  poems

and letters without fail

try to find comfort that God

will deliver my mail

The whole family took a vacation trip this August

we all missed you there, you should've been with us

I lost the opportunity to be a better brother it's a shame

I lost you and now without you I will never be the same

And wherever you are up there in heaven

I want you to know that we're uncles again

I Hope To Live

  "Everybody Hurts"--R.E.M.

 

 

I Hope To Live (2010, with an afterthought)

by Richard Michael

To have hoped is to have lost.

To have lost is to have loved.

To have loved is to have hurt.

To have hurt is to have been touched.

To have been touched is to have lived.

To have lived is to have died.

To have died is to hope you have lived.

But what happens when you've lost in love, lost hope in love?
And what happens when you've lost a family member and there's no lover to turn to?
And what happens when there's so much grief that you start losing everything else, your job, and your school is on the brink of collapsing?
Do you just surrender to loss and let it take its course of taking everything from you?
When hope is all there is, and that's even hanging by a thread, and your life is second to last, which of the two will you stand to lose?

You hang on, and then you start over.