MEET THE FOUNDER: I am 6'4", 225 lbs, now 30 years old. I found out I have HIV in 1996 weeks before my wedding (my fianc�e left me as I gave her the choice, she is HIV-negative to this day). I live in Toronto (pop. 6,000,000), Ontario, Canada. I have had plenty of time to deal with my HIV status and it's occasional little tests. I am humorous and I am open minded. I am open minded and I have created this online network for all sexual preferences, races and most languages (I only speak English fully).
Yes (again), I am HIV+. I am
not at AIDS status yet. I was diagnosed in 1996, then in 1997 I was told I
was dying. I got tested because
I was about to get married to a woman I planned to start a family and life with.
The doctors say I was POZ (HIV+ slang term) probably 4 or 5 years before my
diagnosis. It all started when I was
11 years with severe mercury poisoning which caused a heart
condition (Wolfe Parkinson's white syndrome) and bone/teeth deficiencies. I had
open heart surgery in 1989 (after a few strokes) and numerous dental surgeries
from 1990 on. One of these medical procedures gave me HIV as I know I have been
HIV positive for at least 10 years. I am sure the heart surgery did it, as I got
real ill after and began to weaken and loose weight within a year. I had many
tell tale signs in 1990 of early signs of HIV. It's frustrating to not know how
I got it and I cannot get help from any agencies for this in my income bracket.
Also, where I live, I have no local ASO (HIV/AIDS orgs), so I made many HIV services
online (internet based) for anyone in the world to use and for me to have the chance to reach out
myself.
How did a 11 year old get a hold of 4 pounds of pure mercury from a public
school where dangerous chemicals are supposed to be locked up? I simply took it
from an unlocked cabinet when I was on detention and everyone one else was on
recess at my public school. I simply kept it in my pocket (I remember feeling
some run down my pant legs and into my shoes which I wore for the next few months)
until I got home. I remember clumps of hair falling out and getting sick, but I
pretended nothing was wrong as I knew I was going to get in trouble. I started
having over weight problems after this, and many dental problems. I can remember
having face and occasional body numbness, attacks of dizziness causing temporary
confusion, fatigue, memory trouble (total loss at times), lack of concentration,
mood swings, depression, short attention span, hard to focus my eyes sometimes,
stiff/sore, headaches since I was 12, one that lasted for 3 years.
To this day I still suffer the effects. I just had 3 root canals done and over
20 fillings (costing over 3,000 in dental bills). Total in my life, that's about
75 fillings I have had done! It's difficult to get all dental done as I cannot
afford all the work I even need now, there are still about 15 small cavities
that should be taken care of instead left to get worse (I almost had to let
teeth get bloody and infected for disability to cover partial costs, this put
others at risk of catching my HIV from my bleeding teeth).
I now am disabled, but I still can work from home. I work for a couple hours, rest or lay down. Then get back to work when I feel up to it. I can accomplish about 8 hours of work a day quite easily this way, sometimes even 10+ hours! But if I have to travel on subway/public transit and deal with public, I can only work a couple hours before I want to go home and rest. So since I am able to work at home, I have made many web sites to keep myself busy. They cost a lot of my disability money, but I have to feel worth while and accomplish something, plus my web sites are tools to help other POZ people to meet others and find up to date information regarding medications and trial info. I also have set up chat rooms so people from rural areas may meet others around the world. For samples of my POZ support sites, go HERE. If you have any ideas on ways I can make money from these pages without using my members, please email me at [email protected] as I do not make any money now, I am trying some sites, but been unsuccessful getting Online Payment methods in Canada (123shop.ca 9lbs.com solutioncity.org - more info about this on my skills page).
All seems peachy now, but a few years ago I was homeless and considering eating from garbage cans. Click HERE to see a rough chat room conversation with me and an anonymous guest about this.
WISHES: I wish I could afford to go to school to become a counselor so I may counsel HIV+ friends I make in my chat rooms. I wish to make POZ friends online (no discrimination to your life styles or choices). I wish I had a laptop (Pentium 2+ with modem, LAN, CD, USB) to use for my web server, my old rack mount server is slow and bulky. I wish I had the cure for HIV, AIDS and all other diseases. I wish I did not get HIV from surgery. I wish I had a kid. I wish I had uncapped high speed internet. I wish I could change my past. I wish I did not live in a mildew ridden, small basement apartment. I wish I could freeze time around me. I wish I had a car. I wish I could win the lottery. I wish all weapons would disappear. I wish Bill Gates would run for president. I wish you happiness. I wish I did not have bad credit due to me taking time off school when I found out I had HIV. Oops, I think my three wishes are used up...
LIKES: I like mp3 music (industrial, experimental noize, Rotterdam, trance, electronic, ambient, some heavy metal, some punk, dark rave/Goth, new age/meditation, Celtic, classical), girls (I am in love with Mira), working on my computers, downloading, watching movies (vampire, horror, comedies and action), bicycle riding (but my bike was stolen, cannot afford another), hiking in the country (do not get to do it since I have not had a car in 5 years), gardening (cannot afford house with land to cultivate now a days).
DISLIKES: I do not like TV commercials, being poor, living with HIV, living without a car, Rogers Cable company (they shut off my accounts for running these innocent web sites), having bad (bleeding) teeth, country music, discrimination, run a rounds (mental games), time wasters, hot weather caused by the green house effect,
HISTORY: I am an Electronics Engineer, PC Specialist/Web Master, Programmer and a Cabinet Maker (mostly dabble with PCs these days though). I built a few houses with my father when I was younger (everything from footings to the wiring). I was shipped from many aunts and uncles through ages of 4-10, even a little time with my father when I was 7. At 11 I got mercury poisoning and I was living with my grand parents. At 12 my father figured I was old enough to learn to build houses, so I was whisked away from my grandparents (whom I spent about half my childhood with to this point) and made to learn a trade. I would work until the AM hours with my father after school. At 13 I worked at the Ontario Farm Labour Pool (government employment program which I had lie and say I was 16) so I could buy my own school clothes, plus I had to work for father (for free) on the houses (which we lived in unfinished often) until about midnight. I also worked on farms in the summer of my 14th year to pay rent to my father and work for my father (for free) from when I got home from work or school to 1am in the morning. At 15 I moved away from home and I worked at a bar/pool hall fixing arcade games and I worked at Becker's (Milk & Convenience Store) to pay rent since I was now a man (I was living with the Becker's manager named Richard, but he kicked me out after a few unsuccessful attempts of sexual advances to me; a 15 year old that he got very drunk while getting drunk himself). I quit high school when I was 16 (what a stupid mistake) and moved away from town as my landlord (Richard) was spreading rumors about me, saying I was fired and other stuff like stealing accusations, whereas I just never showed up after he kicked me out of his house for not letting him touch my penis. At almost 16 I was living with a 28 year old woman (she thought I was 18) who let me use her car and had a real nice bachelor apartment for me (she took sexual advantage of me and taught me how to have intercourse, my heart would pound, my chest would hurt, a couple times I passed out). From 1987-1989 (age 16) I worked installing/programming satellite dishes, cable TV and telephone lines. In this 2 year span, I had the most stress in my life and I had a few strokes and and many panic attacks. During 1989 I had open heart surgery and "it" all went down hill after that, homelessness many times, hunger, malnutrition, etc. After that heart surgery I always felt like I had a flu or cold with minor to major headaches, night sweats, occasional fever like symptoms, diarrhea, sluggishness, etc. No energy to do my skills learned by my past. 1995 I went back to school as I had found the woman of my dreams a couple years before and we wanted to be responsible. 1996 I found out I have HIV 3 weeks before my upcoming marriage (I though it was right thing to do to get tested thoroughly before staring a family). 1998 I create a very vague and ugly looking website I host on free hosting with many advertisements I hated. 1999-2001 I learn web (CGI, PHP, ASP, HTML, JavaScript) and desktop (Visual Basic and custom scripting for large scale software) programming, database serving (Oracle, SQL, MS Access) and administration, network admin (MCSE Certified, A++, etc), PC repair/upgrade, PC building (yes, from scratch, I build all my own computers), security, hardware/software trouble shooting, etc. Any information I could get my hands on the net and the library I would read and try out/practice. I also volunteered as a telecommunications network admin in 2000, doing other things such as custom software design (accounting to customer service intake for credit/debits that read live TOC records from the server), PBX security and programming, T1 and internet line managing/monitoring/trouble shooting, employee training, management, etc, etc, etc (I could run an ISP even). This was at DiTeck Telecom Inc. They gave me a computer with full software (Office to Photoshop!) for my year of dedication, plus a great lunch everyday (sometimes dinner and a few pool games after dinner/beers). 2001-now I fully dedicate myself to programming only HIV/AIDS websites and tools to help my fellow humans! Getting disability in 2001 also assures me I will be homeless much less, therefore I feel confident to run a web server of my own for HIV+ to rely on.
PROS: I can do anything with a PC computer. I am tall. I am comedic. I like to share and help others (doing all I can now), I do not drink often (maybe a couple drinks twice a year), I work hard on my projects at hand, I am open minded, I can fix stuff around the house as I have build a few complete houses in the past with my father,
CONS: I get grumpy some days (only human, HIV can bring you down quite a bit). I smoke marijuana (helps with heart troubles, helps with depression and gives me an appetite to combat HIV wasting, if you are a pot grower, please contact me as I need affordable/good buds!) when and if I can afford it, bad teeth that I can not afford to fix (finally getting fixed after saving and fighting for 6 months, 2 root canals still to do, but all the other 22 cavities are filled, 2300 dollars it is total, I CAN SMILE AGAIN AND GO IN PUBLIC AGAIN without feeling like a biohazard/infectious freak!).
HOBBIES:
I am the founder, creator, server admin, network admin, chat server operator,
public relations rep, promotions department, etc. It is a
lot of work and I sometimes may be working, but I come back every 5-10 minutes
to see what was said. I have/own 12 HIV/AIDS web sites and 4 non HIV sites to
manage. I basically do the job of 5 people here! This network has been
created by one single person without any financial contributions! Hi, my
name is Dave Brown. I have been HIV+ for 11 years, which
I got from open heart surgery in 1989 (I was 18 years old, 29 now) ,
and my only current source of income is a monthly disability cheque.
I have created everything from my 1 bedroom
basement apartment. This network, and spreading HIV
awareness has become my life's passion, however I am finding it difficult to
continue all this alone. I work 70 hours or more every week,
I am the only financial contributor, and am responsible for
promotion, graphic design, web design, database applications, server (chat,
mail, web, database, FTP, domain names, application, etc)
administrations, HTML coding, JavaScript coding, network operations
center (NOC), CGI programming, ASP programming,
updating, upgrading software and hardware, communications, server/backup
maintenance, fixing constant glitches, resetting domain names, public
relations, chat rooms moderation (watch for trouble makers and bashers plus
chat with, and help direct new comers to information),
search engine editing, guest book
moderation, dating service moderation,
forum moderation, banner creation,
link checking, faxing, research, email responding, call center, system
analysis, accountant, etc...
I am an aggressive worker! In the last 2
years, I have had 2 days off (sick I was). I WORK ABOUT 8-12 HOURS A DAY,
seven days a week! I have over 1600 web pages on my 12+ HIV/AIDS web sites.
There are over 16,000 files on my web server mostly made by me (graphics,
includes, databases, readme.txt, etc). I do not take holidays, travel or
have fun (little time off for illness). These are out of my price league as I spend all money on my sites!
Some as why I have made so many sites, why not just one or 2? Well, I am
trying to offer everything in one network, anything I can think to add will
be added, until there is nothing else to add. I think I may have bit off
more than I can chew as there is so much about HIV and so many ways I can
create support and educational online tools.
I had learned many
skills by working at a telecommunications company, I was in charge of almost
everything by the end of my run there (quit as HIV symptoms got in the
way). I also went to school for electronics engineering, but quit when I
found out I was POZ and now they will not let me back until I pay my loans).
But majority of the web based applications and designing I
taught myself from books, and
the internet, as I had the extra time to kill while on disability. My
job at the telecommunications place gave me a computer and some software as
a going away gift, this is what started my HIV/AIDS network back in 1998
(although it took 2 years
before I had anything decent on the internet).
I have
calculated that if I had
hired all the programmers and IT technicians to get me this far, it would
have cost me about $50,000+. To have the HIV/AIDS
Search Engine constructed would have cost $15,000 just for the Database
Administrator/programmer, plus I would still have
needed to hire a web designer and graphic
designer. Since I defiantly could not afford all that on
my disability cheque, I learned how to program and do everything
involved with online services myself.
It took me 2 years to learn
everything, 3 years to gather all the
computer parts and software.
There are so many
more services I would like to set up, but I am
finding that keeping everything going is taking up all of
my time, as I have outdated computers running my servers and cheap,
out of date, software that has many glitches. If I could afford
upgrades and a better internet connection, then I could easily
continue to grow and spread awareness. If I could
afford to hire help, I am sure
I could create the largest, and most comprehensive
HIV/AIDS Network EVER. The first step however is to
register as a Not For Profit Incorporated Organization in Canada, so that I
may try and raise funds through charity.
I feel good about my network and I have many
people come into my chat rooms telling me what a good person I am to have
set this up for those who need it. I am most
proud of my HIV/AIDS Search Engine (HASE) and I use it all the time myself. I
created my sites to give support for those infected with HIV/AIDS looking
for friends, dating, talk therapy or asking me and other people questions.
I even get many HIV negative people come in and ask about risks, symptoms
and facts. I help everyone equally (any sexual preference) in my chats,
forums, emails, guest books, etc. Right now my sites are not very
established as I cannot afford advertising. But word of mouth and free
search engines are at least bringing about 50 new people to my chats a day
now, but
they leave as I do not have many people hanging around to chat with so they
leave or ask for an established chat, so I send them to ones better than me
knowing they will never return.
See my main projects
here or see some of my side (non
HIV/AIDS) projects here. Not all
100% finished, but they are running and working.
