tired...

I've shifted over to the morning shift for a little while at work, which means setting an alarm clock for 3:30am. That's some tough stuff, there.

And so far I'm surviving it. I almost feel like I might be a closet morning person, but having to go to bed by 7 or 8 pm can be a little stifling at times. Tomorrow I get to sleep in, relatively, since I don't have to be in until 10am... which means I can go do something fun tonight if I like. It's trivia night and I'd really like to go (I seem to do quite well on Tuesdays... three of the four times I've placed were on Tuesday), but oddly enough I don't feel like I have enough energy to sit still and think for two hours. Lying on the couch, vacating my mind while watching Big Brother and munching on pizza ordered in sounds far, far more appealing at this one moment in time... but that's terribly anti-social of me, isn't it? I'll take a shower and see if that invigorates me.

--

I've been meaning to post this but just never found a moment. Gotta give credit where credit is due, and many were quite surprised when George W. Bush signed off on this... read:

US triples AIDS funds for poor countries

"US President George W Bush has signed legislation tripling funds to fight the killer diseases of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in the world's poorest countries, mainly in Africa.

Congress approved a package earlier this month which lifted funding for the five-year program from $US15 billion ($A15.76 billion), set in 2003, to the $US48 billion ($A50.44 billion) signed into law by Bush.



The new program drops a requirement for one-third of the anti-AIDS funds to be used to promote sexual abstinence and lifts a ban on HIV-positive foreigners entering the United States.

Eric Friedman, the senior global health policy advisor for Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), praised the bill for lifting the travel ban on HIV-positive visitors, saying it had "been an embarrassment to this country for many years".

Gay rights group, Human Rights Campaign, also hailed the repeal of the US-entry ban on HIV-positive visitors and immigrants, which has stood since 1987.

"We appreciate the president signing the repeal of this unjust and sweeping policy that deems HIV-positive individuals inadmissible to the United States," said Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese.

"The HIV travel and immigration ban performs no public health service, is unnecessary and ineffective," he added.

There's a hitch, though -- this change only updates the immigration code to excise the ban, which was signed in 1993 by Clinton (interesting backstory on that, too, which I won't get into right now). The original regulatory ban through the Department of Health and Human Services remains in tact, exactly as was enacted by Reagan in 1987, and can still be enforced.

So while this is still only a change made on paper at this point, it's a step in the right direction.

Good work, George.

When was the last time someone said that to ya?