First: I wouldn't be writing this entry if tomorrow it wasn't World AIDS Day, so it's not just showing off.

Second: I doubt I would be writing this entry if my HIV test had been positive.

I received the results of my test just today. I can't tell you how happy I was, when I learned everything was OK. It's not just that everyone would be happy, however careful they had been. It's actually that sometimes I behaved in a way that would put me at risk. Of course, it's human, just as the doctor who gave me the happy news said, as a priest would say "We're all sinners. You're forgiven".

So, I'm not going to make any moralistic speech. I just want to thank the person who pushed me to do the test. I had been thinking about it for years, but I never had the courage. That's the only real reason. Because it's so easy - and, besides, free - that there is no possible excuse for not doing it. It's just a question of being motivated.

And I also want to celebrate once more this wonderful year. I'm planning to write an entry, at the end of it, listing all that 2006 has brought to me. Provided that December isn't a total disaster, of course. Be careful, 2006, your work is not over yet!

Today, after I had the news, I felt even more than happy. I felt like re-born. The first thing I did was entering a shop where I had seen a thing I wanted to buy, and I bought two. Then I had my internet connection activated on my Treo, something I had been planning to do for weeks. And I felt - and still feel - so energetic and full of life that the fatigue I felt this morning (I haven't slept much because I had been coughing all night) seemed to belong to a former life.

I think such a feeling in itself is a very good reason to undergo the test. I strongly recommend it to depressive people, it may not change your life, but surely it will shed a colourful light on your day.

_______________________________________________

And now, something that has nothing to do with this (I don't want to write another entry just for this). Here is the final part of a mail sent to the SETI@home group I'm part of:

"Next we will start reading tapes that have gone through the pipeline in some form or another, but for some reason never made it into our master database. (...) So don't be upset when tapes from the late 90's appear on the queue. Data from 1998 is worth the same as data taken in 2006. The ETs we are looking for come from light years away. A few years won't make any difference when looking for signals consistently repeating over time".

Live long and prosper.