I just found out that another of my photographs has been short-listed for inclusion in the Schmap Travel Guide for St. Louis; keep your fingers crossed that it makes the final cull before printing begins. Photography has been another one of those gifts from G-D that allow me to center myself and be in the moment. This is indeed a great deal for a Type A compulsive stressor. Thank you all for the many wonderful comments, tips, and “favorites”. Feel free to check out some of my latest work on Flickr by clicking here.

Moving forward, I have found not just one but seven new jobs. True…only three of them pay right now but I have high hopes and confidence that the other four will blossom into something quite wonderful. Busy, busy, busy…I will be. Yet, I am taking my nomadic tribe to heart and will be doing a lot more exploring.

That is pretty much everything in a nutshell. More to follow.

Esto Vir and HFF,
Mati

Dat’s Right!
Originally uploaded by Mathew A. Koeneker

I saw this on my psychiatrist’s desk this morning and had to snap a picture. I think that I need one for my desk at home to go right next to my red Swingline stapler.

Loving life,
Mati

Oh joy of joys, my daily pill intake has now risen to fifteen pills per day. Hey, at least I have my health and haven’t had to sell off any body parts to afford my medications. Yet, that is.

Wryly yours,
Mati

My maternal grandparents that played such an amazing role in rearing me especially my love of the outdoors, life, and playing on and in the water. Just a shout to say that I love and miss you.

Always,
Mati

Music is indeed the International Language that we all speak and understand on a very primeval level. It has been my savior and what has gotten me through the good and bad patches of my life so far. I hope that you enjoy the following two bands/artists as much as I have and continue to do.

This evening enjoy Papa Grows Funk and Theresa Andersson. Check out some of my photographs of them here….http://www.flickr.com/photos/matik72/

Theresa Andersson is one of the hottest sensations to come out of Sweden IMHO. Great vocals, plays the violin like it was attached, and a darn sight pretty as well. Check out her tunes here…http://www.myspace.com/theresaanderssonmusic
How can you not love a woman who list her influences as: Tobias Froberg, Linus Larsson, Allen Toussaint, Ane Brun, Smokey Johnson and of course ABBA?

I was first turned on to Theresa while an undergrad at Tulane University in Nawlins and was spellbound. This gal can and does do it all. She is clearly and Indie musician but has been gigging with an amazing number of folks over the years. She has a hot new album out entitled “Hummingbird Go” that I can’t rave enough about. You can listen to some tracks from her site if you dare to disagree.

Papa Grows Funk is one of New Orleans’ premier blues and funk music bands featuring the music of Russell Batiste Jr, John Gros, Jason Mingledorff, June Yamagushi. June is one of the hottest blues/funk guitarists to come out of Japan in quite some time. Check their music out here…http://www.papagrowsfunk.com/

John Gros first came to my attention when I was working at the the now defunct Muddy Waters Music club on Oak Street across from the Maple Leaf when he was jamming the Hammond B3 as one of George Porter Jr’s Running Pardners. I was lucky enough to meet and become friends with June also while an undergrad at Tulane University when he first came to the US hardly speaking a word of American English. Their last album “Mr Patterson’s Hat” dropped in 2007 and is still some of the best booty thumping party music that you can play. I kid you not. They were just booked to play Saturday Sept 26 at Broadway Oyster Bar in St Louis, MO. Be there and be amazed.

Have a funky good night and I hope to see you out at the show!

Namaste,
Mati

I decided that after my good friend John Wilbanks from the The Science Commons chided me on my signature line that I would limit myself to a mere ten (10) modalities or channels for contact and interaction.

Of course when I started an actual in-depth examination of just how many modalities existed to interact with me, I was a little bit startled to find that I had jumped into the cyberverse and world at large with glee. I lost track after finding over 50 separate channels to connect with me both in on-line and real life scenarios.

Yes, I am the dork with honking big signature line. I posted it for grins below.

Mathew A. Koeneker

“Be Kinder Than Necessary,
Because Everyone is Fighting
Some Kind of Battle.”

Contact me here:

Mobile # : 314-495-9437
Google Voice # : 314-827-4367
E-Mail: mkoeneker@gmail.com
LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mathew-koeneker/13/778/2b3
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MatiK
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matik72/
Blog: http://matik72.blogspot.com/
Blog: http://kdhx.org/blog/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Matik72
Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/mati

How many modalities exist for your interaction with the world at large?

Do you limit the number of them?

What type of relationship exists between the real world modalities and the cyberverse modalities in your life? Direct or inverted?

Silly questions but mine nonetheless.

Be well,
mak

I just thought that I would grab the official or at least wiki definition of road rage. Not sure where folks brains go when they get behind the wheel of their car. Just a little vent before getting back outside for a spell.

• The passing lane is just that the passing lane.
• The on-ramp is intended for you to speed up to match the highway speed.
• Ditto goes for the off-ramp except you are slowing down.
• Why not let folks merge? Will it really make you that much later for your event?
• If you are in the fast lane and I flash my high beams, that means get out of my way.
• It doesn’t mean….Hi How are ya?
• If you have your turn signal on and I turn my running lights off then back on, that means it is ok to merge.
• Tailgating me usually gets me to slow down not speed up.
• How in the world can you miss my car with the kayak on top?

Please feel free to add you own pet peeves or directives on how folks can better utilize and share our public highway system.

Much love,
mak

Everything you can imagine is real.

Pablo Picasso
Spanish Cubist painter (1881 – 1973)

Have a great & safe weekend ya’ll!

Love deeply,
Mati

Are you overcome by fear that it is an increasingly large problem Do you think, “Oh that can’t happen to us or my family.”? Are you fighting the good fight yourself via your own or a loved ones fight for survival? Are you one of folks that work in this field of study, medicine, and/or care and you just feel tired?

I write this as it seems as if we don’t in some way submit to our own diseases to more actively fight them. We(I) fight to be healthy, to exercise, to eat, and to take my medicines on time and then it seems as if give name to my disease I gain power over it. I can speak so to speak from my own lil bully pulpit. And..maybe..if I am lucky, someone will listen and either learn more or take up the good fight. Then the the small scared me says that I must keep my mouth shut as I look healthy and I just don’t need the stress.

Is that what it means to be an advocate for yourself? For if you don’t how many others will just keep their secrets.

Does your disease define you? Do you allow it to do so? Is it good if you do?

Peas & Cornbread,
mak

Disclaimer: These are my notes and thoughts that I came up with on my own for whom no others will be blamed or credited. I am writing as both a consumer and an advocate of Ryan White funding here in the great state of Missouri.

It started of quite pleasant enough with the quite nice food line with a carver at the end. To myself I think, hey that is a great sign. Folks are not going top of the line nor or they being spendthrifts. They are catering the event as I would — high end of the middle of the road. They are treating everyone as actual attendee at a true Town Hall. I see some of the folks that I know as caregivers in this community ravaged by HIV/ AID’s. I see those surviving the disease through a vigorous and quite rigid regime of taking medicines at certain times and specific intervals. I see “The Panel” that will be speaking at the Town Hall to discuss the state of Ryan White Transportation and Housing in the Greater Metropolitan St. Louis Area.

The meet and greet goes ok. Yet I am surprised that no one is working the room. Folks are eating but no one is with soda in hand sweeping the room and not only making introductions to start the beginnings of dialogue but to get the feel for the pulse of the room and the general if not specific questions that will be raised. The call to the chairs and the commencement of the Town Hall proper commences and I am surprised by the lack of political be it local, Mayoral, or state representation. Do they not care or have they just become jaded? There is one individual to speak about Transportation and 6 ( I think) individuals speaking about Housing. Plus, one very nice women from the Bi-State Metropolitan Transportation Authority who also spoke.

It quickly become obvious that Transportation was where the rancor and divisiveness was this evening not to say that there seem to be some glaring problems in the area of Housing as well. The panel speak and then the floor is opened and the timekeeper fell down on her duties just a little due to huge number of folks that wanted top share their thoughts. It quickly became apparent that they consumer while quicklt being turned into a disenfranchised invisible social caste are quite intelligent in their questions and statements. The common thread was why were so many roadblocks put in the way to consumer driving themselves to their doctor’s appointments etc. Why does the thrust be towards the usage of taxi fare service? If I can and want to be as independent as possible and live as much as any other citizen in this country, why make it so difficult for me to drive myself to the doctor and be reimbursed. Now, whether this is an un-official policy or just one that over-worked and understaffed teams MSW’s don’t think to speak about I don’t know.

The line of thought is a good one I think especially with my background in finance. If we use our limited amount of resource pool in this way we will achieve X benefits but if we instead use it differently we can achieve X+10 benefits. Now we have an “extra” amount that can go to another much needed program still within the Ryan White guidelines. This is thinking like you and I do when we are deciding on the cost benefit analysis of making a specific purchase. Yet as my fear was, the thinking is the moribound way of thought of government spending for years. Use it or lose it or better yet use it all, have a shortfall, and write your proposal for next year higher explaining why you need XYZ in funding so that you can complete your mission. The idea that this is negative for a lot of reasons seems to escape folks. Folks that are sick that are safely independent are known to be much longer positive and value added citizens of this nation. This attitude should be supported. Luckily, my case worker does go the extra mile and helps me out with understanding about mileage reimbursement reports. It helps put the new face on this disease — that of the reasonably intelligent and well educated person. You can better use your grant dollar if you spend it more wisely and efficiently.

The words of the consumer and advocates all seem to go the same place. TRANSPARENCY. The same stuff is said each year and nothing is written or done about it. Why was their no Mayoral repsenetative? This is still sticking in my craw. If the the man is too busy to come yourself, then send one of your subordinates.

It seems that I am only going to be affecting much change by trying to join theses groups. Praying that they will have me as feel that there needs to be actual consumer advocates on these boards as these are are the only folks that are truly living with this disease day in and day out and can truly understand.

Stay tuned for Part III Ryan White Housing…..and it is not pretty.

Much love,
mak

Mathew A. Koeneker

“Be Kinder Than Necessary,
Because Everyone is Fighting
Some Kind of Battle.”

Contact me here:

Mobile: 314-495-9437
E-Mail: mkoeneker@gmail.com
LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mathew-koeneker/13/778/2b3
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MatiK
Blog: http://matik72.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Matik72
Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/mati