Kevin s02e01

Friday will be the one year anniversary of this blog. Long, cliché story short, a lot of shit happened and now Season Two is back with an all new cast. I haven’t yet decided if I will fully ressurect this blog, but I felt compelled to at least update it and unhide all of my previously abandoned posts for the internets to see.

I have returned to Nashville and am living with 3 of my best friends. We rent a house, live on tuna, eggs, ramen, and beer, and sometimes we write music when the mood strikes. I work as a server in a successful restaurant and scrape by on my bills while frivilously spending money buying energy drinks, cheap wine and a brand new netbook. It’s quite the life, I must say.

And yet some important ingredient is missing. Might it be money? Fame? A true love? I don’t know, but the desire for knowledge has become my number one priority. What terrifies me, however, is knowing that this ingredient might never be found; in fact, I am not even sure some of the potential candidates (money, love, success in music) will ever be realized, much less any advance in aquiring a satisfactory accumulation of knowledge. My ignorance is what bothers me the most, and my irritation is only amplified with the realization that in loathing the ignorance of others, I must loathe myself most of all.

Nevertheless, I am starting a new season with a desire to dramatically increase my personal statistics in every discipline of life. By next November, I hope the image in the mirror reflects much more of a change than this past year has brought.

Shiraz And A Girl

Wine is best shared in the company of fellow wine-lovers; however tonight, such people are absent from my life, namely one girl I haven’t yet specifically mentioned on this blog.  This girl lives a few hours north (3 hours northeast to be exact), forces me to brighten up my eyes to the music in front of me, and sends me love the old-fashioned way – in the form of x’s and o’s.  A long distance relationship is a bitch I promised myself I’d never speak to again, but here I am facing that maiden square in the face.  And I couldn’t be happier.  Not everything is rosy in the world right now; the recession has cut off the creative person’s drive, forced him into the experience of everyday people, a fate he’s tried to avoid his entire life.  But it has made him thankful for the opportunity to see other people where they are, to embrace himself in the daily struggle of those whom have greater perspective and greater character than he does.  It has made him thankful for the support system of individuals who would do anything to see success come to fruition in his life.

Tonight I tried a new Shiraz I’ve not had before, Red Belly Black, and I drank a full bottle of it alone in my parent’s basement.  While some may think ill of this, any catalyst that causes me to think of the ones I love the most can never be a bad thing.  So tonight, I had both a Shiraz and a girl with me while Bright Eyes sang melodies and strummed acoustic guitars.  It has been a good night.  Thank you.

For Katie.

More Profound Than Exodus

If only Moses had brought this single commandment down from Mt. Sinai, the world would be a much simpler place.  I would still probably go to hell, though.  Oh well, so would everyone else.

Too Busy Writing Your Tragedy

I apologize for the lack of content this month, but I have been doing a little self-evaluation. About this time last year was when I went on my quest to find God, truth, the meaning of 42, etc. After reading several books, hundreds (literally) of articles, watching countless debates, and having personal discussions with friends and family, I feel I am justified in taking a mental vacation from everything that can depress the mind if entertained by too much thought.

I have recently encountered some unexpected factors in my life that are proving to help me mellow out, reduce stress, and jump back on the optimism train, and I am going to sit in that boxcar for a while to let it take me along for a ride. I’m excited to enter a new period of growth and can already tell my priorities have shifted as I have quickly become bored of typing this post. Because of that, I will probably post much more infrequently during the coming months, but I am in no means abandoning the blog.

Nor am I abandoning the philosophy and learning I have gained from the past year; on the contrary, it has led me to search not just for truth, but for happiness in the midst of (or more often in spite of) that truth, embracing my current position and figuring out how to regain each bit of optimism that has escaped me this past year. I may not have found God, but I have definitely found the start to a better side of myself.

So let go, jump in
Oh well, whatcha waiting for
It’s all right
Cause there’s beauty in the breakdown
So let go, just get in
Oh, it’s so amazing here
It’s all right
Cause there’s beauty in the breakdown

Oh Imogen, how right you are.

Christian Bale Curses Too!

Since we’re on the subject of cursing, I figured I might as well re-post the audio that’s been leaked to the internet of Christian Bale’s on-set tirade while trying to film a scene for Terminator Salvation. Apparently, the director of photography messed up one too many times and Bale got pissed.

Listen.

And of course, people are already making mashups and remixes to the delight of the internets:

No meme can launch without a dance remix for any and all raving/raging out purposes:

Don’t worry, Christian, we all still love you.

Edit:
Just found this.

“And Then There Are Ignorant Motherfuckers Like You”

This lovely quote is brought to you courtesy of none other than…President Barack Obama – except the full quote is, “There are white folks, and then there are ignorant motherfuckers like you.” I swear to science I’m not joking. He said it. To John McCain. It’s even recorded. Don’t believe me? Ok Ok, he didn’t say it to John McCain (although it easily applies) but he did indeed say it. Listen for yourself.

Click to listen.

Not convinced? Think it’s just a good vocal impressionist? Well you’re wrong, and here’s why: Barack Obama fucking rules.

You may know that he wrote a book titled Dreams From My Father (if you’re a right-wing nut, the book title is Dreams of My Father and you blindly believed a massively dishonest chain-email that spread during Obama’s campaign) but what you may not know is that there is an audiobook version of it, read by Obama himself. This post by April Winchell puts the audio clip in context:

…today I discovered that there’s a fairly juicy little subplot in the book, involving one of Obama’s high school friends.

Ray, a fellow classmate of Obama’s, was also bi-racial, and also trying to define himself. But what set him apart was his colorful manner of self-expression. Ray cursed like a motherfucker.  This would all be snickerworthy enough, but it turns out that Obama actually read the audiobook version of Dreams From My Father. And that means he read Ray’s quotes.

If you go to her site, there are 4 more foul-mouthed utterances spoken by our Commander-In-Chief that she has uploaded for you to hear.  You’ve got to wonder how far McCain’s head was up his ass to miss a golden opportunity like this to try to smear Obama’s reputation during the campaign, although maybe he realized he was dealing with an opponent who was much, much cooler than he would ever be.  Feels good to have a real human being in the White House, doesn’t it, motherfuckers?

“Righteous” Multiple Personality Disorder

If there is any question concerning the true nature of God, it’s probably because we still can’t figure out if he’s unconditionally loving or a murderous sum’bitch. Here’s a fantastic chart of Heaven-ordained killing and atrocity I picked up from the blog Dwindling In Unbelief.  Just to clarify, each number on this chart represents an instance of killing, and not the number of people killed.  For example, under “massacres”, the number 32 represents 32 times God ordered slaughter of hundreds or thousands of people.  Good thing “like father like son” doesn’t apply to Jesus.  Oh wait, they’re the same god…?

For scriptural references of these acts of malevolence, either check out the link, or continue reading the text I’ve copied and pasted from the source. If you’d rather just skip straight to my conclusion, here it is:

If Yahweh is Jesus and Jesus is Lord, he is one hell of a schizophrenic.

Barack In Da Closet

For several months now, I’ve had my suspicions that President Obama is a closet atheist. We’ve already been through the whole “Oh my god, he’s a Muslim!” hullabaloo, the Rev. Wright debacle, and of course we all know the shameless, overcompensating concession that was made for Rick Warren at the inauguration. Yet none of these things convince me that Obama is taking sides with Christianity. In fact, they have the flavor of someone who wants to hide his true belief by strategically ducking behind polarizing figures and referencing too much scripture in his speeches. Can we blame him? In a predominantly Christian nation (and I don’t mean founded on Christianity, because we most certainly were not) it would be political suicide to run for office as anything other than a god-fearing, Jesus-believing Christ follower. I don’t have the stats in front of me, but I believe that atheists make up anywhere from 10-15% of our population here in the U.S. (although I am convinced the real figure is much higher), and Obama-be-damned if he included himself in that minority. African American and an atheist? There are too many bigots in this country for that combination to be even remotely acceptable even for a friend, let alone a presidential candidate.

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but Obama has been giving us secularists some major props lately, something unheard of in the past 8 years of Bush, and one really does have to wonder if Barack is in the atheist closet. Take a look at this article from economist.com. At this morning’s prayer breakfast, the president said a few things of interest:

There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same. We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we’re going next – and some subscribe to no faith at all…

Soon after, as you can read in the link provided, Obama gives a shout out to Buddhists, Hindus, Confucius followers and humanists. This sounds like a president I can get along with. Although it does seem like he’s been bending over backwards to accommodate Christianity in a few instances here and there, I’ll let him off the hook because I think he has a secret plan (said with a mischievous cackle) to greatly reduce the influence of Christianity in our supposedly secular democracy. Another quote from the breakfast is quite revealing, and I hope it means he is planning to do something down the line to strip churches of their tax-exempt status.

The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another – or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state.

The line is definitely blurred right now as far as I can see, and I’m glad President Obama would never think of buying into the bull shit that our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian values. Further, his respect for us non-believers has a source very close to his heart. He mentioned in the prayer service that his own father deconverted to atheism from Islam, his grandparents had a loose and unpracticed Christian faith, and that his mother held a skepticism toward organized religion.  If that doesn’t make you think twice about Obama’s religious views, I don’t know what will.

Proof of President Obama’s atheism has yet to come forward (and it may never), but until then, I will have a grand old time playing into my subtle delusions and wishful thinking. All in good fun, of course!

The Bee’s Knees

I need to take a moment of silence in honor of StumbleUpon for guiding me toward a website that encapsulates the problem with Christianity so well that I almost feel like never mentioning any thoughts on the subject ever again.  (Note to my Christian friends: I only said “almost”, so you still aren’t off the hook.  I’m writing this blog, aren’t I?)

This website is organized as a set of a 153-item questionnaire (which is mind-numbingly long, I realize) for non-believers to give to would-be Christian proselytizers.  Seeing that I was a Christian for most of my life thus far, I have never had the pleasure of someone attempting to save my soul via active witnessing or rigorous debate.  And even now I make no claims that Christians are pushy or have ever tried to win me back to their ranks.  Not that they would have any success, though, for as this questionnaire demonstrates in a painfully long and semi-sarcastic wall of text, we non-believers have just too many questions that would have to be satisfied before we would even consider coming or returning to faith in Jesus.  But I wanted to write this post for those Christians who don’t realize the sheer amount of internal thought, argument, and study atheists like myself have gone through to arrive at our positions.  Like I said, I’ve never been “witnessed” to, but I enjoy a bit of satire when I see it, and wanted to shout in support of any of my non-religious friends that might get flack from their Christian family members, friends, or institutions simply because they don’t believe in an invisible god.

Adding to the Pile

No, the bird’s not the victim of an oil spill; this is a black swan and I’m about to read this book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.  I don’t really have time to read this, what with all the other options at my fingertips that should take precidence, but the nature of the Black Swan Theory is too ironic for me to pass on this surprise.

Goodbye, Mr. Bush

Dear George,

Your time is up.

#include <stdio.h>

void main(void)
{
char *message [ ] = {“Hello”, “Obama”};
int i;
for(i = 0; i < 2; ++i)
printf (“%s”, message [i]);
printf (“\n”);
}

President Obama, we welcome you.

Can Unicorns Breathe Underwater?

The answer is, of course, “Unicorns don’t exist.” I would like to pose a similar question that requires just as much consideration as the one in the title of this post: “Why did God flood the earth, choosing only Noah’s family and two of every animal to survive?” The question is irrelevant because there was no godly flood. There was no Noah, no heathens to be drowned because of their sin, no unicorns to be left behind as the Ark floated away to safety.

Comic by cartoonist Charles Addams

If only we could be this honest about the other myths contained in the Bible.  It is a shame that Old Testament stories are so often taught in Sunday schools as literal historical events, and even worse that by the time a child learns how to critically identify distinctions between myth, legend, and history, the scrutiny of biblical tales is somehow sidestepped.  I know it need not be said much nowadays, as I hope many Christians have learned to see the allegorical nature of the Old Testament (but have failed, however, to see the same nature in parts of the New Testament) but here it goes again, just in case anyone still has doubts.  Noah’s Ark didn’t exist.  God did not flood the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.  Adam and Eve were not real.  There was no snake to tempt Eve into eating an apple and therefore causing our “original sin“.  We are not all doomed to hell because of a mistake made by mankind in Genesis.  Human lineage does not spawn from two fair-skinned homo sapiens who wore leaves over their private parts because they were ashamed of their nakedness.

It is here that I want to think out loud about the idea of sin.  The entire premise of sin, repentance, and separation from God stems from the idea that somewhere along the line, humans got distinguished from animals and were created with souls accountable to a higher being.  Obviously in light of evolution, we know this is not the case, and we know we are primates with genetic links and relationships to all kinds of life forms.  We know evolution is a very slow process in which natural selection and mutation works on a generation by generation basis.  We know we are primates, most likely with origins tracing back to Africa tens of thousands of years ago.  If you don’t agree that the theory of evolution is solid, you should probably navigate away from this post.

So, let’s just hypothesize a little bit here.  If we’re working on a generation by generation basis (by now, creationists should have stopped reading any of what I have to say) at which point did God deem our primative consciousness able and intelligent enough to give us souls and therefore curse us with only two choices; that of heaven or that of hell?  God does not hold people semi-accountable (according to the Bible), so instead he must have made one distinct, intentional delineation between one generation of primates and another, right?  Please assume with me that there is no other explanation (although I would beg Christians to provide me one) other than this; that all of the sudden, the offspring of one generation (far, far back in our ancestry) was given the knowledge of God in their hearts, a moral code, and an obligation to live by this moral code – while the parents of this generation remained soulless animals.  We must grant that in evolutionary terms, the intelligence levels and abilities of the parental generation had to have been virtually identical to those of their offspring.  Where does God step in to make us special?  Where does he decide to place a curse of hell on those of us skeptical enough not to believe in him?

Which brings me to another question.  If we are condemned to hell for unbelief because we had the unfortunate luck to be born (as opposed to the millions of humans that never will be born) and not believe in God, wouldn’t we have been better off not living in the first place?  And why must God’s punishment for unbelief be hellfire?  Is his glory unable to tolerate such a petty insult?  Honestly, as God, why not just end the unbeliever’s existence and leave us as we were before we were born?

According to Christian theology, hell is eternal separation from God, which means God must be naively unaware of the suffering we are to endure once his eternal kingdom is established on Earth.  In essence, he is shoving unbelievers into a furnace, closing the lid, sealing it, turning the lights out, walking upstairs, closing the door, and partying with his friends for eternity, his glory never challenged, never hindered by the existence or non-existence of those burning in the basement.  So again I ask, why is the furnace necessary?  Is God that much of a bastard?  I would be fine returning to non-existence, even if it meant not going to heaven, because there would simply be nothing for me to miss were I unconscious!  The fact that the Bible tells me I must be aware of my rejection of God while burning for eternity leaves me no choice other than to view Christianity as nothing more than a fable with a twisted conclusion.  A preacher with a bigoted message.  A friend with a poisoned mind.  And yes, of course Jesus said some great stuff, but all of it is underlined by hell, hell, hell, hell, hell.  If you’re a Christian and don’t believe in hell, you’re not really reading your Bible.  But the only problem you and I would have is that I just think you’re wrong about the existence of the supernatural.  If you’re teaching kids that hell is real, Jesus is the only way to salvation, and that unbelief is the worst conclusion a human can come to, get out your boxing gloves because I will fight you.

There is no sin I must be saved from, no hell I must avoid, and no God I must believe in as the sole criteria for an afterlife in paradise.  To be unable to see the blatant fallacy of Christian belief upon a simple understanding of evolution shows me a mind that has not tried hard enough to escape its indoctrination.  It shows me a mind unwilling to let go of either the comfort of heaven or the fear of hell.  Noah was smart enough to leave the unicorns behind.  Let’s be smart enough to leave Noah behind.

Death and All His Friends

Death comes to us all in some form or another. The differences among humans in how we view this unfortunate circumstance is interesting. Religious people welcome death; it is their journey to the afterlife, their face-to-face meeting with God. They look forward to the end of this life, pray for the next life, and live so that they may receive the maximum benefit in God’s kingdom. Oppositely, naturalists like myself see death as nothing more than the unconscious state we all experienced before our birth; it is the end of existence, the returning of our atoms into the purposeless vastness of the universe. So where does meaning come from?

The religious mind has no problem finding meaning; holy texts provide direction, guidance, and assurance that everything is under control. I must admit, it is a tempting proposition to feel as if the afterlife is certain; that our “soul” will continue on after physical death. Our consciousness as animals cannot contemplate non-existence once we have tasted life. The very idea of complete and total nothingness upon our death is foreign and disconcerting. But it does not make it any less true.

Since I cannot bring myself to believe in any afterlife, I am stuck with this life and this life only. The perspective that it gives me is one that I proudly and perhaps arrogantly prize above that of the religious… my thoughts are on making this life as good as I can, while a believer in the afterlife ultimately cares about his or her rewards in heaven. The view of the naturalist is to take action, while the view of the religious is to pray for action to be taken. This is a sour and reprehensible approach to consciousness, and one I abhor greatly.

While this view is not consistent in all religious minds (especially in those of moderate religious belief) it is common enough, at least in my upbringing, to warrant serious discussion and criticism, as I believe it leads to dangerous practices in our society that only serve to breed intolerance, hate, and division among our species. I have seen this view at work even in my own parents.

When I told my Christian parents I was an atheist, they hurt for my soul. They didn’t hesitate to relate to me their extreme disappointment in my “decision” to live a godless, moral-less (according to their horrific Christian understanding) life, and they grieved for the loss of closeness that was bound to take place during this life. To me, this is an unbelievable and unacceptable conclusion. Simply because I believe differently than they do, they now view me as a lost cause and by default claim that I will not be able to relate to the innermost parts of themselves. Bull Fucking Shit. This is the problem of religion and belief. It segregates relationships through claims that have zero proof while arguing moral superiority and understanding of “truth”. Since my parents are so focused on the afterlife, they are devastated that I will potentially not be there to share it with them. In turn, they think our relationship in this life must suffer since my worldview is diametrically opposed to theirs, and that is an utter shame, one that keeps me up at night in fact.

And to them, this ultimate conclusion is unavoidable; regardless of how much I choose to invest into a relationship with them, they won’t be able to “connect” with me on a “godly” level where I will ask for heavenly advice and wisdom. They think our relationship is doomed to talks concerning the weather, sports, and whatever other small-talk takes place in day-to-day conversations. The funny thing is, I knew this would happen upon my unveiling of my atheism. I knew the religious mind extremely well, seeing that it was my own mindset up until age 23. I longed for Jesus’ return and prayed for those going to hell. I kept Christian friends close and thought my secular friends just didn’t understand the greater truth of this world. How badly I was mistaken.

To think religion can claim absolute truth, a life beyond this one, and a condemnation of all who dissent is complete madness. I see no way that this worldview can inspire peace and love. And although my parents say they will love me unconditionally no matter what I believe (and I really do believe them), their belief ultimately is causing division, awkwardness, and disappointment between us, to an irreconcilable extent. And that is bull shit, my friends. Arrogant, presumptuous, ignorant bull shit.

It saddens me deeply, especially since this life is probably all we have. We must live life with this perspective if we are to find meaning and purpose, and to concentrate so wholeheartedly on the afterlife is to lose contact with everything and everyone we hold dear. We might not want to follow Death and all of his friends, but it is unavoidable. Why not love each other as much as we can while we are here, casting aside our superstition and condemnation so that we may find true, close, and loving relationships in this life? Please consider this.

Intelligent Little Ones

Let’s hope I’m not deselecting myself by posting this interesting bit of information I stumbled upon tonight. LiveScience has posted an article about sperm, and the fact that intelligence could lead to more of it.

The smarter the men were, the more sperm they produced and the better their wee ones swam — and it didn’t matter how old the men were or whether they smoked, drank or were obese.

Now the real trick is just to convince all the ladies that I am a genius.  Wanna see my ACT scores?  If that doesn’t work, I guess I can always bust out my soccer trophies from childhood.

Holy Dragoons!

I have returned. If the reference from a popular 1998 RTS is lost on you, hurray! You still have a life. If the abbreviation RTS is lost on you, hurray! You have a good chance of keeping a life! But if you knew I was pulling a reference from the glorious Real Time Strategy game Starcraft made by Blizzard Entertainment in the late 90s, join me in loneliness for many Valentines Days to come. The worst holiday for singles is fast-approaching, and I’ve already been through one of them recently, New Years Eve.

But 2009 is here and luckily I did not have to spend the 31st playing the aforementioned game with a 2 liter of Dr. Pepper and Nacho Cheese Doritos by my side. I was able to make it out on the town (what little of one there is in downtown Springfield, MO) with a few good friends, get some free shots, and walk around in the cold weather without a coat for a few minutes while my nipples froze, only because I did not want to get my new jacket all smoky. So I guess that last one’s my own fault. Other than those exciting tidbits, I rang in the new year with quiet melancholy in a very lackluster bar named Bubbles, ironically without any bubbly or drink of any kind. There was not, to my knowledge, even a TV available to watch the ball drop, as if seeing a pre-recorded feed of flashing light bulbs is anything to gawk at anyway. Unless you are one of the endlessly energetic celebrants making-out with your significant (or insignificant) other in Times Square, the entire event is decidedly tiresome and ferociously annoying… especially when people are shouting “FIVE!…FOUR!…” while the real counter is still on the number seven and not even thinking yet of turning into the number six. The number five might as well be that backpacking trip to Europe we all haven’t really planned yet and the number four might as well be the fucking big rip as far as the counter is concerned.  Overzealous bastards, chanting their numeric incantation at blinding speeds… The inability of large groups of people to uniformly count down to zero while maintaining relatively close approximations of actual seconds will never cease to bug the hell out of me. Anyway, back to Bubbles; the bar seats looked like urinals, the couches smelled of body odor, and the drab white and silver walls and decor screamed to be used as a destination for blood-splattered rampage in the next Grand Theft Auto title. And of course, I had no one to make out with. Starcraft and Dr. Pepper isn’t sounding so bad in retrospect.

But before you decide that my uneventful and dispassionate passing into the new year has turned me into a depressed, homicidal maniac, remember that there were already an infinite number of reasons 2008 wasn’t anything to cheer about. Consider the following: countless suicide bombings, continued fighting in Iraq with US soldier death tolls rising above 4,000 (not even to mention Iraqi civilian deaths), deadly tornadoes and hurricane Gustav, an earthquake in China killing tens of thousands, floods in India, violence between Georgia and Russia, the arduous primaries and presidential election, Sarah fucking Palin, a ban on human rights in California, a massive bailout fiesta coupled with an economic recession… and tell me that I’m not allowed to be slightly pissed off. Now amend this list with the further additions of drastic personal changes leading to high-stress, emotional drain and problematic family issues, penny-pinched budgets, job loss in October and mono at the same time (forcing me to move home to Missouri). And then amend that with similar problems outstretching to my circle of friends and your own; we all undoubtedly saw relationships fall apart, plans change dramatically, and jobs being lost as well. Sounds like one hell of a 2008. At least for now we have relatively low gas prices and the hope that Obama will actually do something positive once he is in office, even though it’s a shame that Rick Warren will be there to kick things off. So fancy that, it seems I was already a depressed, homicidal maniac.

In all seriousness, though, 2008 brought some very positive (well, from my perspective) changes in my life and perhaps I am just having a bad night. I don’t honestly feel that depressed on the whole, but life in Springfield can and does take its toll on me. I’ve been lucky enough to hang out with good friends here and have even met or reconnected with others that are proving to make my stay worthwhile. I intend to continue these friendships as long as possible.

But all this is to say: Nashville, I miss you. I miss everyone who stood out among the dreariness of 2008 to make the year worth remembering. I miss the studio and 10-hr. recording sessions. I miss porch parties and bonfires. I miss grabbing my first beer of the week at 1:30am at Broadway Brewhouse, most of the time on a Tuesday. I miss the cigars and whiskey over a game of chess and philosophy at 4:00 in the morning. And yes, I’ll go off into the deep-end of cliché and sentiment here, but what makes these events great are the people. I miss the people, I miss my friends.

And so the start of 2009 has stuck me with a goal of getting back to them, in whatever physical or metaphorical sense you wish to attribute to the statement. As this post is already beginning to foreshadow too much of an inspirational turn for my taste at this point, I will be quick to end it in fear of sounding like a motivational poster should I dare to start gushing in paragraphs to come. Readers and friends, just know that I am going to kick the shit out of this year regardless of what new and dreary history will most likely be written once again, and hopefully I will end up the with only minor bruises when the next Jan. 1 rolls around.

Friends old and new, work your asses off this year, show compassion to those around you, and sit down with me for a beer, conversation, and love. Let’s try to be goodness for each other amidst all the shit heading for us as the world enters 2009.