Genesis

So, how do you start up a podcast, anyway?

I guess I'm about to find out. After talking with John last night, I've decided to give it a shot, thereby making my statement above (about being a podcaster) a reality instead of just a dream.

The trouble is, coming up with something for a proof-of-concept show.

For the last few years, I've had an incredible case of writer's block. It's why I never finished UR, and it's also why there hasn't been much from me creatively in a long time. If anything, my blog has become a dusty, cobwebbed closet I open once in a while to put stuff in.

That's not cool.

I'm hoping that my recent desire to actually work with my blogs is a good sign of things to come. I really do miss being able to come up with stuff like I used to. It's just that life has brought me to a point where I don't much care about anything, let alone writing something for the sheer joy of it like the old days.

Only this time, I'm not writing for just a blog. I'm laying down a recording of my voice and releasing it upon the Earth. So, it's gotta be at least halfway good, right? Right.

Talk about brain frying...

USA! USA! USA!

Finally. An American I can give some honest support to! Congratulations to Joey Chestnut, winner of the 2007 Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Championships! After years of domination by Japan's Takeru Kobayashi, Chestnut ate an unbelievable 66 hot dogs and buns, smashing the record set by Kobayashi the year before by just over a dozen! ROCK ON!

Let It Be

Nathan James Aughenbaugh -- 1980 - 2007. He died because of the cruelty and malice of others. He died unnecessarily.

Beside his casket, surrounded by the people responsible for his death, I made him a promise: "We'll make this right."

And we will.

Nathan, when I knew him best, was a happy kid who loved rollerskating and off-roading in his entirely illegal Bronco; Listening to music and taking road trips; being with his friends and flirting with Angela. He loved life, and almost always had a smile on his face.

Never was he ever suicidal. Ever.

Soon, you'll all know why Nathan did what he did. But that's not what I'm here to do right now.

Right now, I want Nathan remembered for the true person he was: A giving friend, happy and full of life, who wanted nothing more than for people to be like him and just chill out and enjoy the ride. If there was anything he could do to make his friends feel better, it was done. All he wanted in return was the same kindness and positive vibes; Negativity was never his thing.

Back in the summers of 1994 and 1995, Nathan, Angela and I would jump in the Escort and put his cassette single copy of Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" into the tape deck, and we'd drive around endlessly, listening to all 15 minutes of the song, over and over, just to kill time before we went to the skating rink. By the time 1996 rolled around, I'm sure all of us could rap along to any version of that song without missing a beat, all thanks to knowing each and every part of the whole song from memory. All because of Nathan.

Nathan loved kids, and his influence is no more evident than on the kids of our friend Nikki. Those kids will endlessly pick flowers and give them to Mom and her friends. All because of Nathan. Because he loved to follow the old addage "stop and smell the [flowers]." There is creativity alive in Angela's daughter, thanks in great part to Nathan and his love of imatination. Several of the drawings hanging on Angela's apartment walls have Nathan's influence in them.

Angela and I have big plans in the works, and I'll have a huge announcement of the positive variety very soon. In the meantime, though, I ask all of you to remember Nathan for who he truely was. Keep him in your hearts and memories. Every life he touched was brightened.

It's just so goddamned sad that he had to suffer so much...

Vaya con dios, hermano...