June, 2008:

I woke up today, glad that the internet was FINALLY back on, happy that I can get some work done. Only to be incredibly disheartened to find out that one of my all time cultural heroes, George Carlin, died yesterday.

I grew up listening to Carlin’s records and watching his comedy and philosophy evolve from that of a counterculture funny-man to one of an incredibly articulate, no-holds-barred, and direct philosopher of modern life. Reading his books, watching his amazing stage presence on his HBO specials (I regret I never got to see him at a live performance), and just plain taking in his amazing wit played huge roles in my outlook on life and the world today.

There are only a few people in my life that I consider “true” heroes. No sports figures, no movie stars, not even politicians. But rather seemingly ordinary people who’ve done amazing things with their lives. People like Jane Gooddall, Michael Moore, and of course, Carlin. George Carlin started out as just another suit and tie comedian on the gritty club circuit in the 50’s and 60’s. Yet, thanks to his cultural environment and influences, including Lenny Bruce, he became an icon of wisdom, cynicism, pragmatism, secularism, and even libertarianism for my generation.

I salute my hero, and his cut-through-the-bullshit wit and audacity, which is so BADLY NEEDED in these very strange times of so-called “cultural war”, will be SORELY missed. Nonetheless, the mark he made on American culture, and the fundamental voice of reason against the insanity of religion, politics, and corporate greed will not fade anytime soon.

I thank him for the life he lived.

…how much “hate mail” and nasty comments on Facebook I get when I don’t update the blog in any significant way for awhile. Usually from people I don’t even know personally!

All I can say is thanks for rattling my cage, and asking me what’s up. Things have been both mundane and hectic at the same time, thus the strange void of updates. I still don’t understand why people find all this kooky drivel I put up here so interesting, but it motivates me nonetheless.

Here’s some stuff to get caught up on pending my updates the blog:

– I FINALLY got to do some traveling around Colombia over the past couple of months. GC Mitzy, Scott and Susan of “Sirena” and I had a fun trip up the coast to Santa Marta back in March. It was a great, fun trip, and Mitzy and I even got to terrorize their local poker scene to our benefit. More on this on a backdated post when I get it out of draft.

– I also went to Medellin and Caucasia for a couple of weeks with a Colombian chica I met in Cartagena. Her name is Karen, a pharmaceutical chemist (who’s smokin’ hot I might add). Had a great time in a wonderful city that really shows the contrasts of life in Colombia. Spending time in Karen’s hometown of Caucasia was also quite an education. Keep an eye on the blog for that whole story.

– I also won a satellite tournament in Cartagena back in April that earned me a seat to the COLOMBIAN NATIONAL POKER TOURNAMENT in Bogota in Mid-May. This was a full-blown mega tournament (the biggest one I’ve ever been in) that got national media attention, and had a few heavy-hitter Latin-American pros. Out of 350 players, I made it to 38th place (just 3 positions out of the prize pool!!!). The painful part was that I got killed by one STUPID, BAD decision that cost me big. Oh well, I learned my lesson on that!

– I had a bad stroke of luck with Andiamo. Since I’d been leaving her on the dock the past few months, a clogged vent caused a siphon effect on the engine, and it sucked in a CRAPLOAD of seawater. As you can probably surmise, seawater inside an engine is NEVER a good thing. I tried in vain to get the engine freed up so I can start it again, but no go. So I’m going to have to rebuild the whole damn thing. Luckily, it will cost less than half for me to do it in Colombia than in the states. Still, not looking forward to that project.

– One more note, it would appear that I have a… “GIRLFRIEND” now. This is probably the first time I’ve actually mentioned that word on this site. Don’t ask me why, but I’ve always been a bit on-the-shy about details of who I’m involved with, etc. It’s that girl Karen, btw, in case you missed something. The one I went to Medellin with. Yeah, her. She’s currently traveling with me and things are interesting to say the least.

– And finally, it’s that time of year, the milestones… Pop’s birthday is tomorrow, and while new, fun and exciting things are happening for me, it never fails to put a somber tone on things. I just plain miss my dad.

Terribly.

I have some musings about all this that I may or may not put up here. I’m strangely getting more sensitive about talking about this subject when I should probably be doing the opposite by now. What’s up with that?

So hope this tides everybody over for now. I’ll be finishing up those drafts and stuff as soon as I get back to Andiamo, I PROMISE. There will be lots of back-dated reading.

Cheers for now.