Speaking of Facebook...

My graphic novel has it's own Facebook fan page! Click here to 'Like' it. Click here to buy it on CD. It's only $21 to all US addresses, shipping included, and it's only $27 to all Canadian and Mexican addresses, shipping included. There are no superheroes in my surreal criminal epic of the mountain south, so buy one today and do your part to support independent creative types like me.

She's not there

I'm making some simple figure studies using ink and watercolor on plain paper. This figure strikes me as ethereal and almost ghostly. I'm sending some of these out to the folks who signed up for the 'handmade pay it forward' meme on Facebook. This one is going to my friend Little Merry Sunshine.

Grown up?

My friend, the suitably stunning XUP (which stands for Ex Urban Pedestrian), has a thought provoking post up over at her fine blog. It's all about grown ups and whether we perceive ourselves to be 'grown ups' as our adulthood advances. It sounds stodgy but in her hands the topic is deftly handled and well written, as usual.

My take on it is that even though I may be an adult, at times I don't consider myself to be a grown up. And that's not a bad thing. I think of grown ups as uptight adults who worry constantly and are miserable over the least little thing. They have serious jobs and serious personalities to go along with them. And most importantly they have long ago lost the ability to enjoy life, crack a joke, especially at their own expense, and to just be in the moment.

One Christmas many years ago after Sparky and I got together her brother who lives in Texas came in to visit and he brought his wife and four kids with him. I had a blast getting to know the kids, we hung out and I joked around with them and took them sledding when it snowed and I played cards and board games with them, as did Sparky. In the midst of all this holiday fun I over heard her dad tell her brother that he thought I was an over grown kid sometimes. I'm sure he didn't mean it in a mean or insulting way and I didn't take it in that way either, in fact, I took it as a compliment because even though I was in my mid 30's and working a demanding grown up job, I was still able to push aside the bullshit of the grown up world and enjoy the time we had with the kids while they were young.

I recently had the displeasure of reconnecting with an old acquaintance from college on Facebook, whose name is John B. This guy was an obnoxious conservative Republican back then and the ensuing years have only made him worse. He always struck me as one of those people who were born grown up because he always had the ability to suck the joy out of every situation by injecting his pompous political posturing in any given situation (which may sound strange coming from me since I blog a lot about politics and I have an opinion I will share with you on every political subject but in my defense, I know when to shut the hell up about it and just be in the moment). Anyhoo, one day I put on my Facebook wall that I was going to play disc golf, which must have pissed off John because he made a snide remark along the lines of me never having grown up in response to that posting. And in another post about me wanting to win the Powerball jackpot he said he hoped I wouldn't because if I did then it might make me hate myself since obviously all progressives must hate rich people (which we don't as long as they didn't get rich by exploiting others or polluting the earth). Luckily, he dropped me as a Facebook friend before I had the chance to dump him. My point is he is just the type of person who is a 'grown up' in my book, because he's grown up and let life and his politics make him miserable.

As I get older I hear people talk about and fetishize the 1970's and '80's and I think to myself, "Holy shit, that time period seems like just yesterday to me. I'm getting old." But then I remember that even though I may be getting older and have adult responsibilities and duties, I'm still not a grown up and I'll never ever be one.

Facebook fun

I became a 'fan' of Janeane Garofalo on Facebook. I did it not because I like her stand up comedy, which I hate by the way, but because I like her political activism. The other day someone had put a comment on one of the posts on her fan page that said, "Janeane, I hope you soon come to know the awesome saving power of Jesus Christ." As soon as I saw that I put a comment after his that said, "Janeane, I hope you soon come to know the awesome mowing power of Jesus Rodriguez." Then after mine another smart ass wrote, "Janeane, I hope you soon come to know the awesome rock and roll power of Jesus and the Mary Chain."

Sometimes I love Facebook.

Bittersweet

As most of you regular readers know I'm hooked on Facebook as well as blogging. And for every old friend from college or high school that I've reconnected with there's been people from that part of my past that I'd rather just stay away from either because they've become intolerant Christians who look forward to going to the Creationist Museum or because I didn't like them back then and I still don't like them now. My friendship with some of my blog friends has deepened as a result of being on Facebook with them as well as reading their blogs.

Unfortunately, I've also ran into some sad and troubling news on Facebook as well. I recently friended a gal I went to high school with. I knew she would not remember me because I was a few years behind her. But I not only remembered her, I went to a very small high school, I was friends with her young brother Scott.

Scott was friends with my sister Sandy first. He and Sandy and another gal named Sheila were thick as thieves for a few years but when Sandy and Sheila graduated and went on to other things Scott was still in school with me, he was a year ahead of me. Since we both partied in high school we would often hang out together and get stoned and or drunk. Scott was a fun, funny, stand up guy. And he was gay.

In a small rural community like Lee County, VA if you were gay you had to keep it under wraps or you faced the wrath of people who hated gays and the wrath of the sanctimonious holier than thou Christians, and often they were one and the same. But for some reason this didn't apply to Scott. And I think it was because Scott was so beloved by everyone. We stoners liked him because he was one of us, the jocks liked him because he was not a threat to them, and the hicks liked him because he made them laugh. If you asked him he'd tell you he was gay but he didn't go around screaming about his sexual orientation. He wasn't a flamer, but you knew he was gay if you spent any length of time around him at all.

I liked Scott immensely because he was such a fun guy. He always was quick with a joke and to poke fun at the people and things that needed it. He reminded me of me in that regard. I also liked him because he was who he was and he didn't change for anybody. I always thought he was pretty brave to not change who he was in order to try and fit in. In a way he was a hero of mine because if a gay guy like him could be himself in that small town then I, a smart geeky bookish kid with a smart mouth, could be who he was and not worry about it. Sometimes I had to reign in who I was but Scott never did and for that I always admired him.

The day after I graduated high school I left moved out of Lee County and for the most part I never looked back. I had heard that Scott had died of HIV/AIDS but I never was sure about it, until his sister and I began emailing each other on Facebook that is. I shared with his sister that my brother Charlie, who she remembered very well by the way, had died from an HIV/AIDS related illness and so she told me that Scott had as well. But oddly enough he didn't get it from unprotected sex, he got it from a blood tranfusion. She told me that Scott was managing a restaurant in North Carolina and one night after he closed up the place he got carjacked. The carjacker slit his throat so he could not scream but the slit did not kill Scott. The carjacker tied him up and put him in the backseat of his car and then he took off. Despite having a slit throat Scott was able to undo the bonds that held him and he managed to run off when the carjacker stopped for a rest break. It was during his hospitalization that Scott was given AIDS tainted blood.

It's a sad turn of events that cost my friend Scott his life but I know that he lived that life braver than most anyone else I know. I wish I had kept in touch with him after I left high school and I wish I could have seen him before he passed so I could have told him he was one of my personal heroes. I missed the chance to do those things, so this will have to do, so long Scott, you were one hell of a guy and this world was better for you having been in it.

If you're on Facebook...

...be sure to take the new quizzes I wrote. They are: Which Dada art piece are you? and Which intolerant Christian leader are you?

They're both fun and oh so informative. Go on, take them. You know you want to.

You are now and always will be my friend

It looks like I pissed off some thickheaded Christian and they complained to Facebook that I'm some kind of menace, so Facebook is fucking with my main account. So in response to that I set up a new account. If you get a friend request from me, then friend me again if you like.

And if the person who I pissed off on Facebook also reads my blog, I have but one thing to say to you, "Fuck you."

I love you Facebook-UPDATED

I'm glad my friend Pam who used to write the blog Memoirs of a Working Mom got me to get into Facebook.

Using Facebook over the past few months has given me a deeper appreciation for all of my blog buds. I've also caught up with some old friends from Knoxville, my old improv comedy group, and it's brought back into my life some old friends from college. I'm loving it that I am catching up with folks I knew over 20 years ago. We all may never get together anywhere else besides Facebook but hey, that's good enough for me.

If you're on Facebook and on my blogroll and you haven't 'friended' me yet then what the hell are you waiting for? Get on the stick people, chop chop. I'll go ahead an apologize in advance if you send me a drink or a gift or do one of those Facebook apps that I'm not into, otherwise I rock at being a Facebook friend.

Viva Facebook!

UPDATE: If you're on Facebook and you can't find me it's because I'm onthere under my real name. If you want to friend me please send me an email to monkeymuckATgmailDOTcom with the words 'Friend me Monkey' in the subject line and I'll shoot you back an email with my real name.

My new best friends

I picked up Elizabeth Kucinich
and Keith Olbermann as friends on Facebook recently. How cool is that?
But don't you worry none, you're still my bestest friend ever!

Six degrees of Facebook separation

There's this thing going around on Facebook called 'The Six Degrees of Facebook Separation.' The people who came up with the idea want to see if all the people on Facebook can be connected to someone else in six degrees or less. Their first test is to see how few degrees it takes someone to link themselves to Brad Pitt.

Well kids, don't be jealous but I am one degree away from Brad Pitt. You see I was in the film 'Box of Moonlight' which was directed by Tom DiCillo,who is a very nice guy by the way and I say that because he always made time to chat with us extras and to make sure that we all got something to eat during meal breaks.

Dicillo also directed a film called 'Johnny Suede' which starred a young Brad Pitt. That's right bitches, I'm practically show biz royalty and so are you because if you are my Facebook friend then you are two degrees from Brad Pitt.

I wish she were my Granny

I'm not sure if this blog is really written by an 80 yr old woman or not, nonetheless I've still got a blog crush on it. I found it through a friend from college that I reconnected with on Facebook. It turns out that this old friend of mine has thrown off the shackles of conservatism (we went to a very small conservative christian college) and has become a tree hugging vegetarian. I always knew she had it in her.