Greatest Guy

I would like to think that when you left us, your energy and spirit exploded and all of us who loved you inhaled a little bit of you. You always made me feel that we were halves of a whole greater than ourselves—that we were living this life to figure out things that we sometimes already knew. You made be a better person. I love you and my heart aches so terribly for you.

Raymond R. Blanco Jr.
July 8, 1984 — September 25, 2011

Buffalo & Toronto

Hey super gay best friend and friend, let's hit TORONTO!!


Toronto's population is mostly populated by non-native born city dwellers. FACT. Hence finding awesome Mexican shops (YES TAMALES!!) in Toronto hipsterville.






We took a sunset boat ride.


Then we went up the CN tower the next day. I got to tag the tower. Wrad.


This place has no security.


Back in Buffalo! More sunsets! Beer tower to follow!


Thank you Hurricane Irene for delaying Amtrak for days so that I can spend more time with my best friend by watching him play video games while I molest his awesome lap cat ALL DAY LONG.

Richmond

I better post this before I forget what I did in August(?)

Best Friends Day 10 in Richmond. Short notice, but what the hell, there's gonna be AZZ EVERYWHERE...and bikes, and MIKEY!

There's so much cheap apartment space in Richmond. I'm jelly.


Bikes on bikes on bikes.


Bike gang! It was so fun biking on these roads with great people.


Best Friends Day, it's like Woodstock for shitty kids.


Gross man-made pool. Naked rope swinging. Dirty shitty kids. Water that's actually green. So fucking gross. The other water option was the bug infested lake, where I saw a dude piss on another dude, a girl snatching up a goose, and Bert No Shirt mount snow skis to unsuccessfully glide across the water.


Against Me! They were at the Vans show I went to on Thursday a few blocks from my joint, where I got a black eye after body surfing. Yup.


This shit is for realz. You're in your bathing suit, in a daze of whatever vice you've been indulging in since getting there, sweating your ass off, trying not to get molested by people, and if you're me, you regret being barefoot because you end up stepping on cigarette butts.

Thanks to all for the culture shock. You either understand it or you don't. Really. I haven't seen it all.

Thank You Steve Jobs

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important... There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs
Stanford University speech 2005

"How Apple Revolutionized Our World: Steve Jobs's dazzling inventions have forever changed us."
Paul Theroux, NEWSWEEK, September 5, 2011