did you know that the two leads of Die Antwoord are married and have a daughter named “Sixteen”? interesting, huh?

3 days and counting. EEEEEK!

i just spent a completely unjustifiable amount of time on a web site called “Above The Law” pounding my head over and over into a wall of trolls. the subject is my homey to the left who (yes) is a convicted felon named Bruce Reilly. Bruce was convicted of murder roughly 18 years ago and served (i believe) ten or eleven years in the Rhode Island penal system. i corresponded with him the whole time even as i watched most of our mutual friends abandon him. there’s a lot i can say about Bruce and why i chose to remain his friend. there’s even more i could say about how i saw in him – particularly once i knew more about the incident that got him incarcerated – a version of me that somehow didn’t get some of the lucky breaks that i did.

the article in general – though a bit more dramatic than necessary, particularly for a law blog – is interesting. it tells a bit about Bruce, how he got accepted into Tulane – even though an ex-con – and how there’s apparently a movement of his fellow law students trying to get him ejected from school! what drives me completely bonkers is the ridiculousness and stupidity of the vast majority of the comments! i NEVER get wrapped up these kinds of things because trolls are IMHO the scum of the earth and every moment of my life that i waste exposing myself to their stupidity is a moment i’ll never get back again – a moment i’ll never be able to claim i did something useful.

anyway, peruse the article itself if you like, but don’t waste your time on the comments. my “final” comment below will give you a far less painful general understanding of the mob mind at it’s worst and my last attempt to reach out to any actual human being who might be skimming through.

alright. whenever i do this sort of thing, i start to lose all faith in humanity and today sadly is no different. this is my final statement to which there will be (from me at least) no reply: 

- to any of you here calling Bruce a psychopath or a sociopath, you’ve either never met the guy of you’ve never met an actual sociopath. i’ve met both and Bruce is no sociopath. he’s ambitious and hard-working and caring and busts his ass for his friends and family. the man i knew 18 years ago was already on the path of turning it all around – he was on the lam though i didn’t know it right away, but he was just another theatre student (yes! the horror!) at Emerson College as far as i knew. then after he was caught, we somehow continued to correspond and i was always impressed by how always seemed so positive and productive. the drawings and poetry that he’d share was always so incredible and full of emotion and always made me wonder if i would be behind bars instead of him if just one or two things different had happened in our lives. i don’t care what anybody else thinks they know about the guy. my old business partner was a true sociopath and Bruce has nothing in common with that guy.

- to all of you who think he never should have been accepted to Tulane or never should have been given a scholarship simply because he’ll “never pass a character or fitness test”, i honestly have no argument because i know nothing about law or bar exams or whatever, but i will say this: if the volume of advocacy and service and over-all hard-work he’s given to the down-and-out and the unfortunate of Rhode Island doesn’t help him pass such an exam, than that exam is flawed IMHO. and if Bruce were somehow able to pass this test somewhere, the law industry wherever he is – particularly the down-trodden and poor of that area – would definitely be better for it. 

- and to all of you trolls and idiots and morons who just get a kick out of saying hurtful, ridiculous or stupid things just to get a rise out of people: thanks for doing your part to lower and worsen the level of dialogue in the world. i hope you get mouth cancer and die (not really, but you get my point –> STFU).

and scene!
=ck

this little side note: Kendall and i have been IMing about this the whole time – just disgusted by the Tools and Hacks that are commenting on that article and she just said something really funny:

If anything itʻs Bruce who should be scared of going to college with them

in the meantime, enjoy this oldie but goodie.

so holy crap, i just finished reading George R R Martin’s latest in his A Song of Ice and Fire series of books (A Game of Thrones for you all you non-fanboys and -girls), A Dance with Dragons and … i’m speechless.

now if you’ve never read any of the books, but you like the TV show, i’m sure it’s worthy of your appreciation, but understand that the show really pales in comparison to the books. i’m not saying it’s bad, i’m just saying that the books are better than just about anything else i’ve ever read. perhaps they’re not Michael Ondaatje or Toni Morrison, but they’re extremely entertaining in a way that doesn’t make you feel like your brain is turning to mush. i mean honestly – how can people even waste one second of their day watching (quote) Reality (unquote) TV when there’s stuff like this out there. it’s like ‘The Wire‘ in a fantasy setting.

the characters, their lives and intrigues, interests, passions and doubts have such a deep richness and well-thought-out reality to them that you feel like they could have actually existed in history. like they could be true events and we’re just witnessing how it all really went down.

now regarding the book that JUST came out, the first thing you need to know is how long it’s been since his last book. A Feast for Crows came out in October 2005 and only covered about half the characters. it’s a long story, but the short version is that it only followed one of my favorites and all the rest were absent! so … i’ve been waiting well over six years to know how these other characters were doing!

so i pre-ordered it on my trusty iPad 2 (black 32gigs, wifi only, but don’t get jealous =P) and it was supposed to hit the stores last week Tuesday – but i downloaded it Monday night and started reading it immediately. but anyhoo …

this was the best book in the series in my opinion. Mr Martin really out-did himself this time and while A Feast for Crows felt a bit rushed – i actually felt a little cheated after reading that -, this book definitely made up for it. in typical RR Martin style though, you while find yourself completely surprised now and then, but as i promised in the title, i will not put any spoiler. so just trust me: go out and get this dang book right now and enjoy it – or if you haven’t read all of the other books, i envy the hell out of you because you can start all the way at the beginning and read them all. there’s a lot to know and a lot to love, so go love it. now i wonder how long it’s going to be before The Winds of Winter comes out. i really, really hope it doesn’t take another six effing years!

so for all of you who aren’t familiar with this series, but would like to be here are all the books in order, so you know what to go buy (click on the images to get the Amazon.com link for each book, but i believe you can also buy them for the Kindle or iBooks, which is what i did):

Book One: A Game of Thrones

Book Two: A Clash of Kings

Book Three: A Storm of Swords

Book Four: A Feast for Crows

Book Five: A Dance with Dragons