below is the most developed interaction i’ve had so far – i’ve flipped the correspondence so it can be read in order and sadly they haven’t contacted me since my last email, but i really hope they get back to me. i’m having too much fun.

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.