IT'S TIME TO COME OUT OF THE CLOSET...

In retrospect I've known all along...

No one sits down to discuss your feelings as a child, but I think I recognized I was different from the other kids as far back as kindergarten. I saw everything differently. I was drawn to things that were considered "alternative" by the ever dominate main stream crowd.

My parents were very accepting of my lifestyle and helped me to realize I'm ok just the way I am.
I tried to fit in and pretend I wasn't attracted to those things that had a negative connotation in society.

However with the passing of time and society gradually accepting those that are different, I have decided it's time to add my name to the group fighting for equality and acceptance. I have a responsibility to stand up for what I believe in in order to help other people who feel the way I do and are searching for guidance through the darkness of prejudice and shame.

I AM A GEEK.

I am able to say it with pride! It's so liberating to shout it out and feel the burden of secrecy lifted from my heart. I hope you can take me as I am and maybe realize I am just like you. I have different interests than most people but it doesn't make me less important than you.

I want to give some signs maybe someone you know is a closet GEEK. and hopefully it will help you be able to reach out to them and show them it's okay to be...them.

1. Does your GEEK get excited when you say you are going to the bookstore?
2. Have you ever found a mixture of comics and/or computer tech magazines under his/her bed?
3. Do they spring into bouts of rage when you say something like, "Green Lantern was a great movie."?
4. Has your Geek ever dressed up in homemade costumes on days other the Halloween and seemed happier

5. Do they ever end an argument by saying, "I wish you were_________!" (fill in fictional character name here)
6. Are they more comfortable discussing hypothetical issues like who wins in a fight between Han Solo and Captain Malcolm Reynolds.
7. Is your Geek currently explaining WHO Malcolm Reynolds is to you?
8. Ps. if you know who Malcolm Reynolds is...YOU ARE A GEEK!...Welcome
9. Can they carry on a conversation in a fictional language?
10. When they describe the perfect person to date it's sounds like a description of Batman or Lara Croft?
***If you answered yes to any of these questions you have a GEEK. Approach them cautiously as they are socially incapable of interaction with NORMAL humans.

Don't worry, there is help... and by help I mean you can never change them...they have been rejects all their life. So, if you can't beat them just put on a Superman shirt, grab a Harry Potter book, and join 'em by debating who would win in a fight between Endor and Kashyyk.

#5 rejection...THANK YOU.

                           REJECTIONS AND REBIRTH

            A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle with weapons and pizza boxes.#whyIlovebeingadad

I am not a philosopher on any level. I have a multitude of opinions that I shout from the rooftops and others I kept safe in sacred corners of my mind that I visit occasionally and keep alive by throwing them my preverbal loose change while saying, "don't spend it all in one place." I rarely dive into political, religious, or social debates anymore. I can only regurgitate in a paraphrase vomit, "The more I learn, the less I know." 

My life has been adventurous thus far and I have had no regrets...(except for that one BBQ chickenfoot I bought on the street corner in the Philippines) The one thing I have learned and will stand by and debate with anyone is that life is a series of rebirths. 

I have lived several lives already in my 38 years and intend to continue being beaten and rejected by life's trials while simultaneously finding new life and being reborn. You may take this to mean religious and that's fine, but I feel it's more than funneled into only religion. The Phoenix constantly dies then rises immediately rises once again from it's own ashes that haven't even had time to cool. In my constantly chaotic "artistic mind" I fight battles daily. there are amazing Victorian duals at dawn with creativity vs. laziness. sumo matches between fatherhood and immaturity. Don't forget the simple Cold War-like red button stand off between whether or not to get out of bed.

 I am now the guy whose only dangerous life choice is deciding if I want to brush my teeth or just live on the edge and see what happens if I give plaque a freeday.

I received #5 rejection from an agent. They so kindly write rejections that I almost felt good. Then I decided WHY THE HELL SHOUD I NOT FEEL GOOD. A good friend shared an interview with an artist and the artist said, (paraphrased) "Every time you're rejected you are that closer to finding success."

I agree like the beautiful southern black woman who sings every hymn with every ounce of her faith. AMEN! 

As I look back MOST of my life consists of my response to rejections and failures. And...in each case depending on how I responded to the situation either led me to more rejections or to an amazing success. Education, relationships, business, etc...

My ramblings today are confusing but simple. 

The moral of THIS rambling is that I am soo grateful for my failures. I now cherish them next to my homeless hidden opinions that I still visit on occasion. 

My failures have made me who I am today. I can look at my life as a success because of those failures.

So rejection #5...I look forward to as many as it will take until I can come back and say, "Thank you for helping me become better then I was when I received you in the mail Saturday January 19th

In other news...LOGAN OUT LOUD is back and re-opened! We had a stellar night with two back to back shows of improv comedy to full audiences. 

60 asses being laughed off. 120 hemispheres of the mind being blown. 360 abs happily hurting. 

Life is good and I love it!

A DIFFERENT KIND OF MILE HIGH CLUB

"Hey, daddy, I need to go potty."

I promise I have been thinking about the blog. You are not being neglected. You will neither hear me whine nor complain about why there hasn't been a blog in over two weeks. Since I looked back on the holidays and the new year a lot has happened! 

Where to begin...?

   BUSINESS: First of all as far as the "waiting game" for agents and publishers, it continues. No new news from Gary Gnu. 

HOMEFRONT: We decided to leave the negative degree weather and worst air in the country and headed to Orlando after Christmas. What could be better than that? I'll tell ya! making your sisters and families come too along with sending your parents off to Ghana! Yes Ghana. They are on a medical mission establishing programs to help train Audiologists and increase the medical help to a country in need. We already miss them but had a blast as my mother, sufferer of motion sickness rode the Harry Potter ride! 

In retrospect it was a blast. However I have to shoulder the responsibility for creating the 3 yr old Frankenstein. It wasn't his fault he spent almost a week with who we refer to as "the other person", coming home post Christmas chaos, having a cold, flying him 5 hours and changing two time zones, then throwing him into the over stimulating Universal Studios for three days, playing/ swimming with cousins, walking miles everyday, flying back home and then asking "Why are you acting this way?"

whew. (catching my breath)

Needless to say this is how you chemically create a very tired/ ornery child. Like I said I don't blame him at all. He was wide eyed for days as we turned corner after corner and met Dora, the Cat in the Hat, Wolverine, and of course Spiderman. When Cyclops said he would "See ya later." I say the facial equivalent of a tween meeting Justin Beiber. "Mommy. Mommy. He said he would see me later!!"

Having a freakishly tall 3 yr old we were able to take him on more rides and as Diana and I closed our eyes, flinched or screamed, Simon just smiled. 

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing the people you love having a wonderful time together in spite of the ehaustion. Diana was made for Hogwarts.

P.S. The only way to se Harry Potter world is to get there super early, visit the rides, go see the rest of the park the go back to the hotel and enjoy the quiet afternoon while the throngs of the walking dead moan and and and wander aimlessly through the parks with glazed over eyes.

On our flight home Simon continued to ask to use the restroom so, being the kind hearted parent that I self-proclaim to be, or in other words...the one in the aisle seat, I took him. 

Now hundreds of comics have done bits about airlines but I haven't heard anyone speak of the challenge, no, the pure logistics of fitting two people into an airplane stall. The following isn't inappropriate, just dirty, but not the dirty you're mind is thinking...shame on you.

First of all I realized that the aisle in the airplane should be called the unforgiving catwalk as I noticed I walked like the beanpole models swinging my hips like pendulums trying to maneuver sleeping heads and outstretched elbows all the while trying to not make eye contact with everyone facing forward with nowhere else to look as well.

Simon and I make it to the stall and as I opened it we shuffled in. Simon looked at me as if to say, "There's not enough room in this here town for the both of us." but the tiny bladder won out over his need for space and took a seat on the ever cold toilet seat. Meanwhile, I was hitting my head on the low ceilings trying to get wipes and getting kicked in the shin by a 3 yr old bearing down regretting his food choices over the last few days.

Needless to say we started a new mile high club. one that only parents will know about. 

So a new year began and as I look back on 2012 I can only see it with happy tear filled eyes. I am blessed. I am happy. I am loved. Even with saying that my life is wonderful, we were allowed another blessing into our lives. A little over two years ago I was an old grumpy single artist happy with my life. NOW, I am a happy artist who has an amazing wife, a step-son who is the best person i know, two wonderful dogs and now we add temporarily (and hopefully permanent soon) our foster son named Sammy. My life has caught me up where I needed to be.
                                               I love life.