Ahoy, me mateys! It be Talk Like a Pirate Day, but that be not what brings me into the uncharted waters o' me blog this day. No, it be the simple meme that snarkel posted:

Instructions:
Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair - just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with the picture.


It be not the most flattering photo of me, but there have been worse.

First I got some good news. Then I got some terrible news. I guess I'll report it in that order.

On Thursday, StarWars.com finally revealed the final winners of the "What's the Story?" feature. Among the new winners was my submission for Slyther Bushforb, an alien private investigator briefly seen eating in Dexter's Diner in Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

Those who've read my MySpace blog (which, I freely admit, this is reposted from) may remember that I've won once before, for a character named Cane Adiss, but I was particularly pleased to see my Bushforb entry win. For this diner-eating private eye, I decided to write my entry in the style of old hardboiled pulp detective stories, Star Wars-ified, of course. The final version was changed a fair amount in editing from my original (which, given my departure from the traditional style of these stories, is only to be expected), but what remains is immortalized in Star Wars lore. :-)

For those who wish to see my (rather extensive) "behind the scenes" notes on the writing of this chap, look here.

---

The, yesterday, I learned the terrible news. An old friend from high school, Jonathan Marquez, passed away yesterday after a bout with a heart condition. We'd been out of contact for most of the years intervening between high school and last year, but we got back in contact shortly before my high school reunion last September, and had been in contact ever since. He was a soft-spoken man and the gentlest soul I've ever known.

He was only 29 years old.

I still haven't gotten my head around his passing. I knew it would be a long time before I got to see him again . . . but sooner than never.

What bothers me most is, I knew he'd been hospitalized, knew his heart was in bad enough shape that doctors were looking to replace it . . . and somehow, I still didn't believe it would actually come to this. I should have called him, but thought I might be interfering with his recovery, so I sent all my well-wishes through his family. Now, I'll never get to speak to him again.

You will be missed, my friend.

Well, like I say on my profile, "I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this thing just yet, since I mostly signed up to make commenting on friend's journals easier." But for a while now I've felt it was time that I posted *something*, and the meme that dryaunda  recently posted clinched it:

If you're maybe noticing that you're older than you used to be,
     and
are feeling sad/angry/confused/worried/frustrated that
     you haven't accomplished as much as
     you/other people in your present or past/annoyingly critical voices inside your head think you should have,
and if you're maybe feeling something like "I'm not a real grownup like everyone else,"
     and if you're maybe also feeling sad/angry/confused/worried/frustrated that
     your body isn't working the way it used to,
and you're maybe thinking,
     "if that's true then how am I going to DO all those accomplishments
     that I/other people/voices in my head think I ought or want to do?",
and maybe you're also wondering
how are you going to dig out
     from under the accumulation of habit and procrastination and self-doubt
     to some sense of satisfaction in your life again,
             then post this same sentence in your journal.

That's been the story of my life since high school, I'm afraid.

Anyway, if I figure out what to do with this besides reposting memes I come across, I'll let you know.