And as the story goes, allegedly it was just supposed to be me and Dai. Somehow, despite being on the pill after Dai and I were born, my mom managed to pop out seven more kids. But that’s another story. God bless my mom. She is truly one of my best friends. And Dai’s. In a way I think Dai is a bit of a mamas boy, but they do truly have a bond.

Through all the shit that my family has been through in the last couple years-at least we have each other. And come to find out- Surprise, we have an extended network of people we might never have known or met except by chance or fate. People that are taking the time to help promote this website. And give what they can. I am truly grateful beyond words. And through tragedy I have come to be grateful for alot of things I might have taken for granted.

Grateful to be alive. And lucky at that. Live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse behind. I never thought I’d see 30 but as I’m turning 40 in about month I’m down for as many days more for all of us that I can get. Most of us have no idea how many days we have in our lives. As for the suicides, well I personally hate to ruin the surprise ending. When I go i hope to get ripped apart by a great white shark. But not this year. Or really until I turn at least 80.

I have been so lucky to have my little brother as my best friend my entire life. Through it all he’s always been there for me. I’m sure alot of you have met him. A warm hug, snaggletooth smile and “How you doing brother?” But since Dai is currently on mental leave of his earthly body, I thought I might share some stories for laughs. There really are so many it’s hard to know where to start.

People like to hear stories from the road. The golden rule of the road is “What goes on the road, stays on the road.” It’s kind of bullshit. Stories are told. But as a rule, I’ve tried to adhere to the code of conduct as so not to hurt the innocent, or in some cases the not so innocent. So me thinks I should keep it PG13 or at least innocent for the most part.

How about the time (and I wasn’t there, but he told me the story) about how on one of the early tours they were hanging out with Sugar Ray and dudes started throwing stuff around the hotel room. Little stuff. Oh, and not that it’s particularly important, but I think some of the guys might have been shrooming. And my brother picks up one of those huge ADIDAS bag and throws it across the room. It somehow beams this poor girl (after show type) right in the face and she runs out the room crying. He felt bad, but the Sugar Ray guys apparently thought it was somehow so amusing.

Or the time in Portland. Some stupid radio show. A sea of tweakers. Some dumbass Radio DJ and strippers introducing the bands. Some jackoffs there we’re giving away like some kind of paintball type balls. Tones started the set and these things are flying all over the place. Matter of fact Everything was flying everywhere. “Is that all you fucking guys got?” my brother eggs off the his mic on stage left. Then they really let it fly. Abe got hit above the eye with a pair of sunglasses. He’s bleeding. Dai somehow smacked himself in the head with the headstock of his bass (stitches later) so he’s bleeding too. Bottles are flying. My brother eggs some more “If you’re gonna throw bottles, fuck it piss in ‘em first.” He looks over at me standing mostly safe of stage left by the other basses. He’s looking at me as he is slowly enticing a riot-fucking laughing his ass off as the stage is getting hailed on by everything you could possibly imagine. Then the bottle of piss does hit the stage. Chino starts sniffing it. Well, i will leave something for the video footage we’re gonna try and upload here in the next week. Funny shit.

Well, just thought I’d check in with ya’ll for a minute. It felt good when my old lady came outside today to remind me to pray for my brother at ten a.m. I don’t pray that much, but just the simple act felt good. I don’t know if my god hears me, but it feels nice to think that he does and may, bring Dai-Dai back to us. In the meantime. Drive safe, spread love when you can and loveyourbrother. And when I say brother, I mean all living things. Stay tuned. and thanks again, you guys have really brought alot of faith in humanity back to me with your prayers, kind words, donations and generaly goodwill. Cheerios for now, -M.