road map to the good life

a little bit of this will go a long way.

closer to a cure

if this video goes viral, i could be cured by christmas!!!

ok, not really...cruel joke. SERIOUSLY though, if everyone donated and passed it on to your friends, you could potentially fund the doctors, who find the lifesaving treatment, and BOOM- 

YOU'RE A HERO!!!

let's get this video out there. blast it on facebook, twitter, tumblr or whatever network cures you socially. if you have an in at a local TV station, beg for it to air.  let's get this video some play!

be a HERO...they get more play, too.  *wink, wink*

gay blogging

seriously people, it's time. our country is thought to be a progressive one, yet this issue keeps us dated and old fashioned.  this is a basic human right, in my opinion. you don't have to agree but why stifle another's happiness.  if you don't want a 'gay' marriage, don't get one!!!

ok, i'll get off my soapbox...

just one of them days

i love this!
"that's my bike, punk!!!"

hello brother

 this is steve gleason circa 2005. you may remember him from his days at wazzu, donning the crimson and gray and making a trip to the rose bowl.  most know him for his legendary blocked punt during the very first game played in the superdome since hurricane katrina ripped through new orleans a year earlier. many saints fans regard that play, seen below,  as a symbol of their city's relentlessness.  that play vaulted steve into cult hero status among saints fans and forever cemented him as a figure of the great revival of a post-katrina NOLA. 

i'll admit, i don't remember steve as a coug or a saint. i've never met the guy but respect him as a fellow athlete and an important figure of new orleans, my absolute favorite southern city. i found out about steve because of the dark passenger that we share. he became a brother to me through ALS. another example of a finely tuned athlete that dedicated his life to strengthening his body so he could excel at football's highest level. steve enjoyed a successful career and was embarking on retired life with his new wife and plans for a family. however, slowly his body began to change. i bet he thought, 'wow, i had no idea that retiring and relaxing could cause my limbs to become so heavy' and 'what the hell is this twitching?!'. i hear ya...i thought that too!!! soon his worst fears were confirmed. steve, like me, had been robbed by a disease that i (maybe we) knew little about. ALS crept into our bodies and tore down the temple that we had been working on since the second we fell in love with our sports. ALS will try to steal every living ounce of you and it won't stop until it does. thankfully steve and i have another thing in common. the years spent dedicated to our sports were not spent alone. just as my teammates and friends held me up after our coaches vicious conditioning tests years ago...they continue to support me now as ALS tests me in a whole new way.

likewise, steve's teammates and friends continue to support him as his limbs weaken. ALS is threatening to rob steve of everything but i guarantee that steve and team gleason are mounting a grand defense. 

doctors and scientists are closer than ever to delivering a treatment to stop and maybe even reverse ALS. PALS (people with ALS) around the world continue to lean on their friends and family for support while patiently waiting for a miracle. until that day, each of us resembles that blocked punt that helped to fuel new orleans ' post-katrina resurrection. a spark lying dormant within us only waiting to be set free to start our own great revival of a post-ALS world.

thank you

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you w...ill gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." - Steve Jobs

on a whole new level

i urge you to get to know Shannon by reading her blog. it is insightful and beautiful. it will challenge your mind and provoke your thoughts. it may even change your life...