Life has been a long, tough road for a while now, hasn't it? I hardly need to list the down-pressors: politics, religion, guns, drugs, anger, envy, really bad movies with too much CGI, road-rage... whew.

I'm so slap-happy and stunned with it all I fear I'm not making tons of sense. But oh well.

I'm leaving (or have left, depending on when you're reading this) Facebook, and I hope it's for good. No promises there, and I have to admit that I might "cheat" and get my lovely wife to post a link when I want everyone to know about something I've done that I think is awesome.

But still, I've had enough. Clicking on a link that attempted to download a virus was just the last straw. Mostly, I'm so tired of the ever-lowering bar on the standards of civility-in-discourse that I can't do it anymore. And of course, like the man said, who's ever had their minds changed by a post on Facebook, raise your hands. Yeah, I thought so. 

Then there is, of course, the Orwellian probability that Facebook is watching me. Actually, I don't think it's a probability but a certainty, but I'll not belabor this blog with long lists of evidence. Hell, all you have to do is spend five minutes on the interwebs and you'll find it for yourself anyway. I'll also add that there's plenty of ways that "they" can keep their big eye on me other than Facebook, but why make it easy for 'em? 

More important than any computer virus is my own desire to have real interaction with my friends and loved ones and the world around me rather than this weird, half-baked virtual simulation of interaction. It isn't real, people. I'd rather have one more - one single more - real, live person at one of my gigs than a thousand "likes" any day. 

Finally, I'm getting older, and I've got a lot to do. Songs to write and play. Drawings and paintings to create. Albums to record. Books and comics to write. The hours I waste cruising the ever-scrolling Facebook isn't helping me manifest those things. I've got to get off my ass and stop using FB as an excuse not to get work done, or for that matter, an excuse for not taking a walk in the woods, or playing backgammon with my wife, or diving in the river for a swim, or just sitting in the sun. One of the prime "rules" for any artist is that we should at least attempt to create more media than we consume, and make no mistake: Facebook is media... well-disguised as a social network, perhaps, but media nonetheless.

This post is largely unedited stream-of-consciousness, but bear with me. Watch my "I-promise-I'll-update-it-soon" website and changes will happen. Follow this blog. Stay in touch. Come to a gig. I'll do my best to entertain, if not enrich you with my art. And trust me, I want you to like what I'm doing. Just please... don't "like" what I'm doing.