Dear Readers/Journal

It's with great humility that sometimes I have to step back and recognize the world doesn't revolve around me. This journal, even though it's been as of late, is notin truth just an avenue to vent my frustrations or my escapades. Sometimes I in my own little world forget that my world does include some awesome people in it. At times I've also neglected many people that have made my life instrumental, and it's a right-terrible shame that I've not done what is right by them and give them their just-do as well.

I'm taking some time out of my life, and I can't really call it too terribly busy, but I am taking time out of my life to acknowledge quite possibly my best friend of all time.

His name is William Windham Lyles III, however I know him more intimately as Driver.

Mr. Peabody, set the way-back machine for 1988.

(cooky psychedelic montage of going back in time go!)

Alright now that I got that out of the picture, let me paint one for you.

It's 1988, and my Grandpa Peter had just died. My beloved Lithuanian Grandpa, a true genius and rocket scientist that once worked for NASA had passed on. With my Grandpa dead, my father (due to my perception at the time) couldn't live in Los Angeles anymore. I didn't know he truthfully wanted to move to Oregon so he could get a cheap divorce and not have to owe my mother an ass load of alimony. But for whatever reason, my father drug me and my two sisters and mother up to Portland, Oregon where I was removed form everything I knew.

I was removed from my friend Nicky on Morris Avenue, and his awesome Nintendo entertainment system. I was removed from the other boys on the block that I'd befriended, my...well albeit catholic day care with the train-tracks but dozens of feet away from the playground with big heavy cargo trains blaring their horns so loud it'd scare the shit out of me. I was torn from the pretty two story house that was right next door to my Uncle Kas and my beloved cousin's Johnny and Jimmy... I was taken from everything.

Suffice it to say I was not happy about the move. The drive to Oregon itself was hell and a half. What really was likely only days, felt like weeks. Staying here and there. Spending time in San Fransisco and Sacramento...and going up I-5. All I knew was it was taking forever and there would likely be no more casual visits to Disneyland anymore. No more anything that I knew. No more spending the weekend at Grandpa's mansion with grandma Donna.

Well after what was about a month of picking and choosing houses, dad finally settled one on Madrona Ave in Portland. It was modern for the time. I believe it was 3 bedroom and 1 bath, but that soon changed anyway. But as my dad and uncles and mom and sister sat moving things in I sat on the curb, wondering what I was going to do with my life. And that's the first time I saw him.

Driver.

We introudced ourselves, and we hit it off right off the bat. I was fascinated by the funny bumps he had on his forehead. He explained to me they were Neuro-Thyroid-Mitosis tumors and that they made him special. I thought it was kind of neat at the time. But our first meeting was short, Dad said I couldn't go run off and play so I had to sit on the curb, and similarly Driver couldn't come over and play yet so we had to sit across the street from one another and have our chat that way.

But as time went on we became the best of friends. We hung out at each-other's houses all the time. we were almost inseparable. We played games, ran around in Williams tall-overgrown-grass filled back yard like it was a jungle, and we played video games and such over at mine. We had a favorite game, The Wrath of the Black Manta hat we played the hell out of. It was a ninja-cop themed game where you were trying to capture drug-lords whom had kidnapped several children and rescue the kids and kill the bad guys. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrath_of_the_Black_Manta for further details.

William and I had no difficulty getting to the first boss who was a villain named Tiny. Only, tiny took up nearly all the screen. Tiny was a big lummox, a balding villain in jeans and a red tank top that would punch or kick you if you got close, but would otherwise just hop around the screen and cause bricks to fall from the ceiling that did damage to you if you got hit. There was no way to damage this guy, nothing we tried worked and we'd always die before we could figure it out. One day while playing it I discovered that if you threw a ninja star at his chin it did damage. This was our ticket to beating him!! Well I beat him first, and won. William was pissed. But the next level was particularly difficult and involved flying on this odd kite around a level with other flying ninjas. I could never get past this. William (I believe) said he got to the end but could never beat the final boss. In later years I'd discover that many people I knew played this game, and had also got to the final boss, but no one had beaten it! This was before strategy guides and internet answers. All anyone knew was that you were supposed to use your powers on El Toro in a specific order but the game gives you absolutely no clue as to the sequence, and with 6 powers to choose from it's quite a pain.

Another game that William and I adored? Super Mario Bros. III. We played the hell out of that game. We were both really good at it. William and I had worked out this one day we were going to beat the game all the way to the end from level 1-1 to Bowser's castle in one fell swoop without using a single warp whistle. And dammit we almost did! We made it to the water-themed level and the both of us had got up for some food, but since we'd played the hell out of the system all day and never gave it a proper break it overheated and froze, so all of our work was lost! Oh No's!
Sadly we never completed that goal.

Then catastrophe stuck. In June 1993 my father committed suicide, dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. My stressed-out dad blew his brains out, leaving me without a dad and my family wondering what was going to happen. Unable to stay in my Dad's house I had to move in full-time with my mother, meaning I wouldn't really ever see my friend Driver again. I didn't even really get the chance to say goodbye. It was one of the most horrible times in my life.

For the second time really, I was being majorly uprooted, and taken away from everything i knew and thrown into a place I didn't necessarily like and into a Staunch and Strict conservative catholic school that did really nothing for me. There I was ridiculed, tormented, taunted, and insulted. I was traumatized after the loss of my dad and was getting picked on and made fun of for it. I even remember one day I had gone into a corner of the playground to cry, and some 8th graders thought it would be fun to pelt me with footballs thrown at some considerable force. I wanted to die that day too.

It wasn't until I was in High-School that I would ever see William again. By some chance, William moved just about 5 or 6 blocks away from where Mom and the family had moved to when I graduated 8th grade. He had walked by me in the halls of Franklin High nearly every day, and I had ran across him at the work-source center of S.E. Works in the internet lounge constantly without knowing it was the same person. It was my mother running into him at the store that caught us off guard. He recognized her and William and I set everything up.

William and I were best friends all over again. We were so glad to have one another once again. Now as teens, things took a bit of different turn. We became more intimate...lovers. And all I can say is, goddamn! There are not many that can top his talents in bed. And at the risk of embarrassment he is incredibly well hung ;)

But all that aside, I'm not going to kiss-n-tell with him unless he says he wants those stories told. But William and I started to hang out again and everything was super! I discovered that Driver was heavily into D&D, and I managed to join up with a group that we got going. Every week the group of us would have awesome adventures. It was Driver that helped me create my character of Jester

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y7.....Truejester.gif

Shown here, is my Fire-Genasi monk, a flying and energy attack using monk. Thickly British/Aussie accented, temperamental, and flamboyantly gay he was and still is quite possibly my favorite character of all time to have played in a D&D game. Yeah I played him strong at the start and he was desperately wanting to get laid, he eventually came into his own and became a force to be reckoned with. Teamed up with a half-elf named Trokanis Knightblade, and a cynical worshiper of Cyric named Sanar (spelling?), Jester was torn from everyone he loved and cared about and thrown into an apocalyptic world where the gods were gone and he had to somehow save the day. It was even thanks to William's interesting plot arc where I got to say one of the most funny lines I've ever spouted in a D&D game...

The scene was riveting! Jester had been confronted by the spirit of ultimate evil in this game, The Shadow. The Shadow had promised Jester if he accepted the Shadow into his body he could have Johnathan (his murdered husband) back from the dead. The shadow appearing as Johnathan convinced Jester to turn evil and turn against his friends who were the "true evil" in this world. Jester became a first in that universe, the first person to willingly hand himself over to the Shadow's power. As such he was rewarded with unparalleled power. He pounced on the opportunity to tell Trokanis and the other party member (who's name escapes me so I'll just refer to him as Vince) Vince off. I must've given Vince a good 10 minute rant on his failed attempts to act like a bard despite being a sorcerer. Slowly Trokan was edging up on Jester with his sword drawn and I rounded on him with an emphatic "And YOU!" and the room was dead silent. I promptly bellowed "It's called a doorknob! Use it!". Now for this joke to make sense, Trokanis for whatever reason hadn't taken a liking to opening doors normally, at every opportunity he'd "Chuck Norris" his way through virtually every door he came across. It had become so common-place we even out of character-ly were shocked and amazed to the degree we almost wrote down each rare instance of him using the Doorknob instead of kicking in the door. The result however was all of us, including me, burst into laughter. John whom played Trokan just lost it, William was rolling, Vince was turning purple, and I was laughing because of their reactions even though I was the one who was supposed to be all serious/angry face. I absolutely lost-it and laughed for what was near a half an hour with the guys.

I hung out and Rped with William and the guys for years until the whole incident with Sibe. I've spent 4 years mostly away from him and I really miss him. But now that I moved I hope to be able to spend more time with the guy.

Recently I found out he'd had a hip replacement and other surgeries. He'd been hospitalized and had even nearly died. I feel terrible that I've missed out on alot of things he'd gone through. I try my hardest these days to remember alot of people in my life but I can never forget william.

So here's to you William, my oldest and longest friend.