I'm trying to get artistic again, and more involved...whatever that means. I've gotten a bit more opinionated on my show. I've started doing some proactive things to help causes I believe in.

Maybe it's an aftershock of losing Dad, I'm not sure. I've been lucky that I haven't lost a lot of people in my lifetime, and never anyone as close as Dad, so I don't know how to judge what's part of grief and what's just what's happening naturally.

Would what I see in the world have bothered me as much a year ago? Man, it's hard to say. A guy at work the other day who's maybe 6 or 7 years younger than me wandered over and was talking about how he wished he knew what direction his life was going in.

It was funny when I realized he was speaking to me as if I had shit figured out. Oh, the irony.

But on the flip side of that, I am content with my immediate sphere of influence. I make enough money to be comfortable, I'm happily married, I'm (relatively) healthy. In that way, I do have shit figured out, but that's more accidental than a masterfully executed plan.

Still, the world pisses me off regularly. Everyone in this country feels their opinion is the only one that matters, we have shifted from racism to homophobia, there are thinking beings that either tell us we're killing the planet or not making a dent in it as if they're both completely right...

I guess the best way to sum up my state of mind is that I can watch a movie on a nice TV with my wife and be completely happy, but an hour later listen to the Sex Pistols and know exactly what that anger's about.