New Years Eve was as boring as Heaven. (Day 27)

This is the final update for Days Gone By of 2008.

I can't iterate how happy I am to bid adieu to the shittiest year I've ever lived in. I've never been so happy to put a year behind me. I gotta say the last two days of 2008 really put the boots to me, but with an hour left to go (as I'm writing this) I gotta say:

I'm alive. I'm still breathing, and god damn it...I'm still standing.

With the closing of this year, it feels like so many chapters that had been so integral in my life are now closed forever. Some of them I'm sad to see go, and some...well...it's for the best.

So say your last goodbyes. I know a lot has changed for so many people. And I want to believe in the next year. Hope is a funny thing. A very, very funny thing where one minute its all we can believe in, and in the minute it fails us we simply reside to saying, "No surprises here."

It's been so a long and dragging year, and I've felt every step of the way reverberate from the soles of my feet to the cockles of my heart.

I've met a lot of amazing people this year. I thank them all so very much for being there with me on this ride, and thank them for letting me join them in theres.

Theres so much to be hopeful for starting tomorrow. I honestly felt like this day would never in, but here I am safely, somewhat healthily grateful to have the ones I love still healthy as well to see yet another year.

I have big, big plans. Either the dam breaks this year, or I flood right the hell over the top of it. Thats just the way it's going to have to be.

I've got about forty bad habits; ten of them I'd like to break.

So what defines you as a person? Yes, you reading this right now. Please answer me that question, because I really have to know. What defines you, whats defined you, and whats shaping you to be where you want to be?

What broke your heart this year? Did anyone mend it back? Did you mend it back all alone? What was the happiest moment, the saddest moment...the most memorable of all? I'd really love to know.

I want to thank everyone for sticking with Days Gone By. It takes a lot for me to talk about a lot of the things I do, and for the most part the feedback has been great, and I really appreciate it. From Chicago, Illinois to Rome, Italy...thanks. I mean that.

A few months ago I wrote out a list of things I wanted to do before I died, and I've been working on it. I want to share that list with you now, and I'll put an X next to the things I've accomplished.

I'd love to see yours.

Here we go:

Run with the bulls in Spain.
Spend a night in jail.
Participate in a bar fight.
Use a bathroom in the White House; preferably the Oval Office.
Sleep in a field in Scotland.
Go to Amsterdam.
Plant 40 trees.
Finish making a solar theremin.
Meet biological father, or at least learn his name.
Hitch-hike up Pacific Coast.
Make the same trek routed in the song, "Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show.
Publish book.
Trip to India with Austin.
Not let fear dictate desires.
Meet Ian MacKaye.
Thank Matt Skiba.
Visit Charles Bukowski's grave.
Tell Nic Cage face to face he sucks the life out of everything he touches.
Go whale-watching.
Go on actual African Safari.
See where the great whites jump out of the water to attack seals, and do flips.
Play hide-and-seek in pyramid. Will settle for Mayan ruin, or Roman collisieum.
Moon Pope.
Get banned from Vatican.
Ride emu.
Play game of 21 vs. Mike Jordan. Will settle for Thunder Dan or Amare Stoudamire.
Free cattle at cattle range.
Street race.
Incite victimless riot.
Crash class at Harvard.
Kick Pete Wentz in the ass.
Purple-Nurple Scott Heisel. You either get it or you don't.
Go to the Fest.
Try to go shot-for-shot with actual Irish alky. Red hair and freckles a must. Green hat optional.
Drive Porche.
Learn to drive standard.
Book tour.
Get chance to tell Dane Cook he's not that funny.
High Dive from Olympic regulation platform.
Land a plane.
Take Sarah Palin to museum of natural history, show her dinosaur exhibit. Will settle for band UnderOath.
Legally change name to Max Powers.
Legally change name back.
Tell girl of my dreams she is girl of my dreams. (x)
Open American Country Buffet restaurant in China. Charge 4.50 all you can eat.
Finish movie script.
Get Doctorates.
Step foot on every continent thrice.
Be in four places at once, drunkenly.
Learn how to play poker.
Go to Las Vegas.
See the Alkaline Trio in Chicago.
Spend 24 hours awake in Mall of America.
Crash P. Diddy New Years Party.
Learn to speak French.
Learn to speak Spanish
Replace all Gideon Bibles in a Hotel with copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
Visit Aushwitz.
Within the span of one day, see both West and East coast, swin in both oceans.
Water Ski.
Dump Coca-Cola in an English Channel. Turn about is fair play.
Go to Mardis Gras
Do Spring Break.
Join secret society.
Run for Congress on third-party ticket, preferably Jedi.
Win seat in Congress.
Thumb Wrestle Hacksaw Jim Dugan
Free-style battle the Macho Man Randy Savage.
Write comic book series.
Fly paper airplane off of Seatle Needle-point.
Throw super bouncy-ball down Grand Canyon.
Cook scrambled eggs for a pro-life rally. Protestin' is hungry work.
Have child.
Crash a wedding.
Camp in Yellowstone with Ed.
Swim with Great Whale.
Make Flava Flav clock necklace for a Giraffe.
Have sex at mouth of active volcano.
Skydive.
Proclaim American Cheese is best cheese loudly in public setting in France.
Order Freedom Fries in France.
Be kicked out of Irish pub in Ireland.
Swim to Alcatraz.
Eat Mexican food in Mexico City.
Oktoberfest in Germany.
Open a bar.
Go to Canada.
Find Waldo.
Finish marathon.
Have sex in Lincoln Bedroom.
Paintball in Melbourne, Australia.
Erect George W. Bush monument at Michael Jacksons' Neverland Ranch.
Learn what "a zig a zay ah" means. (Spice Girls, "If You Wanna Be My Lover.")
Photoshoot at Roswell.
Make contact with extra-terristrial life.
Pay respects at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.
See every piece of work in the Musee de Louvre.
Walk across SF Golden Gate bridge.
Get tattoo by either Aborigine or African tribe. Or both.
Reach goal weight.
Accomplish 80% of this list.

Granted not much has been finished on this list, but I'm working on a few of them as we speak.

Half way through next year I will repost this list revised.

I hope everyone had a safe evening. Take care, because tonight is the end of the world.

Make the best of it, because if the Mayan's are right, we only have three years left.

Until Next Year!