Thankyou

Thankyou metal, thankyou fear factory, faith no more, sepultura, soul fly, deftones, sevendust, system of a down, rage against the machine and yes even korn. Thankyou black sabath, ac/dc. deep purple and the beatles for 'helter skelter'. Thanks Nirvana for your heavier shit, Pearl Jam for 'Animal', Sound Garden, Rollins Band, Metallica, Barbarion and especially thankyou Tool.
Thanks metal for being there always, more than any other, any time, any place for me. For moving me.

For making me feel.

For making music with a nutsack in it. For the anger, the hurt, the hope, the redemption, the euphoria, the energy, the drive, the ambition, the fury, the love, the quiet times, the happiness. You metal are all this and more.

Thankyou for the knowledge that there is not a day in my life I cannot come home to you metal.

Thanks to Joe, my councillor for having heard it all before. For having the know how to tell me I was not special, to just take it and run with it and discover who I am.

I still am, and I'm so glad you set me on this path. You didn't care in any non-professional sense and you said it would be okay. And I can't thank you enough for saying that.

I don't know if I would have died without your help but it felt like it at the time. A few years later I'd actually request to be killed in an Indian hospital, and that was a pretty dissapointing self discovery, that I'd give up in the face of mere paralysing pain.

But nevertheless, you got me sleeping agian, got me working, focused and my life became better than it ever was before. It was truly above and beyond. And thankyou.

Thanks to Claire, for making the call. I know you weren't trying to do me any favors, but it was the right decision in perhaps the wrong circumstances.

You woke me from a deep, deep sleep and even though it took a while to find out where I was, the waking world

is beautiful.

Thanks Takehiko Inoue, as nerdy as it is to admit, as a manga artist you're probably one of the most influential artists in my life.

Slam Dunk taught me about true love, real love, a love that's inexpressable, a love of the game. And you expressed it.

In Vagabond you introduced me to Miyamoto Musashi, the most incredible man to have ever lived. You captured the Japan I long for, the unspoilt society, the love of nature, the thinking Japan with nothing to prove.

You painted the land, and you chose the right words. You've taught me what it is to truly experience and appreciate something. Twice over. You taught me love.

These are just some overdue thankyous, incase I die before I get a chance to share them.

This is for you, whoever you are. Try and enjoy it.