"On a day like today, you never want to see the sun go down"

Ezekiel 25:17: 'The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides with the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon those with great vengeance and with furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know that my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.'

A bible passage from me? Strange I know but it seems quite appropriate on my birthday. Aside from that, I'm stealing this from pulp fiction, so don't look for me to start dishing out bible versus like a bible Thumper.

I woke up this morning in quite the joyous of moods. Obviously it was my b-day and I was going to be treated like the Papa Zout, but what slowly set in is how many people take the time to remember you on days when you'd think you were the last person on their mind. Within about half an hour of walking up, I recieved about a half dozen or so b-day wishes, some from people I didn't expect to hear from at all all with a little something personal to say. I would have like to have stayed and talked (MSN) to all of them but needed to be off to school. Needless to say I was happy to hear a kind word.

And so, it just played in my head over and over again that I'm a pretty fortunate guy to be in the position I'm in. I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the finest individuals and aside from that, know that they would hold me close to them. Now, don't misunderstand and think that I think lowly of myself because that's not the case. My point is simply that all you can ever leave in this world is a smile on people's faces and warm spot of people's heart. Everyone messaging me today is almost a reminder of how many places you've done that and no matter how many times you mess up, say something dumb or just make a fool of yourself, they're still willing to look at you with the same fondness.

Those close people are the ones who sheppard me through life and they're is nothing more special than that. It is the single most important thing that you can get in life and it's nice to to have so much of it in my life. To those, who on a regular basis, greet me with a smile and shake my hand, I'd like to say thank you for without you I wouldn't be the man I am today.

So, I suppose I'd leave off by saying that gifts are always welcome. I love money. I love beer. I love kisses. They're all good on my terms. But you can't outdo what you've already done and that is believe in you're average brown man on his journey called life.

"You stay classy Planet Earth"