You may have noticed. Spammers decided to attack my server and destroy all that they could. Luckily, my clients and a couple of fellow bloggers got away with just a couple days of drug ads on their site. However, my blog and the sanctuary got destroyed. I’ve got the blog back up and running on both sites, but in order to fix the sanctuary’s site, I have to delve into my archives. Unfortunately, shortly before the hack, my external hard drive, which houses my archives (and all of my music files), stopped working. This gives me a convenient excuse not to blog for a bit, but as you may have noticed… i haven’t really been into it lately anyway.

Times have been rough and blogging is the last thing on my mind these days. I’ll return in the future, but i’m not quite sure when. I suggest subscribing to my RSS feed so that you’ll know when I’m back.

Due to a mixture of stress, lack of free time, and depression, i’ve had no desire to blog. But things are starting to come back together and i just wanted to let everyone know that neither i, nor this blog, are dead.

I won’t list everything that I’ve been up to, but I will tell you that I’ve been busy. As some of you may know, a group of friends and i started up an animal sanctuary not too long ago. Well, we are finally buying land. Twenty-two acres outside of Bloomington. We’ll also be leasing an additional 130 acres (for free) with the option to buy the additional acreage. Its all very exciting stuff, which has kept me busy with fundraising.

what’s up with the blog?

Good question. Earlier in the summer I announced that i’d probably be using this space for more personal writings. Well, maybe not. Turns out i don’t really care to talk about myself that much. I’m going to focus on the things that interest me: community organizing, social justice, and geeky things. You know, the vegankid that most of you met a couple of years ago.

I’ve been drawing a lot more lately (its been my justification for procrastinating on my deadlines for the comic book), so i’ll probably be using this space to show off some of the art. You probably won’t find me posting here every day. Probably closer to once or twice a week. I’m going to be keeping myself busy at the Deep Roots blog and AllyWork (yes, i’m finally going to start posting again).

I also want to know what my readers who have stayed loyal despite my disappearance would like to see. How can i and this blog be of most use to you? Writing about current events? Posting stuff on web development? Creating open source templates? Editorial cartoons? What? That also goes for the design of the site. Is there anything you would like to see added, removed or changed? Just let me know. I’d really like to get a sense of how i can re-insert myself into the radical blogosphere.

Oh, and you may have noticed (though i doubt it), that i just moved the Carnival of Empty Cages to the Deep Roots blog. That’s right! After 11 months of inactivity, the CoEC is coming back. It will no longer be a traveling carnival - it will now always be hosted at Deep Roots. And instead of every other month, it will now be a monthly carnival. The animal lib blogosphere has taken off and a lot of the bloggers are talking about interconnections in liberation… i figured that deserves to be highlighted every month.

Until next time! It feel good to be coming back after such a long hiatus.

i got tagged by veronica, the homosexual man.

Rules: Each person posts the rules before their list, then they list 8 things about themselves. At the end of the post, that person tags and links to 8 other people; then visits those people’s sites and comments, letting them know that they have been tagged, and to come read the post, so they know what they have to do.

1. like Napoleon, i love a healthy musk
2. i am currently putting together a team of rad folks to run in my third 200-mile relay marathon
3. one of my odd talents is being able to mimic how people dance
4. despite loving hardcore, i have dreams of being in the family bluegrass band (i’m afraid i’ll have to find god first, though. who, BTW, it really good at playing hide-and-go-seek.)
5. i have no tolerance for apathy or sectarianism
6. i don’t consider health vegans to be vegans… i see them as vegetarians who will probably go back to eating fish and chicken within a couple of years. it may sound harsh, but its based on experience. veganism, to me, requires dedication to an ethics of compassion (read: a healthy dose of altruism).
7. i wish people would recognize the great social impact that board games could have
8. i am REALLY sad that Satya magazine just printed its last issue. so sad, in fact, that i am seriously considering starting up a quarterly spin-off of the magazine. i’ll be looking more into this option at the AMC.

i tag jay sennett, bint alshamsa, the disillusioned kid, sokari, journey_wmn, nezua, zuky, and blackamazon