No, I'm not dead. Yes I'm aware of what happend.
OK, OK, I know everyone wants to know what the hell happend.
Grab a cold one, and start reading.
First I moved, as in packing up all my stuff and relocating.
I'd just got everything transferred to the new place, and just got unpacked enough to be barely functional and started working on a new post. I'd just got the files uploaded and was working on setting up the pics and linking it all together when the phone rings.
It was the University my Nephew was attending, I was listed as ''person to contact in case of emergency''. Belive it or not I'm considered 'the responsible one' in the family.
I know what you're thinking; ''WDF? YOU?''. Yeah, me. And here's why: my sister-in-law is a hardcore druggie, pretty much Anna Nicole Smith with smaller tits (and still alive).
My brother? Heh, YOU try finding him, I don't want to. He's wanted, but not by me. He's facing a whole list of charges such as Fraud, Larceny, Embezzlement and non payment of taxes.
The last time I saw him I stuck a gun in his face and told him to get lost. 'Harboring a fugitive'? No thanks.
So when my Nephew needs something I'm the one he could turn to. He'd been trying to talk him mom into checking into rehab, his girlfriend broke up with him, he was having trouble with his classes and with money.
So when the University phoned me it was an emergency, it was to tell me he was in Hospital due to having attempted suicide.
I dropped everything, called the airline and and reserved a 'standby, first available seat' ticket. 14 hours later I'm at Hospital getting the rundown, it's not good, massive OD, critical condition, heart/lung machine, comatose.
72 hours later no change in condition, and I was faced with the decision no one wants to face, continue or not.
An EEG had been run every six hours, I saw them myself, flat, no change. I discussed it with the Doctors in Attendance, evaluated their prognosis and said ''Is the Chaplin here? I need to talk with him''. He was and I did.
I'd called his mother and she was so spaced I doubt she had any idea what was happening. I'd been on the phone with my Barrister the whole time and he recommended I hire one local to discuss the issue. I did, and because he'd heard and recorded the call between myself and his mother he knew she was not competent to make this decision.
There was no 'out' for me, I could either keep him on the machine for who knows how long or say 'stop'.

TOD: 7:38 AM, 30 May.

If I said I wasn't torn about that I'd be a liar. If it were ''people'' (such as his so-called ''parents'') I could punch their ticket and sleep in peace.
This was someone I gave a shit about!!!
This was not the end of my grand tour of Hell however, I had to take care of all the funeral arraignments and disburse the Estate.
It was no surprise to me that my brother (his father) didn't attend. If he even knows what happened, he would not have been there out of fear of arrest.
His mother did surprise me however, she laid off the pills that day. She was clear-headed, lucid, it was like dealing with a human being. Once that was finished I returned home to discover that a disaster had happened while I was attending to other things. I get to see my modem a charred hunk of plastic and metal. I called the phone company and they sent a technician out to see what had happend. He examined the damage and told me that what had likely happend was the result of a major voltage spike.
I said ''In English?'', He told me that it was quite likely that lightning had hit the downline (the line from the telephone pole to the building) and fried it.
He replaced the modem, tested the line and everything was OK.
And as far as he was concerned, everything was OK. No it wasn't, you notice that I used the word 'modem'? Guess what the modem was attached to.
That's right, my computer was quite literally toast! Fried it as well.
I took it to the shop and was told it was pretty much a total loss, motherboard, CPU, RAM, power supply all burnt to a crisp. I couldn't get mad at the geek, I was right there when he opened it up. I could smell it, it was fried.
I removed the hard drive and said ''dump the rest''.
I don't know if anything on it is recoverable, I removed it for privacy. The geek understood that.
So I bought a new computer. Set it up, booted it and discovered something else to disappoint me. Windows Vista. I literally said ''NOOOOOOOOOO!!! I WANTED XP!!!''.
So here I am, Vista Home Premium SP1 (I'd heard there was an SP1 for Vista, but I didn't care at the time).
It's pretty looking, I'll say that much for it. I was able to DL and install Firefox 3 with no problem (I DESPISE IE) and went to HU to homepage it.
THAT is when I discovered my newest nightmare, the HCB Forum is gone.
Wiped out by some pillowbiters known as ''online guardian''.
Likely their panties were in a bunch because I didn't bother to post any yaoi pr0n there!!!
Not my thing, just not interested.
As far as licencing issues are concerned, I don't see it. The only thing I've posted that I knew was licenced was the Kodomo no Jikan manga.
And if you read that post, you'll know why I don't give a flying fuck about that. It was pulled off the market (I think I know WHY that happened, but I don't think I'll say that here)
Your grand tour of Hell is over.