So a few days ago, I was surfing Facebook and someone posted a YouTube video of a very distraught 14-year-old kid who was being severely bullied for being gay.

Stories like this make my blood instantly boil with righteous indignation, because I WAS that kid. I'm not gay of course, I was bullied for being fat, and for being a nerd. Some kids get bullied for being skinny, some for being poor, some for being white, black, Latino, Indian, or merely just for fucking well breathing the "wrong" way.

And it has to STOP.

Kids are killing themselves over this...KIDS! C-H-I-L-D-R-E-N are committing SUICIDE in record numbers because they are being tormented by maladjusted, ignorant, insecure little hellions who think they have the right to make other peoples' lives a living hell!

But I digress. Needless to say I watched the video and it sparked something in me. I see stories like this every day, we all do...and each time I do, I get a little bit angrier, and a little more fed up. This video was the last straw. I had to do something. I had to TRY to do my part to help these kids, because I knew all too well what they went through.

Enter DropTheHate.org. This is my call to arms for every bullied kid out there. It's a simple forum site. Nothing really gimmicky or new here. But what it COULD BE, what I INTEND it to be, is an online community for bullied kids all over the world. A place for these kids to go and see that they aren't alone, that there are others, oh so many others, like them in the world; Other kids that they can talk to and get to know, and possibly get support from.

So if someone you know is suffering from the daily torment of being bullied, let them know that there's a place for them...a place where they can be themselves, a place where they can vent, where they don't have to worry about being judged for ANY REASON WHATSOEVER.

And for those of you who haven't seen Jonah's video. Here it is:

Taken with picplz.

Taken with picplz.

Today is the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks that brought down the World Trade Centre. At 11am, a memorial will be held. And as we all say "never forget", as we all mourn the loss of all those lost to us between then and now, between the initial attacks, and the resultant wars, I will be mourning in a different way. As I have also, this past Friday, lost someone close to me.

She was my best friend's mother, and was one of the strongest people I know. In the end, her cancer won out, but she gave it the fight of her life.

As such, I wrote a farewell poem for her.

An Atheist’s Goodbye

What are we?

Why are we here?

What is life?

What is time?

What awaits us at the end of life's great ladder, once we've climbed.

Is there more to all this than would seem?

Could it be, that as the song says, life is but a dream?

Are we all characters in some great cosmic show?

If the latter be true, what then happens when the curtain's brought low?

Is there more to our existence than meets the eye?

Do we go to that great gig in the sky? Where Sinatra sips martinis with St. Peter and Syd Barrett.

No, I've a much different view, and would quite like to share it.

Of “starstuff” we are made, Carl Sagan has said.

To my way of thinking, he's hit it right on the head.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. That saying, that one phrase, I trust.

For the Universe is vast, immeasurably so.

And when our time is done here, back to it we must go.

Now, as I sit here and write this, I have found time to reminisce.

My first thought, is how much you'll be missed.

However all is not lost, no need to be dour.

All I need do, is find a meteor shower.

For to the cosmos you did return,

To vast swirling eddies of galaxies as they churn.

As in thermodynamics, matter can't be created or destroyed.

You're then still with us, and also part of the great void.

Your essence is here, in the trees, in the oceans

And in that, I find, a quite comforting notion.

Goodbye Jeanette...we will all miss you.