NOTE: All timestamps are in the future because WE are in the future. The care takers of Midnight Ridazz.com reserves the right to remove, edit, move or delete anything for any reason. None of the opinions expressed on these boards represent the Midnight Ridazz nor can anyone purport to speak on behalf of Midnight Ridazz.
THE TIME HAS COME FOR YOU GUYS TO QUIT BITCHING AND MOANING ABOUT THIS POLITICIAN AND THAT RECESSION!! PLEASE GO TO SOME OTHER WEBSITE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR STUPID LIBERTARIAN VIEWS! I COME HERE FOR THE BIKES, AND TO GET AWAY FROM THE CONSTANT BOMBARDMENT OF HOW CRAPPY MY COUNTRY IS GETTING!!! I LOVE THIS NATION AND CITY AND BIKES- THATS IT!!!
Log this under reason 3,437 why this website needs some updating. A new forum system. If there were a separated board for off topic conversation or boards for specific topics, this would be a non issue, just like it is on nearly every other forum made in the past 8 years or so.
I know some people are irrationally resistant to change, even if it is a good idea, so perhaps the existing forum system could be preserved, still posting things from every topic in big giant cluster fuck like it currently is. All new threads would require a topic and be subject to moderation if a topic is incorrectly labeled. Then every one who would love to read this board more often but don't because it's mentally maddening, can read at their leisure and spend more time riding bikes and less time mucking around.
as much as I admire you Alex, I have to disagree with you on this. This website is a community of people who come together because of the bicycle. The/our world is much more then just bicycles. It is a good exercise to see where other people stand and they feel about particular issues. I think everybody who listens and participates in the political discussion are usually better for then. You can easily tell by the title of the thread if it is political. If so then don't click on it. There certain subjects on threads that I'm not into, so I don't click on the threads. I suggest you do the same.
I disagree with you also Gary. I love this site and the big kluster fuck that it is. Its all out there, all you got to do is skim it and decide what you want to click on. I never find my self exploring website that have threads with different sections for different type of subject. They don't hold my interest.
Its all up to the person doing this site, I say it stays the same for the most part. My two suggestions is to add things that will get annoying posters off the threats, and make it easier to upload photos.
lol this site doesn't need an update, it needs to be nuked from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
vBulletin. Phpbb. Drupal. Joomla. Or just go here, close your eyes, and pick one. It shouldn't be too hard to migrate the account table over to a new system, archive the current site, and flip the switch.
sexy:"Its all out there, all you got to do is skim it and decide what you want to click on."
That's sort of the problem. The forum is just one list that's sorted by last-updated-goes-to-the-top, and it's a nightmare. The ride calendar is not a calendar in any sense of the word. You can't skim it conveniently and know that you'll find what you're looking. It could be a lot better and things could be awesome and less clusterfuck-ey.
Well for me anyways, in it's current format, I participate in little waves then go for long times without reading or writing anything because it's just way too much to sort through. I posted something last night, and it's kicked half way down the second page already. The only way to get conversation going is to artificially inflate threads by posting lots of little things so it hovers near the top or the more obvious "bump". This forum is information overload, and the only way to stay on top of what's going on is to devote large chunks of one's like to clicking and scrolling.
Most threads have a sticky or archive system to keep important topics in the public. Currently old posts that are worthwhile and still contain relevant information get lost never to be seen again, resulting in many threads on the same thing because everyone forgot the previous one. Effective group intelligence requires being able to preserve the important information to pass on to new comers. People coming to this site are not going to start text searching random words in the hope of getting a sense of the history of the forum.
For one thing I wish I could subscribe to certain threads with RSS so I can sort through the data and easily share stories or particular posts with close friends all quickly and efficiently with the reader app.
I know I'm not the only who feels this way, but many of them gave up on the forum all together, and I still drop in and give my 2 cents every so often.
* Calendar that is organized like a calendar
* Forums broken down into coherent categories
* rss feeds for forums as well as for individual threads within a forum
* rss feeds for individual users
* LAST BUT NOT LEAST a chat room/IRC channel. #midnightridazz anyone?
I'd even be willing to help out where I could. I don't know much about computers, aside from that bachelor's degree in computer science I got a while back. I'll at least buy beer and offer vigorous high-fives.
818 BIKE POLO!!!! MAN I MISS THAT SHIT!!! I HOPE I GET BACK MY BIKE SOON SO I CAN PLAY I HEAR SO MANY GOOD THINGS ABOUT IT NOW THATS AWSOME!!!! I USED TO PLAY IN THE PARKING LOT WITH YOU ALL A WHILE BACK!!!! HOPE TO SEE ALL YOU ALL SOON!!!!!
Se7en, I'm going to give you a chance to think about that preposterous analogy before I slice it to ribbons. (*whistles tunelessly while casually tapping sword on floor*)
Well obviously MR is not our Government, but what I was getting at is the attitude of don't like something you're apart of, go somewhere else. I know a lot of people on this site, and have met most of my current friends through Midnight Ridazz, and have a vested interest in wanting it to flourish and prosper. I biked 545 miles down the coast with our giant skull icon on my back, and have no intention of simply signing off MR and tuning out, but at the same time I don't want to pretend like I think everything here is fine.
I think the current system is inadequate to handle the number of people that use it now, and we should be rethinking some things. With how much you enjoy mocking authority, I find it odd you would advocate an attitude that is basically get lost if you disagree with the status quo.
I don't remember telling anybody to get lost or go away. People who don't like political threads are free to click on other ones. The task is not onerous. Nobody's freedom or welfare is compromised by being expected to use his or her brain to decide which topics to click on and which to ignore.
I like the madness here. It gives me the opportunity to still raise a little laugh within myself by being able to post so much. 4k is on it's way. Bwahahaha.
Hahaha!
Oh well, at least it isn't a GOOGLE GROUP. Speaking of which...
PC it seemed like your "don't like it don't read it" was addressed towards garyseven's and mullingitover's attempts to suggest improvements for this site and not toward's Alex's attempt to confirm my beliefs that deep at heart every bicyclist is a red+black flag waving revolutionary!
Yeah it seems there was miscommunication, which is easy to make when you have replies that are replies to replies mixed with replies to the original post. Another issue that some of the newer forum systems have begun addressing in different ways.
I agree that if you don't like a thread, no one is forcing you to click on it. However, when the forum system is so overwhelmed as it is now, finding what it is you want to read becomes increasingly cumbersome. With so many rides going on, and each ride with their own thread, and all the other random topics people start sharing the same space, it gets unwieldy. Some people love to read and write about what ever. Some people might want to click on and just scope out the ride threads.
So I think the simplest way we could make things more manageable would be 2 boards, one with actual ride discussions, and one for all non-ride related posts. There is enough of both of those kinds of posts to keep both boards very active. Perhaps there could be a window that also displays the latest posts from both boards for those who want to see the latest updates regardless of whether it is a ride or not.
Yeah basically this place was cooler to me when I wasn't being reminded of all the bad stuff happening, all the serious pressing current events and everyone's frustration with the government or whatever. Yeah I subscribe to the LA Times, I pick that up when I want to deal with 'The Real World', but now look at the left column and you see barely half the threads are there for the bikes, WTF? If yer a biker and want to talk Politics, then go on Craigslist or someplace, and when yer ready to talk bikes then come back, simple. And yeah I don't have to click on yer Obama thread if I don't want to. I just miss the days when it wasn't there in the first place. People love to argue and kvetch and act smart about stuff they feel strongly about, and that's hard to do with bikes ALL the time. I think people are spoiled by all the rides and are now bored by them, hence the watering down of our forum column.
"I'm tired of hearing about stolen bikes, cops, arrests, tickets, fights, accidents, knee problems, money, road rage, mean cars, broken things, lost things, shit. I want to be naive, ignorant, and unknowing, and only think about feet to pedals and hands on handlebars. All this other crap sucks. Damn.
Alex, my man, in case you had forgotten, this ain't bikepolo.net either. Yet obviously a lot of people on this urban group riding site are also interested in polo. And crafts, and camping, and...politics. Let it go, dude. You benefit from the freewheeling nature of this site just like we all do. Deep breaths, calm blue ocean, and yes, group hugs.
First of all thing is this site pre dates any open source software that would have accomplished what this site did at the time I designed it. I know there are vanilla bb boards that are all neatly organized and proper like bikeboredums.net seems like everyone is a hater on there too prolly attract the technical ocd people ha.. I agree the calendar sucks a fat nut. And all the other stuff too... but uh sorry for the delay everybody.
People are going to cry but I may have to introduce advertising in some form to really get this site going. Bummer but I need to fund this project. Or perhaps it could run like public television with subscribers. Would anyone subscribe? Either way it costs money and time to make improvements. I'm working on it but times are a lil tough on me right now because I spend so much time with bikes I've neglected all my freelance! My portfolio is completely outdated and all I care about is riding bikes. I have no ambition ecxept to ride bikes. Hahaha
As for organizing the forums, I don't know, is it really that important? I suppose I could do it. What are the categories names?
I mean I kind of like how everything is a mish mosh to be honest. It causes you to get out of your usual channel and forces us to all be together in one stinky room.
Ok if there were some moderation, a lot of the BS threads could go away true.... but half the time I'm actually laughing at this forum rather than the other bike forum sites that are so serious. I'm working on the usa-ability though. This shit is like web1.2 I know
Mulling, do you know php or not.
How should I pay for this? All you php programmers out there know what's involved in modernizing this site. I'm just flat ass broke right now so who is down to work on this? I'm done with the architecture and about to work with a programmer. If anyone want to save me grands and has a better solution holler at me privately.
Roadblock at midnightridazz dot calm
I'd be down to for some micro payment monthly subscription system. The bike web comic Yehuda Moon has a large list of patrons who subscribe and fund the endeavor well enough it can be freely published without advertising.
If you want the last word PC, then have it. Bikes are waaay more involved in Polo than politicians, and we have only one thread. Crafts are friendly. Politics is divisive and DOES NOT belong here. I honestly would rather see nonsensical, stoned out of their mind teenager posts than ones involving Obama or McCain.
Roadblock don't even trip on these ungrateful haters. Your site is the best, and you should keep it that way. Don't ever formally filter threads out any way other than you usually do (when they get too negative). I know these threads I dont like will be here, I'm just speaking out about it, hoping that others will say to themselves, mebbe it's better bikes only.
Aww, I didn't know it was just you running the show, Roadblock. Mad props, man.
I'm not a php programmer but I can hack it well enough to do what's needed...just don't make me code perl :P
As for the cash flow issue, have we ever tried to run a fundraiser for the site? We could set up a cafepress store and sell midnight ridazz t-shirts, we could throw a party and sell tickets, have a raffle...all these things would be fun ways to raise cash for the site. If we really have to have ads, at least try google text ads that aren't all obnoxious.
I'd prefer zero ads myself, but if we must have them I'm just sayin' google ads are the least obnoxious. Have we tried to organize a fundraiser before? T-shirts at cafepress seem like low-hanging fruit.
i'm not an OG poster on here or anything, but i appreciate the chaotic nature and free for all of this board. i learn about different ridazz, and their personalities in 3 dimensions, sometimes 4 dimensions. i think it's great and allows for a large degree of serendipity.
besides- how much more can you talk about bikes for extended periods of time without all of us trying to sound like sheldon brown?
thanks roadblock for the site- i say you relax and keep riding, unless of course you think a redesign would be a personal goal you would like to fulfill.
I've been sandbagging KPCC ever since I moved to LA with the justification/rationalization that my grad stipend is too little to allow for such things, but I'll happily subscribe to MR.
the planet's leading lamp developer says leave it alone.. if necessary, build sites around it w/ advanced features, geo spatial partitions, and social networking functionality; MR can become a hub with the ability to moderate the content it's fed.. or not.
I personally like the site the way it is. The site is punk rock and it should stay that way. If you can change the calendar, then that's awesome, but the forums are totally free-associated and I love them for it.
let's really think about what's important. I don't want to see ads on this site either, but if it helps Roadblock (who has enabled so much for the scene) to have some small, targeted advertising, then can we hold that against him?
rock on, Roadblock! let's keep MR.com as punk rock as the Ridazz who freqent it!
Google ads may be the compromise. But even that doesn't pay for the apparently mammoth task of modernizing this site. I have an idea for sponsors without the ads. Meh.
PS. There's nothing wrong with political discussions and non bike related discussions. This is not a single topic forum where you will not necessarily get all the info you need for bike riding. Its more designed to be a slow motion chat for a community of people.
Sure, people go overboard and post tons of ridiculous shit but then again the random A.D.D. makes it kind of fun to click around. If your thread gets lost quick then your thread was voted out by the community not because some moderator decided it should be sunk but because your thread was not that interesting to the community.
I could see some categories like "organizing rides" and "politics" and "chit chat"
"If your thread gets lost quick then your thread was voted out by the community not because some moderator decided it should be sunk but because your thread was not that interesting to the community."
All it takes is for your headline to be slightly less eye catching then the next post for a thread to be "voted" into obscurity within a day. Different users on here are into different things, and maybe the ones who would have found a post interesting never got to see the headline at all because by the time they logged on, it had been pushed down already. Some people might find particular authors interesting to read, but you can't tell who wrote each post without clicking through each and every one.
This is why I started my blog, so I could write stuff in great detail and actually know people are reading it, instead of it dropping off the page in a day. Many of my subscribed readers are members of MR, so I know it's not material no one here cares about. However I wish it were easier to still write and engage within the MR forum, because it is a larger potential audience.
Here is an example of how a calendar could work. Heck, it's how the whole site could work. Make friends with some web hosting place, convince them to host the site pro bono (or in exchange for all the babies created during c.r.a.n.k. mob). I bet dreamhost would be up for it, they're nice and they're local to LA. But I digress. The real point is that the calendar is an actual calendar, and the posts link to threads in a bulletin board where everyone can discuss the upcoming event. Plus it's running on vBulletin which has been around forever and is fairly bulletproof. Ignore the shiny design of the site I'm using as an example. It's themable, which means it could be even more punk rock than it is now. Even if you don't like vBulletin the overall calendar design is worth some study.
As for the f.u.n.draising, for starters it would be good to simply put up a "DONATE!" link to a paypal account. You might also want to set things up as a nonprofit 503(c) if you can. You'll get a burst of cash and then things will taper. This is how it will go every time you do a fundraising push, so try to plan out fundraising drives quarterly or something.
There actually was a donate button, what happened to that? All this talk reminded me of it and was wanting to throw in a little cash and it wasn't there.
Aside from all that though, Roadblock are you running this entire site on your own? Do you have backup in case you get kidnapped by aliens or something?
Oh and about calendars, it would be rad if what ever was put together had an iCal compatible feed so people already using a calender app can plug the MR calender into it.
Hey mulling I will check that site when I get to a compooter. Thanks for the link. There was a donate button. It was cool I needed hosting funds and I raised enough for a year or so so I took it down. To make this site work better the hosting is going to have to go through a dedicated server. That way photos can be uploaded at once - another complaint of everyone. Eventually I will put it up again.
as for what will happen to the site when I get run over by a dumptruck on wolfpack.... I have secured the passwords and codes with a friend in portland who, upon my death is tasked with sending them to a wise old owl of a rida I completely trust to take care of the site and make sure it lives on some way some how.
Keep up the politics. If someone doesn't like a post topic, don't read it. Personally, I Iove how politically aware and smart most people are in this forum. It keeps it interesting.
Rather than Ads I'd like see MR merch supporting the site.
Tees, Buttons, patches etc. Not spoke cards those ... them things is sacred.
I know that adds a another potential layer of work, but I really like the idea of MR being basically self-supported.
For all the time I waste here. I really only have 2 things I'd like to see fixed: 1 for the front page to load faster (i think its the videos) and 2 for MR to work better on better a hand held. Other than that I think MR does the job just fine.
It would be great to see that MR stays all self supporting and I think it could happen with what trickmilla stated above. We are neglecting a large portion of revenue by not selling any merchandise to people from out of town, state, country, and universe. Done right I'm bettin that could keep your site going.
See he's got me talikng like a bloody brit ... get rid of that c*** already before its too bloody late ................................................
I mean I kind of like how everything is a mish mosh to be honest. It causes you to get out of your usual channel and forces us to all be together in one stinky room.
Ok if there were some moderation, a lot of the BS threads could go away true.... but half the time I'm actually laughing at this forum rather than the other bike forum sites that are so serious.
Exactly! The interplay makes it fun. All the different people and topics rubbing together create friction, heat, interesting tensions, unexpected juxtapositions, chance encounters, a critical mass of creativity that carries over into real life events.
The tradeoff is that sometimes it gets a little messy. Kind of like democracy, friendship, sex, bike polo, and anything else that anybody out there thinks is worth doing with other people. Is it really worth going to a lot of effort, or having to take on ads, to solve this "problem"? I say nay. Nay!
Bikeforums.net = KCRW (Smooth, safe, regimented, boring)
MR = Killradio (Unfiltered, edgy, sometimes brillant though flawed)
I am totally up for making the usability of the site better no questions about that.... also the new version is going to incorporate blogs so that authors can write meaningful essays and receive feedback which is a totally different purppose than what a forum is for in my mind. even on an organized topical forum if your thread isn't interesting to the community it gets pushed away into oblivion. I've seen it happen to my lousy threads on Bikeboredums.net all the time. those haters arent feeling any kind of wolfpack shit, and they think MR is a bunch of ruffian party vampires corrupting the nice clean roadie bike scene.
I seriously doubt that somehow MR would suddenly become safe boring and uninteresting by having more than one board. Our community is different because the people are different. If you imposed our forum system on other bike forums, themed midnight rides would not suddenly spring out of them.
In any case, if RSS compatibility could be adapted for both the forum and individual threads, I would be eternally thankful. Then one could more easily sort through things, mark threads and subscribe to certain ones with their own reader. I want to keep up with what's going on without a millions mouse clicks, epic scrolling, and long load times.
As I've said before, if this could be made real, I am totally willing to put some money where my mouth is.
Paginating threads so there are only x number of posts per page (where ideally x is some number that you can choose, but could also just arbitrarily be 20 posts per page) wouldn't be terribly difficult and would help a lot in taming the 600+ post monster threads.
"Paginating threads so there are only x number of posts per page (where ideally x is some number that you can choose, but could also just arbitrarily be 20 posts per page) wouldn't be terribly difficult and would help a lot in taming the 600+ post monster threads."
Haha I love it that this thread got usefully hi-jacked.
But yeah ... I think making it friendly for handhelds would be revolutionary ... imagine being out at midnight at a bar, and going online and finding out that a ride is heading toward your area ... could be sweet.
Maybe thats way too nerdy.
But I like to fantasize about MR being a hub that can be useful even during rides.
I am UBER glad that Nick Fartcourt is finally LEAVING!! just this morning I wanted to reach through the radio and knock his teeth in. did you hear him BLABBING on top of every fucking song that Beck was playing and in between each and every fucking song??! Beck should have been allowed to spin a set with no interruptions.
just like his show when he has to interupt each song transistion with his "moaning becomez egglectic"
I cant wait for bentlely, the man knows how to mix and not say shit between songs!
If it's really that arduous a task to spend fifteen seconds skimming thread titles and, occasionally, clicking on a little red arrow, how do you guys find the energy to pedal your bikes down the street?
On advertising?
I prefer anarchy.
But it there was to be any advertising I expect it would be 4-6 sponsors (probably local bikeshops) kicking in 1K a year.
Another way to get advertising $ without putting it on the website would be to OCCASIONALLY involve the bikeshops in rides.
Another way to raise money?
Only donors get their mug in the banner above. $1 per pixel
Community supported banner.
We can even have fundraisers for other people's mugs. ie donate 20 pixel dollars to put ROTY's mug on the banner.
PC:"If it's really that arduous a task to spend fifteen seconds skimming thread titles and, occasionally, clicking on a little red arrow, how do you guys find the energy to pedal your bikes down the street?"
Uh, yeah. Up until you pointed out the red arrow, I had no idea that it was a link or that it was useful for viewing the next page of threads. This probably means I'm an idiot, but idiots are generally the people you're supposed to design for. If an idiot can use it, then the average person can get around with ease.
But regardless of what I've bitched about here in this thread, overall this site has done its job in coordinating hundreds of people to meet up and have fun. Any healthy web site will go through phases and improvements will be made, otherwise it means your community is stagnating. Roadblock, serious props for all you've done and all you do. Please don't think you're alone with this project or that we take you for granted.
One thing about off the shelf forum software.
I run a website with VB Forum. OK it's got e-mail notifications, RSS out, RSS in and a gazillion other features but....
I have to chase the spammers with a stick all day long...
It's not even forum spam. It's spammers who register to privately spam other members or sell their accounts to spammer wannabes.
Instead of thinking of MR as an unorganized forum, think of it as an organized chat. Then it's brilliant!
this forum DOES get bombarded with ghost registrations. however up until recently they hadn't been able to validate the registrations presume-ably because they don't know the system or have access to the source code....
One thing that might work to keep the spammers down in a new board would be to charge some insignificant fee, like $0.25 or something for a new account. Spammers get their account wiped and lose their membership fee. Existing members could be given free invites to the new promised land. You could give out invite codes on spoke cards. Non-free but super cheap accounts seem to work for Metafilter, it keeps the trolls and spammers down and it's a very minor inconvenience for real people.
Dum-dee-dum-dee-dum. Dee-dee-dee...oh, hi. I didn't see you there. So, anyway, instead of spending an assload of money and effort fixing what isn't terribly broken, maybe just implement a link to a tutorial explaining how to use the arrows ("Having trouble navigating? Click here")?
You must be doing something right.
I've never seen a spammer on here
unless you consider unrelated posts about death metal, politics, or fluffaz to be spam.
I think pagination of the forums would suck, but maybe that's just me. Pagination of threads is one of the things I hate about most forums (along with avatars and those stupid animated emoticons). The conversation gets lost too easily when you get a lot of posts.
Imagine you've just caught up reading on a thread and you want to reply to something you read three pages back. You have to click to go back a page and then scroll and then maybe click some more if you don't remember what page the post was on, then scroll some more, etc. Then if you want to double check to see whether someone has already said the same thing you're about to say, you have to click through more pages again. I'd much rather see new threads pop up occasionally for the same old topics than have paginated 5000-post monster threads that are effectively useless as a conversation history.
But then again, I'm the one who thinks that "usability" will bring in swarms of un-fun retards, so maybe I'm just being an elitist asshole.
sexy, nowadays you'll have to go to lafixed to satisfy your Hobgoblin jones. Except that lafixed is all boring and stuff. What their political threads lack in bike-culture navel-gazing and HTML threadjacking, they make up for in earnest butthurt whining and moderator smackdowns. Now see, that's what pagination will do for ya'...
It does have a preview function, though. That's nice.
The magic of coding up your forum how you want is that you can do things like making an option to enable/disable pagination.
I'd prefer pagination just because sometimes I need to look at the site on my phone, and a 100+ post thread completely kills that idea. It would also cut down on the site's bandwidth consumption, making it cheaper to operate.
I'm bumping this, I'm already seeing the political divisions within all of us anytime something related to "executions", "gun-control", "environmentalism", and all other causes gets posted up.
Lets just drop all fuckin' world concerns and try to concentrate on mapping out routes or tricking out our bikes, or slamming mindless teeny-boppers and the over-proliferation of fixed.
Leave the liberal vs. conservative boondoggle for the classrooms, coffee houses, or other places I'll never be caught dead in.
Ok...sure...when you stop rambling on about "bro trucks with gun racks", the desert, wanting to be in the military, big rigs, etc. all thing things I wouldn't want to talk about any time any place...really...start talking about somethin' new and interesting...kthxbai
TheJen responding to a comment by bentstrider
09.21.09 - 10:42 pm
Anyways, I'm trying keeping the driving job search on the DL.
If anything does come up and I'm back out over the road with a decent company, that's when I'm abandoning the computer altogether.
Aside from a Qualcomm on the truck and maybe a CB radio, I'm writing letters in long hand instead.
Until then though, perhaps I should stop trying to refrain from alcohol.
Maybe it'll loosen up some of these rigid brain cells.
For bentstrider, every thread is about trucking, joblessness, disillusionment and the desert, or (when he's in a good mood) about guns, cliches and afternoon TV shows. His posts have a certain repetitive, trance-like quality that approaches poetry at times. When you encounter one of his non-sequiturs in a thread, it's best to just let the confusion wash over you.
"You are amazing. People love you and respect you. You radiate charisma, charm, and grace. You stand out from everyone around you. Talking to you is a privilege. And you deserve the best the world has to offer. It's all there out there, waiting for you."
This is out of a book called the "Stylelife Challenge".
One of my high school friends, one of my only friends who hasn't moved yet, got tired of the yammering and nearly cracked my skull today.
Then he gave me this book and told me to read it through and outlined the quotes to be repeated.
I find this passage helpful and enlightening.
Some say he's not that bright, but at least he doesn't know when to quit.
Essentially, it's now his mission to get me out of this "funk" I've been in for the last, two years.
If it wasn't for Mike, I'd be a hell of a lot worse off than I am right now.