Me and Skulls, apparent weight jumps and drops

Hey guys,

I thought I'd change up the blog this time by talk about something I never really brought up -- my thing with skulls. Almost everyone that has known me over the years know that I have always dug skulls. This goes as far back as the 90's -- with Bret Hart's logo, which consisted of a heart that included a skull with wings. That was possibly the first time I looked at a skull and went, "Oooooooh! Cool!" Then Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie came out and what was M. Bison's logo? Skull with a crack on its head -- and wings! Guess who is still one of my top favorites in Mortal Kombat? Scorpion and guess what happens when he removes his mask for that scorching fatality? A burning skull! Guess who's logo was my favorite in the post-Bret Hart Attitude Era in WWF? Stone Cold Steve Austin's of course. Why? His logo is a skull and in some cases, either a smoking skull, a cracked skull or a red eyed skull. Guess which shirt I have of Killswitch Engage? The one with three sabre-tooth tiger skulls! Their logo? Skull with wings. On top of that, I liked the special edition of their As Daylight Dies album not only because of the bonus tracks but also due to their new cover -- shattered glass with a skull in the middle! Black Label Society's logo? A skull. My favorite Iron Maiden album cover? Brave New World. Why? Skull in the sky. My Alter Bridge t-shirt has, guess what? Skull with wings!

The funny thing is this -- how we've interpreted the symbol of the skull and the meaning of it. To a lot of people, it symbolizes death, warning of danger, etc. I've looked to see what the skull with wings meant. I'm very sure to the ultra-conservative, it would mean the elevation of death or something like that but thus far, the meaning happens to be (for motorcyclists), "Good luck and happy journeys". I never really had a negative stigma for skulls for the simple fact that 1. they look so cool and 2. the place where Jesus died for our sins. What's it called? Golgotha (former name to my band, Brotherhood Of Outcasts by the way) which means, "place of a skull" or "hill of the skull".

So yeah, I've never hated the skull or been scared off or gone very reserved about skulls -- I always had an affinity to it. However, I hate how they're designed at times. I'm looking at the knuckleheads from Avenged Sevenfold. I despise your skull with bat wings logo. It is the only skull with wings logo that I never had a thing for. The one that's most curious to me, though, is the Skull and Bones society. We see it in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, we've seen it in cartoons growing up and so forth (their logo anyway). Skull and crossed bones. The best part -- the number on the skull (or underneath it in some cases -- 322. Why? That's my birthday -- March 22. I'm sure I'm just over-analyzing it but hey, one can dream right?

Now what does the skull or skull with wings mean to me? Honestly, just effing coolness! I put that baby on and it's smooth sailing from there. For me, I have always loved how it has that sense of aggression, that sense of, "hey buddy, get the F out of my way" and that level of badassery . Symbol of death? Sure, why not! I dig it. If you're scared of death or have a sense of fear to it, then it ain't for you. As for me, I dig it. Why? In a strange twist, it also crawls its way back to my faith. When you get baptized, it's a way of putting your old self in a grave and in essence, death is happening and a birth is also happening. To a Christian, they have no business being scared of death. After all, even Johnny Cash sang what Paul said, "Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?". God seemed to have a cool angel to send out to kill the firstborn son of everyone that oppressed the Hebrews in Egypt. Heck, even Metallica wrote a song in memory to that, Creeping Death remember? The fact that Jesus died on the Hill of the Skull (Golgotha) has a buttkickin' sense of symbolism to it. Add in his resurrection and it's like making a fool out of death because it couldn't hold Him down. Where am I going with this? Absolutely nowhere, I just wanted to pour out my thoughts and feelings that come about when I think of skulls or skulls with wings and why I've never been offended but rather got a kick out of them.

Now on to another subject -- my weight. Dear God and thank heaven, I'm 235 right now! Now here's the retarded thing -- my weight-shifting issue from high school is back. I foresaw this but had the false hope that it wouldn't repeat itself. Back in my FDR days, one week I'd be 230, the next 240, drop down to 230 again, go up to 250, drop to 240, up to 260, drop down to 230 again and so on. All this in week intervals! Two weeks ago, I was 230 and then last week, I hit 258! By week's end, I went down to 252 and as of yesterday, I'm 235! I tried seeing if the scale was broke but hey, a five pound dumbbell weighed five pounds on those days I weighed myself. So clearly, by all means, my body is retarded. Maybe it's the humidity of NY summer weather, maybe it's all the water (or retention of it) but my body is clearly nuts! This keeps up and once I renew my health insurance, I'll look into a little bit of skin reduction because this is just wacky.