Hi Everybody!

                   It's Derek!  Megan (nathicana220) finally beat me into submission and get a livejournal account.  I love this woman, she keeps me in line. ;P  Anyway, I feel it would be necessary to fill everyone in on what I've been up to for the past couple of years.  As some of you might know, Megan and I moved up from Austin to Chicago a couple of years back and after surviving our first year in the windy city (a period of time we now lovingly call "The Gauntlet"), we're finally situated here in Evanston and making the most of our lives in the Great Work.  We're both members of the Aum Ha Oasis (which is totally awesome and reminds me of the Scarlet Woman Lodge in comradarie and fellowship), and made a bunch of kewl friends who just so happen to be fellow Thelemites (co-inky-dink? I think not!).  

                    I work in a company called "Rewards Network" as their UCC clerk, and it's a nice steady job with good pay that pays the bills and feeds the monkey (Monkey!), so our current situation in life is constantly improving.  It's improving so much in fact that I proposed to Megan last month!  We're getting married on 7-7-07 (kewl huh?)!  Now unfortunately, there's not a Shaolin Do kwoon here where I can join and continue my kung fu training, but that's okay because I feel I have enough material that I can practice on my own, and who knows maybe someday I'll open up a kwoon of my own.  Right now, I'm teaching myself a straight sword (djinn) weapons form whose written instruction (with step by step diagrams) was given to me by a friend, and I'm riding the high I get from learning new material.  Anyway, now that I don't have the convenience of a teacher and classmates to learn with, I must strengthen my resolve and excercise discipline to retain what I've learned and continue to grow stronger through training.  

                     Another neat thing that happened to me is my recent initiation (thank you thank you) and I decided to post my beliefs at the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Harold Washington Library, because I'm Thelemite and proud and (ohmygod is that Baphomet?!), get over it! :P  Okay my brain is about to explode and my eyes are bleeding, so I think that pretty much sums things up about me and what the hell I've been doing for the past couple of years.  I like cheese.