STILL NOT HATING CHRIS: Regular Camel readers know I've been encouraging Chris at EveryoneHatesMe to love himself and his life a little more. There's something about Chris I find hilarious and loveable and so I follow his writing and his various plights (losing weight, finding a job, trying to drink less, etc.). Most of the time I think Chris's troubles are everyone's troubles, it's just that he has the balls to talk about them, write about them, etc. But Chris's most recent post suggests he has some issues most of us do not. An excerpt:

A couple of months ago I ran off to Mexico. I was out of my head, and was not thinking clearly. So, I drove to El Paso, TX and crossed the border there. I was never so scared in my life. I ended up driving non-stop from Chicago. I was having a nervous breakdown.

Anyway, it must have been the lack of sleep. I thought people could read my thoughts. I had some dental work done on a tooth years eariler, and was convinced that there was a transmitter implanted in the tooth at the rear of my mouth. So, I stumbled around the Mexico border town and wandered into a dentist office. I had the tooth extracted.

I'll admit, my first instinct is to laugh. And somehow from what I gather of Chris's personality, I'm sure he sees a bit of the humor in this. After all, he *is* the guy whose blog "About" statement reads "I am 31, fat, loosing my hair, living with my parents and I am poor." A pathetic statement, to be sure, and yet naming your blog EveryoneHatesMe and airing your dirtiest laundry in such bald (excuse the pun) fashion suggests a guy who's not afraid to poke a little fun at himself, to allow other a vicarious window into his travails.

My next instinct is to worry about Chris. My God, what a nightmare! But then, I don't really know Chris. I only stumbled past his blog one day, maybe linked from ChicagoBloggers.com, if memory serves. How much should I worry about someone I don't know? After all, aren't there people in my day-to-day life who need and deserve my attention more than Chris? Of course.

The bottom line: If you have a moment, blow by EveryoneHatesMe and say a nice word or two to Chris. He's suffering, and he could use whatever spare support you have to offer.