Several months ago, when I got into the Peak Oil thing, I was reading everything. I'd start out at TheOilDrum and click my way through to economists predicting the eminent demise of the U.S. economy due to dollar devaluation, credit expansion and the housing bubble. Through the beauty of keywords and tags, I ended up watching a video about renting vs. owning your home.

That video featured comedian Pat Brice, and I was instant fan. It was part of Blerds.com, to which I'm super loosely connected. Another comic, TJ Miller, is part of the group, and he was doing a weekly show at Chicago's iO when I was studying there exactly a year ago. In April, I was at the DC Comedy Festival, and the Chicago-based Blerds.com kids were everywhere.

That's when I met Pat Brice. I was so excited, and ran up to him , "You're that rent vs. own dude!"

"Did you find my video on some wacky housing bubble website?"

"Yes!!"

"Yeah, I don't know how those dudes found me."

His standup was great, and you could just tell that he was one who was going to make it. Today, I visited blerds.com in the hopes of dropping those guys a line to see if they were doing any shows. I'm gonna be in Chicago later this week. That's when I found out that on July 15, Pat died in his sleep.

In honor of his life and comedy, I urge you to take a moment to send warm thoughts to his family and friends, visit his website and watch the video below which made me an instant fan.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6qbKZfsqfI[/youtube]