Nick - Conor O'Brien

FACT: Conor was really squinty as a little kid.

Conor O'Brien. The man. The legend. That guy. Around here, we call him Friday Conor. But long before that, he was Conor the tag champion. Conor who fell down and scraped his knee every time he tried to come to my house. There are so many things you have yet to learn about Conor O'Brien.

Let's start at the very beginning. Conor and I were maybe 4 years old. Or 7? Or 5? We were some amount of years old. I was playing with my good friend Peter Eck, who urged me that we should go play with this "really cool" kid named Conor who lived next to Peter. After playing, the next day Peter wasn't home, so I went over to Conor's house to see if he wanted to play.

At first he stared at me like he didn't recognize me at all, but before long we hit it off and we were sitting on his porch talking about very important matters.

"There used to be a dead ant in here." Conor informed me in a grave voice, as he motioned toward his belly button. "I washed it out though." He added.

It was a glorious friendship if there ever was one. He fell on his face onto the sidewalk every time he tried to walk down the street to my house.

FACT: little-kid Conor got angry really often. One time he picked me up and threw me on my driveway during an argument about spiders and ants.

As time went on, we progressed to more serious topics than dead ants: we played Nintendo and tag.

FACT: we were champions at tag. My brother used to get really mad by the end of every game and try to hit us and stuff. Also Nicole Down The Street used to play. Conor had a falling out with Nicole Down The Street.

FACT: I really liked watching Conor play video games. It was weird.

As Conor continued to grow up, he developed into the leader of the glorious improv troupe known as Easily Amused. It is presumably at this time that he met Mike Watts and Paul Elders and had his innocence taken away.

During Conor's late high school years, we saw emerge the Conor we know and love today: the Conor That Knows Everybody. He branched out socially. His music developed from playing Final Fantasy music to writing his own really cool songs.

FACT: Conor can play a lot of instruments. Possibly more than any of us can name.

And then Band Practice began. Probably the second coolest thing that Conor will ever be a part of, right after the Easily Amused Improv Troupe, is his cool band. They have an EP which has been talked about plenty here, so I will keep this section concise.

Now Conor is in Oklahoma, presumably making more music with less cool people and hopefully working on a zombie invasion like in Zombie Snowpocalypse.

The things that make Conor extraordinary are the things that make him Conor. He is hilarious. He is awkward. He is, at times, hilariously awkward. He's really great at making friends and talking to people. He puts forth a lot of effort to be involved in as much as he can. He's full of funny and cool ideas, and he can really bring people together when he tries.

Even the notorious aspects of Conor's personality are kind of endearing. Everybody knows that he probably won't get everything done that he says he'll get done. But it's okay, we tell ourselves, because he's Conor.

I like to think of Conor O'Brien like a prom queen. Even though she's really popular, she always makes time for you. It's just part of her charm, grace, and voluptuousness that she's around all the time even though she seems like she should be too cool to be hanging out with your friends.

Yeah. Conor's like that.

-Nick.