Get a (down)load of this character at his newly-crafted “Greatest Web Site in the World.” Be sure to do some clicking around.

Ryan (“Ryno” to his inner circle and softball club) and I go wayyy back. I met him in a harshly lit studio corner at big-time art school. At well over $100 bucks a credit hour, he swaggered up (carrying a thick stack of WuTang discs) and proceeded to offer a warm greeting along the lines of, “Uh, like, uh, are you sponsored by Carhartt or something?”

I grabbed him by his bony throat and pinned him to the spray mount station.

His little army of animators and performance artists came to his aide and had to pull me off of him.

Our next interaction involved signing a lease on an apartment, queasy from the heat, for the 1999-2000 winter. And what a good winter it was. That brisk fall we enjoyed roadtrips to the Minnesota north, hearty meals at the Ideal Diner, one Twins game with Kenny Rogers singing the national anthem and a “meeting of the roommates” in Oregon over the holidaze season.

Finer moments from that trip can be found in this little fissure.

Ryan and I will square off in downtown Chicago on New Year’s Eve.