Woot.

I've got a huge fokking grin on my face. The mail just came, with three packages for me (you've gotta love getting presents from yourself in the mail). I've recently become financially solvent - all caught up on rent, bills, and other money I owed my brother (who owns "my" house). I even had money left over, so what did I do? Of course, I went on a shopping spree, virtual style.

So uh, if you read my recent post (Philately Fetish), you'll know I was considering following up on my nostalgia for stamp collecting. Well, I done jumped in with both feet. These three packages are full of stamps - the 500 common ones with duplicates, etc., for like $5 or less each - including ones from the company that I absently cheated as a kid! I thought the name Kenmore Stamp Co. sounded familiar. They've sent me little packets of stamps on approval... they're adorable. I'll send most of them back (they not meeting my approval, I guess) but some are too cheap to pass up (well, for the stamps that I actually like the look of)... they range from $0.50 to $3.50. I'll be returning the Princess Diana set, unless they're cheap, in which case I might buy them just so I can deface them as a piece of art or something. I've never liked her or found her to be at all interesting (like most if not all royals), and the massive cult that seems to adore her baffles me completely.

Anyway. Big drum grin on my face. I think I'm gonna like this. And of course... woops! Two of the little buggers just flitted out and under my bed before I managed to stuff them all back into a package for safekeeeping....

I got the idea to make this on account of me being in the mood on the right quadrant. I get this way when I'm tired, which probably has something to do with me waking up at 4AM today. I figured I'd cut people off before they endanger themselves or our friendship. Hopefully I can face the spinner I made toward the top of the ring increasingly more often.... And now, I'm going back to bed, and every time one of the little brats upstairs (at my friends' home daycare center) screams and squeals, I'll growl and mutter angrily, but no-one will see and hear me do it.

Best of 2007 Lists: Flicks

2007 (The List)
I used to make a “best of” list at the end of every year, and I’m resurrecting that tradition this morning. Not because I think you care, but I like making lists, and remembering good things. And if my list points you to wonderful things that you didn’t know were so dandy, that makes me happy. So let’s begin.


The List, Part I: Films, 2007
If may seem like I go and see a lot of movies, but I actually barely ever hit the cinema. I almost always pirate stuff. I wish going to a movie theater still gave the experience of “seeing it on the big screen, as it was meant to be seen,” but every time I see a flick at local megaplex Worcester Showcase North, it’s out of focus, partly off the screen, hindered by warbly sound, or all of the above. And it doesn’t matter if you complain multiple times. Even if they do correct it, by then we’re a fair way into the film and I’m too pissed off to enjoy it. That said:

30 Days of Night - I generally don’t like horror movies, because most of them are just bad movies with some gore on top. But I loved this film, its premise, the sense of (vampire) culture they give in the briefest suggestions.



300 - Simply outstanding. I was never a fan of Frank Miller’s original graphic novel, but I love the story itself, and this film captures it magnificently, frame by painted frame.
An Inconvenient Truth - Brilliant, from its message, to how it’s presented, in a simple and honest fashion. Gore & the filmmakers managed to make a film that is genuinely non-partisan (most things that are labeled “non-partisan” aren’t). It’s hard to make a successful call for action in our apathetic society, but this film managed to do it.



Crank - OK, this came out late last year, but I had to include it. The idea of this film was to make a non-stop, crazed over-the-top, frenzied action thriller, and it succeeds in (sometimes literally) leaps and bounds, each individual second. If you want a clever adrenaline rush like never before (well, in a film), you must see Crank. Oh, and it stars one of my male crushes, Jason Statham.

No End in Sight – The best of the scads of documentaries about the War on Iraq that I’ve seen, interviewing all the right professionals in the business (I choose this word pointedly) that once held positions in the Pentagon and similar large buildings. Voices of experience, speaking intelligently and without melodrama, in a documentary that is the same… unlike certain other films (coughMICHAELMOOREcough).

Spider-Man 3 – I was set up for a disappointment, based on early reviews, and so I was very happily surprised to see that this film was genuinely good, and capped off the (thus far) trilogy in a very smart way. Tobey Maguire and James DeFranco again delivered, Topher Grace did as well as he could, and Willem DeFoe again improves his performance over his original large role from Spider-Man 1. Thomas Haden Church (and the writing of a favorite character of mine, Sandman) did well, although my favorite villains of the series will remain DeFranco and Alfred Molina (Dr. Octopus). I really dislike Kirsten Dunst (and how Mary Jane is written in these films), but the other bit part regulars are still excellent supporters (J.K. Simmons in particular). My biggest beef was the handling of the origin of Venom. Bringing alien life into the picture (though this was the “original” origin of the alien symbiote) was distracting, and jumped the shark a bit… such is the otherwise splendid grounding to reality (well, plausibility) of this series, as far as comic book movies go. I really wish they’d adopted Venom’s (and the symbiote’s) origin from the outstanding Ultimate Spider-Man series, which involves Peter Parker’s discovery of his dead father’s life work. Much more interesting and character-driven.

Other notables include:

Bourne Ultimatum - There aren’t many decent “action thrillers” in which I care about the protagonist or his story, but this is definitely one of them, and the fact that they’ve maintained this level of quality for an entire trilogy is mighty swell.

Harry Potter #284 – Or whichever number this one was in the series. I know these films leave out a lot from the books (which I’ve not read, and never will), and I usually think that that’s a good idea (although Sin City was incredibly true to Frank Miller’s source material, and was f’ing brilliant). A film is not a book, and except for Sin City, it’s simply non-transferable. Although actually, the film version of 300 draws directly from many frames of Miller’s book to great effect. He has a genuinely cinematic style in his comics/graphic novels, and must have served as excellent storyboards for the two adaptations mentioned.

I Am Legend – A decent pop-film all around, and I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic stuff.

Knocked Up – Like Superbad, this springs from the stable of and his Freaks & Geeks alumni & friends. Good fun, though not as entertaining as the other film.

Live Free or Die Hard – Still has the (acceptable) cheese factor of the franchise, but is probably the best sequel. There’s a great geek cameo, too.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3 – Like Spider-Man 3, I was surprised at just how good this film was; it’s a great example of a “popcorn movie” that gives “a rollicking-good time.”

The Protector – Another solid film from newcomer muay thai/parkour genius Tony Ja. Better than his first outing (The Warrior, which I still think is a decent film); there’s something truly groundbreaking in this film actually: in the middle of the film is an incredible slugfest of Ja vs. over a hundred assailants, all in one scene, with masterful choreography (of which the single, roving camera is an real part). It lasts almost five minutes… mind-blowing.

Ratatouille – another decent offering from Pixar, though not their best (which would be The Invisibles).

Resident Evil: Extinction – Definitely a guilty pleasure. This third film is much better than the second, although its ending sets up a possibly cringe-inducing premise for the fourth flick.

Sicko – Moore again needs to remove his melodramatic self from the film, which he did so well in Fahrenheit 9/11 (a truly great film). While Sicko is a good film and covers a vital topic, it was plodding compared to F9/11. It’s a shame that it so quickly vanished from theaters.

Smokin’ Aces – another fun pop-film, this with some truly great, wild characters.

Superbad – Again from the Freaks & Geeks alumni as well as bringing the adorkable Michael Cera aboard from the brilliant Arrested Development. Much better than Knocked Up.

TMNT – A new, CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles flick that doesn’t serve as any particular sequel to the previous films, but doesn’t tediously re-hash their origin. This film was dumped from the theaters quickly, but is worth watching when you’re bored.

Transformers – Yet another good popcorn film; brought the classic icons successfully to the big screen, which is an achievement in itself, as well as pure fun.

War – A decent actioner, featuring two of my very favorites, Jet Li and Jason Statham. The gag of the film is a bit of a stretch (this film can be spoiled is you know it ahead of time), but it’s still much more interesting that the usual fare. Oh, and it stars two of my male crushes, Jet Li and Jason Statham.

So there we go. If you think that this was long and tedious, just you wait: I’ve got tons more reviews and recommendations and other lists…

Go me.

I just got off my ass and did the small amount of snow-shoveling required outside my house. It's basically my job, being the landlord and all, but due to my ever-present lack of energy, I usually fail on this front. Of course, it only being two inches of snow helped. And I have to admit, part of me was motivated by ensuring our mail carrier had an easy time with our path and stairs... I'm expecting a slew of packages (gifts for me, Woot) this week. Huzzah for conspicuous consumption.

Drugs

I take a lot of drugs… legal ones, that is; I used to engage in the illegal sort, in my early 20s, mostly, and I look back on that period of exploration fondly. But now, I take a lot of drugs, via prescription, for my medical/mental condition. The list (as I’m of a list-making mood this morning) these days is:

Cymbalta – antidepressant
Lamictal – balances my (barely-bipolar) mood swings
Androgel – not ingested, lest I want to die – a testosterone-enhancing gel
Doxepin – sleep-regulation
Adderall – legal speed

This also, until recently, included Bromocriptine, a drug usually given to people with Parkinson’s, which impedes the tumor in my pituitary gland’s stifling of natural testosterone production. We (my endocrinologist and I) have taken me off of it recently, to see if my years of taking this (heavy on the nasty side-effects) drug has indefinitely suppressed the tumor. I’m doing my usual schedule of blood tests over the next year, followed by an MRI, to see how this is going.

Anyway: I will address drug #5 this morning, the Adderall. It’s 4:30 AM as I write this, and it is partly to blame. Mind you, it’s a great drug to aid my otherwise zombie-like level of energy, it being a pretty straight-up amphetamine. Speed was never my thing during my drug years, but I need it now. For the past two weeks, however, I was without the stuff. Previous to that was just the first month that I’d started taking this drug, and that period was an elation, it giving me the energy to actually do things. I started cleaning my pig-sty of a room for the first time in eight years. Imagine how bizarre that sounds, and then apply it to eight years of 365 days. It’s been said that the cleanliness of one’s home speaks greatly of one’s emotional and psychological health, and I agree with that: I’ve been living in this state for about 3,000 days.

Like other speedy drugs (Ritalin, for instance, which was my motivating drug in recent months), Adderall is a tightly-controlled substance, requiring a new scrip every month. Unfortunately, my pharmaceutical company doesn’t deal well with our (my psychiatrist’s and my) attempts at dutifully submitting forms for pre-approval for controlled substances, and so I was off my speed for the past two+ weeks. It made a huge difference, but now I’m finally back on the stuff.

As I’ve been painfully short on go these recent days, when I finally got the new scrip filled, I popped one immediately upon getting the pills, though it was about 4PM (two days ago), and they’re supposed to be taken in the morning. Then I went over to my buddy Todd’s house to watch the big game (Pats vs. Giants), but omitted the standard beer/drinky-drinky from my diet, since I’m still dealing with post-cold effects (phlegm, anyone?). So instead I drank something I never drink: Dr. Pepper. Over the course of the night, like, 1.5 liters of the stuff. I finally went to sleep at 4AM that night.

For the rest of that day (yesterday), I was hung over from my binge, though I still managed to be somewhat productive (I installed me a new, digital thermostat… now I have to figure out how to program the fucking thing). But, here I am, writing this at 5AM, and I’m about to take another hit of speed. Still, even feeling hung over, this is miles better than not having the stuff in me.

Which brings me to a happy memory.

During Saturday morning cartoons (the classic 80s era), they used to actually run PSAs, and my favorite one was the following. Everybody sing along!

This is serious (serious)
We could make you delirious (delirious)
You should have a healthy fear of us (fear of us)
Too much of us is dangerous (no, no, no, nooooo!)
Doctors tell the pharmacy (pharmacy)
Types of pills that you will need (you will need)
And he knows the harm that we can be (we can be!)
If we're not taken carefully (no, no, no, nooooo!)
We're not candy (believe us!)
Even though we look so fine and dandy
When you're sick we come in handy
But, we're not candy (ooooh, no!)

FUCK YEAH.

Just got back from watching the Patriots recover from their biggest point deficit in a game this year to beat the Giants, 38-35. It was an incredible game with tons of drama, great plays, and several huge records being broken. Of course, if you are aware of football in general, this is no news to you.

I love that this game was "meaningless," in terms of it not affecting either team's standings in the playoffs. The Pats had already secured their #1 position with home field advantagein the AFC, and the Giants had already secured their wild card spot in the NFC. The real meaning of tonight was just about two teams, playing the game we and they all love, at their very best. The Patriots were gunning for a perfect season and broken records, and the Giants were the ones that were fighting to stop 'em. There was never a dull moment, every play being full of intensity, pressure, and victory and loss. Yeah, I'm getting near-poetic about it all, but it really was the best game I've seen this year. While it was pure candy watching the Patriots demolish teams for the first half of the season, this unending, full-on struggle, with a truly great team that matched up well against our lads, was easily the most exciting.

Hell, I even watched all of the post-coverage and press interviews afterward. I love how Bill Belichick has no interest in doing these, and how he says - in an absent monotone - that he's happy with the team (and how they need to do better, of course). When asked about the game being "meaningless" in terms of their standing and position in the playoffs, Belichick gave a great quote from his former mentor, Bill Parcells, which again speaks of why football is a game, which is played, always intensely (or, it should be); which I can only paraphrase as: "for a player, any game you're playing in is meaningful."

It's always great listening to Tom Brady being interviewed, on account of him being one of the coolest guys on the planet. Watching Randy Moss be interviewed was interesting enough, but the intriguing part of his conference was when someone mentioned that the New England Patriots are "big in Japan." I love the Japanese. You never know what idea or icon or character they're suddenly going to adopt and go nuts over.

If you didn't see the game, you should download it via torrent (where you'll see it commercial-free), the best site being www.tenyardtorrents.com (although it will be on any major torrent site, it being the be-all end-all of this year's NFL games, thus far).

'Twas the Night before Christmas

Well. See, I play Dungeons & Dragons with some fellow geeks, and well, uhm, see, I, uh... Okay, I made the following for them.

All you need to know is that the "St. Nick"-like character, a gnoll (actually a Flind, which are a tribe of gnoll limited to a certain stretch of mountains) is a lowly courier that works for an angel named Gabriel, who runs a curiosity shop in the bowels of a dungeon, which is actually a long-forgotten prison created by the gods to forever detain demons, devils, and other infernal creatures captured during the Mana War. Uh... anyway, Flint is a character of one of our players, and he's a priest, and he and the other players' characters are traveling through the dungeon because it's a shortcut to Colossus, the fabled city of the frost giants, because they desperately need their aid in fighting off the evil ice giants. So, yeah, and uh right now the party of adventurers is camped just outside a tomb filled with water.

Anyway.

Philately Fetish

Or, Passing Fancy #23,346.

Lately I've renewed an interest - which will almost certainly pass - in philately, the collecting of postage stamps. An odd, sudden fixation, but it doesn't surprise me in the least, because I have a favorite Christmas memory involving stamp collecting.

I was probably around five years old. I'm pretty sure my mother's sister Ann (who is nucking futs) was over for Christmas, or it may just be that she had sent us all presents (this was probably the case... she lived in England). In any event, the day before Christmas, I couldn't resist but to sneak over to the tree and yoink! a present and open it. Inside was a beginner's stamp collecting kit. Being a fetishist for collecting things, and an admirer of pictures (and design, though I'd no clue of such an art form at the time), I was delighted. It was easily my favorite present received that year!

I immediately set to work and began licking the used stamps from many different countries and sticking them into their places throughout the album (I'd no clue what the little gummy slips of film were for, but knew that stamps were licked and placed). However, the guilt of stealing a present a day early did gnaw at me, and I - with appropriate shame - tried to hide the gift, messily thrown back together, with individual stamps flitting out and about, under my bed.

Amusingly, looking back on it now, I can recall that our bed frames were high above the floor, and our bedroom (which I shared with brother John at the time) had no carpet, and so anything "hidden" under the bed could not have stood out more to even the most casual eye. My memory here is vague, but I don't think I was punished for this; in fact, soon after, we were allowed the unwrapping of one gift each on all following Christmas Eves. So even then, I was a revolutionary, that through civil disobedience, brought me and my fellows one step forward toward... well, getting whatever it is that I wanted at the time. A true leader among men!

My brothers had actually received the same gift from Auntie Ann, and we three ended up subscribing to this service which seems peculiar and antiquated to me now: every week or so, some company would send us small transparent envelopes containing a small set of stamps, and each envelope was printed with a description of the set and its price. The deal was that one would either keep the stamps and send the money, or return the stamps. I have to admit... we often just kept them and didn't pay. Well, the company didn't actually have any means of recourse, since they were operating on an honor system. I imagine that they stopped sending us our "trial" envelopes after some amount of loss on their part.

Our grandfather - my mother's father - was a mighty philatelist, and this fetish was passed on to his three daughters, so it was inevitable that, in time, the stamp collecting bug would bite we three boys. I remember our grandparents' living room (this was in Hove, England, a suburb of Brighton), with its many musty old books, which included Grandpa Jack's stamp albums. It must have been a summer in the late 70's that we were there (me being perhaps seven or eight years old), and we boys had all brought our stamp collections along with us. I remember sitting with my granddad in his library/living room, he showing off his stamp collection, and I mine. I remember vividly how he reacted when he saw that I had a full sheet of new, mint condition stamps of portraits of each of our U.S. presidents (not licked and pasted onto a page... for by now I was no novice!). They were actually only stickers, and not stamps, I said, but my grandfather contradicted this determinedly. I remained adamant in my assertion - for I couldn't see any numeric value on the things - but, seeing as how he was a bit older and more experienced than I, I guess he was probably right. With great fondness and amusement, I remember how, not only did he insist that these were stamps, but that he wanted them! I have no idea whether I gave them to him or not. I hope I did.

Grandpa Jack was a great and gentle man. The classic "kind soul." He had various jobs when he was alive; one of them I know to be that of furniture mover. He was one of the select few that owned a van during the war, and my mother has told me more than once about how he and his van were always there to help people relocate or otherwise get out of danger. I wish I had a picture of him from that time. My mother has also mentioned her own recollection of that time, albeit only briefly. Perhaps many of her memories were left forgotten as a survival technique for moving on after the war, but she has stated more than once her memory of hiding under the kitchen table, terrified, as the sirens blared.

Anyway, I do actually have a photo of my grandfather from when I knew him at my young age, and I should scan it in, along with many other photos. I'll post it once I do; it's a great, sweet picture of this elderly fellow showing off a magnificent - large and pink! - flower in his well-kept English garden. Grandpa Jack died just a couple of years later, and my brothers and I visited him in his death bed shortly before he passed. We were beginning a year-long stay in England (a very formative experience in my life), and he lay there... gently, as was his manner. I never knew my grandfather on the other side, my dad's dad (and from the sound of him, I'm better off for it), but Jack... he's a great figure and a great memory.

Should I play sentimental and grab up a stamp album? Or will this be a passing fancy (one of many, all my life)?

Well, that's my Christmas memory: my favorite one. Even better than the time I got a scientific calculator, complete with a pouch that I could hang from my belt (and oh yes, I did)!

So, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Jolly Kwanzaa, Sweet Solstice, Happy Holidays and all of that business.

And now, I will listen to Yello's version of "Jingle Bells," just to be a cheesy bastard.

Christmas Fun!

Spread some holiday joy with these fun new pictures!










Weird. People say I have no "Christmas spirit."

NTodd Storms the Castle

Please check out the excellent blog by my good friend NTodd. He's been in our capitol for the past few days trying to get arrested for being right about things. Complete w/blurry pictures!

Onward Pagan Warriors!

There was an amusing commentary on CNN's website yesterday by Roland Martin on "putting the Christ back in Christmas." It's tripe, but it pleased me greatly to read the peanut gallery's comments: about half or more of them went on about how the Christians co-opted the Pagans' wintry celebrations in the first place. Of course this is representative more of computer users that happen to browse CNN and bother posting in such places, rather than our nation, "but... still."

"I'm not ashamed to tell people who I am with Merry Christmas. I will not stop saying it even if you throw me in jail." - a proud CNN reader fighting the good fight in the War on Christmas

Hot'n'Heavy GOP-on-GOP Action

"It's another example of the administration's failure to treat global warming with the seriousness that it actually demands." - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Ahnold's probably my favorite Republican these days. Read about him suing the federal government here!

Good Doggie.

R moved out the other day, taking her cats and dog with her. Lexi here was the dog I've loved most in life (I'm a cat person). I think I liked her so much because she was such a cat stuck in a dog's body.

Kitschy Kitchen

For years I've been thinking... "I should clean out our cutlery drawer someday." That day came. Yesterday I unearthed everything and washed it. For pictures, check out my new photo album at http://picasaweb.google.com/phobrek/Kitschy

The tally is:
15 forks (no two of which alike)
a large serving spoon and fork
38 spoons (I did find THREE of one type)
a straining server spoon
4 wooden spoons
2 large Chinese soup spoons
2 ladles
a pasta ladle
20 knives
2 cleavers
5 carving knives
8 bread knives
a cake knife
a cheese cleaver
17 steak knives (in a vegetarian household)
3 fillet knives
a nice pair of chopsticks
10 sets of disposable chopsticks
2 plastic spatulas
2 rubber spatulas
a metal bbq spatula
a set of bbq skewers
large bbq tongs
2 sets of tongs
3 set of measuring spoons/cups
4 can openers
a whisk
a huge egg beater
a peeler
a garlic press
a vegetable grid cutter
a wine bottle opener
a tea ball
2 tea straws
several extra long straws
a metal rolling pin
a potato masher
a cheese grater
2 pizza cutters
kitschen scissors
2 rubber jar grips
and a paintbrush.

"Now THAT was a shopping experience." - The Bots

(This entry is actually two days old.)

I just returned from That's Entertainment (thatse.com), my favorite store in like, the world, which is New England's largest comic store. It sells a myriad of other things geek-related. Anyway, by using credit (for comics I'd traded in), a holiday coupon, and an employee buddy discounting some old D&D figs (for the uninitiated: diminutive metal figurines one paints and uses in playing Dungeons & Dragons, and other related games), I got a shiteload of merchandise for cheap. All in all, I gots:

1. three new funnybooks (Incredible Hulk, Mighty Avengers, and my favorite, Captain America)
2. a new X-Factor hardcover
3. NINE blister packs of figs

:for only $30 cash. Fuck yeah. Geekasm. I love a bargain.

I walked through the cold snowiness, but had to because I needed to deposit rent $ in the bank across the street from That'sE. I wasn't cold, except for my neck, which made me think that, since I was sick, I should have worn a scarf. But, I then realized that since I already had a sore throat and coughing nastiness, well, it didn't really matter, right?

Eulogy for Spot

I recently had to fill in my friend JennyLisa about my previous kitty, Spot. I did so w/these words, elsewhere:

Poor little sweet Spot never returned one day. I stalked the neighborhood for a number of days, did the whole poster thing, but nothing. I'm hoping that he got lost and someone took him in, rather than getting run over. Such is the risk of having an outdoor kitty.

I really miss the guy, he was such a riot. I like to imagine him traveling around the world: dining fine dining in Paris, prowling castle ruins in England, investigating Berlin's catacombs, finding secret passages (yay D'n'D!) in Egyptian pyramids, warning children away from IEDs in Iraq, carrying medical supplies to inaccessible areas in Malawi, searching for woolly mammoths in Russia, fighting for workers' rights in China, hunting giant rats in Indonesia, going on a vision quest with the Kiwis, guest-illustrating a manga graphic novel in Tokyo, climbing to the edge of volcanoes in Hawaii, advising Chavez in Venezuela, leading Mexicans across the border, trying his hand at goalie in Canada, and maybe, just maybe, visiting me before he makes a full frontal assault on the White House.

In any event, to me, Spot is a martyr in the struggle for fun and the absurd.

BTW - anyone that likes to look at pictures of precious little kittens can do so in my new photo album, yawp.

Cats'n'Dogs

So, two days ago, one of my housemates very suddenly moved out. She (R) and J (I feel reluctant to name other people in my journal, for whatever reason) finally broke up at one o'clock that morning. She'll be missed, but, I guess this was a long time coming (though it came as a surprise to me, because I was never quite familiar w/the state of their relationship).

Unfortunately, she's also taking her dog and (three) cats. Oddly, her first two cats seemed never too friendly with me, whereas usually cats and I love one another. The third cat, a rescued stray, was absolutely adorable, and I'll really miss that one. Also, the dog was my favorite dog ever (I'm not much of a dog person, otherwise). The dog, Lexi (I guess the anonymity habit doesn't carry over to animals), was kind of ridiculous and mentally defective. When she heard the first rumblings of a storm approaching, she would hyperventilate and hide in the bathtub or under my desk (she wasn't a small dog, btw, making this clumsy accommodation particularly amusing). With the cats, she would occasionally remember that she's a dog, and that she's supposed to dislike and chase them, so every once in a while she'd growl and maybe even woof at one, totally at random. Oh, and she liked to help people watch TV or movies, so whenever we turned on our A/V devices, she'd trot in and lie on the couch.

Now I'm thinking of getting a cat, but, I'm not the most responsible person and have difficulty even taking care of myself, let alone others. Meh.

Bible Humper

I love my Bible. It's beautifully printed, designed, illustrated, and the pages are even edge w/gold leaf! But the reason I love it is because every once in a while, I think to lift it up and see if there's anything that I've previously stuck there w/the intent to flatten it. This is by far the biggest and heaviest book I own! I just now found my once-warped copy of The Incredible Hulk #109 under there, and now it's nice and flat. I must have put it under there a couple of months ago. I love my Bible!

Re-boot #23

Otay,

My favorite webbed curmudgeon and college buddy NTodd just sent me an email suggesting that when one has a blog, there's some kind of expectation for the blogger to occasionally write something in it. So I decided to try it again.

For the uninitiated that somehow work their way here, I'm a 38 year old layabout with a medical condition that leaves me a bit of a zombie. Like most zombies, I will die if you shoot me in the head, so, I ask that you don't. Ha, ha, ha. Anyway, I live in a nice house in Worcester, Massachusetts, with housemates consisting of a couple of great friends and my brother (also a great friend). I'm a bleeding-heart liberal near-vegan atheist. I live off the government (screw you, taxpayer!) and manage a handful of apartments (two of which make up the second floor of my nice house).

Hopefully, I'll maintain this blog. Or, I'll post here a couple of times and then abandon the whole thing for another 3-6 months.