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Dear gentle reader: this blog has been operating continuously since I was a teenager. The writing below is at least a decade old. In that time every molecule of my body has been replaced, along with many foolish ideas and flighty beliefs. I want to keep some of those things public out of an honesty and humility I owe the world. I trust you to carry that context with you.

January 20, 2004 /

Maria and I played the “Try To Name All 50 States” game a little bit ago. In eighth grade (which, incidentally, is when I acquired my spelling block about the word Massechuse- Massachusetts), I could have done that without batting an eye. Tonight, Maria got a perfect score. She beat me. By thirteen.

January 16, 2004 /

Last night I forced Ken to eat the worst chicken parmesan I’ve ever made (Maria, wisely, pleaded a weak stomach) and then we made DC come over and randomly watched Empire. Which, you know what? Is a pretty funny movie.

For instance, up until Cloud City, somebody dies every time Darth Vader is on camera. He strangles people who take responsibility, he strangles people through the TV screen, he strangles people while other people pretend not to notice. And then there’s the part where one of the Star Destroyers gets hit by an asteroid, and its captain in the little holo-display looks horrified and disappears, and Vader doesn’t bat an eye. Or doesn’t act like it, anyway. Finally, at the end, after they barely lose the Falcon, Admiral Piett (who’s been standing around nervously as others fall like wheat the whole movie) watches Vader walk off in a cold silence and just swallows once. The expression on his face is great.

Maybe that’s the problem: thinking about the last two movies, I can only remember two jokes that didn’t involve Jar Jar.

January 16, 2004 /

Gave blood today. Hoping this doesn’t bode ill for the Street Legal debut later tonight. I’ll try not to throw anybody. Also, because of the way my blood sugar finger-prick and today’s blood iron finger-prick are positioned, I can squint at the middle and ring fingers of my left hand and pretend they’re a hammerhead shark.

Oh, and yeah. Project Improv is putting on a couple of non-improv comedies this weekend and next: Peace by Aristophanes and Fools by Neil Simon. I’m running sound for both, as is my wont, and Yale plays an old woman in the latter, so that pretty much guarantees all the fun you can have with or without pants. There’s some kind of afterparty thing (after every show) at Bearno’s, and Street Legal has been chain-ganged into performing something or other (after every show). Thus the debut. I won’t get to change clothes between now and then, so I’m going to be the only one not wearing jeans. Like… most of my life.

Have I ever mentioned that I don’t wear jeans? Well, I don’t.

Peace runs tonight, Sunday and next Saturday, and Fools alternates with that. I’d see Fools, if I were you, unless you’re really into Greek comedy. If you want to see anything at all. I’m… I’m just gonna leave, okay? We’re not really getting anything accomplished here.

January 16, 2004 /
  1. The day before yesterday, Maria made carrot cake, and just moments ago, we used it to have carrot cake soup for breakfast.
  2. Yes.
  3. Oh God yes.

January 15, 2004 /

“Amory was content to sit and watch the by-play, thinking what a light touch Kerry had, and how he could transform the barest incident into a thing of curve and contour.”

I’m reading This Side of Paradise. Glad to finally understand the reference in the poem on Gatsby’s title page. I don’t know, I never honestly thought about it before, but I guess I like Fitzgerald?

January 14, 2004 /

A couple minutes ago, as part of my continuing education in health matters, I took my own blood sugar with one of those finger-pricky things. And I didn’t cry! Not even a little bit! I’m so proud I could… bleed.

January 14, 2004 /

I got the new Ben Folds EPs, finally, after shaving some money off the Cool T-Shirts section of my budget.* Sunny 16 is great music, but Speed Graphic… it’s like he walked into the studio and said “I, Ben Folds, will now write five songs deliberately and specifically to make Brendan Adkins of Louisville, Kentucky twitch and squirm with joy.” It’s a pretty perfect disc. I think it just may have replaced Acoustic Dance Party as my favorite twelve-inch ever. Well, assuming I’d bought either of them as a twelve-inch. Which I didn’t. But still.

Anyway, yeah, like that stuff a lot. I also got the Bens EP, after already having everything on it for like a year. I always thought Grandma’s Genius should cover “Bruised,” but I think “Let’s Pretend” would be better now.

* You mean you don’t?

On Recent Events

January 14, 2004 /

I’m a little bit addicted to BlogNomic, where by “a little bit” I mean “a lot.” The last round ended after a surprisingly short time, but this new one is wildly popular. I highly recommend it to anyone with an imagination and an addiction to click-and-check interweb stuff; the rule set is pretty daunting to jump into right now, but I’ll post something again next time it resets.

I’ve been checking so often, in fact, that I kind of forget to post here. I’ll try to cut back on that.

January 11, 2004 /

I took a couple chunks of my last vacation days to continue work on the Wall of Glory project, now significantly bigger than that picture shows–it covers a lot of the east side of my room, and has extended onto the door. The numbers so far are twenty-five Penny Arcades, eighteen Checkerboard Nightmares, thirteen AZWPs, three of my own comics, one each from Random Frog Children and Skinny Pandas, and four Grimbleses (you may remember the Grimbles as the only comic that updates as slowly as I do). Oh, and of course the Ninja Assassin Algorithm, which I can’t reprint for fear of its falling into Russian hands.

It’s a pretty great freaking wall. I’d like to make a project of papering my entire room with my favorite comic strips, but it’s going to be hard enough as it is to take these down if I don’t live here in seven months. Plus, eh, I’m kinda tired now.