SwampLog 3.0

Friday Five: 29 August 2003

1. Are you going to school this year?
Nope. I entertain thoughts of going back to school every now and then, and usually determine that there's not a very good chance of that ever happening again.

2. If yes, where are you going (high school, college, etc.)? If no, when did you graduate?
I graduated high school in June 1988. I haven't graduated college.

3. What are/were your favorite school subjects?
Journalism, drama and world history.

4. What are/were your least favorite school subjects?
Any math discipline. While I'm decent at standard math, I never got into any of the advanced applications. This has never hampered me in any facet of my adult life.

5. Have you ever had a favorite teacher? Why was he/she a favorite?
Randy Vonderheid was my Journalism teacher in high school. He sat me down in my Junior year and told me, bluntly, "You are a very gifted writer. Quit cruising along and actually work on your pieces, and you will be a great writer." Someday, I'll actually take his advice.

Abracadabra

Well, I'm incensed.

There are no auditions for Ad-Libs tonight. So, even though I played it cooler than last time, I'm still disappointed. At least I didn't drive all the way out to Dallas for nothing two months in a row.

The Big Bitter Black Man is having issues viewing this version of the SwampLog. Is anyone else having issues with type disappearing when you scroll down, or is he on crack? For that matter, what do you think of the Moveable Type-driven SwampLog? Leave comments below.

Six home games in a row starting tomorrow -- including two day games back-to-back, the way baseball was meant to be played. During the day.

In case you bypass the front page of DaM to get to the SwampLog, you've missed a couple of new things on the site... such as the first batch of Cancun pictures and the SwampCam. Go have fun.

The pictures from Chichen Itza should be up by Sunday -- I'm hoping to get Tom's Photo CD so all three of our cameras will be represented. Shots that I missed, Tom might have gotten, and so on. Also, he's the only one who took pictures while we were snorkelling in Cozumel.

I've now been off Atkins almost four months, and I've kept off most of the weight I've lost. My friend Greg is about to try and start Atkins, and he's balking at the suggestions I'm giving him. We'll see how long that lasts.

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how the fuck do I post to this damned thing?

=M=

Navel Gazing v. Booty Shaking

The folks at Ad-Libs have rescheduled their auditions, and on Thursday (barring another postponement) I'm going back in to toss my hat in the ring. In retrospect, the postponement might have been the best thing for me. I was nervous, and might not have given a good performance. This time, I have less than two days to prepare myself for the audition, and won't psych myself out for the gig.

Tomorrow morning, my dear friend Mary Candyce goes in for knee surgery. Whole lot of positive energy headed your way, kiddo.

I now know that the next car I drive will be a Mini Cooper. I am now faced with trying to figure out how in the hell I'm going to afford a Mini Cooper. It doesn't matter, though, because whateverscheme I have to launch will be so worth it. The Mini is amazing, and it is so me.

Marty has a friend who is trying to work through a nasty breakup, so he asks me, in true 'High Fidelity' fashion, my Top Five Breakup CDs.

A tough thing, because there are two ways to approach this. You can go with depressing, wallow in your pain for three months music, or bounce off the walls to make the hurt go away music.

So, here's my list for each.

Damned Depressing Shiz:
1) Pearl Jam, 'Black'
2) Joe Jackson, 'Night and Day' (you have to skip over "Steppin' Out")
3) Seal, 'Seal' (his second album)
4) X, 'Ain't Love Grand!'
5) Warren Zevon, 'Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School'

Refuse to Wallow In It:
1) Veruca Salt, 'Eight Arms to Hold You'
2) B-52s, 'Cosmic Thing'
3) Van Halen, 'Van Halen'
4) Pure Disco, Discs One and Two (which is cheating a bit, but if you own one, you're going to own the other)
5) Ramones, 'Mania!'

Fantastic career retrospective of Warren Zevon in today's MoviePoopShoot.com posts. Essential reading if the only place you know Zevon from is "Werewolves of London."

Linkage

* When the 'Fellowship of the Ring' Special Edition was released on DVD, there was one showing -- one -- of the damned thing on the big screen in various cities around America. This year, it looks like they figured out that all the geeks wanted a crack at it, as E!Online reports there will not only be special screenings of both the Special Editions of 'Fellowship' and 'The Two Towers,' as well as a marathon screening of both movies leading up to the release of 'The Return of the King.' My geek pants just exploded.

* Americans -- at least the ones the pollsters found -- are getting fed up with the Iraq imbroglio. (Can you say quagmire? Sure. I knew that you could.) Newsweek reports that 60 percent of those polled think we will be bogged down for many years in Iraq, and 49 percent don't want to see Bush re-elected. As the casualties continue to mount, and the Hussein loyalists continue to make our "rebuilding" efforts looks foolish, expect those numbers to grow.

* The new American protest fad: dress up as cheerleaders when going to a rally. Brilliant.

* The current issue of Rolling Stone (sorry, they don't have an online version of the story; just go out and buy the issue -- it's the one with Mary-Kate and Ashley on the cover, as if you don't already have it) details Canadian efforts to make marijuana possession a ticketable offense as opposed to current methods of "throwing the book" at offenders. It's not decriminalizing pot, but it is a lot less Draconian than America's "War on Drugs" -- and this has the Bushies in a tissy. The current U.S. drug czar, John Walters, has threatened to restrict access between Canada and America if this measure passes. This would further cripple the Canadian economy, which depends on the influx of American dollars.

I don't smoke pot, but its use has never bothered me. Is it time for America to finally look back at the 20+ year War on Drugs and rethink its purpose?

Trial Basis

It remains to be seen whether or not I'll stick with TypePad after the free trial ends, but for now you'll see its work in here for the time being.

I owe Rose a huge apology.

I'm disjointed, and none of my thoughts are very clear and / or concise. Need sleep.

Friday Five: 22 August 2003

1. When was the last time you laughed?
Less than an hour ago, when Marty told me something damned funny. If I had a notepad closeby, I would have written it down, but we laugh a lot.

2. Who was the last person you had an argument with?
My manager at Friday's Front Row, trying to procure my money. It's a constant process. Constant hassle.

3. Who was the last person you e-mailed?
Suzanne.

4. When was the last time you bathed?
Yesterday, before the long, reluctant trip home.

5. What was the last thing you ate?
The only thing that would fit the bill yesterday in my time of need -- the apple smoked bacon cheeseburger, from Buck N' Loon's.

I Think I'll Go For A Walk...

Remind me sometime to tell you about the time I got stuck in Missouri on the way to a vacation.

When I have my head together, I'll post something interesting. As it stands right now, I have three-quarters of the Cancun photos in, and waiting for Tom to get his developed.

More later.

Fickle

There's a free month from TypePad, the Moveable Type concoction. Who am I to not give the damned thing a try? Just in case you want to see the archives for the SwampLog, you can go here. And if I decide to go with TypePad full-time, you'll see the archives here. really.

Pixel-riffic!

Since I don't watch MTV on any kind of a regular basis, I have no idea if the clip for "Move Your Feet" has been getting massive airplay or not. All I know is that if Activision from the early '80s made music videos, they would look like this.

I'm sorting through the photos from Cancun, and it's going to be a little bit before we've got stuff to share. They'll be worth the wait, though.