Back in the old days, people used to chop each other up with axes. This wasn't a very civilized thing to do. But, people tolerated it because, if you're afraid of having your head cut off by a big-ass ax, you don't really have time to worry about love.

Also, people used to fuck in the hay. They did this because nothing in the world was better at reminding them that they were, indeed, fucking, than the rippling aroma of horse feces.

i don't think love really exists, really. love=timing if it is anything at all.

or

i'm in love every minute these days.

Merry Christmas, yew Bastards.

I won't be at work until next year - so Happy Holidays everyone!

I think seattle to portland is a 2.5- 3 hour drive. I do not expect to be busy in April. May might be another story. Come visit. Don't bring a cold with you.

Here's my queue so far. Suggestions are welcome...
  1  The Importance of Being Earnest  
  2  Lone Star    
  3  The Women    
  The Princess and the Warrior  
  Cast Away  
  Happy Times  
  Moulin Rouge  
  Hedwig and the Angry Inch  
  The Royal Tenenbaums  
  The Man Who Wasn't There  
  Storytelling  
  Tortilla Soup  
  Antonia's Line  
  Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring  
  Enigma

Upma - I get to see your movie! That is so exciting! I can't wait for SXSW. Good luck.

Angie - it's nice to be in demand. No surprise. Upma - thanks for all the suggestions.
"no debt and at least 100K in the bank by 30" - not going to happen. I live month to month and am happy to be able to do that. Once the car payment is done, the savings account with be augmented.
Here was my weekend:
1) joined NetFlix - hello movie geekness
2) went to see the lights on 37th street (and took lots of long exposure pictures) - big, local deal in Austin where everyhouse on the street goes CRAZY with lights - totally over the top - you leave $$ on their electric meters, one house set up a fog machine to be a volcano with alternating red and white lights, another house did more home-made light strings - recycling plastic bottles to made their own shaped light strings (old perscription bottles, mouthwash bottles, egg cartons and so forth)
3) tried sepia printing in the darkroom - not crazy about the brown tint on most prints
4) bought about 8 different varieties of cheese at Central Market - nothing says the holidays like cheese
5) went and saw "Ratgirl's Holy Rockin' Christmas" play at the Vortex, laughed so hard my face hurt when it was over.

Edwards is going to eventually. He was very, very close to being Gore's running mate. He's got positives and negatives. On the plus side, he's young, charming and goodlooking. On the negative side, he seems to have no positions on anything, he's a former person injurys lawyer, and he's only been in public office for four years. If he runs, he'll have a hell of a time beating Herr Bush.

Did you see Al Gore on Saturday Night Live? He was really funny, believe it or not. Tons better than when John McCain was on. Better than when Robert Deniro was on, too.

We didn't do anything special this year. I came home to be with my family. We all went out to eat. It was okay.

Weez - I'm not in debt, but my bank account is less than your's. I think I have about $25. I'm going to have to sell a kidney to afford rent.

Did you know that a group of flamingos can be referred to as a "flamboyance of flamingos" and you can say a "muster of peacocks, a raft of ducks, a team of swans, a nye of pheasants" and so on. I wonder what a group of lake effectors would be called?

Happy Birthday, Zach - I hope you have a great year.

Thanks guys. I hope 27 is better than 26 has been.

Poverty kept me from seeing many movies or buying many albums this year. I couldn't even think about compiling a favorite movies of the year. I think I've seen about four. But, here's a list of my favorite albums this year. There are things I know would make the cut if I'd been able to purchase them. I'm thinking mainly of the new Pedro the Lion and Kill the Moonlight by Spoon. But here goes nothing...

In no order:
1. The Breeders - Title TK
Very dark and weird, but also hyponotic and beautiful. Most songs feature little more than drums and vocals. This is going to be the most overlooked album of the year, no question.

2. Kylie Minogue - Fever
For fuck's sake, does dance pop get any better than this album? Seriously. I'm not being retorical.

3. Lambchop - Is a Woman

4. Ryan Adams - Demolition
The slow pretty songs sound sincere. "She Wants to Play Hearts" and "Jesus (Don't Touch my Baby)" are heartbreakers. The rock songs are cheesy, but I think that's why I like them.

5. Pearl Jam - Riot Act
This is the first great PJ since Vitalogy. Not as balls out rock. Much more texured and thoughtout. A record of surprising depth.

6. Anomoanon - Asleep Many Years in the Woods
Neil Young fronts the Grateful Dead while playing Palace covers.

7. Teenage Fanclub - Howdy
Every single Teenage Fanclub album is worth buying. This one is no exception.

8. All Night - All Night
Greensboro southern rock band. Employ the phrase "cock-blockin'" at one point.

That's it. I'm sure there are other things I'm not thinking of. I hate being poor.

Our house is the only one I know of that didn't ever lose power. Every other person I know lost power for at least a few hours. They say it was the worst storm in terms of outages ever. I maintain, however, that Hurricane Hugo in 1989 was a more destructive storm in more general terms. Some people disagree. Usually snow in NC is a lot of fun. We see it enough that it's almost like a unscheduled holiday around here. One a year you get a few days off, but no one knows exactly when that will be. Plus, native North Carolinians aren't jaded about snow. We still have fun with it. But, this last storm wasn't very much fun. First off, the snow was gone really fast. It snowed for about three hours, then it turned to ice and froze everything. You can go play and walk around in snow, but you can't do that in ice. So, there was no sledding or anything. And everything is frozen. Like frozen frozen. We went to a show last Friday and it took us thirty minutes to get into my car because the door was sealed shut. Audrey and Lisa eventually just climbed through my windows.

The house situation is another thing altogether. Since we've had power, we've had guests. Evan's girlfriend, Kaitlin, and her son, Hudson (2 years old), were here for a while and that was okay. They're considerate people. But, my housemates all turn into Mr. Goofy Kidsloveme when Hudson is around. They mean well, but they try too hard and Hudson, frankly, could give a shit about whatever funny face you're making. And then, Audrey and Lisa... First off, Lisa has a terrible dog called, Hi, who is completely worthless. It got wet in the snow and stinks. It begs for food. It licks. It mopes around because, I guess it knows it's just taking up our air. Hi has to go, soon, or I'm going to pull my hair out. Lisa and Audrey are okay houseguests. Lisa in particular is fucking loud all the time. And having two more people vying for kitchen and bathroom time is a hassle. They don't have anywhere to go and they are welcome here, but I won't be too sad when things get back to normal.

Angie -someone needs to figure out how to bottle your energy and sell it.
Zach - how are you doing post North Carolina storm?
weekend accomplishments - finished knitting a scarf, wrapped all my HanukahMas presents (being celebrated this weekend, don't you know), and convinced myself not to go into work this weekend even though I needed to (just didn't want to).

The new J.Lo song, "Jenny From the Block," is what we kids call "bumpin'."

Happy Birthday Mike. I hope you had a great day. Oh, Shelly, how was your sister's wedding? And all that hullabaloo? Here's my Thanksgiving rundown.
My Thanksgiving was mostly great. Lots of good food (yum, fondue) and board game playing (Imaginiff has replaced Apples to Apples as my new favorite party game) and walking around Audobon Park and knitting. And we got to celebrate Hanukkah as well. It was a full house with lots of laughing at old pictures and fighting over bad TV, and a million tuperware containers of leftovers in the fridge. The bad: grinding my teeth (stress) and triggering a migraine on my 8 hour drive back (doing solo - since Ted flew out to Chicago for work from New Orleans). So I check into a hotel two hours from home for a few hours until the pain subsides and my tunnel vision goes away and the smell of everything stops making me nauseous. I love spending time with my family but somehow my body thinks differently.