My Addled Brain

Cleaned up a few things. Got rid of the calendar, which didn’t really do anybody any good, got rid of some other unfinished stuff as well (and, at this point, unlikely to be finished until I can drag myself away from that accursed PS2). Slowly, very, very slowly, we work our way towards that redesign I’ve been threatening to do for the last year.

No, it’s not my New Year’s Resolution. That would be for me to quit smoking.

It was good to see the Madre for the holiday. We got together to visit family, eat some decent Italian food, go shopping at the mall of ridiculousness (the only mall I’ve ever visited to have a Mac store), cook up a big Mexican dinner, and tease each other about being bad drivers. I miss having her around, but I’m glad she’s enjoying the fine country living of greater Atlanta, no matter how much I think that city sucks.

My hair looks so boss in this picture but now I’m thinking about growing a tail.

You know, I’ve always had a feeling about this…but now even David Byrne agrees: Powerpoint makes you stupid. Glad to see this wasn’t just a sign of my increasing paranoia about the world. Unlike my recent urges to stock up on automatic weapons and move to the woods.

Hope everyone had a happy holiday, or is in the midst of having one. Personally, I had a pretty damn fun one myself, the highlight of which was being able to sleep in until 9:30 am Christmas day, with nowhere to go to until 1:00, allowing us to lounge around, and let Carolina partake in FFX all morning long. Not that I wanted to play a game on my brand new PS2 that I got as my gift. Oh no, why on Earth would I want to do that? But it’s been a good holiday so far, and the Madre is down to hide her granddaughter from everyone else for a few days…and to have me fix that ratznfratzn computer of hers that hasn’t worked right in two years.

And I shall.

With a pickaxe.

For those of you who don’t read the comments…well, you’re probably smarter than the rest of us. But you occasionally miss out on some interesting announcements. For those of you in the Greater Kansas City Area ™, be sure to head to see The Mollyphonic Spree at The Bottleneck in beautiful, ice cold Lawrence, KS on the 27th. It will be an evening filled with rock and roll, choirs, and kazoos. Especially kazoos. Get in line now, as the last time Danger Bob got together, they overran the fire code by about 150 people. There, I have officially pimped you, Erky, hope you can sustain the extra person who will now consider showing up as a result.

So you’re a parent, taking your kids out to see one of the few truly and honestly family-friendly outings around, to see The Nutcracker at your local playhouse. You’ve had your fun, and sure, your son may have been too cool to want to watch it, but your daughter sure had fun, and you’re leaving the show, heading back to the car for the ride home. As you exit the theater, you are met with some friendly, costumed foxes and rabbits - looks like some children’s promotion - who are handing out flyers. But these aren’t just flyers, they’re mini comic books. And they’re not just any comic books, oh no. These are comics that proclaim, in big, red letters, that “Your Mommy Kills Animals!” - complete with a mom, in pearls, apron, and a viscious, bloodthirsty stare, stabbing a horrified rabbit to death, blood spewing in every direction.

Bet YOU’RE glad you took the kids to the ballet, aren’t you?

An open letter to PETA:

Dear attention seeking losers,

Way to go on your latest campaign. While I’m sure the “Shock and Awe” tactic so glorified by the current administration, which I’m sure you hold in the highest regard, sounded like a really good idea on paper, the fact that you would present such a disgusting, reprehensible piece of trash you disguise as informative to young children out for an enjoyable day with their families not only makes you look like jackasses, it actually cheapens your “cause”. People who actually agree with you think you’re a-holes for doing this, so how do you think people who don’t agree with you feel?

Maybe you think you’re reaching a younger generation, and by presenting such shocking images you’re forcing both them and their parents to “think”. Hell, maybe you justify yourselves by thinking that if the parents didn’t buy the fur in the first place, you wouldn’t have to make these “handouts”. Perhaps, oh holier-than-thou-PETA-jerk, you should be allowed to continue this sickening display of poor taste disguised as enlightenment. After all, you seem to have failed to convince the world at large that your core beliefs are right through general education and awareness.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go encourage the leather industry to make more things out of their quality products.

Yeah, so I’m not nearly as good as Ernie when it comes to rebuttal e-mails. Bite me.

You know I saw it. You know you saw it too, don’t lie to me. LotR: Return of the King

I agree: undead
armies are very handy
in a tight spot. Wow.

I forsee nerd riots across the world if this doesn’t win many, many Oscars.

Yet another birthday announcement, and again a belated one - happy happy to Andy, who’s still a young whippersnapper and should quit his bitching about feeling old for at least one more year. Sorry I missed out on the happenings at Channelside, but I spent most of my weekend trying to beat off this wretched illness that broadsided me Friday, filling my sinus cavity with what feels like concrete and giving me a generally dazed feeling. This nasty bugger still has something of a grip on me as I type these very words. In any case, I’m sure it was a riot for all involved, and I’ll make it up to you by ordering an extra side of fries when I come to visit your shiny new restaurant, whenever you get around to opening it up. Chop chop. I’m getting hungry.

Mmmmm…cereal and milk…

And to make the Madre feel better, yes, Out of Focus has been updated, and I drop kicked about 300 megs of crap off the server, so there is once again room for everything and anything HRC related. So expect that any time now.

Holy crap, I actually forgot about my website in all this craziness that is the last month before Christmas. Deal. Well, there’s that…and there’s that problem where I’m almost out of space on my website. Seems I have slightly misconfigured Out of Focus to keep all of the original photos at full size…at nearly a meg a photo…well, I’m almost out of space. I’m gonna put a moratorium on new uploads until I get this taken care of, which will happen as soon as I can get back in via FTP and fix it.

To say that having Carolina around is to my benefit is, honestly, putting it mildly. I have never been as far along on my holiday shopping as I am this year. I’m well over halfway done, the gifts we HAVE purchased are wrapped, and the world is hunky-dory. And you all thought she was just using me as rental space for the cat. Shame on you.

p>I went to the movies! YAY! Bad Santa.

I haven’t heard that
F-Bomb dropped this many times
since Goodfellas. Killer

As much as I like this movie, I would really hate for it to be one of the last things I’ve ever done in my career…poor John Ritter.