It's nothing new to anyone who knows me at all, but I have an amazing capacity for laziness. Evenings when I'm home from work or weekends, I have a tendency not do anything productive at all. I spent last night watching that awful reality show about people who can't sing (I refuse to mention the name) even though I loathe it and the people who are on it. And not because I secretly enjoy it, but because I don't have cable and I couldn't be bothered to do anything besides watch television. It wasn't just that one either, this went on for hours. I'm not a snob about watching tv, I rather enjoy zoning out to shows that I like but I just feel crappy after watching hours of shows that I don't even like. There are plenty of things I could have been doing. Like setting up and learning that computer software for recording that I bought, what, 6 months ago? Or, jeeze, even just going down and renting a movie that I might actually enjoy watching. Meh.

My two weeks of worklessness are almost over. I have to get back to the grind on wednesday morning. I'm kinda ready to go back but I feel like I'm just getting in my no-work mindset. I had a nice time off though (aside from that first weekend when I almost puked myself to death). For the first week I got the house all set up and nice (mostly) then for the second week I've been reading and piddling around. There more stuff to do but I kinda ran out of steam.

OK, now I have to walk down to the tire place and get my car.

It is very cold. My toes hurt.

Dear Internets,

This morning I woke up at 7:30am and went running. For 15 minutes. Which may not sound like very long but is in reality 15 minutes more running than I've done in close to 20 years. Or maybe more like 18. It was cold.

Now I'm puttering around on the computer while the plumber fixes the undersides of my kitchen sink. It was pretty messed up. I poked a hole in the pipe with my finger.

I feel like I was pretty productive this weekend despite the endless hours of football watching. I went frame-crazy as they were 1/2 price at HobLob. I now have some nicely framed old flyers and posters and college-era intaglio and lithograph prints. I also cut up an old Beatles calender and put some of the pics into a multi-pic frame. Hmm, I also put together a big, new bookshelf. For the first time in a long while all my books have a home besides large piles on the floor.

All the football watching made me rather anti-social on Sat/Sun but Friday night Dan, Choo, JLowe and Staci came over and we had a Wii party. Staci was definitely the n00b wii-nner. I wish I had gotten my camera out.

The number one reason the people of this country will never elect Barack Obama is that he says things like, "We are happy warriors for change!"

It's odd to finally be sitting in my own house. I got a couch today so my living room is feeling living room-ish. Instead of hiding out in my bedroom I'm hiding out in the living room. Also, I have a temporary roommate, Jack G. He's staying here until he leaves for tour in March.

I'm off of work for a couple of weeks. Instead of my usual 2-3 months down time, I'm only off for 2 weeks. While I'd like a bit longer to relax, it'll be nice to have $$ coming in.

The newest fad in weight-loss! The 7-pounds in 2-days Dysentery Diet! That was seriously one of the worst two day periods I've ever had to endure. I couldn't eat, drink or sleep for about 48 hours this weekend. Well, I take that back, Sunday night I got almost four hours on sleep but that half a banana I had for breakfast? Body says no thank you. Or more like No! Thank! You! I'm pretty much over it now but still really weak and light headed. Ug, I hate being for real sick instead of plain ol' I just feel like crap sick.

The folks at gawker media have launched a blog about all things sci-fi called io9.com. Just in time, too, since the worker-bots here at work have just blocked boing boing.

The girl from Juno was Kitty Pryde in the X-Men movies! Damn, I knew I knew her from somewhere.

I never do resolutions for the new year and I'm not going to start now, but I am going to try to set a few goals for myself.

 

1) Let go of things. Not things as in physical stuff but irritations and slights and grudges. I'm just not going to dwell on this stuff anymore. At the same time, I'm going be less of a push-over. I think these tie in together pretty closely because it's my resentment that gets to me and if things are taken care of in a straight forward manner, there will be less resentment. Just less passive-aggressive BS in general.

 

2) Do less. Do more. I'm going to do less meaningless stuff and hopefully use that time and energy to do more important things. Just focus on what's important and what gets me towards my long term goals. Less time in bars more time creating a real life.

 

I know it's a bit lame to list stuff like this but I feel like the more I say it, the more I'll do it.

Happy almost new year. I am without plans for tonight. I'm plan-less and not at all unhappy about it. I find with NYE events, the less plans, the more fun.

I'm totally moved in to the new place. Just some odds-n-ends left over at the old one. Like my bike. and wok. The house is slowly starting to come together. I painted a few rooms last week then this last saturday I had some familial help finishing the office/bedroom and kitchen. Only one room left in need of paint.

I'm still pretty much without furniture. I'm going to try to find a cheap-ish couch today. I think. I'm determined not to go into too much debt to furnish this place. If that means I live in a sparsely furnished home for a bit, I'm ok with that.

All the top ten album lists are coming out. I've been thinking about it for a couple of days and I honestly can't thinking of any records that came out in 2007 that I really care about. I like the Amy Winehouse record pretty well, does that count?

The Atlantic has a good story about the making of the Golden Compass into a film. I've yet to see the movie but I plan on going soon.

"The Narnia series, in his (Pullman's) view, embraces a worldview that comes close to “life-hating ideology”—punishing, misogynistic, racist, and death-obsessed. By contrast, his own books are filled with a kind of warmth, an exuberance for finding utopia in this life."

One of my fave political writers, Radly Balko, has put his list of "predictions about what will become of our civil liberties in 2008."

Working working working. I shoulda been unemployed months ago. I'm not really complaining but I'm just not used to it. Looks like I'll be at my job til the first week of January. I've decided that once I get settled into the new place, I'm going to try to make some inroads into non-desk job work. I have a few ideas of ways to make some extra cash. The whole book selling thing hasn't really made me much, if anything. I going to keep doing it in hopes of figuring some new angles. The other ideas are extra super secret for now so as not to jinx 'em.

"The big problem with being sniffy about SF is that it’s just too important to ignore. After all, what kind of fool would refuse to be seen reading Borges’s Labyrinths, Stanislaw Lem’s Fiasco, Orwell’s 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World or Wells’s War of the Worlds just because they were SF?"

- Why don't we love science fiction?

I'm ten hours and forty minutes into DAY 2 of no caffeine and while it sucks, it could be worse. Also helping was the fact that 7 of those DAY 2 hours were spent sleeping. My grand anti-caffeine plan revolves around this one idea - that drinking Sprite Zero will fool my body into thinking it is getting what it needs. I have a theory that I'm not such a soda fiend because of the caffeine as much as the sugar (or fake sugar). The caffeine addiction is just a nice benefit.

OK, so in less than a week I will officially be a homeowner. I'm closing on thursday next week. From there on out expect nothing but discussions of home improvements and such cause my house sure does need a lot of improving. I've set up a vague plan, though. Since I will own the house next week but don't have to be out of my old place til january, I will dedicate my weekends to making my new place a crazy thing called inhabitable. I will do things like call a plumber to get the hot water heater running. Also, I will re-attach the soap dish in the bathtub. I will clear leaves off of, well, everywhere. I will replace the window sills that have rotted away due to water damage and termites. I will make sure the stove isn't leaking gas into the house. I will take up Bridget on her kind offer to loan/give me her old CO meter to put next to the 40+ year old wall furnace in my hallway that is the only heat source for the house (until I buy a few space heaters, anyhow). Then after I move in, I can worry about things like paint and, well, paint.

There's nothing like having a naked face once or twice a year to remember why you normally grow a beard (even if it's turning white at an alarming rate!) I swear I look 10x chubbier minus facial hair. I never had a strong chin, but at least having a beard sometimes gives that illusion. Now nothing hides my round double chin and the fact that my neck is wider than my head in several places. I have a new inner-mantra... "Grow, face hair! Grow damnyou!"

I'm almost through getting the house. Apparently, mine has been a near painless process, but it was still pretty awful. There were several times when I almost called the whole thing off, letting my extreme anxiety get the better of me. I know I have lots more ahead of me once I'm in there. It's a pretty bare-bones place. No central a/c, old carpet (with questionable tiles underneath), plus about 1000 other things I'll either have to fix or just live with. I'm excited and have lots of plans but, the again, I often get excited and lots of plans for things that I never follow through on.

Interview w/ex-judge Andrew Napolitano (yeah the fox-news guy) at reason.

Just an observation...

 

Do those people who beg for money at stop lights really think that rush hour is the right to time to do it? After working 10 hours and getting stuck in traffic for another half hour, the only money I'm gonna give those jerk-faces is the pennies I'm slinging at their foreheads. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who feels this way.

 

My four-day weekend was nice and relaxing. I pretty much didn't do anything worth anything the whole time. Except for Friday morning when my head exploded. It was just a sad confluence of events that morning which I'd taken off of work in order to nurse my hangover that I never got. It was just too much too fast that morning - (1) my car died at the grocery store which meant I had to walk home carrying multiple bags of foodstuffs, (2) I was trying to make an offer on a house and somehow I hadn't realized that, um, you need to have money on hand to do this - not in some online savings account that, while does pay 4.5% interest, takes 4-5 days to transfer funds, (3) I had to walk back to the store to meet the tow truck, and (4) target didn't have any fans - I mean, none - my room is the attic and it gets stuffy (my old fan died last week). All of this worked out fine since my car only need a new battery cable, the house I want is already under contract, and ,well, the fan thing has yet to be rectified.

 

I don't recall much of the rest of the weekend. I went to see the Evens on Sunday. That was ok, I guess.

I have found the most depraved and disgusting show on television. See it here.

us at fun fun fun fest

We're finished with the new record. All mixed and everything. It should see the light of day sometime early next year. I think it's really freakin' great and I'm gonna be so disappointed if it flops. I really feel like this is the thing that's going to make a change in my life one way or the other. Either it'll be huge and I can quit bothering with a day job or it will get lost in the haze of crappy music and I'll give it all up and stick to my dumb desk.