i think i may be waffling on whether or not to go see j. mascis tonight at a local bar-type place. a couple of reasons spring to mind…
reason 1: it's j. mascis. not dinosaur jr. i can look forward to hearing songs from the new album, but not classic songs that i'm yearning to hear live. as good as the new album is…i want to hear the old stuff.
reason 2: it costs a whopping $14 at the door. this is, once again, to see j. mascis play what i consider "alright" songs. not exactly worth $14 (actually $28, because i'll have to pay a friend's way in, as well…).
reason 3: it's at phoenix hill tavern, which is one of the lamest redneck, "big bar" type places we have in this city. drive needles into my eyes, please.

in other news, kerry keeps doing little redesign tweaks, now hat her site is back up. it's starting to look like the oldest design i can remember her having, as a matter of fact. we discussed this and she mentioned how much she liked the old design, which i had to agree. so give it a whirl and see what you think.

we finally got confirmation on why kenoki was down, and all i have to say is: someone who is getting laid that much needs to stop complaining. on the flip side, i honestly respect her need to be with someone in their heart, as well as their pants. or something like that.

god that was incredibly lame.

update: it looks like a certain mr. nord's email address is non-functional. guess that's what he gets for using aol and not knowing jack crap about the real web, let alone weblogs. can you sense my anger? my hostility? can you feel my pain, people? well in lieu of emailing the author, let the editor know how you think we should have at least been mentioned in the article. i'm not asking for a feature here, kids…i'm asking for some fucking respect. is that too much?

that is all.

take action!: after reading the article about weblogs that matt linked to the other day (before blogger jumped on the bandwagon), i noticed that an article written for our fair city's newspaper about websites like bipolar…failed to mention bipolar. how fitting. we're probably one of the first few blogs that have sprung out of this damn burg (no slight to paul), yet we get no respect. well…maybe that'll change. i decided to email the author of said article and berate him for deciding to point his focus on some hoosiers with blogs no one has ever heard of. so keeping with matt's theme of taking action, i urge you all to let your voices be heard. email the author of that article and give him a piece of your mind! tell him how much bipolar has changed your lives! tell him how we're the first stop on your links list (unless you have it in alphabetical order, but we're still damn near the top) every morning. tell him how you laugh when we're happy and cry when we're sad. just don't tell him about all that money we owe you people. god damn.

sleep well, my flock.

here's what i was going to post last night, before that whole Mir/Taco Bell discovery.

update: go here, to voice your support (in an official Marvel forum, no less) for one of my favorite titles. (of course, i've just realized that you have to be registered for marvel's forums to post a reply, so perhaps one of the other options below would be better.)

Marvel Comics is getting ready to cancel one of my favorite titles–Spider-Girl. having heard that the EIC Joe Quesada is trying to figure out a way to save the book from the accountant's axes, it would really mean a lot to me if all of you could spare two minutes to respond to his post on marvel's boards. just write something simple, like "please don't cancel this awesome book!" or something along those lines.

you can also go to fandom.com's spider-man domain and take the little poll about halfway down the left-side column. be sure to choose "that sucks! it was a good title." (or, one of the other positive responses.) it would mean a great deal to me, and you can take pride in the knowledge that you have helped to make this crazy guy happy.

and again, you can go here for an online poll that will be submitted to marvel at the end of the month.

c'mon, do it for me. please?

well, i was thinking of posting something completely different from this, but now i've completely forgotten what that was.

in case you haven't yet heard, taco bell has set a 40' x 40' floating target in the mir station's proposed splashdown zone in the south pacific. apparently, if the space station's core hits the target, taco bell will offer one free taco to everyone in the u.s. read taco bell's own press release.

but really, the thing that struck me as truly hilarious was the idea that there's this huge tarp floating in the south pacific with these words.

well, it's getting late, and i've been attempting to straighten out my sleeping habits a bit. time to hit the sack. but more tomorrow.

it's been pointed out to me by a couple of individuals that i haven't posted in a while. well…it's the truth. i've had a lot on my mind, lately, and despite all of that brain activity…nothing really to talk about. or write about. or whatever.

i hung out with scott last night. he was actually online for a bit, looking for some information on his planned purchase of a mac. he decided to message me, and we decided to go out for some grub. i don't get to hang out with scott very often (both of our faults…we're notorious for not calling each other), so we did our standard amount of catch up (which consists of "what's been going on?" and the reply of "not much."). after we ate, we ended up driving around, looking for abandoned warehouse space to go dig around in. the search turned out to be a waste of time, but scott and i got to hang out, so it's all good in the end.

paul came over for some tv watching this evening. i didn't really take part, mostly because of the anti-social mood i've been in all day. nothing to slight the puffin, of course…i just wasn't really in the mood. the reason i don't like television? because i just turned around to discover that someone has come up with the brilliant idea of producing pink carbonated…milk. i'm sorry, but that's just fucking retarded. whatever genius at cornell university that came up with that one should be beaten. a lot.

i spent my day off today doing as little as possible. i changed out the speakers in my car, so the rock factor has definitely been increased. other than that? i did a great big bunch of nothing. i stopped by the record store to pick up the new small brown bike cd, which came out today. it's pretty damn good, if i don't say so myself.

looks like kerry sorted out her problems with tripod and got her site back online. that's a relief for me, because without my semi-regular dose of the kerroo…i just may shrivel up and die. fo' real.

another site that's made it's return recently is good ol' kenoki. she was down out of sheer paranoia, but it looks like her 13 day standoff with fear has finally come to an end. i'm looking forward to the complete explanation…

and now i need to get to bed, so that i can go to work at a job i hate, to buy shit i don't need. good night.

where to begin?

the last week at work has been rather… interesting, to say the least. the roosters are crowing while the little chicks and hens are just kind of nervously clucking and hopping about. top that off with my aforementioned bout with near-deathly illness (that being a rather nasty head-cold), by the time friday rolled around, i was ready to just kind of kick back and enjoy the weekend. i got an invitation from some co-workers to go out and wind down with a little drinkage after the workday, and, for once, had actually agreed (if somewhat reluctantly) to go. so, 10 minutes before i'm getting ready to head out, brian finally pops up on AIM, and i tried to find out if he and paul had any immediate plans for the evening of which i should be made aware. in other words, if they were actually planning on going out and doing something fun, i was going to ditch my work buddies and tag along with my homies. if, on the other hand, it was friday business-as-usual–no defined plans, except just taking the night as it comes–i'd go ahead and get my drink on with the corvus crowd.

so, here i am, wanting only one thing — a definitive answer as to whether or not he and paul had anything planned. what i got was some half-baked crap about "having something good planned" for me specifically, and that i would "definitely like it." i'm not sure if they could tell by my snappy responses, but i was actually getting very frustrated at them for being so damned evasive. i got this vague idea in the back of my head that maybe this had something to do with sharon, as i vaguely recalled some conversation we'd had almost a month ago about the possibility of her coming through town in the near future. and also, i figured that both brian and paul know how much she means to me, and that she'd pretty much be the only person for whom i'd consider changing my plans. their mutual assertions that it would be "worth it," and paul's "trust me," pretty much cinched it for me. (of course, i think that until they read this, they're still under the impression that i was completely hoodwinked.)

and sure enough, moments after i got home (having noticed that the front door was suspiciously unlocked), who should come up the stairs but sharon herself, in all her radiant beauty. i don't know how many of you have ever actually had a "frown turned upside down" in the space of two heartbeats, but i can authoritatively say that it does happen. we spent the next few hours just hanging out and talking, having a good time. i finally got to meet the boyfriend that i've heard so much about, and having met him and gotten to know him a little, i have to grudgingly give him my approval. well, you know, not that that really matters. but it's like i told him as they were leaving… "you better take good care of her, 'cause i don't want to have to hurt you."

sharon and i shared a couple whiskey shots, chased with some really flat coke (which, i realized, is one way that i can actually do whiskey shots, lord help us) and chatted briefly down in the kitchen, before rejoining the rest of the boys upstairs. all in all, it was a low-key visit, but a very welcomed one. i'm always happy to talk to sharon, and obviously so much happier to actually get to see and spend time with her. but i'm greedy, i wish she (yes, and grant as well) could have stayed a little longer, hung out, maybe had a big crazy night drinking, bowling, and carrying on. maybe we'll be able to do that when i go visit them in sunny cali. we'll go show those little hollywood bums how to really party.

as paul may have mentioned on his site, our trip to cincinnati was quite enjoyable. it ended up being kinda cold up there, but we toughed it out like real troopers. we got into town fairly early, considering the show wasn't scheduled to begin until 9 pm. we wandered around the area until about 6, when we opted to peep out the venue. when we got there, we found a cozy little coffeehouse with quite a few kids packed in and sipping drinks. we hung out and had some drinks ourselves, and then opted to go get something to eat, since they wouldn't start charging until 7:30. we went and ate what turned out to be some pretty bad italian food and then headed back to the place at around 7:15. when we got there, we were dismayed to discover about a million kids lined up around the block to get into this thing. jess and paul took up our spot at the rear of the line while i proceeded to loo high and low for a certain mr. nanna. we ended up making our contact and everyone got in with a maximum of confusion.

it was nice to see bob, dan, and the gang, and plans were sketched out for a possible throwdown if hey mercedes comes through louisville any time this summer. they played a few new songs, all of which rocked, making me very eager to hear the new album when it gets done.

i also got to finally meet the britt, who lives up there in "the 'nati". she was an extremely cool girl, and it was fun hanging out with her.

and then there was that thing with paul finding the girl of his dreams. but that's his story…wouldn't want to piss off mr. "170lbs. of fuck you" himself…

wow. i haven't updated in a couple of days. i guess i've been really busy or something.

i'm sitting here waiting for paul to come over so we can go to lunch. we're supposed to be headed up to cincinnati to see hey mercedes tonight, but we don't really know where jess is. this is pretty typical for the morning of a road trip day. no sweat.

matt got quite the surprise yesterday when we sprung a certain miss perry on him. sharon and i decided that it would be more fun if the entire thing were kept secret, so it was hush-hush all the way. matt almost blew it all when he made contact from work, telling me and paul (who was in on it) that he was planning on going out to eat with some friends from work. we were expecting sharon at any time, so we had to try to convince matt that it was in his best interest to come home, without revealing the "big secret". paul stepped in and got "influential" and the whole matter was worked out. matt headed home, post-haste, and got here a scant few minutes before sharon. drinks were had, pictures were taken, video of me talking to julia on the phone was shot. all in all, a good visit.

for the record: sharon lives in california, and this trip was planned out a long time ago. it's one of those sweeping "visit all the friends in the midwest" kinda things.

everything else in my life has been on the constant up-and-down. i don't know what to think about most of it, but i guess it'll all sort itself out in time. and i'll be god damned if i don't feel like doogie houser typing out his journal thing at the end of every show…

where's vinnie?

as brian pointed out in a post yesterday, i've spent the last couple days recuperating from my first (and hopefully only) real cold of the winter season. funny how these always hit me when winter's on the way out. anyway, i was fairly miserable on Tuesday, but went to work anyway. by about 10:30 i realized it would be nearly impossible to remain lucid at work for the next 6 hours, so i decided to cut and run at lunchtime… hoping, of course, that going home and lounging on the couch and napping for the rest of the day would speed me on the road to recovery and make it so i could go to work Wednesday and be productive. unfortunately, by the end of the evening, i was probably feeling worse than i had earlier in the day, and i was debating on calling in before i even went to bed. but i hoped that a good night's rest would fix me right up, and after downing a few cups of hot tea, i hit the sack intending to figure things out in the morning.

long story short, i ended up taking off the whole day wednesday, lounging around the house most of the day watching reruns of classic star trek and quantum leap. i'd forgotten what a fantastic show quantum leap was.

well, now i'm back at work. and lovin every minute of it. oh, and yeah, i'm feeling quite a bit better.