driving into work on an 8-ball of mocha and blaring the last guilt ep, my car whipping fallen leaves off the street into little maelstroms. it's a tuesday morning, alright. the mocha was given quite a bit of extra kick by my wonderful barrista, this morning. she thought i usually got three shots of espresso, as well as three shots of chocolate. let's just say they should have put an octane rating on the side of that sucker. best part? she didn't charge me any extra. she easily becomes my person of the day.

i had an interview for a new position here at work, this morning, so the extra kickstart to my day was much appreciated. i'm sure i spun a sufficient amount of bullshit to last me well into next week. unfortunately, the interview was done by my immediate supervisor and another good friend here at work. this either means i'm an odds on favorite, or i'm totally screwed. keep your fingers crossed, people…i could use the extra money.

last night i discovered something that may or may not be considered significant to anyone besides myself…there is absolutely nothing good on network television on monday nights. i'm not a big football fan, so that takes one channel out of the mix. i was reduced to watching retard shows like crossing jordan and some show with tony danza as a lawyer. i'd like to point out that i didn't really watch either of these shows. i just kinda sat there and stared at how ridiculous they are. tony danza had two broken arms, and i think he was a lawyer. seriously. who told tony danza that he had any acting talent, at all? who is responsible for letting him continue his acting "career" beyond taxi?

by the way…if you know connor, i'd say that yesterday's "seven questions" was pretty hilarious. that's just my two cents, though. if that wasn't your cup of tea, stay tuned for a special "seven questions" with bipolar's own matt rasnake.

the new hey mercedes album comes out today. go buy it. you won't regret it. unless you're only into death metal or boy bands…in that case, it's probably not your cup of tea.

looks like i've gotten down to that cold, murky, extremely potent bottom portion of this morning's mocha. i think my interview went well, so i think it served its purpose. remember kids…decaf is the devil.

who are you named after?
my first name (connor) is from the main character in the book 'trinity' i believe, which my mom was reading while pregnant…my middle name (joseph) is after an older gentleman who along with his wife were sort of like parents to my parents when they were recently married and living in colorado.

parlour and paden both start with a p and an a. what is the meaning of this?
i named paden without having a clue i'd end up being in parlour…pure coincidence.

what are three things you only do when no one else is looking?
can't think of three, but i've yet to take a shit when someone is looking…
is it in the plans? like it just hasn't come up yet?
nothing yet, try back later…

name an animal you would be glad to eat if it had a cooler, more appetizing name.
i suppose dogs and cats…some sort of taboo about that, but it seems to me we'll get around to eating them eventually…so many of them, seems natural to eventually get around to eating those too…maybe cause they're our pets too…but that has nothing to do with their name.

if you were to find out that one of your absolute favorite beverages had a high urine content, would you still drink it?
no, urine is not healthy to drink…

why don't you look like newman?
you mean i don't? metabolism will catch up to me i suppose. the glasses thicken slowly but surely…

if you were to jump off a building (on purpose) and bounce, yet you were still alive…would you be pissed or relieved?
pissed knowing i had some serious super powers that i only now discovered…but really, i would just think the thing was cool and immediately jump off another building…don't you think that would be cool?
but… i mean…in the situation…you're jumping off the building on purpose, ostensibly to kill yourself…
or to see if i have this unique power…
so you would want your superpower to be to be able to bounce like a rubber ball?
well…i wouldn't be pissed having a super power…better than none…

[connor is smart and doesn't have a website that he maintains on a regular basis. he spends most of his time in front of his ibook creating music. he played in paden and is currently in parlour. you can catch his solo set, under the name shedding, wednesday night at artswatch in louisville, kentucky.]

well it seems that on the very day i decide to trek down to "the blossom" to grab some black bean chili…it ends up not being one of the soups of the day! what a crock of shit, i say. winter is coming on, people…it's chili season! the world needs more chili! "festive" black bean chili! i had to settle for some weird tortellini soup that was soupy, but really only made me want the tortellini from ramsi's.

fuck it. nevermind.

connor informed me that most of the acts he's playing with wednesday night will be doing video as well as playing musical compositions. be prepared for a full-on multimedia experience.

why was there no chili?

it seems like paul has thrown down a quite exhaustive review of the new offerings from fugazi. good to see he's posting again. sometimes you just have to get that boy excited about something, i tell ya.

it looks like i've settled on some "festive" black bean chili from rainbow blossom for lunch. i'm a big fan of the chili, but as scott and i have decided…it's best in moderation.

details as they emerge.

what's that line from say anything? oh yeah… "bitches, man…" i think that speaks for itself, huh?

moving right along…

monday morning. sitting at work. i ended up sitting around the house to watch the practice last night. then i watched the yankees come one step closer to going to another world series (they'll be facing those arizona diamondbacks). then scott came over and we shot the shit for a while. now i'm sitting at my desk, not even 12 hours later, cozying up to a cream cheese danish. i skipped the coffee today, so this danish better hit the spot. or there's gonna be some serious trouble.

there's a few good shows this week, which i plan to hit. wednesday night is a tough one because connor's project, shedding, is playing at artswatch with a whole mess of out of town electronic artists. this just happens to fall on the same night as telavet playing at the rudyard kipling with fin fang foom. seeing as i mentioned to guy and scott that i would come see their next show, i'm kinda obligated. but for future reference…if you're into the bleeps, bloops, clicks and whirs of modern (non-dance) electronic music, head out to see shedding at artswatch wednesday night. the slow suicide is playing a halloween season show at the rud saturday night, so that should be pretty awesome, as well. of course…if you're not in louisville, this does you exactly zero good. guess you better move, huh?

i still think the strokes are overrated and skull ball is still missing.

i've found the only tactic i can think of to make monday morning not so bad…work sundays. monday becomes like tuesday, and you only have two more days (if you're me and work four 10-hour days) left in the week. makes monday a hell of a lot more appealing. you should give it a try sometime.

my weekend so far has been surprisingly eventfully non-eventful. on thursday (technically not the weekend, i suppose) paul, brax, & i went to the wonderful if somewhat uncomfortable baxter avenue theatre to see "apocalypse now: redux." having only seen the original maybe once before, many many years ago, it was like seeing it for the first time. i've gotta say that movie is very long. most of my friends don't agree with me that they could have cut probably at least 30 minutes (aside from the 40 minutes of added "redux" footage) from the movie. i just feel that there were several places in the movie that could have been made quite a bit more succinct and which probably would have increased the emotional/psychological impact of the film as a whole. i liked it, don't get me wrong. i just think i could have liked it more.

friday i finally got to hang out with brian some, as planned. we went and did a little bit of the coffeeshop hopping that we had planned, but brian didn't seem to be quite as into it as when we'd discussed it earlier. we mainly walked up and down bardstown road for a while. we did run into the infamous MC Seth-yo (of the much appreciated wraith computer systems, our benevolent site hosts) at one of our stops, but i didn't get to speak to him much as the barristas inside took about 30 minutes to deal with the two customers in front of me. ah well.

after grabbing some grub, brian and i went back to chill and digest at my place, where we ran into paul and (brian's roomie, my former roomie) jess. jess begged and pleaded with me to go with her and paul to see the 10:'ish showing of "from hell," but i bowed out because i'd promised to hang with brian (and he was planning to go to a later showing with some other friends). well, as it turned out, the later showing didn't actually exist, so we tried to call guy & scott and see if they wanted to go to the 10 o'clock. unable to get hold of them, we jumped in the car and raced to the baxter to meet up with jess & paul. after finding them (actually, we beat them there) we settled in.

i thought the movie was great. really quite good. well acted, well directed. good visuals. gruesome in all the right places. paul wasn't as impressed with it, ostensibly because he "already knew the story." ah well. you can't please everyone. which is, i'm sure, what he'd say regarding my opinions on "star wars episode 1: the phantom menace."

saturday found me sleeping in after a longish night of carousing at the backdoor (where we met an old friend from back in the murray days, alan who's finally graduated with a double major and is planning on going for his doctorate… who'da thunk it?!). i think i finally got up around 6:00 pm, not having gone to bed until about 6:00 am. shortly after getting up, brian called and we ran out to fazoli's to get some grub. met up with guy there, went to the unfortunately closed compusa, then to target, then home. after that, the night was entirely low-key, sitting around, watching paul's new "phantom menace" dvd, which, unfortunately didn't increase my appreciation for the movie at all.

today… another low-key day. went to BK for lunch, probably going out with jess in a little bit for ice cream, then later, the sunday band practice.

i'd have to say, it's actually been a pretty eventful, fun-filled weekend. still haven't gotten shit done, but that's the way it goes.

okay…whoever is writing these fortune cookie fortunes needs to seriously wise up. i'm getting sick of these half-assed fortunes that are always just either something i already knew about myself or a total crock of shit. today's fortunes (the girl at double dragon always gives me two cookies. long story):

you have the ability to adapt to diverse situations.

and

you will discover your hidden talents.

okay…i already knew i was quick and adaptable. you have to be, in order to survive, these days. it also makes life a lot easier and less of a fucking headache. as far as discovering my hidden talents…well…i can't comment on that, except maybe there's a reason they're hidden, huh? maybe it should read "a really nice girl will discover the hidden fact that you're a really good kisser." see…that would be a kickass fortune.

or how about the ultimate?

girls will stop being lame and call you back.

oh…that would be too good for words. i guess every fortune i get these days can't really compare to the highlight of my fortune cookie plundering:

everyone agrees you are the best.

i rest my case.

sunday morning. the mocha is gone and i'm dreamily gazing toward lunch. it's days like today where i start to feel like i'm moving through time like a bullet through water…not so fast.

i had a completely uneventful weekend. i did the payday thing on thursday and ended up hanging out with scott that night paying video games. friday night i…uhhhh…did something and eventually headed out to see from hell with matt, paul, and jess. i liked the movie a great deal and i'm thinking it'll end up being awesome on dvd. saturday i was supposed to go out with the new girl, but she flaked and never called. typical. this is, of course, after she seemed to have flaked the two days before that, as well. a simple "brian…you're a little weird for me" would have sufficed. saturday was spent grabbing lunch with jess, hanging out with guy and matt, and then heading over to a little get-together over at connor's place. ping pong quickly degenerated into mario tennis, which quickly degenerated into a jam session in connor's basement. scott and i ended up getting tired of hearing everyone play the same thing for 30 minutes and headed over to my place for…you guessed it…some more video games.

why the hell did i tell you how incredibly lame my weekend was?

how about i just make something up?

we were drunk and hanging out with these clowns who were totally cranked up on meth. we ended up robbing three liquor stores and a mini-mart before the really tall clown (i think his name was roscoe, and he may have been wearing stilts) puked all over the inside of the volkswagen (we were hanging with clowns, y'know…) so we had to call it a night. scott ended up shooting 3 innocent bystanders before he realized that…

nevermind. i won't make something up.

flaky girls…what's up with that? every time i seem to think i have a pretty kickin' situation going on, it dwindles down to some retarded, anti-climactic end. it usually happens right around the time matt says "i've noticed you've been in a much better mood, lately." bollocks.

i should be offering up (over at transmission3000) the of asaph cd and a new live set from the band sometime before the end of next month. the downloadable version of the cd will include a previously unavailable bonus track, so keep your eyes peeled.

[editor's note: "flaky" and "girl" are two words that, when combined, are quite redundant. sorry. i should have known that from the beginning.]

official bipolar correction: it seems like matt and i will be strolling the streets of the highlands in a mass coffeeshop "tour de force" on friday night instead of thursday. this is really only interesting because it's the original scheduled day for the jaunt, but matt got busy, then got unbusy, then got busy on the alternate day, then he learned he wasn't really busy on the original day.

this loosely translates to: "matt needs a fucking palm pilot."

in other news, matt has cited paul as saying he is "burned out" on the whole weblog thing, saying he's actually considering quitting the a-go-go altogether. know what this means? all you puffin fans out there and tell him to get his ass in gear. tell him he has millions of screaming fans that really do "give a shit" about what he has to say.

if you don't mean it…fake it.

not much was done yesterday. i've been listening to the hot snakes cd again, and in the course of looking up some possible tour dates for them, i found this interview over at buddyhead. it's definitely worth a look.

it seems like "pink robot guy" abandoned my desk because of my direct hostility and "mishandling" of the previously mentioned pink robot. he even took down my "where is skull ball?" note in a snitty little fit of defiance. he moved to the desk next to mine, so rest assured that i will post a new note before the end of the day.

today marks the release of a very special comic book. they pulled together some of the greatest talents in the comic field to illustrate and write a book depicting the true heroes of the wtc disaster, the firemen, police officers, and ems responders. it's called heroes and you can pick it up at any comic shop in your area. all proceeds go to the relief fund and the red cross. here's a gallery of some of the featured art. hell…buy two or three copies. give them to friends and family.

i've been debating the chili vs. sesame chicken lunch options today. i'm tellin' you…the chili was fuckin' good. but…i haven't had the sesame chicken in a while. and…we know what happens when you eat chili three days straight. too many beans…

okay…no more body humor.

this weekend i think i'll be rolling out to huber's orchard/winery/family restaurant with sarah. there's talk of picking out a pumpkin. i know my mind is talking to itself about picking up some homemade chicken and dumplins. yes…in kentucky they are called dumplins and not dumplings. get over it.

other than that, i think tomorrow night, matt and i are going to do a coffeeshop tour de force, planning on grabbing at least a cup at every shop with in walking distance. instead of like one of those stupid beer walks, where you end up passed out in the gutter, matt thinks we'll end up grinding our teeth and swinging from trees. sounds like my kinda night.

speaking of matt…it seems like since he moved in with paul, puffin a-go-go has been getting updated less and less frequently. i wonder if matt is infectious and maybe i'm just immune? this definitely looks like a situation that could stand to have a little more research done on it. in other words…hey! paul! update! or we'll take all your star trek games away…