i'm generally not a violent person, but every once in a while, if the wind is right and the planets are aligned, certain people–just by their being within my sphere of perception–cause me to imagine bashing their head forcefully & repeatedly against the metal corners of my cubicle until their blood stains the fabric walls and bits of bone and brain collect on the floor at my feet.

mind you, this doesn't happen very often.

i came across a link today that reminded me quite a bit of brian, & some of the online shenanigans i've participated in or been privy to. shauna of flaunt.net (along with a friend) has recently created whowouldbuythat.com which is dedicated to uncovering the strangest of online auctions.

in other news, i spent a few minutes last night (or hours, really) helping paul with the puffin-a-go-go. he's added a few links to his "go-go-to" section, and I managed to get his archives up and running, so all you puffin readers run over there and check up on any posts you might have missed.

well, i suppose since i'm here at work, i should probably do some.

how pretentious is that title… oh well.

it's nice to see that some people have gotten into the spirit of my last post. kinda makes me feel special (in a egotistic kind of way, not a short-bus kind of way). perhaps i should post more often?

you'd think that now that i've got a workable new system all for my lil' ol' self at home, that i'd be more conscientious about it, but i can't seem to actually get anything done. i'm trying to catch up on all the email that's been neglected for the past several months, to all my friends who are probably pissed at me for not writing before now, expect to hear from me soon.

things at work are kind of slow right now, and it's sapping my energy and inspiration. we're in a "lull." at least, that's the word that's been used. i had a much better ending to this paragraph, but the link that it hinges around is apparently dead. if it "resurrects" itself soon, i'll come back and replace it. ( how're you supposed to do a weblog when the links spontaneously combust? )

oh, and don't worry too much about brian over there, he's just not getting enough sleep lately–it's affecting his mind.

and paul, tell dennis to send some MY way. i think we can afford a san-fran trip between the two of us.

well. first post from my new computer haven at home. i've finally managed to get everything set up, all my old files transferred from the crappy old laptop i've been borrowing from my dad for the past year & a half, and am beginning the process of installing all those applications that i don't (but should) use on a daily basis.

it's been a rather uneventful day here at casa de bipolar. didn't get a glimpse of the puffin until late in the evening due to the alcoholic stupor he found himself in after last night's festivities.

thanks go out to tim for the link to the nocturnes he sent me. there are quite a few really good pics in the different exhibits there, check 'em out. oh, and as tim pointed out, it really isn't a goth site.

also, from the nocturnes, i found this little gem. what can i say, i'm a sucker for anything science related.

kerry blessed us with an update today, and while i've been enjoying her cryptic little two to four line posts, it's nice to see something more substantial.

and finally, here's a nice little rant on rockout.org about the enraging practice of video & DVD publishers who try (often, successfully) to sell us the same thing over & over again.

yeah.

the dull ache that is my life continues to suck the inspiration from projects i thoroughly enjoy–such as this oh-so-lovely blog.

scott over at erasing.org has posted some recent photographs that have been somewhat inspiring to me today. most of them are very good, some of them are moderately good, and a few of them just look like snapshots.

i have to say that i really enjoy photography, though i know very little about the technical aspects of it. i enjoy candid photos–not "snapshots", but carefully framed candid shots where the subjects aren't posing, and the photographer has taken time to find a good composition. of all my little projects that have fallen by the wayside, i probably regret my neglect of photography the most, probably because it would be the easiest thing to do while doing everything else that occupies my time. i could theoretically carry a camera (even a disposable!) around with me everywhere, and never have to say "if i only had a camera" like i currently do almost everyday.

if anyone knows of some other online photo galleries, collections, personal stashes, or whatever, .

hopefully either this weekend or sometime next week, we'll finally get the trip log and photos from our chicago trip up like we promised weeks ago, and maybe–if you're lucky–we'll actually finish the new bipolar as well. now that i've got this (sort-of) new computer and blazin 'net access, i'll actually be able to devote a little time to it.

it would appear that we've achieved a paltry 69% rating on bloghop.com. all you regulars do us a favor and:

Rate Us on BlogHop.com!
      help?

c'mon now, be honest. you love us, don't you.

well, for lack of something better–more meaningful–to post, i'll post some news items that're probably only of interest to me.

Amiga's about to release version 3.9 of their classic OS, and there's a petition to attempt to convince Amiga to give the nod to the development of a PowerPC native version 4.0.

in other Amiga classic news, Cloanto has released Amiga Forever 4.0–a classic Amiga emulation suite, complete with everything you need to emulate a classic Amiga from the workbench 1.0 days to workbench 3.1. for those of you now toiling away on your PC, Mac, or Linux boxes who long for the days when an OS didn't require over 200MB just to install, and when computers were actually fun to use, get yourself a piece of computing history.

in modern Amiga news, Amiga has released version 1.01 of their new SDK for linux and windows systems, as well as specifications for official AmigaOne systems.

there. now that that's all off my chest, on to other things.

yes. i failed to meet brian's challenge to post every day while he was gone. but i did get our home network setup, complete with that blazin' DSL connection that he's been gushing about since getting home.
it's good to have him back though. i'm relieved that his plane didn't fall out of the sky on his very first flight ever.

can't wait for paul to bring that dune tape over for a marathon viewing. i loved the Lynch version, and paul seems to like this one, so i'm sure it's gonna be great. (or was great, depending on your point of view)

i'm tapped.

well, back from the ol' homestead and haven't had enough of a moment since my return to do an update. almost as soon as i returned on Saturday night, i went out with Paul & Brax, and had a bit of an adventure.

on the home front though, to complete the story of my recent visit, Friday was political discussion day. dinner rolled around and mom provoked the whole thing. dad had been amazingly quiet about the emails we'd exchanged ( read them here: first email & second email ) and only my mom & my little brother had talked to me about them. well, after mom brought it up, then it started. i think dad & I were talking for about an hour and a half, not really making any progress at all, just talking around each other's arguments. we pretty much covered everything. he's a pretty stubborn man, and i conceded a few points to him in the hopes that he'd realize i wasn't arguing just to argue and ignoring my logic on that basis.
      i was disappointed by my father's selfishness and narrowmindedness. he's a very intelligent, thoughful man–generally–and i hold him in high esteem. but the struggles that he has had to face in his life, from the time he was a little boy growing up in the "hollers" of virginia, while building his character and intellect to such an enviable level, have also contributed to and molded this mindset that prevents him from automatically thinking of others (far removed from himself) before himself. his arguments were pretty much all concerned with the immediate impact of some of the ideas that–of necessity–must be considered for their long-term advantages or the advantages they will provide to others who may not currently have them.

thankfully our talk(s, eventually) never grew to the argument stage, but i think we both got flustered at some points when we thought the other was just not listening or understanding. it's frustrating to attempt to explain these abstract concepts you've got buzzing around your head, to not be able to sufficiently explain them with the language we're given. hell, i run into that all the time here on this weblog.

overall, i had a wonderful weekend with my folks and little brother (who ain't so little anymore–he's 13 and his shoes are only a half size smaller than mine… ). much more pleasant than i'd thought it might be. sometimes, though, i think my dad just puts up with my shit because he knows it would break my mom's heart if we were to truly have some kind of split. don't think i've written about my relationship with my dad here, perhaps that'll be a subject for a different time.

      in other news

www.mchawking.com has updated finally and have a new song by that hip-hop master–MC Stephen Hawking. The new song e=mc hawking isn't quite as good as the previous tunes, but still worth a listen. If you've not visited the site before, my two favorite songs would have to be entropy, and fuck the creationists. where else are you going to get a healthy dose of humor, hip-hop, and theoretical physics in one go? nowhere, baby, let me tell you.

thought i'd actually use a song lyric for the title this time, even though that's brian's m.o. it fits, especially considering the fact that we're going to chicago to see the monkeywrench.

well, i haven't updated in a few days again. seems i've actually been finding things to do at work this past week. or, i guess, "having things forced upon me" would be a more appropriate statement. that, and i guess i tend to have less to talk about when i'm not allowing myself to be snubbed by women.

i know brian's already been touting puffin-a-go-go over on his side for a few days now (he's also been updating much more regularly and voluminously than i have, of late) but i'm gonna mention it anyway. it's nice to finally be able to link to Paul without having to resort to that out-dated crappy coffeemonk.com site. oh. wait. that's one of mine. it's crappy and out-of-date because i'm a lazy bastard. BUT puffin-a-go-go is neither crappy or out-dated, in fact, it's pretty damn snazzy, and you should check it out. knowing Paul as well as i do, i know it'll be a neat place to visit.

ok. i think that's four. that should just about catch me up to brian.

let me just state for the record that i am frightened as hell that g. dubya might be our next president. if that happens, brian, jack, and i may be on the earliest flight to australia following the announcement. hell, maybe we could even get walk-on parts as stormtroopers in the next Star Wars flick.

my day today has been interesting i suppose. woke up late, as usual, got to work much later than usual since i had to drive brian's non-car-repairing ass to work. checked my daily sites and then looked up the nearest locations of valvoline and big-o tires so i could get my car in tip-top shape for the arduous journey to chicago. on lunch, i went and got four new tires. unfortunately, i couldn't get them on credit, so i ended up spending more than i'd wanted to.

after work, went to get the fluids checked/changed/whatever expecting like $30 – $40 or something. nope. i let the guy do what needed to be done, and it ended up costing me over $70. again, more than i expected.

now, of course, my car's in good shape, but my wallet is looking a little ill. this will have to be a cheap chicago trip. i'm just hoping they sell mickeys up there. it's cheap, but it's oh so good.

though we'll be gone for the weekend, we'll be at least attempting to update bipolar while we're up there. i'm gonna pack up my trusty laptop so you all can revel in the avalanche of joy we are sure to experience. i'm really looking forward to hangin with nanette and co.

MARK ARM!

well, i'm back on the job today, after taking two days off for that whole birthday thing. thinking, yeah. i'll take two days off, come in on Friday, then have TWO MORE days off… well guess what? we're on a deadline. "we need help and you're the only man who can do it, you're the last man available, can you, maybe, work this weekend? please?"

"yeah, i guess."

ah well, this'll make it much easier for me to get next Friday off to go up to chicago and watch one of my absolute most favorite bands in existence, the monkeywrench. their latest album is pretty kick ass, btw, but i've long considered Clean As a Broke Dick Dog to be one of the greatest albums of all time. it's definitely in my (not-really-defined) top-ten.

hm. this week has been a little odd, both nights that i was off work, i ended up getting drunk (not wasted drunk, but pleasantly drunk). this is not like me. my friends usually bitch about me "never drinking with them." sad thing last night was i was drunk after only two pints of Bass. i guess i've become a lightweight again. well, we'll have to fix that.

oh, and i still haven't heard from her. i'm trying not to think about it, because, y'know, fuck her if she can't make a little effort to at least pretend she cares. lip service is all i've gotten (and no, not that kind of lip service). a person can talk about how much they care until the mad cows come home, but it doesn't mean shit if they can't make a little effort to show you. yeah, maybe she's busy, maybe she's got stuff going on. she could still take five minutes to call & leave a message, or just say hey, can't talk right now, but wanted to say hi. even that would at least be something. can't you tell i'm trying not to think about this? oh yeah.

ok. this has got to be the funniest damn thing i've seen in a long time. watch the tv commercial at www.technicalvirgin.com, and be sure to use some (sonic) protection. thanks to April of heartwork by monstrosity for this awesome link.

**update 12/17/2004** April can now be found at emotion lotion