so…the puffin is back. who here thought it was only a matter of time? i think it's pretty interesting that he started before the big blogging craze, got sick of it, and now he's back, just as the mania is starting to blow over. that puffin…always keepin' it fresh.

i've been walking around like a gimp for the past couple of days, but my leg is finally starting to feel better. you better believe my ass is gonna start stretching before any future kickball games…

last night elizabeth and i decided to rent summer of sam. it's one of those movies that i've wanted to see since it came out, and i'm just now getting around to it. it was kinda disconcerting that the guy that plays jimmy berluti on the practice was the one portraying david berkowitz, though…not lovable jimmy!

jesus…i need to go do something exciting…

wow…tonight ended up being pretty damn alright, considering the lack of anything out of the ordinary. i decided to burn a cd of some of my favorite van halen songs right before kickball. this ended up working out to where i pulled up blasting "running with the devil." if there is the perfect summertime band, old van halen is it.

this week we skipped the cookout and played family business, instead. it was the first time i've ever played it, but it was pretty fun. after that, kickball ended up ramping itself up to the normal levels of competition. we had plenty of players this week, including some new faces. always a good thing.

so we're playing kickball and having a blast and whatever…until the second inning. i'm on first and the kicker sends the ball sailing. i start hauling ass, determined to make it around to home. right when i step on second and pivot to sprint for third, second slips out from under me (we have mats, not actual bases). that's when i felt the quad muscle in my right leg snap like a rubber band. i ended up keeping a good pace and making it around to home, but i took an immediate seat on the bench, reeling in some serious pain. i ended up playing the rest of the game out, but i was definitely not at the top of my game (as exhibited by a leisurely walk to first after a pretty good kick).

then i was hanging out with some new friends and we went to the skatepark and i just alternately pushed around and sat on my ass. i hope this shit doesn't hurt like this for too long…i mean…i have anoher kickball game in six fuckin' days.

have you seen that denny's commercial with miss piggy in it? how disgusting is that? i mean…really. she orders not one, but two grand slam breakfasts. that thing has two pieces of both sausage and bacon. miss piggy, the frickin' cannibal. seriously…gross.

last night i saw the virgin suicides for the first time. to be honest, it was an okay movie, but the first viewing will probably be plenty for me. i just felt like the story took too long to get to no point. yeah…the girls lived in a repressive household. yeah they were depressed about it. but the fact remains…they never seemed overly depressed about the whole deal until the end. oh well…you can't win 'em all. james woods was good, as always.

today i picked up my grandmother and took her out for a late lunch/early dinner. my efforts were thwarted by the fact that she wasn't really hungry, but we still hung out for a while. she's been feeling a under the weather, lately, so it was nice to just go and sit in the park and hang out. hanging out with your grandma every now and then is highly recommended.

the new sparta album is really good. you should check it out when it's released…

speaking of records, my review of the new flaming lips went up over at 75 or less.

that's about enough for one afternoon…

first off, i got all the tracks uploaded for the mix cds (february and march). now you can have the complete packages. i'm actually thinking of putting the artwork files up for download for anyone that wants to actually print the covers i designed for them. other than that, it's been a pretty quiet day around here. i burned a bunch of cds of stuff for my car, but nothing terribly exciting.

i did go get dinner with matt. the usual wednesday comics/denny's thing. life is nothing without routine, i guess. the job search continues. i continue to be rather broke. life continues…endless cycle…blah blah blah.

last night elizabeth and i sat around and watched tv and then headed out to the well for some drinks. tonight we're planning on renting a movie or something. with all the time that we spend together, you'd think we were dating or something (i know i constantly have to answer that question to everyone), but…no such luck. oh well…it's nice to have someone around that can match my boringness, pound for pound.

did i mention that the new flaming lips and quens of the stone age records are both really good? well…consider it mentioned. look for reviews of both of them to pop up on 75 or less real soon-like.

speaking of 75 or less…matt and i reviewed our little links drop-down and updated it a bit. it's pretty much the list of our most frequently visited sites (not in order, otherwise newsarama would be at the top) drop us a line if we're forgetting something.

now that jon over at slatch beat me to the punch, i may as well spill the surprise mentioned in the earlier post…

while i was updating transmission3000, i decided that it would be a cool idea (to me) to design pages and upload the mix cds i made and distributed. i ended up getting two of them done, so here ya go:

february 2002
and
march 2002

they're both missing a track or two bcause of some weird server glitch. i should have that ironed out by the end of the day. until then, enjoy way too much stuff to download…

i spent a good chunk of monday evening updating transmission3000, for once. i decided to get my ass in gear and post a few things that were lying around, including a live shellac show from this year's all tomorrow's parties and the out of print of asaph ep. they're both amazing by themselves, but go ahead and grab both of them to double your enjoyment.

on the sopranos front: i just finished the last episode of season two. it is by far my favorite episode, thus far. now they need to release that fuckin' season three box, already…

since there's all the updatin' on the t3k front, i decided to upload a track to the newly renamed…

mp3 of the moment
(which means "whenever the hell i get around to it")

the flaming lips – shine on you crazy diamond
this track is worth it just to hear wayne talking about the wizard of oz and insanity.

expect another cool development around here later this afternoon…provided transmission3000's connection stays up.

yesterday, kickball was the usual blast. it really ends up being the high point of the week. even though it was the hottest kickball day of the year, everyone had a lot of fun. my cousin steve showed up and stepped up to be a true player for his debut. much beer was consumed, more shit was talked, but in the end, my team ended up winning. it's never a bad thing to be on the winning team. steve ended up cutting out after the game, so i opted to head home and hop directly into the shower.

after a nice, refreshing shower, i dove right back into the sopranos season two dvds. i only have one disc left and then i'm totally done with it. it's kinda sad to think of it that way.

speaking of cousins, it seems like brad from life during wartime has finally returned and started a new blog, called work of fiction. i ribbed him last week about whether two posts actually constituted a return, but it looks like he's been kickin' them out, lately. now if only we could get paul back into the game…

i woke up this morning to the sound of a transformer blowing up, somewhere in the neighborhood. all the power in my apartment and all down my block was out. living on the third floor, this presented a bit of a problem, since i live and die by my air conditioner. it's already been acting up, lately, so this scenario was making it just that tiny bit worse. i went down front to see if anyone else was out trying to figure out what the problem was. i ran into our downstairs neighbor. he, like myself, was none too pleased. he said he'd call lg&e (the local electric company, for you non-louisvillians) and that was that. i quickly shuffled my ass back to bed.

i was kicked from sweet sleep again around noon, when the power actually came back on. my beautiful air conditioner roared back to life, resuming it's normal schedule of only passably cooling my room. i couldn't resist the temptation to sleep for another hour or so…

and now i'm back to watching the sopranos. i'm now into season two. i finished the first season in just over two days. i'm hoping to pace myself with this new box set…the third season doesn't come out on dvd for another month or so.

today is the weekly cookout/kickball game. my cousin steve is supposed to join us, this week. he's been saying he will for a couple of weeks now, but i think he might make it, this week. we actually ended up hanging out friday night, which was cool. he came over and we drank a lot on the back deck, making an evening of it. we got tired of sitting around and opted to head down to the well and cahoots. it was a great evening for a walk, so i was a lot of fun. we ended up spending most of the night talking about movies.

i didn't do much of note, yesterday, except for hanging out with matt and paul. we had lunch at popeye's, eschewing our normal kfc. i was skeptical, but ended up walking away impressed. and full.

time to watch another episode of sopranos before kickball…

paul may have very well contributed to my inability to function as a normal member of society. last night i was over there hanging out with matt and i ended up borrowing the sopranos season one dvd set. well…18 or so hours later, i'm now on my eighth episode of the crime drama. keep in mind that i watched six straight, last night. six straight hours of mob dysfunction. it's no wonder i'm also in the middle of cooking up a big mess of pasta…

so i have an obsessive personality…big deal. i liked the show a lot back when we used to have hbo.

the job search continues. i've got some solid leads, but i'm killing another hour or so before i go put in more apps. i figure i'll flood the market and see what calls back.

oh yeah…i also made a call to be an extra in a movie, next week. the first step to me conquering hollywood, i'm sure. expect a full update when the shit goes down.

the other night i had a pretty bizarre dream. the fact that i can remember it pretty clearly all the way up to today is pretty surprising…

in this dream i was in some sort of community home with an ex-girlfriend from a few years ago and a girl i've thought was pretty hot for a couple of years now. anyhowways…we're in this home and the girls are preparing for a trip to ireland or scotland or some business. while we're all sitting around discussing the trip, they both bring up the fact that they are dying to get over there and hook up with a native. their explanation? "those accents are so sexy!" so disheartened because i like both of these girls and am, sadly enough, american, i go to hang out with a good friend that happens to be ewan mcgregor. we hit the bars and we're drinking our asses off and ewan hatches a plan for me to fake a scottish accent and act like i was from scotland all along. he teaches me all the basics of ripping off his speech patterns and sends me on my way. to my surprise, the girls fall for it and all of a sudden i'm mr. cool.

the dream then degenerates into weirdness with us touring some multi-tiered religious garden with ridiculously gory catholic statuary. bloody saints, christ writhing on the cross, etc. luckily, that's right about where i woke up, completely dumbfounded by the whole thing. i wish i could remember what i ate or drank before i went to bed, that night…because i'd never do it again.

elizabeth ended up not wanting to watch north by northwest, last night. we ended up hanging out at the well for a little while and then went back to her place to watch hurlyburly. i've seen it before, but i still enjoyed it the second time around. sean penn is at his best when he's absolutely whacked out.

now i'm back into my continuing quest for employment. wish me luck…