it's been a very busy few weeks at work with a few big projects landing on my desk, or threatening to land on my desk simultaneously. in fact, i went the entire workday today not logged onto AIM or jabber, not chatting with friends, as i am prone to doing throughout the day. i've developed this bad habit where i come into work and take the first hour or so catching up on news sites, or getting sucked into really involved IM conversations with paul and nathan. my work ethic has seriously suffered from these several months (since around February) with very little to do while at work.

right now, i'm actually having trouble trying to remember all the things that have gone on in my life recently. it seems like i've just been going pretty steadily since my last post. we've had several band practices (we're actually managing to get together not just once, but twice a week now!), several nights spent drinking at bars and hanging out with friends.

i actually had enough presence of mind to write last-minute emails to some friends of ours that we'd sort-of lost contact with, and they ended up hanging out with us over the weekend at the big 30th birthday party we threw for brax. so, it was really cool to get to hang out with our friends again, and it really helped to elevate the birthday party above our usual run-of-the-mill cookout get-togethers we've been having infrequently. and, of course, it also helped that payday fell on that week just before the big party weekend, so i could afford to have as good a time as i could handle.

and my sister ended up swinging through town on her way to language camp in (or near) minneapolis. so we were able to have lunch together before she went off to spend a couple months with a bunch of american kids speaking bad french.

oh, and another fun thing was going to see Final Fantasy on Friday night when wug came up. the movie really was pretty good, if you (as paul mentioned) can deal with the cliche'd plot, story, and characterization. but really, the animation was amazing. i mean, it's still obvious that it's computer generated, so flesh and blood actors needn't be afraid quite yet. in fact, probably the best part of the whole movie was getting to see the spider-man teaser on the big screen. i tell you, that helicopter scene just sends shivers of joy up my spine everytime i see it. the shots of spidey swinging through the city still look a bit too CGI, but i think that the effects in the movie are going to be excellent. now, cross your fingers and hope for a decently written story.

well, i think that's done me in for tonight. i'm looking forward to taking a half-day tomorrow, and taking monday off, making this a nice extended weekend. hopefully i'll be able to motivate myself and get some stuff done. wish me luck.

quick update to the people i resemble list from 12.11.2000.

this is a new one. according to a co-worker, i look like a young, blonde will riker. (for you non-star trek people, will riker is "number one" from star trek: the next generation).

and for your enjoyment (since i looked it up) here's a comprehensive Star Trek drinking game.

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.

at least i can say this for myself… at least i'm consistently inconsistent.

so, it seems like quite a bit has happened since the last time i posted, but then, nothing's really changed. like brian mentioned, i finally managed to finish watching that dune mini-series that i started watching, what… 3 months ago? watched the second episode on Monday, and the third yesterday (which kind of forced brian into watching it, since he was off work yesterday). overall, i thought the series was really well done. there were some instances of really shitty acting, but the primary characters were all done really well. i thought the second episode was the best of the three, by far. if you've not watched it, be sure to do so if the sci-fi channel reruns it.

i also finally managed to finish cataloguing my comics collection, so that's one huge project pretty-much out of the way. the next step is to find coverscans for all the issues i have, so if anyone knows of any out-of-the-way comics coverscans caches on this 'ol net, .

i cleaned my room, did my laundry, balanced my checkbook, caught up on some overdue email… altogether, it's been a pretty productive week for me. and i'm feeling pretty good about things right now.

and today, apparently, i've been productive and prolific, as not only am i writing this post (finally) i also wrote two rather lengthy posts to a discussion thread on an Amiga site that i frequent (which is something i never do). here's hoping today's trend calms down and spreads out to at least one post here per day… well, it's a thought anyway.

oh, and i know brian's kind of mentioned this, but just in case you hadn't noticed, bipolar has already moved to it's new home. note the swanky new address in the address bar up top…

(links added by me)

joliciel: Did you try that link that I mentioned on my site?
coffeemonk: the france one?
coffeemonk: the samurai pizza cats one?
joliciel: yeah. That one.
joliciel: did you like it?
coffeemonk: i suppose. never really watched that show, though, when it was on.
joliciel: I know, but it's so kitschy. It reminds me of you.
coffeemonk: i'm kitschy?
coffeemonk: i'm fond of "something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality" ???
coffeemonk: what kind of opinion do you have of me?
joliciel: Hey.
joliciel: I didn't even read that part.
coffeemonk: didn't even read what part?
joliciel: I've just seen bits and pieces of the show at some points and it reminds me of things like:
joliciel: that puppet show thing.
joliciel: And thundercats.
joliciel: "something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality" ???
coffeemonk: (that's a defnition of kitsch from merriam-webster.)
joliciel: OH>
coffeemonk: the puppet show thing is neither low-brow, popular, or poor quality.
joliciel: Well, ok. don't get huffy.
coffeemonk: i'm not. i'm just kind of playing that way.
joliciel: And don't look up the meaning to huffy.
coffeemonk: heh.
joliciel: Anyway, for me kitsch means something that appeals to a sort of quirky taste.
coffeemonk: ah.
joliciel: Maybe leaning back toward an earlier time, like 20 to 30 years ago.
joliciel: It's like avocado colors for the kitchen.
joliciel: and lava lamps
joliciel: and that sock puppet thing.
coffeemonk: oooh. i do like lava lamps.

i've just spent the past 15 minutes or so laughing my ass off at the witticisms of our president-"elect."

probably the funniest one i read, until i had to quit before my head exploded:

"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."?LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000

read more bushisms, just put the glass down first.

in the latest edition of the glassdog.MEMO (a "daily" email "newsletter" i subscribe to) he mentions the recent Blogger Server Fund drive and the $10k + that blogger was able to raise in a manner of days through voluntary contributions. in his little editorial mention, Lance described us (that is, the blogging community) as "boisterous and insane." i'll take that as a compliment.
(if anyone wants to read this little editorial, let me know and i'll post it, since he took the .MEMO archives offline several months ago)

in other news, we finally got a postcard from Kerry from her trip to hawaii, after she'd already made it back home. thanks, kerry, for thinking of your cold, snow-battling friends in Louisville while you were out "shooting the curl" or however that surfing lingo goes. oh, and we're glad the tigersharks in the backyard were just a dream.

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.

james hetfield — ( i get this one quite a bit, so there must be something to it )

brian johnson — ? ( lead singer of AC/DC — i've gotten this one once, and i really don't see it. )

christopher walken — ?? ( again, once. again, HUH? )

i don't know how i feel about all this…

I have just witnessed one of the most embarrasing spectacles of the twentieth century. last night, brian, Jess, (brian's friend) Scott, & I all went down to the waterfront to catch a "free" show. the scheduled entertainment for the evening was Tone Loc and C&C Music Factory. I wasn't expecting much, but it was a free show, and I did recognize the names involved–I even actually used to like Tone Loc, so I thought it would be an interesting evening out for four broke-and-bored-as-hell people.

as we approached the entrance, we noticed that they were actually taking money, so in a flash of fortuitous thought, we decided to take a stroll to a point where we could hop the fence (not that that was a really difficult task, but…).

C&C were already on the stage as we approached, and pretty much from the moment we'd gotten out of the car, we'd been laughing our asses off at the lame attempt at edgy, funky, hip-hop. now, C&C were never what one would consider "good", but I did like that one song at one point (back in high school when the only music I had to listen to was WPKY in Princeton, KY.–if you haven't heard of Princeton, you get the idea…) anyway, as we listened further to the strangling cat sounds coming from the stage, and the worse than a three year old, totally non-flowing "freestyle" coming from the "leader", we began to despair and would have immediately started looking for long range weapons, had we not been completely mind-wiped before we could protect ourselves.

eventually, we just started yelling for them to get off the stage, go home, go shoot themselves, or whatever during lulls of the "music". death would have been much more enjoyable… a slow, gruesome, excrutiatingly painful death.

I was simply holding out for Tone, holding a flicker of hope in my heart that he might be somewhat good.

all I can say is that he was better. he, at least, could freestyle with some actual style. it was still somewhat dissapointing hearing his live rendition of "Funky Cold Medina" I remembered it being much better, much more dynamic. and the fact that Tone can turn the deep gravely "Tone Loc" voice on and off at will, and that actually 75% of the time he sounded just like every other rapper, kind of dispelled some of the old magic.

the worst blow to the evening came after Tone's little teaser, after he urged the crowd to chant– " I say wild, you say Thing!", then decided not to do Wild Thing, but instead to freestyle some more. not only did he decide to freestyle rather than going on and performing one of his greatest hits, but he invited (or maybe was forced to invite) the guy from C&C onstage to join in the rhymes. a collective groan was heard from the three individuals around me, and we swayed on our feet as we tried to decide whether or not to leave. Tone rapped for a while, then passed the mike to C&C guy (brian just pointed out that his name is Freedom Williams–we can only hope for eventual freedom from mr williams) who immediately started pretending he hadn't stolen all his rhymes from his much more competent predecessors. even with his third grade rhymes, he had absolutely no flow whatsoever. he made it about three, sometimes four phrases, before having to pause for several seconds to rack his tiny brain for more rhyming words.

within 10 seconds of "freedom" taking the stage, we had firmly decided to immediately leave. we had almost forgotten how to walk, and swore we'd just lost over 100 IQ points. the discussion centered firmly around the horror we had just witnessed, and we decided that if we were Tone Loc, on tour with these "performers" we'd probably blow our brains out after the first show.

Tone's journal would probably read something like this…

Comeback Tour 2000

day one:

    I can't take it anymore, I tried to hold out, but it's not worth it. Tell my mother I love her, and please forgive me.

tone