Jesse Cook Is Strumming a Guitar Just For Me

toob is down south somewhere, finally getting the training he needs for his new job. I've been missing him lots since Sunday, and I'll be *very* happy to have him back tomorrow. :D Ahhhh, Lost and Heroes on Friday night with the best otta in the world. :D :D

dnapalmhead came over on Sunday and crashed for a few days, post-insano refinery job. It was really great to hang out with him for a while, catch up and chat and everything. He showed me City of God, I showed him Pleasantville, both knocking a hit for our fave movies. He also showed me "Tyrannosaurus Debt," which I had never seen. Anthropomorphizing the national debt is a fabulous idea, especially under this administration. It's growing out of control! ;D

Tuesday night we had dinner with Duncan at an Indian buffet. It wasn't bad food, actually, but the wine left a lot to be desired. To compensate we bought *more* wine and chatted up until late in the evening. Wednesday DNA ninja-vanished for all parts easterly (aww!) and we hosted a poker night at our place that night. seamusyote ended up taking both tables, though rikoshi *really* wanted that second one. Next time fox. :D

Today I finally caught up on some much-needed sleep, and I've been just bumming around for the most part. It's the first bit of downtime I've had in a little bit, so I think I'll enjoy it by being totally slothful.

At work, I told the asst. manager that I couldn't afford to keep working there for the pay I was getting, and she told the big boss, who either feigned ignorance and completely forgot about it when I told him about it at the beginning of this week. (At this point, either one of those could be true.) Long story short, I applied for a 'promotion' that was opening at the store, and it looks like I'll definitely be getting it. The pay is a lot better (though, according to Tube, not what I *could* be getting somewhere else), and it puts me in with the actual business of a used bookstore. I'll learn how to tell a good book from a bad one, the histories of publishing companies, how to price a book for buying/trading and selling, etc. etc. Since this puts me on track to become intimately involved with the used book business, I'm kind of excited about it. We'll see how it works out.

With writing, it's been...non-existent since NaPoeWriMo ended. Well, virtually; I've been working on a bit of macrophilic fiction but haven't gotten very far, and the short story I'd like to submit to the writer's group sometime in the next month or so hasn't grown any sort of legs yet. I have one draft finished, but it's awful and only works as a foundation for what I really want to do with the story. Now that things seem to be calming down a little, I can start working on both of those finally, really getting in touch with the characters.

Lent is coming up; I just remembered thanks to a friend's tip. I don't know how people from other religions feel about non-adherents nicking their holidays and practices and rolling them up to a mish-mash of personal spirituality, but I insist on doing just that anyways. This year, I think I'll give up sweets and cookies precisely because they've become my personal vice over the past year. To replace them, I make the vow of writing every single day. Maybe I could have a personal Mardi Gras of an ice cream social/book party. :D

Because I've changed my Netflix account to be merged with Ryan's, I'm afraid I've lost my friends list. I do really enjoy using the Friends feature, but I can't just throw up a nifty page to join with folks; I have to send out each invitation via e-mail. So, if you guys could either throw up your address in a comment or just mail me directly at jakebe at g m a i l d o t c o m, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Now, to have lunch and continue touching bases with people...hooray!

Pre-Emptive Strike

Anyone rejoicing over the death of Anna Nicole Smith should be reincarnated as a ditzy blonde obsessed with looks and opinion, and who can never go down that last dress size. Seriously, knock it off, people.

Yes, she was messed up. Yes, she was very messed up. Yes, she had a very high amount of media saturation. But no matter how much of insane personal life we didn't want to hear but couldn't escape from, she was still a person. Her life was really sad, and I'm sorry she couldn't get herself together before she died.

This is a huge problem with the objectification of celebrities: we forget they're just people, no more and (certainly) no less.