for some reason every 4th of july i think of what ms. stroud said in dazed and confused

"Okay guys, one more thing, this summer when you're being inundated with all this American bicentennial Fourth Of July brouhaha, don't forget what you're celebrating, and that's the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic white males didn't want to pay their taxes."

a confederacy of dunces

I'm reading A Confederacy of Dunces for the second time and it's even better than the first time. Almost every day I snort-laugh while reading it on the bus and can't stop shaking the seat and the big besuited businessperson I'm squeezed into the seat with looks at me sideways. A few times I've been reading an amazing part and I realize my mouth has been hanging open for awhile. The story behind the book is crazy too, the guy who wrote it committed suicide in 1969 when he was 32 and his mother found the manuscript afterwards. She started calling Walker Percy and telling him about this book her dead son had written which he did not want to read obviously and the way he tells the story in the foreward is delightsome. Then he read it and couldn't put it down and published it and it won the Pulitzer Prize. Every character reminds you of someone you know. The main character (Ignatius J. Reilly) reminds me of about a dozen people I've known and it's kind of eerie. Has anyone else read it? What did you think?

video thursday

Beatbox world champion, and she kind of rules.




Hot Rats cover The Cure's "The Lovecats" at Glastonbury last week: (audio only)




This guy is really excited about offering.

101 things: the facebook version

Since I've been asked to tone it down on a friend's Facebook page, I thought we could think of other things that have happened to us on Facebook and make a 101 things. Simone, David, and Ryan collaborated with me to make this list. Bold the ones that apply to you.

Have you ever:

Been pleasantly surprised by someone's delightful status updates when you didn't know they had it in them

Had a Facebook-centric nightmare

Had someone tell you he was un-friending you on Facebook because his wife wanted him to

Farted in fb's general direction

Flipped off someone's status update

Entertained the idea of just deleting your Facebook account

Rekindled a friendship with a high school person you'd written off because you thought they were judgemental and found out on Facebook that wasn't the case

Accepted everyone who requests you as a friend

Had someone tell you they abhor your "flagrant touting of an evil man" (Obama) on Facebook?

Unfriended someone you already had a strained relationship with because their annoying profile picture was the last straw?

Unfriended someone because their status messages were too boring?

Made a passive-aggressive status message with the intent of catching the attention of one particular person, but not admitting it

Had people talk to you in person about your status updates (because they are awesome)

Unfriended someone because they posted thing supporting "Yes on 8"

Unfriended a-sort-of-friend you'd already accepted as a friend because they became a "fan" of Old Navy

Added people that you later forgot why you added them ("Who is that again?")

Witnessed nasty replies to you that were taken back down within 5 minutes

Tried to add people who shockingly never confirm you, which is baffling and raises distress levels over what you might have done to them

Been told by your spouse that your replies to everyone elses posts are abundant and hilarious (your A material) but that your replies to their posts are non-existent

Been witness to picture posts which greatly undermine your admiration for your friends

Been witness to picture posts which greatly bolster your admiration for your friends

Felt exactly like you were in junior high again because of something that went wrong on Facebook

i've always thought flapjack looks kinda like jeremy enigk

oh my

A friend sent this to me today:

so umm. can you not write stuff of that "extremity" on my wall. i personally don't care and you can send me whatever messages you want but not all of my 600+ "friends" and relatives share/understand/appreciate your brand of humor. you are too edgy and out of the box for some of them. thanks for understanding (assuming you do).

And I had been trying to tone it down and keep it safe. Am I really that strange to people? Calling therapist...

new shoes & new grapes

The new Grapes of Rad podcast is up where they talk about seeing The Room last week. This is gonna be good!! They start talking about it right about minute 25 if you absolutely can't wait to hear them rip into it. I think they've only recently discovered Zach Galifianakis because they're excited about him as I was when I found him. Good on you boys.

Also, my latest eBay score came today, saving what was a borderline bad day and neatly turning it right around. I had to take a picture of them mainly for Ryan's sake. If you feel like being jealous that's okay too.


Ooh and Pinky Links wrote about me and Jona and Steven! They're so nice!