secret comics

Take This Job and Shove It

This story encapsulates perfectly why I hated being a lawyer working in litigation, and why I'll never do it again. I know this (supposedly morbidly obese) lady died after taking whatever diet drug -- but did she really suffer $1 billion worth of total damages, not to mention $113 million in actual damages? No fucking way.

How could anyone involved with this situation feel good about what happened? Making a living off of unadulterated human misery makes me sick to my stomach, even if somebody got hurt (OK, killed) and deserved something in return... on a purely human level, civil litigation is the ultimate lose-lose scenario. Everybody takes the most assinine (and self-interested) position possible and tries to rub everybody else's nose in it as vigorously as possible. Even if an obvious wrong gets redressed, the whole damn process costs the participants siginficant chunks of their human dignity and engenders just that much more animosity and discord in an already hostile world. Sigh...

A Message to You Rudy

I was thinking today that The Specials Specials is hands-down one of the greatest records of all time. From start to finish, it's a bloody masterpiece -- not to mention it was produced by Elvis Costello in one his all-time underrated career high points. This is not something that is up for debate.

Hulk SMASH!

Aaargh!!! I hate my fucking camera! No, not my beloved little Lomo, but my 35mm Nikon N65 piece of junk. OK, OK, it's not a total piece of crap - wait, yes it is. I'm not going to get into the whole story of why I bought it, but rest assured I didn't want to, but was more-or-less strongarmed into doing so in to take pictures at a depressing wedding that I'm not going to talk about.

Anyway, my mom needs some irritating pictures taken in her house, and I figured my 35mm would be the best for the job. It's got a bunch of autofocus/auto-everything crap that I didn't want but that you have to get if you buy a new camera (and don't wanna spend a ton of money) these days. So I went to crummy Wolf Camera (because I live in the sticks and can't shop at a decent camera store without a 45 minute drive each way) and bought some crummy 800 speed Fujifilm and got ready to take some crummy pictures... took my stupid Nikon out, loaded it up, and -- nothing. Just kept flashing the fstop error message at me. I replaced the roll of film, skimmed the stupid instruction book, set everything up as specified -- still nothing. Checked the batteries, punched a bunch of buttons... nothing at all. Fuuuck!!!

See, I kind of hate my camera, and today I feel like the little bastard is paying me back for the bad vibes. I haven't really used it since the depressing wedding, but it's pretty unlikely that I've totally forgotten how to work a stupid 35mm camera. I think it's just being spiteful, but that's OK because I am crazy. I guess I'll have to use my little vacation camera instead, because I don't think my mom wants Lomographs to use for interior decorating purposes. Of course, my vacation camera's (which I actually like) battery is dead. I've got to go to depressing Eckerd's and buy a replacement. Perfect.

A Busy Day -- An Urban Myth?

Check this link out, please -- encyclopedia entry for Jew

For the details about why you should, check out this. Thanks to Erica, just for being who she is.

Laura is smart and points out this might be an urban myth, but oh well. At least your heart's in the right place.

Meme Fun! Invent a Memory About Me

I am stealing this meme verbatim from Laura, who stole it from Squid, who stole it from Badger, who got it from Whump. It's an invented memory meme.

Invent a memory of me and post it in the comments. It can be anything you want, so long as it's something that's never happened. Then post this in your journal so that people can invent memories for you.

Pity Party at My Place

If anybody goes to see Bill Frissell at the Continental Club tonight, I hope the show is awesome. I'm not going to come up for it, and honestly I know that's the best decision to make. I'm fucking tired of driving back and forth from Houston to Austin, for one, and I have so much to do here in Houston that I sort of hyperventilate and border on bursting out in tears just thinking about it.

The fact that I know it's the best decision doesn't mean I'm not kind of feeling sorry for myself. Somebody needs to slap me or something.

More Thanks

I need to thank Lela for helping make my birthday extremely nice -- so nice, in fact, that the let-down from the weekend has been particularly hard. Anyway, Lela (and Robert, Ben, Patty, Jesse, Dan, and Margaret) celebrated last Friday with a terribly nice dinner at Fonda San Miguel, and then she took me to the Peaches show. I had a great time -- even got to meet the elusive Sven, who was even nicer than I had reason to expect he'd be... considering there were reasons to be unsure he actually existed there for a while.

The aforementioned non-Lela individuals (particularly Ben, Patty, and Robert, as well as Tom and Julie) also deserve much thanks for making my birthday weekend particularly nice and robbing me blind at poker.

Inky Dreams

(written late at night...)

Entries like this are lucky to get done at all... well, maybe they're just ramblings of a cider-fumed wreck who is cutting a razor's edge of sleep deprivation, or maybe they'll turn out all right. I sure as hell have to pay way closer attention to what I am writing at this point - everything seems to be written on loose clean sand on a windy day, and my memory seems flat-out useless. Turn 30, give that pansy a few cocktails, and it's *on*. You'd think I was asking my memory to have all of King Lear (or something) memorized by the end of the weekend. Not really. I'd just like to remember the names of people I just met, the threads of our conversations, all that normal type of stuff...

My frame of thought is completely bollixed by several unsucessful internet seaches for the design of the crest of The Holy Innocents -- endless, endless Google searches with no real helpful results, each dead end lulling me into its siren song of wasted precious minutes. Maybe I'll call around tommorrow and see if I can a hard copy somewhere here in Austin. Ugh.

So what I am actually doing? What's got me all worked up waaay too late on Friday night? Patience, dear readers, patience - there are rumors of a nice big tattoo, something large on my back, but (A) it's just in the, um, planning stages, and (B) I don't have the design in hand. Oh, I can get the design sooner than later, don't worry about that.

Will I execute the plan once (and if) it's in place? Maybe... I have to find an artist who digs and at least appreciates the art on a suitable level. Katherine has given some pretty good leads - especially cool would be Terry (ex-EL SANTO) at Perfection Tattoo, 3507 Blanco Rd, San Antonio, TX, (210) 736-0506. I've seen a bunch of his work and really like it... I just have a good feeling about Terry. He's a friend, which always bodes well. Stay tuned for any updates -- same Bat-time, same-Bat Channel.

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness

I dunno, "I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness" is hands-down my current favorite band name, and I've never even heard them. Ben tells me they're good - hardly ground-breaking or anything- but I put a lot of faith in his reviews. With a few minor exceptions, that boy knows his music.

So I suppose I have a love letter-ette of sorts to send for a completely lovely birthday dinner Thursday night... Audra went to great lengths to make sure I had a special 30th birthday celebration, and I totally appreciate it. It was a great time, w/ good food, good drinks, good conversation - at Ruth's Chris, no less, which was (again) a total treat and damn good eatin' (A's *minor* observations notwithstanding). So here's to you, and to me, and to turning 30, and the best part just beginning -- cheers!

And then the night continued solo (you see, other people have to get up and work in the morning...) at Emo's where I saw The Methadones and J Church play two good (if short) sets. What was most important, though, is that I think I may have found my long lost friend Nik! Huzzah!

See, I lost track of Nik when he went to Thailand and I moved to Seattle. When I got back, the numbers I could find for him weren't working, and my planner got stolen so I lost his mom and dad's old number in Tuscon. Time passes, and I ask around and hunt and peck yet... nothing. Information doesn't seem to ever have a number for him that works, and I can't find anything online. But then last night...

I gratefully ran into Katherine and her boyfriend at Emo's. Katherine's a mutual friend of Nik, who *has* his number and gave me *her* number so I can call her and get Nik's number. Beyond just getting info about Nik, it was great to see her and hang out -- she's beyond rad as niceness and likeability goes, and I can't think of a much higher compliment to pay anyone. She rules, and if you see her tell her I said so. Then tell her she rules yourself. In fact, I'll hopefully see her tonight again at Emo's... at the Peaches show.

Khan!

I dunno, I thought this was funny... Khan!

P.S. I cribbed the link from the blog of a fellow bug on breedster -- only fair to give credit where credit is due.