Hump Day Happy Hour - Blondie

My parents (okay, my dad) had The Best of Blondie on vinyl when I was a kid, and it kicked some serious ass. Except for the skip in the middle of "Sunday Girl," but I digress. This is "Dreaming," off Blondie's 1979 album Eat To The Beat.

I'll have a cup of tea,

Regis

I Haven't Forgetten About You

... life just decided to hit the fan. In the past month, I've had two older relatives (a great-uncle and a great-great-aunt) pass away. I wasn't very close to either of them, but my main connection to both Uncle Tom and Aunt Birdeen is from particularly good parts of my childhood and losing that living link sucks.

I'm also getting divorced. This isn't the place to go into details, but suffice it to say it's a consensual agreement. It won't be finalized until next year (since it looks like I'll get screwed on taxes), and I don't know that next year can come fast enough at this point. Even in my current state of tentative relief, the situation still sucks.

Oh, and I've abandoned NaNoWriMo. I'm sure it would be great to get away into a world of anthropomorphic college versions of myself and various friends, but my motivation has been more or less nonexistent. I'm not throwing the idea away (if I don't work on it independently, I might use it next year), but now just isn't the time and that sucks.

But enough of all that, this isn't supposed to be a place of lamentations. It's time to focus on the good things in our lives, because even with all the shit in this clusterfuck of a world we live in, we all have a lot to be thankful for. Y'know, like January 20, 2009.

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades,

Regis

We're Doomed

As previously mentioned, we're once again in the middle of National Novel Writing Month. Last year, I successfully wrote better than 50,000 words (the goal) of a novel in the month of November, even if I never actually finished the story. This year may be a different, uh, tale.

To say that I'm running behind is a pretty big understatement. I put up a couple of widgets up here to track my progress, and you can see that I'm doing my best impression of a Bush-style deficit. This is still doable, though, and I've finally got an idea that I feel I can run with (I had two false starts, but each was less than 1000 words). No major freak outs until the 24th, I promise.

Hooray for elections, Rock Springs, and economy size writer's block,

Regis

Hump Day Happy Hour - The Cardigans

I made it back from Rock Springs a better person than when I left, as I have discovered the deliciousness of Zotes Hot Wings flavor sunflower seeds. Thanks, Exxon next to the Center Street exit in Casper!

This week brings a clip from The Cardigans, probably best remembered for the song "Lovefool" from Romeo + Juliet, which pretty much every girl I was in junior high with at the time was borderline obsessed with. While I was tempted to put up Nina and company's video for "I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need To Be Nicer" (one of the previous decade's best song titles) or their almost painfully adorable cover of "Iron Man," I've opted to present "My Favorite Game" instead.



My heart is black and my body is blue,
Regis

The Fun Never Ends

I'm off for Rock Springs to do more concrete testing. On a scale of one to Shakira, my enthusiasm for this is about a Dick Cheney in a Speedo.

-Regis

(The Day After) Hump Day Happy Hour - The Darkness

The election has completely thrown my week off (not that last week was a whole lot better), so here's a double dose of rock to make it up to you.

Drugs are bad for a lot of reasons, number four being that they cause the premature destruction of The Darkness, a band that tapdanced on Spinal Tap's thin line between stupid and clever. "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" is a prime example of what cocaine and vodka have taken away from the world.


People's Exhibit B: "Growing On Me."


My heart's in overdrive and you're behind the steering wheel,
Regis

Accentuating the Positive

While I remember little things about the 1988 presidential election, the first one I paid some semblance of attention to was 2000. I was seventeen, and probably would have voted for Nader had I been about five months older (yeah, that'll show 'em!). That election was a mess and a half, but to me it was really just a big joke about how dumb the people of Florida were.

In 2004, I was probably the only person in my 8:00 MWF Structural Steel Design class that voted for John Kerry (maybe I was just the only one dumb enough to admit it). While it looked like Bush had narrowly won the state, it wasn't totally clear what the result from Ohio was going to be that Wednesday morning, and I was almost mocked by my classmates for suggesting that the votes just be counted, and that would be that.

Damn, but it feels good to have a presidential election with a clear winner right away - and it feels even better to have it be my guy. And even if my vote didn't help Obama in the electoral college, I can take a small bit of pride in having contributed to that crushing popular vote total.

Oh yeah, and only two and a half months until we can hear that sweetest of phrases, "former President George W. Bush."

Yes we can,
Regis