Monday, July 31, 2000
saw five senses, orgazmo, the next karate kid and jacob's ladder over the weekend. they were all... well, watchable :) the next karate kid was really goofy. i had no idea that jacob's ladder had all these soon-to-be famous actors in it!

• macaulay culkin
• jason alexander
• eriq la salle
• and ving rhames

check out what godard has to say about jonathan rosenbaum! "I think there is a very good film critic in the United States today, a successor of James Agee, and that is Jonathan Rosenbaum. He's one of the best; we don't have writers like him in France today. He's like Andre Bazin."

Friday, July 28, 2000
ode to mr. t

A black van with thick red racing stripes on the sides shot down a narrow road between shining granite crags and barely rounded a switchback on the edge of its right two wheels before hitting a fifteen percent downgrade. The engine revolutions eased up for a second as B.A. slid back into fifth, but after a few moments acceleration he was again in the red.

    "Sloooow eeet dowwwn," implored the sock puppet from behind the drivers seat. The van flew over a rise at 90 mph and landed a half second and twenty feet later on rubber shocks.

    "Shut up fool!" responded a disgruntled thick set black man encased in gold chains and sporting a mohawk , "I don’t need no backseat driver."

    "I, I, I," repeated Murdoch chidingly. "B.A. mon ami, there is no I in team, you should be more open to constructive criticism. Take Larry’s advice-urgh..."

    "That’s it sucka." B.A. made a grab for the sock.

    "Keep both hands...arrrgh...on the wheel..."

    "That’s yo last puppet, fool."

    Tires skidded across the pavement leaving smoking rubber tendrils in their wake.

    "Guys, guys, we’re on a MISSION here," announced Face from the front passenger seat, his legs were crossed and his head back. He wore a white California suit and sunglasses and carried a walkie-talkie which he was waving around, "Now B.A., let Larry go."

    The van squealed around another corner and sped along a straightaway four miles long and lined with thick pine trees that thrust three hundred feet into the air. To Murdoch it looked as if they were moving down a long hallway with green wallpaper, a blue ceiling, and a black floor.

    The walkie-talkie crackled to life, "Hey boys, the fish’ll be in your peepers soon. ETA ten, nine, ..."

    Barachus’s foot flashed from the gas and hovered over the brake pedal. Three heartbeats went by and a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his nose as the speedometer’s needle slowly approached the 120 mph mark. "seven, six, five, ..." he mouthed to himself.

    Face slid halfway down his seat and turned to look at B.A., "You don’t really have to do this, you know?"

    "Yeah, I do."

    Face turned his attention to the walkie-talkie standing upright on his stomach supported by his sweaty palms. Slack-jawed he stared at the speaker, "Make me proud," it commanded.

    Looking straight ahead, B.A. stomped on the brake and sent the van careening down the road. As the wheels locked and the back end of the van began catching up with the front, the last thing he noticed before centripetal force ripped away his field of view was a police car whose flashing red lights and wailing siren were trying desperately to get his attention. From this point on, B.A.’s mind started splicing time into longer and longer segments, as if anticipating the precious few moments he had to left to live. "What a plan," he thought to himself as the van completed a quarter circle in a clockwise rotation. The pine trees whizzed by. Half: In the rearview mirror he saw a black and white armored car closely following the police car. The armored car’s driver’s eyes and mouth were wide open. The driver of the police car had the same exact expression. Three-Quarters: Out of the corner of his eye he watched Murdoch slide open the side door and bust out into a slowly spinning world. Murdoch was yelling. "Lllaaaaarry!" Full: He felt the forward momentum of the van change as the grill melted into the hood of the police car, aware that his own momentum had not. The impact of the windshield on his face felt like a splash of cold water as he became airborne. Looking down, the police car crumpled to half its length between the armored car and the van. The police officer disappeared into the twisted wreckage. Bits of glass hung suspended in the air, slowly rotating and refracting the sunlight. He looked up, saw the driver of the armored car, smiled, and waved. As he burst through the second windshield he had time to see the driver smile back. He came to the back wall of the cabin and felt the cool metal against his forehead grow hot. He willed himself through. To his surprise his head popped out the other side. "Look at all that gold!" and he didn’t have time to blink.

Thursday, July 27, 2000
my introduction to SF/fantasy came through split infinity, the first book of the adept series by piers anthony, who i think gets NO credit at all as a PIONEER of the genre. that and other books like refugee, on a pale horse and of course the xanth series in my mind were PINNACLES of achievement in "alternative" literature.

his website is great! he has these long and involved newsletters he puts out every once in a while and an extensive collection of book publishing sites (e- and self-) with write ups on each for the aspiring author :)

btw, i found ursula k. leguin's the ones who walked away from omelas the other day! for those not in the know, omelas backwards is salem o. some other great short stories which can be found in janet burroway's excellent writing fiction include:

• the things they carried by tim o'brien
• where are you going, where have you been? by joyce carol oates
• and rape fantasies by margaret atwood

carey sends some trippy commercial bond, james bond action from melondesign and a stripped down hotelier site where you can serve up sheep and then blow them away!

Wednesday, July 26, 2000
the firewall

living behind the firewall so long, hope had become a distant memory, consumed in the fires of a long dead struggle. but sometimes... sometimes, ever so slightly, a tiny crack appeared and let a little light in and i could get a glimpse of what it was like on the other side.

Tuesday, July 25, 2000
more fantasy art!

from tolkien online :) i especially like john howe's work, especially the treason of isengard.

usually i'm above raunchy (not above crude :) but carey sends this gif for our viewing pleasure!

to make up for it, though, he also sends this, which can also be seen here. if you open them both up at once you can get a neat cannon going!

Monday, July 24, 2000
schlotzsky's deli
SOUR CREAM & ONION "DELI STYLE" POTATO CHIPS

It's cool.
And creamy. A little bit naughty and a whole lot nice – all by itself. But when you add onions, it gets downright delicious! That's the irresistible temptation of smooth and natural sour cream with onions. Perfect as a chip dip, and absolutely necessary on a baked potato. We just thought we'd save you the time.

thanks bbsinc for the SymbolTable :)

lately my diet's consisted of cereal, pizza, ramen and brisk. that is all.

Friday, July 21, 2000
top ten comix rated by ign. alan moore cleans up, he's like the tiger woods of comics!

also from ign: thundercats outtakes (contains swearing :) [via misterpants :]

and continuing on the comic note :) new brass comics are out! richard bennett, the artist, draws super-detailed characters, backgrounds and explosions, not unlike geoff darrow or katsuhiro otomo, and his tech is almost as good as masume shirow's! check these guys out, too.

Thursday, July 20, 2000
hey, i've redesygned :)

have you ever found one of those really long wispy white arm hairs growing out of you? i found this four inch long one above my (bulging) right tricep this morning while taking a dump!

Wednesday, July 19, 2000
x-men

x-men is pretty good. i'd say somewhere between blade and gattaca in the movie pantheon. patrick stewart is so perfect as professor X!

my mind is trapped within the dizzying confines of the space between my keyboard and my chair. locked up inside the symbolic patterns of the day, i am kept safely away in a small box on the top shelf (where they occasionally feed me and change my bedding).

btw...

The Word of the Day for July 19 is:

expeditious • ex-puh-DIH-shus • (adjective)
: characterized by or acting promptly and efficiently

Example sentence:
The real estate agent's expeditious response to Andy and Lisa's inquiry enabled them to secure an apartment in an unheard-of day and a half.

Did you know?
Like "expeditious," all of the following words contain "ped." Can you guess which ones get those three letters from the same Latin root as "expeditious"?

encyclopedia
expedition
pedigree
stampede
torpedo
orthopedic
impede

The Latin source of "expeditious" is the verb "expedire," which means "to extricate, prepare, or be useful." Its "ped" is from "pes," meaning "foot." (The "ex-" means "out of," and the literal sense of "expedire" is "to free the feet"). "Pedigree" and "impede" also come from "pes." The "ped" in "encyclopedia" and "orthopedic" is from the Greek "pais," meaning "child"; "stampede" is from the Spanish "estampar," meaning "to stamp"; and "torpedo" is from the Latin "torpere," meaning "to be sluggish." What about "expedition"? Meaning both "a journey" and "promptness," it too is from "expedire."

it is NOT non sequitaurass, a penile inference that does not follow from the penises; specifically : a phallusy resulting from a simple conversion of a universal affirmative proposition or from the transposition of a condition and its consequent. because then it would NOT not follow!

Tuesday, July 18, 2000
a megalith

more at http://www.m-w.com/mw/art/ :)

Monday, July 17, 2000
angst

this is one of the most intense things i've ever read. i'm not even sure if i should be linking it. it's so personal. but she has it up, and i think it's one of those things that're supposed to be read.

pretty swirling dots (via openlog)

Sunday, July 16, 2000
played ping pong yesterday. so satisfying!