speaking of waxing nostalgic, i went and saw depeche mode last night. they played a lot of new stuff from their exciter album, but they also played some of their older tunes. when they played "enjoy the silence," i became a depressed, shoe-gazing 16-year-old all over again. other songs turned me back into a depressed, shoe-gazing 18-year-old and a depressed, shoe-gazing 20-year-old. it was beautiful.

i'm waxing nostalgic today... when i was 15, we moved from sonoma to chico, california. i was out at classmates.com today, looking at all the people who graduated from sonoma high and got a little reminiscent when i realized how many names i recognized -- names i haven't thought of in years. it made me feel weird, but not in a way i can explain... it kind of makes me wonder what happened to all those childhood friends. maybe i'll just make up stories for them all; that might be amusing.

yesterday, i saw a girl wearing a little pink t-shirt that said, "i like your boyfriend." what the hell is that? i'd much rather see a "frankie says relax" revival. remember those? i thought they were so cool (yet clearly out of style) when i saw them on the bargain rack at the longs drug store. "who's frankie?" i kept asking my mom.

today is totally an old movies on the couch with slippers and hot cocoa kind of day. instead, i am working. ah, well... such is life.

i have changed my browser's home page from dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines to cnn.com. i miss yahoo's page -- i like the format, and i dig the 'oddly enough' headlines, but i'm pissed off at them, and i hate that stupid spy cam ad that they keep popping up on me. if anybody knows of something comparable, yet less irritating, let me know. otherwise, i'm sticking with cnn.

weird news of the day: nobody does existential dilemma quite like the french. disabled kids are suing for the right to not exist.

happy birthday, steve!!

today's gripe: i am thoroughly disturbed with yahoo's headlines editors today. i have set the yahoo headlines as my home page so that i can get glimpses of news whenever i open it up. i am already reconsidering this decision based on the fact that they have that stupid spy camera ad popping up on me all the time (i hate that thing). but today takes the cake: the headline story is about the protestor who got killed in genoa. that isn't a problem, except that they also have a photo of the dead person with a huge pool of blood created by his head wound(s).

so i go to check my e-mail this morning (i don't have to work today), and i open up my browser to see what's going on in the world, and BAM. dead guy. blood. hurtpainsufferingkillkillkill. pictures say a lot, you know. it's too much. i'm afraid i'm not desensitized to violence enough to not be incredibly disturbed by this photo.

i'd like to go back to sleep and start today over. please?

changing topics: in news of the weird, some guy was caught urinating on another customer in a home improvement store.

happy birthday, luke!!

for those of you who don't know, luke is my brother. he's 12 today. it's his fault that i can quote from the teenage mutant ninja turtles movies, but that's okay. he's way cool.

those who like playing with language will enjoy engrish.com. also, amazon comedy meets engrish in this book page: how to good-bye depression: if you constrict anus 100 times everyday. malarkey? or effective way? the reader reviews are... well, words fail me. read them.

i was in the grocery store yesterday, and was a tad surprised to see that they still have the peanut butter and jelly striped stuff. remember that? i got another surprise today when i read about the latest peanut butter innovation. i suppose peanut butter slices make sense, but it seems wrong somehow. i also saw fruit roll-ups in the store yesterday and bought one. they're just like i remembered.

thankfully, i no longer have guns 'n' roses stuck in my head. today, it is the bridge of handle with care by the travelling wilburys. that roy orbison sure could croon, baby. where these songs come from is anybody's guess...

in other news: i saw a.i. yesterday. i still don't know whether i liked it or not. i'm thinking i just didn't like it, although there were parts that appealed to me. it seemed disjointed, somehow. the story was not tight. and there was one scene where i really wanted to whisper "i see dead people" loud enough for the rest of the audience to hear, but i realized that would be inappropriate.

what does a cow say? "moo." what does a doggy say? "woof! woof!" what does a bass fish say? "pork!" (i found that link on susannahs.net. susannah is spying on me.)

there is so much good stuff out on the web! i ended up on justinspace.com today. originally, i was looking at the e-bay art gallery, which is pretty funny, but it does not even approach the hilarity of the obscene interiors. grayed-out silhouettes of naked people are funnier than i ever imagined.

also, the garden gnome liberation front has successfully completed their latest covert operation, carried out in strasbourg, france. vive le gnome!

July 11, 2001

yesterday, on my way out of the building where i work, i got stuck in an elevator. what a very strange thing -- it went down one floor and then did this whole ca-cung thing where it dropped maybe a floor (that was the scary part). then the button for the lobby lit up, then it un-lit up and the digital display that says what floor you're on went blank. i called, using the little voice call box and the lady said she'd send out a technician. she didn't seem very concerned about me. i was only stuck for about three or four minutes all in all, but it's not like she knew that. at any rate, just as i was about to pull out my book and take a seat, it started working again... afterwards, i was dizzy like an earthquake makes you feel.

so, i've got this song stuck in my head. it's "patience" by guns 'n' roses. i've got axle's voice in my head. it's on skip. i'm finding the whole experience to be a tad disturbing.

i'm very sad to hear that teen hearthrob a.j. checked into rehab. but, as my boss said this morning, "if i looked like this ass, i would be a depressed alcoholic as well." my sincere apologies to all fans and/or members of the backstreet boys. you must be crushed.

(i guess the double entendre kind of negates my alleged sincerity, but i find it too amusing to erase...)

i went and saw mike doughty (formerly of soul coughing) perform last weekend. it was just him and an acoustic guitar. i never really got into soul coughing, but i went on a friend's recommendation and thoroughly enjoyed the show. he's a pretty good musician, and a very talented entertainer...

i'm a little sad to see that webvan went under. guess they shouldn't have spent so much repainting their trucks when they took over homegrocer.com. the peach was cuter anyhow.

you know how sometimes you look at a word, or say it too many times and it entirely loses its meaning? that's happening right now with the word 'string'. i am looking at some sample documentation on JSP and the example starts as follows:
String string = new String("I am a string.");
then it gets worse.

string string string string string string string...

i seem to be incapable of refraining from complaining today. i'm better at refraining from rhyming, mostly. but today, i hurt from playing in a big 4th of july reverse co-ed grass doubles volleyball tournament. i am as out of shape for doubles as i am for playing all day in the sun. i did not play well. so i get to complain about that, too. my one consolation for today is that i don't hurt as badly as i will tomorrow. it seems to take about 36 hours for the lactic acid to finish seeping into my muscles and locking them up...

alas, this is all rather boring stuff. woe is you, poor reader! as i told my volleyball partner yesterday, i'll do better next time.

happy birthday, dad!!

this morning, on my way to get coffee, i passed two women who were engaged in conversation and smoking cigarettes. they were walking. about twenty feet behind them was a dumpy looking guy following them and shouting, "i have a job! can i buy a cigarette?" the women gave no indication that they heard him, and he continued his pursuit. i didn't stick around for the conclusion, but i'm guessing it didn't end as he had hoped it would.