radio spelling bee

One of the things that has struck me as queer about Restoration England is the way words were written and pronounced. I was having a rough time making sense of it until I read that there was no standardized system of spelling and that most of the time people would spell a word as they heard it. This could vary by regional accent.

I was wanting to give my new novel more of historical undercurrent and perhaps write it as it would've been written back then. But I'm debating it. On one hand I hate where people in novel a set back in the past talk like it's 2004. On the other hand I hate when a novel is written with an accent that makes it unreadable. Then there is the spelling issue. It's not as if Microsoft Word can do a spell check on Restoration period English.

Also one of our songs got played on the radio last night, albeit at 11:30pm, albeit on the local show, albeit on college radio; but, it was still fun! Our web site got a plug which was a nice bonus.

love to all my friends and foes

My iTunes will only play one song, "Simplicity Is Beautiful" by Juliana Hatfield. Awesome, awesome tune. It makes me smile and want to write songs in Drop-D.

My sister got Rebekah and I a headphone amp for our Anniversary. That's cool!

I've got a Doctor's appointment in a hour. I'm gonna make them blind weigh, anorectic style. I can't deal with my weight right now. I'm also gonna try to talk the Doctor into writing a script for Clenbuterol so I can haul it back from Mexico.

What else?

Hmmm.

It's going to be long work day. I might as well never leave today.

Nothing much else has been going on. Just incredibly busy, busy, busy, busy, busy.

My love to all my friends and foes.

A Good Day

It's 11:30 p.m., Sunday, September 26th. I'm going to type a little before going to bed and I'll finish this up Monday or maybe Tuesday. I need to get this right.

It would almost be wrong not to consider this weekend one of the best of my entire life - and without a doubt THE best since I have been married. For the longest time it I figured there came a point with your teenage years behind where the party had to eventually stop. It least it did around here. Everybody got married, got jobs, got mortagages, got dull, got boring, got old and completely cynical. But it doesn't have to be that way. Indeed it appears that at least in some parts the party is still going on.

At some point during our long drive back home Rebekah says to me, "This may seem stupid but there were times Saturday when I felt like I was sixteen again." But it's not stupid, because I felt the exact same way. At least for a day we had that same energy and excitement that only a group of friends who aren't afraid to love and support one another can provide. It was such an incredible high.

And I would be a totally rotten person if I don't manage to grasp at least a small part of that and bring it back home. "You don't know love, unless you show love." Love is really the key isn't it? It's the sign of a true Christian yet I don't see too often where I'm from. It's almost as if we have all resigned ourselves that that we will die for our brothers, yes if it got to that ultimate sacrafice, we would most assuredly show love for them . . . then and only then. It's a painful assessment.

But why wait until that off event happens? Isn't it easier to give someone a big hug? Isn't it easier to applaud hard and compliment and let someone know you appreciate them? At least that is my resolve. Yeah I'm in danger of looking like an absolute nutjob as I go around showing love to everybody. But I don't care. Too often I just mope around complaining about the area I'm living in and not doing a single thing to make it a better place.

"If everybody tried to brighten other people's eyes then they'd always surely shine."

So let me talk about the music at October Ridge . . . How absolutely incredible! Listening to all of it you just have to smile knowing that you won't be spending an eternity listening to King David plucking away on a harp. Everybody was brilliant and great big shining stars.

Rebekah and I played the songs we have been playing in the basement for a year (and in some cases longer). I was so nervous I played like gash, I conceed that point. Rebekah however was so spot on. Even songs that she has struggled through in the past she did perfect -- better than ever. After we did our thing everybody was so supportative of it and seemed like they really dug it. I'm happy about it and really encouraged to keep it up.

But in honesty we were the lesser of the talent there. I have to give special attention to Daytrip. On a music level they were so perfect. The sounds that they were producing were superhuman. If I could spend a day driving through an empty desert with Daytrip as my sound track I would be very happy.

Now I'm gonna gush about Pop Riveter and how they just may my favorite band at present (This decision is made easier since Throwing Muses are defunct.) I have never felt that much energy at a show in my entire life. It was just geniune j-o-y! Very few people can write happy songs without resorting to cliché. Pop Riveter may be one of the few. Pure bliss that was.

Yeah and I finally got to meet Hiromi and his wife Robbie. For two years I've been reading Hiromi's website since my wife found it in some random google search or something. It was so great getting to spend a little (too little) time with them Saturday morning. Last year we stayed with Reed and Janna. We had the opportunity to stay with them again but I inconvienced H and his wife for purely selfish motives to have the privalege of knowing them better. How incredible the hospitality they showed and what awesome people they are! I can't thank them enough for the bed and for the breakfast and for my first latte and for the conversation and for my awesome drawing of Dagon. Cheer.

I owe very deep thanks to many of my Northern Brothers and Sisters. In addition to assemblies and conventions I need to add a yearly visit to the cities to affirm my faith.

Oh yes it was a good day.

madison, wi

It's really, really early Saturday morning and I'm writing this from Madison, WI. My cold-flu-sinus-allergy-pnuemonia medicine combo had me up @ 5 am. I was feally really good so I took off running. I tried to do my 5 miles but at the 3 mile mark my throat and ear started hurting simueltaneously so I had to stop and walk back. I still did 5-miles but the last 2 were walking. I'm let down about that . . . but I'm recovering from a sick week (here's were I make excuses for myself). Also the only thing I have eaten in the last two days are 3 hershey's kisses, 3 mini-nestlé crunch bars, and an arby's roast beef sandwhich. Under 1000 calories in over 48 hours is pretty much not a good idea on a running schedule.

In a couple hours we will be leaving for music in Minnesota.

lethargic antihistimene haze

It's Friday morning and I'm so incredibly doped out of my mind. Yesterday my allergies or something hit me incredibly hard and now I'm in a lethargic antihistimene haze. Rebekah gave me a Claritan and that helped quite a bit, but in the meantime I'm just shaky and out of it. My sleep last night was in and out and off-time.

On the verge of passing out from exhaustian Rebekah and I finished our new song "Sarah S". The problem with new songs is that I'm incredibly fickle and inevitably I'll start loving the new song and hating the others. (Hate in the biblical sense of loving less.) Anyhow "Sarah S." was such a fun song to write. We kept coming up with really great lyrics that we had to dump in the process of keeping it clean. It's good and it's about a girl we knew who always had a guy on each arm and one in reserve.

I'm taking a half-day off and we are heading up to Minnesota, stopping over at Madison, WI tonight to see Amanda and rest at the half-way point.

Tomorrow we are playing October Ridge and I am really happy about that.

Sarah S

On account of an incredibly sore throat I've switched off to herbal tea for the duration of my sickness. It's been awhile since I've had tea due to trading over to coffee a couple years back. In that time I've forgot what a delight a good, hot cup of tea is.
.
Rebekah and I are 95% done on a new song called "Sarah S", once again continuing with the girl theme. It's pretty breakneck and exhilirating writing a song, practicing two days, and then performing it live. I know Rebekah panics about that but I hope the audience will be very forgiving if we botch it up. It's with them in mind that we went back to the slate to crank out a new "uppity" song instead of settling for a poor fitting acoustic number or a 6a2 cover that sounds like gash with the synths removed.

Sonny Bono or Prince Valiant

Saturday I broke down and self-defeated I found myself sitting on a chair at the Regis salon. Rebekah had made an appoitment for herself and I tagged along for support. It was incredibly boring as Rebekah was getting the works (and since it's for our "band" through some weird accounting practice it's tax deductible) and I waited and finally decided to get my head chopped as well. Well it's a lotto draw on who I would get since I didn't have a hard-fast appoitment. But in settling for first available I got lucky and got the girl with pink hair and glasses. Score! We didn't use clippers but we did reel in my hair so I no longer look like Sonny Bono or Prince Valiant.

Sunday we went apple picking and picked about 8 apples. It's more of an experience than an actual need for apples that motivates us to go every year. And every year I make the same observation; there is an abnormal ratio of asian to caucasion in the orchard. It must be this weird cultural thing but they are usually dressed up. The ladies wear sundresses and the men wear slacks and button downs. It's got this paradise vibe. I looked down at my denim trousers and t-shirt and suddenly felt ashamed.

My marathon training began this morning, officially. And officially I ran three miles (39 minutes) and for the first time I wasn't tired. I was really bored but I wasn't struggling or hurting. This Saturday coming up is my first 6-mile run E-V-E-R. I'm going to be out of town so it should be odd.

So we should have a busy week. We need to get the car-washed, an oil-change, and an alignment. We need to practice and I need to write another song to keep us from dipping too far into the 6a2 bag when we perform this weekend. The comfirmed songs are: Caroline, Miko, Ana, and Katie. All are good, tight pop-rockers.

Library Fine

Our library system is absolutely hardcore! We received a form letter threatening arrest if I didn't return my library book that I've had out since . . . dunno . . . months ago. They said either pay for the book or else! The cost of the book is $10.99 which is cheaper than actually buying it from Amazon so I guess I'll go that route. After all, do you know what they do to people who don't return library books when they go to prison? Do ya?! That being said, it's a really, really good book about the London Plague and Fire.

Running Shorts

I just found out that there was no room in the half-marathon so Rebekah's father signed up for the full marathon. There are two bad scenarios that could happen: A.) He dies because he hasn't conditioned himself and rushed the training. B.) He finishes and steals my thunder. This kind of makes me angry. I've been working on this for most of 2004 and here he comes in at the zero hour and claims he is going to do it to. A half-marathon was a stretch but reasonable. A full marathon is suicide.

I should be working instead of writing this, I have so much to do. But it is Monday and the zeal just isn't there.

Also over the weekend we took Mina to get a hair cut at SuperCuts in the mall. I wandered in and sat down reading a dated issue of CosmoGirl while I waited. This large beautician ambles over to me and says, "Sir, are you waiting for a hair cut? I can take you now." I replied, "No." She looked at my mop-top and says, "Are you sure?". I really need to get my hair cut but I feel like it'll rob me of my power much like Samson. I dunno. I'm at the breaking point where I'll either stick it out or cave in.

I also finally got my running underwear which I bought a size too small. I wanted to take them back but once you try them on you're stuck with them. But I wasn't gonna let the money go to waste so I wore them anyway for my run this morning. I'll let you write your own punchline as to the obvious results.

Rebekah and I are playing music together in the off-chance I can get Paro to give us a small slot at October Ridge. If anyone knows him please put in a good word. Not so much because you want to hear our unique brand of indie-pop but because you want us to stay together as a couple by making and playing music together.

Loco

Part of my job is meeting with salespeople from time to time. Usually they are completely polished and professional. Well the other day I agreed (somehow) to meet with two guys from a company called ChemSafe or ChemSearch or something. It's this old guy (Mr. Burns old) and some young bald dude.

I take them into our conference room and we sit down. The old guy is completely clueless and reminds me of the lackluster sales guy, Gil, from the Simpsons. He starts asking me what I like to do in my spare time. I say that I don't really have spare time, that I'm very busy with work, hoping he'll get to the point. He looks at me blankly. His young assistant just keeps scanning the room nervously.

Gil, I'll call him that, pulls out a pocket knife. His hands are shaking as he tries to pull out the blade as I tried to estimate my escape route. He hands me the knife and says, "I wanted you to have this." I take it and say, "Thanks."

Well then he launches into his sales pitch which is just a string of completely random items followed by an elaborate demonstration. Hand cleaner, windshield de-icer, lubricating oil, and wasp and hornet killer. By the time he got to the wasp and hornet spray I have expected him to release killer bees to demonstrate the unholy killing power of his product.

I didn't buy anything and ended the conversation by asking, "Are you guys local?"

The young guys replies, all smiles, "YES WE'RE CRAZY!!"

I give him this puzzled look as I once again plan my escape. "Excuse me." I say.

The young guys says, "YEH, WE'RE COMPLETELY LOCO." and with that they packed up and left . . .

3 Chocolate-Banana Milk Shakes

Best Waste Of 9 Bucks: 3 chocolate-banana milk shakes from Steak N' Shake.

Worst Waste of 9 Bucks: The Polyphonic Spree CD is just terrible. It's a choral group without that which makes a good choral group - harmony. There seems to be a million instruments in the band but on the album you are lucky to hear two or three. The lead is off-tune and horrible. But the robes are nice.

On and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on . . .

So my 3-day weekend came just in time to keep me sane. We had a brief trip to see my parents until Mina got frighteningly sick so we came home and she recovered back to normal sick.

Sometime over the last week I figured out the end to my novel. My first novel. The one that I had finished. It never really seemed cohesive. Well I sussed out the appropriate ending and once it is in place I can rewrite the thing toward the new ending. Bits of the story was already leading to the conclusion but I was holding back, plotting for a sequel I'm never gonna write or something. So I'm going back and putting in the happy ending where all the characters get what they want although none would have chosen for it to happen the way it happened. I hate to working on that novel again when I'm more than ready to go on with my second but . . . y'know.

Schools Out

So I've been thinking of politics lately. I don't know if in the past I just wasn't aware of it as much but it seems to be ever present this time around. I can't listen to radio or watch TV without being urged to vote. I can't even walk the street without having voter registration clipboards thrust at me.

I was reading about a religious conference that was held where the interfaith attendees weighed heavily on the question, "Who would Jesus vote for?". The decision was a split one. "He would either vote Democratic or Rebulican" the shrewd counsel surmised. Afterall Jesus loved the poor and afflicted so he would vote Democratic. At the same time Jesus had high morals so he would vote Republican. I wonder if the notion that Jesus would have exercised his right not to vote ever came up . . . at all . . . maybe . . . just one dissenting voice . . . anyone?

Everything I know about politics has come recently from a children's book on U.S. Presidents that we bought for Mina. For some reason she has really been interested in George Washington, FDR, and George "The Dad" Bush. I particularly enjoyed reading about the development of the U.S.'s two party system. In the beginning the founders of the U.S.A. were against the idea of political parties reasoning that individual difference of opinion would keep everybody in check. Advocates of parties eventually won out and party lines were drawn on the heated subject of slavery. Republicans were against slavery and Democrats were either for it or apathetic toward it.

Schools out.


I ran last night at 8:00 pm. The late night run is unusual as I usually try to do it at the crack of dawn. (I overslept from sweet joy of work hassels fading away.) My running seems to have inpsired my father-in-law to give it a shot. He wants to attempt a half-marathon. That's fine. But now my mother-in-law is starting too. It's enough to make me want to totally give up. She has a ton of made up ailments which running will surely highten. She'll be laid up for weeks and we'll all have to suffer through her war stories. She's such a killjoy.

a zillion misc. thoughts

Here's a zillion misc. thoughts:

One thing that I know for sure is that margaritas on your lunch break is never a good idea, especially when mixed with questionable Messican food. I was sick for two days and it went way beyond the typical. Uggg. I'm going dry and avoiding South of the Border cuisine like the plague.

We ditched Mina on Friday and went to the book store. I was still sick and spent much time contemplating making a #2 in a public restroom which is never a good idea and always a last resort.

We picked up "The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary" which is not really official come to find out. You can't use it for tournament play but it's great for JW play. There's no profanity in it. But the dictionary is dangerous because it validates archaic misspellings of words. For instance "chetah" is a perfect alternative to "cheetah".

I love beehive hair-do's. A young teenage boy in our hall just got a perm. My hair is really, really bad right now. I look like the lost beetle. I take that back. With my uni-brow and beetle do, I look like Oasis.

My running program is the only thing keeping me from having an eating disorder. I need food to run. Unfortunately.
I spent $23 dollars on cookies. We ended up giving some away to Rebekah's mom just do get them out of the house.

Mina is rebelling. She just said that she liked the band Yellowcard. Arrgg. (By the way "Arrgg" is Scrabble legal along with "Arrrggg" and "Arrrrggg".)

I need to go to bed.

tah.

T.

on the verge of collapse

Last night at the BS, Jason was talking about turning 29. I asked him how he felt about it. He said that he had never felt better in his life.

How sad then that everyday I feel like I am dying. I can't put my finger on it. I don't know if I'm depressed, or sick, or aging or what. Everyday I wade through the day and then get home and feel on the verge of collapse.

dreck and qat

Saturday night we went out to eat with inlaws and the came back to the house for a game of Scrabble. I came in second. I should've won but my words didn't appear in the moldy old dictionary we had laying around. I lost to two seperate challenges for the words "dreck" and "qat". Poop.

Sunday we went to the City Museum. It's a cross between a playground and a giant found art project. It's insane in scope and execution and there is room to grow. We were climbing five stories up in the fuselage of a plane before sliding down a three story slide. They are planning a ten story slide that will start at the top of the building and spiral down to the man-made "caves" in the basement. I also like how the place is semi-dangerous, harkening back to the time when the line between playground equipment and midieval torture device was blurred. Thumbs up. It's expensive but definately worth checking out.

Hot-or-Not?

Last night I was lamenting how my name isn't sexy. Then Rebekah pointed out that an old flame of mine used to pronounce my name as Aunthony. Perhaps an attempt to imbue it with sexiness that didn't exist?

Also last night I went to a business networking dinner type of thing that was being serviced by a cajun restaraunt. I walked in and was greeted with mounds of stinking crawdads, all bug-eyed. The alligator sausage at least was tasty.

Later last night we watched Word Wars. The documentary was about tournament level Scrabble players. I love Scrabble but these guys just about zapped the joy right out of it. The doc focused on the weird/strange/creepy/geeky players. I couldn't help but to wonder if there were normal players (albeit less interesting) participants hanging out just outside of camera range. The filmmakers had a very superior attitude to the people within it. It works for a Christopher Guest Mockumentary but for a legitimant documentary it feels too much like grade school finger pointing and name calling.

And even later last night I dreamed I killed a guy by slamming his head in a door, continuously.

360

Hello. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is 360. We may have to be indentified by our social numbers but we still rely on nicknames to ease things up. I wanted to use 720 but it was taken by an in/famous pornstar. Someone I definately didn't want to be associated with. 360. One revolution.

--

My run today was laboured because I was choking on humidity and soot. An area boardinghouse burned to the ground. So far there is one confirmed death. A fat guy couldn't squeeze out the window to escape so he burned to death. (An incentative to lose weight for those of us still living.) They don't know if there were any other deaths because the place was the kind of place strangers could rent by the week and come and go. Some of these people are probably rejoicing that they can pretend to be dead and pick up again with a new name. No debt. No criminal history.

They haven't ruled out a meth-lab explosion. It wouldn't be the first time a bathtub drug lab blew up a house in our neighborhood.

The police raised an eyebrow when I ran through the "POLICE LINE - DO NOT CROSS", arms raised, just like Bruce Jenner at the finish line.

Cold, chilly, frigid

It's August and it is down-right cold, chilly, frigid.

So we had a more or less busy weekend. We ate at Nobu's, Steak-N-Sheak, Tequila. We fixed some awesome 5-cheese tortellini that Amanda brought us and I topped it with a quick and easy, semi-homemade sauce.

After knocking the summer olympics early this week I now find myself totally enthralled with them. Now one thing abundantly clear, I really want one of those form fitting, full body swimsuits. There is a water slide at Walt Disney World's Blizzard Beach where it's possible to reach a speed of 60 mph. And that's in baggy swim trunks. Can you imagine what one of those shark-skinned swimming outfits would bump that up to?

I played tennis last night and was sooooo rusty. I kept trying to hit home runs or something. It's really a blow to the self-esteem sometimes. I should've went running instead.

Brisk, cool, and verty autumn like.

The weather here is brisk, cool and very autumn like. It is wonderful.

Superstar

Surf-N-Turf. So yesterday I grilled steak and salmon which was kind of an unsual dinner for us. What can I say? It was bland. The internet was down so I couldn't find any good marinades. Bleh.

I finally managed to locate a copy of Todd Hayne's Superstar; The Karen Carpenter Story. I was hoping to burn it to DVD but it is in some wacky MPEG-2 format that iDVD bawks at. I've got it downloaded to my work computer. I guess I have to watch it on my lunch hour sometime.

Last night I dreamed that I knocked on a door and inside was Johnny Depp dressed up like Libertine. He attempted to scare me and then kiss me.