This afternoon, I saw the following printed on a fat guy’s chest at the local amusement park:

I got this shirt for my girlfriend.
Best trade I ever made.

This amused me more than most of the things in the park. Just for fun, here’s another one:

Be different.
Say yes.

Anne and I have been e-mailing this afternoon about the previous entry — what I was trying to say, what she thinks I actually did say, that sort of thing — and we just had an exchange that you folks out there might find amusing, especially if you’ve ever known a genuine, stereotypical geek:

ME: The thing that shocked me [about the experience at the comic-book shop] was more that I just didn’t want to talk about [Star Wars]. I didn’t want to defend my preferences for the umpteenth time. I found myself looking at this kid and thinking what all geeks hate to hear… Get a life.

 

ANNE: oh no! Not the dreaded “get a life”. 🙂

 

ME: Yes… that soul-crushing, ego-destroying weapon-of-last-resort employed by the practical and small-minded, the plebes and drudges who just don’t see how damned important it is that Adm. Kirk’s insignia changed from the left side of his uniform to the right side during beaming, and that it couldn’t have been anything as simple as a continuity error, there MUST be some “in-universe” explanation for it…

Every once in a while, I feel like I get lucky and manage to really nail a concept or an experience in words. This is one of those times…

My buddy Jack sent me a cute little cartoon this morning, which I’ve decided to share with all you folks out there in InternetLand (hey, it’s a Quick ‘n’ Dirty™ way to get an entry up):

Personally, I think this is pretty funny, but then I’m in on the joke. If you don’t get it, go rent yourself a copy of the movie Highlander. I would explain it for you myself, but I don’t have that kind of time right now…

Argggghhhh!!!!

That’s the sound of a blogger who is denied the time to blog. I’ve been accumulating lots of interesting links and topics for discussion, and it’s driving me crazy that I haven’t been able to do anything with them because work and Real Life have been so hectic. But have no fear, my loyal readers — I will return. Hopefully sooner than later.

Last Sunday afternoon, on the spur of the moment, Anne and I decided to drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon.
We were both in a funk, me because of the things I wrote about a week ago, Anne for reasons of her own that I wouldn’t presume to make public here. We each craved a break from our usual routine as well as some reassurance that the whole damn planet really hadn’t spiraled off its axis, or plunged into an parallel dimension where everything looks the same but somehow just sucks. We wanted sanity and peace. We needed sunshine and fresh air and solitude. The solution was obvious, high gas prices be damned, and within minutes we had the top down on my Mustang and we were motoring eastward, toward the mountains and away from the hateful ‘burbs.

Continue Reading…

If you happen to live along the Wastach Front and you’d like to donate some cash to help the victims of Katrina, might I suggest you do it at a Harmon’s grocery store? You ought to be shopping at Harmon’s anyway, because they’re the local guys and they provide the excellent service you don’t get from SuperWalMart (and you don’t need a privacy-invading Big Brother card to get the good prices, either, like you do at Smith’s). But even if you’ve never set foot in one of their stores, it’s worth paying them a special visit now, because they’re matching every dollar you donate to the Red Cross for hurricane relief. That means if you donate the money at Harmon’s that you were going to give anyway — and you know you were going to give, right? — you’ll effectively double the size of your donation.

I gave some last night. Not much, just what I had in my wallet. But it was money I just would’ve blown on DVDs anyway, and getting some help to a family that’s lost everything is much better than owning the first season of Hogan’s Heroes. Go to Harmon’s and donate now, as a favor to me, before you get busy with your holiday weekend and forget…