And lettuce ruled the day!

Expectations. We all have them, and people have them of us. What happens when those expectations aren't met? Usually not good things, that's what. I've noticed lately that the relationships I have, both now and in the past, that involve a high level of expectation (from either side) are the shortest lived, and the ones I have with little or no expectation are the most satisfying.

I say this because I've had a fairly surreal last few weeks, and it's giving me that feeling again like everyone around me is going totally whackbat insane. I mean apeshit woogy woogy insane, and I am the eye of the storm. Whodunit? Unrealistic expectations are the culprit for what I'm interpreting as loose grips on reality. Ironically, it's usually the people that swoon and feign some level of insanity that appear outwardly to be the most grounded, and in turn the people that I'm tending to get along with the most bestest. I think that should frighten me. If it weren't for the fact that I've learned to appreciate certain friends that much more because of this recent past, I would be scared out of my britches. Ah ha, I bet you read that quick and thought I said "bitches". Ok, so I guess I am a little crazy.

One new relationship that I have is with the band I've just been officially accepted into as lead vocalist. Because of past experiences, I had imagined that there were mountains of expectations heaped on me in the sense of performance and production. Don't get me wrong, I still think that there are, but not to the level I've been letting myself believe. These guys are content to start from scratch and reinvent themselves as we all get used to working with each other, and this new atmosphere of relief is actually making me feel that much more inspired to dig in and hit the stage as quick as we can, ready to dump my guts out and kick some ass. Oooooo, aw yeah, feel the melodrama.

I suppose the gist of what I'm feeling as I write this is that with the limited time I have at my disposal anymore, I'm getting urges to do things with my free time that feel worthwhile to me. It's amazing some of the stuff I used to do that seems so pointless now that necessity dictates I streamline. These are yet more of the signs as I go telling me that I'm where I need to be and doing what I should be doing.

All hail the sock monkey!

You know what it was? Voodoo!

I made this a while ago, and I don't really know why I'm putting it up now. I just am.

That is all, goodnight.

I'll bite you harder than Marv Albert!

It's getting to the point that I have all sorts of things going on in my head all day long, chomping at the bit to get to the end of the day and type it all feverishly down here for all to see, and then my mind draws a complete blank. I've been reading literally almost the entire day, and the process is drawn out by a few minor distractions along the way. Sure, email cries to be checked every once in a while, and I have a bit of data transfer going on right now as I reshuffle things a bit with my digital fortress. I recently bought a Western Digital 1TB external hard drive, and I don't need to tell you that it's damn sexy.

It's true, I'm a storage slut. I live for excess gigabytes, and this baby scratches my itch. The best thing about it is the ethernet hookup, so basically I have it connected to my switching router rather than directly to a computer, and that way each of them can share in the magic! What's better is that I got it at a relatively good deal, so I can fool myself into not feeling guilty about buying it.

Let's see... Oh! I almost forgot to mention that the local movie theater here is having a two night showing of Army of Darkness this weekend. I guarantee, I'm ready to kill some brains cells and then go manually turn the survivors off as I sit and watch that this weekend. I've seen it so many times, brain cells are no longer required - not that they probably were at the first viewing. My friend, Pete, is having "one of those weeks" at work, so it sounds as if he'll be tagging along. I doubt we could drag his brother there on this short notice, which is kinda sad because this used to be one of his all time favorites. Still might be, for all I know. Anyway, it's gonna be a hoot, and a much needed one at that. Hmm, maybe we should take his five year old son with us and introduce him to the legend that is Bruce Campbell.



I suppose I should've had a notion that something wasn't right this week when I looked at my weather program on my linux box. As anyone who either lives in the Midwest or watches news reports has seen, there's been a tad bit of snow coming down these past few days. As opposed to the snowfall we had a couple weeks ago, this one was accompanied by much warmer temps. I don't think it was quite as bad here as we were told to expect, but my linux box seemed to think otherwise, because this is what it had to show me. First off, it was snow on the forecast, but it was warm enough that the little rain image didn't seem that strange. I don't think I've ever seen this program show me a dark gray cloud like this one though. Ominous, isn't it? Well, I've made it over the halfway point this week; just a few more days and I should be free of its shadow. Ah, I get it, it's in homage to Army of Darkness this weekend.

"Okay. The words. Say the words.
KLATOO!... VERATA... uh... Uh...
Necta... uh... Nectar...
Necktie... uh...

KLATOO... VERATA...
NECTtphhhhhhhhhh...

Okay then."