Something I forgot to mention in my last entry -- Britney Spears recently announced how excited she was that she was able to cover Pat Benatar's "I Love Rock & Roll." Uhhh, Britney? Last I checked, "I Love Rock & Roll" was done by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts. Thanks for playing.

I grabbed The Catcher in the Rye off my bookshelf last night on my way out the door so I could have something to read on the T. It's been a while since I've read it, but I have a bad habit of re-reading books over and over, and especially books I own because they're conveniently located in my apartment, in addition to the fact that I know what's going to happen so I can just kind of leaf through my favorite parts if I'm only looking for something to pick up for a half-hour or something.

Either way, paging through the book, I couldn't remember why I ever liked it. In fact, I couldn't remember why the book is considered an American classic. It's just the story of a scrawny screwup kid who quits school, acts like a smartass in New York, gets beat up a few times, has hormone issues and who's afraid of telling his parents he flunked out of another school. While I'm not advocating that schools ban it like they have, I'm just saying that it doesn't seem all that revolutionary either in content or style that it should be considered one of the Great American Books of All Time. I could probably find a few random blogs of some teenagers that are written better and more interesting than The Catcher in the Rye.

Something I forgot to mention in my last entry -- Britney Spears recently announced how excited she was that she was able to cover Pat Benatar's "I Love Rock & Roll." Uhhh, Britney? Last I checked, "I Love Rock & Roll" was done by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts. Thanks for playing.

I grabbed The Catcher in the Rye off my bookshelf last night on my way out the door so I could have something to read on the T. It's been a while since I've read it, but I have a bad habit of re-reading books over and over, and especially books I own because they're conveniently located in my apartment, in addition to the fact that I know what's going to happen so I can just kind of leaf through my favorite parts if I'm only looking for something to pick up for a half-hour or something.

Either way, paging through the book, I couldn't remember why I ever liked it. In fact, I couldn't remember why the book is considered an American classic. It's just the story of a scrawny screwup kid who quits school, acts like a smartass in New York, gets beat up a few times, has hormone issues and who's afraid of telling his parents he flunked out of another school. While I'm not advocating that schools ban it like they have, I'm just saying that it doesn't seem all that revolutionary either in content or style that it should be considered one of the Great American Books of All Time. I could probably find a few random blogs of some teenagers that are written better and more interesting than The Catcher in the Rye.

So Britney Spears is coming out with a new album today. I'm not planning on buying it. (And I'm especially not planning on getting the Backstreet Boys' Greatest Hits CD -- who else would have the gall to put out a greatest hits collection when they only have 3 albums out? Someone needs to give those guys a good lesson in how not to be greedy.) But Britney is saying how this album is more "emotional," more "grown-up" and how she doesn't want to be treated like a little kid anymore. She can be a "bad girl," you know.

Being bad for Britney means something different than for the rest of us. At 19, she admitted that she occasionally likes to have, like you know, a drink or something sometimes to "relax." So this either means one of two things: (1) that she is a closet alcoholic and has been hitting the bottle, like you know, too much, or (2) she literally likes to have a single drink every once in a blue moon, and that's, like you know, bad since she's underage and all. But I wish she'd just drop this pretense of still being a virgin. She's living with Justin Timberlake -- who is like, sooooo dreamy! -- and has been for a while, so either they're screwing like rabbits or Justin's become strong enough to lift an SUV and their hot water heater hasn't been used yet.

My current guilty pleasure? "Jungle Love" by Morris Day & The Time. Oh wee oh wee oh.

So Britney Spears is coming out with a new album today. I'm not planning on buying it. (And I'm especially not planning on getting the Backstreet Boys' Greatest Hits CD -- who else would have the gall to put out a greatest hits collection when they only have 3 albums out? Someone needs to give those guys a good lesson in how not to be greedy.) But Britney is saying how this album is more "emotional," more "grown-up" and how she doesn't want to be treated like a little kid anymore. She can be a "bad girl," you know.

Being bad for Britney means something different than for the rest of us. At 19, she admitted that she occasionally likes to have, like you know, a drink or something sometimes to "relax." So this either means one of two things: (1) that she is a closet alcoholic and has been hitting the bottle, like you know, too much, or (2) she literally likes to have a single drink every once in a blue moon, and that's, like you know, bad since she's underage and all. But I wish she'd just drop this pretense of still being a virgin. She's living with Justin Timberlake -- who is like, sooooo dreamy! -- and has been for a while, so either they're screwing like rabbits or Justin's become strong enough to lift an SUV and their hot water heater hasn't been used yet.

My current guilty pleasure? "Jungle Love" by Morris Day & The Time. Oh wee oh wee oh.

Things just seem to be right with the world when you have an adorable little bunny stretched out sleeping peacefully on the floor next to your chair. It almost makes you forget about all the hell & madness going on out there, the fact that you have no job & no significant other, and that in three days you'll have to get up for a 7AM dentist's appointment.

I was over at my friend Seth's place tonight with some of his friends. I've known Seth since I was 9, we went to camp together. We still talk about The Random Run-In: the summer before this past one, he was living in Austin, Texas, and I was still working in downtown Boston. Seth had gone to Brown University, and unbeknownst to me but beknownst to him, he was back up in New England for Brown's homecoming weekend. I had no idea he was here, he had no idea I was here. I was walking with some friends through Boston Common after work one night on our way to a bar and I saw someone, out of instinct I turned around and said, "Seth!" It was him. We ended up having dinner & drinks together that night. A year later, he's moved back to Boston & we hang out every now & then.

Either way, Seth was having some guys over for Poker Night, except none of us knew poker except him. So he taught the rest of us, then he & I proceeded to kick the asses of everyone else there. It was ironic yet mildly justifiable that the two unemployed guys took all the money from the employed ones. I was up by almost $6.50 by the end of the night, he was up by over $10. Not bad for a couple of pikers playing a $4 buy-in night.

Things just seem to be right with the world when you have an adorable little bunny stretched out sleeping peacefully on the floor next to your chair. It almost makes you forget about all the hell & madness going on out there, the fact that you have no job & no significant other, and that in three days you'll have to get up for a 7AM dentist's appointment.

I was over at my friend Seth's place tonight with some of his friends. I've known Seth since I was 9, we went to camp together. We still talk about The Random Run-In: the summer before this past one, he was living in Austin, Texas, and I was still working in downtown Boston. Seth had gone to Brown University, and unbeknownst to me but beknownst to him, he was back up in New England for Brown's homecoming weekend. I had no idea he was here, he had no idea I was here. I was walking with some friends through Boston Common after work one night on our way to a bar and I saw someone, out of instinct I turned around and said, "Seth!" It was him. We ended up having dinner & drinks together that night. A year later, he's moved back to Boston & we hang out every now & then.

Either way, Seth was having some guys over for Poker Night, except none of us knew poker except him. So he taught the rest of us, then he & I proceeded to kick the asses of everyone else there. It was ironic yet mildly justifiable that the two unemployed guys took all the money from the employed ones. I was up by almost $6.50 by the end of the night, he was up by over $10. Not bad for a couple of pikers playing a $4 buy-in night.

I used to instant message with the person sitting next to me at my first job. There wasn't even a wall between us. I commented one day that I thought it was rather asinine that the message went from my computer to a server in Virginia and then back to her computer, seeing as how her machine was less than 5 feet away from mine.

I used to instant message with the person sitting next to me at my first job. There wasn't even a wall between us. I commented one day that I thought it was rather asinine that the message went from my computer to a server in Virginia and then back to her computer, seeing as how her machine was less than 5 feet away from mine.

Maggie posted excerpts of Henry's Diary on her blog, so I went and read the whole damn thing. Henry is a four year old boy living in San Francisco. Henry's dad writes the blog. Henry is a kick-ass kid. Reading the stuff Henry's dad Mike posted, it makes me think that maybe not all little kids are screaming spoiled brats and that they can be a lot of fun. If I ever get married and have a kid, I want a kid like Henry.

Excerpts from the blog:

"What do you want for your birthday, Henry?"
"Candles!"
"What do you want the candles on?"
"FIRE!"
Happy Birthday Henry. You're my favorite Pokeman.
----
We went to the Monterey Aquarium today.

Henry was fascinated by the sharks even though he thought they were scary. We touched a sea cucumber and a starfish.

On the way home Henry stated that jellyfish were made of mushrooms on umbrellas.
----
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon we walked up the street to the ice cream store. Sun was out. Birds were singing. Neighbors waving as they swept their stoops. Henry screaming at the top of his lungs.

"No. Sleep. 'Til Broooooklyyyyn!!"

We're impressionable.
----
Pound for pound, Henry might actually be the most powerful entity in the Western United States.

P.S. We are running out of babysitters.
----
The scariest question a four-year-old boy can ask his father:

"Dad, who's Tony Hawk?"

Maggie posted excerpts of Henry's Diary on her blog, so I went and read the whole damn thing. Henry is a four year old boy living in San Francisco. Henry's dad writes the blog. Henry is a kick-ass kid. Reading the stuff Henry's dad Mike posted, it makes me think that maybe not all little kids are screaming spoiled brats and that they can be a lot of fun. If I ever get married and have a kid, I want a kid like Henry.

Excerpts from the blog:

"What do you want for your birthday, Henry?"
"Candles!"
"What do you want the candles on?"
"FIRE!"
Happy Birthday Henry. You're my favorite Pokeman.
----
We went to the Monterey Aquarium today.

Henry was fascinated by the sharks even though he thought they were scary. We touched a sea cucumber and a starfish.

On the way home Henry stated that jellyfish were made of mushrooms on umbrellas.
----
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon we walked up the street to the ice cream store. Sun was out. Birds were singing. Neighbors waving as they swept their stoops. Henry screaming at the top of his lungs.

"No. Sleep. 'Til Broooooklyyyyn!!"

We're impressionable.
----
Pound for pound, Henry might actually be the most powerful entity in the Western United States.

P.S. We are running out of babysitters.
----
The scariest question a four-year-old boy can ask his father:

"Dad, who's Tony Hawk?"

I feel like doing something completely insane and out there in order to shake things up a little and get both me & the general public out of this deep funk we're in. (See, it's times like this when money is a great thing to have. If only I'd invested in Microsoft 15 years ago, I'd be all set!) I thought maybe doing a dress-up parade would be cool, but Halloween was just last week and it needs to be something a little more creative since it was just done.

Right now, I'm thinking that I should get a bunch of people together, rent some rabbit suits and we can all run around together in a mob downtown handing out chocolate eggs. The only thing wrong with that (besides the lack of funding) is that if parents are going to throw out their kids' Halloween candy because they think the neighbors might poison their kids with anthrax, they probably won't take chocolate eggs from a random rabbit in the street either.

But dammit, something's got to be done. In the words of Tim Matheson and John Belushi in Animal House: "I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part... And we're just the guys to do it."

I feel like doing something completely insane and out there in order to shake things up a little and get both me & the general public out of this deep funk we're in. (See, it's times like this when money is a great thing to have. If only I'd invested in Microsoft 15 years ago, I'd be all set!) I thought maybe doing a dress-up parade would be cool, but Halloween was just last week and it needs to be something a little more creative since it was just done.

Right now, I'm thinking that I should get a bunch of people together, rent some rabbit suits and we can all run around together in a mob downtown handing out chocolate eggs. The only thing wrong with that (besides the lack of funding) is that if parents are going to throw out their kids' Halloween candy because they think the neighbors might poison their kids with anthrax, they probably won't take chocolate eggs from a random rabbit in the street either.

But dammit, something's got to be done. In the words of Tim Matheson and John Belushi in Animal House: "I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part... And we're just the guys to do it."

The title of this entry will have nothing to do with the content, but I heard that line on "The Simpsons" a few nights ago and just had to use it.

So, the breakdown. I got my sorry ass out of my apartment this afternoon to go down to Circuit City in Dedham in order to pick up the MP3 player that I have been wanting so badly for the past 3 weeks. They had it in stock so I bought it and brought it home. This thing completely rocks my world! It has all the features that were missing from the first one I got just over a year ago, and some others on top of those that I didn't even think of but still kick ass! I can't wait for the batteries to charge (another really cool feature -- rechargeable batteries, the charger is in the unit so all I have to do is plug it in & it'll recharge itself) to take it out for a spin.

On my way home, I was listening to one of my two all-time favorite DJs (Geoff Charles on 94HJY from Providence) and he was talking about the alert for terrorist attacks that the government put out last week. He basically said that the government knew what day it would be (he said it was supposed to be on Halloween) but that they weren't specific because they were afraid that the terrorists would say "well, they know we're planning on striking on Wednesday, let's wait until Thursday/move it up to Tuesday instead." Also, he said that if the government named a specific day, Americans wouldn't venture out on that day but they'd live life normally during the rest of the week. So it made no sense to scare all of us into staying in bed all day for one day last week. Personally, I think he's got good points, but the fact remains that there's still the stark dichotomy in what our government is saying and doing. If the government doesn't want us to get worried about future attacks, then they just shouldn't say anything about any information. We're already so hypersensitive to anything that could possibly be construed as a terrorist act that telling us to keep our eyes open is just plain redundant. And if they need to explain the whole patrolling the bridges or whatever other actions they take, all they have to say is "As part of our ongoing efforts to fight further possible terrorist attacks on our country, we're taking these and other various preventative measures. So expect to see an increased police and federal law enforcement presence over the next few weeks/months as we attempt to run down whoever is connected with the 9/11 attacks as well as who's been mailing us all anthrax." That's all. End of story. No need to excite the rest of us and make the paranoid people run screaming about more bombings.

Man, 4:35 and it's already dark outside. Plus, it's been cloudy and damn cold all day. Talk about fall just suddenly dropping in on you. It's almost time to break out the hot chocolate and watch the Fireplace Channel on TV.

The title of this entry will have nothing to do with the content, but I heard that line on "The Simpsons" a few nights ago and just had to use it.

So, the breakdown. I got my sorry ass out of my apartment this afternoon to go down to Circuit City in Dedham in order to pick up the MP3 player that I have been wanting so badly for the past 3 weeks. They had it in stock so I bought it and brought it home. This thing completely rocks my world! It has all the features that were missing from the first one I got just over a year ago, and some others on top of those that I didn't even think of but still kick ass! I can't wait for the batteries to charge (another really cool feature -- rechargeable batteries, the charger is in the unit so all I have to do is plug it in & it'll recharge itself) to take it out for a spin.

On my way home, I was listening to one of my two all-time favorite DJs (Geoff Charles on 94HJY from Providence) and he was talking about the alert for terrorist attacks that the government put out last week. He basically said that the government knew what day it would be (he said it was supposed to be on Halloween) but that they weren't specific because they were afraid that the terrorists would say "well, they know we're planning on striking on Wednesday, let's wait until Thursday/move it up to Tuesday instead." Also, he said that if the government named a specific day, Americans wouldn't venture out on that day but they'd live life normally during the rest of the week. So it made no sense to scare all of us into staying in bed all day for one day last week. Personally, I think he's got good points, but the fact remains that there's still the stark dichotomy in what our government is saying and doing. If the government doesn't want us to get worried about future attacks, then they just shouldn't say anything about any information. We're already so hypersensitive to anything that could possibly be construed as a terrorist act that telling us to keep our eyes open is just plain redundant. And if they need to explain the whole patrolling the bridges or whatever other actions they take, all they have to say is "As part of our ongoing efforts to fight further possible terrorist attacks on our country, we're taking these and other various preventative measures. So expect to see an increased police and federal law enforcement presence over the next few weeks/months as we attempt to run down whoever is connected with the 9/11 attacks as well as who's been mailing us all anthrax." That's all. End of story. No need to excite the rest of us and make the paranoid people run screaming about more bombings.

Man, 4:35 and it's already dark outside. Plus, it's been cloudy and damn cold all day. Talk about fall just suddenly dropping in on you. It's almost time to break out the hot chocolate and watch the Fireplace Channel on TV.

The title of this entry will have nothing to do with the content, but I heard that line on "The Simpsons" a few nights ago and just had to use it.

So, the breakdown. I got my sorry ass out of my apartment this afternoon to go down to Circuit City in Dedham in order to pick up the MP3 player that I have been wanting so badly for the past 3 weeks. They had it in stock so I bought it and brought it home. This thing completely rocks my world! It has all the features that were missing from the first one I got just over a year ago, and some others on top of those that I didn't even think of but still kick ass! I can't wait for the batteries to charge (another really cool feature -- rechargeable batteries, the charger is in the unit so all I have to do is plug it in & it'll recharge itself) to take it out for a spin.

On my way home, I was listening to one of my two all-time favorite DJs (Geoff Charles on 94HJY from Providence) and he was talking about the alert for terrorist attacks that the government put out last week. He basically said that the government knew what day it would be (he said it was supposed to be on Halloween) but that they weren't specific because they were afraid that the terrorists would say "well, they know we're planning on striking on Wednesday, let's wait until Thursday/move it up to Tuesday instead." Also, he said that if the government named a specific day, Americans wouldn't venture out on that day but they'd live life normally during the rest of the week. So it made no sense to scare all of us into staying in bed all day for one day last week. Personally, I think he's got good points, but the fact remains that there's still the stark dichotomy in what our government is saying and doing. If the government doesn't want us to get worried about future attacks, then they just shouldn't say anything about any information. We're already so hypersensitive to anything that could possibly be construed as a terrorist act that telling us to keep our eyes open is just plain redundant. And if they need to explain the whole patrolling the bridges or whatever other actions they take, all they have to say is "As part of our ongoing efforts to fight further possible terrorist attacks on our country, we're taking these and other various preventative measures. So expect to see an increased police and federal law enforcement presence over the next few weeks/months as we attempt to run down whoever is connected with the 9/11 attacks as well as who's been mailing us all anthrax." That's all. End of story. No need to excite the rest of us and make the paranoid people run screaming about more bombings.

Man, 4:35 and it's already dark outside. Plus, it's been cloudy and damn cold all day. Talk about fall just suddenly dropping in on you. It's almost time to break out the hot chocolate and watch the Fireplace Channel on TV.