[to the tune of "Sunday Bloody Sunday"] Monday, sucky Monday... Okay. So I had intended to use this space as a rant to talk about how someone at work told me today that for the first time that he can remember, the top 4 songs on the Adult Contemporary music charts (think your local "Mix" station) were all cover songs, and I was going to rampage on about how there's absolutely no originality and creativity in American culture today, especially given this and the fact that this summer has the dubious distinction of producing the most sequels yet, and everyone seems to just be copying proven material without thinking of any solid original stuff on their own. Then I got home from the gym to find an e-mail thanking me for trying out for the singing group, but I didn't have the range they were looking for -- they wanted someone with a bit higher range -- and thanks for my efforts, but no thanks. The fact that they didn't take anyone from this round of auditions is only a small consolation. Then I found the cable box had reset itself for some unknown reason, and instead of taping the episode of Family Guy I had wanted to see and relax and decompress to, my VCR taped a half-hour of black nothing. Then I got an e-mail back from a very old and formerly very close friend telling me she was declining my invitation to go with me to the KROQ Weenie Roast this year (we went together last year). When I found her online, we had a heated discussion... well, heated on my side, at least... in which she basically and literally -- without explanation -- told me she'd been a horrible friend over the past year or so, I should just write her off and let her go and not consider her a friend anymore. I'm just waiting for the call from my doctor to tell me that he's discovered I have some rare and deadly disease and that I only have a few months to live. Either that, or it'll be my boss telling me I don't need to come into work tomorrow... or anymore, for that matter, because I'm being laid off. Because those are the only steps I can see occurring from this point.