That rocket science feels sooooo good!

Everyone's got simple pleasures. I know I do. I write about them often. But do any of us have complex pleasures?

Riding on an airplane is a complex pleasure, logistically speaking.

Juggling? Requires some coordination.

Witnessing a falling star? More coincidence than complexity, methinks.

I suppose sex can be complex. Depending on the context and number of people involved.

I guess video games work. Because it's fun, but not usually "easy." Because if a game is too easy then it ceases to be pleasurable.

And I HAVE to assume people who build ships in bottles are actually enjoying themselves. Right?

Home

I don't know why, but this song almost made me cry. Perhaps I'm emotionally vulnerable right now, or perhaps it's a fuckin' good song. I don't know. Here's a live version from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros:

Some thanks

If God exists I'd like to thank her for

• Coffee
• Television
• Hockey
• Books
• J.S. Bach
  
• Golden Oreos
• Christmas trees
• Christmas lights
• Christmas presents
• Christmas movies
• Bruce Willis in The 5th Element and Armageddon
  

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret

Will Arnett and David Cross in a new show being aired in the UK.

Merry F*cking Christmas

The Christmas Spirit is not coming easy this year. Lynette and I have been working like dogs. Nights. Weekends. The only thing that keeps us from running away screaming is the fact that we have jobs. (Thank God we have jobs.) We've had to decline a few Christmas parties this month and it took us a long ass time to get our tree up. And the money - well, money's tight. This economy is really starting to piss me off. (Flat tires and broken furnaces don't help.)

So, yesterday we had to make our annual pilgrimage to The Christmas Attic to buy our mothers the Official White House ornament when we decided to eat at one of our favorite restaurants and get some awesome crab soup. Then we took a stroll up King Street in Old Town and witnessed the Christmas lights strung up and down the street. It was breathtaking and I believe some Christmas Spirit is seeping into our lives. Our Christmas tree is completely assembled and Lynette strung some lights and garland in the kitchen.

We may not get around to baking cookies or buying everything we want to buy for our friends and family, but we're starting to look forward to Christmas Day.

I'm looking forward to the following things:

• Sleeping.
• Giving Lynette her presents.
• Giving Leia her presents.
  
• Hearing A Christmas Story play over and over throughout the house.
• Cooking a turkey and all the fixins'.
• Sleeping.

The Sparkle Players Jingle Jangle Jam!

Nights Our House Comes to Life

by Matthew Brennan

Some nights in midwinter when the creek clogs
With ice and the spines of fir trees stiffen
Under a blank, frozen sky,
On these nights our house comes to life.
It happens when you're half asleep:
A sudden crack, a fractured dream, you bolting
Upright – but all you can hear is the clock
Your great-grandfather found in 1860
And smuggled here from Dublin for his future bride,
A being as unknown to him then as she is now
To you, a being as distant as the strangers
Who built this house, and died in this room
Some cold, still night, like tonight,
When all that was heard were the rhythmic clicks
Of a pendulum, and something, barely audible,
Moving on the dark landing of the attic stairs.

Office Party Tonight!

Secret Santa gift giving + alcohol + animosity + folksy conversation.

This can only end one of two ways.

(Hint: Not with giant transforming fighting robots.)

Learning Shakespeare (from Brian Cox)

Searchers by Jim Harrison

Searchers

by Jim Harrison

At dawn Warren is on my bed,
a ragged lump of fur listening
to the birds as if deciding whether or not
to catch one. He has an old man's
mimsy delusion. A rabbit runs across
the yard and he walks after it
thinking he might close the widening distance
just as when I followed a lovely woman
on boulevard Montparnasse but couldn't equal
her rapid pace, the click-click of her shoes
moving into the distance, turning the final
corner, but when I turned the corner
she had disappeared and I looked up
into the trees thinking she might have climbed one.
When I was young a country girl would climb
a tree and throw apples down at my upturned face.
Warren and I are both searchers. He's looking
for his dead sister Shirley, and I'm wondering
about my brother John who left the earth
on this voyage all living creatures take.
Both cat and man are bathed in pleasant
insignificance, their eyes fixed on birds and stars.

Best Show on TV. Easy.

My UFO!

This is amazing! When I was in high school I saw this one night as I walking home from my friend's house at around 9:30 PM. For credibility, I did have a friend with me who saw the same thing. That was 18 years ago. Then I stumbled across this today:



This is the exact same thing I saw as a young Lil JC. And it scared the Hell out of me. I remember running for cover. Seriously.

Here's more footage of the thing! LINK

"I for one welcome our new alien overlords."

Things I want to do

...but never have time.

1. Draw. I have ideas, man, ideas!
2. Play Bach on my violin. I haven't played my violin in months.
3. Write a book. Again with the ideas.
4. Lose weight. But I don't want to exercise.
5. Take a picture everyday. Everyday!
6. Play more video games.

Hoo Hoo

I enjoy morning radio shock jocks. It started back in Chicago with The Loop and Johnny B. in the Eighties (Chicagoans know I'm talking about a radio station called The Loop and Jonathon Brandmeier). Then in the Nineties I worked as a graphic artist in a small office full of idiots who wanted to hear Mancow. (Mancow is/was/always will be a douche.) Then I switched to Howard Stern when got to college in mid-Nineties.

Upon our move to DC in 2001 I switched to Opie and Anthony because they were affiliated with XM Satellite Radio. If you're a frat boy and/or politically conservative and enjoy making fun of people because they're different than you, O and A is the show for you. In other words, it's not that good. If you're overly sensitive then steer clear. (Plus, Jimmy Norton's recent incident with Jesse Ventura really pissed me off.)

Within the last month, I have switched back to Stern (post-merger) and realized that he truly is the king. There's no denying Stern is a pro and his celebrity interviews are wonderful. I can go without the farting, but it's silly for silly's sake. And Robin's news is still awesome.

But the show that tops them all - Ron and Fez (11-3) on XM. Pure entertainment.

Music Appreciation: Nada Surf

I have always loved this song. It's where I got Johnny Football (and now you know).

Ode to an Extra

Being that I once was an extra in a fairly popular, successful movie, I found this to be quite amazing.

Miranda July's Ode to an Extra

"Have you checked our shitters, Honey?"

You've seen it - now Christmas can begin.

Things getting me through this weekend workday

• Aaron Copeland
• Pepperidge Farm Holiday Cookie Bites
• Free Starbucks coffee
• Adequate lighting
• Lynette
• Plans to eat chicken 'n dumplings later
• The fear of getting fired if I don't do a good job
  

Skinnydip

I was thinking, what kind of person would I be if I had a big house with an indoor pool and a guest house? Just wondering because Lynette found one of those for sale for nearly as much as we paid for our condo and it made me sad. Here's the rub: it's an hour away without rush hour traffic. Typical commuting time would probably be 2 hours one way. I guess the real question is Would a two hour commute justify a pool and guest house? Sanity can be pretty expensive around here.

Brett Farve

I don't know. Maybe I'll stay here. I really like having my favorite links right there (pointing to the right).

Dammit.

Stay tuned.