So since I haven't been working and have decided to buckle down and apply for graduate study, I've been feeling a little more creative. While I'm having trouble ending that short story I started the other night (it's really short; another paragraph will do it) -- as well as another old one I began at work a while back and have just rediscovered (same deal; a paragraph or two more and it'll be complete) -- I've started penning another screenplay (which should be great; it's an idea I've been kicking around for a while, and it's based more/less on a folk tale, so many of the developments are already... developed). Also, to reacquaint myself with the format, I dug up the last unfinished screenplay I wrote -- an assignment I did for a screenwriting course at Yale; we were supposed to submit a half-finished screenplay with the rest of the story outlined as our final "project" -- and reading over it, I'm finding myself thinking that it's actually very good and worth finishing. I've got some great dialogue in here, and some themes are explored that I'd like to incorporate into the new screenplay as well. Fun times. And, as you'll see in a moment, I've also been doing some sketching.

Hopefully I won't get so caught up in this stuff that I completely forget about the grad school applications! I won't, though -- just saying. 😛

So one thing in particular has bugged me about the hurricane coverage -- the fact that the hurricane is named "Katrina". Other hurricane names in recent memory haven't been quite as troubling, but when they talk about the "devastation left in Katrina's wake" all I can picture is a really gorgeous and vicious woman wading through water destroying everything she touches... so I was inspired to sketch the image of Katrina that keeps playing in my head. The problem, though, is that I think she needs to be wearing something... but I can't imagine what the human incarnation of a force of nature would wear. True, togas and hooded robes seem appropriate for her station, but I think an ultra-powerful swamp queen needs something different... if anything at all. Force of nature, al natural. I dunno.

Also, oddly enough, I think I'm more stressed now than I was when I was freaking out about the whole moving thing -- or at least I feel like I am. Even then, at my worst, I'd touch this stress card and it'd read me as being calm, but now that I've got very little to worry about in the immediate sense, it's saying I'm super stressed in that the temperature sensor thing isn't changing at all. I feel very, very cold and I'm shaking a lot. I don't know what that means.

Okay, I'm out -- will post more in a few days. In the meantime, feel free to check out the latest Scary-Crayon article, which was actually "done" out of my NYC hostel room! Ja ne.

So we're back to the grind with my second to last week at this job. The weekend, as usual, was uneventful and unproductive -- I caught up on much-needed rest, but not a whole lot else. Wasn't a total loss, though -- I got a new food review and a comic up on Scary-Crayon, and I sent out an article (with artwork) to an outside site to (hopefully) bring SC some traffic, so we'll see how that goes. If they don't want the article, though, it'll be perfect for SC! Actually, I'm kinda worried about the direction of SC lately -- I don't feel that my more recent pieces have been all that funny, especially compared to some of the older classics. Maybe I've been too tired and busy to really give it the time necessary to produce hilarity? Or maybe it's because things are so backlogged that by the time I get around to actually writing the articles, I've forgotten all of the funny thoughts I had that inspired me to write them in the first place? I dunno, but hopefully I'll write something soon that can be counted among the better pieces.

I also (unintentionally!) wasted a few hours this weekend playing dating sims. The above screenshot comes from The Garden Society : Kykuit, a short little game about some guy (you) who walks around a garden and talks to people. It's pretty sparse as far as options/elements go -- there are only like four decisions one can make during the game, and it doesn't have any minigames or gift-giving elements, etc. -- but it's a neat way to kill a half hour. I ended up getting with Nadine Lawless on the right. It's kinda funny how it happened, too -- which makes me wonder if perhaps one can learn something from these games. (Take note, TAB.) (more...)

Heylo! I was up until like 4:30 AM last night working on the latest Scary-Crayon article -- a fairly lengthy tirade against the Harry Potter series. In addition to being kinda tired, I was pretty drunk when I wrote it, but I think I managed to make more than a few good and/or interesting points in there, so you might wanna give it a read. Just saying, since I think several of my readers are fans of the series -- so I'm particularly interested in hearing their responses. 😉

Anyway, I considered simply staying awake, but I figured I might as well try to sleep for an hour -- and in that hour I managed to have one fucked up dream. I dreamed that I woke up a little late for work (not a stretch, considering how tired I was) and was running down the hall to the shower when I noticed a fluffy white rabbit hopping alongside me! Not like a pet, either -- like a rabbit that just dashed out of a hole in the wall and started hopping along. He jumped really high, too -- as high as my shoulders. So when I reached the bathroom, he began leaping at me, prompting me to dodge left and right to avoid his attacks. But one leap was unavoidable -- he came directly at my face! -- and I threw up a hand to block... whereupon that little fucker bit into my hand and started viciously ripping at it. It didn't hurt -- which should've been the tipoff that this was a dream! -- but nonetheless blood was flying everywhere and I could hear my flesh being torn apart with sucking gush noises. At first I merely held my hand still in disbelief, but then I began shaking it wildly -- and eventually I managed to throw the rabbit off, whereupon he disappeared into the shadows. But then I looked at my hand and it was fine, save for one little barely-bleeding nick! I started showing it to everyone I could -- "WE HAVE MURDEROUS RABBITS IN THE HOUSE!!!!!" but they took one look and laughed at me. And so I awoke having convinced no one of the truth of the rabbit menace.

It's about time for me to leave the office, so I will catch y'all later. Ja!

Hello everyone! Didja have a great weekend? Same as always with mine -- fairly uneventful, didn't get nearly as much done as I should have, which is to say that I got some things done (frex, a Scary-Crayon review of an educational Batman game, not to mention some food photography that I'll hopefully write up soon -- I've got months of backlogged food articles) but not others. This, of course, is understandable, as it would be absurd for me to expect to be able to accomplish everything that I'd like to do in a single weekend... but then again, my personality does have certain ridiculous aspects to it.

Let's play a game! You read the rest of this post and then, in the comments (in addition to whatever else you'd like to add), you can try to guess what the fuck that is up there. Here's a hint: It smelled even worse than it looks!

Anyway, let's have a bit of linkage. (more...)

Hey all -- hope you've been well these past couple of days! I've been terribly exhausted. Haven't made much headway in Timothy Findley's Pilgrim (the book I'm currently reading) on the bus this week, as I keep nodding off and allowing the book to fall to the floor every time I try to read! (Which isn't to say that the book is boring -- far from it, actually!) But hey, it's FRIDAY, no? Looking forward to catching up on sleep this weekend. Not to mention writing two or three SC articles! Speaking of which, the 47th Hot Flash went up yesterday.

My position was officially posted today, which means that they should ideally have someone new hired in three to four weeks -- probably five max. Which means that you should look for me in NYC in six to eight weeks! Speaking of looking for me in NYC, I'll be in town next weekend! I'll be arriving in the morning on Saturday the 23rd and leaving on the evening of the 24th. So if anyone wants to hang with me, hit me up and we'll schedule something! Natch, I'm planning on hitting up Chinatown in the daytime -- gotta get my requisite Asian cinema fix. 🙂

All for now -- but I've actually got a handful of ideas for upcoming entries! In addition to another romantic selection from the archives of former Wes, we've got two mp3s I recorded last night on the way and a post about my apparent lack of social skills as indicated by my reservations about attending certain events! And whenever I get around to it, I plan to add a little page about myself to the site. Ja!