Oh yeah, I did… 9mm all the way around, baby! I’m liking it so far - it does make me feel quite a bit more like Sluggo, which is always a good thing. My new haircut is great for many reasons:

1. It’s really bracing in the morning.
2. I’m saving a bunch of ca$h on shampoo and pomade.
3. It’s good to be ready for when they reinstate the draft - because nothing, but nothing, beats being prepared.
4. One word: AERODYNAMIC!

In Volvo news: the beast is back! New engine mounts, and it’s purring like a tiny swedish kitten. All that’s left on my list is changing the various & sundry fluids, and replacing some damn belts. Then, sit tight until spring… man, I need a damn garage.

It looks like I may get to have dinner with Jeffrey Brown, comic maker extraordinnaire, sometime in December.

We’re seeing Spoon this weekend at St. Andrews - should be a rollicking good time for certain. No halloween plans as of yet, mostly because we’re really lame. Now I have to go get me some beers, so PEACE OUT, my internets friends!1!!!!!

future mugshot for you haters

Wow, I think I totally found the perfect halloween costume for me. Let’s submerge our souls in the icy waters of Lake Minnetonka, baby!

In other news, I just finished the biggest goddamn project of my “professional” life, and hoo boy am I glad it’s pretty much finito… almost done… well, realistically, it’s never going to be done done, but it should probably start taking up a whole lot less of my valuable, valuable time. Hopefully.

Also, today I am on an all-out, balls-to-the-wall mission to EXTERMINATE the nasty, untraceable odor that has been permeating our apartment. For real, I bought a new mop and some MR. Clean and everything. Take that, foul smells! Mr. Clean will prevail!

Hey, everybody! It’s LINK ROUND-EM-UP time, pee-wee! WAHOOO!

Stephen Colbert geeks the fuck out on Viggo Mortensen

Who’d have guessed it? Colbert loves D&D!

Some ultra-cool highschool music teacher in Minnetoka or something got his percussion quintet to do an amazingly-right-on rendition of two DJ Shadow songs (Changeling and Building Steam with a Grain of Salt). The damn kids even do the chopped-up sample shit which is BLOWING MY MIND right now. FYI, the video he links to is BIG - 60-something MB big - but totally worth it.

Where DO I get all those wonderful ape images? Why, from the only Planet of the Apes resource you’ll ever need, natch.

This link shows the sheer genius of the guys who edit trailers: a trailer for The Shining… happy version?

And this one just cracks my shit right up. Do you have snakes that come in sometimes? Don’t stand for that shit.

song of the day: Wee Willie Oldham: I Gave You (from Superwolf)

SOOO… it’s Wednesday night, and I’m waiting eagerly for the new episode of ABC’s hit drama LOST. Does that make me a bad person, or just a boring one? Whatever, it’s gonna rule.
I haven’t updated in so long… I’ve been very distracted lately. Work has been fucking awful, and I’m both amazingly busy and spectacularly bored all day long. YEAH! Smautumn is doing well in skool - coding like a supernerd! I’m so proud. Somebody on TV was just talking about drinking tequilla and tonics (which sounds pretty fucking nasty) but I’ve really been craving a Moscow Mule lately, and I don’t know why. I think my Trader Joe’s beer and bourbon will treat me JUUST fine tonight.

I had what must have been the worst meal of my LIFE this week at motherfuckin’ SEVA. Seva is a vegetarian restaurant in Ann Arbor that’s always been really overpriced and served incredibly bland food - but I’m used to that. This time, I ordered some new specialty on the menu, corn crepes with goat cheese, chipotle sauce, and some wild rice fritter things. When it arrived? They apparently managed to turn a dish where each ingredient would have good, strong flavor into FUCKING MUSH! I don’t know how you can render a chipotle pepper tasteless, but if you need that done, they can help you. Ugh. Never going back, this time for reals. Fuckin’ hippies.

I’ve been working on the Volvo all the time, and I think I’m ever-so-slowly getting better at it. It’s actually a lot like troubleshooting computer problems - just with more grease. This weekend I’ll be changing drivebelts and replacing the bushings on my steering pump. Before winter, I need to replace all my fluids and check out some hot steering/suspension ACTION! If I keep doing okay with it, I’m definitely buying another ride next summer, either an old Valiant or a turbo volvo (maybe a stick, too). I guess I’ll have to sell the damn toyota one of these days, though.

And that’s Mi Vida Loca — CAN YOU HANDLE IT?

song of the day: Spoon: Everything Hits at Once (from Girls Can Tell)

Murderball is currently playing at artier theaters around the country - and this is definitely a documentary that shouldn’t be missed.

The movie is about a sport originally called “Murderball” by its creators (although it’s now known as the more sponsor-friendly “Quadraplegic Rugby”), in which two teams of quadraplegic men in crazy battering-ram wheelchairs fight for points. The rules, as described in the movie, are that players must pass or dribble every ten seconds to keep possession of the ball, and they have to cross the goal line with the ball in hand and two wheels on the ground to score. Meanwhile, the other team is doing everything they can to stop that score, which mostly means ramming opponents with full wheelchair fury. Even though the movie follows the US Wheelchair Rugby team closely as they train, then compete in the world championships and the Paralympic Games, it’s about a whole lot more than just the sport.

We are introduced to several members of the US team, each of whom reveals the painful story of how they became quadraplegics in a matter-of-fact way that shows how many times they’ve recounted and relived their injuries. We learn about the different amount of limb control that each man has, and about how they pick up chicks, drive cars, and do everything else that everyone else does. The movie starts to focus in on two main subjects - Mark Zupan (at left), a hardass and MVP for the US team, and Joe Soares, an older Murderball player who helped make the game famous, then had a falling out with the US team (and now is spitefully coaching the Canadian national team). As we learn more about these two tough characters - Zupan’s former life as a high school jock, and his relationship with the friend who caused his injury; and Soares’ intensity, grudge-holding, and relationship with his non-sporting son - the movie becomes way more than just a sports documentary.

Murderball has so many scenes that stuck with me, and lots of moments that made me tear up (but not in a cloying, hallmark kind of way). Probably the best movie I’ve seen this summer, and the best sports documentary I’ve ever seen. Check it out.

Oooooh, allergies. At least, I think that that’s my problem. every time I go outside I feel like Clubber Lang just punched me in the chest, and maybe also boxed my ears. Ouch! Claritin, here I come.

In other unexciting news, work on the Volvo is going well - so far, I have done plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor, air filter, and oxygen sensor - but it’s still doing the funky stalling. The kind folks at Brickboard have pointed toward several possibilities (Fuel Pressure Regulator? Thermostat? Knock Sensor?) so I’m a tear it up with the diagnosis this weekend, AND clean the everlovin’crap out of that filthy throttle body. My money’s on the FPR, but whooo knows.

I helped the lovely ChanChan get herself a wordpress blog setup yesterday… maybe I will link to her someday. Wow, the only thing more boring than this entry has got to be the super-tasty Corn Cam!