Saturday, June 30, 2007 | by nathan

251 - Chris

We always joked around on Jay’s Crew, but when I made a harmless joke about him being illiterate, he hit me as hard as he could.

Friday, June 29, 2007 | by nathan

Meh.

I forgot to talk about Pride. Wanna know why? Because I remember so very little of it. See, I woke up this past Sunday morning, missing Brian, who’d had to leave the day before to go to Atlanta for a business thing. I cleaned the house and bought some booze, sent a text message to about ten people to join me at the house for drinks before the parade, and forgot to eat a thing.

So when four people showed up at my house - apparently I’d accidentally clashed with another pre-Pride party - I was operating on an empty stomach and a bit of excitement, and I promptly drank two vodka and club sodas, three glasses of white wine, and two beers. Chambers drove me to the parade, where we met up with some friends, and he also bought me a very large Park Long Island Iced Tea, and by the time the Parade started I was a goner.

Once the whole thing was over I was tired and cranky, and it looked like it was going to rain. I’d been standing on the bleachers with my neighbor, Steve, who was so kind as to drive me home almost immediately after the street was clear. I got like 10 pictures, and stayed for probably 2 hours, and I realize now that things just aren’t as much fun when my man isn’t around. 

Friday, June 29, 2007 | by nathan

x365: A Note

You may have noticed that I’m starting to list people by their first initial only in this project. I’ve decided to do this for personal reasons, namely the fact that, when I write something particularly stinging, I find myself really hoping that person finds what I’ve said. One person did, and retaliated, and it made me realize that I just.don’t.care, and here I thought I did. What’s funny is that when I write something nice, I find myself hoping no one sees it. Is that odd? Either way - in the interest of this not becoming a psychiatric issue for me, I am largely - though not exclusively - going to use initials rather than full names. Though it should be noted that sometimes the initials are the initials of a nickname, a surname, a middle name, or - occasionally - a first name.

Also, my 27th birthday is on July 23rd, after which time each post will go from 26 to 27 words. That is all. 

Friday, June 29, 2007 | by nathan

250 - P.

I accused the entertainment editor of only giving good reviews to things that would make him look cool, but it was probably just the jealousy talking.

Thursday, June 28, 2007 | by nathan

We Should Do Guest Voices. We’d Be Awesome.

So I was clicking through Flickr today and came across a bunch of photos of people as Simpsons characters. Turns out the Simpsons Movie website has a fun little toy where you can make yourself into a character. And you know I can’t resist rendering myself in cartoonish glory. So, without further ado, Brian and me - and a bunch of other people! - Simpsified!

Thursday, June 28, 2007 | by nathan

Surfage

A few new sites for you to check out:

Passive-Aggressive Notes. It’s my favorite new blog, consisting of just … well, the name is self-explanatory. Who hasn’t seen some mean little note tacked somewhere, in the break room at work, for example, or left by a roommate who, despite the fact that you see one another every day, is pathologically unable to confront you to your face about a minor little issue? I love this site.  

Hypeful. A new pop culture blog started by my friend Lucas, to whom I am going to write an impassioned plea, begging to be allowed to contribute. If you check it out today you can see what the baby on the cover of Nevermind looks like now.

Comics Curmudgeon. The oldest of the sites I’m listing here, this one analyzes the worst of the comics pages, which I’ve said for years are, without Bill Watterson or Gary Larson, little more than a vast wasteland of meaningless bullcrap. Except Doonesbury, of course. My personal favorite post of all time happened to appear there yesterday, wherein he analyzes a particularly disturbing installment of Popeye.

Thursday, June 28, 2007 | by nathan

249 - K.

Finding a notebook I’d left behind, discovering I’m gay, he said, “Me too.” To this day, I’m one of 3 people who know. His church, see…

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 | by nathan

Page Management

As the year is now half over, I am taking stock of the things I told myself I’d try to do this year. Some of them, of course, are every day things that cannot simply be marked off, though I can tell you right now that almost every single one of those things will come up a "Not So Much" when all is said and done, and 2008 is born anew.

Other things I’ve let fall by the wayside. I decided that keeping a 10-year journal might be too much work for someone juggling a blog, a regular journal, an online column, a novel, a screenplay, and a nonfiction memoir plus the public relations duties of a medium-sized private university law school. So now that the novel, screenplay, memoir and grad school are over, I’m thinking of taking it back up, but obviously not until next year begins. Because I’m anal. But I’m still not sure, and if I don’t do it, it’s no big deal, really.

The other thing I really wanted to try was reading 52 books this year. I’m way, way behind, as, like everything else in my life, it fell by the wayside when I was struggling to finish my degree. Now that’s over, and I’d like to get caught up, and in that vein I’ve revamped the Book Project page a little bit, and I’m going to try to reread the whole Harry Potter series before Deathly Hallows comes out, but that means I’ve got to start, like, tonight. Which is fine. I have a theory I’m working on that I may post here, or that I may send to Mugglenet, just to see if they like it.

At any rate, I have to say that so far 2007 has been a pretty great year, though a few of my resolutions are already bust, like, "Watch less television" (though I have promised myself not to find a replacement show for Veronica Mars, which means - hey! - less television). I made myself a kind of mini-list for things to do this summer, and I haven’t checked it in awhile, but I think I’m good. I have to tell myself that these lists are just suggestions, things I’d like to do, and not things that once I commit them to paper, Jesus is up there on his Blackberry, irritably tapping the screen, looking over his glasses at me suggesting I probably should get to work.

Today I was writing my entry for the x365 project, and I looked at the next name on the list and got excited and went ahead and wrote the entry. Then I got excited about the name after that, and ended up writing over a week’s worth of entries. I don’t feel bad about this, as I stopped once I ran out of things to say, and it occurred to me that I’ve just freed up a bit of time every morning for the next week. I’ve been wanting to do a site redesign for awhile - it’s on my summer mini-list - and so if I get busy with that, at least there will be daily updates coming down the chute, even if my random ramblings like this have completely dried up.

But really, you should only be so lucky.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 | by nathan

248 - Carol

She was the girl who would charge beyond everyone in high school toward success, but when her brother got cancer she was ever-present for him, nonstop.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007 | by nathan

247 - Bill

Dad’s brother would make up funky words, and ask me why I was doing “woman’s work” (dishes, etc.). When he died I realized: Dad is aging.