watching expired appliances align

the innkeeper's reckoning (tale 11)

the final innkeeper's reckoning (tale 11: Just Trying to Show my Lady a Good Time) has been posted. jeremy sent it to jamie a week or two ago and now it's online for everyone's enjoyment.

i want to thank jeremy for letting me post these stories of his time at the inn in vermont. i hope his new job proves just as exciting, entertaining and offbeat.

heels on (again)

today i really want someone to ask me how i am. i am so ready to answer "i'm gellin'."

and i really am. i'm using the heel inserts from dr. scholl's. not only do they massage my feet, they lift my feet out of my shoes just enough so that the skin around my ankles won't rub away during the copious amount of walking i do to and from work. i think i may put insoles into all of my shoes.

tummyache

popcorn makes my stomach hurt.

"i don't get the internet in canada."

right handed pitcher john maine is set to make his debut with the baltimore orioles tonight and his minor league team, the ottawa lynx were sad that he couldn't start last night's game there. this is all very exciting news and i wish i'd be able to watch the game. while i haven't talked to john in about 15 years (making him 8 the last time i talked with him), i wish him the best of luck tonight!

heels only

yesterday i really wanted someone to as me how i was. i was so ready to answer "i'm gellin'."

and i really was. i had the heel inserts from dr. scholl's. not only did they massage my feet, they lifted my feet out of my shoes just enough so that the skin around my ankles wouldn't rub away during the copious amount of walking i do to and from work. i think i may put insoles into all of my shoes.

a quick note about my schedule

Tonight I'm headed to a panel discussion for GIVE OUR REGARDS TO THE ATOMSMASHERS: WRITERS ON COMICS. The book was edited by Sean Howe and looks to feature a lot of interesting essays and stories. I will also buy the book. Because I'm trying to be a good friend that way. But I probably won't buy it tonight. Because I'm going out for drinks afterward and I don't carry a backpack or bag of any sort. And carrying a new book would worry me. Forgetting books at stores or bars or on airplanes isn't something I'm too found of. And I've vowed to stop letting it happen.

photographs and the subjects in them

kdunk links to an interesting story about the subject of one of her fotolog photos being recognized by a friend of the tattooed subject. after some debate the friend showed the photo and the comments to the subject.

the notion is pretty interesting and it reminds me of all those times i'm at various tourist attractions and i'm anxious to knowingly exist in the background of someone else's photos or home videos. i have this weird fascination that one day i'll become super famous and that some kid will be looking through his parents' photo album and say "hey - look at that guy who is looking at the lens! that's marc balgavy, the famous (actor, director, movie star, public personality)."

of course, i've had this urge for as long as i can remember. the impetus to write letters to comic books as a tween (obviously, the term didn't exist then, but bear with me) or teen was so that someone twenty years from that point could find my name in the letters page of THE INCREDIBLE HULK or WOLVERINE and exlaim "wow, can you believe that? marc balgavy used to read the same comic books i'm into." that hasn't happened yet and, honestly, i'm quite frustrated by it.

but what if i want to buy used pamphlets?

the new york times had an article today about the threat of the used book market. i guess amazon.com is selling used books and people are actually buying them. and that makes publishers mad. kind of. they're not really sure yet. haven't done too much thinking about it. after all, it's not illegal. i think it will be interesting to watch this story develop. when i read it on my palm pilot this morning i thought that it was the beginning of something big, probably because the writer used the word napster (or was it napsterization?). anyway, i wasn't going to mention this until i saw bookslut's response in which she shares her new vs. used book buying habits. very cool.

noting the correction of the error of my ways

i'm guilty of not reading espn's page 2 very often. and i know that bill simmons is out there writing really funny stuff on a regular basis. this weekend i decided to correct my reading habits, and dropped the bill simmons feed into my bloglines account. two days later i finally received the payoff. today's bill simmons column is about the all star game and houston. even if i don't understand half of it (due to probably not at all obscure references to baseball players from fifteen years ago), i love it for paragraphs like this one:

In many ways, memorabilia shows are like strip joints. There's usually a cover charge. Instead of bouncers, there are security guards. You can look around all day without buying anything. If you're in the mood to buy something, it's probably happening whether you run across something worthwhile or not. The music is always terrible. There are always creepy guys by themselves, guys who seem just a little TOO excited to be there. They usually have hot dogs somewhere nearby. It's always uncomfortable when someone asks if you need any help. Both places are infinitely more fun when you're drunk, and there's always a chance you'll wake up the next morning, look into an empty wallet and mutter to yourself, "My God, what just happened?

we still feel like winners

with kaci at the gillian welch show, jamie, jim and i couldn't form the complete group of THE NEUTICLES. the three boys with facial hair settled on the name "THE BAD NEWS BEARDS." we tied with longtime competitors (cheryl's team - choad patrol) for first. and the audience demanded blood! they wanted a tie-breaker question. our bearded trio guessed wrong, effectively placing ourselves out of the money.

check out the new website for dr. fact's night of fifty questions - dr. fact's web of intrigue

UPDATE: the dr. fact website now includes a few of the questions and some of the very wrong answers!

because maybe we don't all read books

a good, concise interview with sam beam, "the iron & wine guy" that k-robo describes as having "one helluva beard and such a sweet singing voice."

the baseball update

my fantasy baseball team recently jumped to second place, after a long spell in the third slot. apes is making a push for the money, while listmaker is busying himself with his new blog having slipped into third place. also in contention is bile & venom, who is convinced that all his brooklyn internet friends need to belong to some sort of guild.

and, for those of you who don't read baseball musings, last night they pointed to a link in harvard magazine about the history of the catcher's mask.

on getting the band together

is anyone else reading "the letters of gary benchley, rock star" that the morning news presents every few weeks or so? i read the first one, then skipped a bunch. i read the 7th and just today they published the 8th which is fantastic reading. it's called getting the band together, part III and is so totally worth your time this afternoon. it's funny and interesting and it feels honest and about 3 times better than what you read in an average blog.

UPDATE:

I just finished reading the rest of these, and I now realize why I typed "feels honest" above. I had to type that because it's so totally not honest. But in a good way. It's good in a wild, silly, this is how crazy it could be to live in New York for a year if you were 22 kind of way.

2ND UPDATE:

I've now decided that these tales should become the basis for a TV show on IFC, a sort of post-Felicity meets Wonderfalls with a dash of VH1's Best Week Ever.

makes me wish i had a pantry

a review of odor eliminating light bulbs (via engadget)

i am a marketer's dream

today i'm spending my lunch with salon.com. i only click through the ad every third day or so (mostly to read king kaufman writing about baseball). today i decided to break from my usual pattern and see what the online magazine had to offer. i found a few things worth reading (or, closely skimming):

eric boehlert on wilco and the new book about the band

an article about zen arcade that starts off slowly, recapping everything you read in "our band could be your life" (i got bored and didn't finish it, so i'm not sure if it finishes stronly or not)

andrew leonard on his love for digitizing his music and the ridiculousness of the music industry trying to stomp out his newfound enthusiasm for new music

bzzzztt. click.

today is the day i'll read about the history of the branding (and possibly marketing) of the polaroid camera (but only throught the 1970's). (link via coudal partners)