Now listening to: Björk, Debut
Now reading: Poppy Z. Brite, Wormwood
Now playing: Final Fantasy VII (Playstation)

Hey hey. Need to get feedback from a few more friends on the short story before I do my final edit, so for now I hope the Wildwood pictures make you happy and stuff. I'm gonna shoot for the middle of next week for when I finally get the story on the site, but don't hold me to that. From what feedback I've already received, though, this story turned out as well as I thought it was going, and that's actually kinda scary. But hopefully you all will enjoy the fruits of my labours as much as everyone else has so far.

So last night Jeff finally got me out of the house for my first party since my Antioch days. I was supposed to drive myself down there, but as it turned out the folks' minivan was in the shop, so Jeff had to come drag me down to Bowling Green and bring me back well past two in the morning. But at least I got down there.

Jeff's been trying to get me to hang out with his theatre friends, and in truth I was quite interested as well; in addition to theatre people generally being real cool artistic types, I was also hoping to network with any musicians in the group, get the seeds planted for when I finally get my music to the point where I can record a demo disc and I'll need to get a band together. But this was the first real night where my schedule coalesced with theirs and I had a chance to hang.

This was actually a party of Jeff's design, which made it all the more important for me to attend. Basically we went to one of their apartments and threw on three straight episodes of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, interrupted by a "Do Your Own MSTie" competition with the target of choice being Plan 9 from Outer Space. So the night also ended up being a make-up session for skipping out on my Turkey Day marathon, although now that I have seen Manos: the Hands of Fate twice in a 15-day period I don't think I should be operating any heavy machinery anytime soon.

The party was definitely nice, although in webspeak I was "lurking" throughout, trying to get a feel for the general vibe of the clique. After all, theatre people are theatre people, and while I definitely think that's a good thing, it also means it's a bit hard to get into their flow. Especially in a setting like this party where it's mostly people watching the television, it doesn't lend itself well to social interaction. But now that I've experienced the group myself I'm hoping to get a chance to go to some of their meetings next semester, which tend to be more socialable from what I've been led to believe.

It did remind me a bit of the parties I went to at Antioch, although, unlike most Antioch parties, this one didn't degenerate into an orgy at the end. (You remember all those stories about "sexual permission contracts" at Antioch six years ago? Don't believe the hype, Antiochians drink more, smoke more, do more illicit drugs -- even going so far as to literally light up bongs right in front of the Dean of Students -- and have more sex than most college students could ever dream of. Not that I'd know about most of those things, of course -- most of them.)

And that got me back to thinking about college and whether or not I should go back. And, you know, I miss having the chance to interact like that, and the window for me to do that is starting to close. I'm not getting any younger, you know. But at the same time, right now I'm incredibly lucky to be in a position where I can devote as much time as I do to my artistic endeavours, and not really have to worry about putting food on my table. It's kind of a tricky situation for me, but after last night the needle's pointing towards "At least give college a try" more than ever. We'll see how it goes, though nothing is set in stone as of yet.

Not much else to report on these past few days, really. I've been super-busy at work (not as in "artistic work," as in "work work") recently, and that's kind of been usurping my time. Just thinking about college, since my main client is an online costume shop, I realize that if I try to go back to school while maintaining my workload, I'd have to only go to school part-time in the fall, because of course Halloween tends to be the busiest time of year for costume shops for obvious reasons, and because of all the extra work the site requires around that time, there's no way I could accomplish both that and a full-time college schedule. That may be jumping the gun a bit in regards to my future plans, I realize, but I'm still trying to think these things out.

My subscription to Spin magazine is about to lapse. I mention this because I had a really bad episode a couple of years ago, after Spin featured an article on trepanation (the act of drilling a hole through ones own skull), and, of course, Spin being Spin and all, they even went so far as to show pictures of the procedure as it took place. After reading the article, I went to the bathroom, and literally fainted from nausea while I was trying to wash my hands. I can still remember my grip on the soap failing, so I tried to just rub my hand on the soap, then I fell backwards and woke up in a most unpleasant manner.

So I had my sister pull the pages of the article from that issue for me, so I'd never have to see them again. I had renewed my subscription just days before that, though, so I was stuck with the magazine for a couple of more years, and while Spin hasn't done anything quite so gross since then, I really haven't been that happy with the magazine. Then again, considering a two-year subscription is less than twenty bucks, it doesn't really seem like that big an investment.

This most recent issue was the last one on my subscription, and I was still up in the air about whether or not to renew when it arrived. And what was there on the front cover to greet me? The pronouncement of Eminem as Artist of the Year. That kind of made up my mind for me, thank you very much. Maybe once Spin gets around to naming an actual artist as the Artist of the Year I'll re-subscribe, but for now I could use the extra cash to finance the purchase of my new car.

We've got a healthy cover of snow on the ground right now; it came in just after I shot these most recent Wildwood photos. Unfortunately the weather's warmed up a bit since then, and the snow's starting to melt off of the tree branches, which would really ruin the purpose of me going back there to shoot new photos. Hopefully after this next warm spell passes we can get a good, wet, heavy snow that really sticks well to all the trees, because that's when it really looks cool in the winter. I purchased another disposable camera just in case such a snow pops up when I'm not expecting it, although at my current pace I'm really wondering whether I shouldn't just take a little cash out of my car fund to get a "real" camera so I can start taking better shots. We'll see.

One of the things I missed due to Jeff's party was the Red Wings' first win in a week; I realize the team hasn't been performing up to its usual level so far this year, but I think all these "Dead Wings" pronouncements are grossly premature. I especially think criticism of Chris Osgood has been unwarranted, as his problems are clearly of a temporary nature, and once he gets his head sorted out he'll be back to being a top-notch goaltender. I realize the success of the left wing lock a few years ago helped pad Ozzie's stats and make him look better than perhaps he was, but he's still got tremendous skills, and provided he stays healthy and doesn't suffer some serious injuries, he's going to start setting Wings records in a few years. Unfortunately, he does play for Hockeytown, and the fans of Hockeytown are demanding to say the least.

I haven't followed basketball at all this year, and I don't think I plan to anytime soon. I hadn't really been following the NBA too closely these past few years, in part because basketball never interested me too much, and also because basketball just got so damn trendy this past decade that I can't help but rebel a bit against it. But I still followed the Pistons loosely, that is until they let Grant Hill slip away. Just like that, my remaining interest in hoops just went down the drain, and now I could care less about the game. I realize it usually takes Mike Ilitch several years to get a team to respectability, but they should just sell the Pistons to him now and let him start the rebuilding process so that maybe by 2007 or so the team can be real contenders again. But for now the Pistons don't interest me in the slightest, and I think their management is a joke.

Of course, it could be worse. I could be a Cincinnati Bengals fan. Oh wait, that's right, I am a Cincinnati Bengals fan. Groan. Say no more.

Anyway, I need to go take care of some holiday shopping, so I shall depart now. Be sure to check out the new photos, and keep checking back this next week as I will try to have the final edit of my short story uploaded by then. Until then, I'll see you all around.

- Sean