Rapid Fire, Star Wars and Eminem

I think that road sign means "bottle of wine ahead"...

Yes, I know, I should be working right now. But I'm SOOO not feeling it. So I thought I'd blog it up instead, while I psyche myself up to be productive...

Kind of a gloomy day today.

See? You check in, and get a free weather report!

And now, for sports...



Not sure how "dribbling two balls at once" will benefit the kid on court, but it certainly looks like he's got the skillz.

Rapid Fire:

• Got two new newsletter clients. 
• Redesigning the rug shop website again. 
• Wife has shingles. 
• I've discovered I like Guinness. 
• Apple sells apps for Mac computers now. 
• 3D movies suck. 
• Windshield still cracked after almost 2 years. 
• St. Bryan's Day is the 15th. 
• Trying Tim Ferriss' "Slo-Carb" diet. 
• Knight and Day was actually a very good movie, I thought.

And now, some Star Wars funnies, for the geeks among us.

Recently signed with indy label Carbonite...

glug glug...

Aww, ain't he cute?

I think I've distilled my "feelings" about Eminem's music down to the bottom line. I *really* like several of his songs. Not all, of course, but several of them really click with me. I think this is why.

- His lyrics are clever and smooth, and he performs them crammed with emotion.

I think the emotion thing is what gets me most. I've been programmed to either ignore, suppress or otherwise fail to acknowledge emotions for my whole life. I've always wanted to just rage, you know? But in a smart way, not just thrash out. But be able to channel all my pent-up angst into an emotional blast that also is intelligently elucidated. Be able say what I need to say, effectively, and with the full force of both emotional barrels. Some of Eminem's songs bristle with that energy - and in those few cases, I don't mind the profanity, it fits.

Now, I'm not technically a fanboy - I don't advocate you run out and get any of his CD's. A lot of it is absolutely not worth listening to. But certain songs where he talks about the loss of his best friend, his difficult upbringing, his difficulty dealing with life in the spotlight, the hard marriage he was in, and /or the intense love he has for his daughter are very, very potent to me, and I get a type of emotionally cathartic release by listening to them - ideally with the volume cranked way up.

I guess in a way, I envy and appreciate his ability to channel emotion in such a smart, eloquent way.

Sorry about the music.

So, I've been wanting to buy a new car all year, sort of as a gift to myself for turning 40 and having my 20th anniv., but I can't justify the new debt, especially in light of the fact that I own my current car outright, and there's nothing wrong with it (beyond the cracked windshield). I've been daydreaming again about a BMW 3 series - which I've always wanted. But even good used ones are 20K, and I'm not doing that at least until my credit card debt is gone.

But I came up with a good idea in the interim. I think every month, I'm going to squirrel away 50 bucks or so into a savings account. Then maybe twice a year, I'll rent a really nice car for a weekend. All those high-end cars I've always day-dreamed about - they can be rented. So maybe that will satisfy the itch to drive a really nice car, without having to actually pull the trigger on buying one. And I can rent a different make/model each time. Drive it, give it back. Then if I'm ever in a position where I could afford one, I will have driven enough of them to know which one I would want.

Space bar...

I think I'm done for now. Time to get work done. Or play Defense Grid. One or the other. Or both.

Adios

Dave the Gump