If there's one reason I can still stand to read the newspapers every day, it's the Daily Show. (Also, supermezzo--yes, I really do love you! Thank you for the videos.)

Another week of sheer insanity. Contingency plans are not yet in place, and I'm still unemployed; so much for all that.

I need to write here more, though, so hi! I'm still alive. Here is a very good clip (avi/xvid, 9 MB) from last Wednesday's Daily Show. It rates at least half a hoot--I thought it was a hoot and a holler, but then I'm partisan.

OK. Keep soldiering on, and don't forget to write. I spend too much time worrying about my own problems.

OK. I still haven't fixed that clock, but it never worked right anyway. Let's move on to other topics. In the past two weeks, I have:

• Learned how to play canasta and mah jongg.
• Started learning how to write computer programs in Java.
• Exploded explosives.
• Seen Soulive, well, live, at a nearby jazz festival. (They even played a crazy, twenty-minute version of One in Seven, which was pretty good.)
• Sampled a half-liter of authentic, imported alt bier (Schlösser Alt, I think), which changed my whole outlook on alcohol... until something called a banana margarita changed it back.
• And oh yeah, I f--well, maybe I should set that aside for a few days.

Suffice it to say that there will be news, soon. But not all good news. Truth be told, I haven't had a lot of that lately, but let's edit the sad parts for now, yes? At least until I have crafted responses and initiated the proper contingency plans. I have another four days or so to do this, so I guess I'll have more word soon.

For now... hey look, it's peg-board beads for nerds! I fully intend to make some of these, as soon as possible.