Well, I wanted to write something before I leave Bozeman for good. There just isn’t much to add. Ann and her buddy Ryan stopped by on their way to Seattle last night. They slept in the living room. After tossing and turning for a good hour saying, “Just sleep in with the guests,” this morning, I got up, certain it was at least 7:30 or so.

It was 5 minutes to 6:00.

I tried to buy them breakie, but Ann wouldn’t let me. Ah, well, I’ll get ’em back. I spackled the holes in the wall today. I’m going to swab the toilet again later; little spot-wash. See ya in ‘Sconnie.

On this official first day of the unofficial first weekend of summer, I have busted out the summer wardrobe: I am leaving the house today in my navy cargo shorts, Forslund Building Supply t-shirt, and ratty sandals from last summer. This switch-over has led me to a clothing epiphany. Two of them, actually.

First of all, (and Nick Petters would back me up on this) socks suck. Particularly in the summertime, I see no reason why any sane and reasonable human being would wear socks unless they have to go to work, or church, or a wedding, or they’re in the Army, or something like that. Socks are for keeping feet warm in winter, not keeping them white in summer. Down with socks!

Second: having some wiggle-room in your pants is not necessarily indicative of a shrinking waistline. It *is* indicative of having only a few pairs of pants in the rotation, so your chubby ass has all sorts of time to stretch those mothers out. I put on the shorts just now, which, when purchased, had the same number (35) labeling the waist measurement as the jeans I wore yesterday. The jeans sag a bit more on my hips at this point, whereas the shorts are a snugger fit. I can only assume that the looseness of the jeans relates directly the walking, sitting, bending, turning, etc, that I have done in them. This just confirms a truth we already knew about, namely, that I should probably “do” more stuff.

Unrelated note: yesterday, at the urging of Petters (wow, twice in one entry) I gave myself to the Dark Side. I abandoned my Eudora e-mail client in favor of MS Outlook. I’ve attempted this move on a few occasions in the past, and I was always just too lazy to give Outlook a fair shake; like, if I couldn’t figure out how to do stuff that I do really easily in Eudora pretty much IMMEDIATELY, I would trash the Outlook and go back. Yesterday, I made a more concerted effort, and now I have my e-mail, calendar, address book, etc, all consolidated under one flag.

Hey, I just realized: Outlook is exactly like Wal-Mart! Like I said, “The Dark Side…”

Not that I am, though: I dropped a line to Lou Ferrigno yesterday giving him my opinion of this new Hulk versus the classic TV Hulk that we should all know and love (Lou: new Hulk sucks, you da bomb) and I was really impressed when he wrote me back the same day.

Well, I’m just about done with the getting-ready-to-leave-Montana operations. I’m going to unplug the refrigerator today; all the food I had left I managed to fit in the mini-fridge. I really can’t pack anything else up at this point, so I have some writing to do today, and… that’s about it, I guess. Damn, I wish I could get this stuff out of here right now.

It’s really nice outside today; I should probably get out and do some stuff in the good weather. I’m not sure what I would do, though. Maybe I’ll put on some shorts.

Here’s something: Mr. Poquette (that’s right, FHS, the English teacher you know and love) has become the first back-to-back winner in the Movie Quote of the Day besides Wordell. Not bad, but we’ll see which one of them comes through today.

Oh, I posted some new pictures today in the “captures” section as well. Have a good Memorial Day weekend.

Hey, last thing: if you’re watching the reruns of the videos, let me know, drop me a line or whatever. Otherwise, I won’t feel as bad about forgetting to change them.

Raise your hand if you know who Franklin Stubbs is. (Hearty chuckles between you and I if you do.)

I took all the movie stubs off the side of my big bookshelf earlier today, because I managed to sell it. That was the piece of furniture I wanted to get rid of the most. It was the tallest, would’ve been the most awkward to try to pack, get down, get excited, it’s sold. But anyway, since I’ve lived here in Boze-town, I’ve gone to 23 movies. This includes those I saw while I was in WI over the holidays.

Just for the record, I did not see 23 *different* movies, because, in fact, I went to see The Two Towers four times, Star Trek: Nemesis and Old School twice. My biggest regret among these stubs is definitely Daredevil, which I found to be pathetically average (and only that good because I’m a comic book geek INACTIVE). The biggest surprise among them was Phone Booth, whose trailers did it no justice at all. The only stub that ran through the wash in a pants pocket was the one for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which I still can’t believe Ewan and Meredith didn’t like. Two of the 23 stubs are dated 9/13/02: I went to the early show of Stealing Harvard and the late One Hour Photo that day. The most expensive ticket I bought was for the second screening of Old School, which I saw in Sherman Oaks with Dicknuts, Dingleberry, Matt, and Ann. That ticket was 9.25, a dollar more than the next most expensive.

Speaking of which, the grand total that I spent on seeing these 23 movies (tickets only) was 134.25. For that price, I could also pay for 3 months of my cell phone service and have 4.20 left over for a sandwich and bag of chips. For that price, I could also buy approximately 537 blank CDs. For that price, I could also buy nearly 17 used DVDs at Hasting’s. For that price, I could rent U-Haul’s? smallest trailer for 3 days and spend one weeknight by myself in a Motel 6. For that price, I could buy two brand new ink cartridges for my printer and 105 sheets of glossy photo paper.

But why would I want any of that stuff? I have 23 movie stubs.

Finally, way to go KP on the last Movie Quote.

Damn, am I ever anxious to get out of here now! I feel like I’ve pretty much got everything done, y’know? I know for sure that I won’t be returning to school at MSU, and I have all the transportation arrangements made, Mom was here over the weekend and we packed up everything on all the bookshelves and things like that.

Last night, Ben came over and we watched TV for a little while, but I was just sitting there looking around the apartment, trying to see if there was anything else I could pack up right that minute. I was reminded that I “still have two weeks to be here,” but… shit, y’know, once everything’s in order, you just want to get on with it.

To that end, I decided I would think about who has to know about my address changes, like, make a list? So that’s something I’m doing today. I’m probably going to pack up seldom-used tools and kitchen supplies today as well. I bought four plastic “totes” at Wally World yesterday, and then this morning, I finally remembered what else it was I was going to buy there: tapes for the video camera; my LA Vacation this spring tapped me out of those.

It snowed yesterday, I couldn’t believe it. It was supposed to be just the morning, but then it kept snowing on and off all day. Right now, it’s 29 degrees and there’s still the veil of white dust on all the rooftops. They say it’s going to get up to 52 today, but I’m not going to hold my breathe.

I watched The Bourne Identity last night, and it made me want to rethink Blender a little bit. Now that I made it longer a couple months ago, I want to make it shorter. I don’t know if I should even worry about it. After all, I’m supposed to have something new to give to Wordy by the end of the week.

I realized this morning that science fiction and fantasy are practically the same genre. In sci-fi, technology takes the place of magic, but in both, the same things happen: the impossible is made possible. Sometimes I wonder: if the most “inhibiting” laws of nature didn’t exist (things like gravity, time, the limited use of the human mind) or rather, if the way we experience them were reversed, would people longingly write fiction about a world where an unseen force keeps feet planted to the ground and time is an unalterable linear experience?

Way to go, Lorch, on nailing the last Movie Quote of the Day.

Well, here’s the thing about yesterday: went to see The Matrix “Reloaded” and whatnot; it was nice, Mom came along to the show, y’know, cuz she said she liked the first one and everything like that, but I understand what she meant when she said this one didn’t quite turn her crank and by the end she was kind of bored.

I’ll tell ya right off the bat, I definitely enjoyed the movie, but not the same way I liked the first one. This one was different, the story was completely… something else. The sequel was way more sci-fi than the original. Which isn’t necessarily all bad, but it was very different from the first. I have a feeling the final installment of the trilogy is going to be more like #2 than #1 as well .

Yeah, but here’s what: movie was definitely too long. Could’ve been shortened up by… I’m gonna say 30-35 minutes. The beginning was waaaaaaaaaay too long, by the time it was over, the fight scenes (while supercool) had gotten excessive, and I thought the whole damn picture got bogged down in exposition.

On the plus side, like I said, pretty awesome fights (on the freeway in particular) and the Eastern philosophies sewn into the fabric of The Matrix make me want to see it again, and listen more closely as the Oracle and the Architect are speaking. It’s pretty cool stuff.

Out of 5, I’ll give this sequel 3-and-a-half.

That’s about all I’ve got; my coffee’s getting cold and I think Mom needs a trip to Wally World for hairspray.

Ha-ha, fooled you. What with all the work I did on the show’s site the past few days, I am taking a day off from this one. If you wanna observe 80’s Rewind Day like me, you’ll listen to all the 80’s pop tunes you can.

Movie quote of the day is new, though, since that doesn’t take much effort.

In one little day, I improved the new banner a bit, thanks to DW Schrubbe, who had a better-lookin shot with more vibrant colors. These are things you can get done sans job and school.

Congrats also must go out to Nick Petters, who unseated the until-yesterday-undefeated-champion of the Movie Quote of the Day derby, Ryan Wordell. That link goes to Nick’s website, which he would probably feel more inclined to update with regularity if his traffic went up. He’s entertaining the idea of starting a web server out of his home, and hells bells, if that happens, you can bet your ass the80srewind.net will be moving there.

Try your hand at the new quote, though.

Some other things I crossed off my list already this morning: talked to Jen on the ‘puter and positively arranged accommodations for next month when I return to Brew City; had Auntie Chris e-mail me Mom’s travel itinerary for the weekend; drank a pot of coffee.

It’s a helluva day. On that note, I’m gonna get to it.

Well, what did you think of that new banner-lookin’ thing? I know, I know, I’m still living in Montana for a couple weeks, but with the school year over, I thought I would make the first part of my move in cyberspace.

It is a gorgeous day here in Boze-ville, for a variety of reasons: first off, take a look out the window there — lovely day after a week of on-and-off rain. Second, I did some massive and intense cleaning of the apartment over the weekend, so I can hand myself completely over to other pressing tasks.

Third, and this is the biggest one, I managed to secure A’s in both my classes this semester, so I’d say it’s safe to assume I got A’s on both those papers that forced the website onto hiatus for a few weeks. Good to know that all the work over the course of the semester and especially down the stretch wasn’t all for naught.

So what’s next?

For the time being, my energies are focused on a couple different things: getting myself mov-ed back to WI. I found out this morning that my party will include two, a fact which I feel a little bad about, since Ben will have to drive back to Bozeman on his own. He’s one of these people who enjoys driving for hours and hours at a crack, just to see the country, so I guess that’s not so bad. I want to have a reservation all settled for the rental car by the end of the week.

Ok, check this out: while I’ve been writing here, I saw the mail truck pull in to Garfield (the street that I live on, more or less) only to pull out again six minutes later. I mean, I’m sure the mailman has a system, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out what it is. He’s gonna be back in another hour, why not pile all the mail for the whole damn neighborhood on one truck and do it that way? Or better even, I think they should have a wee little P.O. just for the grad housing part of town. God knows there are a helluva lot of people around here.

Anyway, besides the moving project, I’ve had interest from a number of people in some of my furniture, all of which I would be just thrilled to unload before moving back. Actually, y’know, I’m thinking about this, and if I could successfully move the majority of this furniture… damn, I wouldn’t even need a rental. I think my car and Ben’s would afford sufficient space for all this stuff. We’d be going on the assumption, though, that I was able to move all big-ticket items. Excepting, perhaps, the TV and the desk chair… and no way I’ll be able to find someone to buy that little refrigerator… nah, nevermind, we’re gonna need the rental.

Well, pertinent site material, let’s see… I enjoyed writing and reading one of my two seminar papers this semester enough to put it on the website. You can find it under “Writings.”

Ummmm… don’t know if you’re interested at all in seeing the reruns of the videos, but the new season doesn’t start until I’m back home next month, so take what you can get.

But, of course everyone (including myself) loves new content, so you will find the LA Slideshows in the “Hollywood Adventure” section.

‘Til later, cheers.