the one with a lot of random bullshit

I made the (mistake?) of ordering a Venti coffee this morning, and I feel like a little hummingbird right now.

So how about a whole bunch of random crap?

• I love Colin Hay's album Company of Strangers, especially How Long Will It Last? and No Win Situation.

• Sen. Harry Reid (D, NV) nails it:

"After reviewing the Republican record, I know why Ken Mehlman and Karl Rove want to play politics with national security in 2006 instead of having an honest debate about who can keep Americans safe. It's because this is a debate Republicans cannot win.

Republicans run good campaigns, but when it comes to actually governing and protecting Americans, they have a record of incompetence."

Right on, Senator. Think you can get the rest of the Democrats together on this one, or are you guys going to totally screw it up again?

• We just added a bunch of new bloggers to blogging.la. I can't wait for the hazing to begin. I have my paddle and everything.

• Those people who freaked out at me because of my last post? Get a life. Failing that, get a sense of humor.

• I've read two amazing books recently, which I'll mention and recommend later on this week.

• One of the points Stephen King makes in On Writing . . . over and over again is that people who wish to be writers must make time to read. I find that the more I read, the more I want to write, because my writing monkey only digs his claws into my brains when I read something and think, Oh! I can do that, too! Watch me now! I can't wait to write about Friday night.

• Stephen King has a new book out today, about people who become zombies because of cell phones. It sounds really fun.

• iTunes Music Store use is up 247%, according to a survey which includes some rather interesting facts:

The survey also noted that iTunes Music Store customers were 2.2 times more likely to drive a Volkswagen than any other car. They also discovered that iTMS customers liked to drink cider and imported beer. So I guess that on the road of life there are passengers, and teenaged drunk drivers.

• One of my favorite bits on Futurama was, "I'm Roseanne, your guide to the world of facts." I love that line so much, I wish I could use it whenever I share some useless bit of information with someone, like, "Did you know that a baby's head weighs the same as a brick of gold on the moon? It's true. I'm Wil, your guide to the world of facts."

• I think I already knew this, but forgot: Good news, everyone! There's a Futurama movie in the works, and there's even a chance that Futurama could have a Family Guy-esque revival on television.

• Nolan told me the other night, "I love it when Professor Farnsworth says things like, 'I'm sending you on a mission to Planet Certain Death, where you'll have your faces crushed by killer robots as soon as you land . . . Enjoy!'"

• I got The Wilco Book + CD for Xmas, right before Santa came down and rained death upon the whole world, and it is really amazing. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, because it's Wilco, after all, that the CD is as good as it is, but it wouldn't be shocking if they threw together some "B" material to release with the book (which is awesome on its own, by the way). They didn't. Several of the tracks have earned a coveted five star rating on my iPod.

• I watched I am Trying to Break Your Heart over the weekend. The best moment in the entire film is when Jeff Tweedy's son plays drums on his lap, and makes Jeff guess which song he's playing. When Jeff guesses that it's Heavy Metal Drummer, he starts to sing it while his son plays the drums on his legs. It's one of the sweetest and most awesome moments I've ever seen. In fact, it was awesome and a half.

• Mt friend Kat is taking me to see Jeff Tweedy when he comes to LA. Ding!

• Night before last, we had 70-80 MPH gusts of wind at my house, which knocked out our power for about 18 hours and destroyed several million-year-old oak trees in my neighborhood. One of them almost took out one of my neighbor's houses. Yipe. Last night, we expected the wind to come back, but it never did. On the way home from school yesterday, the kids and I discussed the wind, and came to the following conclusions:

• I hate the wind, because it's so destructive and loud.
• Nolan sleeps through it at night, and if he had to pick between wind and rain, he'd take wind.
• Ryan loves the wind, because it feels like it's cleaning everything up, and it's got all this raw, unfocused power.
• We all love days like today, after the wind has gone away, where it's so clear you feel like you could see to the other side of the world, if the damn horizon wasn't in the way.

• I had a bit of a panic recently when my Powerbook began acting weird. None of the disk utilities on my install discs worked, and I was on the verge of freaking out, when I was pointed toward Disk Warrior. I can't praise Disk Warrior enough. It completely fixed all the problems, in about an hour, and my Powerbook doesn't show any of the obvious signs of the abuse it takes from me, up here on the second floor.

• Though you won't be able to tell when you read this entry, I'm stopping right now to call Allentown, PA, to do an interview. I really liked the reporter, and we talked for about 45 minutes. I hope I made sense, and I'll link the article when it comes out.

• This post has way too many indents and sub-indents.

• Bill Hicks just came on iTunes. Who is the modern day Bill Hicks? I can't think of anyone off the top of my head.

• The movie The Comedians of Comedy is really great, and almost made me forgive Zach Galifianakis for completely stealing a bit from me that I used to do on the J.Keith vanStraaten Show, and using it on Jimmy Kimmel's show.

• Isaac Hayes' Joy just came on iTunes. Good thing Anne isn't home, or this post would be delayed by at least another three minutes.

• Eww! Gross!

• What?

• This post is really fun to write. I think I've been taking myself, my blog, and everything in general too seriously lately. (Deadbeats really fucking suck, man, and they can really take a lot of the happiness out of your life) Who cares if everything I write isn't so goddamned great or important? And who cares if I over-use italics?

• A friend of mine just pointed out to me that I'd created another Prove To Everyone . . . rather than write an entire book about it to slay it, the simple act of identifying the existance of this beast was like turning on the light and realizing that the monster I kept seeing in the corner was just a jacket slumped over the chair. In other words, it was never really there, and only existed because I created it. Wow. I feel like I've been breathing through a straw, and I just got to take my first deep breath in months. Thanks, J.

• I think I've said everything I need to say, and I'm incredibly satisfied right now. Where is my mind? It's right here. Rather than push it, I'm going to hit "publish," and go outside to enjoy a little bit of this amazing day we're having.

I'm Wil, your guide to the world of facts.