Effluvia

Still no links. What are you complaining about? You should just be happy I updated two days in a row after that long Harold-less spell. Count your blessings, motherfucker.

An addendum, though. James and I did go drinking again tonight. It was pints at O'Flaherty's while we watched soccer, Sky Sports News and rugby. A lovely little pub in the middle of the French Quarter. Who knew?

Journal Roulette

Darren's Diary - Darren has a friend named Meiling. You may remember Meiling as the little girl who went to the market to buy a chicken head to feed her family. She didn't have enough money, though, and had to sell her finger.

Siobhanorama!

No new stuff from Siobhan. She's probably watching Passions, but I'll be damned if I feel like going to search for the latest recaps. No doubt Hecuba is worshipping the devil or pushing someone down the stairs.

The Coworkers
Ain't Cool Dep't.

One of my coworkers has seen the picture of me and Sonya all goth-ed out and thinks it's pretty scary. Dude, if you think that's scary I could take you places in this town that would kill you. You've been warned.

So I've had a good day.

Why? Three reasons:

1. I've figured out a problem at work that has been bedeviling me since last week. See, I don't like frames. You know, the HTML kind, web-page type frames. I don't like them, but I do know how to use them.

   So my boss tells me to make a new set of pages for our intranet using frames. I don't turn a flip or anything, but I figure I can do it. So I go poking around in the source of some pages that are already done like this and it's not just plain HTML frames. For some reason the frames are done using a particularly impenetrable piece of javascript. I've been banging my head against it since last Wednesday.

   Today I consulted a coworker and...well, to make a long story short ("Too late!" you yell) he showed me the right way to work with the goddamned things. Today I made headway at work; it is a rare and special day.

2. I went to get Roxy some dog food at lunch, you know? Roxy seemed kind of depressed yesterday evening - not eating, just kind of laying around - and I wanted to cheer her up, so I got her a nummy nummy pig ear and the coolest toy. It's a big rubber ball with a hole in the middle. You stuff a treat in the hole and your typical dog will have a fine time trying to get the food out.

   Anyway, I'm walking through the aisles at the pet store and I see the cutest dog ever. She was a little blonde-and-white shih tzu, slightly walleyed. The girl who had her had the dog on one of those super-long extendo-leashes so this sweet little furball followed me up and down several rows, panting and wagging her tail, her crazy eyes looking all over the place. This was a good dog. I love shih tzus. I patted the dog extensively. She liked it just fine. I made a friend.

3. I talked to my good buddy Siobhan on the telephone. Why? 'Cause I got her number, fool! It was a short but pleasant distraction from the workday. She sounded very Minnesota Nice, which tickles me. Not too much, though. I'm sure I sound like Boss Hogg to her.

Attack of the Red Bull:

Last Saturday, once all of our friends were in town for Mardi Gras, we went across the street to eat breakfast. As James, Glen and I got into the street we saw, bearing down on us, a little sports car covered with Red Bull (the European energy drink) logos and sporting a gigantic Red Bull can on its roof.

"Look out for the Red Bull!" I yelled and started to hum the Vengaboys' We Like To Party. Of such trivial things are running gags made.

For the rest of the weekend we were on the lookout for the Red Bull-mobile, under shrubs and atop balconies, lined up in parades and hiding in the pool. Any one of us would start to hum the little tune and the other two would look around, wary of the Bull.

Sunday Glen and I actually saw the car again, causing us to spit and swear with excitement. Monday afternoon James purchased a can of Red Bull for each of us and Glen and I lingered outside a jewelry store, drinking, while James went in and shopped. We harassed passers-by and tried to encourage a dog in an upper window across the street from us to take out some pedestrians in a kamikaze leap.

"Jump, Fido!" Glen yelled, "you got nothin' left to live for!"

Red Bull is good stuff.

James and I will probably go out for a few more beers tonight before he and Jen leave tomorrow. My God, ever since last Friday it's been little sleep, bar food and lots of liquor. I am living the unexamined life.

I figured I could give up some stuff for Lent, right? I mean, I did the fun part, I might as well do the self-sacrifice part, too. I gave up a whole litany of things, too: drinking, smoking, red meat, cheese, etc.

I've consumed all of those things since last Wednesday. Sometimes in great quantity. If I were actually Catholic I would have been assumed bodily in to Hell already. Good thing I'm not Catholic then, huh?

I got a new graphic on the splash page, y'all. It makes me happy. Please look.