Alert Status: Teal

Happy Memorial Day, you Yankee capitalist swine! Heh... just kidding, don't want to let one bad apple spoil the whole bush... er, let one bad Bush spoil the whole apple... um... forget it.

Here's the latest. Work is getting slightly more tolerable. A proposed schedule change is going to give us the same amount of hours, but more days off. Can you say "four day weekend"? Every three weeks, baby.

I'd go across the street, but I can't afford the gas. I'm still waiting for the PV to perculate on this matter. Give it time, kids.

Recently, I've been spending a lot of my down time drinking coffee and playing Magic, as my transformation from normal human being to evil mutant dork is a go, full steam ahead. I'll say this about the geeky card game, though. When I'm playing, my problems are the furthest thing from my mind. That, and it's a godsend for the collector in me.

I've also been watching some movies. Recent views have been Big Fish and Bubba Ho-Tep. Both pretty good flicks.

We're in the dog days of music. There really hasn't been much that's blown me away this year. Then again, I think I've been raising my standards a lot higher since the Mars Volta album rocked my ever-loving balls off. Although, I am looking forward to a few releases. The Hip have never disappointed me, and it seems that every summer, without fail, an album comes out of nowhere and wins Album of the Year (see At the Drive-In in 2000, Tool & System Of A Down in 2001, Queens of the Stone Age in 2002, Mars Volta in 2003). Likely candidates for 2004? It'd be silly to speculate, since it's always something I never expected. Suffice to say, there's a few bands that have sparked a small amount of interest in me, and that's usually how it begins (Tool being the exception; they merely surpassed all expectations with Lateralus). At any rate, Nine Inch Nails, System Of A Down and Slayer are all on pace to release new material by year's end, so maybe the state of music isn't as bad as I thought it was.

Recent purchases: Amen and Secret Machines, as well as the Rock Against Bush compilation. All were okay, but none blew my mind (at least, not on first listen; judgment hasn't been passed quite yet).

That's about it. Oh, for those who haven't been to the guestbook, The Riddler returned with the numeric message. I haven't bothered trying to decode it, since that's exactly what they want me to do. However, if you have some extra time on your hands and want to tell me what the hell they're saying, go for it.

End transmission