red and blue and black for you.

Today's new thing was a new version of Balderdash at Candice's. Instead of famous date, they had bizarre laws, worded like: In Soco, Pennsylvania, it is illegal for a dog...

And then you finish the sentence. That particular one is "take a nap in a Barbershop."

I love that game.

i wear my boots, you wear your hat.

After lots of put-put-putting around, Anthony and I finally managed to pick up enough steam to go downtown for a drink at a bar I'd never been to - It's tiki themed. There was a time in my life that I only wore hawaiian shirts (why? we shall never know.) and this spoke to that part of my hear that loves lounge culture. We drank drinks out of tiki-mask cups and listened to island-y music while bad surf movies played silently in the corner.

But then!

I wanted sushi - inexpensive sushi - so we went to Trader Joe's, where we kept running into old pals from all over. It was a very exciting sushi trip. And when we came out, my friend Andrew Costello was pulling in, arms laden with recycling.

C: Time to recycle!

A: (not getting it's a joke) Yeah, we just saw a show, so. Yeah.

C: Oh yeah? What show?

A: Dr. Horrible's Sing Along blog, up at the Barn.

C: You're kidding!

A: Yeah, you guys should go see it. They are doing a ten-o-clock one.

AB: It's 9:56 now.

A: Oh, yeah. Well, let's drive you up there.

C: Ha. What, really?

And they did! Dr. Horrible's Sing Along blog, live! It was lots of fun.

I love when new things lead to other new things.

parisian girls are all so sweet and smart.

Today, my new thing was practicing two-man juggling with Anthony. A juggling duet? What's the term for that? He gave me three practice balls to juggle with and I do that when I feel restless, which is a lot. So I'm a beginner juggler.

Duet juggling was difficult, but we got it going once. I should have filmed it.

One of his hit me in the head after about 2o minutes of trying. I thought it was an accident until just now. Anthony may have it out for me. I'll keep you all posted.

keep hearing your name.

I got a haircut. I hate it.
But I've gotten haircuts I hate before.

Today, my great new thing was being told that my play was accepted into Chautauqua 2009, a student-run festival of plays. I can't wait to see it.

meet me where your mind won't kiss me.

Today I did something that I'm pretty proud of.

I defied my T.A.

Now, my mother has a phrase for the people in class who sit in the back of the room and point out inconsistencies with the same joy and self-pleasure as a pirate who found buried treasure on his own. She calls them "bright boys" and I never want to embody the stereotype because it sounds awful, self-congratulatory and the opposite of true intelligence.

But I was disgusted by the guest lecturer today, who dressed up her lecture on Susan Sontag in hyper-feminist leanings and tried to push it as fact rather than opinion. I didn't mind the agenda, or the opinion, but I do mind being told something that is 100 percent opinion and be expected to write it down in my notebook, to be regurgitated later.

So in class today, I commented. My T.A. defended the guest lecturer and the entire section turned, pointing out the inconsistencies between the reading and the guest lecturer's opinion-dominated message. Susan Sontag is a lot of posturing, and it's easy to posture upon posturing, and eventually, my TA agreed, and started talking down the guest lecturer as well.

It was interesting. I felt like my ire was bright boy misplaced enthusiasm, but I'm glad it wasn't.

What do you think?

a horror film.

Today, I wanted my new thing to be that I sold a stuffed animal.

Two hours left on that.

If not, then I have another new thing. But I'll talk about it tomorrow.

I've got love in my tummy.

Would you like some unconditional love?

Then perhaps you should buy a homemade stuffed animal!

Today's new thing is the online marketplace store GRAND OPENING OF:

(cue Final Countdown)

StuffedMisfit.etsy.com!

You should buy one, and make me a hundredaire!

welcome to the space olympics.

Good Evening.

I am writing this from the year 3022.

Not really, but I find this song to be quite amusing. I would post the youtube link, but I'm pretty sure it's over-blogged by now, so I'll just leave it that I like it, and wish I had thousands of dollars to create crazy clips and have a huge audience watch them.

Instead, it's Halloween in February here at the house. I am 3-Hole Punch version of Christopher.

It's another reference to mainstream pop culture! I'm 2 for 2!

Anthony is a youtube video. It was my idea, and I got it from the internet. Good ol' internet. Everyone pet your computers and tell them how nice they are.

when i was at harvard...

I didn't fulfill my new thing for today.

So I ate my new blueberry muffin mini-wheats.

That's the new thing for today, cereal.

It's pretty good dry. I don't like cereal and milk.

They can't all be winners.

I don't even care for me.

OH!

I uploaded all of those comics I made the other day.

They are right here. <---------------

Tell me what you think in the comments! Please! You all don't understand (assuming anyone reads this) how much comments MATTER to a BLOGGER.

didn't catch me falling (falling, falling)

I have a stack of 2005 Cosmos in my closet because of today's new thing.

I was thinking about all of their sex tips, and how they must not have new ones, really, in every issue - so I went to the library and asked if they had a back catalog. They did - five years worth of it. I followed the woman back and she gave me 2005s, which she was going to throw away to make room for 2009.

I think I'm going to make a John Nash-esque collage, writing with red and blue pens where the sex tips double up. I'll put it on my wall until people make too many lewd comments or something.

I love when new things lead to other new things.

I was meant for the stage.

Today, Anthony and I were on a walk when we noticed our neighbor's car running with no one inside.

I'd never talked to them, so for the new thing for the day, I knocked on the door. Two yippy dogs answered, and then him. He was charging his battery.

He didn't even come out to chat, like I wanted.

Next time!

the things I do possess.

For the new thing for today, I planted my tulip from Amsterdam in that cup. It doesn't live in my room, though. It lives in full sunlight. I've never planted tulips before, and certainly not in a cup, and certainly not flowers from Amsterdam.

My money is on it never sprouting. That's pessimistic, but I would rather be surprised

christmas came early for me.

every blog title is a lyric from a song, in case you didn't know.

today I called sick into work because I woke up and felt like my head was on fire.

It wasn't, by the way, but I definitely slept in and wrote and slept more and made chicken noodle soup and felt like I had done the right thing.

Today's new thing: I sat and memorized ukulele chords. The chords I knew already were the ones I looked up to write a song about kissing on a bus. I didn't even know what they were. So I looked at my chord chart and then looked away, and now I know A through G. I can play, slowly, a major scale!

Hurrah!

It was a small little thing but a thing nonetheless.

I love this rain. I walked in it under an umbrella for about three minutes and felt peaceful.

it backfired at the disco.

Saturday's New Thing:

I left love mix cd's all over the bus - sad love songs about love lost.

I just thought, you know... a sobering experience for those in a relationship, and a place to find solace for those who weren't.

I didn't leave any way to contact me, like I usually do with my letters. I just did it. I wonder if anyone will like them.

oo. wah. oo.

Today was a San Franciscan day of plenty and plush purchases with Anthony.

We took up our post where Haight met Ashbury and sold a few, but what led to my new thing for a day was a German photographer named Alex who took our picture.

Acting dead.

Killed by our stuffed animals.

You'll see what they look like when I do - he hasn't posted us yet. His flickr has many projects on it: Death by ----, people looking deadpan meeting Mike Wazowski, people who hug things. I am excited to be up there soon.

We also met up with one of the favorite recurring characters of my life, Regina. She took us to a place called Bangkok Best (described as the best restaurant in SF and, probably, a name of a porn) and I had excellent soup.

I love San Francisco. It makes me have good new things.

red and black and blue for you.

New thing today:

Lemongrass Chicken roll-ups from Trader Joe's.

Deep fried.

They were delicious, but made me want a soda - Anthony and I traveled to 7-11, where the man was "tired of breaking 20's". He told us that he wasn't a bank. But, it wasn't that he couldn't break 20's.

He just didn't want to.

I think his new thing for the day was being a drain on humanity's patience with convenience store clerks. We didn't buy anything, but I do want to speak to the guy's supervisor.

don't you worry a bit.

Good evening.

What a terrible new thing for the day:

I took a test to become an "enumerator" for the "census bureau" which is government speak for "bothersome person who wants to count things in your home when you've sat down for dinner."

I got there at 3, as they told me to, and did not begin to take the test until about 430 because of the 40 over-40 year-olds who wasted time screwing up their standardized test, their resume, and the pencil lead they took the test with.

The test was easier than the CAT9. I pity anyone who misses more than 3.

At least I made a friend: a late-2o's UCSC graduate who was trying to make it on Etsy.

So, in case you didn't know already, government tests are not a good way to spend your day.

what I give to you is just what I'm going through.

Quitting Sockshop was my new thing for today.

Five days of school and then two days of work ended up not jiving with the ol' writing schedule - and let's face it. I want to write, I want to be a writer. I do not want to sell shoes. I don't want to end up like Sascha did... three and a half years into it, a manager, realizing that three of her best years were spent there.

Nope, not the plan. So I quit my job, and instead added another 500 words to my daily writing goal. I'm going to actively seek editors and agents and all that, and I'm going to make stuffed animals with Anthony and sell them when I need some extra scratch.

Also, I might become a part of the census bureau, because apparently you get to set your own hours and those hours are 20 dollars each.

I bought myself a comic as a quitting present: It's the new Spiderman, and Obama is on the cover:


Ridiculous. Chameleon didn't even know his nickname on the basketball team.

To ruin the surprise: tomorrow, my new thing is to take a placement test/interview for the census bureau. It could be incredibly boring, but I also got the Coraline soundtrack, so maybe it will be creepy.

why'd you say hallelujah?

It was either in a movie or a memory that a character (or me) had trouble saying hallelujah for a while. I think it was pronounced hallelulah instead.

A year ago me would worry that I was mixing my memories with movies. This year me LOVES this fact, and embraces it, hoping that soon, my life will be indescirnable from the movies I watch. This is a strange hope, but I think it's viable. You just have to believe.

Today, my new thing: I went and saw The Wrestler with my friend named after a state, Montana. She loved it, I am not so convinced... it was brutal, violent, and very sad. Torment is a fascinating thing to watch, an even more fascinating thing to read, which I am doing right now. Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections torments me with every word, and I bet upon bet that all of this frustration is going to come to a bad end. I'm going to read something really happy after this. A mystery, where I'm sure they solve it. That will be satisfying.

paranoia, paranoia...

Today, Erin and I traversed a sodden, downpoured 17 highway to see Coraline in 3d.

It was an absolute visual treat. I would say visionary. Totally mental - creepy, hilarious, unsettling and mind-blowing. The world they created was gorgeous and terrifying.

I loved every three-dimensional second. I'll see it again.

I hope three dimensional film-making is the wave of the future. I also wonder if Neil Gaiman is totally set on being Neil Gaiman. Because if he's not, I'd love to fill his shoes.

les limites.

The new thing today was a bit irresponsible... I took an hour lunch and had a mixed drink. But it was with my manager, so perhaps that is okay? But she also just quit. So maybe not.

The point being, though, is that I don't really fancy doing it again. But it felt good to be like Don Draper, if only for a minute. And the cool side of Don Draper, none of the affairs and the messed up past and dark history and mysterious horribleness that threatens to crush his teetering tower of cards.

It seems like being in business for yourself makes more and more sense. And it also seems like I am not going to be a tree-planter, although my previous work as a Jamba Juicer and babysitter more than qualifies me to dig holes for saplings.

Also, there are over 25 views on my stand-up comedy, but not a single comment. That strikes me as strange. If you're reading/watching/listening, you should comment! I like comments. They are like the crumble crust on the pie - probably not necessary, but don't you basically just have jumbled up fruit (words) without it?

lookin' at the sky above me.

Today, my new thing was to do a comic every hour. Journal-comic, that is. Usually not very funny, but at least a little bit absurd. I do a lot of stuff every day, and I also do a lot of nothing. I also have to uninstall/reinstall my HP printer before I can scan and put them all up for you all to enjoy/scoff at.

edit: thanks to the magic of max, I have added all of them.

Sigh.

But it was a good, rainy day. And if I start tomorrow off right, I think work can be bearable... because I think it will be one of my last shifts. Quitting sockshop is a "new thing" for the future.

The near future.

















Anthony joined in on the fun.


His are a little more nightmarish than mine...






His also stopped because he left the house and forgot to keep doing it.

Ah well.

so happy together.

Today was a strange one. Sluggish, cold, rainy... I spent most of it wishing I were in bed, reading The Corrections or watching My So-Called Life. That's right. I'm off my Gilligan's Island kick.

For now.

Tonight, though, was the rooftop comedy competition. Stand-up again. I had Anthony take video, which is the new thing for today: I've never put my stand-up on youtube before. I'm looking forward to it being lost amongst the shuffle, and no one ever really watching it. Sounds lovely.

Anywho here you go:



Side note: I'm moving on to the next round. It's in San Francisco!

and the music, as loud as can be.

Today's new thing is a culmination of effort from yesterday into today. I recorded a song using all the instruments I own.

Those instruments are:
-The Kaossilator
-Omnichord
-Electric Fender Guitar
-Acoustic Samick Guitar
-Ukulele
-Melodica (birthday present from Erin)
-Ocarina
-Harmonica
-25-key Midi Keyboard
-My Voice

And I'll tell you what: The song is average. I had this idea in my head that it would be really wonderful, but because I am only average at music creation, and below average at almost every single one of those instruments (the ocarina and the harmonica were used only as strange things at the end) I guess I should not have had such lofty expectations.

But the thing is, I did it. I wrote a song, and played the instruments, and it's not bad. Not great, but not bad. I think my favorite part is that you, as a listener, are almost painfully aware of my inability to play these instruments, but I hope you all find some type of enjoyment anyway.

Without further ado: Take a listen.

Next time, I'll have someone else sing.

happy face in my mind.

I'm smiling, because today's new thing was last minute.

The thing I'm noticing is that sometimes I do new things and decide they don't count. I take a new way to school, or get something new at a restaurant, or try a new way to make my sandwich at lunch, and think... eh. Not good enough.

So there's that. But blogworthy: I gave a double piggy back. It sounds wrong, but it ain't:



That was about 310 pounds. I am strong! I am an ox!

The best bit was throwing them off, like a... dinosaur.

Exactly like a dinosaur.

haylookit.

Today, I went and had strawberry infused tequila and gave Sascha relationship advice at a new bar. Not a new new bar, just new to me.

There isn't much I can say for it, other than it was pretty good, I like strawberries, and I think that paying for a psychic sounds like an excellent new thing.

New new new. There are so many places in town that I have never been. How strange!

that song's boring.

I turned 22 today.

I don't care if that's a cop out, I think that's new.

I played pinball, saw Slumdog Millionaire, and some of my friends went out to dinner with me at Pasta Moon.

It was glorious. Because for one, I have glorious and attractive friends...


And for two, Pasta Moon has these:


So that was my new thing for today. I bought a kaossilator too, but I am going to save that for some other new thing.