yet again, i've let more than a week slip by without a post. i think i've been too grouchy lately for the people i hang out with to chastise me for it too harshly. up til today, i've had my head either buried in work, been playing "timsplitters", entering my comic book collection into my recently restored OmniComics database, or trying to re-start the reorganization of my personal life (ie. cleaning the hell out of my room).

i did get one email from nathan demanding that i update soon, since he finally went to the trouble of adding me to his AvantGo client on his Visor handheld. (hi nate)

which reminds me, a while back, we added some code to our pages to make them "AvantGo friendly." if you use AvantGo, and you'd (for some reason) like to be able to read us on your handheld, just use the following links:

for brian's blog, use /bipolar/blog.html
for my blog, use /bipolar/mlog.html
(just a note, if you try to load these links in anything other than AvantGo, you'll be redirected to our frameset, so you can see bipolar in all it's black skull-festooned glory.)
if users of any other handheld browser software want this ability or are having trouble getting the pages to load, just send me a note, and i'll see if i can make it work.

hrm. well, i just attempted to create an AvantGo "channel" for us here, but it would seem that if we get more than 5,000 subscribers, we'll have to pay $5,000. not that this is ever going to happen, but i don't want to open a $5,000 can of worms, no matter what the odds.
so, while we're not an official channel, you can still download us to your heart's content just by adding us to your download (or channel) list.

in other news, after three weeks of torturous work, i've been sitting on my ass here at work ALL DAY waiting for three paragraphs of content and some revised images for the project i've been working on. it's bad enough we had to push back the original deadline a week, but now we're so close and i've not been able to do a damned thing because i'm waiting for content. grrr. but, hopefully we'll have the new site up in the next day or so and i'll put in a link so you can see what i've been working on so diligently (before today, anyway).

in other other news,
this Salon article brings the whole technical virgin thing into better focus. it's now been upgraded (in my opinion) from the status of "funny joke site" into the realm of "pointed social satire." i never thought people could actually be crazy enough to believe that only "traditional sex" is "real" sex. apparently i was wrong.

4:32 still waiting for content.

what a couple of weeks. it seems like i've been too busy to do many of the things that i began enjoying on a daily basis. like blogging, for example… and not just writing this one, but reading the many blogs i enjoy reading from day to day. i'm hoping once this big project i'm working on at work is finished, i'll have a little extra time every day to get back to my blogs.

it's nice to see nanette again, though I really haven't had a great deal of time to actually hang out with her & brian since she got here. thursday, the delayed but much longed for comic day saw me at work for an extra two hours (or more) so pretty much as soon as i got home brian & Paul were bitching profusely about my tardiness and their overwhelming hunger. we introduced nanette to the (usually) wednesday tradition of comics & denny's, where we were informed a major travesty had occurred and they were out–completely out–of ranch dressing. no ranch dressing?!? how can we possibly eat a meal a denny's with no ranch dressing!?
…
well, angrily, of course.

since my Christmas present for Paul had arrived, we popped it in immediately on our return home and proceeded to laugh hysterically for over an hour.

Next came Friday, which found me, once again, staying late at work, except that this time i was there an extra 5 (that's five, f-i-v-e, 5) hours, bringing my total for the day up to a whopping 13!. i stopped off to grab beer, cigarettes, and food on the way home (since brian had informed me that both paul & guy were present, that they were going out to eat, and would be imbibing a bit… well, except for guy, who doesn't drink. then once home i proceeded to drink a little and whup both paul & brian's asses at a healthy game of timsplitters deathmatch. i'm sure this was all very amusing for nanette, who sat reading on the couch, and who'd occasionally attempt to assuage our egos by politely laughing when we silly boys tried to be funny.

then, after the drinking and the killing, we decided to do the eating. we took nanette to the infamous, legendary Twig & Leaf for a bite of the ol' Louisville Paul (oh, i mean hot) Brown. we settled comfortably into our booth and reviewed the menu. even i had planned to try the hot brown, since i've either never had one, or can't remember having had one. much to our surprise, when nanette tried to order, we were informed that they were out of the alfredo sauce that is used to make the hot brown. apparently there has been some conspiracy regarding nanette's visit to Louisville. our two traditional restaurants were both understocked on crucial elements needed to make the dining experience a complete and successful one. fortunately, they hadn't run out of their regular cheese sauce or twig taters (ie. tater tots). we finished our "meals" and headed back home clutching our protesting stomachs.

today has been an interesting exercise in "speed moving." one roommate, the unfortunately hippie-fied and constantly delinquent bob, is being ejected from this house. to our dismay, even having been given two months notice, (and a few random reminders) he had made no effort to pack or begin moving any of his (enormous amount of) stuff. so, Brax came over, he & I went to hawley-cooke to grab an assload of boxes, and we began packing bob's things for him. by the end of the evening Paul had also arrived, and between the three of us, we managed to compress what traditionally has been a two or three day affair into the miniscule space of 5 hours. bob's things are almost completely removed from his former room, and waiting for him in the basement. i can't wait to see the look on his face when he actually returns home to an almost empty room. hehe.

now it's time for bed. my body is tired, my brain is tired, and i have to rest up for what will surely be a record breaking drinking bout tomorrow night. (for me anyway).

i'm generally not a violent person, but every once in a while, if the wind is right and the planets are aligned, certain people–just by their being within my sphere of perception–cause me to imagine bashing their head forcefully & repeatedly against the metal corners of my cubicle until their blood stains the fabric walls and bits of bone and brain collect on the floor at my feet.

mind you, this doesn't happen very often.

i came across a link today that reminded me quite a bit of brian, & some of the online shenanigans i've participated in or been privy to. shauna of flaunt.net (along with a friend) has recently created whowouldbuythat.com which is dedicated to uncovering the strangest of online auctions.

in other news, i spent a few minutes last night (or hours, really) helping paul with the puffin-a-go-go. he's added a few links to his "go-go-to" section, and I managed to get his archives up and running, so all you puffin readers run over there and check up on any posts you might have missed.

well, i suppose since i'm here at work, i should probably do some.

how pretentious is that title… oh well.

it's nice to see that some people have gotten into the spirit of my last post. kinda makes me feel special (in a egotistic kind of way, not a short-bus kind of way). perhaps i should post more often?

you'd think that now that i've got a workable new system all for my lil' ol' self at home, that i'd be more conscientious about it, but i can't seem to actually get anything done. i'm trying to catch up on all the email that's been neglected for the past several months, to all my friends who are probably pissed at me for not writing before now, expect to hear from me soon.

things at work are kind of slow right now, and it's sapping my energy and inspiration. we're in a "lull." at least, that's the word that's been used. i had a much better ending to this paragraph, but the link that it hinges around is apparently dead. if it "resurrects" itself soon, i'll come back and replace it. ( how're you supposed to do a weblog when the links spontaneously combust? )

oh, and don't worry too much about brian over there, he's just not getting enough sleep lately–it's affecting his mind.

and paul, tell dennis to send some MY way. i think we can afford a san-fran trip between the two of us.

the dull ache that is my life continues to suck the inspiration from projects i thoroughly enjoy–such as this oh-so-lovely blog.

scott over at erasing.org has posted some recent photographs that have been somewhat inspiring to me today. most of them are very good, some of them are moderately good, and a few of them just look like snapshots.

i have to say that i really enjoy photography, though i know very little about the technical aspects of it. i enjoy candid photos–not "snapshots", but carefully framed candid shots where the subjects aren't posing, and the photographer has taken time to find a good composition. of all my little projects that have fallen by the wayside, i probably regret my neglect of photography the most, probably because it would be the easiest thing to do while doing everything else that occupies my time. i could theoretically carry a camera (even a disposable!) around with me everywhere, and never have to say "if i only had a camera" like i currently do almost everyday.

if anyone knows of some other online photo galleries, collections, personal stashes, or whatever, .

hopefully either this weekend or sometime next week, we'll finally get the trip log and photos from our chicago trip up like we promised weeks ago, and maybe–if you're lucky–we'll actually finish the new bipolar as well. now that i've got this (sort-of) new computer and blazin 'net access, i'll actually be able to devote a little time to it.

technically, i suppose this post is being made on the 4th, which means i missed yesterday, which means i've failed brian's challenge to me to post every day while he's away. of course, for me it's still sunday (in a way) so perhaps this could count as sunday's post.

i've got DSL in full effect now, little home network in operation, internet connection shared between mine and brian's computers, now i get to see (soon) if i can work my magic on Jess' lil iMac. the unfortunate side effect of all this swanky new computer equipment is a completely empty wallet and bank account. i've–once again–overextended myself and now have to face probably a week with very little food.

i've gotten a couple of brief, cryptic emails from brian, which probably means that he's having a good ol' time up there in chi-town since he's not wasting his time writing posts or emails to his friends.

hung out with paul and brax last night, watching an entertaining movie about a guy trying to make a movie. kind of a cool laid back night.

it doesn't really feel like sunday should be over yet, perhaps it has something to do with the fact that i didn't wake up until 6:00PM on saturday and 3:00PM today. i've really gotta fix my sleep schedule.

we observed World AIDS Day yesterday by joining many of our weblogging brothers and sisters in the Day Without Weblogs campaign. i've personally been blessed with not having to endure the loss of a friend or loved one. i was touched by the number of personal stories i found when checking the sites i read on a daily basis. i look forward to going back and reading them more closely over the weekend.

i spent the past several days tinkering with some leftover computer hardware from work, and have finally cobbled together a useable system. the most amazing thing is, i've even managed to get the DSL modem installed and working. hopefully in the next few days i'll be able to extend the scope of this high speed mutha all over the house. we're going for a full-on internet-connected home network.

so, since i've got this blazin internet connection, a snappy new (to me, anyway) computer, and i'm still up at 7:00am, i figured i throw a quick post up.

managed to get brian to the airport in time not only to catch his flight, but to sit, have a brew, and attempt to calm his pre-virgin-flight nerves. haven't heard from him yet, so i'm hoping he's alright. i'm sure nanette's taking great care of him.
      as much as i'll miss his crazy antics while he's gone, it'll be nice to have my room to myself again for a few days.

it was nice this evening to get to see the puffin, who i haven't seen since saturday or sunday… tonight we mourned the loss of dedden's very uncomfortably over beers at a place called "the back door" which, while having an amazing assortment of frat boys, sorority girls, hippies, and old people, didn't really seem to have many of our type of people. in fact, i think it was pretty much just us.

well, gotta get back to phase two of this high-speed internet plan–installing a network card and making all our computers communicate and cooperate.

that's 1, brian.

[ i've just realized that that paragraph about dedden's and the puffin is a horribly executed run on sentence, but you know, so what. ]

well, i'm at home now. thankfully i had enough foresight to find out the 800 number for my ISP before leaving the 'ville, so i can post for all you lovely people to read.

enjoyed the ride down immensely, what with the new MP3 CD player I got and all. it's a little quirky, but it does well enough i suppose. earlier today i scoured through my mp3s on my computer at work and pulled out just enough to fill a cd, which i think came out to about 165 songs. slammed them all into the root directory of the disk, deleted the track numbers from their filenames, and pretty much wrote them to the cd in alphabetical order. the funny part was that, with the player set on random, the first hour was pretty much Billy Idol, Liz Phair, Chris Isaac, Beastie Boys, NIN, & Bloodloss, then when i see the first signs for Princeton, it suddenly becomes Kid A time. three songs from Kid A–almost consecutively–played me in on the last leg from the parkway to my parent's house. i was excited and amused by how appropriately the mood was set. another funny observation i made was that, despite the number of Mudhoney tracks on the disc, i don't recall any getting played. apparently hour four would have been Mudhoney hour if the trip had lasted that long.

walked into the house, gave my mom and my little bro a hug, then pretty much just submitted myself to my brother's always animated discussions. i see a lot of myself in him, and then there are other things that he's not managed to avoid like i did when i was his age. i walk back into his bedroom (which used to be mine, ages ago.) and hear Hank Williams, Jr. playing on his stereo. i informed him that i was going to take him to Wal-Mart (the only thing that passes for a record store in these parts–that i'm aware of) and buy him a cd or two. i've decided that Kid A is at the top of my list. (paul will love to hear this.)

after somewhat settling in, we set up the laptop, logged on, chatted with brian (& paul, very briefly) for a bit, started doing some remote setup of the new x:13 server (soon, soon), and had what was basically a warm-up round of political discussions with my little bro… a mini version of the large discussion/argument i'm likely to have with my father tomorrow night after all the guests leave. thankfully, my brother's only 13, and still has quite a few years to figure things out.

happy smallpox and genocide day to all you turkey (& mock turkey) eaters out there.

g'night.

my soul has been sucked out by COMICS! my god, what's happening to me!? I've been endeavoring to catalog my entire comics collection (a measly two & 1/2 long boxes) and haven't done ONE OTHER THING on my computer at home. hell, I barely check e-mail anymore. one thing's for sure, I'm getting to know my collection really well, and learning a bit about comics in the process–writers, pencillers, inkers, valuations, and the fact that story titles get recycled every year or so.

if I wasn't before, I suppose I'm now officially a comics geek.

ack.

not much else has been going on, though I did see yet another totally captivating chick at Deddens last Friday. Tall, thin, really really cute, and she could play pool like crazy. she held the table through at least 6 or 7 contenders (all guys) and totally impressed me and the puffin, with more than just looks. skill, looks, personality… it was quite a package. she'll forever be known as "the pool goddess."

did we talk to her?

what do you think?

of course not.

another day in the exciting world of matt.

mothers against drunken scripting

I'm excited I get to see my sister again. she's been gone away all summer, after visiting me for one day after her year-long trip to France. Now, she's coming up for a visit for one day and I'm taking her to the airport tomorrow so she can go to France again. I'm beginning to think the only way I'll ever get to hang out with my sister again is if I go visit her in France. not that that would be a bad thing, mind you.

I've also realized today that I'm going to have to do some more crazy javascript crap for these pages, since anybody trying to link to our archived pages is going to get bounced out to the main pages (only if you try to access them directly, otherwise, as long as you're in the frames, everything'll work fine.) got some thinking to do tonight.

i wonder if I can code javascript while drunk? we'll find out.