Personal Service

The tee shirt and CD that I ordered from Perceval Press arrived. When I saw the parcel I laughed. A handwritten label! The mailer is a free Priority Mail envelope and inside that another free Priority Mail envelope wrapped around the tee shirt. The CD was encased in a generic white cardboard mailer. Hah! Just like me, someone went down to the post office clutching a tee shirt, CD and label, got materials, packaged the items, stood in line and mailed the package. Hilarious! But it's sweet, too. Nice to know that someone did it personally. It's funny that a rich guy like VM is so cheap. Well, it might not be him. It might be the other people he works with. I can sympathize. I had a business once. You sure do need to keep costs down.

All that going to the post office thing probably didn't happen though. I see the Post Office picks up. Probably bring you stacks of free mailing containers, too. Oh, well. The label is handwritten. That's something, I guess. More than I get from Amazon.

I was going to put up a picture of me wearing the tee shirt (I got "Support Our Troops, Bring Them Home") but no one needs to see me in a tee shirt. Instead, here's a photo of the personalize label.

I love the CD, Intelligence Failure. It's surreal. Try popping it into your car and driving around on a nice sunny day when everyone's out and about, all relaxed and happy. It's like being in a Mathew Barney movie but it's a lot easier to understand.

Totally unrelated is engage.com. I won't put a link because they are a little stupid right now. There were mentioned on "How To Get the Guy" (which I was only watching because I was at my brother's and he doesn't have a DVD player at his rivah house). So, they put up a pop up, which you can't close, apologizing for the delay. Sounds good to me! Hmm. We're getting a lot of traffic. Let's improve it by serving everyone twice instead of once!! Idiots! Why didn't they just put a notice on the home page? Sheesh.

Current Fads
Listening. Buckethead and Viggo Intelligence Failure; faint rumblings
Watching. between DVD's
Activity. trying to stay awake
Gadget. PDA
News Source. the news feeds in Safari
Reading. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut; Writing Essays - Harold P. Simonson; On Writing Well - William Zinsser; GD USA; MacWorld; Fortune (Yes, I really am reading them all right now—I'm a reading addict. What can I say?)

A Name by Any Other Name

Yo! 80's chicks and dudes: Enough already with "eponymous"! Can we have "self-titled" back? It's a lot simpler and won't cause me to consult two dictionaries and read three pages of Wikipedia. For those of you preferring directness and short lists here's a list of eponyms.

I'm guessing the instigator of this invasion is R.E.M. with their Eponymous album which they could have simply named R.E.M. – Dreams. Or maybe they were short on euphemisms and epithets? Stick that in your GRE Exam and see what comes out!

Maybe I missed the memo about a contest to see how many ways the word can be used? Or is it code for "I remember when" and "I'm so cool"? Oh, wait, I get it! We're all intellectuals now instead of freaky, big-haired lounge lizards. Warning! In the big homogenization movement you may find the word banned ... or obligatory. Either way.

P.S. Do a search for eponymous in Google News and be gagged by how many times the word comes up. If only I had a copper for every instance ...

AWAKE ...

On the wild side. Dancing to really loud music. I might sustain a little hearing loss and throw out my back. Yeehaw!!


Album of the Day: White Album –The Beatles

Older Women Screwed

What is the problem with an older woman getting a younger man? I watched "Prime" and "Something's Gotta Give." Sure the women date the younger men and even have a relationship with them but in the end they go back to their age group. What is the problem here? Am I the only one seeing this? It is so so stupid. And I mean that in a bad way. I lived with a man nine years younger than myself for 12 years. It was not a problem. I was very happy. It wasn't forever – most marriages aren't are they? Twelve years is pretty damn good.

In "Prime" the man is judged to be too young to start a family. He was 24. How old do you need to be? 30? In "Something's Gotta Give" the younger man gives way to an older man when he senses the woman still has an attachment to that man. This is so one dimensional. The younger man should have fought for her. Relationships have more than one side. And the younger man was prosperous and handsome and all that. She deserved him.

Again, what is the problem? I once read about a 65-year-old woman having a passionate love affair with a younger man. I know over 65's who've gotten married. What is this locked into twenty-something crap that Hollywood is feeding us?

I'm so tired of younger stuff. Bring on some maturity, some depth, something that I can grab hold of and explore. Sheesh!