low inertia

Verizon - almost enough to spur me to agency

Verizon’s customer service has failed me so many times, it’s like they’re a summer school teacher. I generally avoid calling them, because they know much less than I do, never have a solution to any problem I’m experiencing and generally waste about an hour of my day. However, sometimes, there’s a problem on their end, so I call them to confirm because I can’t do anything else.

Today was such a day, and it was a problem on their end, but they didn’t know it. Dealing with them is Sisyphean. It’s almost enough to make me want to complain to the top. Almost.

Man, what a soul sucking day. I’m trying to not let this stuff bother me so much, to realize it’s pretty inconsequential, but it takes just as much energy to be conscious of that as it does to rage over the incompetence. Still a good trade off, but wow.

Comics

I had a great conversation with Mikey about the comic medium, and how it hasn’t yet evolved to its full potential. Despite having the ability to capture the best of film and literature in one form (pictures AND text!), 90% of all comics ever made deal with boyish fantasy heroes. Can you imagine if the vast majority of movies made every year were about super heroes? Oh, wait.

It was something that I had never thought about, and made me a lot more interested in re-exploring the comic world. A tangential thread in my thread was the discovery of drawer Keith Jones via Paul Laffoley’s guest book, which is great way to find out about all manner of cosmic things. Keith has a comic coming out called Catland Empire late this year, which I’m excited about.

Baltimore Faces

Baltimore is a city of characters. A character is someone who has transcended person status via extreme regularity in location and/or unique attitude. A character is someone you can count on to be who they are at all times. An even keel, if you will. Spectacularly even.

• the crazy guy in Charles Village
• Stacy, the dude from Thairish
• Elka

I liked this post about a character in Pigtown.

God’s own prototype

Tru Raven 4 life.

Why we watch sports

My all time personal favorite for announcing!

How to rock the party

Found via YASLY - props

Looking into the future

The future will feel exactly the same as today.

More surprising mail

I got some direct mail from Spartan Fireworks last week. Here’s a list of all the products they were promoting. They’re all fireworks of some kind.

• V.I.P.
• B.M.F.
• Best of the Best
• America’s Rhythm
• Touch of Evil
• Extra Loaded
• Trump
• One Bad Mother
• Red, White and Blue
• King of the Brocade Crown
• Double Your Money
• Return to Glory
• Chopper
• Cooking with Gas
• Loyal to None
• The Big Dog
• Rolling Thunder
• Mother of All Bombs
• United We Stand
• Goliath
• Trilogy
• Instigator
• Critical Acclaim
• Artillery Shell
• Excalibur
• Merlin
• Super Magnum
• Beach Bum
• Hostile Takeover
• Crazy Exciting
• Fearless
• Cracklin’ Color Palm
• Color Pearl Flowers
• Size Doesn’t Matter
• Hard to Beat
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
• Boiling Point
• Double Cross
• Land of the Free
• 100 Shot Saturn Battery
• Death Wish
• Money Maker
• Rocket Assault
• Biggen
• Armageddon
• Laying Down the Law
• Rocket Time
• What a Girl Wants
• King
• Stars and Stripes

polaroids

I wish new photographs had a border like Polaroids, or old photos with the scalloped edges. It’s like an instant matte.

Paul Laffoley

His site.

sudden wisdom

The secret to happiness isn’t doing what you love, its loving what you do.

what’s up with me

Been a super 6 weeks or so, since whenever I last posted. Since I define my life by how productive I am now, I’ve been very productive. Lots of clicking and clacking on the keyboard, some fetch and running about with the domesticated beasts up in the wilds of Mt. Washington, a massive bruise and incapacitation of my left shoulder is just the tip of the iceberg! The body of the iceberg is not much larger than the tip; it’s a very small iceberg. Perhaps more like an ice cube.

Last night we watched “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”, a gripping crime drama of family intrigue, tits and men who are unable to express themselves except via money and violence. I enjoyed it a lot, and I also found it to be very reminiscent of Ratpack era gender roles. There’s a gay drug dealer who wears a kimono around his pricy Manhattan apartment. C’mon, is this Madame Butterfly?! Anyway, this all makes sense, because it was directed by the 80+ Sidney Lumet. I’d recommend it - it felt about 8 minutes shorter than the billed 2 hours.

The garden is springing into bloom. This was the first morning of the season where I watered it. Very nice! Once my shoulder heals up, I’ve got big plans. Watch out dirt, I plan on being up in your grille with my $3.98 perennials purchased at Lowe’s. I also have my eyes on some flora from White Flower Farm. Thanks mom!

Annie and I also did a living room makeover of her old studio on the second floor. We replaced some rotting studs in the back wall, and patched up the wall real sorta nice. Fresh paint is on the way, six years from now. Once we have a guest bed, we’ll be set up FOR REAL. TRUE.

Party on Memorial Day Weekend at our place. Let it be known.

The door locks after all

I’m in upstate NY to visit my mom for her 65th birthday. It’s been great so far. It’s always pleasant to come back to this house I spent some formative years in. One of the things I always remembered about this house is that none of the doors ever latched. The house was built in the 20s or 30s, so I always just accounted this to age. My bedroom door never shut, my mom’s bedroom door never really shut, the bathroom door downstairs never really shut, the other bathroom door shut like crazy. Scarily so. Like “Oh shit, I just trapped myself in the bathroom, I’m going to have to call the fire department” shut.

The other other bathroom door (the house has four bathrooms, and only three bedrooms) also never shut, but since it is a little bigger than the other two bathrooms, I couldn’t hold the door shut with my foot or hand while I was going. Going to the bathroom. Going to the bathroom in the bathroom. Urinating. You get it. It was always just a few inches out of reach. When I was younger, I would worry that a cat would push the door open while I was on the toilet, and someone would walk upstairs and see me, and I’d be…. on the toilet, I guess. Being embarrassed. Oh fear, you irrational creature you!

Today I was in this bathroom, and I noticed that the door had a deadbolt.

I lived in this house for 5 years.

I was shocked. I could shut the door after all! Amazing!

“Mom, can you believe this? I’m retarded. I JUST NOW realized this door has a lock.”

“It does?”

She’s lived here for 15 years.

Sweet gherkins

Sweet gherkin pickles are my favorite snack right now.

My new favorite word is whenish. As in, “Whenish are we meeting up?” It’s a pre-emptive strike on imprecision. Ha!

Band name freestyles are my favorite pastime.

ffffound.com is still my favorite site.

Irresponsible amounts of coffee is just for today.

WETA is my favorite PBS station.

Date night

It’s date night! Hi Annie! I know you’re probably reading your feeds, or browsing around Etsy right now. Come give me a kiss when you read this! <3 steve

Here’s a time when men were men, women were women, and enormous trees were cut down by cartoonish band saws.