Re: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the current toast of my local blog-head community:

I'm self-actualized, motherfucker!!

-Brian : 7:26 PM

As Ray was kind enough to remind me, metal gods Anthrax have seen fit to rename their band "Basket Full Of Puppies." That's pretty fly.

Ray, whose been informing me of a lot as of late, also saw fit to let me know that that Blogger indeed does have a spellchecker in it! I'm not sure if this is some sort of Blogger-Classified information or something, but the link to run it is cleverly diguised as a vertical separating line on a toolbar. Personally, I hope their cleverness is working out for them.

It's a wonderful Saturday afternoon here in MA. I just got home from a kind of lame-o comic book geekfest in Boston. I hadn't been to one since I was a kid, so I went to check one out this afternoon. It just wasn't the same. Prices for old books are way too much. Prices for recent stuff isn't even discounted very much...if I'm gonna buy something recent at full cover price, I'll buy it from my local store. Also, they had a bunch of celebrites there charging around $20 for an autograph and photo with them. Jimmy Doohan was there, looking ancient and unhappy, signing for people. It'd be one thing if it looked like he was having even remotely a good time. That wasn't the case, though...he looked just kind of out of it. Standing there, I felt like I do when I go to a pet store, looking at all the caged animals. So, the experience, while fun in a strangely detatched way, wasn't quite the enjoyable romp down memory lane that I was hoping it to be.

Tracy Lords was there though. That was kind of nifty, 'cause I was thinking of bagging her and bringing her home for half of Ray's Christmas gift. However, he recently declared a new Christmas wish, replacing his previous wish for two girls to go down on him at the same time. So, that idea was out of the window. Oh, well.

If I paid her $20, I'd want more than an autograph on a glossy 8"x10".

Saturday afternoon is DVD time, I think.

Yes, yes it is.

-Brian : 4:44 PM

The Yankees fucking kick ass. They're up 2-0 against Seattle on 5 straight wins after going down 2-0 to the A's. Timm is very likely a happy man right now.

So, this blogger gig is a whole lot more fun than writing entries in Microsoft Word and then having to HTML-ize the bastards. I can sit down at the computer, decide to write a journal entry, and not dread the leg work that then accompanies it's completion. If only the Great Blog Wizard would see fit to slap at least a grade six level spell checker in this thing. Seeing as that's better than I can do, that'd be stylin'.

The cold I have had for the past week or so has finally pretty much gone away. That's a really good thing because a) who likes having a cold and b) I don't walk around thinking I have Anthrax. I was feeling really wrecked the night of the Tori show...a friend of mine drove there and back, I kind of vegetated during all the traveling. I sort of just woke up for the concert, and then went back to bed after it was over. I'm glad I was able to muster those three hours of semi-alertness.

I'm a little bit disconcerted by my trip to the dermatologist. I went there for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted to get something to relieve the itchiness and flakiness that I get sometimes when I grow in a beard or goatee like patch of facial hair. Sure, sure, I know that she's not going to be able to cure me of being flaky. However, I'm hoping for at least some itchiness relief. Secondly, and more importantly, I had a couple of moles on my back that have been kind of trying to merge into one giant übermole. Since I feared it becoming gigantic and sprouting Abe Vigoda like hair, I thought I'd get it checked out.

At any rate, she's concerned that the moles are dysplastic, and decided to do a biopsy on them. If they are dysplastic, then they'll schedule some other time to remove them. Now, first of all, no one around the age of 24 likes to hear the word 'biopsy' used in a sentence referring to themselves. Folks my age like that about as much as people in the Rocky Horror fan club like admitting Shock Treatment exists. I mean, sure, this is no big deal - folks get moles removed all the time. However, she did go on about how this could mean I'm at a greater risk for skin cancer, and all sorts of other things I don't want to be at risk for. Bah.

It's no great surprise to me that I'm not invincible...I'm way past the point in my life where I felt that way. Nevertheless, the whole thing is kind of strange. I did get some prescription shampoo to use once a week to combat my flakiness, though. That's a good thing. To think of all the relationships that might have gone smoother had I been using a shampoo to make me less flaky...

It's kind of neat when I step back and realize that I'm making all these stupid jokes as a defense mechanism to try and make my mind not go schizo over something relatively trivial, like a silly mole removal.

The situation has made me think a bit about if I'm satisfied with how I'm living my life. Am I doing the things I'd like to do now, so that I would be able to look back on these days in 40 years and be satisfied with them? Yes and no, I think. There are some things I think I'm doing that I like...making a real effort in the band, making effort to try and meet women and be slightly more outgoing, spending time with friends and family. There are other things though that I think I could be doing a better job at. Work, for one. I do a damn good job, but I could really kick some ass if I tried. So, maybe I'll try. ...or maybe I'll spend time trying to figure out what I'd like to kick ass doing. I'd love to spend my time doing things other than work, but that's not a choice, so I might as well bust heads when I'm there. I could stand to clean my car, too. (Seriously. The thing is a damn disaster area.)

Quasi is playing a show with Stereolab next month in Boston! That's great, 'cause I caught a Quasi show earlier this month at the Middle East, and really liked it. So not only will it be cool to see them again, and feed the beast, but it'll also be good to expose myself to some Stereolab. I've heard good things about them from time to time, and I really liked their song on the High Fidelity soundtrack. It should be a fun show.

-Brian : 1:14 AM

Oh, and I almost forgot: bravo to the New York Yankees. Ya gotta believe. :)

-Brian : 1:07 AM

Just got back from the Tori Amos concert, and it was such a wonderful show. I'm never quite sure how to describe the sort of fan I am of her music. (not that anyone has asked...) I'm more than just a casual fan...I like more than just the hits. However, I'm by no means the Tori equivalent of a Trekkie or Trekker. At any rate, that usually means that I'll only know about half the stuff she plays at her shows. She usually plays lots of B-sides, of which I would generally know none, and I only really know Little Earthquakes and To Venus and Back from cover to cover.

At any rate, I'm getting off my point, which is her show this evening was exquisite. The way she played tonight seemed so much more personal and emotional then either of the previous two times I've seen her live. It seemed that way before she sang Me and a Gun. Then, she sang Me and a Gun, followed it up with Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and brought the house down. It was so touching...I was moved.

She played lots of Little Earthquakes stuff, which made me really happy. In addition to the already mentioned Me and a Gun, she played Tear in Your Hand, Leather (yay!), Crucify, and the title track. Since this is one of those five albums I'd take to my Tom Hanks island, I was very happy indeed that she played so much off of it. She covered Thank You, which also brought a wide smile to my face. Yay Tori! She played everything tonight with such conviction...it was impossible not to get caught up in the moment.

Surprisingly, she didn't play a single track off of To Venus and Back, which I thought was her strongest outing since Little Earthquakes. I guess that might be because she played the hell out of those tunes on her last tour. (Which I didn't see, sadly.) That might have been disappointing to me, had the night not been so emotionally touching. It's so great to get out and see someone play who is just so inspiringly good.

I don't want to go to sleep now, I want to stay up all night and express myself through music and words. It'll have to wait till tomorrow...

-Brian : 12:44 AM

Granted, I'm occasionally somewhat insane. However, it's kind of weak that we live in a world, at the moment, where I get a runny nose and therefore wonder if it's possible I've contracted Anthrax. Then again, I'll bet the innocent folks who live in Afghanistan think it's somewhat weak that they live in a world where they might get bombed. ...and I'm sure the folks who went to work at the WTC that morning definitely thought things were pretty weak. ::sigh::

Eh, this is a silly topic of blog writing, at the moment. Godfather Weekend is just about coming to a close. The Godfather Part III has been pushed to the side in deference to eggs and bacon. A fair trade, in my eyes. It's really been a wonderful weekend. I'll probably write more about it later. I'll probably also write more later about how this crazy world makes me feel too. However, now is a time for pork products and good friends.

According to this, the first season of Transformers will be coming to DVD at some point in the future in a season box set. It will likely go well with a nice chianti.

Oh, only to have my old transfomers toys...they'd be fun to play with now.

-Brian : 1:46 PM

Godfather II + Good Clerks Animated Episodes + Amok Time + Taboo + Fugakyu sushi + Yankees winning + Tasty beer + Lots of close friends = Fun Saturday.

-Brian : 3:52 AM