I did something tonight that I haven't done in a long long time. I had enchiladas, I saw a film, I threw darts, I laughed. What counts is, I did it WITH someone. Not just any date, a first date.

I am a big fan of the first date. Since I rarely ask out anyone I don't know, and I don't go on blind dates, first dates with me are not all just getting to know you junk. They are getting to know MORE of you. After all, why would I want to have dinner with a stranger? What if she picked her teeth with her fork or something weird? So first dates for me are kind of a big deal. It means I am getting to spend some quality alone time with someone I really like, and I always hope that by the end of it, I'll want to keep going. I dont get a lot of first dates, I seem to fall into relationships by accident. I end up dating someone I have been hanging out with, without any sense of formality. We just suddenly move to the next level. Those kinds of involvements are fine, but I like the old school approach better. I love first dates.

I do have rules, when it comes to dating, and in this instance, I am breaking one of those rules. Thankfully, so is she. Anyone who knows me knows I hate authority, and despise being told what to do. I make the rules, and I get to chose when to break them. However, there is one rule that dictates what one shouldn't do on the first date that someone else made up long ago, and it's a rule I always stick to. On first dates, you shouldn't, and I didn't.

But God I really wanted to.

Also, I think about a week to go on the aforementioned haiku contest. Remember, "I was a chinese sprinter" Good Luck to all.

ok, so here are the goings on........
ONE. Marrilee managed to solve THE GREAT SQUARE mystery in about 2 seconds. We're driving down the street on our way to lunch, and I say, "Hey, remember THE GREAT SQUARE post?" and she looks at me (as she often does) like I have quite simply lost what was left of my marbles. Then, as we reach the corner, near where the GREAT SQUARE sits, I point. She looks across the street, recognition and memory flash across her face, and suddenly, I am Jack's extreme disappointment. Because, as Ed said (that was an unfortunate rhyme, but still), "And then, SHE RUINED EVERYTHING."

"Its a drafting table."

AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I hate it when she is matter of fact. and right. To top it all off, she wants to buy the thing. And actually USE IT FOR SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE! Stanley Kubrick would not approve.

DOS. Halloween has come and gone. I was Satan again, this year in a rock-a-billy theme. Cowboy hat. Pearl snap shirt with flames and skulls on it. Pointed black boots (I wear them all the time actually. I am Jack's redneck fashion sense). Fake tattoos. Wallet chain. Too much fun. Kevin was someone famous. Wilford Brimley. Juan Carlo Esposito. Rita Hayworth. Had a black t-shirt made with simply the words, "someone famous." Wore all black and his geek-chic glasses. Five people got the joke, smiled, and nodded. Very Kevin.

TROIS. It's NANOWRIMO ! My new favorite holiday. I've got about 500 words so far, a bit off my game. Oh well.

I am Jack's buildup of momentum.

Apparently, I am a robotic version of Al Gore. No wonder every woman I meet lately wants nothing to do with me. wow.


Thanks, Jess.

On a lighter note, going to the store today to pick up the staples. Milk, bread, Travis tickets, eggs, Dr. Pepper. I expect a show of near religious inspiration, on par with Coldplay at the Backyard, or American Beauty. I am ducking work for this, so it had better be good.

I am also pondering a haiku inspired by my roomate, who concocted the middle section in a fit of laughter. "I was a chinese sprinter." Any thoughts? A little mini contest. e-mail me your best haiku using that line, winner gets a prize sent snail mail to you by me worth somewhere between five and ten bucks. Include what you might like to win along with your poem, and I'll consider it.

OK, it's TIME.

Time to offer what I think about all this, my two cents and then some. Nick said, "The World is being Fed-Exed to Hell on a Handcart" and he may be right. The great Aaron did a whole hour on it. Rolling Stone did an entire issue, as did countless others. I am angry and saddened. I am inspired by the heroism of others. I'd vote for Rudy Giuliani for anything he ran for. Ever. The guy should be made mayor for life (which would totaly violate the pinciples of democracy that he stands for) or should come down to Austin and run in our upcoming mayoral contest. I want to read the Quran again, because I don't remember the part that permits these kinds of acts. I want to run away and hide from a world gone insane, from a world where people send pestilence and death in the mail, from a world where we have the nerve to use the phrase "smart bomb". And even that horrible moniker pales in comparison to the greatest oxymoron ever concieved in the history of human endeavor.

Holy War.

For about a month now, on the corner of the street Kevin and I live on, someone is selling THE GREAT SQUARE. I have no idea what this great monstrosity is, and neither does anyone else who has seen it. I would estimate THE GREAT SQUARE at about 4 feet on each side, some version of off white, ocher? Bone? THE GREAT SQUARE sits on a pedastal of some sort, like a blank canvas on an easel. For all I know, thats what it is. However, the stand itself is somewhat elaborate, as though it has some sort of electronic function. I have concocted, in my head, all kinds of fantasies about what THE GREAT SQUARE might be. A portable projection screen? A large scale adjustable work table? There is no telling. THE GREAT SQUARE appears to be wrapped in plastic. To keep it out of the rain? Because it is brand new? There is a bright pink sign, "$100.00", hand lettered on THE GREAT SQUARE in black magic marker. Every time I drive by it I expect to see astronauts in space suits slowly but purposefully working around it, trying to determine what it is, where THE GREAT SQUARE has come from.

Other times I am tempted to fashion my own GREAT SQUARE on a stand, and offer it up for "$75.00". I mean, if there's a market for these things.......

Ok, so here I am. All dressed up and ready to go. Thanks very much K-Dog and S O Teric for crafting this very VERY Beta version of my head. The rest of what's inside mi cabeza is yet to come, including a proper design, about pages, links to everyone else's mind I like to poke around in (like Allison, who was kind enough to put up a shot of me grinning like a kid who just drilled a whole into the wall of the women's shower) the fiction section, the film section, and what shall no doubt turn into the greatest Pez Dispenser contest on the 'Net. Until that all happens, this is what we got, and it's better than American Pie one more time.

Hello? Is this thing on?