An Exerpt from The First Cut Is the Most Heartrending, Jessica Lynch's SpecialOps Barber Tells All by PFC Randall Neubauer:

I see the backs of heads all day and I run clippers over every one of them. But when Jessica came in, I knew: she was different. She sat down and I looked at the back of her head and I knew: that was hair that was strong; it was resilient; it was going to go to Iraq and back and change the way we think about the Army. I used a number seven clipper.
...
When Jessica came back and I saw her on the plane, I knew it was only a matter of time before The Call came. Inside of a month, they sat her down in the chair in front of me and I had out the old number seven. She asked for no gel and a light spritz of water.

This is the dumb link that's going around right now.
Now you know. It's silly and the file's kind of big.

I hadn't read You Damn Kid before. It's a neat web comic. That one's kinda dirty, but so's life.

A threat made good, the lightning turned into thunder, and that into rain bouncing off of the top of the building. The first drops found home and signaled the rest, which followed with military precision.

If you haven't read Achewood, you're missing out on a comic that captures exactly what it's like to live in the South and to be an anthropomorphic animal who runs a record company. OK, it's not always about Ray Smuckles, but it is today.

Street Paintings. Check out the gallery.

Sherb: Here's the article I mentioned, and the index of the other two. As I understand it, there'll be more.

Coffee: It's what's for Breakfast.
Coffee: It's Not just for Breakfast any more.
Coffee: Do you need a reason?
Coffee: The Buzz lasts a minute. The addiction lasts a week. The trauma and emotional damage last a lifetime. Kind of like High School.

Much like the word "and" (correctly spelled "&"), I think the word "with" is obsolete. I've been spelling it "w," "w/" or "\w" since my days taking notes in college. I usually use the first spelling when the word is alone, and one of the latter two when it is attached to another word, such as "out" or "forth."
That is all.

Hey: I take guitar lessons at Austin School of Music. My teacher, Glenn (he's on the Teachers page), is exactly the kind of teacher I was looking for when I signed up: he knows a thousand chords and plays at least a little bit of everything. I had to move my lesson this week, as I'm going to Brenham to deal with car stuff. When I've spoken to him on the phone, Glenn's always sounded like he just woke up. See: he's a real jazz guitar player.

I do so love poetry early in the morning. I'm randomly proud of that one.

This week's Brezsny says the car that wouldn't start this morning won't start today, but it will be a jet-airplane in 5 years. Type of thing.
According to my analysis of the astrological omens, it's time for you to make two corrections. First, you are suffering from an exaggerated sense of what's possible to accomplish in the short term. I urge you to deflate your grandiosity a bit. Second, your expectations of what you can pull off in the long run are way too small. I authorize you to pump them up.
In fact, that's a failing I've struggled with for a long time. I'll keep it in mind.

Ahem:
Holy Crap!

This is happening RIGHT NOW!

Ahhh, Childhood Memories made foul by time.

As the old mercury drops (an archaic expression. How d'ya like that?), the One True Path Becomes Clear:
There is no God but God, and Coffee is his prophet.

Also, I have what I find to be a pretty satisfactory answer to one of my verbal querries: Pithy. The definition that interests me particularly is "Full or composed of pith." My understanding of pith is that it is bulky, and not necessarily dense. Pith is made for moving water through tiny holes and is thus full of air when dried. Pithy materials (wood, plants) tend to float in water, meaning that they have a lower density than water. Thus, I postulate that a good opposite for "dense" is "pithy."

There was a surprise brother machine show last night. He didn't go on until midnight, and the sound was pretty messed up, but the show was still great. He's got energy that's honestly scary when he gets goin', particularly when he's been awake for pushing 36 hours. The drummer from another band (there were two others last night, actually) jumped up with him and did an admirable job. Just the two of them, with the videos that Flash, Caustic and Billy Business had been working on all weekend, sounded great and became a little surreal.
At the end of the show, the management at the Ritz asked him back. I gotta say, that's kind of a first. I'm used to shows ending with a little conversation between him and the management to the effect of "Son, you can't come here no more," and him walking away smiling. He seemed too tired to really be happy last night, but it'll hit him this morning. He's welcome to play at a real venue on 6th. My brothers are rock stars.

I should say: the sound wan't messed up at the fault of anybody at the Ritz. Flash brought his beats on a tape to be played via a camera with the videos. The sound from the little camcorder to the pro sound system wasn't very good. They told him they'd fix it for next time. Also, he didn't give them very much time to play with it. It wasn't particularly anybody's fault. Those things are pretty squirrely.

When I quit drinking coffee, I get sluggish. When I start again, it's like waking up for the first time in a week.

Sweet Lord'a Mercy.

OK: yes, this is actually a "smoking is bad" ad in disguise, and yes, we all know that smoking is bad and that it will kill you, but this is funny anyway.
Am I the only one who assumes that everyone who starts smoking knows it's bad for you? It's like assuming that everyone who isn't Christian hates Christians because the bible says so. People who aren't Christians and hate Christians don't make up the majority of non-Christians, at least in my experience. The non-Christians haven't beat me up yet. The non-smokers haven't ever told me smoking wasn't bad. They tell me at the tobacco shop that my pipe will kill me. There's no bones about it, as it were.
I'm just sayin' is all.