4.23.99

    I've done something terrible to my left hand. I strained it attempting to open a hot dog relish jar. It was so hard to open I had to resort to a Good Grips™ jar opener which is large and triangular with teeth. It got the job done but something hurts where my thumb connects to my hand. I feel like a failure as a human body. When I lift boxes, I lift with my knees -- what should I be doing in the jar-opening area? Unscrew with the back. Strain with the eyeballs. Twist with the armpits.

    Speaking of thumbs... T. and I have decided that if we had to choose between losing our thumbs and losing our tongues that we'd choose the thumbs. Thumbs are great and awesome things but think of all the things your tongue does. Next time you're eating try to chew without using your tongue. Not only does your tongue help to draw the food into your mouth but it switches the food from side to side to help grind it up. And licking! Licking would be impossible without a tongue, you'd have to drag your lips across the lickee (?) and slurp things up. Undoubtedly, you'd be careless from time to time and suck something into your lungs. It would become the new mouth pain. People wouldn't complain anymore about biting their cheek but rather about sucking a marshmallow from a cone of Rocky Road ice-cream into their lungs. Forget about the corners of the mouth, it'd all be about napkins from here on out and sometimes the best stuff gets stuck in the corners of the mouth. And, french kissing just really wouldn't be. Life without thumbs would be a pain but life without a tongue would really suck (no pun intended). I gotta be careful not to bite mine off. You be careful, too.

    ...later.

    T. and I just got back from seeing Go. We were very impressed and had a great time. The theatre was virtually empty. There were maybe eight other people there. I felt like T. and I were the only ones laughing, though. Maybe the others just didn't get it or maybe they weren't the "laugh out loud" type or maybe we're just hip to the teen genre. Maybe. It was a really good movie, though. A lot of critics have compared it to Pulp Fiction in its style and tone but, really, it's a much different type of movie. And, in some ways, much more enjoyable. I really liked Pulp but I didn't leave it with a warm glow, if you know what I mean.

    Things have been moving along a bit on the job front. I have a small contract that I got through a temp agency. It's with a design firm in town, one that had been recommended as one to check out. I'm excited. I don't know if this will lead to anything permanent but I'm happy that I'll be making some new contacts and meeting some people in the industry. So far, all the contacts that I've already made (if you can believe it) have been really cool, very encouraging and wonderfully open. I can't wait to meet some of these people face to face.

    It still doesn't fail to blow me away just a little about how amazing the Internet is. I was afraid that the Portland scene was too small and that I'd never find anybody. Silly of me because now that I think about it, the L.A. scene was so huge that I could never find anybody. Well, they're coming out of the woodwork and it makes me hopeful for good times ahead.