Popeye’s Chicken kicks ass! If you haven’t tried them, I recommend it. They have amazing cole slaw, good red beans & rice (not quite as good as Zattaran’s), and greasy, heart-stoppingly-good, spicy chicken. Their customer service sucked, but I don’t live in one of those fancy areas where people have manners and health insurance.

J’apprends le Français bien, mais mon accent est toujours mauvais. Alors je veux parler le Français avec un francophonie, mais où puis-je trouver cela en Kansas City? My grammar and vocabulary aren’t good enough to continue. I saw flyers at school for a weekly French speaking group, but the place they were meeting at closed. Does anybody have an idea for resources or tricks (like watching DVDs in French) to improve my aural skills? I listen to Freedom.fr regularly, but they speak so fast I can only distinguish seperate words, not quite process what they are.

My bike is coming soon. I’m excited. My son is coming soon. I’m terrified. My grades came. I’m pleasantly surprised (all A’s [one A-, but I thought it would be a B at best])

I don’t remember if anyone who reads this is from this area other than gnomey and mox (I’m too lazy to link you, sorry), and now I can’t remember why I wanted to know.

I read the first few chapters of A Tale of Two Titties by MMMMiles Pickeqns, but I haven’t felt like reading in the past week. I’m playing with Flash MX ActionScript and knitting. And working.

Check out these free online reading groups, some even hosted by the author (assuming said author is still living). Cool stuff brought to you by Publishers for Involuntary Servitude, er, Barnes & Noble. I’m joining the Walden group. Thoreau unfortunately declined to participate.

Whiskey kicks ass.

100 of them actually. Here ya’ go.

I just saw Troy, and I was pretty impressed. Visually appealing, decent acting, and amazing fight choreography. I’m not sure who wrote that story, but they should get him to write a few more

I loved how Brad Pitt moved; I never realized he was that athletic. All his movements were so fluid and deliberate that he looked like a real fighter, not just some pretty boy that wants to hang with the stunt guys. Even if you’re not into the whole Iliad thing, go see this for the fights. You won’t be disappointed.

Since Hollywood is doing the prequel thing now, I hope that we see a version of The Odyssey that kicks ass. These days they have to go back to stories older than writing to get a good script, so they might as well plunder all they can before the well runs dry. As long as George Lucas isn’t allowed within 100 yards of the production it should be okay.

And I’m totally re-impressed that Homer’s epics were transmitted orally for a few centuries before somebody invented writing (Oh! An alphabet; phonetic sounds; it all seems so obvious!). It makes me want to organize a reading of the Iliad somewhere in public. I heard a story on NPR last year about a classics dept. at some university that read Beowulf in the original (middle English?), but I think starting with an English version would be okay. Could you imagine a coffee shop that has a weekly classics reading? This week we’ll be reading Crime and Punishment, next week A Tale of Two Cities. That would be so awesome. I wonder how long it would take to read one of those out loud. Hmmm….

This is a cool photo essay of the new Getty Museum by Philip Greenspun.

I just need to post this:

so that I can stake my claim on my journal with BlogShares, a stock-market-style game that trades in blogs. (it’s free).

We moved to the Westport area (if you’re not familiar with KC, don’t worry about it), and it’s a lot nicer than I ever imagined. Just five blocks due North of the Nelson, our neighborhood is quiet and apparently fairly safe (three weeks now without being victim to a single violent crime!). I can and do walk to work on the Plaza and school at UMKC. I purchased a bike which should be here by the beginning of June. I’ve essentially stopped using my car, a good thing, I think.

I also may not have mentioned the forthcoming project in which I will be engaged for, let’s see, ever. Yes, my son should be arriving in 6-8 weeks. For anyone considering it, ordering was fun but shipping is a bitch.

Anyway, I’ll be holding pictures of him hostage until I get a digital camera (no questions asked). If you want to be vic–er witness to the impending cuteness, leave a digital camera or a donation to be used to purchase said camera (definitely not whiskey and fries, I promise) underneath the trash can in front of Barnes and Noble on the Plaza–the one next to the not-really-homeless guy on the paint bucket.

I knit a little pumpkin hat for him, and plan on spilling forth buckets of cuteness from my needles once I find a good yarn shop within biking distance. I’ll post pictures soon (see above).

I may have mentioned this already, but one of my friends runs a cool blog, TransBuddha. Their software issues aren’t all worked out yet, but their content rocks. Check ‘em out.

Kansas: Embracing African Americans since 1954.

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNN!!!!!!!