One of the CDs on store play right now is The Shins Chutes Too Narrow, and it’s actually pretty good. Check out “Saint Simon.” I like how the bass line and the melody seem like they aren’t linked, but they work together anyway (if that makes sense). The harmonies are good too.

“Al-Qaeda remains a viable and effective ‘network of networks’ and has been galvanised by the war in Iraq, according to the London-based think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies.”

Well no shit.

I was just thinking about how strange accents can be. A few months ago a woman came into the cafe who had a Scottish, Irish, or Welsh accent (I can’t tell the difference, sorry), and she couldn’t understand what I was saying when I said “thirteen.” Even when I said it more slowly she couldn’t understand. She kind of knew I was saying 13, but I had to say “one three” for her to be sure. It was a very strange experience for me, because I never thought that a native English speaker would have trouble understanding an American accent. I wish there was some way I could hear what my accent sounds like to other people.

My name is Alex, and I’m an insomniac. Lifelong sufferer, but I’ve always blamed it on other things. Caffeine, eating too close to bed (temporally, not spatially), lack of exercise, too much exercise, naps, too much on my mind. But none of it’s true. Even when I live as well as I can I still have nights where I just can’t sleep. I realize that it has to be something mental; I don’t have an insomnococcus infection (streptococcus: any of a genus of spherical or ovoid chiefly nonmotile and parasitic gram-positive bacteria that divide only in one plane, occur in pairs or chains, and include bla bla bla–gram-positive? divide in one plane? occur in chains? Maybe biology is cooler than I thought. Other than the memorize-every-tiny-detail stuff). But it’s not some external factor that I can determine. The worst part is that I’m tired. I’m too mentally exhausted to do anything useful, like read A Tale of Two Cities (hence all these posts), and I know that I’ll be exhausted tomorrow at work, and the day after that.

Oh well, no one ever died from insomnia, right?

For shadwstalkr I got “Mussolini said, ‘Right, we’re all fascists!’ but, most Italian people are always on scooters going, ‘Ciao…’,” which is one of my favorite lines (but I love all the lines in that show. Buy the DVD, there’s about 30 minutes that were cut out on HBO).

Oddly appropriate. And for shadwstalkr I get papillon (butterfly). This is creepy.

Reheat pizza in a skillet rather than in the microwave. The crust stays (or gets, if your pizza place sucks) crispy. I haven’t figured out the correct temperature yet so that the cheese gets melty but the crust doesn’t get blacky.

If you haven’t friended merovingian yet, go read this. It’s so rad it made me use slang from the early nineties.

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.