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7.26.2002


I had a dream last night that Loudon Wainwright III had died, but that his twin brother was going to continue touring without him. The whole thing's a mystery to me, too.
..:.:11:47 AM:.:..

7.19.2002


Some Things I Need to Tell Myself:

- While it is humid, it is neither "humid like a fox," nor "humid like the wolf," and you should really stop saying so.
- Puns are not anywhere near as funny as you think they are. No one wants to hear about the "Currier and Chives Catering" delivery truck you saw.
- If you're in a really good mood and you're talking to someone who isn't, your mood is not "infectious," it is "annoying."
- You can argue all you want, but there's just not a Sports Night quote for every occasion.
..:.:1:34 PM:.:..


7.14.2002


Driving through Concord center today, I saw a guy walking along the sidewalk holding a 12-foot canoe on top of his head. Every ten steps or so, he'd stop and tilt the canoe so that the front end would go way up in the air and he could see where he was walking. I thought this was pretty strange until I remembered that they were filming The Straight Story II in town.
..:.:6:14 PM:.:..

7.10.2002


I know there are a lot of people out there trying to break into the rough-and-tumble world of professional writing. I'm not one of them, but I've recently learned something which may be of use to the rest of you. People will tell you to write from experience, and I guess that's good advice, but it's only useful if you can recognize the stuff in your experience that will make for a good story. Most of the things that happen to you are unconnected and that generally makes for boring reading. Here's an object lesson in how to spot a theme:

Me: Hey, how are you?
Her: Great! How are you?
Me: I'm...
Her: [interrupting] Wait, wait! Let me guess! Tired?
Me: Well, yeah, I...
Her: [interrupting] And working long hours?
Me: Heh, it seems...
Her: [interrupting] And busy?
Me: ...

Next week: Preventing anagnorisis (I don't like to brag, but I'm a master at this one).
..:.:3:25 PM:.:..


7.1.2002


Three totally unconnected things:

1. I went to a really good, upbeat concert last night and right after the encore, the singer jumped off the stage and started hugging random people in the audience. That really should happen more often.

2. You might have seen people doing this "[Your Name] is" Google searching (if you haven't, you're not really missing anything). Anyway, I bring this up only to point out that the #1 result for "Mark is" is "Mark is the Beast." So, yeah, um, I don't know either.

3. Buy stuff from The Booklend Store. I think the stuff's nice (and Booklend gets $2 for postage from each order).
..:.:1:56 PM:.:..



mark@markand.com
aim: mdanderson45