From the New National Affairs Desk...

The past several days have been busy by my standards. Sunday night I dozed off in the chair for a couple hours, and managed to not get the garbage out before the truck came. Not a giant tragedy, just one of those things that makes me look like an idiot for waiting until the last minute, but for some reason [even when I was living out in bum fuck nowhere and had to brave wild dogs and a Deliverance-like setting] I've always felt more comfortable taking my garbage out at night. Wonder sometimes if it's just one of those waspish things I've picked up, never letting the neighbors see me do something I'd consider less than flattering.

One day, my venue will change again, and a new possible death scenario for me will be getting shot while taking out the trash at 3 in the morning.

Monday morning I had a list of phone calls to make -- the big ones being to the IRS and Verizon. For some reason [possibly because I was moved out of my house in a single night], I've misplaced my returns from the previous year, and I had to call the good old Internal Revenue Service to get a transcript. I expected this to take hours, but actually managed to knock it out in a little under 30 minutes, only 10 of which I was on hold for. Honestly, it made me feel like a magic man.

Luckily, Verizon injected a big bunch of Kris Angel [Re: suck] into my day after that. An hour and a half of my life later, I had put in an order for an upgrade to my grandmother's internet connection, so the new laptop could enjoy the wireless service that God meant it to have.

Slept the rest of the day. Why not?

Verizon [via UPS] made it up to me today by delivering the new wireless modem as I was on my way out to the mailbox [another next day delivery. It's nice being out of the boonies], and I hooked it up with very little swearing. So, yes, the reason for this incredibly mundane post is so I can use my flashy new internet connection for something other than downloading Ad-aware and iTunes.

So instead, I direct you to these links, far more interesting than hearing about me getting used to a touch pad again:

Glen has a new shirt up at SR, and it combines two of my favorite things. Plus, he's getting some Internet-press from a drunk guy with a podcast.

Also, John, who always writes good things over at his "Bathroom Monologues," posted a really exceptional piece that I can't recommend enough.

Finally, Heke tells us things about the Japanese, and how school kids celebrate Spring Break there. Yes, it seems they actually just hang out at the school.

Enjoy. Should be seeing some actual work out of me in the coming weeks.

Shalom.