1. Today I had an interview. When I got home, a different consulting firm called about an interview. Different, but not really competing. Maybe competing on some level because of parent companies and subsidiaries, but it doesn't really matter. What matters is that I feel validated by the attention, but would feel a little more validated by an actual offer.
2. Three music things I am loving: The Microphones, Mission of Burma, Solomon Burke.
3. Three food things I am loving: Spaghetti (sauce is thin and barely seasoned and tastes very Chef Boyardee-ish), burrito, sandwich.
4. Am visiting brother in Pullman for the weekend. A little Pullmania.
5. The past few weeks have been la dolce vita. A few days I've had to put on the suit and smile for an interview. But the rest of the time I might struggle to get out of bed in time to catch the 8am television crisis: do I watch Lois & Clark on TNT or Dawson on TBS? 11:30 is really my "target," since that's when The Wonder Years is on. And it's good to set goals for yourself.
6. Words/phrases we should euthanize: regime, elite Republican Guard, weapons of mass destruction, embedded.
7. I remember read somewhere that you could make a case for subsidizing cigarette smoking, based entirely on the early deaths of smokers. A way to think about it is a company offering an early retirement plan - they'll pay you a little extra to get out now. It was in some economics journal, which isn't surprising since economists are obsessed with perverse incentives. Also, cigarettes + chocolate milk = that one Rufus Wainwright song.
8. I'd like to see a big-time Hollywood movie studio do something bold and brave - a film about the white slave trade.
9. Spam subject line I received today: "Larger Breasts Safely and Suddenly." I found this to be mildly poetic and it caused to me wish that, if the "direct email marketing industry" is going to employ people, I wish they would employ people whose writing I enjoy. I'd be more inclined to actually read it if they had more attractive, memorable subject lines. No I did not actually read that email, but I might've it was something closer to, say, Carver - "A man without hands came to the door to sell me a photograph of my house." You know - make these subject lines more intriguing than "adjective noun sexually explicit verb." Please?
Reluctantly yours,
KidTetris
