Mallrants

Worked until 7:00 tonight, then went to the mall near work to see if the Apple Store could fix my iPod. Apparently, the unit itself is fine, so it must be an issue with iTunes or Windows, which wasn't what I wanted to hear. No time to check that right now. Bought a Thai chicken wrap at this place in the food court called Tacone. Good jasmine rice inside, along with thinly sliced cucumber and a good peanut sauce. Served with homemade potato chips (restaurant-made, I should say). It was pretty good. I considered seeing BATMAN BEGINS tonight, as I'll have the kids from tomorrow night (my son's graduation from preschool) until Monday morning, as their mother is leaving for Aruba Friday morning for eight days. They'll then be at their old daycare provider until Thursday, when I'll get them again. Pretty fair arrangement, and she's on my way home, so I imagine I'll stop in and see them a bit. I'm sure they would be pretty sad to not have either Mommy or Daddy to talk to for four days. I read a review yesterday of Goldie Hawn's new autobio that actually sounded pretty interesting. I'm not a big fan, but Gretchen always has been (she likes Kurt Russell a lot, too--I think I bought OVERBOARD as a stocking stuffer one Christmas), so I bought it for her to take on her trip. I meant to just leave it by the door with my monthly check for preschool and car insurance (we're still on the same policy), but she was in the open garage putting a mat in her car for taking the dog to the "pet hotel" while she's gone, so I gave it to her in person. It wasn't any big deal on my part, and I certainly didn't expect anything from the gift, but I could tell she was somewhat uncomfortable with it. She said she'd get me something in Aruba, since she didn't have time to get anything for Father's Day. That part sucked a little, actually, because I got her flowers for Mother's Day, but hey, I refuse to keep score and be hurt or bitter about stupid things like that. I'm sure my mocha swirl of emotions will work their way through my writing and all that, but in my personal dealings I want to be as positive and karmically klean as possible.

I like the new Oasis, DON'T BELIEVE THE TRUTH. I stopped paying attention to them two cds ago, but now that they're just another band, it's good stuff. In fact, I think I'll call next week's BREAKDOWNS column "Get Your Mucky Fingers Burnt" after the song "Mucky Fingers", because I just like that adjective and the implicit threat of it (what did I tell you about letting my emotions filter through my writing)?

Very nice words from Steven Grant in his Permanent Damage column at Comic Book Resources. The idea that I would be his current favorite comics critic or whatever is fairly mind-blowing, especially as I prefer his reviews (and Spurgeon's, and probably Rich Kreiner's and some others) over my own, but who likes to read their own stuff, anyway? I actually haven't looked at this week's column yet, and I generally just do that to see how it looks with the art Alan provides for it.

Hey, I wrote two pages of Irregular Joe #4 tonight--I really shouldn't write in bed like this, as it makes me sleepy faster. Pages 6 and 7. 6 was begun yesterday but I didn't get far, so I guess technically I wrote just a page-and-a-half tonight, but hey, it's a start. Now the trick is to keep to the discipline of at least those couple of pages EVERY day. I've done it before.

Off to finish DEEP SLEEPER before bed. It's really been enjoyable.