Wow. I just realized I hit 100 posts as of my last one. So this is sort of a pointless 101st saying… look, I did 100! Here’s something interesting that has the potential to be very fun, touching, creepy, or embarrassing. Go to http://forbes.codefix.net/capsule/ and send yourself a message in the future.

It’s a time capsule program. You write an email to yourself and they deliver it in 1, 3, 5 or whatever years. It’s an interesting thought. Write yourself a message detailing everything in your life and see how far you’ve come in a few years. Then, as long as your email address doesn’t change, you’ll get your message in a few years, and you can look back wistfully and think, boy, was I ever ________.

Fun!

Amidst the chaos of my life, I’ve gotten the book away to two more agents. As for the car, I’m currently stuck in limbo… the insurance company made me an offer, but until I get the title in the mail from my loan company, I’m stuck. Hooray for bureaucracy.

Bengals get a week off, and then it’s the dreaded Colts. The undefeated Colts. One thing is absolutely certain for me about this game: one of the two teams is going to come away highly embarrassed.

I voted today!

And I’m really tired, so this journal is all over the place.

You should never judge a book by its cover. However, today on the bus, I learned that there’s a good chance that if a man smells like alcohol, you shouldn’t stand too close to him in the aisle when the bus starts moving, because he’s bound to fall down drunk and smell like poo. Actually , this isn’t really a rule that would apply to all men who smell like alcohol and ride the bus. Just the one guy who almost fell on the woman sitting next to me.

The Bengals, that’s who. Sure, it’s happening at the expense of sub-.500 teams. But I DON’T CARE! Bengals have the greatest fans on earth! Prove it, you say? Look at the story of this JACKASS:

CINCINNATI (AP) – The Cincinnati Bengals will reassess their security measures after a fan ran onto the field Sunday and disrupted a potential game-tying drive by the Green Bay Packers.

The Packers, trailing 21-14, reached the Bengals 28 with 23 seconds left. Brett Favre took the ensuing snap, but whistles quickly blew after the fan came onto the field. The unidentified man took the football out of Favre’s hand and ran about 50 yards before being tackled by security guards and removed from the field.
Favre was sacked on the next play, and on the final snap, he completed an illegal pass beyond the line of scrimmage that came up short.
Neither Favre nor Packers coach Mike Sherman blamed Green Bay’s loss on the fan.

An unidentified fan runs with the football after taking it from Packers quarterback Brett Favre on Sunday in Cincinnati. (Tom Uhlman / Associated Press)

I mean, what an IDIOT! (but thanks for helping us win.)

At any rate, this feeling of Euphoria will last at least into the playoffs, because this year, we’re going. Not only that, but Chicago is number one as well! Yes, their division is astoundingly bad, but they’re working with broken parts over there and making miracles happen. So the NFL is interesting for me for the first time in a loooong time.

The car: One week and no news. It’s all been paperwork and waiting and buses, although I am gathering some interesting stories from people and seeing things you wouldn’t see from the comfort of a car. Also, I’ve discovered that biking to work takes approximately ten minutes longer than driving. So even when I have wheels again, I may still bike until the weather gets too hot for it.

Hit and Run is off to two different agents as of Friday, so keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best!

So the 5:51 bus was a good twenty minutes late… or perhaps the 6:20 bus was 10 minutes early. Hmmm. It was a very interesting twenty minute ride.

I got to hear a man hold forth on the difficulties of dealing with police when all one wants to do is use drugs in a hotel room. Did you know that many hotels near Alvarado street have city-mandated slow flush toilets that take five minutes to go down? Me neither! But apparently, it leaves your evidence in there, spinnin’ and spinnin’. He suggests using in a room near the back, so you can be ready to jump if someone kicks the door in.

Also, never give someone your real name, and don’t try to cut deals with more than one person. If it’s one on one, you can build trust, but you don’t need a third pair of eyes looking out for you. And there are some people that just get jealous of someone that rises up too fast, and they start snitching.

Not that I like riding the bus, mind you, but it’s a gold mine of stories. If I didn’t have to work I’d have some great ideas for stories I could cover on the bus.

What with the car theft and all, I should have stayed home on Monday, but had a huge office project to do, etc. So I got through that, slogged through Tuesday feeling kind of stuffy, and decided that today I’d stay home and get some rest. No news on the car yet. I’m keeping my eyes on the news to see if it ends up involved in a car chase or something.
It’s odd. Sort of like having a child kidnapped, I suppose (or maybe a puppy, or an expensive piece of furniture). You hope to get it back, but you are filled with dread at what may have happened in your absence.
Here’s to hoping my car was stolen by some Robin Hood type who is now riding around giving out free food to homeless people or something. It would be nice if he would bring my things back, at least.

By the way, a fun thing to do on days home sick is japander.com, where you can see celebrities who are too “big” to do commercials domestically shill for stuff in Japan. My recommendations: start with Arnold Schwarzenegger (“Yosh! Muy MUY!”) and move on to Brad Pitt (“Do you like my ass?”). You can also see Sean Connery, Sly Stallone, Natalie Portman, and more.
Enjoy!

Missing!

Who took my car? And why? Look at it! It’s a nice car! It got me through grad school, and took me to Los Angeles. And now, some vile fiend has taken my car while I was shopping in CostCo.
What a horrible way to end the weekend.

I’m resigned to the fact that I’ll have to sleep less in order to make things happen. This week is going to be crazy with work-related things, but my plans, by Friday, are as follows:
1. Submit Hit and Run to a few agencies
2. Finish the episode I’m working on for the spec series
3. Find a USB wireless G adapter for our TiVo system.

The Bengals won again and are firmly on top of their division… We’ll see what happens when Pittsburgh comes to town – I think it will be a clear indication of the Cats’ playoff chances.
Chicago is in the World Series (Granted, it’s the wrong team from Chicago, but somehow, Cubbies fans can get some reflected glory off this thing), I predict a stunning defeat for either Houston or St. Louis.

The desk is back up on Craig’s list. I’m going to try to make an odyssey of the desk on the blog (hope it’s short and the thing sells quick). I’ll do a write up and perhaps a sneaky picture of everyone that comes to look at it. Yeah, that’s the ticket….

So I’ve been trying to sell my old corner desk unit for a couple of months now. I’ve gotten a lot of people over to look at it, but nobody wants to bite the bullet and make the purchase. I mean, COME ON! It’s great! Look at it!

Think of it this way… if a young, up and coming Stephen King had been selling his desk on Craig’s List, how lucky would you feel knowing that you owned it? Sure, it would have been a gamble buying from a semi-employed high school teacher in Maine, but man, after those five or ten years went by and Carrie had become a runaway best seller… you could lead people down into your basement and say… see this non-descript somewhat junky desk? Stephen King used to write here. To which your friend or guest would shrug and say “hmph”. And deep inside you’d feel proud, and somewhat irritated by their lack of awe.

I mean, wouldn’t that be GREAT? What are you waiting for? Get in on the ground floor now!