Entry for a Rainy Day

I've been making some progress in my guitar-learning, even though I'm still not very good. I've been working through my Chord Strummer book, and learned syncopated strums and bass note/after strums. The former type is difficult, and I'm still not sure I'm doing it correctly. The latter actually sounds pretty cool, even when I do it, so I would imagine it sounds even better when played by someone who actually knows what he or she is doing. I still have a problem with not being able to switch between chords very quickly, but I'm getting better (I hope).

bethje and I should be going to Great Adventure tomorrow, if it doesn't rain. Weather.com says it should be sunny tomorrow in that area, but it also said it would only be cloudy today, and they've since changed their mind. I really do want to go there, since we still have season passes, and we haven't gotten much use out of them as of late.

I guess this was mostly just an entry made for the sake of writing an entry. How do you feel about that?

Written in the Stars

Hey, it's another entry, and one with content that's hopefully more interesting!

As I'm sure you'll know if you've looked at the placemats at a Chinese restaurant, the Chinese zodiac is based on twelve-year cycles. Being born in 1977, my sign is the Snake. Interestingly enough, Frank Black is about twelve years older than me, making him a Snake as well. In fact, he alludes to this in "The Snake," a song on his most recent album. Another one of my favorite musicians, Andy Partridge of XTC is apparently twelve years older than Frank (and, therefore, twenty-four years older than me), making him a Snake as well. For that matter, I think Andy might also be a Scorpio, as I am. I don't put any stock in astrology, but I thought that was pretty cool. Of course, it doesn't work for all of the musicians I like. John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants is a Rat. John Linnell, contrary to Tiny Toons, is a Pig. (Well, I guess you could say that, although Hamton was Flans in "Istanbul," he was sort of Linnell in "Particle Man." Then again, I guess Dizzy Devil was also sort of Linnell in that video, since he played the accordion. This is a pretty pointless digression, though.)

I need to get back into the habit of flossing and using mouthwash after brushing my teeth. I used to do those things pretty regularly, and then I got lazy and stopped. Said laziness probably coincided with running out of one or both of these oral hygiene products. It's not like it's that difficult or anything.

Speaking of hygiene, can anyone recommend a good face cleaner? I use Neutrogena now, and it seems to work pretty well, but maybe I should try another product in addition.