They all get in a line and do a dance called the Nonagon

I had a dream where last night where I was attending some event, and instead of it being down on a stage, it was up above the balcony, so we all had to sit in the balcony facing upwards. I think the event itself was some political thing, which is becoming somewhat of a recurring theme in my dreams nowadays.

Speaking of political events, I didn't watch all of Bush's final State of the Union address last night, but from what I saw, it looks like he's sticking with the classics. Those evil people hate us for our freedom! Come on, even Pat Buchanan essentially said that was bunk, and when your attitude is more prejudicial than Pat Buchanan's, you KNOW something's wrong. I also saw a clip of Bush's buddy in believing that terrorists hate freedom, Rudy Giuliani, talking about how we have to be on the offensive in the war on terror. I really hope that guy's strategy of concentrating entirely on Florida doesn't pay off. I wonder if it's a bad sign for him that Firefox's spell check still doesn't recognize his name.

I've been talking a lot about politics and religion as of late, haven't I? I'm now going to change the topic to They Might Be Giants. I'd say that's a less controversial subject, but considering some of the flame wars I've seen on various online forums dedicated to the band, I'm not so sure. Anyway, there's a new regular podcast out (not to be confused with the children's video podcasts that they've been doing for the past few weeks). It's mostly songs from The Else and previews of Here Comes the 1-2-3's, which is coming out in February. "Nonagon" might be my favorite of the songs I've heard from that release, although maybe that's just because of the title. (By the way, Firefox? Your spellcheck not recognizing "Giuliani" was kind of funny, but it makes no sense that you wouldn't recognize "nonagon." And why am I addressing a program as if it's a person? I don't know!) There's also a repeat of "Turtle Songs Of North America," which I can't say I understand. Wouldn't it make more sense just to direct people back to the older podcasts, rather than repeating material? The Johns seem to like latching on to new ideas--websites, streaming radio stations, street teams, podcasts, themed projects, etc.--and then not sticking with them for very long. I guess they're really kind of like me in that respect, actually. {g} Dial-A-Song is no longer around either, and while I rarely called it anyway, it was nice to know that it was there, always a constant in the world of TMBG. The impression I get is that it got too difficult for them to keep getting new phone machines only to have them malfunction shortly afterwards, but it's still quite disappointing. O John, why have you forsaken me? Is it because I'm one thousand years old? The podcasts do occasionally include some of the previews and weird stuff you could get on DAS (the most recent podcast's song about invisible people on stage looking for a trapdoor, for instance), but it's not really the same.

I think bethje will be happy with this quiz result:

Which Character From The Office Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

And finally, happy birthday to onib!

Digging Up the Past

As you may know, I have a hard time throwing anything away. I kept most of my old papers in boxes, and every time I think I'm done with them, my mom shows up with a new one. I just recently finished sorting one that had a bunch of stuff from ten or more years ago. I mean, I know you're supposed to keep tax statements for a few years, but I don't think I need a copy of my tax return from 1995, do I? Also in that box was a refund stub addressed to "Dehorf Nashan M," an elementary school art project on which I used way too much glue (a pretty common occurrence back then), and a Mother's Day cookbook from second grade. My recipe was for pepperoni pizza muffins, and I was one of only three kids who in the class who had the honor of illustrating the recipe. What I drew was a lousy picture of Pooh, Piglet, and Rabbit making a giant pizza muffin. One thing that's remained constant in my life is my total inability to draw. What has changed is that I used to try, and now I no longer do. I'm not sure if that's a tragic loss of my childhood innocence, a realization of my own limitations, or both. I also found some greeting cards from bethje, colleenanne, listenesmerelda, and rockinlibrarian, among others. I've been saving all of my cards in a bag, but I'd like to find a better filing system for them someday. The same goes for my old Oz stories, school projects, and all kinds of other stuff.

I hate cleaning, but I have to say that I probably wouldn't mind it as much if I knew exactly where to put everything. It's having to invent new storage spaces that's particularly tedious.