Man, this day flew by. I was woken up by my goddamn cell phone. The shitty thing was, I knew who it was going to be. See, like pretty much all cell phones, you can program different ring tones. My Qualcomm phone came with a slew of different dings and chimes and then 2 musical rings. So, I programmed one song for all my personal contacts and the other for my business contacts. That way, when the phone rings, I can tell if it's business or personal. I also have a generic ding ding ring when I get calls from numbers I don't have stored. It was this type of ring that I got this morning so I knew who it was.

Part of my job is dealing with new clients we take on as sponsors and getting them set up with their banners and stuff. Well, this guy has been a pain in my ass from day one. I made him 10 different banners and sent them to him. He liked them...but...wanted more color. So, I go through and redo all 10 of them. It's not that hard really, but it's just annoying. Well, I send him the 10 new ones and he's like, "These are great." Now, I find out, that he's sent one of MY banners off to another company to "punch up the color" a bit. Now he wants me to use their technique to fix my other banners. Thanks a bunch, fucknut. So, I decided to ignore his phone call and send him e-mail instead.

Since I was awake, I decided to get up and go ahead and start the day. Which, I've gotten into the habit of doing with Uberhamster's diary. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Icebear's turning into an Uberhamster shill." No, I'm not. I just really dig the guy's diary, it's a great read. Besides, me the the Ham have a lot in common. He likes comics, I like comics...he likes chess, I like chess...he's dating someone ½ his age, I'm married to someone 2 years younger than me. What? There's a 2 in ½, so it's sort of the same! Anyway, after starting the day with the Ham I didn't really do much else. Wednesday is one of my deadline days and I knew I'd be working tonight so I didn't want to linger on the 'puter too much.

I did make the mistake, however, of checking my e-mail and found a few things that, even though they could have waited, just bugged me so I got them done. Last time I did something like this, I ended up working the ENTIRE day Wednesday, not just at night. And with a wild 6-year-old and a tenacious 2-year-old, that's quite a task. It's also part of the reason it took me all day to do shit. Aren't kids wonderful. (Yes, they really are!!)

Since we don't have cable and I didn't want to hang on my computer all day, I decided to check out the disks I got from Netflix. A couple of Anime's Neon Genesis Evangelion and Spike & Mike's Twisted Animation Festival. I put the anime aside for later and decided to check out Spike & Mike because the disk sleeve said that this DVD had everything on it...sex, violence, etc. Turns out, what it is is just a collection of various animated shorts. There's a really neat, interesting stop motion short called "Ah, Pook Is Here" based on some writings and recordings of William S. Burroughs. They use a BBC recording or something of him as narration. It's very interesting. I rather enjoyed it, all 6 minutes of it. William S. Burroughs has a very unique, interesting voice. If any of you have the CD Songs In the Key of X, music inspired by The X-Files, then you've probably heard the R.E.M. song on there Fuck Me Kitten on which W.S. Burroughs does the all the vocals. Not a great song, but still interesting.

I think, all total, there are like 14 shorts. A lot of them are rather entertaining and fun to watch, but there are a few that just drag out. The whole thing is started off by a short called "Bambi vs. Godzilla" which was done back in 1969. It basically consists of an animation of a deer grazing that eventually gets squashed by a giant foot. Kind of black humor...but for some reason, it did strike me as funny, even though I could tell what was coming when it started. Some of my other favorites are the computer generated short Tightrope done by Digital Domain, the puppet cartoon Graveyard Jamboree with Mysterious Mose and the Bill Plympton piece Nosehair (and yes, that title is very fitting). Most of the animation is done very well, but there are also some pieces that were just to "artsy". They were almost trying too hard and completely bogged everything down. All in all, however, it was a very interesting disk. Topped off, of course, by the footage of Scotty the Shreading Dog. Scotty is Spike or Mike's scottish terrier and his act is running around the stage at their various festivals and popping balloons. You have to see it to believe it...it really is rather cute because, to be honest, Scotty is definitely well fed. Watching his chubby little canine butt romping around the stage trying to pop balloons, some of which are 3 feet across, is pretty funny.

So, if you get the chance, the next time you're at Cockmaster Video or Hollywood video, look and see if they have Spike & Mike's Twisted Animation Festival and check it out. If you don't like it of course, it's your own fault for taking the advice of someone you've never met. If you do like it, of course, then I take all the credit.

Well, the wife is making very suggestive comments concerning me, our bedroom and various states of undress. I believe I'm going to take the bait and head on out. Until next time, drive safely...wear a condom.

Da 'Bear

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