May you all have very good, filling meals, and spend it with people you actually want to spend it with. And call me this weekend...I'll have lots of free time when I'm not playing Final Fantasy.

Congratulations go out to Slow Kid Crash Mahoney and his Freep column "God Hates a Whiner" for following in the footsteps of Hijinx Ensue in two important ways:
1) It's named after a Slow Kids sketch.
2) It's the people's favorite.

When I'm over at my mom's house it drives me crazy that I can't pet my cat, who obviously craves affection, too much, otherwise my eyes swell up like a Macy's float.

I need and crave a vacation...like now. I'm supposed to be doing some work today but I'm having a very hard time getting going (obviously, since I'm writing this instead of that). Furthermore, I was supposed to spend all weekend working on my Daily Show packet. But we got our wedding video back yesterday, so I set a few hours aside to watch that. It was really great. It's one of those things where I enjoyed it while it was happening, but there was too much going on to get to fully enjoy it. To be able to watch it 6 months later, with the anxiety in the past, alone with my wife in my arms was a wonderful, wonderful feeling. It also made me realize how much I miss my friends, who were a very special, important part of the whole thing for me. So, big shout-out to everyone who was able to make it, and an additional shout-out to those who weren't able to be invited. It was a small wedding, and I feel badly, and I wish you could have seen it.

So, yes, Tuesday is my 6-month anniversary. And no, I haven't completed the wedding story yet. Maybe I'll get inspired to do it this week after seeing the video.

There's an ongoing discussion over on Lee's blog about the merits of post-grad employment vs. returning to school. First of all, everyone go to your preferred downloading method and download the song "I Wish I Could Go Back to College" from the Avenue Q soundtrack. It says a mouthful. I think I can honestly say that, in my year and a half of full-time employment now, I don't think I've ever seriously wanted to go to grad school. I like the feeling of being able to go home and not have to think, "Gee, I have a paper due in two weeks or two days or two hours". Yeah, I work many more hours now than I did in school, but I'm much more relaxed at home. But I'm definitely feeling the restlessness of needing to move onwards and upwards. I have a single-mindedness when it comes to pursuing my dreams that I don't have in the rest of my life. I know where I'm going to end up. It's just a matter of getting there.

Fueling that desire is the fact that, in my current position, there's no way I'll ever be able to buy a house or start a family. I'm barely just getting by right now, although hopefully an influx of holiday funds will help that. All I want is a rewarding job that fulfills me creatively and pays well...is that too much to ask for?

Wait...don't answer that.

Sometimes this job has its perks. I just got my very own free leg lamp. That's right, from A Christmas Story. Oh, and some toys, but that's to be expected.

The Top Secret project that you all probably know about by now has seemed to have stalled in a little bit, because my contact hasn't called me back. I just put in a message with his assistant, so now the ball's back in his court. Oh, who am I kidding, the ball was always in his court. He owns the court!

I'd have a much better shot at this Daily Show thing if I had more freakin' time! Deuce read my story about the Republican's reverse filibuster, and he said that a couple of the jokes they actually used on the show. That's bad, because now I can't send that one in, but it's good because it shows that I have a similar sense of humor.

Thanks to Deuce's new site Tale of Two Cities, I have now seen the greatest thing ever.

If everyone has to have a family, why are they designed to drive you so crazy? Granted, mine doesn't drive me as crazy as some would, but there's always some degree of drive-crazitude.

Have I told you lately that I love my wife? I do. Everyone say something nice about her.

Tonight is crunch time. I need to write all my Daily Show stories tonight, otherwise the ones I already wrote become null and void. Can I do it? I'll let you know. My guess is "Good lord, I hope so."

I miss people. If you're a person, please feel free to call/email/visit me. That would be cool.

I can feel myself getting dumber. Should I be concerned?

You know, this is one of those times where I'm really posting just for the sake of posting, and so that damn Matrix post isn't at the top of my page. Please give me suggestions for interesting things to talk about. They'd be happily entertained.

Want to know what I thought of it? Sure you do.

First of all, I really hated Reloaded. It wasn't a film, it was a collection of scenes. Then, there's the fact that Revolutions had a rotten tomatoes fresh rating in the low 30s and I was not feeling confident.

Surprisingly, I loved it.

Oh there, were problems, to be sure, but in the end I love the story it told. I'm now more confident than ever that Reloaded was a waste of time. They could whittle Reloaded down to 20 necessary minutes, substitute it into Revolutions in place of 25 unnecessary minutes from that film and have the perfect sequel to the Matrix. I'm convinced the only reason there ar three films is the Wachowskis wanted to have a trilogy.

At any rate, I think I finally get it. Or at leastmost of it. If anyone else has seen it and wants to debate its merits in comments, I'm bursting to discuss it. Bring it on, folks!

In other news, things are good at home, money is tight, Daily Show preparations have slowed down but I hope to get a lot done over the next 4-5 days. Any other questions?

So I'm back. My Grandma's having surgery today. Everybody wish her luck.

So on Friday, after viewing the Daily Show cover on the new Entertainment Weekly, I decided there's really no reason I shouldn't be a writer for the Daily Show. So that has become my new mission. I worked on some stories yesterday that need to be polished up a tiny bit, but overall I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. Then I need to write a few more and choose the best and (hopefully) I'll be in business. As I told Deuce, this is currently pie-in-the-sky dream #3 that's under active efforts right now.

To Andy: Sorry you didn't like the album. I didn't consider it too TMBG-like aside from its obsession with archaic things, but I thought the actual songcraft in terms of catchiness was astounding. But, I could be wrong. We'll just have to agree to disagree.