so, my grocery bill was twice what i expected

Meanwhile, 256 has spent nigh unto two years doing little else but meditate upon what sort of act could possibly venture next onto the stage warmed by Comics Fun Challenge the Third.

it's about 38 degrees in philadelphia, or in the hyperbolic scale of the natives, ONE HUNDRED degrees. i acknowledge there is something satisfying in using such inflated values to describe these obscene meteorological injustices.

the net result has been increased beer consumption accompanied by much lounging around the house in little more than a bandanna and a straw hat. chin up poll inside

we went to nyc for the day. it's still a little surprising to remember that we can do that.

and summer's coming fast...

Inside you can expect to find:

• a confession of which particular literary crime i was responsible for
• a brief dissection thereof
• comments on those superior stories for which i voted
• and, as a free bonus, a complete and previously unseen second piece written for the challenge but not submitted

Wherein I talk about some things I did this weekend. Also, two requests for assistance: one security related and one mustard related.

that's the sound cars make as they drive over the four inch deep pothole outside our house.

during the day, traffic slows them down, but at night they hit it upwards of fifty miles an hour sometimes. as far as i know, no one has broken an axle yet. but sometimes i will be woken by a tump-tump-twee and then, in the morning, i will find a hubcap by our front steps.

so far we have a honda, a ford, a chevy and two nissans.

so i've been involved in a bit of a debate lately and it has become clear that the crux of the matter is a disagreement on just what exactly people who call themselves atheists hold to be true.

if you would ever consider applying that label to yourself, please vote inside.

also: ADVENTURES IN LINUX PRINTING

Okay, I certainly owe all you folks a real diary or seven. It's been about a hundred years or so, so it's going to be all over the place.

will now commence in the WFC6 article currently on the front page.

The deadline for WFC6 is fast approaching. The upload site (both stories and covers) is now fully functional. Will your story be uploaded on time?

If not, reprisal will be swift, harsh and imprecise. Collateral damage will be high.

VOTING COMMENCES NOW, SEE INSIDE

so here's the thing: aside from our mutual love of pornography and whiskey, there's really just one thing that connects us all. hmmm... well maybe not one thing, because it's a plural and--if i had just blurted it out a sentence ago--it would sound weird, but one collection of things: roads.

i can walk out my door, turn my heel to Hoge Naarderweg, and follow the roads all the way to your house (unless you live in australia or north america or on an island or zeppelin or something, but you get the idea).

when i sit and think about how amazing is the world we have created for ourselves, it is the incredible network of roads that awes me the most.
EXTENSION UPDATE: apparently, the upload site has not been working properly. i've been in ireland, so i was not aware. the original deadline was arbitrarily set to coincide with my return to Canada. that date has now been pushed back by two weeks, so it seems fair to arbitrarily push back the WFC deadline by the same margin. i will try and fix whatever is wrong with the WFC site in the next day or two. silly me for not testing it after doing the server re-install. cheers.

went to the Fields of Rock metal festival in 't Harde on the weekend with E and Mx.

two sentence per band rundown inside.

now with poll

i love to drive. i've always considered it my only guilty pleasure.

i mean, i do a great many pleasurable things that other people might feel guilty about (or might think i should feel guilty about), but driving fast and unnecessarily is the only one that i actually feel bad about.

spent the weekend in Munich with e.

it was my first opportunity to meet the german side of her family. they spent much of the time sprechening sie deutsch, so i mostly just smiled, laughed when they laughed, and drinkenend sie weissbier.

apparrently i made a good impression.