Moldpotion

Hi, LiveJournal world! It's been a while since I used this thing. What I want to announce right now is that I have a new hobby. Many of you know about it already because I have had tons of pamphlets and posters sent to your houses, and you may or may not have gotten pissed off about it. Anyway, the new hobby is finding and ordering free government publications (and sometimes other random free things), mostly with educational and/or technical themes.

Some of the free stuff I've gotten—such as the disease fact sheets provided by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases—is interesting to read. Other stuff is just awesomely cheesy, like these:

(Poster from CDC catalog)


(Bumper sticker from Florida HSMV)



(Tuberculosis posters from DTBE)

Those examples are only, like, 2% of the goodness I have so far discovered. I am making stuff out of them. I will probably post again on this topic in the near future!

I think they're in my bed.
-Here we are! they shout almost inaudibly with what sounds like a great effort to be audible.
-I knew it! I whisper. Now what?
- .
-What was that?
- . . .
-Louder, please.
-
-?
-
I'm not sure they're in my bed anymore. If by the time my wakeup alarm goes off my thoughts are still uninf(l)ected, then I will know that the words have all perished. Gone to the compost pile. Gone to the      ▒▓           ╲


[But so what if I sleep without a word?/(—here comes a rhyme—)/I've still got a blob in my bed named Bird.]

Sorry for the dorky cat post if you're not into cats. Actually, I'm not sorry. In fact, if you don't love Nüns, then FUCK YOU!

and bought the awesome-est book EVER! It's filled with ineffably sweet computer imagery from 1990.

( More graphics... )

This is way cool. Zazzle.com lets you design your own Keds, and it shows you a fancy virtual preview of what the shoes will look like from all different angles. I made these ones today:


I dunno whether I want to buy this design, though. There are so many possibilities I could still explore!

Today I missed a call from an unfamiliar Ohio number. I called it back and learned that the caller had dialed the wrong number, but I kept him on the phone and grilled him about who he was trying to reach and why. He was clearly uncomfortable with my interrogation, but he handled it politely. I found out that he was trying to reach his friend Daniel to thank him for getting him (the caller) a record deal. I told him I wanted to buy his record and that I would be his biggest fan; he reluctantly gave me his name, which (allegedly) is Zack Kouns.

Some investigation (i.e., a Google search) led me to Zack Kouns' weird-as-fuck website: www.zackkouns.com

If the caller really was this Zack Kouns character, then I seriously WILL be his biggest fan. His music sounds like Daniel Johnston on acid, and everything else on his site is just plain bizarre. I love it. He has brilliant song titles like "Burger King Parking Lot" and "Blood in His Stool."

EDIT: PLEEEEEEASE LISTEN TO THIS GUY'S MUSIC AND READ HIS MYSPACE PROFILE (which contains different songs)!



IT'S F A S C I N A T I N G!




MORE REASONS FOR YOU TO BECOME OBSESSED WITH ZACK KOUNS (if all my crazy formatting isn't enough): His musical influences list on MySpace includes: memories from extreme youth; genitals; language and the occult significance of words; eating dinner alone; photographs of dead children resting peacefully; the Ohio River; and like a billion other things.

I'm pretty into this new drawing I made. It looks nothing like my usual style.

rain is the ultimate expression of sadness: the weeping of the world.

I met a guy who sings like Connor Oberst but—I want to believe—sans the mega-cheese factor. He and his middle-aged roommate make a fantastic duo. Kinda obsessing over his music and disappointed that he doesn't play enough shows.

Now I'm gonna post a meme I took from msmaggiemayhem .

10 Things Going Well In Your Life Right Now Post 10 things that are going right in your life right now, it doesn't matter how small. You're happy with your cup of coffee. You saw a flock of geese flying over. ANYTHING. Things that make you happy. Things that make you smile. No pressure. It's small and it's simple, but maybe for the time you are compiling your list, you'll forget about the bad going on and focus on something good.

I. The Bright Eyes-esque singer guy

II. The Independent Publishing Resource Center and its zine library and zine-printing facilities

III. That I'm making art

IV. Powell's City of Books

V. How easy it is to see live music in Portland

VI. That I get to read and judge manuscript submissions to the Portland Review

VII. The art/random junk store, SCRAP

VIII. The entertainment derived from the semi-awkward situation of telling boys that they're not my type

IX. My awesome house

X. The beer dumpster

Dawn Weiner is a lesbo. I fuckin' knew it!

In two days, I shall be in Portland. For. Ev. Er. Well, not really forever, but for a while. Let's see how that pans out.

I went to a library sale the other day. These are the books I got for a total of $15.22:

José Saramago: Blindness

Nathanael West: A Cool Million and The Dream Life of Balso Snell

Alexandra Kollontai: A Great Love

Jean-Paul Sartre: Troubled Sleep and The Age of Reason

Harlan Greene: What the Dead Remember

Dave Eggers: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Haruki Murakami: After Dark

W. Somerset Maugham: The Summing Up

Ben Marcus: Notable American Women

Alberto Moravia: Conjugal Love

Mohammed Mrabet: Love with a Few Hairs

Herbert Read: English Prose Style

Something about directional disabilities

Something about proofreading

I just found out that the video for the Blink-182 song "Josie" was filmed at my old high school, Westlake High, in Westlake Village, California. That makes so much sense. Ew. That place was filled with asshole Blink-182 lookalikes. And now, for your viewing (dis)pleasure, I present the video:

the absence of "tick-tock" in the digital age must have repercussions, suggests my late night research into the space between my head and pillow.  without aurally (re)cognized intervals—as defined by the "tick" and the "tock"—our experience of immediate time is more subjective than were the experiences of analog generations. (immediate time=that which stays in short-term memory [until multidimensional studies have made sufficient progress, we are forced to privilege the past over the future in this (arbitrary) definition*].) the journey of [before------>after] is seamless and soundless. we think only of now.

no, but, like, seriously: bush is behind it.

*See Politics and Poly-ticks: Oppressive Chronism in Contemporary Society (Hans O. Thaclawk, 2006).

after an exhausting, flake-filled search, i've finally found a place to live in portland. it's a house in the northeast quadrant that i shall share with one individual who ostensibly possesses a coupled set of X-chromosomes and three individuals who ostensibly possess, in toto, three X-chromosomes and three Y-chromosomes.

there's a basement.

trees, too.

fact: {trees, basement, cool housemates}⊆{all things conducive to the absence of misery}

omfgddshfuwehwmidxlmh, am i relieved about this!

also warranting the typed ejaculation of "omfgddshfuwehwmidxlmh" and/or similar extended chains of expletives*: powell's city of books, the giant-est independent bookstore in the world, has a retardation section! yes, folks, there is a label on the shelf that actually says "retardation"!

*E.g., "omfgxxxhuewgeyu" or "omfgaaauhun."

anhedonia, noun: a psychological condition characterized by inability to experience pleasure in normally pleasurable acts (e.g., "It's not impotence, it's anhedonia!")

cognomen, noun: a name, especially a descriptive nickname or epithet acquired through usage over a period of time (e.g., "My penis won't respond to any cognomens but 'Wittle Pee-Wee.'")

cupidity, noun: eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth; greed; avarice (e.g. ,"The man's cupidity added to his stupidity, and he bought the BMW with the three-foot-tall, golden '$' sign erected onto its roof.")

deuteragonist, noun: the character second in importance to the protagonist in classical Greek drama (e.g., "Calvin is the protagonist, while Hobbes is the deuteragonist.")

neurasthenia, noun: a psychological disorder marked especially by easy fatigability and often by lack of motivation, feelings of inadequacy, and psychosomatic symptoms (e.g., "It's the fault of my crippling neurasthenia that I didn't do my homework.")

trans-3-methyl-2-hexenoic acid, noun: compound responsible for pungent body odor of schizophrenics (e.g., "This butt-ugly psychiatrist asked me out on a date, and I was too polite to say no; maybe she'll leave me alone if I show up wearing trans-3-methyl-2-hexanoic acid cologne.")

My wife good friend Alanis Morissette has come out with a new album! It's very poppy but—yes, I admit it—soooo good! I thought I was over my ridiculous obsession with her, but I guess not. All it takes is a few new songs to throw me right back into the honeymoon phase. Selfishly, I don't want her to ever find the right man, because her music might start to suck if she gets too happy.