My brother and two of his college friends have begun to foray into the land of the webcomic. They want to increase their readership, so I present to you:
The link above will take you to the first comic in the series, involving a murderous German clown and his misadventures with his roommate John Wilkes Booth.
They've done four strips thus far. If they build a significant fan base, they'll update more often (though they make take summer hiatus). Ultimately, they'd like a feature cartoon on Adult Swim.
Read. Enjoy. Have nightmares.
( 11:17 AM ) Meghan
Saturday, April 16, 2005
I believe there's magic here...
It is stunning outside for the second weekend in a row. I am v. excited about this, despite my mixed feelings for the time of year. It seems that my unwise decision to keep the windows open these last couple of weeks are catching up with me--my throat is becoming irritated with the fine, golden layer that results from several intimate evenings of flowers doing it.
It has been very nice to take advantage of this fine weather. Last weekend, I was out Somewhere in the Blue Ridge with Jenna and Scott, emerging victorious from the Battle of Hill Climb.
Here's the part where I talk about my dog, but not in that obnoxious manner where she's like my child or where I abbreviate her breed because it makes me look cool and "in" with the dog community. Animal people give animal lovers such a bad rap. As such, they can bite me. But to the point, feel free to skip the next section as you see fit.
I've also been able to take Cookie on several walks, which has been most enjoyable. Since she's been on glucosamine, her joints have been much improved and she's been jumping up and sinking her claws into my lap, just like old times. Which made me smile and ensured that she get a pedicure at the vet's on Friday. Interesting side note, we spotted a puppy in the waiting area with markings exactly like Cookie's. I'd seen puppies with those markings in pictures before, but it was something to see one in the fur and side-by-side with her elder image. We'd never known Cookie as a baby, so it's interesting to see "her" round and soft and dark with youth, blissfully unaware that this is the office where sharp things poke you and it's too slippery to pee on the floor.
/K9-411
The last couple of days have been excellent for different reasons. I've been in training to fill out assessment forms. While this may sound like the ultimate hell for some of you, it was rather like an educational day spa. We were in a new building lit with multitudinous windows and supplied with more gourmet food than you can possibly imagine, like mocha pound cake and Greek pasta salad. Some lecture, with interludes of activities (like making animal noises for some reason--I can do a mean monkey), breaks every hour-and-a-half, and a chance to really talk with some of the interagency folks I work with. It was particularly nice that the program was facilitated by a social worker because sometimes I miss working with people who speak my language.
Truly, it was the training of gods.
My mom is throwing a tropically-themed dinner party tonight (and you all wonder where I get this stuff). I'm getting a bit reminiscent for my grad luau from last year...that party would still be going on if I had my druthers. But the upshot is that I have Kenny Chesney tickets for June 4th, so the sand and surf are within sight.
( 7:19 PM ) Meghan
Monday, April 11, 2005
As pirated from FuzzyAmy...
1) Total volume of music files on my computer:
1.52 GB 557 songs
Pitifully small in comparison with the average, I’m sure. Probably better this way, as without the curse of convenience, there’s fewer songs I’m sick of.
2) The last CD I bought was:
Kenny Chesney - Be as You Are
As I mentioned in an earlier post where laid it on thick, pretending to know shit about music, I love Kenny's latest CD. I love that they don't play any ONE of these songs on the radio, leaving me no chance to tire of them. And I am still amazed that my instincts were correct, since I knew I would enjoy the CD without hearing more than a few minor clips. The best songs on the CD are, by far, "Guitars and Tiki Bars" and "There's Magic Here", which is a beautiful melding of Big-Band/Sinatra-esque done Caribbean-style.
3a) The last song I listened to before writing this was:
Ricochet - Daddy's Money
At least that's the last one I remember hearing in its entirety. WMZQ suggests that the other song playing nearest the time I got out of the car was Craig Morgan's "That's what I Love About Sundays" and I'm pretty sure it wasn't that. Because I would have recalled slamming my door with rage as I exited the vehicle. Feel ashamed, Craig Morgan, for becoming famous via an annoying song that was good the first time I heard it when it was called "Almost Home."
3b) The last thing I heard that was new to me that I thought I ought to investigate was:
El Nuevo HFS 99.1
I never liked much of the harder, angsty garbage they played in their past life (as I prepare to be flamed.) But I'm really diggin' on the Latin rhythms. Now when my car doesn't sound like a hoe-down or an elevator, it's UNA FIESTA!
4) Five songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me:
Sarah McLaughlin - Angel
During a spiritual emptiness, this song helped me recover what I'd felt I'd lost. Not by yanking me out of a trance like a fast-paced inspirational, but wrapping around me like my mother's cool washcloth on a torrid fever. Therapeutic, it reminds me to "be still and know that I am."
New Order - True Faith
First heard on one of the most fun nights in college, going Roxbury with friends and ridiculous right before finals. The second time I wore my prom dress (and finally looked good in it).
Disney World - Remember the Magic
Planning could not have timed it better, as this started playing right as my family entered the gates of the Magic Kingdom when I was 17. It spelled out years of happy memories I'd had with them with in the crux of a Disney catalyst. Seeing the "Talking Vegetables" in Epcot with my grandparents was one of my earliest memories and Frontierland was the first place I realized my dad could be the fun parent when he encouraged Ian and I to ride Big Thunder Mountain with him three times in a row.
Richie Valens - La Bamba
I don't really care for the song itself all that much. But I heard it twice in the space of about two weeks with Rob when we first started dating. Once at the Sadie Hawkins dance and once on our first "real" date to the movies. Weirded out that it seemed to be following us, we vehemently pronounced that it could never be Our Song. And with our silly inside joke it backfired and is the only Our Song that ever endured for me. He insists that it isn't
The Lion King, Rhythm of the Pridelands - He Lives in You
I used this as my talk song for Youth Encounter. I loved this song from the first time I heard it as an allegory for Baptism. It was a first and simple lesson learning that overarching differences in religion and culture, there is one Spirit and an ultimate truth we all seek.
He lives in you, He lives in me. He watches over Everything we see. Into the water, Into the truth, In your reflection He lives in you…
5) People through which I will attempt to propagate this meme:
Dude, whoever. Music’s cool.
( 10:09 PM ) Meghan
Saturday, April 02, 2005
"He does not drive us toward suffering, but shares it with us..."
The Vatican and the media can now officially agree that Pope John Paul II has died.
...
I was saddened with more intensity yesterday afternoon when I thought he had died the first time. I sat at my desk, absorbing what I had heard from Rome's live feed and began to cry. I feel that my reaction is not unique among the younger generation of Catholics. That this last pope was not to us an office incarnate, but a man.
People have asked me how I can follow with such conviction the word of the pope on matters of such importance as my faith. Some seemed to think that I must be stupid or blind to trust that the mind of God was being conveyed through a creature of earth. In truth, it is a difficult thing not to believe when the most powerful leader of my Church is also one of the greatest examples of how to live my life. He defied the age-old cynicism of the corruption of absolute power, carrying out his reign not on a throne, but among us. And what a gift that such a man would be all I've ever known in that position.
One of my favorite stories of him concerned a young priest visiting Rome. The priest was considering the laity again, giving up the cloth for his former life. He went with a friend for an audience with the Pope during his visit and shared his discouraged vocation. Instead of offering advice, the Pope took a road less expected--he asked the priest to hear his confession. You can probably guess that the priest chose not to leave after that.
The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the one I fear the most. There's a reason Catholics wait so long between receptions. It shows the truth, all the bad things about ourselves that we twist and spin and rationalize in order to cope day-to-day with the idea that we are great. For the man in the highest chair to reveal his most intimate weakness to the suffering "ordinary" is, to me, nothing short of true holiness.
God's love for us is freely given and unearned, surpassing all we could ever hope for or imagine. He does not love us because we have merited it or are worthy of it. God loves us, rather, because He is true to His own nature. As Saint John puts it, "God is love and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him."
~Address at Mission Dolores, 1987
( 6:33 PM ) Meghan
