Wherein the author remembers his password/username and finally makes it back into Blogger. Whew...I thought that all of that was gone. I should probably write that stuff down-then I can promptly loose the peice of paper. At least that way I can maintain the illusion that I'm not losing my mind.

New stuff: It's now December 2nd, 2005...there are 29 days left in 2005. You know, every year I tell myself that I'm going to start Christmas shopping in January. I tell myself this and then I find myself right about here. The begining of December with nothing purchased. Fan-freakin-tabulous. They say it's the thought that counts-maybe I can give thought as a gift. Merry Christmas I'm thinking.

I've been fighting an ongoing battle with Dora Juniper (my beleagured and much loved Jeep Grand Wagoneer) this has been going on for months now. Well, yesterday morning she won a decicisive victory in the current round. We have gotten our first snowfalls recently and after the first fall DJ got plowed-in, my fault for not having moved her in time. So the other night when it looked like there was going to be a sizeable fall, I moved her into the driveway. The drive way is where she sat till the nice man with tow-truck came and pulled her away-this caused, as I'm sure you can imagine some consternation, I had moved her to try to make getting out easier. What actually ended happening was that there was a large Dora-shapped peice of inanimate object blocking the driveway. Made it kinda difficult to get Fiona (KJ's Ford Taurus) out of the garrage in the morning, well played Ms. Dora, you bought yourself a trip to the car doctor...

I've been having really good luck with DVD sales recently, in the last little while I have picked up:

The Big Lebowski
Bruce Cambell Vs. The Army of Darkness (Director's bootleg edition)
Resivoir Dogs (Tenth Anniversary)
Sin City
Saved

All of the above where gotten for less than what it would cost for some new release titles so, you know, that's all to the good. I recently saw the release of Sin City with all the bells and whistles in a magazine-so I'll be picking that up, but for now I got the spare (one docco-light on any actual information) edition to satisfy my Noir cravings.

I finished reading Kate Remembered by A. Scott Berg recently-good book and a quick read. It is a collection of the author's memories of his friendship with Katherine Hepburn (RIP) over the last two decades of her life. Aside from the fact that A. Scott Berg is A. Pretensious ninny, the book is excellent. Right now I'm about five pages into a book called Freakonomics. It is very interesting concept-wise, but I'm worried that the number-related stuff is going to make my brain melt.

Photo by Dana Yost
From The Marshall Independent: "Customers shop at the Barnes and Noble campus store inside the new Steden Center complex at SMSU on Monday. The building opened Monday."

In spite of what the above caption says, we are not customers--that's a fellow employee and I at the grand opening of the new bookstore.

New Stuff!

So we are back from our trip to Bloomington! All went well, and all blogs hereabouts have been updated. Over at the 'Fist I do two verses and a chourus on recent efforts to change the rules regarding the filibuster. My photo-blog has some new photo-age, and I added one more page to my web-niche...behold the terrible beauty that is Audio Blogging.

As mentioned earlier, spent the first part of the weekend at the 2005 MSHL State Speech Contest. Here is some of the assembled crowd waiting for results. 

State Speech 05'

Just checking in quick from Bloomington MN's lovely Courtyar Marriott hotel. The Minneota Speechers have arrived safely, and we will shortly be embarking for downtown Minneapolis. Then it's back to the hotel for a night of pool and rest. More later-

So, finally, finally, FINALLY. The new student center is done, which means that the new bookstore is done! This is a good thing because these past weeks leading up to it have been not at all fun. Lots to do. Pick it up, decide if we need it, put it in a box-etc ad infinitum. It was just like moving. Except we were moving somebody else's stuff. This picture is actuall a few months old. New store=more space=bigger trade section=happy Justin. 

Me 

Multiplexing, The New Wal-Mart, and Me

So it was time for me to do a little bit o' house cleaning, as you can see things are looking just a little bit different hereabout. The link list is now places you can go for an out and out binge o Justin related content, should that be your wish. Movie reviews links to my work for Hollywood Bitchslap if you've never been there, take a look arround. The site offers some of the most honest film criticism I've ever seen. Folks there pull no punches, and to a person, are thoughtful and articulate.

The second link down is my photo-blog. Having recently gotten a slick new Digital Camera for my birthday--I look forward to cluttering the internets (more on THAT later...) with the visual component of the minutae of my life. If you've ever said to yourself: "Boy that blog is great, but I wish I could SEE something to go with it." This is the linkage for you, my visually inclined friend.

Okay, so the Onion isn't related to me directly. It is still pretty damned funny though.

KVSC is close to my heart for a number of reasons. For one thing the fifty hour trivia marathon serves as a reunion of my circle of friends from home. I also used to (and God willing will one day again) host a show on the air. After my family, and my friends, my show is the single thing I miss most about my old home-town. I'll get back their yet.

There is one more link there, as you can see, this has been the one that has been coming the longest. One of the things that has been the most difficult for me about this whole blogging thing (aside from actually updating my blog) has been deciding where to take it. What was going to be my focus? Was I interested in merely cataloging my life diary-style? Was there going to be commentary involved? What if (for some reason) you wanted to know what I was up to, but didn't want to know what my take on current events was? Well, here we go. Henceforth, the page you are now reading (Dispatches) will be the soft-n-fuzzy diary page. Which brings me to Monkeyfist, the new home of all the commentary and snarky news analysis that has come to plauge the updates about what I'm up to.

So there you have it, the guy who has difficulty mantaining one blog suddenly has three. At least the photo one should be a little easier to maintain. Discipline. I must learn Discipline...