The Shrubbloggers

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Justin M. Stoddard

What I'm Reading:

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse by John Joseph Adams

Books Read in 2008:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Links of Interest

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What kind of a stupid name is The Shrubbloggers? Why is the front page filled with old crap?

March 14, 2003 — 1045 p.m.

If I get one more email in my inbox telling me how the French are a bunch of scurvy, cowardly, lowly, cheese eating surrender monkeys, not to mention a nation of weasels, I'm gonna go f%$&*ng ballistic. People, please, for the love of God and everything holy, give it a rest. I don't care! I'm not interested in your stunningly unoriginal views regarding France or Freedom Fries. (Like the comedian said, these people would have a Bald Eagle F$%&*ing contest if they thought it would impress you). And I certainly don't want to hear your ingenious ideas on how we can further mangle the free market by slapping idiotic embargoes on French wine and other sundries. Yeah, that'll show 'em. Give them the old heave-ho what-what.

Please, all of you, do your country a service and read the occasional book or two. I suggest you read slowly so as not to bring on an aneurysm.

Oh, and if you are feeling particularly noncreative today, feel free direct any and all charges of treason and other such nonsense to the guestbook.

Yours in Liberty,

— Justin M. Stoddard

March 13, 2003 — 1030 p.m.

This is why I don't watch network news anymore. I find I get much better information from the Internet. The book Into the Buzzsaw is an excellent indictment on the news business in general. Fourth Estate? What Fourth Estate?

— Justin M. Stoddard

March 11, 2003 — 0900 p.m.

For Jason Harris;

All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy

— Justin M. Stoddard

March 10, 2003 — 0900 p.m.

I have several things to feel guilty about today. First, I haven't contributed anything to this venue in four days. I only feel guilty because when Eric and I first started this adventure in blogging, we promised each other at least one entry per day. Well, that lasted what? Three weeks? Actually, that's pretty good for king lazy bones like ourselves. Ok, so, when Eric was over this Friday to watch Cradle 2 the Grave (6 1/2 stars by the way), we started justifying our actions. "Ok, if we put more than one entry on the blog any given day, that counts as two entries right? So, why not just carry that entry over to another day. That way, if you don't write anything that day, you can always say 'hey, I wrote two entries three days ago didn't I'?".

You can't argue with logic like that.

The second thing I feel guilty about is my reading material. I used to have a bad habit of starting one book and putting it down mid way for what seems to be a better, more exciting piece of pulp. I was like a junkie, always jonesing for a new fix. Luckily, I stopped the practice a couple of years ago and vowed to read one and only one book at a time.

Until this week that is.

I've been reading Empire by Gore Vidal for awhile now. It's a great book, but between job hunting and getting the house ready to sell, I have little time to read. I'm about half way through with it; a critical juncture in my addiction. On Friday I picked up Dreamcatcher by Stephen King. I regularly wouldn't have given it a second glance but it is soon to be released as a major motion picture. Stephen King books have made some pretty dang good movies in the past [Misery (9 1/2 Stars), The Shining (9 1/2 Stars), The Green Mile (9 Stars), The Shawshank Redemption (10 Stars), Stand by Me (9 Stars) etc...], so I grabbed it up with the intention of reading it in the near future.

It turns out the near future is now. I only intended on reading the first few pages but, before I knew it, I was nearly 1/4 of the way through it. Stephen King novels grab you like that. So, now I've put aside Empire for The Dreamcatcher.

Down this primrose path is madness. Madness, guilt and delight. Empire can wait, it's time to indulge.

Oh, by the way, and this has nothing to do with nothing, despite what Eric says, Sam Neill would still make a great Hank Rearden. Ok, a younger Sam Neill maybe.

— Justin M. Stoddard

March 15, 2003 — 2:33 p.m.

You know what really sucks? Picking up heavy things and walking around with them. I always forget just how much it sucks until I'm actually doing it. At least it's over. I've reached the point where I get stiff and sore whenever I stand up after just a few minutes of rest — I feel like Will Ferrell's character in Old School after he gets shot in the neck with a tranquilizer dart. I think I'll take a nap until Monday morning.

Thanks again for taking the edge off hell, Justin!

— Eric D. Dixon

March 14, 2003 — 11:47 p.m.

A very laid-back day at work. Justin called and he decided to come down in the morning instead of for the night, which gives me more time to whip this place into some semblance of shape before he gets here. I feel like I'm in The Sorcerer's Apprentice — it seems the more I do, the more there is left to do . . . On the plus side, I bought a big TV tonight. Too big to fit in my car, so hopefully Justin's bringing his van. Failing that, we can use the moving truck, I guess, but I'd rather not pay 69 cents a mile just to pick up a TV.

— Eric D. Dixon

March 13, 2003 — 11:59 p.m.

I just got home from a triple feature at Visions — Morvern Callar, Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony, and Gerry. And General Tso's Chicken for dinner. All in all, an evening well-spent, particularly since I've seen so few movies lately because of the gradual move. I spend most nights packing, transporting or cleaning, or at least telling myself I'm going to start doing one of them any minute now, so I just haven't been making it to the theaters much. And since tonight was the last night for Morvern Callar and Gerry, I decided to skip out on a late afternoon at the office. During the first movie, I realized that I might end up with a parking ticket since I forgot to feed the meter before walking four blocks to the theater (I'm used to parking in Dupont Circle at night, when the meters are moot). But no bad luck tonight.

Justin's coming over tomorrow night to help me finish getting my crap together. I'd better do more prep work in the meantime . . .

— Eric D. Dixon

March 12, 2003 — 11:51 p.m.

Elvis Costello is hosting tonight's episode of Letterman — how cool is that? And right after he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Dave is out sick with shingles, is the word, so he's had a series of guest hosts in the meantime (Vince Vaughn was pretty good hosting last night). Don't worry, Justin, I'm taping it for you.

— Eric D. Dixon

March 11, 2003 — 11:59 p.m.

I saw Project Object Saturday night at The State Theatre in Falls Church, Virginia, with James (a pal from way back in the Cato intern days). I can't link to James, because he doesn't have a web presence, and never will . . . Anyway, Project Object is an excellent Zappa cover band that mostly plays the rockin', vocal-heavy stuff from Zappa's ouevre. They do a great job, particularly with guys like Don Preston, Napoleon Murphy Brock and Ike Willis as guest stars. Ike & Napoleon have such distinctive voices, they immediately invoke the Zappa vibe. It was particularly good to see Ike, who sings on some of my favorite stuff (even though he bilked my friend Travers out of 20 bucks once while they were both living in Portland, Oregon). I'm still listening to lots of King Crimson after getting to see them live last week, but I'm about to dig out my Zappa collection and give it a whirl . . .

— Eric D. Dixon

March 10, 2003 — 6:16 p.m.

I've just discovered that my sister Michelle & brother-in-law Dan can be seen online in a very, very brief parody Gap commercial. When you watch it, Michelle is the fourth girl that appears onscreen, all the way on the right, wearing a dark blue shirt. Dan is at the back (or, depending on how you look at it, on the left) of the row of guys when they first appear. He's also wearing a dark blue shirt. The credits and a brief description are on the LDS Film web site, and I note that Michelle & Dan are not only stars, but are also responsible for "Choreography & Wardrobe." They've had parts in other student films too; hopefully I'll get a chance to see that stuff at some point as well . . .

— Eric D. Dixon

March 9, 2003 — 11:59 p.m.

Wow, I can't believe we're slacking this much already. We decided to post to this blog every day in an effort to keep the content vaguely fresh — and I know that I'll postpone writing forever if I can get away with it, so a prearranged commitment is a constant help. But here we are, reneging so soon in the game. Justin even had a dream a few nights ago that I called him at 1 a.m., yelling at him for forgetting to post an entry . . .

I guess we're relaxing our commitment a little, but I hope not by much. If I don't have the pressure of writing regularly, I probably won't write at all.

— Eric D. Dixon

Eric D. Dixon

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