Saved!

Soundtrack of the Day: Whatever's on my iPod. (It's on shuffle!)

Today's "Soundtrack of the Day" brought to you by Mr. David Christopher Endicott, who let me borrow his computer speakers and A/C adapter so that I could listen to music in the car even though my stupid radio busted. What would I do without you, Slappy?

Dave probably has no idea what he has prevented.

You see, I wake up at 630 AM each day, which may not sound awful to you, but to me it's nearly impossible. I don't have to be at work until 9, but in order to get there, I have to leave the house at 7. It used to be 715, but it's fall now, and school is back in session so there are 9,000 additional yahoos on the road in the mornings. Anyway, as you can guess, I'm groggy as 5 hells on that morning commute.

When I finally get in the car, I turn on NPR until I get to the 110 freeway. That's a good 25 minutes, so I feel sufficiently educated. THEN it's on to whatever my current musical obsession is. (Before my radio broke, I was about to listen to some serious Charlie Hunter.) I roll the windows down, turn the bass nob all the way to the right and sing like a jerk for the rest of the commute.

This is the only way I can operate in the morning. Otherwise, I might start to zone out and take the wrong exit. For instance, I might start thinking about how much I love Chinese food, and suddenly- oops!- I'm exiting at Hill Street! Or I might decide I miss my parents, and go right on past my exit, all the way to PCH. And those are just the scenarios where nobody gets in an accident.

Once, my old radio blew a fuse on the ride in. I was so desperate that I actually put ONE ear bud in and listened to one channel of my iPod the whole way. I'm pretty sure that's illegal. Immediately after work, I went to the auto supply place across the street and bought fuses. I sat in the parking lot, checking every fuse in my car until found the one that had blown. When I had replaced it, I went on my way, listening happily to The Beatles.

I happened to mention this to the kind people at the Volkswagen dealership. They're very attentive, and so decided to order me a new radio- heck, it's still under warranty! I didn't realize they were doing this until they were halfway through replacing it. I thought, Alright, cool. Free New Radio! If I'd known the thing would crap out on me, I would've refused the replacement. Oh well. It's not their fault.

So now, I'm driving through Los Angeles with Dave's computer speakers in the passenger seat. Thank you Dave, thank you.

Just a Brief Message

Folks, I present to you-

UGLY BEAR

This is probably the worst thing I have ever seen.

What is it?

It came up when I Googled "ugly bear." It appears to be a Sailor Moon doll whose hand has been chewed to a pulp- probably by a dog or a hamster. The head clearly is not the original, as it is humungous and awful. The eyes must have either come from two different dolls, or directly from Hell. Her(?) hair is made up of what looks like Teddy Bear pelts. Perhaps most interesting of all is the way in which her arms are thrown up in exasperation. It's almost as though she's realized that there is nothing she can do about the fact that her nose came from a stuffed bear.

This was up for auction on ebay, apparently, and is no longer available. Which means that SOME ONE ACTUALLY BOUGHT THIS. Maybe there was even a bidding war. Either way, I hope that it is displayed proudly on someone's mantle, right underneath the moose head.