[Update: I cannot stress enough the importance of the internet. This thing—this entity—is the source of much entertainment, but also my connection to the world. I’m reduced to checking my email and all related activities for about fifteen minutes every twenty-four hours. Normally, a long weekend such as this Labor Day weekend would be a blessing. Sans internet? A curse.

To take my mind off the fact I’m essentially blind, deaf, and dumb to the rest of the tube community, I’m spending a lot of money. It’s all for necessary items, but it’s still quite a bit. I’m also shopping for furniture—a peculiar experience. It’s fun, but at the same time, it’s not something I’d want to do more than once every five years or so. That being said, I have nothing but good things to say about Interiors at this point. If you’re looking for furniture, try them.

Anyway, I have to run and pick up another piece of furniture from Pottery Barn, and then do this, that and those other things. All that to say that I don’t have time to write an entire entry. Maybe Wednesday assuming, of course, that Comcast can keep their word. Can they? They haven’t yet.]

Well, this isn’t happening. The writing, I mean. The writing while also trying to pack every single item I own into various box-esque containers. It’s a typical procrastination cycle, made twice as devious since both the blogging and the packing are things on which I’m compelled to work. I use each of these activities to procrastinate working on the other—and I use the internet to procrastinate on both, which also does not help.

I sit down to write, only to see the massive piles of possessions surrounding me, at which point I think this really needs to get packed and I don’t know what to write about anyway. So I get up and pack a few things instead. By the time I pack the third object of dubious value, I’m thinking I really need to start writing; tomorrow is Wednesday and I’ve got nothing, so I sit back down in front of my computer. Reboot.

It’s clear what needs to happen. Getting packed is my a priori priority. Trying to keep after this is going to hinder both fronts, so I’m hereby taking off until next week when I will be in my new place. (Alone—what I’m most looking forward to.) Depending on how things go, I may or may not have a new Stranger on Sunday. But I post Monday. (Assuming, of course, that I have an internet connection. So many things to go wrong right now, Mr. Murphy. So many things.)

In the meantime, let me throw you a few links to keep you occupied. These are things that have come to my attention sometime over the past few months and may serve to distract you until such a time as when I can post again. [Note: if you’re intertube savvy, or if you talk to me a lot in meat space, some of these might be old news.]

The Hardest Mario Level of All Time—Some guy made a mod of the hardest Super Mario level ever. Some other guy did a voice over pretending to be the frustrated player. Comedy Gold.

This guy is a character—but he plays some mean keyboard. Not to mention, his beats are, as they say, phat. I’m already sold on his CD. Great stuff.

Speaking of CDs, I just got a copy of Puppy, the most recent album released by Fluke. It kind of flew under the radar when it came out in 2003—and those who did notice it mostly yawned—but wow. I happen to like it very much. I understand where everyone else is coming from. Puppy is not as punchy and powerful as Risotto, and it’s not as atmospheric and moody as Oto. But who cares? I enjoy it. (And one of these days I’ll need to snag some Two Bit Pie.)

Dresden Codak is the webcomic currently on my radar. XKCD is still number one. PBF is still up there. But Dresden Dodak might be edging it out for second. (I think it’s all coming down to update frequency.) Goofy, geeky, and well illustrated, it offers quite a bit for the discerning reader.

Thanksgiving With The Kranzes—If you’re the least bit familiar with Ron Howard’s Apollo 13, you must watch this. If you’re not familiar with Apollo 13, you still must watch this. It’s probably the most genius amateur film I’ve ever seen. Period. Totally amazing and sheer brilliance. I can’t say enough awesome things about it. Go watch it already!

So that’s all I have. Sorry about the downtime. Check back next week.

-Ted