Personal

Our new car! After months of thinking about it, we headed out to Major World in Queens last night on the spur of the moment and two hours later drove off with a 2006 Mazda 3 with only 26k miles on it. It's a little smaller than our previous car (see below) and a little more expensive than we were planning to buy, but it's a lot nicer than any of the cars that were in our preferred price range (ain't that always the way?) and it came with a 3-year, 36k mile warranty. Major World runs a pretty smooth, high-touch, [relatively] low-pressure operation, and even…

What work of art (film, book, record, whatever) changed your life? Submitted by bodhibound. The Essential It's a Wonderful Life: A Scene-By-Scene Guide to the Classic Film Michael Willian My mother says we watched It's A Wonderful Life every Christmas when I was a kid, but when I watched it at 19 it felt like the first time and it completely flipped my lid, making me rethink everything I was doing and wanted to be doing, leading to some drastic changes, not the least of which was my leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses. Haven't watched it in a long while but I'm thinking…

{meme in which one takes the first line of the first post from each month and looks at it as a summary of the year. and is a little stunned at the results. NOTE: This blog didn't start until March so the first two months are from Comic Book Commentary.} January: In the most glaring sign yet of how much my tastes have changed over the 3.5 years since I started reading comics again, compare my Best of 2004 choices to this year's stellar roundup (below). February: I have a love-hate relationship with Black History Month, simultaneously appreciating the thought…

I refuse to become as emotionally invested in the presidential race this time around, largely because none of the candidates speak to me as strongly as Kucinich did back in 2004 when he represented an admittedly longshot at legitimate change.  Between him and Sharpton, there were issues put on the table that couldn't easily be swept away by the "leading" candidates, and if not for the distraction of the opportunistic Howard Dean, the Democrats might have nominated someone with an actual chance to beat Bush instead of a clueless John Kerry. I have been keeping one eye on both parties candidates, though, akin to having…