Erik’s Blog

Then:

…and, now:

Am I the only person who thinks this may be funny as hell?

Larry McMurtry’s book Dead Man’s Walk, the first in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, ends in an unexpected manner. As I am not a spoiler, details are not forthcoming. Details aren’t important, though; it’s the feel of the ending that counts here. (more…)

Well…um, whatever and stuff, ‘kay?

^{[You grab his arms, I’ll get his legs. Ready?…GO!]}

^{This post has been translated from English to German and back to English.}

For your examination:

A one year’s subscription to The Believer costs $65 on Amazon.com.

A one year’s subscription to The Believer costs $45 with McSweeney’s (it publish the magazine).

I submitted a WTF note with Amazon.com’s The Believer side, which was never published. That I am not surprised.

Moral of history: Amazon.com can suck.

Spoilers ahead.

(more…)

Mr. Suede Nikes,

Dude. DUDE.

E.

I’m probably the only person alive who remembers A&E’s Short Stories series. I don’t even recall when it was on other than maybe the late 1980s or early 1990s. I can’t even say for sure why I liked the show so much. But whatever it was, I think it may have found a new home with McSweeney’s Wholphin DVD quarterly.

(more…)

One of my minor WordPress nits is the way it handles embedded videos. Out of the box it seems to be unable to handle object tags. However, I may have found the solution: disabling rich text editing. Maybe. I’ll test this with a few Eugene Mirman videos (warning to my sensitive friends: Rated R for language and subject matter).

And, quite possibly the strangest video I’ve seen today:

What can I say? The guy’s crackin’ me up…

Update: Okay, one more.

I’ve never been all that fond of ancient houses. I can’t explain 100% of why that is. I’m sure there’s something I’m missing about them because so many people swear by them. Perhaps people feel that older homes have no sharp edges, or the smells of decades of pot roast and potatoes that have soaked into the walls make them think of the comforts of childhood. Or perhaps they just like the aesthetics of old homes. I don’t know. And really, I don’t care.

All I know is I don’t like my 80+ year old home. It’s bad enough that Brenda and I have dumped lots of money into restoring chunks of the structure, starting with the roof and not quite ending with the bathroom. And the list of crap that needs fixing continues to lengthen as we await the final death rattle of our sewer lateral. That’s going to be a joy to fix. And cheap, too.

But that’s not the worst of it. What tops the list of reasons to pack up and leave is this: I’m now convinced this house is haunted. (more…)