In answer to that question you've always had: yes, if you leave a Pop Tart out for a week, it does get stale.

The pile of CDs I’m listening to lately includes:

Moby's 18
A*Teens' The Abba Generation
They Might Be Giants' No!
Amelie Soundtrack
Dirty Vegas' Dirty Vegas
Dixie Chicks' Home
Aimee Mann's Lost in Space

Eclectic little mix, eh?

I was able to wash my hair with both hands this morning! Without pain!

The level of pain from my left shoulder has been decreasing -- and its range of motion has been increasing -- over the past several days, but I've still felt fairly hindered by the injury. I've done my best to exercise the shoulder, though, stretching my arm behind my back as I sit at my desk, spreading the arm wide as I fall asleep, placing my left hand at the top of the steering wheel as I drive. (Though this last has seemed a little dangerous.)

Perhaps this exercise has paid off.

I reduced my consumption of hydrocodone yesterday and don't intend to take any today until bedtime. (If the pain actually stays away long enough for this plan to work.)

The trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's new movie, Punch Drunk Love, has been released on the internet. He's one of the best filmmakers working today, creating intelligent observational films with characters that seem real, if somewhat misguided. Magnolia is one of my favorite films.

I wasn't excited to hear that Adam Sandler (of all people) played the lead in this film, but after watching the trailer my fears have been alleviated.

I'm in two Yahoo fantasy baseball leagues.

In the public league, my team (the Canby Cougars) dominated most of the regular seasons and was at one time ranked 20th out of all Yahoo public fantasy teams. But the Cougars faded over the past month, losing their last two regular season games 8-2 and 6-4. The team managed to win the league by only one-half of a game. If it weren't for the fact that the Cougars had a bye in the first round of the playoffs, they would have made an early exit from the postseason.

In the private league, my team (the Oglesby Boxers) struggled throughout most of the year. It hovered at the .500 mark all season. Going into the final week of the regular season, the Boxers were in seventh place (which would miss the playoffs), only a game or two back of next team (Paul Mobley’s dreaded Shaniko Hoteliers). During that final week, my team started coming together and it surged into sixth place by two games. The Boxers won their first playoff game.

Now both teams are in the semifinals for their respective leagues and both are kicking ass. My public-league team is waxing poor Mackenzie by a score of 10-1. My private-league team is up 7-1. It’s just a matter of hanging onto these leads for three more days and I could have two teams in league championships!

Meanwhile, I'm behind on playing my APBA league simulation games. Sabino and I walk a fine line in that league; we never play our games in a timely fashion.

Football season has started, of course, and I'm in several leagues/pools for that sport, as well. My Matthews Football League has just begun its fourteenth (!!!) season (its eighth season on the internet, with the same core group of players) and I like my team's chances. I'm also in a Yahoo league that Joel is running. I don't like my team (the Erudite Hegemony) so much there. The league format is unlike anything I've ever played (Rotisserie-style, not fantasy-style. 2 QBs, 3 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DT (3 RBs!! That's insane!)) and it's difficult for me to get a handle on how the game ought to be played. I hope to pull of a couple of trades by week three or four, once things have settled in. And lastly, my brother

Tony and I have each entered the football pool he does every year. For $134 we get to pick teams every week; money is awarded to the weekly winner and to the end-of-year winner. I'm 9-7 after the first week, three games back of the leader. But I'll go 16-0 this week. Ha!

I've finally started John Irving's A Prayer For Owen Meany, this month's book group selection.

Owen Meany is one of those books that I've started several times but have never been able to finish. Do you have books like that?

There are some books that I'll pick up to read but, over and over, I'll only get ten, twenty, fifty pages into the book before giving up for whatever reason.

For me, the classic example of a book like this was Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. For ten years I tried to get through this book, once getting as far as page 200 before stopping. It wasn't until the fall of 1997 that I was finally able to pull myself through it. I'm glad I did.

Moby Dick's another book I've never been able to finish. We'll read that for book group in November.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2005 — Out of Africa   I have an urge to read everything I can find about Africa.

2004 — Jesus, Bush!   From Mad Magazine...

2003 — Netflix   In which Netflix is better than I had anticipated.