Spent a rather sticky Saturday afternoon playing a little GTA3, which I’m loving as much as everyone told me I would. The taxi missions alone constitute a mini version of Crazy Taxi (which is not to say I’m not looking forward to finally getting a copy of Crazy Taxi 2 and finding someone with an XBox upon which to play 3). I love games that you can get lost in, whether or not you’re actually pursuing the goal - even if you’re not doing a mission in GTA3, you can’t beat driving around and beating up hookers. I’m the kind of person who will spend half an hour tranquilizing seagulls in MGS2, too.

Right now I’m devouring some lime popsicles and watching the end of the Yankees/Mariners game - but don’t tell my brother I’m a filthy Yankees fan. After a week more or less packed with the requisite debauchery, tonight I’m thinking I’ll curl up with Ye Olde PS2 and some Chinese or something (assuming the popsicles prove to be insufficient sustenance). I’m talking Movable Type with Rich and industrial with qat so really, what more do I need? You’re damn right: I need Chinese food.

I think some of that Advice for the first year law student is probably applicable to most people pursuing any kind of higher education - particularly knowing why you’re there and remembering to have a life: Somehow one night I ended up in some courtyard in the pouring rain, and then there was a Rodin sculpture and after that, the moon, and I went home and read some Shelley. The next day I felt like I’d gone on a three-week crack bender. Or like I’d had the best conjugal visit ever. (Via The Morning News.)

You can tell I had fun at Rich’s birthday party last night because I’ve spent all of today swimming through a real beauty of a hangover, and it still feels like it’s way too early be awake despite the fact that it’s getting dark. This calls for several pitchers of Brita water and reading in bed.

I stopped by Spencer’s pre-party for Mexican food and Ghost World, which was cute in an SLC Punk meets Harold & Maude kind of way. I liked it, although I didn’t get a chance to watch any of the extras on the DVD.

We hit the party around eleven and ran into a bunch of people we hadn’t seen in a long, long time - which seems to be a theme lately. I’ve been going to events I haven’t gone to in years, so I suppose it’s to be expected. The music was good and although it was obscenely hot in Bar 13, at least everyone was equally gross and sweaty together. We danced, we drank (although I’m not a fan of Red Bull on its own, I cannot deny that when mixed with vodka it’s just about the perfect club drink), we danced some more, we were introduced to fifty million people (none of whose names I remember), and a good time was had by all. And now I need to go sleep for a few days.

I watched Metropolis (the anime, I mean) last night. I’m not a huge anime fan, but I liked it. The style struck me as sort of weird at first - you don’t expect to see Disney-esque chubby, rounded characters in your standard bleak-vision-of-a-possible-future sort of story, but I stopped noticing it after a while. Having a heroine wandering around in floppy man pants was sort of a refreshing change, actually, from the sort of thing you’d see in (for example) Ghost in the Shell. Which isn’t to say I didn’t like Ghost in the Shell. Because I did. Like it.

I stopped by the mighty PAC’s channel last night to do the chat thing with the boys, and I have to say it weren’t bad. I’m toying with plans to head back to Seattle relatively soon, although I sadly won’t be able to make it for the NWC this year.

Seriously though, exactly how stoned or stupid do you have to be before abandoning your baby girl in an unattended carriage on the sidewalk in Brooklyn seems like a valid, thoughtful choice? True: I didn’t do anything terrible to her. But what if I hadn’t been the one to finally notice that she’d been wailing outside for over half an hour?

I don’t know that much about kids, but from other people’s baby pictures I’m guessing yours is only about three weeks old. Sure, she smelled terrible, but I’m thinking if you had actually bathed her once in a while she would have been pretty darn cute. Anyone will tell you I’m not big on younguns myself, but I think had this little brown-eyed finger-grabbing confection actually been mine, I wouldn’t have been able to put her down for a minute, much less just leave her.

I only had your daughter for about an hour before a grim-looking lady in an official-looking car from the relevant authority came by, but I’m still thinking about her. The poor thing isn’t exactly off to an auspicious start, although who knows - maybe she’ll be one of those “ABANDONED AS A NEWBORN, SHE ROSE TO INCREDIBLE HEIGHTS AS THE GREATEST PLAYWRIGHT OF OUR AGE” rags-to-riches success stories. I sort of doubt it, though.

After running errands all day and grabbing dinner with MrTails, Spencer and I decided on a whim to stop by Alchemy for the first time in - what, a year? Two? Among the other usual suspects, we ran into CJ and Voltaire (whose latest album is still disgracefully absent from my collection). We figured we’d arrive after the bands, but I’m glad now that we didn’t - one of the evening’s highlights was the startlingly engaging performance by Thou Shalt Not. I frankly wasn’t expecting much (I’d never even heard of them) but we were both pleasantly surprised - Spencer particularly liked the wearable homemade drum kit. It’s rare that a group of their genre manages to put on a live show combining that level of both stage presence and sound quality. There are a few mp3’s available on their site and while it’s not quite as enthralling as being there, you might want to give them a listen anyway. Highly recommended.

I finally picked up a copy of the Apoptygma Berzerk DVD and confirmed what occasional people have been telling me for the past few months - I am, in fact, featured for about ten seconds during the New York section of the film. I’m the one with silver lipstick and pigtails talking to the APB crew outside the Limelight. It’s pretty goofy - the footage is about two years old now - but entertaining nonetheless.

I’m running on a weird combination of espresso and vodka (both consumed in abundance although not, thankfully, at the same time) so I’m either off to bed or to play GTA3 all night, I’m not quite sure which. Before I do, though, one more thing: congrats are due to my friend Nick, who’s got a track on Don’t Fuck With Us, a new(ish) DHR compilation!

You know, what with the Canadian strippers and PGOAT and Ethan Hawke and what have you, my brother makes me seem awfully tame sometimes.

Apparently I’ve been a little short on sleep lately; I slept till nearly 3pm today, which I haven’t done in ages. I usually set an alarm for seven or eight hours after I go to bed even if i don’t have any particular need to get up, but I neglected to last night. I hate oversleeping by several hours and waking up all disoriented and the light already afternoonish.

Wafflelad made my day by showing me this: it’s a set of OS X icons based on caoine images. At the moment, you can grab them here, although they’ll have a more permanent home soon. I think they’re pretty slick - especially the one of me getting my drink on, toddler style.

Thanks also to Michael, who sent along a copy of Amelie. I think I’m going to curl up with a bag of pumpkin seeds and watch it right now.

After adventuring with Spencer all day, I spent yesterday evening trying out my new Hard Candy polish (the shade is called Peep Show - something of an inside joke for those who knew me a couple years ago) and soaking up the luscious creepiness of From Hell. Aside from the inevitable absinthe scene - why they’re always shot in exactly the same way I’ll never understand - I quite liked it. Ian Holm is always a treat, and Johnny Depp may be many things, but he’s also quite versatile. I never would have suspected the same actor could successfully play both Edward Scissorhands and Hunter S Thompson (not to mention Inspector Abbleline).

After the Apple store, Spencer and I wandered SoHo for a little while (Sephora is somewhere I should never be allowed to go with a wallet, and I’d forgotten just exactly how huge Canal Jeans is) and recuperated over coffee before assaulting St Mark’s Place. Although, technically speaking, mine wasn’t coffee - I’m currently favoring iced chai with two shots of espresso. We ran into Nancy as well; I hadn’t seen her in well over a year so I almost didn’t recognize her at first, but it was good to talk to her. Refeuled and recaffeinated, we hit T&V, where we made the clerks very, very happy.

The ankle’s a little irritated at being walked on all day, so I think today might involve more of that whole ice-pack-and-ibuprofen thing and less of that standing-up-and-walking-around stuff.

Just a quick note from the SoHo Apple store; Spencer and I are here drooling over the 23″ Cinema Displays and how incredibly light all the laptops are. And yes - all the Macs in the store have Net connectivity.