I have added an RSS feed to my site.

Why?

Jesus, if I could answer that, I’d be… well, Jesus.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to present a LONG but THRILLING TALE of VAST MONETARY SAVINGS.

Over the last few months, I have been slowly collecting the manga series Lone Wolf and Cub. I collected the first English release in college, but then the company printing the series went bankrupt, and, it turns out, they were butchering the series anyway with malevolent editing, evil translation, and questionable investment in shady foreign bond markets. Or something.

Each book in the new, properly-translated series is about $10, thus my slow pace of acquisition. To make matters more difficult—and here is where the true geek in me comes out—the publisher of this new set has changed their logo twice, and has included their new logos on the later printings of the books.

The set design is very nice as a whole, so me being all into style and looks, I wanted to make sure all my copies of the books had the same logo. The old one being the one I started with, that’d be the one I’d need to keep collecting. This has become a problem with the lower volumes since they’ve been reprinted several times already with the new logos.

I know. It’s sad. But it’s also understandable, right? Right.

After striking out on finding volumes 5 and 9 yesterday during lunch, my last hope for the day was to go to Virgin on Sunset. It was walkable from where I yoga-ed and dinner-ed last night, so I took a stroll, and to my incredible surprise, they had volume 9 there with the old logo! I’d still have to find volume 5, but at least I had one less to hunt down.

I thought of buying a couple more volumes, too, but I wanted to give my money to independent stores instead of a huge company, and I knew it’d be simple to find the later volumes with the old logo. So I took my one lonely Lone Wolf to the counter, and the droopy-eyed lass there blooped it with her laser scanner. The $9.95 book rang up at $2.75.

The manager was called over for a chat, wherein Droopy eyes said all the comics had been ringing up with a steep discount all day. The manager determined that if the book was in the system at that price, I should get it at that price.

This was it! My chance was here! Tiny independent comic books stores be damned! I dashed back to the manga shelf and grabbed every remaining volume of the series I needed, minus one that was damaged. I felt like a dork carting 15 books to the checkout in the hopes they would all ring up at $2.75. But droopy eyes was nice, and understood completely.

I watched the register display as each book was scanned in. Bloop. $2.75! Bloop. $2.75! Bloop bloop bloop. $2.75! $9.95! $2.75!

Oops. Okay, so I could settle for one— Ah, okay, two books at full pri— In the end, three of the fifteen were full price, but the remaining 12 were $2.75. Still a bargain by anyone’s standards. Instead of paying over $150 during the next few months for fifteen books, I got them for $64. With only two more now to find. Holy cow.

I felt triumphant! I felt lucky! I felt like Visia and Expressium Americanae, the gods of commerce, had, for once, smiled down upon me! I bow low to them.

I have gotten more compliments on this shirt today than David Duchovny has job offers. It is a true vintage shirt, so maybe that’s why. And I found it just a couple weeks after having a conversation about the whole “57 Varieties” thing and whether or not it was ever really true.

The one drawback to it being vintage is the design: It is not a silk-screen, but more like a thick, rubbery iron-on, the kind that wears out in the wash. Makes my torso sweat even just sitting here in my office.

That, alas, is the price of style!

I have to rant about this before I forget to do so, because I have been meaning to bitch about it for a while…

Do I hate it when people ask a question and then answer themselves? Yes. Is this annoying speech pattern too common these days? Absolutely! Do I not like it only because Donald Rumsfeld speaks this way? Absolutely not! Did it first bother me when my friend Ken spoke that way a few years ago? Certainly.

Would I prefer it if people just said a sentence instead of miring their meaning in this retarded faux interactive format? Does the Pope wear a funny hat?

OK, I gotta mention this: I go to the LATimes.com (not that I don’t have work to do) and there’s a banner ad for Kotex. Yes, the sanitary napkin. (Napkin? That’s such a gross term.) The tagline?

“Kotex fits. Period.”

How depraved is that?

Continuing Steve’s thought of being freaked out by the Internet …

WeHo Mark may be correct about the quote coming from “Animaniacs.” But in my never-ending quest to find out the original source of this phrase (and not ever doubting Mark, who is someone I don’t know), I again went to Google. I entered the phrase “Love you lady bye bye” and the word “cartoon.”

And I was directed to the Wren Forum, one of only to places on the Internet, apparently, where those words appear on a single web page — in my post, naturally.

How freaky is that? It’s a cyber-Catch-22!

OK, this IS the future. How come we aren’t all wearing formfitting, color-coded jumpsuits yet? I keep waiting for that day to come and it hasn’t yet. Could it be TV and “Logan’s Run” got it WRONG? Are we really that attached to clothes that showcase our individuality? I want jumpsuits! (With belts, even!)

Wow! Excellent! And that site has links to the Shazam! unofficial appreciation page, the Space Academy unofficial appreciation page, the Jason of Star Command unofficial appreciation page, and the Ark II unofficial appreciation page!

I’m very happy to see there’s a movie to illustrate the question I always had, even as I little kid: Why did the huge docking bay doors in Space Academy have to open so far before the tiny little shuttles could come out? I always got so bored with those endless sequences!

Oh, Zephyr winds
Which blow on high,
Lift me now
So I can fly.

Oh, mighty Isis.

(Now, please click on the homepage link.) [No, click here instead.]

You know how yesterday I was saying I don’t believe in signs?

I take it all back!

Tonight, as I was nuking two oft-overlooked soy dogs in an attempt to (uno) be healthy and (dos) save a little cash, my eye fell on the two Fatburger coupons I’d reminded myself that morning not to forget. They were for a FREE Fatburger each! Heaven! The only catch was that the coupons were good for TODAY ONLY. Crap.

I cursed my sieve-like brain and asked myself if I should abandon the nasty soy cylinders and just get my butt to Fatburger. I decided not to. Why waste perfectly good bad dogs? So I plucked one dog from the plate to put on bread–I didn’t even have proper buns!–and that’s when the miracle happened.

The second dog stuck to the first, then disconnected itself, plopped back onto the plate, and leisurely rolled off it, bouncing off the edge of the counter and onto the floor. After a stunned but happy pause, I shouted, “It’s a sign!” I abandoned the remains of my pathetic meal into the disposal, grabbed a coupon, and marched triumphantly to Fatburger.

So I take it back. I believe in signs. I was meant to eat real cow tonight.

Just dawned on me you and your friends might be able to answer me this:

What cartoon character (we THINK it was a cartoon character) used to say, “Love you lady! Bye-bye!”?

Well, I am finally relieved for the first time in a long time. I was told today I am getting the full bonus at work that I was hoping for. It is going to be a relief not to have to live paycheck-to-paycheck, at least for a while … !

OK, enough gloating. I just wanted to express my gratitude and relief to someone other than Jeff and my parents, because I’m happy! It is the first time I’ve gotten a bonus EVER, because the first year I became eligible at Disney they didn’t give one, and I didn’t stay in my next jobs long enough to get one!

Gee, I’m so happy, I might even go ride Big Thunder.

More about Electra Woman and Dyna Girl!

Believe it or not, there was a remake pilot starring Markie Post shot in 2000 for the WB. The concept is quite funny, but, hey, you can’t capture lightning twice.

The link is here.

I went to The Newsroom for brunch today with John, who was in town for the weekend, and his freind. We were shown to our table by a guy I met a few years ago. We dated a couple times, but then he went back to his ex. A year or so after that, I ran into him and the ex was re-exed, and this guy was single again. But I was dating. And that’s the last time I saw him until today.

Oh, but I wouldn’t be writing this if there weren’t more!

After brunch, I went bumping around Melrose and WeHo. On the way back to my car, there was the same guy, sitting in that park by The Abbey. I stopped to chat.

I am not the kind of person who believes in things happening for a pre-determined reason. I do believe that things happen and you make the reason yourself. Bumping into this guy twice in one day was not a sign of destiny, but I decided to make it a sign in the “life is wacky” kind of way. I don’t believe it means we are meant to date again or anything, just that, at the very least, I was meant to re-connect with a very nice, genuine guy.

Okay, I looked it up, and it was indeed Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. This is a great site! It’s got movies! An episode guide! Broken links! And both an image gallery and stills! Oh, it’s all coming back to me now…

Speaking of Bewitched…who was your favorite Darrin – the wonderful Dick York or the annoying Dick Sargent? Can you tell which I like…

It is official with last night’s “season” debut. “The Amazing Race” IS the best show on television. Hands down. Maybe one of the best shows ever in the history of TV.

And, no, I am not joking.

I find this funny, and the fact that the Britons came up with this makes me love them even more.

PowerPizza

I think I have decided on something:

I have decided to respect the privacy of someone I care about very much, but who currently does not care for me. Or at least does not currently wish to think about what it entails for his state of mind if he were to care about me.

Though my long weekend of drama and emotion would be well-capped by visiting a certain web page, I will not. Because, you see, enough damage has already been done. And I want everything to be better.

My God, that was so vague, I could be talking about anything.

Now, time for nummies. What shall it be: an easy-to-prepare box of Asian-themed noodles, or Cocoa Krispies? Yum!

You need more people ranting and raving here, man.