Raise Thy Voice.

This one's going out to my dear friend and roommate, the one with documented aviation proclivities and unproven (though unasserted) communist sympathies. The one with the good hairstyle that cursed his peers by making them wish they were more outdoorsy and their head shapes more inclined to scruff and a shaved head. The proto-typical sunshining woodsman of the dark. I found out he on fact reads my blog and receives all notifications as posts by email. What a peach, team, what a pair. Indeed, the title of "pear" is the highest honor that I, the "peach" can bestow upon his readership. Let the woodsman speak: does he accept my appointment, yea or nay?

In other news, I have not failed to convince myself not to marathon all three Lord of the Rings movies' extended editions all day long tomorrow, as background work while we go about the rest of the day. The odds are looking good, but a lot depends on whether I feel like it'd be fun. We'll see about that.

Run Away, and Never Return.

I get to interview a New York Times best-selling author later this afternoon, and coincidentally one whom I love to read and admire a lot professionally. It's no big deal. I'm sure you guys get to do that kind of thing all the time, right? Right? No? This is something of a big deal, you say? Well, great, thanks. Now I'm nervous.

Netflix is a many-headed beast: once you cut off one of its loading times, a dozen more rise to fill the void. Such was my experience last night trying to show Dear Little Sister the last episode of the first season of Sherlock (read: one of the most riveting episodes of television history). It basically stopped working altogether for the last 15 minutes unless you consider loading ten seconds at a time to be working. Which I do. But the folks? They're not so inclined.

I thought of something: I'm going to list some things about some of my friends that I really appreciate, without identifying which friends belong to which attribute. Then a witch-hunt can ensue to ferret out the offending parties and pop their positive influence like so much bubble wrap. Ready? Set? Go.

One is that they just naturally take in anything you say without ever letting it influence their opinion or outlook on you. That is, they don't ever take what you say and silently reevaluate you on its basis and treat you like a machine that they just found out has a faulty part to it. If the very next day you were to take the opposite stance or do something completely contradicting what you say or do today, they probably wouldn't notice, or if they did they wouldn't care, because they're not keeping score. They're just being your friend, no matter what. Go friendship!

Now when I say "you," I mean "I" or "me," case depending. The style guide is your Alamo. Remember the style guide.

Now I'll do one about a fictional character I admire. He killed his brother so he could become king, but instead of tying up potential loose ends, he sowed the seeds of his own demise by knowingly letting his only witness escape unscathed (save emotionally from watching his father die). I don't really admire him, actually. More like, "have participated in works of fiction in which he figures prominently." But I'm not made of precise wording. I'm made of carbon mostly, from what I hear. And some vitamin B12, I hear there's some vitamin B12 in there.