Blogging for Bloggers

Well, it's nice to be back after a busy Festivus season. Not that I was "away" during the last couple of weeks, but I certainly have been preoccupied. Here are just a few of the things that have been taking up my time lately:

• December 22nd, the day before my wife's birthday, I picked her up at work as usual for our evening carpool. While I was stopped at the curb waiting for her to reach the car -- she was already walking towards it when I arrived -- a fascist Sheriff's Deputy swooped in on a motorcycle and gave me a ticket for "parking in a bus loading zone". The amount? TWO HUNDRED FIFTY-FIVE DOLLARS. As my stepdad would say, "Ho-Ho-fucking-Ho." Better believe I'm fighting this one. Possible downside: I think the MTA traffic court is in Compton. The bastards put it there on purpose!
• On the Thursday before New Year's weekend, the faucet in my bathroom started spewing hot water, and wouldn't stop -- even after I turned off the valve under the sink. It's a Festivus miracle! Unfortunately, the sink eventually began filling up faster than it could drain, so I had to jury-rig a hose from the faucet into the bathtub to prevent (more) flooding. Naturally, it being the beginning of a long holiday weekend, I could forget about seeing a plumber until...this past Wednesday, when it finally got fixed.
• We've started apartment-hunting again (this decision was made before the Fountain of Death incident). Hey, if you're a landlord who's trying to rent-out an apartment, here's a useful tip that will help you close the deal quickly and easily: Answer the goddamn phone. And when someone leaves you a message, return their goddamn call! Holy Cleopatra, what's wrong with you people?!

"And now we come to the airing of grievances!"

There, I feel better now. As you can see, it wasn't the smoothest Festivus, but it could've been a lot worse.

And now, we interrupt this blog to tell you about another blog. Let's face it, if you can get this far into any of my posts without wanting to ram a railroad spike into both eyes, then you must be a dedicated blog reader. You've proven that you have an inordinately high tolerance for fluff, filler and nonsense. Yes, I try very hard to put actual information into Minor Notes, but as you can see by the decreasing frequency of my posts, that involves actual work. Feh. Anyway, my point is, if you like this blog, then you should like this other blog that I like. Like, it's written by Bean, of the venerable Los Angeles morning radio team Kevin & Bean of KROQ-FM.

In case you haven't read-up on my internet radio station Estrogenius, you should know that it was KROQ that inspired its creation in the first place: When KROQ stopped playing female artists, I decided to provide another outlet for them, in the process capturing .000001% of KROQ's market share. Pretty good for an amateur. And yet, I kept listening to KROQ, at least in the morning. Why? Bean.

Well, Bean and Ralph Garman, to be strictly accurate. But Bean is my favorite radio DJ, and for about 15 years he's been a part of the most successful radio show never syndicated. I share his interests in trivia, minutiae, Bjork, and the out-of-the-way places of the world. I think the only thing on which we're at odds is the state of Texas: I rightfully can't stand the place or its people, but Bean has a soft spot for slow folks (after all, look at how long he's worked with Kevin).

Thus, I present for your enjoyment or despair, Bean's Blog. (And if you don't know who Clyde Tombaugh is, you'll learn soon enough.)

The KROQ morning show members. In reality, Bean hasn't had a haircut that good since the Carter administration.