Oh, hello there, Internet. I didn’t see you come in.

My apologies for such a long absence, but the last couple of months have been very busy, and I’m just now getting re-acclimated to working fulltime and still maintaining something resembling a social life. Semi-regular blogging has been a hobby I’ve been very much been to get back to, though, so let me start at the beginning.

No, that will take too long. Let me sum up instead.

I have now been working at the dayjob for six full weeks now. Training has been over for a couple of those weeks, and I’m now doing essentially what I’ll be doing for the next seven months, which is when I can try to aim for a promotion or switch to a different department more fitting my skills and temperament. What’s nice is that those next seven months — or however long it might be to actually make a change — won’t be a living hell because, for once, I legitimately enjoy my job. I spend all day on the phone, which admittedly isn’t my favorite thing in the world, but I’m handling incoming calls, so at least I don’t have to make cold calls like I did at the previous dayjob. Also nice is that I get to help people, and the company I work for places a big emphasis on that and actually enables its employees to help its customers, which is a shocking shift in attitude from past jobs.

Plus, I work with some cool people, and we have a badass cafeteria in the building that serves cheap, good food. It’s a refreshing change of pace to actually enjoy one’s job.

The only thing that put a damper on the whole new job thing is that for all of December I was massively sick. What started as a mild cold at the end of November turned into a full-fledged case of bronchitis that haunted me up to the beginning of January. Oh yeah, and the prednisone and antibiotic I was on to treat the bronchitis screwed up my body ever further. So between being sick and getting used to a new job I was perpetually exhausted and not feeling well for all of December.

It wasn’t all grey skies, though. The holidays were all pleasant and over and done with all too quickly. There was lots of good food to gorge on, presents to be opened, and on New Year’s Eve I was able to see a new favorite band of mine, Nightbeast, put on an amazing show at Blind Bob’s.

This is apropos of nothing, but my parents recently did that Ancestry.com thing to look into the history of my mom’s side of the family, and it turns out that that part of the family emigrated from England to Maryland in the early 1700s. And after moving to the Colonies they apparently wanted to get in on that whole groovy “owning people” movement, because we were able to look at the will for John — the fellow who first came over from the mother country — who bequeathed a slave by the name of Stephan to his son Nathan, y’know, just like any doting father would. It was kind of weird to learn that, but I suppose that although it’s abhorrent now — and really, then — it was general practice for the time.

This doesn’t mean I’m going to stop telling people that my mom’s side of the family were originally gypsy horse thieves. Oh no. Until I see conclusive evidence explicitly showing that we weren’t, it’s gonna still be my story. I’ll just have to modify it slightly now.

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. More to come later. I hope you all are doing famously and have not died in the meantime.

So, this past Wednesday, I accepted an offer from a company in Dayton and officially rejoined the world of the gainfully employed. Well, semi-officially. The offer was made contingent on me being able to pass a drug/tobacco test, but I’m not terribly concerned on that front.

I’ve wanted to mention this here for over a month, ever since I had the first interview — which I can say with all modesty, I bloody well aced — but I didn’t want to jinx it.

My first day of work is November 28th, so I’ve still got some time remaining as a gentleman of leisure. I’m sure in a couple of months I will be sorely craving all this free time I’ve had these past two years, but right now I am very much looking forward to working again.

Oh, and money. A steady income again is gonna be pretty swell.

Finally swung by a Verizon store today to get the awesome classical music ringback tone on my phone switched off. It didn’t bother me, mostly because I never have to hear it, but it was irritating several other people who call me on a regular basis, namely Sarah. But now I’m thinking about replacing it with something really obnoxious. Like OMC’s “How Bizarre” or “In the Ghetto” by Elvis. Heh.

In other technology news, my HP Pavilion laptop is throwing a Blue Screen of Death again, with the same “Memory Management” reason as before. Think I’m gonna just replace the RAM, since that’s what I was told the issue was before. Hopefully that will fix it, because, frankly, the damn thing is becoming too unreliable to use.

Gotta say, HP: not a big fan of your laptops right now. It’s my first, and it might be the last I ever buy from you.

Now I am off to Kristin’s. She’s making linguini in pesto sauce tonight, and I plan on helping by staying out of her way.

I’ve been meaning to write a whole thing here, but other stuff always seem to be calling for my attention. So instead, I’ll just say I’ve been happily busy of late and offer a brief recap of this past weekend.

Friday night was Kristin’s birthday party, which we had at Skateworld. She and the ladies have wanted to dress up like extras from a roller disco movie and go skating for a while, plus I had a Groupon, so this seemed like a good opportunity to rub elbows with the under-15 crowd.

Everyone seemed to have fun, and I acquitted myself nicely by not falling on my ass once, and also by not punching any obnoxious tweens in the throat. The pizza was fairly tasty and didn’t give me food poisoning, so it was a win all around.

Then on Saturday I went to a goodbye party for Sarah, who is callously abandoning Ohio next month for the warmer climes of San Diego. Not that I’ll be sorry to see her go. No, sir, not at all. (If I mask the sadness with sarcasm, then there will be no tears, right?)

Saw a number of people there I went to high school with, which was entertaining and not awkward like I’d feared it might be. I sometimes forget the person I am now and the person I was a decade ago bear little resemblance to each other in a number of ways. Ate some food and wine, and did horribly at some drinking-related card games. Oh, and I also got invited to a wedding in a couple of weeks. And who says I’m not charming.

On Sunday, I went to Richmond with my family to celebrate my dad’s birthday, which was also last week. I had the best salad ever at Texas Roadhouse, of all places. And some awful cake. Thanks for using icing that tasted like it was made from paste, Meijer Bakery.

And on an unrelated note, the song “Carpetbaggers” by Jenny Lewis and Elvis Costello has been stuck in my head all goddamn day. Hopefully it’ll lodge itself in yours as well.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. Now it’s time to sign off and try to pick up the threads of the Project of a Novelish Nature.

So my HP laptop, the one I just purchased this past June, crapped out on me over the weekend.

It started Saturday night, when out of the blue the wireless network adapter stopped working. While I was trying to fix it, a few minutes later all manner of Windows-centric background programs began to fail and throw up errors. With a hypnotic fascination akin to viewing the aftermath of a terrible car crash on the highway, I watched as more and more error messages started popping up, all the while Windows 7 did it’s damndest to quickly restart the failing programs, even though it was the metaphorical equivalent to using a small bucket to bail water out of a sinking ocean liner.

And then — the dreaded Blue Screen of Death appeared.

It’s funny: In my many years of owning a computer I’ve never once had the BSoD rear its ugly head before. I’ve had other errors and crashes on my machines, sure, but never the granddaddy of all Windows-based Epic Fails. I’d feel more self-important, but it’s not like I’ve joined an exclusive club or anything.

My hope is that this won’t be too difficult a situation to recover from. Like I said, the computer isn’t even three months old, so any hardware issues should be covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, and there’s a HP-authorized repair place about five minutes from Kristin’s who ought to be able to fix it. Honestly, I’m more concerned about loss of data at this point. Windows won’t run for more than a couple of minutes at a time, so I can’t copy the contents from the hard drive. Yeah, I have an external hard drive that I use for back-ups, but the most recent infodump on it was from June, when I switched over to the new computer. So while a lot of my music and video files are on it, a lot of my newer document files are way out of date. Fortunately, I have a friend who does data recovery for a living, and he seems confident that he can save my precious datums.

The thing most annoying me right now is that I don’t have a current version of my essay about the trip I took to Pittsburgh last month with the Broken Dayton Young Communist’s Society (or whatever they’re called). I’m supposed to file the essay on the 31st, and I’m about halfway done with it, but I’m not gonna be able to access it till Wednesday at the latest, and that’s only assuming that Operation All Your Data Are Mine goes smoothly. All of which means I’m gonna have to haul ass to finish it on time.

Ah, well. I suppose there’s a lesson in here somewhere about routinely backing up one’s computer, and most certainly backing up important documents immediately after working on them, but I’ll be damned if I can find one.

Had an excellent time yesterday at the Wedding Party held at Lauren’s farm house out in the country. There was an abundance of finger foods to eat, each guest having brought an appetizer. I made a nice ‘n spicy salsa, and Kristin made a strangely good spinach quiche. I say strangely not because her food generally tastes poorly — indeed, it almost always rocks — but because I hate hate hate spinach, and this quiche was actually quite good.

So we spent the evening outside, sweltering beneath the unyielding sun before it finally set and the temperature dropped to something tolerable. Drank a lot of wine and other beverages, including a ginger liquor and lemonade concoction made by Kat which was thoroughly refreshing.

Today I need to run a few errands and finish up a couple of things, because on Monday I’ll be leaving for a short jaunt down to Hilton Head. I’ve never been there before, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about it, and besides: it has a beach. A few days of lounging and reading on the beach is really all I’m asking for.

Speaking of lounging, I think now I am going to visit the pool for a little while and finish detoxing from last night.

Made it back home from Pittsburg late Friday night after departing a little after 21:30. I stayed for the “I Am Immortal” opening reception, threw my shit in the car, then hit the road.

Like the whole sweaty week in general, opening night was a lot of fun. There was food and drink, a fair number of people in attendance, a remarkably pretty sunset that looked like it was assembled from pixels –

– and Nick’s only somewhat giant Giant Face even made an appearance.

I had written several blog posts during my stay, and was going to combine them into one fairly long post, but then thought better of it. A lot of the content dealt with the very same stuff that will be going into my essay-thing, and I figured it would be silly to write about it in two different spaces. So it will be available later this year, whenever the chapbook for the show goes live. Once I know when, I will of course be sure to note so here.

Things on this end have been relatively quiet of late, hence the lack of posting. Not to say I haven’t been keeping busy; just that I’ve haven’t been up to anything really post-worthy.

There are a few things I’d like to put down, though, mostly for myself, so future-Josh doesn’t have to rely solely on my sad, crappy memory to recall these sundry events.

This week I am in Braddock, Pennsylvania, embedded with the members of the BrokenDayton art collective as they prepare for a show they’re putting on called “I Am Immortal.” Here’s the premise behind it:

Ohio-based artists Nicholaus Arnold, Ian Briedenbach, Ren Cummings, Phillip Evans, Ashley Jonas, and Frank Travers will present work in different mediums exploring the resurgence of art and culture in Braddock, PA.

A highlight of the show will be a time capsule available for public participation. Guests are invited to bring items from their lives for inclusion in the piece, which will be buried on site during the closing reception on July 22nd.

The show starts Friday and runs through next week. I’m following them around this week and taking notes as they transform the performance space into their own. Afterwards, I’ll be writing up a piece detailing my experience for eventual inclusion in a chapbook or something they’re planning to publish later this year.

We’re being housed in a gorgeous convent next door to the space. It sounds odd at first to think one is being quartered in a domicile that used to be inhabited by nuns, but you’d be surprised at how rapidly you get used to the idea. More on that tomorrow.

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This past Saturday I went to see THE LION KING at the Schuster Center. I’d been wanting to see one of these live-action Disney musicals for years, and this was my first real opportunity to do so. It didn’t disappoint. The music and performances were phenomenal, as expected, but what really impressed me were the tricks they used to bring the Savannah wildlife to life. It’s kind of mesmerizing seeing a person move across the stage with canes strapped to their hands and feet, doing a damn good approximation of a giraffe’s body language.

My sister tells me BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is coming to Cincinnati in the late fall. I would really like to see that one, too.

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Dunno if anyone’s noticed, but last week the new site theme went live. I’ve been working on it off and on the last month or so. I think this is the 11th redesign I’ve done since this blog’s inception nearly ten years ago. That may seem like a lot of redesigns, and it kind of is, but I enjoy poring over and editing lines of HTML and CSS, so it’s really never a chore — though at the end I always feel a little burnt out. This new theme still needs a little tweaking, but on a whole I rather like the new, warmer look. I hope you do as well.

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The next month or two is looking to be busy as well, which pleases me to no end. Aside from this BrokenDayton gig, I’ve got another exciting project in the works: designing a website for a Real Live Client. I’ll hopefully know more about that one in a few weeks. Web design and getting paid for it is something I’ve been looking to get into for some time, so being able to add this to my pre-existent portfolio can only be a boon.

And then sometime in August, Kristin, yours truly and a couple of her friends, are taking a road trip to Hilton Head for a few days of relaxation on the beach. I’ve never been to Hilton Head before, and I honestly don’t care where we’re going so long as it’s warm there and I get to relax on a beach. This should serve to fulfill those needs.

So yeah. Interesting times these are.

Last Saturday, I went with Kristin and Kat to ComFest, Columbus’s annual community festival. This was my first year going. For the uninitiated, ComFest is basically an excuse for the whole of Columbus to meander to a park downtown, get sozzled, and generally just party. There is an abundance of good food, music, shops, and other activities that can easily keep a person occupied all day long.

I was in the mood for beer before we even got to Columbus, and once there, after about 20 minutes of roasting under the sun, I was ready to sell my unborn child for a drink. Unfortunately, the lines to first buy beer tokens, and then to get the actual beer were horrendous and slow moving. So instead I got lemonade.

One of the unusual things about the festival is that, by a delightful quirk in Columbus law, women are legally permitted to go topless. Something about a court declaring years ago that there’s no difference between a man and a woman being outside without a shirt. I don’t know all the details, but I wasn’t complaining. Suffice to say there were a fair number of breasts on display, usually covered with colorful body paint.

After leaving ComFest, we embarked on a mission to acquire hotdogs at Dirty Frank’s. It was tasty as usual, and more importantly, I finally got a beer.

That’s Tom Wilson and I, after his show at the Funny Bone Sunday.

None of the things I was not so secretly hoping would happen did actually happen, but I wasn’t disappointed. Wilson’s set was a lot of fun, and in addition to being legitimately funny, he surprised me by playing the guitar and singing pretty well.

One of the first things he did after taking the stage was say, “Let’s get over the Back to the Future stuff right off the bat,” and he somewhat cheekily rattled off a few of Biff Tannen’s more popular lines, to the audience’s delight.

Then he picked up the guitar and proceeded to sing “The Question Song” — embedded below — which he said “would save everyone some time after the show.”

Having paid proper homage to his BACK TO THE FUTURE past, he moved onto some other subjects, including a clever song about his daughter and about playing football at a drama school. He also interacted with the audience, picking on a couple of people whose tables were right next to the stage. This included a dudebro-ish looking fellow whose nickname was — and I’m not making this up, I swear — “The Beef,” and another guy who runs a rehab center. So thank Cthulhu Kristin and I’s table was slightly removed from the stage, or I’m fairly certain I would have been embarrassed in some way.

And then after the show I picked up a copy of his DVD, and he was kind enough to pose for the photo. Though I’m fairly certain that’s a taser in his hand. Fortunately he didn’t have to use it. At least not on me.