Sidebar Update

It's about time I updated the sidebar! Let's get to it!

Ian recently loaned me his Freaks and Geeks DVD collection, which I'd never seen before, and which I love. Which makes me retroactively upset at its cancellation. Dammit! Anyway, it's under my Watching category, and its star, Linda Cardellini, is the Object of My Affection for the week. Now, before you frown at me for getting hung up on a girl playing a high schooler on TV (and don't think I can't see your frowns, because I can -- and don't you make that face at me, it'll stick like that!), please keep in mind the actress was 24 when she was on the show. She also played Velma in the Scooby-Doo movies, both of which I've seen, for no defensible reason whatsoever, and she was the best thing about both of them. Velma's hot. And now she's on some show called E.R. Never heard of it.

Apparently, I've put my reading of Quicksilver on hold once again, as I've been reading anything else but it. I just finished George Saunders' The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil (it only took about two hours), which is a very weird and funny book about bizarre creatures whose political patriotism and paranoia spiral out of control. Saunders is incredible; his last collection of short stories, Pastoralia (which, according to Amazon, contains the Statistically Improbable Phrase "show your cock," and the Capitalized Phrase "Shit Fee"), is one of the best such collections I've ever read, but you might be familiar with him from his children's book, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip.

I'm also about to start Reading Terry Pratchett's Going Postal. It's been out for a while; I think I'm past the phase where I need to immediately buy his books in hardback. I can wait for the paperback. He's still great, though.

And I've been Listening to Welcome Interstate Managers, by Fountains of Wayne. They're one of those groups that I've always liked, but have never owned one of their albums. A friend copied it for me, and I love it. "Bright Future in Sales" is a little slice of genius, and it goes under Lyric of the Week.

The Hating category gets the week off. I couldn't think of anything right off the top of my head, so rather than forcing it, I thought maybe I'd try to spend a week not filled with hatred. I'm not optimistic.