So I figured that I might as well write something. Just for kicks, and stuff.

I wrote an entry this afternoon. It's still in my drafts folder, nowhere near ready for posting. It wasn't supposed to be a depressing entry, but that's how it turned out. So it won't be getting posted anytime soon, not without major revisions.

One of the things I was thinking about, as I sat on my swing tonight, was how almost everyone is the same. Guys think they're cool. Girls think they're cute. Almost everyone thinks they're better than they really are. But, they're not. And they're not unusual or uncommon or unique either. Most people may as well have been born via cookie-cutter.

Is it so strange, I wonder, that when I finally meet those few girls who are actually different than almost everyone else, that I fall for them?

---

In my entry that I wrote today and didn't post, one of the things I mentioned was that SassyGirl had been in town to visit, and that I'd totally blown it with her. I mean, her timing really sucked. And I didn't return her calls, and I didn't go to Rich O's to see her.

I hoped that she would forgive me, eventually, though I doubted that she would.

But then today she called me, and then I called her back. She was still in town.

Yay!

So I went to Rich O's after work to see her.

SassyGirl was my best friend for a long time. Now I get to see her maybe once every six months. That's not nearly enough.

---

A week or so ago I got some publicity for my pool blog. And I got a lot of additional traffic. So much traffic, in fact, that now my server keeps crashing, and my hosting company is threatening to cancel my account.

So, that sucks.

And, right now as I type this, my email isn't working. That royally sucks, because I'm kinda in the middle of a conversation with LaptopGirl, I think.

---

People keep thinking that I mad or sad when I'm not. It's totally understandable, I suppose. At least the sadness thing is. I'm sad a lot of the time.

But I'm hardly ever mad, so I don't know where that accusation comes from.

NotHideousGirl was a champion at thinking that I was mad. But I never was. Until she accused me of it enough to make it self-fulfilling.

UPSDude did the same thing once. He accused me of being mad at him. I told him that I wasn't, but he kept accusing me, over and over, of being mad at him. About a gazillion times he did this, until finally I was mad at him.

---

I really really really want to go somewhere this weekend. Just get away from here for a few hours. I don't know where to go, though.

---

Hmmm, I thought I might have more to write. Maybe later.

Somewhere today, I'm not sure exactly where except that it was at a Subway, something amazing happened.

See, HatGirl was there, and so was LaptopGirl.

HatGirl, I haven't seen in four whole days. That might not seem like a lot, but four days without seeing HatGirl is like a jillion years without seeing most people.

And, speaking of a jillion years, I haven't seen LaptopGirl for at least that long, since right after the first primitive life-forms invented photosynthesis and started pumping oxygen into the atmosphere.

I wonder if, back then, the other primitive life-forms held big demonstrations to complain about all that oxygen polluting the air and causing global cooling.

Anyway.

Having LaptopGirl and HatGirl in the same place at the same time - pretty cool, right?

Except for one little tiny thing.

I wasn't there. So that sucked.

HatGirl was so lucky that she got to see LaptopGirl. LaptopGirl was so lucky that she got to see HatGirl. All those people at that Subway were so lucky that they got to see both of them.

Me, I didn't see shit. I sat here at work like a chump.

In a way, I suppose that the entire universe got lucky as well. Because there was a very real chance that, by having LaptopGirl and HatGirl in such close proximity to each other, there was a chance that a singularity might have formed. A black-hole of loveliness that could have devoured everything that existed.

So whew!

Maybe I was lucky that the universe didn't get destroyed in an inescapable infinite well of awesomeness, but I don't feel very lucky, because I wasn't at that fucking Subway.

One of the things I've wanted to write about here, when things got slow enough and when I didn't feel like writing anything interesting, was this:

Anyway, it's got this auto-spelling feature. What happens is that I press keys like I'm spelling something, and it guesses what I'm trying to spell.

Sometimes this works quite well, but sometimes it sucks.

My own name, for example, is spelled with the keys 4-?-7-1. But the word Dave isn't what it decides that I'm typing. Nope, in its minuscule hardwired brain, it decides that I'm typing the word face.

There are many other examples. One of which is that the keys 5-3-2-? can spell hits, guys, guts, or huts.

It always gives me a choice, but far too often I forget to look at the presented choices. I just take the default. Which is quite often wrong. Which quite often makes me look like an idiot.

But that's not even the worst thing about the auto-spelling. The worst thing is that, I know this one girl named Amanda, and when I type her name into my Blackberry, it decides that what I'm really trying to type is the word Smands.

Smands is the default choice it gives me for the keys ?-9-?-8-4-?.

How stupid is that?

Smands wouldn't even make a cute pet nickname, were I so inclined to use one.

Also, a while ago I needed to type the name Heinlein into my Blackberry.

At that point, upon getting 5-1-3-8-'-1-3-8 as input, the auto-spell circuits overheated and the entire Blackberry burst into flames.

What a piece of shit, it never even heard of Robert Heinlein.

I would climb onto her lap, and rest my head against her chest.

She would wrap her arms around me, and she would hum gentle melodies.

And she would rock me gently, and I would feel safe enough to let tears flow from me like a river.

And she would make everything all better.

In retrospect, it was still too much too soon. But I went to Rich O's after work. My excuse was that it was pizza night, and I'd skipped last Monday, so if I didn't have pizza tonight, I might die or something.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't particularly want to die right now.

Also, is pizza-withdrawal a real affliction?

Anyway, there's some new dork working there. I never saw him before in my life, and when I sat in the throne, he came up and asked me if I wanted a beer.

My first inclination was to say, "No thanks. I'm flattered, but I'm straight."

But then I saw that he was carrying an official Rich O's notepad, so I went ahead and ordered an NABC Jasmine (110).

Then people left me alone for the most part, except this one dude who asked me some stupid question that didn't really need an answer.

Then MisunderstoodGirl sat and talked to me for a while about irrelevant things, and that was cool because I was really freaking out that people would want to get relevant on me.

Then ArtGirl came in and I got to talk to her for the next hour or so. We played musical chairs. It was fun.

Then I had another Jasmine (120) even though it was getting pretty late and therefore scary for me to be there.

Then TremensGirl came in and said more words to me in five minutes than she's said to me in the previous four months. So that was nice.

Then I found myself rambling on and on to MusicalYuppieDude about relevant things, so I knew it was time for me to leave. Luckily, my pizza was ready by then, so I came home.

Too soon. I knew that going in, but I still went. That place has a very annoying pull on me sometimes.

I'll admit, there was some juggling that took place to make LaptopGirl's recommendation come out as my 500th beer rating.

See, there was a chance that we were going to rate it together. But those opportunities kept slipping by. Eventually, I think, we each realized that she has more important things to worry about than my stupid beer ratings.

But the nice thing is that there's plenty of swill in the world, so there will be other opportunities for a joint-rating.

Anyway, here are the last four official beer ratings, beginning with my swill consultant's official recommendation for my 500th rating:

Sapporo Premium

(can) Looks like fizzy urine. Decent white head that seemed to last. Aroma of wet grass - slightly rotten. Thin mouthfeel. Flavor is smooth and a little creamy. Just the slightest hoppy finish. A typical pale lager, neither better nor worse than the rest. Typical lager swill.

Thirsty Dog Siberian Night

(bottle) Black, with a thin brown head. Aroma was surprising - it smelled like tires. Medium sticky mouthfeel. Flavor of bitter chocolate, roasted malts, and licorice. The finish was extremely well balanced - it just slid down my throat. Pretty damn good.

Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier

(draft) Hazy light brown - darker than others in this style. Aroma standard for the style, bananas along with cloves and other subtle spices. The flavor was subdued and fleeting. A little more yeasty than I was expecting. Very good, though.

Stone Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

(bottle) Black with a thin brown head that faded quickly. Aroma was milder than I was expecting - chocolate and malts. Medium mouthfeel. Flavor was malts and chocolate, but it seemed tame. The finish was very strong chocolate, almost too strong. It was only after my taste buds had been beaten into submission that I was able to really appreciate the finish. Lingering and coating dark chocolate. A very damn good beer. I want to try this on tap, but I'm not holding my breath for that.

At first, and for a long time afterwards, I thought of it as a bubble. Like one blown from a plastic wand held in a child's hand. So impossibly beautiful, yet so very fragile.

Look, but don't touch. Never, ever touch, lest that shimmering beauty be destroyed in an instant by my careless poke.

How was I to have known?

That bubble, one September night, it suddenly changed into something else. It grew even as I shrank. It moved even as I stood still, transfixed. Mesmerized by what was happening. Fearful, yet unable and unwilling to flee.

That bubble, it encased me.

It still encases me. It protects me and it traps me at the same time.

It was never a bubble.

It was, is, my world.

It took me a long time to see the truth.

I belong here.

1. Sleep 10 hours.
2. Play Crysis for a while.
3. Go to Polly's Freeze for lunch.
4. Drive around for a couple of hours.
5. Sit in garage.
6. Shoot pool.
7. Sit on swing.
8. Glare at phone.