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Seriously, I thought E was nuts, telling me to
try writing tricky prose in longhand before hitting the computer.

Damn if she wasn’t right (as usual). On the computer, ideas fly out
of my brain as fast as I can come up with them — which is
very much faster than I can sort through and focus
them. On the page, however, writing takes time. I can actually
think ahead a little, and plan my next argument. Also, the page is not
“blessed” with the power of destructive deletion; as I make edits, the
old versions are all there for me to see, informing each new attempt,
giving context to the evolution of the text. The computer,
on the other hand, makes it all too easy to write yourself around in
circles when you can delete words as fast as you can type them.

Also, scribbling things down on dead trees gives me an excuse to use my nice pens,
which in turn makes the
process of writing more fun and helps me stay focused on the words.

News: Rice
announces David Leebron as its 7th president.

I hate the Hummer H2. I’m not the only one: FUH2!.com.

Hey, did I ever tell you I entered the Netscape Throbber contest? I got a t-shirt, which I
wore my freshman year at Rice. (I wore it earnestly once or twice, and
after that, only on laundry days. I did eventually learn a sense of
shame!)

Penny-Arcade reviews
Return of the King.

While Brenna enjoys the Rings films as much (and probably more) than I
do, the midnight ritual so critical to my people is wholly alien to her
way of thinking. On the other hand, the way that each of her friends
has chosen a different member of the Fellowship to be their favorite so
as not to overlap affections is somewhat mysterious to me, as well. It
is as though we’re dealing with a sort of Medieval Beatles,
where each girl’s romantic dreams can only exist in a world unsullied
by the cruel mitigations exemplified by the Venn Diagram. There can be
no sharing. Brenna’s a Sam girl, Sarah’s down with Frodo as I
understand it, and of course Kate pines for Aragorn, son of Arathorn.
He’s into elves, I’m not sure how that’s going to work out. At any rate,
it would appear that Legolas is available. There may need to be some
kind of Internet registry for fantasy hunks.

I’m right there with ya, Tycho. Also note that Bill
Amend has been supplying a fair amount of Orlando-Bloom-themed
funny over the past week as well.