The other day my sister and I were talking about Hurricane Katrina. We agreed, of course, that it was awful, but I felt there must be a very spiritual component to losing everything you own. I even postulated that if you were insured and you were easily able to get away without any danger to yourself, it might even feel cleansing. Imagine: suddenly, everything you have is gone. What a weight to be lifted.

Of course, this is all very insensitive to say, I'm sure. After all, I don't know anything about being a disaster victim and I'm sure it's not as glamorous as I make it out to be. But there's something about losing it all, about all that materialism and possession being washed away by a great wave of change. That beautiful, destructive change.

Based on a viewing of Full Metal Jacket on my 16:9 television with the zoom feature on, I believe that Kubrick - who famously always shot in 4:3 - framed all his shots with the intention that they'd be zoomed in to 16:9.

( I still have to investigate this one, but if it turns out to be both true and otherwise undiscovered, methinks I should definitely go back to grad school for film instead of to a b-school or to get some kind of design certification like I sometimes think about doing. )

"Funny... with that essential touch of tragedy."

...is a pretty amazing place sometimes.

I don't want to bore you with the details, but over at my day job, we're putting together a personals website that has the potential to be really cool. Right now, we're just trying to get it off the ground and that's where I need your help, especially if you are cute, young, and/or female.

See, our publisher has asked us to tap our various networks of friends to populate the site with profiles of young people to help make it clear that this is a different kind of personals site. While I'm not exactly into the idea of whoring out my fan-base, sometimes duty calls, right? Because who among this company knows as many fine young ladies as ole Stingray? Not to mention to coolest bunch of dudes this side of an all-male meat locker.

Actually, it's pretty fun to set up the profile. Anyway, if you do it, I would be really appreciative. Plus, who knows, maybe someone will fall in love with you and pay my company for the privledge of sending you an electronic "flirt."

Well, I've been playing around with the blog a bit. Most of you probably didn't even notice, but I've changed the picture, the way the posts are labeled, the general look/feel of the site.

Some people have asked me why I changed it. But I always say to them, "I just felt like it was time to freshen things up a bit. I mean, you know, to dust off the cobwebs. To get the sleep dust out of my eyes and recognize that this is 2005! WAKE UP! It's a beautiful day."

Anyway, you'll have to let me know how you feel about this new direction.

Used to be that whenever I thought about Scarlett Johansson, I was reminded of this tale:

My buddy Matt Goodwin - who is a regular dude, keep in mind - once ran into Scarlet Johansson in his own dorm room, of all places. She had just started to make a name for herself thanks to Ghost World and was visiting Bloomington to see her friend at IU. That friend was a chick that Matt Goodwin was trying to bang and I don't remember exactly how Scarlett ended up in his room, but suffice it to say, he ended up not sleeping with either Scarlett or her friend. (This story would probably be better if I remembered more details.)

Now, however, I will always think of Issac Mizrahi groping Scarlett's voluptuous bosom in public and on live television without any negative repercussions whatsoever.

It almost makes you think that the whole harmless to women because I'm gay thing might have some serious advantages if one were so inclined to use it for nefarious purposes. Sort of like pretending to be blind in order to clean up at Marco Polo.