I am lost in the misty town of Silent Hill.

I got one of my birthday presents early yesterday. Silent Hill 2.

If you don't hear from me in a few days, don't come looking for me...

Brighton are fourth in the table, which isn't too bad, especially given that we lost our best player to Tottenham (and theye're not even using him properly...sheesh). Only five games into the season though, so let's not get too excited!
As for my other team, well they're doing pretty well. They're into the divisional playoffs, and are favourites to win. Surprising.
I still can't believe that the Americans have teams called the Rochester Ragin' (note the apostrophe) Rhinos, and the Syracuse Salty Dogs(who actually call it "football" and not "soccer"...blimey). I'm not sure a British team would get away with that kind of language.

I'm currently waiting on a lot of lovely items in the post. I won a couple of things on eBay, the first time I've ever used the service. I've also got a reprint of one of my favourite comics of all time on its way from the spectacular Regie Rigby, a mystery package from the piratical Cap'n Black, and a HUGE bundle of items from my wayward brother, including the a DVD of the excellent Battle Royale, which is stupidly unavailable over here. I'm sure it'll all arrive over the next couple of weeks, which will make it a sort of added birthday gift, but it's annoying to rush to the postbox every day to find nothing but bills or junk, especially when I know things are coming. It's also strange to have to go to a postbox to get my mail, rather than have it pop through the front door. It's the little things, you know?

Rad has gone and got himself a blogger in an attempt to stop himself smoking. He's a foul-mouthed beggar is Rad, but it should make for an amusing blogger.
I was banned from wasting my day on the PC today, and forced to do some drawing. Which was a good thing in the end, as I managed to do a couple of decent pictures. Strangely enough, both featured the Hulk in unusual situations. I can't say too much more, as one of them is a present for a friend who just might be reading this...
So, I've had a long and productive day, and I'm going to go to bed with a lovely sense of achievement tonight!

At four this morning, Meg and I piled into the car and drove out to somewhere with less lights. We got out the binoculars and had a good look at Mars. For some reason (probably because I'm short-sighted, although I don't quite understand how that affects looking through binoculars) I didn't get as "close" a view as Meg did. She saw the craters on the surface, and all the little details. But no tripods. She said that Mars looked like a sponge. Although I couldn't get a good look at the planet myself, it was still a fun experience, and of course it's when you sit back and think about what it means to say that you've looked at another planet, another world, that it starts to get profound.

The Canadians are often thought of, internationally, as nicer, less stupid Americans. With the news that Canadians are now banned from smiling in passport photos, that reputation is going to take a hit.

And it's the birthday of my good friend Courtney today. She's small and Jewish and a fan of Bruce Campbell, which is all you need to know really. Except that her birthday was yesterday. Oops.

How did we let the world get like this? Absolutely sickening.
I think it's about time for another one of these.

With thanks to biLly for pointing this out, here is my own personal hell:

Superman
Circle I Limbo

Will & Grace
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind

Post-BIG Tom Hanks
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow

Ann Coulter
Circle IV Rolling Weights

George Lucas
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled

River Styx

Republicans
Circle VI Buried for Eternity

River Phlegyas

Rednecks
Circle VII Burning Sands

Rupert Murdoch & FOX
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement

George Bush
Circle IX Frozen in Ice

Design your own hell

I've done this test before. My last results showed me to be rather well balanced.
I just took it again five minutes ago. This time, not so good...

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Moderate
Schizoid:	High
Schizotypal:	Moderate
Antisocial:	Low
Borderline:	Moderate
Histrionic:	Low
Narcissistic:	Moderate
Avoidant:	High
Dependent:	Moderate
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Moderate
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! --

I'm sitting here, doing a bit of sketching, watching some items on eBay, listtening to some mp3's and so on.
I hear a LOUD buzzing. I think it's probably the gardener people who come to mow the communal lawns on one of those huge American lawnmowers that's roughly the size of a Ford Focus. But there's something odd about the sound. It's not...mechanical enough. I look over to the window.

Bashing against the window, in something of a tizzy, and thankfully on the outside, is a wasp the size of a sparrow.
I wish we had a camera. Or an elephant gun.

Hey everybody, look after yourselves, okay? It's a dangerous world out there, and I don't want to see any of you get hurt.
And it's St Louis' Day today. Who he? Patron saint of barbers, hairdressers and wigmakers.

I moved to the United States for my wife, Meg. She'd been away from her family for too long, and needed to be back with them. Plus, she was legally obliged to return, due to some clause in her Visa. I think of Britain as my home, and will always feel uneasy here in America. And that has nothing to do with how I feel about the state of this nation. I'm just not at home here.
But there's something else. I'm not sure I like America. I can't properly convey what I mean because I'm not entirely clear on it myself. Today, I found this article, and realised that I'm not alone. This is by no means an exact copy of my circumstances, but there are recognisable similarities. America is a confusing place, because it is itself confused. There are so many social, political and cultural elements pulling at each other that you either dive for cover or risk, like a protagonist in an HP Lovecraft story, losing your sanity as you try to make sense of it all*.
What is often forgotten is that it is a young country. Europe is old, and safe, but also predictable and complacent. America has not formed its final shape yet. It is still going through growing pains. The problem for the rest of the world, of course, is that what they have on their hands is a mood-swinging teenager with obscene political, economic, social and military might.
I just hope that when it settles down, that the worst aspects have been expelled.

Watched The 13th Warrior today. I thought that it was a lot better than its reputation suggests, but then I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

Blackadder is twenty years old this year. Or so the BBC says. I think that Blackadder, along with Father Ted, is one of the greatest sitcoms ever, an exercise in sheer comedic genius that really does make a mockery of things like Friends. I grew up with the show, and always loved it, even though I couldn't possibly be expected to understand most of it when it was first broadcast. Today, I still laugh out loud at jokes which I've heard hundreds of times before. Truly brilliant stuff. And now I'm here, far away from home, in a place where they're not going to show the next Great British Sitcom until a decade after it's first aired, if at all. I hope I don't miss it.
Incidentally, my favourite was Blackadder II. What's yours?

*Okay, that's a little extreme, but I'm being spontaneously poetic, so ease off!