Slight melancholy today. Despite the clock's insistence that it is 8:48, it looks like dusk out my office window. Winter does this to me. Language can't fix it. Vocabulary only gives more words with which to whine. Speaking of wine, I could use some.

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The burden is mine, born with the obligation to design real-life connections. The gap is so wide.

--M. Watt.

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I keep having the same dream. It irks me.

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I just read Betsy's long poem for the third time. It's really good.

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January makes me feel isolated, no matter if people are around. I wish I were better at staying in bed. Because I'd stay there. I'd write a teenage epic.

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Coffee used to taste better than it does. What's up with that? It can't be me, can it? I think something strange is afoot in the coffee-growing regions of the world. Or we can just blame it on the Sinister Coffee Co. I have a cup of their brew in front of me right now, and contrary to the notice, it is not, nor has it ever been, extremely hot.

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Now playing: "It's the end of the world as we know it" live acoustic version. And I'm not so sure I feel fine. One time I thought Peter Buck was going to punch my brother.

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Recommended: Chris Cornell's cover of "Billie Jean." This reminds me--I was in two different bars the other night: Max's and Tiny Tavern. In BOTH bars, we heard Thriller in its entirety. Was it some sort of special occasion?

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I have an eye doctor appointment next week. I'm going to re-up on the contacts and get my first pair of glasses in years. Any frame recommendations?

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The front office is dim and quiet. Kim is running on too much coffee. Carrie actually sort of smiled when I came in to get water.

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Now playing: "Half Past France" John Cale. Paris 1919 is a very wintry record, though I always associate it with summer and the desert. Visions of Lemoore, California dance in my head. Make them stop!

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Is Joshua Beckman's "Block Island" the best long poem of our generation? I sometimes think it is. But then there's Mister's "Liner Notes." But is LN really a "poem"? I'm not really sure.

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Okay, so the little book has been out for over two months. How many reviews? Zip.

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"Praise God and eat your daily bread."

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My new favorite way to pass time at work.

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Last night I watched The Girl Next Door. Suprisingly watchable for what looks like a standard teen sex farce.

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In other news I've been playing my first video game since the summer of 2003: Civilization IV. My empire consists of such storied ancient cities as Molnar and Lok Yaun.

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Escovedo update: With These Hands continues to grow on me.

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Is it okay to live life in a permanent state of semi-disappointment? Where are you Manic Episode?

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I think my next long poem is going to be written in Skeltonics, a la Phyllyp Sparowe.

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Why does Neil Young sing of "lorries" in "Don't Let It Bring You Down"? Do they say "lorry" in Canada? Here in the good ol' US we call them trucks!

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I'm going to name my next manuscript English Sixteenth-Century Verse. Either that or Tost's Miscellany.

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"You are sleeping off your demons when I come home." --John Darnielle

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"Alone in my room, I am the last of a lost civilization." --John Darnielle