�� new old this that ��

10.04.01.11:10 am

Attention! I am wearing pants!!

I am so excited. Sunday we gave our "Notice to Vacate" to our apartment complex. After we totaled up all of the penalties for breaking the lease the bill came to about 2,000 dollars.

We could pay it, but it was going to wipe out our savings and would require a few weeks of juggling over draft protection credit on a checking account and the minimum payment on all of our bills for a few more weeks.

Then on Monday evening the complex called and said if we can be out of the apartment by October 20th they would waive all of the fees and we'd only lose our security deposit.

 R o c k.   O n.   S l u m.   L o r d s.

So now in two weeks we'll have a gorgeous new apartment as well as the ability to feed ourselves.

Seriously. Yee Haw.

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Babyhead asked to hear a poem that I drunkenly started to rattle off while my friend Chris and I were handing some fraternity brothers their asses at pool...

Seriously, do not challenge me to drunken pool - unless you are really really good. Because the more I drink, the smoother I get with my stick.

MY POOL STICK!

...and pool is a game about smoothness

Smartasses.

Anway, that poem was Suits on Ice and can be heard at mp3.com. Hell, you can listen to my whole CD there.

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Oh, bestsites screwed up and lost almost everyone's members. So if you were on the list like M0ok and suddenly don't see yourself there, just sign up again.

If you haven't signed up yet, you really should. You know who you are.

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I did some more coding for this site yesterday. Now you have a default button to click as well as the custom layout button. Clicking on the Default button down at the bottom changes the layout and gives you the options that I intended to be displayed with that layout...

meaning if you choose the layout that's supposed to remind you of UncleBob's site and then click default, you'll get the picture, posse, top navigation, and older entries displayed.

If you choose the classic layout and then click default, you'll won't get a picture or the posse. Use the custom button if you want to see the posse along side the matrix layout... AHH, you get the idea.

I also added some help text. Move your mouse over an option check box and the status area of your browser should tell you what it does.

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So tonight I have to run my show.

I run a Poetry Slam. Poetry? Slam? Poetry Slam? ...and this is a show?

Poets sign up to read in the open microphone or sign up to compete in the Slam portion of the night. Between the open mic and the Slam is a featured performer - someone who can hold an audiences attention for 30 minutes... with poetry.

The Slam portion of the evening consists of 8 poets who take the stage in some pre determined random order. After the poet is done performing the poem, they get scored by 5 judges who were picked at random from the audience. After all 8 poets have read, we narrow the field down from 8 poets to 5. Then we have the poets perform in the order of highest scoring poet from the first round to the 5th highest scoring poet. For the third round we take the three poets with the highest combined score from the first and second round and have them read from lowest scoring poet to the highest.

At the end, the winner gets some cash and a chance to compete to make it into the Final Slam or the Grand Slam - which is run just like above - and is also a chance for them to place in the top four and make the Providence Slam team.

So yes, its like a variety show built around poetry... and no, its not like any poetry you've ever heard read to you in high school.

The stuff you hear is often high energy, often it can be funny, emotionally touching or outwardly angry - there's always a message. The poets use hand gestures while they speak and by the end of the night if the crowd isn't on their feet, then the poets didn't do their job.

A poetry slam is a lot of fun to watch. Running one is another matter... I don't mind it, its just not as much fun as back when I just performed in them or just sat there watching and saying, "Hey, I can do better than that."

Yes, those were my famous last words.

�� new old this that ��