n e w d i s a s t e r.

If you can believe it, it's time once again for Karsa. You may have no idea what that means, which is why I'm writing here today.

I know I've been absent, and to those six of you who ever read this, please know that I do feel embarrassed. Sometime in the next week or so, I'm going to be posting my annual top albums list, and I didn't want that to be the first post in however long. So, this nonsense is. To make it semi-worthwhile, please enjoy the following video of a dog freaking out:

from a weekend in New York City:

"It's empty, like my heart."
-Katie, on her locket

"WALL-E was so good! It reminded me of... a good movie."
-Schubin

"Lou and I have ingested a truly formidible amount of food at two different restaurants in the last four hours."
"I'm very proud of you"
"Hopefully you will agree to be my pallbearer as well."
"Not if you keep eating like this I'm not."
-Fernando and me, via text message

"The building is heated and cooled on a complex system run by both self-satisfaction and poverty."
-Mountain Tall, on the gentrification of Harlem

...who's five minutes away from the release of Firefox 3.0.

Don't forget to download the new release TODAY; they deserve to get the World Record so much!

For any Albany resident that has ever been irritated by a commercial for Huck Finn's Warehouse (all of us), good news: so is Conan O'Brien.

Seriously, I already live in Albany. Why do I want to enter this contest?

For those of you who cared (apparently, a fair few of you did -- thank you to everyone for their advice), I wanted to let you know that, while I was on the road to making the same decision myself, Steve Jobs went ahead and pulled the trigger for me this afternoon. I had played with Beep's iPhone a ton and had grown to love it, and Wendy and I went to visit the AT&T store yesterday and were completely charmed by the friendliness and (so novel!) helpfulness of the staff. I watched the announcement of all the new features in real time (thanks MacRumors, I thought I had hit the geek glass ceiling), and then the last nail in the coffin landed: $199 for the 8GB iPhone. I have between now and July 11 to get out of my contract with Sprint. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am.

"We should see Indiana Jones! Indiana Jones! Doot doo doot doo, doot doo doo, doot doo doot doo, doot doo doo doo doo, doot doo doot doo, doot doo doo, dananana da na da da na da da na da na na! That's the theme song."
-Schubin, on the phone with his sister, on what movie they should see

"So do you have, like, jazz insurance?"
-Schubin, clearly concerned about Brian's health and well-being

"You have two apartments. We have zero."
"Sure, but I also have an imaginary drug problem. These are the consequences of my excessive lifestyle."
-Me and Andria

"K-E? What is that?"
"I'm gonna say some kind of sea creature."
-Andria and Mountain Tall, on a dubious play in Scrabble

"Fetal position, here I come."
-Cindy B

Jesus fucking christ you are the goddamn PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES GET A GRIP ON YOURSELF. Or hire better handlers! CHRIST!

I hate myself so much for thinking this sounds awesome.

I do not think this sounds awesome. I think it sounds like death.

And, to end on the exact opposite of a light note: the number of Americans who filed for bankruptcy last year increased 38 percent from 2006. And hey, by the way, home prices dropped 14% in the first three months of this year, oil prices continue breaking records, and the building you're in right now is literally on fire.

I swear to god, I was going to write that I had a "new development," until it struck me that that was a pun.

Anyway, I set up a new blog for my photography. I'm not sure what it is yet, what I'm going to do with it, or why I set it up. Suffice it to say it's another item that you can put in your Google Reader and you've never really needed much more convincing than that. As ever, but slightly more in this case, comments will be greatly appreciated.