Debra Hamlin was my first kiss. I was going to a summer camp at the time, Camp Wigwam, and we met at a social earlier in the summer. I think she was going to camp Walden. Or maybe it was the year before. I can't remember. I do remember the first time I asked her to dance. I was nervous as all hell and had circled the room a couple of times. Some kids stopped me on one of my rotations and commented on it. I guess I got offended or something, because on the next slow song I walked up and asked her to dance, just asked. It was easy after I said it. We danced through the song and had some stiff dialogue, then broke apart until the next song. I guess we wound up talking more and more. I began to look forward to dances where she would be there. I was still nervous around her, and probably still would be 8 years later.
Before one dance I got talked to by some of the older guys. They told me I had to kiss her. I had to, they said. It was their advice (badgering) that got me to dance with her, so I took it again. We were dancing closely and the room was dark, something slow was playing. I kissed her cheek. It was soft and smooth. I was rewarded by a kiss on my cheek. She had pleasantly warm and moist lips, if I remember correctly.
I was very happy.
Later that evening the camp photographer came around. She sat Debra down on the porch and had me lean in and kiss her for a picture. Again just on the cheek. It was rough, I tell you. Marge, the photographer, told all the kids to leave us alone after the photo was taken. When the slide came up at the end of the year I think my mom cried a little. All I could think about was this gap between my lips and Debra's cheek. It taunted me for some reason.
At the end of the evening we kissed lip to lip. Just before she had to get in her van and go away. I also gave her a bear hug, which I guess more people saw.

I just looked her up tonight. Is that weird? I guess she's studying primates or religion or something, judging from my google search.
She's still as cute as I remember, if less freckled.

Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth is currently my favorite painting. Something about it moves me. When I look at it I feel something tighten in my diaphragm. Its so depressing and beautiful and disconcerting and amazing.
Christina is a polio victim, crippled from the waist down. This painting captures some essence of the suffering she's gone through that I have never really known and hopefully never will. It is bleak and frightening. The farm is so far away and even when she gets there its dark and grey. There are also triangles in the painting. A large one between her head, the shack above her and the barn. Christina's form is something of a triangle, too. The big one is top heavy and feels like it is about to flip over. Her pose is terribly sad, she is reaching out with sickeningly weak arms, her hair flails limply in the breeze and her legs just lay there and get in the way.
I almost love Christina.

This site is absolutely amazing. Its amusing at first, but its really addicting. You can add and drop the different sections and it sounds really good. My favorite is the second guy from the left. His notes are pretty simple, but without him the piece falls really flat.
Its earth shattering.

I met Bruce Campbell. Yes the Bruce Campbell.

The actor. Army of Darkness? "Groovy?" Chin?

It doesn't matter, he's excellent.
When I met him I had him autograph my copy of his Autobiography, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor. We gave our names to this assistant lady, she wrote them on a piece of paper and stuck it to the thing we wanted signed. He looked at mine, "Krister" and commented on it. I said, "Yeah, Its Swedish." And he said something in a Swedish Chef-esque voice. I chuckled with him(its hard to laugh at even when its someone as cool as Bruce Campbell). Then he asked my last name.
"Rollins," I said.
"Oh," said he.

This Article from The Onion reminds me of my Cousin Heather's wedding. Well, one of them. I was very little and was the ring bearer. I remember thinking I would be the ring bear. It confused me to no end, I thought I had it figured out, that I would get a bear costume. But then I wore a little white tux! Well, maybe it wasn't a tux, but it was a suitlike thing. Shorts and a dress up shirt at least. I do remember I got a clip-on bow tie, which I think is cool now, so I must've loved it then. Mom said I was cute in it, but she is my mother and I was five at the time.
I was blonde.
Now I'm brown haired.
It happens.

I came up with this great way to make money.
I'll give people my excess body fluids, and they'll give me money. I've already duped the University of Rochester (more like University of Suckers) into giving me money for semen.
Next up, mucus. I'll try and sell it to Wal*Mart.
And I'm gonna start taking advantage of blood drives, too.

Critical Statement for Andrew Wyeth's Groundhog Day

I love this movie! Bill Murray is so funny, oh my god. But I didn't really get it, was he supposed to be dead or something? Whatever, that groundhog was really cute!

In a related note, I ran a search for carcinogen, potato harmless "of the leg" -syst.

I got a result.

I don't know which is weirder, that I ran the search or that I got a result. I'm completely mystified. I can see a relationship between carcinogen, syst and harmless. But it specifically can not have the word syst in it! Maybe its a misspelling.
I think it is.
I think its cyst.
poo.

updated several seconds later
I ran it so that it was excluding the word "cyst" and I got the same result.
Bizarre.

Just ran a search for "honky tonk" + "karl rove".
The Film Threat link contains the words "nude honky tonk."
Just doing my part.

I've been reading some of the forums at a lyrics site. There is one section called "Lyrics Explained" which is particularly upsetting. People ask for an explanation for every simple song out there. Its like they only think literally, or they can't make intellectual leaps. Its sickening.
Not knowing how to contextualize is often a problem, too. There's a song about the Donner Party that someone didn't understand, because they had never heard of it!
My mom is getting her Masters in Gifted and Talented education(or something comparable) and she told me that only 15% of the population(I think) have adult level ethics. If this is true it is more than possible that a majority of the population also has a hard time with abstraction, contextualization, metaphor and whatnot. They could be all around you. They could be reading this post.

Weird.