i get a momentary queasiness each time i sit down at this computer, for unknown reasons. i write single lines like that in advance of posting so that i can get the date right.

i've been going through old e-mail and deleting it, but i like just looking at the names sometimes - imagining if all the people from whom i've kept e-mails in march were somehow in a room together: kari swingle, denise ostling, edith presler, scott tutton, marcantonio barone, carla naumburg, jenny yim, and "ross c. hoffman iv" (which i think is rob cox under a peculiar alias.)

i've seen several movies lately: last night, the good girl at the little and then a.i.. i preferred the latter, contrary to popular opinion. good girl was okay, but pretty low-key and not terribly engaging. there were some very funny moments though (and there's a bit character named "floberta," which one of the best things about the movie.) tim blake nelson is great, and he gets some excellent lines. a.i., granted, was a little long and restless, but it has some substance to it, i think. the pinocchio parallel is heavy-handed, and the ending is just weird (but kind of cool) - and it suggests that earth exists in the star wars galaxy as camina (i think that's what its called) in episode 2, whose denizens are reminiscent of the creatures at the end.

tonight i saw donnie darko, in martha's room because she brought the tv up to watch while she pretended to clean. i have to say i agree with jonah and chris dahlen (who liked it), rather than ben, who (in the middle of an laughy phone conversation that also included discovering some secret websites) thought it wasn't very good. it's definitely an original film, and worth watching, and i think worth watching again on dvd so that i can check out the explanatory (i hope) bonus materials. martha kept seeing e.t. parallels (drew notwithstanding.) it's set in 1988, gently but firmly, and manages to excellently reference (i won't say spoof or even satire) a handful of genres while also working within them to create something that transcends them. nothing spectacular, just a well-written, well-acted, well-thought-out and interesting movie, something which should be more common.

it's 3:30 now, and i'm theoretically leaving at 6:00 to head to swat. this trip has required more preparatory e-mails than i can comprehend, and i think that most of them have been answered, at least in some fashion. plans are still somewhat loose, but i'll be dropping my stuff off, moving stuff around and no doubt creating utter clutter in my new room, then heading for new york to goof around with ben, rae, jesse, and whomever else i can dig up. i'll be back again on saturday, just in time for dip of the month. oh how time flies through crystal clear eyes.

the question isn't "if"
the question is "marry me"