i need to send huge props out to my good friend stevie williams. first, he got himself into the best shape of his life via a strong type-a discipline. second, he successfully conquered the chicago marathon. see the most eligible bachelor in action. way to go stephen.

ahhh, at last, the much anticipated and highly ballyhooed italy slideshow. two months in the making, i hope you find it worthwhile and enjoyable. allow me to apologize to my non-dsl/cable subscribers, the presentation is not a modem-friendly beast. so use em (fat pipes) if ya got em.

and, to answer the question above, i think the final count was 27 rolls of film. but in my defense, 3 were taken by marty and 5 were only 24 exposure.

i watched american beauty last night for the first time since falling in love with it at the theater. seeing it again reminded me how thoroughly i enjoyed the plentitude of heated discussions it spawned. the most special of these revolving around how differently men and women perceived the flick. a great majority of women dismissed it as a serious work claiming it to be too outlandish and farcical while most men deemed it a stellar effort and just short of a documentary on the american male.

this is obviously one arena where we are not all on the same page.

in perusing this month's National Geographic magazine, i spied a story about the 'real' beverly hills 90210. two facts lept off the page. the aggregate income of the 2,585 families making $150,000 a year or more is $1,177,152,216. and, in the highly exclusive 'subdivision' of North Beverly Park, a starter home is 8 mil, 25,000 sq feet, and routinely sports 10-car garages, multiple kitchens and 4,000 sq foot bedroom suites.

i hope there aren't anyone with the last name "jones" living there.

i'm the guy you see wet and naked on the back porch returning the wayward spider or cockroach to its native habitat fresh out of the shower. the 'get the shoe' and 'hurry kill it' people will never cease to amaze me. if you take an ounce of time to study one of our smaller neighbors i cannot imagine that this mini-genocide would occur on the same scale. and for those about to mount the 'but, they'...

i am currently reading b. franklin's autobiography. for any who have not yet experienced the father of self-improvement's insights, i loftily recommend it. in researching some of his ancillary efforts, i ran into this item, the morals of chess, he wrote for someone somewhere comparing life to the sport of chess. for any who play, i intuit that you would appreciate.