John's sister Maria came to the house this evening to show some people various large items that John had left behind, just in case these things could be sold (as opposed to being returned to the alley). This one couple who came to look at the stuff was comprised, in part, by a decidedly pregnant woman. The members of the couple were interested in buying nearly everything we had to offer, including both John's mattress and Maria's mattress (which she wants to sell before moving East herself in August). I was rather impressed that they were willing to pay $100 for John's used mattress. In keeping with an opinion once expressed by John's brother Joe, I never suspected there was much of a market for used mattresses.
In the evening I sat through the first episode of Big Brother 2. As you might recall, a year ago (was that really a whole year ago?) I sat through the first episode of the original Big Brother, then a fresh never-tested-on-Americans import from Europe. As you may recall, my eventual fascination with Big Brother centered around how horrible the television show was and the overall loathsomeness of its contestants. On this second attempt, however, it looks like the producers are getting a few things right. The contestants still mostly fall into one of two categories: dumb hunks and superficial chicks, utterly ketchup and whitebread in their every infuriating average-American nuance. Of course the blond girl with the big tits thinks the dum dum who works out every day is a total dreamboat. Still, things aren't quite as simple as they appear on the surface, and this is what makes for potentially good television. One of the contestants, a middle-aged white gentleman named Kent, is shown unabashedly giving voice to his unevolved view of homosexuality, completely unaware that one of his male fellow contestants is "married" to another man. Is this stupidity or foolishly devil-may-care intolerance? Either way, now I can't wait for his heterosexual utopia to crash spectacularly down around him!
I decided it would be unfair to radically cut my hair and not let my readers see it, so I drank some vodkatea and shot a little video, which I digitized using the latest Microsoft technology. When I get better at this stuff I promise to start using a more open format than the cursed .WMV. One thing that is most assured when you save stuff in a RealMedia or Microsoft format: your file is unreadable by non-Microsoft-using people today and will be obsolete for everyone tomorrow.
"What, you have an upgrade available for my media player? I know I should be overjoyed but instead for some reason I just want to kill you!"
Here I am, whirling around in my bedroom in the nude with my videocamera (and a plastic glass of vodkatea). These are the final days of my life in California, for the time being at least. I don't know what that music is by the way.
