I liked my wife’s iPod Nano so much that I bought myself one a couple of weeks ago. The genius in the design comes from the simplicity of navigation and having a small view screen to see your songs, playlists, albums, artists, etc. and find what you want to hear pretty quickly. I have almost 400 songs on my Nano already. Yesterday I bought some songs from iTunes for the first time.

Using Netflix I’m alternating between watching Star Trek Voyager season 5 and Kung Fu season 2. I love watching TV series shows without commercials. It occurred to me yesterday that watching a Voyager episode is like eating a favorite chocolate while watching a Kung Fu episode is like eating a meal. The Kung Fu episodes take more time to digest and resonate longer.

Rome on HBO is still holding my attention. I’ll be curious to see if the gods punish Lucius severely.

I took a day off from work yesterday and did absolutely nothing productive.

In other news, I received a rejection yesterday from Willow Springs. This weekend I’ll start sending out submissions.

Absolutes are shortcuts to avoid the hard work of real thinking.

--Me

I received a rejection yesterday from Blackbird. I was surprised to hear from them at all considering I sent them some poems back in April. It would be refreshing to receive an acceptance soon.

On Saturday I received a rejection with a little ink from River Styx. I am very excited about the return of Rome on HBO on January 14th.

I received a rejection from Ploughshares yesterday. Later this month I will need to send out more submissions and send my chapbook to a couple of contests.

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The artist is the creator of beautiful things.

To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim.

The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.

The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty.


--Oscar Wilde, from The Preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray