Eager for more Hough news than what you can find here? Tired of all of my verbal meanderings? Wondering what Stephanie is thinking, doing, and writing?

Now you can find out! Announcing the World Premier of The Hough House. As you can read in Stephanie's first post there, you are going to find much more news and pictures than what you typically get here (although I did hit 20 posts again for the second year in a row!).

So now I'm just Somebody. As B.B. would say, "The thrill is gone."

(PS: Vote for Danny.)

I guess I won't be running for the Missouri House of Representatives.

I went to a meeting of the Bates County Democratic Party for the first time last Thursday. They were having their caucus for selecting delegates to the regional convention. Bates county has 4 delegates, and although Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama 1427-676, the delegates were split 2-2. At the caucus, we split up into Obama and Clinton groups. The Clinton side of the room had about 12 people, and the Obama side had five. We needed to choose two delegates and two alternates. Two people in our group immediately said they didn't want to or couldn't make it to the convention. I said I was willing to go and so I'm headed to Warsaw, MO later this month to help select delegates to the state convention (where they will select delegates to the national convention.)

At the meeting I met the chairman of the county party and we discussed their website and the possibility of me helping them with it. I came home feeling good about being involved.

Today (four days after the caucus) I got a call from the spouse of a party official. She asked me if I would be interested in running for the State House of Representatives. She said that I would be getting calls from some people in the party, including the campaign of Jay Nixon, who is running for governor, and the representative from a neighboring district.

I live in the 125th district and our Rep in Jefferson City is Republican Barney Fisher. He's a former Marine fighter pilot who rose to Lieutenant Colonel before he retired and he's running for his third term in the Missouri House. Fisher won in 2006 by a count of 3,146 to 2,550 (55%-45%) and he'll probably have no problem winning in 2008.

The fact that the Democrats don't have a candidate yet is a bad sign. The fact that they tried to draft a 27-year-old computer programmer who had come to only one party meeting may be an even worse sign. That's not to say that I wasn't flattered. I like to think that I'm well-informed and well-liked. I like to think that my occasionally political blog is worth something. But surely someone in the 125th has a better shot at this than me. It was all about to be a moot point, anyway.

I said, "Now you should probably know that I'm an atheist."

She said, "Oh, is that widely known?"

"I'm very open about it."

"Why are you an atheist?"

"Because I don't believe in god."

Then I mentioned the poll that Gallup released last year, which says that 53% of Americans would not vote for an atheist. It was the only item in the poll with higher than 50% negative. Mormons, homosexuals, blacks, women and 72-year-olds all did better. The person on the phone agreed that it would be hard to run against a conservative Christian incumbent in a conservative Christian district when you go around saying that god doesn't exist.

She said, "That, as they say, puts a turd in the punch bowl. I'll stop the calls, then." Thus ended my very short political career.

That was probably one of the strangest things I've ever experienced. I was, in rapid succession, confused, flattered, disappointed and relieved. I wish my local party was organized better and had already chosen a good candidate. I think it's very nice that they thought of me. I wish that people who didn't believe in invisible beings were not de facto disqualified from public office. Yet I'm relieved that I won't be sinking time and money into a campaign that would very likely fail. And though it would probably be quite an adventure, I wouldn't have been thrilled about having a job that's three hours away from my home.

I don't blame the party for not wanting to run me, but I do wish that the people of this district (and the whole country) could understand that non-believers can be morally upstanding, sensible and compassionate public servants.

Okay, Josh, you can exhale.

Hopefully I'm back. Things are very hectic at work, and I've been using lunch to sleep and after work to work on the condo, so it's been hard to find time to post. Things to look forward to (hopefully) soon: reviews of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book), The Savages, Follow the Fleet, Carefree, Beowulf, There Will Be Blood, Chariots of Fire, The Thin Man series, The Awakening (book), The Woman in White, Camera Buff, Private Fears in Public Places, Heidi (book), Offside, Enchanted, In the Heat of the Night, The Scarlet Pimpernel (book), and Strange Wilderness. Some of those were from the beginning of the year, so my reviews might be short (like my memory).

This weekend we were kind of grumpy. The place has been a mess and we've been here a month, and there's still so much more to do. On Friday we went out to eat, dropped by Lowe's, and painted in the kitchen. Saturday, I painted more of the kitchen cabinetry, then went to my parents' place to do laundry. Ric needed a break, so I let him stay home to relax and only do work if he so chose, and I went out to eat with my sister at the Market City cafe (yummy clams) and to see No Country for Old Men again. Sunday, we went to church and Mimi's with Liz and baby Emily, then returned home to work some more. The kitchen cabinets are done being painted, but there is a lot of touch up to do (and a lot of cursing from me). I took a break in the evening to join Ric doing laundry at his parents' place and enjoyed a good spaghetti dinner. I talked shop (work) with Ric's mom for an hour and then we headed home, where I started unloading kitchen things. More cursing ensued. We ended the night with a trip to Jack in the Box for milkshakes and concluded our viewing of Millions, which we had rented before we moved.

Let me just say that the whole DIY/moving thing does come with many disappointments. For instance: spend tons of time putting up tape to paint, then paint, and then when you remove the tape (no matter how carefully), it rips off the paint on the wall. Basically, I could have skipped taping and just done touch-up later. Grrr.. Also, we bought hinges off ebay for the kitchen cabinets. Turns out they are meant for cabinet doors that are flush with the cabinet framework, rather than outside. Since I've never seen cabinet doors like that, I never would have caught that. So tonight's another trip to Lowe's to see if we can find some. Another frustrating thing is the size of the kitchen cabinets compared with our old place. Right now I'm creating piles for things that are: never used, expired, not exactly necessary, sometimes needed but can be stored in another part of the house since the kitchen is so frickin' small. I think I'll be selling a lot of stuff. Sorry to say, too, that I've been cursing the previous landlord for all the things I bought for the Bright house that don't fit in (or match) this house. Case in point: a beautiful double-decker lazy susan for all of my spices. I wish I could keep it, but it's an inch too wide for my pantry. Argh! By the way, did I mention that we got back our deposit for the Bright house, and the only compensation besides it for our troubles was a $30 gift card to Mimi's? Thanks. That really makes up for the $2000+ I wasted in moving to that place. Okay, that's all the venting I'm going to do. I know it's not nice.

Patience. I know it's just a stage, but since we've been dealing with moving details and boxes for the past 9 months, I think I have a right to be slightly grouchy. But today is better than yesterday, and each day should (hopefully) get better!

For the last few days Neil Gaiman has been writing on his journal about the benefits of giving books away for free online. The first major post was here, in which he wrote:

This is how people found new authors for more than a century. Someone says, "I've read this. It's good. I think you'd like it. Here, you can borrow it." Someone takes the book away, reads it, and goes, Ah, I have a new author.

Libraries are good things: you shouldn't have to pay for every book you read.

I'm one of those authors who is fortunate enough to make my living from the things I've written. If I thought that giving books away would make it so that I could no longer make my living from writing and be forced to go out and get a real job -- or that other authors would be less likely to be able to make a living -- I wouldn't do it.

And then in a follow-up post in response to a concerned bookseller's e-mail he wrote:

The books you sell have "pass-along" rates. They get bought by one person. Then they get passed along to other people. The other people find an author they like, or they don't.

When they do, some of them may come in to your book store and buy some paperback backlist titles, or buy the book they read and liked so that they can read it again. You want this to happen.

Just as a bookseller who regards a library as the enemy, because people can go there and read -- for free! -- what he sells, is missing that the library is creating a pool of people who like and take pleasure in books, will be his customer base, and are out there spreading the word about authors and books they like to other people, some of whom will simply go out and buy it.

Pretty cool stuff.

By the way, this whole discussion was prompted by Neil getting Harper Collins to put the full text of American Gods online for free. I've read nearly all of Gaiman's writings and I think this is his best prose work. So if you haven't already read it, go to the free online version and check it out.

The Top Ten Oscar Contenders for 2008 - Film School Rejects

This is a great look at some of the movies coming this year. There's definitely a lot to look forward to. I'm especially pumped for the new Coen Brothers and David Fincher flicks. It also appears 2008 is going to be the year of Brad Pitt. The guy must really want that statue. Hopefully it will work out for him.

In the process of going through the old entries for the upcoming (I swear!) brendoman.com: The Book I realized it's been ages since I've done one of these. I recall finding some great stuff thanks to other folks (mostly Jeri and Eric) posting their lists. Here's what I've been hitting up lately:

Tunes: I've been listening to anything having to do with Ronnie and Jason Martin lately. Ronnie is definitely a huge influence on my own musical efforts and Phil and I are gearing up for re-recording our demo since the tracks we were working on were sadly lost when his hard drive crashed. So I've been listening to a lot of Starflyer 59, Joy Electric, and The Brothers Martin. According to last.fm I've also been listening to a lot of Rilo Kiley, Danielson, Mortal, and of Montreal. Props to Luis for reminding me of the awesomeness that is Danielson.

TeeVee: I've been watching Extras and Battlestar Galactica on DVD. On the Tivo I have been digging Jericho, which continues to get better and its chances of getting picked up for another season appear to be improving, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Lost, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Robot Chicken, South Park (New episodes March 12th!), and of course The Simpsons. More shows will be added once things get going again in TV Land.

Movies: I recently rented Michael Clayton and I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With. I enjoyed them both. I haven't seen a movie in the theater in awhile. There just hasn't been anything that has really grabbed my attention.

Video Games: I rented Call of Duty 4 this weekend and played it for about 3 hours yesterday. I really enjoyed it. It's one of the first squad based games I've played where your computer teammates actually help you out. I haven't played multiplayer yet but I heard it is great. When I was sick last week I downloaded Bomberman Live and SmashTV which I had a lot of fun playing online. Bomberman is just as addicting as its always been and SmashTV is fun to play in Co-op and much cheaper now that quarters aren't an issue. That game is one of the all time quarter suckers.

Books: I'm almost done with Stephen Colbert's book and I'm about halfway done with King Dork, which Justin was kind enough to let me borrow. I also picked up Paul Feig's (creator of Freaks and Geeks books, Kick Me and Superstud which I've really enjoyed so far. On the comics end I've really been digging Brian Lynch's Angel: After the Fall and Joss Whedon's Buffy Season 8 issues. I'm also looking forward to Lynch's Everybody's Dead, which comes out this month.

There you go. Further proof that I am a media whore.