postscript to sunday's 'it's 8:30 and i'm absolutely beat' story: i've got to take the bull by the horns and get to sleep when that situation occurs. because, as it happened, i got into bed at 9:06, and read for 45 minutes. and then i wasn't tired anymore, so i read a few magazines. then it was 1045, and i still wasn't tired, so i watched my tape of the weekend's saturday night live. then i went to sleep, and it was 1215. sigh.

double postscript: for two straight nights, i've fallen asleep while drooling on the current newsweek. perhaps that's because the magazine's cover story 'the falling dollar,' or perhaps it's because i was dead tired. it's been a long time since i've done that, and it concerns me.

this morning, it should be noted, was the second straight time i woke up way after i was planning to. i try to get up at 820. the last two mornings have seen me get up at 842. five minutes late to work, but i've made it up on the back end.

i don't read as much novel-type stuff as i should, but i'm utterly fascinated by you shall know our velocity. dave eggers is, i think, a young intellectual hipster touchstone, and i can see why. it's pretty neat writing. (i think i'm about 3 years late on this one, but i think that's okay. he was just in spin, and i think he's a regular there.)

i have two-fold technology concerns, and i'd like those of you 'in the know' to tell me what to do. the bloc party's record, silent alarm, is a fine fine product. however, being that my home cd player is basically busted, i need to rip to my computer, then load to the ipod. anyway, this record's got anti-piracy warnings, although i don't know if there's anti-encryption software. i loaded the record at work without a problem, but i have had problems at home. like, i tried to load it to my computer, and then my computer started beeping, and then it went dark on me. like shut off.

...

and the computer has worked fine with other discs. the kings of leon record, which has bigger anti-piracy warnings, loaded without a problem. as did the replacements, and the decemberists. no problems.

here's the interesting thing: i'm getting that 'safely remove hardware' icon on my taskbar on the lower part of the page. the one you get when you're, say, detaching a digital camera or something like that. but when i click on it, it's suggesting that i remove my phillips cdrw/dvd drive. i'm hesitant to do this.

point is, the thing operates 100 percent fine - except when the bloc party cd is in there. i don't really know what i'm writing about.

two weeks to opening day, and i'm feeling good about my relative preparation.

uber-productive three days so far this week, and i'm looking forward to comign home early and watching some hoops thursday night. my bigflax.com pool got a big boost earlier this week when it was announced that nova's curtis sumpter was done for the tournament. i'm cheering for washington, illinois, west virginia and arizona tomorrow. certainly, zona over okst would go great lengths to help me in the pool, and would likely put me at 14-for-14 in the chicago regional. i think that's pretty impressive.

i haven't commented on the steroid hearings really, but i did want to say something about bonds. with yesterday's announcement that he'll not be back until at least midseason, it is my belief that he'll push back his playing date in about mid june, and then will announce his retirement at the end of the season. and then he'll do what barry sanders has done, and will do his best to disappear completely from the public eye.