I decided I wanted a map awhile back, so I picked up a little antique one, and bought an envelope full of stamps from all over the world. I painted the stamps with glue and collaged them until a matboard was covered, then I took the thing to work, cut the mat and put it together. I have to say, it's pretty darned neat. I did that last Saturday. Or maybe it was the Saturday before that... I can't remember any more. I made an extra one, though, so today I was sitting around sketching a piece to go with a stamp-mat.

When I got tired of sitting around I decided to make a jaunt to the post office. It was a pretty nice day out today; kinda cloudy like rain, but it never quite got that far. I had to ship some stuff off eBay and check my mailbox. I was still bored so I went to the mall. I was walking around, and one of those little places where they do piercing for free if you buy the earrings caught my attention. I've wanted to get the gap between my top and bottom earrings filled in for awhile now, so I thought "Sure, why not?" I sat down and decided to have two pairs of the four installed, so my ears didn't get too sore. I was telling the nice chick about slicing my thumb open and getting stitches while she was rubbing my ear with alcohol (or whatever it was), and this little, shy looking girl in glasses comes up. One of the other girls asks if she can help them (the girl and her mum) and they say, "Yeah, we decided she wants her ears pierced so we came back." I kind of smiled at the kid because she looked sort of nervous, so I suppose it worked out OK for her. She didn't look too scared anymore after she watched me get run through four times in a row. I usually get annoyed when people want to watch, but this time it didn't bother me. I guess the four earrings I already had in each ear were enough to let her know it's not really that big of a deal. (Well, now there's six.) When these stop being tender and sore in about a week, I'm going back to get the last two.

I still wasn't satisfied though, so I wandered around for a bit. I was waiting for one of those guys in the cell-phone kiosks to say something, so I could yell "Cram it, phone boy!" at him. I don't know why on earth they think I'm supposed to be toting around an expensive chunk of plastic and computer chips for all the non-existant phone calls I get. Crap, I'm not even available on my land-line; why would I want people to be able to call me when I'm out? If you have something to say to me, e-mail it. I'll answer when I get around to it. If it's important, find someone else to help you, because there ain't anything urgent that you could possibly need me for in a million years.

"Jin! We need this painting done in the next thirty minutes, or this guy here is going to DIE!" Um, yeah. I'm not Batman. Right?

I was thinking that I haven't gone and eaten in a restaurant for awhile either. I have been sorta setting things up with a new photographer, but nothing specific yet. Which means that I haven't done anything really interesting since Giftmas. My waiter friend, who I only call and he only calls me when one of us needs a favour from the other, called and woke me up at 9:00 p.m. the other night to ask me who my webhost was. (After he left a message on my voice mail and I failed to call him back.) I tried to get a ride out to Intercontinental from him before Giftmas, and that was the last time I talked to him before that.

I was trying to think of someplace I could drive to for a day, but the only two places that came to mind were Dallas and Austin, and Dallas really needs an overnight stay. Of course, my friend in Dallas is actually in Colorado at the moment, and my friend who I thought was in Austin is actually in San Antonio now (apparently he doesn't go to UT anymore.) One of the other message boards I visit had a big get together on the 19th, but it was 45 minutes across town, and when I found out there would be people smoking and drinking alcohol I decided it was not my kind of gathering. Why bother going across town to buy food that always makes me sick and have a headache all night? Ok.

So my birthday is on February 23rd. I had wanted to be in Toronto, but it turns out that I'm not going up there again until March. I'm not sure what, if anything, I'm going to do. Two of the kids at work said we should 'do something,' but it remains to be seen what that something might be. I'm getting the money together to buy my own present -- I want a new top hat, a custom hat with a better fit. That, and I have a couple minor changes I'd like to make that I can get only with a custom-made. This new guy at work is trying to talk me into going to a Bad Religion show, presumably with his girlfriend and some other friends; no idea if I'll have any part of that yet. I have no idea why the bugger wants me to go anyway. I keep trying to get him to leave me alone, but he's a nosy fellow. He's banned from being in the shop when I'm listening to NPR, though.

Anyway, I'm open to coffee one of these days, if anyone's in the area and you're not hideously ugly or a serial killer, or something like that.