Started working for Ian. I created a new look for a client's site without knowing the client or his style preferences. This concerns me because my taste in design is somewhat nonstandard. I like Yahoo a lot: huge amount of information, yet easy to scan. Thus influenced, my new design relies on style sheets for a snazzy appearance, and has no graphics whatsoever. Some folks expect graphics. We shall see how it goes.

As a student at Edgewood Middle School, one of my favorite songs was “Dangerous on the Dancefloor” by Musto and Bones featuring PCP. Over a catchy riff and bouncy rhythm, PCP unfolded a story of the perils of careless dancing. Airplay was limited due to the nature of the story, which explains why — of all the people I've asked over the years — only Hot Dog Roth was familiar with the song. At any rate, I'd lost the cassette single somewhere, and had given up on ever finding the song, when it turned up in a CDNOW search. “You Can Find Anything on the Internet”, that's my new motto.

Spring rush officially started with our barbecue in and near Wade Commons. All manner of folk stopped by, including old Storrs pal Jon, who is turning 21 very soon (as am I). Several peanuts from the gallery who apparently haven't seen me in a while commented on my loss of weight, which is not even a slightly recent occurrence. One might say it has been at least a few fortnights since then. Ha ha! Who talks like that? What a riot.

On a lark (my other new motto: “Because I Can”), I went with Gabe to Severance Hall to see the singing group Take 6. They sang some a cappella, then some songs backed by prerecorded fake instruments. Then it turned into a madhouse. The group started preaching Christianity and singing gospel-like songs, spurring the audience to participate. It struck me that the presently tangible foolishness was of the same type for which Americans abroad are notorious: sweeping unawareness of ideas, experiences, and cultures not our own. There is a reason France has a committee to guard the evolution of their official language: it's a finger in the dike. Unfortunately, there are plenty of other holes where the American ethos can seep through. The historian Arnold Toynbee wrote, “America is a large, friendly dog in a small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair.” While probably intended as political commentary, Toynbee's witticism also pungently depicts the collective social graces of the American nation.

Watched The Mask of Zorro for the third or fourth time. It was on television, and I am a sucker for an old-fashioned story about a hero winning justice and the girl. There are critics who consider such a tale flat, mindless, and without value, but these folks have had the humanity wrung out of them. Watching a confident man pursue and achieve moral ends is instructive, encouraging, and fun. Why should this truth be any less valid in a film or book?