I saw The Dark Knight last Sunday, and absolutely loved it!

But Robin? I think there was one Batman movie that had Robin in it.. I think it was called "Batman & Robin".. and I seem to remember it sucking, really badly, although I don't remember the plot at all (which is probably another good sign that it did, in fact, suck).

Timeline-wise, it wouldn't make sense for the new crop of Batman movies (Batman Begins and The Dark Knight) to contain Robin. But, could he possibly be part of a sequel? He just doesn't seem like a vital character at all, in fact I think (unless there was a REALLY strong plot) that he would actually be detrimental to the story.

Plus, what would his costume look like? We've practically outlawed the spandex costumes used during the era of the Batman TV series – so, what does a sidekick wear these days?

You know how when things are bad, and you don't think they can get any worse? And then something horrible happens, like your spleen explodes? Yeah, last night I was hit with something that I definitely don't need to be dealing with.. it just makes the running to California and hiding thing much more appealing.

Anyway, the smile rocks – so far they've had a mixed reception. It's something that's different and unusual, and as such, people seem to be confused about how to react, like it's some sort of joke and they're not sure whether to take it seriously.

I've put down probably 25 or so rocks around the area and neighboring cities. More than half of them have "SmileRocks.com" written on the bottom to help spread the message, but the others are there just as a reminder to smile – no promotion of the "movement" involved.

One person has found a rock and guessed that it was me, and she was incredibly excited about the whole thing. I've watched other people come across them, and yes, they do smile when they pick up that little smiling rock. I've seen one girl pocket it, but most put it back where they found it (by most I mean the 3 other people that I've seen).

So, whatever happens, wherever I end up, I think the rocks will keep smiling. Until the next project takes hold, this is the least that I can do for those Earth wanderers around me.

Many people are turning to smaller vehicles to cope with today's higher gas prices. I've heard people talk about switching to or thinking about getting motorcycles, and I've noticed more people on those funny little moped scooter things.. but..

Why isn't there more development being done in the hybrid-motorcycle market? If I was going to buy a motorcycle to save money on fuel, I'd be much more inclined to throw down some extra scratch on something that gets 150mpg rather than 50mpg. Maybe something like a 2-wheeled Prius? Well, except not ugly. Maybe something like a 2-wheeled Prius that doesn't look anything like a 2-wheeled Prius just did in my imagination.

Then again, you never hear anyone talk about hybrid motorcycles, so maybe there really isn't a market for them. Or maybe it's one of those "if you build it" situations.

Oh well. I'm sure that burning dinosaurs is actually beneficial in some way.

Ah.. weekends. They're like weekdays, except there's no work to distract me from my compulsion to absolutely fuck everything up.

A little advice: when you wake up too early on a Saturday morning and are already upset about that.. leave the rest of the world alone until you are fully functioning… or you might end up trying to say something to someone, but instead just let loose some horrible threat. Not a good way to start the day, but I suppose I've had it coming.

And then, and here's a really important one – try not to almost die a few hours later. There are 2 things that need to be impressed upon people when they're learning to drive. First, the point of driving is to get from one place to another – I'm the only person that's allowed to drive just to play, or when I'm incredibly stressed out and just need to be in a small moving box for awhile. Second, I don't care who you are or where you're going, your primary responsibility is to PAY ATTENTION and DRIVE SAFELY. When you're in front of me merging on to the interstate, you CAN NOT merge with traffic that's going 65-80mph when you are coming off the ramp at 25mph. And then you can't panic and slam on your brakes right in front of me. SLAM. I'm glad my car has an enormous engine, because I had to do some amazing "swerving around the jackass in front of me" while not cutting off anyone else. I'll drive like an idiot sometimes (this wasn't one of them), but I'm always paying attention – if it wasn't for that, the guy in front of me could have easily started a 3 or more car pileup.

So, anyway, those events coupled with a whooooole bunch of other factors have necessitated a refactoring of "sparx." I've tried to sort my life out and improve what I consider to be my flaws, but that always seems to backfire. Yeah, I'll check off a few issues, but the important stuff lies untouched. But this time, there's a plan, and I'm not expecting immediate results like I normally do. Work and effort this time. Wow.

But mostly.. if you can't drive.. don't. For the love of god, don't.

Brekdancin panda Boogies on down

Oh yeah! More lolcats!

So, how many projects have I started in the past few months? That I've admitted to.. maybe 3. There have been many "ooh! that would be fun!" ideas that didn't get much further than that. My typical criteria for judging an idea is one question: "Could I make money doing that?" The answer this time is a big fat "No", but I don't care, that's not the point this time.

I'm drawing smiles on rocks. Which, when you think about it, may seem incredibly stupid and lame, since that's the response I've already gotten from a few people now. Then I leave the rock somewhere for someone to find.

Why am I drawing smiles on rocks? Because smiles are contagious. Because smiles make people feel good. Because for every smile there's one less opportunity for someone to frown.

If you want to join in, and spread a bit of goodwill to a random person, go for it! The more smile rocks out in the wild, the better. I've started a flickr group for people to post pictures of their rocks, interesting locations where they've placed them, etc. There's a link to the group on SmileRocks.com.

Flexiblah: "flexible" with a touch of frustration (blah)

Usage: "Fine.. my schedule is mucho flexiblah."