I have just been reading the archives of this web log and have come to the dispiriting conclusion that I was a much more interesting person when I was unemployed. These days, as I work my fingers to the bone, I have to stretch buying a new Harry Potter book into three days of material. Damn you, Content Challenge!

In my neighborhood, they are setting up for a large annual street fair called Artscape. In the name of Art, the streets around my house have been transformed into an impenetrable maze and a number of precarious sculptures litter the landscape as if they fell from a passing flying saucer. I like Art as much as the next guy, but come on. The only good thing is that Crash is coming to visit. Also, there will be funnel cakes.

When I was in high school, I wanted to be an artist. Actually, despite my lack of talent, I wanted to be a comic book illustrator. In this, I did not receive much encouragement. When my father and I toured prospective colleges, he would tell the admissions staff that I was interested in architecture.

“But I want to major in Art!” I protested.

“It’s the same thing,” he said.

In the end, I majored in English, then Modern European History, then English with a minor in Modern European History, then Writing. My master’s degree is in graphic design.

As my life spins lazily around Art without actually approaching it, the mountain has decided to come to Mohammed.