For those who don't know, emo:

1. is short for emotional
2. cropped up in the past year
3. involves wearing hair over half your face and cutting yourself
4. is a global network of kids who are all connected and rank themselves on the internet
5. is committing a social injustice by supplanting goth (invented by Marilyn Manson in the late 90s) as the lowest rung on the youth social ladder
6. occupies 87% of Alex's iTunes library.

OK, that being out of the way, I have a bridge to sell you. No seriously, at least two of those things are partially true. But that kind of info can be dangerous in the hands of well-meaning but cripplingly stupid parents, television reporters, and police. Especially when they take things that are obviously jokes (I can tell just by looking but a trained law officer can't?) and turn them into "dangerous behavior."

Guy Picciotto may have already been reaching for the pink hair dye, but this video (sent by Gavin) would make even Jeremy Enigk grow a mustache and start hanging out with Weird Al...



UPDATE: I just remembered that, while working in a rock shop at a Renaissance festival of all places, this girl of say, 14 came up to me. She said, "I like your glasses. Are you emo like me?" I could have said "no, I'm Elvis Costello," but that would have gone over her head. So I said "No. I'm self-employed."

I was watching my DVR'ed Scrubs and Zach Braff was totally drinking an appletini. You can't make that crap up! So of course, the first thing I thought was, OMG, Alex's birthday!

So here's hoping that this year will be even better than the last, and that the Year of the Pig brings a big chunk of prosperity.

Alex has raised the bar for men everywhere with his firework-and-chocolate encrusted engagement. Or as Gavin might say in an IM after a too-long workday, his engadgetment. Many congratulations, and here's wishing you plenty of happy years.