The Girl in the Green Bugatti

For the past 6 years I've been dragging this painting around with me, moving it from house to house, always hanging it in the bathroom.

It originally came from my undergrad house, but I have no idea who put it there. And strangely enough, even though they look nothing alike, the girl in this painting always reminds me of my old friend Joc. She actually bailed on her room at the last second in that house, leaving only 5 guys, myself included. So I suppose this picture took the place as the lone female.

I always assumed it was one of those generic print that you'd buy at Walmart or Winners or something, and I had no idea it was a famous painting. That is, until I stumbled across it on the cover of The Great Gatsby at Chapters last month. Having never read the book, I decided to pick it up because it was on cheap, and it was a hardcover.


The book itself was decent, but didn't live up to my expectations since I've heard the name dropped many times over the years.

And even more surprising was my discovery that this very painting hangs above the kitchen table of the legendary Hank Moody from Californication. Apologies for the poor quality screenshot of Karen and the painting, but thar she be:


Just another prod in my ass that I should start into my own epic writing career...

Shitter

In an act of pure gutlessness, I have joined the most jokeworthy of all social networking sites, and it's even worse than MySpace...
Against all common sense, I am on Twitter.

To be clear, there are three simple reasons that I've joined:

1) If, by some miracle, this terrible system sticks around and becomes an important part of the interwebs, I don't want anyone stealing my name. Mintvis is as Mintvis does.
2) Apparently employers are starting to use this thing to post jobs, and I'm always in the market for an upgrade.
3) I'm so fucking funny, that I've had a few prods from friends to join, just so they can read the brilliant BS that I spew forth.

I've never liked the system from the beginning. I think it reflects of terrible self-importance that pervades our society these days. Anyone can post their bowel movements, their dog's bowel movements, and various other forms of crap. And for the most part, nobody else gives a fuck, but people think that if they post it online it somehow gives them meaning in their lives. Guess what? It doesn't. Despite your mother's assurances, you're not special, you're just another goat in the line of a million other identical goats. Get the fuck over yourselves.

And secondly I fear that this thing will further decimate the English language as we know it. With such a limited amount of space with which to convey your most intelligent* thoughts, it's hard to imagine that the use of short-forms will do anything but expand in everyday speech.

Thus far I have made two tweets - one tester to see how things work, and one inadvertent tweet that happened as I commented on one of the less-than-exciting tweets my brother seems to be making on a regular basis. I don't know how the system works really, but I'm sure I'll catch up soon. All I see is a bunch of @ and # signs, and they don't mean jack at the moment. Just more noise in an already noisy-assed world.

I don't see myself using the thing much, but the one thing I will admit is that it takes alot less energy to post on there than it does on here. So keep an eye if you like, it might become more useful in the future. Personally I'm not holding my breath.


*Stupidest

We all need a little more Meat Loaf

For the first time in over a year I am gainfully employed!

Unbelievable, I know. I'm just working part time for now, and it's at a small sign shop down in the west end. I worked for Owen Signcraft back in Barrie for a couple of summers in the past, so I've got all the skillz to be useful here too. And although it's been a number of years since I've done the work, I'm amazed that after only two days it's all coming back, all coming back to me now. Standing all the time is damn hard on the legs though...

My list of financial priorities as of now are:

1. Buy an Xbox 360
2. Buy COD Black Ops
3. Subscribe to Xbox live
4. Buy groceries
5. Pay the rent
6. Buy a new laptop
7. Buy flowers for J
8. Pay back my broheim

A man can dream, can't he?