2001-06-11 - 7:20 a.m.

"Evolution" was a bit of a disappointment. Nowhere near as good as "Shrek". It was funny, kinda, and I really liked all the alien critters, especially the 'bird', which bore a more-than-coincidental resemblance to the Jabberwocky. If you've ever wondered what Tenniel's Jabberwocky would look like in real life, go see the movie for that reason. But not much other. Oh, it wasn't that bad. I guess. The jokes were a little old. How many times can a beautiful but clumsy woman be funny? I could have lived with that if they had made the science jokes the plot seemed to be begging for, but...they didn't. I just don't think David Duchovny should have messed with comedy. He appeared to be missing the timing. And the 7up guy, who was potentially the real comic of the thing, got stuck with...well, he was okay, but they could have done better by him. He and Duchovny should have traded parts.

I think I enjoyed the previews as much as the movie. New Jackie Chan movie coming out soon. I love Jackie Chan. I'm not big into action movies, but when I have to watch them, I pick Chan or Steven Segal (Mr. All-American hero).

My new diaryring is taking off by leaps and bounds. I don't think I like it very much. With the artistampers, I can assume some common interest with the members and thus am more tolerant of their, say, not updating for a month a a time, etc. I hate kicking them off, like when they don't put the ring html in and stuff. All the lazypenpals have in common is that they're lazy. I saw "The Lazy Penpal" as the title to some mailart project somewhere, it reminded me of an Edward Gorey caption, and I had to integrate it somehow. It's a very monolithic sort of label. Conjures to mind some sort of demigod or orisha, or at least an architype of this well intentioned person with reams of paper in front of them, stacked on the floor beside the table, with an 80-page letter full of great insights that they are too lazy to buy stamps for and walk out to the mailbox (or worse yet, since it's so big, they might have to have it weighed at the post office). They drive by the post office every day, but never remember the Letter. Meanwhile, the guilt grows, and it becomes like returning an overdue library book. It's so embarrassing, you never do it.

I still have a 12-year-old package to my penpal in Japan sitting in my closet at my mom's house.

One of my old penpals didn't write me for two years, and then I got a letter that opened with, "Sorry about the delay". I still use that one whenever I have been grossly negligent with my response time.

And then there's Valerian, a lazy penpal of staggering proportions who had a penpal in Australia who she would write to...how often? Like once every year or two? But she talked about it like it was a constant back and forth. "My penpal in Australia", she'd say. With an acute sense of the absurdity of it all, of course. It was right and proper that she be the first to join the ring.

My greatest claim to being a Lazy Penpal can be observed in combination with my other ring, the artistampers. It's for mail artists, among other things. I consider myself a mail artist (albeit a humble one), but I never actually get around to mailing anything other than bills.

Me and Galene are supposed to be doing a swap, but I haven't mailed her anything yet. I will! I promise! I'm so bad.

So let the Lazy Penpal banner stand as fair warning to those who may expect to hear from you ever again. They may not.

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