--Albert Einstein

Darn.

The people over at Yahoo! apparently noticed that the Yoyodyne Entertainment News archives were still up. The link in yesterday's entry worked last night, but not anymore.

I knew I should have downloaded all of the older issues while I had the chance...

Next week is the annual PC Expo in Manhattan, and, as usual, I have a free pass for the exhibits. (All you need to do is go there once, and you're pretty much set for life, as you invariably get invited back. And getting in the first time isn't that tough; in my case, it came with membership to a local BBS.) That runs from Tuesday through Thursday.

In years past, I've usually shown up for a few hours on one or two days. This time around, my attendance may turn out to be contingent on whether any money finally comes in, because, otherwise, I'm not going to have the three bucks I'll need for the round trip on the subway. Stay tuned.

...which I may as well move on to, or this narrative will get way too complicated. So. A week from Wednesday, on the final day of June, camp begins. My job, for the seventh straight year, will be to write a weekly camp newspaper, for the consumption of about 1,000 campers, the staff, and their parents.

Let's go with "The Campers' Paradise." It in no way resembles the camp's real name, but is a phrase I've occasionally used in the paper, usually in an endearingly semi-facetious tone, within a phrase like "why, everybody knows this is a glorious campers' paradise, where it never rains, and everybody has lots of fun, all day, every day, and..."

Besides, I can't think of anything better.

My job, as mentioned, is to write the camp paper, which is distributed every Friday. Which means that the first issue will have to be done by the first day of camp, to allow time for layout and printing. Which, generally speaking, would leave me plenty of time, as I usually write everything at the last minute... except that I don't know how jury duty will affect matters. So I figure I'd better write the first issue next week, if I know what's good for me.

I've been thinking about it, though, trying to come up with a viable plan for the entire summer's worth of issues. I have a general approach in mind at this point, but whether it will really work, and can be sustained for an entire summer, remains to be seen.

You'll be hearing more about all of this in the future, I'm sure.

It may be worth noting that, a couple of years back, the form filled out by my doctor included "Teeth: false," "Genitalia: Absent," "Describe Abnormal Findings and/or Handicapping Conditions: Inadequate space," and "General Appraisal: Sell." (I photocopied it before handing it in, of course.) My doctor has a warped sense of humor.

Let's see... anything else on the horizon that I'm forgetting? Not really. There's the recently-announced New York City Online Journal Reading thing, but that's in August, and I'm not going to be there, anyway. I was actually a bit relieved to find out that it's been scheduled for a Saturday, so I won't be able to attend, for religious reasons. Given my generally antisocial nature, it's probably just as well. Although reading something might have been fun. But having to be sociable with a large group of strangers wouldn't have been, and I probably would have felt compelled to go anyway, so, yes, the scheduling is probably a good thing, all around.

Besides, my brother's getting married the day after that, so I'll probably be busy figuring out how I'm going to get to the airport the next morning, or something like that.

The wedding's in Boston, y'see. Based on what happened with my last brother to get married, also in Boston, I assume the rest of the family will drive there on Friday and stay there the whole weekend. And, as happened last time, I expect to fly there on Sunday instead, as I never stay away from home overnight. (Returning to the family home in Far Rockaway is the sole exception to the rule, which is pretty much unavoidable.) Being driven there on Sunday, even if feasible, is also not an option. After a few hours on the road, I'd be in no condition to attend a wedding. So if the only remaining alternative is to pay for a flight there, so be it.

What's ironic is that it looks as if there's an outside chance that Columbine will stop by New York for the reading, and I'll stop by Boston the day after, and we'll never see each other. Hmmph.