God jesus damn I'm stressed. Why am I so stressed? Why do I get so stressed? It's not because of anything stressful happening, it's because I have a lifelong prediliction for stress. Wow. It's time to cool off. Cooool.

You know when you have all kinds of little things to do--you have a heap of crap to do at work, but them when you get home, you have another heap of crap to do for your life...that's what I hate. But who can you complain to? The irony is, I'd be miserable as hell if I had nothing at all to do. Trust me, I've been there.

Top 5 Things 10/18/05

1. My new copy of On Beauty by Zadie Smith
2. Sesame Sticks
3. Tobacco
4. Jazz piano with jazz drums
5. Happy Puppy

Bill Knott, one of the poets on the list below, posted a comment on the list below. I hope he knows how much people love his work.

Sending the ole' manny out to contests again. Aren't we all? I've got 4 out so far, to Alice James, Yale, Walt Whitman, and New Issues. And a few more on my list to go. The ms. is significantly revised since last year, but who knows if anyone will notice it. But that's not why we send out manuscripts. We send out manuscripts to practice sending out manuscripts, so that we'll be good at it later, when it counts. I wish everyone luck and hope we all win.