Dan Savage's column is in re-runs at the moment while he's on vacation, but this week is a prime, prime classic. It's very sexually frank (or graphic, depending on how you feel), so if that bothers you, don't read it.

I looked at this place today. I want it a lot.

I'm watching Napoleon Dynamite. It's difficult to watch, horrifying in a way: the characters' lives are, to me, as bleak as the featureless, empty Midwestern landscape they inhabit. I'm tempted to think the same of the characters themselves, but the teenagers' listlessness and vacant expressions belie more complex (if autistic) inner lives and desires. It's true they're all stupid, but the fact that these seemingly blank people act with desire and occasionally happiness makes the movie watchable. And towards the end, the skill of the actors pop up and hit you in the face, and that's what makes the movie good.

I had a nice long coffee-and-ice-cream date with a cute girl tonight. I can't quite figure her out yet, which is good. It's important to have some mystery--worthwhile relationships should take some work.