So today is the second anniversary of Fresh Hell! Congratulations to me, I guess. And to celebrate, I had a contest where people could submit their favorite entries, and now it's time to announce the winners.

I was really surprised that I only got two people submitting the same entry -- the contestants really did a great job being creative in picking their favorite entries to submit, which was really cool. I liked reading why people liked particular entries a lot. So, here are some of the runners-up, in chronological order:

First Entry Ever!: Amelia picked the first ever entry as her favorite, because her school serves Mexican pizza too. Hey, I don't make these up.

Jobs I Have Known: Monty selected the entry describing all of the jobs I have had in my life because he loves "hearing about the goofy things people used to have to do to bring money in." I applaud him for choosing it, because I don't know what I was trying to do, design-wise, but that entry is really difficult to read.

Korean Food: Andrew chose this entry because it inspired him to finally visit the Korean restaurant he had been meaning to check out, and it's now one of his favorite restaurants. Meanwhile, I keep meaning to go back to Seoul Garden, but haven't yet.

Tomato: This entry was picked by Matt because of a paragraph near the end, where I discuss how we used to insert our own names and those of our friends into prayers and hymns during church service. He and his friends used to do the same thing, so it made him smile to remember it.

Mighty Big: Jessyca picked this entry because "it represents all of the Web reading fun" I have brought to her life. It was the entry where I announced that Mighty Big TV had launched, and it led her to many other sites that she enjoys besides mine.

Bloody Wanker: Jessyca actually nominated two entries. She found this one while looking for the previous one, so she suggested them both, and she likes it because she had a similar bar experience recently.

Nightmare at Tully's: According to Claire, she picked this entry because she was "crying with laughter" when she read it, and it's "one of the funniest things [she's] ever had the pleasure of reading." Of course with all that build-up, you might not find it as funny as her. It cracked me up though, remembering it.

And I Love Him: Kathryn went the sentimental route and chose the entry I wrote all about Jim. If Jim had entered the contest, he probably would have picked this one too. Because it's all about him. Anyway, Kathryn liked this one because it reminded her of her own relationship, plus she tried some Pumpkin Spice coffee and loved it.

Mr. and Mrs. Clifton: To the surprise of no one, Mary chose the entry that was all about her. Can you blame her?

Kim Through The Years: Nicole enjoyed my entry with lots of old pictures (which is good, because I have another similar entry coming up in the future), because she thought it showed my readers another side of me. I think this is my favorite entry, too!

2000 Movies: And the final runner-up is Monique, who writes, "I laughed, I cried, I quoted you in my journal." That she did!

Okay, so now it's time to announce the winners. Drum roll, please.

There's a tie for third/second place, because they both picked the same entry. The entry is titled PS2, Baby! and the readers who picked it were Serena and Lissa. I got more feedback about this entry than any I've ever written. Ever. People loved it. They loved the suspense, they loved the part where they thought I was going to kick Tubby's ass, and they loved the part where we finally got the PS2.

And the first place winner is: Gael, who selected The Best Picture Ever. Here's what she said: "Because it is. Because it sums up the '80s (I swear I have that dress! and had that hair!) and high school (because who hasn't had a bad date!), and most of all, because you're blessedly able to laugh at yourself, and look back and realize how much you've changed. Sums up a lot of what I love about Fresh Hell, I guess, how you're never afraid to laugh at yourself. Plus how many people's prom dates go on trial for murder? I mean, really." I couldn't have put it better.

I'll let you know what the prizes are once I figure it out myself, but in the mean time, thank you to everyone who entered, and everyone who reads this site! Two years down, many more to go.

I have an announcement to make.

On March 26, 2001, it will be the second anniversary of this journal. The weblog was around pretty much the whole time, although it started out as a sidebar to each journal entry, and then I started double-posting the links to both the journal and the weblog in October '99, and finally moved the weblog to it's own page, completely apart from the journal at my one-year anniversary.

But that's not all this announcement is about. I'm having a contest to celebrate my anniversary. Pamie warned me against having a contest, but I'm crazy, and I'm going to do it anyway. So here it is:

Here is my first entry ever. If you actually follow that link, try not to laugh at the suckitude. Hey, it was the first webpage I ever made! I've gotten better, I think! You're looking at today's entry. Somewhere in between is your favorite entry. Maybe it's the first one you ever read. Maybe it made you laugh. Maybe it made you think. Maybe it made you wonder what the hell my problem was. Whatever. I don't care.

Pick a favorite entry and then send me an e-mail at fresh@fresh-hell.com telling me the date of your favorite entry and a short (and I mean a few sentences, although it can be longer if you want) explanation of why you chose that particular entry.

I'll pick the top three out of all the e-mails I get, and you'll get a little prize. I don't know what the prize will be yet. You'll definitely get mentioned here, and your pick and the reason will be printed here as well. And I'll send you something. Keep in mind that I am about the worst mail person in the world, so it might not get to you right away. But eventually, you will get something. We're talking more like a T-shirt or a book, not like a DVD player or a TiVo.

The deadline for entries is Sunday, March 25th at midnight Eastern time. I know it's soon, so get on the ball. I want to be able to post the winning entries on the actual anniversary, and that doesn't give me much time to make my picks. Assuming I get more than three entries, that is. All entries become the property of me, and as I said, they will be printed here on the site under whatever name you choose. I'll e-mail the winners on March 26th and let you know if you've won. Friends, family, enemies -- you're all free to enter. I can't promise you will win, but feel free to enter.

One entry per person, please. It's supposed to be your FAVORITE entry. So one per person.

So go ahead and check out my pre-2001 archives or my 2001 archives. There are a lot of them. And then enter! Please? This won't be any fun if no one enters.

And in other news, my friend Brenda has a bun in the oven! She's the first of my childhood friends to get preggers, so I'm very excited. She's due September 27th, but I think she's going to have the baby on my birthday, September 19th. Anyway, congrats to Brenda and Matt!

So I went to SXSW last week. In case you don't know, SXSW is an annual conference/festival in Austin, Texas. There are three components -- interactive, film, and music. Probably the music part is the most well-known. I went to the interactive part, largely because Tara (a.k.a. Wing Chun) scored me a free pass. Some of the panels I attended were really interesting -- others, not so much. A lot of the discussion kept coming back to money, or lack thereof. I had some idea that I would meet all of the people behind the websites I read, but truth be told, I'm kind of shy in real life, and easily intimidated. So I did meet some people, but I was too chicken to just walk up to people and start talking. I did get to meet and hang out with Gayle from Pop Culture Junk Mail, and she was seriously cool. She rocked her panel, and then we hung out that night and talked like old friends.

I also met Stef from Fiendish Thingy, and her boyfriend Matt, who were both very cool. Matt was waiting to hear about a job, and I hope it works out for the best! Stef and I live fairly close to one another, but didn't meet until we went to Texas. I also met a guy named Kevin, who runs a site about books called Central Booking, and we ended up at a lot of the same panels. We chit-chatted about television and books and stuff and he gave me a bookmark!

In passing, I said hello to Andy Wang of Ironminds, Jason Kottke and Peter Merholz. The Kottke/Merholz story is kind of funny. I was going to videotape a panel that Tara was on for her, but I wasn't sure what room it was in, so I was wandering up and down the hallway, and I saw the two of them standing there talking. This was the last panel on the last day, so I summoned up all my courage, and just walked over and introduced myself. After a minute or so of awkward talking on my part, I excused myself and wandered off. The wrong way. So then I had to pull the old, "I know I just walked off this way, but now I'm going to turn around and walk right back by you the other way, and I'm not an idiot, I swear!" I'm sure they didn't even notice, or care, but I felt like a big old dork.

Oh, and I also met Sean Suhl, who was on a panel that Pamie moderated, and we talked about usability, teaching, and his much-coveted and envy-inducing Titanium Powerbook.

But I spent most of my time hanging out with people I already knew. I feel a little guilty about that, given that it's supposed to be this huge networking opportunity, but I also feel like any networking I did wouldn't have been ALL that successful. First of all, I don't want to move anywhere, which any job offers would probably require. Second of all, with the state of the current economy, not many people are looking for freelance "content providers." So, whatever. I had a good time. Here are some pictures, in no particular order.

Omar was the best host and ambassador for Austin ever! Even though Tara and I were ostensibly just there for the conference, he made it his personal mission to make sure that we were taken care of. He even called us one night on his way home to see if we needed anything or needed a ride anywhere! The hotel we stayed at was a bit of a hike from the downtown area through some shady sections of town, so Omar was frequently called upon to cart us around. One night, he took us on a pilgrimage to Whattaburger (where I took this picture of Tara and him), and then to meet with Pamie and Stee and others at a bar, and then took us out to Krispy Kreme afterwards! In conclusion, Omar rules! I was pretty impressed with Whattaburger. Luckily, Omar used to work there as a teen, so he was able to give us the lowdown on what to order, and how. The burgers were tasty! And I don't have to tell you about Krispy Kreme, right? If you've been, then you know. I can't wait until we get one here! We also got to stop by Omar's place, and meet his cat, who was very excited about the lingering Whattaburger smell of my hands. And then! I almost forgot! Earlier that day, we had gone to lunch together at IHOP, and were talking about video games and various consoles, and I mentioned that I liked puzzle games the best, and that we have a PS2. Tara mentioned something about their Dreamcast, and what kinds of games she and Dave like. So when next we saw Omar, he gave us all free games and stuff! He gave me a PS2 puzzle game! I just thought it was so incredibly thoughtful that he remembered what kind of games I like, and what system I have, and then gave me a game. Jim and I have already gotten lots of play out of it, once we figured out what the hell the game was about. That took a while. But our stupidity doesn't make it any less of a fantastic and thoughtful gift. And now that we know what we are doing, we have spent many hours battling each other in Vs. mode. When we started, I would win, but then Jim won like fifteen in a row, and suddenly it's not so fun anymore. Plus, I started trash-talking, and then it got ugly. But none of that is Omar's fault. What was I talking about again?

We only went to one official SXSW party, and that was just to meet up with Pamie and Stee. As soon as they arrived, we left. But this party was the official closing party of the interactive part, and there were music and film people there too. Ian Moore was performing, and I've heard good things about him, but seeing him in a nearly empty concert hall while some girl made out with HER DAD in front of us wasn't all that fun. And it was too loud to talk to one another. Anyway, the one cool thing about waiting there was that Ron Jeremy (porn star, if you don't know) walked in, surrounded by young, nubile women. So I snapped this picture of him. He didn't notice because he was all busy signing girls' boobs and stuff. He's very, very scary looking. But he was the only non-web based celebrity I saw while I was in Austin, so I had to record the moment. Apparently Wiley Wiggins (from Dazed and Confused) was there also, but I didn't see him. And later we went to a bar where a band was playing. Apparently, normally the lead singer of the band is Sandra Bullock's boyfriend. But he wasn't there -- they got a substitute, I guess. Maybe he was busy accompanying her to the SAG Awards or something. I don't know.

This is Pamie on her cell phone. Also, she's flipping me the bird, but I don't think she meant to. Or maybe she did! Anyway, I imagine this was a difficult trip for her in some ways, because she was trying to attend the interactive and film conferences, while at the same time, meeting up with all of her Austin friends, and hanging out with us. She managed to do it all with a smile, and while giving us free Squishy t-shirts! But she spent a lot of time on the phone, trying to coordinate where everyone was meeting, at what time, etc. Jim asked me before I left if I was going to take my cell phone with me. I don't know if I've told you about my cell phone before. I rarely use it, so I got the cheapest model available, like two years ago. So now, it's just embarrassing. I am ashamed to use it in front of other people. And I'm so glad I didn't take it to SXSW, where everyone had the super-cool futuristic cell phones. I figure if I keep my phone for about six more months, it will be retro. And then I can use it proudly, and tell people I'm "keeping it real." Or "kicking it old school." Yeah, that's what I'm going to say. Except that half the time it doesn't work. I know. I need to get a new damn phone. I would get rid of it entirely, but once in a while it does come in handy. Like when I'm driving home from Mary's house and I can call Jim and ask what he wants me to get him at McDonald's. Seriously -- that's about the most I use it. Except that one time that we were going to my parents' house and it was snowing really hard, and I called my mom to let her know where we were, and then I screamed because I thought we were going to get hit head-on by a truck, and then I told my mom I loved her because I was about to die, and I was kind of kidding, and she didn't think it was funny at all. Anyway.

Pamie is so pretty. Stee looks a little bit like a scary stalker, but it works for him. I guess I should talk about meeting stee for the first time. First of all, is stee supposed to be capitalized? I don't know. I'm going with the lower case. So, I met stee in person for the first time. I was nervous, because I think he is really, really funny. And intimidating. And if you already read his journal or his recaps, you don't need me to tell you how super cool he is. But he couldn't have been nicer. I first met him at a comedy club, and it was all very confusing because we had to go around to another door or something, so I didn't really get to introduce myself properly. But then later, he gave me a keychain to replace my twist tie. Yes, I was using a twist tie as a keychain. Shut up. Anyway, now I have a new one. So every time I start my car, I will think of stee. I also found out that he's a really good conversationalist -- a trait I admire, and try to cultivate my own self, but usually fail. Where I would ask something like, "So, what do you do for a living?" or something equally lame, Stee would ask, "Why do you live where you live?" which is far more interesting and far more likely to lead to conversation. Anyway, in all the things I've seen written about stee on the web, I've never seen someone say he's a good conversationalist, so that's my contribution to the lore of stee. Also, the chick from Salon who moderated his panel was totally digging him.

The final picture is Omar, me, Pam and Tara. I'm not sure what Pamie was doing, but let's just say she was drunk. Yeah, that's it. Drunk. Anyway, I had a really good time. This picture was taken on the last night, which was probably the most fun. We hung out in this bar on the cool leather couches and laughed and laughed. I got to meet Michelle (you may know her from her advice forum on Squishy) and got to hear Pamie's newly-formed impersonation of Michelle. As I said when I went to Vegas, I'm really lucky to have met such cool people from all different parts of the country. I have a lot of cool friends here in Syracuse, and I'm grateful for them. But without the Internet, I never would have met my cool friends from other parts of the country. Thank you, Internet!

So, Sars' latest Tomato Nation about what it means to be well-read got me thinking about everything I don't know.

I went to a small, private, Jesuit college, which means that (unlike my brother, who went to a state school) I was required to take a lot of basic religion, philosophy, and history courses. Religion mostly meant Christianity, although a few other options were offered. I took part in something called the Integral Honors Program, which was actually pretty cool, in retrospect. Whereas normally, a student would take individual religion, philosophy, literature, and history courses, we combined them all into one giant six-credit course that met for two hours, three times per week. Each semester we studied a different era -- first semester was Classics, second semester was Medieval and Renaissance, and the last semester was everything after that (although we only covered up to about 1945). While it was a lot to cover, it was really helpful to read works of literature while you were also learning what was going on in the world at the time in terms of religion, philosophy, and politics. Senior year, we had to write a fifty-page thesis, and we also took a graduate-level seminar on "The Modern Era", where we basically read stuff and then came into class and had a round-table discussion.

Anyway, the point of this isn't to talk about what I do know, but what I don't know. While I graduated with a BA in English (minor in Communications), I started out as a Political Science major. The problem was that I was really only interested in U.S. politics, and even then, only really from FDR to the present. So after I took all three courses that covered those eras ("The Presidency", "Women in Politics", "Politics and the Mass Media"), I didn't really want to take any more. So I changed my major. Good reason, huh? Hey, I was nineteen years old. Like it matters.

But reading Sars' essay, I got thinking about all the stuff I don't know, or only know about in passing. I like to think I have a good general knowledge -- I always do fairly well at Trivial Pursuit, no matter what the category -- but I have these huge gaps in my knowledge.

For example, after seeing Saving Private Ryan, I realized that I don't know that much about World War II. I mean, I know which countries were on which sides, and I have a vague idea about how it all started, when the U.S. got involved, and how it ended. But in terms of fronts and battles and stuff -- no clue. Is that stuff that I need to know for my everyday life? Not really. But I wish that I did. I mean, it wasn't that long ago. Luckily, Jim does know about that stuff and he explains things to me.

Another example -- art. I took a course in college that was a survey of art and music. (I think it was actually called "Survey in Art and Music".) We would look at slides of various art and listen to music, and my professor would talk about it, and put it in historical context. The problem is that I'm lazy, and I didn't used to go all that often, because you could do that and still get a B+ in the class. One summer when I worked in the college library, I had the job of cataloging all of the art slides -- and there were a lot. Sometimes the artist or title would be identified on the slide, but often they were not, so I spent a lot of time looking at slides and then trying to find them in a book. I actually did learn a lot about different artists that way -- I was able to identify at least the era by the way it looked -- but I've forgotten most of it, and I never had any context in the first place.

Another example -- classical literature and mythology. Maybe it's because Jim was a Classics minor, so he knows a lot about that stuff. I took a whole class on "The Epic Poem". I read the Iliad there. I read the Odyssey there too, although I had already read it in high school (or parts of it). But I still don't feel like I have a good grasp on all the stories and the mythology. I'm always like, "Was Oedipus the one who plucked his eyes out after he killed his father and married his mother?" I think the problem is that all the stories are so similar -- someone's always accidentally killing a relative, or cutting off their own body parts. We watched the season finale of Oz, and Jim could point out where they got the story about (and I have to look this up because I can't even remember the names) Orpheus and Eurydice wrong. Like, he went to Hades, not hell. And he sang for the King and Queen (Hades and Persephone), not just the Queen. And he didn't look back until he was already out of the tunnel. These are all things I don't know. And I wish that I did.

So, why don't I just sit down and read about it? Maybe I will. But the thing is, I'm a pretty self-motivated learner. When I wanted to learn HTML, I sat down with a book and learned it. I have to be interested in something to really jump into it, and the reason that I don't know anything about the stuff I don't know is because I'm just not that interested in it. I want to know it, but I don't want to learn it. I wish I had a module or something that I could plug into my brain called "Classical Mythology" that would contain all of that information. Or "Wars and Their Effects".

In other words, I'm kind of lazy. But you already knew that, right?