2 shout-outs today for my uncle and mother. Let's start with Mom (sorry, Uncle Jim, but I met her first): Today, after 20someodd years working for the state, my mother gave her notice. January 1, she's out, once again flying solo, able to be that Greenwich Village beatnick she always wanted to be. Or she could just take her shiny new video camera and stalk her children with it. Either way, congrats, Mom--you earned it.

Now, on to the uncle. Jim Duzak--a fan favorite since he advised a 4 year-old me on my estate planning needs and actually helped me draw up a will (proper care of Charlie the stuffed dinosaur was critical)--just published his first book, "Mid-Life Divorce and the Rebirth of Commitment." I may know him as "Uncle Jim," but soon the world (but you first, if you buy the book today) will know him as the Attorney At Love. Coming to an Oprah show near you (not kidding). A more detailed review coming when I get my copy. Which I ordered. Did I mention that you can order one, too? Because if I didn't, now I did. So go buy one.

Oh. If you're more of an RSS / Atom user, you can subscribe to his blog here.

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Looking for parking near the local costume shop the Saturday before Halloween? 15 minutes.

Waiting in line to get into the local costume shop the Saturday before Halloween? 17 minutes.

Spending those 17 minutes 2 spots in line from a match.com girl with whom you'd done the "Internet Dating Mutual Fade-Out™" to keep things from being awkward?" Priceless.

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...how much more work you can get done when you turn off Outlook and shut down your browser. Around 4:00 this morning I decided that might be a good idea, since I hadn't slept yet. Of course, here I am blogging about it. Oops. Alt-F4 in 3, 2, 1....

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I work from home. I mean, yeah, I work, so it's not quite the "work from home" most people do when they decide to take a day off without spending vacation, but still--I work from home. I don't have a commute, my hours are flexible, and I basically have nothing about which to complain. Unless I'm on a deadline, my work schedule is pretty fluid. So why do I have no time?

It's Monday. I just got a call from a friend asking if I wanted to go see a movie, and I (honestly) replied "I think I might be free on Sunday." Am I that guy already? Someone please give me a day planner, a gun, and a single bullet.

I blame ACME. I'm only taking 2 classes there, but it's taken over my life. Improv shows from 8:30 to midnight on Fridays. Sketch class on Saturday. Improv class on Sunday. Meeting with the other students from sketch class on Saturday and/or Monday to plan our writing for the week. One night to write a sketch. One night to rewrite another. It takes time. And that's just class. Imagine if I were ever doing any real performing.

That's it. I need a benefactor. A distributed benefactor. I'll set up a paypal donation link and you pay a portion of my rent. You'll own a certain percentage of the bragging rights when I get famous. It'll be like buying stock in my personal corporation, except you'll never get a dividend. So I suppose it's more like a "Save the Cormacs." Somebody cue Ricardo Montelban.

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So tonight, thanks to my lovely and talented pal Michele Moore, I'm going to see Jack Nicholson introduce One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at the AFI 40th Anniversary Dance Party. OK, "Dance Party" was all me, but one can hope. That Tippi Hedren is probably still kinda hot....

I'm wondering if I should open the questions with "So why is it you've played yourself in every role since Chinatown?" I would so wind up with a golf club to the head....

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