My New Favorite Toy

I recently got a new notebook computer from my employer and, of course, it has Windows Vista. The moment I opened Word, I hated it. Not only is it more bloated than Dom Deluise with all kinds of useless gadgetry but the most basic and useful of its tools (like the Print button) are tucked away in the many layers of its inscrutable menu system.

I have XP on the home machine and do most of my typing in Notepad and occasionally in Open Office Writer. Or at least I did until I came across a link on Joe Rogan's blog to a program called Dark Room. This bare bones text program features nothing but a full black screen and a couple of small, very discreet scroll buttons. Hit ESC and you'll get the pull-downs with the bare minimum of essential features. Otherwise, it's just you and your words, completely free of distraction. I've had it for one day, and I'm hooked.

And the timing couldn't be better, as I'm about to undertake the task of revising/re-writing my act from beginning to end. I'm not necessarily tossing years of jokes in the trash, but I am prioritizing the material I care most about and trimming a lot of fat. I've been featuring long enough that if the crowd isn't buying what I'm selling I can pull the dick jokes out and finish my time without catching a shot glass in the head. I like my dick jokes well enough and think they're original, as dick jokes go, but I've got bigger ideas to fry, and a lot of that material I put to paper when I started doing comedy has been sitting on my desktop for too long.

But finals are next week, and the kiddies will make their exodus to the Chicago burbs, and then it will just be me and my brain and Dark Room for four months, punctuated by good times with friends and good books and some shows I'm looking forward to. Which reminds me:

Saturday, June 13
Charleston, IL @ The Elks
PAT GODWIN
MATT HOLT
yours truly
.