Billy has done exceptionally well. His belated birthday present (or half of, so he tells me) is none other than the DVD of The work of Director Chris Cunningham. You may not know the name, but if you watch music videos or the tv, you'll know his work. Check out this brief bio of his work, which includes some links to detailed descriptions of his work, some of which you can even download. This guy, whether working in short clips, movies, or even adverts, produces some truly stunning and thought provoking work.

Way to go, Billy! Truly an awesome gift! Thanks dude!

Birthdays suck. Not because they're like wrong or boring or dull or something, but because people want to get you presents. Not that the presents aren't unwelcome or anything - in fact, I demand lots of expensive cool gifts and stuff. Therein lies the problem - out of lack of inspiration or whatever on their part, people ask me what I would like. The problem with this is that either I don't know, or I can only think about the few things that I do want or need.

These wants and needs can be broken down into four categories: Things that I need; Things that I want but wouldn't ask other people to buy for me; Really expensive stuff that noone, possibly including me, is actually going to buy unless they win lotto or are feeling extremely generous (like a new couch); Everything else. These categories are usually filled with pretty boring crap, like new jeans or shoes, a couple of dvd's that aren't released yet, some games, and maybe some kitchenware that everybody has already said that they're not going to get me (which is a pretty personal choice anyway - god damn, you'd think that someone who spends so little time in the kitchen wouldn't be so picky, would you?). So that just about leaves jeans and shoes, and maybe those games.

The problem with this is that I think about all those things that I want, and go "Hey, I want some jeans and shoes!". So in the last week I've bought myself a pair of new shoes and jeans, which admittedly are very nice indeed. And I picked up those games while I was at it. To spell it out: if I want something, I usually go out and get it for myself anyway; and if you want to get me something for my birthday, it's best not to ask me what I want because I will work it out then go buy it for myself anyway.

Maybe this might help