Imagine you are home alone on a quiet Sunday afternoon. You go into your kitchen to investigate a trickling sound only to find sheets of brown water cascading from your kitchen ceiling. Ah, yes. Now imagine that this is days before Thanksgiving. Days before you are about to start a new job. Imagine having to wash every single thing that was once in your kitchen and moving it into your dining room, where it will remain even 8 weeks later because of, well, circumstances. Circumstances like the building’s owner, whose faulty plumbing caused the flood, is going through a divorce and is a schoolteacher with finals to grade and has planned a week-long Caribbean vacation during Christmas.

(Three appointments with contractors later, things are now moving along at a reasonable pace. I pray to whatever benevolent force there is in the universe that we will have a new kitchen before too long.)

Now picture a major family crisis days before Christmas. The unexpected loss of someone much too young. Confusion. Tears. Anguish. Grief. Meanwhile, you are barely holding yourself together because there’s too little money and too many bills. And you’re not exactly getting along with your spouse.

That, people, is what you call a shitstorm. A not-so-cheery holiday season. 2008 couldn’t come fast enough.

Meanwhile, back in the Hall of Justice: After one year and much experience later, I am redesigning the site. It’s been quite a process, and this time my better half will be helping with the PHP. If all goes well, I should be ready to launch on the one-year anniversary of the debut PIXELBERG (March 2008).

Also looking forward to: Seeing Neko Case LIVE at Calvin Theater on February 2nd. I just want to say now that in some bizarro alternate universe, I am Neko Case. And I don’t mean that in a stalker kind of way. Just in a wishful thinking kind of way. Like, whenever I listen to her I think that perhaps I am a failed musician.

But all things considered, I think I’ll stick to the photography.