No man is an island.

    Unless that man is a land mass smaller than a continent and entirely surrounded by water.

    Or merely resembles that somewhat.

    Matt Rua does not resemble that somewhat at all. He is very rarely surrounded entirely by water.

    Here are some people who might attest to that:


It's not that Joanna wants Matt to fail. She just knows he's got a knack for it.

    Joanna is Matt's half-sister from their father's first ill-fated marriage (they've all been ill-fated). From the start she was a child prodigy, excelling at whatever she tried. She breezed through any subject, any sport, any activity at all that she came across. In other words, she was the most obnoxious big sister a humble underachiever like Matt could ever have. They grew up as bitter enemies and gradually came to respectfully ignore each other through high school. This only changed after they discovered their mutual appreciation for smoking copious amounts of pot. Now they're the only members of their family that trust or even like each other. Go figure.


Cori's just trying to be friendly.

    Cori is proud to be the kind of person who can get along with just about anybody. Too bad for her that both the Rua siblings are allergic to exactly that kind of person. She's been rooming with Joanna for a year and a half and can't understand why the sweeter she acts, the meaner Joanna seems to get. Her brother's even worse, yet she still harbors a little crush on him in spite of it. Thankfully for Cori, most people tend to like people who like people. Why should she beat herself up over a couple misanthropes?


Reggie doesn't need any more problems. He's already got employees.

    Reggie's been running Homeland Records for seven years now and it seems like every new employee's worse than the last one. He's sure there have got to be some worthwhile people out there in the world. Why won't they come in and apply for a job? Instead he's stuck with know-nothing-do-nothing schmucks like Matt. The best thing he can say for him is that he's not the most worthless guy at Homeland Records.


It's not easy being Milo.

    Milo is the most worthless guy at Homeland Records. Reggie attributes this to chronic laziness. This actually couldn't be less true. Milo suffers from such extreme dyslexia that any combination of more than two letters gets him violently motion sick. It takes every ounce of willpower he has to beat back nausea and decode each word he reads. He's too embarrassed to reveal this to Reggie, which is unfortunate, as the only task Reggie is willing to trust him with is alphabetizing the records.


Brittany's not quite like the other girls at church.

    Matt doesn't know much about church. He just knows he was no good when he wasn't going. Maybe going will help. Brittany's the first person to reach out to him there, even going so far as giving out her number. He's sure she's just being friendly though, and who knows? At least she'll be a good influence on him, right?

    So them's Matt's peeps. Now you're all acquainted.

    Back on this end of reality, we're still working on getting the last location we need to shoot, which has unfortunately been a very lengthy process with a few disappointments along the way. We've got a pretty good prospect now and everything sounds promising but it still needs to get approved by a lot of people before we know. Once we do know I am going to throw a one-man dance party starring me for an audience of me. So that's something I'm looking forward to.

    In the meantime, editing proceeds as editing does. I get as much done as I can in between typing pages and pages of "ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY." That eats up more time than you'd think.

    Well, back to it.