Elton John's new album, "The Captain & The Kid," is coming out in September, and the first single, "The Bridge," is now available on EltonJohn.com -- you have to be a member of the official fanclub to go to that part of the site, though. It's an interesting choice for a single, since the track is only Elton's vocals and piano, no other instrumentation. It's a beautiful song, with very touching lyrics, but not very commercial. The whole album is a concept album, the sequel to his 1975 "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirty Cowboy," which chronicled Elton and his lyricist, Bernie Taupin's, early days in the music industry. The sequel will cover their days of success, excess, and finally, finding peace. Another "guilty pleasure" album that I'm looking forward to is Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell 3: The Monster Is Loose." That one will be released on Halloween. The title track, "The Monster's Loose," is available at http://www.myspace.com/meatloaf.

Still no job offers yet, and I'm getting more and more frustrated. Hopefully I'll hear something this week, but I'm not very hopeful. My dad thinks I should work at a bank or be a police officer. If I don't get something else soon, I may just do that.

Chapter 25 of "Someday" has been posted. I've started working on Chapter 26, but I haven't been in much of a writing mood. I'll do my best to finish it up this week since it's the last chapter, and I know people are anxious to find out what happens to Connor and the gang. I've also got a new story planned that should be debuting in a few more weeks ... hopefully.

I've been home for a month now, and although the job search hasn't borne any fruit yet, my diet has been going well. I've lost 13 lbs. so far. I've also cut waaaaaay back on my nicotine consumption, so hopefully I'll be able to quit altogether in the not-too-distant future.

Not much else to report on. My life has been pretty boring.