Est. 1984
Uncategorized
Looking Back
Nov 20th
It was actually mozzie who started this blog.
1/100 of a century ago, I established this blog to compose my thoughts, air my grievances, and share my joys. It was an idea largely inspired by my research of Michel de Montaigne’s Essais, who for his own part was inspired by the greek ideal gnothi seauton (know thyself). Up until a year ago, this notion hadn’t really occurred to me. At that point, I knew more about the dead French philosopher’s mind than my own.
So a year later, what have I learned about myself?
That deep introspection is tough. That’s what I originally intended- a goal that I fulfilled on several occasions, but still ends up a minority among the 90 some-odd posts I’ve churned out this year. The conditions have to be just right- you need energy (the quality of my writing suffers after a sh*tty day at work), time, a fine beer/wine, and if at all possible, a kitty. There are few intersections of these qualities in my life, which explains the number of anecdotal and narrative posts, as opposed to lengthy, well-reasoned essays.
That said, the narratives have value too. They’re some of my favorite entries, as a matter of fact, on par with the more philosophical posts in style, if not in content. Most importantly, nearly every single post was original thought. Nothing disgusts me more than bloggers who only repost and add some pithy comment to other’s work.
I feel I’ve at least begun to accomplish what I want to do (I certainly expect thoughtful introspection to continue beyond a single year). The fringe benefit of writing is being able to look retrospectively at the course your life has taken over time. For instance, I mentioned in one entry about the pleasure of working at LCLS during the filtering video project, told from an outsider’s perspective.
So how will I keep the blog fresh for the second season? Crazy romances? Faked deaths? Partial nudity? It’s all on the table.
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All work and no play
Oct 9th
…makes me grouchy. How did it come to be that in October, the month of cool clear days that makes life in Illinois bearable, I’m spending more time working than not? How stupid am I?
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Sweet Home Chicago
Sep 22nd
I hit the hot streets of the Windy City today, after a stint on the megabus (which turned out to be alright). I’ll get some pitchers up soon, but in the meantime, a brief recap of the trip so far:
-Took a giant double decker blue bus on 6 hour trip across Illinois
-Took a somewhat more terrifying 10 minute cab trip across downtown Chicago
-Checked into the Double tree; received complimentary cookie (how has this not caught on everywhere?)
-Walked around for a bit and took some pictures
-Got a streetcorner sermon which revealed that liars, homosexuals, and smokers are all going to hell (together?)
-Bought some sweatshop produced clothing on the Magnicificent Mile
-Looked for areas where recent Batman movies were filmed
That’s it for today; stay tuned.
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Rock you like a hurricane
Sep 3rd
I haven’t been able to write lately because I’m busy spreading fear about Gustav. It’s not easy, you know; gas prices don’t just go up on their own!
In truth, I’ve been leading a markedly different lifestyle lately. Some would call it conspicuous consumption- in the last month, Ape and I have acquired a Dyson, a new washer, a Wii Fit, and a motorbike. Feeding this turbo-consumption is a new job and extra contracting work (which I intended to stop doing). All this crap leaves me with less time to think; a full house and an empty head have I.
Is that a good enough reason not to write? Has the acquisition of things replaced my drive to write? Not really. It’s also summertime (only for a few more days), and it turns out I’m a seasonal blogger. During these lovely midwestern summer days, my attention is turned outward, not inward.
So that’s that. I won’t beat myself up over not writing often enough; I’ll need to save my strength for the political banter to come this Fall.
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Review: Dreamers of the Day
Aug 17th
This book was a recommendation from Ape, who has sent some good books my way before (Plus, I’d liked The Sparrow, a science fiction title from the same author.)So got it from the Liberry, and read 3/4 of the book in just a few days (a week-long reading hiatus kept me from finishing it right away).
It turns out this is one of my favorite kinds of literature- historical fiction. The story revolves around a middle aged woman from Ohio, whose buttoned-down life is brought to an end by The Spanish Flu. The narrator tells us (and Wikipedia confirms) that around 50,000,000 people worldwide died of the 1918 Flu, which immediately followed another epic catastrophe, World War I. The grim historical pretext makes a nice backdrop for the idyllic midwestern life led by Agnes Shanklin, our protagonist. Her entire family perishes, but she survives a bout with the flu and the inherits the wealth of all her immediate family members.
Agnes’ sister Lillie had been a missionary in Egypt, so Agnes decides to leave Ohio and take a holiday in Egypt. At a Cairo hotel, Agnes runs into a friend of her sister’s, T.E. Lawrence. Lawrence happens to be in Cairo with Winston Churchill (not yet prime-minister) and a full house of British brass, who are planning what will be done with the Middle East after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
This is the subtext of the majority of the novel, but I really enjoyed it. The hubris! The cadaverous British admirals! All described in careful (and humorous) detail. This discussion is paired with Agnes’ personal experience with everyday arabic culture, and all the customs and idiosyncrocies she runs afoul of. It’s a good history/culture lesson told from the perspective of an unpresumptuous observer, which is rarely the case in history books.
It also explains a great deal about the establishment of Iraq/Iran under British supervision, and is really pretty depressing in that respect. The approach to our current embrolio is defined by the same vaccum of reason/diplomacy which created the very countries we’re trying to occupy liberate.
Unfortunately, the end of the book is kind of silly. It’s told after Agnes’ death, from her perspective in purgatory. Strange, but not the worst ending I’ve ever endured.
All things considered, you should read this book. If you’re like me, and the most of what you know about the Middle East comes from the news, this is an easy history lesson about the place and the people.
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A bad case of arachne
Aug 16th
Something bit me (right between the eyes) last week, and I’m still not sure what’s happened. Last Sunday I woke up to find that my eyes were so swollen that I didn’t even look human. I went to the doctor, who had no idea what had happened (asleep during med school?) and gave me some drugs to make me feel better. Despite my vampire eyes and a headache, I managed to pay homage to the butter cow at the Illinois State Fair.
Now all I have is a weird lump betwixt the eyes. My hypothesis is that whatever bit me layed eggs too, and I’m not ready to be a dad.
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Tell them you know Lorenzo…
Aug 8th
A breath of cool weather and an italian scooter are the only new things under the sun around here. One month after purchasing a scooter, Ape finally got her class-m driver’s license (in case you didn’t know, Illinois licenses are now accented in a lovely shade of red) and we hit the streets of E-ville on an Aprilia Mojito.
If you don’t already have one, get one. It wasn’t too expensive, and besides, you deserve a new scooter. I’ll wait while you’re out getting one….
……..
Now that you’ve got your own, let me tell you more about this Venetian wonder. Despite being thoroughly Italian, the Aprilia is full of fahrvergnügen and at a cool 80 mpg, makes the Prius look like a petrol-glutton.
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The audicity of hiatus
Jun 29th
What a hiatus it has been. A dozen days gone by since my last effort to write something down, and what have I got to show for it? A saucerful of surprises.
Twelve days ago, I accepted a new job, which means doubling my workload at the liberry during my final fortnight as Technology Manager. Many projects which I’d put off for future days were scrapped, and I’m in the midst of trying to realize a very select few of them before my time runs out.
Eleven days ago, I assembled a new computer, which you’ll read about later. This makes writing much easier than it was with the moribund Hrothgar.
Ten days ago, I was dog-sitting in 3 houses, and was able to cut it down to two houses for the rest of the week. I haven’t slept in my own bed since then.
Nine days ago, I saw an excellent play directed by a talented friend of mine. While not really comparable to the works of Shakespeare, It had more jazz & dancing girls than King Richard III and Macbeth put together.
Eight days ago, I watched all six Star Wars movies consecutively. They were thrilling.
Seven days ago, I spent my whole Sunday working at the Liberry and probing the vagaries of Virtual PC 2007. Blegh.
Six days ago, I met with my new doctor and was told to eat more salt.
Five days ago, I started doing interviews for my job at the Liberry. Conducting an interview is almost as bad as being interviewed.
Four days ago, I held a Uromastyx for the first time. By far, the cutest reptile I’ve ever seen.
Three days ago, I went to a bar after work. I felt very out of place, maybe because I wasn’t imbibing pitchers of Bud Light and trying to get laid.
Two days ago, I went to a pool party in honor of a 21st birthday. It was all fun and games until Ape hit me over the head with a (hard) plastic surfboard. The bleeding stopped, but the headaches won’t….
One day ago, I got really, really tired of dogsitting. I must’ve been bitten by 28 different mosquitos while we were on a walk.
Today, Ape and I had delicious cucina Italiana and deutches Bier with my parents. So much of it that afterwards, I felt like I’d swallowed a canteloupe.
Tomorrow, I leave the Liberry.
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The day Mozilla’s brain exploded
Jun 17th
A quick tip for anyone who’s wanting to break a world record for single-day downloads: you may as well pour a drink and watch as your webserver bursts into flames. At 12:13 today, I tried to visit mozilla.com to download Firefox 3, but throngs of the Firefox faithful reduced the site to a single message:
Http/1.1 Service Unavailable
Maybe they can still claim the title for fastest server-immolation….
