I’m done with this ‘blog for a while, and I have no clear intention of returning to it. Marc and I are pretty busy at Analytical Life, though. Come on by.
Happy Twenty-Ten!
At this time last year, I was soul-crushingly idle at work, fat–well, pudgy anyway–bored, miserable, and lazy. The year ahead of me included my firstborn’s wedding and my own 25th high school reunion. I guess I forgot to include “old” above.
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Old Question Answered
I’ve been playing around with themes, mostly for later application to the band site, but also for an idea I have working. Anyway, I stumbled across my old "why would JOHNATHAN be a restricted word" problem.
The answer is that I had already used the same name for the computer. I don’t really know why it would matter. But the upshot is that there’s not some sort of super-secret array of backdoor login names or anything like that. Probably.
Priorities
You know, I have no fucking idea where—or if—I’m going to be working a year from now, but I have to admit, life is good. On Saturday night, I’m going to Purgatory (potentially NSFW). I did promise. I’m only mildly—very, very mildly—disappointed that I’ll not be hanging out with tired, sweaty teenagers at ASU. I’m sorry to miss it. But I think I’d be angry at myself longer for missing the other.
For the record, Starla did understand that a condition of the evening—negotiated long ago—was that I got to write about it. I may.
Then again…
…maybe I didn’t write him off too soon. (What I”ve been saying lately, but probably more coherently.) This country needs a hero, and all we can manage to get is cardboard cut-outs. /sigh
Corporations Playing Nice
I’m really not surprised, because Sam Adams has always been a class act. Via The Accidental Hedonist.
Couldn’t've Said It Better Myself
It’s going to be hard to do a worse job running America than the Republicans have, but if anybody can do it, it’s the Democrats. —PJ O’Rourke
When Life Hands You Lemons…
…and pitchers and sugar and water and …, you have to make lemonade.
It’s sad to see magazines dying. The one I’ll eventually miss most is Playboy, but you know if something so established mainstream as Newsweek is hurting, the ad-supported mags going into even greater depth or expressing more diverse views probably can’t stand long. There will be exceptions, of course. I think Guideposts will always be available in medical waiting rooms.
Anyway, to the lemonade. Newsweek is soon going to be without much of its best talent. The powers said to their folks "hey, if you’ll vacate your cubicle, we’ll continue to pay you and maintain your benefits for the next couple of years." Who wouldn’t take a departing paid 2-year sabbatical from a dying industry? Lucky.
They’re writers and researchers: I predict that beginning about a year from now, there will be a <ahem> surge in new books published—fiction and non—a disappointing amount of which will be rather mediocre. Much of it will be about the death of the Fourth Estate or other closed barn doors. But there’ll be some good stuff too. Probably really good.
A lot of it will be about whatever they name modern communications’ replacement of the old media, what the company did wrong, etc. Some of it will reveal skeletons that the mainstream media will release with cover proportional to its sleaziness rather than its importance. But what I’m really looking forward to are the stories that admit they’re fiction.
I May Have Written This Guy Off Too Early
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
Okay, he’s got my attention anyway. I’m watching, but it’s still too soon to hope.
