I posted a few new links, pretty much at random. Just 'cause.
I've got the mini-web-ring links to Devin and Marilyn, Laura, and Christina as always (besides Dan and possibly Chris, I think they're my only audience--feel free to correct me with a comment if I'm wrong); they're nice and fairly hygienic as far as I know.
Lileks.com is, as has been mentioned over at Wordhord, a fine humor site with daily updates from a great writer. I despise and envy him for his talent.
Snopes is the place to check out urban legends of various kinds, and the first stop people should make before sending me mass e-mails on nearly any subject (calls for aid for lost and/or sick children, political screeds, alarming warnings, and viruses all included). A fun site just to peruse--I often assign my students to do work on the site as part of their research training (you want to be in my English 101 class now, don't you?).
The Onion is a delightfully wicked news parody site that's so dead-on they're sometimes mistaken for actual news. Sometimes distressingly liberal (and that from a fairly politically liberal guy) and occasionally containing off-color language, they can nevertheless almost always make me laugh. And the AV Club is a "real" media review site, with movie, video, book, and music reviews, as well as interviews and other features that are intelligent and entertaining. For reals.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
A Roaring Start
"Oh, well done," I hear some of you cry. "Way to keep your word. Here you promise to post near-daily [I do so enjoy that phrase--maybe I can copyright it] and then fall down on the job on the very first day. Good job, Ace."
See? Even on a blog I display my paranoia and guilt complex. I always imagine that any observer of my actions will see them in the worst possible light.
At any rate, I have a fine excuse for not posting; by the time the boys went to bed and I had a chance to post, we were experiencing a power outage. We had several short ones through the night and I didn't want to keep the computer on during such unreliable service. Even now, as our house is blanketed in three inches of snow and counting, we might lose it again at any moment. Annoying, but I'm taking the risk to keep my word. Kind of, anyway.
We're still surrounded by the fallout from Christmas. This year my parents really did go overboard--they're wonderfully and incredibly generous, but the accumulated goods are overwhelming. Admittedly, the living room floor is currently covered with an enormous model train layout for which they bear no guilt--it's a set we've been accumulating bit by bit for a year now, and it's a grip of fun (it's from Fisher Price, called GeoTracks, and it's a fabulous buy for young kids who like trains as it's easy to assemble and can withstand much punishment); the boys don't quite yet appreciate the fantastic extent of the layout, choosing consistently to fight over one particular corner, but it'll come to them one day. Between our few gifts to them, the truckload of gifts from my parents, and the many more from friends and extended family, we're going to have to donate all their old toys to make the new ones fit.
There's a discussion of the "True Meaning of Christmas" lurking in here somewhere, but I don't have the energy to tackle that at 7:30 in the morning (especially after being up until 2am playing Halo 2 from my excellent wife--yes, the power outages did play havoc with that; I lost a significant amount of progress thanks to power cutouts during play before I finally gave up). Suffice it to say that there has been an agreement forged between generations that next year the number of presents needs to be severely cut back--I want the boys to appreciate what they get, not just see the day as an endless gift-fest. I think the damage can be contained, as the boys are young enough that they won't appreciate the reason for Christmas until next year, and they likely won't remember the flood of presents from this year.
We had a fine Christmas all told, and I am looking forward to spending a few days without teaching and trying to clean out the bedroom and the office (both currently given over to enormous piles of stuff--we need the folks from Clean Sweep in here with a vengeance).
As a last, utterly unrelated note, did anyone else see the story about the woman who is serving as the surrogate mother to her own grandchildren? I know this isn't the first time this has occurred, but does anyone else find this quite creepy?
See? Even on a blog I display my paranoia and guilt complex. I always imagine that any observer of my actions will see them in the worst possible light.
At any rate, I have a fine excuse for not posting; by the time the boys went to bed and I had a chance to post, we were experiencing a power outage. We had several short ones through the night and I didn't want to keep the computer on during such unreliable service. Even now, as our house is blanketed in three inches of snow and counting, we might lose it again at any moment. Annoying, but I'm taking the risk to keep my word. Kind of, anyway.
We're still surrounded by the fallout from Christmas. This year my parents really did go overboard--they're wonderfully and incredibly generous, but the accumulated goods are overwhelming. Admittedly, the living room floor is currently covered with an enormous model train layout for which they bear no guilt--it's a set we've been accumulating bit by bit for a year now, and it's a grip of fun (it's from Fisher Price, called GeoTracks, and it's a fabulous buy for young kids who like trains as it's easy to assemble and can withstand much punishment); the boys don't quite yet appreciate the fantastic extent of the layout, choosing consistently to fight over one particular corner, but it'll come to them one day. Between our few gifts to them, the truckload of gifts from my parents, and the many more from friends and extended family, we're going to have to donate all their old toys to make the new ones fit.
There's a discussion of the "True Meaning of Christmas" lurking in here somewhere, but I don't have the energy to tackle that at 7:30 in the morning (especially after being up until 2am playing Halo 2 from my excellent wife--yes, the power outages did play havoc with that; I lost a significant amount of progress thanks to power cutouts during play before I finally gave up). Suffice it to say that there has been an agreement forged between generations that next year the number of presents needs to be severely cut back--I want the boys to appreciate what they get, not just see the day as an endless gift-fest. I think the damage can be contained, as the boys are young enough that they won't appreciate the reason for Christmas until next year, and they likely won't remember the flood of presents from this year.
We had a fine Christmas all told, and I am looking forward to spending a few days without teaching and trying to clean out the bedroom and the office (both currently given over to enormous piles of stuff--we need the folks from Clean Sweep in here with a vengeance).
As a last, utterly unrelated note, did anyone else see the story about the woman who is serving as the surrogate mother to her own grandchildren? I know this isn't the first time this has occurred, but does anyone else find this quite creepy?
Monday, December 27, 2004
Yet Another Start
A few weeks ago at the faculty orientation for Community Christian College (where I'm currently teaching a class), John Harbison, a fine Old Testament scholar, was discussing with me differing kinds of workers; specifically, he mentioned that people can be classed into "starters" and "maintainers."
While it's clear that I have a terrible time starting much of anything, I seem to be far more a starter than maintainer, as I find it easier to just begin new blogs rather than updating the ones I've already got. I don't know anyone else with a head so big that they have multiple blogs, but here I am. Maybe I can try for some world record for most blogs which say almost nothing.
At any rate, I have grown weary of not posting on my blogs, yet I'm still resistant to using the ones I've got for daily "journal"-type entries. I want to keep Wordhord for literary/thoughtful musings and Feral Donkey for my random entertainment and oddity-related issues. Both of those are blogs where (when they come out) I want to spend some time crafting good writing as well as just expressing myself. But that takes a long time. From thence comes this: the daily "I'm not doing anything interesting but I'll make you read about it anyway"-type blog. So in exchange for less-crafted stuff on dull topics, you get more consistent updates. Perhaps one day I can learn to harmonize all these strains, but until then I'll stick to choking the blogsphere with a trio of publishing spots.
My goal (I hesitate to call it a resolution) is to post here near daily. I'll mention when there are updates to the other blogs, so those handful of people who are at all interested can just check here. Sound fair? Then here we go.
While it's clear that I have a terrible time starting much of anything, I seem to be far more a starter than maintainer, as I find it easier to just begin new blogs rather than updating the ones I've already got. I don't know anyone else with a head so big that they have multiple blogs, but here I am. Maybe I can try for some world record for most blogs which say almost nothing.
At any rate, I have grown weary of not posting on my blogs, yet I'm still resistant to using the ones I've got for daily "journal"-type entries. I want to keep Wordhord for literary/thoughtful musings and Feral Donkey for my random entertainment and oddity-related issues. Both of those are blogs where (when they come out) I want to spend some time crafting good writing as well as just expressing myself. But that takes a long time. From thence comes this: the daily "I'm not doing anything interesting but I'll make you read about it anyway"-type blog. So in exchange for less-crafted stuff on dull topics, you get more consistent updates. Perhaps one day I can learn to harmonize all these strains, but until then I'll stick to choking the blogsphere with a trio of publishing spots.
My goal (I hesitate to call it a resolution) is to post here near daily. I'll mention when there are updates to the other blogs, so those handful of people who are at all interested can just check here. Sound fair? Then here we go.