My official, unofficial return (or is it my unofficial, official return?)

I’m bored and not busy at work today, so I’m blogging. I haven’t really been doing this recently, but I figured I might as well kill some time here. I notice that I’m averaging about two or three visits per day, which is surprising. My number one search is “I’m doing very well.” What the heck is that??? Number two is “prep curtis sittenfeld.” People just love my posts (1, 2) about that book, I guess. My post about former Congressman Duke Cunningham’s enjoyment of hookers remains my top viewed post by a large margin, followed by my post titled “Naked News,” which was about the death of Berkeley’s (in)famous Naked Guy.

Anyway, just delivered to my office is a very nice, homemade New Years card from one of lawyers for whom I do most of my work. She’s really an interesting artist, and I like the card a lot. I’ve actually been hoping for a homemade card from her for a while (because her art is so cool), but the only other one I’ve ever gotten was a condolence card when my dad died in November. That’s obviously (to me, anyway) not really something I want to display. This one totally is. I mean, you could totally frame the thing.

Anyway, perhaps this is my return to posting. More likely, this is a one-off thing that I did because I was bored and not busy and generally kinda sick today. Whatever, lo que sea, c’est la vie, etc. etc.

Let’s do it once…

Well, I’m not doing very well at this.

I’ve been writing a fair amount in a journal, so my need for this is moderated a bit. And I can obviously be more personal in a journal. I’m curious if I will actually re-start posting here. When I first started blogging about two years ago, I figured I’d give it up almost immediately, but I didn’t. So, we’ll see…

When I lay down to sleep, I feel the world spin
Slightly off axis, it’s shaped like a fig
And when I lie next to you, I shiver and shake
You tell me you love me, I dream I’m awake

She Divines Water by Camper van Beethoven

Let’s do it once…

I’m back, sort of

I’ve decided to start posting again. However, new posting will be on a weekly basis (and maybe very occasionally more). The subject-matter here will remain basically the same (whatever I’m thinking about), but it just won’t come as often.

For today, I post this article about judicial independence suggesting that progressives fight back in the war of words over “judicial activism.” I don’t agree with all of what this article says, but I generally agree with the overall point and strongly agree with the sentiment that Kelo is too passive as opposed to too activist.

I move into my apartment one week from Sunday. Yay!

well well well

So, essentially without putting up any new posts, I have unceremoniously passed the 1000 hit mark. Woo hoo. Not nearly as exciting as 500, I think.

Anyway, I am leaving for two Guatemala for two weeks today, so I probably won’t post for two more weeks. Not that my recent posts have been worth reading anyway.

On the job front, I am moving in the right direction, but don’t have a job yet. In any case, it is all pretty much on hold until I get back from Guatemala.

That’s it for two more weeks…

Recommendation requested

What should my parents eat for dinner tomorrow? They can’t decide and they’ve been talking about it for 15 minutes.

in case you missed me

I’ve been super-busy lately, out most of the time… basically, going to the gym (which I haven’t done in quite a long time) and kicking it with friends. No real excuse for not posting during the day, since I’ve really just been taking it easy, but whatever.

I also have a job interview tomorrow. Hooray!

Mr. Lazy Post

That’s me… At this time, it does not look like Drive Blog, days 3-5, is going to happen. Frankly, although we saw interesting stuff (Devil’s Tower, Southern Yellowstone, including Old Faithful, and the Grand Tetons), I don’t have a lot of super-interesting stuff to say. There was nothing funny, unlike my drive to Wisconsin last year. Perhaps I will re-post my drive blog from my trip to Wisconsin instead.

So, I’ve been watching some of the various NBA summer league games. This is possibly the worst basketball I’ve ever seen. Now, I’m not anti-street ball or open runs or whatever at all. But there’s a different between playing street and playing badly. For the most part, these teams play badly. There have been individual players who look like they can be/are stable NBA players (Deron Williams is the most complete player I’ve watched, though I’m no fan), but for the most part, each player has sucked individually as have the teams.

Sixer Louis Williams can pretty much get to the rim at will against these summer league guys, but I don’t know what that means because there is pretty much no D. Problem is: he can’t finish anyway. At least he makes his free throws. Since the Sixers are keeping Allen, LW won’t play this season anyway.

Still looking for a job. Hope to find one soon. Just got an interview request for a good looking place in DC, but (1) it’s in DC; and (2) they want to interview me when I’m in Guatemala.

I watched Slaughterhouse-Five on free-per-view yesterday. Not a bad adaptation.

And so it goes…

Back in California

Well, I’ve been back in Oakland since Tuesday now. I hope to get back to proper posting tomorrow, including Drive Blog, days 3-5, which include much of the meat of the trip. In general, it was a good trip, a whirlwind view of the northern midwest national monuments and parks. I felt like I should have been driving an RV, except that would have sucked.

I leave for Guatemala one week two weeks from Monday, which will likely result in two weeks of no posting. So hopefully this week will be interesting to make up for my otherwise general absence.

Drive Blog, day 2

So today we did about 450 miles to get to Mt. Rushmore. On the way we did a quick stop at the Badlands, which are totally amazing. Basically, the Badlands are big petrified rock formations formed by about half a million years of erosion, which is apparently a very short time. I don’t know how to describe them. One of the most amazing things about the Badlands is the very different land formations in such a small area. There are jagged rock cliffs, some of which have trees, others do not. There are large settes (or whatever the appropriate word is), some with rock tops, some with lots of grassland (it’s near a national grassland).

We did NOT go to prairie dog town in the Badlands because I was not comfortable driving my weighed-down car on the gravel road. I was disappointed to not see and prairie dogs in the Badlands, as I was to never see a badger while living in Wisconsin. Not sure what the deal is with my obsession with large rodents.

I also liked Mt. Rushmore both for being so impressive and for all the ironic reasons to like Mt. Rushmore. Got some good gifts to bring back to friends here, as well as a Mt. Rushmore tee for myself (i went guady for the America themed one with big pics of the mountain faces; it rocks).

A few words on the pictures. First, I switched from flickr to Snapfish because flickr only let me have up to three “sets” of photos, whereas Snapfish seems to allow unlimited albums. That’s key to me, although flickr uploader is better than Snapfish’s browser plugin. Second, I have a problem with taking pictures. Like most things I do, I do them way all out or not at all. So I went a bit overboard on the pics. I also almost always forget to take pics of people. There are a few more pics of me and my mom on my mom’s camera, so when I copy those I’ll upload them as well.

I just realized that I don’t know how to link to my Snapfish page (except a share e-mail), a potential snag. We’ll work on that later.

Tomorrow, we have a busy day. We’re going to quickly hit up Devil’s Tower (I think, in part, because of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, because that’s what Richard Dreyfuss builds with his mashed potatoes. Then we’re making a long push to get to Cody, WY, which is 50 miles from the East entrance to Yellowstone, which we’re going to on Sunday. Then on Monday we’ll see the Tetons, then head for Oakland. Sweet!

I’m tired and this post is incoherent. So: that’s it for this one…

Drive Blog, day 1

Today my mother and I began our drive from Madison to Oakland.

She arrived in Madison on Tuesday. Tuesday through today we moved me out of my apartment, packing what we could in the car and basically throwing away the rest. Yay for my mom for doing most of the cleaning. I did sweep.

I think we did a very good job packing the car. I gave up two things I was hoping to take with me. One was the microwave, but that doesn’t really bother me. The other was this 80-something dollar fan that I bought at Bed & Bath. It’s awesome. Somebody picked it up off the street right away. At least it is replaceable, but a bit pricy.

So, I decided at 11am that we should leave today. In the end, I didn’t call a couple people I sort of was supposed to call before I left, but I don’t think they will be offended. The truth is, after packing all day, I was tired anyway and probably wasn’t going to call them. I probably could have met up with only one of them anyway, so I don’t think I should feel bad.

Anyway, we left at around 4pm today (Thursday). We made good time and stopped at around 8:30 in Fairmont, MN, about 100 miles from the Minnesota-South Dakota border. (Both states are new for my mom; I’ve only been in the Minneapolis airport before.)

There’s not much to say about today, it was really just a pretty straightforward drive on 90 from Madison to and then through Minnesota. The highlight (if I do say so myself) was my hugely successful 4 disc mix “box set” to set the soundtrack for the first day. (I will probably post the tracklist tomorrow.) The whole crowd (i.e., my mom and I) enjoyed the “box set” a great deal.

The reason we are taking 90 (instead of 80) to get from Wisconsin to California is that we are going to see the sights. Tomorrow we’re going to drive about 450 miles to get to near Mt. Rushmore. Then we’re going to see it on Saturday. Actually, I just looked up the website, and it’s lighted, so maybe we’ll go see the Mt. Rushmore light show tomorrow at 9pm. If we make it in time.

Then we’re going to see some combination of Yellowstone and the Tetons. Then we will probably take some relatively direct route back to Oakland in time for my dad’s birthday and the Flaming Lips show (unrelated).

Anything else? Perhaps tomorrow.