News and Updates

1. I’m trying to figure out what the spammer in Singapore who has been pinging this blog several thousand times a day for the last month is getting out of all that effort. There isn’t any monetary value in what I post here that I’m aware of, and there’s nothing personally identifying here that couldn’t be found with less effort in readily available public sources so identity theft is kind of a long shot (though it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to deal with that in this world of the damned that we live in). Maybe I’m just popular in Southeast Asia? Whatever. Hi there, my guy. Leave a comment and introduce yourself.

2. The semester is rapidly heading toward high gear as we slide toward October, which means that I’m pretty much running on fumes most days. I like teaching. I like advising. But 130% of a job is a lot, especially when I keep agreeing to do other things on top of it. I suspect I will slide into semester break the way that speed-skating pile-ups sort of Keystone Kop their way across the finish line, and then I will do very little of anything for at least six minutes until I am informed that plans have been made for me. Oh well. I’ll rest when I’m dead, I suppose.

3. On the plus side it does look like I will get paid for all of my various jobs, which gives me warm fuzzies all over yes it does.

4. Two of the musicians that I found last year kind of by accident as small but rising acts have more or less hit the big time now and I’m feeling sort of hipsterish about it except that I really like that they’ve become popular since good things should be well known and hard-working talent should be rewarded. Gatekeeping is for people with no vision.

5. Both Lauren and Oliver went to Philadelphia separately earlier this month – Lauren drove out with Max to spend a few days hanging out in South Philly and touring the city a bit, and Oliver flew out to see Dustin before he went to the Sleep Token concert – and then both went from there to visit my brother and sister-in-law outside of NYC for a couple of days before heading back to Wisconsin. Lauren and Max did some touristing around NYC, while Oliver and Dustin both went to the Sleep Token concert there. Thanks to Uncle Keith and Aunt Lori for hosting! Someday perhaps I’ll get back to my native city as well. It’s been a while. The cheesesteak content in my blood is getting dangerously low.

6. Watching der Sturmtrumper being systematically dismantled by the legal system has provided me with the first glimmer of hope for this nation’s future that I’ve had in a very long time. The smoking ruin of the MAGA movement will a balm to the soul of American patriots when it finally comes, and I can only hope that a) I live long enough to see it, and b) it will continue until every last one of them is afraid to show their face in civilized company ever again.

7. Of course on the other hand watching the right-wing extremists in the House of Representatives actively seek to destroy the government by refusing to pass any budget but their own masturbatory fantasy list has been kind of grim. The Senate passed a bipartisan bill to keep the government open this week with more than half the Republicans in the Senate voting for it and the wrecking crew on the Fascist right in the House won’t even allow it to come to a vote because reasons. I suspect that even most of the GOP is losing patience with this nihilistic and fundamentally unserious movement and perhaps someday they’ll discover their spines and stand up to them. Today isn’t that day. Tomorrow likely won’t be either.

8. That same wrecking crew has also opened an impeachment hearing for President Biden based on … uh … something. Not sure yet. But it will be big! Yeah! BIG! You’ll see! And then you’ll be sorry! Sweet dancing monkeys on a stick but it’s like watching a detention hall full of held-back middle-school bullies take over a theater and try to perform a slapstick version of Hamlet live on national television except that none of them know how to play funny or take direction and half of them think they're Hamlet and don't understand why other people keep talking and haven't read all the way to the end to see what happens to Hamlet either – it's fascinating, in a “what the aggravated fuck are they doing?” kind of way, but no way to run a country. So far the various “charges” they’ve suggested range from “that’s not the right Biden” to “that’s been conclusively disproven months ago.” But they press on, because the alternative would be to allow the grownups to return to rational governance and you know that’s just not going to happen in their bleak little world.

9. We went to a nearby Peruvian restaurant the other day and I have to say that the food was very good except that if this restaurant is any guide Peruvian cuisine consists of about 60% cilantro and I’m one of those people who just can’t do cilantro. If you ask, they will take the cilantro off the things that they can take it off of and substitute out the things they can’t take it off of, but you can tell that they see this as one of those inexplicable demands that non-Peruvians make of them here in the gastronomical wasteland of Wisconsin. Why would anyone not want the cilantro? No idea.

10. I just got the lawnmower out of hock today so I can give the grass a final trim before the colder weather sets in, assuming that there will be a winter (not a guarantee in our changing world, really). We’ve had this mower since the late 90s and it works pretty well most of the time. We bought it to replace an old reel mower which was fun but required us to mow the lawn every couple of days to stay ahead of things and I’m just not that dedicated to lawncare. The neighborhood kids had no idea what a reel mower was – they were convinced it could not be a lawnmower since it had no engine. And eventually they were right and we got the gas powered one. It has a new pull cord and a new ignition coil now, and at some point soon the meadow beyond our front door will be more level and the city will not feel any need to write tickets.