December 31, 2005

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Remember, when you were a kid, how time seemed to move at a glacial pace? A year might as well have been an eternity. For some inexplicable reason, time accelerates as we grow older. Or perhaps we just aren't as conscious of the passage of time as we once were. Whatever the explanation, I find myself at the end of another year that seemed to come and go with disconcerting velocity. 2005 was good to me, with more opportunities to experience new places than I could have reasonably hoped for and a wealth of friends who seemed to coalesce around me without much effort on my part.

I don't have any resolutions for 2006, but I do have some hopes. I hope I can finish my novel and turn it into something worth publishing. I hope I can start working on some other stories that have been knocking around in my head. I hope I can stay relatively healthy. I hope I have the chance to do something that pushes me out of my comfort zone. I hope I read more books. I hope to kiss a pretty woman. I hope for more challenges at work. I hope the Democrats do well in the next election. I hope to get more involved in my community.

Most of all, I hope I can keep this blog interesting enough to earn your continued attention. Thanks so much for visiting my obscure corner of the blogosphere. I hope your New Year is bright.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 04:52 PM | Comments (1)

December 30, 2005

Car Talk

My van has given me over six years of reliable service. It's never gotten me into an accident. It's never failed to start, even on days so improbably cold that it seemed like the very air would freeze solid in your lungs. It gets decent mileage and it's much easier to drive than my old VW Vanagon. So I shouldn't complain that I had to spend almost a thousand dollars on various maintenance repairs for the van earlier this week. It needed new tires, a new serpentine belt, and a bunch of work on the front brakes. Having to spend that much does sting a bit, but I should consider myself fortunate that this is the first time I've had to do any major repairs on this vehicle.

I recognize that I'm a little spoiled because so many people with disabilities have to rely on paratransit service to get from place to place. And while we have a fairly decent paratransit service here, I wouldn't want to rely on it exclusively for my transportation needs. It's nearly impossible to be spontaneous when you're dependent on such a service. You can't just decide to go to a friend's house. Rides aren't always available when you want them and even if you can somehow score a ride on short notice, there's no guarantee it will arrive on time. I don't mind shelling out some cash once in a while to preserve a little more independence for myself.

But this morning, the engine was not its usual purring self. It sounded more like a lawnmower. I wonder if the muffler is giving up the ghost.

*sigh*

And so it goes.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:24 PM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2005

Escaping The Ghetto

Time magazine named Battlestar Galactica the best television show of 2005. And Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go, which has some elements that are more typically seen in the science fiction genre, has appeared on several critics' lists as one of the best books of the year (even though many critics take great pains to assure readers that the book is not, in fact, science fiction). The critical acclaim these works are receiving can only mean good things for future writers. If a writer wants to write a serious book that just happens to feature aliens or time travel (or talking dragons, for that matter), the book shouldn't automatically be consigned to the science fiction/fantasy aisle. Good writing is good writing. I think there's a growing realization by a lot of talented authors and screenwriters that serious fiction doesn't just have to be about present-day, middle-class people and their lives of quiet desperation. Fortunately, this realization is coming at a time when audiences seem more willing to go along for the ride.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:08 PM | Comments (1)

December 28, 2005

The Universe Next Door

If you have any interest in Roth's The Plot against America and you haven't read the book yet, you might want to skip this entry.

I mentioned I had a couple problems with Roth's latest novel. The first is relatively minor. The ending was too abrupt, in contrast to the slow buildup of tension that the author had meticulously crafted in the previous few hundred pages. But that might just be a stylistic quibble. I tend to prefer longer denouements in the novels I read.

The second problem is more substantive. Roth postulates an alternate 1940 in which Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR in the presidential election. Lindbergh keeps America out of the war until 1942, when he mysteriously disappears and FDR is returned to the White House in an emergency election. After that, history seems to revert to the existing timeline, with the war ending in 1945 and the Allies emerging victorious. To me, this seems like a much too tidy resolution. Once such a drastic departure from established history is imagined, I don't think it's accurate or intellectually honest to portray it as some sort of temporal detour that ultimately had no lasting consequences on the course of human affairs. On the contrary, America's delayed entry into the war might have had tremendous bearing on the final outcome. Great Britain might have succumbed to an invasion or the Germans might have had sufficient time to overrun the Russians on the Eastern Front. The war still might have ended with a defeated Germany, but the shape of that world would not have been identical to our own.

Roth's original premise is intriguing and his novel is well worth reading, but I wish he would have looked more closely at the ripples of the events he set in motion.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:30 PM | Comments (0)

December 27, 2005

Messing With Corporate America

I'm off in a bit to return some duplicate gifts. I liked Revenge of the Sith well enough, but I don't need two copies of it in my library. I also have a Barnes & Noble gift card that I need to cash in. Do you think B&N will notice or care that the items I'm returning didn't actually come from their store? I don't think so, either.

I just finished Roth's The Plot Against America (which you can conveniently purchase on the sidebar). I liked the book, but a couple things about it frustrated me. More on that later.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)

December 26, 2005

Love Is A Battlefield

I can totally relate to Adrien Brody's character in King Kong. It's a familiar story; sensitive writer falls for a beautiful ingenue, but he has to compete with a brooding jock-type for her attention. The writer expresses his love for the ingenue by writing a play for her. The big lug expresses his love by killing T. Rexes and beating the shit out of other people. The ingenue knows the writer is a good guy, but she can't help but feel a more primal attraction to the vocabulary-challenged dude with the big pecs and the anger-management issues.

Story of my life.

As I was writing this, I received an e-mail from a woman on Match.com. Here's an excerpt:

I dream to create family and to care of my husband. I want, that me liked and also cared. I like tenderness and kindness in the person. Also I like the decent and fair person. I still young and I want to think of my family. I want to create healthy and strong family in a lot of good statuses for a life!

She then goes on to ask that I e-mail her at an address ending with a Russian domain name. I have to say, the prominent mention of "husband" is a little off-putting, but I'm willing to chalk that up to simple overeagerness. I looked at her profile and she's looking for guys between 3'0" and 8'0", so I'm covered there. And as an attorney and civil servant, I've got "good statuses" written all over me. Plus, I really dig women with Slavic accents. I think I have a good feeling about this one. Now all I have to do is e-mail her back. It's a little weird that she asked me to attach PDFs of my bank statements and pay stubs, but she's probably been burned by other guys in the past and she's just trying to be careful. And I'd better start checking on ticket prices to Moscow or St Petersburg or wherever because she's probably going to want to introduce me to the family.

I knew this on-line dating thing would pay off sooner or later.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:50 PM | Comments (1)

December 25, 2005

God Bless Us, Every One!

I think Dickens is to blame. Every Christmas, several newspapers publish tearjerking profiles of local Tiny Tims. The Star Tribune did it, as did the the New York Times. Some are better written and less condescending than others, but they seem to share a common purpose: giving their readers warm fuzzies that evoke a vague sort of holiday sentiment. It's manipulative and calculated, but far be it from me to be a grinch and decry this seasonal brand of infotainment that has its roots in a 19th century Victorian chapbook. I'm all about peace on earth and goodwill and whatever. That's why I've already forgiven the guy who was standing in front of me in the checkout line at Target the other night; the guy who looked back at me, smiled, and exclaimed, "Hey, buddy!"

One of my resolutions for the New Year might include being a lot more blunt with people.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 05:00 PM | Comments (1)

December 24, 2005

Happy Kwanmaskah!

Sasha the Agoraphobic Dog arrived with my parents last night. It's a bit sad to see how she's aging. My parents bought her as a puppy when I was a senior in college. Now, her face is completely white and I can tell that her hips bother her when she stands up after lying down for an extended time. I'm glad for these times when I get to see her. I don't have the time to care for a dog of my own, but it was nice to have her greet me at my door when I came home from running an errand last night.

From up here on The 19th Floor, I want to wish everyone the happiest of holidays, regardless of what you do or don't celebrate. I hope that wherever you are, the food is good, the company is pleasant, and that it's where you want to be.

I need to wrap some presents. I hate how the Scotch tape sticks to my tongue and how the gift wrap leaves little paper cuts inside my mouth. But I do it all out of love, baby.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)

December 23, 2005

Tell Me What You Really Think

I'm writing this at my office because my parents are arriving today and I suspect I won't have much time to blog later. We just sent off a 50-page operational protocol to the feds, so I don't think anyone will mind if I technically violate the Department's prohibition on using our computers for personal use. It's not like there are many people around to even notice. I kind of enjoy these times when work is relatively deserted before a holiday. It gives me time to do little things like clean up all the papers scattered around the office.

But now I'm looking at all the papers scattered around my office and I really don't feel like cleaning it up.

I've previously mentioned the documentary 39 Pounds of Love and my instinctively negative reaction to its premise, even though I haven't seen the actual film. Noel Murray of The Onion AV Club picked it as his worst film of the year. Ouch. He wrote:

But when soft-soap feel-good tripe like this makes the short list for the Academy Awards' Best Documentary category while great films like Grizzly Man, Double Dare, Reel Paradise, and the all-but-unknown Sheriff get overlooked, it's time to get a little cranky.

I'm actually happy to see the film receive criticism like this. Maybe future filmmakers will think twice before making a maudlin film about a man with a disability as a surefire road to critical acclaim.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)

December 22, 2005

21st Century City

Minneapolis is one step closer to becoming a wireless city. The city is currently considering two proposals, one from Earthlink and one from local company US Internet, to construct and maintain a citywide wi-fi network. I do wish the city would own and operate its own network. Internet access has saturated the country to such a point and has become so critical to our infrastructure that it should be considered a public utility. However, the political realities confronting Minneapolis probably make public ownership unlikely. If the city moved in this direction, it would likely face legal action from the big telecoms like Qwest, much as Philadelphia did when it began planning its own municipal wi-fi network. But I am pleased to see that the proposed prices for wi-fi network could be substantially lower than what I'm paying now to Time Warner. If I can get consistent speeds of 6Mbps on the wi-fi network, I'll gladly switch.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2005

The Longest Night

Happy Solstice, everyone. My brother is about to leave for Australia and New Zealand, where the inhabitants are experiencing some strange weather phenomenon called "summer." Apparently, these people are able to stay outside for extended periods without fearing that their tear ducts may freeze over. What a strange and exotic place. Meanwhile, i may have to rethink my policy on gloves. I usually don't wear gloves in the winter because, as I've previously noted, I'm the toughest gimp on the block. But the other night I was walking home from a bar with some friends and we were a couple blocks from my building when I began to wonder whether my hands were still attached to my arms. In fact, a couple of my fingertips are still a bit numb and tingly. I just hope that my nurses don't start cramming my hands into mittens. I still have my dignity, damnit.

And remember, if you haven't already done so, add yourself to my Frappr map.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:22 PM | Comments (1)

December 20, 2005

The Blind Watchmaker

A couple weeks ago, I read an excellent New Yorker story covering the "intelligent design" trial in Dover, Pennsylvania. The writer expressed admiration for the judge overseeing the trial and predicted the judge would strike down the school board's attempt to bring the philosophy of intelligent design into public school science classrooms. And that's exactly what happened. I find this whole "controversy" to be both amusing and a little sad. People who support the teaching of ID tend to be fundamentalist Christians who are normally quite vocal in their faith, but they get all coy when they're asked to identify who the intelligent designer might be behind such wonders as the human appendix and the blind spot in the human eye. Was it a race of superintelligent aliens? God? The Flying Spaghetti Monster?

On this question, ID proponents are oddly silent.

I'm an atheist, but I understand the need to believe that there is an order, a purpose, to our lives. Life, even at its best, is difficult and it's so comforting to think that we are all part of some grand design overseen by a benevolent and omniscient power. And people should feel free to believe that if it makes existence more bearable. However, it's impossible to ground this belief in science. Science is the ongoing endeavor to observe and explain natural phenomena through methods that can be tested and proven. It's not wish fulfillment.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2005

The Tao Of Woody

My good friend Adam Wahlberg, who wrote a wonderful article about me a couple years ago for Law & Politics, has a funny and revealing essay on Woody Allen featured on MSNBC. Go read it and give Adam some love. I really do need to become better versed with Allen's oeuvre. I think I watched my first Woody Allen movie in college: Crimes and Misdemeanors. I don't think you could call any of Allen's films "sunny," but that one oozed existentialism. And if someone as neurotic and scrawny as Woody Allen can be perceived as having sex appeal, then perhaps there's hope for me.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2005

Doodads

For the past couple days, I've been experimenting with Konfabulator Yahoo Widgets. It's a program that allows the user to run all kinds of widgets on the desktop. Right now, I have widgets showing me the weather forecast, my system's hard disk and memory usage, and an analog clock. I'm not sure how useful these widgets actually are, but they do look kind of cool sitting there on my desktop. And I like the idea of being able to glance at my desktop for critical but generic information. I'm of the basic philosophy that you can never have too much information at your fingertips. People who complain about information overload are really saying they don't have the patience to filter out the signal from the noise. I don't have the problem.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 04:04 PM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2005

South Of The Border

After seeing Shakira on Letterman the other night, I felt a little better about life here on this crazy world. We may be fucking up the planetary climate and burdening our children with massive debt, but my goodness, what a hottie. Watching her for five minutes almost made me forget that our current government is hopelessly corrupt and that religious fanaticism is being passed off as legitimate science.

Sigh. Sometimes I wish I was more shallow. Things would be a lot more pleasant.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 04:24 PM | Comments (2)

December 16, 2005

Hostile Work Environment

According to CNN, nurses regularly experience sexual harassment on the job. I've heard about such harassment from a few of my own nurses. My group of nurses is a little unusual because about half of them are male, but generally nursing continues to be a female-dominated profession. And our culture loves to fetishize women who work as caregivers. I'm certainly not an expert on these things, but is there a profession more overrepresented in porn than nurses? Well, maybe pizza delivery guys, but they're probably a distant second. I think the urge to assert some kind of sexual dominance over a female caregiver is a defense mechanism in some men who feel vulnerable because of an illness or injury. Or maybe a lot of guys are just dicks.

As for me, I like to think I treat my nurses with respect and decency. My male nurses are required to wear leather chaps and my female nurses are required to wear leather miniskirts only on Saturday nights. But that's not really a sexual thing. Saturdays are my clubbing nights and I just want them to blend in.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:03 PM | Comments (3)

December 15, 2005

Martha Stewart's Got Nothin' On Me

I haven't done a home improvement update in a while. The new bamboo floors are scheduled to be installed beginning on January 2nd. The plan is to do the whole place, except for the bathrooms. This is happening none too soon; my carpets are begging me to put them out of their misery. Once that's done, I'll have to find some attractive area rugs and maybe a couple new floor lamps.

I feel so...domestic! Before you know it, I'll be blogging about the new throw pillows I picked up at Crate & Barrel and raving about the salmon-and-blue-cheese crudites I served at last week's dinner party.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:49 PM | Comments (2)

December 14, 2005

Official Business

It was snowing when I went to sleep last night. It was snowing when I woke up this morning. It was snowing when I left work this afternoon.

You get the idea.

I have to work on an operational protocol tonight that needs to be submitted to CMS soon. Even government workers get to put in extra hours once in a while. Depending on when I finish, I'll try posting again.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)

December 13, 2005

And The Whole World Laughs With You

Yesterday's NY Times had a story examining how comedy explores issues of disability. The article looks at the upcoming movie The Ringer, which features several actors with intellectual disabilities. The film is produced by the Farrelly brothers, who have cast people with disabilities in several of their films. Many in the disability community are concerned that this movie will portray people with disabilities in a negative light; that audiences will laugh at them instead of with them.

I'm not so sure. I haven't seen many of the Farrelly brothers' works, but I think the creators of South Park have a similar take on disability. I've always admired how the show treats its characters with disabilities. I understand the desire to protect people who seem vulnerable from the unthinking cruelty of the ignorant. I experienced a little of that cruelty when I was a kid. But life is full of comic moments and life with a disability is no different. I get all kinds of amusement from the peculiarities of my existence and I'd feel a little lonely if nobody laughed along with me. But most people are conditioned to view disability as an utter tragedy, devoid of humor or absurdity. I think that's why my first instinct, when meeting someone new, is to make a remark that will provoke laughter or at least a smile. Because once you can make someone laugh with you, everything else becomes so much easier.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:47 PM | Comments (1)

December 12, 2005

Age Of Wonder

I saw the Chronicles of Narnia movie last night and left the theater without experiencing a religious conversion. The movie itself was entertaining, but it didn't evoke the same kind of substantive sense of dread and foreboding that I experienced in all three of the Lord of the Rings movies. Peter Jackson's Middle Earth felt like a fully realized world, while the Narnia presented here seems somewhat two-dimensional. But that might be more a flaw with the source material. This film was aimed at a decidedly younger crowd, with cute kids in the starring roles and an abundance of talking animals. As for the Christian imagery, it's certainly there, but it's not emphasized any more than it is in the book. I doubt that it will turn off secular audiences. The movie's impressive first-weekend box office receipts won't do anything to discourage Hollywood from greenlighting more fantasy-themed projects.

A few years ago, science fiction author David Brin wrote a column in Salon criticizing Lord of the Rings (and most of the fantasy literature it spawned) for promoting an antiquated and anti-democratic worldview. He reflected on the reasons these kinds of stories may be enjoying such a surge in popular appeal:

Wouldn't life seem richer, finer if we still had kings? If the guardians of wisdom kept their wonders locked up in high wizard towers, instead of rushing onto PBS the way our unseemly "scientists" do today? Weren't miracles more exciting when they were doled out by a precious few, instead of being commercialized, bottled and marketed to the masses for $1.95?

These movies tend to express an affection for a kind of benevolent feudalism that seems to sit quite well with a lot of people. Brin's analysis makes me wonder if we are an instinctually reactionary people, constantly looking over our shoulders at a gauzy past while the future rushes towards us like a bullet train.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:06 PM | Comments (1)

December 11, 2005

Best Of The Best

I've mentioned previously that I have a thing for end-of-the-year lists. So I thought I'd post my own, since all the other cool kids are doing it. Here's the 19th Floor Entirely Subjective List of The Year's Best for 2005.

Best Song for Sunny Warm Days--Middle of Nowhere by Hot Hot Heat. For a song with such bleak lyrics, it has a hook so infectious that it should be plastered with QUARANTINE stickers.

Best Song for Solitary Evenings--So Here We Are by Bloc Party. This song makes me feel both incredibly alone and incredibly hopeful.

Best Book I Read--Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Yes, I know this book was published in 2004, but let's leave that aside. This is a book about Big Ideas; about our capacity for cruelty and thirst for power; about what it means to be civilized. But it's a theme that's revealed gradually, in stories that span time, settling, and genre. But when you finally see the whole picture, it's nothing less than stunning.

Best Film I Saw--A History of Violence. Cronenberg's unflinching examination of the nature and legacy of violent behavior includes a brief but memorable appearance by William Hurt as a total badass. And I can't stop thinking about Maria Bello in that cheerleader outfit.

Best TV Show--Lost. The addition of new cast members was a brilliant move. And the flashbacks constantly add more depth to the characters. I just worry that the writers won't be able to sustain the story for much longer without getting tediously cryptic a la The X-Files.

Best Blog--Metafilter. I can always rely on this site for at least one interesting morsel of information on any given day.

Best Day--The day I sat on the Trocadero in Paris and gazed at the Eiffel Tower for about twenty minutes.

Best Friend--Why, you, of course.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)

December 10, 2005

Now Hiring

I've quickly come to the conclusion that I'm a writer, not a web designer. My first few attempts to redesign the site resulted in little more than some muttered expletives. So here's what I'm going to do. I want a professional-looking design, so I might as well pay a professional to do it.

I'm looking to hire someone who has experience with both web and graphic design to do a complete overhaul of The 19th Floor. Knowledge of CSS is a must and I'd really love to find someone who has a strong arts background. I want a customized banner image, a revamped color scheme, and a three-column layout. I'm willing to pay either a flat fee or a reasonable hourly rate for assistance on what should be at most a ten-hour project (I'm thinking somewhere between $100-$200). If you have examples of other projects that you can show me, that'd be great. This could be a good gig for a freelancer looking to make a little extra cash for the holidays or for a student looking to build a portfolio.

Interested candidates can e-mail me at mcsiegel19@gmail.com. I may also post something on Craigslist.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 02:37 PM | Comments (1)

December 09, 2005

Dining Out

One of the loveliest and most charming restaurants in Minneapolis is the Loring Pasta Bar in Dinkytown. I don't eat much when I go out, but I love sitting in the Loring's dining room, which is wreathed with twinkling white lights and plants that seem to be climbing the high walls. It's kind of like walking into a nighttime forest. I hung out there with a friend tonight and went there for my date last week. Both times, I was complimented on my choice of location. It's near the University, so it can't afford to assume to become overly pretentious. And the food is great without being too expensive. I'm a sucker for ambiance. I think the Loring is now my default choice for first dates and intimate conversations with friends.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:51 PM | Comments (3)

December 08, 2005

Speaker For The Dead

On yesterday's Morning Edition, Ben Mattlin, a commentator with a physical disability, discusses the unexpected death of a friend who was a quadriplegic as the result of an accident. At his friend's funeral, the pastor and several family members made varying remarks on the same theme: he was free of his unresponsive body, he was now walking around in heaven, and so forth. I've watched a few families deal with the death of a loved one with a disability and this seems like a typical attitude. The mourning family has an entirely human need to believe that their loved one is now "whole" again and living in a better place. This kind of thinking is, I suppose, mostly harmless, but it does make one wonder whether the family ever completely accepted that person, disability and all. It makes one wonder if the disability was more an issue for the family rather than for the person being mourned.

I'm fairly certain my immediate family and close friends wouldn't express such sentiments upon my demise. Like anyone else, I'd hope they'd miss me and think of me fondly from time to time, but I'd be horrified if anyone looked back on my life and saw anything less than a rich and full existence.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:40 PM | Comments (1)

December 07, 2005

Up Late

A day might come when I'm regularly in bed by 10 p.m. And when it does, I will quickly lose the will to live.

Good night.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 11:21 PM | Comments (1)

Makeover

I feel a 19th Floor redesign coming on. I've been wanting to experiment with a three-column design that might give the site a more streamlined appearance. I also want to try adding a background image to the title bar. I don't pretend to have much in the way of stylesheet kung foo, but there are tools like the Movable Type Style Generator that can make me seem, at the very least, competent. My plan is to tackle this project in the next week to ten days, so let me know if you have any ideas on layout or color scheme.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:32 PM | Comments (2)

December 06, 2005

Sight Unseen

I had a date last week with someone I met on-line. Those of you have followed my blog for some time know of my ambivalence regarding on-line dating and this latest experience reinforced those feelings. She was a perfectly nice person, but we didn't seem to click when it came time to sit at a table with each other. The lack of context that you have going into these dates is one of the things that frustrates me about the whole on-line scene. All either of us has to go on are a few e-mail messages that occur in a sort of digital vacuum that is devoid of mannerisms, body language, all of our subconscious ways of describing ourselves to the people around us. Of course, that's probably also the biggest advantage of on-line dating. Another person's impression of me might be dramatically different if they meet me first through e-mail rather than in person. And I'm not just referring to my disability, although that's definitely part of my personal context that doesn't really come across on-line. Whether or not that part of me is significant when another person is forming an opinion of me, I'm still not sure.

But I do know that if I ever get a new iPod, I'm totally loading it up with Knight Rider episodes! Now if only iTunes would start distributing reruns of Manimal, all would be right with the universe.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)

December 05, 2005

Current Affairs

When I renewed my MPR membership, I received a subscription to The Economist as my thank-you gift. I have a sinking feeling that I'm going to have to devote entire Sundays to keeping up with my magazines. But at least I can speak knowledgeably on voters' recent rejection of Kenya's draft constitution. You never know when that sort of thing might come in handy at a dinner party. Of course, there's always the risk that I might come across as an insufferable bore.

Thanks to everyone who has identified themselves on my Frappr map. I find it fascinating to see all of the places my readers call home. If you haven't done so yet, I hope you'll consider adding yourself.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

December 04, 2005

Study Buddy

Today's NY Times has an article about a pending class-action suit against BAR/BRI (registration req'd) for possible antitrust violations. BAR/BRI is the only game in town for most law students who want to take a review course for the bar exam. And nearly every law student takes a bar review course after graduation. The bar exam, at least in Minnesota, is a grueling affair. It spans two days and covers roughly a half-dozen subject areas. If you don't take a review course, you're on your own as far as figuring out what material will be on the exam and how to prepare for it. For eight weeks in the summer of 1998, I dutifully attended BAR/BRI classes, listening to professors who were either quite engaging or duller than Soviet architecture. This privilege cost me $1,000 that I didn't really have at the time, but I also didn't have much of a choice. To the best of my recollection, there wasn't an alternative available. Now, I'm toying with the idea of joining in on the suit as a class-action member. I don't have a problem with this company making money on bar review classes, but I do have a problem with them positioning themselves as the only choice for students who are already heavily in debt.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 06:54 PM | Comments (1)

December 03, 2005

Make Me Happy

I think I've been a pretty good boy this year...well, other than that one night in Paris with those two women who were students at the Sorbonne. I still can't look at a jar of honey and keep a straight face. So I've been relatively good. But let's overlook my moral lapses and talk about what presents I want for Christmukkah this year:

Books

Woken Furies because Richard Morgan writes kick-ass noir SF

Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days because who can resist a comic about a civil servant with superpowers?

A Feast for Crows because the first three books in George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy got me hooked and it's required a supreme act of will not to buy this myself

On Beauty because I never got through White Teeth and I feel like I owe Zadie Smith a second chance.

DVDs

Star Wars: Episode III because seeing Anakin Skywalker get his legs sliced off makes up for the previous two films.

War of the Worlds because those alien tripods are way scarier than Tom Cruise.

Sin City: Recut and Extended because it stars Jessica Alba's navel

MST3K: Volume 5 because it's got Time Chasers ("Matt, it's time for you decide if you're gonna be one of my team players or not") and A Touch of Satan ("This is where the fish lives."). None of this will make any sense to you unless you're a MST fan, so just move along.

Assorted Geek Goodness

Civilization IV because if I'm going to spend all this time in front of the computer, I might as well do something productive.

I'm blogging this T-shirt because I want to put everyone on notice.

Sapien Bookcase because it's oh-so-mod.

Darth Vader mini-bust because it would just look so cool on my desk.

A Movado watch because you want me to look good, don't you?

Of course, you should feel free to get creative and stray from this list if you think it's appropriate. I trust you to exercise good taste in expressing your affection for me through material things.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 10:09 PM | Comments (2)

December 02, 2005

All Around The World

I need your help with a little audience participation experiment. Frappr is a cool little tool that lets you pin your location on a Google map, along with an optional comment and a photo of yourself. I'd like all 19th Floor readers to go to this website and show me the place you call home. Make the world seem a little smaller for me.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 08:43 PM | Comments (3)

December 01, 2005

New And Improved

A late entry tonight because I was out for most of the evening. I've been messing around with Firefox 1.5. Nothing too revolutionary, but I do like being able to drag and drop tabs in the browser window. And pages seem to load a bit faster. I toyed with the idea of switching to the Thunderbird e-mail client, but Outlook does what I need and it integrates nicely with some work-related tasks. So I remain, in many respects, a loyal Microserf.

Posted by wintermute2_0 at 11:15 PM | Comments (2)