This is an archived page. (current posts)

1.30.2004  

A Reality Show That Might Actually Deserve to be Aired

I know this sounds presumptuous - not to mention unlikely - and I was quite skeptical myself when the first week featured Berlin and Kajagoogoo, but VH1's Bands Reunited might actually be good "reality" tv.

Last night's installment featured The Alarm, a band that I'd forgotten how much I liked way back when. And the guys seemed decent in the interviews, and when they played it was still pretty good. Yeah, they were always like the little brothers of U2, but all things considered, that's not such a bad spot to be in.

Others I've watched that brought back the 80's and junior high with pitchfork clarity were A Flock of Seagulls and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. How long until they get around to Depeche Mode - or wait... did that band ever have the good sense to end? And coming up: Squeeze! How bizarrely cool is that?

1.29.2004  

Dream #34

Last night I dreampt that my alarm clock went off, and that I'd already gotten up and started the day. And then before that was one where Helmut and I were running down a hill at camp, trying not to land on any of the gargantuan dead fishes lying all the hell over the place. (And I don't even watch Fear Factor - honest.)

1.27.2004  

Allright Computer

So we traded up to a new and improved server at work last Friday [see DePauw University], to Windows2003, and that's kept things hoppin'. Nothing like thousands of cascading dependancies to make me wonder what's next. There were some decided moments of non-website-ness going on there, including a few that we weren't sure we knew how to get back. That gets the blood pumping, my friend! It's even gotten into my dreams the last few nights - I remember navigating dialog boxes and admin screens, trying to accomplish something vague last night. Don't I get enough of this during the day as it is?

Elsewhere, I've had several notable items that seemed like good blog material at the time, but haven't had the time or will to get them down in text. Arg! Why is it that when the good stuff happens, there's too much stuff happening to get it written down? I only seem to be able to write when there's nothing worth writing about happening. Should I rethink this whole thing (paradoxes generally being a sign that things are in a bad way and ready to get worse...)?

1.22.2004  

Laughable Reading

Here's a couple blogs I've been reading lately:
- Defective Yeti
- Izzle pfaff!

I group them together because both these guys have a natural humor, a way of stating things or telling a story that makes me laugh. And I find it amazing how rare that is, for example, how many hours of television I can plow through without actually laughing out loud. Probably because most shows aren't smart enough to stoop to my level of sophomoric content matter, or at least not the ones I allow myself to sit through. There's a conundrum - perhaps I'm keeping myself from the best stuff by thinking it's not good enough! FOX here I come!

Anyhow, I aspire for this here blog to come off more like those, knowing full well that I can't hide my dull and grim outlook behind snappy laugh lines, and so will likely fail miserably. I never was the funny guy anyways, so I guess that fits. -sob-

In any case, I still refuse to submit to the standard of a long sidebar of links to other blogs, just to be a stubborn jerklet, so I'll keep posting mine like thus.

1.19.2004  

Analysis

I'm neurotic in subtle ways: for example, i reflexively check the level of the water in the Culligan cooler every time i get a drink. Can't help it. Weird.

1.10.2004  

Trilogy

Um, yes, Return of the King. Humm...

So I liked it, and I think they did quite an exceptional job of it, and can't really specify anything that should have been better or different; it justifies the idea of a long movie trilogy, and sets the bar at a goodly height; satistying ending and all, and yet, and yet... well, I guess I wasn't as blown away as I'd hoped, and I'm not sure if that's more because of the predetermined outcome or my own inability to let good enough be good enough.

I think a Peter Jackson verison of The Hobbit would be fun, and I hope he uses the wild success of this to do more cool stuff, but I'm starting to wonder if asking for this stuff to be more than entertaining is too much. Have I just seen too many movies?

1.05.2004  

I Was Only Dreaming*

I seem to routinely have dreams that are quite fantastic, or at least vaguely suggestive, that I forget quickly and fail to write down. Well not today!

Last night, after giving myself another $0.00 homemade haircut during the day, I had a dream in which I was distinctly able to take off my head, lay it on the table in front of me, and easily trim the hair on the back (hard to reach) side. Interesting! I'd never seen the back of my head without the assistance of some reflective device, and I was shocked at how little hair is really there. It feels like so much more. (OK, so it had an impending-baldness-paranoia undercurrent to it...). Curious details included wondering how I could have my head removed and still see it well enough to trim, the sensation of my forehead being somewhat roughly bounced around - by me - on the tabletop, and that feeling of having your nose squished flat, like when receiving a backrub without the fancy face toilet seat device. How very odd.

* Yes, indeedy, the title of this post is in fact a reference to an OMD song. What's the appropriate distinction between sad and pathetic?

1.02.2004  

New Year Blog

No resolutions from me this year blog-wise. I'm starting to accept the fact that I've settled into being a once or twice per week blogger, and that if I try to force more than that the meaning of what I blather on about gets awfully thin. Ten months seems enough time for that pattern to have evolved to where I can define it. (Like so many other things, I wish I weren't limited to such human-scale quantities of success. I'm a perpetually frustrated idealist.)

I'm still not sure what this blog is for, or why I really feel interested in doing it -- so to some extent it mirrors almost every other factor of my life perfectly! I seem to use the new year benchmark more to call everything into question and confuse myself, than to reminisce and make hopefull plans. Could be that it has a way of falling during my studio hiatus each year (the one from when I stop making pots for the xmas sale, through trips and such over the holidays, past the inevitable sickness that catches up with me, and then hopefully ends about NOW... and would, if not for a newly discovered back problem that's grinding my motivation down one hour at a time).

Likely candidates for the "real" purpose of my blogging trend include:
a.) vanity
b.) tool to help me remember stuff I'd otherwise completely blank on
c.) everybody's doing it
d.) the simple desire to write and the public access keeping me honest
e.) the poor man's immortality
f.) a way to fill up my site
g.) continual flirting with public embarassment of one sort or another
h.) a soapbox
i.) a complaint box
j.) hubris of thinking I know something worth sharing about pots
k.) the tool is fun to use
l.) time killer
m.) proof that my thoughts exist
n.) proof that the web exists
o.) proof that my thoughts about the web exist
p.) proof that I am far less funny in writing than I wish
q.) proof that good writing requires far more effort than I'm willing to expend
r.) curiosity about what patterns emerge over time
s.) another facet of trying to figure out who I am
t.) attempted discipline
u.) fill it up, fill it up, fill it up
v.) an opportunity to add to the randomness of the universe
w.) fear of stopping
x.) complexity
y.) acknowledging incompleteness