February 28, 2008
Re-Tooling
I haven't posted much in the past few months. Partly I've been very busy-long story there-but I also must confess that I have grown a bit tired of Aging Disgracefully as it presently stands. Maybe it doesn't fit where I am in life, or maybe it just lacks focus. Bear with me as I strike it with blunt objects until it works for me and, hopefully, you.
In the meantime, enjoy:
Posted by dag at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2007
Update...And Someone Please Kill Me
I have just finished a project that has consumed the past few weeks for me: an NIH R01 grant proposal. Jeez, these things are getting hard to do. The technical proposal isn't the problem: its all of the other stuff (15 pages on Human Subjects?!?!?!).
In other news, I am asking some faithful reader to kill me. This week I made the colossal error of watching Hotel Chevalier on iTunes. This short by Wes Anderson starring Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman is supposed to serve as a kind of prequel to his new film, The Darjeeling Limited. The short is garnering rave reviews. I'm not really sure why. Yes, it is interesting. But Oscar worthy (as some critics have suggested)?? I am convinced that the main reason it has proven so popular with the peasants is that is contains Natalie Portman's first nude scene (for those drawn to such things, I can report that it is a big snooze not worth the effort it takes to download the thing). I'll probably go see The Darjeeling Limited as well, but based on what I've seen and read of it, I am, in the wake of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, beginning to wonder if Anderson's whole game plan is to keep making Rushmore and The Royal Tenanbaums over and over (just spliced and diced a little differently each time).
Anyway, back to killing me: there is a song in Hotel Chevalier which I just cannot get out of my head: Peter Sarstedt's Where Do You Go To (My Lovely). Please kill me and make the insipid voice stop. This has happened once before (with Abba's Dancing Queen) and the nightmare only ended then when the Good Rabbi staged an intervention to force me back onto drugs.
Posted by dag at 10:11 AM | Comments (1)
September 28, 2007
A New Hope
Though I suspect few will notice it, a new era has begun here at Aging Disgracefully: this disgrace of a site has finally upgraded to the most recent tried and tested version of Movable Type. For this I must send out a shout-out to the Good Rabbi, who actually installed this new version of MT for me. Thank you Rabbi: you are truly living the High Life.
There are myriad changes you won't notice, but one that you will: I have finally got some measures in place to deal with the overwhelming volume of spam comments I was getting. So, comments are still open.
Posted by dag at 7:44 AM | Comments (1)
September 23, 2007
Heeeeeeeee's Back
Well, after a considerable hiatus, I am going to start posting again on a more regular basis. The last few months have been pretty busy. I've also been overtaken by a certain lack of motivation to do many things.
The weather has probably had something to do with it. This has been one nastily hot, and hence enervating, summer. August of 2007 here in the Southern Part of Heaven shattered existing weather records. First, it was the hottest month on record, and by a margin of something like a degree and a half (that's like breaking the existing record for the mile dash by fifteen seconds). It had the most days over 90 ever (with the exception of some rather controversial readings dating to an era before the modern weather stations at RDU, though I think we are close to breaking even that old threshold). In other words, it has been (to channel Robin Williams' version of Adrian Kronauer) "hotter than a snake's ass in a wagon rut". And today is no exception: at noon it is 89 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course: I'm your standard stubborn American exceptionalist) with a pretty unpleasant dew point of 69. True, this isn't the worst we've seen (we've had days of 105 with dew points pushing 80) but, for God's sake, it's September 23rd!!!
As the temperature settles in a bit, I believe my posting will pick up.
Posted by dag at 12:08 PM
May 10, 2007
Some Business
In other news, I have decided to go back to allowing registered comments. We'll see how it works out.
Posted by dag at 1:55 PM | Comments (0)
November 30, 2006
New Traffic
I just finished my weekly examination of my Google Analytics report for this ramshackle tenament of a blog. Another week, another 150 visitors, including the usual assortment of complete oddballs (who is visiting me from Beirut, Moscow or Riga, Latvia?).
One notable change this week was a spike in traffic from a blog following the story of Chris Barnes. This isn't surprising: I left a comment there and spikes from such sites are typical.
I ran into a story about this guy in my recent alumni magazine for The University at Albany. He is a '96 alum (meaning that I may well have crossed paths with him, or at least come within Kevin Bacon range) who has experienced an "anoxic brain injury": basically, he suffered a heart attack after jogging (for reasons that remain a cruel mystery: the guy looked pretty damned fit to me) and the resulting disruption of oxygen caused brain damage.
His wife appears to be the main contributor to his blog, and man she seems to be cut from tough rock. Its a pretty tought and engaging story, much like that of our good friend's daughter (Aurora Waddell) who is currently battling cancer.
Anyway, it suddenly occurs to me that I have been amusing many of you, my dedicated cabal, with my ranting for some time without any financial compensation whatsoever. If you want to do something positive, channel that guilt (you maneuvering swines) into making a donation to the trust fund that helps support Chris Barnes's care. All of you U of Albany deliquents who visit my site and knew me in the daze can clear some ancient and un-fucking believably big poker debts to yours truly (and no crying about it like a bunch of Nancys: I warned you at the time never to mess with an Irishman in matters of chance) by helping out. Visit this site for details.
I'm off now to spend some time in my hyperbaric chamber making various ominous spiritual preparations for the release of Mel Gibson's new movie.
Posted by dag at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2006
Tosca
I am up at this ungodly hour (7:40am Sunday!!!) for a noble purpose: to watch a production of Puccini's Tosca on Discovery HD.
I have to admit that the biggest disappointment associated with our new, slick, high resolution and big LCD HDTV has been the HDTV part. Its not that HDTV programs don't look good on our TV. They look stunning. For instance, I don't know why in the hell anyone will actually go to an NFL or NHL game ever again (but, you know, they will).
The trouble is that there is comparatively little HD programming out there. The HD channels are colloquially known as the "200s" in my house since they range from 200 to 299 (and no, there are not 100 of them-there are plenty of gaps in between). And regular programming actually looks pretty bad on our TV. The trouble is that the screen is so sharp that small flaws that might be less apparent on a conventional TV are served up like a giant wart on this one.
This makes the discovery of any new HD channel quite a thrill. And my newest find is Discovery HD. I was an idiot and watched last week's Discovery Atlas series (Italy, Brazil, Australia, and China) on plain old Discovery. Having just discovered Discovery HD last night I will tonight re-watch the Australia segment (narrated by everyone's favorite jackass Russell Crowe (why do I keep seeing his movies???)).
This version of Tosca is stunning, both for picture and sound (I should add that we got a whole Bose-based sound system for this TV). I plan to order the DVD ASAP. I have caught similarly stunning art or music oriented HD shows on the public TV HD stations. Could this be a new dawn for culture on TV??? (Before you answer too enthusiastically, I should point out that Survivor and Fear Factor are also available in "the 200s".)
By the by, this is post number 200 to the new Aging Disgracefully.
Posted by dag at 7:38 AM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2006
Housekeeping
I have made a few changes to Aging Disgracefully, mostly in the categories department. First, I have renamed the category "Food" to be "Bread". Why, you might ask? Because it occurred to me that it might be a nice juxtaposition with "Circuses: The Holy Game", another new category. "Circuses: The Holy Game" has been created to cover the all-important upcoming NCAA basketball season.
"Immortal Beloved" will serve as a tag for all posts related to my wife. I chose this in honor of my favorite composer and because it occurred to me that the wife might interpret "The Relentlessly Nagging Shrew" as negative in tone.
"Plinian Eruptions" is a special category reserved for outbursts. I had planned on two categories here: "Plinian Eruptions: Time Warner Cable" and "Plinian Eruptions: Everything Else", but it occurred to me that that might make that area of the site seem too crowded.
"The Bittersweet Symphony" is for music. "The Epicurians" is for every form of indulgence not covered by another specific category.
"The Meditations" is where I'll go on endless and tedious philosphical digressions, each and every turn of which I am sure you, dear readers, will follow with breathless anticipation and excitement.
"I, Claudius" is where I will follow politics in the next few years. It would seem that we may be in for quite a ride in this regard. It is also where I will address all matters related to the Empire, whether of Claudius's time or ours (cleaving to the matter at hand, Cartman had the essential handle then and now: "They Don't Respect Our Authoritaaaay").
Finally, I announce this in "L'Etat", my new category related to the management of Aging Disgracefully.
Update: I have created yet another category, "Dismal Science", to house all of my ramblings on Res Economia.
Posted by dag at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)