The Misspent Life

The Final Day is Coming

As should be plainly obvious, this website is dead.  I will be putting up a final good bye message soon enough.  But in the meantime, watch this.  If anything has changed since I started, it is the fact that I can now watch this clip and get it.  Not sure if that is a good thing.

Settling Down for the Summer

I feel like I am 19.  Well, perhaps that isn't correct.  I don't actually feel like I am 19 since I am no longer as spry and limber as I once was now that I am edging ever closer to the big three naught.  But as I look around me I see 19 year old things.  You see, I am living in a dormitory for the summer.

In London

I am now writing this to you from London, where I am for a few days visiting a friend who works in the City.  Gosh, things are expensive.  And crowded.  It is much more crowded than I remember, but then I don't think I ever have been here in the summer.  All my previous trips have been in the Spring or Fall. 

Let me tell you something.  Never fly from Miami to London on American.  Their first class is not as good as other carrier's business class--I am thinking of Lufthansa, specifically.  Not worth it.

I walked around the City today and took in the National Gallery and the British Museum.  Unfortunately, half of the National Gallery was closed for some repairs for the weekend so I missed out on their later galleries.  The British Museum was good, except they let you take pictures which means that you have to move around dozens of people with their cameras out getting pictures of the statues and themselves next to the statues and their friends next to the statues, etc.

I also took a trip down Jermyn Street and stopped off to get some shaving soap from Trumpers.  Using fancy soap and a badger brush is one of my small luxuries that makes living in penury not as bad as it could be.  It gives a man a measure of dignity unavailable to him otherwise.  Speaking of dignity, or rather lack of, here is a picture that will probably make you mad. Most of you have heard about it, since The Roger wrote about it in The New Criterion when it was first unveiled (I can't link to the article since their website is problematic).

Disgraceful.  But I will not dwell on the sad state of Britain since that would take all day, and we are all in kind of a sad state when you think about it.

 

Back at Home Only to Leave Again

Well, I have returned from my sojourn in the woods with POPS and MOTHER only to find myself preparing for another journey, one that will take me far away to the heart of the Black Forest for the summer.  Maybe I'll post a few things from my adventures, or maybe I won't.  I can't promise you anything.  But for now I need to clean house, run errands, and start to gather my belongings in preparation for my departure midweek.

Is is that Time of Year Again?

Wow, this came up fast.  Next week it is down to the final two.  Who do you think it will be?  I really don't know--all three are very good and deserve to be there.  My picks are Melinda and Blake, but only because I like them the best.  I thought they did by far the best, although Jordin did end really well last night no matter what Simon said.  I really hope that Blake makes it to the final, although then it will be tough for me to pick who I would want to see win, since I like both him and Melinda.  Ahh, choices!  If it is Melinda and Jordin, then I pick Melinda as my favorite.  I still think Melinda takes it all--she is the best singer I think they have ever had.  She kicked up her personality and bit this week, which is good.  I think Blake is one of the most interesting people they've ever had on the show, and while I don't really like Maroon 5, he made me like their song.  I really like the last song he did, both the original and his version (which wasn't that different, honestly).  If only Paula had chosen a better song for the first one.  I mean, Roxanne?

It was a hot one last night America.

Oh, and I am done with my school work and it is wheels up for Europe in a fortnight.  Still no word on which city I'll be in, which is fun.  Lots of social functions this week, my bday, and the lady's graduation and family.  Then it is wheels up for Wisconsin (where we don't get Fox, so I will not see the final!).  No rest for the wicked! 

Go Blake!  We'll see tonight.

Happy Mother's Day

Obligatory post, obligatory video.

So Close

I only have two more papers left, having churned out two rather slapdash attempts at intellectual insight in the past week (the last of which is a really shoddy pile of words and thoughts that have no business being together).  Have to do a conference thingy on Monday.  But this morning/afternoon I was able to travel a little bit.  I went to Europe. 

Wow, That was not a good night for America

First off, I'm pumped about France.  We'll see if anything actually changes over there--I have my doubts.

Second, I finished my conference and I wasn't too pleased with the whole experience--not sure these are the people I want to spend the rest of my life interacting with.

Third, I'm almost done with a massive paper.

Fourth, American Idol was just so disappointing tonight.  I actually think Melinda did great on both songs, and preferred her first one.  LaKisha just wasn't strong tonight--I think she goes home tomorrow.  Jordin did really well on the first one but not so hot on the second.  Blake?  He is my favorite, especially after his Bon Jovi night.  The BeeGees were his thang, though, dog.  I should have knocked it out of the part.  Instead he chose terrible songs and did them poorly.  I wouldn't be that surprised if he goes tomorrow, but since I think he probably has a stronger fan base than LaKisha, he might be safe.  But MAN was he disappointing.

Happy May Day, Genossen!

Comrades, we raise our glasses to the international brotherhood of man!

Excuses, Excuses

Let me tell you just how busy I am.  Not only am I not posting anything on this blog (what else is new?) but I have also had television shows piling up on my TiVo and DVDs from Netflix sitting on top of my TV, Toby, for several weeks.  I also haven't been able to find any good videos on YouTube.  In fact, I haven't even looked for any.  That is how busy I am.  But I am steadily working through the papers I need to complete. Two weeks from now it should be done.

I'm giving a talk this weekend at an Ivy and sent in my final copy in the middle of my recent troubles and was saddened to see several errors in the text (extra words, missing words, that kind of thing) at around one per three/four pages of text.  I guess this means there were only about five of them, but still it was frustrating that I wasn't able to catch them.  Of course, I haven't been able to prepare for my presentation so I will end up just reading the damn thing out loud.  Usually I try to be more extemporaneous and be a little fun--but scheduling a conference in the middle of finals isn't conducive to getting strong performances out of your student participants.

So I will be seeing you around.

Still no word on where I'll be in Germany this summer.

Back in Action

Hi all,  I'm back in action once again.  Although action does not really mean posting to this blog since I have gotten all better just in time to write about ten pages a day for the next two weeks!

AWOL

Hi.  Sorry for not being around much lately.  I've been having one of my problems after two years of being fine and dandy.  But one thing has helped to break the pain, at least for tonight--Sanjaya is finally gone.

Not Commenting Tonight

I don't have much to say about tonight's episode of American Idol except to say--and this is not easy for me to say--Sanjaya wasn't that bad.  Granted, he looked as strange as ever.  The weird hair all greasy and curly.  What is the deal?  And the ratty facial hair.  Anyway.  I wasn't a big fan of anyone tonight.  I didn't think Melinda was as bad as everyone made her out to be, and Blake was OK.  Anyway, I don't have anything else for you, really and this ain't much.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to you all. For a little Easter fun, I give you the Easter Bunny gone bad and in honor of Easter egg traditions, everyone's old favorite, "I Love Egg."  But first, nothing says "celebrate our risen Savior" like animals, so you need to head over to CuteOverload and look at some of the Easter pictures here, here, here and here. Too much!  When are they going to dress up Knut in bunny ears??  That will stop time.

Crying

Gina?  Really?  What is wrong with America.  Again, Sanjaya wasn't in the bottom three.  There is no justice on this show.  There is no way that it was Gina's turn.  But this is a democratic show.

Hachi Machi

Tickets to Germany are so expensive!  About as high as my tax bill this year (which is higher than you think--a rant I will be sharing with you once I cut that check).

Here I Lay It Out

Here we go for this week's American Idol.

Happy Birthday Chip

Wow, have they really been around for three years?  It seems like only yesterday that I first stumbled upon those wicked mongers.  Oh, those were heady days.  How much better things were then, no?  It is good to see them still going strong when so many bloggers hang up their keyboards.  Of course, this site may as well have hung up its keyboard years ago.  If there is one thing I can say about The Misspent Life, it is that it is the worst blog that is still active in your blogroll.

Anyway, congrats to the Hatemongers for having the ability to hold out this long.

Well, that went over like a lead balloon

So either one actually cares what happens to me or my pathetic attempt at an April Fool's Joke was so patently obvious that everyone ignored it.  Contrary to my previous post I actually was the recipient of that competitive scholarship and will be spending the entire summer basking in the warm glow of the German sun, most likely in Freiburg.  Two months entirely paid for by the Germans.  It is a pretty sweet deal and a good thing for my career and I am generally really really really really excited about it.  Now if only I didn't have that pesky classwork hanging over me to ruin the buzz.

Google Paper

Look what Google did for their April Fool's Day joke.  Funny thing is, I know one of the people in the pictures.  Really.