The Misspent Life

What Did You Do Tonight?

I can tell you what we did in the Misspent suburban compound. We watched POPS play a video game. Medal of Honor: European Assault, to be precise. I brought it back for him to play since he likes to play WWII games. He likes any game that he can shoot at people, frankly. I found him a cheat code so he has spent the entire game going through each level with unlimited health and ammunition. I tell him that cheaters never win, but I don't think he cares.

Sickness Decends Around Me

So I spend months and months in glorious seclusion, only emerging for interpersonal contact for six or seven hours a week.  During this time I am cut off from the germ trade.  But when I return home for Christmas and New Years I am now presented with three other people and a dog around me all the time.  When those people all start complaining of an itchy throat it cannot be a good sign.  Let us hope that I can emerge from this experience without falling ill.

But perhaps the worst part is that I still have a week and a half left here and another week back in The District after that with nothing to do.  Whatever will I do with myself?  I have tried reading, but am finding it difficult to do so.  I have tried sleeping but my back begins to hurt.  I have tried watching TV, but there just isn't anything on.  To show you the depths of boredom I have reached, I accompanied POPS to go get a new pair of shoes at a SAS store.  Yes, he is an old man.

It Has Passed

Well, Christmas has come and gone.  The Misspent Christmas was nice and jolly.  The Misspent presents were well received, for the most part.  The gifts to me were of two sorts.  I recieved many DVDs, the 4th season of Smallville, two sets of Family Guy DVDs, the 1st season of Lost, and The Maddness of King George.  There were also books: Scalia Dissents, three Carl Schmitt books (Political Theology, Concept of the Political, Crisis of Parlaimentary Democracy, although I already have Concept, so I will have to have that one returned for another equally dry and academic book), and a classic PoliSci book, Breakdown of Democratic Regimes by Juan Linz.  It would not be a stretch to say that the books did not elicit much interest from the gathered family.  I also received a nice Chicago snow globe so I can think about Chicago with glittery snow when I am sad and a wind up emergency radio and flashlight for when the terrorists attack.  Perhaps the biggest surprise was the Misspent Sibling's gift to me.  I cannot wait to put it to good use, and it ups my awesome factor by about seven.  It is a hip flask, and a very nice one with a leather band around it (it says Mashall Field's so it will be espeically poignant for me while I drink myself into the gutter to think about how God damned Federated eliminated a Chicago landmark so they could spread their crappy Macy's brand and enlarge their New York egos).

Anyway, the food was good and the wine was flowing.  All in all a good Christmas.

Merry Christmas, Darling

Merry Christmas everyone!

You Will Crap Yourself with Cuteness

Cute Overload.

I Love Dogs

I really like dogs.  I wish I could get one of my own.  Here is a reason why I love dogs.  Click on the link to see.

I am a Machine, Part II

16 pages in six hours!  I am now done with my first semseter!  I feel like a woman who has finally pushed for the last time, and frankly those 16 pages look something like the afterbirth splattered all over the floor (as if I even knew what that looked like, although I can only imagine it is gross).

Anyway, I am done!  I am done!  I am done!  I am done!  I am done!  I am done!  I am done!  I am done!  I am done!  I am done!  I am done!  I am done!  I am done!  I am done!  I am done!  I am done!

Suck Ups

Suck ups.  That is all I have to say.

Sadness

There is sadness because the Chicago Bears lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Additionally, I did not get to finish At the End of an Age because I decided to watch a six-hour miniseries on the Bermuda Triangle on the Sci-Fi Channel.  Only about two hours of reading and I would have finished it, but no.  I had to make do with watching mindless television.

There is also sadness because tomorrow I have to get started with studying for my finals.  At least I can look on this weekend as a fun one.  I had two Christmas parties to go to.  I was expecting both of them to be really uncomfortable and creepy, but one was only somewhat uncomfortable and the other only somewhat creepy.  One of them had free beer so I drank my fill.  People thought I was drunk because I was shocking them with my forthrightness, moral clarity, and violence.  But I was not drunk, merely speaking truth to power.

A third cause of sadness is that all the shows are reruns now.  This is disappointing for one who wishes to procrastinate and not delve into his rather large, but ultimately lacking DVD collection for time wasters that do not involve reading or any kind of physical activity.

Sweet Hymns of Joy

The semester is done, two finals left to go, one B+, two 89s (without curve) and all the rest As throughout the term leave me to be a happy man.  At least for a day or two that I rest before studying for the remaining finals that will ultimately determine my grades, that is.  I have exhausted the stockpile of Star Trek: TNG on LeRoy, my TiVo, and am attempting to plow through one fun read before returning to the drudgery of re-reading the required readings for the semester.  What am I plowing through?  Well, in the spirit of Mr. P, At the End of an Age by John Lukacs. Surely deserving more than a plow, but I've got a limited amount of time.  What is on my list for fun read during the Christmas break?  The Conservative Mind by Mr. Russell Kirk, the Mao book by Chang and Halliday, and The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch.