The Misspent Life

Odd

I find it odd that TypePad's Spell Checker doesn't recognize the word "blogger."  It will tell me it is "TypePad" and not "Typepad" so evidently something has been customized.  Why not "blogger"?

One Last Turin Olympics Post

So, did we all watch the closing ceremonies last night?  What was the deal with the marching band playing The Village People?  The people flying above the big wind generator was really cool.  Why was Ricky Martin singing?  He isn't Italian, nor is he Canadian.  And why was he singing a song about the World Cup?  What was up with that dude who grabbed the mic?  I wonder how much he got paid.

It is Passed

After many, many months, I have finally taken down the link to our dear Mr. Enoch Soames.  His blog now appears to be totally offline, lost to the ages, no longer sitting dormant tormenting us with the hope that someday he may return.  Alas, we must finally give up hope and resign ourselves to the fact that he is gone.  He has been missed and will continue to be missed by those of us who owe him a great deal.  If it weren't for Mr. Soames linking to this site in its early days it is unlikely that any of you would ever have seen it or that it would have lasted much more than a few months (the positive effects of which can be justly debated).  Good bye, Enoch.

(Pouring a snifter of brandy into the dirt with a pair of wingtips strung up on the nearest telegraph pole)

Not Going to Do It

As was alluded to by Fiendish on Friday in the comments section of a post I did attend the pro-Denmark rally here in DC.  I did take some pictures, but they didn't really turn out well as I didn't feel like nudging my way through the crowd to get to a good vantage point.  If you are interested in pictures, follow Fiendish's link and click through there, check out Instapundits summary, or search for them on the internets. The quality of pictures aren't worth the effort of me digging out my USB cable and uploading them, resizing them, and posting them, so you will just have to do with my verbal summary of the event (which you can get in many other places to a much better degree).  Plus it is several days past, and thus "old news" on the internets.  I had something later that day that lasted until late in the night and a class very early Saturday morning so I couldn't have gotten around to posting pictures until the past due date, anyway.  (Quite frankly, I gave up the idea that this could be a "good" blog more than a year ago and have abandoned myself to the fact that I don't have the interest, energy, ego, or time to try to make myself a "big blogger".)

So what did I think?  I was a bit disappointed.  I don't know what I expected but I didn't quite expect it to be such a media circus.  Granted, it wasn't that much of a circus, but for the size I think it qualifies as at least a small-town media carnival.  There was a high proportion of "famous" people there, including the organizer, Christopher Hitchens, Andrew Sullivan, Bill Kristol (who is just about at everything I go to in DC), Blankley (who I walked up the hill to the embassy behind), Cliff May, some minor NRO writers (I think), and undoubtedly many more who I don't recognize by sight.  The rest of the people appear to be bloggers given how many reports you can find on the web.  They also appear to have nothing else to do given how quickly they posted their coverage and pictures. Of the non-names that were there about half seemed to be there to soak up media coverage and bask in the glow of their wonk-celebrities and the other half actually were interested in rallying for Denmark.  I was in the latter camp because while I enjoy the wonk-sightings as much as any other loser, I'm not particularly keen on fawning over them.

Anyway, all in all it was OK, and kind of neat to see pictures of me all over the web, but I'd say the best thing I got out of it was a little Danish flag (that I bought, so even that isn't too special). Seriously, the wonk-sightings aren't that fun given how few people I know that actually find them as famous as I do, or have even heard of them--even in a town like DC.

I Am Wondering Why

Nobody said anything about my calling Costas a Katie Couric with testosterone deficiency.

Not Olympics, But

American Idol.  What do I think of the people so far?  Well, unfortunately I will miss the first voting round, but here are my favorites.

Ladies:  I like the two young girls, they can really sing.  I also like the all-American girl from Mass.  My favorite was the last one to perform on Tuesday.  Total package.

Men:  I like the young guys, although not so much the Sinatra clone even though he is representing Chicagoland.  I'm really rooting for the one who looks like Chicken Little.  The rocker with no hair is good.  I also like the Ace guy, although I'm not a fan of his hair/jaw. I started out not liking the silver maned man with the fits, but I'm warming to him, although that warmth vanishes when he starts shaking. Don't have a favorite in this group.

People often wonder why I, the paragon of good taste, can watch something like American Idol.  Well, one of the reasons is I like singing without all of that booty-bling-crap and pretentious I am really serious and the world should heed my wisdom attitude that everyone succumbs to.  But most importantly, I find myself liking the ones that just seem like good people.  You don't get to see too many real people on TV that you can think of as good people.  All the other reality shows are about being nasty and mean and conniving.  American Idol, while still competitive, tries to be a friendlier show.  Those that aren't good people eventually get their own, like those twins.  (To that end, I am not a fan of the catty woman.) How can you not be happy inside when you hear the judges saying how nice and special the Chicken Little guy is and then see his parents so proud of him in the audience.  That is good TV.

What Have I Been Listening To?

I don't know how I lasted so long without it, but I realized that I didn't have The Carpetner's version of Desperado and rectified this situation thanks to iTunes this weekend.  So I've been listening to that a lot lately.  Also, I've been listening to Jeff Buckley's Grace quite a lot.

DC Commuter Angst

I have to get this off my chest, and I know that virtually none of you care or are affected by the crisis I am about to describe to you.  This has to do with the Metro train message boards.  You know, the things that stand over the edge of the platform and tell you what trains are coming and how long you have to wait.  It seems that the Metro planner, peace be upon them, also find these signs to be useful conveyors of information about track work.  Fine and good, except that there are already numerous electronic signs that tell us about elevator outages.  I'm waiting at a Yellow and Blue Line station, do you really need to constantly tell me about track maintenance on the Organge and Red lines?  Seriously, for every minute of actually informing me about the trains coming on MY TRACK the Metro people have to spend a minute telling me that trains are running on a single track on the Orange line and then another minute telling me that trains are running on a single track on the Red line.  I don't like this.  I want to be able to look up and see how long I have to wait whenever I want and not have that infomration be interrupted by stupid, overly long messages about lines that have nothing to do with the station.

One More Olympic Note Today

What is with the late night and weekend anchor?  He looks like a shaven pug.

The Least of These

When one thinks of the Olympics and one's favorites sports, ice dancing and curling don't usually top the list.  But a little over half way through these Olympic games I'd have to say that I enjoyed those two sports the most.  The ice dancing final was simply marvelous.  Not only did the US win their second medal EVAR but they got silver!  All of the falls during the second day were simply fantastic.  Who would think that ice dancing would provide such spectacular mishaps? The reaction of the Italian woman to her partner's mistake was textbook awesome.  The fact that they refused to look at or acknowledge each other prior to the final skate was like icing on top of the "see, that is why I will never date an Italian women" cake.  The poor man!  But when they came through and skated well, all was forgiven.  The pair embraced and kissed.  Oh!  The moment!  It is times like that that make me wince in the appreciation that sometimes I, yes even your foul Misspent, can enjoy the heart-tugging, Kodak "True Colors" moments.  My heart melted.  It was not long, however, until Bob Costas, that Katie Couric with testosterone deficiency, had to come back on the air and ruin my mood.

Curling, well, curling just speaks for itself.  Strategy, stones, brushes, bulleyes, sliding and screaming.  It rocks.  (Tee hee).

MEMO TO MR. BLANDINGS:  THANKS FOR YOU MESSAGE, SORRY I HAVEN'T RETURNED YOUR CALL.  THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION IS THAT I WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO.