6:59 AM Well, well, well (three holes in the ground). It's been a slow week on tanquelogue, but out in the real world the schedule has felt quite full. My parents and Hope have seen the new house, which was cool; I don't see them often enough. And school started around town, so the teachers are all swinging back into shop-talk mode, which is usually pretty interesting to me. College classes start on Labor Day (aren't college profs unionized?), which means that the town has been swelling with the influx of kids. We drove through campus on Wednesday and it was pretty thick. Glad I'm not moving into a dorm this week.

Otherwise, time has flown by pretty quickly. There's talk of meeting for darts at the upstairs this afternoon; I wonder how crowded the Upstairs will be. Maybe "happy hour" will be too early for the new crop of kids to be out....

There must be something to this Wesley Clark fellow if neither FrontPageMag nor Counterpunch can stand him. Hmm....

2:36 PM Jim's horoscope:

Virgo (Aug. 23—Sept. 22)
Today is a good day to empty your Recycle Bin. Delete files with abandon.

10:58 AM "if love of life disappears, no meaning can console us." [link] Tell it, Liz. I've been thinking recently about my moods and what causes them. Some days the blah around me really gets under my skin and gets me all irritable and grumpy, and other days it's like rain running off a duck, totally irrelevant to how I feel. But it feels like luck to me. I can try to cultivate compassion and openness and all that, but sometimes whether I'm happy or sad is just out of my hands. I can try to respond/react to the world in a certain way, but when it comes down to it, sometimes the crap is gonna get me down, and knowing how lucky I am isn't gonna change that, at least not immediately. I had a philo. prof in college summarize what the purpose of logic was, and I wish I had written it down because it was really pretty nice. We'd been studying diagrams and equations, which gets pretty abstract after a while, but the whole point of all that stuff is to make some sort of sense of the world that fits our intuitive sense of it, which is a really clumsy way to say what I'm thinking of, but there you go. We start with ourselves, and from there we try to build a logic that makes sense of the world. But if the starting point is an ugly place, logic isn't going to pull you out. (I was a little suspicious of the end of Beautiful Mind for that reason; he "figured out" his delusions and learned to put them aside. I think that's the trap I fall into all the time, thinking that I can "figure out" a solution to the way I sometimes feel, when there's no solution, there's just the way I feel).

Of course, if logic is all we have to work with, you make do. (I've grown quite fond of the expression, "if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.") And I know Liz isn't talking about exactly the same thing, but that's what came to my mind reading her post.

So, Clint is nearly moved into the new bachelor pad. The felines were curiously scoping the place out last night, but they all seemed reasonably happy with the strange new digs. I saw more of ArtB last night than I think I've seen of him the entire time he's been with Clint. Cool.

The weekend looms. Jimmy's b-day is on Sunday. Jibber must be close to home-ownership at this point (knocking on wood for ya, bro). I still have a ton of books and whatnot to arrange. My folks will get to see the new place next week. I have a new mower! (thanks, Robinsons!) And so, now I also have something to keep in the shed. Plans of composter acquisition to follow shortly. Glad to be here.

8:56 AM Quick link via Miles: Lessons in How to Lie About Iraq by Brian Eno. Sounds like something Chomsky might write (about how much effort is put into controlling the terms of debate rather than straight-out propaganda).

9:48 AM "New-terrain I-69 will never be built, in part because it will waste hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars when there is no money to waste." [BA Link] I heard Inskeep's peice last week and was underwhelmed, though glad to hear it addressed on NPR. I think I tend to agree, that the money just isn't there, so hopefully this won't ever go through. I spend more time on Bloomington's I-37 corridor these days, driving from the new place to work.

Thanks to all who made it out on Saturday. I had a ball. On Sunday I let Jack out for the first time (not counting the time he pushed through the screen on his own). He seemed to like the backyard just fine, not overly interested in the front yard, and he came back in on his own - I was expecting to have to pick him up, or at least coax him with kitty treats. Paul has given me some ideas about replacing the wood that's rotted on the back porch, so there may be some woodwork in my future.

Glad to hear that everything is okay in New York. I told Shari I want to have solar panels and a supply of bottled water here in preparation for the next outage. Actually, I just want solar panels cause I think they're cool.

7:45 PM Spent the day in lovely Petersburg, Indiana, knocking the kinks out of our office down there. The worm that's been playing havoc with Microsoft products recently has apparently generated a flurry of interest in the Windows Update pages, as they've been perfectly worthless all day long. Ah well, paint a big target, as they say. Okay, that's not really a reference to any real saying that I'm aware of, but perchance you will still catch my drift. In any event, I had a pleasant, simple day, upgrading software and trouble-shooting simple stuff.

I guess I should explain that yes, Phil's requested that his page be removed. See Jimmy's Aug 13th post and comments. Not much else to add. Check back in six to twelve months for our next heated debate gone bad.

I'd been wondering about those comment threads for the past couple days, though, and probably will continue to do so for a while. Liz's post yesterday succinctly reminds me why some folks are more interested in paying attention to increasing tolerance rather than rooting out the source of perceived depravity. Especially when we have the president of the United States responding to questions about homosexuality with "we're all sinners," the obvious implication being that sexual orientation that isn't church sanctioned is sinful. (Which reminds me, my hatred of Bush hasn't been described often enough or in enough detail here lately, but for now let me just remind my readers that I hate the man, and fantasize about meeting him; some scenarios involve me actually communicating with the man and trying to understand his deeply heinous nature, others include me lunging forward to break his smarmy neck before secret service professionals can stop me - such is the nature of the imagination never to be realized).

There's another side to this, not an opposing position but rather a complimentary one, but I don't have a clear handle on my thoughts about it. I think kids (and adults) are sponges, looking for models. We imitate, often without understanding the context or implications, and often as a shorthand for self-awareness. But words fail me on this tonight.

Shangri-la is out of our hands now. Shari, Jim, Jennifer, Dave, Julie and I stood around in the rumpus room for the last time together last night, the house empty and vacuumed and mopped and cleared out and abandoned. I feel relieved to be free of it, but I know that I had some pretty big life changes in that house. Shari and I decided to live together there. Our relationship evolved there. So did my relationships with Dave and Jim. Not to put too much a point on it, but I think Dave recognized what he has with Julie in that house, and I know Jim first told me about Jennifer there, probably standing in that kitchen.

Digging out the closets I found pictures of the past five years, various folks who have come and gone from our lives. Time passes, you know? I also came across pictures of my apartment in Broadripple, Pat and Jim hanging out and looking about twelve years old, and I think about that place and where I was in my life in that period, as I'm sure I'll look back at Shangri-la and think about all the living that took place there as well. I was a one-cat man when I entered that house. Again, I don't want to overdo it, but another arbitrary marker has passed in this life. I live somewhere else now.

If you can come, you should stop by "the new house" tomorrow. 430 W. Church Lane. Near Rogers. Around 3 or 4, with the grill firing up around 6. Shari and I plan on hitting the farmer's market tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to it all. Maybe Jack can go outside this weekend as well; he's dying to get back outside after two weeks cooped up indoors with the kittens.

While I'm at it, let me suggest that you check out Deigo's page if you haven't been keeping up with it.

"Are you scared?"
"Yeah."
"Are you having fun?"
"Yeah."
"Do you want us to stop the boat?"
"No."

Good stuff. The weekend looms. I love my new home. Life is better than I deserve.

1:26 AM Go to bed, fella. And yet he instead fires up blogger and starts typing....

The move is almost over. It can't last longer than Friday at two o'clock, when we're supposed to hand over our keys and bow out of shangri-la for good. I for one will be glad to have that place out of my life; the new house already feels like home, whereas shangri-la is the left-over albatross that refuses to let go. I've taken two trips to the dump with Jimmy, which hopefully will make me think twice before acquiring anything else from here on out. I dislike stuff right now. But I really am pleased with the new homestead. It feels like home. It's mine to play with. It's nice as it is. I'm still itching to let Jack outside, but I'm holding off. Soon.

Shari and I got her computer connected to the internet tonight, a fairly simple task, sure, but it didn't happen automatically. There's cable snaking down the hall as I type this, but I like to think that I'll eventually get up in the attic so that I can drill holes and get the cat5 cable out of sight. We'll see what happens.

So, yeah. Almost done with this business. Then we can start moving Clint....

8:55 AM Okay, hopefully by the time I get home tonight we will be back online via smithville/bluemarble dsl (but I fully expect some snag to come up, just the way these things work). Once that happens, I plan to do some house-keeping stuff around here as well - Catharine's and Clint's pages both need some tweaking, but I haven't made the time yet. Remarkably, the tedious crap left at Shangri-la (along with some stuff I really do want) seems to multiply each time I make a trip, such that I wonder if it will ever be completely empty. This promises to be a weekend trips back and forth, but I hope to get this bad-boy closed off soon.

Though it's probably too early, I'm also itching to let Jack out at the new house. He's already gotten out once, pushing through a weak spot in the back porch screen, so he's gotten a taste. Soon enough, little man.

The plan for next weekend, as it stands, is to have folks over during the day on Saturday for cooking out, bocce, &etc. So if you can, we'd love to have you over. Emails and phone calls to follow, but you heard it here first (unless you heard it elsewhere).

Otherwise, folks, it's the weekend. Have we started gambling on Heidi's arrival yet?

8:41 AM via shoutbox, phil linked to this article about rss standards. I've never bothered to syndicate tanquelogue, nor bothered to play with rss-readers, or news aggrigators, or whatever the jargon is, but I'm curious about it. I assume Huffy is into this. Anyone else out there playing around with this stuff? (I usually DiveIntoMark for the latest on this stuff; he's quoted in the article. Winer, also quoted, was the first weblog I ever found I think, with the possible exception of Mackido).

Shangri-la is an empty shell (still in need of an enima); long live the new place. DSL on it's way.

10:42 AM Busy day today. I've gotten a buncho stuff done this weekend, move-wise, due in most part to the gentle but persistant prodding of my pals, and it continues today. According to plan, Shari moves in today as well, meaning in theory there will be no more nights spent in Shangri-La, excepting whatever lives in the basement and upstairs in Dave's clothes pile.

Phil brought over Out of Mind, which promptly put me to sleep on first viewing, but later was very enjoyable; recommended for Lovecraft fans.

Okay, no dilly-dallying now. Gotta go get the phone activated, and the cable, and then back to moving....

2:29 PM notes for a fictional review of a fictional movie director found in a fictional coffee house in a fictional college town.

8:54 PM Okay, found a workaround for the comments thing for now. Hurm, not pleased with it, but I feel better. Especially since I'll be posting so much now.

recent Barsamian/Chomsky interview in ZMagazine:

Often at the talks you give, there is a question that’s always asked, and that is, “What should I do?” This is what you hear in American audiences.

You’re right, it’s American audiences. You never hear it in the Third World.

Why not?

Because when you go to Turkey or Colombia or Brazil or somewhere else, they don’t ask you, “What should I do?” They tell you what they’re doing. It’s only in highly privileged cultures that people ask, “What should I do?” We have every option open to us. None of the problems that are faced by intellectuals in Turkey or campesinos in Brazil or anything like that. We can do anything. But what people here are trained to believe is, we have to have something we can do that will be easy, that will work very fast, and then we can go back to our ordinary lives. And it doesn’t work that way. You want to do something, you’re going to have to be dedicated, committed, at it day after day. You know exactly what it is: it’s educational programs, it’s organizing, it’s activism. That’s the way things change. You want something that’s going to be a magic key that will enable you to go back to watching television tomorrow? It’s not there.

This quote rings so abso-friggin-lutely true to me these days. I always feel like I'm copping out. These days I feel like I'm playing along. Whine, whine, whine. I'm speaking only for myself. I am awake and sleepwalking simultaneously, and have been for a long, long time.

But it's the weekend, right?

12:45 PM Can't leave a comment with Ned? Why not leave one with Jimmy?

7:24 AM Okay, weekend....

End of camp party at Shangri-La tonight. The house is a dump right now, should be interesting.

Gentleman Caller show up in Indy somewhere tomorrow night tonight ( I don't remember the name of the place right now at Zanies Too, and they're playing with the Vulgar Boatmen). Should be nice.

Room is painted (one coat primer, one coat "feather white" eggshell paint - you know, "white"). Over wallpaper. You can still easily see the stripes from the wallpaper underneath. Oh well. We'll see if bothers me at all. Continue to get suggestions about painting over the faux-wood paneling in the main room around the fireplace. Continue to not care enough about the faux-wood paneling in the main room around the fireplace to plan on doing anything about it. Sat out on the front porch last night with my new/old neighbors, quite nice. There's more breeze out there than on the back, and when the traffic has died down it's nice to be on the street (I sort of miss that about my apartment on College sometimes, and the porch at Chateau Drinkmore; much too busy for kitties, but sometimes I like seeing a busy street go empty at night).

Let's see. This weekend, in theory, I'd like to move enough stuff to the new place to be able to start "living" there and "visiting" Shangri-La to pack, if you take my meaning. You know, sleeping over, leaving to work from there, etc. Gotta get the phone/internet set up too. Oh, and the connector for the stove was cracked so the gas guy wouldn't hook it up to the gas line, so there's no oven/stove for now. In any event, there's the weekend in a nutshell.

No, wait, this is me in a nutshell: {lays on back in pseudo-turtle position} "How did I get in this nutshell?"

The problem with the comments persists, but I haven't found it yet in my extensive half-axing around of the template. All I can see is that for some reason when I mouse over the comments on this page, I see something like

"javascript:viewComments('$BlogItemNumber$')"

when I should see something like

"javascript:viewComments('105698458565121499')"

The value for BlogItemNumber should be there in the source, not the name of the variable (if that's the right coding jargon). So something's messed up somewhere, but I'm not even sure where it is (like, does that mean the javascript has an open tag somewhere? What's supposed to be parseing $BlogItemNumber$ into 105698458565121499 on each entry? I assume that's on the blogger-side, but I can't see what I've changed in the template to mux it up).

oh well. I'm off....