I have to extend my sincerest apologies to all four of you who check this website regularly. My lack of updates is inexcusable, especially considering my recent commitment to writing here more often.
The general malaise of life in an IT cube farm has left me with little energy to write about the things I really care about - politics, history, literature, etc. Rest assured that I am not letting these pursuits fall by the wayside, however. I am carefully noting each topic of interest and will return to them at a later date (except for more time-sensitive topics, such as the legislative alert I posted recently).
I am definitely going to try and find time for more frequent generic updates, though. This post is one such update.
This week has seen me felled by a common headcold. Fortunately through the technological magic of VPNs and remote desktop, I managed to stay more-or-less on top of my workload despite being at home in my PJs with a nasty headache and mucus pouring from my nose (ew…).
My life on the medical front has stagnated somewhat, although I’m hopefully that upcoming trips to the doctor (and a related sleep study) will help that significantly. I won’t go into the details here, but despite being a miracle cure in terms of treating my anxiety, the side effects of the medication I’m taking (Cymbalta, for those of you just joining us) are unpleasant enough for me to seek alternatives.
Things at home are going well. I’ve recently had to come to grips with a few of the realities of being in a committed relationship, and am going to have to take steps to make sure that I’m doing everything that I need to do to make Jessi happy (and she in turn will do the same for me). The truth of the matter is that this is my first real relationship of any kind, and some things just don’t occur to me. After a long talk, Jessi and I have agreed to more open communication and redoubled efforts on both sides to correct our respective problems. I think we both realize that what we have together is too special to jeopardize because of miscommunication and stubbornness.
I don’t know if you’ve been following the sidebar lately, but I’ve been tearing through history volumes the last few months. First was Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution, followed by Patton’s War As I Knew It and the absolutely spellbinding (and heart-wrenching) Enemy At the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. Currently I am reading Eisenhower: At War (1943-1945) and Rommel’s Infantry Attacks.
The more I read these books about some of the most momentous events and influential people in history, the less I understand about the kind of human material that makes up these leaders. People like George Washington, George Patton, Friedrich von Paulus, Georgy Zhukov, Dwight Eisenhower and Erwin Rommel simply astound me. Regardless on what side of their respective conflicts they found themselves, each of these people demonstrates a unique charactaristic - unwavering determination and stamina in the face of absolutely monstrous decisions and the threat of total annihilation.
On a happier note, I’ve also started to read Jessi’s favorite book - Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. I’m only about fifty pages into it. I have to say that it has potential, but his writing style is a little grating on the nerves. Much like Arthur C. Clarke (I’m sure that’s the first time those two authors have been compared), he feels the need to over-describe almost everything as he’s telling the story. In Clarke’s case, the resulting story is usually worth the sometimes laborious detail. We’ll see if Robbins can craft a similarly compelling tale - my instict says he will, but only time (and the end of the book) will tell.
To wrap things up here, I’ll give you a little preview of some of the things I’m noodling over for future posts:
- A review of Enemy At the Gates, combined with a few thoughts of my own on the tragedy that was the Battle of Stalingrad.
- My first impressions of Intel’s Core 2 Duo processors, after having built a machine for a friend and put it through its paces a few weeks ago.
- A quasi-essay discussing the political views of one of my favorite authors, Robert Heinlein. Often seen as the second most prominent libertarian author (after Ayn Rand), I discovered when reading To Sail Beyond the Sunset that his political views took some very strange twists in his old age. I’ll talk about where I think he went wrong (gasp!).
- An overview of Libertarian candidates for various local, state and national seats in November’s elections. I’m not trying to get you to vote Libertarian, I just want you to know who’s out there ;)
And that’s about it. Take care everyone!
