Doing some more work on the more mundane parts of the site. I think I have a solution to our comment spam problems up and running, and I should have done it much sooner. Viagra robots are accounting for about a fifth of our bandwidth usage right now--which doesn't take much, admittedly, but it is a bit unsettling. Most popular for some reason was this entry about flan.

Anyway, among other things, I integrated more of my old writing in with the Movable Type 'blog here. Some of it is pretty telling as it concerns my current situation, and I'm kind of surprised. I had thought things were going pretty well before last year. But now I'm starting to remember that even in my first couple of semesters at Iowa State--around the time I wrote this, in fact--I was seriously considering transferring to the University of Minnesota. If only I had gone through with it; probably it would have saved me a lot of misery. Shucks, if nothing else it would have totally saved Jesse's last Minneapolis trip.

But I suppose that's all in the past.

Here, let me change the subject very quickly: I saw a strange bumper sticker while driving for work the other day. "NO PAIN, NO JANE," with white letters over red background on an otherwise unadorned black Nissan pickup truck. I wondered what it could possibly mean. Was it a euphemism for wifebeating? The pickup truck of a weekend dominatrix? The mark of some kind of sadomasochist drug dealing cartel?

I made a note of it, and when I looked it up later it turned out to be the slogan of some yuppie ski resort in Colorado. Disappointing, but not a big surprise. While riding out to New York in April, I saw a much more impressive bumper sticker near Iowa City that read only "Osama Yo Mama," without even a copyright mark to explain why. Ever since then I've been checking out the rear ends of passing cars, waiting for something better than "Osama Yo Mama." I don't know that it will ever come.

BONUS SOMETHING-OR-OTHER: An intar-web friend--I think on a dare from noted collage master Chris L. Seebe'oh--created a collage of bassoonists. Also bassoons. What. It is five in the morning and this is all I have for you. Please DO NOT QUESTION.

Just wrapping up a grand tour of four--count 'em--four days in Rapid City. It was good to be back amongst hillfolk, who are in the end my kind of people. Grizzled, maybe, sometimes, but we know how to take care of ourselves and, hence, each other.

That's about all, though. A Life Aquatic may be the only good movie in theaters right now--and that's assuming it is a good movie. I've heard differing accounts from various far-off locations that are actually showing it. Maybe there is hope for The Aviator, I don't know. It's not been a terribly good season for cinema.

OK for now. I'll probably be back in Iowa by the time you read this, so I'll update the thingie on the right side of the page accordingly and sign off.

Are you sure you want to delete the 45 comments?

Writing from South Dakota now, sitting up at 2 am on Christmas Eve (technically) clearing out the spam on This Old Web Site. It’s a big hassle. I'm thinking that once I get back to Iowa, I'll start testing out the new version of Movable Type over on the test site. (Note to self: this plug-in might work too.) Hopefully I can have something better figured out by the end of the year so that our site can actually be usable again--for us, anyway. But that's where that stands.

~

Otherwise: the last couple of months have been quite eventful, haven't they? I've been working like a bastard and not had time to comment on Current Events, but I've been reading the newspaper pretty closely and keeping track of things. My only observation that I don't think has been covered thoroughly is that in my home district, none of the twenty or thirty incumbents up for re-election--from the President of the United States all the way down to the county commissioners--was defeated. Despite all the fire and vitriol spewing forth from all angles about What is Wrong With This Country, it seems like we're pretty happy with things, at least around Iowa. I would hope that it is different elsewhere.

~

I'm going to try to keep it short for now but for the record, I stopped by the Ropeadope New Music Seminar when it stopped by Des Moines last month. I didn't catch all of it, but I did get to see Matt Haimovitz, Charlie Hunter, Bobby Previte, DJ Olive, Lyrics Born, the ever-charismatic Sex Mob the lethargic Benvento/Russo Duo and the main attraction: an extremely obese, middle-aged man in a tie-dyed Grateful Dead T-shirt bouncing around the joint like a giddy schoolgirl. Quality.

OK. I'll be in Rapid City through Monday; give me a call if you will too.