in America

Rose-colored glasses

The city of Austin is throbbing in anticipation of the Rose Bowl. I don’t follow college football closely at all and can’t claim to be even moderately knowledgeable about matters that generate so much trash-talking and inanity. Still, it is hard to avoid the interesting aspects of this matchup that have little do to with football. There’s a tempting blue state-red state analogy to be made what with the celebrity photo-ops on the Trojan sidelines while most Longhorn fans are, let’s face it, Bush-loving conservatives. (I spotted not one, not two, but three copies of Sean Hannity’s latest book being read in the waiting area for a charter flight out of Austin to Ontario, CA today.) That kind of facile, polarizing thinking does make sports matchups more fun, I suppose, but ultimately it rings just as hollow as all the post-election talk of two Americas. For instance, on NYE Austin held its first ever “First Night” parade and fireworks celebration — easily one of the most eclectic, left-leaning public spectacles I’ve participated in. Yet, nearly everyone — including the freakiest of the paraders — was adorned in burnt orange or celebrating UT in some way. I’d like to see Texas win, but I can just hear Rush Limbaugh or the conservative blogosphere reading more into a Longhorn national championship than is warranted. Some tripe about west coast vs. heartland values. (Maybe they already have?)

And thus you have the first and likely last post about football on Ascent Stage for 2006. Go Cubs!

December 31, 2005

in Housekeeping

Two-Oh

It may not look like much, but Ascent Stage has undergone a major revision this past week. I only just got around to addressing the corrupt database issue from a while back and in the process took care of just about everything else that was bugging me about the site this whole year. So, in no particular order, here’s what’s new:

Browse by Topic category is back from the dead (the corrupt db killed it).
Browse by Date no longer sucks (as bad).
Movable Type has been upgraded to 3.2 — there are more features, of course, but the best is what seems to me to be faster rebuilds.
Trackbacks are off for the time-being — still searching for a way to prevent trackback spam as I have done with comments (which remain open). Ideas?
There is now a merged RSS feed for the main blog and the marginalia, thanks to Feed Digest.
My account at Last.fm, the site which catalogs my music played and powers the sidebar, has been upgraded. Those of you who listen to the streaming radio from Last.fm (which would be — checking — exactly no one to date) can expect it to be faster now.
There is now an actual error page for 404 Not Found. ~~It is not properly catching errors yet, but it does exist.~~
There is now a consolidated Archives page as well as a single page listing every post to date.
Site code has been cleaned and modularized. You care not at all, I know. But the general de-crufting makes me feel good.
Search results and comment previewing are (finally) formatted properly.
I am using Library Thing to catalog my recent reading in the sidebar. Eventually I’d like to write reviews for the books that end up in the margin, but for now I am still cataloging my library.
For you usability folks, I’ve changed link colors slightly to better differentiate visited from unvisited.
I added the now-standard RSS feed icon to denote subscribable feeds.
Lots of other stuff that would bore you even more than the above, if that is possible.

There are some deep links that are broken still and I’ve not fully tested in IE or Safari, but for the most part the ship is seaworthy.

So, enough with the housekeeping. Time for 2006 content.

December 31, 2005

in Notes

Resolutions in review

Twelve months has passed since I outlined twelve resolutions towards my betterment. So, let’s do the numbers.

Learn how to conjugate Italian verbs in a tense other than the present.
Sort of. I know more verbs than this time last year and I got a chance to flex my conjugator (ahem) on a trip to Rome, but the tense thing. I’m still stuck in the present. (Or, in translated Italian: I stick in the present.)
Get a goddamn backhand.
Done. No more do I run a half-court’s width to ensure forehands. I am whole.
Fall in love with NASA again.
I admit, I did. Michael Griffin instills confidence, the Chinese provide the neo-cold-war competitive impetus, and there’s even a presidential mandate to skedaddle out of low-earth orbit, for what that’s worth. Marsward.
Be nice to political bloggers.
Pretty much. Easy now that the screaming and yeah-what-they-said cross-link lovefest has died down after the elections. I’d love to know how many political blogs withered in 2005 with no election fodder to chew on.
Learn to match beats when remixing.
Believe it or not, yes. The DJ console helps, of course, but I did have to figure it out.
When home, watch only high-definition television programming.
I have failed. TiVo, being standard-def (and crappy at that), is the culprit. Plus The Daily Show isn’t in high-def, so right there I’m screwed.
Convert all old mix tapes to MP3.
No, and ain’t going to happen either. However, I did complete the digitization of all my old vinyl LP’s! So I consider this complete in spirit if not in letter.
Become able to change my son’s diaper with one hand.
Can be done, but is not advised as it takes three times as long and often results in fecal matter where you don’t want it.
Avoid LAX like the Black Death.
Not done. Could have routed myself differently I s’pose. Ah, well.
Avoid the Black Death.
Plague-free, baby!
Get to know my nephews better.
Uh, well. I know them better than I did this time last year. Mostly because more time has passed, but hey whatever works.
Figure out how to make my own oak switches for the Russian Baths.
Regretfully, no. And I should be practicing since they are closed for a bit. Bad John bad.

Not bad, then. I completed 7, got 2 half-done, and only blew 3. I made significant gains from the half-year review, that’s for sure. Now to come up with a few for ’06 …

December 25, 2005

in Notes

Tradition

The full family rarely convenes at my parents’ house for Christmas Day any more. With our own families now and out-of-town in-laws it just doesn’t happen as often as it used to. So it is heartening to see that some traditions stand the test of time.

My mother decorates the main bathroom with hundreds (perhaps thousands) of little Santa figurines that she has found over the years. It is actually a little terrifying. Like urinating in the woods at night and knowing you’re being watched by dozens of glowing animal eyes. But one item that is always present is a set of letter blocks that spell CHRISTMAS. Inevitably at some point in the merriment someone scrambles the block into this lovely anagram. Has been going on for years. Ah, tradition.

December 23, 2005

in Notes
1 Comment

Already know you’ll be unhappy with your gifts?

If so, have I got some deals for you, Ascent Stage-reading faithful!

Audiotron 100 – Perfect condition. Loved intensely from uncrating to ceremonial disconnection from the mothership A/V center. Still the only networked media player that requires no server-side software. Works with any operating system. It scans your local network for MP3, WMA, and WAV files and lets you access them via the front panel, remote, or a web interface. It even has a PDA interface which is rare among networked media units. And because I’m honest with my blog readers: the only reason I am selling it is because my media is so iTunes-bound that I purchased an Airport Express and no longer need it. $100. Shipped free.

Harmon-Kardon HK3720 – Basic but powerful stereo receiver. No video bells and whistles but a great stereo receiver. Used faithfully as a second unit for whole-house audio, now not needed because my new receiver supports multiple zones. $150. Also shipped free (and that sucker is heavy).

Roku HD-1000 Photobridge – The only networked media receiver that I know of that supports component video out. Perfect for displaying high-res digital slideshows. Also supports MPEG-4 for your ripped DVD viewing pleasure. Does music too and supports custom apps. Reason I’m selling: new receiver supports photo viewing, though not networked. This makes me sad, but I have to draw the line somewhere. $110. Of course, shipped free.

Sony 100 CD Changer – Old but sturdy mega-jukebox. Optical out, plus album title display field. Reason: have not played a CD in years. $50. Shipping alone might cost as much, but for you, dear readers, it is free.

My thanks – It has been a fun year. Thanks for reading everyone! Free. Immediate download.

Contact me if you are interested.

December 22, 2005

in Kids
2 Comments

Thrice blessed

Well, it looks like my youngest son was right when he assumed the West African stance that anticipates the coming of a new sibling. (Confused? Here’s the story on that.)

That’s right, we’re expecting a new baby. Number three. Due May 27, a mere two days after our 10th wedding anniversary, causing us to continue to wonder just what in the hell we did with all our time prior to the arrival of the midget squad. I seem to recall thinking I was busy back then. Ha.

There’s mixed opinion on the man-to-man parenting of two children versus the zone defense of three. I’m of the mind that it can’t be worse than having two kids to run after. The transition from one mostly risk-averse toddler to a sibling who’d rather be juggling knives as he sets flame to a puddle of paint thinner was rough. But now that we’ve mastered the art of not allowing them to kill themselves, us, or others we’re somewhat nonplussed by the challenge of a third. Can’t be that bad. Right? Right?

The kids don’t know yet. We can hardly announce an activity that is more than an hour in the future if we want any kind of peace from the is-it-time-yet questioning, so we’re deferring until Mommy’s rotundity is unavoidable. It’ll be interesting to see the reaction. Happiness, befuddlement, anger, fraternal plotting? I’m certain there’ll be plenty of post fodder from their commentary on the matter.

As an aside, I need better blog categories. Seems so cold to add this announcement to “Genealogy”.

December 22, 2005

in Notes

Pre-holiday musings

Small enough to fit in your stocking.

(1) Is it me or is Firefox 1.5 not ready for prime time? Memory usage spikes, random shutdowns, and of course the obligatory extension-busting. Still the best by far, but couldn’t it be, um, better?

(2) There will be one extra second in 2005, owing to a miniscule slowdown in the Earth’s rotation. Is it time to decouple our timekeeping from geophysics and just use our atomic clocks? And what are you planning to do with the extra time?

(3) There are seven (colored) lines on the Chicago L transit system. There are seven notes in major, minor, and modal musical scales. There are 144 stations currently in operation, a number easily divisible by the 12 tones of the Western chromatic scale. If this isn’t begging for some kind of orchestral arrangement where actual train cars passing through stations over time trigger notes, then I don’t know what is. See also: Projects 2006.

(4) I’m headed to Istanbul early next year. Suggestions on what to see, what to eat, where to smoke the hookah?

December 20, 2005

in Italy
1 Comment

Winter dreaming

Holy mackeral it was cold today! Not a day for Christmas shopping up and down State Street. (‘Course, when is?) I’m going to my happy place. Right. Now. Damnit.

Here’s me in 2003 outside Barile, Italy, where Horace composed part of his Odes, excerpted below. In the background is the extinct (yeah, right) volcano Vulture. In the foreground is my belly filled with lovely Aglianico del Vulture wine.

In childhood’s days, on trackless Vultur,
beyond the borders of old nurse Apulia,
when I was tired with play and overcome
with sleep,
the doves of story covered me o’er with
freshly fallen leaves, to be a marvel to all who
dwell in lofty Acherontia‘s nest and Bantia‘s
glades, and the rich fields of Forentum in the dale —
how I slept safe from bears and black
serpents, how I was overspread with sacred
bay and gathered myrtle, with the gods’ help a
fearless child.

December 18, 2005

in New Orleans

Return to New Orleans

“FEMA, the new four-letter f-word.”

This was one of the signs I encountered minutes after leaving the New Orleans airport on a brief trip to see family this past weekend.

There’s gallows humor about too though. The Times-Picayune was running a FEMA Trailer Holiday Makeover on how to spruce up your temporary domicile despite the circumstances. This of course only applies to the areas with power since you can’t get a FEMA trailer if there’s no power in your area. I was flabbergasted to see how much of New Orleans still lacks this basic utility.

In fact, I was stunned the entire time I was there. From the shockingly understaffed emergency room at East Jefferson General Hospital (another story entirely) to the three-story high mounds of wreckage piled into the medians between boulevards to the patchwork quilt of blue FEMA tarps covering rooftops from Slidell to the bayou, there was so much more still hurting in the area than I — or most of America, I’d bet — realizes. News outlets occasionally check back and there’s the sometime blip on the political radar of Katrina fallout, but for the most part I was unprepared for the degree to which New Orleans is down for the count, seemingly for quite a while.

I had composed a draft of this post before I even arrived in NOLA. I was going to put into words my feeling that Mardi Gras should go ahead full steam this year as a show of the vitality of the city. I’ve scrapped that draft, filed away for some time in the future. New Orleans is not ready. The city is non-functional. Sure the airport is open, but it is ghostly. Only a few gates and a fraction of the concessions are operational. There’s a palpable pall the moment you set foot in the terminal. Driving into the city proper is horrific. Destroyed cars have been towed to the center of I-10, a vast graveyard of corroded metal. The West End, like much of Orleans Parish, is in total ruin. Cryptic FEMA spray-painted symbols adorn every home — and all are abandoned. Doors open, high water mark stains clearly visible, entire neighborhoods are empty. Houses lean and lurch from the foundation damage. Every street intersection — where the traffic lights, if upright, are still not working — is cluttered with makeshift signage for all manner of assistance: tree-shredding, gutting, roofwork, and generic disaster relief services. Yet, basic services are unemployed. (When was the last time you saw a Jiffy Lube offering a signing bonus?) Church steeples point horizontal, straight at the ground still somehow attached, or have impaled parking lots in front of the places of worship. And the trash. By one count there is 34 years worth of rubbish to be hauled away. Junk is literally everywhere, even in the higher-ground neighborhoods relatively untouched by the water.

I arrived and took a cab to my wife’s grandmother’s house where I was to meet my family momentarily who were coming from elsewhere in the city. Entering the neighboorhod I encountered a sign that said “Looters will be shot.” I exited the cab and, without a key, poked around the house for a way into the backyard to wait. I should have known that I would look suspicious. I immediately noticed people mulling about the subdivision looking at me in an unfriendly way. Luckily my wife pulled up shortly, but I am not sure circumstances would have been different if I had loitered longer. I was not prepared for this. I imagined a city on the mend — hobbled for sure, but bound together in a kind of sturdy let’s-get-on-with-it mode. I didn’t see this at all. I’m sure it exists in places, but most of my relatives are depressed and not a few bitter. There’s racial tension in people who have never been disposed to think in those terms. And looting jokes are not funny. This is one case where the news seems not to have covered the worst of it.

Two of my wife’s uncles stayed through the storm. One stayed with his two teenage children, a decision he forcefully admits regretting now. The day after the hurricane when the levees broke he and his kids spent their time moving from house to house shutting off neighbors’ gas lines. At one point my uncle was in the back of the house working with the gas while his children were inside trashing things that would rot from the refrigerator. Suddenly they saw a man through the front windows with a shotgun yell “Hey!” Scared, they ran to get their father’s pistol and headed for the attic. A showdown was averted when the man turned out to be a state trooper from the neighborhood who did not recognize my uncle’s car in the driveway. He was also African-American. Such is the near-tragic misunderstandings that ensue when an every-man-for-himself mentality results from the complete breakdown of law and order.

McDonald’s are shuttered. The Wal-Mart is closed. Yet, drive-through daiquiri bars and po-boy shacks are up and running. The good times will roll again, there’s no doubt. But New Orleans needs time and help and an army of able-bodied workers to get back on its feet. I think Mardi Gras should be celebrated this year. But only for the local residents as a celebration of the living. The city cannot afford the extra police presence, the tonnage of trash, or the degree of lawlessness that normally attends Fat Tuesday and its run-up. New Orleans is no stranger to hangovers, but this time we need to let it recuperate fully before inviting her to party again.

December 13, 2005