Used To Be New; Now It's Less So

New for December 31:

Happy New Year!

Journal entry: It's Not Cold

READING: I'm still on The Death of Satan, but only because I deemed it too serious and thoughtful for vacation reading. So while I was on vacation I finished Kisses of Death, the aforementioned collection of short stories by Max Allan Collins, and The Grand Tour by Tim Moore, which is a very funny book about which I will say more on Wednesday.
LISTENING TO: "Cuffey" by Sam Zygmuntowicz. Who is a fiddler from Brooklyn, if you must know.

New for December 25:

Merry Christmas!

Journal entry: Noel

READING: Same as yesterday.
LISTENING TO: Also same as yesterday, thanks to AMC's Miracle on 34th Street marathon. This is such a good movie.

New for December 24:

Journal entry: Luggage of the Year

READING: Kisses of Death, a collection of short stories featuring Nate Heller by Max Allan Collins. And I'm still working through The Death of Satan.
LISTENING TO: Miracle on 34th Street. "The State of New York concedes the existence of Santa Claus." Hee! 

New for December 21:

Journal entry: In Partes Tres

READING: Still The Death of Satan: How Americans Have Lost The Sense of Evil by Andrew Delbanco.
LISTENING TO: "Wagoner's Lad" by Clishmaclaver. They've never heard of you, either.

New for December 20:

Journal entry: 'Tis the Season

READING: The Death of Satan: How Americans Have Lost The Sense of Evil by Andrew Delbanco. I have a feeling that this book may have made more sense pre-September 11. I may have more to say about it as I get further into it, so stay tuned.
LISTENING TO: "Sleepy-Town" by Jim White, on Hober. Have you clicked on the Hober button in the sidebar yet? Dammit, why not? It's good stuff.  

New for December 19:

Journal entry: I'm A Toys R Us Kid

READING: I finished Hope To Die on the train this morning. The ending was a little unsatisfying, and from time to time Block shifts away from Scudder's first-person perspective to give us a chapter of third-party perspective featuring the killer, which is a tiresome literary device. But still, a good read. Next on the list: The Death of Satan: How Americans Have Lost The Sense of Evil by Andrew Delbanco.
LISTENING TO: Eternal Father, Strong to Save by Claude T. Smith, as performed by the US Navy Band. One of my concert band favorite works.

New for December 18:

First George Harrison, now Stuart Adamson. Of course, Big Country was hardly in the same league as the Beatles, but I liked them. They were one of my favorite 80s bands. I've changed my index page, which was still paying tribute to Harrison, to pay tribute to Adamson, so check it out. There's a nice photo (lifted from Reuters) and a link to a story about his death.

Journal entry: I'm Getting Tired

READING: Hope To Die by Lawrence Block. It's the most recent Matt Scudder novel. It's good so far.
LISTENING TO: "Mixed Emotions" by the Rolling Stones. I still tend to think of this as the new Rolling Stones song, even though by pop music standards it's rather old.

New for December 17:

Wow, my longest break yet! But I had a good excuse, which I will detail later this week. And the good news is that starting today I expect to be back on a more regular schedule.

Journal entry: Back to the Salt Mines

READING: I'm between books right now. Since last updating, I've read two books: Left Behind by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, and Beam Me Up, Scotty! by James Doohan. I admit that these are not exactly great works of literature. I'm not sure what's next. If I keep with my normal pattern, a novel. But I'll figure that put tonight.
LISTENING TO: The ticking of the clock.

New for December 5:

Journal entry: I Forget

READING: Nothing, actually. I was going to start a new book today, but I had a job interview, and then I had to attend orientation for my new part-time job, so I didn't have time. I read the Post though, so that should count for something.
LISTENING TO: The Drew Carey Show.

New for December 4:

Journal entry: The Trouble With Harry

READING: I just finished A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren. It's sort of like Skinner's Walden Two in that it's a philosophical treatise thinly disguised as a novel. McLaren has some provocative ideas about Christianity in the post-modern age. I found it very thought-provoking, and I'd recommend it to anyone with more than a passing interest in Christianity.
LISTENING TO: "Get The Party Started" by Pink.

New for November 30:

Journal entry: George Harrison, 1943-2001

READING: Empire Falls by Richard Russo. Richard Russo is one of my favorite novelists. He's an strong stylist, but he's also very funny and constructs solid plots. Highly recommended.
LISTENING TO: George Harrison, of course. "All Those Years Ago," specifically.

New for November 26:

Journal entry: Thanks. Yes, it's a Thanksgiving-themed entry. Yes, it's four days late. Sue me.

READING: The Runaway Jury by John Grisham. I picked it up in Lori's guestroom and decided to re-read it. Not one of his best, but entertaining.
LISTENING TO: Mr. Dreyfuss Goes To Washington, a documentary about monuments in Washington DC. Not very interesting.

New for November 20:

Journal entry: The Stylish North

READING: I finished Time Lord last night, but I haven't started anything new yet. Since I usually alternate between fiction and non-fiction, I think my next book with be a novel, maybe Empire Falls by Richard Russo.
LISTENING TO: The Replacements, an abysmal Keanu Reaves movie about scab football players. Damn, but there's not much to watch during the afternoon.

New for November 19:

Journal entry: I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow

READING: Time Lord: Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time by Clark Blaise. I can't believe I haven't finished this yet. It's slow going. It's not that it's boring, but it isn't exactly a quick read.
LISTENING TO: Election. What a brilliant movie.

New for November 9:

I added a few paragraphs to yesterday's journal entry explaining why ABC chose to air the President's speech instead of their regularly scheduled programming.

New for November 8:

Journal entry: Television Networks, I Salute You

READING: Time Lord: Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time by Clark Blaise.
LISTENING TO: "Shades of Gray," widely regarded as the worst episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation ever made.

New for November 7:

Journal entry: Election Update. Since I posted early, my musings on the election results were based on incomplete results. And I found I had more to say about it once I saw the final results.

Journal entry: Happy Democrat

READING: Time Lord: Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time by Clark Blaise. I picked this up expecting it to be about Doctor Who. Clearly, we need to enforce truth in packaging laws much more strictly.
LISTENING TO: 24, the new Fox series. Not bad, so far.

New for November 2:

Journal entry: Sweet November

READING: A Brit Among the Hawkeyes by Richard, Lord Acton. This is not the same Lord Acton who said that power tends to corrupt, but rather that Lord Acton's great-grandson. Lord Acton maintains homes in London, where he sits in the House of Lords, and Cedar Rapids, where he writes about Iowa history. Odd combination.
LISTENING TO: Pink Floyd. I think the song is "Wish You Were Here," but I was never that big a fan of Pink Floyd and sometimes I get the names mixed up. 

New for November 1:

Journal entry: Halloween

READING: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. I think someone should hire Chabon to write a series of real comics books featuring the Escapist, the hero he created for this novel. Because that would be cool.
LISTENING TO: A White House press conference. Not a real press conference; a press conference on The West Wing. The difference between this and a real press conference is that what you hear C.J. Cregg say during a West Wing press conference is more likely to be true than what Ari Fleischer says during a real one.

New for October 31:

Journal entry: Il Duce

READING: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon.
LISTENING TO: Conan O'Brien's monologue. A lame baseball joke. Apparently, Yankees fans are mean to visiting teams. But he made up for it with a joke about Christina Aguilera's whore makeup.

New for October 30:

Journal entry: Anti-Social

READING: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. This is a really excellent book. I'm also reading No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman, edited by Christopher Sykes. After I finished Glenn Seaborg's autobiography last week, I decided I wanted to re-read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! but it was checked out.
LISTENING TO: SCTV. What a great show.

New for October 27:

Journal entry: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Union?

READING: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon.
LISTENING TO: A Popeye cartoon on the Cartoon Network

New for October 26:

Journal entry: Basket Full Of Puppies

READING: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. Part of my new plan to only read books with the word "adventures" in the title. 
LISTENING TO: The Max Weinberg Seven. Yes, I'm watching Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

New for October 24:

I forgot to mention a new feature I added the other day: The Random Buffy Quote Generator. Someone on MBTV asked if there was such a thing, and I realized that I could throw one together in a few minutes by using the randomizer I currently use on the index page and the collection of Buffy quotes in the IMDb entry on the show. So check it out. 

Journal entry: Sports Night

READING: Adventures in the Atomic Age: From Watts to Washington by Glenn T. Seaborg.
LISTENING TO: Just Shoot Me

New for October 23:

Journal entry: Tube Scan

READING: Adventures in the Atomic Age: From Watts to Washington by Glenn T. Seaborg. Seaborg was a pioneering nuclear chemist who was a key contributor to the success of the World War II-era atomic energy program. He's an interesting guy. Not Feynman-class interesting, but his is an engaging story nonetheless.
LISTENING TO: Seinfeld. Damn it, this is why I hate televised sports. I should be watching The Drew Carey Show right now, but the freaking Major League Baseball playoffs delayed pushed back the scheduled programs so Seinfeld (normally on at 11 PM) is just now coming on. Damn you, Abner Doubleday!

New for October 18:

Journal entry: Hurry Up and Wait

READING: Hostage by Robert Crais. I really like Crais's Elvis Cole novels, but I wasn't tremendously fond of his first non-Elvis Cole novel, Demolition Angel. But Hostage is very good.
LISTENING TO: Star Trek: the Next Generation. I think this episode is called "The Measure of a Man," but I'm not certain and I don't feel like looking it up.

New for October 16:

Journal entry: Clipping Service

READING: Like I was Sayin'... by Mike Royko. I was right. This is better than Royko: A Life In Print.
LISTENING TO: Tonight's Buffy episode. Also not better than Like I was Sayin'...

New for October 15:

Journal entry:  Welcome Back

READING: Royko: A Life In Print by F. Richard Ciccone. I grew up reading Mike Royko, first in the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune. He was an amazing writer, and this new biography of him is pretty good. But not as good as a collection of his columns.   
LISTENING TO: Personal trainer-to-the-stars Mark Jenkins talking about Britney Spears's ass. Oh, the humanity!

New for October 5:

Journal entry: Fanboy Heaven

READING: I've switching back and forth between The Lost World and Drawing the Line. I expect to finish them both tomorrow.
LISTENING TO: "All Good Things...", the last episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

New for October 3:

No, I haven't adopted a new schedule; my goal is still to post a new entry every day. But my trip to Atlanta and my plans for watching the Buffy season premiere interfered with that goal. These things happen.

Journal entry: Atlanta - Saturday and Sunday

READING: The Lost World by Michael Crichton. Which I've read before. Many times before. But I picked it to read in the bathroom, and decided to go ahead and finish it. I like Michael Crichton. He's very re-readable.
LISTENING TO: Law and Order. The original. I watched a bit of Law and Order: Criminal Intent and didn't much care for it. But the original is as good as ever.

New for October 1:

Journal entry: Atlanta - Thursday and Friday

READING: Drawing the Line: How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America by Edwin Danson. I thought his short history how the Mason-Dixon line was drawn would be a compelling story, but in fact it's rather plodding and uninteresting. Oh well.
LISTENING TO: A commercial for Arm & Hammer toothpaste

New for September 27:

Journal entry: News Break

READING: Angel in Black, Max Allan Collins's examination of the Black Dahlia case. It's excellent, of course. I wrapped up The Breach very early this morning. It's really a remarkable story.
LISTENING TO: Third Rock From the Sun.

New for September 25:

Journal entry: Concert Day

READING: Thanks to ninety minutes of free time at the Kennedy Center yesterday afternoon, I made a lot of progress on The Breach. I should be done with it tomorrow.
LISTENING TO: The Drew Carey Show

New for September 24:

Journal entry: Adventures in TV Watching

READING: The Breach. This book is really fascinating. Even if you have a severe case of Clinton fatigue, I think you'll find a lot of interesting material that, despite the saturation coverage, you probably haven't heard before.
LISTENING TO: Fox5 Morning News. 

New for September 21:

Journal entry: Why I Was In Cleveland

READING: The Breach.
LISTENING TO: Eddie Vedder and Neill Young performing on the America: A Tribute To Heroes telethon. 

New for September 20:

Journal entry: A Concert For America

READING: The Breach.
LISTENING TO: The Simpsons, "Burns' Heir" 

New for September 19:

Journal entry: Brushes With the Law

READING: The Breach.
LISTENING TO: The Simpsons, "Bart Gets an Elephant."  

New for September 18:

Journal entry: Nun Better

READING: I did start The Breach, as planned, but I'm also reading Young Justice: Sins of Youth, a DC Comics graphic novel. Me am brainy.
LISTENING TO: The new Ben Folds album, Rocking the Suburbs. It's fab, but I miss Ben Folds Five. I'm still kind of upset that they broke up.

New for September 17:

I apologize for not updating on Friday; I was dog-tired, so I went to bed early instead of writing.

Journal entry: The Case For Joy

READING: I just finished Another Shot by Joe Kita yesterday, so I am currently between books. Next on the docket is The Breach, a history of the Clinton impeachment and trial.
LISTENING TO: A Pepe le Pew short on the Cartoon Network. I really don't care for Pepe le Pew. Talk about running a joke into the ground.

New for September 13:

Journal entry: Notes to the Grindstone

READING: The Comics Journal. They're running the full transcript of Marv Wolfman's testimony at his creator's rights lawsuit against Marvel Comics. Interesting stuff.
LISTENING TO: A commercial for Corky Romano, a new movie with Chris Kattan. Man, it looks bad.

New for September 12:

Journal entry: Notes in the Aftermath

READING: Another Shot by Joe Kita.
LISTENING TO: Fox5 News coverage of the terrorist attacks.

New for September 11:

Journal entry: The Attacks

READING: Another Shot by Joe Kita.
LISTENING TO: Live coverage of today's terrorist attacks on Oldies 106.9.

New for September 10:

Journal entry: The Legendary Lost City of Annandale

READING: Another Shot by Joe Kita. A baby boomer reflect on his life and tries to redo do certain disappointing episodes from his past. It's not too bad.
LISTENING TO: Galaxy Quest. What an amusing movie. "Maybe you're the plucky comic relief!" That's so me. Before I saw this movie I always considered myself more of a wacky neighbor, but now I know that I'm the plucky comic relief.

New for September 7:

Journal entry: The Road To Iselin, Part Three

READING: Class Dismissed by Meredith Maran. Berkeley High is considered one of the top public high schools in the country, but you'd never know it from reading this book. It's appalling.
LISTENING TO: The Drew Carey Show. Boy, I'm really having trouble getting these updates posted in a timely fashion.

New for September 6:

Journal entry: The Road To Iselin, Part Two

READING: Bizarro Comics, a collections of short comics by alternative and underground comics artists featuring mainstream DC Comics characters. Parts of it are incredibly funny; others not so much.
LISTENING TO: "Smooth Criminal" by Alien Art Farm, from the album Anthology. A relatively rare example of a cover I like better than the original.

New for September 5:

Journal entry: The Road to Iselin, Part One

READING: Class Dismissed by Meredith Maran.
LISTENING TO: Unhappily Every After. Great God in Heaven, this show bites.

New for September 4:

Journal entry: The Importance of Being Earnest

READING: Class Dismissed: A Year In The Life Of An American High School, A Glimpse Into The Heart Of A Nation by Meredith Maran. I was a secondary education major in college, so books about the education crisis are always interesting to me.
LISTENING TO: Roseanne. I like Roseanne OK, but I wish WTTG still showed Living Single at 1:30 AM.

New for August 31:

Journal entry: Choosy Corporations Choose RIF

READING: A Voyage For Madmen by Peter Nichols.
LISTENING TO: "I Want Love" by Elton John. Watching it too. Robert Downey Jr. looks really old in this video. Guess all the smack is catching up with him.

New for August 30:

Journal entry: Conversations With Canadians

READING: A Voyage For Madmen by Peter Nichols.
LISTENING TO: "Unemployed" by Michael McDermott

New for August 29:

Journal entry: Videos I Like

READING: A Voyage For Madmen by Peter Nichols.
LISTENING TO: "Rockin' the Suburbs" by Ben Folds, from the album of the same name.

New for August 28:

Journal entry: Sea Eye

READING: A Voyage For Madmen by Peter Nichols. Yes, it's true: I finally finished reading Changing Places. It was slow-going, but worth the time spent on it. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in urban planning and historic preservation.
LISTENING TO: "Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)" by Blu Cantrell, from the album So Blu. I really like this song, but I can't really put my finger on why.

New for August 27:

Journal entry: The Days the Music Died

READING: I only have twelve pages to go in Changing Places! Whee!
LISTENING TO: "Sick Boy" by Social Distortion, from the Social Distortion album. Thanks to Jenelope for introducing me to this song.

New for August 26:

Journal entry: The Flaw In My Plan

READING: I am almost done with Changing Places!
LISTENING TO: The Truth About Cats and Dogs. Great movie, but I have a problem with the premise, insofar as it is predicated on the idea that Janeane Garofalo is unattractive.

New for August 24:

Journal entry: What I'm Going To Do With the Money

READING: Sports Illustrated
LISTENING TO: "Cedar Grove" by Jeff Lang, from the album Cedar Grove

New for August 23:

Journal entry: Eleven Hundred Steps

READING: A Voyage For Madmen by Peter Nichols. It's not that I finished Changing Places; I just didn't have it with me yesterday.
LISTENING TO: "In the Jailhouse Now" by the Soggy Bottom Boys, from the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack.   

New for August 22:

Journal entry: Watching From the Window Up Above

READING: Changing Places: Rebuilding Community in the Age of Sprawl by Richard Moe & Carter Wilkie.
LISTENING TO: "Border Town" by Christopher Shaw, from the album Been To Town and Back Again. Shaw sounds remarkably like Gordon Lightfoot. In fact, I thought it was Lightfoot until I looked at the playlist.

New for August 21:

Journal entry: All Is Forgiven, Jerry Zucker

READING: Changing Places: Rebuilding Community in the Age of Sprawl by Richard Moe & Carter Wilkie. I'm pretty sure that I actually will finish this book some day.
LISTENING TO: The Drew Carey Show

New for August 20:

Journal entry: A Good Weekend

Thanks to a flurry of interest in Trading Spaces, perhaps spurred by last weekend's mini-marathon, I set a record for visits to Blue Armadillo last week. I had 960 visits during the week of August 12-18, and broke 100 visits every day but Saturday. Thanks everybody!

READING: I'm still working through Changing Places: Rebuilding Community in the Age of Sprawl by Richard Moe & Carter Wilkie, but I also started reading A Voyage For Madmen by Peter Nichols. It's about a 1968 competition to complete the first solo, nonstop circumnavigation of the world. See, I forgot to bring Changing Places with me on Saturday, and I needed something to read during dinner.
LISTENING TO: "Going Down That Road Feelin' Bad" by Lil' Rev, from the Ragged But Beautiful CD. I hear Lil' Rev is going to officiate at Lil' Kim and Lil' Bow Wow's wedding.

New for August 17:

Journal entry: Preferred Reader

READING: Members Together: A Study for Adult New Members by Marianne Wolfe & W. Ben Lane, and Our Presbyterian Heritage by Charles Pickell. I'm working on the syllabus for the new members class at church.
LISTENING TO: "She Moves Through the Fair" by Richard Thompson, from the album Newport Folk Festival, Turn of the Decade 1989 - 1990.

New for August 16:

Journal entry: This and That

READING: Changing Places: Rebuilding Community in the Age of Sprawl by Richard Moe & Carter Wilkie. Though actually I haven't read any of this since Tuesday. 
LISTENING TO: "Can't Be Satisfied" by Harry Manx, from the album Dog My Cat.

New for August 15:

Journal entry: One Thousand Steps

READING: Changing Places: Rebuilding Community in the Age of Sprawl by Richard Moe & Carter Wilkie.
LISTENING TO: An episode of Friends. It's the fifth season episode in which Phoebe finds out that Monica and Chandler are dating. I still enjoy Friends, but I can't deny that last two seasons have not been that good. The only episode I really liked last season was (of course) The One With the Christmas Armadillo.

New for August 14:

Journal entry: Churched Out

READING: Changing Places: Rebuilding Community in the Age of Sprawl by Richard Moe & Carter Wilkie.
LISTENING TO: "In the Jailhouse Now" by the Soggy Bottom Boys, from the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. As noted yesterday, the Soggy Bottom Boys are not a real band. But Tim Blake Nelson, who played Delmar in the movie, really sang lead on this track.

New for August 13:

Journal entry: A Weekend Wasted

READING: Changing Places: Rebuilding Community in the Age of Sprawl by Richard Moe & Carter Wilkie. I started this back in April, but set it aside for some reason and never went back to it. I do that pretty frequently, actually.
LISTENING TO: "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" by the Soggy Bottom Boys, from the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. Of course, the Soggy Bottom Boys are not a real group. The lead vocal is actually performed by Dan Tyminski of Union Station.

New for August 10:

Journal entry: Why I Like Armadillos

READING: conspiracy.com by R. J. Pineiro. I noticed something last night that irritated me about this book. The narrator consistently refers to the male characters by their last names, e.g. Ryan did this, Horner did that, but refers to the female characters by their first names, e.g. Victoria did this, Karen did that. On the plus side, Pineiro has his computer lingo down cold, so I don't find myself being distracted by technical inaccuracies.
LISTENING TO: "Train On the Island" by Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, from the Pioneering Women of Bluegrass CD.

New for August 9:

11:00 PM: Added a fourth gallery to Geocities.

Journal entry: Incompetent Boobery

I posted two new photo galleries over at Geocities. I encourage you to check them out, insofar as they include a picture of the Cutest. Baby. Ever.

READING: conspiracy.com by R. J. Pineiro.
LISTENING TO: "Get Over Yourself" by Eden's Crush. I'm so ashamed.

New for August 8:

Journal entry: Pictures of Washington

READING: conspiracy.com by R. J. Pineiro. Yes, I finally finished Smashmouth! Woo! And hoo! conspiracy.com is a thriller that asks the question, what if The Firm took place at a software company, and answers that question by shamelessly ripping off the opening of the Grisham novel. You think I'm joking, but the similarities between the two novels are so striking that I'm surprised the publisher's lawyers let it out the door. Incidentally, the real conspiracy.com is the web site for the Ryan Phillippe movie Conspiracy and has nothing to do with the book. I don't know about you, it bugs me when authors use fake domain names or domain names they don't control. Is it that hard to register a domain name? I wish everyone was as diligent in this regard as The Simpsons.
LISTENING TO: "Well I Lied" by the Robert Cray Band, from The Truth About Cats and Dogs soundtrack

New for August 7:

Journal entry: Danglers

READING: I didn't read anything yesterday. I suck.
LISTENING TO: "Hold Me Tight" by Cathy Kreger from Heart of the Matter

New for August 6:

Journal entry: Frog

READING: Smashmouth: Two Years In the Gutter with Al Gore and George W. Bush by Dana Milbank. I'm really close to the end. I wonder who will win? I finished It Looks Like a President Only Smaller by Joel Achenbach, which is basically a shorter, funnier version of Smashmouth. And I read the most recent issues of Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, and Comics Buyer's Guide. That counts.
LISTENING TO: "The Magic That Holds the Sky up from the Ground" by Darren Jessee from The Garden Place. 

New for August 3:

Journal entry: In the News

READING: Smashmouth: Two Years In the Gutter with Al Gore and George W. Bush by Dana Milbank. I'm just about to the conventions. I'll finish it this weekend, I expect.
LISTENING TO: "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers. Hey, there was a Bay City Rollers joke on Friends last night! I'm on the cutting edge.

New for August 2:

Journal entry: Foods I Don't Understand

READING: Smashmouth: Two Years In the Gutter with Al Gore and George W. Bush by Dana Milbank. The disadvantage of instabooks like this is that the editing tends to be rather sloppy. Because much of the text originally appeared in the Washington Post, you find explanatory references that would have been appropriate in a newspaper article but not in a book. For example, I'm halfway through the book and they still identify Alan Keyes on almost every reference. Gee, Dana, I actually figured out who Alan Keyes was when I read the chapter about him earlier in the book. I think a better editor would have caught stuff like that. And there are a lot of typos, the most memorable of which was clich,s (instead of clichés).
LISTENING TO: "Nobody Told Me" by John Lennon.

New for August 1:

Journal entry: All Over The Place

I forgot to mention that I'm stealing the "reading" and "listening to" idea from ... well, God knows. A lot of people do it. Let's say I'm stealing the "reading" part from Beth and the "listening to" from all the fine women over at Marigold, since I've been reading those journals longer than most others.

READING: Smashmouth: Two Years In the Gutter with Al Gore and George W. Bush by Dana Milbank. I bought and started this a couple of months ago, but then it got buried beneath a pile of crap. I unearthed it last night and started reading it again. Not bad for an insta-history. Milbank is a funny writer, but it doesn't rise to the level of Michael Lewis's Trail Fever.
LISTENING TO: "Jock O'Hazeldeen" by Harper's Din

New for July 31:

Journal entry: A Tale of Two Apartments

READING: Just finished Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Gaiman covered some of this same territory in the Dream Country and Season of Mists arcs in his Sandman comic, but it was still a good read.
LISTENING TO: "Saint Martha Blues" by Otis Taylor on Hober

New for July 30:

Journal entry: Drive Time

New for July 28:

Journal entry: Weekend Update

New for July 27:

Journal entry: Shuffle

I'm in a better mood today. But the medical examiner down in Florida still hasn't released the cause of Cory's death, which kind of pisses me off.

New for July 26:

Journal entry: Alone Again, Naturally

All these funerals are getting to me, I think.

Index page: The Feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne

There are many things I find fascinating about the Roman Catholic Church. Take, for example, Sts. Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin. The church admits that there is "no historical evidence, however, of any elements of their lives, including their names." Including their names! The names are mentioned in some of the apocryphal Gospels, which apparently is good enough. But that's what faith is all about, I guess: belief in things for which you have no proof.

The painting on the index page is Charlemagne, and the Meeting of Saints Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate by the Master of Moulins (Jean Hey) circa 1500. It hangs in the National Gallery in London.

New for July 25:

Journal entry: Cory

New for July 24:

Journal entry: The Funeral
Journal entry: Attention Cecelia Porter

A first: two journal entries in one day! I knew the one about the funeral was going to be posted very late in the day, so I posted the much shorter one as an hors d'oeuvre.

New for July 23:

Journal entry: I Have a Dream

This is going up later than usual today. I took the morning off to go to Katharine Graham's funeral -- more about which tomorrow -- so I actually had work to do in the afternoon. Back on schedule tomorrow though.

New for July 20:

Journal entry: Two Performances

New for July 19:

Journal entry: Two Choruses

New for July 18:

Journal entry: Rrr Rrr Rrr

New for July 17:

Journal entry: My New Books
Index page: The Feast Day of St. Marina the Great Martyr

Who? Good question. I visited Blue Mountain Arts yesterday to send my friend Zan a card congratulating her on the birth of her new daughter, and was intrigued to see that they offer cards for an astonishing range of holidays. According to Blue Mountain, July 17 is National Family Day, whatever the hell that is, and a national holiday in Iraq and Colombia. (They're right about Iraq, but wrong about Colombia.) And for some reason, they seem to have overlooked Independence Day in Slovakia. Anti-Slovak bigotry rears its head once again.

Expect more pages celebrating obscure holidays in the future.

New for July 16:

Journal entry: Chorales and Cemeteries

New for July 13:

Journal entry: News From the Hill

Normally I use Front Page 2000 to do my updates, but today I composed the entry in Notepad and then used WS_FTP to update the site. Whee!

New for July 12:

Journal entry: A.I., My Eye

Thanks to Richard Roeper for inspiring this entry.

New for July 11:

Journal entry: It's All About Me

New for July 10:

Journal entry: Seven Things
Featured Links: Celtic Cultures

I registered stylishlyapt.com last night. If you have any good ideas about what to do with it, let me know.

New for July 9:

Journal entry: Stylishly Apt

I didn't update the featured links page last week. I plan to do so this week, maybe even tonight after rehearsal. If not then, tomorrow for sure.

New for July 6:

Journal entry: That Infernal Nonsense

I feel I should explain the title of this entry. "That infernal nonsense" is a line from The Pirates of Penzance, used by the Major-General to describe H.M.S. Pinafore.

New for July 5:

Journal entry: My Vacation, Part Three: The Stowaway

New for July 4:

Journal entry: My Vacation, Part Two: New Hampshire

Happy Independence Day! I put up a special Independence Day index page, which you may have missed. It's in the archives now, if anyone cares. I have nothing profound to say about Independence Day, but I will observe that I remember the bicentennial celebrations in 1976 and it's hard to believe that it's been twenty-five years since then.

I celebrated Independence Day by helping my brother assemble a new playset for his backyard, then going into the city for a Air Force Band concert at the Jefferson Memorial. I was going to go to the fireworks in Waterford, but they were rained out. Alas.

New for July 3:

Journal entry: My Vacation, Part One: Jamaica Plain, Mass.

This is the longest I've ever gone without updating. I tried to work a little ahead -- Turbulent Days was written two days in advance, and Mass Confusion was written on the train between Washington and Boston -- but once I got to New Hampshire on Friday for Cowcon, I just didn't have time to update. Rather than do one marathon post about the vacation, I'm going to address it in three consecutive entries. Tomorrow will focus on New Hampshire and Cowcon; Thursday will look at something interesting that happened on the train ride back to Washington.

I also updated the weblog today, for the first time in a dog's age. There's some good stuff in there, so please check it out.

New for June 28:

Journal entry: Mass Confusion

New for June 27:

Journal entry: Turbulent Days

I'm traveling out of town today through the weekend, so updates may be sporadic through Monday. 

New for June 26:

Journal entry: Three Years
Featured links: Knowing It All

New for June 25:

Journal entry: Gonna Be A Floody Floody

Well, here it is, Monday, and for the third week in a row, the Featured Links Page is not done. I was busy working all day (!) so I didn't have a chance to put it together. Tomorrow. Normally at this point I'd refer you to the weblog, but I've only added two entries since Thursday. I suck.

Special thanks today to Firefly Chan, for calling me "verra amusing" in her weblog, and to Amers for introducing me to her. And thanks to Google for finally reindexing Blue Armadillo so people get referred to me with the correct address. I had to maintain duplicate copies of several pages because Google indexed them under the old directory structure, so I got a lot of people being referred to my Error 404 page.

New for June 22:

Journal entry: Trading Spaces

New for June 21:

Journal entry: Things John Owns, Part Three: CDs

I need to thank some people. One, thanks to Weetabix for listing me as a favorite in her diary. I am honored and humbled. She gives good diary, so go check her out if you haven't before. Two, thanks to Boliver, Ace, and SNeaker for the Big Big Love. You guys are the poo.

New for June 20:

Journal entry: So Long, Alex

Items remain on the New Thing page -- i.e., this page -- for one week. But for the sake of completeness, when I remove an item from here I save it into another page called Used To Be New. I don't know why I do this exactly, but I do, and the updated page gets uploaded every day along with everything else, so I figured I may as well put a link to that page here on the New Thing page.

New for June 19:

Journal entry: I Don't Want A New Job
Featured Links: Movie Reviews

New for June 18:

Journal entry: Sunday In The Park With George, Only Not A Park and Without George

No new Featured Links today, but until I get to writing a new one, why not check out the weblog? There's some good stuff in there the past few days.

New for June 15:

Journal entry: Stupid E-mail Tricks

New for June 14:

Journal entry: A Special Day

I fixed a link on the Featured Links page that was pointing to the wrong location. Thanks Leah!

New for June 13:

Journal entry: Casting Call
Updated: Index page

I know it looks the same, but I did something I've been meaning to do for a long time: converted the random quote function from JavaScript to CGI. The JavaScript randomizer required all the quotes to be in the page itself, so to keep the size of the page from growing out of control I had to pare down my quote database to about 60 quotes. This CGI program I'm using now (created by Mimanet) reads the quotes out of a separate file, allowing me to use my entire quote database, which contains about 400 quotes.

New for June 12:

Journal entry: In For a Wild Ride

New for June 11:

Journal entry: The Dulcimer Gap
Featured links: Arts and Crafts

New for June 8:

Journal entry: Big Plans

I am now pretty faithfully adding to the weblog most mornings (and some afternoons), so don't forget to check that out from time to time.

New for June 7:

Journal entry: Meta

New for June 6:

Journal entry: The Two Mr. O'Neills

I added a button to the standard template linking to taxrebatepledge.org.

New for June 5:

Journal entry: Singing So Merrily, Trial-la-law

Thanks to LangaList subscribers, I've now recorded more than 1000 visits to Blue Armadillo, more than 600 just yesterday. Many of them, to be fair, came to this page and immediately left. But more than a handful stayed and read a few things, so thanks for that.

New for June 4:

A special hello to all my fellow LangaList readers! Thanks for visiting; please drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Journal entry: I'm Confused
Featured Links: Political Weblogs

New for June 3:

Journal entry: Surprise!

New for June 1:

Journal entry: Good, Bad

I've decided to keep both the weblog and the featured links for now. I'll try to update the weblog at least once a day. The Featured Links will continue to run on Monday.

New for May 31:

Journal entry: Dad

New for May 30:

Journal entry: The Rules

New for May 29:

Journal entry: Lovett Mathew Ball and the Mystery of the Unknown Graves
Featured Links: Pure Rock

New for May 28:

Journal entry: My 23rd Year

No new featured links today because of the holiday. Try to contain your disappointment.

New for May 27:

Journal entry: Three Hundred Dollars
Index page: Memorial Day

New for May 25:

Journal entry: Long Weekend

Don't forget to check out the weblog, which I updated several times today. I'm finding it useful for commenting on things about which I probably could not wring a full-fledged journal entry. Which is the point, I suppose.

I forgot to mention the other day that I modified the Error 404 to match the rest of the site -- i.e. navigational links on the left, content on the right -- and to include a search form. I noticed in the referrer log that some search engines are referring people to pages that are still on the site but now have new addresses, so if that happens hopefully people will repeat their search and find what they're looking for. Or not. The person who came here looking for information on Charles McCarry would have been disappointed with what he or she found anyway.

New for May 24:

Journal entry: My Hero

Starting today, I'm experimenting with a Blogger-powered weblog to see if I like it better than doing a weekly Featured Links page. Let me know what you think.

New for May 23:

Journal entry: More Stuff On My Desk

New for May 22:

Featured links: Creative Bankruptcy
Splash screen: Quote o' the Moment
Journal entry: Sounds Like Kicks Ass

New for May 21:

Journal entry: Security

New for May 20:

Splash screen: Victoria Day

New for May 19:

Journal entry: Despite All My Rage

New for May 18:

Journal entry: News Blues
Splash screen: Armed Forces Day

New for May 17:

Journal entry: Marx Was Right

New for May 16:

Journal entry: I Hate Canon

New for May 15:

Journal entry: Grammy Whammy
New page: Archives

This consolidates all the old material -- journal entries, featured links, and splash screens -- onto one index page.

New for May 14:

Journal entry: Lessons Learned
Updated: Featured Link of the Week
Splash screen: In Memoriam

New for May 13:

Journal entry: Douglas Adams, 1952-2001

New for May 11:

Journal entry: Working For the Weekend

New for May 10:

Journal entry: 18th and Potomac

NOTE: this entry contains a significant plot spoiler for the May 9 episode of The West Wing, so if you haven't watched that episode yet you may want to skip this entry for now.

An administrative note: I reorganized the archives (again!) so any shortcuts you may have created to a specific journal entry will probably no longer work.

New for May 9:

Journal entry: Photographs and Memories

Credit Where Credit Is Due Department: I appropriated the code for the pop-up photo in this entry from Kim of Fresh Hell. Thanks!

New splash screen: Happy Mothers Day!

Credit Where Credit Is Due Department: I borrowed the idea of modifying the Index page from Omar G. of Terribly Happy. Thanks for the inspiration!

New for May 8:

Journal entry: MP3 Madness

New for May 7:

Journal entry: The Lost Weekend
Updated: Featured Link of the Week

New for May 6:

Journal entry: Multiplicity II

New for May 5:

Journal entry: Multiplicity I

I recorded my 200th visit to this page yesterday. Thanks, everyone!   

New for May 4:

Journal entry: Bits and Pieces

New for May 2:

Journal entry: Queen For A Day

New for May 1:

Journal entry: Someday, Someway

A minor housekeeping note: I reorganized the archives, so if you bookmarked a specific journal entry, it probably won't work now.

New for April 30:

Updated: Featured Link of the Week
New: Previous Featured Links

New for April 29:

Journal entry: Out On the Cutting Edge

New for April 27:

Journal entry: Bridget Jones Is Everywhere

New for April 25:

Journal entry: Dictionary Blues

New for April 24:

Journal entry: Sounds Like Ass
Updated: Questions and Answers

New for April 23:

Updated: Featured Link of the Week

New for April 22:

Journal entry: Luggage Tag Blues

New for April 21:

Journal entry: My Dad's Wedding

New for April 20:

Journal entry: Traveling

New for April 19:

Journal entry: Questions Answered
New page: Error 404.  This is the page you see when you look for a page that doesn't exist.
Updated: Questions and Answers

New for April 18:

Journal entry: Birthdays and Billions

New for April 16:

Journal entry: Happy Birthday
New page: Links
New page: Questions and Answers

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