Revolutionary Nonsense is Dead.

Future updates on all subjects will occur at andrewjpatrick.com. If wish to know why, go here. Or just go to the new blog and check out that action.

It will remain here, and provide much ammunition for anyone who wishes to call me a scurrilous right-winging teabagging bitterclingeing RAAAAACIST.

But otherwise ...

Protein Wisdom Celebrates Ten Years

And Why Not?

though it started as creatical.com, wore a pea-green backdrop, was comprised of “several” co-writers (all of them me, though I gave them loaded, tongue-in-cheek names like Dr. Ann D. Kaufmann; recall, at the time I had no readers and there was no such thing, as of yet, as a “blogosphere,” so the format for what a “respectable” political blog had to look like and operate as had not yet been set), and, believe it or not, got its first ever “Instalanche” not for some clever, pointed piece on the supposed racial overtones in the remake King Kong, say, but rather for a cartoon suggestive of breadstick masturbation.

He's still funnier than Ace. And I consider that praise.

What Did I Just Do?

I changed the name, the template, and everything else.

Why? A couple of reasons:

1. The old name: The Essayist, reflected a desire to be above the fray of partisan politics, an to blog a weekly column instead of a daily pot-shot. That has not happened.
2. Another gentleman on blogger is using the name.

So now the old blogs I used before walking away from blogging in 2007 (only to return two years later) is gone. It's a bold new world.

So get used to seeing a lot of him.

European Disunion, Commonsense Political Thought

New Blogrollery:

Insty linked the Blog of the Hour:

One of the fundamental problems with politicians is their ability to conceive ideas above their station, to take on vague challenges and ill-considered objectives that, humans being what they are and the world being what it is, are simply impossible to achieve. Modern political discourse is filled with such ideas: the abolition of poverty, the ending of racism, complete egalitarianism in race, colour, and creed. The only thing these goals have in common is that they are all equally unattainable, from a purely realistic standpoint. To achieve them you'd have to do nothing less than completely subvert human nature; and not even the Soviet Union could do that.

Indeed. His nom de plume, Gallowglass, refers to the warriors of ancient Ireland, who threw out the Vikings at Clontarf in 1014. I salute both.

Commonsense Political Thought did me the courtesy of linking my fisking of Lynne Mucken after excorciating it himself. I like to return such favors.

Micheal Moore, Health Care: The Fisking (A Zombie Post from March 2010)

[Editors Note: I've been cleaning out the old blog today, adding tags, deleting drafts that would never see the light of day, when I stumbled upon this. God only knows why I got this far and never finished it. I was faced with either deleting it or getting rid of it. And for some reason I cannot choose to un-fisk Michael Moore. I just can't quit the big fat bastard]

Because.

To My Fellow Citizens, the Republicans:

Say, what you will about the man, he loves him some schtick. And he loves no schtick like the "Phoney Politeness" schtick.

Because, Funny.

I have nothing to say on the subjet of Meghan McCain, because Meghan McCain is not nearly annoying enough to be interesting. But when SnarkandBoobs rips her into tiny tiny pieces and laughs at the pieces lying on the floor, I respond with lusty huzzahs:

Others may not have had my fortitude, so forgive them if they failed to ask about your fancy-pants Uggs, your inane “big tent” comments, your “crazy-sex” tales, or your tragic over-use of commas. Your book was basically a tale told by a useful idiot. Full of shrieking sound and temper tantrum fury, signifying nothing.

 Also, I decide to add her to my linksheet. Because, snark. And boobs.

Out of Office AutoReply

See Genre Confusion.

About Time, Really....

The Notion, which was my first blog, died, and has been a music blog since December, does not exist anymore. The Music blog has been renamed Genre Confusion, and all the old Notion posts that were about the same stuff that I write about here have been imported and labelled. So let it be written, so let it be done.

Now they must eat the fruit of their own way, and with their own devices be glutted. -Proverbs 1:31

Update and Bleg

If I intend to make a go of this, the old format needed to go, and a new format to match The Notion. And the promise of 90% more spittle needed a less sedate color.

And yes, I know the video below doesn't fit. I am a tech dweeb and unsure how to make it fit. Suggestions are of course welcome.

Update: Fixed. Blogger Help really is worth a damn.

So, um...yeah...

I guess this is my other undead blog now. And again, no explanation. I was ranting about Olbermann and it just felt...right.

I'll post some other stuff here later. For the moment, permitt me the intellectual honesty of saying that President Obama did one thing that I do like: he put money down to help build two new nuclear reactors (Hat tip: Insty).

Sure, I'd like it if  he did something about the regulatory mess that delays nuclear plant construction, but the guy is a Democrat. He's going to get garbage from the enviro-left as it is. So two thumbs up for him anyway.

Finality

I write this with no clear purpose in mind, nor any place to arrive, as it has been a long hard few months.

Money depresses me. I have been, for most of my adult life, bad at managing it, bad at living within my means, bad at disciplining myself to fix either of these.

My career, such as it is, depresses me. I don't seem to have one. I have a part-time job that pays badly, which I took to supplement my income as a substitute teacher, and if it seems as though that is a regressive step in my career as an educator, that's because it is. Despite a year of subbing, five years experience teaching, professional certificate, and a visit to a job-fair, I am no closer to having a job in the local public school system than I did when I left my cozy but un-lucrative private school job last June.

If this all sounds un-familiar, that's because I've rarely talked about it. I do not enjoy talking about myself, because the things I do on a daily basis are deeply unsatisfying to me. I am as mum when my wife asks me how my day was as when my parents used to ask the same question in middle school. I simply can't talk about it, because it reminds me of how much I hate it (you'll note I don't mention what my part-time job involves).

And if I hate my life, isn't that my problem? Yes, it is. My problem, and my fault. I am an educated man in a free society. There is not a soul on earth who is responsible for my lot in life other than myself. If I am to fix my life, than I first must fix myself, and become the man who can get the things I want.

That means making serious decisions and sticking to them. That means cutting away the loose ends of things that do not matter. Which brings me to the subject of addressing my six readers, and telling them that it's time to kill another blog.

Okay, so I did have a purpose in mind, I guess. But when I wrote those words, I was still deciding.

As I've mentioned before, this blog has never been what I've wanted it to be. Again, this redounds to me, who either badly concieved it (a weekly blog? please) or badly executed it (might as well have kept The Notion going, for all the good the switch did me). But the fact is, I'm never going to be able to join the blogger big boys. My heart is just not in it, so why continue the charade? I haven't continued it for three months, and what, two months before that? I believe my sub-concious is trying to tell me something.

I write this after spending a couple of days re-joining the blogosphere, as it were, catching up on all the amusement that the back and forth can offer. I've called out a jihadist and threw a stone at the notion that men are traditionaly "afraid of commitment". And it was fun. But I don't really have time for the full conversation. And if that's the case, why pretend that it really means that much?

Plus, Blogger is annoying me. this is the second time I've had to reset my password through Google. Sure, it's probably an automatic 'bot employed against we lazy posters, but it's still irritating. I'm not about to support another layer of code between me and my dashboard. So stick it, Google, you commie rag-picker!

And that is that. I'll leave the beast up here, for none to enjoy. If ever I pick the digital pen up again, it will be with a narrower purpose, and perhaps with some more credential behind me. And it will probably be on typepad.

Thanks for reading. I'm going to fix a few things right now.

Oh, Piss off, I was busy...

...getting married, among other things. And taking on new projects, and every other lame excuse I could mention. I have once more been considering kicking this puppy to the curb and moving on down the road.

Instead, I'm gonna try to revive my original intent for this blog, which was to be a weekly column of considered work, rather than dashed-off tripe in the mold of other, better folks. We shall see how that happens.

Cheers.

Blog Stuff

Updated a few links, and in adding Pajamas, found Camille Paglia's return to Salon. I'm nowhere near as interested in her as I was in my college days, and more or less made my departure from her obvious back in 2003 with a post at the Notion that I can't link because I can't get the archives to display (grrrrr....). Also, I'd like it if she wrote about pop culture without working over things I'm tired of hearing about (Anna Nicole Smith, Madonna), and was able to discuss the Iraq war without sounding like a Kossite (and that she would finish the second volume of Sexual Personae already), but she backs me up that Romney will be a formidable candidate and that Obama is not ready for prime time. So maybe I'll pay some more attention.

I Have Been Away...

...because I have been busy, doing nothing. As anyone who's ever seriously done nothing can attest, it can keep you very busy indeed.

But within a few days, I'll be doing some more posting. There are a few things left to say, and a few things new to say as well. Bear with me.

Why is it "Sick as a Dog"? Are Dogs Particularly Sick?

I don't know what cold/flu I've contracted, but it's a doozy. Aches and pains. I'm knocking off early and heading to the doctor's.

Tell Me...

...that this doesn't read like something from the Onion. Have I been April fooled?

Down the Rabbit-Hole

I really, seriously did not intend to disappear for three weeks. I actually hoped to finish my music list and then let things slide until about June. There are several reasons:
1) I'm moving out of my appartment to my fiancee's mother's house, and am unsure whether my computer will be able to follow me.
2) I'd like to spend the spring on sabbatical, as it were, tasting and reflecting and playing guitar, rather than trying to make sense of the world that the sons of Adam have made.

I didn't even get that far, because:
1) The school Shakespeare club production of "Twelfth Night" became the Hoover Black Hole of time-sucks.
2) On Monday, February 27th, I was rear-ended by a dope in a Ford Ranger who was gabbing on a cell phone instead of watching the traffic. My poor little black Focus (aka "The Mule") has been totaled, and I've had insurance crapola to fret about, along with the aggravation of buying a new vehicle when I had just paid off the old one.
3) End of 3rd Quarter. Grades and crabby parents.
4) Trying to find a new job after the school year ends. Would you believe that applying to public schools is actually a bureaucratic nightmare? Huh.

So what's happening now?
I have no idea. We shall see, we shall see...Day by day.

Incidentally...

I'm belatedley taking part in the great Cartoon Blogburst of '06, because it all seems like the same old, same old, to me. Christian fundies shriek, they're called names and made fun of (as they should be, but I have a different definition of "fundie" than some). Islamic fundies shriek, and the lettered class falls over themselves to whip themselves for "insensitivity". We've all seen this movie: they can only get mad at white people, but I'm the racist for being a fan of my own culture and for wishing everyone to be held to the same standard. So what's for dinner?

Yet it's useful to point out just how low they enemy is prepared to sink, how baldly they're prepared to state their ambitions. Et voila...

But don't let it trouble you. Just keep chanting that it's all Bush's fault.

I suppose I should have mentioned...

...that I was taking my usual mid-terms/Christmas break, but I didn't. Mid-terms and Christmas happened before I could. But The Essayist is back for the new year, and we can expect exciting things to happen. Oh, yeah. Exciting things.

Don't Expect Much Today.

My sinuses are acting up again. I am sick as a dog. Hopefully tommorrow will be better, but I'm not holding my breath.