http://left404.com Adrift in the 21st Century Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:36:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Am I too cantankerous here? Well, today reminds us that good surprises do come up too. Morning photo walk didn't look promising at 8AM. Gray skies every which-way, with a forecast promising wind and showers. Imagine my surprise when, halfway across the Brooklyn bridge, patches of blue sky appeared. By the time ... http://left404.com/2008/02/10/unknown-knowns Saturday mornings are notoriously slow. Why then did I wake up at 6:30AM? No idea, really. So I spent a few more hours than I might otherwise have immersed in books. What books you ask? Oh the usual ones. My reading speed is inversely proportional to the importance of the ... http://left404.com/2008/02/09/new-eyes Returned from the grandparents in the morning by train. The roommate is keeping later and later hours. Not a problem since his sleeping hardly impedes my research or Arabic. Took off for Battery Park in the afternoon, arriving just as the sun was disappearing. Still haven't worked out the perfect ingredients ... http://left404.com/2008/02/08/fouled-out Scheduling is a tricky thing. What to maximize? The first hours of the day had very little tangible to show for them - thinking and brainstorming is like that. Then after class, a number of very tangible things happened - cleaned desk, did laundry, caught up on correspondence, payed bills, dealt ... http://left404.com/2008/02/07/brief-detours Stayed up waaay too late waiting for primary results. Paid for that by being very nearly incoherent during Arabic. Although I'm still not sure why our readings have to tend to the esoteric (medieval universities?). Obviously, what I needed was some dynamic positive thinking plus sleep. Muddled through a number of ... http://left404.com/2008/02/06/wacky-wednesday Since the American people, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to postpone for at least a month or two, the final decision on which two crooks we get to choose from in November, I think a few comments are in order. First, our wonderful Democratic prospects. If you want a summary, just ... http://left404.com/2008/02/06/the-politics-post This is like a bad result on Groundhog Day - six more weeks of campaigning (and so much for Tsunami Tuesday). True, the horse-race can be fun. But this is a roach-race, and it runs 'til November. There was some sort of parade celebrating the NY Giants' Super Bowl win. Had ... http://left404.com/2008/02/05/undecided-tuesday That would be unsuper-Monday for those keeping track. Rather than attempt to explain the Freud-1940s Baghdad connection alluded to earlier (something to do with memory), or why I'm partially translating a Wikipedia entry on an Iranian revolutionary for Arabic language class (needed an interesting biography that could use this chapter's vocab., thanks Mirza ... http://left404.com/2008/02/04/pre-super-tuesday Weather forecast finally comes through. Mostly. Sunny. Rather clear. Lots of folks out enjoying the rarity of blue skies and over-40 degree temperatures. Clouds arrived just in time to spoil the sunset. More reading about Baghdad in the '40s. Author (native) writes of his argument (then) with a friend over whether ... http://left404.com/2008/02/03/new-york-daze Not to be overly critical, but this is the 3rd day in a row that the weather forecast (thanks weather.com) has been substantially inaccurate. Mostly sunny? Yeah right. So much for afternoon and sunset photos. My vast and interesting life? Limited to reading excerpts of Freud and various other unreadable articles. Desultory ... http://left404.com/2008/02/02/whether-weather