August 2011

Forgot to mention it but I back-populated some old posts from the past few months over the last week or so. I do this pretty regularly with posts that don’t “go live” for one reason or another–either I don’t finish them to my satisfaction or the timing seems wrong or whatever.  I usually just pop them into place where they should have gone in sequence. That way, they’re included for completeness (the “public record of my life,” blah blah blah) but I don’t end up calling undue attention to old news in my RSS feed. etc. And yes, this makes you have to do a bit of work if you really want to read them. Sorry. I’ll give you a pointer to one of them, OK?

So what else is new in the life of yer humble host?

• Work is good. Somehow in the middle of a major state budget crunch, I’ve ended up with an extra full-time person starting tomorrow, someone who was transferred to me from another department. I assume that’s a vote of confidence. Once in a while I start pondering the fact that they’re giving an awful lot of responsibility to someone who is, after all, still pretty much just out of library school. But I’m running with it.
• I’m planning a semi-large road trip in late September or early October. The general direction will be northward. It may include places like Schenectady, Boston, Buffalo, and Toronto. I’m excited because I haven’t done a really major road trip in a long time. And frankly, I’m very excited about doing it alone because I haven’t done that in a long time either. That’s not to say I won’t be visiting friends and maybe even taking someone along for a leg or two. I’ll keep you posted.
• Having also finally finished a writing project I’ve been avoiding working on for several weeks, I’m also going to take a short trip somewhere next weekend. Suggestions?
• A couple of people in recent weeks (many of whom really should have known better) have asked me if I’m “dating anyone” these days. Honestly, the thought of “dating anyone” or “a relationship” or even “fucking someone” hasn’t even crossed my mind. This is partly because “alone” is my natural state in life; the last ten years were the exception, not the rule. It’s also partly because I’m still not in the best state of mind just yet, and jumping into anything right now would probably make things much worse for me and for my hapless victim. It’s not like riding a bicycle or falling off a horse. And let’s be honest: There’s not a long line of men outside my front door anxiously waiting for me change my mind, anyway. I left the Triad years ago in part because of the lack of interesting and available men here. Twenty years and many pounds later, there’s probably even less interest now, from them and from me.  I’m not nearly anxious or horny enough to make trolling the depressing collection of local queer bars (or the internet) a priority. In fact, I’m not really anxious enough to go to any effort at all. So no, I’m not “dating anyone.” I’m not likely to be doing so for the foreseeable future. My life needs to be about me now, not about a co-star. You should not feel sorry for me because of this. I don’t (Here’s the original full-length version of this bullet point).
• Anyone for leftover birthday cake? The icing balloons are quite tasty although they’re getting a little crunchy with age. But then again, so am I….

According to Business Week, that is.

Here’s why I hate stupid non-news stories like this:

• They use questionable methodology.
• They use inaccurate or irrelevant or inconsistent data.
• They’re stupid, non-news stories and I don’t really need any further justification.

That said, I wonder if our ranking would have gone up or down if they’d included Winston-Salem’s actual population (229,617) rather than some random number (33,822) that came from…well…I don’t know where it might have come from.

Remember when reputable publications used to have things like editors and fact checkers? And writers, for that matter?

How things that might have excited you a year or two back are now more likely just to make you worry about the extra layer of stress they might add to your vacation.