Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

While Barak Obama addressed an audience in Berlin, presumptive GOP presidential candidate John McCain (stuck in Ohio) churlishly said: "I'd love to give a speech in Germany ... a political speech or a speech that maybe the German people would be interested in, but I'd much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate for the office of presidency." Senator McCain, I'd love to buy you a drink, but I'd much prefer to do that as a Powerball winner...and I think we both have about as much chance of getting our wishes. I suppose we can look forward to similarly asinine statements in the months ahead.

My limoncello experiment has moved into its second phase: after soaking the lemon zest in 100 proof vodka for around 50 days (longer than I intended, but probably a Good Thing as far as the batch goes), I added the simple syrup, which I made by dissolving 4 cups of sugar in 4 cups of boiling water. After it cooled to room temperature, I added it to the zest slurry and poured in the 2nd fifth of vodka. After adding all this I have what looks to be an impress amount of limoncello in the offing. It comes almost to the shoulder of the 1 gallon pickle jar all this is soaking in. The next step, which I'll do around the 2nd week of August, is to strain out the zest and bottle up the concoction. I'm now in the process of collecting appropriately designed bottles. My preference is those stoppered bottles that have the rubber gasket and the wire frame that locks it shut. I've got a couple I collected that originally contained fancy lemonade and imported beer. I'll probably break ...

Youngest son is currently in Hawaii with the church youth choir. He returns at the crack o' dawn Wednesday. He's the one who's now a better guitar player than me. That milestone hurt more than his being taller, stronger and smarter than me. I got a trio of text messages from him this evening. The first said, "Dude, I want a ukelele." The second, sent an hour later, said, "I got one. It's a baritone." The third, send approximately five hours later, said, "I can already play Over the Rainbow." I will miss the randomness of life around here when we have an empty nest.

You know that part in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four where the television sets watch you? In a way, we've managed to arrive at that point without people realizing it. Let me explain. With the advent of cheap, affordable broadband, an increasing portion of the population has turned to the internet for entertainment as well as information. Many people don't subscribe to a newspaper: they get their news online. We stream video, download music, search for recipes, post to our blogs, look up stuff on Wikipedia, search on keywords -- you get the picture. On a lot of sites that provide these services, we set up accounts, so our preferences can be remembered (and sold to the people buying those ads sprinkled across the page). Every request we make, every link we click, keyword we search, is stored somewhere--if only as an entry in a server log file. The logs keep a record of the request, along with the time/date and IP address of the requester (that's you, my friend). Th...

As we approach the 4th of July (also known as National Blow a Finger and Thumb Off Day ) I grow reflective. Despite my Liberal (whatever that means in this day and age) leanings, I too am capable of feeling the pangs of patriotism, though maybe not for the same things other folks do. America is a constant experiment, sometimes getting it right, sometimes getting it very wrong. Denying we fuck up sometimes does not make you more of a patriot, since if you deny it, you can't fix it. And though it takes a while as a society, I honestly believe we tend to stumble more or less in the right direction. I don't think we have a monopoly on virtue, nor do I think we have one on vice. We have our share of heroic people, doing brave, selfless things, as well as venal, mean-spirited, self-serving assholes. I guess it takes all kinds. But I digress. This may sound dumb but one of my favorite things about this holiday, and one that makes me feel most American, is that hallowed tradition of th...