Monthly Archives: June 2013

Out of practice…

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Once upon a time, I could pack a bag and be out the door in half an hour. That probably has as much to do with spending three out of every four weeks on the road as it did with having any actual skills worth mentioning. When you pack, unpack, repack, keep the bag under 30 pounds, narrow enough to fit in the overhead, wash, rinse, and repeat six times a month, you get proficient if only through the force of habit. It’s apparently one of those skills that atrophy when it’s not in regular use.

The reason I know this is because I had to swap out the bag that use to work for a week on the road for what use to be the “two week” bag. Then I added a backpack for good measure. And then I thought, “Eh, I’ll just throw in a cooler in case I need it at some point.” I’m pretty sure the planner in me died a little bit with that decision. It strikes me that a normal person would be able to know up front if they were going to need a cooler, but apparently now, I just stock one for “just in case” moments. One of the great drawbacks of traveling by truck instead of airliner is that it doesn’t actually force you to make decisions. You’ve got a nearly limitless maw of emptiness just waiting to take on all the junk you might, but probably won’t, use at some point in your journey.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go rent a pallet jack to get my luggage outside.

Day without dogs…

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Last night was the first time since I moved back to Maryland that I was home and the dogs weren’t. I’m not going to lie. It felt unnatural. I’ve had at least one of the furry brutes around for the better part of the last six years and a night without snorting, endless trips outside, slobber-covered toys dropped in my lap, and a constant attached at the hip presence Dogsjust felt odd. I’ve apparently grown rather fond of fighting a 70 pound chocolate lab for bed space and covers.

Sure, they’re a tremendous hassle with vet bills, specialized food, and a battalion’s worth of “stuff” that goes with them everywhere, but they’re my hassle. I won’t pretend that it’s not nice to have a break from the regular schedule of feeding, watering, chasing, fetching, farting, and drooling, but I’ll be glad to have the heathens back at the end of the week.

Sunday jewels…

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OK. I know they’re about 12 hours late today, but I think you’ll find that this week’s edition of posts from the archive was well worth the wait. There are some jewels here. Some real gems. In fact, I’m so sure you’ll be happy with them, I don’t think they need any more talking up… so without further fluffing, here’s what was on my mind in mid-October 2007.

Road miles…

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I’ll be logging some miles over the next week. The baseline mileage between now and about this time next week is 664 plus random driving around and at least two days of regular commuting. It would be harder to plan an agenda that would put me in three more far flung parts of the state Travelover a period of a few days. I’m holding my breath because it only seems appropriate that the universe would conspire to have me make some kind of emergency trip to St. Mary’s County and complete the tour of the extreme ends of the State of Maryland.

For a state as dense with highways as Maryland, one of the fun thing you learn when you spend time on the road here is that that there really isn’t a good way to get from one end of the state to the other without first driving around Baltimore. Still, every mile under the wheels this week is 5,280 feet closer to the beach… and that makes a whole lot of road dogging it seem worthwhile.

What Annoys Jeff this Week?

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1. Myspace. I got an email from Myspace this morning. Talk about getting a blast from the past right in the ol’ inbox. I think it’s pretty obvious that I’m a fan of social media in all its many flavors, but I can’t think of any good reason to pick up where 2006 left off. It’s cute that they’re trying desperately to rebrand themselves as a music and lifestyle site, but I won’t be signing up any time soon. Been there, done that. It’s time to let the next generation become friends with Tom. Sorry, old friend, from here on out gmail will be catching you in the spam filter.

2. WWDC 2013. Apple held its annual World Wide Developer’s Conference this week. There was the usual introduction of new OS and iOS variants, a few new gee whiz gadgets, even some legitimate “wow” elements… but this year felt like it was lacking a certain punch. For the first time in a long time, I’m walking away from the coverage of WWDC and not chomping at the bit for something I need to have right now. I don’t know if that’s a product of me getting more jaded about tech, learning to be interested in other things, or if Apple just isn’t bringing the wow like they use to. Either way, it’s less extensive for me in the end, but it’s kind of annoying too.

3. Game of Thrones. Season 3 hasn’t been over for a week yet and I’m already showing some early signs of withdrawal. They pack some of the best television content in history into ten hour-long episodes, but when it’s over there’s such a ridiculous wait for the next season. By contrast other programs I enjoy tend to show up with 16 or even 22 episodes a season. Excepting that kind of production run from GoT is unreasonable, I know. Still, I’m not down with the year-long wait for season 4 to roll out on HBO. Mercifully True Blood shows up this Sunday… and after that it’s Boardwalk Empire… and then Walking Dead should be right around the corner. The 9PM Sunday time slot will be well covered, but I’ll miss Westeros… and dragons. I’ll definitely miss dragons.

The international edition…

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I get the vast majority of my page views from right here in the good ol’ US of A. No surprise there. One of the fun factoids I’ve noticed recently is that I’m starting to see a lot more international traffic filter through the doors. Now I don’t want to imply this increase is a direct result of a couple of posts talking about the National Security Agency (Hi there!), but that’s more or less when the traffic picked up… and in the best traditions of snarky blog authors everywhere I want to take the opportunity to welcome my new readers from the UK, France, Germany, Canada, India, the Philippines, Australia, Serbia, Bangladesh, Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania, Mexico, Ireland, Russia, Norway, Finland, Poland, Romania, Vietnam, Sweden, Paraguay, South Africa, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Brazil, Egypt, Singapore, Austria, Cyprus, Angola, Jordan, Malaysia, Israel, Taiwan, and the Bahamas.

I hope you have a pleasant visit here at jeffreytharp.com and find many, many interesting posts for your reading pleasure. Please keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times and remember that all posts on jeffreytharp.com are subject to the copyright laws of the United States of America and traffic here is probably monitored by at least one domestic intelligence agency. Thanks for your interest in my blog.

Your viewing of this site constitutes consent to hold the author harmless in the event of an invasion of your homeland or a drone strike on your house.

Perfectly average…

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It was a perfectly average day. Nothing good, nothing bad, just minutes ticking by until it’s time to go to bed, wake up, and start the process over from the beginning again. I’m not saying that like it’s necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes you need those average days to smooth out the rough edges of days you spend chasing your own tail. Maybe it’s even more true when you’re brain is already checked out for a long-overdue vacation. And no, I’m not counting the three days I spent on the couch last week as a vacation. I might not be into backcountry skiing or skydiving, but laying on the couch, mouthbreathing, and watching old episodes of House on iTunes does not qualify as relaxing and restorative in my book.

The one obvious down side of being perfectly average is that it doesn’t lend itself to high interest blogging… which is when you get what we have here today, a blog post about blog posts. Sure, I could have probably forced some new topic out of my head and onto the page, but it feels artificial and generally turns out to be even worse schlock than going free form and letting whatever happens happen. I know everyone is use to being entertained 24/7 in the information age, but hey, we all need a day off now and then.

I’m sure tomorrow will be more interesting. It’s hard to fathom two days in a row where there is legitimately nothing significant to report.

Conflicted…

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A year ago, hell, six weeks ago I would have called Edward Snowden a traitor. Handing information to the press, especially classified information, goes against the grain and against a decade worth of training and experience. I can’t fathom a circumstance under which I’d do it… I’m philosophically opposed to finding myself in a Video-Surveillance-Usefederal prison or being “disappeared” by some of the more clandestine elements of our government, you see.

Maybe the country would be a happier place if we were all left fat and ignorant of what happens behind the fence line. With reality TV and the celebrity of the moment to entertain us, I wonder how long our collective national focus will remain fixed on what I think we can agree is at best an egregious violation of our collective rights as citizens of the republic. I’m sure it won’t be for as long as it should.

Look, our data is out there. We’re giving it freely to companies like Apple and Google every second of every day. It’s not that I have a problem with Uncle having a peek now and then, it’s that he’s blatantly said for so long that he’s not doing it. If the president or the Director of National Intelligence stood up and said “yep, we’re keeping an eye on phone calls and email and we’ve stopped X, Y, and Z as a result,” I’d probably be on the government’s side of this one without a second thought.

It’s the lie that chafes. It’s always the lie. That’s why I’m conflicted. And that’s why I can’t quite bring myself to condemn Mr. Snowden.

It’s Sunday. You know the drill…

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Maybe if I didn’t still have a head full of crud, I’d take the time and effort to come up with a more snappy title for today’s post. Sorry, but you’re not getting that level of effort this morning. I mean you don’t always expect me to bring my A-game right?

The good news from today’s trip into the archives is that we’ve wrapped up the posts from September 2007. September ends more with a whimper than with a bag, but in a blog that’s just a play-by-play of what’s going on in life, that’s to be expected. October is looking a little more interesting so far. The first two posts you’ll see were apparently written when I was still professionally ambitious and not nearly as cynical as I am today. I’d almost forgotten there was a time like that. Maybe once the posts from the archive series is complete I can backtrack through the blog and point to the exact moment when I threw up my hands in disgust and decided to focus on other things.

Hopefully you’ll enjoy your time in the archive today as much as I have. We’ll return to regular programming tomorrow.

Stew…

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It’s so much more than a warm, filling meal. In fact since I was a kid stewing has been my preferred approach to whatever is bothering me at any given time. It’s as if letting the issue simmer there on a low flame will give me some insight, or at least not make it taste not quite cauldron-clipartso bad going down. Mostly, I think it’s the mechanism my brain uses to buy time to try looking at things objectively before flying off on a wild tangent. That’s a theory. Possibly a bad one, but it is a theory.

So yeah, I’m stewing this afternoon. Unfortunately for the blog, there are (believe it or not) some parts of the day that even I consider off limits for publication, so instead of telling a fun story on Saturday afternoon, all you get to know is I’m stewing. I’m thinking. I’m pondering. And I’m trying to find my way into an objective head space. As usual, that’s easier said than done