Category: Navel-Gazing

The Road Goes Ever On (and On and On…)

Hey y’all — A quick update: After a full day of flying (VA to Dallas to LAX to Auckland, most of which I spent engrossed in George Packer’s The Assassins’ Gate) and a full day of driving across the North Island (Auckland to Wellington), we’ve made it here safely, and our New Zealand trip has begun in earnest. Tomorrow, we take the ferry to the South Island, where we’ll be spending most of our time here. (Also, I noticed while exploring downtown Wellington that Children of Men is already out here, so, should a slow day present itself, perhaps I’ll be able to post one of those movie reviews after all.) Hope all goes well Stateside and elsewhere.

There and Back Again.

“I want to see mountains again, mountains, Gandalf! And then find somewhere quiet where I can finish my book…I need a holiday — a very long holiday — and I don’t expect I shall return. In fact, I mean not to!” Or at least for a couple of weeks. Yes y’all, Christmas is arriving early this year in these parts: Later today I and several other members of the Clan Murphy are headed off to Middle Earth, a.k.a, the World of (18 hours in) the Future, a.k.a. New Zealand, so as to enjoy a few holiday weeks of traveling, hiking, trout-fishing, and general exploring. So, as you might expect, updates here at GitM will undoubtedly be more intermittent (and the comment-spam more pronounced) than usual, although I’ll try to check in every now and again should the Internet present itself. (Also, reviews of the season’s big films — Children of Men, Pan’s Labyrinth, Inland Empire, The Good German/Shepherd — will likely be posted late, upon my return.) Until then, be safe, stay warm, and happy holidays…I’ll see you when I’ll see you.

That Old-Time Religion.

Speaking of politically partisan reading material, a brief plug: If you’re looking for a stocking stuffer for the politically inclined, How the Republicans Stole Religion (formerly How the Republicans Stole Christmas), a book I worked on last year with pundit and former seminary student Bill Press, is now available in paperback at a bookstore near you.

Seven and the Ragged Ghost.

Yep, it’s that time again: Ghost in the Machine is seven years old today. It’s been an up-and-down year, to be sure, but I’ve got no plans to give up the Ghost just yet, seven-year-itch be damned. (Particularly given that this blog has never seen a Democratic Congress — that should make things interesting for awhile.) At any rate, once again, and as always, thanks for stopping by. [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Frazzled | Stupid Halloween Tricks.

Hey…you ever had one of those weeks? You ever had one of those fortnights? You ever…well, you get the picture. Suffice to say, it’s been kinda rough around these parts of late, and, so, obviously, the blog’s been suffering. Sorry about that, y’all. At any rate, in happier news, a side project that I’ve been working on for several months to pay the bills — and that’s been all-consuming for the past couple of weeks — is nearing its end, and should be off the table in very short order. And, it’s Halloween, so that’s good.

By the way, one word of advice for the holiday: If you perchance decide to throw together a last-minute Shaun of the Dead outfit for a costume party, and the cheap-o vial of glycerine-based fake blood gel you bought at Ricky’s says heat first in the microwave, do not actually heat the vial in the microwave, as it will explode almost immediately. And, whatever you do thereafter, absolutely, positively do not remove said bubbling gel from the microwave, as it will now be a cheap-o vial of super-sticky, burning hot napalm, and you will sear the &$@% out of your hands. (On the bright side, when I spent the night cannibalizing the bar for ice, random folks were like “Hey, Shaun of the Dead! And you’re putting ice on your wounds! That’s so perfect!’ Also, typing with blisters on your fingertips is a strange and actually not altogether unpleasant feeling, sorta like having a laptop mouse button grafted under your skin.)

Phoning it in.

So, as of this morning, I’ve been moving up in the smartphone world. I awoke at 7am to find my long-suffering, increasingly indignant Treo 400 had decided overnight to up and die completely, so I bit the entropy bullet and picked up a brand-spankin’ new Treo 700 this afternoon (after, I might add, a rather miserable customer service experience that resulted in a good two hours of grappling with the Verizon Wireless bureaucracy. Apparently, despite all the hype about the national network in those aggravating ads, Verizon Kauai and Verizon NYC don’t play very nice together. Really, people, I’m trying to give you my money.) At any rate, I’m looking forward to playing around with the new apparatus, even if I did end up losing some txt conversations I wanted to keep, not to mention some truly righteous Dopewars scores.

Lapu in the Mikini.

Aloha y’all…In keeping with recent Murphy tradition, I’ve joined the family for a late-summer jaunt to Hawaii. Unclear how this will affect the updates around here the next few weeks — on one hand, fun activities like snorkeling and pleasure-reading (note the cue at left is finally moving again) have been eating into my usual blog-hours (and the 1998-ish dial-up here doesn’t lend itself to much time spent on the Internet anyway.) But, then again, I’m already on the verge of sunburn, so I’ll have to find some way to wile away those safety hours indoors. At any rate, I’d expect the intermittent summer posting schedule to remain the norm around here for now, so, as always, mahalo for dropping by.