Category: Navel-Gazing

An Historic Lull.

Ok, so it’s been quiet around here again. The freelance textbook project that I thought was almost over turned out to be far from it. But now, after another week of hellaciously long days, I can almost see the Shire, the Brandywine River, Gandalf’s fireworks, etc. etc. again. Meanwhile, on the orals scene, my original date – March 4 – got torpedoed by conflicting schedules on my panel, and it now looks like I won’t be able to amass the entire posse again until early April. So, at any rate, both of these recent developments should lend themselves to more posting here, provided there’s something more interesting to talk about than the ridiculous national outrage over Janet’s stunt nipple. Stay tuned.

The Dubya Decimal System.

Still quite busy over here -- The megalithic history freelance project I mentioned here is finally drawing to a close, and orals reading is now consuming the bulk of my time. I know that portion of the site hasn't been updated lately, but I do plan to finish it, even if I have to post much of the content after my orals date, which should be sometime in the first two weeks of March.

In the meantime, I've also recently begun helping Bill Press finish up another book project, Bush Must Go. (We previously collaborated on Spin This! together in early 2001.) And, in keeping with the book's subtitle, Press has asked for "Top Ten" submissions, your Top Ten reasons why George W. Bush has to go down as a one-termer like Papa, over at the DNC Blog today. So, if you're feeling creative or have to get a particular Bush vent off your chest, leave your list over there. As he says, your ideas may very well be incorporated into the book.

Smothered in History.

Hey y’all. Sorry it’s gotten so quiet in these parts of late…I haven’t fallen into an XBox Live hole, although I’d very much like to. In fact, I’ve actually been putting in 14/15-hour days all week on a freelance project and orals work, and I expect this monster schedule will continue right up until the new semester begins after MLK day. This freelance work is a beast, but fortunately it’s American-history intensive…basically involving composing short essays and links for an online textbook website. So, I may be light on interpretation, but at least I can tell the differences among the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, the Adams-Onis Treaty, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, I know who lost the Battle of New Orleans, who won the Battle of Oriskany, and who died at the Battle of Shiloh, and I’ve even learned a thing or two about random foolios like I.L. Elwood, Ignaz Semmelweis, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges. That’s gotta be good for something, right?

Holidazed.

Hello out there…I hope and trust y’all are in the midst of a happy, healthy holiday season. Berk and I have returned to NYC from a family christmas in Norfolk, where I received a number of books on my Orals list, an XBox, some clothing, some cash, and sundry assorted goodies and gadgets. And, as per usual on and around December 29, I’m a year older as of yesterday….29, for the first time. At any rate, expect normal update schedule to resume from now herein.

This Film is On.

As an hour’s distraction, I’ve created a central clearinghouse for movie reviews on GitM and added it to the sidebar at left. Unfortunately, some of the older ones (written during the hand-coded Geocities days) may be hard to find, but they’re in there…somewhere. I’ll also probably try to reconstruct the 10-point ratings at some point, but that’s an improvement for another day.

Four More Years!

Ghost in the Machine is four years old today. We’ve weathered lots of personal, political, and cinematic ups and downs since that badly written entry on 11.15.99 (as the archives new and old will attest), but it’s funny how most of the topics covered here at length (Dem politics, movie reviews, fanboy culture, the Knickerbockers) were foreshadowed in that first rambling preamble. As for the hits, well…I’m not going to talk about the hits, ’cause you won’t stay in this business for four long years if you dwell too heavily on the site stats. So, to paraphrase FDR, “I should like to have it said of GitM‘s first administration that in it the forces of selfishness, lust for power, and lousy film transitions of fanboy properties met their match; I would like to have it said of its second administration that in it these forces met their master.” Here’s to four more years!

Ender’s Games.

For you gamers out there, Day of Defeat 1.1 was released last night (over Steam.) I suspect it will conspire with Civilization 3.2 (Conquests), which I picked up while Christmas shopping today, to tempt me away from my increasingly necessary orals reading. A WWII FPS and a dominate-the-world strategy game counts as time spent historicizing, doesn’t it?