And I thought I was compulsive. After reading this article in the NY Times about people who blog obsessively, my own blogging habits seem rather pedestrian in comparison. I’m not sure how these people manage to write so much; sometimes I spend a good half hour staring at a blank screen trying to think of an interesting topic for an entry. I could probably make things easier on myself by simply chronicling my daily routine: got up, went to work, sat in meetings, came home, wrote, etc. But I don’t think that would make for compelling reading material. I’ve even flirted with the idea of taking an extended vacation from blogging and coming back fresh a few months later. But like I said, I’m compulsive. Once I start something, I feel the need to stick with it until it’s done. And blogging is something that you never finish, so you can see my dilemma. I don’t think blogging will ever consume my life as it does with some of the people mentioned in the Times article. Even I need to get away from the computer after a while and there’s only so many interesting things a person can say in one day.
Oh, I almost forgot. My new wheelchair is almost ready. Yes, the State of Minnesota finally decided I had been a good boy and deserved a new chair before the one I have falls apart. I go in for a fitting in a couple weeks and then I’m me and my new ride will hit the streets in search of danger and adventure. I’ll call my new ride KITT and I’ll do up my hair like David Hasselhoff. Yeah, that’ll be so cool. Then maybe girls will finally notice me.

A colleague of mine at work recently discovered that she passed the bar, which got me thinking about my own bar nightmare experience. Two of the longest days in my life. Like everyone else, I shelled out a thousand bucks for a two-month bar review class. I can think of few worst ways to spend a summer than sitting in a crowded auditorium every day to review the finer points of contract law or torts or half a dozen other subjects. And about three weeks before the bar, my friend Charles and I bought a computer game that we thought would be a good distraction from studying. Bad idea. We would be playing this game until 2 or 3 in the morning, time that could have been used for studying. When I walked into the exam, I was virtually certain I was going to fail. But somehow, we both passed. My accommodations for the exam were actually pretty sweet. I had this huge conference room in the Judicial Center all to myself and two personal scribes to record my answers. I would have enjoyed the setting a lot more if I had been a little less terrified. After the second day of the exam, I came home to my apartment and…honestly, I don’t remember the next couple of days. My brain sort of shut down for a while. You could have put me in front of a television showing nothing but static and I would have been happy.

What does the Pentagon do when confronted with the widespread use of a potentially incriminating technology? It bans it, of course. Under new military regulations, digital cameras, camcorders, and phonecams are now verboten in Iraq. Not surprising, given that new photographs of prisoner abuse are turning up on an almost daily basis, but I have serious doubts about whether this ban can be easily enforced. There must be thousands of digicams and phonecams bouncing around in the pockets and knapsacks of soldiers and civilians alike in every corner of that country. Does the military brass plan on finding and confiscating all of them? I’m willing to wager that we’ll still continue to see unauthorized images leak out of Iraq long after the ban is put in place.
Over on Wonkette’s blog, I’ve been following the saga of the Washingtonienne. For those of you not in the know, the Washingtonienne was a former Senate aide who started a blog; the main topic of said blog was her various sexual exploits with assorted and sundry government officials. The Washingtonienne lost her Senate job once her boss got wind of the blog’s existence. She’ll probably get a book deal or a gig on MTV because of the whole brouhaha. And why not? She doesn’t seem too embarrassed by her conduct and it’s hardly any different than a guy bragging about his conquests. Yet we still have this cultural meme from antebellum times that young women are supposed to be coquettish, or at least discrete. What a bunch of gender-biased crap. She’d probably still have her job if she was a man. I know that if we had been colleagues and by some (major) miracle we had an intimate moment, I’d expect her to write all about it.
That’s it. I’m starting a separate blog about the sexual adventures of a minor government functionary in Minnesota who happens to be disabled. It will recount in lurid detail his freaky-deaky encounters with people in positions of power and the secrets he acquires when others are at their most vulnerable.
Oh, who am I kidding. Nobody would ever believe that shit. Hell, I wouldn’t believe it if I read it.

As is being reported in dozens of other blogs, Michael Moore has won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for his film “Fahrenheit 9/11.” The right-wingers have probably already begun making jokes about Moore winning an award, never mind that the lead jury member is an American. Lots of people will heap disdain on Moore for even being able to say “thank you” in French. I can’t wait to see the film and I hope to find some people to go with me. It’s one of those things that is more fun to see with a bunch of people and then dissect over beer with people afterwards. As a filmmaker, I think Michael Moore is perceptive and self-effacing. Other than that little stunt with Charlton Heston, Bowling for Columbine was a funny, insightful, and humane movie. He knows how to step back and let his subjects reveal themselves to the camera, which is why the bit with Heston was kind of disappointing. I have a copy of Moore’s last book sitting on my shelf; I’m hesitant to read it because I’m afraid I’ll find it more polemical than his movies.
The sun hasn’t shown itself in the last two and a half days. I actually like streaks of gray weather like this; it’s good thinking weather I could live in Seatle or London without any problem. In fact, I’d probably get more writing done if I lived somewhere where the climate was in a pissier mode year-round.

The American public school system has always excelled at inculcating a herd mentality in the country’s youth. Students are taught to value conformity in everything from wardrobe choices to musical tastes. But in this post-Columbine, post 9/11 Bizarro world we inhabit, a lot of school administrators are starting to act like petty, anti-intellectual tyrants. Kids are suspended for writing fiction and poetry that some adults label as “dark” or “disturbing.” Teachers are getting laid off after their students read poetry critical of the Bush administration. The Secret Service gets called in when a teacher sees a student’s anti-war drawings. Artistic expression and free speech have become bothersome and inconvenient concepts for many school districts. I’m not worried about the kids; the ones with the creative spark will continue to draw and write and think. But amidst all the propaganda from the White House about exporting freedom, I find it terribly ironic that we allow this kind of behavior in our own institutions of learning.