While I’m enjoying a few days of hedonism in Miami, guest-blogging duties will be handled by my good friend Charles. Charles and I were classmates in law school and we lived in the same West Bank apartment building for several years. We share the same dry sense of humor and he is a writer of considerable skill. I’m confident that he’ll keep all of you amused while I’m away. And I won’t be completely abandoning you. My hotel has high-speed access and I’ll try to post a couple updates and maybe a few pictures documenting my time in tragically hip South Beach. So give Charles a warm welcome and play nice with him while I’m gone.
I’m a big fan of The War of the Worlds. I own the DVD and I pop it in whenever I’m in the mood for something old skool. And now I hear that Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise are thinking about doing a re-make. It could be brilliant or a disaster. Part of me imagines the end of the movie as directed by Spielberg: Tom Cruise kneels beside the body of one of the dead aliens and cradles it in his arms, tears streaming down his criminally boyish face. “I could have saved them,” he whispers, gently rocking back and forth with the alien corpse in his lap. “We could have been…friends.”
Fade to black.

MIT did an interesting study on blogging. Here are some of the findings:
– the great majority of bloggers identify themselves on their sites: 55% of respondents provide their real names on their blogs; another 20% provide some variant of the real name (first name only, first name and initial of surname, a pseudonym friends would know, etc.)
– 76% of bloggers do not limit access (i.e. readership) to their entries in any way
– 36% of respondents have gotten in trouble because of things they have written on their blogs
I find the last statistic particularly interesting. 36% seems awfully high to me. Are people really that thoughtless about the things they write in a public blog? Over the year and a half I’ve been doing this, I’ve developed some rules of thumb for my own blogging. I keep names of friends and family anonymous. I don’t write extensively about work. I re-read everything before hitting the PUBLISH button to make sure nothing is overly harsh or revealing. No, the only person that will be portrayed as a jerk in this blog is me.
Did anyone see the Courtney Love interview on Letterman last night? I liked the last Hole album, but I was about ready to reach through the television and slap her across the face. What a strung-out, narcissistic has-been. And what happened to her voice? It sounded like bald tires screeching over gravel.

My plane tickets arrived in the mail today. It made my trip suddenly feel a bit more real. But goddamn, why is it so expensive to rent an accessible van? A hundred bucks a day! For that much, it better come with a DVD player and a frickin’ jacuzzi in the back. By the way, what’s the deal with watching porn in the car? As if people weren’t distracted enough while driving by cellphones, eating, doing their makeup, etc. Now I have to watch out for the sexually frustrated middle-aged guy in his fully-accessorized Hummer who can’t watch his Asia Carrera movies at home because his wife might find them.
Ugh. What do I do at work all day? Write on the computer. What do I do when I get home? Write some more. Excuse me while I restore feeling to my wrist.

I should start going through my packing list for Miami. As you can probably guess, I have to pack more stuff than the average person when I go on vacation. Mostly backup equipment and the like. My supply company will ship some of the stuff I need, so that will help. I’ve done this enough times to know what I need and to make sure it’s organized. I get deeply paranoid that I will forget something critical. That’s why I have a list. I made it for my trip to Denver in 2000 and it hasn’t left my hard drive since then. I’m something of a digital pack rat. You should see my old e-mail file. I’ve probably stored up to 2000 messages since 1997.
From The Onion:

Those CP’ers are a bunch of poseurs when it comes to evil. The SMA Cabal will have to put them in their place.

Some guy who got beat up in high school one time too many has started a website called technosexual.org. Here’s the definition of a technosexual, lifted from the site:
He is a man of style and tech sophistication: he may be seen at an NBA game one night, then an art gallery opening the next; all navigating through life with the empowerment of technology. From PDA’s to mobile phones. A wireless environment. He is the new male ideal: the technosexual� man.
Jebus, do you believe that shit? I guess the old labels of ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ were too oppressive for him. They didn’t carry that air of savoir faire that “technosexual” has. *snicker* And here’s the kicker. This asshole co-opted the word from another niche group who share the desire to get busy with all things robotic and mechanical. At least the original meaning is a bit more sincere than this PR-ready nonsense cooked up by a guy who needs to be slapped with his copy of Details magazine.
I think of myself as a geek. I’m proud I’m a geek. Geeks are cool. And yes, geeks are sexy.
I had my own little Gawker moment today. Kind of. I was running some errands in the skyway when we passed a tall guy accompanied by a very pretty woman. A minute or so later, this conversation ensues:
NURSE You know who that was?
ME: No.
NURSE: Kobe Bryant.
ME: Shut up.
NURSE: No, really. It was.
And I think he was right. After all, the Lakers are in town tonight. To be honest, I was looking at her more than him.