Year: 2009

No More Cable

Six months after I cancelled it, the cable was finally disconnected today. No more TCM. No more Toronto real estate porn on HGTV. No more “ALF” reruns on WGN. It’s going to be strange; I’ve pretty much always had cable or satellite. But it’s ridiculously expensive and most of the programming flat out sucks, so it’s hard to justify paying the premium.

Since I got out of the network primetime habit over ten years ago (thanks to the lousy cable in San Francisco, ironically enough), I guess this means I pretty much won’t be watching TV at all anymore.

That’s probably not a bad thing, but it will be an adjustment all the same. It comes just as I enter my last week as a graduate student, so I won’t really have time to miss it for a while, anyway. Next week, when I only have one and a quarter full-time jobs rather than the two I currently have, I’m sure I’ll be able to fill all that extra free time somehow.

It’s Over

A few minutes ago, I finished my last paper for my last class as a graduate student. I’ll probably give it one more proofing tonight before I submit it, but for all intents and purposes, I’m done. For your reference, the subject of this final fifteen-pager was open source content management systems for library websites. if you’re really desperate to read it (and I can’t imagine why you would be), I’ll have it posted on the other site later today or tomorrow.

And I’m not sure what to do next.

What exactly do people who aren’t in grad school and working full time do on Sunday afternoons, anyway?

Videolog (Sort Of): Things Fall Apart


Cristina
Things Fall Apart (1981)

It’s that time of year. And OK, I know it’s not really a video. I’m pretty sure there is no video for this song, but the song itself is a tradition around these parts, and this is the best I could do. Besides, it’s Siouxsie Sioux’s favorite Christmas record too–or it was in 1988 at least.

I Look OK in Black Polyester, I Guess

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Just in case you were wondering, it’s not too late to order those Christmas or graduation gifts. Mainly, though, I’m just happy to only have one full-time job now.

More photos after the jump. Continue reading “I Look OK in Black Polyester, I Guess” →

As Far As the Eye Can See

Gone away for a few days. I’ll be spending my first New Year’s week with WTOG since about 1977. This used to be an annual trek (that also involved Disney World or Busch Gardens) back when Aunt Mildred was still alive and well and living in the Tampa suburbs.

I wonder if “The Brady Bunch” is still on at 5:30. Hmmm…

Farewell to the Double Naughts

After reading one too many end of the year retrospectives telling me how much the past decade has sucked, I decided today to close out the 2000s by stating that all in all they were a pretty damned good ten years for me. There were really low points, to be sure. But this was the decade that I met–and decided to spend the rest of my life with–the most wonderful boy in the world and it was the decade in which I finally decided what I wanted to be when I grew up. Those are pretty major things, and I think they at least help minimize the negatives: the assorted health issues, that long period of unemployment and the resulting depression, and those 401-K losses.

My biggest regret as I enter 2010 is all the time Mark and I have had to spend apart for the past few years. In fact, as I type this, we’re spending our first New Year’s apart since we met. We’ll have to do something about that soon.

That said, happy New Year, and thanks for hanging out for another twelve months. I’m signing off now because I have an iPhone date in a few minutes.