Internet Connectivity Returns, and So Does the Inanities!

Hola readers! Happy August 2007.

I am now officially moved into the new apartment. OK, so I've been officially been moved in for a week, but I only got my Internet connection today, so here I am blogging again. Lucky you people. The place is in a lil' city called Marietta, which has been sitting on the west side of Atlanta all the time I've lived in this state but has remained, with few exceptions, unvisited by me. And now I live here. I also live within spitting distance of not just interstate 75, but of Dobbins Air Force Base, which is, as Air Force Bases go, extremely active. Most days it's big ole cargo planes roaring overhead. Today it was fighters. A whole mess of jet fighters going over once, circling around, and then coming over again. It's been a week and still, like a child, I fast-walk to the windows whenever I hear one approaching because I really like watching them go by. Maybe it's a symptom of being a self-hating liberal, but at the same time I want to frown at the show of military muscle and, by extension, everything that show of American military muscle implies, I also experience that dumb, lizard brain emotion that understands how American soldiers abroad could listen to "America! Fuck Yeah!" from the "Team America" soundtrack and enjoy it without irony.

I'd say more about the area but I haven't been out much. For the past 7 days I've been unpacking in my maddeningly inefficient way and the going has been slow. Mostly I unpack at commercial breaks, and even then I'm usually content to sit through the ads to wait for the next morsel of show. I've been living with an exclusively analog signal for 2 years and living with it again for another week wasn't too bad, particularly since there exists a TBS (which came in the best of all of the channels) to meet all of my TV-watching needs. Guilty pleasure TV shows? Check. (King of Queens). Classic TV shows? Check. (Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Cosby Show). Shitty movies I always wanted to see but figured I'd wait until they came on free on TBS? Check. (Shanghai Knights). The list goes on, folks. I would have liked to have spent my time more wisely, say writing or drawing or even reading, but disorder of the kind I'm confronted with in this freshly unpacked apartment saps my will to do anything but stare blankly at a box that shows pretty pictures. The TV serves this purpose nicely. But some good news: the apartment is nearing orderliness. Right now, one of the bathrooms is essentially spotless and has just one unopened box in it.

Before this goes on too long, I do want to quickly direct your attention to a fascinating email sent out by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Robert Olen Butler. In this email he describes the circumstances by which his wife, writer Elizabeth Dewberry, left Butler for Ted Turner. Yeah, that Ted Turner. Go here for the complete (and completely awesome) email. And then, if you're still interested, go here to listen to Butler talk to NPR about the email and the reaction to said email. Listen carefully (you won't need to) to hear Butler's nausea-inducing self-importance. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure it's unseemly to mention your Pulitzer so many times.

And finally, I finished "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" a few days ago. My Spoiler Vigil of Death has now ended. I guess I have to go add Heath back to my Friends list on MySpace. (Sigh). More soon.