Category: Fluff

Today is random spewage day on gohlkusmaximus.com. First, as you no doubt noticed, I made a few changes to the site. The gray background was bringing me down.

Speaking of gray backgrounds, I believe the rainy season has begun here. It’s still novel. Ask me again if I think so in 3 months.

I’ve just been saving up the links—I’ve been alternately busy and slothful. During the busy times, I’ve been applying for jobs or working on my freelance project, which is going pretty well in fits and starts. I’ve also been preparing an application for law school at UW-Madison for fall 2003. [Update: I never actually applied.]

You may think that I have no idea what I want to do with my life. You would be half-right. One thing I’d really like, I realize now, is at least a modicum of stability. That is a truly ridiculous thing to ask for when you’ve just moved halfway across the country with no job lined up. I also want the ability to feel like I’m doing something worthwhile. It doesn’t seem right now, though, that I’ll achieve those ideals easily, or soon. Therefore, I’m exploring all of my options. (Seemingly all at once, which is a bit confusing and exhausting. Or is that the stress of being in a still-new place?)

I haven’t really gotten into the habit of picking up any of the “alternative weeklies” around here, since I’m not usually anywhere where they’re distributed. Unfortunately, that means I would miss Dan Savage’s Savage Love unless I read it online. Another somewhat guilty favorite I started reading in the Star Tribune is the syndicated advice column of Carolyn Hax. At first I thought she was mean, but now I believe that she’s just opinionated and direct. I don’t really want to examine why I’m entertained by advice columns. Maybe I should write to one and ask.

Ever wonder why airfares change so much? Wonder no longer: the crazy math of airline ticket pricing is explained.

Speaking of arcane and secretive procedures, want insider news about Congress? Here you go: The Hill and Roll Call. Which is better?

Probably neither. Try these instead:

• The Subversive Intellectual Society and The Smoking Gun: Funny, but serious.
• NRDC: The Bush Record on the Environment: serious, but not at all funny.
• Hierarchies.org: who owns whom?
• A big problem with many alternative liberal news outlets is that the news is so depressing and horrible, but there isn’t a very good indication of what to do about it. These sites attempt to start: Protest.net and
  MoveOn.org.

But my life, like yours, I hope, does not simply consist of depressing political news and advice columns. I also read comics from time to time on the web. As we all know, in the world of web comics, there are hits and then there are misses. These two are good enough to merit a repeat visit: “Her” by Chris Bishop and “Small Stories” by Derek Kirk. Of course, my perennial favorite, Pinkey Suthers, is exactly perfect for me this week.

Did you know that a Frenchman invented a “universal language”—made up of musical notes—in the 19th century? It was called Solresol.

Speaking of music (this transition is a bit of a stretch), if you bought a music compact disc from a retailer (not online) between 1995 and 2000 (and if you didn’t, come on! what 8-track player have you been hiding under? This from a guy who doesn’t own a DVD player, of course), you are eligible to make a claim under the successful class action music CD settlement that confirms that CDs really were (are?) too expensive. Claim your five to twenty dollars, just to say you did.