4.27.2009

Not All Who Wander Ever Post

So clearly I don't post on this thing anymore. Maybe someday I will again, but for now it exists solely as a record of a few magical years.

You can find me on the Internet still, just at other places. Such as:

twitter.com/timryder
facebook.com/profile.php?id=34001645&ref=profile

See you 'round, Internets.

1.23.2009

Future kids only

Warning: Reverse Gravity Playground ahead!

1.20.2009

And a happy new year...in jail!

I'm glad Old Man Potter was able to make it to the inauguration.

It's a new day, America! Let's do it!

1.07.2009

Like most bands, they got preachy toward the end

Experiment: I couldn't decide what music I wanted to listen to today, so I put iTunes on an entire library shuffle. This is pretty rare for me, as I normally consider myself a "whole album" kind of guy.

Conclusion: I remember the lyrics to a surprising amount of Goldfinger songs.

Further Questioning: Why do I have so many Goldfinger songs on my computer?

12.31.2008

On the road again

Hitting the road again today, this time to Iowa.

But quickly before I go, I learned yesterday that one of my aunts now has the best address ever.

She lives on Prince Valiant Dr.

I shared this with Tara, who informed me that one of her old friends now lives on Gobbler's Knob Rd.

Happy New Year, everybody. May your 2009 bring as much joy as those two things brought this apartment.

12.29.2008

85 percent of my love

Still doing things Texas style. Rebecca and I head back to Chicago this afternoon where we'll enjoy a one-day respite before hitting the road again, this time to Iowa to see the other half of her family. It's like we're home, but WE JUST CAN'T STOP TRAVELING.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I did, and now I'd like to talk briefly about Chuck Klosterman.

Rebecca's mom remembered that I had put his book Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story on my list for last year but didn't receive it. I then, for whatever reason, completely failed to read it in the entire following year. This made it a lovely surprise come present-opening time.

(I also received some very sharp knives that will definitely not make it on the plane. They will be have to be mailed.)

Anyway, I've had some time to read quite a bit of it over the last two days. It's Klosterman being Klosterman - incredibly analytical and surprisingly self-absorbed about subjects that normally require neither of those things. Really good if you enjoy him.

My only beef with the book, and really the thing that I've thought the most about so far, is the blurb on the back cover. From author Bret Easton Ellis, it reads as follows:

"I can't think of a more sheerly likeable writer than Chuck Klosterman and his old-fashioned, all American voice: big-hearted and direct, bright and unironic, optimistic and amiable, self-deprecating and reassuring - what a captivating lack of fuss or pretension."

This quote makes me seriously doubt whether Mr. Ellis and I have been reading the same author at all. Of the 13 descriptive terms used in that blurb, I see merit in exactly four.

I consider the following to be possible explanations:
a) Mr. Ellis made this quote ironically.
b) Mr. Klosterman used this quote ironically.
c) The publisher liked it.

I'm leaning toward option c at this point. Options a and b are unlikely because there is a small kernel of truth in the quote, or at least 4/13s of one.

The final option is that everyone is being sincere and it's actually intended to be 85% of an ironic back cover blurb.

And really, the entire purpose of writing this was to get to that last sentence because it was so clever of me to think of it. You're welcome, Internet.

12.23.2008

Deep in the heart

I'm down in Texas for a week with Rebecca and part of her family.

It got up to 50 degrees today, with promises of 70 in the next couple days. This is a nice break from freezing Chicago where on Sunday it was quite literally colder than the North Pole.

This just in: People in Texas are really quite fond of Texas.