I am here to officially tell you that which you probably already know.

Since I haven’t updated for a month, it’s probably no surprise to any of you that I’m going to shut things down here at livejournal, my part-time home for the last four and a half years. Those of you familiar with the easyjournal days know that it’s been almost six years since I started blogging regularly, which feels like a lot of wasted time, but at least some of it wasn’t, I think. Maybe? Let’s move on.

When I hatched the predecessor to this blog back when I had first moved to Oklahoma, I think my primary motivation was to use it as an avenue to communicate with people whom I could no longer see regularly, and of course to indulge my pretty sizeable ego. Of course, it ended up evolving into at least a little bit more than that over the ensuing years, with a bunch of people ending up reading my thoughts on a regular basis, a good portion of whom I rarely (if ever) saw in “real life.”

Aside from all the random stuff, where I spent most of my time here was writing about what was going on in my life while I was in Oklahoma and Texas, definitely some of the hardest years I’ve had to go through in my brief time on the planet. There has been more than a little melodrama and perhaps way too much introspection done for my part, but blogs are nothing if not self-indulgent, and really, you would’ve stopped reading a long time ago if you weren’t at least halfway interested in what I had to say or what I was doing. Anyway, for most of the last six years I have needed an outlet to help process everything I was experiencing, since I didn’t have as many outlets as I would have liked to get everything out, and for the two years I was out of school, I also needed some kind of (somewhat) intellectual activity such as writing to feel I wasn’t completely wasting away mentally.

Now that I’m back in Ohio, I just don’t feel the urge to write at length anymore, unless it’s the occasional baseball-related musings. I just don’t feel like I’m doing anyone a favor to pretend like I have a personal blog when I really don’t have the energy to say anything worthwhile, especially now that the election is over. There was a lot I wanted to document and work out over the last six years, I guess as part of an intellectual and ethical exercise to process my development as a person, but I think I am at a point now where I don’t feel the need to do that anymore.

I don’t plan on tearing this down any time soon, so feel free to comb through the archives with misty eyes and remember how awesome things used to be. I’ll still keep tweeting (@SenseiGiles), and baseball-ing (InClemente Weather), but unless I have a regretful change of heart, this is probably the last slice of Giles you’ll see in this space. Feel free to leave lots of comments to let me know how terribly you'll miss me.

It’s been a nice ride. Thanks to everyone for reading over the years.


Smooches,


Giles

Here's an article from The New York Times on the growing phenomenon of Twitter:

I thought a "Ghost in the Machine" reference would've been funnier.

Many of you already know me as @SenseiGiles, which was launched back in 2007 (!) at the behest of @JayKelly, who always seems to be one step ahead of everyone on these things, but my account was dormant until election night and has been going strong ever since.  I never have anything particularly exciting to say, but it's more fun and easier than posting an LJ entry (no offense), and Facebook and I are like a married couple that had some good years and are now not-so-slowly drifting apart.

I follow the aforementioned @The_Real_Shaq and @LanceArmstrong, as well as a handful of other celebrities (like @DavidWain and @mshowalter!), but also some cool local things like @ExpCols and @WOSU.  The best by far is @FakeRickReilly, which is authored by Drew Magary (and others) from Deadspin.

Anyway, that's probably the most links I've ever included in a blog post.  Hooray for Twitter!

h/t to Jay Kelly for the following video featuring Mad Men star Jon Hamm:

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Voting for the 2009 Name of the Year is underway. The excitement is utterly palpable. I trust that you've filled out your bracket and ponied up the cash to enter the office pool.

A bracket is at the bottom if you haven't taken a close look yet.

@SenseiGiles and I analyzed this year's bracket and present to you 5 Darkhorse Candidates we think have a chance to win the whole thing. We're counting a darkhorse as a 5th seed or lower . . . Here's the playlist.

1. Dr. Shasta Kielbasa - Though it reminds us all of the truly awful UPN television show Shasta McNasty, we must sincerely congratulate the person who was once simply "Shasta Kielbasa" for endeavoring to achieve a Ph.D and earn the admiration of peers and non-peers alike.

2. Dick Titball - It's incredibly difficult to squeeze three genital references into one name. Mr. and Mrs. Titball went for it and succeeded, seemingly with zero concern about their son's future emotional welfare and self-esteem.

3. Crystal Metheny - We're pretty sure Crystal was named before crystal meth rose in popularity. But that doesn't change the fact that her name stands as an homage to one of the greatest substance epidemics in our nation's history.

4. Muffin Lord - If for nothning else, this piece of nomenclature is brilliant because it allows us to honestly say "I for one welcome our new Muffin (over)Lord."

5. Marcel Ya'Hynis Wilson - Many leaders the world over have tried to bring themselves closer to the people, but none have done it as charmingly or as effectively as Ya'Hynis.



(click image to see full-sized view)

I don't know whether I should be encouraged or frightened by the fact that the President and I have the same final four (in my non-risky bracket):

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/18/March-Madness-At-the-White-House/

Here's hoping we both win big so Jay Kelly can get demolished in our bracket pool. YES WE CAN!

Happy (somewhat late) St. Patrick's Day to all of you. I feel obligated to post something today, mostly because I'm the most handsome Irishman you all know (sorry, omainnin). However, I have precious little to say about revelry and/or hijinx that took place today. I had a conference call at lunch time, so I couldn't go to the parade downtown, and so I just met up with friends for Guinness after work. I didn't even touch any Jameson tonight, which I will most likely atone for over the weekend.

I've been audio-assaulting myself with Irish drinking songs all day, and perhaps my favorite was featured on The Wire a couple times, most notably perhaps in this scene (language NSFW):



For those of you who don't already know, the song is The Pogues' "The Body of an American." Feel free to enjoy at your leisure.

The biggest news of the day is Steelers owner Dan Rooney being nominated by President Obama for the post of Ambassador to Ireland, a position for which he is well-suited, despite what Clevelanders might say. Congrats to the Rooney family, on whom the Irish sun shines even more brightly today.

Until next year, Up the Republic!

Those of you who have been following the epic takedown of CNBC by The Daily Show host Jon Stewart probably saw this last night, but if you haven't, please consider the following:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/03/stewart-destroys-cnbc-cramer-calls.html

This all started with Stewart's criticism of CNBC analyst Rick Santelli, who criticized bailing out "irresponsible" home-owners who might lose their houses, presumably on the grounds that they could have easily avoided their predicament had they been more careful and/or less greedy. I don't own a home, so I don't really care what Rick Santelli thinks, but if I was taking criticism from some douchebag who probably made a shitload of money on the stock market right before my 401k hit the skids, I imagine my response would be somewhere along the lines of "Go fuck yourself."

Stewart is dead on here, as per the usual. These people got rich, mostly off our 401k(s), mortgages, and insurance policies, and managed to skate on it while we got the biggest (ongoing) financial screw-job in two generations. If heads don't roll on Wall Street before this is all over, we should all be pretty displeased with the the SEC, the Treasury, the Justice Department, and the President.

YES YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES.

I am required to post anything even moderately good that relates to the "Separate Ways" video:

Do me a favor and at least click on the link below:

http://news.mync.com/site/news/story/28359

My friend Blake (mercifully cropped out of the video) and his lady friend are involved with this group and trying to drive some traffic to the site above. More information on the cause:

The organization was founded by a group of "Lost Boys," which are (now adult) refugees from Southern Sudan who were forced to flee their homeland on foot due to civil war. After years of moving from refugee camp to refugee camp, some were brought to the United States. Their goal is to raise enough money to build a series of schools in their homeland. Thus far, they've amassed enough support to secure the land for the first school and hope to begin construction in the coming months.

Well, the weekend came and went with a few things to speak of. I got back from Texas late Friday night and didn't make it home until after 11:00pm EST, so Saturday night was really the only opportunity I had to paint the town red. Naturally, I spent that time taking in the Ben Folds show at the LC Pavilion (formerly the PromoWest Pavilion), which was pretty good. I certainly had good company, including the official roommate as well as B-sizzle and one of our female friends.

I'm increasingly aware of how not tall I am when I go to shows, so I spent most of the time staring at the screens so I could see what was happening on stage. I've never really been fond of that, which is why I prefer theaters first and outdoor venues second for concert-going. I know I'm giving up some indie street cred by saying that, but it bums me out to be at a medium-sized venue like the LC and not be able to see what's going on.

Anyway, Folds added a couple guys to the band this time around, a percussion player and a horns/everything else guy, which is a nice touch. He's never been short on musicianship, but I think he's starting to lose a little bit of the classic B. Folds energy that has served him so well since the Ben Folds Five days. I don't blame the guy, since he's no spring chicken anymore, but I think the halcyon days of yore are, well, the halcyon days of yore as far as Folds is concerned. That reads way more pessimistic than I meant it; I still think he's well worth seeing (and let's be honest, I will see him again), but he's not setting the place on fire again anytime soon.

Other than that, the weekend passed relatively without incident. Our house still looks like a band of gypsies lives there, but the official roommate bought a nice new couch, so that helps. I've officially committed at least an hour a day to Wii Tennis in an effort to prove that video games will never go out of style. I've got a JCU reception with a state senator and a state representative this evening, which should be somewhere between lame and not-so-lame, but I said I'd go. Maybe a surprise JCU person will be there.

Speaking of schools, I don't think I mentioned it here that I officially got accepted to THE Ohio State University doing the same thing I was doing in Texas (mostly), but they've managed to make me skeptical on account of this orientation process. First they wanted me to spend all day Thursday and Friday doing "Visitation Days," without even considering that I have an actual job, and I'm not exactly available for that amount of time. Then, despite my address being in Columbus, they set me up with a student "host," who emailed me asking what kind of food I liked so he could stock up while I was staying with him. Come to think of it, I should've told him that I just wanted a crap-ton of beer and pizza rolls, then showed up and drank my ass off. So that's been a bit of a runaround trying to tell people that I'm not 22, I have a job, I live in town, and I've been to grad school twice before. If we're doing trust falls at some point Thursday, I swear to God I'm walking out.

Speaking of God, I plan on getting hammered at the JCU reception tonight (whether there's alcohol or not), and throwing Mardi Gras beads around with reckless abandon. That way I get all my sinning done tonight in preparation for Lent. If I told you I was giving up livejournal, would you be sad? Of course you would.

Anyway, gang, enjoy your week.

Jay Kelly tipped me off to this, and I must say I'm fairly excited:

http://oyc.yale.edu/

You can go listen to or download a selection of introductory-level classes at Yale. I haven't listened to any yet, but I'm sure they're worth at least some of our/your time, so go check them out already.

To say that this has been a busy week(end) would be a pretty big understatement. Though I am excited to finally have almost all of my property, I am off to Texas in about 8 hours for the entirety of this work week, then it's off to B. Folds Saturday night. So it's no rest for a Giles. Such is the life I have chosen.

Not many of you are privy to the story of how long it took my property to get here, so I'll try and condense it:

July 2008: I move out of my apartment in Dallas and into my temporary housing at Angela's house while my bosses try to figure out a way to let me move across the country and keep my job. My clothes, computer, etc. go with me, my bed, desk, and a large chair get donated to charity, and the rest goes into a storage unit right up the street from work until at least the end of the year.

October 2008: I move out of Angela's house, back to Ohio and into my mom's house with the stuff I took from the apartment. The rest of my stuff remains in the storage unit in Dallas.

Early January 2009: I get some new furniture (so I have something to sleep on), and move into my current residence with all my Ohio possessions. I contact the guy whose company relocates our offices when we need it about getting my stuff out of the storage unit in Dallas and moving it here. He promises to look at it and get back to me with a quote. He takes a week to get over there, then gives me a quote for way more than I was able/willing to pay. I hustle to try and find a viable second option since this guy was supposed to be doing me a favor with this offer and not (metaphorically) punching me in the junk.

Mid January 2009: I mention the moving difficulties to my boss, who calls the moving company guy and reads him the riot act. The guy then calls me and says that he'll get it taken care of ASAP, he just needs his boss to sign off. A week or so goes by with him dodging my emails before he says that he'll send a crew to pick it up.

Late January 2009: My stuff gets picked up from the storage unit and taken to the moving company's warehouse where supposedly it will be put on the next truck heading this way.

Early Feburary 2009: A week goes by before I'm given a delivery date, which is (of course) a week after that.

Wednesday: My stuff is supposed to be delivered between 12-3pm. 3pm rolls around, it's about to storm like whoa, and there's no sign of the truck. Moving company tells me the truck broke down in Louisville, and it will be there later. Meanwhile, I have a 15ft. moving van for the day to take my washer/dryer and various other things to my new storage unit (Ohio version). Two hours later, I get another call that the truck won't be coming until tomorrow morning. I have to drive the moving van back in a 60mph windstorm, which was probably the dumbest driving decision I've made in a while. We are not pleased.

Thursday: Moving guys call me at 7:30am saying their truck (18 wheeler) is too big to get down the street. I call the head guy and tell him that they need to deliver it to our office then because we have a dock door, and then a smaller truck needs to come pick it up and take it to the house. He says he'll find someone and get it done. He does not. I spend the day at work staring at my stuff and making menacing phone calls, to no avail. "First thing, 8am tomorrow morning" is the new promise.

Friday: I get a call from the movers at 8:15am to tell me that they left the dome light on in the truck, and the battery is dead. They will have to jump it and charge the battery, which will take them approximately an hour. They finally arrive at the office at 9:30am, load the stuff, and deliver it to the house. I made them take the rest to the storage unit, since I wasn't about to waste more money and time to do it myself. Mission Accomplished around 12:00pm.

Counting the times I've moved into and out of the dorms, and into and out of other people's houses, I've moved 15 times in the last 10 years. I need an effing break. Let's hope this isn't a terrible place to live and I can stay here for a while. It's gone alright so far, but I guess we'll see.

So, I'm back in TX for the week. I'm sure you'll see an update or two. In case you forgot, the Steelers are still the Super Bowl Champions. Just wanted to remind everyone (i.e. omainnin).

One more thing: Ever since "I'm on a Boat," I've been all over The Lonely Island stuff. Here's today's favorite clip, for those of you who remember the Ying Yang Twins' "Whisper Song":

I really hope Samberg is getting his fastball back, because this is hilarious. T-PAIN!

Our old friend Nate Silver, though still going strong at Five Thirty Eight, turns up over at Esquire with an article about the current recession and what he calls the "Recency Bias":

http://www.esquire.com/features/data/nate-silver-on-economy-0309?src=rss

Also, Baseball Prospectus 2009 (featuring Nate's famous PECOTA projection system) hits bookshelves next Monday, 2/16.

I haven't really said anything in a while about what's going on with my life, and since I'm waiting for about four different people to call me back on a Friday afternoon, it seems to be the right time to update you on all things Giles.

As many of you already know, last month I moved into a house in the Short North with one of my high school classmates, and as any of you who have been to the Short North know, it's probably one of if not the coolest neighborhoods in Columbus. We both wanted to be down there over any of the other neighborhoods around town, so it was nice that we found a deal on a place and we were able to pull it off. It's a decent sized two bedroom place with hardwood floors and blah blah blah, so it should suit our needs pretty well.

As much as I hate moving under benign circumstances, this move has been a particular pain in the ass because most of my stuff was in a storage unit in Texas, and I had to get it transported here. I tried to work out something with the guy whose company moves our offices when we relocate, but after taking a couple weeks to give me a quote, he came back with a total cost of something like two grand. Sadly, I don't have two grand lying around. My boss got word of it and basically told the guy to stop jerking me around, so they picked up my stuff last Thursday, but they're not going to deliver it until "sometime next week," which is probably going to be Thursday or Friday. I will have been in the house for six weeks at that point. Hooray!

Anyway, the house basically looks like we're squatting on the property, which doesn't really sit well with me because I've been in transition mode since the middle of last year, and I wanted to be settled in by now. I'm not looking to play Suzie Homemaker all day or anything, but I would like to have my stuff all in one place. That probably shouldn't be taking six weeks to accomplish.

The other bee in my bonnet is a similar problem I have at work, where our landlord was supposed to add an office for me to our existing facility here, but they basically don't feel like spending the money, so they've been dragging their feet for the better part of four months. Our only option at this point besides hassling them to death is to perhaps take them to court, at which point we'd be better off putting up the money ourselves. Of course, they know that, so they're going to continue to do nothing. It's a beautiful business world right now.

So, I'm living like a refugee at home and at work, which basically means I spend a lot of time trying to stay out of other people's way and find some means of not going insane. Better still, it looks like I'll be going back to Texas for a week on Presidents' Day, which should make unpacking and getting settled in pretty difficult. C'est la vie, I guess.

This reads like I'm more upset than I actually am, so bear in mind I'm not about to cap someone. After all, on Sunday there was the blissful event called Super Bowl XLIII, so I'll be riding high for a while in celebration of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the greatest franchise in the history of football. Antagonizing Cowboy fans since Sunday has been particularly worthwhile.

I've also got a B. Folds show and a Kathleen Edwards show in the near future, which will both be good times. Once the Steelers O-Face wears off, my sports focus will be on the 2009 baseball season, which is rapidly approaching. I bought two tickets to 20 games this year at beautiful PNC Park, so if you're interested in going to a game or three, let me know.

Other than fighting a cold, it's business as usual. I may be strong-armed into seeing "He's Just Not That Into You" tonight by my roommate and our female friends, though mostly my roommate. Enjoy your weekend.

Though I know most of the country (if not the world) is still seeing things through Obama-tinted glasses, I have to admit that I'm not impressed with the new President's work so far. Call me a heretic if you must. I'll concede that he probably has a larger strategy in mind, but things don't appear to be skillfully handled so far.

Though a certain amount of GOP wagon-circling was expected after such a sound defeat in both the Congressional and Presidential elections, the new administration has basically allowed the minority to dictate terms on the stimulus package in the Senate, and has also been dealt three different (though perhaps slight) body blows with the failed Richardson, Daschle, and Killefer appointments, after having dodged a bullet when Secretary Geithner was confirmed despite his own tax problems.

House Minority Leader Boehner and Congressman Cantor managed to whip up enough "Nay" votes in the House to make sure that no Republican voted for the stimulus package despite the President's encouragement of bipartisanship, and most of the stories written since have been about how the $819 billion package that passed the House is loaded with useless pork projects and much lighter on actual stimulus. ($142 billion for Hollywood?! Really?!) Sen. McConnell has gladly accepted the role of watchdog over the Senate's version of the bill, and to be honest, I don't really disagree with his criticisms. Though I consider myself more fiscally conservative than most Democrats, that should still say something.

So, it would appear that the Obama administration is off to a rough start, but allow me an opportunity to give it a more charitable interpretation, if you will. First, the appointments are bad news, but my guess is that they wanted Geithner more than the other three combined, and so a deal was struck to get him confirmed. Every rich person in America (and especially Washington) has unpaid taxes on something, and it's an easy target to drum up public anger, especially in a time of economic woe. For Sec. Geithner to get confirmed, others had to go.

As for the stimulus, something is going to pass, it's going to be huge and it will have bipartisan support, because the public is now firmly behind some kind of major spending to help end the recession, and we like the idea of spending it on stuff like health care, roads, energy, and tax cuts. Here's what I think might be going on:

1. The administration knew the first (crappy) bill would pass the House without any Republican support regardless, so they let the GOP House delegation look good by not supporting it.
2. They also knew the Senate version would face much more scrutiny, and wouldn't even come to a vote without at least a handful of GOP votes, so they allow the minority to look good by taking out all the BS nobody really liked, and pare down the bill by a couple hundred billion that the administration didn't want to spend anyway. In the end, the Senate bill will be much closer to what the administration really wanted, and once it passes, it will sail through the House no problem.
3. When the stimulus package passes, President Obama has in his back pocket that he let the GOP hammer him on the stimulus so they didn't look too terrible right after getting owned in the election, so when it comes time to pass his health care or education plan, not only do they not have to deal with Sen. Daschle (since his confirmation was sacrificed), but the President can cash in a favor to get the 3-5 moderate GOP votes he might need in the Senate to get cloture and avoid a filibuster.

Of course, I could be dead wrong about all of this, but I needed some time to think out loud and rationalize why the process was playing out in this way. Here's hoping there's a much larger strategy to it all.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/01/27/digital.tv.transition.delay/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Are you kidding me?! Why do they need to push this back, AGAIN? I've been so tired of hearing all the "Hey old people, after Feb. 17th, your TV won't work right" commercials, and now I have to sit through a whole other round of them. Glorious.

Not for nothing, but it's also good to see the Senate really jumping in to tackle the tough issues.

Anyone who loves March Madness on CBS will appreciate this:



It's too bad that the speech today as no chance of living up to its expectations, but it still should be pretty awesome compared to what we've seen over the last 40-50 years. Bring it on, Big O.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/19/hudson.plane.folo/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

The struggling air travel industry would fly planes with documented engine problems within 48 hours of said problem, then crash land that flight in the Hudson, and conveniently forget to mention the fact that the plane had engine problems two days before, and blame the whole thing on a flock of geese, while (perhaps rightfully) focusing on the good work of the flight crew and the fact that (fortunately) no one died?

YOU DON'T SAY!

I figure while W still has the big chair, there's still time to be snarky and cynical. After tomorrow, it's nothing but sunshine and teddy bear smiles.

Only one thing on my mind today:



In Tomlin we trust.