Posted by Kenneth Anderson:
A Week Blogging:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_08_09-2009_08_15.shtml#1249828721
With apologies to the Senior Conspirator, I am going to be taking a
week off, starting this afternoon at 4:00 pm. It's not just that I
won't be posting for a week - I won't be reading this blog or any
other blog for a week. In fact, with the exception of absolutely
necessary email, I'm staying off the web completely. Does anyone
remember the wonderful XKCD comic with the opening panel:
[1]Constant [internet] novelty saps my initiative.
We all know there's something to that. Family is away at the beach. I
have the house to myself and book on US-UN relations finally to finish
and deliver (part of which, concerning the Security Council and the
US, [2]you can read here). I plan to read physical newspapers, read
books and articles not online, and go to the gym and work out not once
but twice a day. That's more or less what vacation is for me this year
- work out and finally complete a book that has been giving me fits. I
wish I were in the Eastern Sierra, in the [3]Owens Valley, which, as
we all know, is God's country, California's Empty Quarter. I wish I
were doing this stretch of writing and rewriting work in Palo Alto, at
the Hoover Institution. But I'm in DC, and it appears that the weather
is about to get unpleasant.
I have shaved my head completely, as I have discovered from long
experience that even if it doesn't help me discover my spiritual side,
it weirdly helps me concentrate. I highly recommend it. I have much
coffee, good stuff from Antigua Guatemala. Yerba mate from Paraguay. I
have my extralight olive oil re the Seth Roberts diet - to which,
although I realize I'm just bragging here - I sincerely credit the
loss of 25 pounds and a wholly unmedicated cholesterol score last week
of 128 total and 66 good (!). Among the books for the odyssey - which
I was going to read virtuously while walking on the treadmill - was
supposed to be [4]Brian D'Amato's huge novel thing about Mayans and
game theory, but my daughter swiped that for the beach - will she
really read it? I might simply re-read The Red and the Black, and
maybe the collected sci fi of John Boyd ([5]The Last Starship From
Earth, The Rakehells of Heaven, and the one about the lesbian orchid
plants on some faraway planet, [6]The Pollinators of Eden).
I will also finish the read of books on the financial crisis for my
TLS review and I hope draft it; and some long delayed work for my
nonprofit media investment fund (when I get back, I'll describe the
fantastic equity deal that was finally just sold off for a very large
gain, in the Balkans, no less); and some stuff for the Madrid Revista
de Libros. Shoulder permitting, I'll play the cello a lot - it seems
to help the muscle spasms in my wrists and fingers. That's me this
week, going on a crazy, zany, internet-free week. If anyone wants to
comment, I'll be around until 4:00 pm.
References
1. http://xkcd.com/597/
2. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1421999
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owens_Valley
4.
http://www.amazon.com/Courts-Sun-Brian-DAmato/dp/0525950516/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249828275&sr=1-1
5. http://www.amazon.com/Last-Starship-Earth-John-Boyd/dp/0140048758
6.
http://www.amazon.com/Pollinators-Eden-Penguin-science-fiction/dp/0140048766/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249828212&sr=1-1
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