(12:06 PM) | Adam Kotsko:

Tuesday Hatred 2

1. I hate how grumpy I get when I haven't eaten properly. (This general topic is addressed fairly thoroughly in this Unfogged thread.)
   
   
2. It is almost literally impossible to keep up with an Unfogged thread. I tried for a while, but it's really frustrating when you get up and do something else for twenty minutes, then come back to find that the number of comments has grown from 19 to 85. I like to have a lot of comments, but that is seriously unmanageable. (This is completely contrary to the spirit of this Tuesday series, but I'm actually quite pleased with the pace of comments on this site -- it's just right.)
   
   
3. I'm young and naive and don't know how things work. Like today I was totally taken by surprise when my temp agency called and woke me up at 8:30 and apparently thought there would be a good chance I could get to the Loop by 9:00. I had no idea that degree of readiness would be expected of me. I called them back later, and they said that they only get one or two jobs a week that are such short notice, so I'm not going to plan my life around it, but this whole temp thing is so tenuous, and I really don't want to alienate an agency through my ignorance and end up having to spend another morning signing up for yet another temp agency.
   
   
4. I wish I took better advantage of my unexpected days off. I helped a friend move Sunday and was completely dehydrated by the end of the day, then I had bad allergies today, so I can excuse myself for basically just sitting around the house today, but most days, my health poses no obstacle, and I still get to like 3:00 in the afternoon without having done much of anything other than the dishes. I actually have a lot that I wanted to do this summer, even beyond the German and the church fathers, and I'm not making much headway.
   
   
5. Since I "graduated" from CTS, my privileges for the Regenstein library at U of C expired Friday. The CTS librarian told me that she doesn't want to "push it" with the U of C people, since they're doing a pilot program where CTS people can have circulation privileges at the Regenstein for free, whereas before we had to pay for access. I hoped to do some research for the Nancy review (the book arrived today in the mail -- characteristically beautiful in the understated manner of French books), perhaps translate the Sartre text on Passolini that Scott McLemee suggested to me, and generally make use of the resources of one of the greatest libraries in this part of the country for the summer. I can get everything I need through inter-library loan, but it's just not the same! Maybe I'll figure something out -- I haven't even been down there since my privileges expired.
   
   
6. I take traffic statistics too seriously. For instance, this week, The Weblog's traffic dropped off pretty dramatically, by 50 visits a day. It's still above 300, which is not bad at all, but still, I'm searching for answers. What did I do? Am I not writing good stuff? Did I write something that alienated people? The real answer is that it's probably just the fact that Bitch PhD is on vacation (so the people who would check here to see if she had posted are not checking here), combined with the fact that I haven't managed to finangle a link from a big site in a couple weeks. Nothing a little comment-whoring can't fix.
   
   I was feeling really good when it was over 400 right before the election, but that was, you know, right before the election, when people were following all kinds of media sources much more closely -- I wonder if the liberal/left-wing end of the blogosphere suffered a hit after Bush was reelected? For a while it seemed like the big-name liberal bloggers were dominating all the rankings, with only Instapundit consistently representing the right wing, but that bubble really burst once people realized that reading blogs that favor one's preferred candidate does not necessarily make one's preferred candidate win. I never really read Daily Kos anyway -- except right before the election! This is all coming together.
   
   
7. I always take a book with me when I head to bed, and I never read more than a paragraph. Often I put it on my nightstand and don't open it at all. I don't know why I do this. Ever since I worked a few summers mowing lawns, I haven't been able to stay up late reading. I enjoyed the work, but obviously it took a lot out of me if I haven't recovered three years after the fact.
   
   
8. [UPDATE: Ben Wolfson sent me this link, scornfully saying that I would be interested. I tried to resist, but it was impossible -- I now know how to fold a fitted sheet. It's easier than you'd think!]

| permalink | Main Page