The Center of the Universe

In an email newsletter today, I got a link to author David Foster Wallace’s commencement address at Kenyon University in May 2005. It’s a nice New Year’s read, the time of year where everyone is thinking about resolutions and self-improvement and so on.

It’s about how we are hard-wired to see ourselves as the center of the uinverse, because in fact we are the center of our own universe, per our own experience and point of reference. And it’s about how difficult it is to break out of that “default setting,” as he calls it. I’ve never read any of Wallace’s work before, but I think I will have to add him to the list of people to read.

Be warned, its long. If you don’t have the time, come back to it later. Here’s the link:
http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html

2005 Recap

I’m turning this post into everyone’s recap. A review of the year if you will. Post news by month 🙂

January – Unemployed. 2 cats/2 people. Start knitted bag.
February – Unemployed. 2 cats/2 people. Excellent Mardi Gras.
March – Unemployed. 2 cats/2 people.
April – Unemployed. 2 cats/2 people. Vegas trip. Attempt to pay federal taxes.
May – Unemployed. 2 cats/2 people. Turn on A/C.
June – Unemployed. 2 cats/2 people. Philadelphia trip. Mom’s 50th birthday. Nonno in hospital. Kent’s conference in Boston.
July – Get job. 2 cats/2 people. Beth visits Atlanta. Nonno still in hospital.
Beginning of August – Job. 2 cats/2 people. Trip to Philadelphia and Kent’s archiving conference in New Orleans. Discover Farmer’s Market.
End of August – Get laid off. 4 cats/3 people. Katrina. Football draft.
September – Unemployed. 4 cats/5 people. Rita. Trip to New Orleans. Triple 30 Labor Day Birthday party. Dave gets job at the AJC. Eric and Katie get married. Dave and Paul get new apartment. New glasses.
October – Unemployed. 4 cats/4 people. Turn off A/C. No hurricanes. Halloween.
November – Get job. 4 cats/2 people. Unable to get to Philadelphia, stay in Atlanta for Thanksgiving.
December – Keep Job. 4 cats/2 people. Car accident. Kent falls down stairs, breaks butt. Christmas and New Year’s in Atlanta. Jack, Marnie and Grant visit. Mom and Beth visit. Brent and Chelsey get engaged. Colleen and Tom get engaged. Big party and Paul and Dave’s. Still working on knitted bag.

The Best of 2005

2005 was hands-down the worst year of my 30 years. I don’t think anyone can argue with that. I’m glad to see it go away. While I won’t remember it fondly, I will acknowledge 2005 as a life-changing year. The events of 2005 weren’t always the easiest to swallow or even manage, but their effects will continue to affect my life, and those of my family and friends for years to come. How we deal with those effects is up to us. We can use it as an excuse to give up (the Saints) or we can rise above those events beyond our control and build a better future. I’m choosing the latter. I don’t know of any other way.

Here’s to a better future in 2006. I can’t wait to put 2005 behind me and start over. Thank you to everyone who has been here (from a distance or right in my own house). Without the people I love, 2005 would have been unbearable.

I started this post as a “Best of elbuzzard.com” type thing and got a little side-tracked. Here are some stats from the blog’s first year.

Most Popular Posts – by number of comments
While she doesn’t post very often, Leslie snags 2 of the top 3 most commented-on posts.

  1. Leslie’s Good Things (not necessarily the top 10 of all time) by Leslie- 16 comments
  2. Picking a new team… by Kent – 13 comments
  3. The Top Ten Good Things About Christmas by Leslie – 12 comments

Total number of posts: 196

Total number of comments: 383

Most Prolific Commenters (not an author)

  1. Marnie and TygrrToo (tie) – 30 comments
  2. Staceman – 18 comments
  3. Capn Jack – 7 comments

Happy New Year, everyone!

Number One

The Nebraska Cornhuskers are the greatest college team in the history of all things Collegiate. They could beat the best Duke Basketball team by 40 points. They would have hit consecutive home runs over and over again off Roger Clemens when he was at Texas. If the Cornhuskers were a person, they would be Jesus. When they beat Michigan yesterday, it meant that they are going to be great for the rest of time. Other teams will have to start using handguns just to hang in against Nebraska. The same goes for my other favorite teams. The Baltimore Orioles will no doubt become unstoppable based on the results of the 2005 Alamo Bowl, and yes, so will the New Orleans Saints. The Saints will also move back to New Orleans, which will be completely recovered in the next 3 months. Thanks again Nebraska. For fixing everything.

Does this sound weird to anyone else?

From a story on bbc.co.uk about the Iraq election:

At one stage, an election official in Falluja said that so many people were voting, they had run out of ballot papers

ummmm….does this scream “electoral fraud” to anyone else?

How can you run out of ballot papers? Surely you know how many you need based on the number of registered voters, plus a few for spoilage purposes?

Story here

Tom Benson Says New Orleans is Unlivable

saintsdoggle is reporting:

WWL radio reports this evening that Tom Benson has told Saints employees at a meeting in San Antonio today that the team’s training facility is still occupied by FEMA and National Guard troops, and that employees must stay away from New Orleans as it is “unlivable.”

Benson can go to hell. Where the hell are my parents living? Sure its hard, but they are living there.

And the Saints training facility in Metairie was not damaged, and is not occupied by anyone at this time. Tagliabue just toured the damn place and said it was in first-class shape.

It’s obvious that Benson has given up on the city, and is trying to spread his feelings among his staff. The Saints are a symbol of New Orleans, just like Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras, Jazzfest, and Cafe du Monde. That’s what the country thinks of when they think of New Orleans. When those things go, so goes the city. Just like cancelling Mardi Gras would tell the rest of the country that there is no hope of rebuilding New Orleans, so does moving the Saints out.

Ray Nagin has decided that Mardi Gras will go on, even if it is to be scaled down, but Benson has decided that he’d rather leave the city that gave him all his money to flounder on its own. Thanks Tom. Way to sell out the people who put you where you are.