this week?

my life slowed down enough to finally crank out an overdue election post at under culture. i did read an inhuman amount of news, but politics is not my job so i focused more on the pop culture side of the race, and i think i did a good job pulling in a bunch of interesting tidbits into one possibly decent essay. feel free to comment stating opinions to the contrary.

also, my mom requested holiday wish lists from all of us kids (which seems slightly strange to say at this age, as does using the word ‘kids’ when we’ve all graduated, entered the work force, and live all over the country), so we obliged. now jessica and i are fully converted to gift shopping mode even though it still rubs me the wrong way to see all the premature christmas ads on tv this early. if nothing else, we can spread the expenses over more weeks, and start a small pile of boxes in a corner to build anticipation for the trip.

between the two of us, we’ve opted to spend less on gifts and treat ourselves to a night of taste experiments at moto while we’re in chicago, which i’m really looking forward to. science plus food equals fun.

aaaaaand there’s not much else to report unless you’re curious about my hours spent playing fallout 3 or watching death note, which have occupied most of my spare time lately. the decemberists are playing a show on monday, so i have that to look forward to, and otherwise the coming weekend is wide open, so i am open to suggestions for good times.