zenpundit.com

I’ve just spent a few hours at the gym wading through a herd of obliviously self-absorbed  New Year’s Resolution newbies. I don’t mind that they don’t know anything about training with weights, everyone originally started at the beginning, I mind that they lack basic goddamn manners and seem to believe that exercise equipment is a kind of art deco couch. Please, for the love of humanity, get the hell back into your volvos and take your cell phones and white plastic aquacizer hand resistance devices with you!

To compound my irritation, the management, such was unable to cope with the unseasonably warm weather in the Chicago area and the whole place was as a steambath. Nor were there any clean towels ( due to the influx of anaerobic touristas) for the shower so I had to drive home leaning forward with a giant sweat patch running down my back.

Greatly annoying.

Mrs. Zen gave me one of these nifty iPod Nano devices for Christmas. 

I am not a huge music fan which is why I paid little attention to the iPod when it first came out.  However, the advent of podcasting and intellectual opportunities like Stanford on iTunes have made me reconsider the utility of owning one.

My drive to work is fairly long and Chicago talk radio is, with the exception of the excellent Steve Dahl and Dr. Milt Rosenberg ( who is on later at night), quite mediocre these days. Secondly, I expect to spend more time the next few months on the treadmill to lean out after this holiday’s  celebratory prime rib dinner and excessive consumption of adult beverages. I have time to fill with something substantive when reading is either dangerous or simply inconvenient.

After playing around with the Nano today for the first time, I think I’ll be using more of the functions than people who primarily want it for music related applications. After I load perhaps fifty or at most, a hundred, songs, I would gravitate to podcasts, audiobooks and videos stored on a short term basis. Perhaps a few photos though the idea of whipping out your iPod to show ppl pics of the kids strikes me as too much work.

This being a tech subject and with my being a non-geek, I welcome comments from those who are.

I have been tagged twice over with the dreaded Christmas meme by Shane and Sean; thus coercing me into doing a goddamned Christmas post…”You’re a mean one…Mr. Zenpundit…”.

The rules are as follows:

1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share Christmas facts about yourself.
3. Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. Wrapping or gift bags?

My personal history speaks of incompetently and downright oddly wrapped packages that look like a form of Ape may have also kicked the gift around the primate house for a few hours. Mrs. Zen has therefore relieved me of such duties to spare herself personal embarrassment at family gatherings.

2. Real or artificial tree?

Real tree. Always. I have fond memories from my boyhood of my father chain-smoking and swearing like a NCO, trying to fit some gnarled trunk into the tree stand with the aid of a hacksaw, a hammer and one of my mother’s sharper kitchen knives. I knew that when I heard the words ” YOU….MOTHER….BASTARD!!!” thundering down the hall that the time to trim the tree was not far off.

3. When do you put up the tree?

It varies.  This year we put it up a week ago and…like my father of old….I had to get out a saw.

4. When do you take the tree down?

In recent years after New Year’s Day. I confess to having once waited so long that I threw out a tree that was in mid transition between green and brown. Once on the curb it spontaneously burst into flames.

5. Do you like egg nog?

Yes. Don’t be knocking the Nog around me.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?

One year, in the era of “Pong” but prior to the advent of Atari I received some kind of primitive tank video game that we plugged into an old black and white television. Despite the graphics amounting to objects being represented a few big pixels, it was briefly the talk of the neighborhood until after playing it for four  or five hours straight it shorted out and smoked.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?

No. My grandmother did, I believe.

8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

My father’s widely disliked second wife ( he is now on # 3) once gave me and my 1st wife a large ceramic pig. As there could be no discernable reason for this gift other than as an editorial statement, I re-gifted it to her on her next birthday. She got the message.

9. Mail or email Christmas cards?

Mail but I have been remiss in doing so this year.

10. Favorite Christmas Movie?

“It’s a Wonderful Life” and that claymation ‘toon with Burgermeister Meisterberger

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas?

“Twas the night before Christmas….” which is why Mrs. Zen has relieved me of this task as well.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?

The big holiday dinner in its entirety.

13. Clear lights or colored on the tree?

Colored and preferably twinkling.

14. Travel at Christmas or stay home?

Home.

15. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?

Both. Big day is Christmas.

16. Most annoying thing about this time of year?

The woman today with the enormous behind who got into her minivan and almost backed into me ( me, not my automobile) and then gave me the finger. I pointed and laughed at her which seemed to cause her some degree of distress.

I tag the following lost souls:

MountainRunner

Lexington Green

The Lounsbury

Dave Schuler

Tom Barnett

Chirol

Jeremy Young

The esteemed Shane liveblogged our pierogies and beer consumption, both of which was ample. Glad to catch him as he passed through Chicago. Even happier to have not been walloped with an icestorm while driving to O’Hare. LOL!

Jeremy Young, a.k.a. “Nonpartisan“, the founder and editor the respected and popular, left-wing, history group blog, Progressive Historians, had some kind words for me when he was interviewed by Scott McLemee, for an article  for Inside Higher Ed.com:

“I’m a liberal,” Young says. “ZenPundit” (Mark Safranski) is a conservative. So what? His history blog is one of the most best reads on the ‘Net. Whether he’s discussing small wars theory, political history, or Jack Kerouac, he’s unfailingly thorough and offers a unique, insightful perspective on every issue he covers.”

That was darn nice of Jeremy to offer up ( incidentally, Young has an article online over at HNN, “A Historian Against Obama“, arguing that progressive hopes for a Barack Obama administration may be misplaced), particularly in a venue where readers were not likely to have heard of Zenpundit. I think much the same way about visiting Progressive Historians where Young has a stable of  talented contributors, mostly younger scholars, digging into a wide range of historical and political issues and frequently engaging in vigorous debate. Despite my being on the conservative side of the spectrum I’ve never been made to feel anything but welcome in the comments section despite a wide divergence in political and economic views ( very wide, in some instances, as many Progressive Historian bloggers are well to the Left of Young, to say nothing of me).

This is how the blogosphere ought to be more often. Thanks Jeremy, much appreciated!