On Walkabout.

Hey all. I know it’s been quiet ’round these parts — sorry about that. It’s been a tough year so far. Berk has had to deal with a nasty dog bite back in February and, now, what looks to be cancer. (He’s getting his toe amputated tomorrow — Hopefully, that’ll contain the bug.) Also in February, I had an 18-month romance implode rather disastrously. I thought we’d be going the distance…but, before disappearing, the ex made sure to convey she never actually took the relationship seriously in the first place. Er…good to know. (Yes, I know this sort of thing has happened to me before. What can I say? Either I’m too sensitive, or else I’m getting soft.)

Anyway, the upshot is there’s not much joy in Mudville these days, and I’m just not feeling very inclined to post here. I can’t really talk about politics because (1) it interferes with my current employ and (2) when you get right down to it, I find it hard to take presidential politics seriously as a vehicle for (hope-and-)change these days (although I’m sure it’s a great way to get your name on a NASCAR car.) I can’t really talk about personal matters because that’s just plain unsightly, and the Internet really doesn’t need any more TMI kvetching about first world problems. Nor, quite frankly, does it need to know what I thought of 21 Jump Street and Mass Effect 3 and the new Prometheus viral campaign and the like.

I’m not saying the Ghost is dead and buried, but I don’t see it coming back online regularly anytime soon: With the exception of the occasional comment-spam clear, the old hound and I are on walkabout for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, the archives are here and here, and all the old movie reviews are here. If you’ve been swinging by the site at any time for the past 12+ years, apologies for the service outage and thanks, as always, for stopping by.

Update: Thanks for all the well-wishes in the comments. As a follow-up, Berk has lost the toe, but the offending infection has, per the lab report, been “completely excised.” Meanwhile, after several weeks in the cone, the old hound is back to moving around normally and otherwise seems in good health. Squirrels and skateboarders, beware.

Dozing at the Dozen.

As of today, Ghost in the Machine is 12 years old. [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 11] Like its venerable ombudsdog, this site is mostly characterized these days by short bursts of frenetic activity followed by long periods of slumber. But, in its own way, the ghost is still keep-on-keepin’-on. If you’ve been here for awhile or just got lost on Google today, thanks, as always, for stopping by.

What’s the Frequency, Kevin?

And quiet ’round here once again. Several reasons this time, including an end-of-recess vacation to lovely Kauai, and a hugely busy work push upon my return. Also, I’ve been spending my off-hours reading the Game of Thrones books (yes, I succumbed — I’m currently 700 pages into Feast of Crows) and training for the upcoming Baltimore half-marathon (a.k.a. getting back into even a modicum of running shape.)

So, plenty busy. Plus, coming up on twelve years of doing this, I do find myself questioning the point of it all. I can’t really comment at length on the (dismal) political scene at the moment, due to the overlap with my day job. And, at the end of the day, does the world really need yet another web outlet for long-winded movie reviews and the other random items that get posted here? Judging from the years of dwindling hits and lack of comments: No, no it doesn’t.

Of course, if trying to “make it” as a blogger was my main motivation for GitM, I probably would’ve quit 8-9 years ago. Still, spending hours posting copy here that just molders away unread seems like less a good use of my free time than it used to. Sorry, bitching is unsightly, I know. But, you might as well know why this site has been back-burnered for the past month. I’m not planning to officially quit or anything — this too will pass, I’m sure — and I expect my collector’s OCD will compel me to keep up with the movie reviews, if nothing else. But, in all honesty, I just haven’t been feeling the spark of late.

Silence of the Hares.

Apologies for the recent quiet ’round these parts — work has been kicking mighty hard of late. I feel bad about not keeping up-to-date here on recent events in the Middle East and Middle West. I feel bad about being several reviews behind on the movie front. But, more than anything, I just feel bad about letting down the bunnies.

Sigh…anyway, I hope to rectify in the days and weeks ahead. (Besides, after the under-reported fiasco that happened here last week, I may well find myself with more time than usual on my hands come March.) In any case, thanks, as always for coming by. (Disapproving rabbit via Cute Overload and, um, Disapproving Rabbits.)

It Goes to Eleven.

Another revolution has come and gone, and, as of today, Ghost in the Machine is 11 years old.

[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.]
Obviously, the movie reviews notwithstanding, it’s quieter around here these days, both due to time constraints and job-related circumspection. But, even in a state of fitful slumber, the ghost carries on. If this is your first time here or you’ve been hanging around for over a decade now, thanks, as always, for stopping by.

Microphone Check, Micro-Microphone Checka…

Another long stretch of quiet ’round these parts, I know, and in terms of post count, this September has been the quietest month in nearly 11 years of blogging. (Hopefully the handful of remaining regular readers are checking the Twitter feed.) But, busy workdays notwithstanding, the Ghost lives! So if you’re still swinging by these parts, pardon the interruption, and thanks, as always, for dropping by.

Whither the Ghost?

Hey everyone — sorry about the lack of updates ’round here the past fortnight. Between work, not seeing any movies since Inception (Salt has been right on the cusp — I’ll get to it eventually), and not wanting to comment too much on recent politics to maintain some degree of discretionary work-life divide, I’ve been neglecting the long-form format here at GitM. But, if you’re not following already, I am still maintaining a steady Twitter presence, and I expect posts will pick up here too as we move deeper into the recess period. That’s the plan, anyway!

Retreat to Advance.

Sorry about the radio silence over the past week. I’ve been ensconced away at the yearly office retreat, which coupled with family in town and a very busy work week regardless, cut deeply into the GitM time. There’s been quite a lot of big doings over the past week, and I’m four movie reviews behind at the moment, but hopefully I’ll catch up over the next several days.

The First Ten Years.

Way back in the last millennium, when I started GitM, things were different. America had never had a black president. We had no clue that there was water on the moon. Everybody agreed, and knew in their bones, that torture was immoral. The Knicks were actually considered a pretty good basketball team. Weblogs were still counted in the thousands.

And, after two-to-three years of building out a website on Geocities, mostly consisting of rinky-dink book reviews, I decided one day to embark on an experiment. I had tried several times over my first twenty-five years to keep a journal, and had given up each time. The product mostly came out as navel-gazing, self-indulgent whining, and, frankly, it bored me to write it. But, I realized after discovering sites like Megnut, Saturn, and Barbelith one day, what if I wrote that journal on the Internet? A public forum would help rein in the Gaelic melancholy, it would focus my thinking on the issues I cared about, and it would structure the many hours I spent dinking around online already…

Ten years ago today, Ghost in the Machine was born. [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.] (FWIW, I chose the name for a lot of reasons, none of them really having to do with Arthur Koestler or the Police — It was a callback to one of my triumvirate of favorite movies (along with Amadeus and Miller’s Crossing): Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. (“Ere I am, J.H…“) It was already the name of my coxing column for Rowersworld, because it describes almost perfectly what a good coxswain is. And, given that I was working as a DC ghostwriter at the time, it seemed appropriate in that way too.)

At any rate, the very first post included a movie review (Being John Malkovich — I liked it!) and some primary 2000 coverage (as old-school visitors may remember, I was very, very pro-Bradley and anti-Gore that year), and those are the twin axes GitM has mostly revolved around ever since. (You could argue the spinoff content ’round here has done better, tho’ — The Leaky Cauldron ended up becoming one of the premiere Harry Potter sites on the web (no thanks to me), and, on any given day, the part of this site that gets by far the most hits are my American History orals summaries, mostly undergrads looking for Cliff Notes, I presume.)

And so, ten years passed. There was 2000 and 2004 and 2008. There was 9/11 and Afghanistan and Iraq. There was orals and the interminable, continuing dissertation. There was Spin This and Bush Must Go and HTRSC and Trainwreck (and soon, Toxic Talk.) There was Casino Jack and Boss DeLay. There was Geocities and Movable Type. There was DC and New York and then DC again. There was New Zealand and Hawaii (often). There was Vegas and the West Coast, the DR and Denver. There was Elaine and Jen and Amanda. As of May 2000, there was and is my trusty sheltie sidekick, l’il Berkeley. There was a lot of thinking about progressivism. And there were movies…lots and lots of movies. If they keep making ’em, I’ll keep watching ’em.

Now, a decade later, I am back where I began — in DC, working as a speechwriter. And that’s fine…more than fine, actually. At least for now, I feel like this is where I belong. As for the blog, well, after ten years of doing this, I don’t ever expect GitM to be well-read anymore — the stats peaked six or seven years ago, and, quite frankly and by all indications, this now seems like a reasonably dead corner of the web. Nonetheless, I expect GitM will continue.

So, here’s to the first ten years, and fate-willing, here’s to many more. And if you’ve been coming by here for a day, a month, a year, or a decade, thanks, as always, for dropping by. It is much appreciated.

This Used to Be My Playground.

“Back in the proverbial day, GeoCities was the place where many a modern-day internet nerd cut his or her teeth. After a spectacular dot com purchase of $3.65 billion and an equally spectacular dot com bust, its closure marks the end of one of the earliest ages of the social web.“

We’re still a few weeks shy of the tenth anniversary ’round these parts. Nonetheless, GitM’s original home is, as of this morning, defunct: Yahoo has followed through on their April announcement and is closing Geocities today. So long, old bird — the neighborhood(s) just won’t be the same without ya.