History/Academia/Religion/Culture/Politics/Jazz
Mode for Caleb Caleb McDaniel

Due to holiday travel, blogging will be light to non-existent until 2005. If you really need new content in the meantime, try Thane Plambeck's Prison Break Story Generator. As for me, it will be good to take a break from the blog. I've been on the verge of starting to take my blog and my blogself a bit too seriously, to the point where blogging sometimes gets in the way of simply living. There's a cautionary tale for bloggers in the lede to this great article on jazz legend Wayne Shorter in the New York Times:

Talking about music objectively, while not listening to it, is to superimpose one form over another: it pits the literary or critical endeavor against the musical. Asking a creative musician pointed questions about his discography can be dull, and asking him about the implications of an interval that he has written, or a solo he has improvised, can be nearly rude: he didn't make it to talk about it, he made it to play it.

Likewise, blogging sometimes pits my literary or critical endeavors against living. Life isn't for blogging about, anymore than music is for talking about it. And the fact that I'm even typing something like that is evidence that I could use a week without the blog. I wish you goodwill, peace, and a happy New Year.