I’ll be rolling out an incremental upgrade for Diamond by Sunday PM, I hope.

Sorry for the delay but a recent prolonged (but not major) illness has had me distracted. Also, watch for more content on the content of this weblog soon. I’ll be posting some of my archived essays before I install them in the general catalog so stay tuned. First up is an infamous essay I wrote on Kubrick’s version of “The Shining” vs. King’s own TV remake (“Stephen King’s Diminishing Return”) which managed to launch a one year flame-war between the Stephen King Fan Club and alt.movies.kubrick on Usenet. Much fun.

More info in the Development Area.

…sorry it took longer than I thought. And hopefully this week I’ll have some additional content up in the Essays area. This is not the time of year I enjoy being swamped with work….

As something of a follow-up to my last posting I should mention that I enjoyed my birthday, and remember all of it, but Saturday was different; I last recall having a Ham and Cheese sandwich at The High Life Lounge (for those of you not in Des Moines, yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like) watching the Cubs game, and the next thing I remember clearly is waking up (in bed, fortunately) Sunday morning at about 5am with disconcerting aches and pains — but with everything else complete and intact. Well, I was told later that day that the previous (Saturday) evening I was was discovered by the household staff in the phone closet across from my apartment, wrestling on the floor with the equipment; earlier, I was seen outside the building, talking to a tree.

I’m lucky I even survived middle age, really.

This Friday is my birthday; I turn 49. As would have usually been my habit, I’d have started celebrating last Friday (and if you count my involuntary participation in in the 515 Festival, held outside my doors and window this weekend perhaps I did; thank dog the Techno outweighed the Urban beats at this year’s event) but the need to get some content on the website (at last) and the need to complete the Diamond Release package (at last) has kept me from going whole hog, as they say. In addition, unlike some previous years, I’m not taking vacation during or following the week of it (I’ve already had my deserved time off) so there’s the paying gig to contend with. But I’m keeping the schedule light for Thursday, as I know’ll I’ll be edging into something recreational by then.

I have made some plans to look forward to. There’re at least two of my favorite venues that now have full and proper absinthe service. Under pedestrian circumstances I visit the Green Fairie but rarely, as waking up with the taste of aniseed on my lips and only written notes as to how it got there makes for bad mornings, most times. But as I plan a complete tour of my favorite meals around the district this year (we’ve been very lucky of late in the quality of kitchens opening) a couple of relaxed aperitifs may be just the thing, as I begin the year-long contemplation of the Big Fifty.

It may take tequila as well. I’ll let you know how that works out.