If you like Jitterbug Perfume, you'll love Infinite Jest!

Now that Erin's actually posting to her blog again, I've added it to my links in the sidebar. Go crazy.

My ling server is down. Again. It's going on 48 hours now. Am I allowed to be mad if I no longer have an official departmental affiliation? No matter. Who knows how much spam I'm missing?

I started reading Jitterbug Perfume, the book Jake loaned me, on the flight back yesterday. I'm only about a hundred pages in but I have to say that it's not at all what I was expecting, in a mostly good way. Furthermore, Jake, have I got a book for you to read, although I'll wait until I finish this one before making a formal recommendation. So far, though, it's been a worthwhile recommendation, so thanks.

Picked up a bunch of other books over Christmas, including Longitude, which I bought for myself just prior to the holiday; a Dava-Sobel-edited collection of science writing (it's a very Dava Sobel holiday); and The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, by A.J. Jacobs. Plus a few pretty good-looking cookbooks. It's looking like a non-fiction start to the new year, once I finish Jitterbug Perfume. I was looking at the list of books I've read in 2004, and I've actually maintained a pretty good balance of fiction and non-fiction.

We saw Meet the Fockers just before leaving NJ. Sad, sad little sequel. All the reviews are right that anything that's good about the movie is Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, with occasional fun riffs of Ben Stiller doing his Ben Stiller thing. I'm still antsy to see The Life Aquatic, which I'm going to get to sometime this week, and I also still have plans to see Ocean's Twelve, The Aviator, and a smattering of others. I'd be grateful to hear reviews of any of these.