Nate Knows Nada

Hey, this is pretty cool.

I have a ton of tracks in my iTunes library. 3763, to be quite exact. Which iTunes tells me is 10.5 days of music.

I often set my iPod on random when I go to the gym, and mark the peppy gym tracks so that I can use them to keep moving on the elliptical or whatever I’m doing.

Tangerine is a great little app that analyzes your library (really fast), sees how many beats per minute your tracks have, how intense those beats are, and then lets you make up a playlist based on that info. Totally cool.

I’m so gonna go to the gym, after my little nap…. At least I have a playlist. And I can make one for naptime, too.

Technorati Tags: apple, ipod, music, potion factory, tangerine

Apologies for very little writing of late.

My grandmother (mom’s mom) died last week, and I had to fly to California for the funeral on Monday. We were somewhat closer in the past than in recent years. Her death was not unexpected, and it’s somewhat surprising that she lasted as long as she did these last couple of years. It’s sad, but I’m not broken up right now. I just wish some parts of her life could have been happier.

I delivered the eulogy at the graveside, but I’m never sure about crossing the line of private and public in this forum, so I may or may not post it here.

Technorati Tags: death, obituaries, family

Or Jim McGreevey, for that matter.

Here’s how a letter writer to the Globe put it today:

AS A gay man living for more than two decades in Boston, I have known many gay men raised in strict Catholic homes, two of whom were molested by their priests. Not one of them grew up to be a closeted Republican who worked to criminalize his own behavior.

Foley should have sought professional help, as many of my friends did, long before he mixed alcohol, his own apparent homophobia, congressional pages, and the Internet, and brought himself to this ignominious place.

If he had taken personal responsibility for his mental health earlier, it would not be thrust upon him now by events he set in motion by his very failure to do so.

CHRISTIAN DRAZ

Boston

Here’s how I put it to a friend, a few weeks back, regarding McGreevey’s book tour:

[McGreevey] seemed to manipulate his coming out into extending the power of his corrupt administration for another three months. I’m not a big fan of McGreevy, as the coming out seemed less courageous and more calculated than anything else. Besides, I highly doubt that this was too much of a secret, as statehouses are extremely prolific gossip mills.

I’d add that he’s a sad example of anything. He used his sexuality and self as a means of crass retention. He did not care for himself or his loved ones sufficiently to see himself as an end in himself but rather as a means toward something new, something more. For Foley and McGreevey, being gay provides the excuse for the sickness in their souls; their personhood is used to justify the very warping of their self that they have engaged in.

Technorati Tags: catholic, gay, gay catholic, queer