August hasn’t been half-bad:

• This weekend was fairly pleasant. Today was spent in the office, preparing catch-up reports and working down my personal queue of Service Desk tickets, and now I sit at Biggby drinking mocha and writing. Yesterday, I got a haircut, got a massage from the Chinese people, bought some specialty craft beer, and hung out with Rick and Sondra for a while.
• The truck is working well. I had to replace the alternator a week after getting it (the voltage regulator went out) but otherwise, things are good.
• I’ve been doing a bit more on the “casual social” scene, including coffee with Charlie and Jon.
• For reasons inexplicable, the Britney Spears song Everytime has been playing over and over and over in my head. I like it. Although the old Poison ballad Lay Your Body Down is growing on me too. But that prompts an observation: On my netbook, I have tracks on my playlists that I have no idea how they got there. Exhibit A: The Spears song. I never downloaded it, never ripped it, never even heard it (that I can recall) until it Exaile put it up in rotation. Curious.
• I am running the BOINC client on two computers and am donating unused CPU cycles to the Rosetta, SETI and Cosmology projects (these are distributed-computing projects that search for life-saving proteins, extraterrestrial intelligence, and evidence to prove theoretical models of the universe, respectively). I feel virtuous in my symbolism — now I know what it must be like to be a liberal who gets a little pang of self-worth every time he chucks something in the recycle bin instead of the trash.
• Work has been decent. Busy, but decent.
• I was notified that I was accepted into “phase 2” (of two) evaluation for the about.com job. This part of the project involves taking the work I generated a month ago, in phase one, and putting it into a happy and cohesive structure. The about.com folks will then evaluate the structure for suitability and baseline competence. The section for which I’d be a guide is “media.” I am excited about the possibility.
• I think I’ve figured out what my new weekday routine will flow: Work to the gym to the coffee shop to write a minimum of two articles, then home. Of course, the fly in the ointment is the timing of the gym run: From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., the gym is an absolute madhouse. We shall see if I have the patience to maintain it; heaven knows my waistline could use some serious cardio.
• OK, wait. How the hell did a Dionne Warwick song get on my playlist??? </stream-of-consciousness>
• I’ve been watching True Blood … I like this show. A nice mix of blood, sex and political intrigue. It’s the only TV I watch nowadays.
• I have the opportunity, at the hospital, to join the Hospital Emergency Response Team. There’s some paperwork and required DHS courses to take, but it could be interesting. Will investigate.
• The front page of gillikinconsulting.com has changed. Not sure if I like it. I think I need to re-imagine the logo and focus areas and be more consistent about internal labeling.
• Currently reading Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman M.D. It’s a fascinating study of how people cope with long-term patterns of abuse that damage or destroy personalities — but, I recommend it for anyone, because there are a number of strategies outlined for dealing with complex post-traumatic stress disorder that could fruitfully be applied in other, less charged situations. Herman’s comments about perpetrators suggests a link to the blossoming literature in the Hannah Arendt vein of “the banality of evil.” Were I ever to finish my M.A., my emphasis would absolutely entail aspects of the genesis of moral evil and its passive acceptance within established social structures.

All for now.