TAC began its summer break yesterday, after sending to print the new issue (Leon Hadar has the cover story, on the failure of nation-building in Afghanistan). While the other editors have had the good sense to disperse far and wide — with literary editor Freddy Gray getting as far as Rwanda — I’ll be lurking around the D.C. area for most of the break, bar an excursion or two north and east.
After seven months, I’ve finally decided to get an internet hookup for my apartment. Until now, I was getting by on my connection at work and on the WiFi available at the mall a few blocks from where I live. Balancing out the inconvenience of not having internet at home was the convenience of not paying Comcast $60 a month. But now I’ve broken down and made a deal with the cable-monopoly devil. The company should have a technician coming by on Tuesday, even though I would have preferred to install the thing myself. (I already have the cable, the modem, and everything else I need, and I absolutely don’t want any of the bloatware the Comcast goons might want to install on my computers. But they’re coming anyway…)
Several projects will keep me busy during the TAC break. On Sunday, I’m giving a talk to the Leadership Institute’s Student Publications School. (I’ll be doing that again on Aug. 4-5, for LI’s Advanced Student Publications School.) Around the same time, I have to send in a review for a forthcoming issue of the University Bookman, and there are a few other essays and reviews I ought to finish by early next week. I have a bigger project or two to work on as well, but mum’s the word on those for now. And if all goes well with my Comcast installation on Tuesday, I may even pick up the pace of blogging. Stay tuned.