During my recent illness, I resorted to watching the YouTube/CNN Democratic Debates in an attempt to alleviate my boredom. The format, I thought, worked rather well. While I've heard complaints that the presidential race is being dragged down into entertainment instead of good old-fashioned civic duty, I figure that since civic duty doesn't seem to be working, entertainment is an alright place to start. Some of the candidates surprised me. Obama, whose progress I have eyed with general approval, let me down by playing politics too much. He changed questions around so that he cound answer the ones he wanted to answer and spent too much time saying "I'm the best one" instead of "here's how I would respond." His rhetoric regarding a change in politics rings hollow after such behavior. Meanwhile, Richardson pleased me by plainly answering a couple of questions and being fairly straightforward on the whole, and Kucinich, while excitable, proved himself firmly dedicated to making sure that the military mess we're in stops–whether he's elected or not. Unfortunately, both of those two appear to be lacking in "electability" (how I loathe that word), especially put up next to the competition. We'll see how the rest of the campaign trail finishes out, I guess.

JJ Abrams, the mind behind notoriously devious TV plotlines as Alias and Lost, is working on a monster movie. However, the film is not being marketed in a traditional way. With a subtle flair, the as-of-yet nameless film has a poster featuring a decapitated Statue of Liberty, a teaser trailer that does an excellent job of raising questions instead of answering them, and three online places for people to attempt to dig up clues: 1-18-10.com has a collection of photographs time-stamped from the point at which the monster attacks, some of which have notes handwritten on the back; Slusho is a made-up slushie-style drink that has seen appearance in Alias and apparently has something to do with the film as well, although I have a lot of trouble trying to dig anything useful out of the bizarre website; and it appears that the protagonists of the film have their own Myspace accounts. The few things that JJ Abrams has said about the movie only add to the suspense. The monster was inspired by Godzilla, but is not a sequel or remake of any other work. It is not a parasite not an oversized anime-style robot. There are just enough hints for me to drive myself mad wondering about the end result–which, at the end of the day, means that the ad campaign has worked extremely well.

I've been pretty nastily sick for a while, and although I'm more or less on the mend now, I got to thinking in my illness that I should get off of my ass and pick this up again.

The first order of business: Harry Potter (no spoilers ahead, don't worry). Wow, that was an incredible book to read. I really want to go back now and reread the earlier books to get a sense of perspective regarding Harry's development over the years. He came a long way from that wide-eyed, somewhat oblivious boy. JKR did a great job with the entire series, I think, and they're books that I'll be proud to have on my shelves for years to come.

Second: Most of you who read this read my dad's blog, so you likely already know that my parents have left to move back to Jersey for a year. The positive upshot to this for me is that I have the house to myself for the rest of the summer (give or take a week). Being here alone (plus having full reign over the stereo) is intensely relaxing.

Third: Next year at school I will be living in a suite that includes a private kitchen. Given the general quality of the food served in the cafeteria,* I have no good reason to keep avoiding my long-standing goal of learning how to cook. This being the case, I am now officially soliciting vegetarian recipes that I can use as stepping stones on my quest. Your participation is greatly appreciated.

*I do not wish to cast any aspersions on the kitchen staff at my college. They are wonderful, hardworking, talented chefs and I fully understand that the meals that leave me dissatisfied are the best that they can do when faced with severely limited supplies, time, staff, and budget.

I'm going to try to hold myself to a one-post-a-day minimum, so if I miss a day, you have my express permission and encouragement to heckle me about it.