So it’s been awhile since I’ve posted. There are two reasons for this: 1) I had to update Wordpress, my blogging software, and the installation went horribly awry. After the “super-easy” Wordpress automatic updater seriously borked my blog, I had to manually go into my database and change certain things, which wouldn’t have been so bad if this were 1998 and I was still studying computer programming. 2) I was being lazy.

Also, I felt my whole “blog-persona” shtick was getting a little stale. It also got a little disconcerting after I met people who had formerly only known me via my blog, and they said that I wasn’t quite as angry in real life as they had imagined me.

But before I get to the upcoming high-concept addition to the blog, I’d like to explain the “hyper” in the name of the blog and my internet username. When I started this blog I was in grad school, and I wanted a place to share information with my fellow students. I added the “hyper” to “literature” because I was using the prefix in its original usage of “above and beyond” or “excessive.” I could have just as easily said “Beyond-literature,” but that just didn’t have the same ring.

I eventually started using the prefix with everything I did online, and now it’s become somewhat ubiquitous to my net-presence. But, and this is what I want to clear up, the “Hyper” in “Hypermark” doesn’t suggest that I am anxious or overexcited. It simply means that the “Hypermark” of the interenets is something above and beyond the flesh and blood me.

Hope that clears things up. Now, onto the announcement.

I’ve decided to add a recurring video segment to the blog. When I was brainstorming on what to add to the blog, I tried to come up with a way to combine my blogging duties, my love of cooking, and my overinflated sense of worth. I eventually decided to create a video segment that I non-ironically titled “Hypercooking with Mark.”

Calm down. It’s not as idiotic as it sounds.

Well, maybe it is, but the video was fun to shoot and cut. The first episode is how to buy and store fish. Let me know what you think:

I’m in the middle of upgrading my installation of Wordpress. It’s gone okay, but there are several things that are still pretty much borked. I’ve disabled the categories on the right sidebar because for some reason during the upgrade, the categories in my database got screwed. I’m working on it.

Experiencing Technical Difficulties

I’m exhausted, so I’ll write a full wrap-up of my Boston trip tomorrow night. Till then, here are a few photos:

Here I am at the Sam Adams brewery sampling some of their wonderful beer.

I saw some of the native wildlife today.

Cheers. It looks cool, but they have a huge gift shop. They also have a child’s menu. Frankly, I don’t want to take a break from all my worries in a joint where the waitresses carry crayons for the kiddos. Maybe it’s just me.

• ”Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter’ - Telegraph
  This almost makes me like GWB. Almost.

I’m not a very good airplane passenger. I tend to get…well, nervous is a nice way to put it.

Twitchier than a crackhead is another.

But I’m proud to write that I made it to Boston with little to no flop-sweat on my brow.

My conference doesn’t really begin until tomorrow, so today I just spent the afternoon wandering around downtown Boston. Actually, I spent most of my time in Boston Public Garden and Boston Common. I drank a three dollar cup of lemonade (more watered down than the margaritas at Fiesta), gawked at an old Asian man with a kite who obviously had never flown a kite in his entire life (I waited around hoping he would kamikaze the kite into the head of a jogger but after a few near-misses I moved on), and round about my second lap of the Frog Pond I came to a realization: traveling alone sucks.

I miss my Lele. It’s no fun making fun of people if no one is here to laugh at my wittiness.

Anyways, I took a pretty cool picture of some local art. Check it out:

Whenever I travel, I always make it a point to peruse the artistic stylings of the locals.

I have to admit, this hotel is far too swanky for my tastes. I started to go wandering at dusk, but when I got to the steps of the hotel I looked up and noticed the weather was threatening rain. As I stood there wondering whether or not to chance it, the concierge appeared from nowhere and insisted I take his umbrella. I politely declined, and then I told him I had a pullover in my room and I’d rather go back and get it. So I acted like I was going back upstairs, but instead I snuck out the back and decided to check out the Irish Pub.

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I hear the term “Irish Pub,” some very specific images spring up in my mind. I expect to see some drunk, pasty dudes ready to fist-fight at the drop of a hat. I expect the beer to be warm and the bar food to be greasy as hell. I expect to hear House of Pain’s “Top O’ The Mornin’ To Ya” on the jukebox. What I don’t expect to see is dudes with popped collars, some lame-ass instrumental shit on the PA, nine dollar draft beer, flat-screen TVs adorning every wall, and fucking “Blackened Angus Burger” on the menu (half pound of black angus beef blackened with grilled onions & melted cashel blue cheese).

I’m pretty sure that real Bostonians and real Boston culture exists somewhere in this city, but I’m not sure it exists in this location. To put my experience thus far in perspective, I feel like a tourist in San Antonio who has only visited Taco Cabana restaurants and watched “Sabado Gigante” on the hotel TV.

I got so depressed that I resorted to ordering room service. When the waitress brought my food in she asked if I would like her to pour my coke out of the bottle and into my glass. I thought the woman was joking.

More to come…

I’m currently at the San Antonio airport on my way to Boston for a conference. I’ve got a layover in DFW, which apparently doesn’t have free wifi for some idiotic reason, and then I arrive this afternoon in the city of the Cream Pie (isn’t that what Boston is famous for? I’m fuzzy on my American History). I’ll be blogging the trip, so stay tuned.

Posts may be few and far between this week. My grandmother passed away last Wednesday, and I’m just not in the mood.

I started to write a little something here in her memory, but I just can’t. If you’re interested, here’s the eulogy I read at her funeral.

A special thanks goes out to Leigh and Tank for helping me proof that doc.