In a previous post about Mike Mangione, I used the word "complimentary." Normally I'm a bit of a stickler for proper English, but I'm not completely sure whether I used the correct synonym.
*
A Flametroll Movie Poll
This is a poll. I know there are at least a couple of readers out there. Do me a favor and leave a quick comment telling me whether I'm on the right track with this. Among my friends, I'm apparently in the great minority on this issue, so I'd like to know if I'm crazy.
Having seen it again, I repeat my impression of the movie: a shrug and and "ehh." I didn't hate it. I just didn't particularly like it. To me, it didn't mean anything. A lot of stuff happened, but why? For what purpose? What should I take away from this movie?
Everyone asked how I could like Lord of the Rings and not like Pan's Labyrinth. Because The Lord of the Rings means something. It shows human virtue in the face of evil. At its best (and the movie messes up Faramir when it doesn't understand this point), it shows that seizing ultimate power (the Ring) eats you up and spits you out. It shows a Christian understanding of stewardship over nature (why do you think the Ents join the good guys instead of joining Saruman?) And ultimately it comes to a satisfying conclusion. Bad guys get their comeuppance, good guys get their just desserts. The old, whose time is passing, are escorted off to Paradise.
Pan's Labyrinth couldn't muster any of this. Instead, it ends in a pile of corpses. How should I feel about this display of special effects movie blood? I shrug and I'll have forgotten the movie tomorrow.
I saw Pan's Labyrinth for the second time last night. Before we put it on, I commented that I didn't think it was a very good movie. Immediately, I got slammed with all 10 people in the room telling me what a great movie it was. The phrases "artistic masterpiece" and "best movie ever" were actually used.
Having seen it again, I repeat my impression of the movie: a shrug and and "ehh." I didn't hate it. I just didn't particularly like it. To me, it didn't mean anything. A lot of stuff happened, but why? For what purpose? What should I take away from this movie?
Everyone asked how I could like Lord of the Rings and not like Pan's Labyrinth. Because The Lord of the Rings means something. It shows human virtue in the face of evil. At its best (and the movie messes up Faramir when it doesn't understand this point), it shows that seizing ultimate power (the Ring) eats you up and spits you out. It shows a Christian understanding of stewardship over nature (why do you think the Ents join the good guys instead of joining Saruman?) And ultimately it comes to a satisfying conclusion. Bad guys get their comeuppance, good guys get their just desserts. The old, whose time is passing, are escorted off to Paradise.
Pan's Labyrinth couldn't muster any of this. Instead, it ends in a pile of corpses. How should I feel about this display of special effects movie blood? I shrug and I'll have forgotten the movie tomorrow.
I Sometimes Tell People I Have the Memory Span of a Goldfish
Apparently, that's insulting toward goldfish.
Political Polytheism?
By now, I'm sure we all know that Barack Obama is the Messiah.
But how many of us are aware that Hillary Clinton is too? According to James Carville, Gov. Bill Richardson is guilty of selling the Clintons out for thirty pieces of silver.
Apparently, Richardson doesn't set his sights high enough. Silver is currently hovering around $17 an ounce, while gold is pushing a grand.
But I digress (that's what I do). What's really important is that we find out who the real Messiah is, and pronto. When he/she comes back and we're worshipping the wrong Messiah, there's going to be hell to pay (literally, heh. Rimshot.).
Here are some options:
John McCain - He actually got tortured. Also, he's the one in the race who is most likely to respond to the name "Ancient of Days."
Ron Paul - The "John Dear, SJ Jesus." Came to overthrow the power of Caesar, got whacked by his own people.
Steve Adams - I don't even know who he is:
But how many of us are aware that Hillary Clinton is too? According to James Carville, Gov. Bill Richardson is guilty of selling the Clintons out for thirty pieces of silver.
Apparently, Richardson doesn't set his sights high enough. Silver is currently hovering around $17 an ounce, while gold is pushing a grand.
But I digress (that's what I do). What's really important is that we find out who the real Messiah is, and pronto. When he/she comes back and we're worshipping the wrong Messiah, there's going to be hell to pay (literally, heh. Rimshot.).
Here are some options:
John McCain - He actually got tortured. Also, he's the one in the race who is most likely to respond to the name "Ancient of Days."
Ron Paul - The "John Dear, SJ Jesus." Came to overthrow the power of Caesar, got whacked by his own people.
Steve Adams - I don't even know who he is:
Mike is Hitting it Big
A couple of months ago, I broke the story of Mike Mangione to the world of blogs. Catching up with the trend, the widely-read Catholic blog American Papist has a profile of Mike and the band.
Go check it out, the coverage is extremely complimentary. There's even some video of the show.
Update: Buy his new CD Tenebrae
Spirituality in the Bathroom
I was thinking the other day about a situation that came up with a friend and I a couple of years ago. A friend of mine goes to a Franciscan school and I go to a Jesuit school. When we were both assigned to clean bathrooms as a part of the service team on a retreat, the following situation arose:
There was a stall where someone kept locking it from the inside and then getting out somehow, leaving the stall locked. My friend and I both encountered this stall, but we didn't compare notes about it until later. My friend got into the stall by getting on the floor and crawling under the door. Once inside, he cleaned the toilet, unlocked the door and left. When it was my turn to clean that stall, I twisted the piece of metal on the outside of the door that connects to the inside lock handle. The door opened. I cleaned the toilet.
I think that, in a nutshell, illustrates the difference between Jesuit and Franciscan spirituality.
There was a stall where someone kept locking it from the inside and then getting out somehow, leaving the stall locked. My friend and I both encountered this stall, but we didn't compare notes about it until later. My friend got into the stall by getting on the floor and crawling under the door. Once inside, he cleaned the toilet, unlocked the door and left. When it was my turn to clean that stall, I twisted the piece of metal on the outside of the door that connects to the inside lock handle. The door opened. I cleaned the toilet.
I think that, in a nutshell, illustrates the difference between Jesuit and Franciscan spirituality.
Alex Trebek: Invincible?
Judge for yourself:
Source: Wikipedia
On Friday, January 30, 2004, Trebek escaped major injury after falling asleep behind the wheel of his pickup truck while driving alone on a rural road in the Central Coast town of Templeton, California, returning from a family home in Lake Nacimiento. The truck sideswiped a string of mailboxes, flew 45 feet over an embankment, and came to rest against a utility pole in a ditch. Trebek was not cited for the accident and returned to work taping Jeopardy! the following Tuesday.and
On December 11, 2007, Trebek was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after suffering a minor heart attack in his home. He was released on December 15, 2007. Trebek returned to the production of Jeopardy! as scheduled on January 14, 2008 to tape the Teen Tournament.AND
In late 2001, during Jeopardy!'s 18th season, Trebek shaved the mustache that he had worn for over 30 years.Now I don't want to jump to conclusions, but he might be immortal.
Source: Wikipedia
Public Service Announcement
Hi everyone, I'm here today to talk about a very important and rather baffling public health issue. Yes, I think you know what I mean: sidewalk underwear.
As I am walking down the sidewalk looking at my feet like all good introverts do, with disturbing frequency I see an item of underwear lying there on the ground. Why is that?
My faithful public, this is Milwaukee! It's February. The temperature never cracked double digits yesterday. There is no reason to need to remove your undergarments. Anything you don't keep covered is in serious risk of frostbite.
And besides that, there is no good reason to place your removed undergarments on the sidewalk. There are trashcans at frequent intervals throughout the city. You may safely and confidentially dispose of your used underwear in any of those recepticals. Think of them as your very own publicly funded laundry hampers, assuming you never want to see your laundry again.
Ladies and gentlemen, I urge you to take a stand against sidewalk underwear this winter! Neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton addressed this issue while they were in town. Don't allow them to "skirt" the issue. We must get to the "bottom" of this!
As I am walking down the sidewalk looking at my feet like all good introverts do, with disturbing frequency I see an item of underwear lying there on the ground. Why is that?
My faithful public, this is Milwaukee! It's February. The temperature never cracked double digits yesterday. There is no reason to need to remove your undergarments. Anything you don't keep covered is in serious risk of frostbite.
And besides that, there is no good reason to place your removed undergarments on the sidewalk. There are trashcans at frequent intervals throughout the city. You may safely and confidentially dispose of your used underwear in any of those recepticals. Think of them as your very own publicly funded laundry hampers, assuming you never want to see your laundry again.
Ladies and gentlemen, I urge you to take a stand against sidewalk underwear this winter! Neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton addressed this issue while they were in town. Don't allow them to "skirt" the issue. We must get to the "bottom" of this!
Dietary Update
What I ate yesterday:
I'm doing ok, considering.
- Cinnamon Toast Crunch
- Bacon and Beans
- Banana
- Yogurt
- Peanut butter sandwich
- Chips Ahoy
- Leftover Hamburger Helper
I'm doing ok, considering.
Haikus
Today in Theology 135 (Theology of the Early Church) we learned about the history of Judaism. This is remarkable similar to what we learned yesterday in Theo 184 (Judaism). So I wrote haikus instead.
Oh great destructionSomewhat more flippantly, I also came up with this:
The Holy of Holies burned
One wall left standing.
How they weep and wail
Rebecca, hear your children!
Can God be with us?
Where will He live now?
What tabernacle could hold
Blazing shekinah?
God becomes content
—His glory in disguise—
To dwell in our guts
Nice coincidenceAnd:
Babylonian exile
Has good syllables
Let's all write haiku
And soon enough discover
Who here can count
For the Sake of the Fish
I love NPR. They always have reports about weird little issues that you would never hear about anywhere else.I was listening to the radio today and they had a long, straight-faced report about the plight of the delta smelt. They probably didn't care all that much about the issue itself (although it was interesting). Mostly, it seemed they just wanted to see how many times they could say "delta smelt" in a single report and still be taken seriously (I think it must have been about 30).
In the end, though, I was disappointed that they finished up with out any "you smelta, you delta" jokes.
More Fred Thompson
Regardless of whether he would be a good president, he's fun to watch.
And who's the loser to his left that tentatively chimes in "I'm with him" after the point has already been made?
And who's the loser to his left that tentatively chimes in "I'm with him" after the point has already been made?
How I Became An Internet Source
I edited a page on Wikipedia for the first time today! I know, I know, I'm 3 years behind the times on that. But I'm now a part of the world's knowledge of Maximilian Kolbe. Sure, if you click the "History" tab above that story, you'll see that IP address 134.48.241.55 only claims to have "[c]leaned up a run-on sentence and informal language in the paragraph about Kolbe's parents"--but that cleaner, more streamlined sentence is now going to make it that much easier for people to learn about St. Kolbe.
I think I've done my duty to society today. No need to finish writing that Kolbe paper.
I think I've done my duty to society today. No need to finish writing that Kolbe paper.
When Autumn Comes With Leaves Last Breath
It's finally starting to feel like fall here in Milwaukee. Up until last week, it was still in the 60's. I couldn't really get into the feel of fall.
When fall comes, I find that my taste in music changes. During the summer, I listen to a lot of upbeat, fun music. Classic rock, Dave Matthews Band, OAR, things like that. But as soon as it starts to feel like fall, I'm just not as interested. Suddenly, I find myself listening to more mellow acoustic music.
And that brings me to a great band that you are missing out on if you're not listening to: Mike Mangione and the Band. Not only is he a great musician backed by a group of great musicians, he's also little known (right now). When he hits it big, you can talk about how you were listening to him way back in the day. "Before he went commercial," I assume you'll add because you music snobs are all like that.
If you live in the Milwaukee area, he's got a show at Linnemans Bar on December 14th.
Just so you know...
I write at a high school reading level! Apparently, articles about pirates, boogers and robot marriage are just what the Gunning-Fog index* is looking for.
EDIT: Apparently, my rating changed overnight. When I tried it again I found that I'm only junior high now.
*I think The Gunning Fog would be an excellent superhero.
Public Service Announcement
Be careful how you handle other people's truffles.
Source: The Independent
"This was an extraordinary act of truffle-squishing. We can only guess at what provoked it," said a Hotel Chocolat spokesman
Source: The Independent
It's that 90% of Computer Scientists Who Make the Other 10% Of Us Look Like Nerds
I drove past a firehouse today with a couple of engineer friends and we discussed how unfair life is for engineers and computer scientists like us. For some reason, women go crazy for firemen, but "I'm a computer programmer" is not an effective pickup line. Why is that the case?Well, I came home and, to my dismay, found out exactly why. An artificial intelligence researcher in the Netherlands just published a thesis entitled "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners." I'm not making this up. It's about the possibility of humans marrying artificially intelligent robots.
Doesn't this guy realize that he is just setting us back even further? Or do he and his robo-wife not care about the rest of us?
Further Clarification
There has been some confusion, so I am here to set the record straight. Pope Awesomus I is entirely distinct from Brad Ausmus. Admittedly, Pope Awesomus I did not go to Dartmouth or play 14 major league seasons. However, Brad Ausmus has an OPS of .666 against left handed pitchers. This is a sure sign that he is not a true leader of the Church. Don't be deceived.
