I probably should apologize for this in advance, if only for the crudeness, but... oh well.

Let's get one thing straight: picking on the faithful religious, who have enough problems of their own in this day and age, amounts to nothing more than a supreme act of cowardace. I mean, if you were to have done something like make a movie like Chocolat six-hundred years ago, when doing something like that would've gotten you in trouble, that's one thing. But to do it now? Does anyone really think that this sort of thing is new or bravely counter-cultural? Come on.... I think all that watching movies like this one does is give the status-quo sophisticates some sort of self-righteous orgasm when they can look up on the screen and say, "Yep, that's me! Bravely fightin' the small-minded religious individdles with their oppresive faith!" Given the circle-jerk mentality of Hollywood, is it any big surprise that it wins an Oscar?

It's time to wake up and realize that this sort of anti-religious bigotry IS the pervasive culture today, and it's your own closed-mindedness which is the real threat. Those who are truly courageous are those who adhere to their faith in spite of the various temptations thrust upon them, as well as the fact that more than 90% of the movies made today contain messages which are hostile towards religion. But this... is cowardace. It's almost as if one were to go into a Nazi concentration camp, make some mean, anti-semetic slurs against the poor occupants, and then be patted on the back by their peers for their "bold and controversial stance."

Please.

(And by 'you,' above, I mean the people who made and praised this movie, not necessarily all the people who saw it).

Back again. Well, let's see... today I've already spray-enameled a steel cabinet (I hope the rain holds off long enough for it to dry enough for me to be able to move it.. it's quite big and bulky). This afternoon I get started on rewiring the five outlet boxes in the Living Room (installing grounded outlets) and then dinner at the folks' place at 6, but a trip to Bed, Bath, and Buy More Crap for a new iron (the old one rusted to the top of the dryer) comes before that. Oh, and I also need to hop over to the Post Office to renew my P.O. Box.

So that's why there's been no new music.

Evidence that the Soviets, who invented the concentration camp long before Hitler and the Nazis, executed at least 16 million people.

MMMmmmmm....

What a cruel, boorish, inhumane, and evil world we live in.

On the other hand, this is a happy, good story, and goes to show you that even though we human beings can be pathetic, miserable, loathesome creatures, there's still Someone looking after us all. This is wonderful, and it made my day.

Thanks, Mayize. Now I have another blog to keep up-to-date on. I, myself, never really liked Wesley, but it wasn't Wil's fault. Wesley was written as a goody-two-shoes, emasculated, genius, space-cadet punk. The only time he showed any backbone was when he came back during the seventh season when the Cardassians were relocating the native Americans (only they weren't even on Earth at the time, so I don't know how that worked), and then he was really mean to Geordi (I don't care: do what ever you want to Dr. Crusher, but don't mess with Geordi!).

I did like Wil Wheaton's "rap," on the track "Dope," from Chucky A's (Arsenio Hall) album (I'd post a link to that album, but there's not a single site on the web, aside from the Wil Wheaton shirtless site, which references it... and I'm not posting a link to the Wil Wheaton shirtless page. Do your own google search): "This is Wil Wheaton from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Don't do drugs, resist the temptation!" A very good rap, but it's placement on Chucky A's (Arsenio Hall) album was a little weird.

Anyway, if you're prone to pickin' on poor Wil, this site may just change your mind. He's actually quite sensitive, and that makes me feel bad for not liking Wesley as much as I should've.

Well, I checked out some of the radio stations on mp3.com to find some new artists. I found these folks from Japan: Smile Street. Check out their take on the "neo fork song."

Also found a very nice collection of chant, recorded in Minnesota. Let's face it, I kind of needed it after this morning. I'm seriously considering checking out Holy Ascension parish -- which is a Byzantine Rite Catholic Church. I'd like to become more familiar with the Byzantine Rite first, though, so I don't feel quite so much like the non-denominational Christian girlfriend (or boyfriend) at their first Roman Catholic Mass over Christmas Vacation.

There is something deeply disturbing about popular liturgical music at the present which, combined with my recent thoughts about meaning and embodiment, really seem to illustrate that the majority of the 'hymns,' we sing during Mass these days really are intended for a completely different type of person, that is to say, what a person is, ontologically, is presented much more differently in those hymns then in what the Magisterium would suggest. I think people have overlooked this for so long because a) they're intimidated by all things musical and assign some weird mystical attribute to people who can write music and b) the songs sound so nice and mellow and pretty. Bleah.

You'll have to excuse me, I'm still waking up. Yesterday we painted and painted and the living room looks great!
Also, Casey Biggs was on a very good episode of The Chronicle. Awesome.

Oh, if it wasn't evident from the previous post, I watched The Seven Samauri in its entirety this morning. :)

Okay, I'm 26. I've accepted that. I don't know how much of a percentage of my life has been lived just yet (I hope it's well under 50%) so I can't really say how much time I have left to accomplish everything I need to accomplish (and I don't even know what that might be, just yet). At least, with any amount of grace, I will live to see my children, and that's always what's been most important to me (and kept me from doing a lot of reckless things. I can't imagine anything sadder than dying without children, without achieving that sort of immortality, unless, you know, you're a priest or a nun). You really never know how much time you have left, so make the most of it, and always be prepared to die.

That might sound awfully morbid to some people, but it really isn't intended that way.

Well, happy birthday to me, I guess.

There is the realization, growing ever-more-clear that our liturgy was co-opted, stolen out from under us by singer-songwriters and liturgists with no great love for the Catholic Faith. Our only fault was that we were too trusting of their mechanations, too credulous.

Something just occurred to me. I might need to look up my Bachelor's thesis, which was on the Phenomenlogy of Music. I wrote it over four years ago (in five days -- all thirty-five pages! -- during finals week, my senior year). I wonder if my mind has developed at all in four years or if I've just ultimately learned some not-very-relevant information about computer networking in that time and forced all the thinking parts of my brain into a very deep sleep. If nothing else this current project should be interesting in that I'll learn if I'm still able to think... I suppose, though, it's possible I was never able to think. What then? I know: I'll buy a 42" TV and forget about the whole thing.

Howdy, folks! Sorry I haven't been blogging too much, but I've been consumed by a righteous anger! The fire that burns in my belly is for our musical hertiage, lost and stolen from us these oh-so-many-years ago.

Seriously, I've been kind of mulling the phenomenology angle, how that fits into some of the less-fundamental but still essential differences between Catholicism and Protestantism and how the overall Protetestantizing of Catholic liturgical music is betraying the understanding we have of the liturgy as embodied human beings. Still more to come on this because I haven't fit together all the pieces yet.

I probably should've stayed in school and got my Master's degree in Philosophy, as that might've made it easier to think these things out.

I want to eat it!

SUNSET ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 20:35 EDT FOR PEOPLE LOOKING WEST
The National Weather Board has issued a Gorgeous Sunset Advisory (GSA) until
8:35PM tonight for people looking westward. Please note that while a GSA may
indicate that conditions are favorable for a gorgeous sunset, it does not
indiciate that a gorgeous sunset is indeed taking place.

It's official: I have just now adopted a nemesis. That is someone who represents to me the antithesis of all that is Good and Right. Someone who must be stopped. So not really a nemesis in the classical sense of the word, I suppose.

At any rate, having a nemesis is wonderful for instilling in one a sense of purpose: for example, I will devote my life to undoing the damage done by this man and his cronies.

Well, I'm glad I got that taken care of.

Okay, this is actually a fairly decent "life-lesson," story. Well worth reading.

As Cathy might say, "Ack!" Have we as a people become so insincere that this is now a serious marketing strategy. And it works?!

Here's a search someone did on Lycos: "strong lyrics."

Believe it or not, my site was #2 on that list :)

I don't think you should disregard all the negative things people say about you as anyone can be right maybe %20 of the time.

Okay, good sense prevailed and I deleted the post I had previously here posted.

It started when I saw the sign on northbound highway 25, in Roslyn, South Dakota, last week.

International Vinegar Museum.

We couldn't stop as we were due in Eden, just up the road, that night. But later I asked my aunt about it. She told the whole fascinating story of The Vinegar Man, a more or less recent transplant to Roslyn. The fascination grew from there.

While we weren't able to visit the International Vinegar Museum this trip (it was closed on Monday, the only day we had in the area, and my aunt was unable to reach The Vinegar Man, who was in Fargo for the day, to see if he could open the musuem for us) I have a sneaking suspicion we'll be back before too long.

Oh, my. It's kind of cool to have a cool quote associated with your name, which is called to mind whenever your name is mentioned:

"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards."
-Claire Wolfe, 101 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution

Anyway, I found that on ifeminists.com, a rather interesting libertarian feminist site.

There's a project in my head screaming to get out. Formless, intangible... yet crying to be created, to be granted existence. Be patient little idea, you will be given life soon enough. For you are my ticket to the big time!!! Muhuhahahah!

Also I want to make a movie.

The usual trepidation about going back to work after a long vacation. Hopefully I'll not end the day wishing I'd stayed in South Dakota and become a dairy farmer.

Sweet. I just put up a set of wall-mounted shelves in our Office/computer-room/studiotorium. Now there's finally a place for much of the junk that was just lying around on the floor. And they look really cool. And they give the room a quasi-professional air, like I should be working so much harder during the time I spend here. And I think that, eight feet off the ground, Millenium Robot is finally safe from the cat.

Ah, now. Where was I?

It's too hot today, that's for sure. 97-degrees in the shade and getting hotter. I step outside and I'm instantly transformed into a zombie, a sweating zombie -- which is something you rarely see, as sweat almost always causes the zombie makeup to run.