Wednesday, August 31st
Stuff and Nonsense
I don't really have a lot to write about, but I feel an obligation to because I haven't blogged for a while. Of course, there is lots of stuff going on. Most on my mind is that I'm working a lot and don't really feel like sitting down and writing. But, here I go!
Mike, my daughter's boyfriend, is in the hospital with serious problems. And my dad is in the hospital as well. Apparently he has had a minor stroke. I suppose that at age 84 such things are bound to happen, but they weigh on my mind anyway. My grandfather on my father's side died of a stroke, so, of course, I worry. Medical science is a bit ahead of where it was when my grandfather died, so I am hopeful.
And, of course, I'm thinking about Hurricane Katrina and the devastation in New Orleans and other places. It distresses me greatly that people are looting. That seems like such an inappropriate response to the situation. I imagine that I would never be so shallow as to stoop to such behaviour. I would be one of the noble ones, of course! :wink2: Then again I don't know if the looting is that serious or whether the media is blowing it out of proportion.
Finally, I must announce that I am still madly in love with my wife. I don't do a good job of showing it, but I am.
Thursday, August 25th
Sermon on the Mount- Pat Robertson Style
You have heard it said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say, why waste precious time and resources hating your enemy? Tomorrow has problems enough of its own. Hire a hit man to take out your enemy today, and all good things will be added unto you.
Monday, August 22nd
some syllogisms
1. Having lots of stuff will make you happy
2. Jesus wants you to be happy
3. Therefore Jesus wants you to have lots of stuff
1. Having abundant health will make you happy
2. Jesus wants you to be happy
3. Therefore Jesus wants you to have abundant health
1. "X" will make you happy
2. Jesus wants you to be happy
3. Therefore Jesus wants "X"
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As far as I can tell, there are no logical fallacies in the form of any of these syllogisms. The truth of the 2 postulates in each syllogism is of course open to question- especially the first postulate of the first two examples.
I'm pretty happy right now being a mailman- and I suspect that Jesus wants me to be a mailman. I'm working my *** off right now trying to earn extra money for a pet project. Whether Jesus is happy about that is an interesting question- but it has had the side benefit that I am more focused on my job and feel more fulfilled in it.
Last Thursday I carried a decent amount of mail on a tough route without using more than 8 hours and that felt pretty good. It's very different carrying in Clintonville than it is in U. A. People cuss down here. Sometimes they even cuss at you. Sometimes they even write profanity on the mail- "These people don't ****ing live here. Get your **** together.
It feels more real here.
Friday, August 19th
same old same old
1. What is your occupation?
mailman
2. What color is your underwear?
White, originally. Still pretty much white
3. What are you listening to right now?
My wife washing dishes
4. What was the last thing you ate?
an almond
5. Do you wish on stars?
not for many, many years
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
brown. i want to be blue, but i'd be brown
7. How is the weather right now?
nice
8. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
my father in law, william oliver bales (who is a great father in law, btw)
9. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
can't remember where i picked this up at first- but since i like pretty much everybody, probably yes
10. Favorite drink?
either root beer float or "yeah me too" mexican chiapas coffee
11. Favorite sport to watch?
none
12. Have you ever dyed your hair?
what hair?
13. Do you wear contacts or glasses?
yes- glasses
14. Pets?
2 dogs- molly and kalayo
15. Favorite month?
April (that's a mailman thing)
16. Favorite food(s)?
pasta- especially with cream sauce, cheese, and/or seafood
17. What was the last movie you watched?
"The bad seed" from the 60's I think. Great flick, although the book was better
18. Favorite day of the year?
They're all great
19. What do you do to vent anger?
withdraw into myself and imagine terrible things happening to other people (healthy, huh?)
20. What was your favorite toy as a child?
i really liked my legos and blocks.
21. Fall or Spring?
Spring
22. Hugs or kisses?
hugs definitely
23. Cherry or Blueberry?
cherry. blueberries stain
24. Do you want your friends to email you back?
no, i want them to ignore me. duh!?!
25. Who is most likely to respond?
probably someone who reads my blog
26. Who is least likely to respond?
people that don't read my blog
27. Living arrangements?
i leave such things to my wife
28. When was the last time you cried?
when my wife nancy was having a hard time with insomnia and feeling bad
29. What is on the floor of your closet?
hmmmm... i'll have to look sometime
30. Who is the friend you have had the longest?
my wife nancy
31. What did you do last night?
tried to read the ring trilogy for the umpteenth time. i'm up to page 50 of the first book (again).
32. Favorite smell?
outside when it's rainy.
33. What inspires you?
not as much as what should. i think what inspires me the most is the beauty of nature.
34. What are you afraid of?
fundies. theocrats. and my tendency to indentify with them.
35. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers?
no thanks.
36. Favorite car?
bicycle!
37. Favorite dog breed?
hmmm. don't know.
38. Number of keys on your key ring?
five
39. How many years at your current job?
19
40. Favorite day of the week?
the current one
41. How many states have you lived in?
well, let's count: Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California. four i think
42. How many cities have you lived in?
let's count again: Oak Ridge TN, Carlisle PA, Vallejo CA, Columbus OH, Hilliard OH. that makes 5
43. Do you think many of these questions are exceedingly lame?
Hadn't really thought about it. Somebody once told me there were no stupid questions. (only lame ones perhaps?)
44. What questions would you prefer that the editors of 17 Magazine had asked?
Don't really care.
Tuesday, August 16th
gigaproblems
so i've been working mondo overtime the past 6 weeks or so to finance my CD project and have saved up enough money to complete it. the problem is- that my audio computer is not doing what i want it to. it seems i need to either get it fixed or buy a new one.
the last option seems to be the way things are going to go. I could poke around in my old computer forever without actually finding out exactly what the offending hardware is.
I'm trying to run gigastudio- an extremely powerful sampling program. So powerful that my sales contact at Sweetwater Music is telling me that the best way to run it is to stick it on a computer all by itself and use a second computer to do the actual recording.
Annoying.
Perhaps if i'd known it was coming to this, i would have just stuck a few mics in a piano somewhere and be done with it.
But, at least when i get my system up and running, i will HAVE a system to do future recording with.
I was rather encouraged by my techno project, but i haven't really had time to do much recording since then. or very much else, either. I've even neglected blogging, which is unusual for me. There's always something to spout off about.
Anyhow, I'm looking forward to having the system up and running. I need to work a few more weeks of overtime to get the system and then (of course) save a bit more to pay for the manufacturing of the CD itself.
*sigh*
Tuesday, August 9th
saturday
I am so incredibly proud of my 84 year old dad who week after week goes up to the worthington farmer's market to be a street musician. He gets in costume and plays various whistles, chiefly a tabor pipe which is a pipe that can be played with one hand. This enables him to use his other hand to play a drum or other percussion instrument, or to use a puppet.
Amazingly, when my wife went up to see him perform last saturday, there were two men making fun of him. I am so proud of my wife for standing up to them and giving them whatfor. I assumed when I heard the story that these were two "younger men" (kids in my way of thinking), but my wife said that they are actually older than we are. (we are in our 40's)
what is this world coming to?
Saturday evening I went to see "Camp Daze" at studio 35. This was a free showing of a film that was a parody of 80's slasher films and had incredibly good reviews on the 'net. I went primarily because i am so cheap that I can't pass up a freebee, but also because of curiosity. I've never seen a slasher film of any kind.
Nancy seemed quite surprised that i wouldn't mind walking home in the dark after such an event, but it was pretty cool. I toyed with the idea of walking through walhalla ravine, but that would have been a little too much! Clinton Heights was so cool in the dark, though. This street has old fashioned street lights, and I imagined myself being transported back in time to the early 20th century. I also got to walk past several of the 4 family units that i deliver as a mailman during the day. They look much cooler at night with the exterior lights on.
Thursday, August 4th
Father George Zabelka
from http://www.bruderhof.com/articles/zabelka-hiroshima.htm
Father George Zabelka, a Catholic chaplain with the U.S. Air Force, served as a priest for the airmen who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and gave them his blessing... Over the next twenty years, he gradually came to believe that he had been terribly wrong, that he had denied the very foundations of his faith by lending moral and religious support to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Zabelka died in 1992, but his message, in this speech given on the 40th anniversary of the bombings, must never be forgotten.
"The destruction of civilians in war was always forbidden by the church, and if a soldier came to me and asked if he could put a bullet through a child’s head, I would have told him, absolutely not. That would be mortally sinful. But in 1945 Tinian Island was the largest airfield in the world. Three planes a minute could take off from it around the clock. Many of these planes went to Japan with the express purpose of killing not one child or one civilian but of slaughtering hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of children and civilians—and I said nothing.
I never preached a single sermon against killing civilians to the men who were doing it. I was brainwashed! It never entered my mind to protest publicly the consequences of these massive air raids. I was told it was necessary—told openly by the military and told implicitly by my church’s leadership. (To the best of my knowledge no American cardinals or bishops were opposing these mass air raids. Silence in such matters is a stamp of approval.)"
"For the last 1700 years the church has not only been making war respectable: it has been inducing people to believe it is an honorable profession, an honorable Christian profession. This is not true. We have been brainwashed. This is a lie.
War is now, always has been, and always will be bad, bad news. I was there. I saw real war. Those who have seen real war will bear me out. I assure you, it is not of Christ. It is not Christ’s way. There is no way to conduct real war in conformity with the teachings of Jesus. There is no way to train people for real war in conformity with the teachings of Jesus.
The morality of the balance of terrorism is a morality that Christ never taught. The ethics of mass butchery cannot be found in the teachings of Jesus. In Just War ethics, Jesus Christ, who is supposed to be all in the Christian life, is irrelevant. He might as well never have existed. In Just War ethics, no appeal is made to him or his teaching, because no appeal can be made to him or his teaching, for neither he nor his teaching gives standards for Christians to follow in order to determine what level of slaughter is acceptable.
So the world is watching today. Ethical hairsplitting over the morality of various types of instruments and structures of mass slaughter is not what the world needs from the church, although it is what the world has come to expect from the followers of Christ. What the world needs is a grouping of Christians that will stand up and pay up with Jesus Christ. What the world needs is Christians who, in language that the simplest soul could understand, will proclaim: the follower of Christ cannot participate in mass slaughter. He or she must love as Christ loved, live as Christ lived and, if necessary, die as Christ died, loving ones enemies."
"The bombing of Nagasaki means even more to me than the bombing of Hiroshima. By August 9, 1945, we knew what that bomb would do, but we still dropped it. We knew that agonies and sufferings would ensue, and we also knew—at least our leaders knew—that it was not necessary. The Japanese were already defeated. They were already suing for peace. But we insisted on unconditional surrender, and this is even against the Just War theory. Once the enemy is defeated, once the enemy is not able to hurt you, you must make peace.
As a Catholic chaplain I watched as the Boxcar, piloted by a good Irish Catholic pilot, dropped the bomb on Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, the center of Catholicism in Japan. I knew that St. Francis Xavier, centuries before, had brought the Catholic faith to Japan. I knew that schools, churches, and religious orders were annihilated. And yet I said nothing.
Thank God that I’m able to stand here today and speak out against war, all war. The prophets of the Old Testament spoke out against all false gods of gold, silver, and metal. Today we are worshipping the gods of metal, the bomb. We are putting our trust in physical power, militarism, and nationalism. The bomb, not God, is our security and our strength. The prophets of the Old Testament said simply: Do not put your trust in chariots and weapons, but put your trust in God. Their message was simple, and so is mine."
Monday, August 1st
an interesting dream
Last night I had an interesting dream. I dreamed I had the chance to be in a new TV reality series which was supposed to be about normal folk. The studio in which it was to be filmed was down a long hallway that went underground. The hallway started off of a city street in a rather dilapidated neighborhood. At the top of the hallway was a bar, but I never saw anybody go there.
I went to the filming a few times. Everybody was instructed to act really happy. The set was a rather strange restaurant, apparently upscale but decorated in pastel colors reminiscent of the 60's. There were waitresses carrying huge plates of food around. A couple of these plates in particular caught my attention. The first one was a platter of soup bowls which started to tip. I expected everything to spill but then I noticed that the bowls were empty and attached to the platter so that there was no chance of them falling off. Another platter was filled with humongous delicious looking steaks, but when I examined them up close I saw that they were made of plastic- all of the food was just props and had no nourishment.
This wasn't what really upset me, though. Even though everybody was acting really happy, when I tried to strike up a conversation with anybody, they became very rude and impossible to talk to. As we were coming back from this filming I decided that I was never coming back. But when we were almost to the street I noticed the bar that nobody went to and announced to no one in particular that I was going to go in there to see what it was like. Somebody said, "Oh, there's nothing in there!" Nevertheless I went in and in fact there was nobody at the bar, either behind or in front, and the shelves were all empty. So I decided since there was nobody there I might as well step behind the bar and look further. As I was looking inside the cabinets a woman with two small children appeared in front of the bar and asked if she and her children could have something to eat. I had just noticed that there were some dusty cans of food in one of the cabinets, and I told her that she could have those if I could find a can opener, but I was going to keep looking to see if I could find something better. At that point I noticed that there was an old-fashioned can opener next to the cans of food.
At this point I woke up.
I told Nancy about this dream and she thinks that the TV show represents our old church and the bar represents CV.
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