A Thick Slice of Mild Cheese (Uncensored/Unformatted...)

A Thick Slice of Mild Cheese by the "K-man" (unformatted)

I just might be:
Introspective to a fault
Need to put my thoughts to action; limited time
A rhyme a waste of mine?
But there is power in a line
One must not forget
Not talking Hardy Boys; Frank and Joe; or fatty Chet

Attempts to engage the mysteries of life
Not fearing strife, but engaging it, sometimes abating it
Not stating it, debating it

Learning from mistakes
Takes some guts
And over time one hopes to avoid ruts
Making time flow not fly
Minding the who, where, when, and sometimes why

Keeping it really real:
I get high, I lie, I cry, I shy
Away from a lot of the above
And I lag in my search for multi-types of love
I keep my mind in the sky
A dirty dove

A material understanding
Pushes me to landing
But is the ground solid?
Id versus Ego (ongoing dispute)

Avoid boxes, walls, reliance on hallowed halls
On certain levels we're all the same
Shit, piss, puke in stalls
Places we feed
Fulfill needs
A spot I like to read

When I sit and shit
I try to expand my mind
Come up with shit lines at times
Rhyme rhyme with rhyme

Me and my mind we take our stinky, sweet time
A misdemeanor; minor crime

Not too quick to shout,
"It's all good!"
As a with ignoring withouts

Take heed as you read
Still want more cheese?
Share peace, seek truth, and love your neighbor as yourself...
Over and out.

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Hey all!

It's been a long while since any contribution to sccos for whatever reasons. It's never too late to pick up again, though. For all concerned, I am doing well. Currently a jaded "Junior-plus," Sociology major (possible B.S. by this summer!) living in an icy dungeon cell (supercheap rent is nice, though), I work some part-times and fail at balancing full-time student responsibilities (coming to terms with what I rationalize as higher-ed's weaknesses).

That's it for now...

I should be studying.

Peace and love to all!

Alister McGrath and Richard Dawkins' Dialogue

Interesting video.

This actually raises my respect for Dawkins. The fact that these guys can talk as calmly and rationally as they are, even without really mincing words, is pretty impressive. The whole thing certainly doesn't need watching to get that point across; even five minutes would do to get it across. I still like McGrath better, but I have to give Dawkins more credit than I have in the past for making an honest effort to interact with ideas.

Props to the President!

President Obama recently rejected outright those arguments made by some stupid people on the left that the only real issue people have with Obama is his race--here he's doing so with respect to health-care, but since he's intelligent I have no doubt he would do so with respect to every other issue that, like this one has nothing to do with his race.

Props to Obama for this.

Interestings, Fri. Sept. 04

Interestings for the Week

What is an interesting, you ask?

It comes from a now-older KDUP radio show called The Mean Saints, in which a couple of friends of mine pretended to be miraculously radio-ized dead saints Athanasius and Jerome, and Jerome accidentally said "an interesting about G.K. Chesterton" instead of "an interesting fact about..." Anyway, it got me and a friend from the Faith and Leadership House using adjectives as nouns like no tomorrow. So here's some interestings from the last week that I've picked up, blogosphere or otherwise.

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I found an interesting. Apparently, according to the USCCB and numerous Vatican documents, health care is a right,, not a privilege. I'm down with that. The unfortunate thing is, well...

Catholic teaching on health care + Catholic teaching on why the heck health care is even a right in the first place --> If any governmental system, a governmental system that nobody wants to run because it won't be allowed to provide abortion.

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There's an awesome about the new NIV Bible coming out...

How does that make you feel? If you're reading this you probably knew already, but at any rate. Roger Pearse, a hobbyist of classics and church Fathers, gives an awesome here. He also provides what amounts to in my mind a thought-provoking (if unintentional) commentary on the nature of corruption, as opposed to legit theological development.

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Do yourself a favor and check out the gigantic that is Brickistan. It's a city made of Legos and it is nothing short of crazy. Overview photo of Brickistan follows:


So go to the Flickr page and check it out in detail.

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Here's an impressive. The President is apparently going to give some speech to school kids about staying in school and trying hard or somesuch other after-school-special stuff that the kids probably really do need to hear, and some parents don't want it heard because they're afraid Obama's going to go socialist on their kids.

The official government website for the speeches is here and contains some classroom materials. I'm still not sure I really understand what the criticism is. I'm also putting this forth regardless of the question of how outraged we'd be if Bush wanted to talk to our nation's children without parental consent or...state education oversight of speech content? are you kidding? If Obama had said "I'm going to talk to the children about health care," then there'd be concern. Then this would be political, like if Bush had wanted to talk to kids about the War on Terror, which is, sadly, a much more politicized animal than anyone wants it to be.

But quite frankly if anyone who's the President of the USA wants to present an after-school-special message to kids about trying your hardest and how YOU can make a difference or whatever. If anyone's got an actual excerpt of this speech that shows it championing socialism, I'd like to see it. The White House plans to release the speech on Monday, a day before it's given, so opponents will have their chance to skim it for socialism if they want. As far as I can tell, though unless Obama tells the kids they're clinging bitterly to small-town values, he's fine. As it stands the only real case I've heard made consists of empty rhetoric, and that's not cool.

But it sure makes for a fun week.

A Peculiar Manor

The following is a short story. The world it is in is one that exists mostly in my head. To clear up any theological confusions it is a world in which—sort of like in Lewis's Narnia, but not really quite like Narnia---persons know Jesus “by a different name.” There are a few theological ideas that I wanted to explore when I started thinking about this world, and I began to think up a series of stories with an unsolved murder acting as a plot device to connect them (though ultimately forming a sort of story in itself). This is one of those stories. It is not at the beginning or at the end, in part because I haven't got the murder part worked out totally yet, and don't know if I ever will work that out or write other pieces of this story. The attempt I have made here is an attempt to write the story in a largely self-contained fashion. Within you should expect to find a few Biblical themes explored, as well as other, less Scripturally explicit, theological ideas. If you do read it and you find some of these ideas, or other ones that you're not sure I meant to explore, please do feel free to post a comment and let me know what you've found. I would love to know what you find in terms of theme, even if you're not comfortable posting it here.

Lastly, anyone who knows me might guess that I owe a lot in terms of imagination and ideas and wit to G.K. Chesterton; I do, but I also hope and pray that what I write might be more than just a shadow of the work of those authors I admire, and a vehicle for Christian expression and exploration in its own right. Please enjoy, if you can.

A Peculiar Manor

Two travelers were huddled on the front porch of a great house in the country. It was night-time, and raining rather violently.

One was a man. Fairly young, sporting an off-white shirt under a brown vest underneath a gray trench-coat, with gray trousers. His skin was fairly light, his frame lanky. He had brown hair and wore a tasteful brown bowler. The other was a woman, two or three years his senior, who wore a white jacket over a light purple dress. She was tanner than him and held an average frame. Her hair was blonde and she wore what appeared to be a purple bowler, except stretched to three times its height.

The two had come a long way from a nearby city and had not a few scares, mostly because he had suspected her of a murder and, as the detective, had been forced to look after her and see her safely to somewhere within town. But friendly people thought to be unfriendly had chased them away, to the point where they had spent all the money they had, and found themselves faced with a twenty-mile walk back in the rain; two miles along they had found the house. Due to the aggressive weather, the pair hoped they might get out of the rain for awhile and perhaps have some tea or cocoa. The man knocked on the gigantic door and then turned to the woman. “Oh, come on! Where's your sense of adventure?”

“I lost it somewhere between being trailed by that man in black and riding in that flying deathtrap you called transportation.”

“Well, we've got to make the best of these things. Sometimes you can't...”

The door creaked open, revealing a servant girl about two years younger than him, dressed in what appeared to be a uniform of sorts, a white tunic and shorts, whose plain face was full of joy. The sight of rain-soaked strangers filled it further still. “Hello,” she said.

“Hello. I'm Ben Simonson and this is Lady--”

“Oh, no need for all that now. Get yourselves out of the rain first.”

Ben and the lady obliged; the servant addressed them again. “Now, you were saying?”

“I'm Ben Simonson and this is Lady Rose.”

“Lady Rose Alston.”

“Could we have a sit for an hour or two, to see if the rain subsides?”

“We can do better than that! Our master is always happy to have visitors for dinner.” She motioned to them to follow her and led them down one of a dozen hallways. “Can I get you a drin--?” she asked, as she led them into the parlor.

“Tea.” Rose was hasty.

“...Cocoa.” Ben gave it maybe too much thought.

After she left Rose turned to Ben with a serious face. “If it turns out they are cannibals, I won't be pleased.”

“Cannibals?”

“'Have visitors for dinner?'”

“That is not what that means.”

“Given the trip so far, I would not be surprised.”

The servant reentered and handed them their hot drinks. “Excuse me miss; what is your name?” asked the lady.

“Bernadette, ma'am. Also, the master will want you two at the head of the table tonight. Mr. Simonson on the right, and you on the left.”

“Can we meet him before dinner? Get introduced and whatnot?” Ben was sincerely intrigued.

“Well, he's not actually in at the moment and, well...” The plain face grew apologetic. “Master Nathan's only reliable appearance is at dinnertime.” The pair appeared quite puzzled, and so Bernadette continued. “He's like that.” She flashed a smile and left the two confused travelers sitting in the parlor and drinking their exceptional drinks.

****

When dinner came a male servant named Mark arrived to escort them to the dining room. The room itself contained only one table, but a large table. It seated twenty to a side on its long ends, and two or three on each of the short ends. When they arrived the last of the food was being set out, and it appeared that when the serving was done and the master arrived, the table would be full.

Once the table was full there were about five minutes of waiting, and then the same creak of the giant front door, and a loud slam. A few shuffles and footsteps later and the Master Nathan came bumbling through the dining room door. Now he was neither skinny nor heavyset, tall nor short. His skin was a mysterious tone; persons attempting to guess at a race usually failed. He wore a fine dark-red three-piece suit, with a top hat that fit his head perfectly. The suit was torn a little, and more than a little wet and muddied. “Apologies on my lateness, everybody. Now please--” here the master turned and noticed his guests. “Wonderful! Can someone say who they are?”

Bernadette piped up. “Ben Simonson and Lady Rose Alston.”

“Wonderful!” Now please, let us say grace. Rex, would you?”

A small servant stood up. He was one of the Reptilians, a strange and sometimes primitive people who were, well, quite reptilian in skin and face, though 'human' in their standing, walking and talking. Lady Rose wondered a bit at the sight, because like most city-folk she had heard so little about these strange people that she doubted their existence. Rex stood as Nathan sat, his tail wagging excitedly. “Oh, yes.”

The room silent, Rex spoke the prayer in a poem.

“God bless this house,
And bless our guests,
And the food upon this table.

God bless our friends,
And bless our foes,
And the horses in our stable.

God keep us safe and keep us free,
Of anger, hatred, greed and lust.

God keep us safe and help us grow
In Inri, wisdom that we trust.”

Rex Sat, and the serving and passing and eating of food (and not a little conversation) commenced.

Master Nathan asked his guests many questions, like who they were exactly and how they had come to his manor. And so the two recounted a few bizarre events to him. First there was a murder in the city they had come from, originally thought to have been part of a duel, on which Ben was a detective and in which the Lady had been a suspect, which was how the whole mess started. Second, a strange cloaked man had chased them to a small town shortly out of the city, and he had had to stay with her because, after all, she was still a suspect. Third, still fleeing from his man they had fled by way of bird-basket to a farmer's market a few acres from the house, where the cloaked man appeared to meet them, and turned out to be harmless. And last, trying to make their way to the city, their arrival at a strange house with one master and forty-three servants.

Nathan also asked whether Lady Rose was still a murder suspect. Rose's voice had more than hint of frustration when she responded that no, she wasn't, and she wouldn't be on this terrible adventure if anyone had had the sense not to make her a suspect to begin with.

“It was my fault,” said Ben. “I was supposed to keep an eye on her, and I didn't figure out she was innocent until we were up in that basket, pulled along by a flock of doves.”

“Ah,” said Nathan.

Now they in turn learned from Nathan and his servants the ways of their house, including their duty to do dishes after dinner, the master and servants' insistence that all guests stay the night, all the odds and ends of work at the manor, and Nathan's generosity and frequent misadventures outside. Most recently he had helped two farmers returning from the market to get their cart and mule out of a watery ditch.

The meal itself was quite good, and the guests at least okay with the duty of dishes. When those were done, they were told their clothes would be cleaned overnight and that they had servants' clothes waiting for them in the meantime.

****

Shortly before the house curfew the two relaxed in the servants' general room, talking with Bernadette and Rex. Lady Rose raised a practical question, asking whether the whole business with the dishes was payment for their stay.

“Not exactly,” Bernadette replied. “It's because whoever sits at his right and left always does the dishes. He always calls two of us in a night.”

“And the guests always get a shot,” Rex interjected. “Once a group of eight came, and he made 'em stay for four nights. Sometimes.” He paused. “Sometimes he picks someone who's mad at him. It's awkward, but fun. Remember that day the horses had diarrhea and stable-hand Ted was on his left, Bernie? That was classic.”

The servants exchanged a look and a laugh, then turned somewhat embarrassed to their guests when they remembered it was an inside joke. Bernadette spoke. “Sorry. If you're ever here again we'll fill you in. As it stands it's almost time for bed.”

Ben and Rose parted with the other two and left the servants' chamber. With the aid of one or two stragglers they located their guest rooms, across the way from each other and down a long hallway from the servants' quarters. “Hey Ben,” said the lady. “For what it is worth, this is probably the least terrifying part of the trip so far.”

“Heh. Yes.”

“Well, goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

CMR Commentary

Creative Minority Report has some excellent theological musings on a new piece of an old celebrity scandal, here.

Reading List for the Summer

Here's my reading list for the summer, in its general order. The three main categories are my theological reading list, as it were.

Finished Projects:
Love and Responsibility

Current Projects:
The Lamb's Supper
The Book of Romans

Later Projects:
Paul on Marriage and Celibacy
Secrets in the Dark
The Christian Commitment

Novels (Concurrent Reading)
The Man Who Was Thursday
Gilead
The Road

Descriptions (Read Items):
Love and Responsibility by Karol Wojtila, A.K.A. Pope John Paul II before he was JPII. I just finished this today and it was pretty much awesome. I didn't buy into every single thing that was said, but there may also be links in the argument that are made elsewhere, and as a framework for thought/discrenment (which is the reason I picked it up in the first place, broadly speaking) I found it quite useful.

Descriptions (Unread Ones):
The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn. Hahn is a Catholic theologian who writes a lot of popular theology and apparently here he's going to attempt a connection between the Mass and the Book of Revelation. This one should be interesting.
Paul on Marriage and Celibacy by Dr. Will Deming. Deming is actually on the theology faculty at University of Portland, the chair as of this year. I'm looking forward to reading his book.
Secrets in the Dark by Frederich Buechner. It's a book of sermons that I received and started a couple of summers ago, but then I stopped for whatever reason.
The Christian Commitment by Karl Rahner, S.J. I have no idea exactly what this is about, except that it probably involves the Christian commitment. But hopefully it's good!
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton. This would be Gilbert's suspense-ish novel about an ideal everyman who infiltrates a ring of anarchy.
Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson, which is a portrait of a small-town preacher, his father, and his father, and the first guy's son. It's also an immensely awesome look at life in general. This is actually a re-read for me.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which is apparently a kind of science fiction or speculative fiction.

If anyone's got anything theological or otherwise to add, please post and let me know.

Testing 1 2 3...

A Thought

Whenever a human being, particularly a human being who professes belief in God, realizes that the world is not the way it ought to be, they ought to do three things:

(1) Examine whether in this aspect the world is as it should be or not, that is, attempt to discern how this aspect of the world would be seen by the Divine.

Then, granted (1), they should

(2) Pray that this aspect of the way things are, insofar as it originates in themselves, would be cleansed and purged from their inner life.
(3) Work to change the world by their own actions--in thoughts, words, what they do and what they do not do.

I had a realization recently that there was in fact something about the world that I absolutely hated, and that I had an opportunity to help change it by doing it differently. So I did. Granted that I didn't go in quite the order I recommend, I also realized how I'd failed to pray for this change in myself as well as in the world.

I'm not going to say what it is. But if anyone has thoughts on this as an abstract ideal, let me know.

Braid and Portal Are Freaking Amazing

This is a beautiful game. Screwed with me on many levels, but it was heavily enjoyable. I loved its world and its characters...it was also kind of sad. But it was good, and there's an actual lesson to be learned.



This game is also quite pretty. I'm hesitant to call it 'beautiful,' and I'm also hesitant to identify much of a real 'lesson,' or message, but it's a similarly brilliant puzzler-disguised-as-something-else kind of game.

FINALS COUNTDOWN

Real Analysis in Class and Out-of-Class: Done. The out-of-class finished about halfway, and I should have at least most of the credit for every problem on the in-class. So this final shouldn't be too terrible.

Four left to go. They're all tomorrow.

Worst thing about all of this: Because of my own stupidity I'm guaranteed almost no sleep tonight. I only got about half an hour of sleep last night and got about three this afternoon. So I'm hoping for basically a little bit more sleep tonight, but there's also:

The good news: which is that after the Crypto Final and whatever food I ought to be eating...basically after a nice late 10 PM Tuesday prayer, I get to settle down and sleep for N hours, where N is the sum total of all the blood and sweat and tears of my procrastination and stupidity and awkwardness and growing in the Love of God this semester... I know Pat wouldn't object to me skipping his prayer under the circumstances, but I can always just nap between dinner and prayer and not worry about it...

Marriage Final Essays due: Done.

Now there's three left to go and they're all today. Logic won't suck but the other two will!

Logic In-Class Final Exam: 1:30 PM. I don't anticipate it taking me more than an hour and 15, so depending on how much time I need for the Crypto final I might ask Dr. Santana if showing up late is okay.

Now there's me, Crypto and Complex Variables.

Cryptography Final Take-Home Exam: 4:00 PM, so basically I get to hand it to Dr. Wootton at the start of my...

Complex Variables Final Exam: 4:10 PM. Basically I carve out about 30-60 minutes for review of this tomorrow sometime.

Now there's just me and a pile of somewhat regrettable classroom performances, but less regrettable out-of-classroom ones!

I love God. It might sound like a "well, duh," statement, but I don't exactly like God at the moment, entirely...but it's in a loving way.

The way things have gone this semester is yet another pointer to a Mystery that some logicians will never understand, because they will, in the words of Chesterton, be "seek[ing] to get the heavens into [their] head[s]."

What the Hetts?! #N: Wow

A high school senior kicked major butt on, like, every standardized test ever.

Amazing.

"What the hetts?!"

The Thought

The thought of God's grace being in any way without an element of violence has become to me a theological travesty. I still believe in God's plans. I still believe they are made to prosper us and not to harm us. But I am not so sure that we can really take the "not to harm us" to mean that God's plans never harm us...There appear to be too many miserable saints for this to be a real, viable option.

Feel free to discuss as you see fit.

Unintentional Spiritual Themes 1

There's something unintentionally spiritual about this song. It feels a little bit Chestertonian, in terms of the theme of becoming like little children.

[Later edit: That theme, in connection with magic. Of course that theme and of itself belongs first/foremost to the big J.)

And Ain't I a Woman?

One of the awesomest sermons I've ever read. Has one major theological problem, but it's in the phrasing, not the intention--and it's one of the greatest speeches I know of.

Brief Responses

auntie k: what is your secret?

Lots of conditioner.

llgp: Certainly seems consistent with bearing one another's burdens.

Yes.

L-Po: Have you ever sent a card to Post Secret?

No.

Make Sure

Make sure you don't carry your secrets alone.

I do not claim this as an explicitly Christian notion, but I certainly claim it as a piece of advice that ought to be a logical implication of anything calling itself Christianity.

Hat Tip

Studying group theory late at night might just be a ticket to quasi-insanity.

Waking up all frazzled because of said quasi-insanity might just be a ticket to hilarity.

Film at 11.

On the plus side I'm feeling pretty good about the test I was doing.

The K-man's "Groovy Tune Sunday"

I can't stop playing this tune!

Give it a listen, ye readers of the cheese.



artist: Animal Collective
song: My Girls
album: Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)

"ADOBE SLABS FOR MY GIRLS!"

(EXCLAMATION POINT !)

I Tested my Spanish Today

By trying to read this. It's just the wikipedia Spanish page for Mathematics. I've had to look a couple of words up already. More on this as it comes.

It's been so long...

Hello internets! It's the k-man, back in action after a lengthy sabbatical. I am alive and studying at Portland State, taking some sociology courses as a declared Sociology Major.

Hmmm... nothing all that interesting is happening in my life at the moment. I've bought a few things recently as I am doing my best to support our economy in these tough times. A joke. BUT: the economy and the foundations for the global economic paradigm are pretty much the focus of two of my courses and I've learned that some major changes definitely need to occur as far as trade agreements go (see WTO, NAFTA, etc) before we see any lasting change (hint: buying an mp3 player and a drum set from random people on craiglist won't solve or ease the crisis we're in), especially internationally. Corporations able to sue countries = ERROR.

Anyway: I am also taking a course titled "The Sociology of Integrative Medicine," which is basically a review of complementary and alternative medicine modalities with a sociological twist. I'm proud to say we've meditated (more or less) as a class on multiple occasions.

Soooo: nothing too exciting. I might start contributing to SCCOS on a more regular basis if I get the urge.

Take care, internets! I leave you with a link! It be a hosted mp3 of a tune I've been groovin to lately. "Raphael Saadiq - Skyy, Can You Feel Me"

Blood Sugars Blogging (02-19-09)

Blood Sugar table! EDIT: BLOGGER SCREWED IT UP. DO NOT HAVE TIME TO FIX NOW.

Accurate table will be up tomorrow!

Date MOR LUN AFT DIN
01/28/09 181 201 414
01/29/09 226 273
01/30/09 110 218 326
01/31/09 112 362
02/01/09
02/02/09 226 254 294
02/03/09 125 138 196 274
02/04/09 86 182 235
02/05/09 202 220
02/06/09 141 142
02/07/09 106 169 324
02/08/09 141 262
02/09/09 187 216 357
02/10/09 115 278 390 349
02/11/09 119 150 290
02/12/09 101 171 374
02/13/09 140 140 195 324
02/14/09 152 214
02/15/09 99 270 308
02/16/09 182 263 220
02/17/09 119 181 212
02/18/09 98 143 207
02/19/09 82 113 227

Lent: The Rules for the Season

Warning: I'll be talking a lot about sex!

No, that's not what I'm giving up, because there's nothing to give up there, really. But my lenten sacrifice this year is sexual innuendo. I am aiming for a permanent reduction in its prevalence in my conversation, preceded by the period of Lent during which it may not be used.

But what is to qualify as innuendo? For purposes of this lenten sacrifice, innuendo will be defined in the following way, with exceptions listed below. If and only if I remember that I have forgotten an important exemption (i.e., a time when I am allowed under these terms to utilize sexual innuendo) I will add it here and make note that it has been added. It might seem a little legalistic to codify a Lenten sacrifice. I know that. But it's the best way for me to do this stuff.

For the entirety of Lent (up to, but not including, Easter Sunday afternoon), I may not commit:

(1) A deliberate attempt to make a coarse joke that involves sexuality.
(2) A deliberate attempt to make a pun which in some way involves sexuality.
(3) A deliberate attempt to set someone else up for such a joke or pun.
(4) A deliberate attempt to let someone else know that they, myself or anyone else has intentionally or unintentionally created a sexual innuendo.
(5) A failure to avoid modifying my own phrasings so as to avoid such setups.

Notes on the rule and exceptions to the rule:

(5) applies if and only if I have sufficient warning. So if I realize mid-sentence that the statement is open to innuendo, I may finish the sentence as originally planned, barring that a better wording occurs immediately.

I may utilize sexual innuendo in an effort to be more discrete and avoid more awkward discussions of sexuality and related concepts.

One of my housemates and I have a running joke/contest where we give each other quotations from The Office and then see if the other can identify where the quotation is from. If I am engaging in this game, I am allowed to use sexual innuendo if and only if it appears in the quoted statement by the characters. However, this is not an excuse to play the game merely so I have an excuse to use innuendo.

Lent begins, and so does the self and communal enforcement of these rules, next Wednesday, that is, Ash Wednesday, 12:00 AM.

Fun with Definitions and Living

guilt: a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense, crime, wrong, etc., whether real or imagined. (dictionary.com definition number 2)

shame: the painful feeling arising from the consciousness of something dishonorable, improper, ridiculous, etc., done by oneself or another. (dictionary.com definition number 1)

Now as a Christian, I think guilt and shame can both be useful in motivating us to change our ways and repent; but I find that guilt (which I associate with actual wrongdoing on one's own part) is both healthier and more theologically sound as a motivator than shame (which I associate with wrongdoing only insofar as it is perceived by society.) Example:

A Christian man who is a regular church attender goes to a strip club. Now his guilt is a function mostly of his own moral code as it has been built up--if he's been in church most or all of his life, it's probably acting up at some point during the evening. But the shame is relative to his different social circles: his congregation, and the people, if any, who are at the strip club with him. One of those circles places a good deal more shame on the incident than the other.

I guess I find shame problematic because it gives others too much control over how one feels and makes moral decisions and is relative to society, whereas guilt is (at its best) a function of a well-formed conscience.

But what if we notice something about ourselves that causes both feelings? Guilt and shame? Is there a way to properly respond to the guilt within us without giving too much power to the shame? Certainly I distinguish the two, but certainly they are not without commonality, and find themselves often intertwined or at least incidentally aligned.

So what to do if I do something, or find myself doing something, that causes both?

Blood sugars will be posted after prayer tonight.

An Awesome Short Play

This is a short play by David Ives called Sure Thing it's about two people who meet in a cafe and whose conversation continually goes awry. Each time it does, a bell is rung and time resets to the last "good point" of conversation. It's...pretty hilarious.

Content warning: A single f-word is present in the script, which occurs here about 5:40 in the part 1 video. If you skip from 5:40 to 5:46 you should miss it. So you don't miss stuff, the gist is something like "Django Reinhard record...only all you'll really want to do is--"

Part 1:



Part 2:

Nancy Pelosi + Pope = ?!?!?!

Well, here's an interesting news story. Nancy Pelosi's going to be meeting the Pope in Rome. And it's going to be an amazing to see.

Yes, I left out "thing" from "amazing thing." It's so amazing that it's just an amazing; the "thing" is not even necessary.

Hat tip to the Religion News Service.

In other news, I've discovered that Drum and Bass makes excellent music for doing mathematics to. What's currently playing is Pendulum's "Through the Loop," which samples the original Willy Wonka and makes me think it must be the scariest movie ever.

This is an Interesting

Via Creative Minority Report. Apparently, the Obama campaign has made a strong commitment to transparency, and there are some questions as to how strong this commitment really is.

Moneyquote from CMR's Patrick Archbold: "Mr. President, if you have any mercy in your heart, any mercy at all, give Press Secretary Robert Gibbs a new job."

Watch, comment if you please.

X != Y

What it says.

This is Quite Interesting

Two churches, one white and one black, but both part, it seems, of the United Methodist Church, existing pretty much side-by-side for decades. I realize whoever's reading this may well have known about it already, but I definitely didn't. Definitely read the article even if you know the basic story already, though. It's...very interesting.

New York Times story here. My heart goes out to the people in these congregations and their struggle for reconciliation. I'm not quite sure what the proper prayer is here; maybe all I can really pray for is Christian unity in this case.

Edit: Hat tip to GetReligion.

The way this is going, I'm going to have to just start making posts full of theological interesting things, becuase so many of them keep happening.

Blood Sugars Blogging (01-22-09)

I'll be blogging multiple meanings of blood sugar on an approximately weekly basis.

Blood Sugar:

01-22: 172
01-21: 445,309,197
01-20: 224
01-19: 366,289,
01-18: 249
01-17: 220
01-16: 235
01-14: 380

Blood Sugar:

You can find "Blood Sugar" by Pendulum by clicking on the link.

Theologically Interesting Thing

Theological interesting thing:

Jesus was born out of wedlock. What does this mean for our expectations about the Divine, if anything?

"What the Hetts?!"

Hello, depression.

What the hetts?!

It's the Week of Christian Unity!

It's the week of Christian unity here.

What will you do, what prayers will you be saying to mark the occasion?

Personally I'll be doing some praying and thinking about what happens logistically with this sort of thing. It's really easy to pray a big game and forget about the fact that if we're ever going to achieve real Christian unity, someone's theology (or at least, someone's insistence on certain theological constructs) is going to have to change. There's a prayer service I'll be going to later this week for Christian unity, so I'll be watching and listening closely to the words that are said and the implications that are made, if any, for dialogue and theological systems.

The Person You Want to Be

Let X = the person you are.
Let Y = the person you truly want to be. Not "if I were richer" or anything like that, but who you want to be morally, philosophically, spiritually.

Does X = Y?

Why or why not?

Whether X = Y or X != Y, is the fact of the equality or inequality a good or a bad thing?

I've been thinking about this question a bit lately, in particular in relation to relationships (romantic or unromantic.) I've decided it's fine for one person to change another in relationship as long as a) both people are open to being changed, b) both people are working towards a state of X = Y, c) neither of them is being coerced or forced along in an inappropriate fashion.

Silly Quotation Time

From IRC, blatantly stolen from someone's signature on DigitalMZX.

ajs: I like how people talk behind my back when they know I'm asleep. I like to think that it's because I would superbly defeat their lies if I was active.

Bonus! Silly religious quotation!

Terryn: I've never heard anyone take umbrage to "old" and "new"
Es: terryn "old testament" is a horrible offense against the jews
Es: It implies that their religion be not poppin' fresh

I was definitely there for that one, and it was awesome. I wish I still had the full discussion there. That said, if you want to talk supercessionism, or talking behind peoples' backs, go ahead. You can even feel free to talk about supercessionism behind my back here while I'm away on retreat this weekend; I won't be able to do anything about it until tomorrow night!

Good day and God bless!