What Have I Done?
I'm still wondering about that. I sent out a letter that I wonder if I should have sent. More once I see how things settle down.
The MacIntyre Adventure
For my philosophy independent study, Modern Ethical Theory, we are using exclusively primary sources. I always enjoy sticking to primary sources, so I'm pretty happy about that. I will say, however, that my present read, After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre, is really slow going. It isn't that it is hard to understand, nor that it is uninteresting. For some inexplicable reason, however, my reading speed just plummets every time I read it. I'm rather glad to be moving on to something else after this week. On the other hand, he does make a lot of good points, and as someone who rather likes Thomistic thought, I appreciate MacIntyre's work to defend the philosophy of Aristotle over Kantian, Utilitarian and general emotive theories. I just wish I could figure out why I move through the text so slowly.
All I Can Say Is...
GO CARDS!!!. Right now, we're behind 3-0. We need to beat the Astros… let's hope it happens soon.
The Miers Mire
I have to admit (perhaps much to the pleasure of my left leaning friends), I gotta wonder what Dubya is doing. Why on earth would he pick Miers? Now its leaked out that in 1989 she publicly noted her support for a pro-life measure. That's all well and good, I'm pro-life as all of you know, but it is judicial suicide. The administration is going to end up spending massive amounts of political capital on someone I can just about guarantee cannot get into the court unless there are swine defying gravity in the vicinity.
I think the court needs good pro-life justices (although I would argue what it really needs are justices that don't come up with fictional constitutional rights, and if that were the case, they would have to be pro-life), but they really need to be the types that don't have their name next to any pro-life causes. One who does can easily be filibustered to death in the senate. Moreover, Miers was already a weak pick since she has no real qualifications to make up for what the Left will now see as a major blemish on her. How did the same team that picked John Roberts pick Harriet Miers? I know there were rumors that they wanted a female nominee, but that does not explain why they didn't pick a woman with stronger credentials (the White House, in the past, has been good at that considering picks such as Condi Rice).
This is topped by the White House's idiotic attempts to win the Right by advertising Miers religious piety. I don't want to be told about that, all that does is make the president look like he's making a double standard. Now the Dems are going to judge every nominee's religiousness negatively even more than before. Sheesh.
For those, like me, of the Right, we have a serious problem. As the saying goes, if these are our friends, we hardly need enemies. I predict a Democratic landslide in 2006, unless we get our collective acts together.
To Tell A Story
I've been feeling in a reflective mood the past few days. I decided to write a letter to a friend reminiscing about a nice event last fall. It was going to be about a one page letter — in fact, I thought I might handwrite the final draft (I'm convinced handwritten notes are still preferable to typed in many respects). Well, that ain't happ'n. I said I was in a reflective mood, right? Well, I was really in that mood — the one page letter turned into a five an a half single-spaced page story (4,100 words). As is my usual mode of editing, each attempt to pare it down makes it longer. At times, my words can be like Tribbles (good thing I'm not a Klingon).
In other words, I'm wordy. Very wordy. It is at times like these, I wonder how I ever manage to meet the 600 word requirements for an op-ed… It is also at times like these I wonder if maybe I really should get into politics.
Seriously, I have been known to win a debate solely on the fact that I can keep churning out words until everyone has grown tired of debating with me (of course, I'm right, which helps).
Missing
Well, I've been all but missing from the blogosphere, so maybe this is appropriate.
Please, please forgive me,
But I won’t be home again.
Maybe someday you’ll have woke up,
And, barely conscious, you’ll say to no one:
“isn’t something missing? “You won’t cry for my absence, I know -
Even though I’d be sacrificed,
You forgot me long ago.
Am I that unimportant…?
Am I so insignificant…?
Isn’t something missing?
Isn’t someone missing me?
You won’t try for me, not now.
Though I’d die to know you love me,
I’m all alone.
Isn’t someone missing me?
—Evanescence, Missing
How are y'all anyway?
Deafening Silience Follow-up
Over the past few weeks, I revised my play, Deafening Silence: the Tragedy of Private Alan Michelson in numerous ways. The most important, perhaps, was adding an interpretive essay at the end dealing with the serious theological issues it brings up. It isn't anything heavy, but considers the big issues of the play, at least in passing: the problem of evil, the verification and falsification debate and the ability (or lack thereof) to lose salvation.
From a story standpoint, I also introduced several pages of new material that helped smooth out the scenes, create what I hope is a more natural, realistic pace and so on. Couple that with improved wording, and I think the play is a lot better now than it was in early September.
How long is it? It is a featherweight if you compare it against Shakespeare's works. Compared to its inspiration work, Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, it weighs in about 14% shorter. It is about 33% shorter than Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. I'm just guessing, but I'm presuming with its size, it would take 60-90 minutes to stage, at most.
If anyone who has already received a copy would like an updated release, please let me know. Also, if anyone else is interested, just give me a holler.
Quiet
Sorry to be unusually quiet. Between the demands of my normal jobs, the previously mentioned issues that arose last month and so on, I just haven't seemed to have had the combination of time and motivation to post the last few weeks. It is rather strange.
I do have a few posts I'd like to write, though. Not the least is a review of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, as performed down at the Fox Theatre. The one word summary: “fantastic.”
This Sounds About Right
From my e-mail box.
1. Stray cats will not be fed.
2. Stray cats will not be fed anything except dry cat food.
3. Stray cats will not be fed anything except dry cat food moistened with a little milk.
4. Stray cats will not be fed anything except dry cat food moistened with warm milk, yummy treats and leftover fish scraps.
5. Stray cats will not be encouraged to make this house their permanent residence.
6. Stray cats will not be petted, played with or picked up and cuddled unnecessarily.
7. Stray cats that are petted, played with, picked up and cuddled will absolutely not be given a name.
8. Stray cats with or without a name will not be allowed inside the house at any time.
9. Stray cats will not be allowed inside the house except at certain times.
10. Stray cats will not be allowed inside the house except on days ending in “y”.
11. Stray cats allowed inside will not be permitted to jump up on or sharpen their claws on the furniture.
12. Stray cats will not be permitted to jump up on, or sharpen claws on the really good furniture.
13. Stray cats will be permitted on all furniture but must sharpen claws on new $114.99 sisal-rope cat-scratching post with three perches.
14. Stray cats will answer the call of nature outdoors in the sand.
15. Stray cats will answer the call of nature in the three-piece, high-impact plastic tray filled with Fresh'n'Sweet kitty litter.
16. Stray cats will answer the call of nature in the hooded litter pan with a three-panel privacy screen and plenty of head room.
17. Stray cats will sleep outside.
18. Stray cats will sleep in the garage.
19. Stray cats will sleep in the house.
20. Stray cats will sleep in a cardboard box lined with an old blanket.
21. Stray cats will sleep in the special Kitty-Komfort-Bed with non-allergenic lambs wool pillow.
22. Stray cats will not be allowed to sleep in our bed.
23. Stray cats will not be allowed to sleep in our bed, except at the foot.
24. Stray cats will not be allowed to sleep in our bed under the covers.
25. Stray cats will not be allowed to sleep in our bed under the covers except at the foot.
26. Stray cats will not play on the desk.
27. Stray cats will not play on the desk near the computer.
28. Stray cats are forbidden to walk on the computer keyboard on the desk when the human is asdfjjhhkl;ljfd.;oier' puyykmm4hbdm9lo9j USING IT.
Not Gray Yet!
Eduardo, for his birthday, quoted a bit of Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyatt of Omar Khayyam, and I thought that seemed as appropriate as any poem to quote from for a birthday (especially since I just read through the whole thing last week and dissected it this week), so I shall do the same for mine:
With them the seed of Wisdom did I sow,
Into this Universe, and Why not knowing
And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow;
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd—
“I came like Water, and like Wind I go.”
Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing;
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing.
Yes, it is my birthday today (well, actually, my birthday ended 56 minutes ago in my time zone). It has been a quiet, but very nice day. I spent most of the day with my mother (my dad has a cold, so he is going to celebrate with me later this week). It was exactly the kind of peaceful day that I wanted.
I was given several nice gifts. A friend and professor of mine gave me the Great Passion by Eberhard Busch, an expert on Barthian theology and Karl Barth's last personal assistant, as a birthday present. This is the professor who introduced me to Barth a while back. The book looks like it works through the major theology of Barth with a well written narration and a substantial helping of quotes from Dogmatics and other writings of Barth. At any rate, I started reading that today, which was fun.
My mother gave me a nice, compact, leather covered New Century Version Bible, which seems really nice. I'm not familiar with the NCV, but in comparing it against the NIV, and out of memory, with the KJV, NLT and NRSV, it seems to do a good job of saying the same things in a way that is more like modern English idiom (just a cursory survey). It strikes me that it did not seem dumbed down as much as the NLT and CEV sometimes strike me as doing (not to pick on those translations, I like them, but sometimes they seem that they targeted too simple of vocabulary).
As a side note: I've been trying to give the ESV a bit of a try, but I find I'm lazy and keep returning to my NIV as my primary study Bible. However, since my One Year Bible is in the NLT, that is probably what I read the most. I like the NLT better than the CEV, but both seem overly simplified to me at times. For my Old Testament course, we are using a version of the NRSV with extensive notes from the Society for Biblical Literature, and I must say I rather like it as well, although it isn't as pleasant as the others for light reading. However, I suspect that it could very well become one of my favorites by the time I get done with the course. We'll see how this new NCV shakes out, but perhaps it will edge out my pocket-sized NIV, which is starting to get kind of worn (especially since an open package of Lifesavers candies accidentally got pressed against the pages)…
