Lost in Transubstantiation

Blackberry, or no...?

2008-11-16T09:59:00.001-08:00

This is an interesting article on how modern technology--e-mail, cell phones, etc.--will play out with Obama as president. He's been more plugged in to technology than any president before him, and they're wondering how much of a security risk this would pose. The article fails to discuss how interesting it is that we've come so far, but have done so little in terms of protecting our privacy via these new means of communication.... Anyway, it's a good, short read.

Chabon

2008-10-03T21:08:00.000-07:00

I've been on a bit of a Michael Chabon kick lately. Having read The Final Solution--a short novel about an unnamed detective who is, quite clearly, Sherlock Holmes--I tried The Yiddish Policemen's Union, and loved it. So, in the last month, among a half dozen other books, I finish The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier and Clay, as well as The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.

Kavalier and Clay, a book many consider his magnum opus (a designation I always find bizarre, and especially here, given that he's not only not dead, but not even 50), was tremendous. Lengthy, beautifully designed, encompassing a vast array of topics, and with characters so rich and lifelike they still seem like people I knew personally, it is also a vastly American novel. The New York City that existed during the golden era of comic books (Kavalier and Clay are cousins, who create a hugely popular--for a time, anyway--comic book called The Escapist) is recreated in technicolor, or, more appropriately, a million shades of gray. There aren't too many colors available for use in the blossoming city, and, though it has a somewhat noir-ish feel, it still smacks very much of being life-like. This is, and always has been, Chabon's forte.

Which brings me to The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Chabon's first novel. It is a coming-of-age tale about a young man named Art Bechstein, who struggles (often histrionically) with his sexuality, both homo- and hetero-. This book, like Kavalier and Clay, exhibits Chabon's mastery of characterization, as well as his uncanny ability to portray place; the catch, though, is that these powers are only in seed here, which still makes for better reading than many other long-time authors, but still leaves a bit to be desired when compared to books like Kavalier and Clay and The Yiddish Policemen's Union. I suppose it's pretty unfair to make the comparison now. It might even be pointless--nearly every good author gets better over time (though many have been known to crest sometime between their forties and sixties). That said, even The Mysteries of Pittsburgh is well worth the time to read.

If you get a chance, check something of his out. He's a really compelling essayist, too, though I haven't read his new-ish collection, Maps and Legends. But I have, so far, read four of his novels, and not one of them has been a disappointment. I look forward to catching up on the rest, and seeing what else he will offer in time.

Palin and the AG

2008-09-06T07:20:00.000-07:00

This article in The NY Times about Sarah Palin's involvement in churches near where she lives in Alaska is quite interesting. If you read the whole way through--it could've used some good editing--it starts to seem that Palin and fam left the local Assemblies of God church because it was a little too extreme (speaking in tongues, healing, etc.). What's also interesting is that the McCain/Palin campaign won't even make a comment. They've been pretty strange about trying to protect Palin so far, and I'm begging to wonder why. It's getting bizarre having her so sheltered from the media scrutiny other high-profile politicians always deal with immediately when put in a prominent position. I hope this isn't an indicator of how they'd run the office.... Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Check out the piece if you get a minute. If you grew up AG, it's actually interesting. If not, she just probably seems crazy.

This is Genius

2008-08-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

This article explains how web security words are helping digitize old books and newspapers, etc. It's pure genius! It's this sort of thing that makes so much sense--a bit like recycling, in a way. Check it out.

This is Just What the Brewers Need

2008-08-05T07:01:00.001-07:00

ESPN has a nice little article on the Brewers' almost supernatural ability to choke during early August. The highlight of the article is the video of Prince Fielder pushing Manny Parra in the dugout. The camaraderie, I suppose, will help them get back on top of the NL Central in no time!

My New Favorite Place...Flooded and is Ruined

2008-06-19T12:13:00.001-07:00

We recently had the honor of a once-in-a-lifetime (unless you live in a flood plain) flood in Oshkosh and our basement was blessed with some sump pump overflow. It was, to say the least, really awesome. Here are a few pictures of the water party...

There is a silver lining, though, to all this. It has gotten me one step closer to a house without any carpeting. I haven't lived any place with carpeting for a while and now I remember why I hate it so much. Also, we paid the $110 a year fee for the sump pump overflow insurance, so instead of being stranded we have enough to take care of pretty much everything that we lost... That, in this first year of marriage, is the sole occasion I can recall where my judgment won out over Corrine's (she suggested we didn't need it). I will revel in this meaningless and stupid victory...and then start cleaning the basement floor with acrid chemicals.

Oh, Come On...

2008-06-06T07:54:00.001-07:00

If another president is elected in America via fear-mongering (what else can explain the support of this kind of shit?), I will be very, very tempted to relinquish what's left of my faith in the American people...and I really don't want that to happen. I care very much about this increasingly ridiculous country. I know there are huge swaths of people who haven't lost their critical faculties, so why does anyone buy into the notion that federal agencies can ever override the judicial system entirely? For all those people who, like completely illiterate fools, keep insisting the judicial branch is re-writing the Constitution, look at the executive one. The whole system is losing its efficacy because the President thinks he's a monarch, not because courts have made certain rulings people don't like. If you can't tell, I'm nearing the end of my rope on subjects like these.... (Here's to hoping the article was monstrously inaccurate in terms of McCain's real thoughts on the subject...)

Strings, Dimensions, God?

2008-05-01T11:20:00.001-07:00

The progression of physics is startling, and Brian Greene is at the forefront of superstring theory, specifically. He has a TED talk here that is truly astounding. When he speaks of other dimensions, I can't help but wonder what these things--if anything--will provide in terms of answers about prayer and our connection to other people, amongst other things. Instead of being put off by these ideas, I am perpetually fascinated and eager to learn more. I hope that the answers will become more readily available in my lifetime.

My New Favorite Place

2008-04-29T18:09:00.001-07:00

For those of you who know me (the 2 or 3 people who actually read this blog) the thought of my own office space--OK, I share it with my wife, but I'm in the room almost constantly and she, bless her beautiful heart, isn't--has always been something I've longed for. The time has finally come. Here are a few snapshots from different posts throughout. Notice on the picture containing the smaller of the two bookshelves the PHAT emblem on the wall courtesy of the former residents. Alas, it's too good and I can't bring myself to take it down.

This one is so timely...

2008-04-28T17:06:00.001-07:00

...given the fact that hundreds of thousands more likely watched the NFL draft than have been watching the NHL playoffs. I love The Onion.

Wow...

2008-04-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

You have to check out this TED talk. Brad often posts these on his blog and that's how I found out about them. If you don't check that site regularly, you should. Here's one that's truly astounding, mainly because it's just some fat guy with an astounding mind making miracles from the smallest, most prosaic thing. Just watch...
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/245

The Long Journey Home

2008-01-13T09:24:00.000-08:00

The New York Times has posted a terrific article about the overwhelming lack of support--and the myriad other factors that contribute to a lack of treatment--for homecoming soldiers involved in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and psychologically damaged by their efforts there. It is a beautiful and affecting piece, rather long, but well worth the time if you can spare it.

Brett Favre is a God Even to His Teammates

2007-12-25T08:13:00.001-08:00

This is a great article from ESPN about Greg Jennings' attempts at connecting with Favre on a personal level. I'm not alone in loving Favre in some weird way--as if, somehow, he's a distant but quirky relative I think is fascinating but have never met. Anyway, if you have a few minutes, it's definitely worth a read. Check it out.

Steroids!

2007-12-14T17:13:00.000-08:00

Chuck Knoblauch used steroids! The most boring player ever used them...really not much of miracle drug.

Oscar Wilde, Dominicanized

2007-10-17T23:03:00.000-07:00

Just finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz a few days ago. Apparently his story collection Drown is very good, too. That was published in the late '90s, though. This one's been a while in the making.

The story takes place over much of the middle and late twentieth century in both the DR and New Jersey. The protagonist is about as nerdy as protagonists get, but the book deals so much with the lives of the people around him that it doesn't get annoying. Actually, the cast in this novel is excellent, each carrying identifiable traits that work to make it enthralling and gripping but still ponderous and really thoughtful, too.

Diaz's prose is excellent, the narrator's voice in this novel one of the most unique I've ever read. There are splatters of Spanish that, even for people whose Spanish is awful, don't get in the way at all, really. Oscar Wao's life really is brief and it really is wondrous. It is tragic and beautiful and the way it all plays out is strange because it is so sad but it really couldn't have ended any other way. If you have time, check this one out. Excellent stuff. I just hope it doesn't take quite 10 years for something else from Diaz to appear. Another excellent writer I'm really happy to have found.

Jesus' Son

2007-10-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

Denis Johnson's new novel "Tree of Smoke" just came out last month to rave reviews. I've been meaning to read something of his for a while and since the new book is almost 30 dollars, I opted for "Jesus' Son," a collection of stories that takes its name from a Velvet Underground song called "Heroin."

The collection is good. Really, really good.

For a long time I had no time for short stories. Turns out I was just reading the wrong ones. In the last year I've read and loved collections by Raymond Carver, George Saunders and now Denis Johnson. Since I'm trying to put together a few stories of my own, it's really refreshing to read all this stuff. It's also a bit depressing in that banal way everything is when you realize you have a long way to go before you're any good at it.

Anyway, this collection has a narrator whose only given name is Fuckhead. The stories are insane, drug-addled tales about the narrator and his companions' lives, but there is something really beautiful about the imagery and language in the pieces -- not to mention a captivating look at what redemption means, something I find fascinating and refreshing. His progression isn't romanticized. It is simply chronicled in beautiful, sonorous tones. I really like this book. Since it's 15 years old, this was probably a waste of my time, but if you enjoy honest, visceral writing that does something more than that run of the mill, postgrad student fiction does, pick this up.

Even I'm Surprised

2007-10-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

Regardless of how you feel about the man, you have to admit this was an incredibly dickheaded thing to do -- denying an improvement in the health care system because it might help more than just those in abject poverty is stunning, even for Mr. Bush. Unbelievable. For those who might still deny the insane power of lobbyists and special interest groups, a decision like this has to at least cause a wince, a chink in the armor of almost preternatural (and consistently self-maintained) naivety.

Books. I think...

2007-09-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

This is the first post in an awful long time, but since I've heard more than one person say they've actually checked it, I thought I'd give it another go.

I've been going a bit batty with the books on CD lately. In the last month or so, I've finished Zadie Smith's "White Teeth" (a not unimpressive 21 hours worth of listening...), Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" (narrated be Ethan Hawke, whose German in breathtaking), and, most recently, Frederick Douglass' Slave Narratives.
For those who haven't listened to books on CD, it's really interesting. It's somewhere between watching a film version of a book and actually reading it. I always just assumed that narrators simply read the books as straighforwardly as possible. Actually, it's quite a bit more like a single person production, with each reader interpreting to different degrees (some more effectively than others).
Currently I'm listening to "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin. A curious one, for sure. The narrator's implementation of something I imagine to be his best impersonation of Uncle Tom is used every time he speaks with the voice of a black southerner, sensational in that the whole book takes place, get this...in the south! White southerners don't--and never did--speak without southern drawls, all the while their darker complected counterparts speaking in the deep drawl of the Bayou. It's pretty ridiculous and, given what the book is often saying, a bit off-putting. Still an interesting read, no less. And Griffin is obviously a rather talented writer, something of a pleasant surprise since he was, loosely, a journalist.
Journalists often suck at writing. I can say that because what I do for a living is textual prostitution, not journalism...but I can't write either, so not quite sure what my point is anymore. Anyway, if you get a chance, listen to an old favorite or something new. It's definitely worth a chance.

Work & Wedding

2007-07-09T05:17:00.000-07:00

I'm getting married on Friday and I have to work Monday - Wednesday this week. It's going to suck. I propose that there be some sort of marital leave--something along the lines of maternal leave in longevity.... Anyway, long story short: if you get married take more time off before the wedding than I did so you don't have to do something you don't want to be doing from the moment you wake up till the moment you fall asleep. I have no down time this week. Somebody give me some down time.

Spiderman 3: Where Bad's the New Good

2007-05-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

I would apologize for the lack of posts, but I talk to myself enough as it is....

I just had the privilege of watching Spiderman 3 with a friend of mine this evening. I have one thing to say: being bad has never looked....well...so bad. If you're not into self-indulgent films, don't see this one. There's a badly concocted right/wrong good/evil light/dark thing going on here that's children's book simple but sketched with a slightly disabled grownup's tastes. Certainly a bit of what we all hate and fear lives inside each of us, but please, for Christ's sake, just say that instead taking a two and a half hour dump on all our heads.

The most surprising thing about this film, though, is not that it's not good. I wasn't expecting good. I was expecting what one expects when attending a Superman flick: good special effects, comic book romanticism, and some kick ass fighting. The only thing i got was good special effects. I went to the film just expecting to give it a passing grade, like mindless time spent with that really stupid, but nice and funny, meathead friend (choose your variation, you know what I mean) that everyone has. Instead, it was more like a showed up to have a beer with him and he pinned me down and kicked me in the balls for a while. Anyway, you get it. Don't bother seeing this film...unless, of course, you enjoy self-flagellation.

Farewell Falwell

2007-05-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

Jerry Falwell is dead.

The Holiday...

2007-04-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

sucks.

More significantly, though, Kurt Vonnegut died. This is depressing. It seems that there is a whole group of terrific mid/late twentieth century writers who are all either dying or putting out a last novel or two before they die.... It'll be interesting to see who carries the proverbial torch. Will it be Jonathan Safran Foer, Zadie Smith (I know...she's British and female!), David Foster Wallace, etc.? Or will it be a bunch of writers we don't know anything about yet? I suggest that writers in the great American tradition will become less and less distinguishable from their international counterparts as America becomes less and less the international force it so prides itself with being at this point. We'll see. Let's just hope someone's writing something spectacular out there...anywhere.

The beauty of the individual verse

2007-03-31T08:17:00.000-07:00

Corrine and I are taking a pre-marital course at Christ the Rock church in Menasha after some prodding. It is precisely what I expected it to be.... Of course, there have been dozens of blanks to fill in--gotta keep 'em occupied. Anyway, I just wanted to share my favorite element of it so far. I will write this exactly as it occurs in the little booklet:

"Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral [fornicators]" (Hebrews 13:4, NW).

I looked at the actual context of the verse again. It is the "concluding exhortations" to the Hebrews. This verse is one in a list of many; it is undeniably not a section concerned exhaustively with sexuality. Truthfully, I'm not really all that concerned with what Christ the Rock is teaching. I am concerned, though, that not only can a verse like this be decontextualized to this extent, but that whoever was putting together the booklet felt it was their right--nay, their obligation--to add, in brackets, a definitive definition of what sexual immorality looks like. Could the writer of Hebrews have been speaking to child molesters or prostitutes? That question means nothing in the context of this class, and it's this that I find most frustrating about the whole situation.

I've been involved in courses in churches like this one enough times to know that opening my mouth in query isn't going to do anything but ruffle feathers and give the impression that I'm out to sabotage the rules and guidelines God made manifest in the Bible. But all the time I'm a part of something like this I cannot help but feel that, in more ways than just this one, this type of (mis)reading is not only a refusal to engage the text, but a willful (if hidden in multifarious layers) attempt to guard even those teaching the class from really engaging the text for themselves.

I hope I'm wrong. I really, really do. I hope all of these people feel that reading texts in ways that don't line up exactly with what their church espouses is not only acceptable, but essential.

Blood Diamonds, amongst other things...

2007-03-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

I just finished Blood Diamonds and it was a pleasant (probably not at all the right word for this film...) surprise in a lot of ways. Leonardo DiCaprio certainly put on a performance I found powerful; the capacity of certain actors to portray people with dubious character in a way that makes the viewer care for them is a special talent few of them possess. The rest of the cast did a really nice job, too. The film, if you haven't seen it, is beautiful and should be viewed by everyone. It is, to be sure, one of the most affecting films I've seen in an awful long time.

What has me thinking, though, after the film, is the abundance of internationally-themed films that have been getting mainstream attention the last few years. My reaction after finishing the movie surprised me. (Bear with me, this involves dodgy theology and, vaguely, postcolonial theory.) I started to think about all the films and news stories that have been more accessible to everyday newsreaders and film-watchers in America and the staggering amount of ostensibly thoughtless bloodshed contained therein. Then, as those who know my history will understand, I started considering the notion of the world's end in the peculiar nomenclature of rapture-speak--wars and rumors of wars, etc.--and found myself frustrated that I might even bother myself that way. As I quickly reminded myself, wars (civil, preemptive, whatever other titles you'd like to give them) have been waged for as long as man has been around; however, it is just the proliferation of news and information that has allowed the rest of the world to see them nearly firsthand and get involved in one way or another. It is always frightening when I consider things like this because I cannot help but think of all the people who grew up in situations similar to mine that watch films like this (if they watch R rated films, that is) and read news stories and fail to connect the more poignant, real-life issues to their own lives because they are so consumed with the "next" life. I keep coming back to a thought I had a few weeks ago: It really seems to me that, as the privileged of the world, we are obliged (morally, theologically, humanly) in a way that closely resembles the ideas wrapped up in the idea of noblesse oblige. Royalty so often avoided guilt and/or responsibility by suggesting the rewards for the less fortunate here on earth when they reach heaven. It is a frightening thought and a connection that, I believe, is made very infrequently. How we help those in need without exercising hegemony or Otherizing them is another issue altogether, but what cannot be ignored is our corporeal responsibility. I know these thoughts are hardly amazing, but they are my own, and they are how I, in all my multifarious wanderings and wonderings, try to come to terms with who, what, and where I am.

GRE nonsense...

2007-03-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

I'm working on signing up for the GRE right now and I'm finding the whole process a bit ridiculous. There are general and subject tests, and the cost of the exam either way is nonsense. I've taken some of the practice tests and they aren't that bad, but I just cannot stand the concept of general testing. It's been proven time and time again that general tests are geared to make rich kids look smart and poor kids look stupid--that's pretty much a banality by now. I understand that the number of people applying for graduate programs makes the absence of a deciding factor like the GRE almost impossible, but something has to change. I'm sure I'll do fine, fall somewhere in the middle of the bell curve, and get into a middle-grade graduate program. That's what the test is supposed to insure and I'm fairly confident it will. Hurrah for the GRE! Another hegemonic roadblock for the monetarily challenged....

Why We Fight

2007-03-05T07:55:00.000-08:00

I watched this film with Corrine yesterday and it was a rather frightening experience. I'm not often excited by the real leftist films that are more conspiracy and hyperbole than anything else, but this film covered its bases in a way that the aforementioned films almost never do: it included direct footage--it even appeared to be footage taken specifically for the film--from those it most disparaged and, instead of pulling a Michael Moore and trying to make everyone on the right look malicious and insane, Eugene Jarecki let everyone speak for themselves. It was, and this is why I say the movie is disconcerting, amazing to hear what some folks unabashedly said.

It is also a powerful film in its use of Eisenhower quotes and footage (along with video of both his son and granddaughter speaking on what they assume is his behalf). The film also shows a lot of George W. Bush speaking and the disparities are astounding. Ike wasn't perfect. He, too, was guilty of some fairly rotten things, but there are just certain elements of the way he spoke that seem so indicative of how the country was run then and how it is now. When discussing the cost of the war, Ike lamented the loss it meant for American people; Bush never discusses the cost of the war. To be more picky, Ike is credited with coining the term "military-industrial complex" (which plays very significantly in the film); Bush's contribution to the English language is "nuculer" for "nuclear". By now it's obvious that I'm no fan of Bush. That said, I don't want to see a film that just lambastes me with banal complaints about the current administration. This one doesn't. As I've said in earlier posts, I really appreciate the sort of writer and/or filmmaker who allows the viewers to decide. It would be ridiculous to suggest that Why We Fight isn't heavily leftist. Even so, it is usually metered, it is smart, entertaining, frightening, and certainly worth a watch.

What I'm reading

2007-02-26T21:11:00.000-08:00

Just a quick list for the absolutely no one interested....

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver
Prelude to Revolution by Daniel Singer
The Cave by Jose Saramago
TIME & SPACE: Measuring Instruments from the 15th to the 19th Century by Saumel Guye and
Henri Michel

Who translated the title?

2007-02-23T16:18:00.000-08:00

Before I say anything about the movie, I have a question to ask: Who allows certain movie and book translations to pass as they do? The original title of the film is El Laberinto del Fauno. My Spanish is, to put it kindly, rubbish. Even so, how did the the faun--whose centrality in the movie is undeniable--become Pan in the American title? The movie is titled The Labyrinth of the Faun in some countries, but not here.... I have some serious qualms with things like this.

This isn't the first time I've been confused by this type of thing, either. A novel by the French expat Michel Houellebecq entitled Les particules elementaires was translated into American English as The Elementary Articles--fair enough. In Britain and elsewhere, though, it was titled Atomised. Why? I understand that what is being said is, in many ways, very similar, but why this impulse to reinvent the titles of works of art? I know my frustration here stems from an almost painful unilinguialism on my part. If I can't even trust the translation of a work's title, how much stock can I really place on the more significant translating going on within the work? This is my own fault. I should have a grasp of more than one language at this point, but it's where I'm at, and it is frustrating on a number of levels...

Anyway, what was I saying? Ahhh, yes, the movie:
It's a really interesting film, unique in its treatment of fairy tales. What are really dark, frightening stories have been manipulated and the texts excised in ways that make them seem more appropriate for the contemporary child. This movie acknowledges the tradition that fairy tales come from in a more honest way than any I can recall (which doesn't say much).

What I found really interesting was the interplay between the young girl's infinitely powerful imagination and the bleak milieu that was post-civil-war-Spain (the trailer is a bit deceiving here--the movie spends more time on the world surrounding the child than it actually does in her own). There is such a rich attention to detail in both worlds that they are, at times, equally frightening and bewildering.

What becomes of the little girl, her mother, her unborn baby brother, and her sadistic, militaristic stepfather is something I won't go into because the movie is interesting enough that I suggest everyone watch it. I will say this, though: I have a soft-spot for the power of imagination, not just because it has been so important in my own life, but because I absolutely agree with what Guillermo Del Toro seems to be saying in this film. It is not a mere moralizing, but there is a strength to be found in the imagination that cannot be found in any other realm.

2007-02-20T09:01:00.000-08:00

I just finished Kazuo Ishiguro's sixth novel yesterday. Nearly all the elements seem simple--vocabulary, diction, plot, etc.--and they are, as such; however, these simple units make up an interesting and surprisingly complex whole. I haven't read any of Ishiguro's other stuff yet, but I will definitely give The Remains of the Day a try (since I already own it, but my borderline perverse bibliophily is another matter altogether...).

The narrator--an early thirty-something named Kathy H.--recalls the events of her childhood at an institution called Hailsham. Her two closest friends, Ruth and Tommy, figure as heavily into the novel as Kathy does, and it is within the ostensible minutiae that dictates life for these three that it becomes increasingly evident that they are not the same as you or me. Ishiguro's talent for detail is impressive, especially since he's forced to work within the first-person narrative framework of a woman decades younger than he is.

Frighteningly, it takes a while to realize that the narrator and her friends are all clones. As the secrets of their lives unfold through the eerily cool voice of Kathy, who knows nothing outside of life as a man-made copy, the novel works its way toward a sad, visceral truth: these three, along with all their friends, must "donate" their vital organs at the prime of their physical lives. One of the most depressing episodes occurs when a group of these cloned children search after Ruth's "possible"--that is, the woman whose double she might be.

All that said, I am not one for outright moralizing in literature; however, I don't think Ishiguro is at all guilty of that here. He has painted an interesting portrait of what science might do to us if we refuse to acknowledge the uniqueness of life, but he has done it in such a way that it is neither sappy, trite, nor cheap. It is often beautiful and moving and it refuses to make decisions for the reader which, I happen to believe, is one of the most significant things literature can strive for. It is certainly worth a read, and I look forward to taking up more of Ishiguro's stuff when time permits.

Giving it a go...hesitantly

2007-02-20T07:30:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd give this a shot--although it feels a bit like I've simply graduated from Facebook, skipped MySpace (due to superior performance, of course) and gone straight to the grown-up world of socio-politico-theological debate (although blogging is a bit more like masturbating than sleeping around). I may write on here once a month, or I just might find that I really enjoy it and write nearly every day--there is no telling at this point. This blog's a stage, and I guess that makes me a player of some sort. Sorry. Anyway, I'm probably the only person that will ever read this, but at least I can make comments on other people's blogs now.