Monsters

"The monsters that surround you are real, but your hate and fear and worry and spite are your own creation. "

Thanks to Radman for posting his challenge to underclassmen - and the rest of us. Thank you for challenging us to take a serious look at the selfishness through which we view our world.

Frichtl

Congrats to Ben Frichtl, who has garnered at least one admiring reader. This fan was so impressed by a piece Frichtl did for his CWA internship she (?? the gender would be right if the username were Latin) actually made up off the top of her head an entire interview with him. Although the dialog isn't always the most flattering (for Frichtl, that is; she manages to do pretty well for herself), it is interesting how much she is able to pick up on.

Impacting our world? Well, getting imaginary conversations posted is at least a start, and Dr. B says no press is bad press as long as they spell your name correctly :-)

Depression

I have a piece of music I downloaded a long time ago that I listen to when I feel particularly depressed or worried. It is a high school band trying -- and I am sure they were trying really hard -- to play some of the themes from The Empire Strikes Back. They come close to pulling it off in a few places, but on the whole the entire thing is one of the most awful musical catastrophes to have ever been released upon the public.

It always makes me feel better for two reasons - one, I have never done anything like that and STILL posted it on the internet. It makes me smile in wonder at what could have posessed them to actually put it on their website.

But the second thing I like about it is what a reminder it is of how faithfulness in little things takes care of big things. It isn't that the kids didn't want to sound good on the day of the performance, and it isn't that the conductor didn't conduct his heart out, but the reason the band was so bad was that the kids did other things besides work on their technique, their sound quality, their sight reading, their sense of pitch and blend. So when you put it together, the euphonium is a few shades too sharp, the french horns don't come in together, the flute unison isn't, the crash cymbal really does, and one of the trumpets has no volume control. I don't need to play the whole orchestra, I just have to learn my notes, get a sense of tone, and adjust my pitch to fit what is going on around me.

For example, as an application to my life right now, if I quit blogging and start studying for my exam tomorrow, they might even say to me, "Hey, you're not half bad. Tell you what, why don't we let you keep attending law school?" Then I would smile and think of that poor band and how one of those kids might even be one of my classmates, getting better grades than me because he was busy doing writing and logic assignments intead of practicing music... it's all a matter of perspective, I suppose.

Sauce of the Week

Today's sauce is a bit unusual. It is designed primarily as a beverage, and one that you won't find most traditional Baptists sipping. Today, I proudly present the marinade capabilities of a great lager,

Killian's Irish Red.

Partly because I like things that are traditional and partly because I am lazy, I am a fan of pot roasts. (Another reason is that it is a beef I can afford.) Pot roast is a meal you can cook in a crock pot while you are out of the house all day. However, simple sodden beef, onions, potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables, are really a pretty bland combination, and garlic, rosemary, chives, and company can only go so far to make it interesting. Using beer instead of water for slow cooking the mix, however, results in a very full flavor permeating the meat and giving character to the herbage. I have tried this with a number of beers, including Sam Adams and Guinness, but by far my favorite for cooking is Killian's Irish Red Lager.

*For anyone with qualms about supporting alcohol companies, note that Killians is bottled by Coors, which founded and supports the Heritage Foundation, so by buying Red, you are supporting the conservative American way of life.

A grab bag of thoughts on Mormons

Have to wonder how the Mormon day-walkers chose the one week I don't have any time to argue with them to make a home visit...

Oh, and how is it that there is a Mormon missionary that looks just like Samantha Clark? You can imagine my confusion as I tried to figure out, upon looking through my front door, what kind of emergency could possibly force her to my doorstep, or how she tracked down my place without managing to, say, get my phone number instead, or what she was doing this far away from anywhere she would normally be found.

A friend and I at law school were considering whether, should gay marriage end up winning in the federal court system, the Salt Lake City prophet would discern that it was then the appropriate time for polygamy to be restored. It was by revelation of the sitting prophet (at the same time the US made Utah's entry into the Union conditioned on a ban on polygamy) that the time for polygamy was not then. Should the factors that existed at the time of the original revelation be weakened, one has to wonder if they will go for it. In some future post, I may explore the constitutional argument to be made on whether if gender doesn't matter, number should.

Final Exams

Is it a bad sign if one of the points on my course outline ends with "Pray this doesn't come up in the exam"?

Another's work (again)

Mr. Krull calls it straight on conservative paternalism toward the relationships between adults that are younger than themselves. (If you have an internet filter that looks for words within URLs, click here and look for the post "Sex, Sex, Sex" instead.)

On the topic in general, you may also find of interest James Spurgeon's Tales of the Temple, much of which will sound oddly familiar to the navy-and-white crowd.

One of the better quizzes out there

Although I normally don't post this sort of thing, this personality quiz seemed to do a good job of having a balance of analyses and topics, as well as having an easy-to-answer format, and questions that don't (always) give away the answer.

You scored as Batman, the Dark Knight. As the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman is a vigilante who deals out his own brand of justice to the criminals and corrupt of the city. He follows his own code and is often misunderstood. He has few friends or allies, but finds comfort in his cause.

Batman, the Dark Knight		79%
Indiana Jones		67%
William Wallace		63%
James Bond, Agent 007		63%
Neo, the "One"		61%
Lara Croft		58%
The Amazing Spider-Man		54%
Maximus		42%
The Terminator		42%
Captain Jack Sparrow		38%
El Zorro		25%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com


And for your laughter and enjoyment, on HP quizzes, I do normally come up as Hermione Granger. Occasionally, I show up as Bill Weasley, although that one is probably related to the fact that I am about to marry a Veela and sometimes bear, in personality, a resemblance to a werewolf when I wake up... ;-)

Growing Pains of Evolution

In this article, BBC reports that animal behavior changes do not appear to be coordinated very well with the environmental changes they appear to be aimed at and with other species. For example, certain catepillars seem to be emerging earlier in the year, and some birds haven't responded, some have begun laying eggs earlier in the year - but by too much.

Although changes deal with behavior, not genetics per se, it does make one wonder about the grand processes that are held as the sacred cows of science and education. So apparently evolution is all fine and well to explain how the universe came to exist, but is inadequate when it comes to common observable changes?

If only she had read "Never Been Kissed"...

Girl Dies in Peanut Butter Kiss

-or-

How reactionary horse-and-buggyist homeschool conservativism could have saved the life of a Canadian teen.

PHC Prof Published

Dr. David Aikman, PHC's new history prof, was recently published in UPI, having written a quick outline of his views on US-China relations. The article is available here.

Cool (well, warm) clothing review

Being busy with after-Thanksgiving and preparations for final exams, I leave you with just a reference to an interesting article about how the clothing worn by 1920s European Himalayas climbers appears to have been better designed, lighter, and more versatile than modern "high-tech" climbing outfits.

Alcohol Consumption

It seems the Russians' reputation for drinking is not as well deserved as is popularly believed. The World Health Organization has recently released alcohol consumption statistics for Europe, and Russia is ranked 22nd, behind most western European countries in average liters of pure alcohol per person. Among others, Ireland, the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, and Finland came in wetter than Russia.

A real surprise on the list was the fact that Luxembourg drinks the most, per capita, in Europe - 14.61 liters of pure alcohol per capita. In terms of American-strength beer, this works out to more than two and a quarter bottles of beer per man, woman, and child every day throughout the entire year.

Obscure quote

"If we used steel money,
priests would have magnetic gods."

Wedding story

There was great rejoicing this weekend as TF and CJ tied the knot. I thought I would share one incident from the event that, if nothing else, has increased the merriment of those who heard.

I arrived in town early, and, among other things, still needed to get a wedding card. I found a drugstore, purchased a card, went to the church, and (while sitting in my van) began writing a note. Suddenly, I realized I couldn't remember whether the word I was in the middle of was spelled "indelible" or "indellible." I couldn't write them both down and see which looked better, so I walked over to the church, intending perhaps to see if there was a dictionary in the church office. As I walked around the building, however, I noticed a public library across the street. Wearing my suit and carrying the card, I went into the library, found the reference section, pulled out the trusty OED, and found "in-del'-i-ble." With this assurance, I finished the card and went in to the wedding.