Stranger and stranger

I also had no idea that the Patriarch of the Oriental Orthodox Church, His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV, resides in Chicago, Illinois.

Early schism

There are 550,000 followers of the Oriental Orthodox Church, mostly in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, USA, and India. Why am I fascinated by this, other than as more proof that I would need thousands and thousands of lifetimes to learn, read, and experience all the things I would like to.

Encyclopedia: Eastern Rite:
2. Those who accepted the Council of Chalcedon 451 similarly classified those who rejected it as Monophysite heretics. The Churches that refused to accept it considered, of course, that it was they who were orthodox. The six present-day Churches that continue their tradition reject the description 'Monophysite'. They are often called, in English, Oriental Orthodox Churches, to distinguish them from the Eastern Orthodox Churches. This distinction, by which the words 'oriental' and 'eastern' are used as labels for two different realities, is impossible in most other languages and is not universally accepted even in English. These churches are also be referred to as non-Chalcedonian or, more positively, as pre-Chalcedonian.

How old these arguments have been

Encyclopedia: Nestorianism
Nestorius (c.386-c.451) was a pupil of Theodore of Mopsuestia in Antioch in Syria and later became Patriarch of Constantinople. He preached against the use of the title Mother of God (Theotokos) for the Virgin Mary and would only call her Mother of Christ (Christotokos). He also argued that God could never be a helpless child, and could not suffer on the cross. His opponents accused him of dividing Christ into two persons: arguing that God the Word did not suffer and die on the cross, while Jesus the man did, or that God the Word was omniscient, while Jesus the man had limited knowledge, effectively implies two separate persons with separate experiences. Nestorius responded that he believed that Christ was indeed one person (Greek: prosopon).

This is really old news, isn't it?

How many Christians know this? Is this generally held as true in the Catholic view of history and the universe?

Encyclopedia: Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion:
The church, in the ancient town of Axum in Tigray Province, claims to possess the original Ark of the Covenant. According to tradition, Menelik I brought it to Ethiopia after visiting his father King Solomon. Only the head priest of the Church may view the Ark, in accordance with the Bible accounts of the dangers of doing so for non-Levites. This lack of accessibility has led foreign scholars to express doubt about the veracity of the claim.

NationMaster.com - Where Stats Come Alive!

Wow! I realize more and more that the cool things I could read or learn about would take thousands upon thousands of lifetimes to experience.

NationMaster.com - Where Stats Come Alive!:
We currently have 4,657 stats, and this number is increasing all the time. We want to be the web's one-stop resource for country statistics on anything and everything, whether it be soldiers, olympic medals, tourists, English speakers or wall plug voltages. You can also view profiles of individual countries including their maps and flags. You can use correlation reports and scatterplots to find relationships between variables. Integrated into these is a full encyclopedia with over 200,000 articles.

Rastafari movement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I never realized that Rastafarians use the Old Testament as the base of their religion as well. I've been unfamiliar with the history of it before now. I would very much like to see a movement that starts reclassifying things now seen as Judeo-Christian as Judeo-Christian-Rastafarian. That would make me chuckle.

Rastafari movement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Some Rastafari choose to classify their religion as Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, Protestant Christianity, or Judaism. Of those, the ties to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church are the most widespread, though discussed controversially by their clergy. Rastafari believe that standard translations of the Bible incorporate changes created by the racist white power structure. They also revere the Ethiopian national epic, the Kebra Negast."

Paradox of hedonism

I like having such a self-limiting paradox as a central part of a philosophy. It's like not being able to find Love if that's what you go looking for.

Paradox of hedonism - definition of Paradox of hedonism in Encyclopedia:
If, whether for good or bad reasons, one does equate happiness with pleasure, then the paradox of hedonism arises. When one aims solely towards pleasure itself, one's aim is frustrated. Sidwick comments on such frustration after a discussion of self-love in the above-mentioned work:

'I should not, however, infer from this that the pursuit of pleasure is necessarily self-defeating and futile; but merely that the principle of Egoistic Hedonism, when applied with a due knowledge of the laws of human nature, is practically self-limiting; i.e., that a rational method of attaining the end at which it aims requires that we should to some extent put it out of sight and not directly aim at it.'

Sun is good: I am disturbed on many levels by this

Too little sun as bad as too much? - Other Cancer News - MSNBC.com:
“The statement that ’no sun exposure is good’ I don’t think is correct anymore,” said Dr. Henry Lim, chairman of dermatology at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit and an academy vice president.

I am disturbed that we humans have driven industrialized, anti-nature society to the point that we would ever make statements like "no sun exposure is good."

I am disturbed that people would seek a life of absolutely no risks (cancer, obesity, alcoholism, heart attacks, drug addiction, accidental death, broken hearts, plane crashes, etc.) instead of balancing them against the rewards of the pleasures of the flesh (sunshine, sugar, olive oil, bourbon, double cheeseburgers, cannabis, one night stands, marriage, riding a horse). Sure, someday you will or may pay a cost for that pleasure; but you're paying a cost for refusing that pleasure as well. Although, in the interest of disclosure, I must say that I am a hedonist.

I am disturbed that there is a direct relationship between how much I trust a scientific study and how harmful the results of that study are to commercial interests. The sun is free; very few people can make money on this. I guess the tanning industry might smile on the news, but they are nothing compared to the drug, beauty and chemical companies that create sunscreen ingredients.

Are rich Republicans getting fed up?

Or is the Washington Post staff just really hoping they are?

Business Groups Tire of GOP Focus On Social Issues
"I'm inclined to support the Republican Party, but the question becomes, how much other stuff do I have to put up with to maintain that identification?" asked Andrew A. Samwick, a Dartmouth College economics professor who until recently was chief economist of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers.

GRE scores

I took the Graduate Record Exam practice test using the software that the GRE folks provide for free. I can't say I'm particularly surprised by the results. Let me first state that I purposefully did not practice or look at anything in regard to the exam, including the number of questions and the time that I had to answer them; I didn't study a thing, mathematically or verbally, completely and totally going into it cold.

Given that:

On the Verbal I scored 620, which it said was 92nd percentile, and finished all the questions.

The Math (Quantitative) score was only 500, which it said was 32nd percentile.

I might normally be crushed by my Quantitative score, but I only saw half of the questions and not because they stumped me but because I was really slow having not cranked out math in a long time (say, 14 years). Of the questions I did answer, I answered only one wrong. All of the questions seem very simple (annual interest rate, basic geometry, basic algebra, interpreting graphs, etc.). I have little doubt that just practicing math will raise my speed, and thus my score, into the 90th percentile and above.

As to the verbal, I did well for taking it cold, but I can't really gauge how I'll do after lots of studying. I have a pretty damn extensive vocabulary right now and don't know how well I can sharpen it. But I'll try.

As of right now, I look forward to taking the GRE and think it will be a lot of fun, especially the analytical writing portion.

Librarianship...Bloomington Library

Librarianship...Bloomington Library: "Contrary to popular belief, librarians do not have time to sit and read books all day.
A librarian's work actually involves acquiring, organizing and making the library's information available to its readers. Those who handle duties related to acquiring materials for the library would need to be able to select and purchase materials within a given budget. They read book reviews, publishers' announcements, and catalogues to keep up with current literature and other available resources, and select and purchase materials from publishers, wholesalers, and distributors. Librarians also organize lists of books, periodicals, pamphlets, articles, and audiovisual materials, analyse collections, do genealogical research and recommend materials. They even maintain library Web Sites! Librarians supervise assistants who prepare cards, computer records, or other access tools that direct users to resources.

Librarians are classified according to the type of library in which they work-public libraries, school libraries, media center, academic libraries, and special libraries. Librarians also work in information centers or libraries maintained by government agencies; corporations; law firms; advertising agencies; museums; professional associations; religious organizations; research laboratories; commercial, industrial, and scientific organizations; public and private sector undertakings; medical centers, and hospitals."

Just What Does a Librarian Do?

Just What Does a Librarian Do?

What Does a Librarian Do?

What Does a Librarian Do?: "Librarians take special pleasure in finding answers to what may seem like difficult questions. “Who was the first man to fly?” “When was the United States Secret Service organized and why?” “How much did the United States pay for Alaska?” “What is the weight of a person’s skin?” “How are TV ratings figured?” “How many new books were published in 1962?” Often the quickness and ease with which librarians find the answers seem like sheer magic to the questioner. Unlike magicians, however, librarians are willing to explain how it is done—which reference book is the right one to use, and how to use it quickly. From their training, librarians have learned what books to turn to in order to find different kinds of information, and they enjoy sharing this skill with others. [p. 16] "

Well, I'll be

It never occurred to me. Thanks, Janella.
Wayne State Library and Information Science Program

Chronology of a fine dinner

I am absolutely stunned in ways I can't comprehend much less describe: chronology of a fine dinner

Witchcraft not welecome in the 1st amendment

WITCHCRAFT NOT WELCOME:
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled a Virginia county can refuse to let a witch give the invocation at its meetings by limiting the privilege to clergy representing Judeo-Christian monotheism.
...
The 4th Circuit ruled Chesterfield County’s Board of Supervisors did not show impermissible motive in refusing to permit a pantheistic invocation by a Wiccan because its list of clergy who registered to conduct invocations covers a wide spectrum of Judeo-Christian denominations. Simpson v. Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, No. 04-1045 (April 14). Chesterfield County is in the Richmond suburbs.

'The Judeo-Christian tradition is, after all, not a single faith but an umbrella covering many faiths,' Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote in the opinion.

Also see commentary here.

Strange articles found at night

Much more inside the link for those strangely fascinated by Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg being talked to by a journalist like a journalist should talk to someone. UNLIKE IN AMERICA!

Favorite quote from the journalist: "That's not correct. Yours is never mentioned among the recognized detox programs. Independent experts warn against it because it is rooted in pseudo science."

SPIEGEL Interview with Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg: Actor Tom Cruise Opens Up about his Beliefs in the Church of Scientology - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE:
SPIEGEL: We visited one of your locations near Los Angeles and were amazed to find a fully staffed tent of the Scientology organization right next to the food tents for the journalists and extras.

Cruise: What were you amazed about?

SPIEGEL: Why do you go so extremely public about your personal convictions?

Cruise: I believe in freedom of speech. I felt honored to have volunteer Scientology ministers on the set. They were helping the crew. When I'm working on a movie, I do anything I can to help the people I'm spending time with. I believe in communication.

SPIEGEL: The tent of a sect at someone's working place still seems somewhat strange to us. Mr. Spielberg, did that tent strike you as unusual?

Letting your life speak -- Beliefnet.com

Letting your life speak -- Beliefnet.com:
If I am to let my life speak things I want to hear, things I would gladly tell others, I must also let it speak things I do not want to hear and would never tell anyone else! My life is not only about my strengths and virtues, it is also about my liabilities and my limits, my trespasses and my shadow. An inevitable though often ignored dimension of the quest for 'wholeness' is that we must embrace what we dislike or find shameful about ourselves as well as what we are confident and proud of. That is why the poet says, 'Ask me mistakes I have made.'

Letting your life speak -- Beliefnet.com

Letting your life speak -- Beliefnet.com:
Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what is truly about--quite apart from what I would like it to be about--or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my intentions.

That insight is hidden in the word vocation itself, which is rooted in the Latin for 'voice.' Vocation does not mean a goal that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear. Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.

Where are our sensibilities?

I'm embarrassed to live in a country in which the mere mention of anal sex and a gesture indicating masturbating "incited an immediate breach of the peace within the crowd" and caused the person to be arrested.
Another Counter-Coulter Bust - May 4, 2005
During a speech last night at the University of Texas in Austin, a 19-year-old UT student was busted after asking Coulter a lewd question, which he followed up with equally inappropriate hand gestures, according to the below police affidavit. The student, Ajai Raj, was arrested by campus police and hit with a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge.

The Christian Complex

Nice article from George Will.
The Christian Complex by George Will:
The state of America's political discourse is such that the president has felt it necessary to declare that unbelievers can be good Americans. In last week's prime-time news conference, he said: "If you choose not to worship, you're equally as patriotic as somebody who does worship."

So Mark Twain, Oliver Wendell Holmes and a long, luminous list of other skeptics can be spared the posthumous ignominy of being stricken from the rolls of exemplary Americans. And almost 30 million living Americans welcomed that presidential benediction.
...
Religion is today banished from the public square? John Kennedy finished his first report to the nation on the Soviet missiles in Cuba with these words: 'Thank you and good night.' It would be a rash president who today did not conclude a major address by saying, as President Ronald Reagan began the custom of doing, something very like 'God bless America.'

Unbelievers should not cavil about this acknowledgment of majority sensibilities. But Republicans should not seem to require, de facto, what the Constitution forbids, de jure: 'No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust.'

The Christian Complex

The following sent a chill through me, because it sounds like such a prescription for a popularly elected President. Only New York has experienced the real griminess of Rudy Giuliani's mayorship. I hate to think the stage is set for Rudy Giuliani to roll into the Presidential nomination for the Republican party, but Cheney isn't going to run.

The Christian Complex:
Although Giuliani's eight years as New York's mayor, measured by such achievements as reduction of crime and welfare rolls, constitute perhaps America's most transformative conservative governance in the past half-century, he supports abortion rights, gay rights and gun control

Bald Jason's Musings - about J and I

Now, see, this is the problem with blogs without RSS or Atom feeds. I miss new entries and forget to check the blog for a couple of weeks. I especially hate missing entries from people I like; doubly especially when they're about Janella and I; triply especially when they're so sweet and flattering. I swear (and I'd say this whether or not Jason had just flattered us) that Jason is one of the sweetest and most colorful people I've met in a long time.

Janella and I have a habit of watching movies on DVD almost every night. I realize that's kind of a boring way to spend one's evening for many people, but that's one of the 4,182 reasons that Janella and I are perfect for each other because we don't find it boring. (Hey, recently we've been going out bowling too!) Well, about two long blocks from our house is a special Hollywood Video store which has 1000s and 1000s of independent films. Janella and I started becoming regulars there when we had late fees at the other two video stores we frequented and found out that this particular video store didn't care whether we paid our late fees or not before renting another video. (Late fees, late payments, and forgetting to return library books are another one of the 4,286 reasons that Janella and I are perfect for each other.)

Janella and I realized that all of the staff at this video store seemed to share a certain friendliness and rapport with us which we appreciated. But Janella and I began to realize that one of them made us smile and laugh and get all giddy with enjoyment when we encountered him. This was Jason, or as we called him before we realized that everybody calls him this, Bald Jason. One of us would always say, "Oh, I hope Bald Jason's there" or disappointingly comment that "Jason wasn't there."

Jason was just so refreshingly candid, even in the short back and forth that exists in customer/video store guy interactions. Now, I will admit that I had more opportunity than most to observe and appreciate the candor which is Jason because of my habits in a video store. See, it can take me half an hour (EACH TIME), if not longer, to peruse a video store for my current selection (the acceptance of which is one of the 4,385 reasons that Janella and I are perfect for each other). Janella and I are both eavesdroppers, inappropriately interested in all the conversations around us while we do our thing, so I'd overhear all the interactions which Jason would have with other customers as I wander through the store trying to find a movie. (SIDENOTE: Having Moviehound and other movie books in a video store does not help my speed of choosing.)

Janella and I came to relish the short conversations we would have with Jason as he would look at our movies and we would talk about whatever. In the interest of fairness and being non-prejudgemental (even in a positive way), I would like to separate my like of Jason from his sexuality but I can't. One of the most refreshing parts of Jason when we first met him was how refreshingly candid he was about his sexuality; not that he's flaming in his homosexuality, but he wears his sexuality like a good hat (you can't help but notice when someone's wearing a good hat). Add to that candidness a shot of flamboyancy and a true geeks knowledge of good and bad film and you can see why Janella and I were interested.

So, about three weeks ago, Janella and I went out with Jason and his housemate, Mark, for a sit down in a restaurant (it was like a first date or something). And it rocked! The same rapport was there for an extended time that existed in the safe relationship in the video store. Yay!

Of course, then I put getting together off for a while (new wedding photography business + procrastination). And it's not like it's too late, but I am annoyed that getting together again dropped out of my consciousness for this long. I should have remembered to read his blog though, because then I would have seen this entry two weeks ago! It's unfortunate that blogs without RSS feeds escape my notice because of my extensive use of Bloglines.

Ah, well. I guess I just wanted to say that I was flattered.

Bald Jason's Musings:
I want to hang out with Solomon & Janella again. I like that they read my blog, and that they get excited about random stuff, that I get excited about. We're all excited about each other. lol. And we're all so damned adorable. They make me smile, which is something that I cherish; and it's a quality shared by each of my best friends, which is a very good sign. And I want to talk with them more; hanging out with them the one time, I felt like I was trying talk about everything at once, and that I didn't get to say half as much as I really wanted to. lol But it was fun.

The first time I saw Solomon, that I can remember, I thought he was hot. I mean, I still do, but, the xxx rated thoughts that I had when I first saw him, aren't present anymore, because I know him in larger context now, and those images were replaced within the context of our friendship; does that make sense? And the first time I spoke to Solomon I liked his laughter & sense of humor, and his...Leftism. lol And when I met Janella, instead of being disappointed or jealous, I was enraptured by them as a couple; these guys are so perfect for each other that my petty little momentary lust was completely transformed into friendly banter, and the rest is history. I really like them alot, and I hope we will grow to be great friends.

That was something I've wanted to type in here, for awhile, but held back on because I didn't want to offend them, or bother them, or make them feel weird, but I don't feel weird about it, so I doubt they will either; they'll probably be flattered. Even if they aren't, this is my fucking blog. lol Alright. Now that I'm a bit jazzed up, and a bit nervous about the response to this, I'm gonna get some food, pop some vitamins, and wash some more of my wacky father's clothes.

Jon Stewart's Daily Show on the Media 05/02/05

I'm on a Daily Show kick today. Jon skewers the media for non-stories again. Some stories should only be covered on satire news programs.
Jon Stewart's Daily Show on the Media 05/02/05

Jon Stewart's Daily Show 03/07/05

Short and worth watching, especially for the second half which I rewatched three times.
Jon Stewart's Daily Show 03/07/05

RE_INVIGORATE - At last!

My favorite site tracker looks like it's almost ready to relaunch. I started with this one and it's been down for a long time. When it went down I searched and searched for a tracker that I could use instead, but they were all so commercial. Reinvigorate is not. It's open source and is used as a subsystem for tracking global internet statistics. I'm so excited.
RE_INVIGORATE