Ok, I haven’t been at this for a while but in my absence I have compiled a few links of a truly random nature that I thought were worth sharing. So I shall share with you and include a couple thoughts on each article.
Old School BBQ – There is a place in South Carolina that if I am fortunate I will visit and taste what BBQ really should be like. I’m a big fan of BBQ pork and this place looks to be the epitome of how it should be done. I’m sure if I could cook it like that the people would flock to me too.
Serious Burgers – Again pulling from the NY Times, since summer is upon us (some of us more forcefully than others) our thoughts naturally turn to the grill and that perfect grill food, the burger. We made burgers the other night though I will confess they were done on the stove top and not a grill since we live in an apartment and I don’t like how those counter-top grill units do burgers (I think they are too hot for a properly thick burger) but they were very good.
Green Bikes – This is the most innovative take on a bike that I have ever seen. I never would have thought to make the frame out of something other than metal or a composite like my own carbon fiber frame. It makes sense, and it seems that it would give more people access to transport than would have had it before.
Those are my links for now, I’ll come back later with more links and posts about whatever.
Today is Ascension Thursday. If you live in the ecclesiastical provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Philadelphia or the state of Nebraska, you would already know that since you’d be going to Mass today.
Yes, I know if you look at a liturgical calendar it will tell you that the Feast of the Ascension is celebrated this coming Sunday for the rest of the country, and it’s a shame that like Epiphany (the 12th day of Christmas), this holy day gets unceremoniously bumped to the nearest Sunday. In the past I have heard that this was done because people didn’t want to be obligated to go to Mass in the middle of the week and attendance was low.
Since when has faith been something that one does only when it is convenient? This could be the root of the problem with the world today. Everything is about what is convenient for me and not what is best for me. Holy days of obligation, which both the Ascension and Epiphany are, should be times that we should be grateful we can go to Mass and give thanks and praise for our Salvation. They recall occasions so important that the Church has given them their own feast days and obliged us to attend Mass so that we may never forget, and be eternally grateful.
Hopefully one day these holy days that have been punted to Sundays will return to their usual places on the calendar and we are forced to make a little extra time throughout the year to go to a few extra Masses. I promise, it won’t hurt. I’m going to Mass today, you can too.
I have a confession to make.
I have a credit card.
Actually, I have 2.
And I pay my bill, in full, every month.
Now, I’ll probably help pay your bill too if you carry debt on your card. The bill that passed congress today only helps those who got in over their heads by spending more than they have, just like we’re bailing out those who bought more house than they could afford. People need to realize that you can’t spend money you don’t have. If my cards become less than free for me to use I’ll stop using them. I refuse to help anyone and everyone who lacks the responsibility to live within their means.
So today I discovered that Brett Favre is talking to the Vikings staff about playing next season. Apparently my wife knew this a couple days ago, but being the Packers fan that she is this news didn’t seem important enough to tell me since that would make Favre enemy #1 among all Packer fans. I just know that I’ll have to save up enough money to buy a purple #4 jersey if this all goes through.
If this happens this could be the year for the Vikings, if it doesn’t, Favre is still a washed up has-been who’s too old to play the game, if it does go through, then he’s still the greatest QB the game has ever seen and I’ll be happy to have him. It’s all a matter of perspective.
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So today I got a call from the Republican Senate Candidate Committee, and they started in by asking if it was ok to ask me a few questions. At this point I figure this to be a quick survey since Kansas is going to have a wide open Senate race in the 2010 elections. Being one who likes to have a chance to voice his opinions I indicated that I did have a couple minutes to talk.
It starts off easy enough asking what I was most concerned about with the current administration/congress, the options presented were the typical GOP list of complaints including spending, taxes, job losses, socialism… you get the picture. Being a grad student hopefully looking for a job in the next year and not having lots of money burning a hole in my pocket I went with all of the above. At this point the conversation took the unexpected turn of them asking if they could count on me for $150 of support for the upcoming election cycle. After explaining that I was a poor grad student with limited disposable income so I would not be able to pledge any money to them at this time. Apparently the guy I was talking to is a little hard of hearing cause he then asked if they could count on me for $75… I’ve heard this begging for money routine before from my alma mater shortly after graduation, they start off silly high hoping that it makes $50 seem more reasonable. Either way, I’m not gonna throw money blindly at some Republican Senate Committee. If I decide that I have spare money floating around I’ll find some deserving candidate if I make it that far down the list of things to spend that money on. So they are gonna send me something begging for $25, I told them not to count the money until they see it. I think I’ll send them a nice letter explaining that there are some pretty flimsy ‘Republicans’ in the Senate and I wouldn’t want a dime of my money supporting them. (but that’s another post for another day)
This whole thing has probably turned me off from taking any kind of survey from anyone over the phone for at least a couple of weeks, not that I get that many calls to begin with.
Welcome to my latest attempt to keep a blog. I’ve gotten further than ever before by actually getting a first post up.
My intended range of topics includes and is not limited to, religion, politics, food, current events, photography, music, and fleeting thoughts that come near my head. So you have an idea what ballparks I’m coming from in each of those topics, Catholic (rather ‘conservative’), conservative, yes, I read news from the internet, macro and landscape, just about everything, and random.
I intened to leave the com box open on all posts and will write out a more explicit comment pollicy with more details but it will be intentionally vague. Disagreement is alright so long as you are CIVIL about it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion regardless of how wrong it may be. Charity is a virtue that the internet could do with more of, I will not hesitate to delete comments that I feel do nothing to contribute to the general good.
With that being said I’d like everyone who makes it this far to drop a line in the com box so I have an idea what my audience looks like and what you’re interested in hearing out of me.
