I got nothin'. The relentless cheer of the season depresses the heck out of me. Here's a few random thoughts.
***
A Catholic Bucket List.
Shea had one up a while back. I thought of writing my own, but didn't come up with much of anything. At any rate, the Catholic Bucket List should include feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the prisoners, comforting the sick, sheltering the homeless, burying the dead. Any other kind of Catholic bucket list would have to assume that any good Catholic would have to want to do something other than this. Such a thing is surely impossible.
***
On the other hand...
I am not very good at this Catholic thing, so with that my list would include-
-visiting the great cathedrals and churches. You know the list- Chartres, Notre Dame de Paris, St Peter's, the major basilicas of Rome, Lincoln, Yorkshire, St Paul's London (I know, Protestant, but still stunning architecture, and there is no rule against visiting an Anglican place of worship, as long as it is not to take part in the worship.)
-Take a vacation that involves staying at a monastery. Preferably one with monks.
-Punch a Walrus in the face. (There's nothing in the Bible that says I can't. Besides, they have it coming.)
-Attend a Mass by a Pope.
***
Secular Christmas music stinks.
It's all about nostalgia, how everything used to be better way back when, the time when your Christmas gift from Granny was a pair of socks, and you were grateful, by golly, and Christmas dinner was roadkill, and Mom died giving birth to your sister and Daddy was crushed in the factory, and a toothache was potentially fatal, and coal burned in the fireplace, if you had any, you'd pee in a pot, if you had one, and toss it out a window, if you had one, and the streets were covered in manure.
Or the songs are about let's get together and feel warm and fuzzy towards one another, because That's What It's All About, Isn't It? and wouldn't the world be a better place if we were all a nice to each other? Because That's What It's All About, Isn't It?
No wonder the black dog is barking.
***
Christmas shopping seems to be cutting into my hits. My hits peaked on Wednesday- at a whopping forty two- then fell by half the next day, and by even more, to less than twenty. At least, I hope it's Christmas shopping and getting ready for the Holidays that's keeping people away from the blog. The alternative explanation is that this blog really sucks.
***
Most popular hit remains the altar.
Many people come here looking for plans. If I had written any up, I may have been able to sell a plan or two. There are programs for that. All it requires are people who are as crazy/crazier than me to fork out some cash and buy them.
Then again, my attempts in the past to sell stuff people were interested in were all failures.
***
This blog does suck. Years of chattering and forty hits in one day is the high point? It's time to shut this stupid thing down and be done with it.
***
I don't have a snowball's hope in hades of doing anything on that list. Not even the Walrus thing.
***
I used to joke that one day we would be selling cards that said: "May you experience sensations appropriate to whatever time of year you believe this to be." It's not much of a joke any more.
Showing posts with label omnibus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label omnibus. Show all posts
11 December 2011
11 July 2011
Random Associations
I've been thinking about writing some posts. Decided against it. Thought I'd write some other posts.
I just got back from giving blood. Giving blood is a great, easy way of fulfilling Christ's command that we give comfort to the sick, without ever actually having to go anywhere near someone who is, y'know, sick.
I wonder if the fact that I enjoy the cookies they give me after giving bood negates any spiritual rewards I may have accrued? In accepting a handful of cookies am I accepting my reward? Is it possible to lose Heaven over an Oreo?
The kids have put on "The Empire Strikes Back". These movies always cause a disagreement and a fair amount of confusion between elder and myself whenever we try and discuss them. Me: "Now, in the second movie, Luke learns that Vader..."
Elder: "Luke isn't born yet in the second movie, Dad."
I don't really admit the existence of the prequel trilogy. Midichlorians? Really?
Harry Potter movie is coming out soon. I haven't been a huge fan of the movies, though I did enjoy the books. I imagine the structure of the books themselves makes film adaptations a nightmare. the books are highly episodic, each chapter pretty much a self contained short story, with one tiny detail that connects this chapter to the next, or to the overall story. The movie adapter cannot put in all the chapters, but he has to put in all those little points. I think the books would have been better served as a television series. They could have done the full story.
I don't hear people objecting to the books so much, anymore. For a time there people objected to the books because they used magic. If we were to rid ourselves of all the books with magic in them, the children's bookshelves of the world would be very thin indeed, and very dull.
I haven't seen any superhero movies lately. Was Green Lantern any good? Or Thor? Anyone looking forward to Captain America?
My taste in movies has become mighty pedestrian. There was a time I wouldn't be caught dead going into a crass, commercial Hollywood movie. It was small, independent, preferably foreign movies for me. (I know, Hollywood is foreign to someone in Canada. that's not what I meant.) I did see a lot of good movies back then, movies that had a following that was intense if not large. But I also saw a lot of dogs. One day, I saw one too many Gallic meditations on meaningless sex and dysfunctional famililes, and how life is a struggle with existential emptiness and blah blah blah. These movies have become, for me, the opposite of the must see movie, the movie you just have to see before you die: that is, I hope I die before I see another. Now I seek a lower consciousness. Comic book movies are great for me. Or anything with lots of explosions and very little in the way of plot.
I used to work in a comic book shop, years ago. The owner must have been the inspiration behind the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons. Fat, scraggly beard, sense of superiority over muggles, perpetual game of dungeons and dragons going on in the basement. We also had a most unusual clientele. I remember one guy who was a screaming genius, but he was also an unusual personality, very strange. (It was because of him and a few other real geniuses I met down through the years that I formed my theory that we aren't meant to get all that smart. The really, really smart people I know are all messed up very, very badly.) I remember one day as he paced back and forth in the store as he expounded on the possibilities of the character "molecule man" whose power was that he could control molecules. He was becoming more and more agitated as he went on. "He could do anything, absolutely anything he wanted. No one could stop him. He could scatter our molecules with a thought. But that's just the beginning. He could do..." here he went on theorizing about what such a being could do until he came to the conclusion: ".... he could do anything! Everything! Don't you get it? THIS GUY WOULD BE GOD!" He had stopped breathing, and he was staring at us with breathless intensity as he tried to glare into us the enormity of his point.
"Ummm...." I ventured. "He doesn't really, y'know, exist."
"BUT WHAT IF HE DID?" he screamed. "WHAT IF HE DID?"
There is a part of me that misses the days of having serious arguments over whether or not Wolverine's claws could pierce Captain America's shield, or what would happen if The Blob, who was an immovable object, were to fight the Juggernaut, who was an irresistable force?
Anyone ever wonder what's the point of blogging?
I just got back from giving blood. Giving blood is a great, easy way of fulfilling Christ's command that we give comfort to the sick, without ever actually having to go anywhere near someone who is, y'know, sick.
I wonder if the fact that I enjoy the cookies they give me after giving bood negates any spiritual rewards I may have accrued? In accepting a handful of cookies am I accepting my reward? Is it possible to lose Heaven over an Oreo?
The kids have put on "The Empire Strikes Back". These movies always cause a disagreement and a fair amount of confusion between elder and myself whenever we try and discuss them. Me: "Now, in the second movie, Luke learns that Vader..."
Elder: "Luke isn't born yet in the second movie, Dad."
I don't really admit the existence of the prequel trilogy. Midichlorians? Really?
Harry Potter movie is coming out soon. I haven't been a huge fan of the movies, though I did enjoy the books. I imagine the structure of the books themselves makes film adaptations a nightmare. the books are highly episodic, each chapter pretty much a self contained short story, with one tiny detail that connects this chapter to the next, or to the overall story. The movie adapter cannot put in all the chapters, but he has to put in all those little points. I think the books would have been better served as a television series. They could have done the full story.
I don't hear people objecting to the books so much, anymore. For a time there people objected to the books because they used magic. If we were to rid ourselves of all the books with magic in them, the children's bookshelves of the world would be very thin indeed, and very dull.
I haven't seen any superhero movies lately. Was Green Lantern any good? Or Thor? Anyone looking forward to Captain America?
My taste in movies has become mighty pedestrian. There was a time I wouldn't be caught dead going into a crass, commercial Hollywood movie. It was small, independent, preferably foreign movies for me. (I know, Hollywood is foreign to someone in Canada. that's not what I meant.) I did see a lot of good movies back then, movies that had a following that was intense if not large. But I also saw a lot of dogs. One day, I saw one too many Gallic meditations on meaningless sex and dysfunctional famililes, and how life is a struggle with existential emptiness and blah blah blah. These movies have become, for me, the opposite of the must see movie, the movie you just have to see before you die: that is, I hope I die before I see another. Now I seek a lower consciousness. Comic book movies are great for me. Or anything with lots of explosions and very little in the way of plot.
I used to work in a comic book shop, years ago. The owner must have been the inspiration behind the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons. Fat, scraggly beard, sense of superiority over muggles, perpetual game of dungeons and dragons going on in the basement. We also had a most unusual clientele. I remember one guy who was a screaming genius, but he was also an unusual personality, very strange. (It was because of him and a few other real geniuses I met down through the years that I formed my theory that we aren't meant to get all that smart. The really, really smart people I know are all messed up very, very badly.) I remember one day as he paced back and forth in the store as he expounded on the possibilities of the character "molecule man" whose power was that he could control molecules. He was becoming more and more agitated as he went on. "He could do anything, absolutely anything he wanted. No one could stop him. He could scatter our molecules with a thought. But that's just the beginning. He could do..." here he went on theorizing about what such a being could do until he came to the conclusion: ".... he could do anything! Everything! Don't you get it? THIS GUY WOULD BE GOD!" He had stopped breathing, and he was staring at us with breathless intensity as he tried to glare into us the enormity of his point.
"Ummm...." I ventured. "He doesn't really, y'know, exist."
"BUT WHAT IF HE DID?" he screamed. "WHAT IF HE DID?"
There is a part of me that misses the days of having serious arguments over whether or not Wolverine's claws could pierce Captain America's shield, or what would happen if The Blob, who was an immovable object, were to fight the Juggernaut, who was an irresistable force?
Anyone ever wonder what's the point of blogging?
29 August 2009
Omnibus post
I haven't posted in a while. Here's a few random things flitting through my skull that I never quite made a full post about.
Bosses
Got into a debate about bosses at work- the gist of which is ours all stink- but a few of us started taking a historical view of the matter. History gives a few examples of good and bad managers, and a lot of those who fall somewhere in between.
One of the examples from the past that came up was Henry Ford. The man had his problems- believing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were authentic was one; being Hitler's personal hero was another- but he also had his strengths. One of them was that he paid his workers well for the time, to the point that thousands of men would apply for a job when a position was posted. Ford paid his men well even as he eroded skills and the need for skilled labourers because he knew that if his own workers could not afford his cars then he was dead.
Now compare this to Sam Walton. Another megasuccess, without the racism or Hitler thing going on, but he did not pay his workers well, to the point that he even applied to congress to have Walmart exempt from paying its workers the minimum wage. Looking at him is like looking at Ford through a fun house mirror. Rather than paying the workers enough that they may buy the products, he is playing them so little they may only shop at Walmart, and because the stuff sold there is by and large crud, they will have to buy it there again in a few months time. Walton didn't want to give his workers money. He only let them keep it warm for a little while.
There was also a story I heard about Walton's final year or so. An amateur pilot, he began flying around the country after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer because he wanted to see every Walmart in the land. I've been with a few people as they lay dying, visited them in their final illnesses. Until I heard this, I never heard anyone say "I wish I spent more time at the office." A father and a grandfather, he wanted to see his stores. There is just something terribly wrong with this, yet I read that story in a management book, praising Walton for his dedication to his stores.
Heard at Work, the last word in political incorrectness:
Co worker to incompetent female manager: "Shouldn't you be at home, ruining your husband's dinner?"
Teddy Kennedy
RIP.
I prayed for his soul, and hope he finds mercy even as I hope to find mercy.
I also wonder what Anne Coulter will write about now. A lot of people like her. I am not a fan, although I sometimes agree with her. I find her thinking shallow and unsophisticated, and her writing full of ad hominem attacks and non sequitors. I thought about her because every article of hers I ever read always had some comment about Ted Kennedy and his drinking, no matter what she was talking about. It cheapens debate in an effort to score cheap points. I wonder what easy target she'll squeeze into her sights now.
School is Starting soon:
Cue the music: It's the most wonderful time of the year...
Talking about talking about sex
Bosses
Got into a debate about bosses at work- the gist of which is ours all stink- but a few of us started taking a historical view of the matter. History gives a few examples of good and bad managers, and a lot of those who fall somewhere in between.
One of the examples from the past that came up was Henry Ford. The man had his problems- believing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were authentic was one; being Hitler's personal hero was another- but he also had his strengths. One of them was that he paid his workers well for the time, to the point that thousands of men would apply for a job when a position was posted. Ford paid his men well even as he eroded skills and the need for skilled labourers because he knew that if his own workers could not afford his cars then he was dead.
Now compare this to Sam Walton. Another megasuccess, without the racism or Hitler thing going on, but he did not pay his workers well, to the point that he even applied to congress to have Walmart exempt from paying its workers the minimum wage. Looking at him is like looking at Ford through a fun house mirror. Rather than paying the workers enough that they may buy the products, he is playing them so little they may only shop at Walmart, and because the stuff sold there is by and large crud, they will have to buy it there again in a few months time. Walton didn't want to give his workers money. He only let them keep it warm for a little while.
There was also a story I heard about Walton's final year or so. An amateur pilot, he began flying around the country after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer because he wanted to see every Walmart in the land. I've been with a few people as they lay dying, visited them in their final illnesses. Until I heard this, I never heard anyone say "I wish I spent more time at the office." A father and a grandfather, he wanted to see his stores. There is just something terribly wrong with this, yet I read that story in a management book, praising Walton for his dedication to his stores.
Heard at Work, the last word in political incorrectness:
Co worker to incompetent female manager: "Shouldn't you be at home, ruining your husband's dinner?"
Teddy Kennedy
RIP.
I prayed for his soul, and hope he finds mercy even as I hope to find mercy.
I also wonder what Anne Coulter will write about now. A lot of people like her. I am not a fan, although I sometimes agree with her. I find her thinking shallow and unsophisticated, and her writing full of ad hominem attacks and non sequitors. I thought about her because every article of hers I ever read always had some comment about Ted Kennedy and his drinking, no matter what she was talking about. It cheapens debate in an effort to score cheap points. I wonder what easy target she'll squeeze into her sights now.
School is Starting soon:
Cue the music: It's the most wonderful time of the year...
Talking about talking about sex
Something I noticed a long time ago: married people can't talk about sex, at least not with their spouses. I know, we shouldn't even want to, and it's not that I want to, or that I even would, it's that I can't. No one is interested or wants to hear. Seriously. My wife and I could have the most wild, insane sex of our married lives, sex so good we feel we should go to confession, just to be on the safe side, and no one would care. But if one of the Casanovas at work were to come in from the weekend and start talking about a mediocre quickie they had with some primordial flooze they picked up at some cheap meat market, they would be guaranteed a rapt audience, hanging on their every word.
McDonald's Canadian Olympic Team Ads
While I am glad the athletes are getting some money from somewhere, I feel there is an irony about having McDonald's support athletes. Plus, I can only laugh at the ads where patrons in McDonald's run into the athletes eating there. Yeah. Right.
Canadian Olympic trivia: Canada has hosted the Olympics twice. In both Olympics our teams never won a gold. We are the only host country to not win gold, and we did it twice. The worst part is an old Italian saying my wife says from time to time: Never two without three.
Of course, if the athletes really are filling up at McDonald's, that third time is a real possibility...
Speaking of Athletes
Why doesn't Usain Bolt just change his first name to Lightning and be done with it? I find myself inexplicably liking the guy. Can't explain it, I just do. I've heard a lot of accusations about him using drugs, and I hope they're false.
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