This post was created on my new iPod Touch. My faithful old mp3 player died a while back, and my iPaq never got along with my Mac, so I figured I'd replace both with one device. It does the job of each, it's true, but it does it so much better it's a bit bit like replacing your skateboard and bike with a bullet train.

I took it with me to campus today. I figured I'd use it to distract me on the frigid walk home. I hit shuffle and headed out. Turns out that it takes just about as long to walk home from class as it takes Trent to express his desire to fuck you like an animal.

I feel like it already knows me.

Eternity

Our theories of the eternal are as valuable as are those of a chick which has not broken its way through its shell might form of the outside world.
- Buddha

I've been thinking about eternity a lot lately. Perhaps it's because I am deathly ill with the flu that has laid one of my roommates out since Friday... or perhaps it's because I have taken too much NyQuil lately. Either way, it's been on my mind, and like my man B-money said above, we have almost no clue.

My ego cherishes hope that there is something after this place. My rationality, however, is unable to escape the idea that we are just simple biological systems, and when we break down too much, it's over. I struggle, like so many before me, to find some middle ground between the two... but striking a balance between eternity and finality seems impossible. I envy the fundamentalist who is so completely absorbed in his faith that he feels no fear of death. To be so certain of the destination would be bliss... but to accept all of the dislogic that goes along with those beliefs would be like self-inflicted Alzheimer's for me.

Like the good little liberal arts scholar that I am, I am doing more research. I'm investigating the feelings of the Flock on this topic - and if you're reading this you're a member. Please post your answers to the following questions:

1) Is there an afterlife?
2) How do you know?

Any answer you feel strongly about will do; prose, verse, claymation, interpretive dance, etc. For entertainment and enlightenment purposes only - please, no wagering.

Fisher Resigns

Bobby Fisher, the most flamboyant of American Chess Masters, is dead at 64. No cause of death is listed at this time, but he was reported to have been ill for some time.

My career as a chess hack began when I was 5 (my step father taught me the game) but I actually got interested in playing better when the Fischer/Spassky championship games were taking place in 1972 - I was 7 at the time. Fisher was a certifiable rock star - you could watch the games on TV, or listen to the move updates on the radio. My uncles had set up a small board in the living room and kept up with the games as they progressed. He was that famous.

Unfortunately, his genius consumed him. He was petulant, reclusive, dismissive, and in his later years, increasingly antisemitic. His vice-like grasp of Chess strategy was the opposite of his tenuous grip on reality; among other things, he believed a world-wide Jewish conspiracy was out to destroy him. His life provides us with a lesson about balance. His dedication to chess made him the greatest player in the world and maybe the greatest player ever, but it appears to have cost him dearly.

If you're a chess player, today would be a good day to get out your board and play a game or two...

My Feathered Children

I was sorting through the photos from Flock Hall Christmas '07 last night. Just like a human parent, I am amazed at how different my kids are. They have very different personalities, and they're in very different places in life. Ajax is a mostly mature male, while Imelda is a female, and still a baby. Observe:


Ajax, checking out the Christmas tree.


Imelda, tasting the Christmas tree...


Ajax, the Christmas Parrot, posing nicely.


Imelda, the Christmas Dinosaur, refusing to pose...


Ajax, pondering the meaning of Christmas.


Imelda, pondering the camera...

I don't think either of them can read (yet) so I'm pretty sure that having some fun here at Imelda's inability to hold still won't give either of them a complex. Just to prove that she can hold still and be quite beautiful, here's the photo we put on her online dating profile...


Hi, I'm Imelda. I'm a Taurus who's into almonds, shredding toys, shrieking, and hanging upside down. Call me!

Drunk

The true meaning of the precepts is not just that one should refrain from drinking alcohol, but also from getting drunk on nirvana. - Bassui

There are almost certainly readers of this blog, who won't get what old Bassui was getting at with this.

There are those who will get what he was saying, but not why I'm posting it.

There are those who will understand it, and my reasons.

If you're not in that last group, no worries - it's probably not for you.

The FINAL meme

Ok, I'm calling it - I'm over memes. I'm now proclaiming this blog to be a meme-free zone. I'll enjoy reading the memes I meet out in the blogisphere, but from now on, tagging me will do no good...

…(two names you go by)…
1. Linus
2. His Sinfulness

...(two things you are wearing right now)...
1. Black clothing
2. "Black" by Kenneth Cole

...(two things you would want (or have) in a relationship)..:
1. Understanding
2. Nookie

...(two of your favorite things to do)...:
1. Smite blasphemers
2. Make the beast with two backs...

...(two things you want very badly at the moment)...:
1. A canary - red factor
2. A Ramphastidae - possibly an aracari

...(two pets you had/have)...:
1. Ajax the Wonder Grey
2. Princess Imelda the Greater Vasa

...(two people you think will fill this out)...:
I hereby invoke Papal privilege and veto this question. (I don't want to tag people when I'm refusing tags myself.)

...(two things that you did last night)...:
1. Spent time with my birds
2. Ate a baked potato

...(two things you ate today)...:
1. rice
2. spaghetti

…(two people you last talked to)...:
1. G-Fresh
2. Flynn

...(two things you're doing tomorrow)...:
1. cleaning the kitchen
2. celebrating the end of my cubicle life

...(two longest car rides)...:
1. Black Vatican City, WY, to the unHoly Lands of So Cal via Idaho and Oregon, then back to Black Vatican City via the Grand Canyon.
2. Black Vatican City, WY to Raksha's lair in Columbus, OH, roundtrip.

...(two favorite holidays)...:
1. Christmas (...um, presents, duh...)
2. Thanksgiving (Being thankful is a great idea. Now, if we could just do that without the turkey slaughter...)

...(two favorite beverages)...:
1. Diet Coke
2. Amaretto sour

…(two people no longer alive who you'd like to talk to)...:
1. The Buddha
2. Samuel Clemmons

Notifications

Yesterday, at 11:00 AM, Black Vatican Standard Time, I received notification that I have been officially admitted to the Graduate School. On the 14th I begin pursuing a Master's Degree in Sociology. I had already been told by several profs that I was in, but getting the notification was a relief.

I turned in my letter of resignation at work, and they came back a few hours later with a counter-offer. They offered me a half-time student position, at a very reasonable hourly paygrade. It was incredibly kind of them, especially since I kind of hung them out to dry by resigning a week before classes start, but I had to decline.

Soon I will return to the roots of this blog - hours of sitting in a computer lab as a lab assistant, or "labbie" as they are known locally. This is the job that made this blog great! Hours of screen time, sleep deprivation, and forced people watching is the combination that created this whole - THIS [gesturing vaguely at the blog].

All of it - the Black Vatican, His Sinfulness, the BCPs, the messianic complex - all were born in the all-night Bio-Science lab. I miss the blue glow of the screens, the sticky feel of hand sanitizer, the sound of the printer jamming, the smell of the lab users...

Ok, not really. It does, however, beat trying to explain to beer-sodden frat boys why their scholarships have been suspended.

"Yes, Timmy - they call it a "scholarship" because you have to be a "scholar" to have one..."

The 14th can't come quickly enough.