A bunch of random thoughts

So I ended up working all last weekend, overnight shifts on Friday and Saturday. Two twelve-hour shifts. Needless to say Sunday morning I was a little zombie-like. I debated the whole way home whether I felt awake enough to go to church, and ended up deciding that I was doing pretty well and that if I went home and went to sleep I probably wouldn't have gone in the evening. So I went, and things were going pretty well until the homily, which ended up being the longest homily I have heard in quite some time. I am certain that, had I been more than semi-conscious, it would have been worthwhile, but in my state at the time I was struggling to keep up and not yawn, seeing as how I was in the third or fourth row. I can't say that I had a *negative* experience, but it probably wasn't one of my most uplifting moments.

Justin picked up an XBox360 one or two weeks ago, and I have to admit that, in spite of my initial misgivings, I have really come to see it as quite a fun device. First off, the graphics are of course stellar, much nicer than my current Playstation 2. The hardware setup with the wireless controllers is excellent - you can use the wireless controller to turn on the Xbox, and if you turn off the console the controllers are turned off as well. The controller isn't turned on until you hit the big button, and the controller then tells you which of the four players you are. I think the clincher is the media center integration. You can stream music from your PC to your Xbox, which is something I had been considering rather than hooking up my iPod to my stereo. (So help me, I don't want to pay $60 for an iPod dock and USB cable so I can have a powered dock connector hooked up to my stereo). One added humorous benefit of this is that you can substitute the music you are listening to from your PC for the in-game music, so you can listen to "Chariots of Fire" for example while blasting your way through a deathmatch. As well, I think Sony has completely shot itself in the foot with its strategy on the PS3, and at this point I would be highly surprised if the PS3 made it to market at all, or if it did make it to market, if it actually took some market share away from the XBox360.

LED Throwies. Saw a link through Digg about these wonderful little inventions. I would like to make some of these some time.

One of my co-workers is getting fiber installed to his house, but in spite of the fact that we live one mile from the Verizon Central Office, FIOS is not available in our neighborhood.

This Sunday's Readings

First Reading: Leviticus 1-2, 44-46

1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 2 "When anyone has a swelling or a rash or a bright spot on his skin that may become an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest. 44... The priest shall pronounce him unclean because of the sore on his head. 45 "The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, [a] cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' 46 As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:31 - 11:1

31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— 33 even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. 11:1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

Gospel: Mark 1:40-45

40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." 41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. 43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

The message of the homilist Father Paul Gilbert, St. Marie Cathedral, Manchester: Father Paul began by reminding us of how hard the life of the leper was in Jesus' time. Lepers were considered unclean not only in terms of their disease but ritualistically unclean. Therefore they were avoided at all costs, not only because of their disease, but also because it was believed contact with the leper would make one unclean in the eyes of God. If they traveled into town, they were forced to wear a bell around their neck and shout "Unclean! Unclean!" so that others could hear them coming. It was in many ways a living death. The leper took a great risk in approaching Jesus to ask His assistance. Because of his unlean status, he was probably able to get to Jesus because those around Jesus saw the leper coming and shied away. Of course, when the leper asked in humilty "If you are willing" Christ responded "I am willing." One can forgive the leper for ignoring Jesus' warning to not speak of what had happened. The leper had just been released from the living death that he had been suffering - how could he not want to go forth and proclaim it? Father Paul assured us that, as Jesus was willing to listen to and cure the leper, so to is he willing to listen to our prayers and come to our aid. If we have any misgivings, we simply need to set them aside and open ourselves to Jesus' love and salvation.

My own interpretation. Once again the message of the gospel is how Jesus welcomes us to Him. If we approach with humility and a true desire for His grace, He will accept us, comfort us, love us, save us. I was reminded during the homily of the invocation just prior to Communion: "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I shall be healed." We often get lost in thinking of Jesus in human terms - that He would never forgive us, He would never love us, that we were not important enough in His eyes. This is assigning human behaviour to Jesus Christ. We know people who have treated us in this manner - who have refused to forgive us, who have failed in our love for us, who have ignored us and thrown us out of their lives like trash. And yet assigning such human behaviour to our Lord and Saviour, while understandable, is forgetting the fact that Jesus Christ is infinite in His love for us. All we must be is humble before Him, just as we are truly humble before the people in our lives we love beyond all others.

Several comments, thanks to podcasting

Podcasting has been around for quite some time, but I really didn't get the usefulness of podcasting until quite recently. I enjoy listening to podcasts both in the car and at the gym. In the car they replace the news which I really am not too interested in listening to anyway. At the gym they make the workout go by a lot faster, and the ones I listen to tend to be humorous, which also helps the workout go by. Podcast links have been added to links on the right.

Thanks to DiggNation, I heard a story regarding how the Baby Bells have received $200 billion dollars in regulatory permission for rate hikes and tax breaks in order to "rewire" America and bring 45 Mbps down/up to 86 million homes across the US. I strongly recommend everyone to investigate this further and ask why we have paid so much for nothing.

I read on the DslReports.com Boston forum that there was a recent shooting at a gay bar in New Bedford MA. The suspect fled and was later captured in Arkansas, but not before killing a police officer One intrepid member of the forums tracked down what appeared to be the teenager's MySpace page, but oddly enough either the page was deleted or edited, because the page is now completely different than what was there before. Also, it looks like anyone who had this kid listed as a friend has had their friends list pulled too. The old page was so painful to read in so many ways, not only for the utter stupidity on display there, but in those who left comments on his page as well. The MySpace craze appears to be for younger folks (which by definition makes me an older person) but it appears to be lending as much to the internet as colored text on black backgrounds that polluted the web in 1995-1996.

Today's Readings

Been a while since I've done these.

First Reading: (Job 7:1-4,6-7)

Job 7:1 "Is this not the struggle of all humanity? A person's life is long and hard, like that of a hired hand, 2 like a worker who longs for the day to end, like a servant waiting to be paid. 3 I, too, have been assigned months of futility, long and weary nights of misery. 4 When I go to bed, I think, `When will it be morning?' But the night drags on, and I toss till dawn. 6 "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle flying back and forth. They end without hope. 7 O God, remember that my life is but a breath, and I will never again experience pleasure.

Second Reading: (1 Corinthian 9:16-19, 22-23)

16 For preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn't do it!
17 If I were doing this of my own free will, then I would deserve payment. But God has chosen me and given me this sacred trust, and I have no choice. 18 What then is my pay? It is the satisfaction I get from preaching the Good News without expense to anyone, never demanding my rights as a preacher.
22 When I am with those who are oppressed, I share their oppression so that I might bring them to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ. 23 I do all this to spread the Good News, and in doing so I enjoy its blessings.

Gospel: (Mark 1:29-39)

Jesus Heals Many People
29 After Jesus and his disciples left the synagogue, they went over to Simon and Andrew's home, and James and John were with them. 30 Simon's mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. They told Jesus about her right away. 31 He went to her bedside, and as he took her by the hand and helped her to sit up, the fever suddenly left, and she got up and prepared a meal for them.
32 That evening at sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. 33 And a huge crowd of people from all over Capernaum gathered outside the door to watch. 34 So Jesus healed great numbers of sick people who had many different kinds of diseases, and he ordered many demons to come out of their victims. But because they knew who he was, he refused to allow the demons to speak.

Jesus Preaches in Galilee
35 The next morning Jesus awoke long before daybreak and went out alone into the wilderness to pray. 36 Later Simon and the others went out to find him. 37 They said, "Everyone is asking for you."
38 But he replied, "We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too, because that is why I came." 39 So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and expelling demons from many people.

The message of the homilist Reverend Joseph M. Cooper, St. Joseph Cathedral, Manchester: Father Joe decided to begin his talk discussing the passage from Job, and saying how odd it was that after the reading of Job's lament about how life basically stinks, we in the congregation say "Thanks be to God." He then went to point out that we often complain and grouse about our lives to the people in our lives whom we feel most comfortable with - and that we should indeed trust God enough to know that he welcomes our complaining, our laments, our grousing, our pleas - all in the same way our closest relatives and friends do, because they love us and want to be there for us. Jesus was prepared to "be there" for the people of Galilee as he preached to them and healed the sick. So secure in the knowledge that God loves us and welcomes everything we have to bring to him, we can hear Job's words and truly say "Thanks be to God."

My own interpretation: In my brief flirtation with Bible study, I did learn an important lesson about how the three readings of the Mass tie into one another. While the Gospels are the center of our faith and while the priest is ostensibly charged with interpreting the Gospel first and foremost, it is intriguing when the three readings are tied into one another. Today's message spoke to me very deeply - as I have been pondering the question of when it is OK to feel sorry for oneself and lick one's wounds. I have been feeling down lately, and one of the ways to try to gain some perspective on feeling down is to look at all the people in the world who have so much less than I do and appreciate what I truly have. However, what I end up struggling with in this respect is feeling guilty for feeling down at all, as if I have no place to feel down at any time because there are always innumerable people who have it worse off than I do. Tonight's message told me that it is OK to go to God sometimes and tell Him "I feel like crap, God, can you help me?" and he will listen. I sense in some respect he already has by sending me this message today. I am always struck at how sometimes the Gospel message and the homily afterwards seems tailor-made for what is going through my mind right now.

One other thing I was struck by with today's reading is in the second reading: "What then is my pay? It is the satisfaction I get from preaching the Good News without expense to anyone, never demanding my rights as a preacher." It should be this way with most of our endeavors: the satisfaction of helping someone else in need. If one is truly acting in a Christian way, helping someone else should be its own reward.

It ain't got that swing

First of all, my apologies for not updating this more frequently. Still trying to figure out how to come up with some half-decent content. I will try to be more regular.

I have become a Jazz fan in recent years. It probably started around the time that the Ken Burns Jazz film premiered on PBS. Like all other Ken Burns films, it was rich with storytelling, interpretation, photos and most especially music. While I had always enjoyed jazz, thanks to the film I learned a) what I liked about jazz and b) what particular artists and forms I enjoy.

In my own biased personal opinion there are two greats of Jazz in America to whom all others must bow down to: Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. My favorite jazz album of all time is The Great Summit, the only recorded session that the two played together. Armstrong perhaps singlehandedly defined the genre, while Ellington brought an almost symphonic level of composition to it.

One of Ellington's most notable songs was entitled "It Don't Mean A Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing." That simple assertion illustrated the driving force behind many of the musicians at the time: it had to be something that had a beat, something that you could dance to, and something which moved you deep down.

Jazz has undergone a massive development over the years since it was first pioneered, and has splintered into a thousand different sub-genres. However, the only form of jazz that garners any attention from the music press is "free jazz," music which in its atonality and arrhythmia is the antithesis of Duke's long since forgotten assertion. This is the music of academics, mirroring the post-modern bent in all forms of art that seems intent on nothing other than punishing the audience rather than enlightening, uplifting, or entertaining it. In this post-modern world, any artistic experience is supposed to be difficult, like a trip to the dentist's office, and if you walk away thinking it is utter crap, you just didn't "get it."

I heard a glowing review of just such an album of free jazz this evening on NPR's Fresh Air, "Cubist Music" by Edsel Gomez. That the main musican on this album shares his name with one of the most disastrous automobiles of all time can give an insight as to the amount of actual musical value that can be drawn from it. The lack of a tonal center or recognizable key signature makes it hard to distinguish whether this music was created by musicans or a random number generator attached to a synclavier.

I hate to sound so pedantic, but there is just about as much soul in free jazz as there is a Britney Spears CD. There appears to be a determined group of people who provide a market for this type of music - and not to form a cliche here, but my mind springs to college graduates with too much education who won't buy coffee for under $10 a pound and wine for under $30 a bottle. I can listen to a paint-by-numbers country song by the latest New Country poster boy and come away with more of an emotional reaction than this stuff.

I will have to qualify this by pointing out my own interests in the more cerebral music of the rock band Tool, but at least with that band there is a solid melodic foundation and the lyrics and singing contain an intense emotional experience. What is the point of any creative effort if it doesn't engender some emotional response in the recipient? I am not necessarily thinking in Wagnerian terms here, either - a song like "Whip It" is included, because it is just a plain fun song.

Wow, I think I just channeled Dennis Miller.

Shout outs

Let's dispel the seriousness with a few hellos. Hello to my darling daughter Bonnie. Hello as well to Meredith, who may be my only reader. :-) Cheers as well to anyone else who is reading, send me an email if I don't know you are. I take requests.

Links updated

I decided to update the links section with a lot of my favorite sites.