I found out this morning that my letter won’t arrive in time.

I’ve finally been able to get up early to spend time writing first thing in the morning. I think the new alarm clock helps–the gradual light wakes me up gently, which is really nice.

Yesterday I didn’t even try to work on my story. This morning I got a couple paragraphs written. Not fantastic, but it’s a start. I think the biggest problem is that I’ve reached the point where specific things need to happen, so I have to work those specific things in, instead of just letting the story unfold as I have been.

But mostly it’s good to be up early and writing, even if only a little.

Sophie from Shinola. An explanation of sorts.

Part 1 – Nathan
Part 2 – Shawn
Part 3 – MWT
Part 4 – Eric
Part 5 – Matt
Part 6 – Jeri
Part 7 – Saqib
Part 8 – Me
Part 9 – Vince
Part 10 – Kimberly Ann
Part 11 – Tom
Part 12 – Kate
Part 13 – Justin Ryan
Part 14 – Bryan
Part 15 – Tania
Part 16 – C
Part 17 – Nathan
Part 18 – Shawn
Part 19 – MWT
Part 20 – Eric
Part 21 – Matt
Part 22 – Jeri
Part 23 – Saqib
Part 24 – Me
Part 25 – Vince
Part 26 – Kimberly Ann
Part 27 – Tom
Part 28 – Kate
Part 29 – Bryan
Part 30 – C
Part 31 – Justin Ryan
Part 32 – Tania

And we’re all contributing a final chapter–or most of us are anyway. Nathan said something about voting on which ending you like best, but I think you should just read everyone else’s take on the end of the story.

(more…)

There are lots of things one sees around here that make sense in context, where students are studying health care.

But can you imagine going to English class, and having an entire box of disposable vinyl gloves sticking out of your backpack?

Some more phrases from my Latin calendar:

Dummodo sit dives, barbarus ipse placet
So long as he is rich, even a barbarian is pleasing

Edo ergo sum
I eat, therefore I exist

Est ars etiam male decendi
There’s an art even to speaking evil

Eventus stultorum magister
The result is the instructor of fools

Felix qui nihil debet
Happy is he who owes nothing

Esto quod esse videris
Be what you seem

Elephantum ex musca facis
You’re making an elephant out of a fly

I so need to add that last one to my repertoire!

Lasts aren’t something people think about a lot.

First are always important: first steps, first kiss, first job, all those momentous occasions we prepare for and remember, hopefully fondly.

But lasts often pass by without knowledge, and when you go back to think about it later, you’re often not sure when the last was, you just know there was a last. So when you know something is going to be a last, it takes on more weight. It starts to loom in your mind with importance.

I write a lot of letters.

Before my grandmother moved in, I wrote regularly to her, to my other grandmother, and to Michael’s grandmother. After my grandmother moved in, I was down to two letters for a few months, and then began writing letters to my cousin’s grandmother; she suffered a stroke years ago, and became afraid of everything, including leaving the house. So I wanted to bring some of the world back to her.

When my other grandmother died in February, I knew the end was near, but I didn’t know how close it was, so when I wrote my last letter to her, I didn’t realize it was going to be my last.

Now my cousin’s grandmother is failing rapidly, and when I sat down to write this evening, it occurred to me that this could be the last letter I write her. Maybe not. I may yet write her a couple more, but the end is close. Strangely it didn’t make the letter hard to write–I wrote her about my garden and the flowers and color that are everywhere you look–things she can’t see for herself from her room. But signing, addressing, and sealing the letter was strangely difficult.

It feels like there should be more pomp and circumstance, somehow.

V’z fbeg bs (va zl zvaq) jbexvat ba n cbfg ba JI cbyvgvpf, cevznevyl ba Qba Oynaxrafuvc’f vaibyirzrag jvgu JI cbyvgvpf, naq rfcrpvnyyl uvf gvrf gb Fhcerzr Pbheg Whfgvpr Fcvxr Znlaneq. Rkprcg fnlvat gung fbhaqf n ybg pbbyre guna jung V unq va zvaq, juvpu vf ernyyl ubj zhpu V pna’g fgnaq Oynaxrafuvc.

Fb jbaqrevat jung V jnf tbvat gb jevgr, V erzrzorerq gung n pbhcyr zbaguf ntb Reva fnvq fur gubhtug ebg 13 cbfgf jrer xvaqn sha, fb V qrpvqrq, jul abg? Vg’f abg yvxr V’ir tbg nalguvat orggre gb jevgr.

Vs lbh’ir tbggra guvf sne naq qvqa’g nyernql xabj vg, vs lbh Tbbtyr ebg 13, lbh’yy svaq na ba-yvar genafyngbe juvpu punatrf ebg 13 vagb grkg naq ivpr irefn jvgu n pbhcyr pyvpxf bs gur zbhfr. Rira rnfvre vf gur Y337 xrl rkgrafvba sbe Sversbk, juvpu nyybjf lbh gb perngr ebg 13 grkg naq genafyngvbaf ba gur syl.

Be |337 5c34x vs lbh cersre.

Naq ncebcbf bs abguvat: Vf rirelguvat bxnl Gnaln? Jr unq arvgure uvqr abe unve bs lbh va n jrrx naq V’z ortvaavat gb jbeel. Qb jr arrq gb fraq Wvz gb purpx ba lbh? Orpnhfr V’z fher vs nalbar pna svaq lbh ur pna. Be jnf vg gung gur zbbfr fpenccyr svanyyl tbg gb lbh? Naq V pna bayl vzntvar ubj zbbfr fpenccyr vf tbvat gb ybbx bapr V genafsbez vg. UN!

Fb gung’f vg. V’ir tbg abguvat ernyyl, ohg vg qbrf nzhfr zr gb glcr nyy uvf hc naq gura genafyngr vg gb ebg 13.

So the pope is in the US. And his visit is all over the news.

All of which has served to remind me of the many problems I have with the Catholic church.

Religion is a very difficult subject for me to discuss here, because my family is quite devout, so I feel as if my lack of faith is letting them down.

Actually to be more clear, it is not a subject I have discussed with my family, first and foremost because I don’t want to upset them. (And that right there may tell you all you a whole lot about me.)

I think the biggest problem for me is that I have no faith–to try and put it another way, when it comes to religion, I feel nothing. When people talk about their faith and how it makes them feel, I have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about. It feels like I’m blind and someone is trying to explain color to me. I can accept the idea that such a thing exists, but I can’t imagine it myself.

From that stems all my other problems, I’d guess. Because since I lack faith, it fascinates me. I want to understand what other people think, why they feel the way they do, to see if I can figure out what is wrong with me that makes me different.

But I’ve found that this only makes things worse.

The more I read about religion, the less I understand it, and the more alien I feel from it.

Let’s take the Catholic Church for starters. Although there are some things I believe the church does right, there are many other things where I believe the church is mistake, and in their error are actually causing harm. Women in the priesthood. Birth control. Homosexuality. I think that by saying such things are wrong and unacceptable, the church is actually causing harm, not just to itself, but to the greater community.

These have long been issues for me, but the more I read and learned, the more areas of disagreement I found. Papal infallibility? Don’t accept it. Immaculate conception? That just seems like a really big fudge. And then there’s the creation of the New Testament. The Christian bible was created through years of what was essentially political wrangling. The idea that something was acceptable one year, and then suddenly out of the cannon seems ridiculous. And don’t even get me started on the translation errors and issues. You don’t like what the bible says? Just find another translation you like better.

Never mind the internal inconsistencies in the bible.

And then there’s the whole relativism thing. The pope is really big on telling us how bad relativism is. Well, guess what? I’m a huge relativist.

First and foremost, I don’t think God damns people for calling God by different names, or for worshiping in one manner over another. I also don’t think God is the sadist many make God out to be. I mean, the seven circles of hell? That sounds not like the God of loving kindness, but instead like a vengeful human hoping that his enemies get what’s coming to them.

Secondly, the more I read about different religions, the more similarities I see between them. Why allow humans to create different religions that are REALLY similar, but not QUITE the same, so these religions can all claim superiority and cause more war and suffering than any other subject in the history of humanity.

But putting all that aside, I don’t think the God described in these religions fits into the world today–or even the world of the past. Now before your head explodes, let me explain. American Christianity seems to have some bizarre focus upon a personal God. The God of healing and miracles. Well, when I look around the world I see absolutely no sign of that God. I see a world that continues on it’s merry way with no external intervention. Which is GREAT as far as I’m concerned, because I think a personal God counter-indicates free-will. And I’m an even bigger fan of free will than I am of relativism.

So I look at the world, with my lack of faith and my lack of belief. I see a world completely unlike the world described by so many religions.

But I don’t see a bad world. And I don’t see one in which God is absent. I simply see a world in which God exists in everything, and it is up to us to recognize that fact, and treat all other creatures accordingly.

I heard this song sung by someone else, and it just felt so wrong, I had to hear Margo Timmons sing it.

To live is to fly
low and high
so shake the dust out of your wings
and the sleep out of your eyes

Maybe it’s just me, but there is something about her voice that I fine absolutely perfect.

Oooh! It’s also here (the recorded version) along with Misguided Angel, I’m So Lonesome I Could I Die, and Blue Moon Revisited.

I think I need to pull out my Cowboy Junkie’s CDs.

I just didn’t have anything much to say, other than gratuitously insulting Nathan.

Blue & Gold game is tomorrow (if you click on the link, please notice that all profits benefit the Children’s Hospital), so we did the shopping tonight, because this side of town gets a little messy when there is football–of any sort–over the hill.

The good part, is that I may be able to get a little gardening in before it rains. (Insert long discussion about compost here.)

Dear students who would like to get an assistantship with us.

An inability to have a grammatically clear and correct resume, cover letter, and e-mail is NOT impressive. Failure to understand the basics of capitalization and correct tense, and an expressed inability to look over EVEN ONCE what you have written, drops you to the bottom of my pile.

If you can’t even take care with your attempts at employment, why would I think you would be willing to take care if you were hired?

As I love techno, I found today’s xkcd particularly amusing.

Dear Geeks,

Let me remind you of something important: DOCUMENT EVERYTHING!

No, really! I’m not kidding! I’ve got two computers I’m trying to set up in my office that we can use for tutoring sessions, and my ex-officemate NEVER WROTE DOWN THE PASSWORDS he used to set them up.

And he didn’t use the passwords we use for everything else. So one system I had the help desk come down and hack to reset the Admin password, the other I’m reinstalling Windows XP on. Which involved much crawling around on the floor, which I don’t really find that thrilling.

So really, document everything. And then make sure your co-workers have copies of that documentation.

Because making me crawl around on the floor and run the quarter mile between my office and the help desk multiple doesn’t make me incredibly happy.

This ends todays public service announcement.

Oh yeah, don’t forget it’s Tax Day if you’re in the US.

We mailed our checks last week. Wasn’t too bad. And like John Scalzi says, we do get benefits. I’m particularly fond of the Interstate highway system, public education, and the Center for Disease Control myself.

So pay your taxes if you owe ’em. Then we’ll wait patiently for our stimulus check (which will be coming quite late for us, since we’re towards the end as far as SSNs go. Ah well.)

My only wish is the WV would fix it’s tax code, because even though Michael and I are both getting the max taken out of our paychecks (and then some in his case) we still owe the state.