Where is everyone?

Here is what I know based on recent communications with people.

Steve and Ryan have sworn off blogging because they discovered that they are allergic to high speed internet.

Dusty is too busy scrolling through eharmony.

Steimel is just working too much at McDonald's and his second job. He may have a third job, too, for all that I know.

So I would like to apologize for dropping off the blogosphere and encourage the rest of the missing to come back. Post what you've been up to lately if nothing else.

Personally, I'm feeling sort of blah. My job is good, but the honeymoon phase has worn off. I could really go for a date. It's been a while since I had one of those. Actually I could go for about any positive social activity that consists of more than video games with the guys or drinking with coworkers. Last weekend I got to see what life might have been like at some school other than Wheaton. I went out to celebrate the birthdays of a couple coworkers, and after going out to dinner. One guy convinced almost everyone else to ducttape a bottle of 40 oz malt liquor to one's hand which couldn't come off until the bottle was completely drunk. I can't say that I really enjoy watching out for drunk people. Hopefully my whirlwind of May activity will liven me up.

My sister's college graduation is two weeks away. Then, I get to try out being in a wedding the next weekend, before i take off for Japan a few days later to visit Steve and Ryan. I feel like this is a crappy contribution to the blog, but I wanted to post something since it's been a while.

Senate

The US Senate is presently considering legislation that would create a Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution, banning same-sex marriages in all 50 states. Ironically, the bill is being co-sponsored by MY senator (needless to say, I've already written and asked her to reconsider her position on the subject). I thought some of you might like to know that our conversation about same-sex marriage has ceased to be a hypothetical problem, so now is the time to figure out where you come down on the issue and write to your senators. Another issue that the senate is currently deciding (the House already passed this nifty bit of legislation) is whether to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. They tacked that on to an energy bill that is currently being debated in the upper house, so if you have any strong feelings about that, you'd better make them known post haste. [I feel like such an activist... almost like Ryan Schiffer or something!]

University of Texas, Austin

Here is a little picture I found of the (in)famous tower of the University of Texas in Austin (set against a rather lovely sunset, I think). This iconic structure stands only yards from Calhoun Hall, the home of UT's graduate English department-- that is, MY department starting this fall. For some reason, I can't seem to get away from academic institutions that are primarily symbolized by towers (I can't wait for Andy's Lacanian reading). There is a difference, though, because while Wheaton's tower is iconographically synonymous with marriage, UT's tower is a reminder of August 1966 when Charles Whitman shot 45 people in downtown Austin (killing 14) until his 96 minute reign of terror ended with his own death. Not quite so romantic and pastoral, is it? Although some would see both as incidents of male agression, in which case the tower is an all too fitting symbol.

Proposal to Move

Proposal: Let's move our discussions to a Word Press format
Why? Because Word Press categorizes and sub-categorizes posts.
Imagine: Having a discussion that continues for more than a week.


How we would do this: Someone (*Cough* dusty) who has MySQL on their server would start the wordpress blog, tell us about the domain and upgrade us to posting status as we join. I'd be happy to move older posts from this blog over as a labor of love. I just really want to discuss through categories; it seems like the blogger format exagerates our natural propencity to forget, we need some nice catagories running along the right side telling us what discussions have been started.

So what do ya'll think?

Benedict XVI

Well, the smoke poured white from the Vatican today, and a German Cardinal became the 265th Pope, the 16th to bear the name Benedict, but only the second in our lifetime. Watching the CNN coverage of the new Pontiff, it almost seems like a farse, like someone is making a joke of impersonating the pope. For me, the title "Pope" has always been synonymous with the name John Paul II and the face of the man who took that name for his papacy. Today, it really feels like JPII is gone-- more than when he died, more than during his multiple funeral masses, more than when they laid him in the crypt beneath St. Peters. Today, he is both gone and replaced, and the title "Pope" has been taken from his shoulders and laid across those of Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. It will take a little time before my heart hands the mantle over. [Yes, it's true. I'm not a very good protestant, but I'm better as a popish Anglican than I would be as a skeptical Catholic. The irony is much more healthy this way.]

Sein und Name

Dave has asked me for an essay on the functional similarities of a person’s name and her being. On one hand, this question is not fair. Consider the 250-word requirement: he asks me to tell him about something, but he does not ask me to tell him whatever I know about it; instead, he says, “Tell me this much: no more, no less.” The topic, also, is not one I have chosen but one forced upon me by Dave’s inquisitive mind and questions that are important to him (but perhaps not important to me). He either assumes that there are similarities between a person’s name and her being (itself a problematic construction), in which case he is asking me to walk sans guide into a land he has visited before, or he does not believe there is any connection, in which case he has led me into a trap. You can see why I have “every right” to refuse Dave’s question. Or do I? The question is, unarguably, something forced upon me, something of which I had no participation in the formulation or even whether it would be formulated. It is presented to me unexpectedly, and I am left standing alone with this question and, strangely enough, the responsibility to respond. And this is exactly the similarity shared by a person’s name and her being: she receives both “gifts” or “questions” unsolicited from an other, and she finds herself in an undeniable position of responsibility to respond.

Greener Fields

Here's another web blog opportunity for anyone that's interested. It's a bit more focused than this one. It's set up to specifically discuss what Christian Community might look like if we became a truely sharing people in Christ. The site's hosted by Ariah Fine and it's located here.

Let me know if you have any questions.

No it's not a replacement for this dead site. I still have hopes that the great 611 will one day rise from the ashes and attain to its former glory!

drifting in space

I have a glove and a ball. I throw the ball. I walk to the ball. I turn around. I throw the ball. I walk to the ball. I turn around. I throw the ball.

I say hello, I turn around I say hello, I turn around I say hello.

I tell a joke, I laugh unusually loud for a long, long time. I cry. I laugh. I tell a joke.

I look at the time.

I hold my left foot in my right hand. I jump through my left foot and right hand with my right foot. I fall over.

"Spotter ready?" .... "Falling"


I wake up. I walk in fast circles. No, I cannot see my back no matter how fast I walk. I run: same results.

I open my mouth in an elongated "O." I knock on my head with my right fist. It sounds hollow. I chuckle.

I ask questions out loud that I do not know the answer to. I begin to whisper them into my cupped hands. I hold out my cupped hands and let them fly away.

I sit and wait.

(i.e. I check the blog site)

Fort Campbell

TEFKAMS 1 Satalite image of Dusty's helicopter!!!!
AAAAHHHHH!!! I can see you Dusty!!!

Hello?...(hello...hello...hello...)