Carpal's Tunnel

   

TheSchool

    What was your very first job?  Before I tell you that story, I have to tell you this one: When I was a freshman in high school, I was a bit of a slacker and ended up failing. I went to summer school to make up the grades, but my folks wanted me to be in a better learning environment so they sent me away to boarding school. Since I'm the last of seven kids I think they just needed the break and sent me away so they could relax a little bit.

    Anyway, they sent me to this boarding school. An all boys boarding school. An all boys boarding school Catholic seminary. An all boys boarding school Catholic seminary in the middle of freakin' nowhere Ohio.  Now before you all start up about pervert priests I'm sorry to disappoint but there weren't any. In fact the only inappropriate thing that ever happened there was one of the male teachers was messing around with one of the students but that was after I graduated and an entirely different story.

    So where was I?  Oh yea, my particularly sheltered life getting a respectable college prep education at an all boys boarding school Catholic seminary in the middle of freakin' nowhere Ohio. Since this was a boarding school and in the middle of freakin' nowhere I couldn't get a job. In the summers my parents were so consumed with guilt for "sending me away for my own good" they paid me a handsome allowance so I didn't need to find work to get any pocket money. Once I graduated and lazed around for a month or so I started looking for my first job and boy was it a great one. A restaurant had just opened up about a half mile or so from my house (no car or license so walking distance was perfect) and they needed bussers so I applied. I met Grace and Phil Chen and managed to impress upon them I knew how to fill glasses and clear plates (last of seven kids so I had lots of table clearing practice) so they hired me. At this point I had no idea what kind of a place this was until Phil took me into the dining room and started showing me around. I was in heaven. It was JoAnn's Chili Bordello where they "Served 16 kinds of chili in an atmosphere of sin." I kid you not.

    So here I am, fresh out of the seminary and I'm working with waitresses dressed in corsets and stockings. 

JoAnnsWaitress

I had never been happier.  All my friends admired me, my parents thought it was pretty funny (although they never ate there), and I was surrounded by twenty of the hottest women I had ever seen. Because of my sheltered past they took me under their wing and taught me more about women that I could have picked up in 100 public high schools (notice I said women, not sex. I'm not that kind of boy). Some of my favorite times were when we'd go out after work and they'd sweet talk the bouncers into letting me in and then there I was, surrounded by women who would buy me drinks and mob me on the dance floor. The other guys in the club would just stare at us and wish they were me. :-) 

How many times have you heard that or something similar? "The Bible says...," "Jesus said..., " "God says in Revelation..."  Our way of life based somehow on the bible being fact (at least the Presidents thinks it is). Millions and millions of people have gone before us secure in the knowledge the bible is the Word of God.
Is the bible fact? Even if it is really good fiction does it have anything to do with God? How do we know? Here's a sample of the kind of conversation I have about it every day between me and me.

    The bible is fact. 100% happened that way. Period. NQA.
    How is that possible? Taken literally the bible comes up with strange things: Where did Cain get a wife? Sons of God laying with the daughters of men? Did Ezekiel really see those bizarre creatures?  If the Gospels tell the same story, why are they different?  I'm just scratching the surface here...
    OK... so don't take it literally, take it symbolically. It's literature and history mixed in with a healthy dose of myth and legend.
    So if it's just a compilation of stories how can I tell which parts are true and which parts are... um... not?
    There are no "untrue" sections in the bible. Everything can be taken as God's truth.
    But what about the weird stories? John saying Jesus was crucified on a different night than everyone else?
    Each story has its audience.
    So one group gets one truth and one group gets another truth? How can there be more than one truth?
    That's something only God understands and who are we to question His judgment?
    I agree with that one but... how do we know God had a hand in the bible anyway?
    God wouldn't lead us astray.
    Nice thought, but how do we know that?
    We have Faith in God and God keeps his Word.
    So Faith is the answer?
    Yup, Faith.
    Do we have anything other than Faith?
    Well... there are some digs near the holy land where some folks found a city that had its walls torn down. That proves the story of Jericho.
    Digs are neat but do they prove or suggest?
    Well we can't be 100% sure...
    So they suggest.
    Yes. Very strongly suggest.
    And the magic spackle to fill in between "prove" and "suggest" is...?
    Faith.
    Here we are at Faith again.
    You can't know God without it.
    So here's my problem. God gave me intellect and Faith.
    He is generous.
    What do I do when my Faith tells me one thing and my intellect tells me another?
    That would never happen.
    Hypothetically
    The you must follow your heart. Faith wins.
    Why would God put me in such a position?
    He didn't, hypothetical, remember?
    But I am in such a position. I'm coming to the realization that what we call the Bible and everything within it that we've build our lives on... is fiction.
    Careful... that's blasphemy.
    I'm being honest here. God know my heart and He knows I'm not rejecting Him, I just want to prove him. I don't believe the Bible is a reliable source to get to know Him and it's unfair to build me to rely on logic and proof and then ask me to throw it all out the window and make this big leap of Faith.
    Then you'd better pray for guidance.
    I guess so. Now if  I only knew who I was praying to.

What are some of your favorite, forgotten albums that have stood the test of time? Here they are in order:

1. David Bowie "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars"
   
2. Heaven 17 "The Luxury Gap"
3. Shreikback "Oil and Gold"
   

I'm in a meeting right now so I'll have to add more later.

    This is from Dan Froomkin's blog at the Washington Post going over Bush's latest poll results (among other things). Look at the end of page 1:

    "...a majority of Americans now believe the Bush administration knowingly misled the American people in building its case for war against Saddam Hussein: 58 percent vs. 36 percent who believe it didn't."

    Popular opinion doesn't make it true, but I'm wondering what "knowingly misled" means here. What does it mean to you? Did the Administration want a war with all the trimmings no matter what the reasons? Why would they want that? Or perhaps they thought going to war was the right thing and didn't question the evidence because it pointed them in the right direction (evidence about WMD's for example)? If you think you've got keys in your pocket do you look anyway before you close the door behind you? I know going to war requires more evidence and thought than a set of  house keys but "knowingly misled" almost seems a little much.  An idiot and a bastard are not usually the same thing.

    Do you feel "misled?" Do you feel there was an intention to mislead? Or was it a case of "shoot first and ask questions later?"  Both are bad but not equally. Or are they?
 

AirMassThunderstormStages

What's the best way to spend a rainy day? Since 40 year old me is going to give the same old "reading, watching a movie, cuddling with my sweetie/pillow/animal" I'd rather have 10 year old me answer:

    Out in the rain playing.  Growing up in Ohio makes rain and storms something of a treat (for me anyway). You not only get used to them but you actually look forward to them. I love rain and I'm not talking about some sissy April shower. I mean real rain, a thunderstorm. Buckets and buckets of rain and with it thunder so loud it rattles the windows, lightning so close and bright it makes you blind for a moment. You know a storms coming by the smell in the air, the change of the wind, the darkness of the sky. You can tell when a storm's going to be a good one by the sound of the drops when it starts. Lots and lots of huge drops that go "splat" when they hit the concrete steps of my porch or "thump" on the windshield of a car.  When it really kicks in I'm on my porch watching the two huge maples in the front yard sway and shake in the wind. I can't believe how cool it looks when the drops are blown into sheets and for just a second I can see what wind looks like.  The wind swirls and drives a cold spray into my face and I'm in heaven. The gutters are overflowing and the street is turning into a torrent as the strip of asphalt gets narrower and narrower and then totally covered by a sheet of moving, living water. At that point it's like some secret signal has been sent out and my neighbors, my sibling and I race into the street to play in the rushing, shin deep water. Sometimes it's as warm as a bath or freezing cold but it doesn't matter either way. All that water is ours for those precious minutes until it drains away.

    Eventually the thunder fades, the wind dies, the water drains away. But we're left with a deep feeling of  happiness? contentment? Maybe feeling we were a part of something brief and beautiful.  We go back home to shed our soaked clothes, bathe to warm our clammy skin, and watch the sun set in that unearthly orange post-storm glow.

Hawkeye's Robe

    Kid's a boy of above average intellect and fairly simple tastes. He's starting to become very interested in music (Green Day, Panic!..., Death Cab, Fallout Boy, etc) and his piano is improving greatly because if it. He's taken an interest in pop culture and has really enjoyed watching older movies with Kitten and me (which is a hoot). Overall a pretty normal kid.
    Since school started this year one of his teachers has been calling him "Hawkeye" in reference to the Alan Alda character in the MASH TV series and Kid has been loving the attention. His interest in pop culture drove him to find out more about MASH so he's TiVo'd and watched a bunch of episodes (sometimes two or three a day, once his homework is done of course). Now he can't get enough of it and talks about it all the time and even asked for a robe like Hawkeye's for his birthday. Kitten found one that was pretty close and here we are at the bowling alley with a bunch of his friends and he put it on immediately and hasn't stopped wearing it. How funny is that?

Rainbow in my Backyard

I was complaining about all the rain we've been getting (a condition made worse by my leaky rooof) when the sky cleared up about 4:00pm and this nifty little trick of the light appeared. I don't get all mushy about doorbells, sleighbells and whiskers on kittens, but I know something beautiful when I see it. I think I may have to look for gold under that playhouse.

Kitten and I sat up late in the "lounge" last night and I blew half of yesterday's points on beer. Specifically this beer:

Chimay

I don't know about you but this is pretty much proof to me that God loves us and wants us to be happy (apologies to BF).  Of course God has a sense of humor and now I have the tiniest of headaches. How many points in a double decker taco?

It rained a ton yesterday and wouldn't you know it the roof leaks. Not just anywhere, but right above our one-of-a-kind rough-hewn slatted wood armoire from Sundance. The top has some water damage but most of the water leaked down into the ice bucket on the top shelf. I've been talking about getting rid of the bar set that bucket is part of for a couple weeks, but I think I'll keep it for now.  Meanwhile I get to spend the day on the roof with a tube of patch. Yippee.