Technology at my fingertips

I have all this technology at my fingertips, and I'm thinking: why don't I use it?

I have all these ideas in my head, swarming around like bees, or like files on a carcas, and I'm thinking: why don't I do something about them?

Well, I'll tell you what. I'm going to blog. Perhaps I have something good to say. Perhaps I have nothing at all. But if I don't say something, I'll go crazy.

My Lenten Journey:
I don't know how my lenten journey is going. Am I supposed to be getting something out of it? Is that the goal? If I don't get something out of it, then it has all been in vain, right? Sounds rather pathetically selfish to me.

I think that's one of the many things wrong with society. All we think about is: "what am I getting out of it?" You see, it has to benefit you in some way, or you shouldn't do it. It just wouldn't be right to do it if there's no benefit, right?

Are you saying you derive pleasure from it? If it benefits you in some way, that is pleasing is it not? Or we have to be reminded constantly of the benefit, so that we are pleased with ourselves.

It all comes back to the same thing. We live for pleasure. Some of us take pleasure in hurting ourselves (in suffering) and some of us take pleasure in self gratification.

Well, I can't think of any benefit I'm deriving from going without meat. I won't say I've gone without dairy. Oh, I've tried to a little bit, but I won't say I've succeeded in going without dairy. In fact, I haven't even succeeded in going without meat.

One fellow greeted me at Church and told me he was trying hard to keep the fast. I confessed to him almost immediately I had eaten meat once or twice in Lent but that I was trying not to. I am afraid I may have scandalized him. I do hope not!

But the point is: I had no desire to eat meat whatsoever. But they brought me the wrong order at work, and I got chicken. Well, I said a prayer thanking God for his tender mercy at this unexpected gift of some chicken. And I enjoyed every morsel of it.

Now I suppose you are all scandalized. Well, please, let me not hold back. If you are going to be scandalized, the by all means, let me dig deeper. (If you are going to sin, they say, sin boldly.)

I personally believe it is a sin to waste food. I think people who take away perfectly good food and throw it in the trash can, in order to uphold in their mind some religious ordinance, are going to Hell. Sorry, that's just how I feel. Meanwhile, I do not believe that it is a sin to break the fast. The fast is of less benefit to you (oh, there we go again... selfish! selfish! selfish!) yes, the fast is of less benefit to you if you break it, but it is by no means a sin. It is a sin, however, to waste food.

So, if push comes to shove, and there is nothing else to eat in the cupboard, or if someone has given you something to eat, and it is meat. Then by all means you should eat it, and be ashamed of yourself for your self-righteous thoughts of throwing that in the trash can. God has given you that meat: did He give it to you to waste it?

But I digress. I was speaking of pleasure. Perhaps I shall leave that for another time. No... the thought is with me now.

Okay, so about pleasure. I have this little problem. Everything is pleasureable to me. I see the sunshine and I smile. I see the rain and I smile. I smell the flowers and I smile. I sneeze because of my allergies and I smile, because at least I can still breathe.

So, if everything is pleasureable to me: how can I abstain from pleasure? I admit, I cannot. Is the goal of the fast to abstain from pleasure? I think the goal of the fast is to make some effort. (Even effort can be pleasurable.) If you eat less, hopefully you are giving more. If you fast from something, perhaps you can give it to a stranger. I do not know the way I can only speculate. But I know what the way is NOT and it is not hypocracy and self-righteousness. Why do you think the Gospel reading as we begin the fast is all about hypocracy and self-righteousness?

Well, that's enough for tonight.

Regards,
The Sinner Basil
(in a cloud of flies...)

Merry Christmas

To all my beloved Orthodox friends, I wish you a heartfelt and warm Merry Christmas!

:)

Okay, so here's the scoop. According to Microsoft, April 27th, 2005 is Orthodox Christmas. That's right, Orthodox Christmas.

I have international Holidays turned on in my Microsoft Office Outlook (that's version 2003, SP1, for the Micrsoftie) with the country of Russia enabled. I figured I could get something close to more authentic Holidays on my calendar (like maybe I'd see Pascha?) if I had Russian Holidays on there. Well, according to Microsoft Outlook, I just noticed that next Wednesday, April 27th, is Christmas. That's right, not Easter, not Holy Wednesday, but Christmas. It reads "Orthodox Christmas (Russia)". Check out your version of Office Outlook to see if it shows next Weds as being Christmas too!

Regards,
Basil

Irony

You've gotta love it.

Yesterday the radio commercial for "Northwest Center for Anxiety and Depression" (we cure all your emotional ills, specializing in alcholholism and drug abuse, since 19NN) came on immediately following a commercial for all the great Wineries we have here in the Pacific Northwest.

Today the same radio commercial for "Northwest Center for Anxiety and Depression" (are you feeling lonely and depressed?) came on right before the song: "I can't get no, Sat-Is-Fact-Chun!"

LOL

Cheers!
Basil

Greetings from Cleveland

Hi everyone. I am currently in Cleveland, where today was a blustery winter 64 degrees. (It is supposed to chill down again before I leave.)




The above is a fairly good arial view of the city downtown. The street on the left that you see coming all the way down to the water (Lake Erie) is East 9th. If you see the large green oval in the center of downtown, go a block above that: You'll see there a square with a criss-cross of roads going through it. That's a place called Public Square. The street between Public square and the park with the green oval lawn is Superior. If you follow Superior to the left, toward where it intersects with East 9th: That's where I am right this very moment. There's a hotel on that corner (on the lower right hand side of that corner as you look at this image) and I'm on the 12th floor. If you can see the tall white building sandwitched between the two darker buildings: that's the tall building immediatly next door (and attached) to the hotel building I'm staying in. The funny shaped sliver-white building that is at an odd angle from the street is the next block down toward the lake from me. Just past that building is a parking garage, and then the Catholic Cathedral, which is right out my window. I look down upon Christ suspended from the Cross.

When I came into town last Sunday night, the Terminal tower was lit up like this:

but it isn't any more... I guess they have to end Christmas sometime.

This was my very first business trip. I feel fortunate that I was sent here. It was great to meet a customer that I've worked for for the past couple of years, and to work with their team first hand for several days.

Well, more later. I don't really have much to say right now.

Regards,
Basil

The Final Tally

Well, now that it is all said and done, I've voted for:

4 Repulbicans
4 Democrats
1 Green Party Guy
6 Libertarians
4 Non Partistans (several of them you had no choice)

1 Tax increase
1 Tax decrease

I hope you've all gone out and voted!

The general principle I use is:

-> If a candidate has something they make their main campaign promise that I strongly agree with, I vote for them.

-> If a candidate has something they make their main campaign promise that I strongly disagree with, I vote AGAINST them. (In this case, I vote for whatever opponent is most likely to win - as is the case, for instance, with Kerry).

--> If don't particularly like one candidate or the other (of the Rep and Demo) then I vote Libertarian. (This is the case when neither mainstream candidate is making a big issue out of something I care about. The Libertarian problably won't win, but at least I'm making a stand by siding with a cause that I pretty much agree with, namely, "get the Government out of our lives thank you very much.")

--> The one case where I voted for Green Party it was becuase both the Republican and Democrat candidates were boring, and the Libertarian was a complete nut-case, so I voted green.

Thank God we live in a country where we are free to vote for any candidate of any party.

God Bless America!

Basil

Why am I going to vote for?

I have decided that my goal for the day is to figure out who I am going to vote for.

I have been very much against the current president George Bush, and have long ago decided to vote for Kerry as a protest vote. (Normally I'd vote for a Libertarian if I didn't think my vote really mattered, but in this case I really want to vote Bush out of office.)

Well, lately I've been swayed by things I've read. Isn't abortion an important enough issue to vote for Bush instead of Kerry?

Well, I also discovered the other day that George Bush is my 8th cousin. (My family is really into geneologies and stuff.)

Does that sway me?

There was a romantic article on the web about a young man who George Bush prayed for him when he told the president his mother was sick.

Shouldn't I want a man of faith?

Well, I still stand firmly against Bush for various Bush-led agendas and their implications:
-invading Iraq,
-his own personal interest in oil,
-the whole hiding the truth from the public about WMD issue,
(I do not think, and nobody can convince me, that invading other counters makes you safer back here at home. Nope, the bad guy always eventually catches up with you. If you piss people off in this world, it will come back to haunt you. Enough said.)
-the Bush-led compromise of American's civil liberties in the interest of "protecting us from terrorist" (the fact that law-inforcement agencies can now ignore "due process of law" - something our ancestors died for, one of the main reasons they founded this country - if the government claims it believes there is a terrorist thread.)
(that last one in my book is almost justification for civil war, no less booting the fascist president who brought it into being)


Anyway, all this time, however, I really haven't had any particular liking for Kerry. But today I stumbled across a couple of things.

1) Kerry voted for the "Daschle amendment" something that banned certain types of abortions! (hurray for Kerry!) you can read about that here:
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/155/story_15523_1.html He also says he stands by his vote.


2) Kerry is a Catholic and seems devoted to his faith:
http://www.democrats.org/values/

Anyway, that's my 2 cents about the Bush-Kerry question.

I'll be posting some more on other candidates, but to give you a glimpse:

* I'm voting for Rossi (GOP) for governor. (The Gregior campaign has been full of lies from what I've been able to discover.)

* I'm voting for Jay Enslee (Democrat) for Senator (He's been a fine senator the past term and has tried hard to work toward the preservation of our civil liberties in the very matter that I mention above.)

* I will probably cast my typical Libertarian vote for other positions where I can't decide between the lesser of two GOP- Democrat evils.

Regards,
Basil

In case you haven't decided who to vote for yet...

I think this little film here can be highly informative:

http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/content/this_land

Regards,
Basil