Remember when I used to post almost every day? That was awesome.
Okay. Last week was not so good. This week will be better. I hope.
Let's just do some random thoughts to get this going again:
1) Virtually nothing I was cheering for in the Oscars won, but it was almost worth the three-and-a-half hours I spent listening (mostly) and watching (partially) to the telecast for Errol Morris' opening. Fine, yes, I'm an Errol fanboy, but does anyone else think that his opening segment was the best possible five-minute film on such a stupid subject for a five-minute film ("why do you like film?" or something broad and lame like that)? Then again, any short film that references Ernest Goes to Jail followed by a fleeting (alas) argument of its greatness has a special place in my heart.
2) I was going to post on Thursday afternoon that I thought I would hit even par on my home disk golf course sometime in the next month. (My best score at the time was +2.) But I didn't, and of course, on Friday I got par. Today, I got +7. Eek.
3) I've written two bell pieces called "Lent Sadness" and "Easter Happiness." (The latter, of course, will premiere this Sunday.) But what shall I name my next piece? "Ordinary Time Mundaneness?"
4) I've mentioned before how bad these omnibus posts are, haven't I? Good.
5) After doing a great deal of reading on transubstantiation, I've decided that rather than transubstantiation being nonsensical that the difference between transubstantiationists and consubstantiationists is so minute as to be nonsensical. Both groups believe that a change has been made to the general properties of the bread and wine without a similar change to the taste, feel, and other physical properties of the bread. The difference, I think, is that transubstantiationists see these physical properties as auxiliary to the new property of the bread/wine (that it is the body/blood of Christ), and consubstantiationists see both the physical and the spiritual properties of the bread/wine/body/blood as equal.
Regardless, I doubt that even one in ten American Catholics has even a basic understanding of transubstantiation or has a basic understanding of the Church's beliefs but doesn't agree.
This needs to go national. Josh saw the following bumper sticker on his way to work:
Proud Parent of an
Our Lady of Humility
Honor Student
That's awesome. When I first read it, I thought it might be a joke, or at least I thought the person who created it might be aware of its hypocriticalness. But then I thought differently, because the ideal format for a joke bumper sticker would be:
Proud Parent of an
Honor Student at
Our Lady of Humility
In that example, the joke's in the final line, not the second, and I suspect anyone who would create a bumper sticker like that for personal amusement would have the sense to put the ca-CHING! at the end.
Therefore, the actual bumper sticker is not intentionally funny. Therefore, it is hilarious.
oh so lovingly written by
Matthew |
these are comments, absent.
It could have been worse, I suppose... Eleven of my seedings predictions for the women's tourney were perfect. Three of my seedings predictions were one place off. And then there's Louisiana Tech and Old Dominion.
So you don' t have to scroll back down, my predictions are listed up here again. The number in brackets is the actual seed.
uno: Tennessee [2]
UConn [1]
Oklahoma [1]
Duke [1]
dos: Stanford [2]
Vandy [1]
Baylor [2]
Purdue [2]
tres: Kansas State [3]
South Carolina [3]
Louisiana Tech [5]
Iowa State [3]
quatro: Texas [4]
Colorado [3]
North Carolina [4]
Old Dominion [7]
Hate to have you checking this journal for updates on the freakin' weekends... ...but this is important:
1) Beth-Annie has written a fine response to my curling queries from yesterday. You ought to read it.
2) Prior to last week, Prinsiana's highest number of unique visitors was 16, on February 12th. On Tuesday, Prinsiana broke that record with 19 unique visitors -- not terribly surprising, as for whatever reason Tuesday is Prinsiana's hoppingist day. Then, the next day, Prinsiana got 25 unique visitors. Then, yesterday, Prinsiana got 25 unique visitors a-gain. Um, huh? I don't get it. Where are you people coming from? Some of you seem to be responding to a mass e-mail sent out by (presumably) someone I don't know (a number of references look like "mailbox:/Hard+Drive/System+Folder/Preferences/Netscape+Users/[someone's name -- the recipient, I assume]/Mail/Inbox?id=f0510030fb8aec8e2d60e..."). None of the recpients' names ring bells, so who is this original e-mailing dude or dudette? I'm not concerned, per se; I'm just a bit confused. I don't believe there is ever a day when 25 different people need to be looking at my website.
oh so lovingly written by
Matthew |
these are comments, absent.
Is curling a sport? Since the curling shirts arrived at my home on Friday, I've been thinking: Is curling a sport, or is it merely a game? Then I thought: Is disk golf a sport, or is it merely a game? Then I thought: Is chess a sport, or is it merely a game?
No more wondering need be done. I have come up with a six-item checklist to ensure that your favorite sport is, indeed, a sport.
1) A sport must involve two or more teams or individuals that are all aiming for the same end-game result.
2) A sport must have a scoring system that is not entirely based on the speed an activity is finished. (This scoring system may be implicit, such as in billiards.)
3) A sport must have both a method of scoring and a method to keep the other team from scoring. (For example, golf does not qualify, but billiards -- where you could position the cue ball poorly for the next player -- does.)
4) A sport must involve one or more members from a defensive team in the majority of scoring situations. (For example, billiards does not qualify, as one player precedes another precedes another.)
5) A sport must be a zero-sum game: excluding ties, the number of winners in each singular sporting event must be the same.
6) A sport must involve skill and either strength or speed.
Disk golf's out at three, and if I knew more about curling, I'd know if it made it through four and six.
oh so lovingly written by
Matthew |
these are comments, absent.
The best prediction is one you get right. The second best prediction is one you don't get wrong. Thankfully, Iowa State won last night, because looking more closely at the quality wins of the top 25 teams yesterday evening, I would no longer be surprised if ISU would have gotten a four seed with a loss.
So, to be even more all-inclusive, here are my predictions for the womens' basketball seeds, uno through quatro:
uno: Tennessee, despite a #6 ranking
UConn Oklahoma Duke
dos: Stanford, who goes down because of their tournament loss, since they didn't play anyone in 2002
Vandy Baylor, with a win over Iowa State
Purdue, if either Oklahoma or Iowa State wins tomorrow, or if Baylor wins the Big 12 Tournament
tres: Kansas State, which will be a number two if they win the Big 12 Tournament, supplanting either Baylor (if ISU beats Baylor) or Purdue (if Baylor beats ISU)
South Carolina Louisiana Tech, as long as they win the WAC Tournament
Iowa State, which will be a number two if they win the Big 12 Tournament, supplanting Baylor
quatro: Texas, which will go to number three if Louisiana Tech loses in the WAC
Colorado North Carolina Old Dominion, as long as they win the CAA Tournament
A day for moving. As certainly no one has noticed, this journal has moved to a new Internet address; it's now hosted by Joshua Edward's server rather than blogspot.com. The major aesthetic difference: no ads.
A day for gnashing. My brainless prediction of the week: if Iowa State womens' basketball doesn't win against Colorado tonight, they won't get a top four seed and host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. Further, I'm not sure a win today is a guarantee. Their RPI of 14 is borderline and will go down with a loss. I can't imagine the NCAA having six Big 12 teams hosting subregionals, and Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas (on the strength of six top 25 wins, including a win over Tennessee), and Kansas State (on the strength of five top 25 wins, a 23-6 record, and an 8 RPI) are locks for the 16 top spots. Colorado has more good wins that Iowa State right now, and it doesn't have ISU's bad loss. Texas Tech an 18-10 record, but they have more good wins than ISU.
Here’s my prophecy:
1) If Iowa State wins tonight, and Texas Tech loses to Baylor, Iowa State will get a number four seed. If they lose, a number five. Maybe.
2) If Iowa State wins tonight, and Texas Tech beats Baylor, the winner of the Iowa State/Texas Tech game will get a number four seed. Either the loser or Colorado will get a number five.
3) If all seven top Big 12 teams host subregionals -- very unlikely, I think -- the Big 12 will have all four number four seeds.
oh so lovingly written by
Matthew |
these are comments, absent.
Fine. Okay. I have three minutes before the end of my break. In that time -- and no more -- I will write a stream of consciousness poem.
ugly
oh, oh here, here it is
the green, the red, the earth collapsing
the blackness, the whiteness, the phantom fields
and here, here, is the scissors of hate
cutting the pages of an old, worn, loved family Bible
into small triangles with muddled words on them, words like "oses," "evelatio"
and i wish, oh, i wish that i had 700 nuns that could look at these triangles and put them back where they belong
in my heart, my soul, my life.
I truly have no idea what I am going to write for today's entry. However, since I missed yesterday, and I (amazingly) have a legion of about ten regular readers, I feel the need to entertain you.
At 11:30, I sustained my most serious disk golf injury; I now have more than 10 cuts and pricks on my right hand.
At 12:30, a young child took the small stuffed pig that has been sitting on my desk for over two years, and I didn't have the heart to ask for it back.
At 1:00, the man who was governor of Virginia two months ago, Jim Gilmore, came into my office to talk with my boss about AAWP, a fact that I did not know when I designed its new logo and advertised its new clothing line in this very space four hours ago.
It is done. The order has been completed. The late are crying and banging their heads against the walls and screaming "Why couldn't I have gotten in Matthew's order and saved three dollars in shipping? Why?"
It is undone. Somewhere, I have a disk containing the final pages of seven novels. I printed it out and, because it happened to be on my person, showed it to some SAT&Bs, who were generally suitably amused. (Hi, Misses Neptune and Gray!) Once I find the disk, I promise I will send it to my "Never Underestimate" buds.
It is kinda done. So, I've managed to write in this journal about every other weekday -- not quite the every weekday promise, but much better than the once-every-two-months-maybe schedule I was on late last year. However, I see a problem: my journal entries have recently become less consciously interesting. Rather, they are more Matthew rambling on about how great he is, how hard it is for him to give up television for Lent (a sly form of the public tithing that Beth and Jesus hate), etc. The Catholicism deconstruction worked for a while, but I've lapsed into the "Seinfeld" journal: a journal about nothing. (Also, like "Seinfeld," it's generally not funny.)
I'm not immediately sure how to resolve this; perhaps it'll simply resolve itself once I get on another kick of sorts.
oh so lovingly written by
Matthew |
these are comments, absent.
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
