Happy birthday: Snobaste (18)

Happy birthday to my brother, who becomes a legal adult today! He and I celebrated by going to the local tobacco lounge and smoking two Romeo y Julieta Cedro Deluxe No. 1s. Then the whole family went to Old Chicago, then we ate a cake from Culvers. Now it's time to survive the zombie apocalypse in Left 4 Dead!

Simple Southern Symphony

So, I'm actually writing this blog post on my newest electronic gadget—an iPod touch—while sitting in the back seat of the car of a fellow seminarian's mother as he drives another seminarian and I back to school in Minnesota. This device is pretty much the most awesome thing ever invented by mankind, other than the fact that, unlike the iPhone, it obviously doesn't have cell network connectivity and can therefore access the Internet only when connected to a wifi network (which isn't gonna happen in a moving vehicle). Otherwise, the multi-touch screen is brilliant, and the ability to install and use any of the thousands of third-party programs adds infinite possibilities as to the functionality of the thing. I think the keyboard is one of its biggest strengths; I love typing with it (like I'm doing right now). I thought at first that the auto-correction feature would get so irritating that I'd end up disabling it, but I can really see from writing this that it really comes in handy and is really accurate (unless the mistake you made was that you neglected to touch a key altogether, of course).

Okay, enough of me drooling over my iPod. I actually spend the last third of my Christmas break on a mission trip to New Orleans (a.k.a. "N'awlins"). It was a really great experience, and we managed to fit quite a bit of sightseeing and eating out into the spaces between work—my group's job was to paint the exterior of the house of a nice lady named Janice. On New Year's Eve, we went to Jackson Square to watch the Fleur de Lis drop at midnight (and man, that city sure is obsessed with that symbol), and on the first I had my first cigar: an $8.50 Macanudo with a nice light flavor.

For Christmas my younger brother (known as Snobaste on his blog, The Other Side) got the anime Kanon (カノン) on DVD, which he had first watched nearly two years ago (and which I began watching not too long afterward bit didn't finish until about a year ago). It's a truly touching story, and after watching all twenty-four episodes dubbed in English in the three days between Christmas and my departure for New Orleans and realizing that I want to watch it yet again, it's propelled itself to the number two spot on my list of favorite anime. (I write a lot of hard-to-follow sentences, don't I? Trust me, I say a lot of hard-to-follow sentences when I'm talking to people, too. I also seem to use parentheses a lot.)

All right, I think that's enough for now. Now, what to name this post…

"I have a dream…"

"…that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

—Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior

I'm proud to say that we as a nation have come a long way in realizing Dr. King's great dream for America. We are moving more and more towards living in a nation where people are not judged by the color of their skin.

However, a great problem still faces us. We do not judge by the content of character.

Both this great victory and this great challenge are evident in the election of Senator Barack Obama to the presidency. Although we have proven to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton that we are not the "AmeriKKKa" they think we are, we continue to be wooed by the empty words of men and women who promise us great things and present us instead with great obstacles.

We have elected a man who ignores the dignity of the human person from its earliest stage, a man who believes that peace is achieved by the mere absence of war; a man who thinks money is the primary determinant of happiness, a man who epitomizes the fundamental liberal belief: the government is our God.

We all must remember one thing, however. We have only one true leader: He who dignifies all positions of authority and decrees that our nation's president must be respected. He once told us, "Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar," and so we will do so. But we will also "render unto God," our True King, "what belongs to God."

"Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves."

—Romans 13:1–2

What's the opposite of MIA?

Right now I'm sitting in my room at the seminary, filling out my absentee ballot application for the State of Indiana so I can vote for McCain/Palin in November.

…

And now I'm back from what can only be described as a huge digression from what I was doing before, but that happens, right? You're filling out a form when suddenly you realize that you need to email your diocesan Vocations Director like you promised you would once a month, then you decide to put monthly reminders in iCal so you don't forget like last month; you add those reminders and remember that two of your iCal calendars would be better off merged into one, but you've never found out how to do that, so you do a Google search to try to find the answers, come up empty, and figure out a workaround way to do it yourself; then, while you're adding an email-my-Vocations-Director reminder for December, you realize that you might want to email him that time before Christmas Break begins—wait, when does Christmas Break begin?—so you look up the dates for Christmas Break and hey! how about you just mark every other break and major seminary event in iCal, too, while you're at it? and, of course, all this time you're also chatting with your brother in iChat about how wimpy CounterStrike server administrators are.

What, that's never happened to you?

Fine, maybe it's just me, but digressions seem to be an integral part of my life. If I was always laser-focused on one thing at a time, I'd think there was something wrong with me. I love going off-topic, on tangents, on whatever else they're called. I like having homework to do, going to another seminarian's room to ask him one brief question, and ending up talking about life, politics, religion, and everything in between with about five different guys before returning to my room an hour later. Oh, and I stupidly leave my light on, too, of course.

Maybe that's why I haven't posted on here in months: I think about posting, but I get distractions. Well, let's hope that happens less often from now on!

I still haven't emailed my vocations director or, heck, even filled out my absentee ballot application yet, and I have class in fifteen minutes. Oh well—there's always afterward! I hope our professor shows us more scenes from The Princess Bride; that's such a great movie!

Three, two, one, break!

I promise that this post will have the word "anime" in it only once. And there it was.

I'm actually on "winter break" (or "February break," as some call it), one of the bazillion breaks we have here at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. I have way too much homework to do, but I seem to be chipping away at it nicely. (That's a euphemistic way of saying that I've been procrastinating.)

So, what's been going on in the World of Everything That Matters (to Me)? Let's break it down with those handy <ul></ul> tags!

• Seminary life has been going awesomely. I'm feeling the call to the priesthood more strongly than ever, and I'm happy at the progress that I've made in, particularly, my prayer life.
• My five new classes for this semester are all interesting and challenging (although one of them is kind of over my head). Unlike last semester, every one of my professors has been teaching that class for years, so I'm sure they're all competent (although some of them seem to think theirs is the only class: the common, irritating trait of the teachers who give way too much homework).
• The circus known as American primary elections is in full swing, with 1) two Democrats really good at what they do fighting for the nomination with ad hominem attacks and constant playing of the race and gender cards, effectively undermining their party's supposed tolerance of women and minorities, and 2) a Republican exemplifying the party's utter weakness and internal division quickly pulling ahead of others of his kind while the truly conservative candidates drop out or suspend their campaigns, effectively bumming me out. My official opinion on who to vote for: that Republican I just mentioned. I'm not gonna taint my blog with his name, but we'll just have to hold our noses and vote for him.
• In the area of music, I recently discovered/rediscovered how awesome Evanescence's album Fallen is. Remaining on my list of Music I'm Primarily Listening to at the Moment™ is Utada Hikaru's live Utada United 2006 performance and The Lord of the Rings: The Complete Recordings. I've also rediscovered the awesomeness of Party Shuffle.
• In December, I watched Firefly for the first time, and I've currently been watching Heroes for the first time. Yeah, I know I'm behind on the times. When it comes to movies, I've recently watched Constantine and the first two movies in the Bourne Trilogy (and I'm planning on watching the third soon).
• On Monday, myself and the other three seminarians from my diocese at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary traveled back home to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of our bishop's episcopal ordination with a Mass of Thanksgiving, reception, and dinner. The Mass was one of the most awesome I've ever been to.

There we go. I suppose that's it. Now I feel like I should take a nap—one of those naps that moves right on into a full night's sleep. Too bad I've never taken a nap before; I'll sleep when I'm dead.

Christmas and anime (Wow, that's a weird combo)

Before I lose the urge to type, I guess I'll wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Also, although I'm still not considering myself an anime fan, I've watched several more anime that I've not mentioned on this blog yet. I think I've only mentioned「涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱」(The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) so far, so here's what I've watched since:

• デスノート (Death Note) - I watched this in July. It didn't usurp Haruhi's position of "favorite TV show," but it has an awesome premise, and it was extremely entertaining. Premise: A teenager stumbles upon a Death God's notebook, which has the power to kill (in any means possible) anyone whose name is written in it and sees this as a chance to rid the world of criminals. The Japanese police perceive this mysterious killer (whom they term キラ, Kira) as perverting true justice, and under the supervision of a just-as-cryptic detective, L, they try to hunt him down. A battle of minds and wills ensues as Kira and L strive for victory over the other. I've watched both seasons and both of the live-action movies based on the plot.
• スクラップド・プリンセス (Scrapped Princess) - I watched this in August, most of it while at the seminary. I really enjoyed this one, but I don't think it's anything special. Premise: In a medieval Europe–esque world, a certain newborn princess is prophesied to be "the lethal poison that will destroy the world" on her sixteenth birthday. Her parents ordered her thrown into a ravine, but she survives the fall and is taken in by a peasant family, who names her Pacifica. Now Pacifica's sixteenth birthday is near, and she and her older brother and sister must flee from those who know that the Scrapped Princess is still alive and who are trying to kill her. Meanwhile, Pacifica discovers more about the prophecy and what exactly being this "lethal poison" is. I watched the first (and only) season of the show.
• 灼眼のシャナ (Shakugan no Shana) - I began watching this in October and am currently working on watching the second season, which is still airing. Now this show usurped Haruhi. Premise: Yuji Sakai's world is turned upside-down when he learns that he's dead. Denizens of the Crimson World (a kind of "parallel universe") who seek and consume Power of Existence and Hōgu (special powers) have, some time in the past, made Yuji one of their victims. He is now a Torch: a temporary replacement for Yuji's real existence that will slowly fade away to prevent his sudden disappearance from disturbing the balance. He encounters a battle between a Denizen's servants and a Flame Haze, a human-turned-agent that works for the Kings of the Crimson Realm that seek to keep the balance, this Flame Haze tells him about his unfortunate state, as well as that he is a special Torch called a Mystes, which holds a Hōgu inside of it. Yuji names the Flame Haze "Shana," and Shana sticks with him, seeing him as good bait for the enemy so she can defeat more Denizens, but as she battles those who come to acquire Yuji's hidden power (which turns out to be very rare and powerful), she has to deal with the strange and unknown feelings she feels towards Yuji… I've watched Season One, am watching the currently-airing Season Two, and have seen the movie that was released in theaters.
• ゼロの使い魔 (Zero no Tsukaima) - I watched this over Thanksgiving break. The first season was really good, and so was the second, but the male lead started to really piss me off in the latter (due to his breast obsession and extreme pacifist attitude). Premise: In another world (which looks a lot like medieval France), Louise is starting her second year at the Tristain Academy of Magic. Her horrible magical ability has given her the nickname of "Zero," so when, during the traditional familiar-summoning ceremony, she summons a commoner human named Saito instead of a magical beast, she becomes subject to more ridicule. Saito, who was actually summoned from modern-day Japan, hates how Louise treats him like a slave, but that's the least of his worries: it seems he has the power to expertly use any weapon, a power reserved only for the legendary Gandalfr, the familiar of a Void Mage. (Void magic is a legendary magic that was thought to not exist except in myths.) As Louise and her familiar discover their powers and deal with the problems besieging their country, they grow closer to each other. I watched both seasons of the show.

Some time ago, I started watching「カノン」(Kanon), but never finished it, and I plan on watching it in full during this break.

I guess my urge to type is back!

What?

Haha, just checking in—I'm not dead. I'm on break from college/seminary for Thanksgiving right now. It's not that I don't have time to post on here while I'm at college—on the contrary, I have plenty—it's just that I don't feel like it. 'Kay? Kay. I have plenty of things to write, and when I don't, I try to work on my story, which hasn't made much progress since August (although I managed to write three pages today).

Uh oh; my "I don't want to write anymore" feeling's kicking in! Run!

It's all in a nutshell

Living in a seminary can tend to put you in a sermony sort of mood, so I'm gonna vent these emotions in the way every seminarian does: on the Internet! This will probably be the first of many "talks" I want to give the world on my personal viewpoint on certain moral issues. Note that I said "viewpoint" and not "opinion." I did that to distinguish between having an original sentiment and having a judgement that may deviate from the Church's teaching. To put it simply: I'm not gonna disagree with the Church, but I will have my own way of putting it.

Today's topic: Desires, attractions, and beauty as they both conflict with and complement celibacy, chastity, and the spiritual life in general.

We all know how many people hold the myth that Catholics think that sex is evil, but that we don't really think that, and that the Church teaches that it's intrinsically good but abused often in today's society (and yesterday's as well). Yeah, we all know that, so I'm just gonna get that out of the way and move on, but not after I first draw a parallel with it. It's really the same with beauty with regard to the human body. Modesty is a real problem these days, but those smart enough to take a stand for the rightful respect of the body God gave us can take it two steps in a wrong direction. The first wrong step is forgetting that, like sex, beauty is intrinsically good, and that the answer isn't to adopt the burkha. The second wrong step is taking the fight entirely to the women. I'll elaborate and each, one at a time.

Beauty was created by God. Really, beauty is God. Don't flaunt that beauty (whether it's bodily or otherwise) like it's yours, but don't hide it, either. Just as humans are sexual beings for a (good) reason, we are aesthetic beings for a (good) reason. By coming to know the beauty of God's creation, we come to know of what is Most Beautiful: God Himself. If you take a look at the first chapter of Genesis, you'll see that during the first five days God created many beautiful things, and "[He] saw how good it was." (verses 10b, 12b, 18b, 21b, 25b) On the sixth day, he created man in His image, "and [H]e found it very good." (verse 31b; emphasis mine) Being made in the image of that which is Most Beautiful, we are the most beautiful of His creation.

Of course, like everything else that God gave us, we have abused and exploited our beauty for our own personal gain and pleasure as opposed to the glorification of the Divine Architect—something intrinsically good became extrinsically evil. This brings me to the second point.

What made the human body "evil"? It wasn't the body itself—none of God's creations are evil by nature—and it wasn't even the way it was displayed. It was the way it was pictured. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Just so, the abuse of beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's wrong to wear skimpy clothing and objectify yourself, but fault is also placed on he who looks upon you with lust. Modest clothing is respectful towards your body and its Creator, but it won't stop most from falling into the same sin. Support modest clothing and wholesome thinking. This is a two-front war—it should be fought as such. Many fall into the same mistake that politicians make by thinking that simply attacking the source of the bad will get the indulger of the bad to surrender. No, the indulger will find new ways through and attack you where you do not expect and cannot defend. We cannot control thoughts; in the thinker himself we must put our trust.

Putting this all into perspective with a personal application, I want all of you guys (and girls) to do this: Every time your eyes fall upon an attractive individual of the opposite gender, don't think of your sensual appetite for that person; instead, remind yourself that the person in question is living proof of the glory and beauty of God. Remind yourself that God is one amazing architect. In fact, you should think this no matter whom you look at, no matter how attractive they are, for we are all made in His image—not just the "hot girls" and "cute guys."

I'm going to now move into a personal application and example, where I have to keep celibacy in mind when in a relationship with a girl. My seminary's handbook states, regarding relationships:

Positive growth in commitment to the celibate and priestly life precludes any relationship which would normally lead to marriage and in our society is termed "dating." A student who persists in a relationship contrary to the celibate lifestyle will be asked to discontinue seminary formation. Healthy interpersonal relationships with both men and women are extremely important, and require a rich quality of honesty and evaluation.

Now, let's get this out of the way: I like girls. Celibacy isn't going to change that—it's how God made us, and you're not supposed to deny it. Obviously, though, you can't take that statement the wrong way. By that I mean, for example, that I find girls in general to be excellent company, and, to be honest, I find most of their conversations more intriguing than those of guys. Therefore, it goes without saying that I've made at least one friend here who's a girl. In fact, I made two. Inevitably, this perturbed me a bit as I wondered how I could go about in a relationship with two girls while obeying the handbook and remaining in the celibate lifestyle. (Note that "celibate" doesn't simply mean "refraining from marriage.") When I had my first spiritual direction session with an extern priest, I brought it up, and he gave me two very good guidelines: 1) Make sure your friend understands that you're celibate and what that entails; and 2) make sure no "mixed signals" are sent, whether it's you sending them to her, her sending them to you, or both of you sending them to others. I achieved the first one fairly easily and immediately, but the second one is an ongoing thing; I'll never be able to check it off the list. I've slipped up a couple of times, but I'd like to say that I'm succeeding with it so far.

Wrapping up this long post which I started writing, stopped for a couple of weeks, and resumed writing today, I'd like to say that I'm hungry, and lunch at the cafeteria ends in fifteen minutes, so I'm outta here! (And maybe I'll change this ending later.)

A public statement

The party in question is unable to be contacted—his site lists no email address and his forum won't let me register on it—so I am forced to take this public and hope that he reads this.

To the Webmaster of Halloween Corner (http://www.halloween-corner.com/):

This letter is regarding the image entitled "Gothic Graveyard" (http://www.halloween-corner.com/wallpaper/gothic-graveyard.jpg) which resides upon your site. I regret to inform you that a portion of said image is protected under the Creative Commons Attribution License Version 2.0, as summarized in human-readable format here and detailed in legal code here, wherein (Section 4, Subsection A) it is stated:

If you distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work or any Derivative Works or Collective Works, You must keep intact all copyright notices for the Work and give the Original Author credit reasonable to the medium or means You are utilizing by conveying the name (or pseudonym if applicable) of the Original Author if supplied; the title of the Work if supplied; to the extent reasonably practicable, the Uniform Resource Identifier, if any, that Licensor specifies to be associated with the Work, unless such URI does not refer to the copyright notice or licensing information for the Work; and in the case of a Derivative Work, a credit identifying the use of the Work in the Derivative Work (e.g., "French translation of the Work by Original Author," or "Screenplay based on original Work by Original Author"). Such credit may be implemented in any reasonable manner; provided, however, that in the case of a Derivative Work or Collective Work, at a minimum such credit will appear where any other comparable authorship credit appears and in a manner at least as prominent as such other comparable authorship credit.

I (defined by the code as the Author), the owner of the original image (defined by the code as the Work), as well as the Licensor of the Work, wish for the terms of this agreement to be fulfilled by the party in question (defined by the code as You), who "accept[ed] and agree[d] to be bound by the terms of this license" by "exercising any rights to the Work […]".

I, the Author and Licensor, request that said party, You, superimpose the words "Gargoyle image © 2007 OneofThem, 'Gargoyle in the Field of Corpses' (http://www.flickr.com/photos/oneofthem/281650651/)" either 1) upon "Gothic Graveyard", the Derivative Work, using a readable font of a reasonable size, anywhere You choose, or 2) appearing adjacent to any instance wherein the Derivative Work appears on or is linked to within your website. If You choose to decline the agreement imposed upon You, you must remove the Derivative Work from accessible webspace immediately.

Best Regards,
OneofThem

To all you confused readers of mine: To put it in layman's terms, someone infringed upon the copyright of one of my Flickr photos by using some of it in a wallpaper they have on their site without crediting me, so I'm trying to get them to obey the copyright law. I had to write it in as good lawyer-speak as I could so there aren't any loopholes in my request. (The copyright on my image says that any user of my image has to credit me in the way I specify, so the wording can be important.)

What I like about the seminary

Oh yeah, another creative and original post title!

Yeah, that's where I am right now. The seminary. It's always the seminary—you notice that? It's like there's only one seminary in the world—and you're at it. It's pretty crowded 'cause, like, every seminarian in the world is there. In college you have a roommate; in the seminary you have a roommob.

Okay, enough with the sarcasm. I'm in a very Dane Cook-y mood right now.

I'm just gonna jump right into the list. Some of these things apply only to the seminary I'm at, but most apply to all.

1. You know everyone. Well, not at the beginning, but you will.
2. Everyone knows you. Once the creepiness of everyone, without exception, addressing you by name when they pass by you in the hallway passes, it's pretty cool. Which brings me to the next point.
3. You automatically make forty-eight new friends. (There are forty-nine seminarians here right now.) In college, you usually have to worry about whether anyone's gonna sit next to you at lunch or if anyone's even gonna like you, but it's not like that in the seminary. Everyone likes you, and you like them all back. Hey, they chose to come here to contemplate the priesthood; isn't that reason enough to like them?
4. Your universal medicine is less than thirty seconds away. I think there needs to be a chapel and a priest in every house. I know that's not possible, but it's so nice when there is.
5. Seminarians are people, too. This is something that no one ever gets. We don't go processing down the halls chanting in Latin all day. Seminarians are seriously indistinguishable from everyone else (besides the fact that they don't do stupid stuff like get drunk or do drugs and stuff like that, of course).
6. You get girls. Okay, so I'm mostly being facetious on this one, but I'd like to make an observation. Guys who aren't in the seminary—who are students at the college we take classes at—never hang out with us. Many girls, on the other hand, do. It's a mystery to many, but I know why: The guys see us as either superior, weird, or simply "unknown." The girls, to be frank, don't have to be afraid of getting hit on; they feel more secure. Oh, that's another myth; contrary to popular belief, we're allowed to talk to girls, socialize with girls, and even be friends with girls. Just no emotional attachment, 'kay?
7. You don't get a roommate. Ironically, the seminary is the only place where I wouldn't mind having a roomy.
8. Everyone can sing. Rather, everyone who can sing, does. Unlike at every other Mass, where the younger guys think singing is "girly" and therefore either don't sing to try to sing at a really low octave (to be "manly").
9. You never go hungry. I don't know about other seminaries, but they feed you here (and I gladly accept the food).
10. Your stuff ain't gettin' stolen. I have a lock on my doorknob and a key to my room. I don't use them. Heck, I leave my door open unless I'm changing or sleeping. What's gonna happen—is a seminarian gonna steal my iPod?

Once again, the same policy: I'll think of more, I'll add them on.