wombat_socho

When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.

And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.

And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.

And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down they watched him there; And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

...either way, I am not worthy! P gave me a Kindle and a card to fill it up with. I don't think I've been so pleased with a computer-like device since I bought Cowzilla back in 2004. I'm looking forward to unleashing the full power of this battlestationdevice next semester, since I intend to buy all my textbooks for the Kindle and not spend hundreds of dollars in the school bookstore. Especially since I can't deduct those books from my taxes. >:(

Speaking of Christmas, since I'm hanging out with the Ukrainian Catholics these days, Christmas is apparently on the Old Style calendar*, since the Mass for tomorrow is at 0930 in memoriam, and the Sunday Mass is the Sunday of the Forefathers. As best I can figure out from OrthodoxWiki, we'll actually be celebrating Christmas on January 7.

*No, not the beer.

Or maybe the reverse, I 'm not sure. Anyway...because I had somehow gotten it into my head that the 7th of November was yesterday and not today, I was very surprised to show up for Mass 45 minutes late and find a bunch of people standing around outside, traffic cones all over the place, and a table set up on the porch of the church. I asked one of the people standing around if there was a wedding or something going on, and he looked at me strangely and answered that no, the church was celebrating it's 30th anniversary today and there would be a reconsecration starting at 1 PM followed by a Mass and a celebratory banquet. "But I thought that was yesterday," I replied. He shook his head. "No, the seventh is very definitely today." So, well, that threw a monkey wrench into the day's plans. P and I were planning to head up to Baltimore to see therevdrnye and hopefully talk to him a little, and our plan had been to meet up in Laurel at 1330 or so, which would allow me to attend Mass and also require that we'd only have to take one truck up to the hospital. Having a consecration ceremony starting at 1300 would be Awkward.

Well, there was nothing for it but to hang out and wait for P's call, and meanwhile take lots of pictures of a procession of cute Ukrainian girls in traditional costumes, hunky Ukrainian guys (ditto), icons, gonfalons, and bringing up the rear, our pastor and the Metropolitan, both of whom were decked out in liturgical regalia that would have made Elvis slack-jawed with amazement. I'm not sure even the Pope has vestments this flashy. Makes me wish I'd brought a real camera, but then if I'd remembered to bring that...ah, never mind. P didn't call until after the Metropolitan had blessed the cornerstone, so I got to see that, at least. (Pics posted on Facebook because this totally happened.)

And so I motored over to Laurel, met up with P in the parking lot across the street from digex' office and Warehouse of Holding, and proceeded up 95 to Baltimore with her. We were somewhat surprised to find about a dozen of Richard's friends from gaming and other fandoms/businesses there along with his father; introductions were made, and redone shortly afterward when therevdrnye's hosts Tad and Carrie showed up. Eventually P and I went in to visit, along with his father, but unfortunately therevdrnye was unconscious. Not too surprising, given that they had been at him with tubes and hoses for a good part of the morning. I'd like to think he knew that we were there for him.

By then it was about 1500, and we escaped just in time to miss most of the traffic from the Ravens' game. Not early enough to stop by the fabulous Laurel Meat Market, though, which was disappointing; we wound up doing dinner at the Japanese Steak House off Route 1 instead, being very careful to inquire about sauces and to decline the rice. Very good food! Got home ~1900 and have been putzing around on the internet since.

"I went to my niece's wedding at the pastor went off on some rant in his sermon about marriage is between a man and a women and anything else is wrong... I about wanted to punch him in the head. REALLY? at a wedding, not the time or place to preach that crap."

Well, um...where else are you going to preach that message? Aside from the usual Sunday sermon, of course. I excerpted this from a Facebook comment stream stemming from a friend's post that "you can tell it's an election year, even weddings are getting political." Me, I think somebody's confused about the difference between morals, religion, and politics. Preachers gotta preach the Word, preferably in churches but sometimes not, and let's face it, if you don't belong to the congregation, you get no say in what the preacher says. For that matter, if you don't belong to a Protestant church or Jewish synagogue where the minister/rabbi is an employee of the congregation, you don't get even that much say; us Catholics have to sit there and put up with whatever the priest wants to dish out on Sundays.

And if you're just there for the wedding, hey, feel free to ignore what the preacher is saying. It's not your church and not your preacher. So really, what do you care? Unless, of course, you're one of those narcissistic fucks who thinks everything in the world should be done to suit you.

On the recommendation of Holy Trinity's pastor, I'm trying a different parish today, Epiphany of Our Lord in Annandale. He said that it was Ruthenian, as opposed to Holy Trinity which is Ukrainian, but I'm not sure the difference is really pertinent unless you're an old and bitter Slavic Catholic type, as Wikipedia hints of historical/political hoo-ha relating to the messy history of Poland and Ukraine. Me being a Southern Catholic Black Irish redneck Jew, none of that really matters to me. The big question is whether they do the liturgy in Ukrainian or English or some other language, and whether it's another mega-church like Blessed Sacrament. If it is, then I'm going to commit to the weekly hegira to the other end of the Washington suburbs and continue to hone my miserable Ukrainian skills. If not, well, it still feels a little slothful to only be driving ten miles to Mass.

Thanks to Smitty for the quote and link in today's Rule 5 post, which by the way I recommend to all my Loyal Readers who like them some cheesecake. Or beefcake, if that's how your tastes run. Anyway, if you're dropping by here from The Other McCain for the first time, come on in and have a look around. This is mostly a personal LJ, though I do pop off about books (mostly SF and history), the occasional movie, and other cultural stuff like wargames and music. I also have the occasional opinion about foreign policy, the military, and why you rotten little kids need to get the hell off my lawn life in God's Country. Use the tags, feel free to leave comments, but be aware that anonymous comments are moderated thanks to an influx of spammers, /b/tards, and other idiots a while back, so leaving your name or some other identifier in your comment will increase the chance of said comment actually being posted and/or replied to.

Time for me to scarf up some quick breakfast-like foods and head off to Mass.

An Episcopalian, an Atheist, and a Jew Walk into a Catholic School. . . . - Philanthropy Roundtable:

Robert W. Wilson speaks with a calm, almost gentle, voice. With his wire rim glasses and closely cropped gray beard, Wilson could easily be mistaken for a senior professor at a small liberal arts college. But Wilson is not an academic. He is a legendarily successful Wall Street investor. Retired since 1986, the 83-year-old Wilson now devotes much of his time to philanthropy.

Among his many achievements, Wilson is the single largest benefactor of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of New York. Since 2007, he has donated over $30 million to inner-city Catholic education.

He is also an atheist.

Pretty interesting. RTWT. (The Corner)

I vaguely remember hearing about this a few months ago as I was surfing through various website, but I see Aaron Gleeman has followed up on the Grant Desme story. Desme, a well-regarded prospect in the A's system, walked out on his baseball career and decided to join the priesthood. More detail in the San Jose Mercury News, whose article by Mark Emmons is what caught Gleeman's attention.

Don't think I've seen an intersection of religion and baseball like this since Bill James teed off on the Padres some years ago.

Speaking of baseball stuff, it's not too late to get involved in the Suburban League's first season. There's three teams doomed to robotic indifference unless you step in! Draft is tomorrow morning, but you can get involved any time.

Also, Eri Yoshida got signed by the Chico Outlaws of the independent Golden League.
Also also, Josh Beckett's marrying a rocket scientist.

On an unrelated topic, today was fairly peaceful at the tax mines despite there being only six days left in the tax season and a full schedule of clients on the schedule. I'm thinking this weekend is going to be crazy, so I'm not making any big plans aside from tomorrow's draft in case I get called in. I've already made arrangements to get some backup next week over the lunch hour, when it gets extra-special crazy busy.

Going to the 2 PM Spanish Mass at Blessed Sacrament was a big mistake. I left early, during Communion, and I never do that.
( Moderate to severe alienation follows )

So as for today...I suppose technically it fulfills my Sunday obligation, but it doesn't feel that way to me.

Usual Sunday icon not used; it would be wrong.

Last night the new vacuum for the vacuum dressing arrived, and today the visiting nurse came by to install it. Surprisingly little pain; I was half expecting to need some Percocet, but this proved not to be necessary. So, now I have this hose in a sponge in my wound, and every so often the pump burbles and draws forth some fluid. No blood or gunk so far, but I'm dubious about how this is going to play at work. The pump is battery powered and I'm going to plug it in tonight while I'm asleep so it'll be all good to go tomorrow.

Speaking of work, today was kind of choppy since I went to see one of my parish priests in the morning. This is part of the ongoing attempt to kick-start my spiritual life and get right with God again, and I think it's going to go well. The meeting was very cathartic and productive. There's a lot of things going on at the parish, and I expect I'll be getting more involved in some of those things, in addition to doing a little Eucharistic Adoration and showing up for Mass like I'm supposed to.

I was going to dump my (altered) career plans in another post, but this is as good as any a place to note that I'm going to abandon the teaching career path. It just doesn't pay well enough to justify the additional class work I'll need to finish off a teaching certification. The same goes for continuing to look for entry-level bookkeeping/accounting jobs; these also don't pay very well and I'm brutally overqualified for most of them. Fortunately, the Virginia CPA exam isn't as big a ball-buster as it is in other states, but it looks like I'm still going to need some additional coursework first, since they don't count OJT toward the scholastic requirements. I have offers to help me with the classes, and maybe I can count some of my Cardinal Stritch MBA classes, if I can pry a transcript loose from them.

That's about it for today.

Currently reading: The Player of Games, by Ian M. Banks.