fr_john

I did a FEW things to-day:
1. Baptismal preparation meeting
2. Confessions
3. Vigil Mass

It was exhausting. Tomorrow I have the 11am Mass (with baptism).

This weekend is traditionally called "Gaudete Sunday". This is because the Entrance Antiphon for the Mass begins "Rejoice in the Lord always! I say it again, rejoice!"

But, what with depression problems, I find that I can't rejoice. So that's what I talked about in my homily, pointing out that many people suffer from seasonal depression. I didn't have any answers. I just said what I was feeling.

I had a homiletics professor once who felt that we should never indicate that we have problems, that we should not put our shit on the people. It's BS. The people have a right to know that I'm human too and have problems and difficulties that I can't resolve.

People seemed appreciative of the honesty, anyway.

A few things I don't doubt:
- God
- My vocation as a priest
- That I have been called according to his purpose.

But I can't feel it. I think I am ready for St John of the Cross.

I haven't been on for awhile. A number of factors, including 'flu and depression. Hopefully coming out of these soon. Perhaps I'll talk later about that whole can of worms.

I have been following (a little) the whole Occupy movement and it seems to me that it suffers from a lack of effectiveness based on a couple of the things. The lack of a clear manifesto, or platform, or goals. This means that they are protesting, but they are defined only be what they are protesting against (and even that can be diffuse). They have a multiplicity of ideas but no priorities or strategies. I feel that the movement is not likely to accomplish much, certainly nothing to address the problems that they are mad at.

I have also been watching the ramp-up to the GOP primaries. As a Democrat (although an increasingly reluctant one) I have no vested interest in the outcome, but the show is entertaining. Newt is ahead in the polls at the moment, but I wonder if he can sustain it all the way through the actual primaries.

Many people are arguing about the importance (or lack thereof) of the early primary states, in particular Iowa and New Hampshire. I think their significance has increased because of the heavy news coverage and the tendency to keep the horse-race aspects of media coverage going as long as possible. Some news sources will want to immediately start predicting a winner right after the early primaries, but the numbers are going to be fluctuating a lot since the only thing everyone agrees on is "Not Romney". Newt is the latest "Not Romney", but most of them have only lasted about 45 days or so. Cain even shorter than Perry. I'm happy to see that Bachman is not doing well so far. I was afraid that they would find a way to put up a Jeb Bush/Sarah Palin ticket. Or possibly worse, Sarah Palin/Jeb Bush ticket.

The bog mindles -- and I don't think it's just the Nyquil talking.

The Monday before Baycon I went in to the doctor because I've been having a lot of joint pain in my hands. I suspected osteo-arthritis. The doctor took a look and ordered x-rays. This is Kaiser in Richmond, by the way. Anywho, I go down to the radiology dept. and they gave me a wristband. Which the radiologist promptly removed. Three views of both hands. They were in my doctor's hands before I could get back up to the 2nd floor.

The upshot is that I have osteo-arthritis in the last joints of my fore-fingers, middle fingers, and little fingers and in the second joint on the middle finger of my left hand. To a lesser extent on the other side.

Prescribed 1000 mg of Aleve daily (two doses of 500 mg). On top of the other pills. So now:
MORNING
- Aleve
- Lexapro (10 mg)
- Wellbutrin (300 mg)
- Multi-vitamin
- Calcium
- Asmanex Inhaler (22 mcg)
- Fluticasone Proprionate (100 mcg)

EVENING
- Buspar (15 mg)
- Ambien (5-10 mg)
- Simvastatin (10 mg)
- Famotidine (20 mg)
- Aleve
- Calcium

FOR ASTHMA PROBLEMS
- Albuterol as needed

FOR PANIC ATTACKS
- Ativan (0.5 mg)

Better living through chemistry...

I haven't been posting for several reasons:

( Read more...Collapse )

Some post-con thoughts.

I find that I really need a room at the con hotel as a quiet place to reduce stress/overstimulation. I have always tried to do that, but it is only since my diagnosis that I have understood why I get overstimulated at times.

There was no artist's ghetto outside dealers & art show as there has been in the past. If they are not going to put that there, then they need more places to sit down in that hallway. Or maybe put fan tables there.

I didn't get the final count of attendees. There are difficulties involving one-day memberships and conversions that cloud the issue.

I was involved in a number of interesting conversations during the convention. Unfortunately some people wanted to talk about religious controversy. But on the other hand, I met a couple of other magicians (including somebody I had not known was an interested in the conjurer's art (Jay Freeman).

In another place we talked about movies that are what I call "interesting failures". Many of these would be movies that had ambitions that were more audacious than the filmmakers were capable of realizing, or films that just don't accomplish what they set out to do, but which are still interesting to watch.

Here's a couple of examples:

PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (dir. Ed Wood). This is interesting to watch in the way that the crash of the Hindenberg was interesting. His ambitions were so far about his abilities that you got to admire the budget conscious use of improvised props .

FLASH GORDON (1970s version). Not an improvement over the Buster Crabbe stuff in my opinion. It's production design and costume design were wonderful. The music did not fit. Some of the acting sucked (not Max von Sydow, however).

THE DARK CRYSTAL (dir. Jim Henson & Frank Oz). A movie with an entirely unfamiliar non-terrestrial world and with no human characters at all lacks a certain broad audience appeal. Don't get me wrong, I love the movie. I don't like the New Age-y ending. The idea that the universe is split into good and evil haves which must reunite in order to restore balance is heretical.

LEGEND -- I find a lot to like in LEGEND. Things like set design and decorating. The character makeups were on the whole good. But lots sucked. It was miscast in the two leads.

BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (dir. Francis Ford Coppola). It's such a beautiful film and there is SO much wrong:

1. Casting, casting, casting. They had Gary Oldman (great!) They had Anthony Hopkins (pretty good as Van Helsing). And then there's Keanu Reaves and Winona Rider, neither of whom can do a remotely plausible English accent. Poor Keanu, as usually, plays the highly romantic and emotional Johnathan Harker like a block of wood.

2. The wrap-around story about how Dracula became a vampire was poorly written and has absolutely zip to do with Stoker.

Anyway, you get the idea. What are some of your favorite interesting failures?

She went back to school this morning. Doing MUCH better. Thanks for all thoughts and prayers.

Grace is going home today. They are just waiting on paperwork. She'll be getting some home treatment.

Grace is doing better.  Coughing on her own.