Skip to main content

Pumping Iron


What can I say? My time at the YMCA has made me into a new, ultra-sexy man. The last time I was able to fit into this outfit was when I was 5.

Seriously though, I have started working out at the local Y with a trainer. That is a big step for me. I give myself 4 out of 5 pats on the back for that one.

In other news, I finished Orthodoxy and Fast Food Nation. I fear that I did Orthodoxy a grave disservice by rushing through it - it is one of those books (written about 100 years ago, mind you) that needs to be read slowly and deliberately, while chewing on a toothpick and sitting at the park. I didn't do that. Chesterton has a habit of turning things on their head. While this is cool at first, it gets old after a while. He is clever, though.
Orthodoxy: C

Fast Food Nation was a blast to read through. I felt like crying during many of the passages that talk about what immigrants have to go through in meat-packing plants. I recommend this book to anybody - very entertaining, and yet oh-so-practical (the last chapter of the book offers solutions to the problems he outlines). This will probably disgust you and disturb you - it did me.
Fast Food Nation: A

Comments

Anonymous said…
Dude, you didn't get my permission to paste your head on top of a picture of my body... not cool!! Next time, please talk to me before you expose my physique all over the internet or I will consider taking legal action. Now, back to your studies!!!
Anonymous said…
wow! that's disturbing
Anonymous said…
Thanks for writing this.

Popular posts from this blog

Jesus, Lover of my Soul

An old friend and spiritual mentor of mine left a comment on my last "Religious Conversation" Post . It provoked so much thought that I wanted to share it with everybody, because I know quite a few of my religious friends are reading this, and I know quite a few of you who would make a similar statement. Here it is: There is an element in this conversation that is being overlooked (at least, I presume). There is an aesthetic beauty and, more, an affection, which Steven appears to have for God. This is not illogical; in fact, all human beings exhibit it for something. It may be subjective, and it is not conclusive, but it is completely logical. And I can't imagine an argument that would refute it. It is something like a man saying, "I love my wife. I appreciate her many virtues and charms; I believe her to be the woman most worthy of my affection and lifelong commitment." If I say this and someone were to say to me, "But EVERY man says that of his bride!

After Summer Sosltice

my very first priority for the day was to sleep in as late as possible. when my foul roommate woke me up I had to shift to priority number two: be as comfortable as possible - normal routine be damned. Upon shuffling my way into the kitchen, I discovered a moth, wet-plastered to a dirty pan. "I feel your pain, buddy." Sitting on the couch next to a glass of water, I wish I could devise a way to get the water in me without having to move my arms or head. My vacant glazed gaze gathers itself toward a brochure on the coffee table:Tips 4 Teens - Alcohol Abuse I laugh (only mentally) and for a moment, the shaking stops. Jesus, it's good to be alive.

How Many Will Enter Heaven?

Check out this quote I found online: "[C]onsider this fact: fewer than 20% of people actually think they are going to hell. And yet, in answering that question, Jesus says in Matthew 7 that FEW pass through the gate that leads to eternal life. 80% doesn't sound like few to me... do some of us have the wrong idea?" There are a number of problems with this quote. First of all, you it is assuming that "few" refers to the current ratio of professing Christians to non-Christians. What's to say that Jesus isn't referring to the entire population of all the earth over all time? In that case, it's entirely plausible that 80% of people now are really Christians, as long as there are still few total Christians when all is said and done. Maybe it applies only to the people in the crowd listening to Jesus. Or, it could refer to something else entirely (as I believe). Jesus was talking to a specific people living in a specific time. We cannot decontextualize his