Living in Interesting Times

Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

2011-04-23T17:52:44Z

I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image.

--an anonymous homily, including in the Office of readings for the Liturgy of the Hours, Holy Saturday. The full text is here.

Thanks again to the folks at ZENIT

2011-04-22T02:51:38Z

The latest:

With the Eucharist, the Church is born. All of us eat the one bread and receive the one body of the Lord; this means that he opens each of us up to something above and beyond us. He makes all of us one. The Eucharist is the mystery of the profound closeness and communion of each individual with the Lord and, at the same time, of visible union between all. The Eucharist is the sacrament of unity. It reaches the very mystery of the Trinity and thus creates visible unity. Let me say it again: it is an extremely personal encounter with the Lord and yet never simply an act of individual piety. Of necessity, we celebrate it together.

You can read more here.

Ascending toward the temple of the Lord (with only a few detours along the way)

2011-04-18T03:27:40Z

Has it really been 12 days from my last update? Certainly doesn't feel like it.

Last week we finished up the last major work event of the year (at least, the last one for which I have the slightest shred of responsibility), so all that's left is a reasonably short paper and two portfolio binders before I can kiss CUA goodbye. Well, that, and an absurd amount of time in the office and the halls helping students move out. I'm particularly looking forward to the conversations where we explain to guys that leaving the floor covered in food and stick tack all over the walls will result in charges.

Still, we are officially in Holy Week now, and is my custom I'll be posting links to items of a religious nature. Those allergic to papism, beware.

We'll start with this:

Psalm 24, which the Church proposes as the "song of ascent" to accompany our procession in today's liturgy, indicates some concrete elements which are part of our ascent and without which we cannot be lifted upwards: clean hands, a pure heart, the rejection of falsehood, the quest for God's face. The great achievements of technology are liberating and contribute to the progress of mankind only if they are joined to these attitudes - if our hands become clean and our hearts pure, if we seek truth, if we seek God and let ourselves be touched and challenged by his love. All these means of "ascent" are effective only if we humbly acknowledge that we need to be lifted up; if we abandon the pride of wanting to become God. We need God: he draws us upwards; letting ourselves be upheld by his hands - by faith, in other words - sets us aright and gives us the inner strength that raises us on high. We need the humility of a faith which seeks the face of God and trusts in the truth of his love.

The rest is here.

Surfacing for a brief update

2011-04-05T20:09:26Z

Passed comps. That is all.

Survival Techniques, Graduate Style

2011-03-18T15:31:02Z

Well, this week went better than I was expecting:

1) I turned in an updated yet not complete version of my revised paper, only to get the distinct impression from my adviser that she no longer cared about it being perfect, or even having the changes she wanted, so long as it was in my portfolio. That is, she's not going to use it to keep my from graduating, and in fact will accept whatever meets a minimum standard.

2) Comps were difficult on day one, but surprisingly easy on day two. I actually finished up early on day two, which was not what I was expecting after the example of day one, which required a much greater level of detail than I was expecting. I'm fairly certain I've passed, which is obviously all I care about; either way, it's over for the rest of the semester, and no longer worth worrying about.

3) St. Patrick's Day, a traditional time of great drunkenness and debauchery on campus (at least, our campus) went fairly well. Ok, there were people who started drinking Wednesday night in order to make sure that they were drunk for the whole day, but our neighborhood in particular seemed comparatively sane. I think we only had one or two drunken incidents per building.

4) Job applications ... okay, still have some work to do on something.

I was also fortunate in that after Wednesday, and a rather depressing opening day of comps, a friend linked me to a video on voice actors in a 40k game. Very geeky, granted, but also short (so it didn't interfere with studying), and funny. You might need to know something about Warhammer 40k to appreciate it--but maybe not.

In desperate need of the cruelest month

2011-03-11T04:24:13Z

March is, as predicted, proving just as insane as February. Right now I have three major projects: job searching, studying for comps, and revising a paper on catechesis in the English Penal Law period. To my surprise, job searching is not the project getting ignored right now.

Spring break has been comparatively focused, split between job applications and reading through *checks* 16 volumes thus far. Two more and I'll be done with background reading and ready to move on to reviewing classes. One way or another, comps will be done by this time next week. I have one or two promising job opportunities, and few more less promising, which I should also hear back about in the same time frame. Unfortunately, thanks to the amount of time I dump into your average cover letter, I can really only get out one or two applications a day, and that's if I don't do much more than eat, sleep, and pray. (Lots of praying going on right now.) For that matter, I still don't know if I'm preparing for comps adequately/correctly; I think I'm doing well, but it's not like I have a point of comparison.

I also wish, of course, that I could simply apply for the right job and get it, rather than apply for a dozen or so jobs and pick between, maybe, two acceptances. Since job applications are, in effect, graded on a curve--with only the best getting the passing grade--there's much more uncertainty there. If someone could just clue me in on a job which no one else will apply for (which I will still like and can do), I'd really appreciate it.

I shouldn't make things sound so hopeless. If things were hopeless, I wouldn't have to worry. Rather, things will be exhausting. Thus continues my slog until April. Oh, will I enjoy April.

Convenient timing

2011-03-03T14:30:31Z

Of all the days for me to wander onto Martin's website to check: July 12, 2011.

Now I just need HBO, and my life will be complete. Well, I suppose a paying job might also be helpful.

Frontloading the semester

2011-02-25T16:02:43Z

There have been 25 days of the month thus far. On maybe five of them, I did not have a work event happening sometime in the late afternoon/early evening. When I supposed to study for comps again?

I should be grateful most of those events were at least mildly enjoyable. My last post covered one of them, for example. I also managed a reprise of Andrew's "life in the marine corps" lecture--which wasn't an easy feat given he was in Korea at the time. There was a momentary "oh #$*" moment when Andrew contacted me an hour early and we realized we'd gotten the time difference wrong (he'd forgotten to account for daylight savings time), and that he'd have to leave for his flight 20 minutes after our official start time--but we managed to wrangle up some people to arrive early and ask questions, so it was padded out to about 45 minutes in total. Still gave me a near heart attack when we first realized the problem.

Still, February has been a really crazy month, and life will likely remain crazy until I get past comps, a little less than three weeks out now. I haven't started studying for comps yet. Have I mentioned that?

My one consolation is that April, at least should be a somewhat sane month, with one term paper and some miscellaneous practical assignments being my only worries re: classes. Work isn't exactly going to die down, but I don't think I'll have the mad rush of events over the next two months like I had at the last one. At least, I sincerely hope I won't. Between work, comps, classes, job searching, and a 5-10 page revision to my first 30 page paper which I've been sitting on for a year and a half, something will have to give soon. I'd prefer it to be something other than my diploma.

A task for which I am manifestly ill suited

2011-02-17T04:28:39Z

In some ways, that's how I could describe my entire chosen career path; as a teacher I will be spending lots of time with people, a part of creation with whom my standard relations can best be termed as "mixed." (To be fair, the only parts of creation I would say I get along well with are cats.) Still, there are some parts of teaching where I would expect to be at least decent: parts where I have a considerable levels of knowledge, experience, etc.

I also work with a resident's association, and they had a Valentine's Party to put on, and no good ideas of what to do. Then one of them suggests: "How about dating advice with Will?"

Please remember that I have never dated. Note also that basically everyone on the association, and everyone in the building, knows this. The entire executive board enthusiastically jumps on the idea. We wind up with me talking for about 45 minutes to a full classroom of residents.

For some reason, they actually seemed to like it. I suppose I should find that comforting. Or maybe I shouldn't; I though I was just sharing--in my standard disjointed, tangent-prone style--common sense observations. If they found what I said enlightening ... that doesn't bode well.

Anyway, I suppose I should just be happy I didn't completely humiliate myself. Avoiding humiliation was basically my goal going into the event, and I managed to achieve that. What else I achieved, I guess I'll get to see over the course of the semester.

There's great acts of heroism and bravery--and then there's what I do

2011-02-04T15:00:14Z

I know this is already making the internet rounds, but this is too cool not to mention: One man against forty. Since the one man is a Gurka, I suppose it should have been sixty to be fair.

On a completely unrelated note--well, related in the sense that the first story indicates how minor the second one really is--I recently participated a podcast for the anime blog I'm a part of. So, if you're interested in learning how much my actual voice is just as stiled and obnoxious as my written "voice," this is one way to find out.

I also want to mention there's potentially world changing events going on in Egypt right now, but the situation is so fluid I'm not going to pretend I can say much meaningful about it. This is something potentially game changing, however, and I hope people are watching it.

At least I have the weekend ...

2011-01-29T23:42:45Z

Well, that was a week. CUA inaugurated its 15th president on Tuesday (although he's had the post for the whole year), so Tuesday was mostly eaten up by festivities for that. Friday too, as I was suckered into attending the inaugural ball. It's hard to say no when one of your coworkers was on the planning committee. The ball reminded me why I was wise not to attend my senior prom, but this was free, and at least I had some decent food and some good conversation after I stepped out of the official festivities.

That, obviously, was not enough excitement for a seven day period, so Monday was the annual March for Life. I wrote about my experiences there last year, which still more or less covers my experience. But this year I also volunteered to help with ushering for the Vigil for Life at the Basilica, which was a major mistake. The Basilica gets packed by around 3:00 pm (some people were arriving immediately as the regular noon mass ended to grab seats) and by 4:00 most of the floor space on the upper level was also claimed. I should preface that to mean "all floor space that should be occupied"--youth groups and church groups were perfectly willing to block aisles, cram on top of each other, or hold seats in open defiance of official policy. Even when there was plenty of space in the lower level, people will disregarding all common sense and basic courtesy to try to get spots where they didn't have to utilize a vid screen.

Dealing with it all was exhausting (except for the inauguration, all the events meant large amounts of standing, mostly in uncomfortable dress shoes), and a nice reminder that church attenders, like any form of commuter, are at their worst when competing for a place to park. I'm very happy that, even if I'm in a position to attend the march next year--which would be nice, but unlikely--I won't be a member of the local Knights of Columbus chapter and thus won't be volunteered for that. It's a job for people much younger, and friendlier, than me.

And there were classes and stuff. Oh, I'm a grad student? Someone should mention that to me more often.

Life happens

2011-01-03T16:48:46Z

Well, I made it through the paper. 32 pages, at least six hours of sleep at night, and I only skipped one meal over the three days of typing. Not bad, I think.

The main problem with my vacations, which ostensibly exist to allow people to recover from things like finals and such, is that they always involve far more socializing than seclusion for my tastes. Granted, this time I also got to spend a week in Wheaton with college friends I haven't seen in years, so that was something fun.

Still, as much as I've been starved for serious board gaming, I think that having spent, oh, 20 or so hours playing board games this week was a bit much. Toss in a very unenjoyable game of Civ V and it's probably closer to 30. I'm now behind on the ordinary goofing off activities I had planned out. Given this coming week is winter training for Res Life, which was one of the most busy parts of the year last time around, I don't think I'll be catching up all that easily. Oh well.

I mean, I shouldn't be complaining; this was a good year in all respects. I managed to stay under budget for the first time since I was layed off, my job has only gotten more interesting, and I am enjoying my classes. This time next year, when I'm back to being unemployed and engaged in fruitless job searching, I'll be looking to this time as a golden age. Heck, I'll be pining for it in four weeks or so, when I have my first game night of the semester in Regan and it only goes for two hours or less before people get bored. This was a good couple weeks for me. It just didn't make me feel any less behind on everything. But when was the last time I felt caught up?

Dragging you down to my level

2010-12-12T15:42:24Z

Finals week is upcoming and once again I am trying to burn through a 30 page paper in less than a week. Go me. Obviously, my posting, or even commenting, will be basically nil over the next week.

Even still, I feel obligated to contribute something to the massive timewaster that is the internet, if only to tempt other people to lose productivity in their own finals week. So, here:

I'm certain that many of you have seen it already, but that just means I'm not wasting your time, so no complaining.

My second class update -- provided in a timely fashion

2010-12-05T18:19:51Z

I promised a few months back that one of my classes would provide plenty of material for posts. And it did--but it also flooded me with some much reading that my overall desire to post disappeared almost entirely. So, even when we covered very interesting topics, or when fellow students offered amusing insights (one student decided to make sure all his presentations had clever titles: his take on Leviathan was entitled "Hobbes' 'March to Keep Fear Alive'"--it was conveniently timed on October 26th--and later covered a theological work which tried to build a theory of human rights of the Noahic covenant as "Somewhere over the Rainbow.")

Although we heard some relevant critiques of the work in class, I think the best attempt for a theologically grounded view of human rights came from Thomas Williams. And, since I can think of a couple people on my friends list who would like/need to hear some from him, this is his outlining of Christian personalism:

Thomas's separation of love into love of desire and love of friendship corresponds closely to Wojtyla's classification of using and loving. Since according to Thomas what is loved with a love of desire is loved "for something else," it is loved only insofar as it is useful (including here the use of pleasure) for that person, be it oneself or someone else. Man loves a thing (for himself or for another) only in a relative, instrumental way: for the profit or pleasure it affords him. The thing loved is a means to the good of the one to whom it is directed and is, in fact, desirable only because of its instrumental value. ... The person (friend), on the contrary, is loved for his own sake, as an end. Consequently, though he lose his instrumental utility (for example, if he is incapacitated), he is still loved, since he is loved not for his value to the lover but for himself. (168)

When man pursues a perfective good he seeks the end of his own fulfillment ... the end for which the subject acts is the subject himself. This is morally correct and cannot be termed egotistical ... [But] such a love is unjust in the case of other persons. Whereas all the rest of reality is ordered to man's perfection and is rightly incorporated into his quest for self-realization, other persons exist for their own sakes and must be loved in an essentially different way. (170)

[Not] only is loving another person solely as a means to one's personal flourishing morally deficient, it fundamentally thwarts the aim of the one who engages in it. True human flourishing is possibly only when one goes beyond seeking goods for oneself and learns to make of oneself a gift. ... Paradoxically to reach integral human flourishing one must leaves oneself aside, since love refuses to be be a means toward anything, even so noble a goal as this [human flourishing]. (171)

Williams also does a reasonably detailed analysis of Wotyla's Love and Responsibility, but I'd recommend reading that on its own.

Cultural divides

2010-11-19T14:43:25Z

I write on an anime blog, but as the blog is called "antiotaku" it's probably clear that my fellow blogger and I don't always think anime culture (particularly in Japan) is healthy, well-adjusted, or even within the realm of what we should call sane--at least some of the time. I think this might be one of those times.

And yes, "she" is coming to the US too.

So the question is: do you think this is cute/sexy/whatever other positive term you think is appropriate? Or just creepy? It should be obvious where I fall.

I suppose a follow-up question is whether you think this video is cute, or disturbing. This strikes me as more a red state/blue state divide. (I think she's adorable.)

Work related request

2010-11-14T14:16:35Z

I write a weekly newsletter as part of my job, and since Thanksgiving break is coming up, there's not much in way of activities for me to report. So, I'm looking for various forms of internet timewasters, preferably ones that are easily googled, to fill up space. I'm looking for anything from a quick youtube video to Skippy's List style pages to an addictive game or puzzle. Suggestions?

Because I have to find something to be upset about

2010-11-05T16:52:34Z

So, nine house seats, one senate seat, and four governor spots are still undecided or going to automatic recount as of this morning (three of the four governor races have less than a percent difference between the Democrat and the Republican), I'm thinking back to the years where elections results were actually decided on election night with no small amount of nostalgia. That was, what, over a decade ago?

I mean, I shouldn't complain too much. Republicans underperformed according to expectations in the senate, but only with Angle losing, overperformed in the house, and will probably overperform in gubernatorial status as well. Combine that with strong performances in state legislatures (an important factor in seasoning possible national candidates), and overall it was a good night, even if California just signed its own death warrant. Not like I have to live there anymore.

Two posts in two days? What's wrong with the world?

2010-11-01T13:44:38Z

This is very timely, however, being All Saint's Day, and I think it deserves greater dispersal.

Since I have the chance now, there is something I very much want to say to you. I hope that among those of you listening to me today there are some of the future saints of the twenty-first century.

What God wants most of all for each one of you is that you should become holy. He loves you much more than you could ever begin to imagine, and he wants the very best for you. And by far the best thing for you is to grow in holiness.

Perhaps some of you have never thought about this before. Perhaps some of you think being a saint is not for you. Let me explain what I mean. When we are young, we can usually think of people that we look up to, people we admire, people we want to be like. It could be someone we meet in our daily lives that we hold in great esteem. Or it could be someone famous. We live in a celebrity culture, and young people are often encouraged to model themselves on figures from the world of sport or entertainment. My question for you is this: what are the qualities you see in others that you would most like to have yourselves? What kind of person would you really like to be?

When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best. I am asking you not to pursue one limited goal and ignore all the others. Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good in the world, but on its own, it is not enough to make us happy. Being highly skilled in some activity or profession is good, but it will not satisfy us unless we aim for something greater still. It might make us famous, but it will not make us happy. Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places. The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. Only he can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts.

Not only does God love us with a depth and an intensity that we can scarcely begin to comprehend, but he invites us to respond to that love. You all know what it is like when you meet someone interesting and attractive, and you want to be that person’s friend. You always hope they will find you interesting and attractive, and want to be your friend.

God wants your friendship. And once you enter into friendship with God, everything in your life begins to change. As you come to know him better, you find you want to reflect something of his infinite goodness in your own life. You are attracted to the practice of virtue. You begin to see greed and selfishness and all the other sins for what they really are, destructive and dangerous tendencies that cause deep suffering and do great damage, and you want to avoid falling into that trap yourselves. You begin to feel compassion for people in difficulties and you are eager to do something to help them. You want to come to the aid of the poor and the hungry, you want to comfort the sorrowful, you want to be kind and generous. And once these things begin to matter to you, you are well on the way to becoming saints.

Pope Benedict XVI
Greeting to Catholic Pupils of the United Kingdom
St Mary's College, Twickenham
17 September 2010

Hat tip: Whispers in the Loggia

Because I don't spam your friends list enough

2010-11-01T00:55:12Z

I might have some commentary on the midterms once they happen, but I'll be spending that day with my parents, so any immediate comments will likely have to wait. I am going to post about this conversion, however, because I think it is interesting--the third link in particular.

Clearly I need to try harder

2010-10-26T23:30:09Z

As per usual, I haven't been posting much not because nothing has been going on, but because too much has. Highlights include finally getting a Battlestar Galactica game played with the residents, and starting a theology discussion group.

Last Sunday was yet another example, as the neighborhood hosted a haunted house in one of our buildings. I think we had 150-200 people show up, which I think counts as a success.

At least a partial one, anyway. I was cast as the creepy butler, and while I didn't think I was trying very hard, apparently just standing around petting a fake rat you have cradled in your arm is enough to freak people out. Well, it might also have had something to do with me reprising my "old guy" look from some years back.

Of course, now I have to wait until the end of the week, once the top has grown back enough, to even my hair out. (At least, I hope I can do that by the end of the week; my parents are visiting.) But that also means I currently go around campus, to classes and whatnot, with the new look.

The surprising part is how few people actually make comments, or even seem to notice. I've had two classes, both of which involving fairly active participation on my part with the professor and the rest of the class, and I haven't had as much as a double take. I mean, this is the Catholic University of America, but tonsures aren't that common--and this isn't even a proper one. What's the point in looking like a freak if no one will acknowledge the fact?

People: Yet more things I don't need

2010-10-18T03:13:03Z

Being a natural geek, I don't much care for spending time with people. Or in the outdoors. Or plant life. Or life in general. None of that should be much of a surprise, as I've had cause to cover it before. So imagine my delight when I learned that the staff bonding exercise we had scheduled for today was going out to a farm in Maryland. It's nice when my boss can combine all of my least favorite things.

The excursion was about four and a half hours in total, about half of that just in transit, mostly for a hay ride and pumpkin picking. I'm not much of a fan of long trips, either, particularly for comparatively short events. The longest trip I've been in was from DC to Indianapolis back in 2003 for my first Gen Con, but that was with gamers, so we had things to talk about here. Here, we were mostly in silence there and back (although I did get in a fun little excursion on lethal injection before one of the RAs squicked out and has us stop). I don't really think I did any bonding at the farm either, than we couldn't have gotten normally though working at events or in the office.

I don't want to make it sound like a total disaster. My boss might like the outdoors more than me, but she has excellent taste in dessert, and brought along a pumpkin spice cake that was just about perfect. There was also the point where one of the RAs, being a cute teenage girl, managed to sweet talk the tractor driver pulling the hay carts we were riding in to let her drive for a while. Now, she's actually driven a tractor before, but we didn't know that, and a couple other of the RAs got sort of nervous about this. When the tractor jerked a bit at the start (whether due to a sudden gear shift or just lurching the carts into motion, said RAs actually screamed in terror. I'm sorry to say I didn't get a picture of it, but trust me when I say it was amusing.

Still, burning four and a half hours on a day off (particularly when Saturday had 5+ hours of events to match) isn't the best thing to have during midterms. I still have about five pages to write and maybe 150 pages to read before Tuesday morning rolls around, and that's after devoting a good chunk of last week to working through these assignments. I don't think I'll be posting much this coming week either.

Whedon is our master now

2010-10-11T03:15:36Z

Well, the Firefly Marathon went off without any real hitches. We did start a little bit late, and skipped two of the less interesting episodes to get to Objects in Space before everyone fell asleep, but the newbies all really loved the series--even the ones who didn't expect to. I would have preferred if there were more five new watchers, but the full group was large enough (specifically, we had enough watchers not tone deaf, which is itself an accomplishment in a primarily Catholic crowd) to sing the theme song by episode four or so. Some of the newbies jumped in an episode or two later. I love being in the Honors dorm.

Another thing I realized this time around is that Firefly, in addition to being easily quotable, also lends itself to generating interesting quotes. (Of course, that also could have been sleep deprivation.) The few I can remember off the top of my head.

War Stories: "Only Firefly can make torture funny."

Out of Gas, when Mal is about to stick himself with a needle in the heart, and one of the girls is hiding her eyes from the screen: "Oh, he's stuck himself now, so you can look." [Mal sticks himself and screams.] "Ok, I lied."

Trash: "This is my favorite episode." [Made by a guy, right as the scene of Mal naked came up]

Same guy, making a comment on Inara doing Kaylee's hair--I think Train Job: "There's nothing like the feeling running your hands through another girl's hair ... when you're a guy." [I suppose that would have been creepy even without the gender confusion.]

I really wish I had taken notes ... but that would have involved not watching the show. Fat chance of that happening.

Finding encouragement where I can

2010-09-29T13:49:41Z

I've been a bit ill for the past few days, which has not increased my desire to post or comment much. But when something takes over your schedule in the way that I am about to describe, it's natural to want to talk about it.

Monday through Wednesday are my traditional busy days, leaving for campus between 9:00 and 10:00 and not getting back until 10:30 to 11:00, so any free time I have on campus tends to get shepherded. Yesterday I spent two hours of that time not doing anything on my schedule, but reading through recent posts on Whispers in the Loggia, which I am a bit embarrassed to say I hadn't read until now. Whispers is primarily about speculating on possible bishop and archbishop selections, and thus not of interest to people who don't follow upper level Church politics (that is, sane and well-adjusted people). Recently, however, the site has taken to posting videos of some of the new crop of bishops giving key homilies or at other events, and it's a constant reminder of how impressive most of the young prelates are. (Young means under sixty, in this context, but that means at least fifteen years of active service. Some will be doing a quarter century.)

One recent example is Archbishop Sartain of Seattle, formerly of my home diocese of Joliet. This is the second move diocesan move for Sartain, to larger and more prominent posts both times, and it should be remembered that most bishops stay in their original seat for life. Watching his homily, and particularly the press conference also linked to on the post, I come away with the overwhelming impression that I'm seeing a future cardinal. And I'm very happy with the prospect that presents.

Avoiding addiction--I hope

2010-09-23T15:17:40Z

So, I downloaded the demo for Civilization V over Tuesday night, and got in two playthroughs of the first 100 turns. As with it's predecessor, I think it's a major improvement on what has come before, and since this is the second improvement in a row, that makes it pretty dang good. That being said, it's still a Civ game, so that means it suffers from the problem that not a whole lot is happening much of the time, as you wait for multi-turn build queues, research goals, and cultural expansions to bear fruit. For some people, this isn't a problem:

Maybe this is all sounding unpleasantly dry and complicated, but it's not in the slightest. The turn-to-turn action in Civ V is built out of nothing but intriguing little questions. This is its genius. "What's this city going to build?" the game asks. "Good, good. Now, where's this ship going to move? Oh, wow, you researched Banking! Holy crap! Now, what would you like to research next?"
And then it's 7pm and you're eating fistfuls of dry cereal straight out of the box because the prospect of leaving the game to cook something as complicated as cheese on toast is an impossible idea. Mouth full of bran flakes, you order Beijing to begin the 40-year construction of the Notre Dame.

For me, however, it is rather dry and boring, even if it's also quite addictive. This is why, even though this game looks like a major improvement over its predecessor, I'm not likely to buy it. Still, I know enough of the system to understand why some people do like it, and if you're one of those people, grab this as soon as possible. And watch out for France.

If you spend a game neighbours with France, you're going to be putting up with Napoleon for several thousand years. Probably best just to start a new game. Or crush him immediately under a swarm of primitive spearmen. "What are you going to research?" SPEARMEN. "What's this city going to build?" SPEARMEN. "Where are these units going?" TOWARDS THAT BASTARD.

Hatred of France seems to be a long-running trend in Civ games. (Unfortunately, the link to the original article no longer seems to work.)

Of course, writing about how I'm not going to be unproductive and play a ultimately unfulfilling (for me) game isn't that much less unproductive than if I did just play it. So, off for something else for me.

More reasons I've ready to leave the academic life

2010-09-19T19:48:41Z

One thing I've found about classes, working for Residence Life, and just about everything else involved in the academic world is that the amount of time things are supposed to take up on paper invariably doesn't capture the actual time you should plan on things taking. I can't think of a single program that's run since the start of the semester that actually ended on time; readings and papers tend to expand out of control; you never sleep as long as you need to but often more than you expect. For someone who is rather fanatical about setting a schedule, this can be remarkably frustrating.

It doesn't help that my 20 minutes campus walking commute makes my "at home" schedule rather limited. Toss in morning classes on all by Thursday and evening on most every weeknight, and I often have three or four waking hours in the house, evenly split between morning and evening. Toss in my posting responsibilities at my other blog, and that just sucks up time like crazy.

I was rather surprised yesterday when the GM of the D&D campaign I was supposed to be in had a mild tantrum at all the players arriving late and permanently canceled the game as a result, but I was also relieved; I really could use those five hours free every week. As it stands, there have been two or three serious posts I haven't commented on (not to mention an equal number of pretzelcoatl's meme posts) simply because I lack the time to respond. So, if any of you are wondering: it's not you, it's me.

Still, I want to share something productive, so (hat tip to essius) here's a very intriguing article on Pope Benedict--yes, him again--written by someone who should have been a rather hostile source. But aside from the author's his own commentary, the stories about Benedict (especially the opening one, which I hadn't heard before) speak for themselves in a way that is remarkably illuminating.