I suppose that my morning wasn’t quite frustrating enough.

I went to the post office to pick up a registered letter – from the IRS, of course, probably telling me that I hadn’t paid my taxes – and waited for nearly 30 minutes while the clerk looked for it. And she could not find it.

Then I arrived at work nearly an hour later than usual, to discover that the customer visit that I thought was scheduled for today is in fact tomorrow.

Some days, it doesn’t pay to chew through the leather straps.

I’ve just spent an hour navigating “automated” phone menus, and websites, and have accomplished nothing. I wanted to pay my outstanding taxes, but was completely unable to accomplish this, and was unable to talk to a real live person to assist me to achieve this goal. I’m so frustrated and angry (not to mention late for work) that it’s given me a throbbing headache. So because a pack of morons (four different companies, by the way) can’t get their technology to work, I’m going to be socked with yet more fines and interest. I’m about ready to drive to the IRS office in Cincy and pay with pennies.

I’m finding that I’m increasingly a sucker for cheaply priced classic movies.

Today I picked up Hunchback of Notre Dame, with Lon Cheney. It is the black-and-white, silent movie, plus the theatrical organ soundtrack, complete with the occasional sound effect.

I haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but I found a number of things very interesting. It’s pretty clear that the folks that did the Walt Disney version of the movie had watched this movie. The Disney version appears to have more in common with the Lon Cheney version than it does with the novel, even to the point of copying scenes almost directly. I remember being amazed, when Disney did this movie, that they would think for a moment to do this story as a kids’ movie.

Anyways, I’ll probably watch the rest of the movie tonight.

Nearest book, page 23, sentence 5

It is at its best when sprinkled over a salad just before serving.

Wow. That was moving.

(The Encyclopedia of Herbs, Spices & Flavorings, by Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz)

If only I was sitting in some other room at the time …

ok, your turn now. Grab the nearest book, turn to page 23, find the 5th sentence. Post the entire text of it, either here, or in your own blog. Add these instructions.

Wow, this might be my very first chain letter!

Today someone else showed up for class, but one of the guys that had been there before missed class. So I still had 3. Looks like I might actually have 4 tomorrow.

I’m going to look for an Ethiopian restaurant tonight. 🙂

I got a “refinance now!!!!!” mailer this week for my apartment. I’m consoled by the fact that paper “spam” costs a great deal to send out.

Oh, I almost forgot. Last week I got penis enlargement paper mail. I didn’t even open it, since I could see the 28-point font through the envelope, and that’s basically how I treat email of the same subject. But that was a first for me.

Next week is TV Turn Off week, leading me to think about how much I have watched television lately. The stats on the web site suggest that in the average american home, the television is on for 7 hours, 40 minutes every day. It would take me at least two weeks to have the television on that long. I might turn on the television twice a week, and perhaps watch a movie (on television, or video, or DVD) once every two weeks.

So, something that I’ve wondered is whether I’m actually missing something. There was an article in the newspaper last weekend about a television show with Donald Trump in it, which has popularized the phrase “you’re fired.” I suspect that almost every one of you reading this know what show that is referring to. The article didn’t mention the name of the show, because, of course, everyone already knows. I found this amusing, since I don’t know. I also don’t know why the phrase “you’re fired” would become popular. I expect someone would explain it to me, but I’m not sure why I would care.

And that’s really the question. Should I care? Does it matter that I never saw a single eposide of any of the Survivor shows? Does this make me less in touch with the culture? If I don’t watch the news, and so don’t panic when I’m told to, then can I really be an informed voter? And when I don’t get the references to CSI and The Sopranos, am I just as annoying as those folks that don’t get it when I make reference to Don Quixote and Robert Frost?

But, at least for now, it’s a bit of a moot point. I can barely keep up with all the stuff that I have to do right now. I can’t imagine that I’d get anything done if I wasted any more time watching TV.

I have been obsessing of late about a clock. I used to be very fond of this clock, and I missed it. That’s right, I missed a clock. Sad, hmm?

It’s not just any clock. It’s a clock that inspired Acme::Time::Asparagus. And I missed it.

Well, this evening, it was given back to me, and I am very happy about this. But it got me wondering about *things*, and how I get so attached to *things*. I accumulate *things* long after I have room to store all the things I already have. But I get very sentimental about things, and I can’t get rid of stuff.

But now I have the clock back, and that’s a Good Thing. 🙂 One more thing to find a place to store …

Adrian made some responses to my earlier remarks, and he make all very good points. I guess I’m reacting to some things that I’ve seen in the chuch in the United States in recent years – a focus on numbers instead of orthodoxy. Quantity rather than quality, you might say.

A local leader in the Episcopal church, for example, recently said that he would rather have a vibrant community with heresy than to insist on orthodox doctrine and have a church schism.

Larger “non-denominational” churches in this area are, it seems, willing to become social events and entertainment, as long as it brings the people in. But in to what? If the Church must change its character in order to draw people, then why bother drawing them at all?

So, yes, I was unfair to Life Bridge. I made unwarranted conclusions about some people that were kind, giving, and probably very sincere. I did this in reaction to the way in which I saw things happen at another church which used to have a vibrant, and orthodox, community, and now has a much larger, much more vibrant community, at the expense of tradition, clearly stated beliefs, and a commitment to missions. And also at the expense of many of the long-suffering members. But, hey, as long as they brought the people in, these were acceptable sacrifices.

I still have a profound respect for Dr Elliiott, and for many of the folks that have stuck it out there, but I saw no further need to keep attending what was increasingly a social gathering with pretty music.

And so I am elsewhere, with a much smaller community, but a conviction that it is more important to be correct than to be popular.

A blessed Easter to all of you. Christ is risen indeed. Alelulia, Alelulia. I’m still thawing from our sunrise service. 🙂

Here’s the latest episode in my ongoing saga of my love/hate relationship with Disney.

I like Winne the Pooh. There is a marked difference in the quality of story between the original A.A.Milne stories and the Disney spawn. The A.A.Milne stories are sappy and sentimental, but they are just stories about a boy and his friends. The Disney stories are always preachy, and try to teach kids something about right and wrong. This is deeply ironic coming from a company like Disney, but we won’t go there right now, because I’m peeved about something entirely different this time.

There’s a new Winnie The Pooh video, and I was enough of a sucker to buy it. I regret this decision. The movie, so that you can avoid it, is called “Winnie the Pooh – Springtime with Roo”. It is, theoretically, an Easter story, although it has nothing whatever to do with Easter. (And here, too, I will omit a tangent into the difference between Easter and what we in the United States celebrate around this time of year.) It’s about how Rabbit is controlling, and gets irate when things don’t go exactly the way that he plans, so he cancels the easter egg hunt.

Then, thing get really bizarre. He is visited by the spirits of easter past, easter present, and easter future, and persuaded to change his ways and be a better bunny.

* pause for this to sink in *

So, they are so completely incapable of coming up with new plot lines that they rip off Dicken’s “Christmas Carol” for an easter video? That’s just about the lamest thing to come out of Disney in a long, long time.

I am a big fan of Dickens, and “Christmas Carol” is my favorite Dickens work. And I own at least 6 different renditions of “Christmas Carol” movies, ranging from the serious Patrick Stewart version to the Jetsons Christmas Carol. But even if you are as fanatical as I about this story, I do not recommend that you get this one. I was positively slack-jawed watching this, and the only reason I didn’t turn it off, as soon as I realized what they were doing, was that my little person was watching it and wanted to see how it turned out.

I suppose that Disney, who so many parents entrust with their children’s entertainment, have become complacent with this role, and don’t feel that they really need to produce anything of any genuine artistic quality except for the twice-a-year box-office movies, one of which might be good enough to sit all the way through.

While I used to feel that I could feel safe with Sarah watching the Disney Channel and PBS, I’m starting to see more and more things on Disney that make me wonder if I really want to have that in my home. Not just because it is terrible from an artistic/literary perspective, but because the values that are being promoted are just getting a little too odd.

And, of course, PBS seems to be leaning in the “all answers are right” direction with a lot of their shows. (Follow the decision-making process on Dragon Tales some time. All answers are equally valid, and are not subjected to any kind of sieve of experience. “This didn’t work the last 8 times we tried it, but to reject it would devalue you as a person.”)

Perhaps just pitching the TV in front of the next train might be the wisest move.