(1)
Thanks for the comments, Kelly and Jeff (comments posted on the Vagrant Cafe entry of my journal). I replied.

(2)
What I've listened to lately:
Hackamore Brick
Soul Position
X-ecutioners
Brian Wilson studio stuff
The Who - Tommy
Moby Grape
A Tribe Called Quest
NamelessNumberHeadMan
Calexico's EP of covers
Lazarus
Dallas Orbiter
various Christmas stuff.
Right now I'm listening to an old Smokey the Bear promo ad about 5 minutes long featuring a brief interview with Walter Brennan and a song by the Sons of the Pioneers. I have a whole bunch of mp3s of various Smokey ads with various celebrities back a long time ago. Do kids even know who Smokey is anymore? My dad still has a Smokey the Bear that he was given as a very young child.
Also going through my head quite a bit are pieces of the Divine Liturgy and the old English song:
Christmas is coming
The goose is getting fat
Please put a penny in the old man's hat.

If you don't have a penny,
a half-penny will do.
If you don't have a half-penny
then God Bless You.

I think scarygoround.com (a favorite webcomic of mine) is what got that going.

(3)
I finished The Brothers Karamazov last night. If you want to hear interesting, in-depth commentary on it, ask Seth (aka "Premarital Seth). Before I start in on various novels and story for my African-American Novel class, I'm going to try and read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test over Christmas break, plus various writings by both Church Fathers and modern writers. I also have copies of Uncut, Sojourners, and other magazines to read through in the near future.

(4)
In discussing various aspects of religion, spirituality and Christianity with folks, I'm slowly learning that folks being on the same initial first footing is pretty helpful. For example, I can debate and discuss with my dad things like the "Real Presence" in the Eucharist and the lack of evidence that Baptist thought was around pre-Reformation...because despite our disagreements on the matter, there's at least an understanding about pretty key things. On the other hand, for example, a Mormon gentleman is in a sort of free-for-all (i.e., getting challenged from a variety of sources) over on the forums right now. I actually feel for the guy because, frankly, I've been there (most of the board is one form of evangelical Protestant or another). However, one of the reasons that a discussion about it all is so difficult is that very basic beliefs and understandings on what is legitimate and what is not just aren't in place. If a person believes that God just let a "great apostasy" take over before the apostles even died and no one had the truth until it was revealed to Joseph Smith in the 1900s, then there's no real sense in debating things because we're not even going to agree on what constitutes a valid source or interpretation. I am, however, very interested to at least see what other people believe and why. This guy is very intelligent and, within the context of the ground-level beliefs, knows what he's talking about and has a commendable thought process (again, assuming the perspective and presuppositions are a solid basis, which I don't). He's well-spoken and bright, and while I'm obviously not going to agree with him on a lot of things, I'm always glad for folks with a decent head fer ta think with.

(5)
HAPPYHOLIDAYSFROMTHEHARRISONS!

(6)
This morning the local Dell tech support guy called and we arranged that he'd drop by the house between 2 and 4 to put in the new hard drive, which I was told Sunday would have everything already installed. Stacey called about 5 before 2 and said he had just been there and left around 1:30, saying that the installation should take about an hour. As of 4:15, the installation was still going. Never got a number from the guy. If it's still going when I get home from work and picking up groceries, this evening promises to be a long one. If this isn't something easily remedied, I'll vehemently insist he comes out and takes care of it tonight. If some guy has to come in off-hours to fix things up, so be it...this isn't something I'll allow to just be put off until after the weekend.

(7)
I wrote the following in response to a recent post on Seth's (Premarital Seth's) LiveJournal.
It's obviously stream-of-consciousness and I could expand on all of it quite a bit better, but I thought I'd at least post it here, just for fun.

This whole "Purpose Driven Life" thing is indicative of what I think I'll start calling the "Chewy Milk" uh...let's not be lazy and call this "phenomena"...the "Chewy Milk" Mentality, perhaps.I worked in a "Christian bookstore" for several years, 1998-2001, basically -- at the same time (and for a few years before that) I'd seen my once fundamentalist Baptist church go from ultra-strict, "separate" and confining to embracing things like this book, John Maxwell and um, the Brooklyn Tabernacle thing. St. Paul (yeah, let's get Seth started on that one) wrote of Christians and their spiritual consumption (terrible word!) of "milk" and "meat" and the importance of graduating food levels. What we're seeing today is the packaging of milk, but rephrased so that many, millions, think of it as "meat." Perhaps this is the result of the dumbing of the average American/Western mind. Perhaps it's what happens when Protestantism insists that people can "discern the word" for themselves so much that anyone who actually does so (or even appears to do so) is instantly branded "insightful" and such. Perhaps this is a natural reflection of our consumerist society's focus on packaging and taste rather than substance. Whatever the cause(s), my observation is that the mainstream evangelical (but not just that...Pentecostals, casual fundamentalists and liberals jump on this too) mindset is such that they're coddled, for the most part, with things that "tickle their ears." That's not to say they don't hear doctrine and theology in church; however, what they hear isn't particularly challenging/challenged past a very surface level. Even if/when they don't LIVE what they're taught, they still only subject themselves to teaching they want to hear. The vast array of denominations and sub-denominations makes that both possible and nearly necessary. As a result, when they hear someone say something even a slight bit more challenging or packaged in a new tasty way, many folks latch on and follow intently. At the bookstore, people bought up Left Behind books and The Prayer of Jabez in droves. Yet modern theologians who are quite accessible and palatable for the modern Western mind, such as CS Lewis and Francis Schaeffer, were by and large ignored. Go into any evangelical bookstore and look for writing compilations. You'll be lucky to find one of any Church Fathers or much in the way of in-depth commentaries, yet Chicken Soup and Funny-But-Heartfelt-Anecdote-With-A-Message books are everywhere. Anyway, there's my rant about Chewy Milk.