Henry Imler November 29th, 2007

— Saw the first rip off of Christmas songs to sell commodities - and then I promptly became sick to my stomach.

— Saw an AMAZING Celtics/Knicks game. 104-59 and through most of the 2nd half the Celtics had the Knick’s score doubled.

— TNT needs to mix up their commercials. I have seen the MJ/OverActor^TMHanes commercial about 342 times in three hours. Does anyone notice that the Hanes commercials all kinda make MJ look like a jerk?

— It was good to get some exercise - played basketball for an hour with some random cats at the Rec Center - worked out next to guys that curl me (always fun) - and then capped it off with a nice run.

— The Garnett/Craig Sager interview after the Celtics/Knicks game was priceless. Not only did Sager ask Garnett if the Knicks had quit as a team on Isiah Thomas (he said yes), but Garnett also called Sager out on his wardrobe choice. Garnett basically ridiculed the man on national TV and Sager just took it. Sager’s wardrobe is so bad, there is even an NBA Basketball blog named after his choice of suits: “Donning Craig Sager’s Suit - breaking down the nba like craig sager’s suits: colorfully”

• Personal , Sports
• Comments(2)

Henry Imler November 29th, 2007

Today
has been a good day so far. My 8AM section went well. It was the last section of the year for this class. I teach my other section for the last time tomorrow. After Greek I hung out with Travis. As dorky as this sounds, we had a pleasant time talking about Hume, Kant and the pros and cons of ways of looking at the cross. He actually agreed with me about the need to view the cross both as a relational restoration
and as a penal substitution. I went back to the office for a bit, talked with the other TAs about some office developments, such as changes in staff and the next semester’s TA assignments.

At about 11:30, I headed out for the day. When I got home, I played one round of Halo 3. I kicked but. Was the team leader in kills on the winning team (check out the stats). I never do that well. Just ask Jake, Grant, Q, Hank, or Andy - they will tell you. After that round, I picked up the house, did the dishes, and made myself lunch.

Then I responded to a few emails (although not all) that I was needing to catch up on and made a spectacular purchase on Amazon.com.

• 2 copies of Magna Messiah (I showed it to my father in law and he had me grab him 2 copies)
• The Magna Bible - if the Gospels were that good, I can’t wait to see the old testament (link has mature language)!
• The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide: Five Complete Novels and One Story
  - This is a story that I am ashamed to say that I have never read. Quite a few friends have read it and every time I meet someone that has, it makes me even more ashamed. I might use this to replace comic books for a month or so. I almost grabbed the cheap, cheap paperback version of the first book, but adding three books and binding it in leather for only 13 bones is well worth it for me.

All solid purchases, I think. You know what, for the first time in along time, I spent my allowance on books instead of video games. I guess, I did buy come comic trades last month, but this time I bought an actual book with only words.

I still have a couple of things to do:

• Do my Greek translations.
• Memorize the different ways the perfect and pluperfect passive/middles can be conjugated in Greek
• Get to the gym for the first time in a long while
• Finish grading (7 papers) and enter in grades

The best part of the day is there is no big projects hanging over my head!

Oh and this weekend should be fun as well. Meredith and I have a clothes-folding-date while watching the “Razor” the 2 hour, made for TV Battlestar Galactica movie tomorrow. Saturday we are going to the Nutcracker. Should make for a fun weekend.

• Personal
• Comments(2)

Henry Imler November 27th, 2007

Sometimes I can’t find anything to complain about - so I go find things to complain about. What is it this time?

I turned in a final paper over the Rgvedic Frog Hymn the first day of break. I got that paper back today. Allow me to repeat all of the comments on all 20 pages of the paper:

A.
Excellent Paper.

That’s it. Why does this frustrate me? Shouldn’t I be ecstatic that I received a great grade and a wonderful compliment from my professor? Well, I am - I am jumping up and down on the inside all day today.

However, firstly, I am not that smart; I am not that good of a writer (as the content of this blog attests to). This is not my subject area. I know jack about the Vedas. The whole reason I took this class on the Vedas was to remedy that deficiency.

Now, a week from now I am giving that paper in to a mock conference consisting of the professors in the department and some of the graduate students. After I give that paper, these professors and graduate students will ask me questions about the paper - stuff that I most likely will not be able to answer. I was hoping that the professor that graded my paper would have pointed out potential problems - things that I should anticipate having questions asked about.

Anyway, that is my complaining for the day.

In other news, I finally have all of my big projects over until finals week, where I only have to do a Greek final and grading a bunch of tests. Beyond that, I just have to give a paper workshop on my first copy of my paper comparing a Baptist parade float to a reformation era woodcut and “defend” my Veda’s paper. For the first time in three weeks, I look up and I can’t see good ole Damocles’s sword.

Maybe I will now update my fantasy basketball roster and email everyone back!

• Humor
• Comments(0)

Henry Imler November 27th, 2007

The use of persuasion by Reformation-Era Christians and their Spiritual Successors

Public displays of images used in conjunction with lines of symbolic rhetoric are powerful tools of propaganda.[1] As moving as printed propaganda can be, they are unintelligible and therefore without power unless the viewer has access to the proper context. Propaganda seeks to encapsulate and communicate a group’s worldview in a compact space. Necessarily, the propaganda pieces boil down the presenting group’s worldview to the components that are most important to those seeking to foster change. Two such instances of religious propaganda are a 2007 Baptist parade float and a 16^th century Lutheran woodcut entitled The Contents of Two Sermons. This paper will seek to explore each of these images and to structurally compare the two. Structures work to create effective propaganda through spatial and relational juxtapositions; these structures are reliant on their situation within larger, over-arching structures for meaning, and serve to expand or restrict the presenting groups’ social borders.

On Relations: A Guide to Structuralism

Structuralism is an approach to the study of phenomena that places the emphasis on the relation between objects as its primary source of analysis. Jensen, in his chapter entitled “Structure” in The Guide to the Study of Religion, describes structure as “…a set or network of relations which gives a phenomenon an identity as a closed system or interdependent parts.”[2] Structures are rule-laden; internal rules govern how elements within the structure behave and are defined against one another. Continue Reading »

• Christianity , Religion
• Comments(0)

Henry Imler November 25th, 2007

For all of those ip addresses that watch TV and read this site, go vote in Brendoman’s poll for which show you will miss the most. The poll is located in the left-hand sidebar.

• Media
• Comments(0)

Henry Imler November 25th, 2007

As screwed up as some of Rand’s philosophic ideas are, David Bernstein points out a redeeming quality of her work:

First, she indirectly persuaded me that caring about the
success of strangers on sports teams that happen to carry the name of
my city or school is a waste of time. This freed up thousands of hours
for other endeavors more directly related to my own life. (I’m not an
evangelist about this; if you enjoy rooting for sports teams, and think
the opportunity costs are worth the enjoyment you get out of it, more
power to you.)

That about sums up my thoughts on it.

With that said - GO HEAT and MU BASKETBALL TIGERS! (don’t you just
love contradictions? everyone wants to get rid of them, but they are
everywhere - actually, my opportunity costs of following the Heat and
select college basketball teams are worth the enjoyment I get out of
them, so I don’t really think there is a contradiction here.)

• Philosophy
• Comments(0)

Henry Imler November 21st, 2007

Yesterday at 10pm: Clear, 72 degrees.
Today at 5pm: Snowing, 34 degrees.

Do I live in Missouri?

• Humor
• Comments(2)

Henry Imler November 21st, 2007

The Darkness is fast approaching. What will you do once it hits?

My family and I are thinking of stocking up on used episodes of
Firefly and maybe starting up some Arrested Development. Oh yeah, there
is that two hour Battlestar Galactica DVD movie coming out soon.

Beyond that, there is something called “inter-personal
relationships.” We are thinking of trying that out. I don’t know what
channel its on. I hear that you might not even be on TV anymore, but
that it is a series of scripts that one has to act out at home.

• Humor
• Comments(1)

Henry Imler November 21st, 2007

I glanced at the search log this morning and found this gem:

WHAT IS THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR PANTS

I am number three on that search list, by the way. Anyway, the dude(te) found “Top 5 Reasons a Man with no Pants breaks into your Apartment and Grabs Ahold of your Wife’s iPod.” I just have to wonder what prompts a person to ask this question.

• Humor
• Comments(0)

Henry Imler November 21st, 2007

We all know that Peter Petrelli
has the ability to mimic the powers of those he has been around. What
you did not know is what his other base power is. My friend Jake and I
figured it out over lunch Monday - it is the power of gullibility.
Seriously. Much like River Tam, Peter has certain words that key
certain responses. For River, the Russian phrase: “Это курам на смех”
(Eta Kooram Nah Smech - That’s Laughing for Chickens) would cause her
to fall asleep if she ever had a relapse. Peter has a different safe
word and a difference embedded response. Peter’s safe word is “save the
world.” Yup, all one has to do is mutter that phrase, preferably in a sweet as honey English accent, and Peter will automatically do whatever proceeds the safe word. An example:

Anyone: Peter, lets go murder your family out of spite.

Peter: My moral compass always points true north, just like broken nose Mohinder - can’t do it.

Anyone: Ok, point taken… say, hey Peter… uh… lets go “save the world.”

Peter: I’m in - what do we need to do?

Anyone: …. Murder your family.

Peter: We had better get a move on.

Hopefully, Peter will find a way to disable this power, just like he was able to disable his ability to have terrible hair. Most likely he will have to come into contact with Noah to absorb his power of GNB.

• Humor
• Comments(1)