First Published: 2018 November 13
As most of you alleged readers know, I have somewhat bad vision. And, since we live in the future, we have wearable technology that corrects for that. Most of the time, I correct my vision with glasses. On occasion, I correct it with contacts. And then there are the nights like tonight.
While going about my day, I paused in my room to do some homework.1 Upon preparing to leave the dorm for a talk about maps that shaped America,2 I realized I couldn’t find my glasses. So, knowing that I knew how to get to the talk fine without seeing detail, I set off.
London is a much different city with poor vision. Crowds of people, who normally I didn’t register, suddenly seemed so much more sinister. My own shadow, distorted by street lights, gave me pause, as I thought I had a pursuer.
But, I made it to the talk safe, oddly enough. Today was nice, if only to remind myself both how blessed I am to have correctable vision, and how even the smallest of changes can drastically affect how we see the world.
First Published: 2018 November 12
Tonight, I had the lovely fortune of seeing George Furth and Steven Sondheim’s Company performed at the Gielgud Theatre. It was a show where the main character’s sex was flipped. No longer about Bobby, this show was about Bobbi.
It was incredibly enjoyable. The set mostly took the form of small, modular pieces which were surrounded by neon lights. They moved back and forth and up and down stage, and in some instances even up and down vertically. The music was beautiful, as is to be expected.
Interestingly, the orchestra was above the actors, rather than in a pit. The actors and actresses all performed brilliantly.
As to the production itself, for most of the show I’m unsure how different it was from the original script. I went in mostly blind, as I do for most musicals. However, I had seen a recording of the song “Barcelona.”
In this version, where the main character sleeps with a man, rather than the original which had the genders switched, there were some differences in how I felt as an audience member. Despite the fact that the staging seemed almost identical, it’s interesting how different some of the lines and blocking felt when delivered from a person of the opposite sex.
Overall, it was very enjoyable
First Published: 2018 November 11
Mark 12:44-44 “ A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, ‘Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.’”
Today’s Gospel gives the message that I’ve always had the hardest part reconciling with the teachings we see in daily religious life. The Lord says that the widow’s gift, though small, means the most, as she has the least to give.
As a Catholic, I am taught that faith is a call to action. The sentiment that “faith without action is dead” is not an uncommon one. So, why is it that we see good deeds done by the faithless as anything but the miracles that they are?
When a faithful person performs a good deed, it shouldn’t be remarkable. They are simply doing what their soul tells them to do. When they make the choice to not do good, it takes an effort. But, someone who doesn’t believe doesn’t have that call. For those without faith, if we believe that faith is what calls you to action, there is no call to do good.
And yet, the faithless still do good. To me, that’s the most beautiful part of life
First Published: 2018 November 11
Assuming anyone actaully reads my daily posts, they might have noticed that yesterday, for the first time in more than 70 days, I didn’t update. In a way, it was sort of a relief. I knew that at some point, I wouldn’t be able to update every day, so getting it out of the way was a relief. I had visited Belgium to see a friend, and didn’t find the time to make a post. I also didn’t write for NaNoWriMo, but since I was well ahead of schedule,1 I’m not too worried. Anyways, now I have the difficult decision: do I keep with one a day, or do I write two today?
I’m unsure which I’ll do
because of my competitive nature↩︎
First Published: 2018 November 9
Today is Friday. It’s also the Friday ending what my host university calls “Reading Week.” As class ended last week, my professor made a note of that, before commenting that little to no reading happens during reading week.
I planned on reading during reading week. But, Monday turned into Tuesday turned into today, and I did no studying. Somehow, I even read less of my pleasure reading than I tend to do. But, I did destress, which is important, since I didn’t realize how ragged I’d been running myself. So, I guess I read the right amount?
First Published: 2018 November 8
As I mentioned earlier, I’m doin NaNoWriMo this year. But, I’m also competitive with myself. So, around four days in, I figured out how I’d challenge myself. Each day, I’ll not only write more,1 but also increase the rate with which I’m writing more. Since I didn’t think ahead, that means that each day I need to write more than 3% more than I did the day before. So, by the end of the month, I’ll have around five thousand words to write a day.
On the bright side, if I can do it, I’ll have certainly made papers in the future much easier.
like a try hard↩︎
First Published: 2018 November 7
As I mentioned earlier, I saw the Book of Mormon a little bit ago. It was a fun show, and somewhat interesting.
I already knew the main storyline, plot, and music, because I live a life in proximity to musical theatre. Sadly, I remember only a few bits from the actual production.1
First, it was interesting that, other than Jesus, who had what I think was meant to be a California Surfer accent, all of the characters spoke with East Coast accents. Second, I didn’t realize how explicit the innuendo was in “Baptize Me.” Finally, the characters were almost over the top in how stereotypically American they sounded and acted at times. It was an interesting reminder that America is viewed differently from the outside looking in as from the inside looking in. Overall, however, it was a wonderful production. The cast and crew did a great job.
for some reason it was overshadowed by a different show I saw↩︎
First Published: 2018 November 6
Tonight I had the wonderful opportunity to see La Bayadere at the Royal Opera House.1 It was odd.
Apparently in ballet, unlike theatre, you’re supposed to read what’s going to happen ahead of time. I did not. I was confused.
I did like the second act, though. There were a couple of dances with the whole chorus that were super fun and made nice lines and shapes.
Overall, while not a fan of opera, at least I have another piece in the music to theatrical story spectrum. It begins with symphony, then sound painting, then ballet, opera, musical, then non musical theatre. Yay.
I’m cultured now↩︎
First Published: 2018 November 5
As I mentioned in an earlier post,1 I used to make bread a lot. But, since coming abroad, I haven’t made bread once. It’s a travesty, I know. To rectify this horrible occasion, on one of the worst anniversaries in British history, I made some bread.
Of course, I had to make adjustments to my general recipe. First, I tend to use five pounds of flour at a recipe. For a variety of reasons, I wasn’t going to do that.
So, I went with my normal way of making things, eyeballing. I poured in maybe too much yeast, but it’s yeast so it doesn’t matter. I then poured in most of the flour we had, poured in some water, and realized that it was far too much water. I realized that, while I had almost no “bread” flour, I had plenty of self-raising flour.
For those of us who don’t know what self raising flour is, it’s flour with a leavening agent mixed in.2 Since I didn’t really need one, having yeast and all, I was tempted to throw in some vinegar, to get rid of the leavening. But, since I couldn’t find vinegar, and didn’t feel like putting in the effort, I just went for it.
And, about an hour and a half into rising, I realized that I didn’t really want to wait until tomorrow to eat it, so I made it a semi-knead bread. I just kneaded it, and gave up on rising, so threw it in the oven. As I remember from this summer, I can’t let it sit for 90 minutes, so I’ll come back in the future, but since I’m not editing the draft any other way, it’ll be in this draft.
After cooking for around 20, it looked risen but still too pale. I set another timer for 10 minutes, and threw in more water.
Looked cooked, so out it came. After letting it cool, I opened it, and it smelled bready. It tasted like bread, and that’s the general goal
As I mentioned in an earlier post,3 I used to make bread a lot. But, since coming abroad, I haven’t made bread once. It’s a travesty, I know. So, tonight I decided that I would make a loaf of bread, if only to assure myself that England is part of the real world.
Of course, I had to make adjustments. As I mentioned in the recipe, I tend to use five pounds of flour at a recipe. For a variety of reasons, I wasn’t going to do that.
So, I went with my normal way of making things, eyeballing. I poured in maybe too much yeast, but it’s yeast so it doesn’t matter. I then poured in most of the flour we had, poured in some water, and realized that it was far too much water. I realized that, while I had almost no “bread” flour, I had plenty of self-raising flour.
For those of us who don’t know what self raising flour is, it’s flour with a leavening agent mixed in.4 Since I didn’t really need one, having yeast and all, I was tempted to throw in some vinegar, to get rid of the leavening. But, since I couldn’t find vinegar, and didn’t feel like putting in the effort, I just went for it.
And, about an hour and a half into rising, I realized that I didn’t really want to wait until tomorrow to eat it, so I made it a semi-knead bread. I just kneaded it, and now I’ll wait again for it.
As I mentioned in an earlier post,5 I used to make bread a lot. But, since coming abroad, I haven’t made bread once. It’s a travesty. So, tonight I decided that I would make a loaf of bread, if only to assure myself that England is part of the real world.
Of course, I had to make adjustments. As I mentioned in the recipe, I tend to use five pounds of flour at a recipe. For a variety of reasons, I wasn’t going to do that.
So, I went with my normal way of making things, eyeballing. I poured in maybe too much yeast, but it’s yeast so it doesn’t matter. I then poured in most of the flour we had, poured in some water, and realized that it was far too much water. I realized that, while I had almost no “bread” flour, I had plenty of self-raising flour.
For those of us who don’t know what self raising flour is, it’s flour with a leavening agent mixed in.6 Since I didn’t really need one, having yeast and all, I was tempted to throw in some vinegar, to get rid of the leavening. But, since I couldn’t find vinegar, and didn’t feel like putting in the effort, I just went for it.
It’s raising right now, so we’ll see how it goes.
First Published: 2018 November 4
Deuteronomy 6:5 “Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
The Gospel today spoke to me for the same reason that it speaks to many people. It’s an incredibly simple command that Jesus lays out. Instead of having hundreds and hundreds of rules and laws, there are only two.1
You are to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and strength. And you are to love your neighbor as yourself. Wow that sounds nice and easy to understand and completely impossible to follow.
What does loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, and strength mean? How do we love Him?
And when we start asking those questions, we realize why there are so many rules and laws in both the Jewish faith,2 and also in the Catholic faith.3 It’s the same reason that we can’t just say “I’ll write a novel,” and instead need to break it into smaller steps. People aren’t good at big picture projects. Dedicating our lives to a cause is the biggest picture any of us can do, but without frameworks to help us, we either find ourselves paralyzed with indecision,4 or led down dark paths, forged with the best of intentions. Of course, there is the slight chance that we do brighten the world, and make it a better place.
But, to steal an analogy given to me, the Church provides an interstate. It guarantees that if you don’t ever get off the interstate, you’ll go to heaven.
There’s nothing stopping you from driving down the country roads and side streets, and you’ll likely see more exciting vistas than if you stay on the interstate. But, you always run the risk of your car breaking down before you get to where you’re going.