"Look at me!"

"Look at me! I'm being critical of the people choosing a new bishop!"

Seriously, man. Come on. There's nothing wrong with being openly critical of a process, mind you, especially as important as this. I think he's being a little silly, that's all.

this year's resolutions

I had some success with last year's resolutions. I didn't get a new job, but I was busy getting married at the time. I also didn't pack my lunch as often as I could have. But, anyway, this year's resolutions.
1. I will not crush my enemies in 2010.
2. Battle cosmic evil.
3. Seek justice.
4. Acquire more weight, but probably cut down to 110kg sometime before the end of the year.
5. Get out of this crummy job into a real one in the fall. I'm starting the process in the fall, so it might not resolve this year. But I'm taking a class and taking an exam in the spring, so, there we go.
6. Play chess, not too seriously, but solve a few puzzles and maybe play one game per week.
7. Olympic lifting total of 225kg, PL total of 450kg. I could probably hit 250 and 500, but I want modest goals, given how busy I will be. A month ago, I said I'd enter at least one meet this year, but recent developments have caused me to reconsider that, based on time, expense, predictable availability...

on bizarre terminology

Gabriel referred to somebody else's argument about translating the usual references to the Virgin Mary in Orthodox liturgy. For those unfamiliar, the Greek title most often used to refer to her is "Theotokos" (Θεοτόκος), which roughly glosses as "She who gave birth to the one who is God", if you'll forgive my glossing it as though it were Sanskrit. Most other languages translate this title. Slavonic says "Bogoroditsa", for instance (Богородица). A lot of English Orthodox texts are translated from the Slavonic, so we have the absurd situation of translating from the Slavonic, which was translated from the Greek, not into the target language, but back into Greek. I find it slightly more absurd than using antiquated second person pronouns. Gabriel then goes on to say that he never uses the term when talking with non-Orthodox and rarely even when talking with Orthodox (unless explicitly discussing the third ecumenical council). I find this wise and tactful, because most people have a hard enough time understanding the nonsense we are talking about without our assuming that they know all these crazy big words we're using.

Which brings us to the topic of our conversation. Most people have no idea what the hell other people are talking about, religiously, if they are not a part of your bizarre little religious subculture. This has become more apparent over the last year, since my wife, for some odd reason, has a lot of Protestant friends, and they use common everyday words as though they are imbued with some special meaning that I cannot pretend to decipher and they have all these nonsensical debates which mean literally nothing to me. And they all pretend like they should mean something to me just because the words they are using are all English (imagine if they weren't and they were using hideously outdated German or French).

Of course, this extends beyond religious spheres. Any little coterie is bound to have manners of speaking that become pregnant with meaning, but when outsiders are introduced to them, their reaction is, "You say that as if it should mean something to me, but it doesn't." And, even more insidiously, conformance to these manners of speaking by those inducted can become a substitute for actual understanding. Leaning on the obscure words of others rather than, you know, realizing what you're saying. This isn't too bad if you're just working it out for yourself, but if you're trying to have any influence on other people, I recommend figuring out what you mean before you say it and trying to translate it into something somebody else can understand. This usually means using English words.

As a matter of policy, I pretend not to understand people who don't unless it's clear we know what we're doing. That's part of the motivation behind my post about words that cause me to tune out: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. Or at least we may not agree about it.

Pascha: Daytime or Evening?

A serious question came up recently. Is the midnight Paschal liturgy to be considered a daytime event or an evening event for the purposes of dressing? On the one hand, it is midnight after all. On the other, it is, liturgically, day, sort of.

Practically, this is the question of whether one has occasion to bring out the dinner jacket (tails would seem a bit much) or whether one should stick with a suit (no American has formal morning attire, but if one has a black peak lapel jacket and striped/checked trousers, one could sneak something by the unsuspecting masses, while a morning coat would just be too much).

I'm not going to suggest that one hire or purchase such clothes for the occasion if one doesn't have them, except to say that every man should have a suit. Nor am I suggesting that we turn the Paschal vigil into an ostentatious display of finery. This is, largely, academic for me, since I don't have a dinner jacket and don't intend to purchase one. I wouldn't wear one even if it were appropriate because I would typically serve and a black bowtie doesn't work well with a sticharion (nor should altar servers wear ties, in my opinion). I've already detailed my opinion on formal daytime attire. Accordingly, my Easter attire is already chosen for me no matter what: a dark solid-colored suit (striped suits are strictly business attire). I'm going with oxford grey.

Words that cause me to roll my eyes

In religious discussions [particularly Orthodox, so others can tune out], here are some words that cause me to roll my eyes.
1. Ancient.
2. Mystical.
3. Mystery.
4. Tradition.
5. This isn't a word, but, well, most apologetics.
6. Pretty much most other conversations. People don't really talk about anything worthwhile, they talk about shit.

Marital Survey

This is all purely theoretical, but it came up somewhere and was curious what you all might think. I'm asking around all the fora (and fauna) I have and would like your input.

Keep in mind, of course, that I have never asked a question about anything I did not already have a strong opinion on that you could not possibly dissuade me from.

1. How long should a guy go out with a girl before asking her to marry him?

2. How long should an engagement last?

3. How much time should elapse between first date and wedding?

Think of these questions as being about several parameters, like minimum recommended wise time, typical time, maximum recommended wise time barring special circumstance, etc.

I was reading Boundless.org and one of the authors recommended that one should plan for marriage within about a year, which really did seem quite reasonable as an upper bound to plan for, but I thought I would ask your opinions/experiences.