i thought i was going to finish my book tonight and write a book review, but instead i installed my solid state hard drive into my mini and HOLY CATS i have never had a faster computer. even my brand new imac at work isn’t this fast. it’s amazing! i only got a 250GB drive, but that’s enough for my OS and all my applications to start from. i installed my adobe products, and they start up in like, 2 seconds, compared to the 5 minutes on my 5400rpm hard drive.
so, hopefully i’ll finish my book up tomorrow! 🙂
i got a couple upgrades for my computers with tax money. tomorrow my solid state drive is coming, which i’ll stick in my mac mini. that should increase speed a ton, which is something i’ve noticed lacking. i also got some RAM for my laptop, and so far it seems to help a little bit! even though it’s just an internet machine, it was so slow to open and close new tabs in chrome. for $30, i figured a RAM upgrade could probably help me out a little bit. if it’s still infuriatingly slow, i’ll upgrade the drive on that, too. can’t beat a new-feeling computer for less than $100!
i’m reading the final book of a series right now and i’m absolutely entranced. this dude writes action like michael bay movietizes it. since tomorrow’s my rest day from any activity, maybe i’ll finally finish it and review the series.
i’m really sucking at blogging every day this year. i can’t even bring myself to post-date my blog posts so it looks like i’m blogging every day.
i had a long weekend last weekend, and the most productive thing i did was plant my pepper seeds. that’s pretty pathetic as far as a three-day weekend goes, but huzzah for spring starting! once these seeds are up and transplanted out of the flat, i’ll start on the tomatoes. hopefully this year my seed starting will fare better than last year. charlie got me a great gardening book for christmas, and it’s already given me some tips, so here’s fingers crossed.
my half marathon training is 12 weeks long, but i’ve given myself an additional 2-3 weeks to get it done. so far i’ve been on task and completed two weeks, which were a 3m-2m-3m rest rest 4m rest. next up we go to 3.5m-2m-3.5m rest rest 5m for a couple weeks. and so on.
a half marathon is a little more than 13 miles, and my schedule has me running just 10 miles the week before. at that point, i’m sure another three miles is just peanuts, but i added the extra couple weeks so that i could ramp it up to maybe 12 miles the week before the race.
in other news, i might die at this thing. i’m not confident i can do it.
but, in other other news, i got NEW SHOES, which is like running on pillows, and a new sports bra, which is like when you’ve worn the same old bra for two years and you finally get a new one in the correct size. GLORIOUS. also, it converts into a racerback, which is nice.
i’ve got the equipment (besides my space-cat running pants) and i’ve got the program. do i have the motivation?
(as an aside, i’ve also decided it would be wise to lose maybe 20 lbs before the race since it’s easier to run when you’re lighter. so far i haven’t seen a lot of progress on that front, but i’m guessing when i start running 20+ miles a week, the pounds might slide off easier. or i’ll just eat more pancakes since i’ve burned 3000 calories/week. who knows.)
i know we are not to speak ill of the dead, but i didn’t feel one iota of dismay when i heard the news that supreme court justice antonin scalia died today. in fact, i felt a slight moment of elation, then a moment of dread when i realized that republicans are going to drag out obama’s justice appointment as long as possible in hopes that a republican president is elected. (IF a repub is elected.)
scalia was one of the most conservative justices. here’s an oddity of the court: all the justices are either catholic or jewish, both types of religious people the populace tends to veer away from in an election. four of the five catholics are conservatives (they are also men). as such, his type of catholicism was of the pre-vatican II type – in that he wishes we would go back to that time and has searched for churches that lean toward keeping the spirit of pre-vat alive.
so, scotus is the end-all be-all of laws. congress can make them. people can break/challenge them. scotus figures out if the law is constitutional or not. and all court cases involving that topic basically look to what the highest court ruled previously (whether it’s district, scotus, state supreme, etc). when the supreme court rules on a subject, that’s it. there’s no more appealing after that. if they don’t want to hear a case, then the court it came from is the rule. [i love law. it’s researching rules. can’t beat that.]
our court leaned conservative, but with scalia’s death, obama’s appointment, which will hopefully be quick-ish, should heave the court toward a more moderate or liberal view.
now let’s take a break from my disjointed post and look at a few of scalia’s great quotes:
“Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.” (think about that one.) “The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie.” “I and my court owe no apology whatever for Bush versus Gore. We did the right thing. So there!”
know what’s super annoying? taking a half day off before a long weekend to go have a fun day at the moa with your sister, then finding out a major shakeup at your work FROM TWITTER, no less, which you’ll probably have to monitor over your long weekend. why can’t they do these things on a monday.
😐
this is not a true etymological post – more like an origin story. well, also some etymology. thanks http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2016/02/what_is_ash_wednesday_and_why.html
being the good catholic girl i was, before i became a heathen, i made sure to make my way to ash wednesday, even though it is not a holy day of obligation (bet you didn’t know that!). i’d always assumed that ashes on your forehead were symbolically there because it was like dust, which is what they say when they cross the ashes. “remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” somehow this translates to “ashes to ashes; dust to dust” in my mind, which actually is an anglican prayer and never was in the bible.
the dust to dust thing comes from genesis: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
and ashes to ashes comes from the anglican prayer in this form: “Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life…” etc. etc.
so really, there is no mention of ashes during ash wednesday – just dust. so where did the ashes come from?
a nice catholic website says they symbolize our mortality – somehow ashes=dust (hmmm). also that the tradition stems from the OT when sinners performed acts of public pennance. (were the ashes to let others know that these people were pennancizing?? not sure…) but i like this explanation:
back in the early days of the bible, societies were pretty dependent on wood fires for everything – cooking, heating, etc. you have to keep the ashes in check when this is such a huge part of life. if a person was preoccupied with something big, say, a death or sickness or something pretty awful, the ashes and keeping clean of them were the least of their concerns.
ashes became a sign that you were in mourning or remorse or repentance. this is actually written more than once in the bible:
2 Samuel 13:19? “Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the ornate robe she was wearing. She put her hands on her head and went away, weeping aloud as she went.”
Esther 4:1-3: “When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly.
Jeremiah 6:26: “Put on sackcloth, my people, and roll in ashes; mourn with bitter wailing as for an only son, for suddenly the destroyerwill come upon us.”
(there also seems to be a trend of sackcloths, as well, but i don’t see that making its way into ash wednesday services.)
so, it makes sense that during lent, when you are supposed to be subdued, fasting, repenting, and thinking about jesus dying for the sins of the world and all that jazz, that you start off by being remorseful with this traditional symbol.
i guess now the question is why does this need to be a public proclamation? from the background of this, the ashes were on your forehead because you were preoccupied. i’d guess you weren’t aware that you left the house covered with ashes, IF YOU WENT OUT AT ALL. those in mourning probably tended to stay at home. if you are truly remorseful, wouldn’t it be something personal and private instead of parading it around like a badge of honor? maybe that’s something to dig up another day.
so i finally saw star wars today. i did fairly well keeping away from spoilers, but ultimately, i knew the big ones going in. which is unfortunate, but it happens.
otherwise, excellent movie! i haven’t seen a star wars movie since episode III came out, but i still felt like i knew what to expect. it was like a soap opera; you can drop in at any time and still know what’s going on.
and the girl power was super awesome. i’m surprised the fanboys didn’t go all weird about that (or maybe i’m not looking in the right spots).
also, is it just me, or does jj abrams kind of go all firefly joss whedon on the zooming in on aircraft?
ok, that’s all i got for now.
tomorrow afternoon, i’m finally going to see star wars. i’m disappointed in my nerd self for waiting this long. and so far i’ve done a fairly decent job of avoiding spoilers, though not that great of a job. i have discerned quite a few big ones, which makes me kind of sad, but what do i expect by waiting so long to see this movie.
i thought about watching all the other star wars movies in preparation, but i just never had the time or the oomph to sit down and do it. plus i don’t own the prequels, and did i want to spend any more money on them? not really. if i’m severely confused by this movie tomorrow, i’ll sit down and watch all of them
perhaps i’ll do a movie review tomorrow night! we’ll see! (i’ll title it spoilers.)
