Potpourri No. 5

• My mystery leg ailment has suddenly reappeared. While it’s not as bad as it was before, it certainly isn’t enjoyable. It pretty much disappeared for a month or two, but just as suddenly as it showed up the first time, it’s back. This time around, I went to a doctor—er, make that a physician’s assistant. Anyway, he told me it’s due to inactivity. Yowzers! I don’t know whether to buy into this or not. True, since I’ve been out of school, I have pretty much been in my apartment 24-7, but this seems like a strange physiological response. Plus, the first time this hit me, I was going to school every day and walking all over campus, etc. Anyway, trying to be a good boy, I’ve taken to going on short (and rather painful) walks every day. I think my leg might be improving, so perhaps this guy knows what he’s talking about after all. Go figure.
• I got a few new CD’s recently. Because of the whole musical piracy epidemic, it seems you can get CD’s pretty darn cheap nowadays. CDs are commonly on sale for $9.99 at Best Buy, which is pretty amazing. There’s more I could say about all this, but I think I’ll save that for a post of its own. In the meantime, I highly recommend checking out Paul Anka’s Rock Swings. If you have eclectic musical tastes, you’ll get a kick out of his jazzy renditions of songs by Soundgarden, Nirvana, Billy Idol, R.E.M., Van Halen, Oasis, Michael Jackson, and more.
• I’m plugging away at the hundreds of pages I’ve been assigned to read for my upcoming philosophy conference at the University of Colorado. So far, so laborious. There are 525 pages of printed material that, supposedly, I’m meant to read before going to the conference. That may not sound extreme, but anyone who’s read philosophy knows it is not a quick, light read. Not to mention that most of these articles are printed two-pages to a page (like if you held a book open on a copy machine and printed both pages at once). Thus, those 525 pages are closer to 1,000 pages worth in a book. No, I’m not that excited about it.
• Should anyone be interested, I wish to reiterate the fact that my other page, Orange Theology, is not exclusively for the religious-minded. Atheists, Buddhists, Christians, Agnostics, and everyone else are welcome to participate there. Generally, the topics do not deal strictly with religion, per se. For example, I’ve asked if, when, and why we should vote to put our own moral values into law. Similarly, I’ve asked how far we should go in accommodating practices we may feel morally opposed to (e.g., if you oppose teenage sex, should you still help your daughter get on birth control?). One needn’t utilize religious beliefs to answer these questions. And even when the topic is more overtly religious, I believe anyone can add worthwhile insight. An atheist may wish to tackle the meaning of repentance by addressing what it means to him/her to be truly sorry about something. Similarly, an atheist may have reasons to believe (or disbelieve) that, if God exists, Muslims and Catholics both worship the same being despite their differing systems of belief. The reason I bring this up is because I know several people have never responded to anything written over there, and yet I believe they would have something interesting to contribute. Granted, you’re not obligated to participate, but please don’t skip over it simply because you believe you fall outside of the desired audience.