maverick's truth

Proof of our spontenaity!

2007-03-11T23:46:00.000-06:00

Proof of our spontenaity!

Me? Spontaneous?

2007-02-24T17:42:00.000-07:00

So...

Friday night, J comes home from work...

J: "Wanna go out for dinner?"
Me: "um... sure?"
J: "I won a gift certificate for East Side Mario's in the draw at work!"
Me: "Okay, sounds good. But isn't the only ESM's far away?"

Turns out that it was in the North East, not so bad. So we went, had food, had fun, and then wandered Sunridge mall for a bit. On the drive home, we decided it was kinda nice just being out, driving, so we thought we'd keep driving. So we drove around town a bit, got lost in a residential area, decided that "this isn't much fun, let's go out on the highway or something." So we stopped at home, got our coats and put on some more comfy clothes, and decided to go for a drive...

And ended up in Canmore. Yay for spontanaity, we decided to spend the night rather than driving all the way back, and then we went to Banff today, since J has never been (and I've only ever been for choir stuff, which doesn't really count.)

So yeah... day trip to Banff... and we got back here around 5:00.

I think I could get into this whole "spontananeous living" thing. Go out for dinner, end up in Banff!

Maybe.

Scrat is my hero...

2007-02-12T11:04:00.001-07:00

And this is why:

Warning: Extreme Randomness

2007-02-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

So anyways....

It's cold. Too cold. And snowy. The snow can leave, any time now. And the roads are icky. Made yesterday's trip to Costco interesting to say the least. Speaking of Costco, have I mentioned lately how much I love that Costco is 10 minutes away? I mean really... Triangle Buns at my disposal? It's like heaven.

Okay so maybe not so much. But Costco is supercool. Not to mention that on their website they have a sweet digital piano. Oh, and it's on a discount. If only I had money... and a place to put it. We have too much furniture. I'm sure I could find a place to put it. But hey, a girl can dream, can't she? I even went and looked at all the reviews, and it (apparently) has a beautiful action and feels "real", and sounds pretty good, too.

Oh well.

I should be reading Plato rather than dreaming about pianos anyways.

Brrr... I'm still cold.

And the semester begins...

2007-01-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

How is it that only one week into the semester, I already am feeling behind?

Four courses this go arounnd, so I'll do my typical pre-semester review...

Women in Western Religion: this course should be alright, the texts (novels) are interesting, the prof is fantabulous, but I just can't get excited about the material. Maybe that will change, but for now, I give it a cautious B+

Saints, Holy Men and Martyrs: again, fantabulous prof, and the material should be interesting, but what's sad is that the thing I'm most excited about for this course is that for my final project I'm going to be applying math to the study of religion. Yup, a definite geek. Let's give this class an A, though I'm tempted to give it an A-. Not sure yet.

Greek (Translating Plato's Apology and the New Testament): we're starting out with Plato, which isn't exactly my cup of tea, although it's not bad (yet!). I'm excited to get to the New Testament translation though, since... y'know.... religious studies is what I do? A- for this one.

Honors Thesis: it's time to write and defend this sucker, and I honestly couldn't want to do it less! :-) In all seriousness, I'll be glad when this project is over, if only because I've been working on it since last summer. It's just not captivating enough or something, I guess. I'm tempted to give this course a C- just out of spite, but I'll be generous and say that it's a B-.

So that's how my semester looks. Plus working and whatnot.

But... onto something that scores a definite A+++ in my books. One of the girls in my Women in Western course and I were talking about the Flames before class on Monday. Turns out she works for the team, and so gets tickets to games throughout the season. She can't go to the game this Friday, so she asked if I'd like her pair of tickets. Of course, who was I to refuse! So that will be fun, and a nice break.

Zoolights!

2006-12-19T23:12:00.000-07:00

Pictures of our visit to Zoolights can be found below. It was chilly, but well worth it. For some reason, the pictures seem to be out of order, but you'll get the idea, I'm sure!

Square Peg, Meet Round Hole

2006-12-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

So I've decided that I'm not going to apply for graduate school for this coming September. Not only is the deadline in less than a month -- I really don't think that I could give the proper attention to the application, to finding a supervisor or to finding opportunities for setting up the interdisciplinary program given everything else that I've got going on. Even besides that though, I think I need to take some time away from school.

The current plan is to re-evaluate my position before the 2008 SSHRC (ie. the equivalent of the NSERC) deadline, and make a decision at that point about whether grad school really is for me. I hope that a year away from school will help me to see whether this "square peg" really can fit into a "round hole." At this point, I can't be sure if it's burn-out talking, or if the academic world is just too "academic" for me. I hate being boxed into certain ways of thinking and certain ways of doing things, and it feels as though that's what the academic world is about. Then again, I know that even the thought of one more semester is daunting, and that if there were courses I could drop and still graduate, I would -- but there just simply aren't.

So that's where I stand. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a couple exams to study for...

Christmas Came Early

2006-11-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

Or, more to the point, it hasn't quite come yet, but as of Tuesday, it will have. We managed somehow (and I don't really know how we got so lucky) to get hockey tickets for the Flames vs. the Avalanche next Tuesday night. Thanks for the Christmas present, J!

Once Upon a Time

2006-11-02T07:35:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, I had decided that I was going to go to grad school in computer science and probably go on to get my PhD.

Then, I decided that computer science wasn't really for me, so I started an after degree in religious studies.

Then, I decided that I was going to go to grad school in religious studies and probably go on to get my PhD.

Then, I decided that research wasn't really for me, so I decided that I wouldn't go to grad school. (This was the beginning of September)

Then, I decided that I was getting tired of school and just needed a break before going to grad school. (This was a few weeks ago)

Then, I realized that if I took a break and got a job, I probably wouldn't go back to grad school. (This has been the past week)

Now?

Now I just don't know what to do.

ahem

2006-10-30T10:47:00.000-07:00

So my return to this blog was apparently short-lived. Oops. But see now, I have an excuse! (And not the usual excuse of midterms, though I've had those going on, too)... I've got a *new* blog that I've been writing. It's not so much a personal blog (as in what I did the past week,etc.), but rather it's a more scholarly blog. But you can go check it out for yourself @ sententia.net. See you there! (And I will continue to update this blog with personal goings on as I have time and incentive.)

Class Report Card

2006-09-19T12:45:00.000-06:00

I typically do a class report card at the beginning of each semester, so this will be no exception.

Film and Religion (Watching Film Religiously): A
Notes: I actually already finished this class (it was a blockweek course, which means it was all over in the week before school actually started for the semester), and it was really very good. After the first class, I wasn't 100% sold on it, but over the course of the week it certainly grew on me, and ended up being probably one of my favorite classes all time. And of course, the instructor was fab.

Judaism: A-
Notes: This class seems really interesting, and the instructor is very engaging. Only reason this one gets an A- rather than an A is that he seems to get sidetracked -- not that he gets off topic, but he just talks a lot about things that, while interesting, put us quite far behind. Four classes in, and we're just about 2 classes behind already. On the plus side, I've already decided what I want to do my paper on, so it's just a matter of doing the research and stuff now.

Greek: A- / A
Notes: I can't decide whether this is an A- class or an A class. The fact that it's Greek makes me hesitant to put it as a fullfledged A (because I really didn't enjoy Greek last year), but at the same time, the instructor is making it hard to give the class anything less than an A. It seems as though a change in instructors might make a world of difference, so here's hoping. :-)

That's basically it... except for my honors thesis, which is essentially exactly the same as what I was doing throughout the summer. All in all, it looks like it might be a good semester.

Newly Computered In Calgary

2006-09-14T13:59:00.000-06:00

Well, after confirming that the cost to repair my old laptop would surpass the price of a new one, I broke down and bought a new laptop today. I got news of a new scholarship, which I didn't expect, so that will help cover the cost. And hey, I got a free iPod out of the deal, so it's not all bad. I even got a discount on the system because I work at the bookstore, so anyways... I am newly computered, and now just need to decide what to do with the old one. I think I may try selling it on eBay for parts, but haven't fully decided yet. It's hard to decide to part with a machine that works great except for the fact that you can't charge the battery and it won't run off the AC. Then again, with all the problems I've had with my old machine, I've started to wonder if it's not been cursed. Maybe just getting the new machine is for the best ... or at least, it had better be. I've already spent the money.

Computerless in Calgary

2006-09-12T22:21:00.000-06:00

After much cajoling (hi Mom!), I'm back to my blog, at least for this post. I really don't have much of an excuse for my multi-month absence, but I suppose stress could have something to do with it -- as my mini-breakdown in the advisor's office today testifies. Today was one of those `straw that broke the camel's back' kinda of days. After all the headaches I had with my power adapter for my laptop around Christmas time, and finding out that I needed a new battery because of the recall, there is a new problem... one that unfortunately a new $100 power adapter or a free battery replacement can't fix...

On the weekend, I was carrying my laptop around in a laptop bag I've been using basically since I got it when disaster struck... the strap broke and my bag, laptop and all, crashed to the ground. Fearing the worst, I plugged it in and all seemed fine. There was no data loss, everything was functioning, and, although the power adapter needed to be finessed in order to get it to work, it really wasn't worse than it was before. Or so it seemed. Upon closer inspection, it seems as though the part of the computer into which the plug goes is bent, and since Sunday, the adapter has gone from charging the battery most of the time to not doing it at all. It seems like there's some internal damage to the power-in, as well. I looked into replacement parts, and they cost pretty much as much as a new computer. Tonight, I copied all of my stuff off of my computer onto J's, and now I have only about 1/2hr of battery life left. There's no way for me to charge my battery, and so things are not looking good. Somewhere, I'm going to have to find the money to buy a new one. Just what I needed.... On the plus side, the new models of the laptops have a different design for the power cords -- one which won't cause me to need to buy a new one every 4 months. I still haven't decided what machine to buy, and I guess I haven't even really resigned myself to buying one (I keep hoping to wake up and have it be back to normal), but it seems inevitable now.

So... anyone want a slightly-used and non-chargeable Powerbook G4?

I think I need some sleep... no "sleepless in Seattle" here...

Recipe Report #4b

2006-06-23T11:58:00.000-06:00

Ah ha! Finally caught up. Without further ado, this weeks new recipes:

Chicken Quesadillas: your basic quesadilla, but low fat, and using chickpeas instead of a guacamole. Bake these babies in the oven for 10 minutes and you have a quick and easy meal. I think we'll also pair this with a Caesar side -- another new recipe.

Caesar: I'm always a little dubious of home-made Caesar dressings, but I'm not opposed to just giving this a try. Custom-built croutons are also on the plan for this side salad.

Chicken Catchatori: tomato-saucy chickeny goodness. Bake it together with some seasonings

Possibilities:
Perogies: home-made perogies with a tomatoe sauce over the top. J is thrilled that I will finally try perogies "her way", and I'm just hungry for perogies. This one is our first choice possibility since we need to find pasta shells to stuff the perogie mix into.

Pineapple chicken: a sweet-n-sour chicken dish with rice and loads of veggies. I will, again, probably pass on the pineapple. We may end up having this even if we do have the perogies, since we have the ingredients anyways.

Hm... looks like a chicken week to me. Oh well, last week was a pork week, so it's time for some new meat!

On a sidenote, if you want any of these recipes, let J or I know and I can email you one to try.

"This has been your weekly recipe report. We now return you to your regularly scheduled activities. Thank you, and have a good day."

Great quote

2006-06-22T11:05:00.000-06:00

I'm researching for my term paper, and came across this quote. I don't know why it struck me, but I thought it was just an absolutely great quote... For those who think that studying early Christianity is all about reading texts and having your head in a book, consider this -- an example of the direction the academy is going:

Paul was a city person. The city breathes through his language. Jesus' parables of sowers and weeds, sharecroppers, and mud-roofed cottages call forth smells of manure and earth, and the Aramaic of the Palestinian villages often echoes in the Greek. When Paul constructs a metaphor of olive trees or gardens, on the other hand, the Greek is fluent and evokes schoolroom more than farm; he seems more at home with the clichés of Greek rhetoric, drawn from gymnasium, stadium, or workshop.

-- Wayne A. Meeks, "The First Urban Publishers: The Social World of the Apostle Paul," p. 9. Yale University Press (1983)

Recipe Report #3b & #4a

2006-06-22T10:13:00.000-06:00

Hm... so I thought that blogging weekly about what we've eaten and are eating would ensure some more regularity. Oops. That said, at least I only stopped blogging about it, and didn't stop eating altogether.

But back on track. We slowed down a bit on the new recipes since my last update, if only because it took us a while before we were able to get to the grocery store and stock up on everything. Here's a quick overview of what we've had since the last update.

Orange Chicken -- J: 4.5/5 B: 4/5
Description: Just like it sounds, chicken with an orange marinade. Nothing particularly unusual as far as ingredients go -- in fact, this is the first recipe we've done for which all the ingredients were already in the kitchen. Granted, our kitchen wasn't exactly equipped for cooking before these experiments (things like spices, worchestershire sauce, lemon and lime juice, and things like fresh onions and different varieties of peppers which aren't *unusual*, we just didn't generally stock them).
Comments: We served it over couscous, but in retrospect, rice would have been better. The ratings are for just the chicken, though. My qualm with this dish is how extremely sweet the sauce was; it was almost like an orange marmelade. However, one can always cut back on the sugar the next go-around.

Pork Chops -- J: 5/5 B: 5/5
Description: Marinate these pork chops overnight, then throw them on the grill for a sweet but tangy flavour. Served with Spanish Rice (see review below).
Comments: Fabulous marinate. And I mean, totally fab. This one does require planning ahead, since it requires at least 8 hours to sit in the marinade. But the end result is a great tasting meat.

Spanish Rice -- J: 4/5 B: 3/5
Description: Fairly normal spanish rice, which means it's got a kick. Oh... and in case you were wondering (not that you were, but...) -- we did find quick cooking brown rice. A definite relief, considering this is another brown-rice recipe.
Comments: Like I said, it's got a kick, and I guess it just wasn't my style. Not that there was anything wrong with the recipe, it just wasn't my "thing." If we added corn, the flavour might be just "weakened" enough.

Pork-u-Pine Kabobs -- J: 4.5/5 B: 3.5/5
Description: Grilled kabobs where the pork is marinated (the marinade has peach -- or apricot -- jam in it... who woulda thought?) before being skewered together with zucchini, red peppers and pineapple (for those who eat that kind of thing).
Comments: Obviously, I passed on the pineapple, and actually passed on most of the zucchini too -- just wasn't a good flavour for me, though J seemed to like it alright. We also had green peppers instead of red, which actually worked out fine. The peppers took the flavour of the marinade on really nicely (you baste them as they're grilling), and gave them a flavour that even this non-pepper fan could handle. For just the meat and the peppers, though, it wasn't worth it to me. I'd rather just use the marinade and forget the kabob-ing.

Potato Salad -- J: 1.5/5 B: 1/5
Description: A potato salad which uses a vinagrette dressing rather than a creamy one. Red potatoes and an oil + red-wine vinegar + seasonings make up the dressing. This one was a side to the kabobs (above).
Comments: The first recipe we've made that I just couldn't finish. Whether there was too much red wine vinegar, or whether I just don't like the flavour, I don't know. But I don't want to have it again. Oh well, you live, you learn.

Update on the new recipes forthcoming. [edit: wow, did I just say that? I didn't even notice at the time, but that's the exact same way I finished off the *last* report]

Recipe Report #3a

2006-06-11T21:31:00.000-06:00

Again, all ratings are out of 5. This post is only the reviews from last week; we haven't decided what we're trying this coming week yet.

Pizza Pasta -- J: 4.5 B: 4.5
Comments: the title of this one is a bit deceiving, since it's more like a baked spaghetti with pizza toppings (including veggies). It's still really good, though a bit less pasta would work well.

Shepherd's Pie -- J: 4.0 B: 4.0
Comments: The spinach definitely needed to be chopped up more finely than what we had, but overall, this had really nice flavour. It was a bit of a pain to bake in the toaster oven, and draining the fat off of the meat was a bit tricky, but the leaner the meat, the better the result. I also found the amount of meat to be a bit on the high side, but then again, I'm not really a meat eater.

Blueberry Pancakes -- J: 5.0 B: 5.0
Comments: Woot! Awesome pancakes, with a really nice banana creme sauce to boot. Secret ingredient in this one was cottage cheese in the batter, which helped keep it light. But really, blueberry buttermilk pancakes? Who can complain!
Guest Reviewer: Kevin: 4.0/5.0 -- 'only reason for it being a 4 is that it was really, really filling'. J and I agreed that it was filling, but thought that the banana creme sauce helped with that.

Orange-Lime Rice Salad: J: 4.5/5.0 B: 2.5/5.0
Comments: This one constitutes the first recipe that I really didn't like. The flavours just weren't working for me. The rice is a pain in the you-know-what, since it's long grain brown rice, and we couldn't find any quick cooking stuff. Dumb stuff. J liked the flavours, but didn't like the rice cooking time. The salmon that we had with it was really nice, though.

I'll post part b of this week's report once we've figured out what we're gonna have!

Recipe Report #2

2006-06-03T16:26:00.000-06:00

Alright, the first week of cooking and eating with the new recipes seems to have been an overall s-u-c-c-e-s-s. All ratings are out of 5.

Mandarin Salad -- J: 3.5 B: 3.5
Comments: the salad itself seemed was quite good, but the parsley's bitterness made for a not-so-great aftertaste. Less parsely and without waterchestnuts should bring this one up to a 4 or 4.5 at least.

Fettucine Alfredo -- J: 4.5 B: 5.0
Comments: J found this a touch dry, but I quite liked it. But you have to eat it when it's hot -- the sauce and peas loose their lustre as it cools down. The portion sizes were also a a nice surprise; we were able to eat a lot, without eating "bad."

Mixed-Up Meatballs -- J: 4.5 B: 4.5
Comments: what a surprise! I hate horseradish... and horseradish combined with raspberry jam sounded just bizarre. So bizarre, that we really only tried this because of how crazy it sounded. And yet, we both agreed it's worth having again -- we made lots of meatballs and froze them so we have 3 more meals worth before we have to splurge for the ground chicken again. The price of the ground chicken was really only problem we had with this recipe; we couldn't find ground turkey, and the ground chicken was tricky to find. All in all, though, a great surprise.

Not mentioned last week (but we tried them anyway) were some smoothies. We tried the Bikini Breezer (strawberry - banana - OJ) and a Peach one as well. Both are worth having again, though we're going to try adding some fresh strawberries to the first. This week, we'll be trying a third variety, which is a pistachio banana one.

The other new things this week are:

Orange-Lime Rice Salad: we're having this one as a side to some BBQ'd salmon. J's never had fish other than the canned junk, so this should be interesting for both of us. Cantalope, peppers and green onions fill out the salad. This is our "not sure about" recipe for the week.

Shepherd's Pie: the old classic with red potatoes, ground beef, and the twist is the addition of spinach.

Pizza Pasta: it's pizza on top of pasta. Strange but true!

And as a bonus, there's a recipe for buttermilk pancakes (with blueberries for those who eat them) and a banana-creme topping (with low-fat plain yogurt, cinnamon, banana, etc.) Kev's coming over to help us devour them... thus the "blueberries for those who eat them."

Recipe Report #1

2006-05-29T17:16:00.000-06:00

Since I got a new watch with all kinds of health-helping things (yeah, yeah, I know, you gotta actually do the walking to get the benefits), J and I figured the next step is to try some new recipes. We've actually been talking about trying some new things for a while, since we tend to either not cook, or cook stuff that takes a while -- no real middle ground. So, we went out and bought the Looney Spoons cookbook and are going to try to do 3 new recipes a week -- two which we think sound really good, and one "could be good" or "could be interesting" recipe. Each week, then, I'll post the three new recipes we're trying, and also a recap of how each was. It'll at least keep me posting, as well as keeping us trying new things!

Without further ado, here's the first three things we're planning on trying:

Mandarin Salad: a sort of combo pasta-lettuce salad, which has mandarins, water chestnuts, and a honey + yogurt + dry mustard + poppy seed dressing

Fettucine Alfredo: a standard garlic alfredo which uses light sour cream rather than whipping (or other) cream.

And this week's "could be interesting" one, "Mixed-Up Meatballs": meatballs (ground turkey) which is supposed to have raspberry jam, mustard and horseradish (I know, I know) as a sauce.

Wish us luck!

May Long Weekend

2006-05-22T10:42:00.000-06:00

"On my summer vacation, I did..." Oh wait. Wrong topic. First off, happy May Long to all you Canadians out there. Hopefully most of you are getting a day off from work, school, what-have-you. As for myself, I took Saturday off from coursework and reading, which means I don't get today off. This whole working six days a week thing has some advantages, but there are serious disadvantages too.

But, since I did have Saturday and Sunday off, I managed to give myself enough of a brain-break hopefully to make it through another six-day push. And, as you can see to the left, I now have a spiffy new watch to help me keep on time. My old watch kept having the strap breaking, and rather than spending $10-$20 on a new strap all the time, I should just get a new watch. This was a bit more expensive than what I was looking at spending initially, but it's really good quality -- better than the average buy-at-Walmart Timex ones. I picked it up at Mountain Equipment Co-op, so I got a good deal on it too and you can't complain with their warantee policy. Oh, and did I mention the watch also has a monitoring system for heart-rate, and speed and distance travelled? It's nice to have, since J and I have started walking / jogging 2 nights a week, so this lets me know how far we've gone, what the heart-rate is, and what not. Besides, it just looks cool.

So... I have a watch. What else is new? Not a whole heck of a lot. Kev moved up a week ago, and has been bunking here until he can move into his place at the beginning of June. I'm still doing my research and a course, but (and hold off from calling me crazy for a few moments, while I explain) I'm also working 3 full days a week at the Faculty of Medicine. But, while I'm there, I can do my coursework, and some research, so it basically doesn't add up to much more work for me at all. It means I can't sit on the comfy couch and do my research, but I guess that's alright.

Work is calling, and despite it being a holiday for most of y'all, some things can't wait.

Back in Action

2006-05-13T09:38:00.000-06:00

Alrighty.

I finished my last exam (well, paper) 2 weeks ago this past Friday.

Then, as most of you know (because you were there!) I presented a paper at a conference 2 weeks ago in Lethbridge. It was a good experience; lots of interesting papers, and I'm told my presentation went well, too.

Then I came home, took a couple of days off (woohoo... relaxation!). But then my body realized I was relaxing and it took that as its cue to go ahead and get sick.

And I do mean sick. Flat-in-bed-for-two-or-three-days sick. And I still have the remnants, a gosh-darned cough that has made doing much of anything pretty tough. Basically, what that means is I haven't talked to the people I was supposed to talk to, I haven't seen the people I was supposed to see, and while I have done work, I haven't done all the work I was going to, either.

Ah yes, work. Where would I be without you?

This summer, I think, will be a test of my self-discipline, as far as work goes. I've done it once before, doing an independent study and research all in the same summer. But that time, the research wasn't self-directed like this time is. It's a whole 'nother ballgame, doing research for myself as opposed to for someone else.

At this point, research has meant going to the library, and picking up books. Initially, I wondered if there would be enough books for me to get the preliminary information I need. Let's put it this way. In a library, there are rows of bookshelves, and within each shelf, there are sections, about 4 feet wide. I picked up 8-10 books from one section of one row in my first trip to the library. And that was in the area that I didn't think I'd find much (the architecture section). I still haven't ventured back, to visit the art / art history, archaeology and ... oh, the religious studies section yet. Oy.

On top of all those books (most of which I only need a portion, but still!), there's my independant study. Basically, I've worked it out that for the course alone I need to read (comprehend, take notes on, etc.) 75 pages of very dense material per day. On a good day, that's about 2 hours of reading for class work alone. And I read fast. But you can't blow through this stuff.

On top of all of that, one of my other goals for summer was to actually have a life. Still waiting to see how that figures into the plan. Sword-swinging class is still going on, weekly. I'm also still picking up the odd shift at the Faculty of Medicine -- they've had one of their full time people leave on short notice, so I'm filling in a bit over the next couple of weeks. The bookstore looks like a no-go. Oh, and Tay, if you see this, please tell your mom that I'll be in touch about the design work on Monday? *Whew* On the plus side, my independant study only lasts until the end of June, so I will be able to reclaim that time in about 6 weeks.

Wow. 6 weeks? Man, I gotta get to work...

Impermanence

2006-04-23T17:26:00.000-06:00

A very important concept in Buddhism is that of impermanence, being one of the Three Marks of Existence (for more information, check out the link). Impermanence is more than just a nice concept, though, as evidenced by the practice of creating Sand Mandalas. The mandalas themselves are absolutely incredible... check out some of the pictures for yourself. Go through all of the pages to see the construction from beginning to end, and the subsequent reminder of impermanence. The BBC has more information on the importance of the mandala's ritual creation and destruction.

Conference Details and Exams

2006-04-20T16:42:00.000-06:00

The conference schedule for the Lethbridge RELS conference is now available, as are the abstracts. For those of you too lazy to look it up...

I'm at 10:00am on Sunday, but the session I'm in begins at 8:30. My abstract, which I don't think I posted before, is as follows:

Carpocratian Practices, Doctrines -- and a Canonical Gospel?

With Morton Smith’s discovery of the Secret Gospel of Mark, the landscape of both Carpocratian and the Gospel of Mark scholarship was vastly altered. Found within a letter by Clement of Alexandria are details of two previously unknown, 'secret' passages in the Gospel of Mark. It is apparent from the Clement letter that the passages unique to the Secret Gospel of Mark were circulated within canonical Mark. Any group reading Secret Mark would therefore have also been reading the material found in Canonical Mark. To this end, the present paper proposes an investigation into the possible uses of the canonical Gospel of Mark in the development and justification of Carpocratian doctrine and practice. The actual doctrines and practices of the Carpocratians are themselves highly debated and must first be investigated, before examining the relevant passages from Canonical Mark. The presence of some doctrines not found in the Gospel of Mark, however, present a problem with the theory of a purely Markan source for Carpocratian teachings. Thus it will be argued that the Carpocratians, while possibly using the Gospel of Mark as a source for some of their doctrines, were likely not using the canonical Gospel of Mark alone.

So that's what I'm up to the last weekend of April, 8:00am-10:00pm Saturday and 8:30-12:30 on Sunday. We'll head back right away on Sunday afternoon.

Also, on an unrelated note, I finished both of my exams (Greek and Death and Afterlife) and both went really well, I think. Also got my unofficial Latin grade; A+ and my prof said, "Great work...you have a real talent for Latin, so I was pleased to see you hope to continue." All I have left is a final paper due a week from today... which I will start... um... tonight. Heh, heh, heh.

At work right now, so I should make sure everything's sounding alright; so I'll catch up with y'all later.

Argh

2006-04-06T15:42:00.000-06:00

An addendum to my previous post: you can find out more about the whole 'Gospel of Judas' saga by going here: http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/

But I have to vent. Their timeline page is terribly misleading. See, if you mouse over the timeline, by the order of the dots, it implies that Jesus died, then the gospels were written, and then Paul spread Christianity.

Argh. That's not what scholars believe to be true at all!

And if you look at the dates they specify, you can see that reflected.

Jesus died c. 30 AD
Gospels were written 65-95 AD (I have a bit of a problem with these dates, but let's go with them for a moment)
St. Paul expands the faith c. 68 AD (Again, some problems with this date)

Now, why would you list those things 1, 2, 3, when clearly, 68 AD comes before 90 AD?

The gospels were not (I emphasize *NOT*) written before Paul. No way. First of all, Paul's letters are typically dated 50-60 AD, not 68 AD. The Gospel of Mark is the earliest canonical gospel, and it's earliest date is 65 AD, though many scholars believe it was written in the 70s. And then there's Matthew and Luke, which were written at the *earliest* in 80 AD (scholars date them between 80-100 and 80-130, respectively). And finally, we get John, which was written at the *earliest* in 90 AD, and could have been as late as 120!

So... let's recap. The order according to National Geographic is Jesus, Gospels, Paul. The order according to scholars is Jesus, Paul, Gospels. And don't think it doesn't make a difference, because it makes all the difference in the world that our "eye-witness accounts" were written anywhere from 35 - 100 years after the death of Jesus. They weren't all written 35 years after Jesus' death, no matter what National Geographic implies. And yes, I realize that their timeline does say that the gospels were written between 65 - 95. But then why did they put a single dot for the time of the writing of the gospels (before Paul), rather than show the span of time? It's sloppy, and it implies a school of thought that scholars have been trying to overcome for years now. The gospels are not earlier than Paul, they are later.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.

In all fairness to the good folks at National Geographic, at least they got the order in the text-only version right.

And finally, for more on other Gospels and early Christian writings which didn't make the New Testament, check out Early Christian Writings, where you can read tonnes of stuff from the first three centuries of the Common Era.

Another Gospel

2006-04-06T15:29:00.000-06:00

I wouldn't be a good religious studies student if I didn't at least make mention of this:

'Gospel of Judas' Surfaces After 1,700 Years

And another link about the same...

Text Might Be Hidden 'Gospel of Judas'

My favorite quote from the article:

Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton University, said, "The people who loved, circulated and wrote down these gospels did not think they were heretics."

maverick's truth

Proof of our spontenaity!

Me? Spontaneous?

Scrat is my hero...

Warning: Extreme Randomness

And the semester begins...

Zoolights!

Square Peg, Meet Round Hole

Christmas Came Early

Once Upon a Time

*ahem*

Class Report Card

Newly Computered In Calgary

Computerless in Calgary

Recipe Report #4b

Great quote

Recipe Report #3b & #4a

Recipe Report #3a

Recipe Report #2

Recipe Report #1

May Long Weekend

Back in Action

Impermanence

Conference Details and Exams

Argh

Another Gospel

ahem