Stan Taylor

As I was writing the previous post, I first wrote “set my DVR to tape [Howard the Duck].” I quickly noticed it and changed it to ‘record.’
I also often absentmindedly refer to my iPod as my Walkman, eliciting guffaws from Katie.

For years, my favorite movie ever was Howard the Duck. Based on its lack of success, it’s safe to say that I was in small minority of the movie-going public. Last week, I noticed that it was coming on cable, so I set my DVR to record it. Katie, Samuel and I watched it last night. This was my first viewing in probably fifteen years, and I have to say, I didn’t find it nearly as funny as before. But Samuel loved it! He watched it again this morning and has declared it his favorite movie.
If you’ve never seen HtD, I recommend you give it a try–if nothing else, for the 1980s big hair.

I really want one of these:

Today I read this headline and was confused. Here’s the history, I think:

1. AT&T spins off AT&T Wireless
2. AT&T Wireless is bought by Cingular, who gets rid of the AT&T Wireless name
3. Cingular is bought by BellSouth
4. Meanwhile, AT&T is bought by SBC (Southwestern Bell) which promptly renames itself AT&T
5. AT&T (formerly SBC) buys BellSouth, thereby acquiring Cingular
6. AT&T gets rid of the Cingular brand name, renaming its wireless service AT&T Wireless.

My head hurts

Back in October, I blogged about one feature of iTunes/iPod that I didn’t like, in regard to podcasts. And then, a month later, I blogged about a solution, which was really a workaround.
Today I received an email from a new iPod owner who had run up against the same problem. He found my original post in his search for a solution. After he ran across the intended, solution, he emailed it to me:
On the iPod’s ‘Podcast’ panel in iTunes, I had totally overlooked the options in the “Sync … episodes of” dropdown. The solution to my problem would be to select on of the “X most recent” options. Since this is one setting for all podcasts, it might result in more podcast episodes being synched than I need for some podcasts, but at least it avoids the issue of an episode being removed from my iPod as soon as I’ve listened to any part of it.

I’m a creature of habit. Almost every morning, I get one breakfast taco at Taco Cabana on my way to work. One taco costs $1.07, and I try to give exact change whenever possible (my OCD). Yesterday, I followed my routine.
On the way home from work, I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up a medication. When I got to the register, I was surprised to find that I had no cash–I remembered that I’d gotten a $20 bill the day before. While staring blankly at the pharmacy cashier, I quickly went through my routine. Suddenly, it hit me: yesterday morning, I’d given the Taco Cabana drive-through cashier $20.07, but because I was so accustomed to giving exact change, I didn’t think about my change. Apparently, the cashier is also a creature of habit.
I figured the money was lost, but this morning I mentioned it to the Taco Cabana drive-through cashier. She immediately called over the manager on duty who said that the register was indeed about $20 over yesterday. He took my name, address and phone number (in case the corporate office checked it out, he said) and instructed the cashier to give me my $19 change. I drove off with my missing cash and today’s taco (eggs and cheese, if you’re wondering).

Fred Clark’s blog post A Surge of ‘More’ is, to my mind, a brilliant insight into the mind of people who still support President Bush and his actions with regard to Iraq. Go read it.

I’m happy to report that Eliot Gelwan, one of my favorite bloggers, is blogging again after an unexplained hiatus that started last fall.

We just returned from a winter vacation in Red River, New Mexico. We got stuck for two days in Santa Fe during the biggest snowstorm in decades, and had to drive home almost 1000 miles in one day. Stay tuned for vacation photos.

I caught this morning’s This I believe essay by Episcopal priest Richard Rohr. In his essay, Rev. Rohr explains that his “religious belief has made [him] comfortable with ambiguity.” He continues:

Whenever I think there’s a perfect pattern, further reading and study reveal an exception. Whenever I want to say “only” or “always,” someone or something proves me wrong. My scientist friends have come up with things like “principles of uncertainty” and dark holes. They’re willing to live inside imagined hypotheses and theories. But many religious folks insist on answers that are always true. We love closure, resolution and clarity, while thinking that we are people of “faith”! How strange that the very word “faith” has come to mean its exact opposite.

I read that as a more eloquent statement of what I always say: for me, faith is about the journey, not the destination.
Ironically, at the end of the essay, Rev. Rohr makes an absolute statement:

People who have really met the Holy are always humble. It’s the people who don’t know who usually pretend that they do. People who’ve had any genuine spiritual experience always know they don’t know. They are utterly humbled before mystery. They are in awe before the abyss of it all, in wonder at eternity and depth, and a Love, which is incomprehensible to the mind. It is a litmus test for authentic God experience, and is — quite sadly — absent from much of our religious conversation today. My belief and comfort is in the depths of Mystery, which should be the very task of religion.

So, according to Re. Rohr, if you think it’s about the destination, not the journey, then you just haven’t had a ‘genuine spiritual experience.” This is where my belief differs from that of Rev. Rohr. I’ve thought long and hard about how a belief in God can mean such diametrically opposed things to different people. My conclusion is that there must be some reason that I can’t comprehend. For me, that remains a mystery.