Well, I just completed homework for week 7 of my last quarter in library school. That means I only have 3 weeks left until I finally earn a master's degree!!!
This has been a long and painful journey for me because, as far as I'm concerned, I should already have a M.A. in Theology. I took an aggressive courseload in seminary and would have completed that degree during my 3rd year of theology, which I never got to as I left seminary just before it started. Even then, I was still optimistic I could complete the degree and took the last required course at Ohio Dominican University with a very liberal professor and even more liberal classmates (not a fun experience). However, when the time came to complete the program, no professor would help me with my thesis that there is ample evidence to support teaching the traditional primacy of St. Matthew's Gospel Account. I tried doing another paper, but my heart just wasn't in it as I had psychologically moved on. Nevertheless, I still consider myself having a master's level theological education even if I don't have a piece of paper to prove it.
The painful part about not completing that degree is that I always wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in Theology, concentrating in Scripture Studies. I absolutely love studying Scripture and have a strong passion for it. Many of my professors agreed that I had the intellectual gifts to complete a doctorate and, after I left seminary, I hoped to be able to pursue a career as a professor. I have always enjoyed teaching and, again, think I have all the gifts to be a fine professor.
Unfortunately, circumstances have prevented me from pursuing that goal. While I hope to one day earn a M.A. in Theology, I probably have missed my opportunity to continue my education, especially as my priority now is to get married and start a family and will not consider myself fully a man until I do so. Thus, once I complete this master's degree in a few weeks, I'm indefinitely suspending my formal education. I may take classes here and there as I love learning but, again, I have other priorities at the moment.
So now I'm in the home stretch and this will mark an end to a significant part of my life and begin a new one, and I will touch upon both themes after graduation.
Take care everyone!!!
Disclaimer
Sociable
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Mixed feelings on mixed martial arts...
Last night, like many other people in the country, I tuned in to CBS promptly at 9pm to watch the Strikeforce mixed martial arts (MMA) fights. Just like everyone else, I tuned in for one reason: Fedor Emelianenko. Ever since I started regularly watching MMA a year ago, Fedor has been my favorite fighter. Not only is he the best heavyweight in the world, but is also the classiest. In a sport that now features spectacular ring entrances which sometimes border on, if not become, clownish, Fedor simply walks to the cage, wins, and walks out. Oh, and in the meantime, he extends nothing but the utmost respect to his opponents. My only disappointment in Fedor is that he chose to sign with Strikeforce a few months ago instead of with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he would have faced the best competition, namely Brock Lesnar, the arrogant jerk who is the reigning UFC Heavyweight Champion. A Fedor-Lesnar match is every fight fan's dream match but, unfortunately, barring a dramatic series of events, it will continue to remain a dream.
Now Fedor's fight against Brett Rogers was very good, and was the slugfest the fans wanted. For a second there, I, and every Fedor fan in the world, actually thought he was going to lose as his nose was shattered seconds into the fight and he was bleeding profusely. Rogers, to his credit, handled Fedor well and was in a dominant position striking repeatedly at Fedor's head, which I thought would win the fight. However, Fedor, like he has in so many fights over the years, managed to flip him over and regained control. Less than 2 minutes into the second round, Fedor proved yet again that God gave him rocks instead of hands and knocked out Rogers with a devastating right cross.
Now, all that said, after the fight I had another one of my frequent "What the hell am I doing?" moments. You see, I have had mixed feelings on MMA since the UFC 100 pay-per-view show. In that show, Dan Henderson, a welterweight fighter, knocked out his opponent, Michael Bisping. As Bisping was obviously unconscious on the ground, Henderson threw an flying forearm-drop at his head with all the force he could muster. While sometimes incidents such as these occur when a fighter is unsure if an opponent is knocked out and/or the referee has stopped the fight, Henderson admitted that the blow was intentional and was intended to "shut [Bisping] up." The replay was shown over and over again, and each time I was sickened by how dangerously close Henderson was to killing Bisping. Then, a few fights later, Brock Lesnar made short work of his opponent Frank Mir, leaving Mir's nose a bloody stump and cruising to a 2nd Round TKO victory. After the fight, Lesnar extended his middle fingers to the booing crowd, got into Mir's face and berated him, and proceeded to not only insult Bud Light, the show's major sponsor, but declare that he might "get on top" of his wife that night.
Combined with last night's bloody main event, this has made me reflect on Book VI of St. Augustine's Confessions, where he describes his friend Alypius's reaction to watching a gladiator match. I found myself in Alypius's shoes as I too have become intoxicated with this combat. Now, I'm a very squeamish person who cannot sit through a horror movie and wouldn't last a second in the medical field. Thus, it is simply amazing to see myself become obsessed with these professional fights, where the object of the sport is to hurt your opponent enough to the point that he cannot continue the fight.
Of course, there are other violent sports out there and, like most men, I'm a big football fan and don't have any regrets over this. However, the point is that, while those sports are violent in nature and athletes can get seriously injured, such injuries are often accidents. If a player intentionally injured an opponent, he would be suspended, if not banned, from the sport. Even though MMA has come a long way since the early UFC days, when there were no rules and anything was legal, the desired outcome of any fighter is still to either knock out his opponent or place him in a painful move forcing the opponent to submit. I have tried to rationalize my enjoyment of such a sport but, ultimately, resign myself to admitting that such a sport is simply inconsistent with Christian values and simple decency. The same goes for professional boxing and any other sport where the object is to hurt your opponent.
Now, this is not to say that such activities cannot be learned for self-defense and fitness purposes. I actually took jiu-jutsu and MMA classes last year, until I sprained my MCL in my left knee and realized I was simply not cut out for such intense activities. Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with active competition where the purpose is to demonstrate technique, such as an organized martial arts tournament. As long as sufficient protective gear is present and the focus is on scoring points rather than hurting your opponent, such activities are good in building discipline in the competitors and can certainly be enjoyed by spectators. However, the more violent forms of martial arts should be reserved only for exercise and self-defense, with the hopes that such techniques will never have to be used against another human in combat.
Thus, I am going to be man enough to admit that my support of MMA was misplaced and while athletes such as Fedor Emelianenko represent the best of what the sport is, it is simply a sport that is intrinsically immoral. This was not a conclusion I reached quickly, but rather one that was gnawing at my conscience for some time and my brain finally reached after much thought and prayer.
I certainly hope some of you offer your thoughts on the matter. Take care!!!
Now Fedor's fight against Brett Rogers was very good, and was the slugfest the fans wanted. For a second there, I, and every Fedor fan in the world, actually thought he was going to lose as his nose was shattered seconds into the fight and he was bleeding profusely. Rogers, to his credit, handled Fedor well and was in a dominant position striking repeatedly at Fedor's head, which I thought would win the fight. However, Fedor, like he has in so many fights over the years, managed to flip him over and regained control. Less than 2 minutes into the second round, Fedor proved yet again that God gave him rocks instead of hands and knocked out Rogers with a devastating right cross.
Now, all that said, after the fight I had another one of my frequent "What the hell am I doing?" moments. You see, I have had mixed feelings on MMA since the UFC 100 pay-per-view show. In that show, Dan Henderson, a welterweight fighter, knocked out his opponent, Michael Bisping. As Bisping was obviously unconscious on the ground, Henderson threw an flying forearm-drop at his head with all the force he could muster. While sometimes incidents such as these occur when a fighter is unsure if an opponent is knocked out and/or the referee has stopped the fight, Henderson admitted that the blow was intentional and was intended to "shut [Bisping] up." The replay was shown over and over again, and each time I was sickened by how dangerously close Henderson was to killing Bisping. Then, a few fights later, Brock Lesnar made short work of his opponent Frank Mir, leaving Mir's nose a bloody stump and cruising to a 2nd Round TKO victory. After the fight, Lesnar extended his middle fingers to the booing crowd, got into Mir's face and berated him, and proceeded to not only insult Bud Light, the show's major sponsor, but declare that he might "get on top" of his wife that night.
Combined with last night's bloody main event, this has made me reflect on Book VI of St. Augustine's Confessions, where he describes his friend Alypius's reaction to watching a gladiator match. I found myself in Alypius's shoes as I too have become intoxicated with this combat. Now, I'm a very squeamish person who cannot sit through a horror movie and wouldn't last a second in the medical field. Thus, it is simply amazing to see myself become obsessed with these professional fights, where the object of the sport is to hurt your opponent enough to the point that he cannot continue the fight.
Of course, there are other violent sports out there and, like most men, I'm a big football fan and don't have any regrets over this. However, the point is that, while those sports are violent in nature and athletes can get seriously injured, such injuries are often accidents. If a player intentionally injured an opponent, he would be suspended, if not banned, from the sport. Even though MMA has come a long way since the early UFC days, when there were no rules and anything was legal, the desired outcome of any fighter is still to either knock out his opponent or place him in a painful move forcing the opponent to submit. I have tried to rationalize my enjoyment of such a sport but, ultimately, resign myself to admitting that such a sport is simply inconsistent with Christian values and simple decency. The same goes for professional boxing and any other sport where the object is to hurt your opponent.
Now, this is not to say that such activities cannot be learned for self-defense and fitness purposes. I actually took jiu-jutsu and MMA classes last year, until I sprained my MCL in my left knee and realized I was simply not cut out for such intense activities. Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with active competition where the purpose is to demonstrate technique, such as an organized martial arts tournament. As long as sufficient protective gear is present and the focus is on scoring points rather than hurting your opponent, such activities are good in building discipline in the competitors and can certainly be enjoyed by spectators. However, the more violent forms of martial arts should be reserved only for exercise and self-defense, with the hopes that such techniques will never have to be used against another human in combat.
Thus, I am going to be man enough to admit that my support of MMA was misplaced and while athletes such as Fedor Emelianenko represent the best of what the sport is, it is simply a sport that is intrinsically immoral. This was not a conclusion I reached quickly, but rather one that was gnawing at my conscience for some time and my brain finally reached after much thought and prayer.
I certainly hope some of you offer your thoughts on the matter. Take care!!!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Going national...
Those that remember my first attempt at blogging earlier last year know full well that it took me a while to get the hang of this thing. I really didn't know what blogging was and it had been some time since I wrote on a regular basis. In fact, since my undergrad days when I had an opinion column in my college paper, I had not had to come up with ideas to write about on a consistent basis.
Well, I had my ups and downs, but now I think I've figured it out. This has become a hobby I really enjoy, as it lets me share my thoughts with others and vent my frustrations. Now, I'm hoping to write for a bigger audience though, as I read an article on how blogging can even become a full-time job. Of course, I neither have an expectation of commanding a six-figure income doing this nor pretend that millions of persons will care about my thoughts. Still, if the possibility exists to have my voice heard, well, I'm going to take it!
Thus, today I created a Facebook fan page and, as you can tell by some of the additions to this page, made it possible to share my posts on various social networks. I even went ahead and bought ad space on Facebook to help promote the blog.
For now, I will keep things "as is" and I think they are working fine. I have been unhappy with my many typologragphical and grammatical errors but, with practice, I have been able to reduce them. I have high standards for myself, and those standards extend to my writing so I will continue to work on my overall presentation and style.
The biggest hope I have is that more readers will type up comments. While the comments do have to be approved by me, this is simply to prevent vulgar or extremely inappropriate comments from appearing on here and has nothing to do with whether someone agrees with me or not. I certainly want discussion to occur and hope that this happens soon. One thing I will say is that I'm not a fan of anonymous comments, although I will allow them. I just think that people should be held accountable for their comments and I do not see why one would not identify him- or herself, and it doesn't take too long to create an account on here.
Well, now I can sit back and wait. My next post will probably be on my thoughts regarding the sport of mixed martial arts, as those thoughts have evolved considerably in the past year. I would have posted it tonight but really need to sleep on this one so it should be up shortly after I get home from Mass tomorrow.
Take care everyone!!!
Well, I had my ups and downs, but now I think I've figured it out. This has become a hobby I really enjoy, as it lets me share my thoughts with others and vent my frustrations. Now, I'm hoping to write for a bigger audience though, as I read an article on how blogging can even become a full-time job. Of course, I neither have an expectation of commanding a six-figure income doing this nor pretend that millions of persons will care about my thoughts. Still, if the possibility exists to have my voice heard, well, I'm going to take it!
Thus, today I created a Facebook fan page and, as you can tell by some of the additions to this page, made it possible to share my posts on various social networks. I even went ahead and bought ad space on Facebook to help promote the blog.
For now, I will keep things "as is" and I think they are working fine. I have been unhappy with my many typologragphical and grammatical errors but, with practice, I have been able to reduce them. I have high standards for myself, and those standards extend to my writing so I will continue to work on my overall presentation and style.
The biggest hope I have is that more readers will type up comments. While the comments do have to be approved by me, this is simply to prevent vulgar or extremely inappropriate comments from appearing on here and has nothing to do with whether someone agrees with me or not. I certainly want discussion to occur and hope that this happens soon. One thing I will say is that I'm not a fan of anonymous comments, although I will allow them. I just think that people should be held accountable for their comments and I do not see why one would not identify him- or herself, and it doesn't take too long to create an account on here.
Well, now I can sit back and wait. My next post will probably be on my thoughts regarding the sport of mixed martial arts, as those thoughts have evolved considerably in the past year. I would have posted it tonight but really need to sleep on this one so it should be up shortly after I get home from Mass tomorrow.
Take care everyone!!!
A good dream for once...
A lot of you know that I often don't sleep well. I frequently find it difficult to fall asleep, toss and turn most of the night, and regularly wake up in the middle of the night. I also have a lot of bad dreams, and sometimes they are so bad they leave me with a real bad feeling when I wake up and it's hard for me to get them out of my head.
Well, last night I had a really good dream; a WONDERFUL one, actually, that I did not want to wake up from. It was very holy in nature and is related to a prayer intention I have had recently. Please understand that I can't go into detail as it involves other people, but just know that God gave me a pleasant break from reality. This little break provided me with hope that my prayers for something very close to my heart will be answered they way I want them to be. Even if they are not, at least I have this dream to hold onto.
Ok, now that I'm back in the real world, I have a long weekend ahead of me (no, not the good type of long weekend). I have a lot of schoolwork to catch up on as I wrap up library school and am going to be in seclusion this weekend (with the exception of Mass, of course). More on that next post...
Take care!!!
Well, last night I had a really good dream; a WONDERFUL one, actually, that I did not want to wake up from. It was very holy in nature and is related to a prayer intention I have had recently. Please understand that I can't go into detail as it involves other people, but just know that God gave me a pleasant break from reality. This little break provided me with hope that my prayers for something very close to my heart will be answered they way I want them to be. Even if they are not, at least I have this dream to hold onto.
Ok, now that I'm back in the real world, I have a long weekend ahead of me (no, not the good type of long weekend). I have a lot of schoolwork to catch up on as I wrap up library school and am going to be in seclusion this weekend (with the exception of Mass, of course). More on that next post...
Take care!!!
Friday, November 6, 2009
The conference call that wasn't....
Ok, it's 2am EST so this will be very brief.
As I mentioned in my last post, I had a conference call scheduled with Gov. Mike Huckabee and other members of "Team Huck" today at 5pm. During this call, Gov. Huckabee, whom I am supporting for the 2012 Presidential election (luckily, President Obama has sent independent voters towards the GOP), was to discuss his latest book, A Simple Christmas.
Well, starting at 4:55, I tried calling the number entered the conference code given to me to no avail. At about 5:05 I finally gave up. Then, I received an email informing me that the conference call had been pushed back to 5:30pm -- an email that arrived at 5:45pm sharp. Oh well, I plan on being an active part in Gov. Huckabee's future political campaigns, so I guess I'll have to wait to personally introduce myself to him.
Take care everyone!!!
As I mentioned in my last post, I had a conference call scheduled with Gov. Mike Huckabee and other members of "Team Huck" today at 5pm. During this call, Gov. Huckabee, whom I am supporting for the 2012 Presidential election (luckily, President Obama has sent independent voters towards the GOP), was to discuss his latest book, A Simple Christmas.
Well, starting at 4:55, I tried calling the number entered the conference code given to me to no avail. At about 5:05 I finally gave up. Then, I received an email informing me that the conference call had been pushed back to 5:30pm -- an email that arrived at 5:45pm sharp. Oh well, I plan on being an active part in Gov. Huckabee's future political campaigns, so I guess I'll have to wait to personally introduce myself to him.
Take care everyone!!!
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