The Erie County Legislature's future prospects for change are a little bit better, as now 6 of the current 15 members, 4 of the 7 Republicans and 2 of the 8 Democrats, have chosen not to run again. That means only 2 incumbents out of 9 need to be beaten to have a majority of fresh faces, and I'd say odds are pretty good that at least 2 of those trying to get reelected will fall, since the Democrats have been for the most part been trying to raise the sales tax (why any party that supposedly cares about the poor would want to raise an already high regressive tax is beyond me), which has raised the ire of a lot of taxpayers.

There is a movement in place to field challengers to all 9 of those who remain in the hopes of cleaning house. Best of luck to them.

In a more positive development, the New York government is actually, as surprising as it sounds, retiring a sales tax increase that it billed as temporary a few years back. As of midnight, the state's extra quarter penny sales tax will expire, returning the state rate to 4%, and the local rate to 8%.

Posted by Justice at 10:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I'm in the mood for some odd humor tonight, so here's a collection of humorous and random thoughts from the day:

Archives have got to be an invention of men. I say this because the standard reaction to archival storage around here, particularly in the form of disks, paper, and other electronic media, tends to resemble a depth charge going off from the ladies any time someone actually decides to make use of these things and not put them out of sight before they happen to notice. There are also constant pressures to simply clean house and start again, which is resisted as a matter of standard operating procedure by the gentlemen.

I suspect this sort of war has been played out constantly in history between men and women. The great compromise in this war was the invention of file cabinets and other storage bins as a way to neatly order these things and for the women keep them conveniently out of sight, while satisfying the mens' desire to not throw away things which more than likely will not be needed again. It also made the file cabinet makers happy because there was a constant demand for more as existing ones filled up.

This is a stalemate position, and would have filled the world with file cabinets of useless junk, but nature stepped in with a solution which it called Undertaking. The way this works is that typically, relatives have little attachment or love for file cabinets they didn't fill, and in settling final accounts, they will throw out the vast majority of whatever's been stored, thus undertaking the task that was never done by the departed.

In the end, file cabinets and storage bins end up being neater, cleaner garbage cans that you just happen to keep around because you'd rather wait for someone else to throw it out for you. Women win on the end goal of ditching the stuff, men win on the procrastination angle.

...

From the Grad Student's Guide to Life:

SEMPRINI: Ahh, the joy - the feedback for shlepping away in a lab consists solely of "You're not doing it right! Try Again!"

CYRUS: Or "How's my patent research coming over there?"

CYRUS: That's when you get revenge by slight sabotage.

SEMPRINI: That made my day. It be my profile now.

...

The French say "No!" and the EU supporters are heard crying "Wee wee!" Don't worry guys, maybe Joel can get you a deal for some fresh diapers, since he did so well with the toilet paper...

...

Clown liturgy, eh? Oh right, worshipping God's a joke, isn't it?

...

Gay priests may marry in the Church of England, but not have sex. Am I the only one who finds it ironic that the Anglicans are trying to solve their problems by pushing celibate marriage? Next thing you know they'll be trying out uncelibate single life. Oh wait...

...

John McCain must have been reading the back of a bag of French Fries and followed the directions by lowering himself into hot oil to cook this week. Rumors persist that Harry Reid was seen purchasing the fries at a supermarket along with some Shake n Bake. Anonymous sources overheard him say he would be having some Republican Senators for dinner.

...

The movie industry has to be the only industry that tries to increase profits by raising prices (this makes sense in an odd way, since the left thinks taxes is the only way to raise revenues). An evening movie for 2 at the local Regal is now $17 just to get in, with a minimum of $16 more added just for a small popcorn and drink. The local mom and pop theater runs just $9 for admission ($7 on Mondays) and $4.50 for the same concessions. Since they get a lot of the same movies, only a few weeks later, they're the place to go. Unless the price for DVDs goes up similarly, I'm not going to blow tons of money just to see something sooner. And I've already taken to getting nothing when at a Regal, just to save money. Have you guys heard of the Laffer Curve? I think you're above the point of optimal revenue intake.

Posted by Justice at 1:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Japanese have a bunch of puzzles which I find very engrossing. Sudoku ended up in the news recently, which is a version of a Magic Square, in which the numbers 1 through 9 appear only once in each row and column.

My favorite puzzles, besides that one, are Slither Link (I've been trying to solve #34 for over 2 years without success) and Nurikabe, a variant of Minesweeper, the hardest sample of which I just finished after about 90 minutes of work. Edel earns an honorable mention, as it's a neat sort of puzzle whose solution is a pixellated image, but one I find to be extremely frustrating.

Posted by Justice at 12:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Today the diocese ordained three new priests, one of whom will be moving to the hometown parish, replacing the departing priest, who is off to be a pastor in a more rural location of the diocese. Hopefully he's a good confessor, since the pastor there isn't willing to use a valid formula for absolutions...if not, that means I have to trek off to the neighboring town.

Unfortunately for the diocese, 3 isn't enough to replace the priests we're losing. Numbers were 435 priests in 1999, down to 384 in 2003. The religious figure was even worse, going from 198 priests to 163 over the same period. Not good when there are 265 parishes still in operation. Some fig trees are going to get the axe if we don't start getting a little more fruit in short order...

Posted by Justice at 3:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mathematicians have a fondness for letters, so here's the Alphabet Soup meme from The Anchoress:

A is for Age - 22
B is for Booze - Electric lemonade
C is for Career - Student
D is for Dad’s name - Dad
E is for Essential items to bring to a party - Pop
F is for Favorite song at the moment - Apoplexy (points to anyone who knows where this comes from)
G is for Goof off thing to do - Daydream
H is for Hometown - H-Town, as it's abbreviated, Buffalo more generally
I is for Instrument you play - Uh...boombox?*
J is for Jam or Jelly you like - Strawberry
K is for Kids - Nihil
L is for Living arrangement - At home
M is for Mom’s name - Mom
N is for Names of best friends - Andy, Paul, Jason, James
O is for Overnight hospital stays - Nihil?
P is for Phobias - Doxophobia
Q is for Quote you like - Roma locuta est, causa finita est
R is for Relationship that lasted longest - Relationship? What's that?
S is for Siblings - 2 Sisters
T is for Texas, ever been? - Nope
U is for Unique trait - Detachment from the world via imagination
V is for Vegetable you love - AAAGH!! RUN AWAY!! ...Potatos, I guess
W is for Worst trait - Procrastination
X is for XRays you’ve had - Probably more than some scientist says I should have
Y is for Yummy food you make - Umm...burgers?
Z is for Zodiac sign - Aquarius

*Sidenote - I have to be one of the few people ever to receive a 5 on the Music Theory AP exam while never having learned to play any instrument beyond a basic competence. It's one thing I wish I'd made an effort at back when these things are learned more easily.

Posted by Justice at 11:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Remember the popular slogan from a few years ago, WWJD, or What Would Jesus Do? It's a nice thought, though it comes in from the wrong angle. The question itself is a hypothetical one, and one which puts one in the position of trying to figure out what God would do given the circumstances. That's rather difficult, since trying to get into God's mind on things is a hopeless cause, as no one can fully comprehend God.

It also runs into difficulties, since God certainly lets things happen which most people don't think God would do personally, and these things can be framed into a WWJD question like "would Jesus have let this happen?" and while the answer may be "yes" in God's case (e.g. the 9/11 attacks), we ourselves would be obliged to say "no" if it were in our power to stop the action.

The right way to approach this is to ask "What does Jesus tell me to do?" This question implies an imperative directed to us (the objective moral law), isn't a hypothetical, and focuses on what we're supposed to be doing, rather than trying to guess what God would do. And unlike the WWJD inquiry, there is a record of what Jesus told us to do. It can't be put into a snazzy slogan, but it ultimately functions better.

Posted by Justice at 4:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I never would have expected so much out of a work of fiction in which so much of the plot was pre-determined, since it was incorporating actual history into its lines. Many names were going to be familiar, as well as some of the actions they had to take to stay in keeping with history. And yet, the entire thing was a captivating gem of a story.

The Spear is Louis de Wohl's fictional novel about the events behind the Roman soldier who pierced Christ's side with a spear, known as St. Longinus. The book is divided into 4 parts. The first is how Longinus ended up in Judaea in the first place, the second sets up the motivations of the various players in Jerusalem, the third the events leading up to the piercing, and the fourth a short postlude.

I really have no idea how much of the story de Wohl may have been borrowing from apocryphal and historical sources and how much is original, but it all flows together very neatly with the pieces the Bible provides. It struck a chord, I guess, since I have something of an affection for Roman history, besides the Biblical story it incorporated.

And it definitely has had an effect on what could best be called my fictional world. It is, itself, the result of about 10 years of internal narrative (1st and 3rd), constantly revised as its author has aged, and in its present form, has connections to both the Romans and the Church.

I've got to go out searching for some good Catholic fiction more often.

Posted by Justice at 5:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Some news bits that are a little bit old, but either recently came up or were just never published:

- A cousin has been accepted into the University at Buffalo's graduate program, I believe to get a Master's in Speech Pathology. If all goes according to plan, she should graduate in either June or September 2007.

- A neighbor passed away in Rome about 2 weeks ago, shortly after meeting the Holy Father, according to what I've been told, marking an unfortunate end to that pilgrimage.

- An uncle is also on a journey that he's probably been waiting 20 years to make, having left for Texas this evening.

- Immaculate Conception parish will be closed at the end of July, due to declining attendance, donations, and a century old building which has structural damage. It joins a fair list of closed city churches (though there's not much the diocese can do with the city having lost nearly half its population in 50 years).

- Lastly, finding summer work is rather difficult. Is there some trick to filling out applications for entry level work, or is this all strictly a matter of luck? I'll pray I find something, though at present, this has been discouraging.

Posted by Justice at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Phew. The reformatting worked on the old laptop, as it's regained internet usability, besides being somewhat faster. At least it was just a massive software problem and not a hardware problem, although frankly, I don't want to have to do that again. That's the third time I've needed to do this with the laptop (although the first two times out, it was hard drive failure), and it's time consuming, not to mention risky, as the only way to update the blasted thing is to connect its original June 2001 configuration to the internet and hope that the massive security holes in IE and Windows ME aren't exploited before I can patch them.

This time out though, I think I've managed to preempt the problems with appropriate security. Only time will tell, as I suspect, as I read just today, that my sister may end up visiting sites with youth-directed advertising and get swamped again.

Posted by Justice at 12:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I've pretty much played a waiting game on the so-called Nuclear option to deal with the filibuster on Bush's judicial nominees, as I've not been sure what the right move was here. Personally, my gut said to keep bringing up the issue and force the Democrats to essentially keep filibustering constantly. After all, obstruction cost Republicans in the mid 90s with Clinton, and I didn't see it working any differently this time around with the roles reversed.

I suppose the silver lining of the compromise is that it puts the Democrats on record as backers of the filibuster, which should make it, at least in the court of public opinion, more difficult to remove it later on should the Dems take back the Senate someday. To that end, it may be somewhat phyrric to the Dems, since one can imagine the filibuster coming back to bite them in the rump, assuming at least 41 members of the opposition retain some sort of spine to use it.

Meanwhile, it does get 3 of the blocked nominees out of gridlock, besides establishing a standard of filibusters only coming against extreme candidates. That may work more against the Democrats than they think, as their version of extreme doesn't mesh too well with what the popular notion of an extremist is. If someone like Priscilla Owen comes up again, whose only essential crime against the left is a decision to uphold a parental notification law, Democrats will be hard pressed to convincingly make the extremist label stick, especially with the rise of alternative media helps demolish exaggerations and lies.

Like with most other things in politics, I'll wait and see how this turns out. My gut says this is better than pulling the Nuclear option, but worse than if the Republicans had simply forced the Dems to continue their filibusters.

I know a lot of conservatives are hopping mad, but unfortunately, the best we can do for now is keep voting for the people who are closest to our views. I'd rather have a luke-warm Republican in Congress than most Democrats any day (excepting Zell Miller).

Posted by Justice at 11:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

I've managed to format my old laptop again, which is now my sister's, and freshly reinstall the original factory setup. Now comes the fun part of trying to find 4 years worth of Windows ME, security, and net updates and get them all on there again before connecting it to the internet. I'd do it now, but I have a splitting headache, so bedtime for me.

Posted by Justice at 1:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How can you tell when fiscal problems in the government are serious? When the local news spends the first 7 minutes of the broadcast covering nothing but that. It's definitely allowing the news teams to shine, because this is a non-partisan story which has plenty of investigative avenues to be followed - even better, the news networks really can't lose, as virtually everyone dislikes how the County Executive has been handling the situation, and substantial majorities dislike how the Legislature's been handling things (as I mentioned some time back).

National laughingstock status will likely be conferred as soon as the the state comptroller's fiscal report comes out in a few weeks. I suspect this will be bad because some members of the state government are already throwing around words like Enron style cooking of the books and the possibility of indictments.

Posted by Justice at 11:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I won't be around when they implement it, but the University at Buffalo, in an attempt to hold the line on printing costs, is instituting a 1500 page annual limit to students. Anything over and above will cost between 5 and 8 cents per page.

I don't think I'd have ever exceeded that limit, although there were definitely semesters where professors made me print out a lot of material (last Fall especially). The number of them providing lecture slides for printouts has also been going up, which will cut into that limit. But there were people who really abused the system, having a ream of printouts sitting in the library every time I wandered in to collect printouts (this is why, early in the year, print waiting times were measured in days).

Posted by Justice at 11:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I've seen a fair number of employment applications over time, although today, I saw a first. On the hours section, a note was made that the employer, Payless, would make a reasonable effort to accommodate religious observances. Granted, I think most employers try to do this anyway, but they're the first ones to actually say so.

Posted by Justice at 11:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Last year, when I attended John Corapi's Wake Up America conference, I received a bunch of extra copies of the Catholic Answers Voting Guide, since the volunteers dumped a bunch on me when they found out I was residing at the University. I put some out, and as far as I know, they were still there a few months later when I checked.

(Addendum: I believe it was the Station of the Cross folks who sponsored it who actually gave me these. Locally, that's WLOF 101.7 FM.)

Anyway, since in my unpacking I stumbled upon my surplus, I would like to empty it out, as there's no way I need that many and Franciscan is unlikely to be a place where the voting guide is needed. So, if any of my readers would like some free copies (I'll send up to 5 to one person), or know someone who might, just drop me an e-mail with your home address and how many you want, and I'll send them off in the mail. Supplies are limited (2 dozen or so), so first come, first served.

Posted by Justice at 8:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I always get slightly nervous plugging in electrical appliances at home because the outlets have a nasty habit of sparking a bit when this is done. This is the first time it's happened to me connecting into a power strip, which surprises me, since it's not a major power sucker like a computer or TV, but just a Game Cube.

I'd like to blame it on the high levels of static electricity which float around here (I get zapped a lot), not on bad wiring, though that wiring is now going on 20 years old, and probably was never designed to handle things like computers, lots of TVs, and everything else. Lights have been known to flicker somewhat when everyone's using something. It's a good thing the circuit breakers don't handle more than 1 or 2 outlets each, otherwise, I'm sure we'd be tripping them a lot.

Meanwhile, the unpacking business is humming along. Most of my books are back on shelves, and I think this summer I should really take inventory, as there are a lot and after I move to Ohio, part of the collection is almost bound to end up in storage, and I want to be able to keep track of them. I'm sure my mother will want to strangle me when she finds out about the shipment of 7 coming from Amazon, given I just picked up 7 from a deep discount bookseller (70% off list price of everything in the store) and am considering putting in an order to TAN to help them out (as well as myself). Now if only the reading pile even came close to matching the acquired pile...

On a completely unrelated note, I hate working with P-II, 300-MHz, slower than molasses Windows 98 computers with failing monitors. Were it not for internet access, I'd rather be using the old 33-MHz 486-DX which at least isn't slow running the things it can run, besides having many cool computer games from the late 80s and early 90s (Anybody remember Lexicross, The Incredible Machine, or Jones in the Fast Lane?). I can't wait to get back to my system on Saturday when it can be set up again.

Posted by Justice at 11:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

After having invested more than 8 hours on a project to write an unbelievably short essay for a scholarship application which Franciscan University sent my way, word from their admissions office today is that they don't think I'm eligible in the first place due to not being an undergraduate. I don't know how certain that is since despite three attempts, I have been unable to reach the person I'm supposed to call if I have questions. So far that's reminiscent of UB's problem of being unable to reach the only person who has any answers to give.

UB has sent me scholarships I've been ineligible for before (I am not a minority, which I thought would have been obvious given how many times I volunteered that information), but this is the first time where the application form's criteria might conflict with reality. The letter I received states that preference is given to undergraduates - my read of that indicates a chance, though unlikely, of a graduate student winning it. If graduate students aren't eligible, it shouldn't be too hard to list it clearly in the eligibility requirements.

I wouldn't mind so much if the end essay were truly serviceable as a complete exposition of my reasons for going there. Unfortunately, as this project required the writer's virtues of brevity and conciseness, ones I haven't had to practice in a long time (have you ever known math people to be either brief or concise?) there are large gaps and lots of omitted details, cleverly disguised by smooth transition. I was consistently running hundreds of words too long, which required the cutting of ideas, prepositional phrases, adverbs, and even adjectives, ending up with a very linear, simplistic outline of something very jagged and complex.

At any rate, I'm hoping that the supposed ineligibility is just another case of people who have no idea what they're talking about giving me bad information. Actually, regardless of how this ends up, someone gave bad information - I'm just praying it was on the part of those with the bad news!

Posted by Justice at 11:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Just noticed on a carton of ice cream in the freezer:

Now 16.6% bigger!

What a crock. When I checked the size of the carton, it was 1.75 quarts. If I remember the good old days, ice cream used to be sold in 2 quart, or half-gallon, containers. The size of this thing was really 12.5% smaller than what I still expect when I buy ice cream, although in fairness, this particular flavor had always been sold in 1.75 quart containers as far as I knew.

Then I remembered a news item a few years ago where several ice cream companies planned to increase their profit by keeping the price of ice cream the same while reducing the size to 1.75 quarts. Since this carton is one of those candy bar specialty versions, I suppose it at some point got knocked down to 1.5 quarts. The sneaky part comes in when the company eventually either ends the special "16.6% more" deal and tricks people into buying 1.5 quart cartons at the same price as the 1.75 quart cartons used to be without noticing, or it raises the price while justifying the increase to the consumer because they are now regularly getting "16.6%" more.

This cynicism is brought to you courtesy of Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel, which has been my side reading the last week.

Posted by Justice at 1:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I have to write a brief essay for Franciscan University detailing why I'm going there and why I want their Buffalo Scholarship. The size is 200-400 words, which, unfortunately, is way too small to put in everything that led to my decision to apply there, since it's not a simple explanation.

I have to fax it tomorrow, and I'm hoping I can work up a good draft by then. As it is, I've already run through four drafts, all of them too long, and only on the fourth one did I even began to like what I was writing.

I'll ask for the patron of writing's help when I get back, whomever that happens to be, and then get to work. I expect that draft seven will be my final one.

Posted by Justice at 6:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A little fill in the blank for you:

I am a _____ Catholic.

Should this not apply, skip ahead.

So, what did you fill in? I know I was asking a lot by only leaving room for one word, but one word is really all that's needed, and only two words properly fill in the blank. These are orthodox/faithful and unorthodox/unfaithful, whichever terminology better makes the point. There's a few nuts out there who think faithful and unorthodox are somehow synonymous in Catholicism, so for them, using the dreaded O words may be better.

Other things miss the big picture. Trying to apply the political terms Conservative, Moderate, or Liberal is dumb, since religion should never be like politics, although it should properly inform your politics. Especially for those who like to label themselves "moderate" Catholics, that's almost worse, since it's just asking God to spit out their lukewarm selves.

Cafeteria responders of all stripes should be reminded that this is not a food court, but J.C.'s Restaurant, all dinner orders must be from the management approved menu, and all orders come with a common set of dishes. Special requests, including asking that certain things be left on the side or other special things be added, are frowned upon as an insult to the cook, and insistence on getting your way will cause you to lose your place at the table, to be taken by a less difficult person, while you get kicked out.

While a lot of the make-your-own-meal sort find J.C.'s policy to be too strict and think it offers too few menu choices, some also find it to be too lax, and demand a more rigorous booting of patrons, as well as a narrower choice of menu options.

God really doesn't care what the complaint is, unfaithfulness in any part of what's required renders the appropriate adjective as unfaithful or unorthodox. This puts both Call to Action sorts and traditionalist schismatic groups in the same doomed sort of ship, though one may seem closer than the other (the distance is relative in one sense, but this is the sort of thing where you're either there or not.)

Go forth and be orthodox (or faithful, so long as you know it means the same thing.)

P.S. - It is my position that other labels, many of which are probably great things in themselves, ultimately pale when it comes down to this distinction.

Posted by Justice at 9:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

There are two general theories which I have about commencement. One is that it's more geared to parents than to students. I don't know anyone who was willing to show up by 8:30 to basically sit around for 4 hours, pick up a piece of paper which really has no value once the real diploma is mailed out, and shake some hands for about 1 minute. There's also the rather conspicuous tent positioned outside selling all sorts of university branded stuff, a clear draw for the parents with wallets, not the broke college kids with loans.

The second theory is that all commencement speeches are essentially slightly modified variants of a stock pile of speeches that has not been added to in at least a generation. Having now been present at 3 graduation ceremonies, my observation has been that all of the speeches are so vapid, sappy, predictable, and feel-good, that none of them have ever been remembered much beyond the ceremony's close.

Today's lot were no different. President Simpson's remarks focused on the theme of transition (or was it transformation?) we'd undergone in our undergraduate years. Part of me was dying to ask if he thought the influence of explicit movies sponsored by the campus, quarter condoms (along with the requisite tasting and usage sessions run in university housing), raucous demonstrations, extravagant entertainment, drag shows, and other elements of the campus atmosphere good parents would freak out at had been positive.

Senator Schumer decided to give us a bit of a talk, though I don't know why he bothered. Both I and the girl next to me recognized this as basically the same speech he gave last year. I wouldn't be surprised if it was verbatim. True, it was one of the wittier efforts by any of the speakers, and avoided anything that would piss anyone off. But still, would it have been that hard for the Senator to have thought up some new remarks for this year? I know the Democrats haven't had any real new policy ideas for several years, but I didn't know they had also lost the ability to come up with new spiel to wow the crowd.

The student speaker this year, whose speech was purportedly read by a committee beforehand and selected as the best, was a relatively poor choice, besides dipping into politics. Unlike the young woman, I didn't have qualms about a contested election, nor was I unsure why we were in Iraq. True, that probably wouldn't have been my opinion in August 2001 or March 2003, but times change, and some of us move on and reevaluate our opinions. That Election 2000 even popped up in the speech says a lot about the mindset of the speaker and the committee who selected her speech.

The honorary doctorate recipient might have been good had the introducer not leaked the fact that the man is behind software which helps track global warming, a phenomenon that is increasingly finding its doubters in the scientific community. After that, it was much harder to see it as something more than a liberal cause celebre, though I could be wrong. Further research is needed.

So there it is, an hour or more of fluff built into the commencement, none of which I found to be inspiring or worthwhile. The key sign is when most of the people have to quote famous authors of the past in an attempt to say something, which often fails, since what they say essentially says the same thing as the author, only with less eloquence.

In a side rant about the students, can someone tell me exactly what sort of signal it sends when the future leaders of tomorrow bounce beach balls during half of the ceremony, make wild cat calls about once every dozen graduates, make all sorts of gestures on camera to impress somebody out there, and several of whom came dressed in casual clothes?

On a more light-hearted note, this year's graduating class had 1050 people marching from the College of Arts and Sciences, with large quantities of them Psychology and Social Sciences majors (roughly 25 to 30 percent). The Math department graduated a total of 69 people this year, with a fair number of us doing either a double degree or double major. Not all of the 69 marched, so our proportion in that 1050 is more like 2 percent.

The psychology department's own commencement later in the day was more entertaining, and was much less sappy, besides containing some organ playing (on a real organ), which is always a plus. Philosophy's ceremony on Friday was quaint and simple - only 8 people bothered to show up, a handful of faculty, and it was a brief 15 to 20 minute ceremony more devoid of fluff than any of the others. In both cases, however, it was the first time I'd personally met eithr the department chair or undergrad director of either department. The math department decided against a ceremony, saying 13 was too few to do it (although philosophy plowing ahead with only 10 committed makes that logic suspect).

On the whole, I enjoyed graduation weekend, but I think mainly, I am happy to finally be out of there. Now I just have to hope God doesn't pull a Todd on me and send me BACK at some point to fight in the trenches. Four years is plenty, really! ...Have I ever seen any whales in Lake Erie? No, why? ...ACK!

That last little bit's an inside joke, since at the present moment, there are no indications I'll be back at UB any time soon, and I can't help but make use of Todd's material as a sendoff to the place. More from him will hopefully be excerpted at some point in the future.

Posted by Justice at 9:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Well, this is going to be the last time I sleep in university housing, since next year, I won't be in any Franciscan owned buildings. As of now, and for the past several hours, I've been cleaning. Still have some left to go, a bit of laundry, and just what's on my bed and on the bathroom floor. Helpful hint for housecleaners - the Clorox toilet cleaning wand works wonders.

The partying roommate aforementioned has again invited a bunch of people over, though in a hopeful sign, several have already departed. I'm hoping they'll all be gone by 3, so I can catch enough sleep before tomorrow's early morning commencement. I will be helped in this slightly that he may be attending the exact same ceremony, and hopefully some of his friends are as well. Thus far, it's not been too rowdy, though one never knows with them.

Back to cleaning.

Posted by Justice at 11:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Insolvency of the county is potentially looming about two months away, and political shenanigans are still continuing as usual. Any which way the budget numbers are looked at, a deficit of at least $60 million will occur this fiscal year, but that could be as much as double, depending on whether the county executive or the comptroller has the better accounting staff. As it stands, the state comptroller is having his own staff review the books to let us know where we stand on both this year's and last year's deficits.

The cash flow is expected to run out by July if more loans are not floated, and there is the possibility this fiscal black hole could be cut off from that avenue. The cash flow problem is unlikely to be resolved, since the legislature is loath to either cut expenses or raise taxes. Yesterday, they opted to enact cuts of only a tenth of the best-case scenario deficit. And, even though everybody is well aware that we are millions in the hole, the parks are being reopened even though there's not enough revenue to balance the cost of doing so.

A fiscal control board has been floated by several politicians of late, given the sudden severity of the fiscal collapse, although our idiot executive may have made that option much harder by claiming it would make it easier for him to force through his regionalism agenda. That's incredibly arrogant, trying to force through his plans after having fiscally ruined the county. I wouldn't put it past him to have deliberately done this to make enacting his plans easier.

Meanwhile, there remains some hope in the fiscal collapse - a control board might finally force some real reform of the government here.

Sources here, here, here, here, and here.

Posted by Justice at 8:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

I was there today for confession and Mass prior to my last final (initial feeling is that this was a good decision based on how the test went), and I will go there one more time on Saturday for the vigil of Pentecost and hopefully get them to bless a few things for me. After that, it's unlikely I'll be visiting St. Michael's for a long time. I won't be in the area for school next year, and since it's not close to home, I can't get there. It's too bad St. Michael's isn't a college parish anymore (it was once on the Canisius College campus), they are a hidden gem, and I bet they'd be a hit if it were possible to transplant them and their church to this Newman Center, and transfer the folks here to retirement.

Anyway, I think I owe the good fathers a letter of thanks, since Lord knows stumbling on their doorstep was not of my design. They certainly haven't been perfect, but unlike so many other places, here, it was possible to be charitable about things that drove me crazy elsewhere - and I've been told I don't hide it well when that happens.

I pray that they will all continue being a rock solid haven for their flock for as long as God will grant and that they will eventually be replaced by men as good as they have been once they can no longer continue.

Pray for them please.

Posted by Justice at 2:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The last exam of my undergraduate life, and likely the last math exam I'll ever take, was a fairly challenging one on voting theory.

The first question, worth 10 points, was a voting system thrown together just for that question - a yes/no system where each voter had a certain number of votes they could cast (think of it as a multi-party parliament where each party votes strictly as a bloc). We were asked to give the definition of a coalition and a winning coalition, which wasn't too hard. Then we were asked to explain when the Banzhaff Index of power would be equal to the Decisive Index of power (Banzhaff Index powers are based on the number of winning coalitions a voter can be a part of, Decisive Index powers based on how many times the voter's presence in a coalition is necessary for that coalition winning). This was the hard theoretical question, which nailed pretty much everybody. My fudged answer was to say that when the Banzhaff Index of all voters is equal, then the Decisive Index of all voters is equal.

Question 2 was meant to be the nice question, just asking 5 different things about a voter profile, and it was half the test. The five different components asked us to calculate the pairwise margins of victory and see if there was a Condorcet winner, find the procedure line (algebraically, a line that gives the outcome of a positional voting procedure, where the extreme points are the plurality voting outcome and the antiplurality voting outcome), break out the Condorcet and Reversal portions, calculate the Cyclic Profile Coordinates (Alpha, Beta, d) and figure out what portions of the Alpha-Beta line gave cyclic pairwise outcomes (a > b, b > c, c > a or vice versa), and calculate the extreme profiles that gave the same pairwise outcomes. All in all, not too bad, so long as I correctly crunched the numbers.

Question three was a bit nasty, though only for 10 points. The opening half asked for a social welfare procedure which always selects the Condorcet winner if there is one. Most of the class had forgotten what a social welfare procedure is, including me. Turns out, all it is is a basic set of criteria which say that interchanging one voter's list of preferences with another's list changes nothing (i.e. who casts the ballot is irrelevant to who wins), everyone interchanging the same pair of candidates on their ballots interchanges the pairwise outcome of those candidates, and that if a candidate wins, another vote being switched to that candidate means he still wins. I picked the Copeland Procedure for this one, as it was the only thing I could think of. The second half asked if IIA (Irrelevancy of Independent Alternatives), held for the procedure in question. IIA says that the relative pairwise rankings of the election outcome only depend on the relative pairwise rankings of the voters (this is one of the most difficult criteria to achieve in voting - primarily because getting it and avoiding dictatorship either means restricting voter choice, throwing away strict candidate rankings, or having at least some candidates be irrelevant to the process). The Copeland procedure, like the plurality vote itself, does not satisfy IIA.

The last question, worth the last 30 points, was about paradoxical profiles, which, depending on the procedure, can yield any of 3 candidates as the winner. This particular setup asked us to create a scenario where A would be the Plurality winner, B would be the winner of Nanson's procedure (we'd not seen it before, but it takes the Borda Count, drops all candidates below the average, and then repeats the Borda Count and repeats the drop until only 1 candidate remains), and C would be the winner of the Borda Count. This set some constraints, namely B > C pairwise ranking, A > C > B Plurality ranking, B > C > A Nanson's ranking, and C > B > A Borda Count ranking. The rule of thumb is to set the Borda Count's outcome first, which in this case required a single type 4 voter (C > B > A). Next was to fix things so Nanson's ranking came out right. This required adding odd Condorcet portions, since they can flip pairwise outcomes, but don't affect the Borda Count ranking. Last to fix was the Plurality outcome, since by adding Reversal portions of types 1 and 2 (voters of types 1 & 4, 2 & 5 respectively), the correct ranking can be obtained without affecting either the Borda Count or Nanson rankings. I believe my end profile was (4, 2, 2, 3, 4, 0), though there are many possibilities.

After it was all over, the general feeling was a bit of frustration. Questions 1 and 3 in particular were generally skipped (the professor had been expecting difficulty here, and hence made them only 10 points each), and several parts of question 2 gave people trouble, since the formulas needed to be remembered to solve them. I went out for dinner with 3 other class members, which was a fitting end to my math career here. The department and its members have been rather solid people to be with, and math people generally seem to be somewhat more sane - at least here, anyway.

So, that brings it to a close, and I feel confident calling it, though I am waiting on 3 marks yet (which Latin honors I receive was the only question left):

I will graduate Summa Cum Laude with a B.A. in Psychology and a B.S. in Mathematics with a minor in Philosophy (Logic). And, if I am really lucky, I may close the semester with a 4.0, which I have not done in 7 semesters, and which, frankly, I probably deserved least this semester out of all of them - but occasionally, things work out funny like that.

Posted by Justice at 12:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tonight marks the fourth night in a row that one of my roommates has had a bunch of his friends over for the primary purpose of getting drunk in a party that promises to last somewhere between 3 and 5 in the morning. I thought that these gatherings during the week, when I like to catch some measure of sleep, were done with, since they hadn't happened since early in the Fall semester (well, at least not to the extent that they hindered my trying to sleep).

However, they had to choose this week, when I had a pair of early morning exams, to do all of their partying here, even though I mentioned the exams. It makes me regret I didn't save the rest of the earplugs I'd purchased back when these shenanigans were going on 8 months ago. Thankfully tomorrow's exam is not until 3:30.

Posted by Justice at 1:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Those of you who might have previously ventured off to my website's main page saw the javascript menu which linked to the main sections of the webpage. I have given it its first real updating in a year, besides migrating it over to all of the blog's pages. Certain pages previously linked to by that menu have been suppressed pending a redesign. One of these days I will get around to purging the site of all its dead pages, but enough has been done for now to make me happy.

On a sidenote, this particular menu is a royal pain to implement if, like me, you want to change the topmost menu names, since that requires a manual code change in each and every page on which the menu appears (thank God for Movable Type requiring only 4 such revisions to cover every page). Changing submenu items, however, only requires modifications to one file.

Milonic is the maker of the menu. They do have licensing for non-profits and personal sites, though I don't know if it's free anymore, since it's been well over a year since I last perused their site, as there has been no further update to the main menu code.

Posted by Justice at 2:07 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

REMOVALS:

- Due to his retirement, SoDakMonk has been removed from the blogroll.

ADDITIONS:

- Ordained members of St. Blog's Parish have received a little cross symbol to the right of their links.

- Against the Grain, which has been a nice trove of Benedict XVI related material since the new pope's election.

- The Angry Twins, who get a link for being the first to pass a blog meme in this direction. The beating has nothing to do with it...really! Seriously though, this is an enjoyable place for non-PC fare in the Catholic world.

- Lauren of Cnytr, who's been a regular read of mine since Pope Benedict's election.

- Andy K, of Pondering the Word, whom I've chatted with a little bit, is a member of a religious community.

- Roman Catholic Blog, a regular site since Hugh Hewitt brought it to my attention during all the coverage the Vatican received last month.

NEW RESOURCES:

- New to the Catholic Resources is The Crossroads Initiative, by the request of Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio, who was kind enough to send some positive feedback. He is also the first legitimate user of my contact form (it should have a direct link from the blog soon).

There are also some good blogs that I read during the papal funeral and conclave that went on last month, but those will take more time to find. I'll add them when I find the time to find them.

Posted by Justice at 11:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This sounds pretty on target for me. Social issues are definitely the part where the liberal side of the aisle can whistle up a tree as far as I'm concerned. I don't think the crimes position is quite on the mark, but with the questions asked, that's where it came up. I do have some sympathy with their positions on other issues, but by and large, I've been drifting more to the right as time has passed.

Posted by Justice at 11:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Having recovered from the beating I received from a baton, it seems I am the recipient of a little meme that's being passed around.

"List five things that people in your circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you can't really understand the fuss over. To use the words of Caesar (from History of the World Part I), 'Nice. Nice. Not thrilling . . . but nice.'"

1. Coffee

I've never understood what possesses people to drink this stuff. It smells bad, it tastes worse, it burns the mouth, and it burned me twice in my younger days. But most of my friends drink plenty of it, and one used to keep more than a half dozen bags of coffee beans around to grind. I'd rather get my caffeine from cold pop.

2. The Pop/Soda War

One of the more inane topics of discussion at the university is what to call the staple carbonated drinks. The Buffalo region calls it pop. But since we drag in so many downstaters, and they call it soda, there's always this running argument about the proper name. This is probably an island of soda in the midst of a sea of pop. But really, why all the fuss? The city folk are in Buffalo now, and when in Buffalo, you do as the locals do (especially wings!)

3. Teen Music

I don't get most modern music. Sure, there's a few good things now and then, although these days, they'd be considered Oldies, Country, or so popular that you'd have to live in a cave not to have heard of them. My response to every band that's ever captured the country's youth has either been "who?" or a shrug. I really don't get the ones who shell out money for pricey concert tickets, where they get to hear a lot of the same music but with a bunch of raving morons added to the mix. Don't even get me started on lyrics, not that I'm much of a lyrics fan to begin with.

4. Excessive Team Pride

This one would definitely make Brian see red, but I really get put off by the reactions my friends have when we watch sporting events. Now enthusiasm itself isn't a bad thing, but when I have to listen to how we need to take out revenge on the referees and their families whenever they make a call against us (correct or not) and the same for players on the other team who made a play (fair or not), it makes it all much less fun. If every play and every call does not go our way, it's cause for a conniption fit. Even suggesting that the Bills just might not go 16-0 on the season has been known to draw ire. The same can be said about college basketball, where the level of abuse heaped on by the fans is pretty much enough to keep me from attending. Is asking for some level of sanity and restraint too much?

5. Partying

I'm the quintessential party pooper. Not so much that I actively drag them down, I just don't get much out of them. Even paying a visit to some friends often leaves me wondering exactly why I bothered going out when I was pretty sure beforehand I wasn't going to enjoy their planned activities. I suspect this is partly why said plans are usually by the seat of their pants. Especially when the parties involve alcohol (which means most of them here), I don't understand the point of everyone getting into a drunken stupor. If I wanted to deaden my senses, I'd go for some extra sleep, which I hear is pretty enjoyable in itself. Even when the party is not an exercise in stupidity, I sort of just sit there, occasionally say something, and leave after a while.

I'll tag the Beleaguered TA (more work! HA!), Jonathan Lee, and Fr. Sibley, since they don't seem to have been hit yet.

Posted by Justice at 10:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Well, it seems I qualified for a grant for my first year of grad school. The value is $500 per semester for my first two, for a total of $1000. That was quite a nice exam week surprise.

While I'd like to nail their diocesan scholarship too, since I am still technically on the plus side of the ledger until I finalize the loans, I don't think I can complain that much if the $1000 is all I end up with. But it would be nice. =)

Posted by Justice at 12:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

That's what it seemed like on the Latin final, anyway. Most of the exam was correctly translating and grammatically interpreting a 17-sentence, 4-paragraph selection on Hannibal.

Ironically enough, the passage chosen is taken virtually verbatim from our Wheelock text, #8 of the Loci Antiqui, paragraphs 1-3, and 5, with some omissions.

Hannibal, filius Hamilcaris, Carthagine natus est. Odium patris erga Romanos sic conservavit ut numquam id deponeret. Nam post bellum Punicum, cum ex patria in exsilium expulsus esset, non reliquit studium belli Romanis inferendi. Quare, cum in Syriam venisset, Antiocho regi haec locutus est ut hunc quoque ad bellum cum Romanis inducere posset:

Multos duces exercitusque Romanos superavit; longum est omnia proelia enumerare. ... Cum autem P. Scipio tandem in Africam invasisset, Hannibal, ad patriam defendendam revocatus, Zamae victus est. Sic post tot Annos Romani se periculo Punico liberaverunt.

Like all passages, trying to figure out later sentences is an exercise without knowing what the previous sentences say. And in this case, that played out in spades for a while. It didn't help that throughout, I could not remember what either "sic" or "proficiscor" meant. Forgetting "sic" is pathetic, since that's still used in English to mean "thus" although I guessed it right once or twice.

The last sentence of the first paragraph was the first big headache, and it sat blank most of the exam. A big part of that was that I kept thinking "locutus est" had something to do with Hannibal locating someone. Once I remembered it meant "spoke" it all made sense except for "hunc quoque," which I never got. It means "him also" or "this man also," which was essentially the gist of what I put down.

"Quaesivit a me" was the next problem, compounded by the fact that I did not know what the infinitive "proficisci" meant. The phrase translates as "He sought from me," though my hack translation was "He withdrew from me." "Proficisci," which I will hopefully not botch again, means "to set out."

"Si mihi fidem quam quaero dederis," was the next problem, since "quam" can be a lot of things. Incidentally, even though I botched "quaesivit" earlier, I got its present form "quaero" in this sentence toward the end. The key to this one was recognizing that "quam" was acting as a relative pronoun, and not as an adverb or conjunction. So this one came out as "If you will give me the fidelity which I seek."

The final sentence of the second paragraph got marred a bit since I missed "usque" and "ita," the latter being the more serious error, since it is the identifier of the subjunctive result clause at the end of the sentence. The basic sense survived intact enough, probably because I didn't bother to try translating the two adverbs.

The last paragraph wasn't too bad, though forgetting "autem" and "tandem" messed up the second sentence a bit. "Longum est omnia proelia enumerare" was the last real trouble spot, and one I most likely butchered horribly. Even now, I really can't think of a good translation for it. "Tot" in the last sentence was the last error, and fittingly, it means "such a great number" which is the number of dumb mistakes I made on this sucker.

N.B. - The actual exam was a little easier, since macrons were provided over the appropriate vowels, which makes case/tense identification not so bad.

Posted by Justice at 11:01 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Adapting a Latin phrase on my review packet...

Crede illis qui se veritatem petare dicit; dubita illos qui se eam diu habuisse dicit.

Believe those who say that they are seeking the truth; doubt those who say that they have had it for a long time.

The original phrase and translation:

Crede illis qui veritatem petant; dubita illos qui eam inveniunt.

Believe those who seek the truth; doubt those who find it.

Posted by Justice at 1:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The previous post was my 500th since starting up last July.

Posted by Justice at 8:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Always check your review sheets for back sides. Instead of having to translate 34 sentences, I discovered I have 57. And also, the back half of my Latin book has gone missing, complicating this process...

Posted by Justice at 8:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This weekend will involve my completing the Latin extra credit worksheets for our final, which will permit me to secure an A in the class if I can pull a 78 on it. As things stand, my greatest handicap is going to be the vocabulary in the course, along with recognition of the proper uses of the subjunctive, the gerundive, and the ablative.

Specific material to be tested:

- 5th Declension
- Present Passive System*
- Participles*
- Ablative Absolute and of Description*
- Perfect Periphrastic
- Dative of Agent, Reference, Compounds, and Special Adjectives and Verbs
- Indirect Statement
- Comparatives and Superlatives
- Adverb Construction*
- Subjunctive Mood (Jussive, Purpose, Result, Indirect Question, Clause of Characteristic, Conditional)*
- Cum Clause*
- Deponents*
- Supines*
- Gerund and Gerundive*
- Direct Questions*
- Place and Time Constructions*

Starred topics are ones I am going to be cramming.

Sidenote - I march in commencement on Pentecost Sunday. How ironic is that given where my path has gone?

Posted by Justice at 11:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Given I had to be in the city on Ascenscion Thursday to catch a noon Mass, I brought my camera along to take a few pictures along Main Street.

Some of the World War II ships docked at the Naval Park. The USS The Sullivans may be toured by the public, as may another ship and a submarine.

Memorial Auditorium, the former home of the Buffalo Sabres and the future home of Bass Pro. A friend has asked for better pictures than the last batch I sent, and I think these are an improvement over those I took in February.

An interesting bit of window washing going on, since this was being done without any outside scaffolding or lines. These guys were just opening windows and walking out.

My lunch stop at Cathedral Park, where I took advantage of the excellent deal of two hot dogs and a can of pop for $3. This deal was going on at all vendors along Main Street, who were quite ubiquitous. Oddly enough, there's really not much variety, unless you want to choose between Sahlen's and Wardynski's hot dogs or between Pepsi and Coke. Coke drinkers will be at a disadvantage as this is an overwhelmingly Pepsi town.

Very close to Cathedral Park is the Main Place Mall, which isn't much of a mall, but which has a tourist shop that might be of interest to out of towners. Otherwise, the food court is really the only other thing to visit, as one can sample some excellent local wings, pizza, beef on weck, and hot dogs, among other things.

Visitors looking to shop should take note that a lot of shops Downtown close as soon as the business day has ended, usually by 6:00. Some will not keep any weekend hours at all, and few will keep any Sunday hours except restaurants. Downtown on Sundays, it's possible to count more pigeons than people and cars combined.

More pictures will be added later. For a full look, check out my gallery of Buffalo pictures.

Posted by Justice at 10:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

One of the bad things about surfing through Catholic blogs is that people recommend so many things I'd like to pick up, but don't have the money to buy. This is one of those times where it would be nice to have a modest pile of cash to spend on such materials. However, at this point in time, restraint must be the name of the game.

I believe, however, that I've been convinced to pass on picking up a Latin grammar book in lieu of picking up something which focuses on the auditory learning, something neglected entirely in my year of the language here. Any thoughts on this move?

Update: Well no thoughts thus far, but since I found a copy on Biblio that was $10 off, I went for it.

Posted by Justice at 1:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Despite the fact that Erie County's in a fiscal mess, and will likely be even worse off next year, the legislature decided, in its infinite wisdom, to reopen the county's closed parks, at a cost of $1 million, even though there is no assurance that there is any money available to do so. The response of the majority was that the county executive can figure out how to find the money. Nice job guys, just keep passing the buck around in a continuous circle. Standard and Poor's is not going to look kindly on that kind of fiscal irresponsibility.

The only good news on this front today is that another pair of legislators are calling it quits, meaning that 4 of the 15 will not be back in office next year. 3 of them have not yet made a decision. With any luck at all, we'll vote out all of them who choose to run again.

Posted by Justice at 11:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Today was the Honors Lunch, a little disguised offering of free food to attract college students to a last little meeting before we graduate. As I showed up early, the program director ended up sitting next to me for a while at a table with some friends.

Amid the querying about our future plans, I mentioned my enrollment over at Franciscan. That touched off a long discussion about the director's trip to Rome this past spring, shortly before the Pope died. She discussed her trip into the excavation beneath St. Peter's and how it was all very fascinating to her, since she'd never known it was there. She did a pretty good factual recount too.

It turned out she'd been able to go on the tour thanks to some help from an alumnus of the university who used to be our quarterback and who is now studying at the North American College in Rome for the priesthood. Incidentally, he happened to find his calling with the help of one of Scott Hahn's books, "The Lamb's Supper."

Posted by Justice at 12:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

There is a rather serious personal intention which I could use some prayers for. Divine Mercy chaplet would be the preferred prayer. Thank you in advance.

Update (and bumped up): While things on this front are not as bad as they could have been, they are also not good. Please continue intercessions.

Posted by Justice at 11:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Taking my cue from The Mudville Gazette's tips and pointers for new bloggers, I embedded the Sitemeter counter on all the blog's pages. This has added new details to the blog, among which is the realization that at least half of the people who surf their way in here generally never click on the main page.

Other improvements will hopefully be coming along this summer, as I am acutely aware that my search template is horrid and the comment template is partially messed up.

Posted by Justice at 9:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

No, not the clerical sort, but the golden one the University grants for Renaissance scholars. I end up with it because I did a double degree, and it replaces the gold cords which I would have otherwise received. I still have a gold/black set of cords from a different group, and possibly other things, depending on who wants me to wear what.

Posted by Justice at 9:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ebay has finally seen the light, and decided to ban sales of the Eucharist. Good job to everyone who signed the petition protesting this and also those who e-mailed the company their complaints.

Posted by Justice at 12:14 PM | Comments (0) |