Oh, pooh.

I started reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Composition yesterday (I finished The Year of Living Biblically in less than two days) but the author kept reiterating that it's important to have a good grasp of musical theory. I'm pretty good when it comes to playing or singing music, but when it comes to terms I may or may not have come across in my performances, or the names of scales or chords, overall, my musical education is spotty, at best.

So, I've decided that, before I read The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Composition, I need to buy and read The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory.

So, instead of that book, I'm going to be reading the Buffy RPG option manuals (Slayer's Handbook, Monster Smackdown, and the Angel RPG corebook) which I ordered through the Haven and got this evening. I read the first chapter of Monster Smackdown while I was at the Haven earlier, but I haven't decided whether to read straight through, or go on to the first chapter of the Slayer's Handbook, then go on the the Angel RPG book, and keep rotating until they're all finished. I also ordered The Magic Box, but it's on back-order, so it won't come in for another few weeks.

They're having lasagna for dinner downstairs, but I ate Five Guys at the Haven, which kinda makes me sad, since I love lasagna. But then again, I'm not sure I could handle all the extra cheese my dad puts on his lasagna right now anyway. There should be leftovers though, so I'll probably take some to work for lunch tomorrow.

A mini-rant/essay

While I've been reading A. J. Jacobs's The Year of Living Biblically, I've come across a lot of really good quotes that I wish I had written down at the time so that I could use them as e-mail signatures and stuff.

There are likewise a few things that have rubbed me the wrong way. For instance, this particular bit from Month Nine: May. He was talking to a pastor from Jerry Falwell's church down south named Tom:

"Yes, homosexuality is an abomination," says Tom. "But I'm a sinner too. We're all sinners. You just have to love them."

This is a pretty mild stance--the hate-the-sin, not-the-sinner idea. I'm guessing he
toned the rhetoric down for his Northeastern Jewish audience of one. But, still, I find this stance intolerant in its own way. It's like saying that we should love Jesse Jackson, except for the fact that he's black.

This, to me, is flawed logic. Jacobs is equating a person's race to his chosen sexual orientation, which is a broken comparison.

People are born with certain racial traits--for instance, I have very light skin, high cheekbones, a somewhat-distinctive facial structure, and other physical traits which show that I come from a mostly-Dutch (that's Netherlands Dutch, not Pennsylvania Dutch, which is actually German anyway) heritage--the other half of me is kind of a hodge-podge. This collection of physical traits that mark a person's heritage are a given--they're born that way and only plastic surgery (which I won't get into a rant about now . . . maybe later) can change them.

Homosexuality, on the other hand, is completely different. It's all behavior to me. A person chooses to only have romantic relationships with someone of their own gender--whether they're physically attracted to the same gender or not, the relationship is not forced upon them, and I just do not (and in some ways cannot) believe that they are born to be homosexual. That's not to say that I scorn people who have same-sex relationships--one of the girls at my work is a lesbian, and she's totally cool as a person--I just don't believe in their lifestyle choices.

I'm not going to try to change their minds for them, but I'm also not going to start looking at women as potential romantic partners, and I'm certainly not going to teach my future children that it's okay to have sex with their own gender either. I will, however, teach them to befriend all the people who will let them, and love all of those friends equally, whether they agree with their lifestyle choices or not.

On the scale of complete and utter bigotry versus extreme over-tolerance, I'd say this viewpoint is closer to the middle, and slightly to the tolerance side. "Intolerant" is just too strong a word for the "hate-the-sin, not-the-sinner" idea. A person's chosen lifestyle does not equal their identity; it's just the way they choose to behave.

R. I. P. Oreo

Today, Oreo, my brother's panda hamster, died. She's had a tumor of some sort in her leg area for months, and there just hasn't been money available to take her to the vet and find out what it was. At first, they thought she'd just been stung by a wasp or something, but it didn't go away, and eventually got so big she couldn't even crawl through the tunnel off-shoots on her cage.

As I type this, Jason and the others have found a box to put her in, and they're working on getting her in there; they'll probably bury her out back next to O'Malley.

On a not-so-morbid note: Kayla's uncle Stephen (or Steven) has left the house to go back to her other uncle, Peter's, house until New Year's, when he and his mother (Kayla's maternal grandmother) will be going back home to Alabama.

Yesterday, I took Anna to Miyako for a late lunch/early dinner. It was yummy. Anna got the steak and shrimp combo, and I got the steak and chicken combo. We both also got fried rice. I love the soup and salad they serve before the hibachi chef comes out too--Anna gave me her mushrooms from the soup, but even just the broth is to die for.

In the next week or so, I'm going to take Kimba to Outback one evening, and Kayla to Ruby Tuesday.

What spurred this whole "Take each family member to a nice restaurant" thing? Mostly, I was craving a bloomin' onion, but I didn't want to take all of them to Outback, since I also wanted to go to places like Ruby Tuesday, Miyako and Brewer's Alley. So I decided that this month, I'm going to take Kimba, Anna and Kayla for individual meals, and then next month (or next month, going into the month after) I'll take Dad, Mom and Jason. I haven't decided yet whether to take Mom and Dad at the same time, or individually like everybody else though.

Anyway, after our lunch/dinner, Anna and I walked around the mall (we'd gone to the Miyako at FSK instead of Patrick Street, since Kayla, Jason and Stephen asked us to drop them off at the good theater on our way to the restaurant) and I got my shoes for her wedding. We also stopped by the calendar kiosk outside of Barnes & Noble, since I needed a 2009 calendar to keep track of things at work, and I decided to get a calendar for everyone else too. I bought one called "Solitudes" for work, which is basically scenery--pretty, but not distracting.

I got Anna a Crossword-a-Day tear-off desk calendar, and Jason got a Fold-a-Day paper airplane calendar. Kimba was given an Audrey Hepburn theme, Mom got Magic Eye, and Kayla got Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I also got two other calendars: M.C. Escher and Dragons. I gave Stephen a choice as to which one he wanted; he chose the Escher calendar, so I gave the dragons to Dad.

I read What Would MacGyver Do? yesterday--it was hilarious, ingenious, and a quick read. One of the people who contributed a story to it actually wrote the book I'm currently reading: The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible--as Literally as Possible.

In the story, he wrote about his first book, The Know-It-All, a memoir about reading the Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z, and how he was petrified of being quizzed at signings. So, he tried to cram-study for weeks, but then realized that he could "MacGyver" a solution--if he didn't know the exact answer to a specific question, he'd give an answer that was related to the subject, but interesting enough so that the questioner didn't realize he hadn't answerd their original question. I've gotten through Month Two of his book, and it's fascinating so far--funny at times, serious and introspective in others.

When I first heard of the book, I thought I'd hate it, then Gene told me a bit about it, and it sounded at least fun. Now I'm reading it, and it's so much more than that--the guy really is at least trying to live a better life by following the Bible. He hasn't changed much yet, but he's already noticed some changes he's had that are more than the obvious physical ones. Like he's noticed that he (or rather, his biblical alter-ego "Jacob") is more careful about what he says, and is somewhat repulsed by certain things he wouldn't have thought twice about before.

He doesn't see "Jacob" as himself yet, but I think his two "personalities" might merge by the end of the year. Not sure yet if I'm going to read another month's worth tonight or not, but I'll definitely pick it up again tomorrow. I want to finish at least this book, if not this one and the Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Composition by 11:59:59 p.m. on New Year's Eve.