Adventures

In case you were wondering

Here's the muddy mess of English that came out of that muddier mess of Latin from the other day:

Now the group, shut in with high walls in which there was a gate; the vision of the clergy and laymen and women, which was together and shared, was divided; all were compelled to live together in one ark; stories were suppressed at the table, in place of which the holy reading over it was uttered constantly. Indeed the other clerics all the hours of the day were murmuring, rather than singing; this certainly was sung during the day at seven times the sign brought brothers meeting together for praisefully venerating their debt to almighty God he called all of them to fulfil, while the strong failed, word and deed challenged. Moreover just as the blessed Ariald exceedingly happy, by him that thing from prayer for a long while and too much wishing, it is clear that when the brothers with his church were able to live together, thus many happy faithful were effected, by him they were attached to that place, where the words of the Lord are able to be heard and to take in the divine sacraments. A great crowd began to flow together in that very place not only from the city, but also from the villages and castles, and that church was in no way able to hold them, granted that it was pretty big. The man of God taught so constantly and assiduously that he lost his voice, so that he could scarcely be heard.

Awful, isn't it? If only Andy's stab at it had been right. That would have been a lot more interesting.

This is why friends are great

So, my friend Debbie mentioned today that Glasgow used to have an American football team called the Diamonds. Not only that, but in 1986 they made a music video. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, i now present Diamond Rap:

Do you think they were inspired by the Chicago Bears? The Superbowl Shuffle from 1985 is after the jump...

Please, will someone tell me?

What the hell does this mean?

Chorus namque alti circumdatione muri concluditer, in quo ostium ponitur; visio clericorum laicorumque ac mulierum, quae una erat et communis, dividitur; omnes de una arca vivere coguntur; fabulae ad mensam compescuntur, pro quibus sancta lectio super eam assidue profertur. Ceteri autem clerici mane omnes diei horas potius murmurabant, quam decantarent; hic vero in die tacto septies signo fratribus una congregatis magna cum veneratione debitam omnipotenti Deo laudem decantabat atque ad satisfactionem omnes in eodum officio, dum forte delinquerent, dicto et facto provocabat. Porro sicut beatus Arialdus letus nimis est effectus, eo quod ad votum diu nimisque optatum, videlicet ut cum fratribus ad ecclesiam communiter vivere posset, pervenerat, sic fideles multi leti sunt effecti, pro eo quod aptum locum haberent, ubi Domini verba mente libera audire possent et divina sacramenta percipere. Cepit autem tanta ibidem multitudo confluere non solum de urbe, sed etiam de villis et castellis, quatenus eos nullo modo valeret capere ipsa ecclesia, licet satis esset ampla. Quos tam constanti assiduaque doctrina vir Dei docebat, ut plerumque vocem sic amitteret, quatenus ab aliquibus iuxta se positis vix audiri posset.

I am so frustrated right now.

In Dallas, things are more restricted...

Another trip to Edinburgh!

Scott kindly invited me to go along with him, his friend Natalie (whom i have met before), and his aunt Kris (whose name might be spelled 'Chris') on Friday. We walked up the Royal Mile to the castle and then paid a lot of money to go wandering inside it. It was pretty interesting, but very little of it is medieval at this point. Most of the things we saw dated from the eighteenth century, particularly the war prison, which was used during the American War of Independence. There was a cute little dog graveyard complete with headstones commemorating regimental dogs with names like Scamp and Tippy Top.

After the castle, we had lunch at Deacon Brodie's Tavern, then we headed down to Princes Street for some wandering and shopping. At one point, Kris and i were sitting in a McDonald's waiting for Scott and Natalie to get finished buying Rangers paraphernalia, and a man from Dallas, Texas started talking to us. It turns out that he lives in Edinburgh because his two children go to school there. They are grown kids in college, but he said if he wasn't there with them, they would 'go off the rails'. Going off the rails seemed to mean that his beautiful daughter would get a boyfriend (she's so beautiful she's prone to this derailment, apparently). Back in Dallas, things are more restricted, and people only get married once, whereas in the UK people break up over nothing at all. The whole conversation was very strange; it ranged from loose morals to illegal immigration in a matter of moments, and it ended with the man giving me a tract about 'The Gospel of your Salvation'. *Sigh*

After that, we went on a hunt for some weird shoes made by Vibram. I had read about them, and i knew that the John Lewis in Edinburgh was supposed to be the only place in Scotland where they are available. We found them, and they were weird. Purchases were not made, but i recommend clicking the link to see the full weirdness (i just don't feel like linking a picture).

Our last adventure in Edinburgh was finding a restaurant called The Ship recommended by a friend of Scott. It turned out to be in Leith, and after some protracted lost getting, we had a wonderful dinner. It's definitely worth the very short jaunt out to Leith, but i would find out exactly how to get there before you go ;)

By the time we got home, we had been out for almost 13 hours, and i think we were all ready to collapse. It was a lovely day, though, and well worth the exhaustion.

There are (only) a few more photos on Flickr.

Divorce, Unwed Parents May Cost Billions

Being an agnostic, i usually try not to get into the middle of these kinds of things, but Andy has specifically requested i blog this one. Now, you may wonder, why doesn't Andy blog it himself? Well, because he's too busy to blog (blogging being the occupation of unwashed, not-gainfully-employed nerds). Andy, of course, is a washed, gainfully-employed nerd. On to the show.

The NoGodBlog (courtesy of Atheists.org) wants us to know about some divorce statistics recently announced. It seems that according to a study sponsored by conservative Christian groups and performed by Ben Scafidi, an economist at Georgia State University (woohoo for the old alma mater), "Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing cost U.S. taxpayers more than $112 billion a year" Yikes!

But just who are these expensive divorced people? Well, it turns out that "Divorce rates among conservative Christians were significantly higher than for other faith groups, and much higher than Atheists and Agnostics experience." Oops!