The Frame

Secret societies are in…

On August 7, 2006

Last week Treasure Hunters (NBC Amazing Race-type reality show) had its teams running around England and France looking for clues related to a secret society to which many of our founding fathers belonged. Of course, I immediately though “Freemasonry.” Because that’s been a plot point forever, leading to tons of conspiracy theories. But no. It was the Rosicrucian Order, which I was slightly familiar with through Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. When I went to the library to refresh my memory on the Rosicrucians, however, I can’t find any reference to it being an active society in the United States in the late 18th century, as it would’ve had to have been for people like Benjamin Franklin to be members of it. (Treasure Hunters flashed Franklin portraits every time the host mentioned the secret society.) I looked in three different books, and have since looked at numerous websites (including the Catholic Encyclopedia, which is usually pretty reliable), and it seems as though the order largely faded out by the 18th century, then was reintroduced in the 1850s in both England and the U.S. Of course, it is a secret society, so perhaps they were all secretly members. *eyeroll*

Not that I would expect Treasure Hunters to be, you know, an authoritative show or anything like that. But it seems weird that they would go after the Rosicrucian Order, when they could make a more convincing claim for Freemasonry. I suppose Freemasonry isn’t esoteric enough anymore. Nope, now we’ve gotta go for the really secret secret societies. Next thing I suppose they’ll be claiming that Lincoln was a Grand Master in the Priory of Sion.

Church report

By Jandy

On August 6, 2006

In Personal

Redeemer Presbyterian Church is the only PCA church in or around Waco. (Not to be confused with Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Austin, which I believe is where most of the Austinites at Providence came from.) So I didn’t have a lot of alternatives in case Redeemer didn’t satisfy my church-hunting.

Based on the first Sunday, I could not have asked for a better church.

The liturgy is extremely similar to Providence’s, with a lot of responsive readings, affirmation of faith from the Westminster Larger Catechism, confession of sin, assurance of pardon, even a “Thanks be to God” after the scripture reading! The pastor wore a robe, they use the New Trinity Hymnal (got to learn new page numbers, but still a great bunch of hymns), weekly communion, the whole bit. They did have communion by going up to the front rather than having the elders serve it, but I have a hunch that may be due to a small number of elders as much as anything doctrinal. Either way, it worked fine.

And the sermon was excellent. I believe it was the campus/youth minister that preached, but it was anything but what I consider “campus preaching.” He preached from I John 2-3, and tied in Mark 8-9 and bits from Romans, basically about focusing on Christ, because pondering Christ’s purity is the way to become more Christlike, the way to portray Christ in the world. He did a great job of describing the dangers of misreading the passages to mean that we should focus on practicing righteousness rather than on Christ’s righteousness…that turns the focus inward, towards ourselves, and not towards Christ, and leads to legalism, self-righteousness, and doubt. I was afraid that a small church (it’s about the size of Providence) in a college town might veer away from meaty sermons, but those fears are gone. The synopsis I just gave truly doesn’t do it justice. edit: I’ve just posted a little longer version of the sermon and some of my thoughts in my livejournal.

Unfortunately they don’t have an evening service, but I’m looking forward to going back next week and getting more of a chance to speak with the pastor, etc. (I had to run straight to the restroom after the service, and couldn’t easily locate him when I got back.)

Photos!

By Jandy

On August 4, 2006

In Personal

The self-avowed biggest McDonald’s in the world, which spans the Oklahoma Turnpike (aka I-44). Saltiest fries I’ve ever tasted, but that’s a good thing. ;)

This was my view. For 800 miles. Scenery never changes unless you’re the lead dog, right? Mom was worse off, though…I’m not sure she ever saw anything but “BUDGET”.

It’s less messy than that now. But that’s what it looked like for much of Wednesday and Thursday.

I have stairs! I love stairs. That’s mostly why I chose this apartment.

And the bedroom. The door there goes out to the balcony. The balcony looks out over a good-sized street, but hey. The courtyard-side ones would’ve been way harder to move stuff into. Yeah. Behind me is a walk-in closet and the full bath (there’s also a half-bath downstairs). The closet is one of…count ’em…five closets. I’ll have to go buy more clothes just to use them all. Except I probably won’t.

The joy of TV relationships

By Jandy

On August 4, 2006

In Television

I’m watching Scrubs S1 on DVD (I’ve never watched it when it was on, decided to try it after rediscovering my love of doctor shows with Grey’s Anatomy), and I just finished episode 1×14, and it’s a perfect example of what I was trying to get across an earlier post on TV and movies. The moment when Elliott kissed J.D. created such joy in me, such fulfillment, and you almost never get that with movies. Very rarely you get it in a Garden State-type movie. But it’s because with TV, you know the characters, you’ve known them for hours and weeks and months. You’ve wanted Elliott and J.D. to connect, you wanted it back when they almost did six or seven episodes back, and when they didn’t, it was crushing. Then when they do, it’s a fulfillment not of two hours, but of weeks. You’ve seen them try to connect with other people, and come close, but not quite. You’ve seen how they drive each other crazy and how they keep just missing each other.

You see it in How I Met Your Mother between Robin and Ted (which is really infuriating at times, because COME ON! They’re both so great). You see it in Angel, when you wanted to kill Wesley for messing around with Lilah when Fred was RIGHT THERE. Casey and Dana on Sports Night. Luke and Lorelei on Gilmore Girls (I haven’t actually seen that far in GG yet, but I heard a little about it, no matter how hard I tried to stay away from spoilers). OMG, Logan and Veronica on Veronica Mars, which is the example that ought to have jumped to my mind right off, because I totally hyperventilated when I first saw that episode. John and Aeryn on Farscape, which was almost as wow as Logan and Veronica. And of course The X-Files, when you had to wait for like SIX YEARS before there was anything between Mulder and Scully at all. (And there’s the downside, too…after all that waiting, when Mulder and Scully did get together, it was anticlimactic and ruined their chemistry. But the baseball episode? Perfecto.)

Most of these television relationships may not last, but the moment they start? Heaven.

edit – Yep, next episode, Elliott and J.D. already broken up. But it was a dang good episode. And illustrates my favorite thing about recent television…comedy series can have episodes which aren’t funny at all, and are yet still perfect. The lines between genres are blurring so much lately, and I *love* it.

Waco Update, Part 1

By Jandy

On August 3, 2006

In Personal

Quick update as we’re eating breakfast, about to go unpack more stuff.

We got everything packed up on Saturday and Sunday. Dad says I already have too much stuff. Oh, well. I’m a packrat, what can I say? And by and large, the highest percentage of stuff I think was books, which is okay with me. Sunday afternoon, we hit a Uhaul snag. (Nothing like Barlow’s Uhaul experience, though…ours is positively boring in comparison.) Uhaul called around 3pm to confirm that the truck would be available for us to pick up on Monday after 11am. Except the guys Dad hired to load the truck were contracted for 9am. After talking with regional and national managers, Dad got nowhere with Uhaul and finally called Budget, who had a truck on the lot available at 8am for the same price, as long as Dad got there first to pick it up (no reserves on that short notice, but they could do first come first serve, I guess). So Dad picked up a Budget truck at 8:30, the loaders came at 8:45, and everything was on the truck by 10:00. (At which point Uhaul called and told us they had a truck ready, but um, a bit late.) So everything worked out great, but no more Uhaul for us, I think!

The trip down to Waco wasn’t quite as hilarious as the time I drove down with a friend of mine and we found EVERYTHING funny, but I think the trip will always hold some amount of humor, just because Missouri and Oklahoma rural areas are humorous. There’s a restaurant called “Missouri Hick BBQ”, which is listed on those signs that tell you what’s at each exit. I was afraid to ask whether the hicks were running the BBQ or if they were being BBQed. Grammatically, it could go either way. Then there was the ersatz fruit stand which was empty, but someone had put up a big piece of plywood in front of it and spraypainted “Bill Collins robbed my house, the dirty low-down coward” on it. (Name changed to protect the apparently guilty.) If you can’t get justice, at least whine about it so that all of I-44 can see it.

Restaurant recommendation for Joplin, MO: Pizza by Stout. Great pizza, subs, salad bar, cinnamon rolls, and more kinds of beer than you can shake a stick at. Looks like a dive on the outside, but it’s nice inside, and the service is as friendly as the food is good.

Gotta go now, the hotel is about to kick us out…we’re in Waco, safe and sound, and the truck is unloaded and most stuff is at least in nominal place. Still need to hook up the TV (hence why I stayed at the hotel again last night…had to get my So You Think You Can Dance fix!) and other electronics. Cable and internet should be on, though…it’s included with the apartment rent, which is the most awesome thing about the apartment. I’ve just got to get Time Warner to bring me a DVR, stat, and I’ll be all set.

Pray for Dad, if you get the chance. He’s on his way back from emergency dental care right now…he’s had a minor toothache for a couple of days, but last night and this morning it was significantly worse, so he found a dentist not too far away that could do emergencies. Apparently the tooth is abcessed, so he’s just got some stronger painkillers, but I don’t think it’ll be fixed until he gets home. Not sure on all that, I’m going on third-hand information. Mom and Dad should be leaving this afternoon sometime and getting home tomorrow afternoon.