a quick post from Kyungju

I started off late on Saturday-- very late. But the trip was worth it. Kyungju's downtown is a lot calmer than Seoul, and once you're out by Bulguk-sa (Buddha Realm Temple), it's quiet, quiet, quiet-- exactly what the doctor ordered. The only problem was that the trip was too brief. I didn't get to see much, but I did get to walk around the temple grounds and eat some very un-Buddhist bulgogi jeong-shik at the yeogwan where I stayed.

I'm off to Seoul in a few minutes; just stopped off at a hard-to-find PC-bahng to fire off this brief missive.

Coming up this week: my meeting with the EC bu-wonjang-nim about my lab coat. If I lose the debate and am forced to wear the damn thing, I have a request of my readers: please send in "flair." If you saw the movie "Office Space," you know exactly what I'm talking about. Flair can be in the form of pins, or even better, military insignia. I want to be Sergeant Doctor Hominid. If you have some flair and you'd like to send it, please email me and I'll give you a mailing address.

(An "America! FUCK YEAH!" pin might be nice.)

By the way, if this news is true, it's very disappointing. I'm not in favor of curtailing the civil liberties of Muslims in my country. That starts us down the same route as France.

UPDATE 12/20: A co-worker of mine, R, points to the actual source for the above. Read it here. R notes that the news articles are a bit sensationalized.

Re: Dr. Vallicella's offer to help out with Lonergan (and Anthony Flood's reaction to my moaning), yes, I'll be providing several passages.

I anticipate hearing that the passages I select aren't that difficult, but there's no objective answer to the question of unreadability. I could produce a small army of CUA grads who will readily agree with me that Lonergan is a slog.

The problem with Lonergan, especially with Method in Theology, is that it's assumed you have some background in Lonergan's thinking. Lonergan doesn't use English like a normal human being, and MiT was my first taste of him.

If Lonergan were alive today, I'd force him to maintain a blog. It's been my pleasure to read the likes of Dr. Keith Burgess-Jackson and Dr. Vallicella, even when I disagree with them, because they keep their ideas largely clear and accessible. Lonergan simply hurts.

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