Random Prejudices

I find it very helpful to identify which of your prejudices are "random" and which have some basis behind them. For instance, a random prejudice of mine is a dislike of umbrellas. There is nothing wrong with the umbrella, in fact it is a generally good thing, I think all would conclude. I couldn't explain my reasoning behind my prejudice because I have absolutely none. Even still, every time the smallest amount of precipitation falls on campus I am utterly discouraged by the sight of so many umbrellas.

A non-random prejudice, a very just prejudice, is my dislike of same-sex bathrooms. Of course, I have been using a "same-sex" bathroom my whole life: few homes have facilities designated for women and men. But this is different. On every floor of the library, right next to the elevators there is a woman's restroom and a men's restroom, where the sexes can be with only their same kind, except on the second floor. For some reason the second floor is well-advertised as have two same-sex bathrooms. What's the point? The whole character of the bathroom is lost. There might have been a girl in my men's bathroom! The men's room should be a place where you can be away from the other sex! So, while I normally I abide on the third floor, reading St. Theresa's "Life", or on the fourth floor, studying Wheelock's Latin, yesterday I was on the second floor doing Calculus (learning why e^(Pi*i)=-1, in fact!) and I had to use the restroom. It was quite a dilemma for me, because I refused to support the misguided same-sex bathroom. Fortunately I had enough time to run up to the third floor, and entered the small, most perfect, men's restroom. I even had to wait for another fellow man (so much better than waiting for a girl) before I could relieve myself.

Excel

I found myself with nothing to do this afternoon, which is always an unsettling feeling, so I decided that I was going to make a liturgical calender using Excel in these stretches of time. Actuaries use Excel alot, and it's a pretty nifty program to boot (which is probobly why they use it), so I figured I ought to know how to use it.

Well, as you know, Easter falls on a different day each year (anywhere from March 22 to April 25 in fact). The calculation actually has to do with the lunar cycle: "Easter day is the first Sunday after the 14th day of the lunar month (the nominal full moon) that falls on or after 21 March (nominally the day of the vernal equinox)." Needless to say it gets quite difficult. The other liturgical dates aren't nearly as difficult: the First Sunday in Advent, which is comming upon us quickly, is 4 Sundays before Christmas.

So I figured that it'd be best to tackle Easter first. I used dateofeaster.net (conveniant...) to figure out how it was actually done. I used a different column to calculate the letters for each year and when I got the finished column (the date of Easter) I opened up another handy Microsoft product, Word, and used the "Replace" function to consolidate my formula. Unfortunately Excel cut me off at 9000 characters for my formula, so I needed to use two columns and hide one (oh, but I will have victory one day). My formula was so long because of the steps where you need to determine the day of the week and then do different things for each day; I did this by determining the day of the week, and then having a different "if" statement for each day, which takes 7 times the charachters I think it really ought to. I also found a more simple algorithm by a certain Carl Friedrich Gauss. But after quickly figuring out the First Sunday in Advent (which took a measly 350 characters in comparison!) I'm calling it quits for today.

The Early Bird Yet Again Gets The Worm!

This weekend is homecoming weekend. I first realized this was the case because the Most Honorable Emmet Horan All-Male Sanctuary is on ultra-super-secret lock down. Residences of this Most Honorable Hall must enter through the front door only, and show their school I.D. to go to their rooms. I'm quite amazed that I wasn't woken up by drunkards last night, as usually happens on Friday nights, and would especially happen on such a riotous Friday night. No, I slept like a baby and arose at 5:35 this morning, just in time to pray Lauds, take a shower, throw on some clothes, and arrive at mass with enough time to collect my mind. Though collecting my mind was quite difficult this morning; as I was putting on my last articles of clothing (red socks for St. Ignatius!) I heard the unmistakable sound of several sousaphones (the tubas you see in marching bands the wraps around the player). As I exited the building I saw no less than 15 sousaphones in the middle of the basketball courts which are in the middle of the residence halls, playing the UW Platteville fight song (our opponents in the football game later today), and after than simply making a ton of noise. It was a glorious sight. As they continued playing shouts rang from all around them: "no wonder nobody likes band geeks"... "you suck!". To fully appreciate the situation you must understand that the dorms make a square, so everything echos quite well. An exuberant conversation 100 yards away is easily picked up. The flatulant sounds these guys were making echoed quite well. I could still hear them when I was 400 yards away.

The joys of getting up early...