I once was lost...

This post really has two themes, both related to the title, but less related to each other.

1. I found a church! I like it, I really like it! St. Andrew's Episcopal Church is a little over a mile from our dorm, and I walked up there both this Sunday and last Sunday. Last Sunday, the bishop gave one of the most stirring sermons I've ever heard. He had a whole bunch of really powerful stuff in there, from the holocaust to modern missionary work in some of the poorest places in the world. After the service was over, we talked and I was all weepy (as I am prone to get), and he started asking me if I'd ever considered going to seminary. It shook me up, actually... I'd never seriously thought about it, and when thinking about it, I think it's something I could see happening in my life... but not now. It's the sort of thing that pops up on a few select branches of my enormous future tree, at least ten years from now, when a life plan or two haven't gone exactly the way I planned.
In any case, I went back today, and still love the church. I'd definitely become a member if I were going to be able to go more than twice more while here; as it is, I'll be gone for the next two weekends and only have two more real weekends after that. But I am looking forward to going back in a few weeks.

2. On the way to/from church this morning, I got pretty horribly lost. I tried to take a shortcut... and we all know how that goes. Bellarmine is putting up a huge fence across the one access road I use all the time (there are only three ways onto the entire campus as it is...). That damn fence is going to add almost a half mile to my walk up to the main business district (i.e., coffee shop, ice cream, grocery store, church, everything except the gym). Hence my interest in finding a shortcut!
But of course, as always, I turned the wrong way once I thought I'd managed the hard part, and went a pretty long way out of my way this morning. And coming back, trying to find the "shortcut" back onto campus, I added at least an extra mile. All told, I walked for about two hours, a large part of that unintentional... Anyway, the next time I take my "shortcut", I'm going to take note of the address of the house whose yard I have to cut through to get to the street I wanted to get to.

Ponies, Pigs, Robots and Us

OK, I'm way too hyped up to go to bed, so why not, I guess I'll blog. This was our day:

1) Ponies, or more accurately, horses. Race horses. Today, we Bulldogs conquered Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby and mecca for horse-racing enthusiasts. Yale alum David Jones, Sr., facilitated our gambling addictions, stuffing each of our pockets with a few of his own dollars so that we wouldn't feel bad spending our own. Suffice it to say, whether we came out in the black or the red, we all had a good time and owe Mr. Jones a HUGE and heartfelt thanks.

2) Pigs, or better, pulled pork. Ten of us went to Mark's Feed Store for dinner. Between the onion straws, honey-coated chicken wings, sweet corn-on-the-cob, baked beans, potato salad, spicy fries, pulled pork sandwiches, and barbecued ribs, it was a feast and filled us right up.

3) Robots. (*warning: this is a shameless plug*) WALL-E!! See it. Seriously. Humans have trashed Earth, and the WALL-E robot series was left behind to clean up the mess. After 700 years, one still worked. This is his story of finding love and fighting to keep it. It was absolutely heart-wrenching and one of the most well-done films I've ever seen. The first 40 minutes have barely any dialogue, and it works damn well. Again, you must see it.

4) Us. After WALL-E, a few of us were bouncing off the wall. Literally, we were trying, so it was decided that we needed to get out of the dorm and burn off some fuel. And we ventured. We ventured far, and ventured wide, until we arrived in the magical downtown Louisville, at the mystical waterfront, on the shore of the somewhat biologically hazardous Ohio. We sat on the shore, and it was good. Then we played frisbee on the shore, and it was better. Finally, as we left our merry time to Memory, we came across a ground fountain. We ran through it. We played ninja in it. We got soaked, and it was the perfect end to our night.

-cy

Still On Our To-Eat At List: Eggroll Machine

My co-workers and I went out to lunch today at a place called Thai Smile 5, which I assume is the fifth in a chain of Thai restaurants. I just think it's really funny that our (male) waiter (most decidedly not from anywhere remotely Asian) had a long ponytail, wore a trucker's hat, and did not have any chopsticks on hand when I asked for them.

Adventures with Miniature Louisville Sluggers

As Steve wrote about earlier, on Tuesday we visited the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory where we were all graced with the gift of our very own miniature Louisville Slugger bats, which are pretty much the coolest things ever. We've found two very good uses for them thus far, but are looking for ways to expand our repertoire.

Use #1: Sword fighting. Perhaps a little obvious, but quite fun with the theme music from Pirates of the Caribbean playing in the background. Until, that is, Chris tries to wallop off my finger. Then we desist.

Use #2: Brainball! Perhaps the most awesome thing to ever have been created in Chris's room. Basically, it's baseball with Chris's brain-shaped stress ball that just happens to be the perfect weight, size, and bounciness to hit indoors with our foot and a half long bats. Right now we are just taking turns at batting practice, but I do foresee this becoming a full-blown game with rules and bases and scoring and all that jazz.

Who knew miniature bats could be so much fun?

Bored in the Bluegrass

So, things have been a little slow for me the last few days. I've managed to keep myself moderately entertained though, and I thought I'd pass on a few of the things I've been reading to cope.
First off: Wondermark! A comic mentioned by Ben at some point, and I, having nothing better to do, read all 419 of them in a day or two. It's a fun little comic, no recurring characters or storyline to follow. Feel free to jump around. My favorites seem to be between 200 and 400. :-)
Second: Today, while there was no work to be done at the office, I read all 75 strips of Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life. It's a bit philosophical, and amusing. And though not the best webcomic out there, I enjoyed it.
Also, if you're a reader of books as well as blogs, you might like Goodreads.com. You can find books you've read and review then, and keep your running list of books you'd like to read. Of course, you can also find reviews from other people, find new books, chat with authors, and compare books with friends. If you join up, feel free to look for and friend me. I can make lots of good suggestions about books about Egypt or sci-fi/fantasy. :-)
And, if you have myspace, make me feel good about myself and friend the Center for Nonprofit Excellence?

An Incredible Urinal Experience

The 21C Museum Hotel in downtown Louisville features the Modern Art's unusual and awesome, and clearly, if you host awesome art, you need awesome bathrooms. The men's restroom off the lobby was nominated as America's Best Restroom 2008. It features one trough-like urinal in which patrons release themselves into a waterfall flowing down a one-way mirror. While I peed, I watched hotel and museum patrons watch me. They smiled, they waved, they clawed at the glass...it's pretty extreme. Also, the mirror above the sinks has little video screens built into it, each showing a pair of eyes. And they just watch you. Forever.

And the 21C's mascot: a red emperor penguin. This made Steve a very happy man.

Red Sox Suck

Yesterday was "City View" day, an (mandatory) opportunity to take a tour of Louisville because it's easy to be in a city for a month (or to live here) and never really see the sights. It was also a day off work (woot!), but a very long and tiring day, nonetheless. We got up for a 7:30 breakfast and carpooled downtown to Actors Theatre of Louisville where we received a tour of the theatre, which has hosted a respectable list of future Hollywood stars (the only one that comes to mind right now, though, is Kevin Bacon). We walked through the stages, toured the backstage areas, the dressing rooms, the workshop, and the restaurant. What was most impressive was learning how involved the community volunteers were in the theatre, with over 900 active volunteers. Unlike larger cities like New York, where actors could audition and seek further employment during the daytime and perform their current gig at night, Louisville doesn't really have much opportunity for aspiring actors. Instead, the theatre attracts actors by offering second-to-none hospitality. The volunteers cook meals for the actors for every show, organize dinners and parties, and even take them around the city to run mundane errands if needed.

After a (sorta) quick (but necessary) stop for coffee, we walked to the Louisville Slugger Museum. There, we took a grand tour of the factory and watched as famous "Louisville Sluggers" were made. A process that used to take 30 minutes, carving a bat out of a cylinder of wood now took a mere 30 seconds (50 seconds for MLB bats). According to the tour guide, Louisville Slugger has had over 8,500 contracts with MLB players over the years (creating bats specific to their specifications on wood type, length, weight, etc. along with their signature engraved into the bat) and accounts for 60% of the current market (both minor and major league). As a baseball lover, this tour was especially awesome (minus the tour guide passing around a Manny Ramirez bat for show). I love baseball.

Next was a stop at the future site of Museum Plaza, an ambitious project to create a hotel, office space, retail space, and residential space all in one massive building that will tower the Louisville skyline. A two-bedroom condo on some lower-numbered floor is set to sell for $250,000 - and it only climbs from there to $2.5 million condos that take up the entire floor. And don't forget the $5 million two-story penthouses at the very top of the 61-floor building. Personally, I'm a little skeptical of the project. On one hand, I don't know if there is enough interest to fill x-hundred lofts in this building just because of the limiting factor of Louisville's location. With Lexington and Cincinnati as the only two cities nearby, it doesn't seem like the well-off will be flocking to Louisville in droves to live. On the other hand, even if they do, there isn't much of downtown in terms of residential living (which is probably part of why they want to build this building in the first place). Although downtown has many business areas, along with museums, government centers, etc. because there isn't an existing downtown residential district, there aren't in place the necessities that go with it - such as a grocery store, dry cleaners, retail stores, etc. So while people may move downtown...there doesn't seem to be much to do downtown (and you can only go to museums so many times). But who knows, maybe this project will help stimulate the downtown economy?

The afternoon was spent at the Muhammad Ali Center, an entire building dedicated to the great fighter not only for his actions inside the ring, but for his presence in society - a successful boxer during the civil rights movement, his conversion to the Nation of Islam, his refusal to fight in the Vietnam war, his humanitarian trips to spread peace, and his life with Parkinson's. It was a very impressive center, using his life as inspiration and motivation for others to have the same dedication, conviction, and spirituality in achieving peace and success in their own lives.

Lastly, we stopped by the courtroom of Judge (and Bulldog mentor) Mitch Perry, who spoke to us about the Kentucky legal system as well as answered questions about his personal life, how he became a lawyer, then judge, and what life was like for a circuit judge for the state. It was a good way to end the day, learning about the realities of the legal system and the people that go through it.