WAHOO!

I just cracked the 1000-visit barrier! As of today, I have had 1,001 people visit my blog.



Even though 10 percent of them were probably visits by me or my blood relatives...



So far, I have had folks from Italy, France, England, Brazil, Australia, China, New Jersey, Nevada, and, of course, the US of A. Many of whom are both from the Great State of Texas and not related to me.



Some folks were lured in by those who maliciously entice web-surfers into blogs like mine. (Raulito? Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex? Are you listening?) Others were searching for stuff:



stamps geese - Dude, stamps are so yesterday. Does "e-mail" mean anything to you. But I love geese. Man, how I loooooooove geese, roasted!



chesterton was a bigot - Probably not, if you except his crass views on cheese and crackers.



Diogenes "off the record" - That's an uberblog, far above me. I am not worthy to undo the RSS...aw shucks, I am too!



militaria - Well, yeah, I like military stuff and all that, as agonized readers can tell...



Others have randomly gotten to my site, occasionally from blogs which (to judge from the names) I should be glad I don't know about.



And, of course, there are those who wondered about some guy named Delta who commented on their blog.



To all y'all: Thanks! And come back, by the bolts of Zeus!



On a different note:



It's almost Lent, and (other than an overinflated ego from my breaking the 1000 barrier) I am all ready for it, complete with family-mandated sacrifices and a resolution to read "Divine Intimacy." (Hey, it can't hurt.) It occurs to me that, even though Lent is not fun, those who practice it have an edge over those who don't.



It would be healthy to, every now and then, sit around and meditate on your death and sinfulness and deliver Hamletesque speeches on the subject. But, it's not healthy to do that continually. (Besides, it would get annoying to your relatives.) However, refusing to have any dark moods at all means you will go crazy. Lent is a period designed specifically for these dark moods, meditation on how everything in this world will pass away, all earthly happiness is straw, your soul is in eternal danger of hell, etc. However, it has a specific end, where Jesus (figuratively speaking) announces: "Snap out of it! I'm alive, I'm commanding the winning army, and My recruiting office is open!" (That's why we baptize RCIA candidates on Easter.) We get a healthy dose of gloom and doom (and fasting), in which we contemplate how bad everything really is. Then we get reminding how good everything really is, on account of the Resurrection.



If you don't have Lent, you have no specific time for gloomy pessimism. So, either you continually think about the evil of mankind (pessimism) or you completely ignore it (optimism). If you choose the first, you will eventually want to kill yourself. Choose the second, and you will kill yourself, once you realize how many lies you've told yourself. Either way, you will be monstrously wrong. All because you weren't moderate in your gloomy pessimism!


So, memento mori and pass the meatless sandwiches!