I had my first weekend's worth of Sacristan training this morning at Mass. I've been in corporate weirdo-ville for so long that it felt anachronistic to be surrounded by normal human beings again. That's not to slight all of my co-workers, among whom I have friends-- if you're reading this, I'm not talking about you. But corporate culture is indeed its own little bubble, sort of like high school, that's separate from the real world. Whereas these people in my church are really "salt of the Earth"-- very human, very authentic, even a little Dickensian in some ways, and I mean that as a great compliment.

In any event, I was so nervous for today that I didn't sleep all night. Turns out it went fabulously. I've been studying this superb book, written by a guy who was a Server back in the 40s or 50s, and who has been a Sacristan since the 60s-- so he really knows his stuff-- and it dovetails into the instruction I got today, at my local church. Every parish has different subsets of responsibilities for the role, and my church is no exception. I'm also going to really enjoy being the first one to arrive, and the last one to leave: I like engine room "behind the scenes" kind of work.

This afternoon, I'm chilling out and listening to Donald Trump's CPAC 2023 speech. Trump is one of those guys where even though I never agree with everything he says in a given speech-- in this one he praises Mark Levin and Sean Hannity, for instance-- I always walk away admiring his overall thought process and the way he expresses himself. Even though he doesn't get everything right-- think about the Clot Shots and his disastrous "Operation Warp Speed"-- in general he's a helpful bulwark against bad ideas.

Every single crazy thing one could dream up, Creepy Joe, Cameltoe, and the rest of them will whole-heartedly go for. There isn't a bad idea they won't endorse-- and the worse the idea, the more strongly they will support it. It's astonishing. Just the other day, I saw that they want to sign over this country's medical policy sovereignty to the absolutely crooked "World Health Organization". Whereas Trump, ninety-nine percent of the time, takes one look at these kinds of things and comes to the same conclusion I do: "Are you kidding me?"

Now the Demoncrats are "exploring" a CBDC. Eric Peters explains the risks, and you can read more about it here. Simultaneously and on the same "financial" topic, the woke car CEOs are trying to find ways to make your car not start if you haven't followed edicts. We really need that Trump bulwark back, against the crazy people. The problem is, I don't think Republicans will "ever" win another major election in this country. I say "ever", because the country will be reinvented soon, maybe via a Civil War.

In totally unrelated news, I started playing "Hogwarts Legacy". Performance is disastrous unless you add some lines to the game engine's .ini file-- you can find the "magic block" of statements in the Steam forums for the game, or on Reddit. The game itself is kind of boring: I was expecting an "Elder Scrolls" style of play where you're exploring dungeons and fighting things-- instead you're just wandering around a maze-like castle opening weird puzzle doors and finding collectibles. It's also almost non-stop cut-scenes: very little actual gameplay overall.