“Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities.”

- C.S. Lewis

I mentioned yesterday that I had had a post accepted into the first Manival. I didn't realize how popular something like that can be, but by the time I went to bed last night I had received more than 500 visitors yesterday, the vast majority of them coming from the Manival or from StumbleOn links through the Manival. A quick check of today's Site Meter shows it's still turning over briskly. Wow!

Though I've blogged for more than three years I've never participated in a carnival, and I'm virtually ignorant of how services such as StumbleOn, Digg and similar other entities work. I think I need to get better informed!

The Art of Manliness website today launched its first Manival, a carnival (collection of blogposts) focusing on various aspects of what it takes to be an honorable man. I first learned of the Manival while surfing Sunday night and saw that the deadline for submitting a post for consideration was yesterday. I quickly emailed a link to one of my posts that came immediately to mind, and learned today through a surge of traffic that I had been included.

Browsing through the Manival page I see many worthy and interesting posts such as "The Man's Manual to Being Manly" and "Too Many Guys, Too Few Men" as well as tips on how to avoid creating additional housework for your wife and how to make your own moustache wax. I'd happily link them all, but I'd rather you go to the Manival page and browse and read for yourself.

I am honored to be among such august company and encouraged by the number of people engaged in such a worthy topic. I look forward to future Manivals, which appear to be scheduled for every Tuesday. Next week's Manival is hosted by A Good Husband. Go to the site to get information or use the Manival submission form to submit a post of your own.

Here's a really fun little video posted in honor of noted cat blogger Gino:

An Engineer's Guide to Cats.



When you are finished watching the video you will know all about "corporal cuddling", fun games to play with your cat (and - if you're an engineer - with unsuspecting women), and experiments in renewable energy using static electricity. The clip also notes that no cats were harmed in the making of the video, though they were annoyed.

UPDATE:
Comments have been enabled! I'm not sure why they weren't on initially.

I think I could have scored better, but it's an audio test and sometimes it was hard to get the previous song out of my head when the next song was playing.

I scored a Far Out
85% on theQuiz by SheGoddess: Lose Weight Fast

I discovered another blog with an appreciation for Courtship: iPandora. Blog founder Matthew has been joined by co-blogger and future bride, Grace, aka American Texan.

Currently at the top of the page are their two stories of how they met, became friends, then reached the decision to court and now, ultimately, are engaged. An "engaging" story indeed, told from two viewpoints but with a common vision. Check it out.

It was a grand time last night at Keegan's, and not necessarily because my team - "Fifty Sense" - ended up tieing for first place in the 8:00 p.m. challenge.

Really, what was special was seeing so many MOBsters back at Keeg's for the traditional Thursday night match - man, was the place LOUD and HAPPY last night. I'll probably miss someone or some-two, but those in attendance included Learned Foot (or was that Joe Tucci?) from Kool-Aid Report, Derek and Guy from Freedom Dogs, Swiftee (Pair-O-Dice), Barry (erstwhile Watercooler Wisdom), John LaPlante (Policy Guy), Dan Stover (Northern Alliance Wannabe), Leo (Psycmeister's Ice Palace - all the way down from St. Cloud), AAA (Residual Forces), David and Margaret (too many blogs to mention), Mitch Berg (Shot in the Dark) and Brad Carlson and his gal, Jen. Of course, Ben was there from Hammerswing, along with the complete Night Writer contingent of the Reverend Mother, Mall Diva and Tiger Lilly, plus special guest and commenter Princess Flicker Feather.

Turnout has been kind of sparse of late (and I've been missing-in-action as much as anyone), so it was great to see a lot of the gang in person again. With warm weather perhaps finally upon us and the return of the Paddy O'Furniture and the great outdoors to our favorite Irish pub, I hope to see similar gatherings in the near future. When I started blogging 3 years ago, coming to Keegan's and meeting so many different people was an important to feeling like a part of the community, and led me to make some great friends (but you didn't have to kiss me last night, Strommie). I may ultimately even get a son-in-law out of the deal.

Notably absent last night were representatives from Fraters, Nihilist in Golf Pants and Anti-Strib, and it seems like forever since I've seen Bogus Doug, Doug Bass or DrJonz. Even so it was a prestigious conglomeration and I hope the Thursday night regulars will soon be returning in force.

Also, for those (Marty) who mocked my "Toads" answer to a question about what animal South Africa is trying to exterminate, I'll have you know my answer was based on having read this article during the week (Africa, Australia, who can tell the difference?).

I think this means that there isn't a lot of cussing on this blog. Either that or the on-line rating tool had it's wires fried while analyzing The Kool-Aid Report.



Around 1% of the pages on your website contain cussing.
This is 88% LESS than other websites who took this test.

Created by OnePlusYou

HT: The Llama Butchers

Back in January Mitch Berg had a post likening the abortion issue to a ribbon in the middle of a tug-of-war rope, with each side trying to move the ribbon (i.e. public opinion) closer to it's position. Mitch thought he was seeing signs that public opinion has pulled more to the right of late. That naturally triggered a comment string that centered around the role of faith in one's view and of legislating belief. Surprisingly, it actually turned out to be one of the most civil debates I've seen on his site, and one I was proud to have participated in.

I've thought about that discussion several times since then, and while the topic at that time was abortion, I've realized that my comments then pretty well encapsulated my thinking on many issues and, unintentionally, provided an explanation for one of the reasons for why I blog, limited as my contribution may be.

I've extracted the main portion of my comment from that day (addressing another commenter, not Mitch) and posted it here to help me remember, on nights like these when I'm really tired, why I keep doing this.

... I merely want to address your view that the abortion issue is an issue of faith. It is a matter of faith, but not necessarily “faith” as in being Catholic, Evangelical or Humanist, but in terms of “belief.” The underlying point I took from Mitch’s post is that what people “believe” about human life appears to be changing, and ultimately what a society believes is reflected in its laws (for good or ill). Inevitably some beliefs are going to be in the minority. Thank goodness the vast majority today believes it’s wrong to hang people from trees, though a few still say it’s okay to threaten to do so, while even fewer would be willing to do it. (At what point prosecution should enter into that example is a topic for another day).

It’s not a process of legislating faith (or belief), but of faith/belief affecting legislation. The fact that some will disagree or be offended by the result is not reason in and of itself to not act on the greater will. Thus the ribbon, as Mitch says, is moved. That does not mean, however, that the minority doesn’t have the right to protest, or to work continually to change the beliefs of the majority, even to the point of risk and sacrifice (since risk and sacrifice are what differentiates belief from emotion). Though I may be in a minority on a number of issues (or because I’m in the minority on a number of issues), I thank God (not goodness) that we live in a society where these beliefs can still be contested.