Update on Life and this Whole "Blogging" Thing

Well, as I look back on what I've blogged so far, I see it's been MUCH more infrequent than I had originally envisioned.

This blog largely originated out of my having left four-and-a-half years of employment with the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) to begin a masters program at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) and missing the opportunity for the outlet I had had for public writing and commentary.

However, I've found grad school to be WAY too time-consuming to allow for as much blogging as I might like. I honestly don't know how others, like Methoblogosphere titan John the (other) Methodist manage to do it. While I expect future posts to continue to not be all that frequent, I am not completely giving up on the Lomperian Review.

If you would like be notified by e-mail when new posts are added to this blog, please e-mail me with "BLOG SUBSCRIBE" in the Subject line.

I also added an RSS-feed thingy on the side, though I'm still not sure how that is supposed to work.


With all of that being said, I suppose it's time for some more substantial post content.

Life in New England's been going pretty well. But here are a few things that have surprised me.

1. A lot of local people really DO talk with the stereotypical, replace-your-Rs-with-Hs accents. At first I thought they were just joking around, when folk were in fact quite earnest about pahking theih cah in Hahvuhd Yahd.

2. A rather disproportionately high number of women up here have tattoos.

3. Apparently, people in New England (at least the Boston area) have not yet gotten the memo that cars now have this awesome new invention called "blinkers" or "turn signals." This state-of-the-art technology turns on a flashy light that lets other cars know when you're about to change lanes, so that you can give fair warning before SWERVING RIGHT THE FREAK IN FRONT OF THEM!! If any readers know anyone who is now, has ever been, or ever may be a resident of New England, please tell them about this invention to make sure no one gets left out.

4. It's freaking cold up here! As the weeks go on this Southern boy's getting increasingly annoyed at those dang pilgrims for being too lazy to have pointed their ship just a few more degrees to the South.

5. Having lived in Chicago and DC and visited New York several times, the public trains in Boston are hands-down the loudest internally.

6. According to a recent tour, the community surrounding Harvard looks down on the University as a bastion of conservatism, since "only" 70+ % of the students voted Democratic in a recent Presidential election. (the number would be nowhere near that low if you singled out the Div school)

7. It's interesting to see theological liberals as well as theological conservatives around here say that there's not great differences between the numerous Unitarian Universalist congregations around here and so many of the mainline Protestant congregations in the area.

8. Regional reputations notwithstanding, even people here can be quite friendly. Though it's still not okay to say "hi" to people on the street you don't know like it is in other parts of the country.

9. While this region served as a key incubator for such heterodox movements as Unitarianism, Universalism, and Christian science, central seeds of the Holiness movement can also be traced to here.

10. If you're blessed to live in a city with a street-grid system, don't take it for granted. Boston/Cambridge's confusingly non-straight windedness has greatly heightened my appreciation for DC's well-ordered, oh-so-logical grid layout.


As for the theological environment of HDS, before I left I assured fellow evangelicals that I doubted I would encounter anything here more radical than the various crazy things I was sent around reporting on for IRD. So far, this prediction has held true.

Also, despite having been here over a hundred days since the start of this semester, the Bible still remains my final authority on matters of doctrine and morals, and I can still recite the Nicene Creed without crossing my fingers behind my back.! :)