SchneiderWeb

It's been quiet around here because I've been under the weather--and under my blanket--for the better part of the past 10 days. I feel about 90% today. Note to self: get the flu shot next year.

Soon there won't be any need for human contact at all. From the New York Times : A new application being sold on iTunes, “Confession: a Roman Catholic App,” cannot be used as a substitute for confession with a priest, the Vatican said Wednesday. The application was developed by American entrepreneurs with the help of two priests and the blessing of a bishop. It features a questionnaire of sins, and is promoted as a tool both to revive interest in confession and to help Catholics prepare for the sacrament. But some media reports cast the app as a “virtual priest” for Catholics who do not have time for church, prompting the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, to respond, “One cannot speak in any way of 'confession by iPhone.'” All I can say is, where was this app when I was younger and dreaded the semiannual hangman's walk to the confessional?

On Tuesdays I have no classes (as opposed to no class), so I took the opportunity to go to the dentist for the first time since I've been at Princeton. The dentist's office was located in a strip mall about 4 miles from campus, next to the usual martial arts school and Chinese restaurant. I was the only patient, which was mildly disconcerting, but it was 3:00 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. While lying in the examination chair waiting for the dentist to appear, I made small talk with the dental assistant who was from Bulgaria and has only been in the States for 10 months. I told her that I recently came to seminary after several years' copywriting. It turns out that she has a friend who left Wall Street to become a--she struggled for the word--monk. Seeing as how everything in the office--from the computers, to the paint job (typical dentist's green), to the chair I was lying in--looked brand new, I asked her how long the office had been there. Six months, apparently....