Opinion: A "Hobbit" Trilogy?

"The Hobbit" is going to be three movies."

Most people might read this statement and think, "what is a 'hobbit'?" I'm sorry if you're one of those few, but feel free to educate yourself here.

I have several reactions to this statement, and hopefully by the end of this blog post, I will have gotten my bewilderment sorted out and (maybe) have a coherent opinion on this news.

First: why? Why are they making three films out of one book? This strikes me as a stupid money-making marketing ploy. I hate it when Hollywood complicates stuff like this and really ruins good films. Because the creative team here is mostly intact and all the original actors have returned to play their respective characters as needed, this "trilogy" will forever be associated with The Lord of the Rings, which is critically acclaimed as excellent. Whether for good or ill, this will be considered as essentially the same story. So if this goes south, LotR is going to go the way of Star Wars and its 3 prequel films and Jackson will be regarded as just another George Lucas who creates your childhood cinematic loves, (LotR is very much this for me) then once you've reached adulthood, he ruins them by using it to get more cash from you. So this thought makes me angry.

Second, how? The Hobbit is about 310 pages long. This is just a little over half the size of the Fellowship of the Ring... the first book in the series of the Lord of the Rings trilogy! And it's about one fifth the size of the whole LotR trilogy. Somehow, they got it so that the original plan was to make two movies out of the Hobbit. Where are they getting this new material from? Apparently, much of it arises from the appendices listed at the end of the Return of the King (the third book in the LotR series) and in Tolkien's other notes. But unfortunately, alot of this was not published by Tolkien as its own work because it was not complete/finished. It might be mentioned in passing in an appendix, but will Jackson and the crew be able to fully realize Tolkien's vision and tell his story? Or is it just material scraped and scrounged to make a Hollywood blockbuster? I'd say this idea makes me doubtful.

Now, my reaction to this news has also been positive. Peter Jackson has done a pretty good job of adapting Tolkien's work to the screen. And while it may not be faithful to every single little detail written in the books, I think it does a good job of illustrating for the viewer in the span of 10ish hours what Tolkien is trying to say. (if you want any more than that, then I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to suck it up and read the books) So with this in mind, I'm a little curious to see how Jackson pulls it off.

Also, Howard Shore will be composing the music. All three of his scores for the LotR trilogy were stellar (with the scores for the 1st and 3rd films garnering Academy Award wins). So, if anything, the extra film will just produce more beautiful music that I will inevitably be buying. An example of this are the additional Pirates of the Caribbean films. I have only seen the first two sequels, but the music that Hans Zimmer wrote for them complement and expand on Klaus Badelt's decent score for the first film (which I believe that Hans Zimmer also had a strong hand in creating). Regardless, I'd say more music from Howard Shore's interpretation of Middle Earth makes me giddy.

In conclusion, I'd say I'm dubiously furious at Peter Jackson's audacity to make what was a simple bedtime story into 3-film cinematic epic, while still remaining inquisitively enchanted at the prospect of there being more of Middle Earth to see on the Silver Screen.

A Few Things You Didn't Know About Your Passwords

Passwords are used in email accounts, online shopping, social networking sites, online banking, etc. They, and other methods of authentication, are used to protect information available on the world wide web from unauthorized viewing. However, many people have relatively simple and insecure passwords that might not stand up to the various password attacks that malicious user are capable of. Among these attacks are brute force, dictionary, and hybrid.

Brute Force Attack

A brute force attack is a method of password cracking that tries every possible combination for a password. To illustrate, a brute force cracking software may begin cracking a password with the the following: a. Then, it might try, b. Then, c. (I'm sure you can see where this is going) A brute force attack will simply mindlessly go down a list of characters and enter those as guesses.Once it exhausts all possible one-character passwords, it moves to two character passwords (i.e., aa, ab, ac, ad, etc....). There is a significantly larger number of possible two-character password combinations than there are one-character password combinations. This additional length makes it more secure. This can be, by far the most time-consuming password attack, but given enough time, it will eventually succeed. 

Dictionary Attack

A dictionary attack uses a word list to crack passwords. The software references the words in the list to form its guesses. (i.e. dog, cat, bear, etc.) Often, some dictionary attack software will be able to append random numbers or symbols before or after dictionary words, thus making passwords like coffee22 a very weak password if the word coffee is in the attackers word list. Often, these word lists are not user-generated, giving them the potential to be very large and extremely exhaustive. Regardless of whether the words in a given password are obscure or not, it is highly likely that it is contained somewhere in an attacker's word list.

Hybrid Attack

A hybrid attack combines the use of dictionary words and symbols to allow for the replacement of certain letters with symbols. This attack is very helpful against passwords written in "l33t speak". An example of a l33t speak password is the following: k!ngsc0ff33. Certain letters have been replaced by either a number or a symbol so that an actual word is not formed, thus defeating a simple dictionary attack. However, hybrid attack software has the ability to take a dictionary word list and make numero-symbolic replacements of particular letters: 3 for e or E, @ for a or A, 1 or ! for i/I or l/L, and so on. This makes the above-mentioned password example very susceptible to cracking.

How to create a secure password

First, a secure password must have a proper length. It is recommended that your password consist of at least 8 characters. Assuming that your password is properly complex enough (such that dictionary and hybrid attacks are impossible), a 8-character password can take up to 11 yrs to crack (assuming that the cracking software takes into account all 26 letters, both upper and lower case, 0-9, and basic punctuation). This number, of course, changes depending on how many computers are working together to crack the password, but even with 50 computers at at 2,800,000 passwords attempts a second, it still would take up to 75 days to crack the password. And typical password-changing policies recommend at the most 60-day password changes, so your password might very well get changed before the attacker has a chance to crack your password.

In addition, dictionary words and dictionary words written in l33t speak are highly discouraged. It is recommended that you include numbers and punctuation in your password, but not as replacements for letters in a word. Instead, it it best to use them sporadically in a password to make it more complex and less susceptible to dictionary/hybrid attacks.

With all this talk about security, it is easy to forget about the need for a password to be memorable so it's not forgotten. Although increasing the character length above 8 characters will make the password more difficult to brute force, it often is unnecessary (and in the case that the password is 14 characters worth of dictionary words, this will be defenseless against a dictionary attack). So, 8 characters will do the trick.

Here's an example of how to form secure, but memorable passwords.

ilcvm (I begin with a memorable word or short phrase; acronyms can also be helpful; this one stands for "i love coffee very much")

IlcVM (I make some of the letters uppercase; this is made memorable because the acronym would appear as "I love coffee VERY MUCH")

IlcVM11 (include some numbers such as your favorite number)

&IlcVM11 (add punctuation)

Creating a final password of : &IlcVM11. The only way this password is going to get cracked is by using the brute force method, which will take a very long time to crack.

Now go change your password and secure your data!!

A Few Things You Didn't Know About Your iPhone

It seems like everyone nowadays has an iPhone. We're constantly using it keeping tabs on our Facebook, Twitter, email, blogs (guilty as charged), and so on. But do you realize that our iPhones are also keeping tabs on us? It's true. Here are a few interesting things you didn't know about your iPhone.

Location Services menu

Location Services stores GPS locations on your phone

Whenever you have Location Services turned on, your iPhone begins to take and store your GPS locations and the date/times you were at those locations on the hard drive of the phone. Because coordinates of longitude and latitude are such small memory items, you iPhone can store hundreds of these locations!

The average 4-character PIN takes at the maximum 30 minutes to crack

One might think, "Ok, then I'll just set my iPhone to wipe itself after 10 failed passcode attempts have been made." Unfortunately, this won't necessarily work. Software exists that can access the encrypted password file of the iPhone. So instead of entering every possible PIN combo into the lock screen (which after 10 attempts, would cause the iPhone to wipe), it picks a random PIN to try, uses the iPhone encryption algorithm, and compares it to the encrypted password file to see if it's a match.

"Cydia" app store for jailbroken iPhones

Jailbreaking substantially decreases the overall security of your iPhone 

Jailbreaking is the process of installing 3rd-party software onto an iPhone to unlock restricted features. It allows the user to install custom apps that cannot be found in the iTunes store and to customize various features of the iPhone. However, this process creates a gaping hole in iPhone security. iPhone system software is basically made up of two parts: system files and user files (music, apps, pictures, etc). There is a lot of separation between the two in an non-jailbroken iPhone. However, in a jailbroken iPhone, apps are able to interact with system software components (for example, an app may be allowed to track your emails, call history, text history, and even alert an attacker when you are making a call so that he/she can listen in).

Find My iPhone

To prevent data theft and privacy compromise, there is one app out there developed by Apple that can help you track your iPhone if it's lost/stolen. The app is called (simply enough) "Find My iPhone". Thought there are other features to this app, the most interesting ones include the ability to remotely locate your lost iPhone via GPS (provided that Location Services is enabled for this app), remotely lock your iPhone if it's unlocked, or remotely wipe all your personal data from your iPhone. There are, however, a few drawbacks to this app. First, to locate your iPhone, you need another iOS device with "Find My iPhone" installed on it. Odds are, though, if you don't have another iTouch/iPad, one of your friends has an iPhone and you can use theirs. Secondly, this doesn't work if your iPhone is off. Thirdly, if you have a 4-character passcode on your iPhone, it will be cracked quickly and once it is cracked, the user can put your phone into Airplane Mode which will disable any radio communication to and from the iPhone and, effectively, this app. 

My recommendation for an ultra-secure iPhone: install Find My iPhone and use a complex password (you can set it in the General settings menu under the Passcode Lock submenu by turning "Simple Passcode" off). This way, if your iPhone is stolen, the thief will not be able to effectively crack your password (to put the phone into airplane mode) before you have a chance to either locate it or send the command to remotely wipe your personal data off it.

College Life: A Survival Guide

It's been over a year since I've graduated college and having lived in the real world for some time now, I've realized what lifestyle practices have served me well and which I could probably have used a do-over on. These are just a few lessons I learned that illustrate this (some humorous, some serious):

1. Don't drink from the Tupperware bin
Whatever is in it, it doesn't concern you. Either there's not enough alcohol in it to make a difference (because your host was cheap) or there's too much alcohol in it for you to handle (because your host wants to get you plastered) or that guy who just did a keg stand got sick and couldn't make it to the toilet... Any way you look at it, drinking from open containers at a social gathering of complete strangers is a poor idea.

2. Go to class
As you begin to pay loans, typically 6 months after you graduate, you'll begin to realize how much of that money you paid to sleep in, take an extended lunch break by playing Halo or Call of Duty, or start the weekend festivities 3 hours early. You might hate that philosophy class at 8:30 MWF, but trust me, going to that class and learning something will make the burden of paying off your student loans more bearable. And who knows: your 5-year highschool reunion trivia contest might consist of identifying the author of the phrase "Cogito, ergo sum". Just imagine the bragging rights....

3. Get involved
Join a club, perform community service, play intramural sports/go to a college sporting event, or explore the various social opportunities offered by your university/college. If you graduate and the only change in scenery was the venue of this weekend's slosh-fest or the variations in the mess of your dorm room, you'll have missed an excellent opportunity to get in the habit of trying new things and being a true risk-taker. By not going to the parties, you will try most things that people don't dare to think possible on a weekend evening, such as, actually having a good time.

The Basilica of the Sacred Heard [left] and the Golden Dome [right] at the University of Notre Dame

4. "Beer Before Liquor Only Makes You Sicker"
I've suddenly forgotten why I know this one...

5. Exercise and eat well
This is difficult depending on your major and where you go to school. As a physics-philosophy major at the University of Notre Dame (with one of the best food services in the country), it was easy to not exercise much (because of all the homework associated with my majors) and eat poorly (because of the ready availability of so much good-tasting, unhealthy food). Also, watch how much you drink because alcoholic beverages are full of all sorts of fattening carbs/sugars/etc. The "Freshman-15" is not a joke. I gained it while running varsity track and field at St. Louis University (granted, the food was awful there). It's real.

6. Coffee is your friend
None of the sugar from "energy drinks", all of the caffeine, and it's good for you! For those late study nights, cramming for organic chemistry or as an excuse for a social outing, coffee is wholesome and fun!

7. Get a head start on good habits

No matter who you are, college is a crucial time in your life. Odds are, you are away from home or you are spending a substantial amount of time without parental supervision/guidance. I love my parents and I considered this aspect of college to be a particularly awesome thing. This is because I've always looked up to my parents and I want to be just like them some day. The first step to doing this, however, is to actively seek to develop good practices and habits. What you do with the first few years of your freedom will help you (or haunt you) for the rest of your life. And I think that's really the best piece of advice I can give in this post, so I'll end with that.

"Dan-Dan the Science Man"

Halloween, circa 1997

Once upon a time, I was a youth. And an inquisitive youth, at that. I was a bit of a science nut (see above picture). If that's not proof enough, my typical birthday and Christmas list consisted of scientific encyclopedias. My favorite 7th birthday present was a chemistry set, and no matter how many times I combined baking soda and vinegar, the reaction still made me giddy every time. My parents encouraged this scientific wonder and did everything they possibly could to enable me.

I didn't watch a whole lot of TV when I was young, and what I did watch was mainly on PBS. But the 90's had some awesome science shows for kids that really stoked my curiosity and interest. First of which was "Bill Nye the Science Guy". He was always hilarious and the show was designed for the short attention span (which is important, to make science fun for those who would otherwise not take an immediate liking to it). I think the most memorable part of the shows were always the "Did you know that..." segments, followed by "NOW YOU KNOW". Great memories and I occasionally use that voice in conversation to my own embarrassment because nobody else knows what I'm talking about. 

The second show that had a strong influence on my scientific interests was "The Magic School Bus". Ms. Frizzle, a "crazy ginger" grade school science teacher, and her pet chameleon, Liz, took the kids on the best science field trips not possible in the Magic School Bus (not to be confused with the Who's "Magic Bus"). From the bottom of the ocean to the desert and the rain forest, from inside plants to inside the human body, the Magic School bus went everywhere a kid like me wanted to know more about. The adjacent video is the episode of their journey around the solar system. And in finding this video, I just discovered that many of the Magic School Bus episodes are on YouTube. THIS IS AWESOME.

In middle school, my parents got me Stephen Hawking's book, "A Brief History of Time". The book contains chapters on elementary particles, 4 dimensional spacetime, the expansion of the universe, and my two favorite topics: black holes and wormholes. Needless to say, the book was mostly over my head and took me a whole year to finish. But I enjoyed every chapter, and after a substantial amount of highschool physics education, I returned to the book, and retained most of its content (but still with a substantial portion being beyond my comprehension). The above-listed TV shows and this book and prepped me for exactly what I wanted to do for an occupation. I wanted to be a scientist and if possible, a physicist.

Sadly, it was not meant to be. I was not made of the stuff of collegiate physicists and I struggled throughout my college career to make decent grades in my physics classes. I realized during my first semester of junior year at Notre Dame while taking only 12 hours worth of classes, three of them being physics classes, and still having a very difficult time. By that time, I had already taken on philosophy as a second major and was just getting my feet wet, but I was thoroughly enjoying it as a new focus of my academic interests. I enjoy philosophy very much, though sometimes, I feel like physics and science in general was "that old beloved study that got away".

However, recently, I've gotten into the BBC show "Top Gear" which is about cars. I didn't care much for cars when I started watching it last summer on Netflix, but the presenters of the show were so funny, it was hard to pass up. (now I actually do love cars) But one of the presenters, James May, aka Captain Slow, aka the Spaniel, is a bit of a science nerd. He always seemed to be the most knowledgeable of the three about the science behind the different cars and the physics they employ to work. It was to my astonishment and amazement that James May actually hosts other TV programs that focus on science. (thank you, Erich Suellentrop for this!) The show is called "James May's 'Things You Need to Know'" and the three episodes of the first series are on YouTube. And the episode on "Things You Need to Know About the Universe" is posted here in its entirety. Seeing this took me back to my childhood days of watching awesome science television programs that were engaging, fun, and always held my interest. I've come to realize that my love for science, though not collegiate in caliber, still has no shortage of pure wonder and is just as active as when I was a boy.

Special thanks to my mother and father for their encouragement of this passion!

The Perfect Cup of Coffee

This blog title would be wholly misleading unless I wrote something on coffee.

Sundays are typically my favorite day of the week for several reasons. It is the Lord's day, so it's good to begin with the Holy Mass and then catch up on some much needed prayer and spiritual reading. Also, because it is the Lord's day, I get to take a break from work (and who says that God is not good?). There's always some kind of good intellectual reading I can do, which has been good ever since I've graduated because I enjoy intellectual stimulation. I'm also able to indulge in my love for classical music while I read. 

But although each of these things are important to a peaceful Sunday, I might venture to say that aside from Mass and prayer/rest, the most important part of the day is the first cup of coffee. Coffee can mean alot of things to different people, but for me, it's very special and probably something I will address in another blog post. For now, I would like to share my experience and thoughts on how to make a perfect cup of coffee.

First thing I should say about coffee is that I am describing homemade coffee. Those who know me (and those who don't find out anyway) know that I am not a big coffeehouse guy. And the more commercial the coffeehouse is (i.e. Starbucks; I'm just going to make no bones about it here), the more I dislike it. I don't believe that all coffeehouse coffee is rubbish, but in my opinion, nothing beats a good homemade pot of coffee. So I'm not referring to your cafe dolce latte with double shots of espresso, low fat cream, and a little cherry on top; I'm talking about coffee as the every-man's beverage.

What's Bad for Coffee

Among the things that are bad for coffee include exposure to extreme temperatures (hot or cold), moisture, air (particularly the oxygen in the air), and light. As a result, the key to brewing the perfect cup of coffee is to avoid these things. Don't store your coffee in the freezer or in a sauna. Also, don't remove it from its original darkened, opaque container only to put it in a clear glass jar, simply because it brings culture to your kitchen (I guess you could do that, just don't think you're ever going to serve it to guests). 

Beans vs. Grounds

There are pros and cons to both. My preference has practically always been beans, whenever I can get them. The primary reason is because coffee stays fresher, longer as a bean as opposed to a being in ground form. This is because as a bean, the coffee has less exposed surface area than grounds do. If a coffee bean has approximately 1 cm squared surface area and a ground coffee bean, depending on the fineness of the grind, has a surface area of 157 cm squared, that's an increased surface area of nearly 15,000%(!) So why do we care about surface area? An increased surface area means that the points of contact for the elements listed in the previous section also increases (more surface area means more contact with oxygen, for example). Also, depending on how long you grind your beans for, you get to control how fine the ground is, per your preferences. 

However, the cons to using beans include waking roommates up when you grind your coffee (because it is noisy). In addition, you have to get a grinder, which can be relatively cheap, but it's just another "thing" you need to have for this, so it might not be convenient. As far as price difference goes, I'm not 100% sure what the comparison is. I get the feeling (step back) that you get more grounds for your money than you get beans. But that might just be me.

Brand

The best kind of coffee is foreign coffee. I've had Brazilian coffee, Venezuelan coffee, and Hawaiian coffee. My favorite was definitely Brazilian because of the fine ground and the sweet taste (yes, fresh coffee actually tastes a little sweet; it's stale/burnt coffee that tastes bitter). With that being said, truly foreign coffee is incredibly difficult to get/is very expensive. If you do get it, I recommend getting it as whole beans and save it for special occasions such as Christmas or Easter morning or whenever you have company over. As previously stated, the beans will stay fresh longer and that's what you need for good coffee that you'll only have on occasion.

Aside from the rare treat of foreign coffee, my favorite coffee brand is Stewarts. Based in Chicago, they take beans from around the world and create blends of grounds/beans for a smooth and wholesome cup of coffee. This coffee is not bitter in the slightest, which is one of my favorite qualities about it. I've only ever seen grounds in stores, but I know they sell whole beans from their website, so unless you want to order online, you're kinda stuck with grounds. My second favorite thing about Stewarts is that it is one of the only cups of coffee I've had that taste great when it's cold. To me, that's the ultimate test of a good coffee. With most coffees, alot of the flavor is passed over when you're trying to keep a hot cup from scalding the inside of your mouth. But when the cup cools, it tastes awful. Stewarts, however, actually tastes pleasant and still very smooth when cold, allowing you to finish that cup instead of throwing it out and refilling your cup with more hot coffee. 

For St. Louise-ans, I recommend Thomas. It shares all the major good qualities of Stewarts (namely the smoothness and the retainment of taste when room-temp) and it's a local business in St. Louis. Also, it does come locally in bean form. The only draw-back to these two brands is that they are fairly expensive. If you're short on cash, the standard Maxwell House or Folgers will do the trick for reasons explained in the next paragraph.

Water

If I'm honest, your pot of coffee is really only as good as your water you make it with. All talk about brands aside (that comes down to personal preference, anyway), it's objectively true that you're not going to have a good pot of coffee if you're using bad water. Luckily for me, St. Louis has the best-tasting tap water of any major city in the country. However, I know for alot of places (especially South Bend, IN), the local water is terrible. Icky water is bad for two reasons. First, it makes your coffee taste bad. Second, depending on what's in your water, it can destroy your coffee maker by causing buildups in the piping. As the coffee maker pumps the water from the reservoir into the filtering basket, it heats it up and some of the water evaporates, becoming steam. The minerals dissolved in the water, however, do not all evaporate and instead build up in the plumbing of the coffee maker. Unfortunately, the only way to get rid of this build up is to either run vinegar through your coffee maker (a smelly and time-consuming process) or throw the coffee maker out entirely and purchase a new one.

If you have poor water quality, you can either purchase bottled water in gallon jugs or use a water purifier. Having used both, I believe that a water purifier is more convenient and possibly cheaper in the long run. Instead of storing gallon-sized jugs around your house or dorm room, you just store small filters for the water-purifier. Or if you'd like to get a water purifier for your sink tap (a bit more expensive), that works also.

Brewing

From my experience, it doesn't really matter what quality of maker you use. I've only ever gotten the $20, simple-function coffee makers, so I may be wrong. But those have always suited my needs just fine. Other than that, there's really not much to say about brewing. Just make sure you don't leave the maker on for too long, otherwise it'll burn the coffee, especially when there's not much left in the pot. If you're concerned about burnage, after the coffee is finished brewing, you can position the coffee pot slightly askew to limit the amount of contact between the pot and the heating element (see pictured). This'll keep the coffee warm, but eliminate burning.

Conclusion

Anyone can have a good homemade cup of coffee and for an economical price too. Don't pay an arm and a leg and your first-born child for a caffe latte dulco macchiato over-priceo sugarwater-o americano at Starbucks (and please don't pay a dime for their "freshly-brewed coffee"). Make it yourself!

Boromir: The Type of All Men

My favorite character from J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, is Boromir, son of Denethor the Steward of Gondor at the time of the War of the Ring. He is my favorite character because he is the image of man imperfect, bearing qualities of weakness and pride, but also traits of courage and perseverance. His character is a mix of strengths and weaknesses in varying degrees, and he remains the most "human" member of the Fellowship (literally, actually, because the only other man of the Fellowship, Aragorn, was raised in Rivendell).

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Boromir is the member of the fellowship about whom the reader is always in doubt. He very strongly voices his opinion and motives at the Council of Elrond, making him appear to be the only member of the chosen Fellowship that is not completely “on board” with the plan to destroy the One Ring. He holds the dream that one day, Men will overthrow the rule of Sauron through strength of arms and bring peace to Middle Earth. Since Sauron’s rule in the land of Mordor began, the Men of the old kingdom of Numenor and the new kingdom of Gondor have lived in the shadow of the evil that dwelt behind the Black Mountains. Sauron attempted his advances, but Gondor has always possessed the strength to keep him at bay. But with each passing day, Sauron grows in strength and pushes the defenses of Men to their limits, inching ever closer to the breaking point. Realizing the proximity of this breaking point at the Council, Boromir, Captain of Gondor, enthusiastically calls for the Ring to be brought to Gondor with the persuasion of a military general, rallying the spirits of his troops before battle. Maybe the reader is swept up into this call to arms and hope that Man can defeat evil, but ultimately, this is cast as false wisdom and the Fellowship choose the path to destroy the Ring.

Mankind often hopes to defeat evil by his own strength and perseverance. He seeks to impose what is right by exerting control on those things exterior to him. However, he often neglects those things that hide within the darkest recesses of his own heart. Pride, the source of the Fall of Man, always struggles in the heart of all Men, festering and lusting to exert full control over all Men. Ultimately, Boromir's swelling pride drives him to take the Ring from Frodo, even at the expense of taking Frodo's life as well.

However, for all his faults, Boromir possesses a vulnerable humility. Though he does not completely agree with or understand the direction the Council has decided to take in destroying the Ring, he puts aside his pride and joins the Fellowship as a protector of the Ring-bearer. Although he frequently wishes to appear courageous and strong-willed, he is humbled by the smallest of things that causes him to fall. And I don't think Boromir should be considered completely unaware of his vulnerability to this temptation. The extended version of The Two Towers film illustrates this well. Boromir's father, Denethor, sends him to Rivendell to attend the council that will decide what to do with the Ring. Boromir first is reluctant because he knows the Ring to have been the death of Isildur, the man who took the Ring from Sauron for his own. So even he recognizes his own weakness and fears its control over him. 

My favorite part of the whole trilogy is at the beginning of The Two Towers when Aragorn, attempting to regroup the fellowship on Parth Galen after searching for Frodo, discovers Boromir, pierced by many arrows while defending the hobbits, Merry and Pippin. He confesses his failure and begs Aragorn for forgiveness. (though certainly not to be taken literally, this calls to my mind, very vividly, the spirit of the Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation) 

Man will fall because his nature is fallen. He stumbles because he clings to his own brokenness and not to the source of his salvation. But a true man realizes that he can always be forgiven if he seeks forgiveness and resolves to fight once more. I imagine I would like Boromir significantly less (or dislike him) if after he had fallen, he went off into the forest to despair and bemoan his failure, turning his back on his friends and loved ones. Instead, it's very crucial to note that even after committing so grave a sin, he returns to the aid of Merry and Pippin and gives his life in an attempt to preserve their safety. Boromir did not choose to be a Judas, but instead a Peter, who after breaking his oath of fidelity to the mission of the Fellowship and betraying his friend, Frodo, he returns to the fight and dies a martyr for his friends.

A Guide to Making Friends, Pt. 1

Let me begin by saying that I am woefully unqualified to write a post on this topic. It's only been in the last year or two that I've begun to really think seriously about how one goes about making friends. But since I have returned to my hometown and in search of friends, I've been thinking about how I've made friends in the past, so I feel these are thoughts worth sharing.

1. Go to where people are

We all have our comfort zones. And we all know where we wish we could find friends. But certain locations attract particular value types. A club will mostly attract people who want to drink and just dance ("da da da doo doo..."). A political rally will draw people interested in politics. A service project will attract people who have a desire to help the needy. This requires a bit of soul-searching: you have to determine what kind of person you really want to be because your friends will contribute to some degree in making you that person.

2. Seek dialogue, not monologue

Most people I know don't have a problem with this. I write it because until relatively recently, I did. As is characteristic of every member of my family, I have an opinion on practically everything, and if a brand new topic is posed to me that I don't immediately have an opinion on, I make one up and hold it until it is unfashionable to hold it any longer. As a result, I monologued (and it certainly wasn't Shakespearean). There needs to be an even tug-of-war between two people. You should be able to bounce conversation points off one another and notice yourself considering the point being made by the person you're trying to befriend before you come up with what you will say next. 

3. Listen to what people are passionate about

Once I got dialoging down, this was my next challenge. My passion is philosophy and I could never get enough of talking about it. Some of my friends were similarly passionate on that topic, but many were relatively indifferent. What I have found to be more gratifying is to discover what makes a person tick; what passion drives them. And more often than not, it's something I can engage them on. This goes hand-in-hand with point No. 1, "Go to where people are". 

4. Form a personal relationship through one-on-one interaction

Both extroverts and introverts can get this wrong. Extroverts can claim the attention of a group of people and be satisfied with being the center-of-attention and introverts can retreat to the corner of a room, at least figuratively, and allow others to command the attention in a group. Neither is bad, but both miss the point of building friendship. The extrovert problem is that everybody yearns for personal attention. A girl doesn't like to receive the same amount of attention from a guy as all the other girls do from him. If she likes him, she wants more personal attention. (and the same goes for the other-way-around) And I firmly believe this applies to friendships between members of the same sex as well. So although you might be the king of the group, you must personally engage each person with whom you wish to befriend. The introvert problem is that their comfort with their own thoughts can render them immobile to that necessary personal contact. A concerted effort must be made to interact exclusively.

5. Generosity

The reason for this being last is because this is the key. Generosity is contagious. And it is good for the soul. It teaches you to come out of yourself and see the hopes and desires of someone else. This is the crowning friendship "virtue" because it is critical to the proper practice of the other four. If you do not have a generous comfort-zone, you won't go to those places where people are. If you're not generous with the topic of conversation, you will monologue and you won't be interested in what people are passionate about. Generosity is pivotal to building a strong personal relationship because you have devoted all your time and attention to one person. All these things contribute to strong personal friendships. 

"No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world." - Aristotle

Regular or Decaf?

Friends,

Yup, I miss those days. The days of sitting upon my "throne" in 309 and 310 St. Edward's Hall on the campus of Our Lady's University, enjoying the finest coffee that money could buy at the local Martin's grocery store and engaging friends in both deep and light conversation.

I have to admit, in all honesty, I've not had much success with blogs. My previous two didn't last very long primarily because (I believe) their scope was far too narrow. Nearly all social media in today's day in age is geared towards random (and mostly unnecessary) outbursts that happen to pop into the head of the author. (and I'm not actually referring to Twitter... ok, I guess maybe I really am)

This blog seeks to be broader in scope and cover a wider range of topics and (hopefully) succeed where my previous attempts at spilling my consciousness failed. Comments are encouraged and eagerly awaited!

For your viewing pleasure, to the right is a photograph taken from my personal archives. I'm pretty sure the skilled photographer was none other than Patrick, former two-time Station Manager of "The Sound of Notre Dame", WSND 88.9 FM. Portrayed in the picture is myself on the right and Kyle, "Servant of the Kingdom" on the left. Judging from the Chesteron volume I am reading, this was taken in my final semester at Notre Dame.