Wally Jr.

@lukeburgis I'm a recent convert (Easter Vigil '24), the growing mimetic weirdness that you're mentioning has been unsettling and hard to put my finger on -- it's definitely made me feel lost at times. - could i dm you?

I am relatively confident that if my 2008 self had not had a personal encounter with Christ and seen the beauty and necessity of his Church—and had instead been exposed to the mimetic weirdness of the present, Vanity Fair articles about recent converts, Free Press reporting about the 'vibe' shift around being one etc—that I would have been freaked out or fled, asking questions about my own motivation and the unreality of appearances. If you're in a similar position—at the threshold, and yet struggling to deal with all of the strange discourse that you're seeing—you can reach out to me personally and I will make time to talk to you, meet with you, and try to help it make sense. It pains me to see the discourse because of the massive disservice it does to souls earnestly seeking. Dozens have already written me, but I feel I need to do something more. And I will do my part to cut through the noise. Obviously I do not have infinite time, and I don't know how many people will actually take me up on this, but i will promise you that I will do my best.

@Andrewnsnyder Reading @AnthonyEsolen “Nostalgia: Going Home In A Homeless World” is a must read

I love where I am in life and I look forward to what is ahead. But man, have I been strangely heartsick for the late 90s/early 2000s lately.

@lukeburgis I’m in Northern VA and this has been part of my lexicon for a while.

Are people that frequently say “100 percent” to questions or interject into conversations coded to some particular state or region? I have encountered 4-5 people who say this over the past few months. Please help.

@Andrewnsnyder Might it be fair to say the epitome of Josef Pieper’s definition of ‘leisure’?

Who is Tom Bombadil? Tolkien tells us in Letter 153: "He is then an 'allegory', or an exemplar, a particular embodying of pure (real) natural science: the spirit that desires knowledge of other things, their history and nature, because they are 'other' and wholly independent of the enquiring mind, a spirit coeval with the rational mind, and entirely unconcerned with 'doing' anything with the knowledge: Zoology and Botany not Cattle-breeding or Agriculture . Even the Elves hardly show this : they are primarily artists. Also T.B. exhibits another point in his attitude to the Ring, and its failure to affect him. You must concentrate on some pan, probably relatively small, of the World (Universe), whether to tell a tale, however long, or to learn anything however fundamental – and therefore much will from that 'point of view' be left out, distorted on the circumference, or seem a discordant oddity. The power of the Ring over all concerned, even the Wizards or Emissaries, is not a delusion – but it is not the whole picture, even of the then state and content of that pan of the Universe."

@lukeburgis Where is that Varden quote from? Currently reading “The Shattering of Loneliness” from him.

The theme of the next CLUNY Conference, the successor to last year's Novitate, will be Metanoia. "I was comfortable, engaged in absorbing work, free to direct it as I chose in a city I loved, surrounded by kind, interesting people. Yet I was consumed by emptiness within. Without being able to say why, I felt the life I was living did not correspond to what I was supposed to live. I had an uncomfortable sense of play-acting, of being a fraud, simply by virtue of getting on with my life as it was." —Dom Eric Varden Follow @ClunyInstitute for updates when they become available.

@Andrewnsnyder And also all those CS Lewis books with the “Live Laugh Love” font. This whole set of covers need to be remade, as they are the most popular versions of his books.

Under Project 2025, The Discarded Image will be given more appropriate cover art.

@thecpgguy What kind of candy did he try? I kept hearing it was some dtc brand

In 2024… A 7 year old named the Rizzler can ruin the CPG Brand you raised $20M just by saying “DOOM!” An entire political party thinks a person Named Bad Bunny can swing their vote. An entire political party thinks a podcast between the old host of the Apprentice and the old host of Fear Factor can swing their vote. A $500B media company had to censor said podcast because it was too popular. You can become a millionaire by posting silly videos on a software named after the sound a clock makes. You can pay a 15 year old thousands of dollars to learn how to use the software named after the sound a clock makes. Startup founders are looking for generational talent for their companies by posting “Hiring Cracked Engineers” The Yankees came back from being down 3-0 to win the World Series in 7 games. The Costco hotdog is still $1.50. Honestly, pretty amazing.

You need to be hootin’. You need to be hollerin’.

@iiiitsandrea Any other product that’s ripe to license Swedish fish and Welch’s Grape juice to slap on it?

Basically this is over $1B acquisition but it’s done over a 3 years period…

@lukeburgis I attended Novitate last year (it was great!) but I’m still waiting on being able to re-listen to Thiel’s speech. I found it very captivating at the time but have forgotten most of the points he made. Is there anywhere to listen or watch?

@Cernovich I’m reminded of how a disproportionate amount of people can’t comprehend trade offs and being able to see two choices simultaneously.

This doesn’t mean JD isn’t the best choice. He was. It’s that many of you have a Candyland mindset. The REAL BOARD is a mess and every play has second and third order consequences, not all of them good.

@wholemars I feel this way too, but I also realized when we (I assume you grew up in 90s/early 00's) grew up, having a PC meant everything you did on the computer didn't carry with you throughout the day like it is with smartphones and 24/7 alerts. @AdamSinger had a post one time about this

When I was five years old I woke up on my Birthday and my Dad had put a brand new PC in my room (he built it himself). I was allowed to use it whenever I wanted. When the iPhone came out, we bought one and my Dad said “we’ll hook it up to your phone number…” My Mom took it away at first, because my report card wasn’t good at the time, but I eventually got it. Having access to a computer from a young age eventually made me a programmer and I started up startups in high school and college. My career today probably would not be possible if I wasn’t on the internet from a young age. Parents don’t want to see their kids on the phone all the time or developing an unhealthy social media addiction but there is a balance and a lot of positive that can come from technology too. I will be giving my child access to computers young, with supervision.

Free business idea: Plot of land where kids can go and just dig in dirt and move rocks. Just have 20 shovels on a rack Wheel barrows everywhere. Picnic benches with a small concession stand Charge $10.

@FischerKing64 *Me reading Tolkien describing Frodo & co's travels through Middle Earth -- spectacular imagery and descriptions yet I have no context for them. I find myself looking up most of the words he's using to describe the natural landscape.

Reading literature requires having stock images in your mind - experiences you can draw from - as you read physical descriptions of the author. Reading a novel set in the country is harder if you’ve only lived in an urban or suburban environment. The same holds true for relating to social scenes. You can’t picture it, can’t relate to it, if the author gives you something you’ve never come close to seeing. Add to this that literature is not really possible to teach anyway, and the people teaching it are ever less capable. The impact on the quality of new fiction must be enormous over time. Thoughts on reading modern fiction and comparing it to other work from at least 100 years past.

@bfcarlson The Sims original PC Soundtrack

I have a problem. The music I love to listen to is at least 200 years old. Lyrics do nothing for me. (My brain cannot make sense of words and music at the same time.) What new music is worth listening to, purely on the beauty (yes, beauty) of the music alone?

@agneswickfields Imagine living through the civil war and also listening to a Sinatra record

i feel like the craziest generation to live in would be if you’re born in the late 1880s and travel in covered wagon as a child and then when you’re very old in 1969 you see a man walk on the moon on tv

@Andrewnsnyder I appreciate it. I'm sure your course will be very informative.

Certainly. In short, he views paganism as an expression of desires for that which is only fulfilled in Christ. This is why pagan stories have echoes of themes that we see in substance in the gospel. What paganism (at its best) tries to do is not in itself bad, but it is bad in that it stops too short.

If you are enrolled in the upcoming Lewis study, be sure to check the first (and currently only available) module for the Discord link. We are a month away, so the chat will start up in the near future!

@StarVFX_ Hit

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@AJA_Cortes youtu.be/wKnkQdsITUE?si…

RECOMMEND ME VIDEO GAME SOUNDTRACKS I’m never going to play the game, but I know games have some the best cinematic soundtracks of the past 20 years What are the best ones?