Liturgical Conference

This weekend I was able to attend a very enjoyable conference on the liturgy held up north. There were such prominent speakers as Monsignor Elliott of Australia (who had just arrived back from the Synod of Bishops in Rome), as well as Helen Hull Hitchcock (adoremus bulletin - women for faith & family, etc), and many others (including one of my favorite profs at the sem).

The conference was meant to honor the contribution of Cardinal Medina (he's the guy pictured to the left in red with the huge gold cross), who is definitely one of the "good guys" in terms of reclaiming liturgical integrity post Vatican II.

The conference had a nice balance between talks and free-time, and provided the best possible thing a conference can offer, that is, the wine and cheese party at the end of each night where you get to hob-nob with the speakers. There was an awesome pastor (born and raised in Ireland) of a parish in Texas that myself and a couple other fellows caroused with until the wee hours of the morn.

Conferences are awesome.

Almost over.

One more midterm tomorrow morning and then I'm free!

Till class next week.

Midterms.

Midterms... almost... over.

Go Go gadget time machine!

When the gods ordain... who is man to abstain?

Allrighty, so I've been ordered to list five of my idiosyncrasies. Hmm, first off I'd like to clarify that it's difficult to think of ones that aren't merely bad habits... oh well, perhaps alot of our idiosyncrasies are bad habits that we never got around to fixing? Then again, I guess like everyone else, I have alot of idiosyncrasies that I'm quite blind to, in which case, it would almost be better for other people to chirp up and start rattling them off for me.

Anyway, I'll see what I can do.

1. I Love Multitasking
I can't stand doing only one thing at once. I have to force myself to do one thing sometimes for the sake of sanity. If I'm watching TV, then I'm also doing something with my hands like eating or practicing my pen spinning. If I'm doing homework, I'm listening to music. If I'm eating, I'm reading a book. In class I write notes and play freecell. If I'm riding in a car with my family, I bring along some Hebrew flashcards. Right now I'm writing this post, and I have a load of clothes in the wash, and my laptop is ripping a CD, and I'm listening to music, and I'm downloading some episodes of a TV show, and I have four windows open on the computer for each of my email accounts, and I have drudge report and the national weather service running in the background. It's a sickness - if I'm not doing two things at least any given moment, I have to think of something else to do. The thing I probably fear most during a day is wasting time.

2. I don't listen in conversations.
Unless I am highly motivated, I don't listen during most conversations I have. I'll look the person in the eyes, and even voice affirmation to what they are saying, but I'm in a completely different place mentally. I know it causes annoyance in other people because apparently I give the impression that I am paying attention, then I won't remember the conversation. I guess in general I feel it's more rude to leave the conversation physically than mentally. I don't listen to my class lectures either if the professor starts to wander, I'll sometimes just switch into an auto mode where I type what the prof is saying on my laptop but cease really paying attention.

3. I need a certain enviroment to sleep.
I need perfect dark, with white noise (normally a very loud/large fan) and preferably very cold with lots of blankets to sleep well. If I don't, it can take hours for me to go to sleep. Giving up the day is just the hardest thing to do. It doesn't matter what I try - praying rosaries, counting sheep, it doesn't matter what I've done that day - amount of exercise, food, events of the day... it's impossible. In California in the fall I would sleep under a sheet, a blanket, two sleeping bags, a comforter and a fake goose blanket. It was great!

4. I'm particular about using cups.
I'm a stickler for using cups. I hate sharing anything with people, and will always try to find some cups instead of sharing a bottle. If I have had orange juice in a cup, I'll find a new one before pouring tea in it. I won't clean it either - that takes time and leaves a soapy taste most the time - new cup always. I'll sometimes amass 5 or 6 around my laptop on a study night.

5. I'm OCD in my interests and in my homework... also cleaning.
I think I'm kind of running out of ideas and just getting into my bad habits at this point. Anyway, I'm fairly OCD in my homework - I either do it in a marathon or don't do it at all. Neither do I clean until a point where I start and then I can't stop until everything is done. I go through interests fairly quickly, mostly because in general I'll get interested in something, try to find out everything I can about it quickly, and in so doing overwhelm myself with the scope of the endeavor or subject, and lose interest because, in my mind, if I can't do it well there isn't much point in doing it so-so.

Whew, enough about me. My clothes are clean and it's time to study. :-)

It's a girl's blogging world.

"You Are A: Roach!"

Disgusting as can be, roaches are parasitic, annoying, and ever-multiplying. Your creepy side is part of what make you a roach, as is your dislike of pest-killers! Roaches are never loving, but are known to be kept by 6 year old boys on occasion. These pathetic creatures are the most popular insect in the United States -- 83% of America households have at least 200 of you. Whether it is your annoying rasping sound when you rub your legs together, or your frightening appearance, you make a wonderful roach.

You were almost a: Rat or Wasp.
You were least like: A Kitten or a Pony.
_____________________________

Most of the people I know who regularly update their blogs are women. I hope this explains why so many of them have taken that dreadful quiz: "Which cute adorable wittle pet are you?" Well, this is a guy's blog, and I decided to take the quiz too. The above are my results, my real ones.

okay, apparently I'm a monkey.

Bullseye.

Hurricane Wilma will strike the Florida Panhandle sometime tonight, probably as a category 2 or 3 storm. Our prayers will be with everyone still in the area, especially those at AMU, which I understand is in a category 3 floodplain and to the south of the eye's track, which is where the strongest winds are present.

Could this be the one?

Tropical depression #25 has formed... destined to become Hurricane Alpha if it stays organized, which would make this the most active atlantic hurricane season ever recorded, and we're not even close to the end of the season in november.

In local news, I'm studying this weekend for 5 midterms next week (already had one last week). I took a break today and brought my little brother to see the new movie "Doom" ... Don't follow in my footsteps, even if you have a bloodthirsty younger brother, trust me - buy him some "instant fake blood mix" instead - he won't know the difference and you'll be saved a very annoying 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Also, my dad is getting flown out to Los Angelas next week to tape a segment for the Dr. Phil show, that's kind of cool ... 16 million people are going to get told the straight truth about annulments, and that's a good thing.

UPDATE 1: It's already become Tropical Storm Alpha: welcome to the reign of the Greek Storms. :-)

UPDATE 2: Quotes are good: "The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come." - Peter Ustinov

I love one day fads

Okay, so apparently the latest "one day fad" is to go into the google search bar and type your name and then the word "needs" and show the first seven results you get (mine are awesome!):

Thomas needs proof
Thomas needs help!
Thomas needs work
Thomas needs security and prefers the status quo.
Thomas needs a drink!
Thomas needs a very structured learning enviroment...
Thomas needs 4-6 weeks off.

(http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22thomas+needs%22&btnG=Search)

Times like these.

So, I can't help but notice that throughout this semester, and come to think of it, previous ones as well, there exists a distortion of the space-time continuum in reference to the evenings I have homework to do. It manifests itself somewhat like this:

6:12 PM I finish my dinner and then check my email or somesuch trifle.
6:34 PM I watch a movie, not even all of a movie, but just a little bit.
7:20 PM I sit down at my computer "to do my homework."
12:35 PM I realize in horror I still have a tremendous amount of homework to do.

Okay, there's the fact pattern - for all to see. Where did 5 hours of my life go?! WHERE?! I'm very sure I didn't efficiently and orderly complete my homework, because I only had about two hours' worth... goodness, will I ever find the solution to this quandary?

*sigh*

Too Cool for School!

Hey gang, I found this awesome quiz if you have 15 seconds to spare - Feminales welcome!



You are Pope John Paul II. You are a force to be
reckoned with.

Which Twentieth Century Pope Are You?
brought to you by Quizzila

What's wrong with this picture?

Or to put it another way:

What's right with this picture? 

The Exterminatrixitrator!!

So, I was cleaning out my hardrive tonight and found the picture that I've quickly installed on the sidebar to the right... the sad thing is that this means I've started to customize my blog outside the normal parameters - which means I'll probably start compulsively tinkering with other things on the page...

Incredible meditation.

In my Patrology class I often come across spectacular quotations, however one from today's reading was particularly moving. It comes from an anonymous Greek homilist of the third century. Don't be afraid to slow down your reading in order to appreciate the breadth of images being recalled and employed, especially in the last two parapraphs or so:

"This tree is my everlasting salvation. It is my food, a shared banquet.
Its roots and the spread of its branches are my own roots and extension. In its
shade, as in a breeze, I luxuriate and am cared for. Its shade I take for my
resting place; in my flight form oppressive heat it is a source of refreshing
dew for me."

Its blossoms are my own, my utter delight its fruits, saved from the
beginning for my harvest. Food for my hunger and well-spring for my thirst, it
is also a covering for my nakedness, with the spirit of life as its leaves. Far
from me henceforth the fig leaves!

Fearful of God, I find it a place of safety; when unsteady, a source of
stability. In the face of a a struggle I look to it as a prize; in victory, my
trophy. It is the narrow path, the restricted road. It is Jacob's ladder, the
passage of angels, at whose summit the Lord is affixed.

This tree, the plant of immortality, rears from earth to reach as high as
heaven, fixing the Lord between heaven and earth. It is the foundation and
stabilizer of the universe, undergirding the world that we inhabit. It is the
binding force of the world and holds together all the varieties that human life
encompasses.

It is riveted into a unity by the indivisble bonds of the Spirit, so that
its connection with God can never be severed. Brushing heaven with its uttermost
branches, it remains fixed in the earth, and between the two points, its huge
hands completely enfold the stirring of the air. As a single whole it penetrates
all things and all places."

Can you imagine hearing this kind of meditation from the pulpit every Sunday? And not some stupid "When I was a kid I remember christmas morning was sometimes a dissapointment, but I knew that my aunt harriet would always get me what I wanted no matter what" personal antidote drudgery?

Hurricane Wilma...

Hurricane Alpha will be next.

(my condolences to anyone in Wilma's path...)

UPDATE 1: My extreme condolences to anyone in Wilma's path as this hurricane is both the fastest-growing storm and the strongest ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin...

It's good to be the king...

You're the Pink Panther. Suave and sophisticated,
you enjoy your superiority and your natural
grace. Though to some, this attitude makes you
appear arrogant, most people are attracted by
it rather than turned off. You especially enjoy
being in the social spotlight. It just doesn't
get any better than this.


Which famous feline are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

*pink panther theme plays in the background - then stops*

sadly, im like 15% of the people who took this quiz.

...

oh well.

*resumes playing pink panther theme*

Hold the phone...

So, I'm surfing the net, and I come across this news caption:

"EXCLUSIVE: ABC Investigation Finds Gaping Lapses in Security at Nuclear Reactors"

... now hold on a minute... we have nuclear reactors on college campuses? I've seen campus security, and I've met and had sustained conversations with college-aged people. Now, the question: why, again, are we trusting nuclear reactors to these people? I remember being in biology class and we weren't trusted to use rubbing alcohol ...

for the enquiring mind: http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/LooseNukes/story?id=1206529&page=1

Photo batch #1 - WYD

This is so cool - I've finally figured out how to interface my photos with my blog! Now to make up for lost time... the first one (above) is me standing in a wonderfully serene courtyard annexed to the cathedral of Aachen (in the background) - this is where Charlemagne, the first holy roman emperor, setup his court in 800AD. Awesome place...



Sean and I enjoying the sunset in Cologne Germany, with the cathedral in the background.



This is me, in my natural habitat, enjoying a perfect summer afternoon in a cafe in Europe with a river in the background and having just welcomed the Pope to the city...



... and this is the riverside where I (and... a few hundred thousand other people) greeted the Pope.



Walking one of the pilgrimage routes to WYD, wearing my awesome Cardinal Ratzinger t-shirt no less...



Everyone has a picture of themselves in neuschwanstein, but how many of them took it from the cliff overlooking the tourist bridge? Well, probably a few - but at least I'm in the smaller group.



Me enjoying the ambiance (and beverages) of the most famousest beerhall in Germany - the Haufbrauhouse in Munich.



Serving Mass in Cologne Germany for Cardinal Leveda (left of presbyter), who is taking-over Pope Benedict XVI's former job as head of CDF while he was still Cardinal Ratzinger. I'm on the far right (with the super bright New Balance shoes...). It was cool meeting all the Cardinals and Bishops that were around for WYD.

Okay, I think 8 pictures is enough for now. Besides the need to do my homework just moved from "urgent" to "desperate"...

story of my life.

Monday and I'm busy doing the homework I should have done last friday. :-)

People you meet at the Grocery Store

Hey all, this is a little work-in-progress of mine that I started last night - who knows? someday it might be funny ...

"People you meet at the Grocery Store"

We've all been there. The Grocery Store. Filled with food, and people. Sometimes they are hard to tell apart. In any case, I've noticed over the years that people in a grocery store can be broken down into 10 types or so - find out which one you are!!

• The First-Time Parents: These are the people who actually use those ridiculous grocery carts shaped like a truck (or a plane or who-knows-what) for their nine month old first child and buy those stupid Gerber brand bottles of baby formula - news flash: kids somehow lived prior to Gerber. The father is still interesting in spending time with his family, but already is secretly hoping to be caught doing so by his boss. The wife is blissfully unaware that in a matter of years she will become the Frazzled Mother of Four. The baby will have forgotten the entire experience of going to the grocery store within an hour after leaving. The trauma of being strapped to an airplane-shaped grocery cart with no working controls at ground level will create an eventual need for psychological therapy - no high-profile transatlantic business trips for you, billy!

• The Frazzled Mother of Four: She uses two carts – the first one rigged into a mobile prison house for whatever kids she can keep incarcerated, and a second for the groceries. The FMofF spends the entirety of the trip yelling at, chasing after, and cleaning up the kids. Then she returns home. Then she returns back to the grocery store for the other half of her grocery list that she forgot. Then she returns home. Then she returns back to the grocery store to claim child #3 from the lost & found.

• The Health Food Freak: How do you recognize this one? He or she is the only one wearing a pleated earth-brown skirt, a necklace of sea-shells, and a t-shirt sporting a bright blue caption that reads "save the north-western atlantic sea otters from pulminary arrest syndrome." A laborious expression on their leathery face continuously, the HFF spends most of its time reading the nutritional contents on the back of food products. And they understand them, too. The HFF will spend 20-25 minutes deciding whether to buy soy-enhanced tofu-cream or tofu-enhanced soy-extract, and then go across the street to the specialty health food store and complain about life “on the other side.”

• The “Live-Ins”: This is the couple that is clearly living together, but not married. For them, purchasing food is a delicate balancing act of budgets, a battle-ground of egos and emotions, and an attempt to avoid the landlord who is doubtlessly knocking on their apartment at this moment. A measurement of the stability and overall health of the relationship (read here – time since relationship has started) can be determined by a variety of factors, such as whether they are using two carts or one, whether one person is clearly buying all the food or not. Danger: a serious mishap in the grocery-store sphere can and sometimes does relegate the male side of the relationship back to the “one week stubble bachelor” position and the woman back to the “only public appearance today” situation.

• “Only-Appearance-Today-Woman”: These are the women who inexplicably arrive at the grocery store to buy two bottles of Starbucks vanilla frappuccino, and quiet obviously have spent about half-an-hour to forty-five minutes preparing for the venture (if not more). Warning: “OATW” normally ends up being asked for her number by “One week stubble bachelor.”

• “One-Week-Stubble-Bachelor”: We’ve all seen it – this is the excuse for those “buy 40 cups of ramen for $10 dollars” specials, the “Buy 10 cases of Budweiser for $80” specials. This is the reason America is losing the war on illiteracy. The OWSB arrives in his t-shirt and pajama pants, probably hung-over, definitely smelling, and proceeds to acquire the two things that keep him going in between drunken binges and failed attempts at picking up “Only-Appearance-Today-Women”: food and beer.

• The Coupon Granny: Coupon Granny spends 30 minutes locating the “Buy 6 cans of applesauce get two free” special in Aisle 5 and another hour and forty minutes locating the coupon for that special while she is checking out as well as counting out $16.23 cents in change… including those really stupid denomination coins that were discontinued in 1911, like the hay-penny. The 8 cans of applesauce, on the other hand, will spend the entirety of their existence in the pantry of Coupon Granny’s house.

• The Triad of Teenage Girls: Inexplicably present in grocery stores, one can only pray that they didn’t have access to their own cars to bring themselves to the store. Everything done by Triad of Teenage Girls annoys the average person around them (with one exception). Arguments over price, degree of fat content in food to be purchased, and the probable number of girlfriends Heath Ledger has had in the last 3 months will be discussed 2 octaves above decency and 10 decibels beyond tolerance. Their arrival can be anticipated by the sound of flipflops. They will pay with credit cards that have a higher spending limit that this author will ever have.

• The “Cool-Kid-Stuck-With-Mom”: The cool kid, whose trip is spent with the horror of being spotted in public by one of his friends while shopping with his mom, will spend the entirety of his trip thinking of ways to assert his independence. Tension is caused here by the fact that, while he is distinctly aware of the presence of Triad-of-Teenage-Girls three aisles down, (who of course, wouldn’t you know it – happen to attend his school), PCKSWM has no way of financing food for himself. He will make random comments to compensate for his insecurity, such as “Boy, it’s nice buying food with you mom, it’s like old times, before I moved into my 12th floor townhouse as part of my internship for International Oil and Money, er, I mean Electric.”

• The “Embarrased-To-Be-Near-Food-Fat-Person”: Poor soul, the clinically obese person is distinctly aware of the spectacle he is creating by the mere fact that he is in a location traditionally dedicated to the purchasing (and eventual consumption) of food items. He spends large portions (no pun intended) of his time in the vegetable aisle, then being unable to bear the thought that people will think he is dieting, and so admitting to his problem, he will then move to a safer aisle, like the one where they keep dog leashes. +++

Wow, that was a long one. My condolences to anyone who read it all. Somehow it felt alot funnier at about 3am last night when I first thought of the idea. Maybe it would be better as a stand-up routine... or, actually ... far, far worse. :-)

Whether to discuss Weather?

Okay, so I'm posting about the weather again, but hey, it's not everyday you see a hurricane headed for spain:



After this oddball hurricane Vince, we just have to get through hurricane Wilma ... and then it's hurricane Alpha! I still gotta decide how to commemorate that. :-)

update 1: oh, and for a nod to our fellow brothers-in-christ, apparently the former host of the TV 700 Club thinks these hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes are signs of the endtimes:

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46737

update 2: hmm, this guy thinks it's the end of the world as well... coincidence?! I think not.

keeping things in perspective:

Photo caption: "John Mainstone of the University of Queensland, Australia poses before the 2005 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mainstone won the Physics award for research on globs of congealed black tar dripped slowly through funnels(AFP/John Mottern ) "

... my question is - "who says the Aussies aren't being productive?!"

and, oh yeah, a comment: give people tenure and these are the kind of research projects they'll start turning in at the yearly faculty meetings. "So Bob, what did you do this this year?" "Oh me? I documented tar dripping slowly through a funnel ... yeah ... results would suprise you."

amused am i

lol, so I accidently uploaded the previous post... but I think I'm going to keep it up anyway.

This weekend is going to be interesting because two of my siblings have their co-birthday on sunday, so I think we are going to go see the newest wallace & gromit movie (hoorah!) with the kiddles (as I call them).

In other news, I was thinking about how many more years of my life I'll probably be spending in a classroom, and after considering the outlook, I've decided to start a new and wonderful hobby to pass the time and maybe even impress some of my classmates eventually .......... pen spinning!

Now, before you laugh (okay, too late I guess), check out this neat little website: http://www.pentrix.com/videos/videolist.php

And don't let the title "Pen Spinning Revolution" phase you, it's a very peaceful persuit I'm told. :-)

s

Monday, Monday

So, I decided that in beginning my homework for this week, I'd start by counting up how many pages I have to complete, here's the breakdown:

Method & Pentateuch: 20 pages (12 of those are pages from the bible, so that's a bit more work involved, plus I have a one-page "statement of intent" due for my term paper)
Theological Methodology: 98 pages (basically the entirety of Fides et Ratio, which is not too tough. I also have background readings to start doing for my term paper)
Hebrew: 12 pages (plus written exercises for two chapters)
Patrology 2: 69 pages (coolest reading I do each week is for this class)
Concepts in Moral Theology: 61 pages (We're doing Veritatis Splendor and working through a textbook, good stuff, but nothing new)
Nature and Mission of the Church: 15 pages (least challenging class so far)

Grand total: 263 pages.

Frankly, after being a literature major, this isn't too tough. Oh yeah, I'm also working 6 hours a week in the library and starting my student-assistanship for Fr. Jones. But still, I can deal with this. :)