Sweet XVI

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Updates

With school winding down I've had time to do some needed updates to the site. I've added to and edited my links list, added a couple more clocks, and now if you go and look at my profile you can see a picture of yours truly.

Your Inner European is Irish!

Sprited and boisterous! You drink everyone under the table.

Who's Your Inner European?

I'm not quite sure why they chose that particular picture, you'd think they could find something better than someone's legs.

Finally Finished With Finals!!!

I just got done with my Statistics final!!! I get to head home tomorrow afternoon. Must finish packing.

A Little Something From WuzzaDem

Pope Benedict's Coat of Arms

From Ithkul over at Fighting the Good Fight.

Pope Willy

From the If Rednecks Ruled the World contest over at Worth 1000.

How U2 and Pope Benedict Intersect

Fr. Bryce has a nice piece up on the correlation of U2's song Drowning Man and Pope Benedict's mission.

No Sleep, Lots of Fun

So this is our let's try and fit in all the stuff we meant to do this year but haven't had time to do weekend. That means that I don't get much sleep. Yesterday evening I had to serve for the President's Club Dinner. That means that I got to dress in a tux, minus the jacket, and serve dinner to all of the people who give money to my school. I got done with that at 9:00. Esther came over to watch Ocean's Eleven while the rest of my floor went to the blacklight dance on the other end of campus. The movie got done early so we got to the dance at 11:15. I spent some time trying to teach John how to tango and swing, a futile effort to say the least. The dance wrapped up at 1:30, so we headed to Perkin's and stayed there until 2:45. Someone needed something from Walmart and, as it's open 24 hours, we spent and hour there. I finally got in at 4:00.
Today I had packing to do, and then my dorm's picnic. Since we hadn't gotten all of the dancing out of our systems last night we cleared a space in my building's cafeteria, set up a couple of laptops and had a much smaller dance, only about 6-9 of us at any given time.
Tomorrow I have mass with the nuns in the morning, brunch with my friends, my RA's last program and we're having a bonfire to burn my roommate's loftbed, the only fate it deserves as it's a deathtrap, and the subsequent water fight.
Five days left!

Viva Il Papa!

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has been elected as the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church and has taken the name Benedict XVI.

The First Round

And we don't have a new pope yet.
AP News

A Dolphin's Life is Far More Valuable Than a Human's

JIMMY AKIN.ORG: Force-Feeding Dolphins

In case you ever wondered whether our society treats animals better than it does human beings, wonder no more:

You see, "force-feeding" humans via feeding tubes who never legally directed that they be deprived of food and water is a Bad Thing. In some cases, even when written directives are left that allow for "force-feeding," it is a Good Thing to deprive humans of feeding tubes anyway. But what happens if Flipper cannot swallow? Do we do the "humane" thing and deprive him of nutrition? Of course not! Dolphins require much better treatment than what we currently consider to be good enough for humans:

"In early March an estimated 80 rough-toothed dolphins stranded themselves in the shallows off Marathon in the Florida Keys.

"Rescue workers and volunteers worked nonstop to help as many as they could to return to deep water. Some dolphins made it. About two dozen died.

"For 26 that clung to life there was only one chance for survival -- transfer to the Marine Mammal Conservancy rehabilitation facility on Key Largo, farther up the Keys from Marathon.

[...]

"In the pool [where the recuperating dolphins were kept], volunteers hold the dolphins and keep their blowholes out of the water so they can breathe.

"A veterinarian injects the mammals with vitamin E to help with muscle cramping. Unable to eat on their own, they are fitted with a feeding tube to get them the needed nutrition."

And so, roughly around the same period that Terri Schiavo was being dehydrated and starved to death by a Florida state judge's fiat, the great state of Florida was inserting feeding tubes into dolphins.

God have pity on us.

The Sound of McBrien

Clayton over at The Weight of Glory and Jeff Miller have both come up with songs about Fr. Richard McBrien set to tunes from The Sound of Music. Clayton has given us the wonderful McBrien and Dough, Rain, Me. And Jeff left us that old classic My Dissident Things.

I'm free, I'm free!!!

From theater that is. We closed the show and struck the set last night. It was a fun show, but if I never got caught on stage between scenes again that would be fine with me. I managed to get to bed at 1 this morning and got 14.5 straight hours of sleep. Yay!!!

Opening Night

We opened the spring play tonight. This year it's the murder mystery The Moustrap by Agatha Christie. It went really well for an opening night, no one missed their cues. We forgot to turn the fireplace on at the start of act II, but nobody noticed. I just have three more performances and the strike left to survive.

Absent

Sorry for being relatively absent recently, I've been really busy with the spring play here. It opens tomorrow so some of the stress from that will be gone. Also, I didn't feel like posting because all of the news has been so depressing lately. Since Easter break I've spent most of my time feeling spiritually and physically drained. But things are looking up again. Since it made me feel much better I thought I'd share the psalm from yesterday's night prayer.

Lord, listen to my prayer:
turn your ear to my appeal.
You are faithful, you are just; give answer.
Do not call your servant to judgment
for no one is just in your sight.

The enemy pursues my soul;
he has crushed my life into the ground;
he has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead, long forgotten.
Therefore my spirit fails;
my heart is numb within me.

I remember the days that are past:
I ponder all your works.
I muse on what your hand has wrought
and to you I stretch out my hands.
Like a parched land my soul thirsts for you.

Lord, make haste and answer;
for my spirit fails within me.
Do not hide your face
lest I become like those in the grave.

In the morning let me know your love
for I put my trust in you.
Make me know the way I should walk:
to you I lift up my soul.

Rescue me, Lord from my enemies;
I have fled to you for refuge.
Teach me to do your will
for you, O Lord, are my God.
Let your good spirit guide me
in ways that are level and smooth.

For your name's sake, Lord, save my life;
in your justice save my soul from distress.
~Psalm 143:1-11

The Jethro Tull Hymnal

Or at least that's what I think our recessional this morning was taken from. The song was called Singers Sing, and with the way Sister Agatha was playing the organ it sounded like something off of a Jethro Tull album or maybe a Moody Blues album.

Pope John Paul the Great
1920-2005

Réquiem ætérnam dona ei Dómine; et lux perpétua lúceat ei. Requiéscat in pace. Amen.