Merry Christmas!

Dashboard Confessional

Worth 1000 had a contest for literal depictions of band names, here's the Dashboard Confessional.
And here's another one.

Throw the Cow Over the Fence Some Hay

Just a badly phrase sentence about someone who got scammed by a "seer" who charged her for an exorcism.

"the 44-year-old was told she was possessed by a young woman who read her palm at a Christmas market."

I didn't know that young women could possess people.

A Musical Game

Step 1: Get your playlist (or Itunes library) together, put it on random, and play.
Step 2: Write down the first line from the first 30 songs that play or close to it.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song the lines come from. (Title and Composer/Artist)
Step 4: Cross out the songs when someone guesses correctly

NO GOOGLING FOR ANSWERS!!! <----Punishable by DEATH
1. Feelin' down n' dirty, feelin' kinda mean.
2. Love is tragic.
3. Feels like you made a mistake.
4. Hey Jack, I know what you're thinkin'.
5. She never mentions the word addiction.
6. The power of love is a curious thing.
7. I need an alarm system in my house.
8. Any way you want it.
9. I don't want to be the crutch.
10. All around my hat I will wear the green willow.
11. We come from the land of ice and snow.
12. She got out of town.
13. She rolls the window down.
14. Watch your words.
15. Enid we never really knew each other anyway.
16. Desperate for changing
17. There's a man going around in this town selling lies.
18. Well I want you to notice.
19. I'll wait for you 'til I turn blue.
20. It ain't no joke I'd like to buy the world a toke.
21. Well our straw just broke.
22. In the afterlife.
23. You know that feeling you get?
24. My Maria, don't you know I've come a long, long way?
25. I'm just a gigolo
26. Flew in from Miami Beach BOAC.
27. Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move.
28. Baby, do you understand me now?
29. Saturday morning alone and barely feeling.
30. And when you wanted me, I came to you.

Number 28 is off of a soundtrack, it's not the original artist, so you don't have to guess the artist. I suppose I shall tag any, and all of the Whappsters, Victor, Holly, Jenny, and Mattias.

There is one on here that, if anyone but Matt gets, I will be truly amazed.

From the Sober Sophomore

Senior Citizen Ice Cream

1 cup pitted prunes -- (about 6 ounces) 1/3 cup armagnac 1 cup sugar 1 tbs cornstarch 3 lg. egg yolks 1 1/2 cup milk 1 tsp vanilla 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate -- chopped coarse 1 1/2 cup well-chilled heavy cream

Preparation

In a saucepan combine the prunes and 1/3 cup water and simmer the mixture for 5 to 7 minutes, or until almost all of the liquid is evaporated. Remove the pan from the heat, add the Armagnac, and let the prunes macerate for 3 hours. Drain the prunes in a sieve set over a bowl, reserving the liquid, and chop them coarse. In a bowl whisk together the sugar, the cornstarch, the yolks, and a pinch of salt, add the milk, scalded, in a stream, whisking constantly with a wooden spoon. Boil the custard, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes, add the vanilla and the chocolate, and whisk the mixture until the chocolate is melted. Transfer the custard mixture to a metal bowl set in a larger bowl of ice and cold water and let it cool, stirring. Stir in the cream and the prunes with the reserved liquid and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Makes about 1 1/2 quarts.

It was actually a dead tie between him and Neo

You scored as Batman, the Dark Knight. As the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman is a vigilante who deals out his own brand of justice to the criminals and corrupt of the city. He follows his own code and is often misunderstood. He has few friends or allies, but finds comfort in his cause.

Which Action Hero Would You be? v. 2.0
(Hat tip to Fr. Jim)

Goodnight Moon - The Politically Correct Version

"Goodnight Moon," the children's classic by Margaret Wise Brown, has gone smoke-free. In a newly revised edition of the book, which has lulled children to sleep for nearly 60 years, the publisher, HarperCollins, has digitally altered the photograph of Clement Hurd, the illustrator, to remove a cigarette from his hand ... .

"It is potentially a harmful message to very young kids," (Kate) Jackson (editor in chief of HarperCollins Children's Books) said, "and it doesn't need to be there."


In the great green room there was ...

A cordless telephone

And a red balloon, non-helium and securely tethered out of toddler reach

And a picture of the cow jumping over the moon, with a warning label never to try this with cattle or indeed any animals without parental supervision

And there were three little bears, roaming freely in their native habitat, secure in their endangered-species status

And two little neutered kittens

And a pair of mittens, purchased from a Cambodian collective

And a little toyhouse with all potential choking hazards fastened in place by six-inch bolts

And a young and humanely captured mouse

Goodnight room, which is more than many Burkina Faso children have

Goodnight moon and all moon-related goddesses

Goodnight solar-powered clocks

And goodnight sustainably manufactured hemp socks

Goodnight synthetic tortoise shell comb and brush

Goodnight anybody who has ever been made to feel like a "nobody" by a rigidly patriarchal society

Goodnight organic whole-grain GMO-free oatmeal mush

And goodnight to the lady of mature years seeking an environment conducive to thought

Goodnight stars, which remind us that we are not alone in this cosmos and must henceforth redouble our stewardship efforts

Goodnight air, which we have done so much to pollute with our inhuman sport utility vehicles and our Weber grills

Goodnight all noises in the immediate vicinity ...

... with the exception of the white-noise machine, the Haydn concerto loop, and the four-gallon cool-mist humidifier with the evaporative wick filter that was changed only last weekend

Goodnight to anybody whose feelings might have been injured by not being included above.

Written by Louis Bayard, orginally ran in the New York Times on Nov. 17, 2005.
(It took me a while to track down the credit for this piece of work)

(Hat Tip to Dad)

Dead Man Walking

Yep, you read that right, we're performing Dead Man Walking for our fall theatre performance. We opened the show this evening and will be running through Sunday. Tonight's performance went exceptionally well for an opening night, hardly any glitches at all. We had a good number of people, in our nearly sold out audience, crying at the end of the show. Since it requires a cast of at least 25 people we, for once, have actors from a diverse range of departments and such. We got several of the football players to play prison guards, they really are good at this theatre thing, even if they do hate the makeup.

Glad I'm Not One of Bob Geldof's Daughters

otherwise I'd have an atrocious name such as Fifi Trixibelle, Tiger Lily, Pixie, or Peaches. I know americans give their kids some truly odd names, but these four really take the cake.

I do suppose though that my friend Matt thought that Pesitlence, Flatulence and (well I don't recall the third one) were good names for girls. I never have heard any particularily odd guys names, wonder why that is?

When Theatre Geeks(or Greeks) Dress Up

MetalSmiths

It's been decided that for Halloween, Andy(my most favoritest freshman) and I will be dressing up as Melpomene and Thalia. I even get to go as the happy one!

What I've Learned So Far

Since midterms here are coming to a close I figured I could share with you the wealth of things I've learned so far this semester.

1. Democritus and the Atomists isn't the name of a rock band -- but it should be.

2. You can actually make decent tasting lactose-free alfredo sauce.

3. The North cafeteria ladies love us more than the South cafeteria ladies do.

4. If you don't have a roommate to make you clean your room, it just doesn't happen.

5. Anyone who would letter space lowercase type would steal sheep.

6. I can read a Michael Crichton book in four hours flat.

7. Constantine makes a good teaching tool -- really it does!

8. I apparently dress like a nerd. (Yeah big suprise there).

9. Our lungs have a surface area equivalent to a tennis court.

10. Pickled okra should not be considered food.

11. HONClBrIF.

12. Tara thinks that I'm the most normal person she's met here -- she obviously doesn't see enough of me.

13. Macs are better than PCs.

14. VO2 max is the maximal amount of energy the body can utilize while exercising. It's measured in mL/kg/min.

15. Facebook is highly addictive.

F.Y.I.

Thanks to fall break, I'll be back in Minnesota this weekend. Maybe I'll even have time to post something.

Flash Blocker

This is the greatest thing, short of Firefox, I have ever installed on my computer. It blocks all of those great flash banners that can make pages take forever to load. If you need to see them you just click on the flash logo that shows up in their space and it will load them right up.

And if for some odd reason you don't have Firefox, go get it!

Since I'm Already Thinking Cold Thoughts

Grand Marnier Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 tsp. Unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup Grand Marnier
3 cups Non-fat milk
3 tbls. Non-fat dry milk
1/3 cup Sugar
1 tsp. Grated orange zest
2 Eggs
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
3 medium Oranges

Preparation:

Sprinkle gelatin over Grand Marnier. let stand until softened. Combine 2 cups milk, non-fat dry milk, sugar and orange zest in saucepan. Heat to simmer. Add a little hot mixture to egg substitute and return all to pan. Heat and stir until slightly thickened. Stir in gelatin mixture just until dissolved. Stir in remaining milk. Let cool to room temperature. Stir in vanilla. Process in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. To serve, spoon ice cream into orange shells and garnish with orange zest, if desired. For six orange shells cut three medium oranges in half crosswise. Gently juice oranges, being careful not to damage shells. Reserve juice for another use. Scoop any remaining membrane from inner shells. Chill until serving time.

Winter Starts Early Out Here

At the moment it's 43 degrees outside with winds howling between 24 and 34 mph, making it feel like 30 degrees out there. Tomorrow's high is supposed to be 39 with heavy snowfall. Yippee!

Chocolate Whiskey Ice Cream

This isn't quite what the Old Oligarch was looking for, but you don't have to cook the alcohol off, so it's a bit better than the last recipe. I'm really not sure if having the chocolate in it sounds all that good to me.

7 Large Egg Yolks
1 c sugar
1 c Heavy Cream
2 c Cold milk
1 Vanilla bean, split
6 oz chocolate chips
1/2 c Jack Daniel's Whiskey

Combine egg yolks and sugar in small bowl until smooth and lemon colored. Place cream, milk and vanilla bean in small saucepan over medium heat and bring to boil. Immediately remove from heat and cool slightly. Remove vanilla bean and add a small amount of cream to the yolks, stirring briskly. Slowly add yolks to remaining cream, stirring constantly. Strain through cheesecloth or a fine sieve. Melt chocolate over hot water in the top half of a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir into cream mixture and strain once more. Stir in whiskey and chill. When well chilled, pour
into an ice cream maker. Makes about 1 1/2 quarts.

Y'know, I'm getting the feeling that I'm the only person, with comments enabled, that hasn't been Sean Whited yet.

Avast!

It's Talk like a pirate day!

Happy Birthday to Jess

See, I didn't forget.

Jameson Ice Cream

I figured this would make a suitable follow up for the Guinness Ice Cream.

Jameson Ice Cream

100 ml (3 1/2 fl oz) Jameson Irish Whiskey
140 ml (1/4 pint) full-fat milk
285 ml (1/2 pint) double cream
6 medium egg yolks
55 g (2oz) clear honey

1. Heat a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add 75 ml (2 3/4 fl oz) of the whisky and flame to burn off the alcohol. Once the flames have died down, stir in the milk and cream. While this is coming to a boil, whisk the egg yolks and honey together with a standing or handheld mixer until they have doubled in size and become fluffy.

2. Take the milk and cream off the heat and pour half onto the egg yolks. Whisk until combined, then put to one side.

3. Put the remainder of the milk and cream back onto the heat and, when it is boiling, add the egg mixture, turn down the heat and whisk constantly for approximately 1 minute.

4. Pour into a large bowl to lower the mixture's temperature and stir in the last 25 ml (3/4 fl oz) whiskey. Cover and chill.

5. Once thoroughly cool, churn in an ice-cream machine. Alternatively, pour into a freezerproof container, put in the freezer and beat every 20 minutes until set

Best served with Coke as a float, melted into coffee, or plain.

First Migraine Ever

Which means y'all 'll just have to wait a while for me to tell you about school.

It's a Girl!

Congratulations to Mark and Denise on the birth of their daughter Kathryn Grace. I'm pretty sure that even though they did spell Kathryn the right way she's not named after me, but you never know...

A Nerd in the World of the Technologically Illiterate

While I've noticed this summer that I'm a bit more technologically informed than everyone else that I work with, I hadn't realized how much until this past Thursday. A customer came in wearing the above t-shirt. I got the joke immediately, laughed about it, and told him that I liked his shirt. After he'd left, the rest of my co-workers had to ask me what was so funny about his shirt. Was it that the person who wrote the shirt obviously couldn't count? And why on earth did I like? I just had to tell them that he could count just fine and that their confusion answered their second question for me.

Guinness Stout Ice Cream

Ingredients needed:

• 12 ounces Guinness stout
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups whole milk
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
• 6 egg yolks
  

In a large saucepan, simmer the Guinness until reduced by 3/4 in volume, about 8 minutes.

Combine the cream, milk, and sugar in a medium, heavy saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the pan and add the vanilla bean halves. Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. Remove from the heat.

Beat the egg yolks in a medium bowl. Whisk 1 cup of the hot cream into the egg yolks. Gradually add the egg mixture in a slow, steady stream, to the hot cream. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and reaches 170 degrees F. on an instant-read thermometer, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and strain through a fine mesh strainer into a clean container. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing down against the surface to keep a skin from forming. Chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Remove from refrigerator and add the Guinness reduction, whisking until well blended. Pour into the bowl of an ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until ready to serve.

Yield: 1 quart

Mind you this recipe came from Emeril, which proves I'm not entirely nuts to think it sounds good, who recommends serving it with a dark chocolate honey sauce. I'm not so sure about that whole ruining Guinness with dark chocolate thing.

Welcome to that person who came here searching for Whitman Memes!

Just a Few More Shots

See those question marks up there? That means that they still need names. Hint, hint.


Yes, that really is a rose colored chasuble that NacMan's collected.

I'm Working on It

And by "it" I mean NacMan. The basic premise is that there is NacMan, a seminarian at the NAC. Your job is to help him find his way around Rome while being chased by I don't know what, all the while drinking espresso and picking up vestments and other liturgical goods. I've got the blank screen and NacMan himself done and now all I need is some replacements for the ghosts. So I'm taking suggestions for this. If you have ideas for something to replace Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde let me know. For now I'm just going to be making screenshots of it as I don't know how to code yet. And no, I cannot fit Fr. McBrien into that size screen and still make it look like him, not even just his head.

**update: I've got one ghost transformed into a liturgical dancer.**

Glass raised to Emily, Holly, and Jenny for all their help with this.

You Are Incredibly Logical

(You got 88% of the questions right) Move over Spock - you're the new master of logic You think rationally, clearly, and quickly. A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer!

How Logical Are You?

Fantastic Four

Length: 123 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Well it's no Spiderman but it's still worth seeing.
That being said, it was definitely worth seeing. Without spoiling it entirely I will say that the graphic effects were really well done. It was somewhat lacking in action scenes unfortunately. Unlike Spiderman and X-Men it didn't really have a clear moral message. If you're looking for something to do on a Friday night it's well worth seeing.

And now we know why I never pursued journalism.

And Then There Were Four

Sister #3 has started a blog so now all of my sisters have blogs.
Sister #1
Sister #2
Sister #3

You scored as Anselm. Anselm is the outstanding theologian of the medieval period.He sees man's primary problem as having failed to render unto God what we owe him, so God becomes man in Christ and gives God what he is due. You should read 'Cur Deus Homo?' Anselm 73% Augustine 67% John Calvin 67% Karl Barth 60% J�rgen Moltmann 60% Charles Finney 47% Jonathan Edwards 40% Friedrich Schleiermacher 40% Martin Luther 33% Paul Tillich 20% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

I won tickets to the advanced screening of the Fantastic Four, so hopefully I'll have my review up late on Thursday night.

Roman Catholic 100% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 71% Fundamentalist 64% Neo orthodox 64% Classical Liberal 46% Emergent/Postmodern 39% Modern Liberal 32% Reformed Evangelical 29% Charismatic/Pentecostal 25% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

O'Connor Retires

Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has retired after 24 terms on the Supreme Court.

Keep Your Pants On

It's the tagline of one of the coolest sites I've seen in a long time. NoMoHo is a website dedicated to those trying to live a chaste life. It has a question and answer section and some great statistics on the front page. Check it out!

Thanks to Fr. Shane for this.

Another Year Older

but not much wiser. Smarter maybe, but I don't think I've gained much actual wisdom. Anyways I'm 19 now.

The Mother of All Book Memes

Here for your enjoyment is the list of the top 110 banned books. Bold the ones you’ve read. Italicize the ones you’ve read part of. Read more. Convince others to read some.

1. The Bible
2. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
4. The Koran
5. Arabian Nights
6. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
7. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
8. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
9. Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
10. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
11. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
12. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
13. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
14. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
15. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
16. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
17. Dracula by Bram Stoker
18. Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
19. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
20. Essays by Michel de Montaigne
21. Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
22. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
23. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
24. Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
25. Ulysses by James Joyce
26. Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
27. Animal Farm by George Orwell
28. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
29. Candide by Voltaire
30. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
31. Analects by Confucius
32. Dubliners by James Joyce
33. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
34. Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
35. Red and the Black by Stendhal
36. Capital by Karl Marx
37. Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
38. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
39. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
40. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
41. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
42. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
43. Jungle by Upton Sinclair
44. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
45. Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
46. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
47. Diary by Samuel Pepys
48. Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
49. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
50. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
51. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
52. Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
53. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
54. Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
55. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
56. Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
57. Color Purple by Alice Walker
58. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
59. Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
60. Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
61. Molly Flanders by Daniel Defoe
62. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
63. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
64. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
65. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
66. Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau
67. Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
68. Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
69. The Talmud
70. Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau
71. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
72. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
73. American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
74. Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
75. Separate Peace by John Knowles
76. Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77. Red Pony by John Steinbeck
78. Popol Vuh
79. Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
80. Satyricon by Petronius
81. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
82. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
83. Black Boy by Richard Wright
84. Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu
85. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
86. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
87. Metaphysics by Aristotle
88. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
89. Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin
90. Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
91. Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
92. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
93. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
94. Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
95. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
96. Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
97. General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
98. Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
99. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown
100. Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
101. Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines
102. Ãmile by Jean Jacques Rousseau
103. Nana by Ãmile Zola
104. Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
105. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
106. Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
107. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
108. Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
109. Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
110. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

From Mike.

The Alphabet Game

A is for Age - 18, but not for long
B is for Booze - Bailey's on the rocks, or in coffee. Otherwise Guinness is also good.
C is for Career - Student, eventually Physical Therapist.
D is for Dad’s name - Tony
E is for Essential items to bring to a party - Camera, much to people's dislike. I have gotten some great blackmail video before.
F is for Favorite song at the moment - "Soul" by Matchbox 20
G is for Goof off thing to do - Swing dancing.
H is for Hometown - Oak Grove, MN since I've lived here most of my life.
I is for Instrument you play - Piano, sort of.
J is for Jam or Jelly you like - Lemon curd.
K is for Kids - None that I know of.
L is for Living arrangement - Home for the summer, dorm the rest of the time.
M is for Mom’s name - Sue.
N is for Names of best friends - Brian, Dan, Jess, Matt, and the list goes on and on...
O is for overnight hospital stays - Only one really early morning, and I was working there not being treated.
P is for Phobias - Biting spiders and falling.
Q is for Quote you like - "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, remain neutral." ~ Dante Aligehri
R is for Relationship that lasted longest - 2 months and two days, assuming we're talking about relationship in the dating sense. Mind you I'm not really that insufferable, it's the just only relationship that ever occured. Well....okay I might be that bad...
S is for Siblings - Sister 1, Sister 2, Sister 3 (who doesn't blog yet), and the lone brother (who also doesn't blog).
T is for Texas, Ever been? - Once
U is for Unique trait - Well I have this strange attraction to veins...
V if for Vegetable you love - Carrots!!!
W is for Worst trait - I'm rather blunt at times.
X - is for XRays you’ve had - None.
Y is for Yummy food you make - Grasshopper Cheesecake
Z is for Zodiac sign - Gemini, a least that's what I've been told.

Yeah, Yeah, I'm a Slacker...

but at least I admit it. Dan was nagging me about updating sometime here, so I figured I'd better. In my defense I've been on vacation and came back just in time for the comencements of a good sized group of friends. I'm hoping to have the screenshots for NacMan up in the next couple of days here.

Sweet XVI

Check out these nifty shirts from Catholicism Wow.

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.

Here We Go Again

Yet again they are going to pull Terri's feeding tube. Ergo, yet again I am fasting. I would encourage all of you to fast as well, and offer your sacrifice for the conversion of Michael Schiavo.

Momma I'm Comin' Home

I'll be leaving here for spring break just as soon as I take one last test, the dreaded physiology test. I should be home sometime around 8 tonight given the current winds die down.

I've Been Upgraded

I got my courses all sorted out for fall semester. I got the printed, confirmed list from the registrar and was looking over it to make sure it was all correct, I looked at the class standing and I have been upgraded from a freshman to a JUNIOR. Yippeee!!! I should probably tell Jason, my advisor, that. This way he might not have so many qualms about putting into the classes that I'm qualified for.

Stroik Strikes Again

With a lovely renovation of the chapel in St. Theresa's Parish.

THIS SPLENDID 303 BRASS IS…….

Inert
Impotent
Does not go bang
It is ex-ammunition
Deader than Elvis Presley
Deader than my grandmother
And is deader than Monty Python's parrot.
It is dead because I shot it!

Please note: ERT is not a town in Australia. When I say it is “INERT” I am not saying that it is in a town called “ERT”. This has caused much confusion for some in the past. It can however, when reloaded, be LIVE and IN ERT at the same time if the name of your 303 rifle happens to be “ERT” & your good to go.

A truely funny(and lengthy) description of some 303 brass on ebay. It would be nice and simple but ebay kept shutting the auction down to make the guy clarify about this brass even more. Be sure to read his final disclaimer.

When a Body Meets Christ's Body Comin' Through the Rye

Rye bread that is. Dutch bakers are working on coming up with more flavorful communion wafers.

Link from Fr. Bryce.

Something to Keep You Busy

The entire Calvin and Hobbes collection online.

On Retainer

I figured out that, in an effort to keep my teeth from completely realigning themselves, I will be forced to wear my retainer for the rest of eternity, or until I upgrade to dentures. I discovered this last night unfortunately. My orthodontist told me that I wouldn't have to wear the retainers again and to just check every year or so, or after getting hit in the face with any type of sports ball, to make sure they still fit. Since my wisdom teeth are almost done with their rapid invasion of my oral cavity and my teeth were feeling a bit off kilter, I figured that I should see if they're still in the right spots. Apparently they aren't. It took a couple of ibuprofens to get them most of the way on. This wouldn't be such a feat with a normal retainer, but I have the clear kind that are like hollow dentures. So I will be wearing my retainer, and hopped up on ibuprofen, all weekend in the hope of massive ondontal reformation.

Send Some Get Well Wishes

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 28, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See opened an e-mail address for those wishing to send a message of closeness to John Paul II, re-hospitalized since last week at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome.

The address is john_paul_ii@vatican.va

Thanks to Mom for this.

Please Pray For the Pope

as he has been taken to the hospital with the flu again.
(Source)

Stay Extended

The stay that is keeping Terri Schiavo alive has been extended until 5 p.m. Friday. Also, a representative from the Department of Child and Family appeared in the courtroom and indicated that that agency intends to intervene in the case.
(Source)
(Source)

The Punctuation Game

I'm a 100% Punctuation Stickler. It's a fun little game, but it only covers apostrophes and commas. If it had colons and semi-colons I'd be sunk.

Yippeee!!!

A stay was issued on behalf of Terri Schiavo!!! It's in effect until tomorrow night, at which time her fate may be decided.

A New Novena

A novena for the conversion of Michael Schiavo.
Thanks to Catholic Fire

Please pray for Terri today.

Let the Games Begin

It's the start of the spring theatre season here. Yay! Finally I'll have something to occupy me in the evenings. This semester we're putting on The Mousetrap, by Agatha Christie. It's a two-act whodunit set in a bed and breakfast. There is only one set for this play, it's a victorian-style great room with two staircases, four doorways, a fireplace, and a very tall window. The building of the set won't be as hard as the decorating it. A couple of the walls have old wood paneling on them, and then there's the matter of a fully functioning window, a working fireplace of some sort, and all of the furniture. There are only eight people in it, so it'll be relatively easy to manage. I will be taking my place as stage manager again. This time around my job will be easier as there is an assistant director as well. This means that I'll only have to go to half of the practices until it gets closer to the actual performance. On the downside one of my actors was arrested last night and will have to go to rehab. I don't know if that's going to be happening immediately or if they're not going to send him until the end of the semester. So I may have a fun time explaining it to the director tomorrow if the actor fails to show up.

A Little More From St. Louis

Board member Stan Novak said, "Poland was the first country to defeat Communism, and we can beat the archbishop if we stick together."

Church member John Komos, 71"It doesn't look good now, but what the archbishop doesn't understand is that we'll never give in," he said. "He might be following the law of the church, but he is not following the law of God. My goal is to dig in and stay here."

James Blebins, 62, "It's an abomination that he[Burke] comes up with something like that[interdict]."

Board member Robert Zabielski to a standing ovation,"The bishop is the king in his castle and we are his villagers. They don't want us to leave the Roman Catholic Church, but they're not helping us."

Roger Krasnicki, spokesman for the board, “This is a terrible thing that’s been done to these people. It’s immoral and unjust and it’s an absolute abuse of power.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Board members have said they would ignore the interdict and take part in whatever sacraments they wanted to, including receiving Communion."

Mind you Archbishop Burke had something to say about their actions.
"[the board members] openly and defiantly refused to follow the directive given by the Archbishop of St. Louis" to conform to traditional parish structure. Such actions, it continued, "manifest a grave defect in the obedience owed to the Diocesan Bishop and the Apostolic See. They wound deeply the unity of the Church and are a cause of most serious scandal."

"You have incited among members of the faithful animosity against the Diocesan Bishop and the Apostolic See, leading some of them to join in public disobedience to legitimate pastoral authority."

Burke said that the "offense" committed by the board "is the public refusal to obey legitimate Church authority, namely the Holy Father's Congregation for the Clergy and the archbishop of St. Louis, and the incitement of others to such disobedience."

Happy Valentine's Day

Flowers from goodflowers.com

Archbishop Burke Imposes An Interdict

Archbishop Raymond Burke of the Diocese of Saint Louis has imposed and interdict on the six parish board members of St. Stanislaus Kostka. A statement issued by Burke said that, "[Burke's] extraordinary patience in dealing with the Board of St. Stanislaus Kostka has officially evaporated." The archbishop has not said when the interdict will be in place, but he is drafting it at the moment. The spokesman for the board issued a statement saying that, "The directors, unanimously and with clear consciences, refuse to recognize any validity to such an immoral, unjust and inequitable sanction," and that Burke's trying to maintain control is, "about raw power and greed, and not about the teachings of Jesus Christ." The cause for the disagreement is that the members of the board refuse to cooperate and conform the parish structure so that is aligned with canon law. Also, the parish is not currently governed by the Archdiocese, and would have to be in order for it to make the proposed change. The board is also going directly against a ruling, issued in November of last year, by the Holy See that ordered them to conform to the rules regarding the structure of the parish. All of the documentation can be found here.
(Source)

Keep on rollin', rollin', rollin'

I'm off to go paint again. We painted the ceilings on Saturday and we're going to work on the walls for a couple of hours this afternoon.

BINGO!

I went and played bingo with the retired nuns over at the monastery this afternoon. It turned out to be alot of fun, they were thrilled to have someone younger around. They play about once a month so I'll have to go join them again next time.

And Now I Smell Like a Bar

Instead of getting some peaceful reading done tonight I ended up going blacklight bowling with about ten other people. Far more fun. Unfortunately they allow smoking in not just the bar, but the alley itself. So now I smell like a bar.

Another Thrilling Weekend Ahead

In light of a good portion of the girls on my floor being gone this weekend I have made some plans. Specifically, check out five books from the library and attempt to read them all in one weekend. Not that I won't be doing other stuff this weekend, I have a take home statistics test to do and tomorrow those of us that are remaining here are going to spend a few hours painting for Habitat for Humanity. But just in case we don't come up with anything else to do, I have my books. For the most part they should be fairly easy reading, I got The Summons and The Firm by John Grisham, The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott, Father Elijah, and Purgatorio. Father Elijah is probably the only one I won't finish this weekend, but that's alright since I get the books for over a month. I was going to get Heart of Darkness but I couldn't remember who it was written by, that and our library uses the Library of Congress coding system which makes it pretty much impossible to just walk into a section and find what I'm looking for. I should be able to finish off Doctor Faustus, which is left over from last weekend, and one of the John Grisham books tonight. So I sally forth into another North Dakota weekend!

Please pray for the pope, he was hospitalized with a respiratory infection earlier this evening.

Broomball!!!

For one my RA's program tonight 8 of us went to one of the outdoor ice rinks and played broomball. The hockey players on the next rink found us rather amusing. Pictures when I get a hold of them.

Add This to My Christmas List

Darth Tater
Available in mid-February, start your shopping early mom.

Second Term

The Spiridellis brothers have struck again with another political song and dance number: Second Term.

Iraqi Archbishop Kidnapped

Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa of the Syrian Catholic Church was kidnapped while walking in front of his parish in Mosul. No groups have come forward to admit to the kidnapping yet.

Since Y'all Liked That Last Quiz So Much

You're Betty Grable!


What Classic Pin-Up Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
And I fully expect Dan to participate.

As Much as I Hate to Admit It

This means that I'm nerdier than 84% of all people, or that I at least scored higher than 84% of the people who took this test.

Score One for the Orthodox!!!

The pastor of St. Joan of Arc in the Twin Cities is finally resigning his position!!! Yay!!! Now we just have to get someone really POD to replace him. [source]

Top Ten Songs

An amusing little idea from Fr. Jim.
The rules:
1. Open up the music player on your computer.
2. Set it to play your entire music collection.
3. Hit the "shuffle" command.
4. Tell us the title of the next ten songs that show up (with their musicians), no matter how embarrassing. That's right, no skipping that Carpenters tune that will totally destroy your hip credibility. It's time for total musical honesty.
5. Write it up in your blog or journal and link back to at least a couple of the other sites where you saw this.
6. If you get the same artist twice, you may skip the second (or third, or etc.) occurrences. You don't have to, but since randomness could mean you end up with a list of ten song with five artists, you can if you'd like.

So here's what I got:
1. Goo Goo Dolls, Black Balloon
2. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Maher Symphony No. 8, Finale
3. Chris Rice, Smellin' Coffee
4. Gin Blossoms, Perfectly Still
5. Righteous Brothers, Unchained Melody
6. Matchbox 20, Unwell
7. Count Basie, April in Paris
8. Rich Mullins, The Maker of Noses
9. Third Day, Consuming Fire
10. Jars of Clay, Silence

Because I'd like a more adequate sampling of the music that's on my computer you get the next ten songs as well.
11. Mark Schultz, Back in His Arms Again
12. Our Lady Peace, Bring Back the Sun
13. Kiss, I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night (live)
14. W.A. Mozart, I. Introitus - Requiem Aeternam
15. Kutless, Run
16. DJ Sammy, Heaven
17. Steven Curtis Chapman, Magnificent Obsession
18. FFH, Big Fish
19. Relaxation Dreams, Lullaby
20. Frank Sinatra, It Had to be You

So now let's hear what yours are.

"And when I go to heaven..."

The last words uttered by Rev. Jack Arnold before he died in the middle of his Sunday sermon which was, ironically, about heaven.

The Sleep Diet

Reuters released an article today about how to Stay Thin by Sleeping. Now the theory is that sleep deprivation triggers a biochemical reaction that makes you hungrier, but did they ever think that maybe you lose weight because the more time you spend sleeping the less time you have to spend eating?

Back to School

I'm finally back at school and will be resuming posting as soon as I finish settling back in. The settling in may take a few days as my roommate just moved out and I get to do some rearranging in here.