Finally, an update

Yes, I know–it’s been a very long time since I’ve updated this blog. What can I say? It’s been a very busy summer, during which I’ve:

• Made my annual retreat
• Made the Holy Cross History and Spirituality session in Le Mans, France
• Participated in the annual meeting of my congregation’s justice committee
• Spent time with my family, which included getting acquainted with its newest member, my niece, Samantha

I’m hoping to be a bit more regular about posting once the new semester is underway.

If you look to the right, you’ll notice several changes to the sidebar. I’ve removed outdated links, and added several new ones, including links to the various congregations and offices within the Family of Holy Cross.

Yesterday, I learned that two of my brothers in Holy Cross–Fr. Michael Wurtz, CSC and Fr. Stephen Koeth, CSC–have blogs. I’ve created a category for Holy Cross bloggers and added them to the sidebar. If anyone reading this is aware of any other CSC/MSC bloggers out there, please let me know so I can add them.

 

Humor for the day

I got these from a post by Lee Sigelman, over at The Monkey Cage. These were my favorites from his longer post. Ah, graduate school!

You just might be a graduate student if…

• you are startled to meet people who neither need nor want to read.
• you have ever brought a scholarly article to a bar.
• you rate coffee shops by the availability of outlets for your laptop.
• everything reminds you of something in your discipline.
• you have ever discussed academic matters at a sporting event.
• you look forward to summers because you’re more productive without the distraction of classes.
• you consider all papers to be works in progress.
• professors don’t really care when you turn in work anymore.
• you find the bibliographies of books more interesting than the actual text.
• you have given up trying to keep your books organized and are now just trying to keep them all in the same general area.
• you have accepted guilt as an inherent feature of relaxation.
• you find yourself explaining to children that you are in “20th grade.”
• you start refering to stories like “Snow White et al.”
• you look forward to taking some time off to do laundry.

 

Good listening

Even though the semester just finished–Commencement is Saturday!–I’m already thinking about next fall, when I’ll be teaching a course in Politics and Religion. I’ve been looking for ways to help students become more literate about religion and the role it plays in modern life.

So, while out for a run today, I tuned in to a (relatively) recent episode of American Public Media’s Speaking of Faith (yes, it’s available as a podcast). My intent was to get a sense of the program (which I’d never listened to before) to see whether it would be worth my while to use it with my students.

I’ll have to check out a few more episodes before I make that call. But the episode I listened to today, The Beauty and Challenge of Being Catholic: Hearing the Faithful, is definitely worth listening to.

 

My philosophy of blog comments…

…is that they should be in some way related to the post they’re attached to. I delete comments that have no relation to the post, especially if they’re advertising something (even if what’s being advertised is worthwhile).

That’s why I recently deleted a comment that was awaiting moderation. It had nothing to do with the post it was attached to.

Nonetheless, it pointed to a YouTube clip (in Spanish, with English subtitles) that I enjoyed, so I’ll provide the link myself:

 

Kindly ignore this…

I’m just running a test of blogging from a mobile device.

 

The Anchoress…

…has some interesting commentary on the Rudy Giuliani-Cardinal Egan exchange. You can check it out here and here.

 

Things have been a little crazy lately…

…which is why I haven’t been blogging much. I’ve managed to keep up with my news feeds, though, and came across a gem this morning. If you’re looking for something good to read, you might check out Fr. Ron Rolheiser’s current column.

 

New Aquinas manuscript…

…submitted to the Shrine of the Holy Whapping.

 

But I AM a bird!!

I don’t think this one needs any further caption.

 

Rascal!

This fellow routinely raids my bird feeder. The branches of the nearest tree are too flimsy for him to jump directly to the window where the feeder is. He’s learned instead to jump to the next closest window, then creep along the bricks on the front of the house. Here he is peering around the edge of the window frame to see if I’m around; he’s very well aware that I don’t want him at the feeder.

 

 

Of course, he doesn’t particularly care that I don’t want him at the feeder, as you can see. He’s looking directly at me in this photo, and about to head straight for the feeder anyway. These days, he usually only leaves if I get the spray bottle out.