7.21.2011
7.20.2011
5.10.2011
Tall Ship Windy
Blog Reboot coming soon, complete with many pictures. in the meantime, Enjoy this fieldtrip Slideshow, which will be edited to a shorter version later.
3.25.2009
Return to Chicago, then Arkansas and Kansas City
[If you haven't been here for awhile, be sure to read the "Formation..." post underneath this first]
After we finished our first two retreat in Dearborne, we returned to Chicago and gave three retreats at Greg's home parish, Sts. Peter and Paul in Naperville.
[Note: though slideshow view is enabled for photographs, I strongly encourage you t view them in Picasa web albums, which is available by double clicking on the slideshow, where they are available in much higher image quality, and you can peruse them at your leisure.]
After those, we had a couple days to spend with our families before we took a long road trip down to Arkansas, where we spent several days in retreat, as the group needed some time to understand itself, and also we reflected over the Holy Father's newly released Letter to the Youth for this year.
Unfortunately, the pictures from Arkansas are on my craptop, so they are unaccessible at the moment.
However, Kansas City was very exciting, since I got a shiny new camera!
The Canon Rebel XSi Digital SLR, complete with 18-55mm Image Stabilization Lens, and 55-250mm Image Stabilization Lens, and even a 50mm f/1.8 Prime lens for fast low light indoor shooting.
If you don't know what that means its ok, it just makes photography geeks like me quite happy. I've been taking pictures since I was 7 years old, and have always found photography fascinating, and over the years have gradually stepped up in cameras. I still remember the first one my dad had, in 1995, I think. It was like a large black box, and took pictures at about 320x240 resolution. After that Came one with a fliptop, and then an Afga for a birthday present, which I think was a whopping 1.3 megapixels.
After that I started buying my own cameras. First there were several Sonys, because at the time I thought the cybershot pocketsize was incredible, and I got one of those with 3x optical zoom and 3 megapixels, both of which I thought were incredibly important at the time. Later I upgraded to the 5 megapixel version, but it was still rety much the same camera. All those were good for snapshots, but they all operated pretty much on full automatic modes, so while I learned about composition and getting good lighting, I was still clueless about many of the finer aspects of photography.
It was during the winter of my second year at Thomas Aquinas that I bought my beloved Konica Minolta Z5. My previous Camera, the Sony Cybershot, had had an unfortuante incident with rain. I spent several month researching cameras, and selleted on a compact superzoom, the Z5. Its about as nice a camera as you could get at the time without climbing into the professional range, which I was unable t afford, being a poor college student. However, it served me well for 3 years, and I took thousands of photographs with it.
After having experienced some of DSLRs a few of my friends were sporting towards the end of college though, I realized some of the weaknesses of that camera, the lag of the shutter, the weak flash and batteries, and the lack of the finer controls of a dslrs, ad the small image sensor. This winter, I finally took the plunge and spent the money to get a low end professional level camera (which costs much less than it used to, thankfully the prices on SLRs have been dropping for the past 7 years) and after a month of using it I can say it has bee well worth the investment.
Now it's much easier to control the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focus, zoom, and literally play with the light more before it reaches the sensor, so I've been having alot of fun.
So perhaps you'll see a slight increase in image quality from here on. Hopefully.
[the following are three entries from our team blog, where I do the photos, captions, and rough writing, which is then edited by Matthew]
After our time in Kansas City, we went up to a Benedictine Abbey in Conception, Missouri. The Abbey itself was gorgeous, set in the middle of nowhere on a barren plain with windmills turning slowly in the background. And we also had the pleasure of meeting Novice Adam Burkhart, the son of our host family in Kansas City, who has been studying to enter the Benedictine Order for two years at the Abbey. While we were at the abbey, we helped out with a retreat for the local MI Village, and performed a Lenten drama and reflection.
On our way through Ohio toward New York, we found a cute old vintage store on the side of the highway, and stopped there for some fun.
We were only in Pittsburgh for a day, but after the Little Sisters found out what line of work we are in, we wound up putting on a short day for all the residents there. During the day, we talked to an elderly woman who was born in Japan, and she had been converted to Catholicism in her youth after reading early issues of St. Max's Japanese magazine. As well as some of the lay and married elderly we met there, we also had the pleasure of making friends with several priests: Father Kim Schrek, a newly ordained priest who had with him barbed wire from Auschwitz and a relic of St. Max, and also Monsignor Leo, who was in residence with the Little Sisters of the Poor. He spent a lot of time with us, told us his story, and was a beautiful witness of God's work through the elderly. As we left he gave us one of his world-famous Long Blessings, which he made sure to cover all the bases and wrap us firmly in grace.
Our travels so far:
View Larger Map
After we finished our first two retreat in Dearborne, we returned to Chicago and gave three retreats at Greg's home parish, Sts. Peter and Paul in Naperville.
[Note: though slideshow view is enabled for photographs, I strongly encourage you t view them in Picasa web albums, which is available by double clicking on the slideshow, where they are available in much higher image quality, and you can peruse them at your leisure.]
After those, we had a couple days to spend with our families before we took a long road trip down to Arkansas, where we spent several days in retreat, as the group needed some time to understand itself, and also we reflected over the Holy Father's newly released Letter to the Youth for this year.
Unfortunately, the pictures from Arkansas are on my craptop, so they are unaccessible at the moment.
However, Kansas City was very exciting, since I got a shiny new camera!
If you don't know what that means its ok, it just makes photography geeks like me quite happy. I've been taking pictures since I was 7 years old, and have always found photography fascinating, and over the years have gradually stepped up in cameras. I still remember the first one my dad had, in 1995, I think. It was like a large black box, and took pictures at about 320x240 resolution. After that Came one with a fliptop, and then an Afga for a birthday present, which I think was a whopping 1.3 megapixels.
After that I started buying my own cameras. First there were several Sonys, because at the time I thought the cybershot pocketsize was incredible, and I got one of those with 3x optical zoom and 3 megapixels, both of which I thought were incredibly important at the time. Later I upgraded to the 5 megapixel version, but it was still rety much the same camera. All those were good for snapshots, but they all operated pretty much on full automatic modes, so while I learned about composition and getting good lighting, I was still clueless about many of the finer aspects of photography.
It was during the winter of my second year at Thomas Aquinas that I bought my beloved Konica Minolta Z5. My previous Camera, the Sony Cybershot, had had an unfortuante incident with rain. I spent several month researching cameras, and selleted on a compact superzoom, the Z5. Its about as nice a camera as you could get at the time without climbing into the professional range, which I was unable t afford, being a poor college student. However, it served me well for 3 years, and I took thousands of photographs with it.
After having experienced some of DSLRs a few of my friends were sporting towards the end of college though, I realized some of the weaknesses of that camera, the lag of the shutter, the weak flash and batteries, and the lack of the finer controls of a dslrs, ad the small image sensor. This winter, I finally took the plunge and spent the money to get a low end professional level camera (which costs much less than it used to, thankfully the prices on SLRs have been dropping for the past 7 years) and after a month of using it I can say it has bee well worth the investment.
Now it's much easier to control the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focus, zoom, and literally play with the light more before it reaches the sensor, so I've been having alot of fun.
So perhaps you'll see a slight increase in image quality from here on. Hopefully.
[the following are three entries from our team blog, where I do the photos, captions, and rough writing, which is then edited by Matthew]
After our time in Kansas City, we went up to a Benedictine Abbey in Conception, Missouri. The Abbey itself was gorgeous, set in the middle of nowhere on a barren plain with windmills turning slowly in the background. And we also had the pleasure of meeting Novice Adam Burkhart, the son of our host family in Kansas City, who has been studying to enter the Benedictine Order for two years at the Abbey. While we were at the abbey, we helped out with a retreat for the local MI Village, and performed a Lenten drama and reflection.
On our way through Ohio toward New York, we found a cute old vintage store on the side of the highway, and stopped there for some fun.
We were only in Pittsburgh for a day, but after the Little Sisters found out what line of work we are in, we wound up putting on a short day for all the residents there. During the day, we talked to an elderly woman who was born in Japan, and she had been converted to Catholicism in her youth after reading early issues of St. Max's Japanese magazine. As well as some of the lay and married elderly we met there, we also had the pleasure of making friends with several priests: Father Kim Schrek, a newly ordained priest who had with him barbed wire from Auschwitz and a relic of St. Max, and also Monsignor Leo, who was in residence with the Little Sisters of the Poor. He spent a lot of time with us, told us his story, and was a beautiful witness of God's work through the elderly. As we left he gave us one of his world-famous Long Blessings, which he made sure to cover all the bases and wrap us firmly in grace.
Our travels so far:
View Larger Map
3.12.2009
Formation and the first two retreats in Dearborne
[insert boilerplate apology for lack of updates here]
Ok, now that that's over with, I finished the solar panel job, and returned to Chicago in late December. After spending Christmas with my family, I went to a young adults retreat at Marytown, a friary (that means there's franciscan friars who live there, like the monks in habits you see in medieval movies) and church about 3 miles from my house. It's also the center for the Militia Immaculata (that's Latin for "Army of Mary" a Catholic movement founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Hero of Auschwitz) and the National Shrine of St Maximilian Kolbe, the Franciscan priest who spread the message of total consecration to Mary who leads us to Jesus, and who gave his life for another prisoner in a concentration camp in WWII.
Anthough it's just a local church for me, it's a worldwide movement, and most of the young adults there were from much farther away, some from Washington state, California, New York, Arkansas, Texas, and even Canada. We had a great 6 days there, with about 80 people learning about their faith and on fire with love for God, and finished with a big New Year's party and High Mass at Midnight, where Father Steve took the Holy Eucharist in the monstrance, and went out into the snow and blessed the entire world.
After that, 8 of us young adults (ranging in age from 18 to 26) climbed in a van and drove to another Franciscan Friary in Detroit Michigan. We spent four weeks there in formation, receiving intensive education about our faith from the friars and priests who live there, as well as some professors and nuns who visited us as well. The Friary there was in the middle of a cemetery, through which some of us went on walks at night, and provided a very peaceful atmosphere.
After those four weeks of peace though, it was time for the rubber to hit the road.
Our team is the Max 2009 Evangelization Team. We're a bunch of young adults who just want to spread devotion to Jesus through Mary, so we travel around the country in a couple vehicles, staying with families and religious communities we know, and giving retreats, talks, and days of reflection to a bunch of different groups, from confirmation classes and high schoolers, to adults and the elderly in nursing homes.
We have no formal training other than a month of formation, we're not in a religious community, all we have is youthful enthusiasm, and 200 years of tradition to draw upon.
As I mentioned before, we are all members of and met through the Militia Immaculata, a lay organization founded in 1917 by St Maximilian Kolbe in Rome to defend the Church and to spread personal consecration to Jesus through Mary. So we give presentations on the sacraments of the Catholic Church, especially Reconciliation and the Eucharist, and Confirmation or the Anointing of the Sick to appropriate age groups. We also give presentations on Our Lady, Mary, the Mother of God, and how she leads us closer to her son; on our founder, St Maximilian Kolbe; and on how our lives have been affected by joining the MI (Militia Immaculata)
We gave two retreats in Dearborne, Michigan, at the school where Father Edmund (one of the Franciscan priests we stayed with, who has a wonderfully wry sense of humor) teaches. Here are two slideshows of pictures from them, complete with captions:
In there photos you can see some of the things we typically do on day long retreats with junior high kids, including:
-Faith based action songs as icebreakers (or possibly just ways to humiliate ourselves)
-Going over an examination of conscience, which they nail to the cross after the sacrament of Confession, representing that Jesus has taken their sins upon Himself, and they no longer have to be burdened with them
-Small groups to facilitate discussion, which also think up names for themselves and draw very colorful banners related to the theme Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has proclaimed for youth this year, "We cast our hope in the living God" (1 Timothy 4:10)
-The chocolate milk talk, using the analogy of chocolate milk to show how God puts grace in our soul through the sacrament of Baptism, but the sacrament of Confirmation adds more and stirs up this grace in us, as seen in the Acts of the Apostles
-The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where we participate in the Last Supper and the Sacrifice of the Cross
Of course, this is hardly everything we do, but it's a beginning. Talks aren't overly photogenic, and we also try to keep those to only 10-15 minutes, because, while important, the younglings have a limited attention span.
Then we sadly bade farewell the the friary, which had been our home for a month, and set out on the road, not t stop at any place for more than a week for a long time.
Ok, now that that's over with, I finished the solar panel job, and returned to Chicago in late December. After spending Christmas with my family, I went to a young adults retreat at Marytown, a friary (that means there's franciscan friars who live there, like the monks in habits you see in medieval movies) and church about 3 miles from my house. It's also the center for the Militia Immaculata (that's Latin for "Army of Mary" a Catholic movement founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Hero of Auschwitz) and the National Shrine of St Maximilian Kolbe, the Franciscan priest who spread the message of total consecration to Mary who leads us to Jesus, and who gave his life for another prisoner in a concentration camp in WWII.
Anthough it's just a local church for me, it's a worldwide movement, and most of the young adults there were from much farther away, some from Washington state, California, New York, Arkansas, Texas, and even Canada. We had a great 6 days there, with about 80 people learning about their faith and on fire with love for God, and finished with a big New Year's party and High Mass at Midnight, where Father Steve took the Holy Eucharist in the monstrance, and went out into the snow and blessed the entire world.
After that, 8 of us young adults (ranging in age from 18 to 26) climbed in a van and drove to another Franciscan Friary in Detroit Michigan. We spent four weeks there in formation, receiving intensive education about our faith from the friars and priests who live there, as well as some professors and nuns who visited us as well. The Friary there was in the middle of a cemetery, through which some of us went on walks at night, and provided a very peaceful atmosphere.
After those four weeks of peace though, it was time for the rubber to hit the road.
Our team is the Max 2009 Evangelization Team. We're a bunch of young adults who just want to spread devotion to Jesus through Mary, so we travel around the country in a couple vehicles, staying with families and religious communities we know, and giving retreats, talks, and days of reflection to a bunch of different groups, from confirmation classes and high schoolers, to adults and the elderly in nursing homes.
We have no formal training other than a month of formation, we're not in a religious community, all we have is youthful enthusiasm, and 200 years of tradition to draw upon.
As I mentioned before, we are all members of and met through the Militia Immaculata, a lay organization founded in 1917 by St Maximilian Kolbe in Rome to defend the Church and to spread personal consecration to Jesus through Mary. So we give presentations on the sacraments of the Catholic Church, especially Reconciliation and the Eucharist, and Confirmation or the Anointing of the Sick to appropriate age groups. We also give presentations on Our Lady, Mary, the Mother of God, and how she leads us closer to her son; on our founder, St Maximilian Kolbe; and on how our lives have been affected by joining the MI (Militia Immaculata)
We gave two retreats in Dearborne, Michigan, at the school where Father Edmund (one of the Franciscan priests we stayed with, who has a wonderfully wry sense of humor) teaches. Here are two slideshows of pictures from them, complete with captions:
In there photos you can see some of the things we typically do on day long retreats with junior high kids, including:
-Faith based action songs as icebreakers (or possibly just ways to humiliate ourselves)
-Going over an examination of conscience, which they nail to the cross after the sacrament of Confession, representing that Jesus has taken their sins upon Himself, and they no longer have to be burdened with them
-Small groups to facilitate discussion, which also think up names for themselves and draw very colorful banners related to the theme Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has proclaimed for youth this year, "We cast our hope in the living God" (1 Timothy 4:10)
-The chocolate milk talk, using the analogy of chocolate milk to show how God puts grace in our soul through the sacrament of Baptism, but the sacrament of Confirmation adds more and stirs up this grace in us, as seen in the Acts of the Apostles
-The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, where we participate in the Last Supper and the Sacrifice of the Cross
Of course, this is hardly everything we do, but it's a beginning. Talks aren't overly photogenic, and we also try to keep those to only 10-15 minutes, because, while important, the younglings have a limited attention span.
Then we sadly bade farewell the the friary, which had been our home for a month, and set out on the road, not t stop at any place for more than a week for a long time.
8.23.2008
8.09.2008
7.27.2008
July 25 (again from a letter to family)
So, today actually began really nicely, when in the beautifully cool early morning fog while riding to work, I saw 6 hot air balloons floating over Santa Paula. I was going to race them to my work, as some of them were going at a fairly nice clip, but then to wind stopped, so it didn't seem very fair to them. Poor balloons.
And this morning turned out to be a very aircraft-filled morning, as we saw two F/A-18s flying in formation around the valley for a bit, and later heard something that sounded like military aircraft using large loud afterburners, which we think were probably the same planes.
Today we spent almost all of the day straightening panels, which is not a very fun job, because it involves coordinating 8-14 peoples moving large aluminum structures, trying to line them up to within and 1/8 of in inch tolerance, which is not easy when they weigh close to half a ton each. However, after lunch we did have the enjoyment of finally looking out upon our great sea of solar panels, 3/4 finished, all in nearly perfect lines.
Since that was pretty much the end of our work for the week, we spent the rest of the afternoon leisurely panelizing, just me and Max and Bridget on my team, since McGarry has flown off to a wedding for the weekend. We ended up having several long lengthy discussions, since we didn't have to focus as much on cranking out the panels as fast as we could. After Max and I discussed corporate ethics for awhile, about how companies should treat and pay their workers, and how they would be responsible for some basic compensations and minimum standard of working, but might not have to do more than that unless they could convince their competitors to join them, since the rewards would be diminished unless they all pitch in together, the real topic of the afternoon emerged as we began discussing movies.
It was a long developed discussion, mainly revolving around Max's belief that movies should be a very rare activity, and from his argument supporting that, a debate over whether they were a social activity, and if so of what type and so on.
And the even longer discussion took place once we discussed whether or not they were art, and whether that art could be compared to the acting of plays, or paintings and music and such. We debated on the meaning of art, and whether there was a bond between the artist and the audience, and whether the use of technology such as a camera made it less on an art, since art is an imitation of nature, but a camera makes an image, not an imitation.
And this morning turned out to be a very aircraft-filled morning, as we saw two F/A-18s flying in formation around the valley for a bit, and later heard something that sounded like military aircraft using large loud afterburners, which we think were probably the same planes.
Today we spent almost all of the day straightening panels, which is not a very fun job, because it involves coordinating 8-14 peoples moving large aluminum structures, trying to line them up to within and 1/8 of in inch tolerance, which is not easy when they weigh close to half a ton each. However, after lunch we did have the enjoyment of finally looking out upon our great sea of solar panels, 3/4 finished, all in nearly perfect lines.
Since that was pretty much the end of our work for the week, we spent the rest of the afternoon leisurely panelizing, just me and Max and Bridget on my team, since McGarry has flown off to a wedding for the weekend. We ended up having several long lengthy discussions, since we didn't have to focus as much on cranking out the panels as fast as we could. After Max and I discussed corporate ethics for awhile, about how companies should treat and pay their workers, and how they would be responsible for some basic compensations and minimum standard of working, but might not have to do more than that unless they could convince their competitors to join them, since the rewards would be diminished unless they all pitch in together, the real topic of the afternoon emerged as we began discussing movies.
It was a long developed discussion, mainly revolving around Max's belief that movies should be a very rare activity, and from his argument supporting that, a debate over whether they were a social activity, and if so of what type and so on.
And the even longer discussion took place once we discussed whether or not they were art, and whether that art could be compared to the acting of plays, or paintings and music and such. We debated on the meaning of art, and whether there was a bond between the artist and the audience, and whether the use of technology such as a camera made it less on an art, since art is an imitation of nature, but a camera makes an image, not an imitation.
July 18th (again excerpt from a letter)
So today wasn't quite as interesting a day as yesterday, but it *was* a Friday, which is a good thing in and of itself. Got up for work in time, the bikeride was much nicer then yesterday, being early in the morning again. Saw Max on the way to work, didn't beat him today (he's figured out a faster route using the highway...cheater...but made decent time anyways. We had a great team panelizing in the morning, and had gotten 10 panels done before our first break (which is very good time) when Brett decided we had to align all the panel already in place, so we spent the rest of the day with Elijah and Max shouting command at the other 12 of us, as we attempted to move segments of 10 panels bolted together into a structure about 40 feet wide, 50 feet long, adn weighing close to a ton. Oh, and it's about a foot and a half off the ground, so lifting it is incredibly good for our backs, and very easy. Needless to say about the seven hundred and 83rd time Elijah called out "You moved it too far, nudge it a quarter inch back south!" tempers were slightly frayed, which was not aided by the arrival of the pizza car half an hour late (we always get pizza on fridays). It was rather strange to observe people though, especailly how easily their attitudes and reactions changed. One minute, McGarry was cursing the "stupid pizza driver, his only job is to get us our pizza here at 11:45, in his air-conditioned car *grumblegrumblegrumble*" and five minutes later was shouting, "Hey! He even honked so we knew we could come in from the field! The Pizza Guy is awesome!"
Fortuantely, it never got too bad, even after lifting and shoving for 6 hours, because it was a friday, which makes everyone happier.
And I got my paycheck from last week, and paid the next two months rent, which made me happy.
Oh, and when I got back to the Ferriers, I made a much better smoothie than yesterday, almost a slushie. Instead of the amazing conglomeration of ingredients from yesterday, I stayed a bit simpler, and put in a grapefruit, a peach, a few slices of watermelon, and lots of ice. This tasted a bit sour because of the grapefruit, which I've decided is better eaten on it's own, but a touch of cane sugar (couldn't find any honey or molasses) remedied that, and it was very watery and refreshing. :)
Fortuantely, it never got too bad, even after lifting and shoving for 6 hours, because it was a friday, which makes everyone happier.
And I got my paycheck from last week, and paid the next two months rent, which made me happy.
Oh, and when I got back to the Ferriers, I made a much better smoothie than yesterday, almost a slushie. Instead of the amazing conglomeration of ingredients from yesterday, I stayed a bit simpler, and put in a grapefruit, a peach, a few slices of watermelon, and lots of ice. This tasted a bit sour because of the grapefruit, which I've decided is better eaten on it's own, but a touch of cane sugar (couldn't find any honey or molasses) remedied that, and it was very watery and refreshing. :)
July 17th (excerpt from a letter to a friend)
So, today didn't begin all that well; I got up at nine, rather late for getting to work, but I called McGarry and he said it was fine to come in late, so I threw on some clothes and jumped on my bike. It was wonderful to be biking again, I missed it, even though it had just been a week. However, it was by no means the most wonderful ride ever, usually I started 3 hours earlier, when it's the moist cool early windless dawn, but by 0930 it was starting to get warm, the sun had burned away the cool protective mist, and the wind was rushing in from the ocean up the valley, purposefully to make my life hard. And my nose was clogged, so I couldn't breathe through it, and my mouth was dry, but none of that mattered, because I was back on my bike, a very happy place to be. :) I arrived at work just as they were finishing their morning break, so I hadn't missed much, but the instant I got there my technical expertise was pushed into action. I fixed one of my boss's (Brett) laptop's last week, with the whole virus thing, but now the other boss (Bill, the non-engineer one...who spent alot of time int he 70s and hasn't left it far behind) managed to jam a DVD into the drive on his laptop and get it stuck, and now the computer tried to recognize the drive when it booted up, but couldn't, so it wouldn't boot up either. Fun fun. I thought it would actually be a hard problem to solve, and was all ready to unscew it, take the drive out, mess with the bios settings, and stuff. However, it turned out all I needed was a paperclip to trip the manual release catch and pop the drive out. Yay for easy fixes! However, when Bill asked what was wrong (very happy to have it working again, since he just bought it last month) and I explained it to him, he said "that's all?", my IT training came in handy and I swiftly placated his almost injured ego by spouting some jargon about bios ram drivers and stuff i had to configure to fix it. He was much happier when he couldn't understand what had been wrong.
Then I ran into Brett, who asked how Alaska was, and when I mentioned the lack of a normal day/night cycle he told me about his friend in Hammerfest who watches to sun go around and around for a motnh without setting at all. He asked me in the course of conversation if I knew where Hammerfest was. Of course I did, it's at the northernmost tip of Norway. What I didn't mention is that I knew this from many hours spent play Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun, where GDI had a huge base in Hammerfest and one of the hardest NOD missions in the game was to infiltrate it from 3 hovertanks and 1 subterranean APC full on engineers. And this stupid stupid Firestorm defense wall they had was such a pain, and you had to sneak around the back of the base, and trigger avalanches to create ramps for the hovertanks, and watch out for the ice, because it might cave in if you were on it too long and all the engineers would drown...but I digress. Very fond memories of Tiberian Sun though. :)
Anyways, after that I went out into the field to rejoin my wonderful crew, with max Becher, Elijah White, Nathaniel McGarry, and Ulysses the Mexican. They actually hadn't gotten all that much done while I was gone, but it looks like we might still finish on time. Our morning discussion was incredibly TACish, Nels had quibbled with Elijah and McGarry about what equivocation was, starting from the premise the an alien from Mexico and an alien from Star Wars was an equovocation, while McGarry presisted that it wasn't. Although Nels left for the other panelizing table, this swiftly divirged into an indepth discussion of Aristotle's categories, supplemented by remarks from Elijah and Max about this differences between Aristotle equivocation, univocation, and denomination, as compared to St. Thomas' definition of equivocation, and naming things analogously.
So after that came lunch, and I just couldn't sleep, so I was kindof walking back and forth in the warehouse, trying not to look too dead, when Elijah came up to me and said, "Here, you need this," and handed me a mdeium sized peach. He told me it came from the Woods peach tree (he's housesitting for them while they're gone), and to someone who hadn't eaten anything but toast in the past 4 days, it was the most delicious thing ever. I've had good peaches, but I'm not sure if I've ever had any that were so perfect. One bite into it, and the skin just peeled off, and it seemed like it was bursting with juice and flavor and goodness, and just...oh my gosh it was the best thing I've tasted in a long long time. mmmmmmmmmmm
So incredibly good. Just...the inside wasn't mushy, not hard but just tender enough to melt in your mouth, and the falvor was perfect, full and delcious, but not overpowering or too sweet...and even the fuzy skin was good, not very fuzzy, and just soft and...I can't even describe how wonderfully delectable it was.
So in the afternoon, it was rather quiet, as we were pretty industrious. Elijah got stolen from another table, and they got more people, so there were three tables. But at the end of the day our one table had done 23 panels, whereas the other two combined had only gotten through 16. Pathetic lazy bums. We were quite pleased with ourselves.
The ride home was much nicer, since I had the wind at my back, and I raced Max Becher in his car about 3/4ths of the way home, before the hill to to the Ferriers killed my lead, and he zoomed off in his silly gaspowered contraption. Sadface. But I was on my precious bike again. Happyface! But then I noticed, someone had SAWN OFF THE TOP OF THE HANDLEBAR AXEL!!!! ANGRYFACE! >:-(
Well, it works fine for now, but I guess I'll have to find some palce to keep my bike inside, since locking it up obviously isn't enough, and maybe Mr Tolberg will be able to find me a part to cover it. He's probably even got something to weld it on.
I hope.
Then I got home and made...a rather interesting concoction, somewhat resembling a smoothie. I had a hard time coming up with what i wanted in this house, I couldn't find much fruit, or yogurt, or molasses, or cabbage (suggested by Elijah, I think it would actually work better than the Romaine lettuce, which wasn't bad), so I combined a couple oranges, a couple lemons, a dash of cream, a spoonful of ice cream, some leaves of romaine lettuce, half a sprite, half a container of concentrated orange juice, and lots of ice cubes, and some water, and the result actually tastes pretty good. it's a bit on the sour side, but I don't like smoothies to sweet anyways, I could do with a bit more wateriness, and a bit more fruit flavor, I would skip the cream and ice cream, and add some plums and grapefruit and just...more fruit.
After thatI started writing this, and about halfway through volunteered to drive to the store with George to pick up some stuff for the homemade pizza they're making tonight (Mr. and Mrs. Ferrier are gone on a fishing/camping trip). And while I was there I picked up more peaches and grapefruit and watermelon. Happyface. <3 watermelon.
Then I ran into Brett, who asked how Alaska was, and when I mentioned the lack of a normal day/night cycle he told me about his friend in Hammerfest who watches to sun go around and around for a motnh without setting at all. He asked me in the course of conversation if I knew where Hammerfest was. Of course I did, it's at the northernmost tip of Norway. What I didn't mention is that I knew this from many hours spent play Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun, where GDI had a huge base in Hammerfest and one of the hardest NOD missions in the game was to infiltrate it from 3 hovertanks and 1 subterranean APC full on engineers. And this stupid stupid Firestorm defense wall they had was such a pain, and you had to sneak around the back of the base, and trigger avalanches to create ramps for the hovertanks, and watch out for the ice, because it might cave in if you were on it too long and all the engineers would drown...but I digress. Very fond memories of Tiberian Sun though. :)
Anyways, after that I went out into the field to rejoin my wonderful crew, with max Becher, Elijah White, Nathaniel McGarry, and Ulysses the Mexican. They actually hadn't gotten all that much done while I was gone, but it looks like we might still finish on time. Our morning discussion was incredibly TACish, Nels had quibbled with Elijah and McGarry about what equivocation was, starting from the premise the an alien from Mexico and an alien from Star Wars was an equovocation, while McGarry presisted that it wasn't. Although Nels left for the other panelizing table, this swiftly divirged into an indepth discussion of Aristotle's categories, supplemented by remarks from Elijah and Max about this differences between Aristotle equivocation, univocation, and denomination, as compared to St. Thomas' definition of equivocation, and naming things analogously.
So after that came lunch, and I just couldn't sleep, so I was kindof walking back and forth in the warehouse, trying not to look too dead, when Elijah came up to me and said, "Here, you need this," and handed me a mdeium sized peach. He told me it came from the Woods peach tree (he's housesitting for them while they're gone), and to someone who hadn't eaten anything but toast in the past 4 days, it was the most delicious thing ever. I've had good peaches, but I'm not sure if I've ever had any that were so perfect. One bite into it, and the skin just peeled off, and it seemed like it was bursting with juice and flavor and goodness, and just...oh my gosh it was the best thing I've tasted in a long long time. mmmmmmmmmmm
So incredibly good. Just...the inside wasn't mushy, not hard but just tender enough to melt in your mouth, and the falvor was perfect, full and delcious, but not overpowering or too sweet...and even the fuzy skin was good, not very fuzzy, and just soft and...I can't even describe how wonderfully delectable it was.
So in the afternoon, it was rather quiet, as we were pretty industrious. Elijah got stolen from another table, and they got more people, so there were three tables. But at the end of the day our one table had done 23 panels, whereas the other two combined had only gotten through 16. Pathetic lazy bums. We were quite pleased with ourselves.
The ride home was much nicer, since I had the wind at my back, and I raced Max Becher in his car about 3/4ths of the way home, before the hill to to the Ferriers killed my lead, and he zoomed off in his silly gaspowered contraption. Sadface. But I was on my precious bike again. Happyface! But then I noticed, someone had SAWN OFF THE TOP OF THE HANDLEBAR AXEL!!!! ANGRYFACE! >:-(
Well, it works fine for now, but I guess I'll have to find some palce to keep my bike inside, since locking it up obviously isn't enough, and maybe Mr Tolberg will be able to find me a part to cover it. He's probably even got something to weld it on.
I hope.
Then I got home and made...a rather interesting concoction, somewhat resembling a smoothie. I had a hard time coming up with what i wanted in this house, I couldn't find much fruit, or yogurt, or molasses, or cabbage (suggested by Elijah, I think it would actually work better than the Romaine lettuce, which wasn't bad), so I combined a couple oranges, a couple lemons, a dash of cream, a spoonful of ice cream, some leaves of romaine lettuce, half a sprite, half a container of concentrated orange juice, and lots of ice cubes, and some water, and the result actually tastes pretty good. it's a bit on the sour side, but I don't like smoothies to sweet anyways, I could do with a bit more wateriness, and a bit more fruit flavor, I would skip the cream and ice cream, and add some plums and grapefruit and just...more fruit.
After thatI started writing this, and about halfway through volunteered to drive to the store with George to pick up some stuff for the homemade pizza they're making tonight (Mr. and Mrs. Ferrier are gone on a fishing/camping trip). And while I was there I picked up more peaches and grapefruit and watermelon. Happyface. <3 watermelon.
7.26.2008
4.15.2008
More Than a Father
A Video made by some friends last year for a dance, about our resident Jesuit.
More Than a Father
Uploaded by sirnicholai
More Than a Father
Uploaded by sirnicholai
1.21.2008
Surprise
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You scored as Roman Catholic You are Roman Catholic. Church tradition and ecclesial authority are hugely important, and the most important part of worship for you is mass. As the Mother of God, Mary is important in your theology, and as the communion of saints includes the living and the dead, you can also ask the saints to intercede for you.
|
11.14.2007
Does it hurt?
Every time.
I went as Wolverine to the Halloween dance, and met up with a few other marvel heroes there, including Gambit, Iron Man, Captain America, and Magneto
 |
| Halloween 2007 |
I went as Wolverine to the Halloween dance, and met up with a few other marvel heroes there, including Gambit, Iron Man, Captain America, and Magneto
7.17.2007
Geeking out
There's something very very exciting about unpacking 1.5 TB of HDDs and 4 GB of RAM.
If you didn't understand that last sentence, don't worry, it's not contagious.
If you didn't understand that last sentence, don't worry, it's not contagious.
7.11.2007
Rhinelander
Going on vacation in the Northwoods is fun, because you get exciting local news like this:
Double Drive-by Shooting! ...of two cows.
Weekly Police Blotter: 4 deer hit, 1 bear.
Deer Hunt within City Limits Approved
"As well as thinning the herd within the city limits, twenty deer from the 2006 hunt went to the food pantry. Over 1,170 pounds of venison was distributed to the hungry."
Double Drive-by Shooting! ...of two cows.
Weekly Police Blotter: 4 deer hit, 1 bear.
Deer Hunt within City Limits Approved
"As well as thinning the herd within the city limits, twenty deer from the 2006 hunt went to the food pantry. Over 1,170 pounds of venison was distributed to the hungry."
6.30.2007
I love my family
Because they do things like this.
I'm chatting with my sister from my basement, and she send me this: "Immured in her ivory-ivy turret, the maiden used her wondrous powerful silver box to send secret messages to her brother in the dungeon below..."
I'm chatting with my sister from my basement, and she send me this: "Immured in her ivory-ivy turret, the maiden used her wondrous powerful silver box to send secret messages to her brother in the dungeon below..."
6.26.2007
Pomegranate Folly
So, I finished a fairly long day of work, with lots of cable-running, wire pulling, drilling through 2x4s, chiseling through concrete blocks, driving in an unair-conditioned car, and I finish up in Wilmette. So I'm thinking about the long drive home, on the tollway, in rush hour traffic, when I see a Starbucks.
Salvation!
So I go inside, thinking of the rich, lush flavor of Pomegranate iced and mixed into cold refreshing goodness...and they don't carry Pomegranate Frappuchinos anymore.
Drat.
However, they do still have tangerine, which is a good substitute. So I make my purchase, carry it to my car, and am in the middle of calling a friend to tell her about my good fortune in finding such relief, when I pull out of the parking lot, and time slows down as momentum inexorably pulls the top heavy cup over, out of the tiny cup holder, and as it tumbles through the air the contents spill out slowly, the cold ice crystals spraying delicately onto the floor.
Dangation.
So, as I drove home through the rush hour bumper-to-bumper traffic, in my nonair-conditioned van, I got to savor the sweet tangerine smell which reminded me of the cleaning I'd have to do when I got home. Mmmmm.
Salvation!
So I go inside, thinking of the rich, lush flavor of Pomegranate iced and mixed into cold refreshing goodness...and they don't carry Pomegranate Frappuchinos anymore.
Drat.
However, they do still have tangerine, which is a good substitute. So I make my purchase, carry it to my car, and am in the middle of calling a friend to tell her about my good fortune in finding such relief, when I pull out of the parking lot, and time slows down as momentum inexorably pulls the top heavy cup over, out of the tiny cup holder, and as it tumbles through the air the contents spill out slowly, the cold ice crystals spraying delicately onto the floor.
Dangation.
So, as I drove home through the rush hour bumper-to-bumper traffic, in my nonair-conditioned van, I got to savor the sweet tangerine smell which reminded me of the cleaning I'd have to do when I got home. Mmmmm.
6.25.2007
Newton: Pride cometh before a fall
I found a draft of this while looking through my old posts, and realized I had written it four months ago and forgotten to post it.
Here you go:
Yesterday was a triumphant day in lab class.
One of my classmates, who has a reputation for thinking that he knows better than the authors we read what they ought to write, and is fond of attempting to correct the argument of Aquinas, was doing a prop in lab. We've gotten used to his overbearing manner, but this time it was insufferable. It might have been that he was showing off to his little brother, who was sitting in on the class, but his attitude was driving the rest of us into the wall, by constantly using such phrases as, "this is so obvious I don't even know why he bothers to say it," "It is manifest that," and "It's the most obvious thing possible." Our tutor, Dr. Decaen, at one point asked him about the third line from the bottom. The student answered a question about the fourth line from the bottom, whereupon Dr. Decaen pointed out that he had asked about the third line, although the student was right, and the actual question had to do with the fourth line. Whereupon our villain responded, "Well, I thought you couldn't be asking about the line, because only an idiot would question that." At this point, the entire class was just shocked at his pompous, arrogant manner, too stunned to reply.
Next, he mentioned that, "while Newton's way of proving this works, I've devised a better and simpler way of doing it. Here, I'll show you." And he proceeded on his merry way to destruction.
Unfortunately for him, his proof involved claiming that the areas of triangles are in the same ratios of their height. Each one of us learned freshman year that they are in the duplicate ratio of their height. However, most of the class wasn't even playing attention by this point, so we didn't notice, but something about the way he said, "You'll grant me that..." bothered me, and I stared at the line for a bit. He was proceeding to the next line when I stopped him by pointing to his line about the direct proportion and stated, "That's wrong."
It felt like there was a collective gasp from the class, followed by surreptitious high-fives and grins.
"Triangles are in a duplicate ratio to their heights," I continued.
He fell deeper into the hole he dug.
"No they're not, they're in duplicate ratio to their sides, and as I wrote, in direct ratio to their heights."
"But in a right triangle.." I postulated... He cut me off, hastening his demise.
"Just look at this triangle," he said, drawing exactly the right triangle I wanted on the board for me. "here's the first triangle, and I'll draw the second on top, with double the side. See? The area is in the ratio of the height."
I leaned from my seat, sketched two lines across his drawing, and quipped, "No. Four times the size, duplicate ratio. It's the most obvious thing possible."
As his face fell, I heard Dr. Decaen muttering causticly to himself behind me, "No, actually it's Ex Aequali that's the most obvious thing possible, as Mr. B said earlier, because even I don't understand it, and I've got a Phd."
"Well, then, I'm not sure what's wrong," wondered the student, "It has to be in a direct ratio, otherwise my proof wouldn't work, and it proved the same thing as Newton's."
"Actually," Mr. Decaen observed, "If you took that up it would prove the opposite of Newton's, violating the law of non-contradiction." (which is a sacred truth at our school, because if you question that...well, you've got some things to work out, shall we say)
"However," I continued, "If you use a duplicate ratio there, that mode of proof would work perfectly, in fact agreeing with Newton completely."
We spent a few minutes discussing how it would work, and which points of the proofs were shown off by the different methods, but it seemed like the wind had left Mr. B's sails, and his brother left the room shortly after. I had actually not known his brother was there, I just knew a visitor had walked in, but didn't know who.
After class, several of my classmates congratulated me, and told me that this was the one day everyone in my section loved me. Except for Mr. B, of course.
Here you go:
Yesterday was a triumphant day in lab class.
One of my classmates, who has a reputation for thinking that he knows better than the authors we read what they ought to write, and is fond of attempting to correct the argument of Aquinas, was doing a prop in lab. We've gotten used to his overbearing manner, but this time it was insufferable. It might have been that he was showing off to his little brother, who was sitting in on the class, but his attitude was driving the rest of us into the wall, by constantly using such phrases as, "this is so obvious I don't even know why he bothers to say it," "It is manifest that," and "It's the most obvious thing possible." Our tutor, Dr. Decaen, at one point asked him about the third line from the bottom. The student answered a question about the fourth line from the bottom, whereupon Dr. Decaen pointed out that he had asked about the third line, although the student was right, and the actual question had to do with the fourth line. Whereupon our villain responded, "Well, I thought you couldn't be asking about the line, because only an idiot would question that." At this point, the entire class was just shocked at his pompous, arrogant manner, too stunned to reply.
Next, he mentioned that, "while Newton's way of proving this works, I've devised a better and simpler way of doing it. Here, I'll show you." And he proceeded on his merry way to destruction.
Unfortunately for him, his proof involved claiming that the areas of triangles are in the same ratios of their height. Each one of us learned freshman year that they are in the duplicate ratio of their height. However, most of the class wasn't even playing attention by this point, so we didn't notice, but something about the way he said, "You'll grant me that..." bothered me, and I stared at the line for a bit. He was proceeding to the next line when I stopped him by pointing to his line about the direct proportion and stated, "That's wrong."
It felt like there was a collective gasp from the class, followed by surreptitious high-fives and grins.
"Triangles are in a duplicate ratio to their heights," I continued.
He fell deeper into the hole he dug.
"No they're not, they're in duplicate ratio to their sides, and as I wrote, in direct ratio to their heights."
"But in a right triangle.." I postulated... He cut me off, hastening his demise.
"Just look at this triangle," he said, drawing exactly the right triangle I wanted on the board for me. "here's the first triangle, and I'll draw the second on top, with double the side. See? The area is in the ratio of the height."
I leaned from my seat, sketched two lines across his drawing, and quipped, "No. Four times the size, duplicate ratio. It's the most obvious thing possible."
As his face fell, I heard Dr. Decaen muttering causticly to himself behind me, "No, actually it's Ex Aequali that's the most obvious thing possible, as Mr. B said earlier, because even I don't understand it, and I've got a Phd."
"Well, then, I'm not sure what's wrong," wondered the student, "It has to be in a direct ratio, otherwise my proof wouldn't work, and it proved the same thing as Newton's."
"Actually," Mr. Decaen observed, "If you took that up it would prove the opposite of Newton's, violating the law of non-contradiction." (which is a sacred truth at our school, because if you question that...well, you've got some things to work out, shall we say)
"However," I continued, "If you use a duplicate ratio there, that mode of proof would work perfectly, in fact agreeing with Newton completely."
We spent a few minutes discussing how it would work, and which points of the proofs were shown off by the different methods, but it seemed like the wind had left Mr. B's sails, and his brother left the room shortly after. I had actually not known his brother was there, I just knew a visitor had walked in, but didn't know who.
After class, several of my classmates congratulated me, and told me that this was the one day everyone in my section loved me. Except for Mr. B, of course.
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