THIS.

I want to go to this.

Unfortunately,the person I hoped to give me a ride is'nt going to be able to go anymore, so I'm stuck. *Sigh* I was looking forward to it.
But even if I'm not going, anyone who's nearby, GO. Go to this. I'm hoping that maybe some day in the future, there would be an Ordinariate parish in Philadelphia. And if, God willing, there is one some day, I'd do my best to help them. I don't usually say it, because it scandalises people, but even though I'm here in Rome, a big part of me is still on the other side of the Thames.
(Hence it is that more website show up on my computer when you type in "Anglo" in the address bar than with any other terms. Even more than "Goog"

Oh Shoot.

Well, I found the managas that I want to read. (They're on mangafox) only, I do not remember what chapter I last read. I mean, I remember everything that happenned in those chapters,but I don't know what pages numbers of chapter numbers they were. Maybe I should go on Crunchyroll and ask in one of the groups I'm in.

Speaking of which, I loooove Crunchyroll. :heart: It's like a website version of Attack of the Show.* Anyway, I have midterms this week, and I have a lot to study. I have to go over first and second declension in Latin, the first three chapters of the history book, everything in the first nine sections of the catechism, and luckily, that's it. The algebra teacher sets the year up so that there are no midterms or final,but a cumulative test at the end of every quarter. And you can't really have a test for English composition. (Or at least that's what the teacher says.)

Work in Progress.

Just something I've been working on. I can't seem to get the face or crown of Mary right. *Sigh* Maybe in the future.

STOCK PHOTOS.

A few months ago, when I still had my old, old computer, I saved in draft posts a whole bunch of stock sites, stock pages/searches on deviantArt, and some individual photos that I liked.

Or so I thought.

I need them again, and I went looking through my saved drafts on blogger to find them, and tey are not to be found. Actually, I found some of them, just not the ones I'm looking for. There are some quite nice poses that I hoped to use for a picture of the Assumption, and some pictures in profile that I hoped to used for a version of the Mass of S.Gregory. But none of those can be found.
So yeah, I'm lost. I don't even know where on Deviant Art I found the photos.

Cool Beans.

That we (as in the choir at Lourdes) are doing the Victoria requiem this year for All Souls Day. I did like the Cristobal Morales one, but oh well, Victoria is a more famous composer.

Oh yeah, if that didn't count as the announcement, there's a high mass on the evening of November 2 at Our Lady of Lourdes for All Souls day. The music, as you can see, will be good. (Victoria's requiem with chanted propers.)

I like how it is that...

...I froze for a week because I did'nt have any fall or winter clothes here, and as soon as they get here, we're having a full week where the temperature does'nt go below 70 degrees. =/

Last night.

There was a thunderstorm. Usually I don't mind them, though they always scared Ginger. Only,last night at 3:24 AM exactly*, there was a clap of thunder so loud that I felt the floor vibrate,and As I was half asleep, I was so startled that my heart was must have been doing it's equivalent of donuts in the driveway.

That is all.

I know this because I looked at the clock immediately afterward so that I would know for future reference.

Oh Dear.

Well, I think I just lowered my I.Q. by half and lost about 10 Tolerance Points today.

Without telling where it was that I found it, I laboured through an article attacking 'religion'* in a local newspaper. I don't like to come to these sort of things with precognitions, since they prevent honest understandings, but the article was everything I feared it might be: It was full of non-sequiturs,contradictory arguments, false generalisations and facts that anyone with a Wikipedia article could disprove. Things like the idea that religion kills, while scientists never kill over science. Of course, most of us know that quite a few things done in the name of religion were mainly done of ulterior motives, with religions used as an excuse (e.g., the crusades, the Hundred Year's War, Manifest Destiny, etc.) And I need not mention the whole eugenics debacle and the Cold Spring Harbor lab as proof that scientists do kill over science.

There were non-sequiturs like the idea that we know that religions are false because we can't prove their claims. (Despite the fact that any right-thinking man knows that it's wrong to argue from silence) Further to that, the author used that line of logic as evidence that souls don't exist.(Which doesn't follow because if you're working within the framework of a theology that says that souls are invisible, intangible, and unprovable, stating that souls are invisible, intangible, and unprovable doesn't do anything to help your case. )

There was the whole "Religion X did wrong thing 'A', therefore, religion Y is bad!" thing. Failing to note distinctions among theologies and equating them with one another to the point that one attributes the actions of one to another is an illogical generalisation. It's as if one stated that all systems of government are exactly the same, therefore, the fact that fascist and communistic governments killed, tortured, and otherwise maltreated their citizens proves that a minarchist or anarchist system is evil!

Sometimes it seem that the best way to strengthen the theological virtue of faith is to read an introduction to logic and then browse through books and articles from the other viewpoint.

(Now, before someone gets their knickers in a knot, I know full well that not all scientists, agnostics, or atheists are like this, and I wouldn't dare argue something like that. I say only that it sometimes appears that most vocal supporters of atheism are often the least logical, and therefore, most ineffective people for the job.)

*That ought to have been a sign that this was going to be a Fallacy Fest.

Good news/Bad news.

Good news: I found the amber beads I wanted. I also found two nice sets of 18 and 16mm silver beads, and to my surprise, some white coral rondelle beads that match the gauds of the Magdalene paternoster.

Bad news: The person I'm buying them from seems to be purpousely making it impossible for me to purchase them. =/

I'm not superstitious*,

But the tradition is that the Phills had consecutive bad seasons since 1 Liberty Place was built, thus being the tallest building in the city, thus being taller than Billy.And then, they built the Comcast Center, and put a statue of Billy at the top, and then the past three seasons happenned.

I'm just sayin'....

And now,

A musical interlude.

This is why we don't have nice things.

No, not this.*

I'm finding it impossible to make a copy of that rosary in the painting of the Magdalene. Do you know why?

Apparently, ther is NO place, ANYWHERE in the U.S.** that sells round or oval, non-faceted, 15-20mm, amber, yellow glass or acrylic beads. I can buy amber, but they won't be round, or they'll be faceted. I can get round and non faceted, but they'll be 10mm tops. There are no yellow acrylic beads, and glass ones are all 5-10mm max. I can't even find round, yellow, plastic beads that are between 15-20mm.I've exhausted all the possibilities with this thing,but there's no solution.
And that particular rosary is the one that I'll need to complete my set. I have a coral set, a jet set,an agate set and that set made out of the material whose name I forget.
I still plan on making one like this, it'll just be far in he future.



*Have I mentioned that one of the cats at home, Brutus, looks just like the TIWWCHNT cat?
**I found some in the UK, and some in New Zealand, but I'm Not paying that shipping and handling.

I feel important.

One of the seminarians in my class has asked me to make him one of my reproduction rosaries. The one I just made with coral and crystal is based on the one in This picture. I want to try to make a chaplet of the five wounds, and two reproductions 0f the rosary held by S.Joseph in Van der Weyden's painting of the Magdalene reading.

<3

More good news.

Of a domestic nature. I got a call last night from my mother that our long awaited quest to move to a new home in a new neighborhood has finally come to an end. The house that she and my brother (And I ) put an offer on was accepted, and she and my brother will be moving in by thanksgiving.

Sure, I know that I won't be living there, except for a few weeks a year, but I'm happy. No one who lives in West Philly wants to live there. It's a landing pad. A place where you live only for short time, with plans to go somewhere better.It's not really a bad section, and a lot of it can be quite expensive to live in. It had always been my family's dream to some day move to University City, near the hospital where my father worked, and the school where my mother worked. I'm a bit sad that the time has finally come for that happen, but only because of the circumstances: I'm here at the monastery, dad is gone, my brother will be in school next year. It is'nt ideal,but that's just the way things go.

The only thing now is that my new territorial parish for when I'm at home is now St. Francis De Sales.It's a nice church, with a wonderful organ, and the choir was astonishingly professional when I was there every now and then in 07' (When I was still shopping for a parish)
But I heard that their choral mass has now been combined with the contemporary music mass. I don't know if this is actually true,nor do I know if this affects the quality of the music, so I won't give much credence to the rumour.

I hate it when this happens.

When I stop reading a comic/manga series for a long time, and come back to it only to find that it's jumped far ahead of where I last left off with it. I'll jappily admit that I don't get to read comics as much as a like. You would think that I would, since they're much cheaper than manga, even cheaper than Shonen Jump. But the local stores are pretty far out of the way, and I don't have a car. Also, manga can be read for free online. Comics are involved in so many copyrights and licenses that that's totally impossible. Anyway, I really want to start reading Green Arrow. I've never really read his comic, I only looked him up when he showed up in other series I was reading. I have'nt the slightest idea where to start since, unlike manga, comics usually have multiple story arcs and hundreds of volumes, which can make it difficult to pick a starting issue.Pick too far ahead and you'll miss lots of backstory and information. Pick too far back, and the current arc will get too far ahead of you.

So I'll just ask Gaia or see if anyone will give me a reccomendation.

Also, I really love the covers that some of these recent volumes have. I haven't seen the insides, but the covers are wonderful. My post image was a toss up between that one and This. I only picked the one I used because that one is a little violent, what with the blood and wounds, and the arrow sticking out of the corpse's forehead. I think it's an awesome and very well done cover though.