I am left-brained

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/01/26/are-you-a-right-or-left-brain-thinker/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl11%7Csec1_lnk3%7C207578

1. Are you better at math and science than art and literature? Yes
2. Do you love playing sports outdoors over reading indoors? No
3. Do you prefer verbal communication over physical communication? Yes
4. Would you rather draw pictures freehand instead of putting together a model airplane? neither
5. Do you like being in groups more than being alone? lean to No
6. When given instructions, are lots of pictures easier to understand than lots of text? lean to No
7. Have you noticed that you're better at providing the details and necessary information for a project than coming up with the initial idea? lean to Yes
8. Do you need a quiet environment when you are working? absolutely yes
9. Would you enjoy helping someone solve a relationship problem more than a math problem? lean to No
   Are you better at helping someone solve a relationship problem more than a math problem? absolutely No
10. If you were a writer, would you prefer to write nonfiction books instead of fiction? lean to Yes
    If you were a writer, would you be better at writing nonfiction books instead of fiction? absolutely Yes

lots of good memories about this place

and the football has improved a lot

http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2010/11/03/division-iii-qb-joey-baum-the-true-student-athlete-who-gives-ba/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl7%7Csec1_lnk3%7C182279

Case used to play WRU.

One year, WRU cheerleaders has this one:

Case once, Case twice
Holy jumping J.... C.....
Rivets and bolts
Rivets and bolts
Nuts nuts nuts
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew Case

life

Well, it's been a week since dental surgery, the antibiotic has run out, and my mouth still hurts. Sometimes my teeth hurt.

I'm still eating liquid and very soft food. I have headaches. I am tired and grumpy. I am hoping to be eating and chewing food by July 4th.

The golden years continue unabated.

response - what is holy/sacred

The face of Francis is holy, not sacred. An unfortunate perpetuation of the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane continues to be used in art criticism (and many other places as well) when dealing with Christianity.... But what “sacred” means, in contrast to “profane” (that which lies outside the temple and is purely of this world), is “something set apart” in relation to the divine. It is separate, by some form of consecration, for religious usage. - stimulus - Dimensions of the Holy

I am trying to get my head around the distinction he makes between holy and sacred.

I do not find my grandchildren to be holy, but I do think of them as being sacred - creations of God bearing the finger prints of God. I say the same of the trees surrounding my house.

Merriam-Webster does not appear to support me in this: holy sacred

tweeter may be right

I seem to fit Asperger's syndrome

it's sad but I understand

why this was invented

requiescant in pacem

May the Lord shine his light on the families as he sends us the sun every day to warm and nourih the earth.

Ft Hood 2009Nov5

the golden age

Maury and Pauly were sitting in the rockers on the front deck of the retirement home. Pauly says, "You know, even though I'm old and full of aches and pains, I don't feel too bad. How about you."

Maury says, "Me, I feel like a newborn baby!!!"

Pauly: "A newborn baby, how's that?"

Maury: "No hair, no teeth, and I just wet my pants."

- Lee Bradley uga2009Oct29

what color are your goggles?

Beer goggles, I am told, is a code word for the impairment of judgment, not to say vision, that affects one who has imbibbed alcoholic beverage(s). It is used to explain partner choices, often adverse, made under those conditions.

My experience tells me this metaphor (goggles) is able to be used in a wider context. E.g., I think I have experienced "stress goggles" from both sides. Many people, I have observed, start by changing their voice when stressed - it gets an edge. I have found myself doing that, even of the source of the stress is myself.

This voice change affects the behavior of those around the person stressed. Loving sounds change to belligerent. Requests sound like commands.

The person stressed becomes less aware of the reality of those around them and has a tendency (as I have experinced from both sides) to misjudge others, either because of haste, or as in the case of alcohol, impaired judgment.

N Marietta Loop - the beginning of closure

I signed for a new PT Cruiser today. Used again, white again, but 3 years newer and 25k miles less on the odometer. Delivery on Tu/We.

If only I had gotten the shelf out of the deceased one. If only I had gotten the decals off the windows. My son tells me the 10ID one was from his arrival FtDrum.

The HHR was ok, even with the defective door locks.

On the todo list is "go to Marietta City government and tell them that intersection needs a no u-turn sign". There is no line of sight for west bound traffic at Wallace.

N Marietta Loop - update

Car is totaled. I am looking at getting another PT - so far two choices - white and black. I think I want another stick.

The console was changed and the headroom seems less. I have insurance company rental up to Thursday.

N Marietta Loop

• I was going from Kennesaw to the KofC meeting at Holy Family. As I entered the intersection with Wallace, a Ford cargo van - the longest wheel base - made a u-turn. I had one of those. The turning radius is about 4 lanes. This guy tried to do it in three. As he was blocking the two driving lanes, I struck the rear passenger side behind the tire -- if he were six more feet further, I would have missed him.
  
  Because it had been raining, the pavement - asphalt - was wet and slick.
  
  The airbags did not deploy.
  
• I have now gone to both doctors. My GP checked me out mostly ok. Just talking to him has calmed my nerves. But I continue to have flashbacks when I enter intersections. Or when I have to deal with an aggressive driver - which in GA is often.
  
  The ortho man found I had no broken bones in my right hand but my index finger is quite swollen. We will see in a few weeks if my neck calms down and my right hand and arm quit hurting. Oh yes and the spot in my not quite lower back.
  
  I shouldn't whine as my son-in-law has much worse problems.
  
• My car was at first glance estimated as needing $4.5k in repairs. At which point their computer and the insurance company told them to dig deeper. The estimate is now $6.5k. I fear they will total it out. In which case I need to come up with about $5k to get a new car. It would have been easier to handle that before the market crash. I suppose I will hear the bad news later this week.
  
• And in travel news, the Kat is in Bangkok.

retirement

Every day is a Saturday, unless it is Sunday.

I still wear a watch because I do not want to be late going nowhere to do nothing.

When asked what am I doing now that I am retired - I answer, little as I can and mostly what I please. - Herr Kemper _ruminations on Retirement_

I don't think I can relate to this. I don't want to retire to become a vegetable, I want to shift the focus of my life to things more enjoyable, but no less work. I would like to teach. I would like to work with people in places and situations where associations can be voluntary. I would like to have time to pray more regularly.

old thoughts found while cleaning up

edited to remove the identity of my interlocutor -- it was posted to a website formerly known as St Raphael's. The file this was in is dated 2002Dec3.

Dear #11107 - part 1

I am sorry I did not get to post in your thread now placed in the forbidden zone under pain of excommunication. I am on vacation and a bit out of touch. But it seems to me that the topic you were wishing to address is mission and evangelization. You gave us your take on your personal mission and suggested evangelization approach -- you wish to preach a crusade, this time against other Catholics. Would that this were a novel approach.

It is good that you are thinking about mission, about the journey and meaning of your personal life in God. One of my passions is the communion of the saints, what Pius XII called the Body of Christ. JPII shares this passion. He has held up many models for us to ponder, who invite us into relationship with them.
At the moment I would like to consider one of my favorites, St Mother Teresa of Calcutta. First you may wish to object that I call her a saint. While her name is not yet in the canon (Latin for list), I have never met a Catholic who did not consider her a saint in their heart of hearts. Her cultus is approved. So calling her a saint is to recognize her heroic virtues -- as did the Hindus of her adopted country India, who gave her a state funeral.

Many saints experience a conversion experience -- not a flash of light or a vision, but a turning in one's life to a new mission. SMToC's was different in that she was already a vowed religious when her conversion experience occurred.

The nature of her conversion experience was also special with respect to its goal -- its sense of mission. Here in the United States most Catholics have experienced the mission of vowed women religious. For persons of my certain age, it was typically as an educator or healer or contemplative intercessor. They taught in schools, worked in hospitals, nursing homes, retirement homes, they prayed and worked in enclosure.

SMToC chose to be in the world. She chose to minister in the streets. She was called to minister to those rejected by the world. And she chose not to teach them or heal them -- merely to be present to them as an alter Christus -- to wipe their brow as they died, to share a meager meal as they struggled for life. As she herself said, she was not called to be effective but to be faithful -- faithful to the call of Christ. To paraphrase Francis of Assisi, she preached always, but seldom used words.

Which, Eric, gets us back to your post. You appear to be concerned with a lack of faithfulness in the Church. You call us to orthodoxy and orthopraxy (as Casey Stengel said, you could look it up).

What I think you are doing is rejecting the call of the Spirit to be in, not to be of, but to minister to the world today. You present to us the paradigm of crusade as the way of lifting up Christ. I would submit that the witness (Greek martyrion) of the saints of the twentieth century shows us the two paths indicated by the comments on vow religious women above -- ministry of service and ministry of presence.

Service was modeled to us by Jesus when he washed the feet of the Apostles, when he listened to all, when he preached conversion by love -- of God and of our neighbors all, when he healed the sick.

Presence he modeled to us when he hung on the cross, dying, for us, yet be present to those who shared his fate. He was present to them as brother irrespective of who they were and what they had done.

The opportunities are many; many are called; less than many heed the call; fewer still answer the call.

But if you feel you are called to preach a crusade, then you must be trained and formed. You have many choices -- diaconate, priesthood, vowed religious. Gird your loins and prepare to do battle. Seek the Lord where he may be found.

Dear #11107 - part 2

The second issue that arises from your post is the tendency of some people to seek darkness.

Just about everyone understands the light/darkness dichotomy -- it is found in pop culture such as Star Wars. It was recently the basis of the Gospel reading of the wise and foolish virgins -- a story rooted in real life even to the 20th century (see Barclay's Commentary on Matthew).

But a recent event in my life showed me a new insight into this image. I was on a 2.5 day retreat at a Jesuit retreat House (Ignatius House in Atlanta). There was light everywhere: in the Word, in the retreat master, in the glow in the sky from a major city, in the halls 24x7 for security. Then on Saturday, while it was still light out, a storm went through, knocking out the power. Dinner and the last conference were done with no electric lights, just as night was falling. There was a scramble to find candles to allow us to navigate the dark halls, the emergency power system having been exhausted.

Just as we were retiring, the power came back. But the next morning, just as the morning bell sounded, out again went the power. Breakfast with no power was more limited than would otherwise be the case. This time the power returned in time for the final Eucharist. At that time we shared our experiences of the retreat.

It seems that when the storm came through on Saturday, a number of people were in the nearby woods. Those woods have a number of old large tall trees, not the place to be in the storm. Several stories included the sound of limbs crashing to the ground as the winds blew through. All escaped unharmed but not untouched. Prayer on the occasion of danger burns deeper into our heart.

I am presently in the Washington DC area. The residents are still recovering and remembering the events here associated with the snipers. Last light, at dinner, it was pointed our that, on the way to the restaurant, we passed the site of one of the shootings.

Where I am staying is close to the Pentagon. When I passed through last August, it was pointed out the side that is renewed and rebuilt after the events of September 11, 2001.

Two cases of darkness visiting and passing away, but the memories and therefore emotions, linger.

I have seen on StR's since I have been a member a tendency of some to focus on the dark side of things, specifically the church. In view of the ongoing scandals and their painful resolutions, it is somewhat understandable.

But on that retreat I came to a new appreciation of light and darkness.

We are so bathed in light that we have lost our appreciation of light and darkness. We use light to drive away fear, loneliness, and boredom. The shiny is now mundane.

But when electricity is shut off, we are left with not just darkness but quiet. Then it is when we can disconnect from the world, and connect with God. For as the prophet said, the Lord comes not in the wind and thunder, but in the gentle breeze. We find it difficult to experience it without being still.

Christ is indeed the light of the world. But for his light to be seen, we must remove the glitter that blinds us. For us to sense the Spirit of God, the breathe of God, the gentle breeze that blows through our souls if we let it, we must build a windbreak against the hurricane of Hollywood.

And so we frame a new paradox. We shut off the light of the world that we may be warmed by the Light of the world. We accept the absence of electric light so we may open the window of our hearts to the quiet Presence.

So Eric if you must be a crusader, be a Knight who accepts the responsibility to lift up the light of Christ in the world. You might start where you are going to school. Your bishop, Donald Wuerl, is one of the most influential and respected bishops in the US and in the world (he used to work in the Vatican and is respected there). He is a great communicator. He is also a soft spoken gentleman. Get to know him.

Richard (formerly of Northside Pgh)

Dear #11107 - part 3

I have this exercise derived from an RCIA class I taught. I think it might make a good basis for discussion.

I am posting each question as a sub thread to avoid having nine threads.

1. We have all heard the term "my people." We may have even used it. Consider using this term personally. When you do consider it personally, who is included in your personal "my people?" There may be more than one group this applies to. They may be groups within groups. Name all the groups you can!

2. It is said that the Church is "one." What does this mean to you? Can you name one or more specific ways in which the Church is "one?"

3. Can you name one or more specific ways in which the Church is not "one?"
   E.g., the church does not consist of people of only one color, of only one race, of only one culture; it does not use just one liturgy -- each of the "Rites" of the Catholic Church has its own ancient form of liturgy.

4. It is said that the Church is "holy." What does this mean to you? Can you name one or more specific ways in which the Church is "holy?"

5. Can you name one or more specific ways in which the Church is not "holy?"

6. It is said that the Church is "catholic" with a small "c." That means universal. What does this mean to you? Can you name one or more specific ways in which the Church is "catholic?"

7. Can you name one or more specific ways in which the Church is not "catholic?"

8. It is said that the Church is "apostolic." What does this mean to you? Can you name one or more specific ways in which the Church is "apostolic?"

9. Can you name one or more specific ways in which the Church is not "apostolic?"

pup is restless

see Lynx to get to pup Saints of the Day

0.00

Over there years there have been stories and jokes about getting a bill for 0.00. It happened to me today and I am happy.

The bill was my 2009 Property Tax Notice from the city of Kennesaw GA. Here turning 65 has its advantages.

he does by choice what I do of necessity

If I had his money I would also do my pleasure

my son thinks this is funny

I went to call him tonight but couldn't find the phone. It wasn't in any clothes or my work bag. I looked on all likely surfaces. I called the phone but the ringer was down because I was using it at work for testing a paging program via text messaging.

Where was it? Lying next to some figs in a plastic "box" in the kitchen. Like the figs it is dark in color.

Displaced persons

I was thinking about missing my granddaughters and what I would like to tell them. It brought to mind a memory from my childhood.

I grew up in S.Ft.Mitchell Ky, a suburb of Cincinnati. The local Catholic church, Blessed Sacrament, was large. Originally it was all white plaster. During my youth, the inside was painted. I sang in the boys choir from the time I entered school until the 6th grade.

There was also a 1-8 school. I went there 1-6. Latin School was an accelerated program of 4 yrs that replaced 7-12.

During my youth, the school was significantly expanded to handle the children of the "baby boom". The teachers were Benedictine nuns, though lay women were added to the staff to handle the doubling of classes during the 1950s. The convent was next to the church, attached by a short walkway.

The "maintenance person" was Mr Barczak. He lived with his family in a tree-shaded large house behind the church parking lot. He and his family were "displaced persons" from Poland -- what today we would call refugees. (For a story called The Displaced Person, see the works of Flannery O'Connor, a famous GA author. It was made into a movie in 1977.)

While working around the church and school, he would sometimes be accompanied by several of his children. What brought this story fragment to mind is that he would talk to his children. I don't think he was just "baby sitting" them -- I think he was rearing them. This is what I miss about my grandchildren -- simply talking to them. At the moment we are distant figures in the other's lives. Intimacy grows out of immediacy, both in presence and in presence of mind. With just the latter, groundedness is missing.

website ratings

AT&T - 8 - good at allowing you flexibility in making a payment, especially at setting the date. confusing at showing pending payments in an too subtle format

Discovercard - 9.5 - very good at allowing you flexibility in making a payment, especially at setting the date. very good at showing pending payments in an easy-to-understand format.

my note to them


I may have said this b$efore but I like the current state of your website. I like the way I can schedule payments -- it is easy to use.

And I really like the way you show pending payments -- very user friendly. I say this from the point of view of having worked now 48 yrs in IT in one role or another -- the last 14 with a financial services company.

Keep up the good work.