I’m seeing a lot of new visitors lately; apparently the site was mentioned in Catholic Answers’ magazine.  I just wanted to put out a welcome mat for everybody.  If you look to the sidebar on the right side of the home page, you can see the meat of the site: “Featured posts” are articles I’ve written that are more in-depth, or articles that I just wanted to Feature for some reason.  This week I plan dig through my archives and add more to the featured posts page; there are some good posts and good comments discussions, but I’d hate to make visitors dig to find them (I’m afraid my Categories are not very useful, and I’ll probably remove them soon).

Anyway, I’m sure you’ll find something you like in the “Quotes” page as well, and the “Resources” page contains links to other sites and should be mostly up to date.  If you’d like to talk to me, just write a comment in a post or use the “Contact Me” page.

Happy reading!

Somehow it’s already Friday of Dead Week, which is the week before Finals Week. Someone asked me the other day if my semester is winding down. I said no, my semesters don’t do that. I thought about it for a minute and came up with the perfect analogy for the ends of my semesters:

The building can represent my sanity, the amount of sleep I get, or something like that. Dead Week is the round of dynamite destroying all the critical joints and supports. Finals Week is when everything collapses spectacularly into a giant heap and crap goes flying everywhere. As I said, the perfect analogy.

Toodles!

I had some wonderful plans for the first half of 2008, and then I got an internship and took 21 credit hours of classes.  Sadly, the blog is not even on the back burner right now; it’s in the freezer.  I’ll get it out and thaw it after I finish this insane month and get settled into my new place, wherever that ends up being.

I noticed this letter to the editor in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln student newspaper.  Excerpt:

As college students, our budgets are extremely limited, but the cost of birth control wasn’t anything we ever had to worry about.

The UNL Health Center provided birth control - like most university health centers - for a highly reduced rate. This year, however, the price jumped 200-500 percent. Most birth control pills went from $10 a month to $20, NuvaRing went from $12.50 to $42 and Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo went from $8 to a whopping $40 a month!

That means I, and students like me, will have to make tough choices about how, or whether, we can afford contraception.

Meanwhile, people who have the ability to choose not to have sex… do.

How many times has this sentence ever been written?

Jesus quite simply pwns him:

Rofl.  Jesus: pwnin’ n00bs since the dawn of time.

Ash Wednesday came and went. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t make it to Mass, so I missed out on the one day a year when it’s fashionable to have ashes on my forehead.

Oh well. I’m glad for the earliness of Lent and Easter, because I could use some renewal in my life right now. In just about every aspect of my life, I’m having my feet held to the fire like never before. So I can either get my act together and try harder to reach God, or just be less happy in six weeks.

I’m happy, though. Some of my recent Lents have felt like a drag, but this time, I think I feel the way it’s supposed to feel. Like I’m getting another chance (again). Like it’s a springboard that’ll take me closer to God. Some years it feels like Easter will never come, but tonight it feels like the solemn majesty of the Easter Vigil can be found in the next room. I hope everyone with junk on their head today felt the same way.

I suppose it helps that I’m changing my Lenten penance. Probably for the first time ever, I’m not doing anything dietary (yes, siblings and parents, you heard me. Put your judgment pants on now.). Fasting is good and all, but it just got to be stale. This year I’m going after something better. In case you care, I’m committing to daily prayer and Mass, and giving up saying unkind things (smile, Mom).

On a related note, God’s patience is incomprehensible, a mystery in both theological and common terms. I don’t think I would believe His mercy if I, a sinner, weren’t standing here to tell the tale, as He constantly extends to me reminders of His love.

It’s a bit tardy, but I want to extend my condolences to the Mormon faithful at the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley.  I remember the remarkable, almost surprising loss I felt after Pope John Paul II passed away.  Like John Paul, Pres. Hinckley was clearly full of love for his faithful and for the whole world.  I hope to see him in Heaven.

I’m back in America.  As soon as I have time I’ll post pictures and humorous and/or moving anecdotes from the trip to Italy.

That seemed to be what the Florentine locals were shouting in the streets as they lit off small bombs last night.  I don’t know how the city doesn’t burn down, with all the buildings and cars packed in there so tight.

Anyway, happy new year.  If I get some time and decent Internet access, I’ll put up a few photos.

By the way, I’m going to Italy, thanks to the incredible generosity of the family of a longtime friend.  The first leg of the trip involved taking a train to western Colorado.  Thence I will depart for the grand adventure overseas.

During the train ride, I took a couple of video clips with my camera.  I don’t know how good it will look on YouTube, but hopefully it’s enough to awe my friends in flat regions.

More to come!