A few of my blog entries need updating...

Wednesday, January 7, 2009:

"However, on January 28th, I hope to attend the installation Mass for Detroit's new Archbishop-elect, His Excellency Allen Henry Vigneron! I will have my new digital camera with me, and will take and post pictures."

We had a lot of snow on that day, so I missed the installation.


Friday, November 28, 2008

A gentleman from UoP called me last week to see if I was still interested in classes. I made him aware of my concerns about the school, especially COM 140, and he explained to me that the purpose of COM 140 is to introduce one to how online classes work at UoP. He also apologized that no one had explained this to me before. While I still am not interested in taking online classes with UoP (too expensive, and they don't have a philosophy major), I feel much better about the school, and am grateful to this gentleman for listening to my concerns and responding to them with grace and intelligence. He's a real asset to UoP.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The school did not stick me with a $2,000.00 bill (a concern I expressed in the e-mail near the end of this post). Indeed, they were very good at helping me not face any financial difficulties.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The problem with my wrist is dystonia. It's irreversible, and the only effective treatment is botox injections. These treatments are very expensive, expensive beyond my means, so, unless God performs a miracle, which I am praying for, my right hand is rather useless for writing and typing. I can type and write a little bit, but it's painful after just a minute or two. In fact, I am now learning how to write with my left hand.

That's all for now. I'm glad UoP turns out to be better than I thought.

I'm back!

I have the internet again! You'd think I'd have a great many posts saved up in Microsoft Word, and would now be posting them. I don't, although there have been things I've wanted to write about. I will mention one of those things, however, no matter how long after the fact this is--

Susan Boyle, what a voice! I just heard her for the first time on YouTube, and I'm amazed! There are many, many videos of her on YouTube, but this is the absolutely best one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OcQ9A-5noM&feature=related

Sorry I can't imbed it. Watch it in high quality.

Steve Hayner, the former president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, while speaking at Urbana 2000 talked to us about Heaven. We can't comprehend it fully in this life, but we get glimpses of it, sometimes through a lovely smell (lilacs come to mind), a moving bit of art, a great musical masterpiece, and sometimes simply by a humble, church-attending woman near London just doing something she enjoys.

I'm still around...

...and will have internet access as of March 13!

Lent has been awesome, so far. Daily Mass, more time in prayer, etc.: I can feel the effects!

Arabic classes have been okay. There are three letters of the alphabet I cannot pronounce correctly, neither can I have a meaningful conversation with anyone. I hope to continue studying Arabic in the future, however, and perhaps become fluent in it.

Next month, I'll be visiting the Oblates of Saint Joseph again, to discuss joining them.

I'll give a better update on next Friday or Saturday.

My friends...

...blogging has been and will continue to be non-existant (well, maybe extremely sporadic) for awhile due to the fact that I have recently moved and thusly have extremely limited internet access: no internet at home, very little time to visit the library, and sometimes have access to the web at work, but not always.

However, on January 28th, I hope to attend the installation Mass for Detroit's new Archbishop-elect, His Excellency Allen Henry Vigneron! I will have my new digital camera with me, and will take and post pictures.

Update: added Monday, June 1, 2009

We had a lot of snow that day, so I missed the installation. [Insert frowny face here.]

After the spurt of postings I've had in the last two days...

...this may be a minor surprise to some.

I haven't been able to blog much lately because my wrist has some sort of problem. I'm not exactly sure what. I've spoken to my doctor about it, and I go on Friday to get some tests done. It seems there's definitely have some nerve damage, and the tests on Friday will determine exactly what kind and what the extent is. I'm right-handed and it's my right wrist that's acting up. It worries me because I'm losing function in the wrist. It's difficult and a little painful to type. It's difficult and very painful to write because I have to hold my pen in such an odd way (strangely enough, I have to hold my pen so strongly and exert so much control that my handwriting has improved even as I'm less able to hold the pen comfortably). Sometimes, I even have difficulty feeding myself because of how my wrist behaves when putting a cup or utensil to my mouth. One can teach oneself to become ambidextrous, which I'm willing to do, but I miss being able to write and type well. I used to be able to type at 8100+ sph with a one percent error rate (data entry), but cannot come anywhere near that now.

I would appreciate any prayers you could offer for this situation.

Thanks.

What a busy week and a half!

Yes, my life has been busier than normal, but not because of work! My schedule has changed, and I now have an actual life! I now work Sunday through Thursday from 8:30pm to 5am, except for Monday. Monday's schedule is 10pm to 6:30am. "The midnight shift. Sounds horrible!" you might say, dear reader, but you would be wrong! I am enjoying this shift. It allows me to go to Mass every day! And when the fall semester starts, I can take morning classes at a local community college and still be able to go to Mass every day!

Now that I have a life, I actually have less time to blog and keep up with e-mail :-(

But I'll do my best to keep new things here, at least once a week.

Upcoming topics:

God's Team (a group of Evangelicals in the Detroit metro area from many different churches and para-church organizations who reac out to the Muslim population here).

The Arab-American festival held this past weekend (6/20-6/22).

My parents attending my COURAGE group with me.

A men's group I've joined at a local Evangelical church called Sexual Integrity.

My Muslim friend "Ali" (not his real name).

Another new blog...

Today, I'm adding another new blog to the blogroll. Adoro te Devote. I meant to do this months ago! It's a good blog, and most of you probably already visit it.

Oh! I DO remember something!

I think everyone who reads my blog knows I struggle with the fact that I'm into guys. If not, you know now. This next sentence will not seem to be related to the previous sentences, but it really is: I was reading an interview with Anne Rice (I believe it was in Christianity Today magazine) about her novel, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. CT has archived the article, so I'm not sure this is the right one. In the interview, she mentioned, and I'm paraphrasing horribly, that she didn't "disown" her previous works because they were her method of working the darkness out of her life. I've thought about writing a story, perhaps novel length, entirely for my own amusement, about a couple of twenty-something guys who are lovers but become chaste Catholics. There would be graphic sexual "scenes" in the work. This way I could work out my sexual feelings and my intellectual and emotional crises in story-form. I'm not sure I'll actually make the attempt, but am giving it serious consideration. I could follow David Shaner's lead and publish it in small installments online (David has two "series" on his blog). What have you, my reading public, to say about this?

My parents would be so proud!

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
missionary (7x)
sex (4x)
death (3x)
dead (2x)
erection (1x)

I have many ideas for posts...

...but very few of them actually make it to this blog. And when they do, they don't quite turn out the way I expected them to. I spend a lot of time driving for my job. This gives me a lot of time to think. Sometimes, I come up with great ideas for this blog, excellent posts, intelligently written, thoughtful, real sharing from my heart. By the time I get home, I'm too tired to write. Then when I'm finally able to sit down at the computer, my mind goes blank. I wirte silly things like this, or I do one of these. One day, I'll post something with real content again. For example, I could finish up one of my series: The Story of my Faith and Missions, Sex, and All Things New. Maybe I'll make time this coming up weekend, wherein I will (hopefully) have four days off in a row! We shall see.

Yet another Web Test!

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion |||||||||||||| 60% Stability |||||||||||||||| 66% Orderliness |||||||||||||| 53% Accommodation |||||| 23% Interdependence |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Intellectual |||||||||||| 50% Mystical |||||| 23% Artistic || 10% Religious |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Hedonism |||| 16% Materialism |||||| 30% Narcissism |||||||||| 36% Adventurousness |||||| 23% Work ethic |||||||||||| 50% Self absorbed |||||||||||||||| 63% Conflict seeking |||||| 23% Need to dominate || 10% Romantic || 10% Avoidant |||||| 30% Anti-authority || 10% Wealth |||||||||| 36% Dependency |||||||||||||||| 63% Change averse |||||||||||||||| 63% Cautiousness |||||||||||||||| 63% Individuality |||||||||| 36% Sexuality |||||||||||||| 56% Peter pan complex |||| 16% Physical security |||||||||||||||||||| 90% Physical Fitness || 10% Histrionic |||||||||| 36% Paranoia || 10% Vanity |||||| 30% Hypersensitivity |||||| 30% Indie |||||||||| 40%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
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Sporadic postings.

Sorry I haven't been posting often lately. My work schedule has increased. My time off is usually devoted to sleeping. I'll try to continue both my series ("The Story of My Faith" and "Missions, Sex, and All Things New") this week. God be with everyone.