Another Star Wars parody worth watching.

This is the last one I swear.

All I can say is, Star Wars clips + dubbed James Earl Jones movie quotes = hilarious. Bear with it, it's a little slow getting started but it will soon prove to be the best nine and a half minutes you've ever spent with James Earl Jones.

"Lord, Lordy, what to do when the romance been gone!"

Everyone loves a Star Wars parody.

*warning: some bad language. Perhaps not appropriate for mixed company.*

Benedict XVI Comes To CUA Campus

"My pastoral visit here is an opportunity to strengthen further the bonds of communion that unite us."
-Benedict XVI: 16 April, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

The Pope's Apostolic visit to the United States kicked off with a series of events in the Nation's capital this week; many of which brought him to The National Basilica and/or Catholic University's campus. Seeing as how I live on the grounds of the aforementioned University and Basilica, this was pretty much the most awesome thing I could possibly have imagined.

Apparently a majority of the CUA community shared my enthusiasm: and why not? It's the friggin Pope! While I remain a vehement critic of the way American college students (well... actually the way world youth in general) view the Papacy and thus greet the Holy Father, I feel I now have a much better understanding of why it is an important (though not by any means amply respectful or theologically sound) aspect of the faith. The look on Benedict's face when he exited the Pryzbala Center to a chorus of hundreds of students chanting "C! U! A! Loves! The! Pope!" was undoubtedly priceless.

*I know this because I was about twenty feet away from the man... Ha! Ha!*

The Catholic youth are the pulse of our Church, and if they are taken with the Pope then they'll hopefully listen carefully to what he has to say. All of which, in my humble opinion, is awesome.


Aside: May I just say, the popemobile is pretty sweet... I'm a fan.

I'm sorry, this picture still blows my mind. This is the Pope standing in front of the place where I eat lunch everyday. I'd take it for that old photoshop magic if I hadn't taken the damn picture myself. Amazing. The following picture is the only one in the post that isn't mine. The credit goes to my friend Ray Bosche who had a camera of infinitely better quality than my little point and shoot.


The Apostolic Journey to the US couldn't have come at a better time in my opinion. The three years since the death of John Paul II seem to have left the American youth either ignorant or apathetic in terms of the Papacy. The excitement I experienced in the crowd certainly was reminiscent of the video footage of JPII's trip to campus in 1979; a good sign. A sign which I will now proceed to rub in the face of every critic of Benedict's charisma and ability to attract youth. For crying out loud people, he's the Vicar of Christ... he can handle it.

Look for more Pope-themed stuff on this blog coming soon, but give me some time... I'm a full time student and part time blogger.

Ladies And Gentlemen, The Theremin

You might be wondering what on earth this lady is doing. The answer: playing a theremin.

The theremin is one of the most fascinating musical instruments. There are no stings or belts, and you don't blow into anything. You literally play sound waves by moving your hands over two antennae: one which controls pitch (right hand) and one which controls volume (left hand). It is the only instrument which can be played without any mechanical touching (ie: plucking of strings, etc). You may know the theremin best as the UFO sound effect in any sci-fi B movie pre 1970. As you can see from the video, it can be a serious classical instrument as well; bringing with it a novel and distinctive pitch.

The video is Debussy's "Claire De Lune" on theremin as performed by Lydia Kavina. Widely regarded as the world's foremost thereminist, Kavina studied under Leon Theremin (her grand uncle and inventor of the instrument).

If you want a better example of how the theremin works, theres a good video here (bear with it though, it's a little boring).

Hope you all enjoy.

Roommate Breaks Cookie And Blog Slump

Alec - *opens fortune cookie* *reads* "Oh... bull shit... well... actually in bed I might be."

Sorry, I found that hilarious.

As for the Blog slump, theres a (short) story:
Back when I redid my layout, my dear girlfriend pointed out that I was consistently posting exactly four posts a month.
So, thanks to my good buddy and roommate Alec, the four-post slump has been broken.

And there was much rejoicing... "yayyyy"

A Rare Bout Of Ecumenism

Saturday before last I ventured to the National Islamic Center with a group from my world religions class to attend a service at the mosque and learn a little bit more about the faith in general. Now, any of you who know me are probably wondering why on earth I would do something so unbecoming of my dogmatic Catholic persona (especially early on a Saturday morning); but the fact of the matter is, I can be caught up in rare bouts of ecumenism and genuinely show a vested interest in faiths other than my own (particularly when my world religions grade is dependent upon it).

For all my apparent disinterest, I was actually looking forward to this trip and did in fact have a good time; so much so that I've decided to share the entire experience with you, my global internet community... hooray!

As a Church History nerd, Islam has obviously showed up on my academic radar with relative frequency. The religion, however, has always appeared in my studies during tumultuous periods in which the Church generally considered them the physical manifestation of evil and the biggest baddest boogyman ever to crawl out of the mystic east (second, perhaps, only to the Ottoman Turks who eventually converted to Islam, thereby making that point and this entire parenthetical woefully moot). The point I'm laboriously driving at here is that if you want an adequate portrait of the Islamic faith, please do not read 8th century primary sources from the Byzantine Empire and certainly do not watch the news; visit a mosque.

On the whole, I found the people and the environment of the National Islamic Center very friendly and inviting. Now, I didn't convert or anything; nor did I feel pressured to. The Imam who spoke with us before and after the service was quick to welcome questions (no matter how insultingly ignorant) and maintained a purely academic tone in his responses. By this I mean that he did not conclude his responses with "it is this way" but rather "we believe it to be this way." A form of explanation far more conducive for inter-religious dialog.

Alright, enough of my rambling, how about some pictures?

The group was forewarned of the rules (ominously cast in steel near the door) via e-mail. All men were to be dressed in long sleeves and dress pants and all women were to bring scarves to cover their hair. Attire was to be "inconspicuous;" although, once we were all seated in the middle of a mosque with women (who are usually kept separated behind a screen in the back) and a common look of bewilderment, attire seemed trivial.
Go ahead and guess which Qu'ran I read... go ahead. Did you pick the Spanish translation? Good job. What can I say, 4 years of Spanish + 0 years of Arabic = pocos minutos con el coran. A plethora of copies of the holy book were provided, though not in English.
As for the mosque itself, it was absolutely beautiful. As you may or may not know, Islam considers any direct representation of Allah to be idolatry. Therefore, one will never see a "picture" of God in a mosque (as one might see in Christian places of worship or, say, the header of this blog), but rather Allah represented in abstract forms such as calligraphy, ornate patterns, or tapestry. The result is nearly half a millennia spent perfecting these art forms to make the mystery of God feel present to the faithful. And may I say, it's damn effective.

All in all I find Islam a truly beautiful and tragic religion. There is a profound beauty to it in its devotion and reverence for God. Unfortunately, it is a tragic religion in that it has been hijacked by an extremist minority and misconstrued as a religion with a psychopathic and ideological agenda and a "convert or kill" mentality: neither of which I found to be characteristic of the people I met practicing Islam.

I give Islam four stars. Go learn about it; it's interesting.

Punished With A Baby?

Those of you who are "politically aware" more than likely recognize the words in the title of this post. They come from a recent speech Senator Obama gave in Pennsylvania regarding sexual education for children. In the speech, the Senator was quoted as saying that if his daughters made a "mistake," he would not want them to be "punished with a baby" or "punished with an STD at the age of 16." You can hear the statement for yourself here.

When I first watched the clip, I wondered "whats the big deal?" I will admit the man employed some poor word choice but it was hardly worthy of the media frenzy that followed. Honestly, we all know what he was talking about: a pregnant woman who is not financially or emotionally ready for a child is a problem. It is a problem that no father wants for his daughter.

But is the child really the punishment here? Can someone be punished with a baby? Upon further reflection, I realized that the "big deal" with the senator's speech in Pennsylvania is that it shows he believes the answer to these questions is yes.

In Senator Obama's statement, I see an opinion of prenatal children that is common among pro-choicers - namely: that the unborn child is some sort of aggressor on its mother. The unborn fetus, in this opinion, is something unwanted which shows up in the middle of the night and seeks to harm the mother in some way. After all, she didn't intend to have a child; so what the hell is it doing showing up and growing inside her anyway?

When we look at the fetus this way, it is easy to see how a child could be considered punishment. Punishment for not being careful when having sex or for not abstaining from sex. But the fact of the matter is that there is nothing unnatural or aggressive about conception. It is the most natural result of sexual intercourse. Therefore, someone may become pregnant unwillingly but not unwittingly*. Can we really consider the natural and intended end of something punishment? No, we cannot.

A child is not a punishment the way a sexually transmitted disease is. And to equate the two (as the senator's comments implied) is ludicrous. Sexually transmitted diseases are not the natural outcome of sexual intercourse. The two can seem similar, however, insofar as both can be unwanted. It can certainly seem like a child is a punishment when something other than the child was intended by the intercourse. It is quite unnatural, however, for intercourse to be intended for anything that does not include the possibility of reproduction and therefore unnatural to consider a child a punishment.

The problem is that human beings are trying to redefine their own sexuality; trying to poke and prod it until it will do something new and produce novel results. Unfortunately, sex is an old trick, and no matter how many pills you take or condoms you wear, the purpose and ultimate end of sex is going to be children. The sooner we realize and are at peace with this tried and true fact of life, the sooner we will have more strollers full of "people" and less cribs full of "punishment" in need of a morally acceptable trash can.

I will now climb down from my soap box.

*For the purposes of my argument, I excluded the extreme case of rape.

Finally, A Layout Worthy Of My Brilliance!

So, I finally had a little extra time on my hands and decided to stay up all night and put my bootlegged copy of PhotoShop CS to good use. It's an outdated version of the program, I know; but pirates can't be choosers I suppose (unless they're really good pirates). Besides, I'm not necessarily editing out miniscule imperfections in high-res photographs; I'm putting some text on a picture and playing with the text illumination feature (which is totally nifty). For my purposes, I feel CS was adequate, no? Comment and let me know what you think please! 

Special thanks goes to my buddy Matt, who sat me down and showed me the ropes of this ridiculous program. It's actually not as difficult as it looks, but then again, not doing anything major here.

A shake of the finger goes to Hex codes, which I have come to hate in the past six hours. 

Extra special thanks goes to my long time friend, caffeine: I may be shaky... but I'm awake.

Hmmm... now that my blog is a bit prettier to look at, I may post more often. Ah, how sweet indeed are the fruits of my toil and unparalleled procrastination. 

Enjoy!  

String Therory

Of all the media I've seen regarding the so-called "string theory" (including the PBS special), this is by far the best. This does not mean, however, that your minds aren't going to be blown; so prepare for complete brain malfunction.

Furthermore, I feel it's worthy to note that I don't necessarily believe all of this; but it certainly is an impressive display of the limits of scientific theory. Fair warning: string theory presupposes several faith-shaking hypotheses (including the big-bang theory): but I can't help but see in it the potential for argument of intelligent design theory (especially in the tenth dimension) and, of course, the potential to do a lot of other neat stuff (like employ the sixth dimension for my own personal wealth in the third).

This is science fiction, not science, people (albeit really cool science fiction uncharacteristically grounded in actual science). Comment with your questions or google string theory if you dare (theres alot of wacky stuff on the inernet); but most of all, watch and enjoy.

Bustin' Up A Starbucks

Exams this week have been ridiculous. If it weren't for Starbucks, I wouldn't be alive right now.

I'm a patsy for the man.

My Funny Valentine

It was a fantastic weekend thanks in large part to the pretty girl in the picture below. Laura came to visit campus, heres some photos:

Ah, there we are, the happy couple, stuffing our faces with cupcakes.

These cupcakes actually. Laura made them. Quite delicious.

Karl especially enjoyed them.

Friday night was dinner and movie. If any of you get the chance, you should go see "In Bruges." It was the best movie I've seen in a long time and definitely the best Colin Farrell movie I've ever seen. Actually, it's the only Colin Farrell movie I've seen worth watching. Cast members aside though, it was a brilliant dark comedy. The truly tragic kind that makes you laugh and cry at the same time. A little gory; but hey, what isn't nowadays? 

Best. Napkin. Ever.

Yes, that is a shelf filled with dozens of varieties of hot sauces. My dad would love this place. 

The name escapes me, but dinner that night was some mexican place in Chinatown. I suppose it's sad that we didn't get Chinese, but it was a friday in lent which means no meat for us Catholics. Thankfully, we were in the sprawling metropolis that is our nation's capital, where a vegetarian burrito joint is never hard to come by. 

Saturday night was the main event: spanish tapas and swing dancing. The dinner was fantastic. We ordered all sorts of odd dishes including battered shark meat and tuna that had somehow been cooked to the consistency of clear bacon. Not bad though. Any of you who know Laura are probably thinking "Oh God, she hates seafood, she must have been miserable," but I was proud of her. She sampled all the icky fishy stuff and actually enjoyed some of it. We also got lamb and some really delicious potato thing, so she seemed to be alright. 

Swing dancing was a challenge. No one ended up getting flipped around or anything, but we got some of the basic stuff down well enough. Unfortunately, I forgot to charge my camera that night so the pictures are a little crappy. (When the battery gets low, the flash is the first thing to go)  

There's Karl and Mary, being adorable. They're quite a pair: great dancers and even better company. We were glad to have them with us (especially when they were showing us how to look like we know how to swing dance).

This was the only picture of Laura and I that I could doctor up to look like anything. Like I said, the flash on my camera was gone and hers was in the car. We look pretty good though, right? Thanks Karl and Mary!

The weekend was fantastic, but now it's monday afternoon and I have a latin exam to study for. 

Blah.

Feliciem Diem Sancti Valentini!

Yes, that's right folks, it's that time of year again. The paradoxical holiday that simultaneously evokes lovesick sentiment and cynical distain in American society is upon us once more and it's time to celebrate! I for one have been having a pretty good one. God saw fit to grace us with beautiful weather here in DC today and it's been a blast.

 

Ah yes, plentiful sunshine and almost 50 degrees... gorgeous. Enough to keep even the most bitter of CUA's singles scene content.

Don't get me wrong, Cupid didn't miss Catholic U on his radar. There's been plenty of Valentine's spirit here on campus. The picture below is the entrance to my dorm a few nights ago. No one I've talked to knows who it was from or who it was for, but it certainly did serve as a reminder to us all that Valentines was just around the corner. 

Of course, I suppose it's worth mentioning that, shortly after I took this picture, someone pelted it with rotten apples from the cafeteria. I'm not sure if it was the young lady/man refusing or just some bitter third party, but it certainly was amusing... right up until maintenance power-washed the whole mess off our entranceway.

As for me, I have an absolutely beautiful valentine and we plan to celebrate our third Valentine's day with some Spanish tapas and swing-dancing this Saturday. It's going to be a blast, I can't wait. 

Enjoy your Valentines Day everyone. I wish you all the happiness you can stomach after eating so much heart-shaped candy.  

utter. blog. failure.

So, as you may have gathered from the title of the post, I feel like I haven't done a very good job with this blog in the few months I've had it. I was feeling pretty confident in my blogging ability earlier last month when I found a nifty layout, posted some pictures, and even inserted a nifty music playlist (the black-ish thing on the right in case you hadn't noticed: hit the triangle and it plays awesome music!); but recently, I feel like a sub-par blogger. 

I mean, honestly, can you blame me for feeling this way? Other blogs are so awesome. People who take artsy photos, write certain words of particular emphasis in different colors, and like... post regularly make me look... sub-par. I am vowing now that I will make a sincere effort to become a par-blogger, but I wouldn't put much stock in that resolution if I were you. The truth is, I'm too busy to be a good blogger. I'm a college student, and... I sleep a lot. I can't be expected to update this thing regularly, can I? Even if deep down I really want to. 

That sounded a bit more pathetic than I intended it to. Eh... pathetic is actually proving to be a good mood for this post... I might run with it. 

I mean... commmeeee onnnnnn. 

Ok, nevermind, thats just whiney; and no one likes a whiner. 

Seriously though, I will search the depths of my soul to find something in my relatively uninteresting life to fuel this blog. Also, I'll mess around with html a bit more and try to get some nifty color text and stuff. I might end up turning this ship around after all.

Does anyone even read this thing? I don't blame you if you don't, I wouldn't. It's terrible. But once I fix it, you all better read. Grrrrr.

The End 

March For Life 2008

"Each according to his or her possibilities, profession and responsibilities, should feel in themselves an obligation to love and serve life, from its beginning to its natural end."
- Benedict XVI: 3 February 2008, Noon Angelus, Italian "Day of Life," Italy

*This post for some reason never made it out of my drafts folder. Given that I now know where that is, I may now post this long lost gem for all to see*

First off, let me apologize for how late this post is. A bunch of work and a rather nasty flu have kept me off this thing lately.

Almost two weeks ago, tens of thousands showed up on the streets of Washington DC to protest what is perhaps the greatest and most urgent moral issue of our age: what has been called the genocide of the unborn. If you happened to be on the streets of DC on Jan 22, then you caught a rather impressive sight. Unfortunately, if you weren't in our nation's capitol on the 22, you probably knew nothing about it. The event wasn't so much as mentioned on any major news network; not even a blurb on the scrolling marquee. Actually, MSNBC and their crack team of journalists saw fit to mention it under the "health" section of their website complete with pictures of the maybe five pro-abortion advocates brave enough to attend.

I want you all to take note: this is proof that what you see on the news is not by any means a complete depiction of whats happening at any given time; even within your own country. Sadly, no matter what CNN (or Fox News even) tells you, there is no substitute for being socially aware.

Don't I sound worldly?

There was a beautiful air of collaboration at the march that transcended Catholic (and even Christian) affiliation. Everyone there was praying, singing, discussing; a comforting atmosphere which gave us all hope that change is on the way.

I, however, am reminded of the words of a close friend who was an adult leader on a confirmation retreat I led a while ago. He recalled the first March for Life in 1974, which had a relatively favorable turnout (by my understanding, consistent with today's numbers); "we all looked around and thought, 'oh man, this is definitely going to get someone's attention.'" Thirty four years later, he's still marching.

But at least he's not alone. Catholic U sent nearly 400 to the march this year; a personal record for the university.

Although we all know I could certainly fill this post with volumes of philosophically and logically sound reasons why you should agree that abortion is a great injustice and demand its immediate abolition, I will give credit to the 20,000 men and women I marched with and allow their photos to tell the story.

Laura Visits DC... and... Me!

As you may or may not know, my darling girlfriend came and spent this past weekend with me. For your viewing pleasure, a short compilation of photos have been provided.

Laura arrived with cupcakes. They were as delicious as they were adorable. I got pandas, she had penguins. I think they were some kind of moist chocolate cupcakes with mocha frosting? Either way... yummmm.

Here we are in front of the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool. Unfortunately, the Reflecting Pool has been drained for the winter weather. You can still see a bit of the monument though in a few reflecting puddles left over from last week's rain. Hooray!

My grey speck of a girlfriend before the giant marble Lincoln.

The two of us in the WWII Memorial. If We look cold it's because it was about 11 degrees outside. Burrrrr.

A really cool shot of Lincoln taken by Laura who (unlike me) knows how to use her camera. I like the lighting. 

A shot from the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial. You should be able to see the Capitol and Washington Monument in the background, but unfortunately I'm not a very good photographer. They are both right behind my head if you want to use your imagination. 

On Inventions

My roommate is presently spending hours manually deleting text messages from his phone. When I asked him why he didn't just go to "delete all" and be done with it, he explained that there are certain text messages which hold a sentimental value; messages that he would like to hold on to. I can definitely relate. 

Sometimes it's nice to go back and re-read old messages and remember what you were doing, who you made plans with on what day, or just simple random messages that made you laugh or smile while you were having an otherwise regular day. I suppose I have the upper hand on him in the text message department as his phone can only hold 50 messages at a given time. I'm not sure how many mine can hold. I'm almost positive it isn't an infinite amount, but I'm at almost a thousand messages and nothing has come up asking me to delete any as of yet.

This whole matter of text messages really made me wish I was an inventor. Well, I suppose in the new-agey philosophical sense, we're all inventors; but I wish I was a fully capable inventor, complete with necessary materials and advanced knowledge of physics, calculus, and electronic engineering. If I were, I would definitely invent a text message printer. It could print out text messages on little fortune cookie sheets or something. Wouldn't that be awesome? I think so. I really wish I knew someone who invented stuff. I'd totally throw this idea their way. They could have the royalties from it and everything... so long as I get my own free fortune cookie paper text message printer.

I'm not really sure what the practical applications of such a machine would be. Having a bunch of little sheets of paper would be difficult to manage and much easier to lose than your cell phone. Perhaps this is why it hasn't caught on. But it would still be neat. Especially for scrapbooks, keepsake boxes, etc.

I need to work on my grammar skills. That last paragraph was laden with sentence fragments. Sweet mercy! I'm not looking forward to this semester's first batch of papers. That's gonna be ugly.

In other news, laura came to visit the city... and... me. Well, ok... mostly me, but we spent a considerable amount of time in the city as well. Theres some pictures that will make you go "awww," I may put them up here.

Enjoy your evening everyone.  

Back To Life, Back To Reality

I haven't written here in a while. Things kindof went to absolute crap after my last post and consequently put me out of commission for a few weeks. What are ya gonna do? Thats life I suppose. 

So, I'm back on CUA campus and tomorrow classes begin. The longer I'm here the fuzzier the memories of the past month become and more and more it feels like I never left. My Dad and Holly were in the city this weekend, that was good times. I may post some pictures of all that fun stuff on here when I get them. All the entertaining and visiting with them aside, most of my time here has been spent getting unpacked, putting my room in order, and asking "how was your break?" countless times. All in all, the hours since the folks left and all the stuff got unpacked have been pretty boring.

In my wealth of time here in my dorm room, I've managed to watch a DVD and a half of scrubs episodes. That show is fantastic. I always feel a special connection with Zach Braff when I watch it. He thinks the way I think. Also, watching scrubs has made me miss Adam like crazy. He is the Turk to my JD. I've been through absolute hell this past week, and he has been the key reason why I made it through intact. I really wish we went to school together. I shudder to think of how much fun we would have.

I found myself dreading returning to campus towards the end of break, but now that I'm here, I'm pretty sure I'll be alright. Just gotta get through this first week and thing will be smooooth sailing. 

Hope ya'll havin a nice evening... YEAH! 

Project Boredom

I really wanna see Juno. Anyone down to go? Eh? Eh? Come on... teen pregnancy... fun stuff.  

Anyways, I have become a hopeless fan of Project Runway. I would be completely ashamed of myself, but I think I will instead blame it on the models... oh... and Heidi Klum. I mean Sweet mercy! "Auf wiedersehen" has never sounded so completely... sexy. 

I can already tell I'm getting waaayyyy too into this show. Right now I'm rooting for Jillian, I think she designed for Polo or something. She's classy and wholesome and I love her! *excited pseudo-homosexual voice inflection* 

I want the really annoying gay Christian guy to loose ASAP. He needs to chill the fuck out and stop making a mockery of my name.

Oh sweet mercy... I need to get my car fixed and get back into the real world.

Man... I really meant to type something profound on this thing but now I'm utterly distracted by this damn show. Theres something about a skirt made entirely out of twizzlers... oh man. 

Happy New Year everyone. Have a great 08!