Thursday, November 30, 2006

Finally, that announcement-thingie!

A long time ago, I said there was going to be an announcement.

Well, here it is!

This blog is moving to http://orderofsantaignora.wordpress.com.

Why the huge delay?

Well, I didn't want to tell you guys my real name. Seriously. Yes, I know I'm a dork, you'll think I'm an even bigger dork in about two paragraphs.

I was still kinda digging this anonymous thing. But I'm pretty sure it's time to drop the monastic habit [even though the blog will still be the Order of Santa Ignora (and I PROMISE that in the next week or so, I'll tell you where that reference comes from)].

Anyway, don't worry if you mess up, I'll still answer to Sr. Mary Hasta. But my real name is Mary Sue.


Y'all can stop laughing now. :p

Monday, November 27, 2006

Your Light Reading For The Day

Stumbled across this article by David Goode in my travels around the Internet, and I found it interesting. It's a PDF, be warned. And it's also got some moralising of its own going on, but it's an interesting read.

Morals and penance: punishing vice in East Anglia on the eve of the sixteenth century

Abstract
A look at the punishment of immorality and vice in East Anglia at the close of the fifteenth century, with examples taken from the visitation of 1499 of the vacant see of Norwich, recorded in the Episcopal Register of Cardinal John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury. The paper contrasts the self-righteous attitude towards morality of many of today's Christians with the surprisingly humane attitude to its punishment on the eve of the sixteenth century.

Friday, November 24, 2006

o_0

A friend of mine explained quite solemnly that she doesn't like Thanksgiving because it represents 'oppresive Christian traditions'.

Um. Yeah. How do you go about explaining the wrongness of wrong that is that statement without alienating said friend and/or boring her to tears with historical detail?

Also, new!landlord somehow got the impression I'm a bible thumper. From my icon corner.

The wrongness just keeps on coming!

Monday, November 20, 2006

An Open Letter to the Holy and Undivided Trinity, One God

Dear Creator Father, Redeemer Christ, and Sustaining Spirit:

I really had a good time at church yesterday, especially considering it was the first time I'd vested and sung with my little choir in probably a month. And thank you for getting the other strong-lunged soprano to church in time for the Communion Hymn, since she can read music and I just, you know, fake it.

And it was kind of fun to have the processional stuck in my head for the rest of the day, because it was Glorious is the name of Jesus and I really like that hymn.

But, seriously, enough is enough. The thing has one verse that just repeats the same thing over and over. It was in my dreams last night, fer crying out loud! I'm starting to feel sympathy for the guys who drill holes in their skulls to get rid of the voices. Even the iPod isn't working, and I've brought out the big guns: the Moulin Rouge soundtrack.

Little help here, please?
Thanks,
Me.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Urgh. Morning

I have been reading a lot of self-proclaimed "Guides to Spiritual Enlightenment" lately. I don't know why.

The amusing thing to me is that they pretty much all say, 'if'n you're serious about your spirituality, you will get up very, very early in the morning.'

...the hell? Does God only keep office hours from 5am-7am?

About 75% of the time, the guides go on to say, "It's a discipline, it's the quiet part of the day, you'll have no distractions, and it will make you a better person. Just try it for a while, you'll learn to love it!"

I know now not to try it for a while, but back when I didn't understand who and what I was, I would go through phases where I would tell myself that TOMORROW I would totally wake up at 5am, say my prayers, go out exercising, come home and shower and greet the day with a smile. I'd set my three alarms for 5am, and go to sleep.

And then wake up at about 7am, having hit the snooze button a billion times, and rush off to work.

I ran across an article today at Focused Distractions, which is a blog written by a person with ADD who helps others deal with their ADD. I, too, have ADD, a real-true diagnosis with all the associated hyperfocus and time management issues. She describes her day thus:

Many of us with ADD brains are not very pleasant in the morning. We are often night owls who find it nearly impossible to:
  • Shut off our computers
  • Turn off the TV
  • Close the interesting novel
  • Turn off our non-stop brains

That means, we generally are up LATE and try to sleep in as late as humanly possible without getting fired or kicked out of school.


ADD is why I do my second-best praying after 11pm*. I've found that there's nothing better to wind my brain down than Evening Prayer followed by Compline. It has all the things that an ADD person loves: structure, a schedule, and singing.

Ok, well, maybe the singing is just me.

We're coming up on Advent, which is one of those times of year where people start looking at their faith and spirituality and discovering lacks. It's tempting to go running for the spiritual self-help books. God created us as individuals, however, which means that we all have to come up with our own individual schedules.


*I do my first-best praying when I'm on an airplane. My turbulent flight from Baltimore to Detroit last week may cause world peace or a cure for cancer.

Friday, November 10, 2006

For the record: Jet lag sucks.

Remind me again why I flew 3000 miles across the country?

Boss: How was your trip?
Moi: Fabulous! It was so great!
Boss: You're smiling bigger now than you were before you left.

...oh, yeah. That's why.

Something nice and fluffy that I'm totally stealing from Fr. Jim (since I'm slogging through not only a backlog at work, but 428 posts on my Bloglines-- you folks were sure chatty while I was gone) but I made up the title all by myself. And what have we learned from this? No more Miyazaki movies before bed.

iPod Shuffle-rama Yeehaw Amazing Friday Whoopie!
The rules, for bloggers who want to play:
Get your ipod or media-player of choice, select your whole music collection, set the thing to shuffle (i.e., randomized playback), then post the first ten songs that come out. No cheating, no matter how stupid it makes you feel! Maybe link the songs to online music stores for readers' convenience.

1. "Free at Last" G. Love & Special Sauce
2. "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" Ensemble, the Original Broadway Cast of Spamalot!
3. "Going Out of My Head" Fatboy Slim
4. "Bend Down the Branches" Tom Waits
5. "Fair" Remy Zero
6. "River's Afraid / Niska / Torture" Greg Edmonson, composer, soundtrack to the TV show Firefly
7. "Theme from Spider-Man" Original TV theme
8. "Siente Mi Amor" Selma Hayek, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Once Upon a Time in Mexico
9. "Pawn Shop" Sublime
10. "Open Book" Cake

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

I'm home from DC!

Full report after I get some sleep.

For now, RAAR! ANGRY WHITE JESUS IS COMING TO GET YOUSE!

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(from the Basillica of the Immaculate Conception)