I find it humorous that an album titled More Mellow Sixties would include “Something in the Air” by Thunderclap Newman.

So you might recall that before I left for GenCon it was announced that we’d be getting a new associate pastor.  Father Bob was supposed to be introduced at all of the masses the week I was in Indianapolis.  Well the following weekend our pastor and the other priests who preside over masses were all out of town, leaving him the whole parish in only his second week.  What a sudden amount of responsibility, but he seemed to be doing well under the pressure when I saw him at the Sunday evening mass.  He said a wonderful homily as I recall, even if I don’t recall the content these several months later.  It definitely tied into the narrow gate from the gospel reading.  I recall that much.

In the meantime he has been settling into the parish life well.  It turns out that both Fr. Bob and Fr. Milt went to the University of Notre Dame.  In his homeland of Uganda he used to celebrate mass in Parliament once a week, and was even the spiritual director of the nation’s VP, as the nation’s first Chaplain to the Catholic Parliamentarians.  So, as you can imagine, Uganda and Indiana did not prepare him for Phoenix’s heat.  He’s so good natured, however, that he really appreciates the luxury of air conditioning, pizza, and cheese cake. 

Two weekends ago he was similarly left the parish all to himself when all of the other priests were once again out of town.  The deacons were kind enough to assist him, and he did really well again.  Because Father Milt usually handles the Sunday evening mass he was really stressing the lack of EMs before mass.  I tried to assure him that the Sunday evening mass is always (even since I can recall) short on EMs.  They’re scheduled, they just either don’t show up or show up late, so the mass requires a lot of last minute substitutes.  (It’s bad enough that after two years of requests, my mother & I finally caved in and took training to become an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist myself.  I haven’t needed to substitute yet, but I’ve only been trained for a month and I’ve been lectoring every other week for the past few months.)  He wasn’t assured until we filled all of the slots with substitutes.  He gave an excellent Right to Life homily, brilliantly tying in the words of Habakkuk, Paul, and Luke with the special collection for Respect Life Sunday.

So, thank you God for bringing our parish another associate pastor.  Fr. Gene isn’t getting any younger.  He keeps discussing retirement more and more each year.  We may not be the biggest parish in the diocese, but we can certainly use a younger priest to assist our pastor.  God Bless Father Bob.

Thanks to septentrio for the quiz:

“Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past.” ~ Dora
“If that’s true, then wisdom is knowing that you’ll be an idiot in the future.” ~ Marten
“And common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot NOW.” ~ Faye
Questionable Content #976: “Dora Dharma” by Jeph Jacques

“There’ll always be sexual tension between male and female friends; we’re animals, after all, wired to accept each other on a sexual level at all times.” ~ former Dawson’s Creek co-star Joshua Jackson, to the London Observer
This totally explains why people in Hollywood always end up dating and/or marrying their coworkers. 

This is cool.  I discovered how to set a background colour for my text using html instead of using the Highlighter tool.  I know, I’m easily impressed.

Friday The Repugnant once again earned it’s nickname.  A story about Rocky Horror now playing in Chandler was the fold story on B1 while a story about our governor meeting with the president of Afganistan was buried on B6.  Guess which story was shorter, too.  B (or Valley and State) is the local news section of The Repugnant.  Shouldn’t the governor meeting with a foreign president be front page news?  Even if it couldn’t make A1, it ought to make B1.  What a sad state of affairs.

After mass on Sunday I saw a brochure in the pew by Bishop Olmstead and started to flip through it.  I probably would have taken it with me had I not been distracted.  A lady I recognize as being a regular mass attendee approached me somewhat hesitantly.  She complimented my lectoring ability (ironically the week between lectoring weekends), and said that I appeared to be more serious about it than many of the others.  I really appreciated the compliment.  She then hesitantly gave me a photocopied advertisement for Our Lady of the Roses Shrine.  She asked that I check it out, that it should help my faith journey.  I was touched that she would share with me something which had so obviously touched her. 

Thanks to jada_marnew for the quiz:

Your Brain is Green

Of all the brain types, yours has the most balance. You are able to see all sides to most problems and are a good problem solver. You need time to work out your thoughts, but you don’t get stuck in bad thinking patterns. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, philosophy, and relationships (both personal and intellectual).

So many people give flowers without knowing the Language of Flowers.  It’s become a lost art.

This past week has been interesting.  Wednesday night, while we were trying to close down at work, the power went out.  That made things rather difficult.  I find out that the whole block is out, due to a fire at the nearby acrylic spa retailer.  That’s right, another major fire on the same block in less than a year.  It was on all of the news stations, despite not being as major of a fire, because the fire took out the transformer for the area.  That meant that the traffic signals for the interstate were out, causing major traffic delays.  My mom called me that night to make sure I was alright.  I guess several witnesses saw a transient throw something burning over the fense and onto a pile of vinyl spa covers. 

Thursday, a couple decided that they had to leave our store before they were finished browsing because they had just heard the news that some woman had died.  When I didn’t register the name, they seemed kind of surprised.  Apparently, she’s big news, but I hadn’t heard of her until then.  I notice that she seems to be in the news a lot now, but as it’s not really news I just tune it out.  It just seems to be some of that filler news that the news media creates.  I monitored news for a living long enough to recognise non-news when I hear it.  Unlike print news media, audio and audio/visual news media can’t change the length/size of it’s broadcast to match the quantity of the news available.  So they create filler news for the rest, which they can easily drop should real news pop up. 

The sad thing is that people actually invest themselves into such non-news.  People die every day.  Read the obituaries some time.  All ages and walks of life die every day.  Each is its own story, but do you see audio and/or audio/visual news media covering the obits?  Nope, just the few they decide are somehow more important than the rest.

Saturday after work I helped haul desks around town.  In exchange I got to unload an old computer desk I haven’t used since I had possession of the LepreCon Program computer.  Today I took advantage of the extra space and reorganized the entire living room.  It has a lot more open space now. 

Sunday my mother and I brought In-N-Out Burger to my grandparents.  We hung out and played golf (a card game using two decks of standard playing cards shuffled together) and Mexican Train Dominoes.  Afterwards my mother attended mass with me.  She spoke with Fr. Milt after mass about the actual condition of her parents, who apparently try to downplay things to him. 

After work yesterday I stopped by Mike’s to catch Heroes:  the Best Show on Television.  He’s finding the number of interpersonal relationships to be breaking his suspension of disbelief.  This despite the things he’s tried to get away with for his role playing characters.  This despite the many superhero comics, movies, and television shows he’s seen.  I’m not finding any of it hard to believe.  Truth is often stranger than fiction.  Look at the NASA love triangle fiasco from last week!

Tomorrow is Arizona Statehood Day.  I wish all Arizonans a wonderful day. 

You Are 68% Gentleman

You are definitely a gentleman. You’re very considerate and you have excellent manners. Occasionally, you slip and do something foolish… but usually no one notices!

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” ~Mother Teresa

Where did fortune cookies come from and are they really Chinese?

similar_stranger said, “Somehow your quote makes me feel guilty. Oh well, small mind… at least it works–no?”  I certainly never meant anyone to feel guilty.  After all, journals (including weblogs like mine) are naturally about discussing people.  This here ‘blog is a discussion of me.  Does that mean we all have small minds?  No, my interpretation of the quote is that people that only discuss people are small minded;  those which discuss people and events are average minded;  and those which discuss people, events, and ideas are capable of being great minded.  It’s the natural progression of social development in people, IMO. 

I’ve been catching up on my lj blogs, but not my Xanga blogs.  Normally I do the opposite.  I need more time,  It’s had to believe that Advent starts next week.  My mother pointed out to me that I hadn’t put away my Christmas videos from last year when I pulled them out and placed them atop my television set.  (Why do we call it a set, when it’s a single unit anyway?)  There’s a lot of things I don’t make time for in my life.  I obviously need to reprioritize, something I seem to always be saying but not doing.   

Speaking of bad priorities, check out the most recent Onna Chance for another great gaming moment.  How could you not laugh? 

A week ago Sunday our hiking group resumed, doing the short basic trail between 40th Street and Tatum Boulevard and back.  Afterwards we went to 5 & Diner for breakfast, which was fun.  Then I went home for a nap before mass.  Father Joy read the gospel which inspired one of the best sequences in The Last Battle.  His homily focused on the Communion of Saints, a theme throughout all three readings.

Monday Bill and I went to Chuy’s before finally seeing the new Pirates movie at the discount theatre.  Can you believe that it’s $3 to see a discount movie now?!  The discount prices keep creeping up and up.  (I must be getting old.)  It was OK, but it was like The Empire Strikes Back or Back to the Future Part II in that it was obviously the dark second act of a three act story.  You knew early on in watching the film that it would end unended.  And amazingly, it did so fairly predictably.  That didn’t make it unfun, just not as entertaining as I had hoped.  That may also be part of the long period of anticipation preceding my chance to finally see it. 

Thursday saw a day off from work, so I went with my mother and grandparents to Thanksgiving Day diner at Cracker Barrel (yes, just like last year).  Afterwards we headed back to their place to celebrate my grandfather’s concurrent birthday, where my stepfather joined us.  He received a Marines ball cap from my grandmother, cash from my parents, and The Railroaders (from Bookman’s) from me. 

Friday my mother and I hit the Black Friday sales before I had to go into work.  We hit eight stores in two hours, plus eating breakfast from Jack in the Box while waiting between the stores we had already hit and the stores which hadn’t opened yet.  If you plan your sales out right the night before you can usually get everything you need quickly and without a lot of fuss.  Unfortunately, my mom know what I bought them and I know what she bought me, but that’s the price we pay for shopping when the best bargains are.  Of course, once I was at work it was relatively dead, as we don’t offer any Black Friday sales.  Thus, our holiday customers will hit the time-sensitive sales first and hit us when convenient.  Saturday was kind of slow, too, as usual. 

Saturday after work I also ran the first installment of Chapter Three in Chaos Out of Order, my continuing Dark Sun campaign set 300 years after the normal timeline.  They get some of the mystery so right, but then they get some of it so wrong.  It’s fun watching them slowly solve it, especially when one or the other has the right idea and the others disagree.  I think they’ve all been right at one time or another while the others disagreed.  As long as they’re having fun I’ll continue.

Yesterday I went to BJ’s birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza before my mother picked me up to go to mass.  It was fun, and BJ seemed happy with all of his many gifts.  I can’t recall them all, so I won’t bother trying to list them.  I gave him some Throne War, Netherworld 2, and Two-Fisted Tales boosters, a rule book from 10,000 Bullets, and a box of Deck Protector Sleeves so he finally has enough cards to hopefully build a deck and use the box.  Between the boosters I gave out for demos and those that he purchased at Hexacon, he didn’t have enough yet to build anything remotely playable.  I also had a chance to play Lisa in air hockey, which was enjoyable.  The time went too fast.  Despite my mother being antisocial, she did seem to enjoy talking with Kim and Lisa.  Maybe someday she can get the ladies to see what’s enjoyable about Doctor Who. 

At mass I was supposed to be the first lector, but ended up being the only lector.  Christ the King is a fun mass to attend every year, because before the main procession of the gospel book, altar servers, and priest we have several eucharistic ministers process forward with candles as the music minister announces sacramental and ministerial statistics for the past liturgical year (one stat with each candle that processes forward).  Of all of the parishes I’ve attended on Christ the King, St. Paul is the only one to do this. 

Father Gene noted before mass in the sacristy that one of the altar servers was now sporting an ear ring, and seemed surprised that his grade school allowed such a thing.  He didn’t make the server take it out, just as he never asks me to hide my long hair.  He did mention once again about his desire to retire in the next year.  I wonder if Father Joy would become pastor or if they’d assign us someone else.  In his homily Father Gene discussed kings and kingship, and how Christ is a holy king rather than a material king.

Before and after mass I was part of the team maintaining the Christmas Angels on the trees in the vestibule.  My mother volunteered to help, which was nice of her.  The Christmas Angels are clothing items (green angels), clothing sets (blue angels), or something nice–such as a toy for children–(blue angels) for the poor of El Mirage.  When I first was involved in our parish’s El Mirage Christmas Angels Project, El Mirage was a poor hispanic community in the rural area outside the metropolitan area.  Now El Mirage is mostly composed of upper middle class anglo families and retirees in various cookie cutter developments.  The poor of the community are now disenfranchised by their own city, which is now considered to be part of the metropolitan area.   The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Or something like that. 

Hey, I found my missing Feng Shui sourcebooks Back for Seconds, Thorns of the Lotus, and Blood of the Valiant today while looking for something else completely.  They had been filed with my outdated calendar collection.  Yes, I keep everything.  But, I was actually looking for some stuff I knew I had somewhere that I will be getting rid of after years of storing for absolutely no good reason.  Don’t ask me why the books were hidden with the calendars.  I have no idea.  And, no, I won’t be getting rid of my calendars.  They’re a journal of sorts with various events scribbled in them.  Future generations might want that history. 

Then I submitted some corrections to the RPG Wiki of RPGnet for the Feng Shui entries.  I’ll have to scan some covers sometime to complete their Feng Shui data for the Daedalus Entertainment (and Ronin Publishing) era.  Then I’ll work on inputting all of the Dark Sun data that they’re missing.  Remind me if I forget.  Thanks.

Well, Heroes:  The Best Show on Television will be on soon, so I’m gonna jet. 

Thanks to the_chaos_opera for the quiz:

Horus Sparkling personality, intense will, intelligent, understanding, impatient to exert influence. Colors: male: red carmine, female: gold Compatible Signs: Bastet, Geb Dates: Apr 20 – May 7, Aug 12 – Aug 19 Role:God of the pharaoh Appearance: Form of a falcon-headed man, wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt Sacred Animal: falcon What is Your Egyptian Zodiac Sign? Designed by CyberWarlock of Warlock’s Quizzles and Quandaries

“If an idea’s worth having once, it’s worth having twice.” ~Tom Stoppard

What does the “10/6″ mean on the Mad Hatter’s hat from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland?

I keep wanting to make time to post, but life just keeps me busy. Here’s a recap of recent events.

The Saturday group was kind enough to let me cancel last weekend’s Chaos Out of Order session so I could go to a last minute birthday party for a friend. The host family had been sick for over a week, and thus were only able to give a five day notice. Unfortunately, that meant that besides the hosts, the guest, and I, only one other showed up–and he showed up with his son and new girlfriend in tow close to midnight! I guess he had had another party commitment the same night and tried to do both. The rest of those invited were unable to attend.

We still had a great dinner, played some Guillotine and Torches and Pitchforks, Guillotine was one of the birthday gifts our hosts had given, and the guest of honour seemed to enjoy it. I think she was a little bummed so few people showed up, but she did appeciate the fact that at least some of us were there. Hopefully the ladies had a good time the next day, at the spa.

The last few Wednesday nights I have tried to go to Choir practice after work. I’ve been arriving as cars leave the parking lot, and the church is already locked up and dark. It’s yet another example of how I forget when calculating commute time that I’m not as fast as I was before I was injured. I’ll try a few more times, and if it keeps up, then I’ll just have to respectly decline the offer of joining the choir.

Our Doctor Who Fridays have resumed on SciFi Channel, so we’ve been watching the new season of Doctor Who the last two Fridays. The first week of the season they showed the first two episodes, just like last season. That kept us up way too late for a work night. Luckily, just like last season they’re only showing an episode a week thereafter, allowing for a reasonable bedtime. All three episodes have been fantastic, despite the obvious change in tone and direction with the new Doctor this season. It’s been interesting how they’ve been preparing audiences for the Torchwood spinoff these last two seasons. I hope it airs here in the States.

It was good seeing everybody together again, at least the first week. Da was back in town from Tucson and even B was willing to drive from his side of town for the occassion. Asked to bring a vegetable sidedish, I opted to try my hand at carmelized leeks over green tea noodles. Da and BJ seemed to enjoy them, but Kim (not much for many various vegetables) isn’t likely to eat leeks again. By comparison, it was just Jay, Kim, and I this weekend. Even Lisa was out of town this week. Next week I’ll miss out, due to Hexacon XVI. That’s too bad, as I was always a big SJS fan.

This Saturday we resumed Chaos Out of Order. I miscalulated my d20 level progression. I was thinking people level at 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, et cetera, but it’s actually 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, et cetera. I thought maybe people were leveling too fast. Oh well, thank goodness Rusty caught me on that. We’re finally into a stretch of downtime, which is good since we won’t be playing next weekend during Hexacon.

Last Sunday my mom visisted for a game day. We hadn’t played (other than at my grandparents’ place) in a long time. So we played a game of Torches and Pitchforks and a game of The Game of Life:  A Jedi’s Path.  Afterwards, we went to mass, where I was the first lector and Father Milt gave another of his great homilies.  He reminded us that the gospel message applies to the election season and how we vote for candidates and propositions.  This Sunday I worked on some last minute DAL and KLA items for Hexacon before attending mass with another of Fr. Milt’s homilies.  He spoke of the importance marriage, the importance of working on a marriage from within, and working on a marriage from without by the community–married or single. 

Last Monday I attended the first session of Parish Time for the season, our parish’s continuing religious education for all ages.  We covered the Sign of the Cross before the children went off to their various grade levels.  Then the teens and adults broke into small groups and watched a film and answered questions related to each segment.  After I got home I made sure to tune into the what was left of Heroes, the best show on television.  This Monday I attended another DAL3/KLA1 meeting before coming home to watch Heroes, still the best show television.  If you can watch only one show, watch Heroes.

This weekend is Hexacon, so don’t expect me to return until after the madness is at an end.  Have a happy Friday the 13th everyone. 

“You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” ~Robin Williams