I finally managed to find the Halloween episode (from season 2) of Two Guys, A Girl And A Pizza Place. It was the best episode of the series, from what I remember. A psycho twin Berg (Ryan Reynolds) runs around killing people. One of the victims is Nathan Fillion. The name of the episode is Two Guys, A Girl, And A Psycho Halloween. If anyone wants to watch, here you go: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Today was the last day of our summer events week, culminating in a small performance for the strings group, and at the town hall in Stornoway a gig for those attending the Rock School. I went out at ten this morning and got back at ten tonight and I'm very glad I don't have to do that often. Not only was I photographer, but cameraman too, which I've never done before in my life at all, and I've still yet the joys of editing to master (not to mention having several hundred photos to go through too). In a way I'm glad I was only actually up at the Lews Castle College (where it was mostly taking place) for yesterday and today, as I think a week of running around with my camera would have made me keel over. How my boss managed it I don't know, even though busy is her normal speed; given that we're not a big organisation it was a pretty impressive week.

It may be of interest of some of you that one of the tutors hired to come over by Careers Scotland (part of the event was funded by them) was this guy, whose name I can't remember, nor that of the reasonably well known group that he was keyboardist for. Someone on my flist must surely be able to remind me, though.

Gad, I'm bushed.

- Pointy

Scully have I loved

It says a lot of things that have already been said before, but you can never praise Scully too much.

I particularly liked this bit, which sums up my own feelings on the matter:

Today's television is not without its Scullys -- "Law & Order" ladies who crack skulls and chase bad guys in Jimmy Choos. But they all feel like tall, skinny, limp knockoffs of the original. Dana Scully was not standard television beautiful, but a diminutive pre-Raphaelite, pale of skin and red of hair....

I've just joined a very exciting new community called stilljewish, which is meant for Jewish fans and their allies. Having been a member for less than twelve hours, I've already gotten to discuss Fox Mulder, Brian Epstein and Ziva David. So you just know that this comm is made of win!

Sadly, it seems that people are criticizing it already. Oh, fandom, change as quickly as possible. Please.

The only thing I am playing as far as openers go are the warrants. I am longing the puts and shorting the calls and BW's. I'm busy on Sunday during the usual adjust time.

I guess I have no excuses now. But with this new setup, uploading sites and fics is going to be a total breeze. I hardly know what to do with all the speed I have now, in fact. It's just nice to get to my mail without getting a cup of coffee inbetween. ;()

So maybe, now that the hulabaloo is done with, I can actually get back to writing again. ARG! I'm totally off the track with Harbors, distracted again by the biggie fics lurking around the corners. Part of it is time, the other is getting to a not too easy section, the last is the general lack of enthusiasm for VOY fics in general these days. I write to get my ideas out, and I know this is yet another unfinished mucker, but... Meh. I go through these phases. Never mind me. *g*

Worse--as I mentioned before--is that I have to move my site. Again.

Question for the flist: Should I go to a new site where my friend (a professional developer) can host me for free, or should I pay $60 per year for my Tripod site (through which many people go to get to my site as is, and I've had for almost 10 years)? I'm strongly drawn to sticking with Tripod, but I always like free, too, and it's nice to personally know the person in charge of your site.

Opinions from people who have ever gone out looking for shifted websites, or have had to shift their own?

Okay, back to work. ;^)

It's late but I have been thinking about doing this for a long time but I haven't come around to do it... I should be ashamed for not doing it since ma sweetheart is one of the Malmö26.

Better late than never.




Support the 26 men and women who were arrested and now facing charges in court during a legal union blockade in 2006!

This banner and the link to the union SAC's homepage giving information about this is up on my info page here on LJ as well.

I'm an inherently lazy person as well as finding it hard to multi-task - I prefer to continue one task until it is completed and then move on to the next so that I can give each one full attention.

I therefore find it incredibly frustrating to be unable to continue projects I'm working on. Today I have about 6 tasks identified for completion - all of which require input from someone else. Consequently I've left 6 answrphone messages...

I may go insane from frustrated inactivity.

http://www.trektoday.com/news/250708_02.shtml

Flying toy Enterprises will be making their appearance with the promise of other ships to follow.

http://www.trektoday.com/news/250708_01.shtml

Reprising his most famous role meant working past his initial concerns.

Wireless guy is here right now mounting my wireless box.

Yayyyyyy!!!!!

*happy dance!*

There’s another post-Journey’s End fix-it ficathon, for those that are interested. It’s being hosted by brown_not_blue, and you can sign up here.

And here’s some strange news that I've heard from a couple of people on my friends list: MTV is going to remake The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

My latest project update here: http://kirastitch.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-purr-fect-progress.html

Jim's going to be REALLY unhappy with Mom tonight.

*evil*


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Somehow, somehow last night at around 1 AM I managed to pick up the glass of water that was next to my bed and pour it over myself whilst about 90% asleep. I can't have knocked it in a bout of nocturnal thrashing as that would have sent it over the carpet instead, instead of the bed covers and my chest. So, that was very strange and an altogether unpleasant way to come to full consciousness at that time of night. Had to spend the rest of it on the sofa, which wasn't terribly comfortable.

It was pretty badly timed too, given that today I was photographing and filming for around five hours. I actually used the phrase "I can't sentence properly" after mangling my words repeatedly, later in the afternoon, I was that fuzzy-headed. No water by the bed tonight, so we'll see just how inventive my subconscious can get.

Behind with the ISBNs by two books now, but I'll catch up on the weekend.

- Pointy

Father Z posted this article from Catholic Exhcange, which discusses a symptom of the oft-forgotten difference between the human and the divine in modern liturgy, at least on the part of certain churchgoers. Now, I am loath to declare that these people do it on purpose and see going to church as a bit of Sunday morning entertainment. Rather, I believe, it is the result of a very serious lack of awareness about their own faith. Are they to blame?
Yes. And no. Yes, because if you're serious about the faith you claim to adhere to, you should consider it a responsibility to know and understand it fully (or at least as fully as you can). No, because how terribly lacking have the opportunities to learn through cathechesis and priests who know their business been over the past decades? In circumstances like that it is so very easy to think you know enough while that is not the case.

Anyway, on the the article. Notes in bold are some of my thoughts jotted down.

Hold the Applause: Confessions of a Conflicted Clapper

July 22nd, 2008 by Mary Anne Moresco

Whenever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of the liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment.

The above words were penned by our Holy Father Pope Benedict the XVI, (then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) on p. 198 of his book entitled The Spirit of the Liturgy. I first read this book before our Holy Father became pope. The book did three things to me. First, it made me acutely aware that there was much about the meaning of the liturgy to which I was blind. [An example of the difficulty of keeping in mind (or even the backs of our minds) the meaning, point and purpose of Holy Mass, with the Eucharist at its core?] Second, it deepened my love for the liturgy. [Pope Benedict XVI is a very gifted author. Not the easiest to read, perhaps, but his writings are very rewarding] Third, it put me in conflict with respect to how I needed to approach Mass. One area of conflict was in clapping at Mass.

Having read Cardinal Ratzinger’s words on clapping, I wondered how I could continue to clap at Mass in good conscience. As one who has been to Masses where there was clapping for just about everyone, from musicians, lectors, altar servers and church decorators to priests giving homilies and lay people giving testimonies, I began to wonder why we clap at Mass at all. [I recognise this, not just in regards to clapping, but any habit that a congregation has adopted, which is not in keeping with a good liturgy. Before Father Victor was appointed here in Emmen, for example, there was hardly any standing or kneeling during Mass. People sat and watched, or so it seemed (I can't look in people's hearts, of course), and it's very difficult to not copy them, to not stand out because you're the only one standing at the Our Father.]

Some liturgical clapping proponents claim we clap because Psalm 47:1 tells us to clap: “All you peoples, clap your hands...“. But we Catholics do not interpret scripture independently.[Ah, here's a very important thing to remember...] We look to Holy Mother Church, and her 2,000 years of teaching, to ensure our interpretation is authentic. [As I once read a sentence from a homily by a priest from the south of the country: "Life and faith are not just a supermarket from which we pick what we like"] The documents on the liturgy (the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, Liturgiam Authenticu[a]m, and Redemptionis Sacr[a]mentum) do not call for clapping at the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. They call for reverence.

Rome wants irreverence at Mass to a stop. “...let everyone do all that is in their power to ensure that the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist will be protected from any and every irreverence...” (Redemptionis Sacramentum 183). The key question is this: is clapping a reverent action, or does clapping break the liturgical spirit of reverence which Rome is calling us to protect?

Cardinal Francis Arinze is prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome. When His Eminence speaks about the liturgy, our ears should perk up and listen. He stated that “...when we come to Mass we don’t come to clap. We don’t come to watch people, to admire people. We want to adore God, to thank Him, to ask Him pardon for our sins, and to ask Him for what we need.” [Adoremus Bulletin; Vol. IX, no.7, Oct. 2003] {And much as we may appreciate what the lectors, choir and priest have done, we are not there for them. With them, we are there for God.]

I am a Roman Catholic. I don’t make up the rules for my faith or the Catholic Mass as I go along. I receive them from God, through His church, as a gift. I have faith in God, His church and its teachings. I believe God reveals His truths through those teachings. For that reason I want to honor them.

To honor those teachings, and thus honor God, I had resolved at Mass to hold the applause when I was there. Yet, I must confess that sometimes when everyone around me is clapping, or when someone stands up at Mass and asks me to applaud for someone else, I still succumb to clapping — albeit half-heartedly. [I do too. Well, maybe not clapping, because that hardly ever happens in my church, but other things...]

In the midst of the applause, our Holy Father’s words spin sadly around in my head, thus causing me grief and making for conflicted claps. The hands that clap at Mass these days are distracted and bewildered hands that would find a sublime joy if only they might be permitted to simply fold themselves in prayer to our God on that one special hour of the week devoted to Him. This is an ongoing struggle in my life that revisits itself often on Sunday. But please don’t clap for me. Instead, I ask “you my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.”

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Anyone else having a repeat of yesterday's issues? I can't get the board to load.

OK, it's now 24 July, my last post was on 26 March. That makes nearly 4 months without an update. And no nudges from anyone to do so. :p

So... just been updating all my user accounts with a slightly new e-mail, similar to what it was before... my old one still works, but I'm phasing it out. Went through about twenty or thirty sites today (some of which I'd not visited in ages) updating them and blocking my e-mail from public view. You see, I'm getting hundreds of spam e-mails per day now, and it's getting annoying. Especially when I can't check e-mail for a while and come online to six or seven hundred spam messages.

Work's going well. We may be starting the main phase of the project soon. Other than that... I'm on temporary promotion as of the start of June... I'm also the IT Liaison Officer for my division (which means any IT-related stuff for the division goes through me to our IT contractors, and vice-versa).

We have some new temps working with us, all of whom are brilliant.

TBBS Meetup was great.

Went to a wedding last weekend. Two old university friends finally tied the knot.

Don't think there's much else to update on... except that I'm alive, busy and tired. ;)

There was a hell of a storm last night. It rained hard for about two hours, there was a lot of wind, lightning, and the loudest thunder I've heard in years. One clap of thunder scared me so much that I fell off my bed! The cats panicked a bit. We really needed the rain, though...

It's sunny today.