Tuesday, September 1, 2009
An Update
What am I doing now? I am going back to school to be a Radiological Technologist, and X-ray Tech. This year I am taking care of some prerequisites before actually starting the program. I am enjoying being a student again.
An idea came to me this morning to start a new blog/journal about going back to college. I haven't set it up yet but I will update this blog when I do.
That's all for now.
AB
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Godfather
Hello, all! I know it’s been a while. I was sadly interrupted from forming an immature habit of blogging regularly by the sudden death of an aunt. She died suddenly of heart failure at the end of March, providentially, right before Spring Break. I say “providentially” because the time facilitated my capacity to attend the funeral. Please keep her in your prayers. R. I. P.
Regardless, with the funeral, a busy Spring Break and the demands of Holy Week immediately following, any habit of blogging regularly that I had formed ended up being thrown out the window. Hopefully, I will keep up on it better in the future.
Good news! My sister and brother-in-law just had their second child, a girl. They asked me to be her godfather, which I humbly accepted. Now I have an excuse to use the “Godfather” accent. When I get a picture, I’ll post it.
Now for some updates. I’m not going to be teaching next year. The school can’t afford to take on another teacher and, with my plans for the future, I can’t afford to live off of a teacher’s salary. What will I do? I plan on pursuing a career in the medical field as a radiological technician (i.e. x-ray guy). So for the next couple years I will be going to school in Kansas and hopefully settling down in the area.
The school year is almost over. It is finals week here and we have about two weeks left before I leave for Kansas. The rugby team had a down year losing quite a few games but finishing 4th in the state playoffs. Next year looks more hopeful with only three seniors graduating and a number of good younger players making an impact. They will definitely be good next year.
I have a number of topics I would like to comment on and share with you so check back soon for new post. Thanks for reading.
AB
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Good Job, Your Excellency... Now What?
Catholic Online ran a great article regarding the appointment of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sibelius to the cabinet spot of Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. The article included a statement from Archbishop Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas which expresses both his objective criticism of the Governor and her accomplishments while in office. Moreover, he expresses deep pastoral concern for her soul and the affect her stance on abortion, coupled with her public office, has had and continues to have on the Church and Catholic teaching.
She is a Catholic, yet strives for the legalization of abortion. The Archbishop in very clear terms illustrates the obvious contradiction of Sibelius’ principles. He even publicly denounced her pro-abortion agenda back in May of last year and asked her to not present herself for Holy Communion. He lamented that so many Catholics—VP Joe Biden, House Speaker Pelosi, and a number of congressmen—who hold positions high up in the government have similar agendas.
I must commend the Archbishop’s open and bold statements in defense of the moral and natural laws and of the many children and mothers who are threatened by abortion. Yet I cannot help wonder when the next step will be taken. When will he and the other Catholic bishops step forward and publicly impose censures upon these public figures? These “Catholic” political leaders say they are Catholic; but in very grave aspects of their lives and public persona they are in no way Catholic. In fact, these figures are not Catholic, but Protestant. They interpret law and Scripture the way they want to see it and no authority has a “right” to tell them different.
If a Catholic—any Catholic but especially one in a high position of authority—not only permits but promotes ideas which are contrary to the laws and teachings of the Church—and in this case also the natural law—how can we call them Catholic? How can they be allowed to receive Communion and the other Sacraments? Certainly, if they amend their lives and wish to be brought back into “the Fold”, the Church is waiting with outstretched arms.
It is a scandal that they are not publicly punished for their implicitly anti-Catholic agendas. Not only scandal, but it seems to me that this fear of making legitimate sanctions against these people is a form of murder, a murder of the truth.
The public sees these imposters, claiming Catholic affiliation, heedless of the reprimands of their religious leaders—that is, the few leaders that actually do perform their duty as pastors of the Church—and are given the impression that Catholic law is of no consequence to its members. Each Catholic can believe what they want regardless of the Church’s teachings, unhindered and without consequence. Why be a Catholic if not to bind oneself to the laws and disciplines of the Catholic Church, the Church founded by Christ?
May God have mercy on our Catholic hierarchy and may we all pray that they perform their duty before God dutifully and with the courage and love of true Charity.
AB
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
History Bloopers
I am not sure where I got this from but I found it while cleaning up an old external hard drive. It is a very entertaining narrative to American history. Enjoy!
Richard Lederet, St. Paul's School
Intro: One of the fringe benefits of being an English or History teacher is receiving the occasional jewel of a student blooper in an essay. I have pasted together the following "history" of the world from certifiably genuine student bloopers collected by teachers throughout the United States from eighth grade through college level. Read carefully, and you will learn a lot.
The inhabitants of ancient Egypt were called mummies. They lived in the Sarah Dessart and traveled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants had to live elsewhere, so certain areas of the dessert are cultivated by irritation. The Egyptians built the pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular cube. The Pyramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain.
The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, once asked, "Am I my brother's son?" God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on mount Montezuma. Jacob, son of Isaac, stole his brother's birth mark. Jacob was a patriarch who brought up his twelve sons to be patriarchs, but they did not take to it. One of Jacob's sons, Joseph, gave refuse to the Israelites.
Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the Red Sea where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. David was a hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the Philatelists, a race of people who lived in Biblical times. Solomon, one of david's sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.
Without the Greeks we wouldn't have history. The Greeks invented three kinds of columns - Corinthian, Doric, and Ironic. They also had myths. A myth is a female moth. One myth says that the mother of Achilles dipped him in the River Stynx until he became intollerable. Achilles appears in the Iliad, by Homer. Homer also wrote the Oddity, in which Penelope was the last hardship that Ulysses endured on his journey. Actually, Homer was not written by Homer, but by another man of that name. Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advise. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock. In the Olympic games, Granks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, and threw the java. The reward to the victor was a coral wreath. The government of Athens was democratic because people took the law into their own hands. There were no wars in Greece as the mountains were so high that they couldn't climb over to see what their neighbors were doing. When they faught with the Persians, the Greeks were outnumbered because the Persians had more men. Eventually, the Romans conquered the Geeks. History calls people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long. At Roman banquets the guests wore garlics in their hair. Julius Caeser extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Nero was a cruel tyrrany who would torture his poor subjects by playing the fiddle to them.
Then came the Middle Ages. King Alfred conquered the Dames. King Arthur lived in the Age of Shivery. King Harold mustarded his troops before the Battle of Hastings. Joan of Arc was cannonized by Bernard Shaw, and victims of the Black Death grew boobs on their necks. Finally, Magna Carta provided that no true man should be hanged twice for the same offense. In midevil times most of the people were alliterate. The greatest writer of the time was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verses and also wrote literature. Another tale tells of William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple while standing on his son's head. The renaissance was an age in which more individuals felt the value of their human being. Martin Luther was nailed to the Church door at Wittenberg for selling Papal indulgences. He died a horrible death, being excommunicated by a bull. It was the painter Donatello's interest in the female nude that made him the father of the Renaissance. It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented the Bible. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes. Another important inventior was the
circulation of blood. Sir Francis Drake circumsised the world with a 100-foot clipper. The government of England was a limited mockery. Henry VIII found walking difficult because he had an abbess on his knee. Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen." As a queen she was a success. When Elizabeth exposed herself before her troops, they all shouted, "Hurrah." Then her navy went out and defeated the Spanish Armadillo.
The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespear. Shakespear never made much money and is famous because of his plays. He lived in Windsor with his merry wives, writing tragedies, comedies, and errors. In one of Shakespear's famous plays, Hamlet rations out his situation by relieving himself in a long soliloquy. In another, Lady Macbeth tries to convince McBeth of a heroic couplet. Writing at the same time as Shakespear was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hole. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.
During the Renaissance America began. Chritsopher Columbus was a real navigator who discovered America while cursing about the Atlantic. His ships were called the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Fe. Later, the Pilgrims crossed the ocean, and this was known as Pilgrims Progress. When they landed at Plymouth Rock, they were greeted by the Indians, who came down the hill rolling their war hoops before them. The Indian squabs carried porpoises on their cabooses, which proved very fatal to them. The winter of 1620 was a hard one for the settlers. Many people died and many babies were born. Captain John Smith was responsible for all this.
One of the causes of the Revolutionary Wars was the English put tacks in their tea. Also, the colonists would send their parcels through the post without any stamps. During the way, the Red Coats and Paul Revere was throwing balls over stone walls. The dogs were barking and the peacocks crowing. Finally, the colonists won the war and no longer had to pay for taxis. Delegates from the original thirteen states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin had gone to Boston carrying all his clothes in his pocket and a loaf of bread under each arm. He invented electricity by rubbing cats backwards and declared "A horse divided against itself cannot stand." Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead. George Washington married Martha Curtis and in due time became the Father of Our country. Then the Constitution of the United States was adopted to secure domestic hostility. Under the Constitution the people enjoyed the right to keep bare arms.
Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest Precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. When Lincoln was President, he wore only a tall silk hat. He said, "In onion there is strength." Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope. He also freed the slaves by signing the Emasculation Proclomation, and the fourteenth amendment gave the ex-negroes citizenship. But the Clue Clux Clan would rather torcher and lynch the ex-negroes and other innocent victims. It claimed it represented law and oder. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. This ruined Booth's career.
Meanwhile in Europe the enlightenment was a reasonable time. Voltare invented electricity and also wrote a book called Candy. Gravity was invented by Isaac Walton. It is chiefly noticable in the Autumn when the apples are falling off trees. Bach was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Beetoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beetoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.
France was in a very serious state. The French Revloution was accomplished before it happened. The Marseillaise was the theme song of the French Revolution, and it catapulted into Napoleon. During the Napoleonic Wars, the crowned heads of Europe were trembling in their shoes. Then the Spanish gorillas came down from the hills and nipped at Napoleon's flanks. Napoleon became ill with bladder problems, and was very tense and unrestrained. He wanted an heir to inherit his power, but since Josephine was a baroness, she couldn't bear children.
The sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire is on the east and the sun sets in the west. Queen Victoria was the longest Queen. She sat on a thorn for 63 years. Her reclining years and finally the end of her life were exemplatory of a great personality. Her death was the final event which ended her reign. The nineteenth century was a time of many great inventions and thoughts. The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up. Cyrus McCormic invented the McCormick raper, which did the work of a hundred men. Samuel Morse invented a code of telepathy. Louis Pasteur discovered a cure for rabbis. Charles Darwin was a naturalist who wrote The Organ of the Species. Madman Curie discovered radium. And Karl Marx became one of the Marx Brothers. The First World War, caused by the assignation of the arch-Duck by a surf, ushered in a new error in the anals of human history.
AB
Monday, March 9, 2009
On Humility
How often do we read the lives of the saints, observe their virtues, especially their profound humility, and, at least in the secret shadows of our minds, consider them naive? Sadly, I for one have done that over and over again. I have read about the great deeds of the saints, founding schools, converting great sinners, perform revolting penances, and in the end, lament their own worthlessness before God. How many times I have laughed to myself, “Look at all you have done and the sanctity of your life. Certainly you can’t be all that bad.”
What I missed is my own pride. Why is it that I couldn’t see how worthless the saints are? I think that the fundamental problem is not a naïveté on the part of the saints but on my part.
I couldn’t see the humility of the saints because I secretly thought that I was good. I could not imagine, or maybe didn’t want to see, that I was so bad. Because if the saints did such great things, and were still worthless, then what am I who is nowhere near the level of these saints?
The root of this blindness is a widespread sickness that rages throughout the world, subjectivism. Subjectivism is the distortion of the intellect by which we measure everything in relation to “self”. The car I see appears to be blue. My friend says it looks green to him. My truth is that it is blue; his truth is that it is green. We are both right.
“Absurd,” you say, “the car cannot be both absolutely blue and at the same time absolutely green. It is one or the other.” And you are right. A thing has certain objective aspects that exist in a certain way regardless of our perception. In everyday life we acknowledge this to be true.
In fact we have to follow this basic rule or numerous dilemmas would occur in our lives. If this color is blue to me but green to the lady at the paint shop, I am going to be very unhappy with the color of my room. No matter how much I say to myself that the fire is not hot or does not burn, I am going to get burned if I put my hand to it. Consider how many occasions we depend upon a common understanding of things; then consider how intolerable life would be if our notions of those things were not universal among society.
It is the same in the realm of ideas. Only here, the practical aspects are not so apparent at first. We can lie and we can make mistakes in our judgments, both are illusions of truth. Walking in the desert I think I see a pool of water. Because I am deceived does not mean that I can never trust my knowledge of things; only that there can be a defect in the process of my knowing a thing. In the case of mirages, the bending of light through heat waves appears to my eyes to look like water on the horizon. It is not even a defect in my senses, just a phenomenon of physical laws in nature.
With abstract notions I may make presumptions on which I build my argument that are false. My whole argument is now false even if my conclusion is true. For example, I like the sound of my own voice. Everyone I know likes me. Therefore, everyone I know likes the sound of my voice. I am presupposing that just because everyone likes me, they like everything about me.
Now you are asking what this has to do with the virtue of humility. The point that I am trying to make is that we tend to judge things as if our perspective is the objective truth. I did this when considering the humility of the saints. But the saints measured themselves against the ultimate Truth, God. By stepping outside of themselves, they saw through the eyes of God and saw that we truly are nothing. Let us all make an effort to see things more objectively.
AB
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Rugby Season is Here
After the games, as is tradition in rugby, we hosted a meal for the visiting team. The St. Ignatius boys are a good bunch of kids. They play a good game and were very appreciative of the meal. Hopefully both teams can meet again at Regionals.
For some reason I can't get Blogger to upload the pictures. When it starts working again, I will include them.
AB
Friday, March 6, 2009
My Top 10 List of...

Favorite Foods:
10) Frescetta's Frozen Pizza, especially meat-lover and cheese, great crust
9) A medium rare steak; MR is the only way to cook a steak, everything else is just an imitation
8) The Ultimate Omelet; discovered by a friend of mine, the secret is cottage cheese
7) Lamb in mint sauce; try it some day, but make sure it is made by a good chef
6) Spaghetti la Carbonara; served at the restaurant, La Carbonara, in Rome, truly fantastic
5) Mom's Shepherd's Pie; a childhood favorite, it would be now too if I was at home more often
4) Doc's Awesome Ribs; sorry folks, only Doc makes 'em and he doesn't own a restaurant or have a recipe
3) Italian Quesadillas; this is my own invention and here is the recipe
2) Monnie's homemade pizza; everything else is just cardboard with sauce, even Frescetta's
1) And my favorite meal is... Doc's Awesome Steak Fajitas; again, only Doc makes 'em and he still hasn't opened up that restaurant
What are your top ten favorite foods?
Also check out nwi-tech's top ten lists.
7 Quick Takes Friday
---1---
I found out this last week that I won’t be teaching at La Salette next year. Unfortunately, the economic situation has had some very adverse effects on the school and they can’t afford to pay me what I need. But it is not only private schools that are affected. My mother works as a substitute teacher in Atlanta. She said that they announced that a number of positions would be eliminated and pay would be cut. It is really sad when we can spend billions, if not trillions, of dollars on researching whether or not there was ever life on Mars but not invest in our schools. Well, time to go job hunting.
---2---
I have been writing a story which I post on my other blog, Fictional Corner. I have been reading it to some of the boys and they have really enjoyed it which makes me happy. Fortunately, they are not grammarians and focus more on the idea than the flow of the text. It is very encouraging. As for the grammar, I have the great privilege of an editor to make the grammar flow better. She is still working on the pieces I have already posted but has been a great help. The boys will definitely appreciate the story more when she is finished with it. Thanks, Monnie!
---3---
In two weeks I am heading down to Atlanta to visit my parents with the woman I love and her mother. This will be the first time my parents will meet her. She may be a bit nervous but I know that they will get along. I can’t wait!
---4---
Starting tomorrow rugby season officially starts. We play against another Catholic school, St. Ignatius. From what I hear we should beat them. The game is really just an exhibition game. The actual season starts next week. Everyone is excited for this season. Last year we went to the national tournament and lost in a hard fought championship game. To be 2nd in the nation is quite a feat for a school of only 60 boys. Who knows what will happen this season.
---5---
The third trimester is winding down and I am behind in my Philosophy class. We spent the better part of 6 weeks concentrating on Plato. We should be on St. Thomas by now but are only a week into Aristotle. I suppose it isn’t something to be too concerned about. In general, the boys are participating in class and really starting to think. That is much of the goal of the class, to form thinkers not just memorizers.
---6---
Well, a week and a half into Lent and I have been faithful to my resolutions. I know, it’s only been a week and a half, but a good start leads to a good end.
---7---
So ends my first “7 Quick Takes Friday”. I hope you enjoyed reading. (I know, this really shouldn’t count as my seventh point but I’m running out of ideas)
Head over to the Conversion Diary to read more 7 Quick Takes.
AB
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Wordless Wednesday... well, almost
A view of the basilica of San Domenico in Sienna where the head and thumb of St. Catherine of Sienna are housed in a small chapel dedicated to her. After having visited the basilica, I set off in search of the Duomo (cathedral). While in Europe, I preferred to walk through the side streets rather than follow the beaten path. In this way one can see so much more of the city than just the touristy side, not to mention the great photo ops. Just behind me there is another street that turns right to the convent where St. Catherine died. Sienna really is a very beautiful city.

