Sweet Website for Procrastination and Catechesis

A couple weeks ago, MTV decided to discontinue their famous music video show, Total Request Live also known as TRL. An era was done and a piece of my middle school days died with it. Fortunately, MTV has created a new website where one can get, watch, and enjoy every music video like ever and in much better quality than youtube

Some of my personal favorites include: NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye" (the whole puppet thing is awesome), 50 Cent's "PIMP" and Nelly's "Shake your Tailfeather" (the theme songs to our Student Government Retreat Senior Year of High School), and pretty much anything with Rihanna or Beyonce in it.

So whether you need something to procrastinate with rather than working on your paper or need to show a music video for a talk, then check out

www.mtvmusic.com

Reviews of Colleen Moore and her visit to D-House

"mesmerizing"-TIME Magazine

"without equal"-Los Angeles Times

"rare specimen of human being"-The New Yorker

"Truly revolutionary, Moore has inspired the Catholic Church by going gently"-Pope Benedict XVI



What a woman.

Bubonic Plague?

Here in Fort Worth there has been a growing population of rats. Gross, right? Well if you haven't heard already, we had a rat in our house. I saw it, twice, on Friday. The thing was huge! And pest control was not helpful at all, but Paola's boyfriend sure was! He found the hole behind the fridge and filled it in. We're pretty sure that the rat was in there (or the garage) when he did that, so hopefully we won't have any more rat problems (except for the creature living in the attic). Don't ya'll which you could live here??? It's so much fun to be scared to go into your kitchen!

In other, more upbeat, news: I'm going to a Jeremy Camp concert tonight for free! It's a private, fan appreciation, concert that the Christian radio station is putting on. I'm taking three other girls in the diocesan young adult group who are actually my age!

I've also been listening to Christmas music... how else am I supposed to get in the mood for the upcoming Holidays when it's still in the 60's and I'm wearing shorts and flip flops today??? I heard that it's snowing up north, or did snow last night, and I am so jealous! I miss the snow!!!

Clam Chowder Day

In case you were not aware, today is International Clam Chowder Day. As a lover of people and food, this day is very important to me. I hope you don't mind if I post a brief history of the holiday:

During a cold, stressful and rainy week in Eureka a community of friends found the need to make plans, big plans. Thanksgiving break approached; the light at the end of the tunnel increased by the day. On the most difficult day of that week, Wednesday, 8 days before Thanksgiving, these friends made a pact- that they would on the following Saturday take what hopes, disappointments, joys and sadnesses they had, pool them together and find a way to celebrate the moment they had with each other. They also saw the bridge-building effects of doing this over a bowl of clam chowder, a food loved by many and which provides a symbol of the creamy warmth we need from each other this time of year. This day was known as Clam Chowder day, to be observed at the most convinient possible time, the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

And so it came to pass. That Saturday the friends found themselves united in bonds of love for both the comforting effects of Clam Chowder and, most importantly, for the gifts of friendship they provided for each other.

Since 2002, this Holiday has been celebrated in all places around the country, and will hopefully one day be celebrated internationally. Last year friends took in the joy of clam chowder in the Holiday's home, Eureka, San Francisco, Orange County, Washington DC, Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, and Maine, to name a few.

So, ask yourself, is there one person in this world you appreciate enough to share clam chowder with? Are there more? Hopefully your answer to at least the first question is yes, for, if with no one else, then you should share Clam Chowder with yourself.

Clam Chowder Day is a day about taking a small amount of time from your busy schedule to experience the moment, and to experience that moment in the presence and appreciation of those we love mutually. The delicious meal is included in an effort to share something hearty, traditional, simple and, as all take from the same pot, communal in nature. It is asked that no extraordinary means are exerted in order to celebrate the day, but that special advantage of one's given situation is taken. There is little greater joy than that taken in knowing that the present situation is the best, since it is all that is had.

In the spirit of the holiday, it is crucial to add that one need not even eat clam chowder if, by some choice of lifestyle or other personal taste, she would prefer not to. Indeed, many of our friends and family have found a bond to the animal world too strong to go ignored and have, honorably, made the decision to align their lifestyles according to that bond. Those who identify themselves as vegetarians should by no means feel excluded from this Clam Chowder Day. Corn Chowder or Potato Chowder are completely acceptable sea-food free alternatives. In the end, the point of the Day is to be fed by the chowder of our shared love.

Therefore, take joy in what we have! If you have celebrated Clam Chowder day in the past, then include someone new. And if you are new to this Good Day, then do whatever you can to take the opportunity it provides.

Wishing you happiness and peace with a grateful heart for your friendship and love, and, of course, a joyful Clam Chowder Day.

Saint Paul

As reported in the comments section of my previous post, "Lovin' & Huggin'" I discovered two new poems on the 11th, including one titled "Saint Paul" by one of our lifelong faith formation students, who, we'll call, for the sake of protecting the innocent, Aquila. His age is unknown, but estimated to be somewhere between 8 and 10. The original is decorated with numerous colored foam hearts, circles, triangles and squares. In a review of the poem for the BBC, Pauline scholar Jerome Murphy-O'Connor called the work "an outstanding example of 21st-century Christian poetry. Inspired stuff. And historically sound. Ahhhh?" Enjoy. (Capitalization, spelling, and punctuation left in orginal form.)

Saint paul, Saint paul how do you do.
Do you miss being a jew?
Saint paul, Saint paul
On your first mission you brought alms to the christians.
Saint paul, Saint paul
on your missionary journey
You built churches in Asian minorities
Saint paul, Saint paul
On your second missionary journey
You revisited the churches in Asian minorities
Then passing through Galatia
You had a vision that led you to mecadonia
Saint paul, Saint paul
On your third journey you visited nearly the same regions
Saint paul, Saint paul
On that same journey you were prosecuted by Jews
For two years in chains
Saint paul, Saint paul
After two years of ball and chain
You were sentenced for same punishment as Spain
Saint paul, Saint paul
Released at last but for your life It has ended,
With a glorius past.

Who Said Rap/Hip-Hop Isn't Catechetical?

This weekend at Immaculate Heart of Mary, we had a Confirmation gathering of all the 8th graders (school, CRE, Academy, homeschool) and their parents and sponsors. The kiddies break off into groups and one group is "fortunate" to have me as their "leader". Anyway, we got to talking about what Confirmation is and what it is not.

It is not 1)graduation from being Catholic 2) a get-out-of-jail card 3)a reason to be on Super 16th bday party.

We got to a point in the conversation where it was like "What's the point in Confirmation then?"

And I said, "To help you 'Live Your Life...hey hey hey.'" while doing the fist pump. In Class. The kids laughed. I got to quote T.I. & Rihanna and be bada$$ for another day.

Speaking of bada$$, i caught a girl text messaging in class and called her out by simply saying, "Caitlin. Stop text messaging" while looking the other way. The class was stunned. Legendary. For Sure.

Celebrating a Legend

Tomorrow we celebrate the birth of Thomas Jackson: gentlemen, role model, scholar, and dear friend.

I thought it appropriate for us to remember him tonight as we wait in vigil to celebrate his birth.

Appropriate memories are appreciated.