Arcadia Est Imperare Orbi Universo

Wednesday the 13th!

Coming down with something. Bleah. But still, the road goes ever on and on...

Day 01 - Introduce yourself
Day 02 - Your first love, in great detail
Day 03 - Your parents, in great detail
Day 04 - What you ate today, in great detail
Day 05 - Your definition of love, in great detail
Day 06 – Your day, in great detail
Day 07 – Your best friend, in great detail
Day 08 – A moment, in great detail
Day 09 – Your beliefs, in great detail
Day 10 – What you wore today, in great detail

( Day 11 – Your siblings, in great detail )

Day 12 – What’s in your bag, in great detail
Day 13 – This week, in great detail
Day 14 – What you wore today, in great detail
Day 15 – Your dreams, in great detail
Day 16 – Your first kiss, in great detail
Day 17 – Your favorite memory, in great detail
Day 18 – Your favorite birthday, in great detail
Day 19 – Something you regret, in great detail
Day 20 – This month, in great detail
Day 21 – Another moment, in great detail
Day 22 – Something that upsets you, in great detail
Day 23 – Something that makes you feel better, in great detail
Day 24 – Something that makes you cry, in great detail
Day 25 – A first, in great detail
Day 26 – Your fears, in great detail
Day 27 – Your favorite place, in great detail
Day 28 – Something that you miss, in great detail
Day 29 – Your aspirations, in great detail
Day 30 – One last moment, in great detail

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The meme continues. Very nearly a third of the way through, now!

( Days of Yore )

Day 09 – Your beliefs, in great detail

One must begin, I suppose, by asking, "beliefs about what exactly?"

God? Philosophy? Science? Art? Literature? History? Other people? Me?

It's quite impossible.

So. Having said that, here are just a few of the things in which I believe.

I believe in love.

I believe in beauty.

I believe in the power of friendship.

I believe in the power of the printed word.

I believe the sun will rise in the east tomorrow over both the just and the unjust.

I believe violence is almost never the solution to a problem.

I believe those who fail to learn the lessons of history will go the way of the Roman Empire.

I believe that great civilizations are not destroyed; rather, they commit suicide.

I believe all of us fall short of our potential and of the glory of God. This is called sin.

I believe my job as a human being is to seek Truth and to love. This is a pretty good response to sin.

I believe governments exist to guarantee to their people life, liberty, and justice.

I believe education is not just career training.

I believe that while science may provide answers to how, who, what, where, and when, it's pretty crappy at answering why.

I believe that one of the primary purposes of the artistic instinct is to create beauty, so that the artist may become a co-creator of the universe with God.

I believe that any technology that doesn't support community or the search for Truth probably ought to be avoided.

I believe that just because you can do a thing, it does not follow that you should do it.

I believe everything that the magesterium of the Catholic Church proposes for my belief.

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

( The rest of the days )

Memorial of St. Simeon

After a one-day hiatus, the meme continues!

( Days of Yore )

Day 07 – Your best friend, in great detail

I don't know where to begin with describing Francine.

Several years ago, I wrote a brief description that runs like this:

I'm in love with my best friend. Her name is Francine.

She's a creative, talented writer who is developing her craft and is serious about the business of writing.

She's darn intelligent; she sees things other people don't see, or she sees them half a step ahead of everyone else. Or at least me.

She's passionate; whether angry or loving, she does nothing half way. She takes big bites. Her eyes flash with her inner shining.

She's beautiful. I love the way her smooth skin flows gracefully from her forehead to her ankles. And she takes care of herself.

She's funny, and her laugh is delightfully infectious.

She takes care of me, she challenges me, she inspires me.

She's manic and she's calming by turns. She's so easy to be with, and so difficult to be without.

Even her fears are a comfort to me, because they are so similar to my doubts and fears.

Does that get to the heart of it? I don't know. I do know that she saved my sanity and was the instrument of saving my soul as well.

Francine's latest venture is coffee roasting; she and her best girlfriend singingbarista sell their home-roasted coffee, in both drinkable and bulk forms, at the Proctor farmers' market in Tacoma. She's out back roasting coffee in the (rather cramped) garage right now.

If you're in the area, I encourage you to drop by the market tomorrow and pick some up. The Burundi is fantastic.

( The rest of the days )

Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi

Yesterday being Sunday, I did not post. However, today you get two for the price of one!

Day 01 - Introduce yourself
Day 02 - Your first love, in great detail
Day 03 - Your parents, in great detail

Day 04 - What you ate today, in great detail

This is the question I should have answered yesterday. Since I didn't, I'll tell you what I ate yesterday, to the best of my recollection.

My parish celebrates Mass at 10:00AM, and I like to keep the midnight fast*, so the first thing I ate was after Mass downstairs in the parish hall.

I believe I had two cups of coffee, some banana bread, and a few cookies.

Later, Francine and I went to the annual Greek Festival at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church down the hill. We go every year. I just love the art in the church proper, and Francine enjoys the Greek dancing under the big pavilion they put up. The big attraction, though, is the dinner.

I enjoyed lamb, rice, green beans (a secret recipe apparently known to every grandmother on the globe), salad, bread, and a bottle of beer with the unlikely name of Mythos.

You just can't make this stuff up, folks.

I also had some Greek calamari and some loukoumades. A little bit of sweet Greek coffee, and I rather fancy I waddled out of there.

Much, much later that evening, I had a small bowl of moose tracks ice cream.

Now... on to today!

Day 05 - Your definition of love, in great detail

Love is the thing that gives materialists hives, because it's one of the things that you cannot prove using mathematics or the scientific method.

The problem is, of course, that there are many different things that all fall under the same word in English which really aren't the same thing at all. Love transcends any definition that tries to pin it down to an emotional affection, or a romantic or sexual attraction, or a filial devotion.

Perhaps Love is an act of will, where we wish the good of another with no thought to our own good as a consequence. After all,

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17)

and

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. (John 15:12-13)

The fact is, I don't know that the definition of love can ever be exhausted because human beings are complicated and there is nothing more human than love.

Just think a moment about the overwhelmingly vast number of love songs written in the last fifty years - our species worships the idea of love, I suspect because if you dig deep enough into us, you'll find that we're beings created for love.

I think Augustine said something about that, but I'm not going to pursue it as all that talk about food earlier had made me hungry and distracted.

Tell you what, strike everything I just said and settle for this:

“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him”
(1 John 4:16)

---

* Yes, I know the obligatory minimum Eucharistic fast is technically only one hour, but really, who on earth only does the obligatory minimums for those they love?

( The rest of the days )

Feast of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Day two of the continuing meme.

No jury duty today; instead I'm writing and looking for work and running errands.

Day 1 Introduce yourself

Day 02 - Your first love, in great detail

Although the question presumes romance, I was always taught that a gentleman does not discuss these matters.

Besides, my earliest attempts in this area, while perhaps entertaining in a train-wreck sort of way, have faded in my memory to that hazy nostalgia that is only on the vaguest of speaking terms with the facts.

So instead, I'll talk briefly about my oldest, deepest, and most enduring love: books.

My family emigrated from Germany to the United States when I was three months shy of my fourth birthday. I spoke no English. Thanks to the magic of Sesame Street and my dear Mister Rogers, I was reading and writing English by the time I was five.

From my earliest days, I devoured books. When I read fiction, I can read extremely quickly. I remember particularly one summer morning coming back from the library with Watership Down. I opened the book as I started up the stairs to my room. Halfway up, I sat down on one of the wooden steps and read the book cover to cover, finishing just as I was being called down for dinner.

I hadn't moved from that step the entire time. I was probably about 12 years old.

I quickly tired of the readers we had in my grammar school. I was caught reading The Hobbit in my second grade (age 8?) reading class instead of doing the assignment. The teacher did not believe I was actually reading the book, and she quizzed me on the spot about the plot. She pointed out several words in the text and asked me what they meant.

The next week, I was assigned the 8th grade reading book. Unfortunately, I then spent most of the remainder of my grammar school career reading the same books year after year. Needless to say, at some point I lost interest. I don't think I actually passed a Reading or English course after that until High School. I just didn't see the point in doing assignments I'd already done the year previous. Or five years previous.

During my recesses, I read every book in my grade school library. I still have the thesaurus the Librarian gifted me upon my graduation in 1980.

My first job was volunteering at the Chicago Public Library.

After college I worked in book stores for ten years before I realized I would never make a proper living at it. I would happily own and operate a book store if I had some other source of income.

As the old joke goes - How do you make a million in the book trade? Start with two million.

Beyond simply reading, I love the romance of the book and the very physical objects themselves. One of my most treasured possessions is a calfskin-covered incunabula of Cæsar's Commentaries. The dedication is to Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg (Principi Friderico Wilhelmo, Marchioni Bradndenburgico).

I love the smell of book dust - I have been known to be able to sniff out old books hidden from view. I once discovered a box of old missals and hymnals that had been lost behind a pipe organ in a choir loft for approximately fifty years.

As I sit in my office writing this, I am surrounded by books. Some are old friends, traveling with me since I was a child, and some are only weeks old. A precarious pile sits next to my armchair in the corner, waiting to be read. I have signed first editions, and paperback pulp, Geoffrey Chaucer and Lewis Carroll, Lord Norwich and H.P. Lovecraft, G.K. Chesterton and Italo Calvino, Borgés and Benedict.

Books were my first great love, and I love them still.

( The rest of the days )

You Are Riding Boots

You are very sophisticated. You have refined tastes, and you don't fall for cheesy trends. You are naturally chic and stylish. You can pull together a great look in no time flat. You don't need a lot of flash or bling in your life. You prefer the glamour of the understated. You treasure wisdom. You are attracted to ideas and things that have stood the test of time.

I'm sure I will have a proper post at some point. Really. Just now I'm moving furniture and books about.

First, your meme of the day, courtesy of literary_equine :


Am-I-Dumb.com - Intelligence Test

That's 24 out of 25 correct. I wonder which question I got wrong?

We'll move on now to the geeky Church news portion of today's entertainment. Never mind Catholic / Orthodox rapprochement (a thousand years of schism can't be wrong!), it seems the Russians are upset with Constantinople (that's Istanbul, for you young Turks out there). I blame Estonia. If they'd only converted to Unitarianism, none of this would have happened.

And as I've long suspected, the Pope really is crazy like a fox. I won't bore you with his other chess moves (they're mostly liturgical), but for those who thought this would be a transitional Papacy, Benedict is increasingly making Pope John Paul II look like he was the transition.

And when did BBC stop capitalizing God?

On a more personal note, my schedule has really screwed up my praying of the Hours. I'm trying to fix that, but it's been a struggle.

Meanwhile, wedding plans are the chaos that wedding plans apparently always are. Still, we've finally got another planning session put together, so that's a good thing.

My plans for continued employment with Catholic schools in Tacoma is collapsing like a startled soufflé.

Plan A is proving a difficult sell - a month I've been on-and-off working on a presentation to the Principals and Pastors, and it only started coming together yesterday in any meaningful way. Trouble is, the plan only makes financial sense if you assume that the goal is to (eventually) open several more schools. It's rather difficult to get these folks to that view, when their paradigm is built on "can we afford to stay open for another year?"

The demographics support twelve or more schools where we currently have seven, but I don't think I can get them to look that far ahead.

Plan B is increasingly looking unlikely. The Archdiocese just hasn't budgeted for the position I'd fill.

Plan C involves sending out résumés. This, I started yesterday. Looks like Frank Russell is looking for a FrameMaker guru. Why not?

Oh, and my laptop finally died. There went my savings account.

Cruenti Dei continues to stumble on towards the starting line. I'm very pleased with amphigori's illustrations. I still haven't seen anything from badhairs , which doesn't surprise me given his life situation, nor from starkad67 , which is quite worrying.

I'm still trying to get up to speed on Campaign Cartographer 2 - I'm was hoping to have these maps done pretty quickly, but it's proving more difficult than I thought. I may have to go with hand-drawn maps. Not my first choice, but I'm trying to work to deadline, here.

I did get the Preview PDF put together, complete with a couple of illustrations and a silly little sketch map. amphigori's Wenemet sketch makes the whole thing worth downloading, though for the final masterpiece, you'll have to purchase the rulebook when it's available.

Speaking of which, the rulebook is pretty much done, except for the tables and the illustration inserts. So that's something.

Did I mention I've been really busy?

I've also not been sleeping very well for the last few weeks, something that I seem to share with a number of people on my friendslist. I suspect that R'lyeh may be poking its wee head above the waves. I've also been having quite the surreal nightmares. Interestingly, I've not been to Carcosa in a while.

TTFN!

Following a discussion of what exactly constitutes a Nerd, and my proud acceptance of the title, I found this bit of confirmation.

Less awkward than I would have expected, but there you go.





Nerds, unite!

(... and therefore I believe the President and Vice President of the United States must be impeached.)

Find out your Harry Potter personality at LiquidGeneration!

Francine says its because I'm "inventive".

Swell.

Off to Vashon and other things and places. Gotta see old Remembrance Morford. After all, it's Francine's birthday!

(... and therefore I believe the President and Vice President of the United States must be impeached.)

So, thomryng, your LiveJournal reveals...



You are... 4% unique
(blame, for example, your interest in wombats in waistcoats)
and 4% herdlike
(partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy tea).
When it comes to friends you are popular. In terms of the way you relate to people, you are wary of trusting strangers.

Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is overcomplicated.

Your overall weirdness is: 41

(The average level of weirdness is: 28.
You are weirder than 82% of other LJers.)

Find out what your weirdness level is!

Ooh! I'm overcomplicated! And wary!

---

Edited to add:

According to this quiz, I'm a republican liberal-leaning planner.

Republican - This includes a large bulk of modern-day American politicians, whether Republican or Democratic. This includes values of basic racial equality but not necessarily affirmative action. It's a strong rejection of racism and a strong embrace of democracy, but not into the social levelling or hyper-secularism of the democrat level.

Liberal-Leaning - Those moving in the direction of individual autonomy, critical of government, opposed to sin taxes and moral codes fall in this area. A majority of Americans fall here or in the moderate section.

Planner - Few Democrats fit here, but FDR is probably the most aggressive move in this direction, followed by LBJ. They believe that the market is useful for many areas, but overall it is too chaotic, irrational or unfair, and it takes the keen eye of the state or bureaucracy to correct market imperfections. They support nationalization of industries, guaranteed employment for all, massive welfare entitlements, and massive public works. They associate economic success with high employment, high production, and massive government involvement; the super-rich are usually allowed to still exist normally, but less so in business or managerial capacities. Ultimately, the market is either short-sighted or unfair, and some outside force must step in to correct it.

---

Well. Let me just say that the third axis of this quiz has gotten me completely wrong. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a spot in their paradigm for my favoured economic system.

I only recently discovered that this economic system actually has been postulated before and has a name: Distributism. I was rather surprised to read that it was developed by Catholic thinkers like Chesterton in response to the great social justice encyclicals.

Perhaps that Augustinian education sank in after all.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I took the "The Nine Muses" quiz on gURL.com
		My muse is... Calliope Calliope is the patron goddess of epic poetry. She is often depicted holding a writing tablet and wearing a golden crown, for she is the oldest of the muses and their leader. Her name means "The Fair Voiced," but Calliope inspires eloquence in writing. Read more... Who is your muse?

... though there were an awful lot of questions. There is nothing in the description with which I disagree.

Third Way Liberal You scored 66% Personal Liberty and 36% Economic Liberty!

A third way liberal believes in little to moderate government intervention on personal matters and moderate to high government intervention on economic matters. They tend to be opposed to war, police powers, victimless crimes, and what they may consider to be a corporate state or rogue capitalism. They generally support personal liberty and believes in a social safety net or welfare state. They support self-ownership and privacy. Third way liberals are essentially the "mainstream" left and left of center.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on Personal You scored higher than 99% on Economic

Link: The Politics Test written by brainpolice.

Discuss.

I'm pretty sure I exist...

Thanks to rhonan for the link.

LIVE TRUMPS thomryng Player 2484 thomryng Social Rating 125 Sophistication 131 Speed 0.40 Honesty 100.00% Ambiguity 46 Depth 10 Parent crosstherubicon watch thomryng fight CREATE YOUR CARD

Off to wash some dishes.

Edited to add: ( I am win! )

Edited to add: ( Obituary, Possibly Related to Above )

Dear friends, this being the feast of St. Isidore of Seville (the patron saint of the internet), I thought perhaps I'd open with a short quote.

If a man wants to be always in God's company, he must pray regularly and read regularly. When we pray, we talk to God; when we read, God talks to us. All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection. (Maxims of St. Isidore, circa 620AD)

As an aside, I find the idea that a bishop was named "Isidore" roughly as amusing as one named "Thorsson" or "Jovian".

Sunday we attended the wedding of John Scott Tynes and Jennifer Scott Tynes (as I suppose I must now call them). It was held in an amazing old mansion in Seattle.

( Some Pictures )

It was wonderful to meet ktynes, nallasenyt, iamnikchick, and so many sans LJ. It was also quite nice to catch up with some old friends. I only wish there had been more time.

Yesterday while jaynefury headed off to work, I had breakfast with Messers Scott Glancy and Andrew Migliore. Homland Security would no doubt be apalled at our lack of patriotism unquestioning obedience. Andrew was nice enough to give me a ride back to Tacoma.

I don't know if you've heard, but a number of Catholic bishops have come out very strongly against the new immigration "reform". The statement released by our own archbishop was essentially a call to civil disobedience. Huzzah!

Finally, a silly meme...

( The Celestial Choir )

Edited to add: As usual, Francine puts in all the details I've left out.

<td align="center">Thom Ryng --
[noun]:

A person of questionable sanity who starts their own cult

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com</td>

Hmm. Is it OK to start a wacky cult and not believe in it? I mean, it seemed to work for L. Ron Hubbard, but now we're stuck with Tom Cruise and John Travolta. Perhaps somebody can use this little masterpiece to start.

Go, go my minions! Create for me a wacky religious cult! If at all possible, involve mayonnaise!

Hmm. I think two or three of these may even be true...

Nicked from various people.

Who else is love?   

pseudomonas me scripsit anno 2005

I don't think they quite got the colours right!

And just for good measure...

Who else is love?   

pseudomonas me scripsit anno 2005

Another pointless meme, I suppose, though if anyone has any questions or requires clarifications, I'm sure I'd be happy to oblige.

Today was simply horrific. And I'm only exaggerating a wee. Yesterday was the school's Christmas Program, so of course I didn't get home until after 11:00, what with the buses and the missing of buses and the walking home from downtown in the freezing air bits.

So I was dragging a little today.

So far today I've: toted around Extremely Heavy Things, scooped ice cream to 150 or so students, witnessed a student have an allergic reaction so violent that paramedics were called and walls had to be mopped, helped with auditions for the school play, and watched several otherwise rational and together people have breakdowns due to assorted reactions (and lack of same) to projectile vomiting and assorted emergency medical procedures.

Oh, and I had to wash ice cream off of my sweater. Naturally, the blazing radiator in my office picked that very moment to shut off, so hours later the sleeves are still wet.

So yeah, one of those days. Exhausted and finding it difficult to concentrate or focus or much of anything. And I've got some serious housecleaning to accomplish before Saturday afternoon.

Right. So here's the Meme:

( Read more... )

thomryng's Halloween party:

( Read more... )

I blame kingcadillac. Or possibly my mother.

( Foodie )