Preparing for Christmas - the Visitation

A few days ago, I was reminded of some stained glass pictures I took a few months ago at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. I always love taking pictures of stained glass windows, because of the awesome symbolism contained not only within the images depicted in the stained glass, but even more importantly the symbolism of the stained glass as an example of what we are to do: let God's light and life shine through our lives. For without God's light shining through us, there is darkness and emptiness (as is the case for a stained glass window at night).

One window is especially meaningful as I make my Advent preparations for Christmas this year:

In this stained glass image, we see the perfect example of what it is to be human and to let only God shine forth in Mary. She is wearing blue in most depictions to represent her humanity—a perfect, unsullied humanity. She never said no, and the artist in this stained glass window cleverly made her halo the most vibrant.

On the right side of the window, we have St. Elizabeth and Zechariah; a couple who are very holy and pious, but who have not always said yes to God. They can be an even more poignant reminder to us of where we are in our faith. Zechariah was made mute because he didn't believe what God told him (namely, that his wife would have a baby—John—in her old age). But in the end they both realized their mistake, prayed to God for forgiveness, and went on to live lives of holiness, blessed with the gift of Jesus Christ.

May we, too, realize our faults during this Advent season, beg God for forgiveness, work to overcome our faults and doubts, and be prepared for the coming of the Christ. God doesn't shine as effectively through dirty windows!

FireFox 3 Surpasses Internet Explorer 7 on This Site!

Wow! I just looked up my website browser stats (I do it every couple weeks), and for the first time in history, lifeisaprayer.com has had more visits from FireFox (3.1) than from any version of Internet Explorer. I've heard FireFox is gaining general web marketshare, but even my site (more about Macs and creative things than boring PC/IE stuff like how to stare at the BSOD) typically received a ton more IE traffic until recently...

Safari has finally been beating IE 6—not too surprising, but a good sign, to me. One of the great things about this is that I know I can approach web development with an eye more towards standardization than 'making things work' in IE. Because a validated CSS file that looks nice makes for a happy website, and easier administration.

Another nice thing I've been noticing lately is that very few people use resolutions below 1024x768 anymore. I've made the decision as of about 6 months ago to stop developing for 800x600 and less, and focused on designs at least 850px wide. I'm still shying away from fluid layouts, though. Fixed width FTW!

Something I'm Working On... [UPDATED]

And... here's a little more:

But I'm still working on the latter.

Two Completely Random Thoughts - Cakes and Anarchy!

Forgive the fact that this post is 'from left field,' but I feel compelled to write it anyways...

First off, I have found a lot to grin about in the "Cake Wrecks" blog. Seriously funny stuff there—this lady Jan compiles pictures of the most sad, disgusting, or unfriendly looking cakes, and writes about them on her blog. She also posts some of the most tantalizingly tasty ones as well (like these cupcakes):

Secondly, I was browsing this Anarchy blog (for what reason? I don't know... maybe to Introduce a Little Anarchy?), and I noticed a blog posting on television, with which I agree 100%. I never knew I'd be in total agreement with an anarchist on something... maybe for a different reason, though. In his posting, he says:

Television. One of the greatest instruments ever created for mass media. People are drawn to it like a moth to the flame. When we are bored we watch television, when we eat we watch television, when we are stressed and want to relax, we watch television... So what happens? Our brains kind of shut off and slip into auto pilot. We ingest everything that the television spits out. Subconsciously we are being fed habits of consumerism and useless information about celebrities. We are watching reality shows as our own reality passes us by.

The major question to ask here is WHY? Why is it that we spend 5 minutes on the presidential elections and 20 minutes on what happened to Britney Spears this week? Why is it that we have 20 minutes of programming and 10 minutes of commercials that urge us to buy things we dont need? Stop and ponder why they call it programming... Thats exactly what's happening. We are being programmed and conditioned to become consumers and nothing more.

Interestingly, I think a man like the one who posts on Anarchy.net might say the Church is an institution like the media who simply tries to pacify it's followers, and make them not 'think for themselves,' when in fact this is far from the truth. I'm not saying he or other anarchists would necessarily believe this, but I think that's one area where we as Catholics can promote our faith as an alternative to the mind-numbing consumerism promoted on television, on the radio, and at most websites.

Art Hill in Forest Park - HDR Processed Image [UPDATED]

Last week I braved a cold fall morning (with no sunlight to provide even a little warmth) to take some images in Forest Park (the best park inside a major city in the United States, says I!). I was really hoping to get a truly stunning image of the 'Art Hill' area of the park, especially during fall, when the trees start displaying very vibrant colors. The picture turned out pretty well, but I'm hoping to get another sometime this or next week, with more early morning sunlight (the clouds were hiding the sun during the morning I took this picture).

I took the picture with my D40 and the 18-70mm lens, mounted firmly on my Bogen tripod/ballhead. I took three exposures, one at +1 EV, one at 0 EV, and one at -1 EV, then combined all the image files into an HDR image and used the Tone Mapping feature of Photomatix Pro in order to produce the final image you see above. This picture and more like it (including one of the famous Statue of Saint Louis in front of the Art Museum) can be seen in my Flickr image stream.

UPDATE: I have taken another picture of Art Hill, this time during Sunset. You can click on the picture here to view all the deails in my Flickr photostream:

On Soccer... and the Movie "Goal II"

(The above picture has nothing to do with what follows, but is awesome anyways).

Yesterday afternoon, I attended soccer practice back at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary on a chilly, windy, and quite rainy afternoon. During the practice, I remember thinking to myself, "Why are you standing out here in this horrible weather, kicking a really slippery ball, and not sitting in a nice chair with a book and a cup of hot tea?" (I tend to think in long sentences!)... What can I say? I love the game! And getting to hang around with my Seminary friends is pretty awesome as well—even if we're slipping and falling on the wet grass!

Well, after practice was over, a former classmate and friend of mine reminded me that he had the "Goal II" DVD (it is the second in a series of movies about a fictional rags-to-riches soccer player story), and that I could borrow it to watch it. I enjoyed it, but was a little disturbed by the direction the movie trilogy seems to be going. In the first movie, the main message was 'stay true to your roots, and keep your priorities straight.' In this movie, the message wasn't as clear, especially with so many subplots going on (too many to get into here). I was most disturbed by the fact that the main character—who is portrayed as a faithful Catholic coming from a hispanic background—is sexually involved with his fiancée. I don't know, but things like this are upsetting to me, as they have absolutely nothing to do with the main storyline. I guess I can simply pray the third movie shows a little more of the truly Catholic side of the character.

Back to the soccer, though!

After I finished watching the movie, I received two separate emails about Chase Hilgenbrinck, a man who decided to leave a promising career in professional soccer to become a seminarian for the Diocese of Peoria, IL. He's featured in a recent article on ESPN's website, although I remember hearing a little about him earlier this year. I really encourage you to read his story in the article, as it's very inspiring!

One of the best parts, in my opinion, and most revealing of the true nature of Seminarians (that is, that Seminarians are normal human beings, and not automatons who hate and shun all of the material world), is this statement about the pre-game music selection:

It was a muggy, overcast afternoon. The Mount St. Mary's players were on the field early, stretching almost an hour before game time. At one point, one of the Mount players yelled to a friend sitting in the press box to turn on the PA system and pump some music.

What did the seminarians end up listening to while they stretched? Hymns? Gregorian chants?

No, "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC.

My love for soccer has been reinvigorated by all of yesterday's soccer-related occurrences What a wonderful game soccer is! And, luckily, I get to play in another game on Sunday.

The Rock and the Sword - New Blog by Two Seminarians

Recently a friend of mine showed me a new blog, The Rock and the Sword, by two unnamed seminarians; one a U.S. diocesan seminarian, the other a Jesuit novice. So far they have written quite a few well-written reflections on life in the Seminary, the Church, and the World. It's definitely worth checking out!

In addition, I have spent the better part of an hour going through my links and updating them (especially the Seminarian section)... please take a glance at all the blogs and websites that have helped me along my journey as a Catholic (and former Seminarian)!

Chance to Do a Good Deed Today - Eucharist Desecration Videos [UPDATED x2]

[UPDATE: Well, apparently, fsmdude has finally removed his videos, but not because YouTube required him to do so (which is a sad fact). He says that he did so because he was afraid someone might find his address and threaten physical violence. It's sad it came to that, but what's even more sad is the YouTube would not listen to all of the many flaggings that we Catholics did on his videos.]

In my email today, I received a report about a user on YouTube, under the name/channel "fsmdude," who has posted many videos showing the blatant desecration of the Holy Eucharist (whether or not the hosts he is using are consecrated, it is a patently hateful thing to do). He has posted these videos (now more than 40, doing such things to the Host as throwing it off a mountain, shooting it with a nail gun, boiling it, etc.), and many Catholics (myself included) have flagged them and complained to YouTube, but they are not being removed.

The problem here is that YouTube, in it's rules and regulations, stipulates that videos that are meant to offend or are racist/hate videos, will be removed. I find it surprising that many videos which make fun of or portray Muslims in a bad light are removed, while YouTube is seemingly ignoring the plea of thousands of Catholics to remove the sickening videos of fsmdude.

The email I received contained a plan of action (which doesn't take much of your time, but is worth doing) for helping the cause to get these disgusting and offensive videos removed from YouTube. I have added a couple things I did as well:

1. Go to fsmdude's YouTube channel, and open his videos, then click the 'Flag' button and choose the "Hateful or Abusive Content" option. Then click the "Poor" one-star rating. While this gives his videos more views (which this guy is probably after), it also shows YouTube that people don't like them.
2. Call YouTube (owned by Google) at [UPDATED – phone number correction] 650-253-0000 (press '0' to get the operator). Politely but firmly tell the person answering the phone that you are upset about the desecration videos posted by the user "fsmdude." Ask them to remove the videos and never allow videos of such a nature again.
3. Send a fax to YouTube (owned by Google) at 650-253-0001, stating the same thing you said when you called.
4. Let your friends and family know about this action plan, and pray that these videos are removed.

From the email:

God is sovereign and in control, but we are called to do our part.  If you happen to watch any of these videos, remember that Christ clothed himself with the sins of humanity (every sin).  He who knew no sin, became sin for us.  Clothed with the sin of humanity he still did not turn or hide his face from the Father.  He never doubted the mercy of God, nor should we.  He nailed that temptation to the cross when he said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."

We cannot stand by and watch injustices such as this occur. We must be moved by our love for the Church and for Christ to do what is right and stand up in the face of lies and injustice—especially when these attacks are against the root of our faith!

Nostalgia... Why Exposé (in Mac OS X) is Awesome

I was going through many of my files today in an effort to somehow organize the over 2,000,000 files I've generated during the past four years in the Seminary, and I ran across a file called "I love Exposé.tif," showing a typical day's work on my computer... from a few years back, when I was working on two video projects, email, my website, iPhoto, and a few other things. I can only imagine how many windows I must open at once every now and then! I even noticed a picture from the Mars rover open in Photoshop CS in the middle center of the screen... No wonder I have no free RAM (even with 4 GB in my MacBook Pro)!

We shall see if I ever have so many windows open at once again... but, as I earlier promised, I will be posting soon with more thoughts on leaving the Seminary. It's a busy week, though, so don't expect any immediate results!

Leaving the Seminary

It is a hard thing to make a decision to leave the Seminary, after four and a half years here, but the decision is made, and I will be leaving Kenrick-Glennon Seminary this week. Because of the fact that I have given myself as much as I could to the formation program, I will have some difficulty leaving. But I truly feel called to a vocation other than the priesthood (what this is, I have yet to find out). I have been discerning for some time now, and I just announced to the Seminary community that I will be leaving. I thank all of you who have been praying for me, and I ask that you simply pray that I may continue my spiritual formation and become the best God-fearing, Church-supporting layman I can ever be!

If you have not noticed, I moved my entire site back to MobileMe (I was hosting it on Kenrick-Glennon Seminary's server for three years now), and have made some changes in a few places... More to come.