Catholic Carnival 181 at Frank, in a Sense & Mirth

Catholic Carnival 181 is up and running at Frank, in a Sense & Mirth. I didn't provide a post this time around, but felt compelled to advertise this edition of the Catholic Carnival. Alexa is another first-time hostess, and is a creative one at that. She took the Carnival theme and went with it, designing a template to match. Go check it out before she switches the template back to her usual.

I've discerned that these Carnivals can only be as good as the entries you bring to the party. Please feel free to submit your thoughts to future Carnivals. A handy-dandy form may be found by clicking here. In addition, a list of past and future Carnivals may be obtained by clicking here.

'Tis rewarding, this teaching thing ...

I've been monitoring my students for the better part of the day, and noticed that one of them, who has been struggling, but improving, over the course of the semester just completed the final exam under the time allotted.

After having marked the exam, I noticed that this person aced it with a greater than 90% score! I was so happy for this person. I'm pretty sure the final marks will be something that will bring a smile to this person's face.

So it's things like that which make me realise how rewarding teaching is. It's really a nice feeling to see someone understand a concept after having explained it to them.

Now I can smile for the rest of the evening whilst waiting for my other students to begin and complete their finals.

Finals ... Finals ... Finals ... @.@

... trying to get the lecture final completed and posted before I go to sleep tonight ... and then I'll have to start writing up the lab final tomorrow because a couple of students asked for and received permission to take their lab finals a couple of days early.

Music lists will be posted tomorrow.

(Whimsical drawing borrowed from Daniel Rowe.)

How not to use the ATM machine

... or as my old college buddy, Jeff used to call it, the "Bank in the Box." H/T to Tyler for this brief video.


How Not To Use The Drive Through ATM - Watch more free videos

I admit it ...

... I'm a nerd.



How about you?

The Old Folk Rhyming Poems

I stumbled upon a neat set of rhyming poems. What brought this on: I was IM'ing a friend, and just like the irritating creature I can be, whenever "I see" appeared on the screen, I would immediately follow that up with, "said the blind man to the deaf-mute." (Kind of like another friend's propensity to say, "But a well is a hole in the ground," whenever I start off with, "Well ...." Cute at first, but gets rather irritating after a while.)

So I decided to do a Google search on the phrase, "I see said the blind man to the deaf-mute."

One of the hits yielded this. I thought it was really cool, starting off with:

"One bright day, in the middle of the night,
Two dead boys got up to fight [...]"

Of course, here was the bit I was most interested in:

And the narrator, with his story untold,
Meekly whispered, loud and bold,
The beginning words, to the meeting's end,
You, my enemy, are now my friend,
Oh, now I see said the blind man, to the deaf mute.
As he picked up a hammer and saw
He called his wife on the disconnected telephone to see if it was raining
(They lived on the corner, in the middle of the block,
On the second floor of a vacant lot.)
She stuck her wooden arm through the knot hole in the brick wall

Hmmm. Seems incomplete to me though. But, that is where it ends.

Cool stuff.

Church organ ruined in raid

H/T to John H. from the PIPORG-L listserv.

The thieves are getting desperate. They stole lead from the roof of St. Michael and All Angels C of E Church in Wolverhampton, UK. This caused rainwater to go down into the pipes and the leatherwork of the organ, rendering it virtually unplayable.

Why steal the lead one may ask? With the prices increasing on scrap metal, it's no surprise that thieves would be cashing in on their thefts. It's kind of like the thieves capitalising on the theft of used vegetable oil in these days of soaring gas prices ...

Back to this story: the sad thing is that they just spent £10K in routine maintenance, and all for naught. Repairs to the roof are estimated to cost £80K, and damage to the organ was estimated at £30K.

The story did not specify what kind of organ it was, or its specs. It only made reference to the landmark organ, and the fact that it is no longer available for weddings and services.

More information can be obtained here.

(Photo credit: Express & Star. I am assuming that is the Rev'd Margaret Mattocks next to the damaged organ.)

Catholic Carnival 180 at Adrienne's Catholic Corner

Catholic Carnival 180 is up and running at Adrienne's Catholic Corner. The post I provided was that on the Prêtres Academy, which followed the day-to-day lives of three young priests from the Diocese of Besançon in France. Go check it out - Adrienne was a very gracious hostess in her first time hosting the Carnival, and there are a variety of interesting posts.

I've discerned that these Carnivals can only be as good as the entries you bring to the party. Please feel free to submit your thoughts to future Carnivals. A handy-dandy form may be found by clicking here. In addition, a list of past and future Carnivals may be obtained by clicking here.

Organ-ic Humour

H/T to Ken and Ed from the PIPORG-L listserv.

This is just too good to keep to myself. Organists of the world ... erm ... well, you'll see.

C, E-flat, and G go into a bar. The bartender says: "Sorry, but we don't serve minors." So the E-flat leaves, and the C and the G have an open fifth between them. After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished and the G is out flat. An F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharp enough.

D comes into the bar and heads straight for the bathroom saying, "Excuse me, I'll just be a second." Then an A comes into the bar, but the bartender is not convinced that this relative of C is not a minor.

Then the bartender notices a B-flat hiding at the end of the bar and exclaims, "Get out now. You're the seventh minor I've found in this bar tonight."

The E-flat, not easily deflated, comes back to the bar the next night in a 3-piece suit with nicely shined shoes. The bartender (who used to have a nice corporate job until his company downsized) says, "You're looking sharp tonight, come on in! This could be a major development."

This proves to be the case, as the E-flat takes off the suit, and everything else, and stands there au natural.

Eventually, the C sobers up, and realizes in horror that he's under a rest. The C is brought to trial, is found guilty of contributing to the diminution of a minor, and is sentenced to 10 years of DS without Coda at an upscale correctional facility. On appeal, however, the C is found innocent of any wrongdoing, even accidental, and that all accusations to the contrary are bassless.

Of course, Ed's answer to all that:

This is really swell, great and very positive; just not good for pedalling around.

*snerk*

Some random thoughts

I am in the midst of exam writing. I've got three to write in the span of a week: one midterm, which must be deployed tomorrow, one final exam for the lecture portion of the course, which will be deployed Monday week, and one final exam for the lab portion of the course, which will be deployed Friday week ... unless a couple of students wish for me to deploy it a little earlier, like shortly after their last lab practical Wednesday week.

So I've been writing on and off and taking breaks here and there. Some random thoughts as I've been taking my breaks:

• It is the third day in a row in which the rain has come during the evening hours. It spoiled the 4th of July fireworks displays around here, but as far as I'm concerned, it's all fine - we need the rain, and it is quite nice that we register a surplus as opposed to a deficit as far as rainfall totals for the year are concerned.
• I've been tinkering around with my Project Playlist music playlist. It can hold a maximum of 100 songs, and after having discovered some 80s era bands I had forgotten, I added some songs, and removed a few broken links, and before I knew it, I reached 100 songs. It's been nice to have it in the background as I'm writing. I've also had a couple of friends play my playlist as well and compliment me on its diversity. It shuffles the songs on my MySpace page, and you don't need to friend me to access that page.
• I took the plunge and participated in the weekly WIKTT Yahoo group chats. I met some really lovely people there and bounced off my plot bunnies. It seemed to be pretty well-received. They particularly liked my latest bunny - a twist on Harry Potter's trip to King's Cross Station. Of all my unfinished strands of stories, this one is the one that seems to be the most well-developed. It is a short story, and I anticipate approximately 5 chapters, give or take a couple. I'm still sitting on the Snape/Lily one-shot story. I actually had a look at it yesterday for the first time in a couple of months, and realised I liked the ending, but I need to streamline the chatter and make Lily much less preachy. My teaching obligation ends 19th July, and I'm sure my marking and such should be completed by then, so I would be able to devote more attention to feeding my Muses.
• Mmmmm. Rice. I haven't had rice for at least a week or so. I had a lovely meal at George's Garage with Gail and Mick, and that was enough to tide me over until now. I know I've got some furikake someplace ... that would be so lovely to sprinkle on top of the rice right now. I'm also dreaming of loco moco as well. I suppose I'll get off the computer, have some dinner, and then resume the exam writing.

Wizard Rock ... in the Triangle!

A bit of idle Sunday afternoon news reading revealed this story in today's Raleigh News and Observer: Wizard Rock comes to the Triangle. The picture at the left shows Harry and the Potters performing at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro. In the meantime, Draco and the Malfoys will be in Apex this afternoon, playing at the Eva Perry Regional Library.

I will admit - I've never really been into Wizard Rock. I tried listening to Spinners Cast, but the roughness of the bands just put me off of it. I guess I'm too much of a music snob that I cringe when I hear voices strained or off-key (or both, as the case may be). That's just me.

But despite my biases ... I still thought it was neat that this piece of Harry Potter Fandom is making its way to the Triangle Area.

(Photo Credit: Jason Arthurs, News and Observer)

6 July - Eighth Sunday After Pentecost - Proper 9

I have just one list today as I only had one service to play. The voluntary music I played were from early American composers. Barbara Owen had edited a wonderful collection of music called A Century of American Organ Music, 1776 - 1876, and much of today's music was drawn from this collection.

St. Joseph's Episcopal Church - numbers are out of The Hymnal 1982.

The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost: Holy Eucharist: Rite II
Prelude: Preludes from Early American Composers:

• Adagio (Anonymous)
• Ayre of Four Parts (J. Dowland)
• Cantabile (C. Zeuner)
• Introductory Voluntary (F. Linley)

Pro: 11, Awake, my soul, and with the sun (MORNING HYMN)
Trisagion: S-100 (New Plainsong Mass; Hurd)
Psalm: Song of Solomon 2:8-13 (recited)
Seq: Gather Comprehensive 646, I heard the voice of Jesus say (KINGSFOLD)
Off: 457, Thou art the Way, to thee alone (ST. JAMES)
Sanctus: S-130, Deutsche Messe (Schubert)
Lord's Prayer: chanted (S-119 in Hymnal 1982)
Fraction Anthem: S-169, My flesh is food indeed (Urwin)
Comm: 325, Let us break bread together on our knees (LET US BREAK BREAD); 301, Father, we thank thee who hast planted (RENDEZ À DIEU)
Re: 482, Lord of all hopefulness (SLANE)
Postlude: Voluntary in D Major (Wm. Selby)

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Using Pandora Radio, I created a Depeche Mode Station. I figured, why not - Depeche Mode was one of my favourite groups whilst growing up a child of the 1980s. I was quite surprised, pleasantly surprised at that, at how many of the groups and songs I actually remembered. Admittedly, for at least the last 15 years or so, I haven't really paid much attention to commercial radio. Come to think of it, since I left San Diego back in 1992, I listened to mostly NPR stations such as WBUR, WGBH, KPBS whenever I went home for the holidays, and in recent days, WUNC, as well as the Classical Music Station, WCPE. So I pretty much lost touch with popular music. Of late, whatever music I had chosen to listen to were those that I've been working on, so needless to say, lots of organ music. It's funny - when I was a postdoc at UNC School of Medicine, people would walk over to my little cubby area that I called my office, and remarked that it felt like they were walking into a church when they listened to the music I had playing in the background! :-)

Whilst subjecting myself to the Depeche Mode Station, I found it was rather nice to be listening to an endless stream of 1980s-era music. I had forgotten what a huge fan I was of Duran Duran, Dead or Alive, the Psychedelic Furs, Tears for Fears, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Soft Cell, Camouflage, etc. Some of it, I thought would make excellent "driving" music, having just the right beat to accompany a long driving trip. (That's how I also thought of a lot of the Beatles' music, but then again, much of my childhood memories of that is associated with a Carolina Blue 1974 Datsun B-710 station wagon, an 8-track player, and long drives between San Diego and San Jose or intermediate drives between San Diego and Los Angeles ...)

It's been a nice distraction from some of my tasks from today ... most notably the writing up of yet another exam ... it's funny how I get reduced to a squee-ing mass of ... humanity ... when I recognise a song I haven't heard for years, only to find it as new and fresh as I did when I first heard it some 20 years ago.

I must be a horridly sentimental sap. Sigh. Well, back to reality ...

Pandora Radio

H/T to ChristineX. She stumbled upon a pretty neat concept in Internet streaming music: Pandora Radio.

How it works: you type in the name of a song or artist you like, and it automagically compiles a streaming radio station just for you, consisting of artists and songs similar in style to that which you entered. I made up five "stations," although one of them (Olivier Messiaen) I may have to tweak as it spat out some very strange electronic something-or-other. (Okay, we knew Messiaen had a unique style, but I'm not quite sure those behind the program exactly caught his essence ...)

Give it a go. I think it's a neat idea.

It's Reality TV ... for priests ...

H/T to Fr. Stephen Cuyos. He stumbled upon something which he termed "Star Academy" for priests. (I'll have to admit that I've never heard of Star Academy, so being the swot that I am, I had to look it up.)

This is Prêtres Academy, and it is very very interesting, IMHO. It follows the daily activities of three young Catholic priests, Fr. Franck, Fr. Michel, and Fr. Christophe. They are affiliated with the Diocese of Besançon in the northeast quarter of France. There is a companion website here.

IMHO, for those who are praying for increased vocations to the priesthood, I believe this concept is a good way to attract young men to the priesthood, if done right. Those behind the Prêtres Academy have the right idea, and I, for one, would look forward to watching new episodes as they come out.

For me, I find it interesting, especially in light of one of the plot bunnies running round my head for an original story that's been in the works for a while. The main character is a young priest in San Diego, and naturally, for this to work, I'd have to do research, such as how a typical priest would spend his day. The iPadre, Fr. Jay Finelli, had podcasted on his typical day on July 3, 2006. You may access that podcast here.

Back to the French priests. The teaser (and all the other videos, for that matter), which is in French, is posted below. Enjoy!



Edited to add: Erm ... well, I should have noticed that the "Adventures of the Priest Academy" were complete with the fourth episode. So there are five videos for you to enjoy: one teaser, and four episodes.

Catching Up with the Organ-ic Chemist ... yet again.

Yes, I admit, I have been remiss. I am just now catching up on my usual weekly posts on my blog. Sorry, blogomine, I've been neglecting you. I swept away some of the cobwebs, updated the Fan Fiction WIP's on the right hand side, and caught up on the posts I intended to make.

Here they are. Enjoy the latest foray into that thing I call my mind.

• 28th and 29th June - Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul
• 29th June - Seventh Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 8
• An innocent, but rather cute question
• A New Guinness World Record!
  

A New Guinness World Record!

Now this was a pleasant surprise.

I received an email today that stated that Mozilla set a Guinness World Record for most software downloads in a 24-hour period. From 18:16 UTC on June 17, 2008 to 18:16 UTC on June 18, 2008, 8,002,530 people downloaded Firefox 3. I happily did my part in contributing to that record. It's really neat to know I was a part of history.

And I've been happily using Firefox 3 ever since. The only glitch I've experienced using Firefox was the compatibility problems I experienced with Blackboard, which ended up being rather an irritant as I discovered this problem whilst working on a midterm for my students.

But besides that, I've been a happy surfer.

Congratulations, Mozilla!

An innocent, but rather cute question

(Icon courtesy of caesyrian ... actually, it was obtained by doing a Google image search on Snape laughing ...)

I was having lunch with a friend at the China Buffet in the South Square area in Durham Sunday afternoon. As we went to the cashier to pay for our meal, the cashier asked me, "Is church closed?" I'll have to admit that I was rather taken aback by her question. "Erm, not that I know of; there are still late afternoon services that have yet to take place, but by now (ca. 1.30 p.m.), all the morning services should have been completed."

The cashier sheepishly explained that she thought business was a little slow that day because Church may have been closed. I suppose they receive a lot of business after church services on Sundays. I suppose if she perceived business to be a little slow, that would be the conclusion she'd make.

My friend and I chuckled over her question as soon as we left the restaurant. I still chuckle at it now as I remember it.

29th June - Seventh Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 8

Here are my usual lists. I played two services last Sunday.

St. Joseph's Episcopal Church - numbers are out of The Hymnal 1982.

The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost: Holy Eucharist: Rite II
Prelude: Voluntary in e minor: Adagio-Allegro (Op. 7, No. 7; John Stanley)
Pro: 518, Christ is made the sure foundation (WESTMINSTER ABBEY)
Trisagion: S-100 (New Plainsong Mass; Hurd)
Psalm: Ps 13 (Barrett)
Seq: 609, Where cross the crowded ways of life (GARDINER)
Off: 401, The God of Abraham praise (LEONI)
Sanctus: S-130, Deutsche Messe (Schubert)
Lord's Prayer: chanted (S-119 in Hymnal 1982)
Fraction Anthem: S-169, My flesh is food indeed (Urwin)
Comm: Gather Comprehensive 849, Table Song (D. Haas)
Re: 3, Now that daylight fills the sky (HERR JESU CHRIST)
Postlude: Voluntary in D Major: Adagio ("Trumpet"; Op. 7, No. 5; Stanley)

People came up to me after the service and complimented me on the Stanley. (At least they didn't misidentify it as Bach, like one fellow did last week ...) They were genuinely happy that we were "branching out" singing other songs from the hymnal. Apparently, they stuck to a limited few hymns in recent years. Frankly speaking, it's my opinion that the hymns are not difficult to pick up, especially as we sing all the verses, and there would be enough repetition within the hymn for people to be able to pick it up eventually. Plus, there is a strong history of congregational singing, not just at St. Joseph's, but amongst the other Episcopal parishes I've played in (heck, I'm assuming the whole of the Episcopal Church!) so for that reason, I was not worried about introducing new hymns to the people.

My turn came up for the 5.15 pm service at the Chapel of the Cross. They are reading a different set of Old and New Testament readings than St. Joseph's, as well as a different Psalm. Apparently, within the Revised Common Lectionary, there are two tracks that one may follow. I just noticed it as the "SC Track" and the "GR Track." St. Joseph's are following the former whilst Chapel of the Cross is following the latter. So naturally, the hymns chosen would, in all likelihood, be quite different than those I've picked out for St. Joseph's. As it turns out, my hunch was right. Only the Sequence Hymn was the same as we read the same Gospel (Matthew 10:40-42).

The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost: Holy Eucharist: Rite II
Prelude: Voluntary in e minor: Adagio-Allegro (Op. 7, No. 7; John Stanley)
Pro: 525, The Church's one foundation (AURELIA)
Psalm: Ps 89 (recited)
Seq: 609, Where cross the crowded ways of life (GARDINER)
Off: 321, My God, thy table now is spread (ROCKINGHAM)
Sanctus: S-125, Community Mass (Proulx)
Comm: Voluntary in d minor: Adagio-Allegro (Op. 7, No. 3; Stanley)
Re: 437, Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord (BIRMINGHAM)
Postlude: Voluntary in D Major: Adagio ("Trumpet"; Op. 7, No. 5; Stanley)

Admittedly, I was rather relieved after having played the last note of that postlude. My Sunday playing obligations completed, I was able to think about relaxing, if only for a short while. I had two quizzes to write up, plus grading to catch up on, and a midterm to start thinking about writing up. The Final Exam also looms ahead as well, and I'm still trying to decide, in my mind, how many questions I want to subject my students to. If I'm really mean, it will be 200 multiple-guess questions ... well, my midterms consisted of 100 questions each ... but we'll see.

28th and 29th June - Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul

This time around, I'm going to make two posts listing my service music. I played the 5.30 pm Vigil Mass at Immaculate Conception Saturday evening, and pinch-hit for my mate Andy at the 7.45 am Mass the next morning.

Before I go on, I should mention that this was also the last weekend that Fr. Jacek Orzechowski would spend as the Parochial Vicar at IC, having been assigned as Associate Pastor at St. Camillus Church in Silver Springs, MD. More on Fr. Jacek later on in the post.

Here are the music lists. I actually played three services this past weekend, and used the same prelude and postlude music for each service. I decided it was going to be a John Stanley weekend. As for the music sung during the Mass, as usual, the numbers come out of GIA's Gather Comprehensive 1994 (green cover):

Saturday 5.30 pm Vigil Mass: The Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul
Gloria: 176 (Andrews)
Gospel Acclamation, Sanctus, Mem. Accl., Amen, Agnus Dei: Mass of Light

Prelude: Voluntary in e minor: Adagio-Allegro (Op. 7, No. 7; John Stanley)
Pro: 793, For all the saints (SINE NOMINE)
Psalm: 47, Psalm 34 (Haugen)
Off: 648, There is a balm in Gilead (BALM IN GILEAD)
Comm: 796, Litany of the Saints (Becker)
Re: 791, Lift High the Cross (CRUCIFER)
Postlude: Voluntary in D Major: Adagio ("Trumpet"; Op. 7, No. 5; Stanley)

And no, it is not THE Trumpet Voluntary (that would be Op. 6, No. 5) but another one, which is just as charming as THE one.

The Litany of the Saints was just enough to cover the whole of Communion, minus verse 6. I had the cantor replace Origen with Gabriel. Why? Well, I remembered a debate from the RPInet Forums that questioned Becker's use of Origen in his setting of the Litany. So of course, the bookish swot that I am had to look it up. Apparently, Origen was considered one of the most distinguished scholars of the early Christian Church. His Wikipedia entry was very interesting indeed, but quite heavy reading for me, I'll have to admit. But nowhere was it mentioned that he had ever been canonised. So I suppose the Origen naysayers may have had a point.

I came back the next morning to cantor the 7.45 am Mass. The cantor assigned that Sunday came down with an illness so seeing as how I owed him a Sunday because he cantored for me when my voice decided to take leave of me for 2+ months (and it's still not completely back, much to my annoyance), I decided to return the favour.

With that, the list. The organist, Jane, improvised the Prelude and Postlude, and for Communion, played Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.

Sunday 7.45 am Mass: The Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul
Gloria: 254 (Lee)
Gospel Acclamation: 261, Murray; verse chanted to tone VIII-g
Sanctus, Mem. Accl., Amen, Agnus Dei: Mass of Creation, with my "doctoring" of the Agnus Dei, essentially undoing the language faux-pas Haugen inflicted upon it in the first place ...

Pro: 527, Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERREN)
Psalm: Psalm 34 (Guimont)
Off: 606, How firm a foundation (FOUNDATION)
Comm: Organist's Voluntary: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (J. S. Bach)
Re: 528, Joyful, joyful, we adore THEE (HYMN TO JOY)

(/begin rant)

Yes, as I sung this, I sang it as "Joyful, joyful, we adore thee." I don't care what the politically correct police at GIA Publications have done in editing their hymnals. I refuse to sing it as written there, as I am rather irritated with the way the language was butchered by their editors.

(/end rant)

Well, enough of that. On to other thoughts.

As I mentioned earlier, Fr. Jacek spent his last weekend at IC, as he started his new position as Associate Pastor at St. Camillus a couple of days ago. I remember when he first came to IC - he was known as Brother Jacek back then, and he did a summer internship at IC. His Ordination to the Transitional Diaconate took place at IC, where he was ordained with two fellow friars. I just remembered being up in the loft, quite frustrated as most of the service took place in Spanish. We were all crowded around the one Spanish speaker in the choir, Josep C., as he quietly translated the actual Ordination to those of us who were Spanish-impaired.

After Deacon Jacek became Fr. Jacek after his Ordination at ... I believe it was St. Francis in NYC, he returned to IC as Associate Pastor. He served in this capacity for six years.

I admit that I don't know Fr. Jacek very well - we knew each other's names and faces, but never really talked to each other much. He served the Latino Community quite admirably, as in addition to his native Polish and English, he is fluent in Spanish. (He may be fluent in other languages as well ... I heard possibly Italian ... but don't quote me on that.) He is very passionate about social justice issues, and that, if anything, would be the legacy he leaves here as he moves on to St. Camillus. I wish him Godspeed and Blessings as he begins his ministry in Silver Springs.