This past month and rainy days

I haven't blogged in over a month. I was very busy with confimration, our passion play, the Easter Vigil preparations and then I got the flu in the middle of it all but I didn't stop working. So, that turned into me being very very stupid....and two courses of antibiotics (that had no effect except on my stomach) later...sick with viral pneumonia. I was out of commission for two weeks and just felt a 'general malaise' the sligthest things seemed to drain all of my energy. I'm easing back into work now---only half days this week...and another doctor's appt. tomorrow in between classes. I have missed so much school that I know I'm not getting A's and have had to realize with more than a little frustration and let down- that I will not get through grad school with a 4.0 GPA... bollocks :(

The bright spot in it all was being able to spend time with my family, mom and dad and Maria and Kathy and neices and nephews...and Matt on Easter Sunday too...even though I never really left the house, it felt good to just not be alone. Usually I love living alone, I mean sometimes it can be depressing when I get too too too lonely, but overall it really suits me and I enjoy having all my own space (albeit rented) and schedule and freedom and (ahem)...lack of accountability to any human person. So, I love being alone, but not when I'm sick! There is just something about being surrounded by loved ones that can make you feel safe. I loved just playing games and watching movies with Jack, Kate Dan, Tommy and Rachel. They are still young enough that I don't have to do to much to impress...just show up and pay attention to them and they still love you uncondiationally...I hope that lasts a long time. But all in all, even though it keeps me away from home, my job is really amazing in that I get to do what I love, and with the exception of the drama (which takes a vacation over the summer when CCD is out!!! woo-hooo!!!), I have total freedom and the respect of my priest to let me do my own thing, in my own time, my own way. In a way I think that I'm spoiled because I don't think I'll ever be able to be bossed again!! Not to say I don't have real accountability like the expectations in programming and budget and staffing concerns...but more that, since I've proven my self competent and intelligent (not to mention indisposable-lol), I have free reign...and I'm quite comfy in my little life...and a good sick leave followed by a good thunderstorm is just an amazing finish to my crazy month!!!

I'm also pretty excited today because in two hours I am headed over to Best Buy in Waterford (near New London)to pick up my new laptop that is my birthday (32- ahhhhhhhh 'tooo old..too old to begin the training')present from Mom and Dad for school (and facebook!!). I will now be a member of the internet community while not bogarting time from work...

This may sound ridiculous because everyone I have talked to in the last two days has talked about how much they hate thunder storms...but I LOVE them. It has really cheered me up today. Something about them is so powerful and amazing. The thunder and lightning went on for four hours last night and it is continuing today. I love to listen to the rain, read a good book and just get into a warm blanket (yes - GET INTO- like a snuggie in the infomercial)

They make me feel like my senses are heightened with expectation of something involving intrigue and possibly something a little scary - in a good exciting way...like, "it was a dark and stormy night...". The rain is so loud right now that I can feel the vibration of the drops pelting the window pane next to me...it makes my heart race...

When I did get a few winks of sleep last night, I dreamt about hurricane Gloria and sitting on the front porch watching the trees bend with the force of the wind...I know hurricanes can be terrible and destructive, but they always leave me in awe as well at the power of God's creation and feeling small and fragile. Like the rain and wind can wipe away all of my earthly concerns... kind of like a mental "don't go out in this weather" or if you have ever seen "What About Bob?" a 'vacation from my problems!!' storms do that for me...a blizzard is neat, but a good thunderstorm is EPIC...think about all the great action movies that have made a scene more excting by adding a great thunderstorm....Twister and The Day after Tomorrow (okay those both sucked but the storms were cool...I mean just think of those movies WITHOUT the weather...EVEN WORSE, right?), even funny movies like Haunted Honeymoon and CLue...great thunderstorms! Then there is the Perfect Storm, which was sad because its a true story....and also one of the X-Men is NAMED Storm! Any good mystery film need only add darkness and storm to add to the suspense...think Key Largo...or that scene in 'It's Wonderful Life' where there is the run on the bank...not as foreboding if its sunny, is it? And I mean can you picture Jesus on the cross on a SUNNY bright and shiny day with birds chirping? I think not...

The water gushing from the gutters right now sounds like a river...

Anyway, just some random thoughts as I sit here and not work...

I really like the rain...

The End

I didn't do it on purpose....

So last night i was in ahurry after youth Group to get home, so I didn't check the front doors to the church. Everytime i check them they are ALWAYS locked...and both the people who are in charge of locking up were at mass last night...and i was in ahurry because it was 8:30 and I was picking up my friend Mke for a 9:10 showing of Watchmen (spoiler alert-for a three hour flick it was pretty freaking cool- until the last 15 minutes- I sure thought the ending sucked!!!)

Anyway I got this note on my desk this morning-
"The doors in the front of teh church were left unlocked last night and teh door between the altar servers room and the sacristy was left unlocked and wide open. Am I in charge of locking them or anybody else?"

Oh Fr. Michael...I am sorry, I should have checked the doors...The K of C St. Patrick's Day dinner was in full swing so I think everyone, in a rush to do eat salted and boiled meat and cabbage and listen to sad depressing songs with 57 verses and no chorus, forgot to lock up... won't happen again :)

and here is your "Office" quote of the day from Oscar- to Michael- about his scary financial situation...

"Okay, the green bar is what you spend every month on stuff you need, like a car and a house...The red bar is what you spend on non-essentials, like magazines, entertainment, things like that...This scary black bar is what you spend onthings that no one ever, ever needs. Like multiple magic sets, professional bass fishing equiptment...Look ...$1200, what is a "Core Blaster Extreme"?"

some not too recent news on the Home Run Apple...

Workers in Minnesota are putting the finishing touches on the Mets' new Home Run Apple, a bigger, shinier and more advanced version of the Shea curio that inspired strong feelings among fans who either adored or hated its hokiness.

The new apple will be installed at Citi Field in early February, according to Mark Silvera, who designed it along with fellow engineer Andrew Agosto. Look for the Mets to have a ceremony when the apple is unveiled, although the team declined comment Wednesday.

"I guess somebody has made a giant pop-up apple before, but when we were going through the process, we wanted to have it be bigger, better and more reliable," said Silvera, an engineer at Uni-Systems, the Minneapolis engineering firm hired to build it. "It'll be exciting to see it installed and then see how fans respond to it."

The fresh apple, made of fiberglass with a foam core, is 16 feet tall and 18 feet in diameter, meaning it would tower over the 9-foot-tall original. The new one weighs 4,800 pounds, but adding the hydraulics and guideframes underneath means the total weight lifted will be around 8,500 pounds. The old apple weighed 582 pounds.

When a Met hits a homer, the apple will rise 15 feet. It's slated to make the trip in just three seconds, but the Mets may be able to tweak the timing once it is installed.

The original apple first appeared at Shea to the right of the 410-foot sign in center field during the 1980 season as a marketing ploy to inject some excitement into a dreadful team that finished 67-95, in fifth place in the NL East. That team didn't hit many homers, either - Lee Mazzilli led the way with 16, while the Mets finished with just 61 and were mocked by a Daily News graphic that measured their homer output against Roger Maris' 1961 total. The Mets and Maris finished tied.

But the apple morphed into a symbol of the franchise, its lumpy, red fiberboard frames plucking fans' heartstrings, and Met officials long wanted to have the apple represented in some way in the new park.

While the apple has been famous and/or notorious in New York, depending on your point of view, Minnesotan Mark Hagelberger didn't know apple lore. Hagelberger's company, Fiberglass Fabricators, Inc., was hired to build the new apple's shell and he Googled the Met apple to learn. "Wow," he said Wednesday, "this is a big deal."

To some fans, so is the final resting place of the original apple. Good news, Hagelberger says - it's likely to go on display somewhere at Citi Field. "That's the plan I heard," Hagelberger said.

It doesn't take much

we may live in uncertain times, and although I derive my hope from my faith in God...


IT is people like Jim gaffigan who keep me laughing....

here is a clip of his latest assault on food...




do't miss his comedy central show..he is hysterical :)

gross mistreatment of 'slumdogs'..and other sickening things...

This picture is a representation of how we, as American Christians/Catholics commonly assimilate the concept of Lenten Sacrifice into our lives, and corporate America's response...

Filet-O-Fish sales skyrocket...ashes seen on foreheads...Lent must be here...

Wow.


On another note...here is yet another uplifting story of the economic gap AND its' paired with the exploitation of youth! YAY!


Young 'Slumdog' stars back in Mumbai slums


On Sunday night, Azharuddin Ismail and Rubina Ali were in Hollywood, California, getting celebrity treatment as eight Oscars were awarded to the movie they starred in, "Slumdog Millionaire."

Thursday night, the two children were sleeping at home in Mumbai, India. Azharuddin sleeps under a plastic sheet in a shantytown beside a railway track, where the smell of urine and cow dung lingers in the air. Rubina sleeps with her parents and siblings in a tiny shack beside an open drain.

The slum they live in put on a Bollywood-style welcome for the two young stars. There were music, dancing, sweets, garlands, security -- tears and tantrums -- and paparazzi.

Mumbai's Garib Nagar area, which translates literally into "poor district," put on a robust show for two of its own.

Rubina and Azharuddin have lived in a Mumbai slum all their lives. They were handpicked by the producers of "Slumdog Millionaire" for parts in the movie, which tells the rags-to-riches tale of a young boy who grew up in a Mumbai slum.

Following the film's spectacular success around the world, the producers decided to include the two young actors in the movie's Oscar experience.

The children made their first journey on a plane when they were flown to Los Angeles, California, to attend the awards ceremony. "The plane was so big," said Rubina. "I'd only seen [planes] in the sky earlier and it used to look so small."

"America was just fantastic," Rubina gushed, visibly excited after she made a dramatic entry into the slum on her father's shoulders on Thursday afternoon. "I was so excited to be on stage at the Oscars. Everyone was crying."

Red-carpet formalities done, the children were given a whirlwind tour of Los Angeles. The highlight -- a trip to Disneyland. "I loved all the rides, especially the fast ones," said Rubina.

The trip to the United States did have some drawbacks though. "The food is different over there," said Rubina. " I didn't like it. I missed Indian food."

They'll have plenty of that now that they're back home. The first thing Azharuddin did when he returned to Garib Nagar was to dig into a plate of biryani, a traditional Indian meal of meat and rice, at a restaurant. His mother, who accompanied him to Los Angeles, spoke to reporters at home -- a makeshift shelter under a tree, with a torn plastic sheet for a roof.

She said she hoped the "Slumdog Millionaire" experience would change things. "It would be nice to get a proper home." She says she has heard rumors the government may provide her family with one, but no one has confirmed any plans for a new home. "I've been praying for a new home for so long. It's all up to Allah now."

Returning to their slum, Azharuddin and Rubina were excited -- and exhausted -- by media attention that was sometimes a little overwhelming. Azharuddin burst into tears while eating lunch, leaving his biryani unfinished, his every move caught on camera.

Hoping to secure a future for Azharuddin and Rubina, the film's producers have enrolled them in a school and set up a trust fund to ensure their welfare.

"We thought long and hard about how best can we benefit them and we decided to put in place an education plan for them," said Danny Boyle, the movie's director.

"We put them in school, a very good school, which they're paid for to stay in until they're 18. If they stay in school until they're 18, a substantial sum of money is released to them then, which will effectively change their lives for the better," Boyle said.

The Telegraph newspaper of London, England, quoted their parents saying Azharuddin was paid less than $2,500, and that Rubina got about $700.

"The children were paid well," Boyle said. "The families were paid well for their work, over and above what you could pay, way over and above what you could pay."

"I hope the children get a better life after this," said a neighbor who waited outside her home all day to welcome the children home. "They've achieved so much at a young age. They deserve much better."

"The International" AKA "Shoot out at the O.K. Guggenhiem"

I have a new habit of going to matinee movies...alone...in the middle of the week. Hi, my name is Annie, and I'm a loser...

watch the first five minutes here:

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4062970649/

"If you control the debt, you control EVERYTHING."
"Sometimes you find your destiny on the road you took to avoid it."
"The justice you seek is an unattainable myth."
"What do you want from me?" "I want some fucking justice!!"
"If you kill me there will be hundreds of bankers lining up to take my place..."

Okay some of those lines may seem a bit cheesy, but this movie was NOT....well not completely anyway :)

It was realistic and frightening and well acted and actually achieved being amazing without any gratuitous sex scenes...no wonder Hollywood is keeping it so quiet...its not teenage vampires...or talking dogs...


This movie is about the IBBC, and the rag-tag group of law enforcement agents from NYC, Interpol and Scotland Yard, that go behind their agencies' backs and against the orders of their superiors to uncover a vast capitalistic, warmongering, giant evil bank weapons deal, orchestrated to control the world's conflicts and debts. The conspiracy is out there, they have no bond-like gadgets..the good guys or the bad guys...its kind of a throw back in that aspect to an old Bogart film, just using brains, and good old fashioned rifles and well..OK Uzis... But it was refreshing, if not realistic to see three or four people working international espionage and only one blackberry...I mean they used PAYPHONES...

This is not your regular conspiracy thriller, it takes a different path, with success. Anyone who knows anything is in danger, people are being killed off left and right, there is no one to trust, no one to turn to and no justice in sight....and the biggest baddest shootout that the Guggenheim Museum has ever seen. This movie is epic, and filmed on location around the world, the scenery is a bigger star than Owen. Clive Owen is very convincing as the paranoid, strung out and disillusioned Interpol agent and Naomi Watts isn't great, but this performance is better than "The Ring".

This movie makes a great case for idealism and it's hopelessness...

I fear these gross abuses of capitalism are not all that far fetched...and they are the exact same corruptions that exist in every/any form of government and economy... The corruption of people in power will always breed more corruption, more pain and manipulation of the public, more profiteering, more disillusionment.

Diversion from the movie review into what it made me think about:
I came out of this movie feeling like it was pretty damn good, but also that I am pretty helpless and in general, sad for our world...
With corruption at every level of every organization, have we as a people become so truly evil? No, we haven't become, we have always been...the method isn't even original...
I believe that true and real evil exists and that the honest people in society are being further and further eclipsed by it. The god of self-satisfaction paired with an unprecedented lack of compassion and honesty....it disgusts me and is embodied by our history as a people of war and the current state of war as well as the state of our economy, which will be used to frighten people into surrendering more freedoms.
I think the only real freedom that exists anymore is the freedom of thought.

The hunger for power breeds corruption, and the attainment of it shoots the breeding into the stratosphere. Adam and Eve...they lasted what, a week, before the devil got to them by tempting them to 'be like God'. It seems like the whole world is his playground these days...and true justice IS a myth, at least in this world. Can it be that real justice comes only with death and the final judgement of the individual?

In my heart I admire people like well, Jesus to start with, and saints like Francis, Mother Theresa, Thomas More, people like Gandhi. And for the life of me, I can't think of one single public persona in today's' world that I truly can say that I know without a shadow of a doubt, is not corrupt in some way. For myself, I try to be and act above reproach, and with integrity and honesty. But then again- I have no real power, so have I ever really been tempted to be anything but honest? And in reality, I don't know how well I do at the whole uncorrupted thing. Often I want to quit being an idealist even in my own mind because it is exhausting. Or, I want to quit my job in general because its disheartening to see each day what religion has become to so many people. BUT, then I lose and the devil wins. AND we were told going into all of this life that it wasn't fair, yet I'm still surprised by injustice. Maybe that says something, even if it is only that I can still feel outrage. And, we were told that the harvest is great and the workers few, and I will not go down without a fight!!! :)ooh maybe I'll get an Uzi!!!!

Anyway, back to the movie- I think the great films are the ones that make us think about real issues, and although this was about international intrigue and assassinations and shoot 'em ups, it was also a powerful social commentary. Its most definitely worth seeing.

Star Wars IQ

"The average Star Wars fan has an IQ of 106. Think you're smarter than the avg fan? 23% of American's can't get to the last question!"


one of the very tempting time wasters on Facebook...but as I have an IQ that is hopefully greater than that of the average star wars fan...I can resist...

And yet I wonder about my intelligence because I still wonder what that last question is...and if I would get it right.

"Inspirational. What did we learn? Well, we have learned that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Because it is illegal, and you will go to jail." Michael Scott