Shamelessly stolen from a friend

Because its so true.

Piano-teaching friend: Why don't we just make robots play the music? What would be missing from music without humans?
Student: The love?

At last?

Sober Sophomore, what a lovely birthday present this announcement makes!!

A meeting took place yesterday afternoon at the Vatican, presided by the Cardinal Secretary of State, in which the content and the spirit of the expected "Motu proprio" of the Holy Father on the use of the Missal promulgated by John XXIII in 1962 were explained to the representatives of several episcopal conferences. The Holy Father came to greet those who were present and maintained a profound discussion with them for about one hour. The publication of the document - which will be accompanied by a thorough personal letter of the Holy Father to the singular Bishops - is predicted for within a few days, when the document itself will be sent to all Bishops with the indication of its successive coming into effect.

Hat tip to Rorate Caeli for the translation and to Credidimus Caritati for alerting me to this!

The original Italian text can be found here.

Ethereal amusement

St. Anthony has long been the favorite saint and patron of my family. We run to him as a group and as individuals in times of sorrow, joy, desperation, hope, fear, desire, and just about everything else.

It was no surprise to me, then, that after weeks of lighting candles at his beloved shrine at St. Alphonsus--petitioning for things to work out for me to move closer to my new place of work--I found myself writing a check for a security deposit on a new place yesterday, on his most glorious feast!

Thanks, Anthony. :)

Short

Sometimes the weirdest things trigger unexpected reveries, both of the pleasant and unpleasant varieties.

A haiku--and MindSprocket

I was trying to write an absurb haiku for the Drabblecast haiku poetry contest, and instead came up with the following, which is almost good.

Innocent ink pen

Pulses with potential lines

Full of joy and pain.

Why don't poems like that ever come on purpose?

In other news, MindSprocket issue #7 is out, featuring my first published fiction piece, an excerpt from the infamous novel/short story I worked on back in September when Linny Jane and I declared an early arrival of National Novel Writing Month. I'm really curious to know how people reacted to this piece, so if you have any feedback--good or ill--please comment here or fire off a message to magazine@mindsprocket.com.

For all you fans of 24

Kiefer Sutherland has a recording studio?? I heard Rocco DeLuca and the Burden on the radio this morning, and I have to say, I think I like his taste in indie rock. ;)

Unexpected Theology

Being a fan of a good Black and Tan and of cleverly articulated theology, I loved this old-but-new-to-me post from Alive and Young.

Writing

Lessons I've Learned from This Month's MindSprocket Piece:

I like to make fun of people who say that writing is akin to a mystical process. I like believe that writing is more a question of discipline than inspiration. Maybe most of the time that's true, but sometimes, all the discipline in the world won't save you without that spark of inspiration to make your story work. I poured so much time and thought into the first piece I was working on, but for some reason, I just couldn't become engaged with the characters or what they were doing.

In a last ditch effort to meet deadline, I loaded up my CD player with my favorite Irish/folk music and locked myself away with my sister's obsolete laptop. (If you can't even connect to the internet, resisting the tempatation to use it is much easier, ha.) And then I just started writing. The music wove its way in and out of my consciousness and then in and out of my story. I think it's going to be a great piece when it's revised. I'm actually excited about my characters and their lives this time, and I care about what happens to them.

Oh, and I've learned that writing good fiction is even harder than I initially thought it was. But now that I've got something cooking, I'm curious to see what else I can do. ;)

And in other news, happy Trinity Sunday. :)