afternoon art lessons

today my six year old cousin and I were playing with modeling clay.  after she had finished her first structure, she called me over to look at it.  “Cool,” I said, “it looks like a person riding an anteater.” “What?” she said, “an anteater?  what would a person be doing riding an anteater?” I replied, “alright then, what is it?”  “It’s Art.”

later my dad tried to explain to her that her Art is actually a school called abstract but she didn’t accept that label.   “No,” she defended her position, “it’s just Art, it’s not supposed to BE anything.”

community service!

I volunteered to work the Friends of the Library booksale, so I spent the afternoon boxing books with my high school english teacher, my elementary art teacher, and my middle school librarian.  they were some of my favorites so I didn’t mind repeating my life since high school story three times (well two times really, the librarian I’m kind of still in contact with).
one of the women who didn’t know me was a little confused as to why I was there, I’m not a resident, I’m young.  I told her that I just had some free time and knew they needed help so I came on over, but she didn’t buy it so I gave her a spiel about how much I like books (very true), how much time I’d spent at the library as a kid (true) and how I think the library is important (true) so I’d do all I could to help out (also true).  then she thought I was studying to be a librarian.

I did only buy three books, two books I’ve been wanting to read and one book I’ve read but was very good so I couldn’t stomach the thought of it getting recycled.   it’s Double Helix by James Watson.  no one but me will ever read it, but it’s such an interesting book (even to non-science people, I swear)!  I got it home and opened it, and realized that it had actually belonged to my cousin’s husband, a physicist whose science library I now own, and she had donated it to the sale.

kind of a ridiculous day.

mooovies (and hella links)

so I was writing this blog in my head about youtube and I somehow got onto D.W. Griffith. I don’t know why. I’ll try to stay on topic.

I spent like an hour this morning watching thewinekone, smosh, lisanova, thehill88, etc. why? I have no freaking clue. I just am now very interested in this culture of youtube fame. I remember back when the lonelygirl15 debate began and I watched a few of her vids but didn’t stick with it long enough to get hooked or find out the outcome. so now this whole strange society of youtubers has developed and I was basically unaware!

these kids are like stop-them-on-the-street famous. sort of.  and how did that happen?  they’re doing normal nerdy person stuff and filming it!  they’re like me and my friends!  (don’t be insulted, friends.  recall the infamous Jorge video, the physics video, the calculus video and the 12/31/01 video.  if only they had youtube back then…)

good for the youtubers.   we used to have to force people who came over to watch our videos, they’d sit silently scared while we laughed our butts off at ourselves being dumb (silence didn’t stop us from showing the next innocent who appeared.  oh, the people we’ve scarred for life).  now youtube has opened the doors for people like us to band together!  hey, kid making odd/cool home videos!  there are people out there just like you!  you should be friends!

deacons and rocking (how they do)

ok so lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the diaconate (don’t fret, I’m not thinking about BECOMING a deacon, that’s just silly).

but I learned for the first time about the specific mission of the diaconate this past spring and it’s very interesting and cool.  I’m totally pro-deacons.  you can find information on this here, among other places of course.

my new-found knowledge wouldn’t of been anything particularly special, except st john’s got it’s first (since I’ve been there) deacon this spring and my home parish got a new one.

now I’ve been paying particular attention to these guys’ actions during mass, paying attention to how they’re living out their vocation.  I’ve been thinking about all the deacons I’ve known.  I’ve just been getting really excited about the diaconate!

my family thinks I am very strange.  we got home from church after hearing our new deacon’s first ever homily and I was totally pumped.  my dad actually gave me the “who is this kid” look.  deacons are totally underrated!  charity, word, and sacrament!

praise band?!?!

my home parish has a praise band!

it is of course Praise Band IC-style, which is four people with guitars.  a woman in her mid40s, a guy and his 9 year old son, and (the person who I suspect is behind the phenomenon) a guy in his late 20s who went to high school with my cousin.  the kid only played on one song, but he did a very good job of standing there and looking cute.

people are not quite sure what to make of these strange characters that sing songs with harmony and play new mass parts.  this of course makes my mom and I sing extra loud to make up for the confusion.  so picture this if you will.  small rural parish, the congregation comprised of mostly senior citizens, a good number of people my parents’ age, and just a few young families thrown in for good measure, standing around with their hymnals open and mumbling the words to the songs under their breath while my mom and I (plus the praise band and Father of course) belt out the lyrics like there is no tomorrow.  I think it’s hilarious!  going to mass here is so fun!

Father Mike is all about the youth.  he’s done all kinds of things since he got here to mix things up and get young people involved and this having guitars thing is just one more way he’s forcing people to act.  People say things like “that Father Mike, always trying something crazy” but as they’re shaking their heads they’re smiling and doing just what he wants.  I like him.  I like the way when he says mass you can tell he means every word and often he’s so overwhelmed by emotion that after communion he stops everything and points out how amazing that just was.  we’re going to have fun at VBS in a couple of weeks.