Integrity

Home At Last!

Well, after a day's delay, I finally walked in the door at my house about 6pm.  Much to do, so the reflections on the papal audience will have to wait a bit.  But in the meantime, here's a couple of pictures, a link to a Flickr photo album of the raw digital files and the audio broadcast of Vatican Radio's coverage.  (I'm guessing they will indulge me in my posting of it.)

Exhausted, I'm now off to do what I must do and get some rest.  But soon, I'll post tales of the trip.  It was wonderful!

Update:  Alex rightly noted that I didn't post any links or pictures.  Which means of course, I mistakenly hit the "publish" versus "save as draft" button.  I've updated with some pictures (click on them for larger versions) and now YouTubes of short movie captures I did at the papal audience.  I apologize for the quality of some of the pictures you will see in the coming weeks.  Once I learned that Rome was so dark, I decided to forego my flash.  But I am not as patient as I should be, without a tripod as well, to do the camera tricks (the limited ones my cheap digital camera can do) to compensate for that.  Also, does anyone know where I might be able to host the audio for free? YouTube limits length to 10 minutes and if I were to just host it as a file here on the side a mere 7 of you downloading it would eat up all my bandwidth.  Any suggestions?

Annoucement: No Blogging In November

I know what you are thinking.   Announcing that is like issuing a flash news bulletin that the sun won't be shining tomorrow night.

But this is a bit different.  I'm not blogging for a reason other than laziness.  I've decided to join up with the crazies who do the National Novel Writing Month challenge, or NaNoWriMo, every year.  About three years ago, I bought my current laptop with one express purpose: as a tool for fleshing out one of the countless novel ideas I have had over the years.  I even bought an outlining software program to journal my musings.  Well, the endeavor lasted about two weeks and then the laptop became a convenient way to surf the web while laying on my couch.   My better self thought the laptop would get me out and about, working in coffee shops, etc.  My true self decided this was a great way to fake productivity while remaining inert.  And how have the pounds followed.

Several months ago, I came across the NaNoWriMo site and signed up for an email reminder to be sent when registration time approached.  It arrived on Thursday.   Probably against my better instincts, I decided to embrace the flash of desire that must have been there when I asked for the email reminder and I signed up.  (Of course, that's easy to do right now -- It's not November yet!) 

Until the idea is on paper, it will remain just a dream and I've learned this past year that dreams are great coping devices but they are not life.  Movement is life.  So what the hell.   Let's write that novel.  I'm pretty sure it will be crap, but it will be my crap, and I will giddily make all of you smell it.

If you have any interest in tracking my progress, I'm posting in this entry a counter that will allow you to do that. 

Oh, and the project's working title:  Birth Of A H.E.R.O.

Update 1:  First, I don't know why the counter isn't showing up.  I think the guy who made it is having server issues.  Second, damn this is hard.  First day I wrote five words.  Second day I started by deleting them.  Three hours later, I have a start, but it's only 300 words long.  Down with quality, up with quantity!

Update 2:  Found out what was wrong with the badge.  Okay, I must admit that I am thinking of quiting.  My choices seem to be to write a whole lot of crap to meet the word count aspect of the competition and hope that there's some gold mixed in.  Or I can take some time and write a decent first draft, but not come close to the 50,000 word goal.  Honestly, I am leaning towards the latter.  I've read some the excerpts posted so far by others.  They are garbage.  I'm not sacrificing sleep and activities to turn out garbage that I've got to rewrite completely at the end of the day.  Yeah, I'm not in a good mood at the moment.

Update 3:  I think I have found a method.  I decided to start using pen and paper.  Had an old moleskine notebook. Well, there's something about writing it by hand and those little sheets that make me write words without crossing them out.  I don't know if it will hold up, but it seems to be the way to go for me.  Still way behind, but managed to put up two consecutive days of respectable totals (and not gagging too much on the quality of the writing).

 

It's December!

And so, as promised, I return to blogging.

I must admit that life has been quite crazy recently and I haven't quite felt myself.  It's been difficult readjusting to being back at work from such a long time traveling on business, and I've been a combination of bored and distracted.  I turned 30.  And having just completed my move to the condo I have purchased, I don't feel at home yet in my home.  (I offer as evidence that I dreamed last night of arsonists torching my place.) 

I offer you this as an explanation in advance should my posts seem not quite "of me" for a time.

I'm Back, But I'm Not

If anyone is reading this, let me begin by praising your patience.  I've been absent from St. Blog's for so long that it wouldn't surprise me that someone coming across Integrity might think it is new to the blogosphere, not approaching its fourth anniversary. Well, the good news is that the work project that was keeping me on the road basically five and a half days a week for nearly three months has (essentially) come to a close.  The bad news (at least for you, the reader, who has been so patient with me throughout this time) is that I'm not quite ready to return to active blogging.  In the midst of all of this hectic activity, I bought a condo, which has been sitting empty, waiting for me to have a free moment to move in.  So I have much packing and moving and setting up to do over the next few weeks if I am to meet my goal of being settled in by Thanksgiving. After that, I do intend to return to blogging.  Although you can expect several posts a week here at Integrity, and more participation by me over at Peguy and La Nouvelle Theologie, I'm going to concentrate my efforts for a time over at my other blog, Rethinking Economics.  If you haven't looked at that blog in a long time, make a visit and re-read my original vision for it. See you in December!

Site Update

It has been quite a while since my last post on Integrity.  A number of reasons for that:  work picking up at the office; a number of recent trips; the NBA playoffs (oh, how close my Pistons came!); time previously devoted to blogging devoted to getting to know a girl in which I see authentic relationship possibility.

All that said, blogging will resume tomorrow.

Also, I want to call your attention to a new blog, Peguy.   It is a collaborative endeavor of a number of CL bloggers, including yours truly.  The approach is still evolving, but if you are interested in learning more about CL or in discovering new bloggers you should be reading, give Peguy a visit.

Returning Home

Last week was a busy one, with travel to D.C. for a conference and a chance to visit some friends.  Although a bit slow going at the moment as I'm fighting some sort of cold that kicked in full on Sunday, I do plan to resume regular posting starting tomorrow.

Housekeeping

Bigfoot.com's email forwarding service seems to be on the fritz.  So I have updated the email link to the left with a new email address for Integrity.  If you have sent a message to me recently, please accept my apologies and resend it to the new address.  Your messages seem to be getting lost in the ether.

His Voice

Like so many in St. Blog's, I will be reflecting some on the Holy Father this week.  But to also honor all this man has shown me, I will be posting later in the week on CFL and continuing the core mission of Integrity.

Some may have noticed I have made some additions to the music play list in the right-hand column.  One of those is Abba Pater, which I retrieved from my CD collection yesterday.  When it was released, it was quite a shock that the pontiff would issue a music CD.  I loved it at the time, and still do.  But I decided to listen to it again so as to hear his voice, that wonderful fatherly voice of the man who showed me Christ.  There is something quite peaceful to me about his voice.  And the first track on the CD and John Paul II's instruction to us?  "Seek His Face." 

Yes, indeed, father.

Light Posting This Week

My apologies to the handful of faithful Integrity readers.  I got called out of town on an unexpected business trip.  So with days full of that and evenings dealing with the other client matters I planned to handle this week, time for posting is slim this week.  I will try and get one or two up before the weekend.  Otherwise, look for Integrity to resume its usual frequency again next week.

Holy Week

As Integrity's few faithful readers know, I try hard to make my posts as relevant to the mission of the laity as possible.  However, for Holy Week, Integrity is going to instead offer some reflections and thoughts drawing from the events and moments of Holy Week itself.  I hope that you enjoy them and find them of aid this week.  (Of course, all of this is relevant to the lay Catholic and his mission.  I'm just not going to put a lot of effort this week into connecting the dots for you.)  Normal programming will resume next week.

Also, Integrity has now been back up and running full-time for about two months.  If you have any comments (good or bad!), suggestions, etc., on Integrity, feel free to put them in the comments to this post.