Uncle Johns

Caramel Apples (State Fair of Texas)
Originally uploaded by Imageflora.

Hey everyone(everyone's invited)! We're going to Uncle John's tomorrow at 6:00 pm. Meet at my house. No if, buts, whys or anything else! I want a caramel apple, so we're going. Oh, and we can play risk, euchre or whatever afterwards either here or at the Ark.

Dishonor

1. Loss of honor, respect, or reputation.

Contest #9!!!

Birthdays won:
Kenric: 4
Jennifer: 3 3/4
Sarah: 2
Adam: 1/4

What am I thinking right now?

Update From Florida

Hi guys,

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post earlier like I said I would, but I had a lot of studying for midterms.

My last few weeks have been very tiring. I've been studying an awful lot lately, so if my writing is a little off don't hold it against me. I just took two midterms today and I think I did well. I think I aced my math test, and I think i did alright on my histrory test.

as for my academic standings as of just before my midterms they are: A- in Math, A- in Latin, C in Lit, and around a C in History. As you can see I need to get a few of my scores up, but these numbers are only a small percentige of my grades.

Now for the bigest thing on my mind. as you guys may or may not know a Catergory 5 hurricane called Wilma is schedueled to hit Naples on Sunday. it is the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic. It is currently over the Yukatan peninsula in Mexico. I will probably be coming home over the weekend to avoid this hurricane, but I'm not entirely sure. Keep me in your prayers, as I'm a little nervious about all this. And if my luck holds I'll see you guys in a few days.

Thats about it for me.

See ya soon (maybe)

John W.

Contest #8!!!

Updated from Contest #8:

Birthdays won:
Kenric: 4
Jennifer: 3 3/4
Sarah: 2
Adam: 1/4

EXPLANATION INSIDE

Fill in the blank

Land of Uz.

hey people

what do you think of watching a movie tomorrow night (friday)? here's some of the better choices

Flightplan: PG-13(A-III)
The Exorcism of Emily Rose: PG-13 (A-III)
The Greatest Game Ever Played PG (A-I)
Just Like Heaven: PG-13 (A-III)
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride: PG (A-II)
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: G (A-I)

Joke Time!!!

Since two people have already LOVED my two jokes I will tell me all you fortunate people.

1. What is a Chadwick?

2. What did one Chadwick say to the other?

I am sorry, but I didn't post the answers. Maybe you can guess them or something.

Eucharistic Congress

So Friday and Saturday we were at the Eucharistic Congress put on by the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis. You can visit the official website of the Eucharistic Congress by clicking here. Your first question is probably, what the heck is a Eucharistic Congress??? Well, the best I can say is that it's a big event that is centered entirely on the Eucharist. I have never been to one before, so I will just tell you the absolutely awesome things that happened over these two days. First, Friday night we had a Eucharistic procession from the state capital in St. Paul to the cathedral. It's only about a half mile, so it's not like it was incredibly far. Anyway, St. Paul Seminary (the major seminary that is also on the campus of St. Thomas University) and the one, the only St. John Vianney Seminary. I can't say enough about how cool Eucharistic processions are!

"Do not be afraid to go out on the streets and into public places, like the first Apostles who preached Christ and the Good News of salvation in the squares of cities, towns and villages. This is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel (cf. Rom 1:16). It is the time to preach it from the rooftops (cf. Mt 10:27). Do not be afraid to break out of comfortable and routine modes of living, in order to take up the challenge of making Christ known in the modern ``metropolis''. It is you who must ``go out into the byroads'' (Mt 22:9) and invite everyone you meet to the banquet which God has prepared for his people. The Gospel must not be kept hidden because of fear or indifference. It was never meant to be hidden away in private. It has to be put on a stand so that people may see its light and give praise to our heavenly Father (cf. Mt 5:15-16)." - JPII

That is one of my favorite quotes ever! Oh, oh cool, you guys HAVE to check out this video by the Archdiocese of New York. It uses part of this quote in it and it's about a Eucharistic procession that went all over the city of New York. Ok, I am going crazy! I have so much to tell you guys. Ahhhh, watch the video!

Ok, so this morning we had mass with several thousand people who registered for the event. It was held where the Minessota Wild (hockey) play. Us guys from Vianney were ushers for communion. Then after that we went to a different part of the arena where they had a bunch of Catholic stores, religious orders, evangelization groups, etc. with tables set up giving away or selling stuff. I bought a few book, and by a few I mean four. Swear to God by Scott Hahn, which I had him sign because he was there as well and gave a talk on the book of Revelation and the Sacrifice of the Mass and if any of you have not read The Lamb's Supper, you've got to, it's awesome. I also bought Crossing the Threshold of Hope by Pope John Paul, I've already read it but I wanted to have it because when you've read a really good book you really want to give it to other people to read, so hopefully somebody comes along that I can give it to. I also bought In the Presence of Our Lord by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, and Peace of Soul by Fulton Sheen. And no, I probably will not have time to read them all during the school year, but maybe I can get through one of them.

Ok, so here is the big part. Our rector, Fr. William Baer, got Jim Caviezel to speak personally to us seminarians before he addressed everyone at the congress. So yeah, I wish you guys could have heard what he had to say. The man is crazy, and so was Christ, and so IS Christ! Christ is the absolute epitamy of a social outcast. I mean, the man did everything contrary to society! So anyway, Caviezal talked to us about, to put it plainly, not being wusses! You might laugh, but it's true! There are entirely too many fluffity-puffity Priests out there who don't want to take Christ to the streets, who are not afraid of letting everyone know that the Catholic Church is the 1 true Church, and, most importantly, are blind to the spiritual battle that is only beginning in our increasingly de-Christianized world. Just today I found out that our stupid school council here at St. Thomas is allowing a "coming-out" day and it is going to take place, on this Catholic campus, this coming Tuesday. Please pray for the people on campus, especially those people who will be protesting and praying for the organizers of the event, and for those people who organized the event. It's satan, and he is stealing souls from God. Fulton Sheen says, in the very first line of Peace of Soul, "Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved..." He could not be more right. It's time we break out of our comfortable lifestyles and bring Christ to the world. Try to save a soul today! You may fail, you may never think that you've succeeded, but just think, if you succeed only once, after trying every day, you have contributed to the Kingdom of God, you have served God in pulling His creation out of Hell! Picture it this way, it could be as simple as giving money to a poor guy who's asking for some change. Just today there was a woman who we talked to on the street in St. Paul who found out we were seminarians and asked us to pray for her four sons who have drifted away from the Church. You would not believe how much joy she had when we promised to pray for them! Do you know why? Because she believes in prayer, and she believes in Hell! Yes, she believes that, through prayer, her sons can be lifted out of Hell and into Heaven. One of the most important things to remember, Caviezel said with regards to being a Priest, and it also goes for anyone who wants to be an evangelizing Catholic (which should be all of us), is to not care about what people think! If one of your friends is doing something stupid, you know, doesn't want to pray with certain people around, is afraid to give witness to Christ when asked why they are Christian, or any other of the numerous situations we face everyday, call them out! Hell is to real to waste time caring what people will think of you if you give witness to Christ.

"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

This is a cool picture i found. I really has nothing to do with anything. In fact, it is the reverse of how my interview today went. I'm not going to open my wings and soar in life at this time, like a dragonfly snacking on mosquitos, because I bombed my interview. I have come up against the windshield that is interviews. It made me feel dumb, so thats how i feel right now.

once again

yes this is a complaint, although it may develop into something else...
Today some guy in my class ( who may or may not be gay) was telling us that his dad is a homo-phobe. I really hate that term, it is not as though people are afraid of people of the same sex, just because they think it is wrong to sleep with them....
Anyway, moving on, i am loving my drawing class ( jennifer, you need to take one of these). I am learning so much stuff and my drawing skills have improved. I highly recommend them...although some of my classmates never shut up and have sick senses of humor. They are nice to me though, and not nasty like they are too each other. People like me must just stick out. Some girl in design and communication asked me and kenric if we knew each other from church...

PEAS!!!

Peas
Originally uploaded by Kym..

Jennifer! I was in line paying for my food at Taco Bell today because my supper didn't fill me up. Somebody was waiting on the that looked vaguely familiar. Aha. I said, I think I used to go to school with you. What's your name? she asked. She said she remembered me- probably thinking of a few not so pretty memories from middle school. I felt bad, but really wanted to ask her if she was still afraid of peas...ah, at least I was friendly.

pink

ok yeah rachael isn't the only one having a weird day...ok i walk into the cafateria and here's this guy from my history class knitting with bright pink yarn...that was a shocker, he didn't look like the type...i also stood in the finan aid line for 45 minutes just to find out that i need to talk to the cashier people about my gm voucher. Then they ( the cashier people) tell me that i can't use the voucher, i have to pay for my classes first and then gm will refund me. I'm like what if i don't have any money? so yeah that was a waste...my complete inabilty to explain myself in writ 121 caused my prof to try to make me change my topic, just because he couldn't get what i was talking about. ( i really hate that class, it's like lets make everyone look like an idiot class) It sucks, my grandpa had the same problem, he wasn't good with words when he spoke, unfortunately for me i'm not smart like he was so i can't get a way with it. I feel like yelling in class at my profs just to see their reaction, although all of my profs seem to like me, except the before mentioned writ 121 prof, who i think just hates everyone.

Who spiked my coffee?

I am so weird today and I don't know why. Maybe it's the coffee that I got. (thank you tom, I have your $20 now). I've been laughing at random stupid things all day. Philosophy, I got up and left halfway through class because I was bored. In writing, I laughed at the teacher a couple of times (ok, he says steven like steeeven and handed out worksheets that were all wet on the top, is that weird?), until he got annoyed at me and made me read a page out of the book outloud to the class. After that, I wrote a story in my planner about the agony of writing 121 and got in a conversation with the guy behind me about eating chicken quesadillas in class and going on vacation overseas. In sociology, I got really clausterphobic for a little while (we have about 35 people in a little little room), and again, laughed at random things. My prof called pants trousers, and it was unusually funny to me. Hehe, I'm in the computer lab straight across from Kenric and he hasn't noticed me yet. Eventually, he's going to look up and freak out. Maybe. He's really engrossed in whatever he's doing. Well, I hope everyone is having as hilarious a day as I am.

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property

I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys about this site sooner. Its a pretty neat Catholic site. If you sign up for their email service, they send you emails once in a while that let you send an email to protest various things. That have the email already filled out with the protest info. All you have to do is put in your own email address and name. Its pretty easy. Here is the link to the student site.
Also, I just read this article. Here is the link.

Crisp Air

Will our woods look like this soon? What do you think. I think this looks nice. Cold though.

Cool

North Wind
Originally uploaded by notraces.

Hey, so it's Friday night and I have some time to post about what's going on. A few of you either e-mailed me or I told you that I would call you or something but I haven't. Well, I can explain. The past 3 weeks (ending this Sunday) we've been having initiations for us new men. We were matched up with "big brothers" (older seminarians) who were supposed to look after us, keep an eye on us, and help in our formation. Speaking of formation, I hope to talk about this sometime with each of you, cause it's really cool. Here at the seminary we each have a formation director who is in charge of our Human Formation (stuff like keeping our rooms cleaning, watching our tongue, waking up on time, etc.), then we have a spiritual director who is in charge of our spiritual formation. The spiritual director works more with our "internal forum" matters, and our formation director is in charge of our "external forum" matters. It's an amazing system. So anyway, our big brother helps us with whatever human formation stuff he thinks we need to work on during these weeks. So yeah, on Tuesday night at our all-seminary dinner the rector Fr. Baer announced that we were going to have 2 days of discipleship. In other words, each of us new men would have to follow our big brother everywhere. To class, to morning/evening prayer, mass, holy hour, all that stuff. That just got over last night and I can tell you that the people in charge here know what they are doing. It was very beneficial to all of us. I mean, think about it, how often are you around people who know you. It forces you to think about each word that comes out of your mouth, and to really consider all your habits. Anyway, so that's what went on this week.

Classes are going pretty well. I have Latin, basic Philosophy, basic Theology, and English. Latin is by far the most difficult class, but I'm enjoying, Theology is growing more and more on me. I don't have the greatest teacher in terms of orthodoxy, but we're pretty much using the bible as a textbook so it's good. Oh, and there are quite of a few other freshmen in the class, and they ask a lot of questions and the teacher kind of beats around the bush instead of giving them the truth! It's frustrating, but if anyone ever approaches you with questions about the Catholic Church, religion, God, or anything partaining to, please, don't for a moment be reluctant to answer. It's very sad sometimes being on this campus and see some teachers feeding genuinely curious students with lies. I haven't really experienced it yet, but I know those professors (and, of course, some students) are out there. Now, most of the time you can't bring anything up during class because that would not be very respectful to the student. Plus, if the student asking the question is genuinely curious, they may be more likely to believe the prof, so it's a losing battle. The best thing would be to pray for them, and if you feel compelled to, talk to them outside of class. Ok, I'm not preaching, this is coming straight from the rector here at the seminary. So I'm just passing on the good truth.

Anyway, I gotta get going now, feel free to give me a call. I probably won't answer it, but I will be sure to call you back.

Update

Hey guys,
I got another update for ya.

First, I have taken up weightlifting. I'm only benching 55, but I was told to start slow 'till I got used to it. I can squat 95, though.

Second, I've seen a few more movies. I've seen Braveheart, Lost in Translation, and Maximum Overdrive. Braveheart is a great movie, but I think most of you have seen it and know that. Lost in Translation was also a great movie, but it was pretty different. And last, and least, was Maximum Overdrive. It was a terrible movie, but it was so bad it was funny. It was based on a Stephen King book and it was directed by him. It was supposed to be a horror movie, but any suspense was killed by the AC/DC soundtrack. It was also pretty much plotless and the acing was terrible. But all of this made for a hilarious movie, even though it was supposed to be serious. If you can take a fair amount of violence and some swear words, watch it.

Finaly, I guess the only thing left to tell is my rather odd experience of this afternoon. Trystan was talking to his girlfriend like he always does. Tim was dozing on his top bunk. When Trystan got off the phone he just started yelling. Then, he lifted Tim right off of his bed and put him on the floor. Then he picked me up and, yelling, carred me down a hallway to a couch and threw me down, breaking part of the couch. All off this happend in the span of less than two minutes. Needless to say, at the end of this everyone who lives on that hall was looking out at us. It was one of the oddest experiences I've had here yet.

I guess that's all for now.

Be in tuch,

John W.

Rain

coming together
Originally uploaded by conditioned.

Guys, it's raining out and i'm soaked just from walking from OC to TLC. and sarah, my flip-flops are now sticky. gross. i wish i had an umbrella and tennis shoes.

Death of Trig

Big news guys, someone has abolished Trig.

My roommate Miguel found this article about Trigonometry. It says that some professor in Austrialia has rewriten the rules of Trig, and gotten rid of Sine, Cosine, and Tangent. Very interesting, hmm...

I would have posted the entire article, but it would have been a pretty big post. Read the article and tell me what you think.

Update From Florida

Hey guys,
It's me again. I'm posting a brief up date of my current status. This post may be in a rather random order, but hey, it's been a long week.

First off, the food is as good as ever here. I had breaded shrimp on Friday. That was pretty good. For the most part, though, I eat a lot of meat and potatoes an other generaly unhealthy food.

I have also seen three movies and one season of a TV series. The movies were: Amadeus, which was a great movie and I recomend it to all of you, Super Mario Brothers, which was a bad movie and that made it hilarious, and On the Waterfront, which was a very good movie and it stared Marlon Brando, who "Coulda been a contenda." That was only this week, last week I watched the first two Austin Powers movies. The week before that I saw Edward Scissorhands and Arsinic and Old Lace. Incedentaly, I highly recomend both of those movies. So, as I commented to Tim last night, in my first year here I will probably watch more and better movies than I did in the last year and a half.

Now, as for the rest of my life (ha, ha). I usualy get to bed somewhere between 12 and 1 o'clock, and on school days I get up around 7:30. Most other days I get up after 10. As you can probably tell I get less sleep than I should, but I'm working on that.

Moving on to the most important part of my life, schoolwoork. I'm behind in my reading for most of my classes. I finished the Iliad this week, however, so I'm thankful for that victory, anyway. I also have a paper due for the Iliad on the 30th, so as usual I'm having a hard time getting started. Oh well, I guess school is a neverending process.

Finaly, rest of my life. There is not a whole lot to report. My roommates and I still get into a lot of discussions, which is the main reason I'm behind in my homework. I also went swing dancing the Friday before last, and I plan to go again next Friday. I'm not too bad at it, and it is lots of fun. You guys need to get Marnee to teach you how. Other than that there is not a whole lot going on for me that I can think of.

Feel free to post any questions you my have for me about my life here and I will check the blog every day and try to respond to them.

Talk to you guys soon,

John

P.S. I was reading Catholic Exchange as I wrote this, and I came across this article that mentions Lansing. I think you guys might find this interesting. Enjoy.