My dear friend Mark says...

"Check this out and tell me it doesnt make you want to go run a marathon or something athletic."

I does, in fact, and it's finally cool enough here that I just might.

...Might.

I related news, for reasons unknown to me, YouTube has decided to make it impossible for me to copy the code to embed videos. What did I do to invite your scorn, YouTube?

Missed Merton

I missed this, what with my floundering attempts to be responsible, but evidently yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the passing of Thomas Merton.

His most well-knwon prayer, and a favorite of mine:

My Lord God,I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think that I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always
though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear,for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

ACE Founder and Big-Wig Receives Presidential Award

We (ACErs) were let in on this event while in Austin for our retreat this past weekend. Later, some of us delighted in seeing Fr. Scully breakin' it down on the dance floor, and one of my good friends commented, "Give this man a presidential award!"

I love ACE.

The rest of the article is here. it has a pretty good summary of the ACE program, in case you're curious exactly what I'm up to, and short (very short) list of some of ACE's associated programs and initiatives.

At retreat, Fr. Scully emphasized that he was getting this award on behalf of all the people who do and have ever done work with the Alliance for Catholic Education. When I signed up for this thing, I thought, "Hey, grad school AND service!". I am realizing more and more that ACE is a lot bigger than that. It is, in fact, a movement unto itself, and I'm profoundly excited that I'm part of it.

Father Scully receives Presidential Citizens Medal
By: Julie Hail Flory
Date: December 10, 2008

Rev. Timothy R. Scully, C.S.C., professor of political science and director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI) at the University of Notre Dame, received a 2008 Presidential Citizens Medal in an Oval Office ceremony held Wednesday (Dec. 10).

One of the highest honors the president can confer upon a civilian – second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the Presidential Citizens Medal recognizes U.S. citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of service for the nation. Since its establishment by executive order in 1969, some 100 people have received the award.

Houston (and everywhere else), we have a problem

Here's the deal, Dear Readers: our house's internet is down. Because of our location, we have to have satellite internet, and satellite puts a cap on our bandwidth in any consecutive thirty days. We have seven adults in our house who use the internet on a regular basis. That means, basically, that we WILL go over our quota. When that happens, we're penalized with a serious squeeze on available bandwidth (or something like that).

What that means is that while our internet is still technically there, it's useless for anything other than basic HTML e-mail checking. I can only do most internet activities from school.

While this is a good thing for the amount of work I will get done at home, it is a bad thing for the amount of blogging I am able to do. I'm sorry. This is just how it has to be. It's not you, it's me.

Happy Thanksgiving from Louisiana!

We wild cisneri have had a divine day. I hope the same is true of you all and your families.

My Sister (w/ a little update)

My sister and I are pretty tight.


It's funny, in the parental genetic roulette, we ended up very physically distinct from each other. I was never a particularly teeny child, but she has been utterly minute from day one; my dark curly hay stack of hair could hardly be more different than her well-behaved straight locks; likewise her multicolored eyes to my dark solid irises; she has her mom's nose, I have our dad's. I don't think people look at us and say, "Ah! You are sisters!"

Sadly, she does seem to have my teeth (which I eventually grew into, with the help of orthodontia, so there's hope for her yet).

I do believe that people spend time with us and see there is clearly a common root between us. I mean, really, how could two such bizarre characters exist otherwise, if they were not sprung from the same place? At her age, I was equally obsessed with the written word, as great of a dork, comparably creative, and very nearly as weird. She's gaining on me in her introspective tendencies. Every time I go home, our mom makes some comment about how she's more and more like a mini-Andie every day.

Fish Face was born about eight weeks premature. The night before she was born, I dreamed our dad came into my room, woke me up, and told me not to go to school in the morning. He was taking Mom to the hospital and would call me to check in regularly (I was nearly thirteen and quite used to being home alone with my younger brother for a while). In the morning, I told my mom about it, and she laughed and said something along the lines of, "Well, let's hope that doesn't happen. It's too soon."

The next night, I had the exact same dream, like a movie being replayed. I awoke in the morning long after I should have left for school and panicked until I found Alex blissfully chowing down on cereal and watching cartoons. And I realized the second time, the dream had not been a dream at all.

I dreamed my sister's birth a day before it happened, and two months earlier than it should have. Make of that what you will.


There is something special about my sister. And I know everyone says that about children they love, but there is truly something very particular about her. If I believed in reincarnation, I would say she is the oldest soul I've ever met, and yet also the most hopeful and searching one. She has always been so, from her earliest days spent in an incubator. My ties to her are not stronger or deeper than those to my brothers; they are thicker. They transmit more.

Mark Shea has posted a few items lately about odd occurrences that can only be explained by the Holy Spirit, which reminded me of that dream, which got me pondering Melissa herself. I am always in awe of the incredible gifts I've been given in my life when I stop to think on them, and even more so the ones that just keep growing and giving more and more. My siblings all fall under that category. Such wondrous things are not made by our kind, but by the One who made us.

Little update: Mr. Shea just posted an e-mail I sent him about my dream in response to his posts.

Saints in Space!

And I'm not kidding even a little bit. (Emphasis mine)

NEW CANEY, Texas, NOV. 20, 2008 (Zenit.org).- St. Thérèse wrote that she wanted to be a missionary on every continent simultaneously and reach the most remote islands -- now her dream has extended to space flight.

The Carmelite community of New Caney, Texas, enjoys the friendship of Colonel Ron Garan, who was on the May 31-June 14 Discovery shuttle mission.

Before heading into space, Garan had called the women religious to request their prayer for the voyage, and he told them he could take some small item into space on behalf of the community.

The sisters reported that the words of St. Thérèse came to mind: "I have the vocation of an apostle. I would like to travel over the whole earth to preach your name and to plant your glorious cross on infidel soil. But oh, my beloved, one mission would not be enough for me, I would want to preach the Gospel on all five continents simultaneously and even to the most remote isles. I would be a missionary, not for a few years but from the beginning of creation until the consummation of the ages."

The Carmelites gave the astronaut a relic of St. Thérèse for his flight.

Now, they report, she has traveled 5,735,643 miles around the earth for 14 days at 17,057 miles an hour. Meanwhile, the sisters commended the world to her intercession.

I wonder if any other saint's relic has been brought into the cold black beyond our atmosphere. Is Therese our first extraterrestrial saint?

For my fellow Trekkers

I went to see Quantum of Solace with my housemates this past weekend, and when this preview started up I literally squealed and bounced in my seat.



I am not a movie franchise purist. I am a fan of good movies. Most of these recent series revamps/reboots (the new Batmans and the latest Bond movies, for example) have perhaps not been entirely true to the legacy of their predecessors, but they have tended to be darn good movies. I hope and suspect such is the case with J.J. Abram's treatment of my most beloved Star Trek series.

Smoke and mirrors can be pretty cool.

The Year in Pictures pointed me to Miss at la Playa, where we find an awesome series of six photographs. As far as my French translation skills get me, the title of the French Vogue piece is "From 10 to 60". All the images are of the same model, done at the same shoot. The difference is hair, make up, and lighting, and the result is both downright eerie and pretty darn cool.

I'd be very interested to find out how old she actually is.

Um. Awesome.

No comment beyond the title is needed.