The Arrow's Path

My friend, Steve, over on the Silent Holocron came across this fun blog meme from some other blog. It piqued my interest, so I will use it as this week's edition of the Friday Blog Bling. Here's goes (my commentary in parentheses)... Top 100 Books According to The Big Read, the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on this list. The instructions: Look at the list and: Bold those you have read. Italicize those you intend to read. Underline the books you LOVE. 1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (was a fan but liked CS Lewis better) 3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (I've read the first one but not the whole series) 5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (truly a great American novel.) 6. The Bible (uh, well, I'm a priest, what do you think?) 7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 8. 1984 - George Orwell (in the running for my all time favorite novel) 9. His Dark Materials trilo...

So apparently, Yours Truly (who is always good for a one liner) got quoted in the University of Nebraska student newspaper's quotes of the week, which can be found here (about half way down the column). I think the quote is slightly taken out of context, but iI think its true nonetheless. A student reporter called a week or two ago, saying she was doing a report of campus ministry. I am an officer in of the Association of Campus Religious Workers and well as a priest at a church on campus, so I guess I was a name on the short list of potential contacts. We had a friendly chat for maybe 5 to 10 minutes about what sorts of activities St. Mark's does for students and various other things. I remember now the reporter asked me what the latest trend was for college students in terms of religious activities and interest, where I made this quote of the week. And I think its true, believe it or not. Bible studies are the trendy thing apparently. The new students I have talked to that h...

A comment left via Facebook on my previous blog entry concerning my Preseason Football commentary noted, correctly, that I had neglected to talk about Nebraska. I had touched on Nebraska in a previous entry, and was talking only about bona fide top 25 teams in the previous preseason musings. I guess I should devote more quality commentary about Ye Olde Huskers; so, here goes.. It is hard to tell at this point how exactly the regime change in the University of Nebraska football department is going to play out this season. I do think they made a good hire with Pelini. I thought they should have hired Pelini after the interim bowl win he posted before the Callahan experimental disaster fiasco unfolded. While having never been a full time head coach, the man has one of the more impressive resumes for an assistant I have seen in a while. He's coached under some excellent college and professional head coaches, and his defenses have always been very impressive. Of course, this is probabl...

The time has arrived, albeit unbelievably, to make my prognostications for the upcoming college football season, complete with my Top Ten List. I have to admit that there are a lot of question marks going into this season as to whom the legitimate front runners are. It has been trendy here in the MidWest for sports columnists to pick Missouri as the Preseason No. 1. Seeing as Missouri has an ongoing penchant for choking, I remain unconvinced about Missouri. A good, solid Top Ten team, yes. No. 1? I don't think so. I am told by my sources that the trendy pick in the South is the Georgia Bulldogs. I do have to admit they looked really good in their bowl game. I certainly will put them in the preseason top 3, but they have a killer schedule. They play Alabama, Tennessee, @LSU, and Florida in the span of a little over a month, with two back to back goodies at the end of the season being @Auburn and Georgia Tech, both of which could be Top 20+ teams in their own right. Georgia certainl...

It is hard to believe but Football Season is upon us. Of course, by "football" I mean both American football and College Football. Superbowl Commercials aside, Pro Football is sort of boring. I think it is hard for me to believe it is college football time again because the college football saga here in Nebraska from last year when on for ever. Coaches were fired; Former Football Coach Tom Osborne was appointed interim athletic director permanent Athletic Director God; Coaches were hired, one of whom according to mass hysteria was apparently Bo Pelini Jesus Christ: Coaching Star. All this went down after the football season, so the whole saga bled over into spring practice, making the whole off season one complete blur where football was always at the forefront. For this reason, I believe it is hard for Nebraskans to believe its football season again because in some ways last season never really ended. But the University of the Sacrificial Lamb Western Michigan comes to ...

I went to Wendy's today and overhead a conversation between two kids that should have been in diapers incoming freshman. And one of them used a term in their conversation that I had never heard before: "Yeah, he so totally nuked the fridge in that one." The freshmen romped out of the Wendy's shortly thereafter, so I did not get a chance to ask what they meant by that. That is probably just as well because I would otherwise have sounded like an out-of-touch geezer in a clerical collar. (Granted, I probably am one, but that's beside the point.) I just assumed that I must have misheard him, and went on eating my chocolate Frosty. (We do not speak of those new fangled vanilla Frosties on this blog; hideous creations though they be. ) The longer I thought about it, though, the more I could not figure what he might have said. Nudged the Freak? No, no...can't be that. Puked on the fridge? Possible, but I hoped incoming freshman had not yet sunken to that level of ...

I read in the paper a few days ago that the year that the incoming class of college freshman were born was...get this...1990! So very wrong indeed...

The Archer's Public Service Announcement This will no doubt come as a shock to everyone who knows me as the loveable but penny-pinching Scotch-Irish priest that I am, I have become convinced that you need to always go whole hog on saltine crackers and do not buy the off brands. There is nothing worse that unsalted or stale saltine crackers, which is usually what you get when you get the generic crackers. Always go for the finest available when purchasing saltine crackers. Trust me on this.

So I had to take my first sick day since I have been at my current parish. In fact, I think the only sick day I remember from the last 5 years was that time I had the weird 24 hour cold when I was at Westcott House. I never took a sick day at Seabury, never missing a single class. I noticed I had been really tired the last week or so, sleeping in longer than normal. I think the busy summer schedule finally caught up with me. I awoke yesterday and felt ooogy (for lack of a better term.) I made the motions of trying to get up and get ready for work, but it was just not happening. I made the executive decision to call in sick. At first I thought it was just going to be a "mental health" day, which is refined office speak for what we used to call in grade school "playing hooky." But I think I actually was sick. I slept all day and then in the evening I was even feeling a bit dizzy. It was really quite weird. I awoke this morning and felt much better, still a little grog...

I just saw the Nebraska football team running up the street and the coaches in golf carts with them. I like seeing football teams out busting their tails outside the cushy stadium compound. I know the former NU coach who shall remain Bill Callahan nameless coddled the players with misting tents and all sorts of garbage. I have a better feeling about this year's football team. I doubt they will win any championships, but at least there will be an improvement in fundamentals. Perhaps we can even tackle something more fearsome than a 4 year old with a beach ball this year. Here's hoping...

I bewail my manifold sins and wickedness for sucking my aunt into the world of Facebook. She seems to be enjoying it, but I can tell she's been assimulated like the Borg on Star Trek. Of late, she stumbled onto a Facebook group of which I am a member entitled "I remember '80s cartoons that no one else has heard of." She was quite amused by it, and we have been having a Facebook wall conversation (a very curious online phenomenon in and of itself) about 1980s cartoons. I bring this up in a blog today because there was an article in this morning's paper about the kids that are starting college this fall as freshmen. I was rather shocked to find that the incoming class of college students this year was born in, get this, 1990! A group of kids who have only known Jay Leno as the host of the Tonight Show. (A truly sad commentary...) Being a child of the '80's for the most part (although there is some debate on that in some circles), I remember most of those cla...

This photo was posted on the BBC website. (I am linking to it with permission.) It was taken in Georgia during the recent war military action. Apparently the man was hurling taunts at Russian soldiers and was having to be restrained by the local Orthodox clergy. A Theologically Thought Provoking Picture...

I posted earlier last week that I was not in a big Olympics watching mood this year, but after hearing a lot of people at work and other places go on about it, I thought I would tune in and at least watch a little bit to be able to talk coherently about it to folks. I have to admit I have been turned off by the Olympics coverage. To be fair, I am not certain where NBC is being actively censored by the Chinese government in what it broadcasts or they are just buying into the "what a wonderful place China is" lock, stock, and barrel. But after watching more than one Olympics broadcast, I think the end result is the same: the Olympics coverage has completely turned into Red China propaganda. (Oh dear, I uttered the term Red China...I think the PC police might come knocking on my door. I haven't been visited by them since I was in the Seabury pen.) I mean, its really been rather sickening how the NBC coverage is falling all over itself with praise for the Chinese regime (and ...

It dawned on me today that my automatic e-mail signature on my work e-mail was wrong. The zip code was my home zip, not my work zip code. 68508 instead of 68502. Its been wrong for apparently a year now. I hope no one has been trying to snail mail me stuff at work. Woopsies...

I got to spend another week supply priesting in Grand Island, Nebraska. I guess it was more or less a curtain call because they asked me back after the supply priest they had scheduled had a conflict. I must say its kind of fun to supply priest. You get to do all the fun stuff of a Sunday morning without having to deal with the local church politics. I have found that small towns, not that Grand Island is really that small of a town, as it is about the 3rd largest city in the state (4th if you count the Husker Football stadium during a home game). But however you want to classify it size-wise, towns that no one from out of state has probably heard usually have problems attracting sane priests who aren't 100 million years old and looking for a retirement income supplement. They are always so thankful just to have someone come out, even though Grand Island, Nebraska, is not out in the boondocks by any stretch. In fact, its easy for me and my wife to get out there as my wife is origin...

You Live in the Present You take things one day at a time. And it turns out, that's a pretty great way to live. You aren't consumed by the past, and you're aren't obsessed with the future. You live in the now, and you enjoy each moment. While most people don't live in the present enough, make sure you don't live in it too much. It would be a mistake to forget your past or neglect to plan for the future. Do You Live in the Past, Present, or Future?

A lot of people are getting excited about the Olympics. I am into it some years, and some years I am not. I think this is one of the not-really-into-it years. I am not exactly sure why. I really never have reasons either way. Its just a complete mood or whim or whatever you want to call it. The Olympics just largely seems bland to me, or perhaps impersonal. Other than people like Michael Phelps the superman swimmer, I really could not name you that many people on the Olympic team. I think it is the general lack of names and connections with the athletes that really prevent me from being all that enthused about the games, even in the years where I show some interest. Without names or faces, the athletes just seem more or less like bionic superhumans or some sort of robotic clones bred to do one sport and then disappear back into their laboratory chrysalis, to hatch again like a cicada in another two years, this time in winterized form. I guess the Olympics just do not do much for me. A...

I am just beginning the process of starting to look for another parish, as my curacy will be up in the next year. I was purusing the Church Deployment Office website last night on a lark which lists churches that are looking for clergy. Each church gives a little blurb about itself, including its top 4 "Primary Goals of the Parish." Needless to say, this can be daunting for a parish to have to self-examine itself in this way. In a lot of ways, I find the process a lot like trying to sell a house or going on a date for the first time. You want to be honest, but not too honest, if you know what I mean. You don't want to completely scare off all your potential priests. So, there is a fine line between flat out lying about your parish and being too forthcoming. No parish is perfect, just as no parishioner or priest is perfect. That's just life in the church. I came across a parish that shall remain nameless. I've been actively involved with the Episcopal Church for 10...

What's up with the Track One lectionary readings in the Revised Common Lectionary? The lectionary has been reading through Genesis most of the summer. I was looking forward to getting to preach a series on the story of Joseph, my favorite character in the whole of the Old Testament. And the story of Joseph, which makes up 26% of the book of Genesis, gets a grand total of two Sundays? What's up with that?

Did anybody else who got student loans from Seabury through IDAPP suddenly get their loan lender changed? I got this weird letter in the mail yesterday, welcoming me to some new student loan lending group for my student loan. At first I thought it was fraud, but after calling IDAPP (and being on hold for 35 minutes) I was told the Governor of Illinois needed revenue so was selling off loans to other lenders. I indicated that it was not really good business practice to not inform me either by letter or e-mail at least of this change. The conversation ended with this exchange: The Archer: So, the Governor was late on his mob payment? IDAPP rep: apparently... The Archer: Probably just as well then.

I have been amused the last week, watching my boss and apparently now my aunt going over to the dark side of Facebook. I pointed this out to my aunt, and her response was: "facebook: try it you will, like it you may, addictive it is.... (must be read with best Yoda voice.)"

What's an Archer without a retriever? Well, we remedied that, thanks to the Golden Retriever Rescue in Nebraska . We've been wanting a dog, probably me more so than my wife, so we have been in doggie discernment. I am initially more of a Dobie man myself, but my wife probably couldn't handle 85 pounds of muscle. We both liked the personality of the Golden Retriever, and they are beautiful animals and good family dogs. Having done work for Dog Rescue Organizations for years, I much prefer going to a rescue than just getting some random puppy. Adult dogs are usually trained and better mannered, have already been neutered, chipped, and vaccinated, and there are many more adult dogs that have trouble finding homes. Everybody wants a puppy, but adult dogs are a harder sell. But enough about me, here's Max...the retriever of the forest:

You Belong in New Zealand If only I didn't hate their Book of Common Prayer... -The Archer Good on ya, mate You're the best looking one of the bunch Though you're often forgotten... You're quite proud of who you are What English Speaking Country Are You?