The Arrow's Path

Star Trek: The Final Straw Dear God, why?

Genograms are essentially family trees for purpose of personal analysis, counseling, and other assorted psychobabble. I am having to do again for my premarital counseling class at Jesus Tech East. And I hate them. Perhaps I should rephrase that. I hate doing my own genogram. Divorces, bank robberies. My family looks like something out of a William Faulkner novel.

There is an interesting article on MSNBC that is worth a perusal. The story is about a study of college students with the alarming rise in "narcissism, self-centeredness." This reminds me of the catch phrase of Lake Wobegon "where all the kids are above average." Personally, I think instead of Generation Y, we should call them Generation Wiggum, as the phenomenon perhaps is best summed up by the Simpsons' character of Ralph Wiggum: "I'm special!" Personally, I don't understand why any one would be shocked at this. This appears to me to be the end game of a variety of things, ranging from radical "I'll have a double mocha cappacino with cinammon bun chaser" individualism to the public school focus on "self esteem" buzz words. Read it and tell me what you think.

Only I could rig up a scenario where a potential boss flies into to interview me. Usually it is the other way around. This is still all unofficial and I have to meet the vestry at some point in the next month or so, but I was basically offered the curacy at St. Mark's on Campus in Lincoln, Nebraska today. I like the idea, it sounds like it has possibilities. -The Archer+

So we got an inch+ of the infamous "wintery mix" today. I had to scrape off what I can only describe as an Iceberg-sized Slushie off my windsheild before I went to church this morning. And it certainly did not come in Cherry or Cola flavor. I was never quite sure what constitutes "wintery mix" any way. On the one hand it sounds sort of like Trail Mix, like it would have raisins (Not that Raisin ) and chocolate chips. Of course, you couldn't make iceballs out of yogurt covered pretzels and scraping them off your windshield would just be a mess. Although, I would not mind scraping off a mix with those little wasabi peas. I am also holding out for some other season of mix. Perhaps the ever elusive Autumny mix (with leaves and candy corn) or perhaps even a Springy mix (with April showers bringing May flowers leftover Easter marshmallow peeps.) Yes, I have decided I do not like this thing called "wintery mix." Or Green Eggs and Ham. Whatever.

Chocolate might be good for memory Child finds $1300 in thrift store book Weird things people do to smuggle liquids on planes

If you liked Amistad, here's an interesting movie trailer you might want to check out. The second trailer is here . The website says its suppose to open in theaters on Feb 23rd.

You Are 50% Extrovert, 50% Introvert You're a bit outgoing, a bit reserved Like most people, you enjoy being social But you also value the time you have alone You have struck a good balance! Are You An Extrovert or An Introvert? Another personality test I flatlined...I must be dead! -The Archer+

If anyone needs something to do during Lent, come on down. -The Archer Ash Wednesday , February 21st 10:30am... Low Mass with Imposition of Ashes 7:00pm... Low Mass with Imposition of Ashes Friday Evenings of Lent 7:00pm... Stations of the Cross, Bendictions of the Blessed Sacrament Soup & Bread Supper with Lenten Program to follow. First Sunday in Lent , February 25th 8:00am... Mass with Decalogue 10:30am... Mass with Great Litany

My roommate went on something of a rant this morning about referring to today as "Fat Tuesday" when its correct liturgical name is " Shrove Tuesday." Shrove of course comes from the word Shrive, meaning "to hear the confession of and give absolution to (a penitent)" or "to obtain absolution for (oneself) by confessing and doing penance." As a person who enjoys a good rant against title perversion from time to time, I was oddly at a loss as to why I was not bothered so much by "Fat" Tuesday when I hate when days like Thanksgiving get referred to as "Turkey Day." I suppose the whole Fat-read- Shrove Tuesday thing is still something of a novelty to me. I did not really go to church regularly until I was in college, and the church I went to at the time never really did Fat Tuesdays. To be fair, maybe they did, and I was just a foggy headed college kid more interested in completing my academic major in college football with a mi...

I decided to make a trip down to Chinatown today because I needed some tea, and my mother wanted some of the good soy sauce you can get down there for her birthday no less. (Don't ask...I apparently run an interstate dealer cartel in Chinese soy sauce.) In any event, I decided to take along my MP3 player. It was the first time I have ever take any sort of music playing device onto the L train before. I usually just read or get drawn into conversations with nutjobs and weirdos Chicago's most outstanding citizens. I was not really listening to music, per se, but a radio serial of Superman from 1945. It was really a phenomenonally well written series called The Atom Man in Metropolis , which involved a crazy Nazi war criminal making an Atom Man out of Kyptonite to destroy Superman. I did, however, feel an odd sensation of having joined the Marxian "opiate of the masses" by having been assimulated by Star Trekkian Borg technology. I was left to listen to whatever I want ...

A friend of mine just inherited this UGA-like Bulldog named CouchPotato. Talk about a face only a mother could love...

I've had two very bizarre "Breaking News" occurrences in the last week. As someone who enjoys posting oddball news for a laugh, I can't say I am above reproach on this issue. But honestly, twice this week I have been watching television, only to be awoken from my near comatose TV watching state by the flashing "Breaking News." When I was on radio, we would do this by having frantic sounding music followed by "We interrupt this program to bring you this late breaking news bulletin" or words to that effect as I was trained in old school radio announcing. But we would never interrupt a program with trivial news. If there had been a murder or something a bombing or something. Now we get "breaking news" for stupid stuff. I was watching something, Law and Order I think, the other night and the show was actually interrupted. It peeks my interest. Has the stock market crashed? Has Alex Trebek finally found his mustache? No. A Springer Spaniel won...

Come on down. Service at 10:30, Mardi Gras feast to follow. -The Archer+

So I get to my field ed site this morning around 8:30 and pull into the parking lot. There does not appear to be anything out of the ordinary. About half and hour later, the sexton walks in and says there are police officers all up and down the alley behind the parking lot. We walk out into the middle of CSI: St. Paul's. Apparently about 7 AM, there was some sort of gang shooting right outside the parking lot. A neighbor, who is apparently notorious for being looney tunes, said she saw someone get shot, but there was no blood anywhere on the snow. There were quite a few shell casings on the street, but that was more likely some morons shooting guns into the air. Regardless, the whole area turned into a crime scene, with yellow tape and flags everywhere. The CSI team was taking pictures and everything. Luckily we were setting up for the Mardi Gras dinner for tomorrow, so we were able to wait them out before leaving to go home for the day. Fun times.

Restaurant offers Models free meals Religious Faith "may help" Stroke victims The Queen may visit the Kentucky Derby Hey, its a slow news day... -The Archer+

An acquaintance of mine (another cartoonist with whom I have traded ideas from time to time) finally got a contract with gocomics.com. I told him I would link to his cartoon on my blog. His response, "Good, I've been meaning to crack the Off the Wall Anglican demographic." Check out his cartoon strip here .

Here is my random MP3 Player (I refuse to call it an IPod) song shuffle for the day. I collect old radio shows, which some of these turned out to be. 1. "Walkin' thru the Park"; Muddy Waters 1958 2."Blackbird/Yesterday" The Beatles LOVE album 3, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Demon Barber aired: 01-28-1946 4. "I'll Remember You" by Johnny Cash 5. I'd Rather Die Young" by Johnny Cash 6. "Os Justi Meditabitur Sapientiam Gradual" by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo be Silos 7. Tarzan and the Fires of Tohr, part 3 of 39, aired 08-21-1936 8. "Lonesome in Black" by Johnny Cash 9. "Knock," X Minus One radio show, aired 05-22-1955 10. "Kodachrome" by Paul Simon

You know its winter when the snowman is covered in snow.

I never quite understood Valentine's Day. I find it to be the most contrived of all American holidays. I am not even sure if I can classify it as a "holiday" because its not a federal holiday, nor do kids get out of school. St. Valentine is not even on the Anglican cycle of saints. But, what the hey. We need some commercial filler to plug the gap between Thanksgivoweenmas and St. Patrick's Day (another mostly contrived holiday, albeit at least a bona fide saint). Upon further review, I truly believe Valentine's Day is the quintessential American holiday. It is completely commercial with no actual corruption of a real high Christian Holy Day. And better yet, its completely about candy, superficial love, and sex, with the added benefit of being able to label those who have no significant others on the Day as LOSERS. We can, thus, glutton ourselves on those nasty little candy hearts, buy a bunch of junk we don't need like toy bears the say "I wuv you,...

So we got our General Ordination Exam scores back today. I did not sustain in all areas, but I didn't get any 1's, which was basically what I was shooting for. I also sustained in what I thought were the hardest subjects...go figure. I did not really care about GOE's at the time, nor do I really care now. I mean, really...42 pages in 3 and half days? The bar exam is only 2 days and half of it is multiple choice. I did notice something in the Certificate that is being mailed to Seminary Deans and Bishops that people who did not do as well as they had hoped might take some mirth in. The Certificate letter (with the GOE scores and the 1 to 5 grading scale listed) is signed by both the Chair and the Vice Chair of the Board of Examining Chaplains and lists the names of all Examining Chaplains (all 20 of them). I quote verbatim: "We, having been assigned as Examiners if this Candidate, hereby testify that we have examined the said Candidate upon the subject matter in Canon ...

Father Garrity, my principal in catholic high school must be laughing himself silly... -The Archer+ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- You scored as Traditional Catholic . You look at the great piety and holiness of the Church before the Second Vatican Council and the decay of belief and practice since then, and see that much of the decline is due to failed reforms based on the "Spirit of the Council". You regret the loss of vast numbers of Religious and Ordained clergy and the widely diverging celebrations of the Mass of Pope Paul VI, which often don't even seem to be Catholic anymore. You are helping to rebuild this past culture in one of the many new Traditional Latin Mass communities or attend Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy. You seek refuge from the world of pornography, recreational drugs, violence, and materialism. You are an articulate, confident, committed, and intelligent Catholic. But do you support legitimate reform of t...

I have been tinkering around with my look after I realized I had been using the Advent liturgical purple for quite some time. What do you think? I was going for something a little bolders and Lent-ish looking. I also finally figured out how to get rid of that stupid off center navbar that ran along the top. That thing always drove me crazy.

Your DNA is: Cautious Leader This is a pretty cool blog personality test... -The Archer+

I have been informed through the bloggery grapevine that two of my seminarian friends are now proud owners of their own blogs. You might want to give them a look see: Heidi Court Welcome to the blogosphere, y'all.

Last night was the 2nd Annual Dinner Dance fundraiser at my field education parish. Being the Seminarian, I was asked to by Master of Ceremonies. The dance was at a fancy hotel in Skokie, IL. There was a live band, too, that played Calypso music. This was not so much my cup of tea, but a good time was had by all.

I don't know about anyone else, but it feels like Chicago is using much more salt on the roads to combat the snow this year. Maybe its because we have had more icy stuff this year than last. I keep going through the car wash, but it does no good. By the end of the day, my car is caked in salt. Salt is on my clothes, my shoes. I had to scrape salt off my shoes and polish them because they had turned white. I feel like a giant margarita (alcohol not included).

So I was filling out my Spring Quarter Registration form this afternoon. There was a little line item that read, "Check here is this is your final quarter of the program." I actually paused and put the form down and checked my e-mail. Seeing I only had spam wanting me to convert body fat in a XXX porn mortgage, I went back to the form. Still there, nothing had changed. With a quick swoosh, I checked. And it was a weird feeling. I have had full time jobs before and not been in school. In a weird sort of way, checking that box felt like, "Check here if you are a grown-up now." Scary...me a grown-up. Nah...

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For my readers who live in areas that no longer experience, you know, winter : Seabury: The Winter Edition (while supplies last) I even broke out the heavy artillery: my Uncle Buck hat. (And you thought Birettas were weird.)

I was scheduled to preach at the 8 and 10:30 services this Sunday. Being Super Bowl Sunday, that was no small task. I was about ready to go out to lunch after the coffee hour. My field ed supervisor says, "You're preaching for the afternoon Sudanese service, too, right?" Archer: "Uh...sure. I hadn't planned on it, but OK." Field Ed Supervisor: "You know you'll have a translator, right?" Archer: "Nooo...but I guess can deal with that." St. Paul's has a regular Sudanese prayer service on Sunday afternoons, with my field ed priest presiding at a Eucharist once or twice a month. Turns out, yesterday was a meeting of the regional Sudanese for their annual birthday party service and dinner. Most of the Lost Boys have the same birthday, 01/o1, because fleeing genocide with records being destroyed, the government just had to guess. Turns out that folks had come from all the way over in Michigan and Indiana. Sure, no problem . I can adapt ...

Peyton finally gets the monkey off his back . Good for him. I know University of Tennessee fans will be very happy. The forecast from Chicago: Cold and Grumpy with a 80% chance of hangover.

Chewbacca arrested for head butting Restaurant launches $1000 Brownie Professional Glutton downs 182 chicken wings

I finally broke down and bought a real optical mouse for my laptop. I had been using the touchpad mouse, but one of the buttons only works by pounding on it. After driving the guy at the computer store bonkers by having to test every available mouse (Hey, inquiring minds want to know), I finally bought the one I liked. Of course, having some Scotch-Irish ancestry, it was also the cheapest mouse. But it matched the color of my laptop and had a scroll button, so I was happy. I got home and plugged it in. Because I'm left handed (which many people say explains my off-the-wall sense of humor. See: Comics, Archer), I had all my text books on the right side of my laptop. The only open area on the desk was on the left hand side of the laptop, and I was too lazy to actually move my stack of books (and other assorted junk). So, I put the mouse on the left hand side. This was actually some sort of Southpaw epiphany for me because I had never actually ever thought to put a computer mouse on ...

"The indifference of believers is something far more dreadful than the fact that unbelievers exist." "It is necessary to recommend the reception of the holy sacraments as frequently as possible. A lesson attended only once a year teaches nothing." -Alexander Elchaninov (d. 1937), from The Diary of a Russian Priest .