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Category >> MyBlog
What to do, what to do, what to do?
Is that really the question we ask ourselves around lent, or is it more, what not to do? Now given that I believe that one's Lenten promises should be from the heart I feel that I'm going to share mine with the world, the site, and my friends. This is nothing new, because the question always comes up this time of year, "what did you give up?". Asides from all the increased marketing of fish products from Long John Silver's, and Red Lobster, and the sign of ashes on the foreheads of Catholics who attended Ash Wednesday Mass or service, Ash Wednesday is a chance to start over, to make new promises (think new year's resolutions that you don't want to break) to reform, repent, and to renew. We often get caught up in the act of giving things up, and focus on the act itself rather than the power of suffering itself. When I speak of the power of suffering I am referring to not just giving something up, but giving it up so that God can use it. For example, I want to give something up and ask God to use this act as a way of helping the poor, etc. This is powerful, and something I often forget to do myself.
 Last year while I was working down in Fort Worth Texas, I would frequently walk past a car with a bumper sticker saying: "Don't blame me, I voted for Ron Paul". This would always make me smile and at the time I had no idea who Ron Paul was or what he believed.
Today I know more about Ron Paul and I figured I would share what I have found out about him and perhaps you can hear his arguments and come to your own opinion. I still haven't come to mine, but I have to say the man makes a great argument and he is from the great state of Texas so that gives him some points in my book. According to his web page on house.gov Ron Paul is a congressman who enjoys a reputation as the "premier advocate for liberty in politics" As a conservative he is the leading voice for a "limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies"
| Center Aims to Give Pregnant College Students True Choice | By Nancy Frazier O'Brien
Catholic News Service | | Monday, October 05, 2009 | WASHINGTON —Lacy Dodd, a 33-year-old banking professional and mother of one, knows precisely where supporters and opponents of legal abortion can find common ground.
It's on nearly four acres donated by the Benedictine monks of Belmont Abbey in Belmont, N.C., where Room at the Inn, a Charlotte-based pregnancy resource center, hopes to build the nation's first campus-based maternity and after-care residence for pregnant college students.
Dodd, an alumna of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and a member of the board of directors of Room at the Inn, knows firsthand how daunting it can be for a young woman in college to face an unplanned pregnancy. Back in 1999, she was a Notre Dame senior, pregnant and under pressure to have an abortion from the counselor at a local women's clinic and from her boyfriend, also a Notre Dame senior.
She never considered abortion, and with the help of supportive family and friends is now the proud mother of a 9-year-old daughter, whose name she prefers not to make public.
Dodd told her story to Catholic News Service and to radio listeners on Christopher Closeup, the half-hour weekly radio interview produced by the Christophers, to mark Respect Life Month in October.
The radio interview airs Oct. 4, Respect Life Sunday, at 7 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. EDT on the Catholic Channel (Sirius 159 and XM 117), on the Relevant Radio network at 2:30 p.m. and online as a podcast at www.christophers.org/CloseupPodcast.
"The great unique thing about our project is that it's nonpartisan, it's an initiative that everyone can support," Dodd told CNS Sept. 29. "Pro-life or pro-choice, if we want women to feel that they have a choice, this is where we can all agree.
"The lack of resources is a huge cause of abortion," she added. "If women feel that they don't have the emotional resources, the financial resources, the educational resources" that they need to choose to give birth, "we can focus on giving them that choice."
Dodd found the resources she needed at pregnancy resource centers in South Bend, Ind., and Clearwater, Fla., and from friends and family, including her twin sister, Amanda, also a Notre Dame senior at the time. She graduated from Notre Dame on schedule with a bachelor's degree in American studies and received her ROTC commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
The Army deferred her service until after she gave birth, but then she and her daughter traveled to Giebelstadt Army Airfield in Germany, where her twin sister was stationed with a different unit. When Lacy Todd was deployed to Iraq for three months, Amanda Dodd cared for Lacy's daughter, who attended day care on base.
After five years in the military, Lacy Dodd and her daughter moved to Charlotte, where she "finally had some stability in my life" and "felt called to get involved with a pregnancy resource center." That led her to Room at the Inn, the only Catholic pregnancy resource and maternity after-care facility in Charlotte.
Prompted by studies that showed that most young women do not perceive college campuses as places where pregnant students can get support, even when such resources are actually available, and thanks to the monks' donation of the land in 2005, the Room at the Inn board began a $3 million capital campaign to build a residence that they hope will be a national model for other college campuses.
The facility—which will be open to students at other colleges or vocational schools in the region—will have two residential wings housing up to 15 mothers, 15 infants and eight toddlers, as well as a chapel, laundry, playroom, kitchen and family-style dining room. Staff members with social work backgrounds will be on duty 24 hours a day.
The capital campaign is about halfway to its $3 million goal, Dodd said, adding that she hopes it will be a model for other Catholic colleges nationwide, including her alma mater, Notre Dame.
She said she is encouraged at the decision by Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, to form a Task Force on Supporting the Choice for Life to recommend ways that the university can support the sanctity of life.
"I hope this is an initiative that Father Jenkins' task force will consider, because it would meet the goals of the task force," Dodd said.
"This is a way that campus administrators can start walking the walk to help" pregnant and parenting students, she added. |
| Center Aims to Give Pregnant College Students True Choice | By Nancy Frazier O'Brien
Catholic News Service | | Monday, October 05, 2009 | WASHINGTON —Lacy Dodd, a 33-year-old banking professional and mother of one, knows precisely where supporters and opponents of legal abortion can find common ground.
It's on nearly four acres donated by the Benedictine monks of Belmont Abbey in Belmont, N.C., where Room at the Inn, a Charlotte-based pregnancy resource center, hopes to build the nation's first campus-based maternity and after-care residence for pregnant college students.
Dodd, an alumna of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and a member of the board of directors of Room at the Inn, knows firsthand how daunting it can be for a young woman in college to face an unplanned pregnancy. Back in 1999, she was a Notre Dame senior, pregnant and under pressure to have an abortion from the counselor at a local women's clinic and from her boyfriend, also a Notre Dame senior.
She never considered abortion, and with the help of supportive family and friends is now the proud mother of a 9-year-old daughter, whose name she prefers not to make public.
Dodd told her story to Catholic News Service and to radio listeners on Christopher Closeup, the half-hour weekly radio interview produced by the Christophers, to mark Respect Life Month in October.
The radio interview airs Oct. 4, Respect Life Sunday, at 7 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. EDT on the Catholic Channel (Sirius 159 and XM 117), on the Relevant Radio network at 2:30 p.m. and online as a podcast at www.christophers.org/CloseupPodcast.
"The great unique thing about our project is that it's nonpartisan, it's an initiative that everyone can support," Dodd told CNS Sept. 29. "Pro-life or pro-choice, if we want women to feel that they have a choice, this is where we can all agree.
"The lack of resources is a huge cause of abortion," she added. "If women feel that they don't have the emotional resources, the financial resources, the educational resources" that they need to choose to give birth, "we can focus on giving them that choice."
Dodd found the resources she needed at pregnancy resource centers in South Bend, Ind., and Clearwater, Fla., and from friends and family, including her twin sister, Amanda, also a Notre Dame senior at the time. She graduated from Notre Dame on schedule with a bachelor's degree in American studies and received her ROTC commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
The Army deferred her service until after she gave birth, but then she and her daughter traveled to Giebelstadt Army Airfield in Germany, where her twin sister was stationed with a different unit. When Lacy Todd was deployed to Iraq for three months, Amanda Dodd cared for Lacy's daughter, who attended day care on base.
After five years in the military, Lacy Dodd and her daughter moved to Charlotte, where she "finally had some stability in my life" and "felt called to get involved with a pregnancy resource center." That led her to Room at the Inn, the only Catholic pregnancy resource and maternity after-care facility in Charlotte.
Prompted by studies that showed that most young women do not perceive college campuses as places where pregnant students can get support, even when such resources are actually available, and thanks to the monks' donation of the land in 2005, the Room at the Inn board began a $3 million capital campaign to build a residence that they hope will be a national model for other college campuses.
The facility—which will be open to students at other colleges or vocational schools in the region—will have two residential wings housing up to 15 mothers, 15 infants and eight toddlers, as well as a chapel, laundry, playroom, kitchen and family-style dining room. Staff members with social work backgrounds will be on duty 24 hours a day.
The capital campaign is about halfway to its $3 million goal, Dodd said, adding that she hopes it will be a model for other Catholic colleges nationwide, including her alma mater, Notre Dame.
She said she is encouraged at the decision by Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, to form a Task Force on Supporting the Choice for Life to recommend ways that the university can support the sanctity of life.
"I hope this is an initiative that Father Jenkins' task force will consider, because it would meet the goals of the task force," Dodd said.
"This is a way that campus administrators can start walking the walk to help" pregnant and parenting students, she added. |
| Center Aims to Give Pregnant College Students True Choice | By Nancy Frazier O'Brien
Catholic News Service | | Monday, October 05, 2009 | WASHINGTON —Lacy Dodd, a 33-year-old banking professional and mother of one, knows precisely where supporters and opponents of legal abortion can find common ground.
It's on nearly four acres donated by the Benedictine monks of Belmont Abbey in Belmont, N.C., where Room at the Inn, a Charlotte-based pregnancy resource center, hopes to build the nation's first campus-based maternity and after-care residence for pregnant college students.
Dodd, an alumna of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and a member of the board of directors of Room at the Inn, knows firsthand how daunting it can be for a young woman in college to face an unplanned pregnancy. Back in 1999, she was a Notre Dame senior, pregnant and under pressure to have an abortion from the counselor at a local women's clinic and from her boyfriend, also a Notre Dame senior.
She never considered abortion, and with the help of supportive family and friends is now the proud mother of a 9-year-old daughter, whose name she prefers not to make public.
Dodd told her story to Catholic News Service and to radio listeners on Christopher Closeup, the half-hour weekly radio interview produced by the Christophers, to mark Respect Life Month in October.
The radio interview airs Oct. 4, Respect Life Sunday, at 7 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. EDT on the Catholic Channel (Sirius 159 and XM 117), on the Relevant Radio network at 2:30 p.m. and online as a podcast at www.christophers.org/CloseupPodcast.
"The great unique thing about our project is that it's nonpartisan, it's an initiative that everyone can support," Dodd told CNS Sept. 29. "Pro-life or pro-choice, if we want women to feel that they have a choice, this is where we can all agree.
"The lack of resources is a huge cause of abortion," she added. "If women feel that they don't have the emotional resources, the financial resources, the educational resources" that they need to choose to give birth, "we can focus on giving them that choice."
Dodd found the resources she needed at pregnancy resource centers in South Bend, Ind., and Clearwater, Fla., and from friends and family, including her twin sister, Amanda, also a Notre Dame senior at the time. She graduated from Notre Dame on schedule with a bachelor's degree in American studies and received her ROTC commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
The Army deferred her service until after she gave birth, but then she and her daughter traveled to Giebelstadt Army Airfield in Germany, where her twin sister was stationed with a different unit. When Lacy Todd was deployed to Iraq for three months, Amanda Dodd cared for Lacy's daughter, who attended day care on base.
After five years in the military, Lacy Dodd and her daughter moved to Charlotte, where she "finally had some stability in my life" and "felt called to get involved with a pregnancy resource center." That led her to Room at the Inn, the only Catholic pregnancy resource and maternity after-care facility in Charlotte.
Prompted by studies that showed that most young women do not perceive college campuses as places where pregnant students can get support, even when such resources are actually available, and thanks to the monks' donation of the land in 2005, the Room at the Inn board began a $3 million capital campaign to build a residence that they hope will be a national model for other college campuses.
The facility—which will be open to students at other colleges or vocational schools in the region—will have two residential wings housing up to 15 mothers, 15 infants and eight toddlers, as well as a chapel, laundry, playroom, kitchen and family-style dining room. Staff members with social work backgrounds will be on duty 24 hours a day.
The capital campaign is about halfway to its $3 million goal, Dodd said, adding that she hopes it will be a model for other Catholic colleges nationwide, including her alma mater, Notre Dame.
She said she is encouraged at the decision by Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, to form a Task Force on Supporting the Choice for Life to recommend ways that the university can support the sanctity of life.
"I hope this is an initiative that Father Jenkins' task force will consider, because it would meet the goals of the task force," Dodd said.
"This is a way that campus administrators can start walking the walk to help" pregnant and parenting students, she added. |
Center Aims to Give Pregnant College Students True Choice | By Nancy Frazier O'Brien
Catholic News Service | Monday, October 05, 2009 |
Well the 4th boss was out last night in TOC(10 man).This is WOW btw >< We killed her... well them. Which is always fun to kill the new bosses but, we killed her the 1st time we tried her. Can you say wtf much ? My group is good but to one shot a new boss without knowing anything.. yeah . The other two healers we have are really great(tho i did about 15% more healing then them and less over heal hehe). But to just to go in there and one shot a new boss...Blizzard what have you done. I would LOVE to talk to Blizzard and really find out why they took this fun game and fucked it. Tim (my bf) says it's just b/c we are in the top "10 %" of the hardcore players and Blizzard doesn't really care what we want. It's the little freakin 10 year olds. Which I can understand they are a company that wants money so ....more 10 year olds that can't stay up after 9pm .. or people who know how to play w/e :p I hate to even log on anymore. I have to atleast on Tuesdays & Thursday b/c of raids. Other then that it makes me sick to see all these people run around with free epics. The same ones that I worked so hard to get.
Describing Dean Koontz as a popular author of suspense novels is an understatement. His books have been published in 38 languages and sold more than 400 million copies worldwide. But what I discovered when I read his book Brother Odd a few years ago was that you can enjoy a Koontz story strictly for its engaging writing, characters and plot. But if you read the same story through a spiritual lens, you’ll be able to appreciate it on an even deeper level. I recently had the opportunity to interview Dean Koontz on “Christopher Closeup” full podcast here). Here’s an excerpt: CC: I’ve heard a number of converts to the Catholic faith say that, initially, it wasn’t theological or intellectual arguments that won them over. It was the example of good Catholic people. You had a similar experience in your life. Tell me about that. Dean Koontz: By the time I was going to college, I was looking for a different path from where I had been. Then I began to be drawn to — I wouldn’t say more organized, but a more formalized kind of faith. I did become engaged, more and more as the years went by, by the intellectual rigor that lies behind the Catholic Church. A lot of people will possibly laugh at that but if you know St. Thomas Aquinas and some of the other famous writers of the Church — or laymen who wrote brilliantly from a Catholic perspective like G.K. Chesterton — then you understand what I’m talking about. There is a deep intellectual basis behind it and that always appealed to me.
Check out the video for a fun summer song by one of my all-time favorite American Idol contestants, Brooke White: http://www.idesignprod.com/brookewhite/videostreams/RadioRadio.mov
All around the web, on message boards, and on fan sites I keep reading ideas and theories that all sound like Final Fantasy XIV will be just like XI, while I can’t blame them as XI is a great game, I have to think back to what Square-Enix said about “Rapture” the code-named for XIV back in the day. They said that their next MMO will be different from Final Fantasy XI, and while we have no solid information I find that what most people are speculating is a Final Fantasy XI game with a facelift and some improvements that we have all wanted to see... Reading a post on http://www.ff14news.com regarding the control scheme they posted this image:
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