7 Quick Takes: Reflections on Things I Read This Week

7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Thank you notes. I had to laugh when I saw how this kid wrote thank-you notes for his graduation presents. It’s the polite thing to do when someone gives you a present but they’re pretty tedious to write.

— 2 —

Interesting Podcasts. I resonated with this list of 17 podcasts for people who are spiritually curious and I’m glad that On Being (formerly “Speaking of Faith”) is #2 on the list. If it were me, I would also add the ones from SQPN to the list .

— 3 —

Prerequisite cat video. If you’re on Facebook with me, you know that I’m kind of a cat person. Well… I saw this video and just had to share the link!

— 4 —

Wow. I didn’t know these still existed. A Texan man is one of 10 people in the world to live in an iron lung. He contracted it during one of the last polio epidemics to sweep the USA. We thankfully have a vaccine for this so for the most part, we never see this in the United States… which means that all the people who aren’t vaccinating their kids against it are raising the chances that we might see it again. Seriously folks, I have family members who were affected by it. It’s not pretty. VACCINATE YOUR KIDS!!!

— 5 —

More $tarbux cup commentary. Someone sent me a link to this interview in which the moron who put the video up on the Internet about $tarbux refusing to acknowledge Christmas with their new Christmas cups gets pwned. (By the way, our country was not founded on Judeo-Christian principles — we were founded on Enlightenment principles and the Founding Fathers were Deists.)

I actually have asked my barista about if people are actually putting their name as “Merry Christmas” and she said there have been lots of them and that there is nothing that prevents her and her fellow baristas from saying “Merry Christmas”… except that it’s not even Advent yet!

— 6 —

#FirstWorldProblems. Here are some fairly comical #FirstWorldProblems. I can honestly say that I’ve never had any of them.

— 7 —

Reminder. The Nativity Fast starts on November 15th. Here is how many Byzantine Catholics celebrate this time. (HT: priest’s wife)

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

Five Favorites: Miscellanea (LIII)

Five Favorites

One

My mommy. As she has been packing and sorting boxes for the last few weeks, she has shown me some of the stories I wrote over the years when I was really little that she has saved. Given that I’m doing NaNoWriMo right now, the timing is perfect.

Two

My “Bach and Chant” playlist on iTunes. It is what I listen to while I write and it also serves to soothe my soul. Heck, it even works on rambunctious 6 year olds!

Three

“Holy Is Your Name” by David Haas. I usually am of the opinion that David Haas and Marty Haugen need to be banned from church music but I love how he set the Magnificat to the tune of “Wild Mountain Thyme”. (“Wild Mountain Thyme” is a song I want sung at my committal service when I pass away.)

Four

My NaNoWriMo piece. It is therapeutic for me to write and while I will never publish it, I’m getting to explore things in my life through it. For Harry Potter fans, it’s kind of like a pensieve.

Five

Silence. I’m an IXFJ and I crave quiet… which of course shows God’s sense of humor because my kiddo is NOT quiet in the slightest.

Go love up Ashley and the others.