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I just had to share this one, for all the times I’ve heard, “Wow, you’re left-handed?”  I’ve heard it so many times that I came up with a snappy comeback:  “All the best people are.”

You’d think it’s something rare, the way people say it like, “Wow, you’ve got a Super Bowl ring?”  About 8% of people—1 in 12—are left-handed, so if you work at a checkout counter or somewhere where people write checks and sign their name, you’re bound to see several every day.  It really shouldn’t seem that weird.

Fun left-hander fact: the Latin word for ‘left’ is sinister.

On a search engine marketing forum I frequent, there was a discussion about a TV documentary about the Internet, which claimed that the Internet used to be this egalitarian place where everyone shared ideas in a spirit of love and understanding, and now it’s dominated by big corporations that only care about the bottom line and probably hate baby seals and the little guy doesn’t have a voice anymore.  (Or words to that effect.) Read more »

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while.  When the earthquake hit in Haiti, a group of Marines and Special Forces guys heard about how badly people needed aid, so they threw together a team to go there and do something about it personally.  As we’ve seen before in Thailand and New Orleans and now in Haiti, the big relief organizations and governments just can’t move very quickly and precisely when something like this happens.  They’re like a barge: it takes a while to get it moving, but once you do, it can move a lot of stuff.  A small group of private individuals can’t deliver as much aid overall, but they can get specific help to the most critical places faster.

So these guys formed Team Rubicon and headed to Haiti, setting up base at a Jesuit mission that still had a working well with fresh water, so they could help get water, medical supplies, and other aid to people who needed it.  Because of attacks on aid convoys and the general lawlessness, their military experience was critical for the safety of themselves and the people they’re helping.  They all volunteered and paid their own way, so all the money that people have contributed to them has gone 100% to supplies.

Now that the big relief organizations are getting settled in and organized, Team Rubicon is getting ready to step out of the way, but it sounds like this effort has gone so well that they plan to keep the team together so they can respond quickly to future disasters.

One question I get asked a lot is, “How do I start a web site?” or, “What’s it take to get a web site?”  Which is the kind of question that I have to answer with more questions, after first saying, “Well, it depends.”  It depends on what you’re going to do with it, whether you plan to sell stuff on it, how much traffic you expect it to get, and so on.  In some cases, you might even be better off getting a blog at Blogger or an Ebay store and not having your own web site at all.  So it really does depend.

But in general, if someone wants to start a web site, there are a series of steps that every new site owner will need to go through.  We’re dedicated to the idea of helping people do as much of their own website work as possible, so I’ve written up a how-to that covers those steps in some detail and posted it on our webmaster site (see the link earlier).  I hope people find it useful.

So far back on the low-carb wagon, it’s going well.  For the first two weeks, I did a liver cleansing thing from the Eadeses’ latest book that consisted of a lot of protein shakes.  That was more about detoxifying the liver than weight loss, so I didn’t lose any weight until last week when I went back to strict low-carb.  It was a busy week, so it meant lots of quick stuff like eggs and burgers.  Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done: 2.4 pounds down, 42.6 to go!

Yes, I know I’m two days late, but I’ve missed this feature lately.

Gabriella Holding a Relic of the True Cross

For the past couple weeks, there have been nightly rosaries at St. Rose for Gabriella Deters, daughter of Jessica and Michael Deters, who I think is almost a month old.  She’s been in the intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital in St. Louis for most of that time.  I’m not privy to all the details, but apparently she came down with some very bad infection.  Three times now the doctors have said there was nothing more they could do, and it was just a matter of time before she’d be gone.  Each time she’s rallied back, and this weekend it seemed like the news was cautiously optimistic for the first time.  She’s not out of danger yet, though, so when you’re saying your prayers this week, you might want to include one for little Gabriella and her family.

Here’s the inspirational part: Jessica’s report as of Sunday morning.  It’s on Facebook, so I hope this link works for everyone.

Well, Sunday’s dinner at St. Rose went pretty well.  We fed about 230 people, which was definitely more than last year’s January dinner.  There was leftover pork and potatoes, but I’m sure they’ll all get eaten.  None of my raffle tickets won, so I guess no one missed out by not taking me up on my “comment and get a raffle ticket” offer.  I’ll try that again next month. Read more »

One thing that’s kept me from diving into the social networking systems like Twitter and Facebook is their ephemeral nature.  Twitter saves posts for maybe two weeks, and that time frame is getting shorter as the service gets busier.  I don’t know how long Facebook saves things, but I don’t think there’s any easy way to search back through them anyway. Read more »

Well, my first Latin class went well, what there was of it.  We had to cut the first class short at about a half hour, so we just got through some basic pronunciation stuff.  That seems to be what people are the most concerned about, which surprised me a little, because I don’t remember spending much time on that when I learned it.  I guess that makes sense: unlike the classroom, when you recite or sing in Church, you want to speak the words correctly right from the start even if you don’t know what they all mean yet.

So we’ll be continuing on pronunciation next week, and practicing by going through the prayers at the foot of the altar (the beginning of Mass) line by line, covering any tricky words.  I think the worst one is cithara, which is pronounced CHEE-tah-rah.  The word means harp, but to me it sounds like the name of the half-girl, half-cat heroine of an 80s Saturday morning cartoon.

Class is also moving to Tuesdays at 6:30pm.  As soon as I picked Monday, I found out some people couldn’t make it on Monday, which is about what I figured would happen.  So it’ll be Tuesday until further notice.  We’ll be reviewing last week’s material again, so if anyone was interested but thought they’d missed out, you’ve got one more chance to get in at the beginning!

Well, now the holidays are over and schedules are getting back somewhat to normal, it’s time to start having fundraising dinners at St. Rose again!  The first one this year is this coming Sunday, the 24th, from 11-2:30.  Come for the 11:00 High Mass and stay for lunch!  We’ll be serving pulled-pork sandwiches (perhaps pulled by yours truly), green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, dessert, etc.  More information at the link above.

Also, we’re having a couple raffles.  One is a 50/50, and the other will give away a night’s stay for two at Stoney Creek Inn, plus some gift baskets.  So I’m going to do what I did last year: I will buy a raffle ticket for the first ten people who leave a comment on this post.  Just be sure to say which raffle you want me to enter for you.