Old out New in

The New Year is upon us.
I have been at a conference (which continues tomorrow) and there are many things to think about.
God has a plan for each of us and what He wishes for us to do has already been planned and prepared for us. We have only to walk towards it and God is there, waiting for our active participation.

I will write more in the new year.

Cinnamon and Wine Gums

Some Christmas traditions:

Cinnamon.
T hates cinnamon and won't eat anything with that particular spice in it, but she loves tortierre. Tortierre is a tradional French Canadian meat pie and we have it for what we call "Reveillon", it can be made with cinnamon in it, which D often does - hence the giggles. I'm amazed that she can't figure it out from the smell when you cut into the tasty warm pie! After T left for mass I mentioned it to D and all she did was shush me. Community life is funny sometimes.

Wine Gums.
It's become standard practice for me to get two particular gifts at Christmas. Wine gums are my favourite tasty snack (with twizzlers a close second) and have become a typical gift for me to find under the tree. Half of them are already gone as this year we shared Christmas with me neice and nephew early so they could go be with their dad for Christmas.

The outfit.
The other standard gift. My mom and my sister both know that I am more or less hopeless when it comes to clothes shopping (I was a tomboyish character growing up and a vow of poverty keeps me from buying too many clothes other than the essentials - like socks and underwear). So they get together and buy me a nice outfit that I can usually mix and match with some of the other items in my closet.

If you can't say anything nice...

Don't say anything at all. Or, if you choose to say something negative - I will delete it.

I have a few videos up on YouTube of me singing a variety of songs. I sometimes get comments that are of the inflamatory kind and I very politely say "Thanks, your comment has been deleted".

It's very easy to criticize from the other side of the monitor - you get to be anonymous, you get to be your own "expert", but I would BET that those who are inflamatory don't have the skill - or they might be more constructive.

Put your talent on the line, proove to me you have the right to tell me I "suck", or please - be quiet.

Just my two cents for the night.

Hope, Random Meetings and Handel

So, I've not poted in a few days, but here I am again.

The last couple of weeks have been more or less FULL of preparation and practice, for my final exam for my history course and for my end-of-January kyu (rank) placement grading. I will go from white belt (9th kyu/beginner) to at LEAST orange (7th kyu) or higher. Because I have trained before I'm doing a placement and am determined to get as high a placement as possible.

I'm HOPING to go back to my previous rank of blue (5th kyu) and would be absolutely exstatic to jump to purple (4th kyu), but I expect I will likely go to green (6th kyu). We shall see... Heck I've started learning the kata to go to brown belt (3rd kyu). I'm ready for anything!

Anyhow, on to the main reason for tonight's blog. One of the other Sisters and I went to a performance of Handel's Messiah tonight. I managed to NOT sing along - though, having performed it myself in the past, I was sorely tempted! 'Twas (as they say) a right good performance. I especially enjoyed the Alto that featured. Absolutely marvelous performer! The Tenor and the Bass were both quite good. The Soprano, while indeed good, wasn't quite in the same league as the other three. (And that's the opinion of THIS particular Soprano, no prejudice of vocal type for me).

Interesting thing about the evening, other than enjoying the performance, was that I ran into a good dozen people I knew! First it was 3 friends from my hometown (not far, but I don't live in my hometown anymore!). Then I ran into the accountant that the Sisters employ (very nice lady, who calls me "Cricket" for some reason). Then it was a Sister from another community who I've worked with before. After that I ran into my parents and grandparents (Dad's M&D) and a former teacher, plus two of the "big-wigs" from our downtown Diocesan central office! That's a clean dozen, plus I saw another few from a distance and didn't get a chance to say hello!

OOF, that's a lot of "Fancy meeting you here"!

Anyhow, I rather enjoyed the evening and had fun meeting and greeting.

G'night

Video Killed the Radio Star

When people decide to like or not like an artist because of how they look (IE > "Don't Like Adele, because she's fat. Like LadyGaga because she does strange stuff and behaves like diva.)

It is true - Video Killed the Radio Star. This is one reason I don't think I will ever be more than an amateur - because I will not have my talent like to how I look. Think about it, go back a generation or two and what kind of artist was popular?

There's Jimi Hendrix, Nat King Cole, Cass Elliot (Mama Cass). Talent that lasts and their songs and works are still listened to and popular today.
And who is popular today? Justin Beiber and LadyGaga. One a conformist (Beiber) who allowed his talent to be usurped for the sake of popularity and one an extremist - who sold out any talent she possessed (which I don't feel she had that much of) for shock value. Or perhaps she did shock value to hide the fact that she is not an excellent talent?

How many of tday's artists' songs will be listened to in a generation?
I'm not sure, but autotune has certainly lowered expectations of pure talent.

Marathon

Time to get crazy on the Karate. This weekend is three days of seminar classes - 2 hours each class Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I think by the time Saturday class finishes, I'll be crazy tired and sore, but happy.

I'll let you know how things turn out!

Ossu!

The paper is in, and registration for next semester is complete. Now, we wait and see.

In other news, my head has turned to languages again. I have long been a lover of language and have studied several. I am fluent in English, ASL and French and know a smattering of Spanish and German. I'm sure that if I worked at it again, I'd be close to fluent in both too.

But why stop there? I am interested in so many languages, so just to give you an idea of how I would like to imitate Blessed JPII (some say 'the Great'), who knew no fewer than 11 languages fluently.

I would love to know more:
Maori
Japanese
Hebrew
Latin
Greek (koine)
Italian
Vietnamese
Squamish (first nations language)
Maritime Sign Language (MSL)
French Candadian Sign Language (LSQ)

I know a few words in the majority of these, but certainly not enough to consider it even a smattering, let alone fluent. So, I'm listening to songs in Maori and practicing some Japanese at my Karate class. Maybe I'll pull out that German language DVD that I never did quite get to using...

Done and done

I just finished my term paper - final edit and technical formatting bits. It's due tomorrow and I had it done already, but I like to do one last edit the night before it's due so I can be as sure as possible that I've done the best I can. I found a fair bit to fix and added a whole page worth of extra typing! 16 pages plus 5 lines is pretty good for a term paper, don't you think?

I think so, as it's the longest single thing I've written in my entire life, Yikes!

Hopefully I get a good mark on it, I would hate to have to re-do this particular qualification.

Good night!

Caminare.

I just got home from seeing The Way by Emilio Estevez, and staring Martin Sheen. It's a great movie, one of those feel-good films that leaves you smiling. It also leaves you thinking a little, and if you're open, maybe praying a little.

I won't delve into the story much, just tell you it's a story about a man who walks the Camino to Compostella for his son - who died on the first day of his own Camino. He meets three individuals who each have an outward reason for walking the Way and an interior reason. And it's based on a true story.

I went with one of the Sisters and we both enjoyed it very much. I sat through most of it thinking I would love to do my own Camino some day. Perhaps I will, others in the community have done it. Time will tell, and it's not likely in the next couple of years - but down the road I may ask permission to do it.

My way right now is a pilgrimage of the mind - I'm working on a Masters Degree in Religious Education. For my body, my pilgrimage is towards a black belt in Karate. Of course, both of these "pilgrimages" will take some time, but I'm certain they are worth it.

Linguist at work

So, a challenge was laid to me. Ok, not to me specifically, but I took up the challenge of providing a translation of a Maori song into English. I do not know Maori, but I found a dictionary online and used my smarts and the dictionary to make an attempt. I think I did a good job, but maybe I didn't - no clue. I sent me translation off and I shall await response.

That is all.

Pro-Life

Well... despite the late notice, we managed to pull off the music for the Pro-Life Conference mass! Thanks be for small miracles and well trained student musicians.

I think I will sleep for a couple of days, but not before I soak my feet. Long day running around and my toe is only just healed from being broken back in October. So... time for a good book and a nice footy soak.

Good Night, and God Bless.

Waiata Arohanui

Ko tenei te wa (It's moments like these)
Ka waiata au (I lift up my voice)
Ka waiata ki a Ihoa (I lift up my voice to Jesus)

Ko tenei te wa (It's moments like these)
Ka inoi ahau (I lift up my hands)
Ka inoi ki te Ariki (I lift up my hands to the Lord)

Waiata arohanui (Singing I love you, Lord)
Waiata arohanui (Singing I love you, Lord)
Waiata arohanui (Singing I love you, Lord)
Ki te atua (To my God)

I came across this one on YouTube. Beautiful Maori song I would love to learn. I can easily sign to it as it's simple and slow, but I'm not sure about doing that as the hymn is Maori and they have traditions about they way hands move when they sing/dance.

I think I need music lessons from some Maori... that or I need to go to NZ...

Talk to the beads.

So, I was trolling YouTube and ran across this video clip of Ellen DeGeneres on Will & Grace. I enjoy a good laugh and so I clicked. Well, I was reminded why that particular show got taken off the air. Unfunny.

The only semi-decent things that Ellen said were "Talk to the Beads" and "What a Friend we have in Cheesecake", neither of which impacted as much as they could or should have because poor Stand-Up Ellen was scripted.

I will use the "Talk to the beads" bit some time though... perhaps in part of a M.U.D. I am developing as a teaching tool. More on that another night.

Goodnight sweetheart, hunnybunch, full of stinkweed. ;)

Can someone please tell me...

Why is it that only Math teachers teach math, only Science teachers teach Science, only PE teachers teach PE, but anyone (and I mean anyone) with a teaching certificate gets thrown into religion?

I understand ministry regs, but seriously - if all you do is read from the textbook and hand out materials from 5 years ago (with your erroneous answers) why, for the love of Pete, WHY are you teaching religion? If you are not versed in a subject don't bloody well teach it! I don't YET have a teaching certificate, but I am ten times more qualified to teach religion than one teacher I and the students have to suffer through!

"Whoever would rally the [class assembled] must be able to satisfy their basic needs.
1 - The [teacher] must have aptitudes corresponding to the [class] objectives.
2 - [Students] need to experience God.
3 - [Students] need to coexist and progress together." (André Rochais. Communities According to the Gospel. 1977)

Lord, give me strength and help me get into a teaching position.

Bonjour

So... on the occasion of writing my 20th song (none published mind you) I decided to start a blog.

Some of you know me, some of you do not. For the benifit of those who do not I am:

- 20-something
- Roman Catholic
- Canadian
- a musician
- multi-lingual

...and a host of other things. I am also in training to become a Sister (a non-cloistered Catholic nun - if you will).

I might share some of my poetry or my music, but likely I'll share insights and frustrations and musings on random things.

So, perhaps you should get your wandering shoes on, because my mind likes a good wander now and then.