Week of the 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany

Highlight(s) of the week: Yesterday I joined a seminar that our philosophy department has offered on the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. It has a few really thoughtful students in it, so it's going to be fun. I have very little background on medieval philosophy or theology, so it's entirely new ground for me.

Ministry update: This is our second week back for this semester, so we're getting back into the pattern of daily Vespers on campus, along with a weekly longer service of Evening Prayer. The EP service is my platform for teaching about Christian discipleship and particular spiritual disciplines in a group setting.

Stuff at work: I finished an inventory of our media holdings before the students returned; we only lost 1.5% of our popular film collection to theft. For better or worse, this is within acceptable parameters. Now comes the database clean-up - not gripping work at all. I'm looking forward to teaching bibliographic instruction sessions next month, so I've been reviewing notes for those.

Book(s) I'm Reading: Flannery, an autobiography of Flannery O'Connor by Brad Gooch. It's well-written, and I'm enjoying learning more about a woman whose work has influenced me so much.

Media I'm Enjoying: Every day when I return to the empty house, the cat is sitting alone in the middle of the living room floor, nodding his head as a Lady Gaga album plays. I shiver and scurry on to my room. I don't ask questions, and the cat tells no lies. (In case you didn't know, Lady Gaga is a robot invented to approximate a woman.)

Lately I've been watching really creepy movies on the Netflix while punishing myself on the exercise bike. I saw Perfume: Story of a Murderer. I don't recommend it. I saw Spiral. It was neat - the creepy worked. Book of Eli (in theatres): neat (and triumphalist) religious story, but our consensus was that it got really heavy-handed by the end.

Something that blew my mind: I made a really nice chicken soup last week, using nothing but two chickens, a pile of veggies, and the spice rack. From scratch, children, that's what that means. I own you.

Something I've been chewing on: You know, the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that credit cards are evil. I think they're a source of serious spiritual and fiscal bondage, and it amazes me that this has never been obvious to me, and that it doesn't seem obvious to other people.

Looking Forward To: A Robert Burns party deferred to the weekend, and two birthday outings.