Another beginning

Forget New Year's resolutions; I think New Semester's resolutions are far more common around here. Sure, I'm trying to eat more vegetables and blog more and whatnot, but everyone seems to have come back resolved to go to bed earlier, keep on top of homework, get club stuff done ahead of time, and on and on. So far so good - two days in and I'm not behind on stuff yet!

This semester is promising to be considerably better than last. At the very least, all of my professors seem sane and/or awesome, which is already an improvement. The biggest hurdle will be coping with my schedule. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I have 3 hours of Silkscreen, 3 hours of Figure Drawing, and an hour and a half of Art History, with no breaks in between (besides the standard 15 minutes between classes). I knew it was going to be rough, but today left me totally drained (not to mention how surprisingly hard it is to keep up on that whole vegetable thing when my main meal consists of whatever I can get from the Huddle during a 10-minute break).

As far as the classes themselves, I'm pretty optimistic. Silkscreen will probably be interesting, if freakishly expensive ($200 lab fee + paper = youch). I'll probably end up printing madly in an attempt to get my money's worth out of it.

Figure Drawing is promising to live up to my expectations: awkward and hard. It was one thing when we had professional models at SMC last year; I didn't know them and would never see them again. Having students do it, though, is just bad. It's so much more difficult to separate oneself from the subject when said subject is someone you see around campus fairly often. I'm trying to be charitable (since $20/hour is tempting to anyone who's facing $40,000 tuition), but as Johnny said, there's only so much benefit-of-the-doubt you can give someone who takes their clothes off for money.

History of Photography has a few things going against it. First, it's in the late afternoon, which is historically a sleepy time of day for me. Second, it's right after my 6-hour studio marathon. Third, it involves lots of slideshows in a dark room. Pretty much the only thing in its favor is that I really like looking at photos.

Music of the Catholic Rite looks totally awesome. We get to read about awesome stuff, listen to awesome music, go to an awesome conference...have I mentioned that it's going to be...awesome?

My college seminar class will be a bit of a shift. We're listening to and watching various stories - The Odyssey, Wagner's operas, Lord of the Rings, etc. This would be right up my alley, except that we're not reading them, and we're not allowed to bring notes or notebooks to class for discussions. For such a visual learner as I am, this emphasis on oral and listening skills is going to be challenging, to say the least.

Last but not least, there are my Friday classes, which would be....nothing. Probably sleeping late and not fully appreciating how this balances out my M/W schedule.

It would appear that I'm already failing at that "go to bed earlier" thing, but I just felt the need to give a little update. Besides, who knows - tomorrow may be a snow day!

Notre Dame's weekly Tridentine Mass will be starting up again this weekend (for more information, see the Campus Ministry website). Note the later Mass time which, while still far from ideal, will hopefully make it easier for both the die-hards and the curious to attend.
Why yes, that is my poster design. Thanks for noticing. (the image is, I believe, from the St. Andrew's Missal)

Here's a story that will probably go largely unnoticed due to the fact that it's summer: A man needed a kidney transplant; his uncle was a match. Meanwhile, a woman's son prepared to donate his kidney to her. It was then discovered that the son was a better match for the nephew, and coincidentally, the uncle happened to match the mother.

It would be a strange enough, Reader's Digest-worthy story in any case, but is all the more noteworthy because it involves a former president of Notre Dame.

Notre Dame’s president from 1987 to 2005, Father Malloy volunteered earlier this year to donate a kidney to Rorapaugh, 41. The son of Father Malloy’s sister Joanne, Rorapaugh learned two years ago that he has severe kidney dysfunction, and he has been on dialysis three times weekly ever since.

After no match was found among several of Rorapaugh’s immediate family members, Father Malloy – who goes by the nickname “Monk” – began to consider becoming a donor. He thought that at age 67 he would be considered too old, but after going through a wide array of tests, it was determined that he is in excellent health, and he learned on April 11 that he was approved to go forward as a donor for his nephew.

In recent weeks, however, the transplantation took on a new twist when doctors realized that a man who had hoped to donate a kidney to his mother was a better match for Rorapaugh, and, fortuitously, that Father Malloy was a match for the man’s mother.

(read the whole story here)

QB Messes With ND's Chances of Not Sucking

Notre Dame will investigate possible school code violations after the Web site The Big Lead posted photos Monday that appear to depict Clausen, teammates Brian Smith and James Aldridge and one other individual attending what the site labeled “Beer Olympics.”

The pictures are not dated, and while there is beer on the table in front of the players, the photos do not show the players actively consuming alcohol.

No matter the date of the photos, at least two of the players would not be of legal drinking age: Clausen, who does not turn 21 until Sept. 21, and Smith, who does not reach 21 until 2010. Aldridge turned 21 on July 6.

(Article here)

Allow me to make a few comments about our football team. Compared to most programs, ours is pretty academically advanced (earning a GPA of 3.0 last semester). However, I just spent the last 6 weeks in class with a few dozen incoming freshman football and hockey players, and seriously, they're not the coldest beers in the fridge (oh. I suppose that's kind of an ironic comparison.). The first time we got math homework back, one of them said, "Um, professor? Mine says '10 over 10'; is that good?" Argh. One school/practice night, a bunch of them drove to Fort Wayne (2 hours) to go to a club, which apparently turned out to be attended mostly by 16-year-old girls. Don't see that ending well...

I'd hate to paint the whole team with a broad brush, but based on what I've seen first-hand, I have to say that much as I would like to be, I'm less than psyched about this season.

Blogging Breakfast

Having been to Tridentine Mass, Mary Liz and I are now sitting at breakfast, listening to Dave Brubeck's Notre Dame concert, reading sketchy-nun blogs, talking about weddings (including a beautiful Croatian tradition that was done at the wedding she attended yesterday; it's described here). In short, a nearly perfect Sunday morning.

(Her post, with photo)

Ever Ancient, Ever New

By popular request, here are some photos of what the Basilica looks like for the summer. In addition to replacing the spire that was blown off a year ago, they are reportedly doing other maintenance (though no one seems to know any details), which is probably a good idea, since it took a month to get all the scaffolding up in the first place. Of course, it makes a somewhat less-than-picturesque backdrop for summer wedding photos, and some of the older alumni who I've run into on campus seem paranoid that there's a secret plan to tear down the steeple altogether and "modernize" the building, but given that it's going to look like this until October (according to rumor), I'm guessing people will get used to it. It is kind of a glaring change to the familiar skyline, though.

(Props to Emily for suggesting the title for this post)

Through the chapel door

Summer Adoration started this evening. We were lucky enough to get it from 7-9 every Wednesday. While I wasn't able to stay for long, it was really great to have the opportunity to go again after a hiatus of several weeks, and there were several people there.

Rejection/wait-list letters: 3
Candles lit at the Grotto: One virtually every day I've been here since August
Transcripts sent to Admissions Office: 6
Study abroad grant I won't be using anymore: $2514
Credits I'm taking this summer to fulfill ND FYS requirements: 6
Days until I can walk up the steps of Main Building: 1077

Being a Domer forever: Priceless.

Random thoughts at 8:00 am

• I don't know who exactly thought it was a good idea to put the classes of '68 and '63 in PE & PW, but that really should be rethought. None of these buildings were here when these guys were, and they have absolutely no sense of direction.
• Also, while I'm glad they're working on the chapel, I think I may be driven to desperate measures by the noise today. Did they have to choose today to knock down a wall (and for that matter, to start at 7:00)? I should have more pictures to put up in the next few days. I'm still trying to get a peek at the plans...
  
• Random reslife trivia learned during staff training: during the last 3 weeks of classes, ResLife dealt with 85 cases of students who had been contacted by the recording industry re: illegal downloading.
• Construction dust set off our fire alarms yesterday afternoon. There were two of us working the front desk at the time, and we followed the emergency protocol, which was to go to the alarm system display board, which supposedly would tell us where the alarm had been triggered (we were then supposed to go to that spot and determine whether there was an actual fire). Well, we went to the display, which gave us a nonsensical (to us, at least) string of numbers. So much for that.
• My Ravelry invitation came through yesterday. What an addicting site! It's a good thing I just don't have that much spare time, or I'd spend all day looking at patterns and knitting. I'm about an inch and a half done with one sock, and as I mentioned, I think there'll be a lot of trial-and-error involved with this pattern, so it should keep me occupied for a while.

I think that's all I've got for now, but given that I'm on-duty at the desk until 1:00, I'm pretty sure my idleness will lead to more thoughts.

O Holy Virgin, to whose feet we are lead by our anxious uncertainty
in our search for and attainment of what is true and good, invoking
Thee by the sweet title of Mother of Good Counsel. We beseech Thee
to come to our assistance, when, along the road of this life, the
darkness of error and of evil conspires towards our ruin by leading
our minds and our hearts astray.

Do Thou, O Seat of Wisdom and Star of the Sea, enlighten the doubtful
and the erring, that they be not seduced by the false appearances of
good; render them steadfast in the race of the hostile and corrupting
influences of passion and of sin.

O Mother of Good Counsel, obtain for us from Thy Divine Son a great
love of virtue,and, in the hour of uncertainty and trial, the strength to
embrace the way that leads to our salvation. If thy hand sustains us,
we shall walk unmolested along the path indicated to us by the life
and words of Jesus our redeemer, and having followed freely and
securely, even in the midst of this world's strife, the Sun of Truth
and Justice under they maternal star, we shall come to the enjoyment
of full and eternal peace with Thee in the haven of salvation.
Amen

~Prayer to Our Lady of Good Counsel,
Pius XII

Candle lit this evening for special intentions.