Not that I’m Likely to Ever Need It…

but still, a vampire hunter kit would make a pretty cool gift for a priest. Just sayin’!

h/t:Fr. Z’s Blog.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Some Songs for Saturday

Some music to brighten your Saturday.  First up a flash mob pays their respect to some bad music and some very bad pants:



h/t: One of the funnest and most insightful bloggers frrom the Republic of Texas Rachel Lucas.


Next up, an amazing new performance group, Voca People:



h/t: Brian Hollar from a great economics blog, Thinking on the Margin.

In Christ,

+Fr Gregory

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Death Star Rules!

From Gizmodo:

I thought we already established this fact, but this cool video proves it again: It shows what would happen if the Enterprise arrived to an alternative San Francisco, occupied by the Evil Galactic Empire.

Too bad the video gets ruined by the crappy explosion at the end. I'm sure JJ Abrams would approve, though.

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Extreme Sheep LED Art

Offered without comment, but with great joy.

in Christ,

+Fr Gregory



h/t: Secondhand Smoke

Office Supplies Challenge; Liquid Fuel Rocket

It Just for Fun Saturday. And so, while I haven't built my own Office Supplies Rocket, nor can I encourage anyone to do so, for your amusement, let me offer the following set of instructions. File it away under, "Wow! ain't that cool!" Or, as one of the mothers in a parish I served once said, "We don't do EVERYTHING Fr Gregory says!"

In Christ,

+Fr Gregory

H/T: Lifehacker:

We donned our mind-reading helmet here at Lifehacker and have divined the perfect thing for a little Friday Fun: a high altitude rocket made from office supplies.

An inventive user at DIY site Instructables details how to turn a few common office supplies into an impressive rocket. If you can get your hands on a sharpie, a can of compressed air, and an assortment of other office items like tape, rubber bands, and bottle caps, then you're on your way to winning the Office MacGyver award. The parts list has a Leather Multi-Tool as an item but as you'll see in the video below all you actually need are needle nose pliers.

We can't promise you it will achieve low earth orbit or even break low lying cloud cover, but we can promise you'll put your eye out if you're not careful, so unless you want to live out your career known as the One Eyed Pirate of Cubicle Farm Four, we recommend exercising extreme care with your homemade projectiles. (Or just, you know, get your vicarious fix through the video. It's what we're doing.)

Office Supplies Challenge; Liquid Fuel Rocket - More DIY How To Projects

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A Response to the American Gnostic (NOT!)

This past week I was in Chicago for our annual clergy conference for the Diocese of the Mid West. Our presenter was Fr Jonathan Tobias, pastor of St John the Baptist Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church in East Pittsburgh, PA.

Fr Jonathan gave three talks on what he called American gnosticism. While I though the talks were interesting, I do have my points of disagreement with his presentation. My primarily disagree is that, like many Orthodox Christians in America, Father uses Evangelical Christianity as his touchstone for an Orthodox understanding of American Christianity. While an argument can be made for this position, I think our focus on Evangelical Christianity means that we are always responding to what is least substantial in American religious experience. My own view is that while we must be mindful of Evangelical Christianity, we would also do well to attend to the influence of Catholicism, and especially the effect of the Aritotlean-Thomistic natural law tradition in American political philosophy and culture.

But I digress.

You can find Fr Jonathan's talks,

Prospects, part 1: Ebb Tide
Prospects, part 2: Bad News before the Good
Pospects, part 3: the American Genius
Prospects, part 4: the American Gospel -- Orthodoxy at the End of the Sawdust Trail


on his most excellent blog "Second Terrace."

But, since it is Saturday, the day I try and post something fun, I have for your consideration the Bad Vicar Sketch from from episode 3 of the BBC series That Mitchell and Webb Look. (Warning, harsh language.)

I'll be back to regular postings on Monday.

In Christ,

+Fr Gregory

Steelers Opera

Carnegie Mellon School of Music students sing the "Steelers Opera" by associate professor of voice Douglas Ahlstedt. Based on the Toreador song from "Carmen."

Song can be downloaded for free on iTunes: Steelers Opera.

In Christ,

+Fr Gregory

The Pop Rocks Steelers Song

Go Steelers!

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics

Who doesn't like Saturday morning cartoons?

In Christ,

+Fr Gregory

Superior Scribbler Award

Byzantine Texas awarded me a Superior Scribbler Award. I am in turn obliged to pick five bloggers of my own list those worthy of the Superior Scribbler Award. These most now abide by the following rules:

• Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass the award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
• Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author and the name of the blog from whom he/she has received the Award.
• Each Superior Scribbler must display the award on his/her blog, and link to this post, which explains the award.
• Each Blogger who wins the Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List (scroll down). That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives this prestigious honor!
• Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

And now my five Superior Scribblers!

1. A Vow of Conversation
2. Fr. Ted's Blog
3. Way of the Fathers
4. Ochlophobist
5. Orrologion

I Can Has TheoLOLgians? | The Scriptorium Daily: Middlebrow

H/t: Fr Michael Butler

Salvific Coffee?

For consideration:




h/t: Byzantine, TX

What Type of Blog Is This Blog?

I ran my blog through Typealyzer, an online analyzer that determines the blog's Myers-Briggs Personality type.  Here's what came back for this blog:


INTP - The Thinkers
The logical and analytical type. They are especialy attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.


They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what the





I don't know about the blog, but the results are a close enough match for me at least!

In Christ,

+Fr Gregory

"Star Wars" - an a cappella tribute to John Williams

I have not posted a Saturday "Just for Fun" entry in quite a while. And so let me correct that now.

In Christ,

+Fr Gregory



For lyrics and mp3, click here: http://www.moosebutter.com/lyrics.php/3

Talk Like A Pirate Day

In honour of Talk Like A Pirate Day:



For more information:

Do You Have Healthy Relationships

Gotta love a quiz right?

Try one on relationships.

In Christ,

+Fr Gregory

You Have Very Healthy Relationships

You are an amazing friend, partner, and family member. You always take other people's feelings into account, and you're never selfish. Your relationships are based on mutual respect. You respect the people you love, and you only love people who respect you in return.

Do You Have Healthy Relationships?

Divine Liturgy Wordle!!!!

Time for another Wrodle. This time based on the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom.

H/T: Mark Olson.

Unless noted otherwise, everything posted here is © 2008 Gregory R Jensen.

Leonard Cohen Singing "Hallelujah"

Having not head his music for, well a very long time, I thought I would post a video of Leonard Cohen singing "Hallelujah."

In 1930 I was quite the catch

130 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Unless noted otherwise, everything posted here is © 2008 Gregory R Jensen.

I'm BAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!

After a brief outage, I'm back. Sorry for the lack of posts and the broken URL--everything is working again and I hope to have the new URL up and running soon.

So in honor my blog's return, I offer the following for your consideration and comment:




H/T Rachel Lucas.

In Christ,

+Fr Gregory







Unless noted otherwise, everything posted here is © 2008 Gregory R Jensen.