Ubi Petrus

I know it’s been really quiet here and I can’t say as I’m all that happy about that fact.  Despite plenty of excuses know that I am doing my best to get back to a regular blogging routine.  Honest.

That said, I plan on dragging you all along with me as I work to tackle three projects over the course of a good chunk of this year.  First, I’ve committed to getting my Latin studies going for real.  I’ll be going through John F. Collins’ Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin and using its associated Answer Key targeting roughly one unit per week.  There are 35 units in the book, so that means it’ll take me the better part of the year, but I’m going to let myself get ahead if I can.

Second and third, I’m going to read the entire Bible this year as well as the entirety of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  I’ll be following the schedule set up by the good folks at the Coming Home Network.  I started this once before and hit a roadblock a couple of months in.  Hopefully this time will go more smoothly, although I am already a few days behind in starting.

I intend to share any reflections I may have or quotes that strike my fancy or even just the occasional “wow, Latin is a weird language – did you know …”.  That won’t be all I’ll be blogging about, but at least it will give me some structure going forward.

If you’ve followed this blog you’ve noticed I haven’t been posting nearly as much as I could or should lately.  To be honest I’ve been struggling trying to figure out just what exactly I want this blog to be – should it be purely “professional”, meaning no personal posts, should it be purely personal and be just my reflections on whatever is catching my eye at the moment, or should it be something else?

The answer, as near as I can tell, was given me in a post by the indubitable Fr. Z in a recent post when he quoted an ancient axiom, “in medio stat virtus” or “virtue stands in the middle”.  Strange that this reminder should have to come ad extra when it is something I find myself saying in various forms many times over the course of a week.  Jeff Vegihe at St. Peter Canisius Apostolate recently went through just this thought process as well and I owe him a debt of gratitude for his willingness to be upfront and open about it.  Knowing that someone who has already done so well has these same questions helped me to get past the first questioning and really be ready for the head knock delivered by the good Father.

I can’t promise there won’t be potholes in posting here and there, but I can say that I’ve come to realize the time for dithering is long since past.  Onward, upward, forward.

Having a very low resistance to gadgetry I’ve added the Followers gadget to the blog. If you like anything I’ve written here and are willing to admit it, feel free to add yourself – if you don’t want others to know you read this blog you can do so privately even. No prizes for signing up, no bling, no money.

Well, okay, maybe not all. Curt Jester pointed out the new Catholic social bookmarking site PickAFig. No service is perfect when it starts but it looks like they’ve ironed out a couple of initial bumps so I’ve added a button for each post. So, if you like something I’ve written (and I just know you do … right?) you can submit and/or vote for the post. Let me know if it causes problems; either way, be sure to help out the folks at PickAFig who are trying to help us all talk to each other in new and better ways.

Jeff Vehige has put together a useful (and I must say very smoothly-designed) new blog at St. Peter Canisius Apostolate. I only want to know one thing: when do these people find time to sleep? Good stuff – if you visit (and you should) let him know from whence you came.

Honest. Just really, really busy. Still.

Pardon the one unclean word at the end. You can’t have gone through a computer degree in college and not have seen this movie at least once. Several of my friends could relate the whole movie from beginning to end from memory. Scary, yes…

I must apologize to my readers for having been so lax this week. I thought for sure after my son’s First Communion things would slow down. Apparently God got such a chuckle out of that idea that he decided to show me just how silly it really was. I haven’t even had the time to make some of the updates to my sidebars I’ve been meaning to do for a while now. Ah, some day.

It seems I’ve finally guilted my wife into the blogosphere. Okay, I didn’t really intend to do it, but sometimes I’m just more effective than I intend to be I guess. My best guess is she’ll be blogging mostly about cross-stitch and quilting but one never knows – I started this blog with the intention of writing about a mix of high-tech and my hobbies. You can see just how far that idea got. Anyway, do hop over and say “hi” even if you (like me, still) don’t have the first clue about quilting, cross-stitch or anything involving a needle and thread.

Say what, you say? Let’s just put it this way: Phil’s a smart cookie. If everyone in blogdom would read this post and take it as advice it’d be a monumental step forward. Go. Read.

Confessions of a Recovering Choir Director has restarted his blog, but it’s moving. Always good to see one come back to the blogosphere.