Homeless Hotspots

Homeless Hotspots

Have you named your WiFi router?  When I fire up my laptop near the campus of Cal Berkeley, I get lots of options.  I can join FrodoBaggins, 20 different versions of 2WIRE, Skynet, ChickMagnet (I doubt its effectiveness) and even a few that are so offensive I can’t...
Google At Your Own Risk!

Google At Your Own Risk!

Several years ago, the cover of The Atlantic posed a provocative question: “Is Google making us Stoopid?” Nicholas Carr examined the possibility that recent technological advances have begun to change not only our relationship to information, but also the very way we...
March Madness

March Madness

It all started yesterday.  The Sunday I’d been waiting for.  The night we discovered what the future will hold. Selection Sunday.  March Madness begins. It might sound ridiculous, but I can’t talk about the tourney without mentioning Holy Week.  Every three years or...
Speaking of Heaven

Speaking of Heaven

In my current line of work—I’m the administrator of three small parishes on an Indian Reservation in South Dakota—I deal with a lot of funerals.  I schedule them; I lead prayers; I empty the ashes out of the censer afterwards.  And I’ve helped to bury everyone from...
The Best Penance Ever

The Best Penance Ever

Many Catholics use Lent as a time to take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, particularly if they haven’t gone in a while.  For me, the introspection of the season makes it a natural time to look at what areas of my relationships with God and other people...
Week in Review — Mar. 4-10, 2012

Week in Review — Mar. 4-10, 2012

Despite the fact that Tim O’Brien kicked off the week by calling for us to just give up we’re back again, this time reviewing what was up with TJP during the second week of Lent.  And just what was up, you ask?  Well… Michael Rozier kicked off the...
Be Kind…

Be Kind…

I was walking through campus today and I noticed that a few students were wearing similar hooded sweatshirts.  Printed in bold white letters on the front of these navy blue hoodies were two words: Be Kind. My apologies to the younger crowd, but I’m a child of...
Out of the Mouths of Babes: Why I Love Teaching Teenagers

Out of the Mouths of Babes: Why I Love Teaching Teenagers

“All right, gentlemen, take a seat and get to work.” So began another end-of-day study period last week.  One of my favorite students (not that teachers have favorites), who can do no wrong in my estimation (not that teachers are partial), floats in late, unphased by...
What There Is to Sing About

What There Is to Sing About

Church musicians are not usually celebrities. It was a special music store (back in the days of music stores…remember them?) that carried very much in the way of liturgical music. And there were certainly no posters of the St. Louis Jesuits in the back of the...
What innumerable “resolutionary” toys

What innumerable “resolutionary” toys

My confession: I spent a large part of yesterday afternoon glued to a “liveblog” of Apple’s iPad unveiling. (Apple now has the full video of the event up.) When the liveblog failed to update quickly enough, I switched to twitter. St. Augustine’s Confessions: What...