Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Justin Lopina's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, November 12th, 2009
2:33 pm	I gots me my copy of Dragon Age: Origins for $37 instead of $50 due to my pre-order status and a tiny bit of accounting magic. Awesome stuff. Then I got back to Sacred Heart and checked me email. Friday afternoon classes are canceled. These two events mix rather well for me. Plans so far: 5:00 - Evening prayer 6:00 - Dinner 7:30 - Install & Register Dragon Age 2:00 - Sleep, maybe Friday morning: sleepwalk through two classes, eat food, go home. Weekend: Kill darkspawn with my dog Barkspawn. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
4:52 pm	Celibacy and science So... stuff has been happening, both positive and negative. Last weekend was the celibacy workshop weekend, which was much better than I was expecting. Sure, we had no time for any real work and we had to listen to lectures right after classes on Friday, but all-in-all, the lectures were actually useful and the weekend wasn't stressful – only unproductive. We talked about CS Lewis' “The Four Loves”, covered church history with regard to celibacy, and devoted the majority of the lecture time to the psychology of sexuality and celibacy. Much to my surprise, I learned a lot more than I thought, and I'm thinking about making an appointment with Father David to talk with him one-on-one. Among other things, I seem to far more in touch with my feminine side than the vast majority of men as I identified with feminine aspects of sexuality about as often as the masculine ones. Naturally, I kept quiet about that during discussion groups. The other big thing was a talk last night by Gerald Schroeder, a personal hero. The talk was essentially chapter four of The Science of God, where he shows that the creation of the universe is actually six days from the perspective of the big bang when you take into account relativity. His later books span topics that are easier for most people to understand, but I'm fully on board for The Science of God. During the talk, whenever he asked a question to the audience, I had the right answer and I followed the whole lecture without fail while others had their heads spinning. I could back up his whole argument and I know that he's not just fudging the numbers on this. During a break, I went up to him and asked him a question about red shift: it's one of the biggest criticisms of his book on the web. He had the perfect answer, one which I figured out before the talk but was unsure of, and was happy to sign my copy of God According to God for me. It was a great night. The problem was with my fellow seminarians. Just about all of them have expressed their skepticism about his work, even though he's backed up by Nature, a peer-reviewed publication with heavy materialist leanings. They back up his math, and they're the last people on Earth looking for God. That's a major boost to his credibility, but as none of them have studied science, I don't think they really understand what that means. For most of them, I understand their hesitations – at first glance, his numbers seem magical and/or doctored. Without a greater understanding of the ideas he's built upon, it's a lot to swallow. But it's their attitude that's killing me. I've found myself very sensitive because seminarians keep telling me how little they believe in science. One guy I'm not particularly fond of told me, to my face, that he was going to the talk because “he had an interest in faith and reason because science and religion don't mix and are incompatible.” Words fail me when I try to explain how offended I am about this. My heart has been hurt from this for about 3 days now. The complete and total lack of respect for science, philosophy, and other values of mine are wearing me down. In all my life, I've never been surrounded by so much unbelief and narrow-mindedness. Take that guy who doesn't believe that faith and reason have anything to do with one another. He's fresh out of college seminary and is about 22 years old. If you recall my earlier posts, this is the same guy that said that I'll never be allowed to dance ever again once I'm a priest. In talking with him over the last six months, he doesn't believe in or support: -Science tempered by faith or vice versa. -Quantum physics in general. It's all just unsubstantiated theory. -Magic of any kind. -Supernatural entities like ghosts or spirits. -A non-corporeal aspect of the universe: he believes heaven will be renewing of the current universe. -Any other religion. That doesn't leave much, in my opinion! I realize that most people don't believe in magic, and that's fine. But shrugging off magic and science? That's pretty uncommon, at least for me. Others here have been a bit easier to tolerate, but it's the same general feeling to me. They see something they don't understand, and scoff at it. I've been told that “I'm going to grow up and stop being a vegetarian when I realize it doesn't matter” and I've been accused of being a moral relativist because I like philosophy. In fact, they laugh because Descartes is worthless because you can't really preach about him. So what good is he? I listen to all this and recoil in horror. Is not the influx of new ideas a reward in-of itself? Isn't education making us better people and therefore better priests? I should sum up. These last few days, I've felt very alone here. Almost oppressed, really, if you'll allow a bit of drama. Is this how unbelievers feel when talking to the devoutly religious? I've never really seen this side of religion before: when someone was stupid or intolerant, I never had to put up with their crap for very long. But now I'm in the same building all day long with these people, and their hardheadedness makes my mind reel in astonishment. Again, I'm sensitive right now because of the negative reactions of the talk. I'll be better next week when this is behind us. To end on a positive note, for all the creeps here who'd make excellent science-repressing clerics around 1750, there are several good men here whom I'm beginning to trust. They're all older seminarians, and it's not their beliefs but their attitudes that make the difference. I think I'm starting to develop an actual friendship with Paul, one of the Franciscan friars here. He's in his early 40's, I think, and is one year ahead of me in our studies. I've been talking to him, and he's had some remarkably comforting things to say (not to be repeated here, sorry). He laughs, he listens, and he doesn't judge. He's going to be a wonderful role model in four years when he's ordained. For now, I just need to keep reminding myself that the world is, in fact, populated by people like Paul and Dr. Schroeder, even if my daily life involves more bigots than I care to endure. The Man, in all his glory. I can totally see myself in his place 30 years from now. Us astrophysicist theologians need to stick together. Oh, and I have a place to crash if I ever wind up in Israel! Where in Israel does he live? Eh. I’ll ask around, it shouldn’t be too hard to find him. (18 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 9th, 2009
11:07 pm	Today was a great victory for me after 48 hours of offensive & narrow-minded bullshit. I'll really try to post more about it tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going to bed very happy in a physicist-kind-of-way! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
8:44 pm	Whew! Halloween weekend is over! All-in-all, this was an amazingly busy & eventful time for me, yet was relaxing and fun. As I'm completely losing all freetime next weekend, this was a good thing. Friday: We had class as usual on Friday, and I chose to go to Sacred Heart as a Priestly Cyborg from Another Dimension!. Naturally, I was the only one to dress up, which is what I was expecting from the beginning. Everyone was amused by the costume and had surprisingly varied reactions to it. One guy saw me from behind in low light and thought I was simply pale from the flu or a cold. Then he got a better look and shuttered in horror. Steve the bear pooka said that I was “so cool for doing that” while calling me Robo-dork for the rest of the day. A rather pooka response, if I do say so myself. In total, I think I called about six people a meatbag, including my professor Father Mel and Bishop Sklba. I think that's another point to my uniqueness: who else has entered a Catholic seminary and called a bishop a meatbag? The other students were horrified by the prospect: “Yeah, I need to touch up the paint after lunch to look my best for Bishop Sklba's class. It's one of my goals today to call him a meatbag.” “What!?!?” “I mean, I'm sure I'll be the first guy to do that!” “Justin, you might be the last!” “Oh, of course I'll be the last! Who else would do something like that?” Luckily for me (but not really, I know the bishop well enough to know he'd react pleasantly to this sort of thing), the bishop had a wonderful response, as I knew he would. We were talking before class started, and the bishop brought in a tiny bronze statue of Jeremiah in the stocks: “Wow, Bishop Sklba! That statue looks like our metallic Justin over there but in the stocks.” “Well, Justin? Do you think you deserve it?” “That's a typical meatbag response... of course I deserve it!” “Well then suck it up!” The room erupted in laughter at that point, for good reason. I was quite happy with the exchange, and I apologized to the bishop later, just to be safe. Later that night we had a party in the Rathskeller and although I was the best dressed guy there, a surprising number of people came in costume. Good times. I went to bed around 1:00 and woke up completely refreshed at 4:00. I'm quite thankful such insomnia struck at a time where I didn't need to be productive for another 36 hours. I made headway in Persona 3 and continued to scrub silver gunk off of my face & sink. That stuff gets everywhere! Saturday was also a cool day. I had the morning & early afternoon to myself, but I had to juggle a capoeira event and the Sacred Heart party in the evening. I thought it would work out because our rehersal for capoeira was at 4:30 but the event itself wasn't until 9:00. I planned on solid 3 hours at the party before returning to the show. Then I'd go back to the seminary and ambush the guys in the cemetery. Although the day was still really great, it didn't quite turn out that way. The biggest hiccup was the massive delay in the capoeira program. We were supposed to have a practice run on stage at 4:30 and do it for real at 9:00. We got one VERY quick practice around 5:30 or so and didn't perform until 10:00 due to technical difficulties. We spent the rest of the time in the hallway of the midwest express center building going over and over our 2-minute routine and basically hanging around. I was able to leave for 90 minutes to visit the Sacred Heart guys, but I was only able to be there for a half hour or so before driving back before 8:30 when we thought we might perform. Instead, I drove like hell to make it back in time only to wait with the others for another 90 minutes. However, we did a proper roda going in the hallway to kill time, and I walked in on the last few minutes of it when all the good players were winded. I could almost keep up with them under those conditions! Once we got on stage, we did really well and it was definitely worth the time we spent waiting. We even got to be macho and do the maculele portion without our shirts on! HARD CORPS! After the show I raced back to the seminary to ambush the guys in the cemetary. You see, the cemetery is closed to the public after dark, but we don't have gates or guards or anything like that. Normally it's not a problem apart from the occasional pot smokers, but Halloween is different. A number of kids attempt to hang out there for one reason or another, and apparently some vandalism has occurred in the past. So it's understood that seminarians should take turns guarding the cemetery for a while the night of the 31st. I quietly walked to the side of the cemetery and saw no one there. I was hoping for a small group of guys to be smoking cigars and joking around, but the place was empty. I then spotted a few of em hiding in the shadows a few yards down. I saw them quickly enough to say hi before they got me, so in terms of ninja powers, I call that a draw. I spent about an hour freezing with them over half a cigar. They had scared away two groups of kids by way of a creepy homeless guy mask, but no one else showed up during my time there. I went back and crashed after I couldn't take the cold anymore. Today's a rest day, and most of the week should be pretty light. I'm off to a celibacy workshop right after classes on Friday and I won't get back home till Sunday afternoon, so hopefully I'll manage the maturity to get ahead in my next batch of papers and have the abundance & lack of free time balance out by next Monday. Oh, to Lex: Paul ripped my face off on Friday. I told him that he was joining a very exclusive club. He was much kinder than you. He actually asked if I wanted it fast or slow as he prepared to rip the circuit board off of the side of my head. Priestly cyborg lyrics: I don't want to get by with a Jewish rabbi and I can't just can't jive with an Islamic guy. I don't want an angry bishop who's too busy bitchin', I want a priestly cyborg from another dimension! The padre that I want is made of circuits and chrome He's a priestly cyborg and Hoth is his home. He's got ninja skills and can totally wail Spinning 'round fire while checking email. He's got a breviary and electronic scripture, when he needs repair two and one half badgers, please. If I were a Catholic I'd go to confession to my priestly cyborg from another dimension! One more thing I forgot to mention: Not recommended for suspended animation. But my priest regurgitates all of his meals and refuses to go clubbing baby seals. My cyborg married the two of us, I brag, But ended up calling the groom a meatbag. Now this stupid wormhole is open and letting in all manner of flotsam... Nocker zombies... Sluagh nymphos... Man-eating manatees... Berserker Lincoln... (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
7:40 am	Brief update For the first time in my life, I was in a coffin last night. We were moving the seminary's "training coffin" to the dungeon/bar for the Halloween party on Friday. Naturally, no one else wanted to take it for a spin. Coffins are rather quite roomy. And pink. Although the exterior was a respectful charcoal gray, the interior lining was far too pink for the dead in my opinion. If I die in the near future, be sure to communicate that to my parents. NO PINK COFFINS! Also, the other guys expressed their appreciation for the Seminarian Vampire Defense Force. I don't think they realize the fact that it's just me, but the idea was quite appealing to them with The Day of the Dead rapidly approaching us. In other news, pranks are all on hold at the moment. I need a special tool for one thing, and Sacred Heart is having their alumni week now, so I can't put a mustache on Saint Awesomus as it might actually get someone into trouble this week. I'm thinking next Tuesday will be good. I have four hours of seminar lectures ahead of me today. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to get through it. I've come to dread these earthly manifestations of boredom, as topics are rarely important and speakers are about as animated and interesting as a fleshy walking Microsoft spreadsheet. Sorry, pardon the pessimism. It'll be over soon enough. Why do we have a training coffin, you ask? Apparently it's a prop when they teach us how to perform funerals. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
10:17 pm	Just proof that I'm photogenic by nature and that I can play sports at times. We get ready to crush some Episcopalians! Me, on defense. The #1 photo of the game, by far! No reciever gets by me without a taunting gloat & some kind of wound to the gut. That's right, we rock. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
4:06 pm	A plan in the making Ok, I’m reconsidering my pranks at Sacred Heart… Here’s my thought process at the moment: I had a talk with my Bear Pooka friend the other day, and I explained to him my fears of authority. I told him how the big guy here has been cultivating a reputation of pointless rage and confrontation over absurdly minor things. Bear Pooka put a great deal into the clear for me. He said that he got in trouble for walking out of his room to the lunchroom to get some soda. It was late Saturday night with no event taking place at the time, and the rector chewed him out for wearing jeans in public. This was also less than 24 hours after 20 or so people were wearing jeans in a more active part of the day. Naturally, the rector didn’t say anything about that. It seems that the rector is just looking for a fight or someone to discipline, and he does so in an excessively confrontational way. He’s essentially treating 50-year-olds like teenagers. He even chewed one guy out for showing up early for prayer one morning. I then proceeded to tell him my plans and why I was scared to go through with it. “Well, you know that statue near the front door? I want to put a mustache on him.” ”Are you kidding? I was going to dress him up!” “But what if I get caught? I can see the rector getting very angry over this kind of thing.” ”Don’t worry about that, just don’t say anything. You can give me a wink in the hallway if you must. The rector is so busy blaming everyone for something, it really wouldn’t be that big of a deal for him to have something else to be angry at and no one else would react that way.” At the end of the talk, he explained to me how stressed out the rector was and how badly he was treating some of the Sacred Heart seminarians. This guy will be the rector next semester, and then will be stepping down from the position. Apparently there’s a three year term for rector here and this is his last one. So even if I get caught and get on his bad side, I’ll only have to watch my step for another semester before it ceases to be an issue at all. So I’m going to bide my time for a little bit longer. I may hang out with the guys here on Friday – I could plan the facial hair that evening. I’ll force myself to be subtle about it: the few guys I’d tell would certainly be able to keep it to themselves. (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
10:43 pm	Weddings, football, sadness I can only manage an overview update because I suck. I had two weddings in two weeks: a cousin and a high-school friend. These two weddings were night and day: I spent the whole night of the first wedding dancing with my cousins and extended family and taught my 8-year-old sister a few swing moves. I had three capoeira moments including a head spin that got ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ from the rest of the dancers. The other wedding was really awkward: I knew three people other than the groom. I had to dance at my friend’s wedding, so I ate my food and waited for the “pay the bride for a dance” segment. I was the second one on the floor, did quite well, and then said my goodbyes at 9:30 in order to see my uncle and his family before he left for Australia for a couple years. One fact about this is worrisome. I had a lot of fun with high school/college-age cousins and not that much fun around married grown-ups in their late 20’s. These guys were a real pleasure to talk to, but it was all talk and very little emotion or activity – virtues in abundance with my younger cousins & siblings. Is there a lesson here? I know that I’m aging slower than pureblood humans, but is this an issue? Are my interests and values alienating me from my own demographic? I’ll need to think about it some more. I really don’t want Father David’s statement to apply to me when he says that some people are just not out of their “adolescent stage” as soon as most are. I do my work, and I’m getting straight A’s in my classes – the first time in my life I’m able to say that. It seems unfair to label me immature if I’m performing my duties AND celebrating life on the side. Again, I need time to dwell a bit more. Today we had a Catholic vs Episcopalian football game. It was awesome and we won 13 to 6. I had a few good plays and even managed to sack the QB on their first offensive play: it was good have my physical skills justified in a sport I have a little experience in. I might have a minor prank to play because of the game. I haven’t done my other pranks (I still have a mustache of my own hair in my dorm room) because I’m getting weird vibes from the rector at Sacred Heart. The residents there have reported him acting out with an incredibly unexpected temper over terribly insignificant things. I’m on his good side, and I’m pretty sure a prank will spell bad news for me. I’ll act if the situation changes, but I’ve already gotten into some trouble involving “maturity” and I’ve still got 95% of my education to get through. I’m sorry for the continued delay of flesh pull pictures. I have them all formatted and ready for uploading. But I’ve got three papers to write, including a mid-term on continental rationalists. They ARE coming. But there’s one main reason I needed to post today: I just found out Alberto dropped out of seminary and is going back to Venezuela tomorrow. He was one of two seminarians (plus one priest) I could really be myself around (bizarre & nerdy personality and all that jazz), and the other guy’s in Belgium for at least a year. I pictured Alberto as one of the few people here I could befriend and rely on as a priest years from now. But apart from private reasons unknown to me, the demands of a priest’s lifestyle plus a lifetime of service away from one’s home was just too much for him. He flies out on Tuesday, and I’m going to try to see him tomorrow after I get back from class. My environment here just got a little less friendly a hell of a lot less accepting. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 9th, 2009
1:46 pm	Still lazy on pictures Yesterday was an awesome day to wrap up a horrid week. It started off comically: On Wednesday night I thought that our fall break gave us free days for Thursday & Friday. Nope. Just Friday. I went to bed on Wednesday night thinking I was free of class. I woke up at 6:47, and morning prayer was at 7:00 and I was singing. I did my standard "Daa!" sound, threw on a shirt, skipped my prayers, flew down the stairs, and got into chapel in just enough time to find out what I was singing. I did great, we had a great Mass, and I enjoyed my apple afterward, as per my ritual of only two meals on days off. Obviously, the third meal takes the form of a pot of coffee. I passed a fellow student in the hall with his jacket on. "Hey, Hose Mario, are you going to your training parish?" "Um, no. I'm going to Sacred Heart." "Oh, why?" "Because it's Thursday, not Friday." "Oh." So I hurried to my room, threw my books (the wrong ones) into my bag, and rushed downstairs just in enough time to fool my carpool into thinking that I knew what was going on. But classes were great that day! I got a near-perfect score on my modern philosophy test, my ancient philosophy professor changed my grade from a B+ to an A- after I talked with him a bit*, and it was just a dandy and productive day all-around. That night I chose to skip a new class of capoeira because Father Steve wanted to take me out for dinner. BY RANDOM CHANCE he took me to a pizza place 10 meters away from the new capoeira class. So after dinner we stopped by and I did some exercises with the class before we headed back home. I trust Father Steve more than anyone else here - he's one of two people I trusted with information about my flesh pull. It was cool to show him what capoeira actually is. As for the dinner itself, I really needed it. I've been feeling pretty isolated and misunderstood lately, and it was good to have a one-on-one talk with someone I can be myself around. As usual, we spent the rest of the evening taking pride on our heritages. See, Father Steve is super-Polish and has a lot of respect for the Irish. And Father Steve truly deserves his title: he like a beloved grandpa you could talk to about anything, and he makes that clear by his honesty and straight-forwardness. Seriously, if you can talk comfortably to a priest about the super-cute waitress ("Yes, she is. I'll bet she's Polish."), you're probably in good shape to talk about anything else. His take on romance still has me giggling; it's the perfect mix of truth and politically incorrect humor. "You know, that's why I understand you, Justin. You're a romantic and there are three nations of true romantics in Europe: Irish, Polish, and Italian. But there's the difference. See, the Irish -like you- are die-hard romantics, but you're feel guilty about it." "Yeah, you pretty much summed up that part of my behavior. My fellow nerd friends call it 'The Order of the Rose'." "Polish romantics don't have guilt, but have a sense of shame if something goes wrong. Polish do what they have to, and they worry about it only if their advances don't work. Now the Italians..." "Let me guess: no shame and no guilt?" "Italian women will stick it in any hole." [jaw drop] Obviously, you can only tell that story to a select few who know you're not being literal and not immediately accuse you of being a sexist - he was making a point by way of the most blunt and politically incorrect way possible. It was absolutely hilarious and exactly what I needed then. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 5th, 2009
8:57 pm	What a shitty day. I got a lower grade on my philosohpy paper than I was hoping, I missed capoeira due to my injured finger, I spilled my coffee in the middle of class, and I exploded at Mass. The exploding was the worst by far, and a terrible way to start the day. I sang and played the piano well enough for Morning Prayer, and got ready for Mass. The priest got ready and nodded at me to begin. I started to play, and I noticed that no one else sang with me. Realizing something was wrong, I cut it down to one verse and tried to salvage a bit of dignity. See, a rule of thumb about liturgy is to not draw attention to mistakes. Roll with the pinches and do your best. The priest didn't see it that way. To paraphrase without chuch vocabulary, "So Justin decided to play a song other than the one we were expecting and seems to be using a different book alltogether. Justin, what will the closing song be, so we can all be ready for it?" That pretty much made it the biggest cock-up of the year for church blunders. To be fair, the mistake was only partly my fault as my song was indeed on the schedule. If I had bothered to double-check the notice in chuch I would have caught the error and corrected it in 30 seconds. It was a pretty rough morning for my first time singing without any support of any kind. Oh, and still no Internet. Maybe tomorrow I'll do pictures. For now I'm just going to stay hidden under the rock I crawled under. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
9:14 pm	I've been foiled again by lousy internets, leaving me to pluck out my lj posts on my phone. Still no photos of my flesh pull, but it's been a full week and I'm still bleeding in my sleep. I wasn't expecting that. If tomorrow night still has no internets, I'll bring my compy to class on Tuesday and do my computer stuff then. For now, I'm going to keep panicking about singing at Mass tomorrow and morning prayer every day next week. Oh, and making a mustache out of your own hair is surprisingly complicated. I'm not sure when I'll be able to put the final phase of my plan in action... (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
9:28 pm	I have my pictures now (so pretty), but I still need the weekend to get them all downloaded & stuff. I'm shooting for a proper post Saturday or Sunday. Until then, a few more quick remarks about life today: "Hi, thanks again for last night!" is something you should never hear from a nun - no matter how innocent she meant it. I got "the right answer" in ancient philosophy today. Anyone who's taken a philosophy class should realize how absurd that claim is, but I really got the idea of his lecture today and I expressed it in appropriate terms. My victory was short, however, as I talked with the professor after class where he butchered Descartes the second I brought his name up. He then proceeded to tell me that my appreciation for the man was completely misplaced and that Nietzsche is going to destroy everything Descartes pretended to establish and challenge my whole philosophical viewpoint. And this is coming from the one philosophically educated man in my life who supports my preference of Plato! So I guess I'll just have to wait until next semester and give Nietzsche a fair trial. I sing at Mass tomorrow at Sacred Heart. I'll try not to explode, but it'll be tough. Instead of 15 people at Saint Francis, it'll be more like 70. I'M NOT PANICKING! I have a black martini robe of sexiness. I started wearing it this week because the building isn't going to be heated until November and it's starting to get chilly at night. Tonight I realized how flowing and awesome this thing is while doing capoeira stuff. It's a good piece of transitional clothing between Brazilian dance, ninjas, priests, and my old life at BSFFA. Now if only I could justify wearing it to a roda... Lastly, my flesh pull is starting to pass "confident" to "overly cocky". By my standards. At lunch today people were talking about haggis: "See, you young people are all spoiled! We would have eaten that and liked it! You don't realize how much flavor the stomach has!" In my head, my response was automatic: "Spoiled? Well, no one else here has had a more authentic experience of the crucifixion than I have! Have you been suspended by your own body for an hour or so? I think not!" As you might imagine, telling a bunch of priests that you know what it's like to be crucified is probably not a good idea. That's way off the jackass-o-meter! I figure I can get away with it once, but I should save it for a special occasion. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
9:04 pm	Flesh pull: THE AFTERMATH! Two things as I'm sure you all wait with baited breath for pictures which Lex hasn't quite gotten to me: 1. People are psychic. It's absolutely amazing how many people have slapped me on the back right where my wounds are. My mom saw me the day after the pulling, and smacked me three times the second she saw me. In the words of a better man than I*, "Heavens to Betsy, what are the odds?" 2. I noticed a rather significant amount of blood on my sheets today. I'm not sure when I decided I bleed like that, but the patterns were pretty cool and certainly from my pulling wounds. My right side made almost a perfect "V" shape. I'll have to sleep with a shirt on for a while, I guess. Bah. Lex: I'm sorry that I forgot to tell you about Ben from Pippin. Next time we're together in person, remind me about that. Then I'll convince you to set yourself on fire for the amusement of others. I've been meaning to do that for a while now. *The Tick (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, September 28th, 2009
10:56 am	Gotta keep it brief ... So there I was, in a strange church in tattered clothes, blood crusting on my back, and the word FISH written in sharpie on my hand. First impressions of my flesh pull in Madison are amazing! I don’t have pictures yet and I’m not exactly sure how I can get my clips on youtube with my current internet connection issues. Nevertheless, pulls are wonderful! It was about half as painful as a rabies shot, all-in-all. This comes from someone who’s never had any piercing work done before. Once my hooks were in, I took a while to get into the sensation. The punctures in my back had pains that ebbed and flowed, where at one moment I could only lean a few inches only to lower myself all the way to the floor a few minutes later. Only two potential goals remained unfulfilled. For the first, I just couldn’t run until the hooks stopped me, like Lex did for hers. The pain and strangeness was just a little too much for me to overcome. Secondly, I wanted to lift myself off the floor without using my arms, but the angle was funny and my back exploded in pain both times I tried. Still, I had some great pulling sensations. The best one for me was with Marcus grabbing my wrists: I pulled him forward toward me with all my might, letting my back take in all the force. It felt great and I pulled Marcus so hard the carpet began to slide. The sensation of flight was nice, but true immersion was rare – I think one requires a full body suspension for that. Still, listening to music from Dune while soaring in the air inside my mind was a difficult experience to top. So I give great thanks for yet another level of understanding I have with myself, my body, and the world. Later on, when I get the pictures from Lex, Arabian Flatbread, and/or Becca, I’ll post a link for all to see. The general reaction here has been shock and confusion. I told a few guys, Father Steve, and my parents. Father Steve was mildly horrified at the idea; I think I introduced the idea to him too quickly. I intend to speak to him again later. My dad laughed and seemed to understand that this is just one of those things I do. My mom was closer to the side of concerned confusion. Plus, when she saw me she gave me three swift pats on the back – right where my hook had been 24 hours past. That was pretty funny in a painful way. I have more private thoughts about these last 48 hours, but I’m not feeling it. It doesn’t seem like internet info… I’ll have to give it more thought… Keep an eye out for pictures or video! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 26th, 2009
3:48 pm	Ok! I'm off to Madison for voluntary torture. There's still some residual confusion, but it should all work out. More info later. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
1:42 pm	It's official! Whew! It’s all set! I’ll be in Madison this Saturday to satiate my jealously for Lex’s newfound skill at flying. I’m getting a flesh pull at 9:00 pm, with Becca and Lex. I’ll take care of details a bit later. I’ve told a handful of people about it, and all the of the responses were “eww” or “why?” except for Father Don who simply laughed at the idea and the fact that I told it to him so casually. I’m planning to leave around noon or early afternoon. If at all possible, I really need to show Lex an episode of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia: the one where a tall blond Lex goes on steroids. It’s awesome. Lastly, a quote from today. “Yes. And this fact is verified at the end of the Gospel according to Mark. Does anyone have that handy? Anyone with the Gospel of Mark? Anyone here have a Bible? Are there any Catholics taking this class?” 18 Seminarians in one room: not a single paper Bible and my electronic one wouldn’t load. Shame and curses! (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
2:25 pm	Quick stuff for now: LEX AND BECCA: this month isn’t going to work out for a Madison visit. I need to explain to children that Jesus isn’t a zombie, and I need to be here for the whole weekend for that. We’ll shoot for sometime in October or November. Sorry! I exploded during my liturgy responsibilities. Twice. It was pretty horrible, but at least my singing went well. I talked with a guy today. Father Paul was visiting Sacred Heart representing chaplain ministry. So he’s also a religious Peace Corps vet, so we got along really well. And I’ve been thinking about serving as a chaplain for a few years now, so I took the info and I’ll discuss it with my formation director. Realistically, this means that I’ll participate in a 3-month chaplain training program next summer. Then when I’m a priest, I can say that I want to be a chaplain. If/when the bishop says ok, all my training is out of the way as long as I’m still in shape. So that’s cool, I’m glad that I made the time for that. I probably won’t have substantial news about this for a few weeks. If you tell my mom about the chaplain stuff, I will hunt you down, eat you, and kill you. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, September 14th, 2009
5:41 pm	I didn't explode while presiding morning prayer. My fellow seminarians concur that the paw prints on my car are "weird". The teacher "you just don't mess with" didn't give me crap about writing my assignment with a calligraphy pen instead of using a computer. My ancient philosophy teacher justifiably called me a jackass. So yeah, a pretty good day. Now onward to evening prayer, dinner, capoeira on the lakefront, and seeing Katie Antony for the first time in 5 years. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 12th, 2009
9:12 pm	I blame the newly blessed grotto Oh My Lord! I totally got Changeling points tonight! See, there was this play at the building next to ours and it's easiest to get there by our forest paths. Sure, I made a wrong turn at the cemetery and had a dog slobber over my black dress pants, but who cares? After the play, I was stupid and chose to walk back through the woods alone with only my iCorder for a light source. It was terrifying to get through the middle part with no external light and no milestones to guide me. Plus it was all misty and I'm in all black, so it must've looked cool for the no ones to see me walk in. But then I got home and saw a bunch of teenagers walking away from my side of the grounds quickly as I came out of the pitch-black woods wearing all black and listening to Gregorian techno. They "heard voices" from my ipod and thought the woods were haunted. You understand? When I saw them THEY WERE RUNNING AWAY FROM ME, BUT WERE TOO CONFUSED TO ACTUALLY SEE ME. So yeah. I'm haunting the seminary grounds now. I really wasn't expecting that, as I hunt things that haunt other things, but clearly my Pooka subconscious has other plans. So remember, when you hear girly Japanese music or Techno Monks in darkness, do a handstand and get ready to be kicked in the face. By the way, the kids said they'd tell people about me. I feel a legend-in-a-legend brewing... Sigh. Yet another business card I'll need: Justin Lopina, woodland spectre priest. Oh, and the title is correct: the grotto was blessed earlier today. I missed an open roda to attend. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, September 11th, 2009
9:14 pm	A good day, but a bit strange 1. I got up and left for class. There were/are little muddy paw prints all over my car. I figure that my doppelganger borrowed my car and when he was done with it, he used his superpower of transforming into a swarm of squirrels. Then he ran up and over my car and disappeared into the woods. Seriously, I don't know why animals did this to my car. No other car got "hit" and my car was in the middle of the parking lot away from the trees or any other part of nature. No. Bloody. Sense. 2. Capoeira was good, I managed a full 360-degree head spin and I had some nice aggressive plays tonight. Also, my main group is starting to meet on Mondays at 7:00, which I can actually attend! All good things. 3. I'm cantoring next Wednesday, I'm serving at Mass here and there, and I'm presiding morning prayer all next week. The pressure's on! 4. After taking an interest in my Dilbert tie, Bishop Sklba can't wait to see me in my Halloween costume. So now Priestly Cyborg is definitely on: it's an order from a bishop. Mind you, Bishop Sklba is a million feet tall of awesome: "Well, actually, there was one part of Dei Verbum which I raised an eyebrow to. It was the fir.." "Which one?" "Excuse me?" "Which eyebrow did you raise?" "Oh! The right one. I can't raise my left." "I see. Please continue." Everyone else in class was just stunned by that exchange, and the fact that it was so natural. I love telling the truth. It's so much more virtuous than not touching a cow*. 5. Only half a season left of Battlestar Galactica, plus the two stand-alone films. The suspense may very will kill me. *A reference to a Lex-post. Too lazy for a link. (7 Comments |Comment on this)