It's that time of year!

In the academic calendar, it's that crazy time of year.  Both students and faculty are tired, and say and do goofy stuff.  This week, one of the other faculty was helping me gather signatures on a secretary's day card.  She gave me the card, complete with signatures, which I stuck in a drawer and promptly forgot about.  Then I asked her where the card was.  Duh.  She forgave me, as she had been talking about going to the dentist to get her eyes checked.  Duh. 

To make things worse, I sold my house and now I am trying to pack to move.  The move is scheduled for finals week, as the new owners must take possession quickly.  So, that is more craziness and rush at a time I already have plenty of that.  It also involves faxing papers back and forth with my son, as he is co-owner.  Microsoft has a crazy way of doing faxes.  The fax number goes to someone's computer, not an actual fax machine.  That someone must manually route the fax to the right person.  It takes hours.  My son says Microsoft is really not very good with using technology.  I believe it.

And of course, there are students worried about their grade.  A friend posted on his blog that it's a little late in the semester for that.  My view - as long as it is BEFORE the final exam, there is hope.  Two years ago there was a group of angry and upset baseball players who came to me AFTER their algebra final, wanting to know what they could do to improve their grade.  Yes, they did.  I said "nothing", so they went to the department chair and said I was a terrible teacher and they understood nothing I said all semester.  This is probably true, as for most of the class periods they were not actually in the classroom.  It's hard to understand an algebra lesson while asleep in your dorm. 

Graduation is in 2 weeks, and I can't wait! 

Catholics and the Bible.

I have been a Catholic officially for 5 years now, and attended regularly for a year before that.  Still, there are people that warn me to keep up my Bible reading, as the Catholic Church discourages it. 

Baloney!!!

Most Protestant church services have only one Bible reading.  We have 4 every Sunday.  One is always from a Gospel, which we stand up for, to show how important it is. 

Yesterday started Holy Week, and it's Bible reading on steroids.  Yesterday's service included a very lenghthy reading from the Gospel of Mark - about 1/2 hour of standing.  Then there is a church service Thursday night, and 2 services on Good Friday.  Saturday evening is a service called the Easter Vigil that is 3 hours long, and includes an entire hour of Bible reading, essentially describing the history of the universe, starting with Genesis. 

The Catholics love the Bible so much, it is bigger than the Protestant Bible.  There are 7 Old Testament books, plus parts of 2 others, that are retained by the Catholics, having been removed by the Protestants (for a variety of reasons--perhaps I will go into in another post).  And it is historical fact that the Catholic church wrote the New Testament, and they still stand by it. 

A person can be a Catholic or not, of course, as one wishes, but I hope it is a decision based on facts, not misinformation.  Most non-Catholics seem to get their information on the Catholic church from people who have never been to a Catholic service, and are full of misinformation.  It's easy to get the facts about Catholic beliefs.  Go to any major bookstore, or Amazon.com, and purchase the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  It's all there.  There are no secrets.  The book is not expensive.   Also, why don't you actually visit a Catholic service?  I promise they will not nail you to the pew, or make you eat a live chicken.  And, you will get to hear the 4 Bible readings for yourself.