Sociohorticulture and Beauty

During my senior year of college, I took a Sociohorticulture class. Sociohorticulture examines how horticultural practices and plants can be beneficial for the human experience because of the relationship between the two. Really fascinating, and it's surprising how impactful plants can be. Yes, yes, I have college credit for such a class. Plants don't fly, but aerospace engineering majors need their elective credits.

When I initially drafted this blog post, I was on a snowboarding trip with some friends. This trip was part of the reason why I went on an unannounced blog break. I thoroughly enjoyed myself since I've never been snowboarding before (or snow sports in general), and it was definitely an adventure!

But, even as I had fun on the trip, I had a ton of things that I'm thinking about. I mean, beyond this trip I was preparing for a multitude of important obligations, and life in general has been particularly stressful.

And so, as we traversed from our lodging to the ski resort and vice versa, it gave me some time to look out the window and reflect on all the things occupying my mind, whether for worse or better.

Praise God that the views right outisde of the car window were that of the wilds and lightly settled areas of southern Colorado! Forests, mountains, blue skies, oh my! And even alpacas?! Cool.

It made me think back to my Sociohorticulture class. There I learned that seeing scenes of nature can provide a calming effect to help with stress as well as helping with focus. Seeing the mountains of majesty covered in forests against a backdrop of blue, clear skies definitely helped me be less stressed about all the things. It was quite nice. I sort of yearned to view such views because it helped put my mind at ease or at least distracted me from focusing on negatives.

But wait. There's more.

I'm Catholic.

Digging deeper into my faith has helped me appreciate encountering beauty, especially such beautiful scenes here in Colorado.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches me in paragraph 2500 that

"Truth is beautiful in itself...but truth can also find other complementary forms of human expression, above all when it is a matter of evoking what is beyond words: the depths of the human heart, the exaltations of the soul, the mystery of God. Even before revealing himself to man in words of truth, God reveals himself to him through the universal language of creation, the work of his Word, of his wisdom: the order and harmony of the cosmos-which both the child and scientist discover-"from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator," "for the author of beauty created them."

In addition to the sociohorticulture benefits, seeing the beauty of Colorado definitely had its taste of the divine because it is His creation.

Why is that helpful for me? Because a majority of my interior struggles (which I won't divulge here at this time) deal with a self-centered attitude. Marvelling at Colorado's beauty reminds me that such a thing is only possible because of God, who is the author of beauty. Acknowledging the source of beauty I encountered really reminded me to put things in perspective that God is greater than me. Even if all the things I'm worried and concerned about seems to not be working in the way I want, just to have these opportunities of encountering beauty in nature to acknowledge divine perspective is calming despite all the stress I'm dealing with.  It takes a certain trust of God's love, mercy, and will to be okay in these beautiful encounters pointing towards the divine.

Total trust in God? Something I still struggle with.
- JD

Vote for your favorite #100PicsOfBeauty!

At last! I have finally taken #100PicsOfBeauty through Instagram! It only took me something like a year and a half, but that's okay!

I'm surprised no one has asked me about why I did it...but...before I do, I figure I could have some fun with it.

From now til the end of the year, sign on to Instagram and follow me: @r4nd311, and Like your favorite pictures from my #100PicsOfBeauty. Conveniently, they are the most recent 100 pictures that I have on Instagram!

For my Facebook friends and Twitter followers, while my Instagram photos do get posted on those as well, I'll only count Likes via Instagram only.

After the new year, I'll post the top 5 most Liked #100PicsOfBeauty and then... explain why I did it!

Get excited! Click here to go to my Instagram profile, follow me, and Like your favorites! You can also use the sidebar to get to my Instagram profile.
- JD

The Most Epic Safety Video

Not all airline safety videos are created equal. As a decently traveled traveler, most that I've seen have been pretty standard, mundane and not exactly exciting to watch.

But! I suppose it only makes sense that Air New Zealand gets Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings-style treatment.

I'm for serious. PETER JACKSON AND ELIJAH WOOD ARE IN IT. THERE ARE ORCS AND A GATHERING OF ARMIES. WATCH NOW:

So there's that.

As I'm currently reading The Lord of the Rings, I can definitely appreciate this safety video.

And as a bonus, maybe I have engineering experience in airline seats, perhaps the very ones seen throughout the video. No big deal.

One safety video to epic them all.

-JD

ANZ 747 // Wikipedia

What Does The Monk Say?

WAIT!

Before continuing, if you do not know what does the fox say, then watch this first:

And then...now we can begin discerning what does the monk say.

Kyrie eleison.

- JD

7 Quick Takes (Vol.9)

--- 1 ---

Something practical I learned from the YouTube is the Japanese art of efficient t-shirt folding.  I somehow came across it the summer before my first semester of college, and it definitely helped in folding my laundry.  I thought this was common knowledge since the video has millions and millions of views, but apparently I was wrong.

Here's the video:

And I say that because volunteering in ministry inevitably results in a myriad of t-shirts.  And perhaps this one time I obtained a t-shirt but couldn't wear it at the time so I folded it.  That inevitably resulted in others noticing how quickly the t-shirt ended up being folded.

Well then, I put my t-shirt folding sensei hat on...and passed on this wisdom.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.  Because volunteering in ministry, I should reiterate, inevitably results in a lot of t-shirts.  And the crowd is never the same.

It inspired this time attack run on folding a t-shirt (from Facebook):

Grasshoppers learn well.

--- 2 ---

I mentioned in my last Quick Takes about running a retreat.  Again, this retreat was focused on the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary.  These are the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan, the Wedding at Cana, the Proclamation of the Kingdom, the Transfiguration, and the Institution of the Eucharist.  We went through each of the Mysteries from Scripture using Lectio Divina to prayerfully reflect and contemplate what God wants us to know regarding each passage.  What's great about Lectio Divina is being able to really chew on the Word and let it marinate through reflection, response, and rest.  This spiritual exercise is also a good medium for journaling, and I issued our retreaters notebooks to respond to Scripture.

All in all...I'm quite pleased with the retreat.  Actually, I was kind of freaking out because I didn't give myself adequate preparation time and hammering down of concrete details.  Basically, the entire retreat was planned in like...a week's worth of time.  Sure, I had a template to follow from last time I ran one of these, and it was just a matter of plugging in the new elements.

But! Every time I make plans, God laughs.  The retreat didn't really go according to my outlined plan...so I just gave up using my schedule.  Haha.

Although I must say...it was a great retreat.  I think the retreaters definitely got something good out of it.  Surprisingly, two of my young adult chaperones really got something out of it.  But, hey! I'm all for second-hand benefits/fruits when chaperoning a retreat.

Oh, and one thing I love about Catholic retreats?  You will never go hungry! We feed physically...and spiritually!  Friday night was pizza.  Breakfast Saturday morning was an array of regular, strawberry, blueberry, strawberry/blueberry pancakes with sausage. Lunch was make-your-own sandwich with legit deli meat.  Dinner was food from a local Italian restaurant. Mmm.

And oh, Mass had the Eucharist ;-)

--- 3 ---

Because I'm a busy Catholic, my next focus will be for an event next month.  My diocese holds an annual conference for youth in the summer, and last year I had the privilege of helping run a workshop on masculinity and authentic manhood.

I think I'm slated to help out with that same workshop again for this year, but I want to change it up.  I have an idea already...I just need to hash it out (with...#hashtags?!).

Even if I don't end up doing it...at the very least, it'll make for a good blog post. :-)

MAN UP!

--- 4 ---

This week's theme regarding work is: "Don't touch the restroom door handles."  On Wednesday, I happened to notice (more than usual) of other guys NOT washing their hands after using the facilities. Like, straight up from porcelain to door with no lay over at the sink.

Perhaps I'm a little more attentive now who does or does not wash their hands because of Kidd Kraddick's latest cause in promoting hand washing awareness. 

Gross to think about the lacking of washing...but my only consolation is a buildup of immunity. -___-

--- 5 ---

I thought that devoting some time for Total Consecration preparation would be more burdensome than I thought, but it really hasn't. I guess I've somewhat learned to cut out some unnecessary time spent on things, and this leaves enough room to sit down and reflect each night. 

It's going well.  So far I'm in the first twelve days, where the goal is to detoxify oneself from the ways of the world. I'm starting to be more attentive about the things that hold me back.

If you follow my blog directly or me on Twitter, you can immediately see when I post a daily reflection for each day of the Total Consecration preparation.

--- 6 ---

Google Reader is about to die in a few days. When I first heard about this months ago, I'm not gonna lie, I did in fact freak out.

Simply because Google Reader was my primary aggregation method of my growing list of Catholic blogs to follow. So I did spend some time seeking an alternative.  I think the read-a-holics of the Internet also freaked out and I found some useful lists of alternatives.

I tried one and liked it. It's called Feedly. What's nice is...they've made it easy for users to migrate their feeds from Google Reader to Feedly. For a long while, they were just echoing the content found on Google Reader's servers, but in the past week, they've actually migrated over to their own servers.

Annnndddd, now Feedly is web-accessible! No longer just an extension in browser and app!

I like it because it presents feeds in a nice manner and the app is pretty slick.  OH! And my favorite part, now that it has been implemented--it integrates with If This Then That!

Now, I am unstoppable. MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA.

Not really.

--- 7 ---
And for this weekend, I'm also busy.  Not a retreat this time.  I've been asked to lector at a friend's wedding at my parish.  I am honored! I guess my reading of the Word at Mass is good enough to do so at weddings!

But this wedding is kind of a big deal.  Simply because I know like...a big chunk of the family.  No there will not be 6 concelebrants this time...but the biggest deal of all....is that I'll feel old.  Really old.  I taught the bride how to march with her clarinet like 10 years ago. And here we are. 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

- JD

Stuff Catholic Guys Say

I find that I'm at a point where I have leveled up enough in Catholic nerdiness to appreciate these videos.  Yes, sometimes I do find myself saying Catholic things.

The second one features one of my friends with scapular problems!

Back to discerning because Audrey Assad is married...
- JD

Habemus Diem! The Other March Madness

Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the Church eagerly awaited for the cardinals to get together and decide on a day to start Conclave.

#visualpun

I heard on Catholic radio last week that with the arrival of the last cardinal elector at the end of the week, they finally decided on starting the Conclave on Tuesday March 12th.  Up until the last week, the cardinals have been having meetings among themselves to discuss whatever they discuss as well as to get a feel for who has the potential to become the next pope.  Lots of prayer too.  And tweeting and blogging, depending on the cardinal.

This is kind of a big deal!  Now is a particularly exciting time in the Catholic Church because we're about to have a new leader! 

Back in 2005, I remember when Blessed Pope John Paul II passed away, but I don't remember following Conclave that much.  I guess because I didn't really pay attention to the news, and the social media outlets we enjoy today were still a twinkle in their creators' eyes or still infantile.  For me, Cardinal Ratzinger came in like "whoosh, now I'm Pope!"  And I was all like, "oh cool!"  And that was that.

Haha but not this time! Now, with a more mature understanding of the Catholic faith, I can follow it with a better degree of appreciation.  The one thing I need to watch out for is making sure that I follow Catholic sources regarding Conclave coverage.  When I say Catholic, I don't mean "Catholic."  And I know that secular and "Catholic" media loves putting forth their bias and lack of full understanding in order to impart ideas and desires that aren't in line with what is truly Catholic.

Johnny

And there was much rejoicing and praise upon hearing that Texas A&M's quarterback for the 2012 football season, Johnny Manziel, was named as the Heisman winner on the evening of Saturday December 8, 2012.  Well, for the Aggies anyway.  Non-Aggies weren't as excited or enthusiastic, haha.

It was cool taking a break from my wedding reception-ing that evening and being on Facebook.  I had to scroll longer than usual in order to read a Facebook post that had nothing to do with Johnny!  And I'm convinced that Twitter stopped working for a little bit because the Aggies BTHO'd tweeting about Johnny, I'm sure (or maybe my hotel's wi-fi wasn't that great...I'm not sure...).

I'm not gonna lie (#HonorCode)... I nearly forgot what Johnny's real last name is because everyone called him Johnny Football or now Johnny Heisman.

I'm like...those are two awkward last names.  -facepalm-  Oh yeahhhhhhh, then I remember that his last name is Manziel!

But that isn't his last name...from AggieAthletics.com

I find it interesting that Johnny's last name changes based on what he's doing.  Oh, so he's playing football and being awesome at it?  Let's make his last name Football!  OH EM GEE! HE WON THE HEISMAN!  Let's call him Johnny Heisman now!!!  COZ DAT WHAT HE DO!

lol, anyway...I'm cool with Johnny having a "this is what I do/I am" last name because...it's always the quirky little things we Aggies like to do that make me appreciate being an Aggie.  Traditions, or something...

Awkward pause though.

My life is Aggie.  And Catholic.  But we Aggies can't play the "we're hipster" card in calling someone's last by their identity.

You see, there lived a great Christian philosopher and apologist who lived around the turn of the first century.  I've heard his name before, but I recently heard someone talking about him on the radio and I made the farfetched connection to Johnny Heisman.

We Catholics call him, St. Justin Martyr.  He was... martyred.

From Wikipedia

I haven't had the time to read up on him properly, but for someone who lived around 100AD, his historic record seems to have been preserved nicely through the centuries.  He was martyred for disagreeing with another philosopher, condemned by Roman prefect Ruficus, and executed along with several companions.

He's an intriguing character to me because he was defending the Christian faith among pagans right after the time of the apostles.  I think further study and inquiry on his works and life would provide great insight on what it meant to be Christian back in those days.

While I'm not writing this to compare and contrast Johnny and Justin...I just find this practice of last naming based on what you're famous for interesting and fun.  Lol, if you know me via Facebook and Twitter...I'm a fan of hashtags.  Goodness...maybe one day I can be known as "JD Hashtag."

Maybe next year.

Soooo....shout out to Johnny Heisman! I'm grateful that the Aggies finally has someone recognized for his skills on the field since we haven't had a Heisman winner since 1957.  x_x

And shout out to St. Justin Martyr!  I wish I knew more about him!

The Catholic Church celebrates St. Justin Martyr's feast day on June 1.

Thanks and gig'em,
- JD

Pardon

So I'm experimenting with different layouts for my blog... Sorry if it changes every time.

The dust will settle.

Forgive me.  Our lives are Catholic.

- JD

Worst Church Singer Ever

When I was in high school, our youth minister also happened to be the leader of a Catholic band/apostolate.

He would often quote St. Augustine.... "When you sing, you pray twice."

He would also often say, as words of encouragement to get us to sing along, "God gave you a voice.  You should make him suffer for it."

Believe me...this is twice the suffering:

He talks for a little while before actually singing.  Worth the wait.

Shout out to my bro for sharing this with me! >_>

Faith. Hope. Charity.  Because I need those three virtues when watching this video, haha.
- JD

Kind of Impressive

Behold, the Ark of the Covenant!

...the cake version.

So, apparently this is a groom's cake.  Kind of impressive.  Because it looks more real than tasty.  And I always appreciate creative groom's cake at wedding receptions, and this is cool.

Now, I doubt anyone died when they touched (edit: ate) this cake because it didn't contain The Law...it probably contained The Chocolate or The Vanilla.

Because I'm Catholic, it's easy to draw the parallels between the real Old Ark of the Covenant , the real New Ark of the Covenant, and the real Cake Ark of the Covenant.  The Old Ark contained the tablets of which God inscribed His commandments and instructed Moses and his followers to erect a very holy box to hold The Law (see Exodus and onwards).  And then there's Mary, Mother of God, who is considered as the New Ark of the Covenant because she carried within her The Fulfillment of the Law--Jesus.  And Jesus' Body is consumable because we need it for life (see John 6).  And now there's this Cake Ark of the Covenant, which contains the Law That One Must At Least Have One Bite. Or something.

Haha anyway, bravo to the cake artist/baker--this is impressive.  Though personally, I'd feel bad/awkward for taking a bite into it...

Faith. Hope. Charity. Biblical cakes.
- JR

[gizmodo.com; pictures from Gosling Photography]

Last Sunday Night

So ... I had some free time one weekend, and the creative juices were flowing so I reworded Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" and made it Catholic...since my life is Catholic.  And nerdy.  And bored.  Either way! Here it is below:


"LAST SUNDAY NIGHT"  ...reworded by JD

====Verse 1====

Now here's a thought in my head

That I should get out of m'bed

Getting dressed to go to Mass

Where's my seat? I've got to guess

I hop in a front row pew

With granny and momma too

Priest processing down the aisle

Feels like a really long mile

Blessings from last night

I talked about online

I'm blessed

Oh yes!

It's filled me up with joy

And I'm really sure it rocked

Amen!

====Chorus====

Last Sunday night

Had Supper on altar tops

With the Son who was begot

Should I kneel or should I not?

Last Sunday night

Yeah we passed out prayer cards

A rosary in our cars

We crowned Mary with some stars

Last Sunday night

We were sitting at the Mass

Donated a bit of cash

Received His Body and Blood

Last Sunday night

Read some verses from the Word

Always trying to sing-ing

Am-e-n!

This Sunday night

Go to Mass again

This Sunday night

Go to Mass again

====Verse 2====

Trying to take in the Word

I went up to present the Gifts

Thought I heard a baby cry

I should wake this sleeping guy

Looked across and saw my friend

Standing up and down again

Think I need a Communion host

Of Jesus I love the most

Blessings from last night

I talked about online

I'm blessed

Oh yes!

It's filled me up with joy

And I'm really sure it rocked

Amen!

(Return to chorus)

Father. Son. Holy Spirit.

Father. Son. Holy Spirit.

Father. Son. Holy Spirit.

Father. Son. Holy Spirit.

Father. Son. Holy Spirit.

Father. Son. Holy Spirit.

[insert sax solo]

Chorus