7 Quick Takes (Vol. 14)

--- 1 ---

Being one who appreciates some change from time to time, I'm thinking about changing my blog's layout/theme/colors.  Again. Typically whenever this happens, I experiment with a few and end up returning back to this layout as you see it now...

We'll see what happens.  I just want something simplistic yet conveys what I'm going for. Who knows! Maybe this blog will look entirely or subtlety different for Quick Takes Vol. 15!

--- 2 ---

When I read the word, "flugtag", I don't usually think of energy drinks and aerospace. I see that word, and it carries a sort of German connotation that I'm totally unsure of its meaning.  But! Apparently flugtag is an event organized by Red Bull where competitors fly home-built, human-powered machines that have size and weight restrictions, usually from 30 feet up in the air into a lake.

Crazy!

And apparently there's a local one of these coming up this weekend. And now I finally understand what some of my coworkers were talking about when they decided to organize a flugtag team earlier in the year.  I just might go because I find it intriguing and the aerospace nerd in me delights in this idea of aerospace/aeronautical achievement...or failure.

Red Bull gives you wiings!...which also hopefully float. :-x

--- 3 ---

So maybe I taught a class briefly on leadership over the weekend that involved the Harlem Shake. Like, seriously. My main topic for leadership was "nurture your first followers" where I used the Harlem Shake as an example of what's missing from crazy leader to crazy crowd.  Because as you see below, solo to crowd happens instantaneously and that's not really how it works in real life.

Yes, we can learn from the Internets.

--- 4 ---
The iPhone 5S comes out today! I'm still rockin' the iPhone 4, and it's been a loyal piece of gadgetry over the past 3 years, but I think the time has come for an upgrade.  But! I just upgraded to iOS 7, which pretty much breathes fresh air into my iPhone 4. Like, with iOS 7, it feels like a totally new phone.

So why the 5S? Because I'm a tech geek and it's got good enough of guts to make it last a long while. I'm not looking to upgrade again until the 7S anyway =P

Regarding iOS 7...and my life is Catholic for this...but...I'm actually most excited about how you can stuff unlimited apps into folders now. Now I can store all my Catholic apps in one folder!

Very. Big. Deal. Because you know you're Catholic when your shelves don't have room for all your Catholic books and when your iOS folders don't have enough room for all the apps...

--- 5 ---

My dad's birthday was this past Thursday! I bought dinner at an Asian place that my brother suggested, and it was fairly good.

I didn't realize he's closely approaching 60 and that kind of made me do a double-take. Dang, we're gettin' older.

--- 6 ---

Tangent-ing towards talking about time, Fall is usually when I get super busy. There are two times a year that I tend to get super busy: around this time and around April-May. It's been that way since college...and even now post-college.  I kind of feel like everyone decides to do everything around this time. Ok, and maybe around this time football season starts...

But seriously! I have to check my calendar closely just to make sure I'm not triple-booking myself on weekends and even during the week.

However, I've made it easier on myself by removing myself from some things I've been involved with the past few years. I'm wanting to focus on other things at the moment...but...more on that later.

--- 7 ---

And because my World Youth Day and Brazilian experience still lingers, I made sure to take the opportunity to make rice and beans. So for lunch nearly every day that we were there, we hit up one of those pay-by-all-you-can-eat-per-lb sort of places. And that's where I got to taste Brazilian-style rice and beans. I've been meaning to make it since I've been back from Rio De Janeiro, but my schedule has been super unstable and crazy since then. However, I had the opportunity to squeeze in some cooking time this past Sunday and...

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Tasty, tasty.

- JD

Red Bull Flugtag Returns To The Delaware River This Saturday, September 15 As 35 Teams Look To Defy Gravity With Their Human-Powered Flying Machines // Uwishunu

Scared to Die

Yesterday, going down the nursing home's hallway, I finally came up to her room and saw that the door was open. I knocked on the door out of courtesy but no response.  I enter quietly, and I see her there fast asleep.  I made a few attempts at calling her name in order wake her, and she eventually woke up. But she started crying as soon as she woke up.

I have the privilege of visiting nursing homes about once a month. Inspired to do this after doing a week-long service camp last summer, I am part of my parish's ministry to the sick at nursing homes. We visit Catholic residents at many of the local nursing homes in order to pray with them and to minister the Holy Eucharist to them so that they receive God in Word and Flesh because they normally don't have opportunities to go to Mass due to their current health situations. I've been doing this for about a year now, and just due to the nature of interacting with elderly and sick individuals, the reality of death is very apparent to me. But, on this particular visit to one of my usual residents, the reality of death was not something I, myself, personally related to in a profound way.

In the previous times I've interacted with her, she was coherent and very talkative and good-natured.  Sometimes she has short-term memory loss.  In recent reports from my fellow ministry volunteers, it seems as though her health has declined recently. Knowing this ahead of time, I wasn't sure what to expect upon arriving.

This happens frequently where I stop by a resident's room only to find them sleeping. And I usually make a few attempts to wake them up, and in her case this time, I was able to wake her. But like I said, she started crying.

I didn't know what to do but since she's a talkative one, I kind of waited for her to explain.  She kind of apologized for being a mess because had been crying a lot. And she said, in flowing tears, that she's scared to die. I didn't know what to say.

She further explained that she had a choking episode earlier in the morning.  Through this unfortunate experience, she realized she could have died had no one helped her. And after the fact, as I was dealing with this after the fact, the reality of death must have been ... totally real to her. 

I'm not gonna lie. I'm sensitive to death. And I nearly started tearing up out of sympathy for her because that's a certain kind of suffering that I can't totally fathom, but I understand. I mean, it's understandable to be scared to die. But since I've grown deeper into my Catholic faith, death for me personally is something less to be scared of, but I know that other people aren't at peace with the idea.

She went on for a bit expressing her fears, and I tried giving her some comforting gestures like pats on her shoulder and head and that's okay to be scared. I mentioned earlier that she has some mild short-term memory loss or has a short attention span. Thank goodness though, because I was half-expecting my interactions with her to be me having to listen to her cry for a long while.  But out of nowhere she stops crying and gets distracted by the TV that was on. That led to her noticing the verse of Scripture that someone had banner'd across the top of the wall above the TV:

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil 4:13)

She explained that she's glad that [whoever] had posted that on her wall because it helps her deal with what her fears. I then felt it appropriate to let her know of a quote by St. Augustine.  I only offered it because it's something that I've been reflecting on a lot lately, and it just somehow felt fitting to give her:

...our heart is restless until it rests in You. (from his Confessions)

The way I was understanding her fear of death was that it is out of anxiety and not being at peace with the idea of death. A sort of restlessness.  In my own life right now, I'm terribly restless and have only found peace by resting in God (usually through Adoration of the Holy Eucharist). And it's been a frequent reflection of mine for a long while now.

She really liked that quote. I'm not sure that she'll remember it, and I regret not having written it down for her, but I could tell that it did strike a chord with her.

After that, I offered to read her Sunday's Gospel reading, though I read the shorter version. These were the parables that Jesus told regarding the rejoicing of finding the lost sheep as well as the woman who lost one of her coins and rejoiced after she diligently searched for it and found it. Since I read the shorter version of Sunday's Gospel reading, it didn't include the fan favorite: the parable of the prodigal son.  She really liked hearing the Gospel that I read, and she even offered her own personal reflection (briefly) from the reading.

And we kind of got back into the conversation of being scared to die. To which I then asked her if she wanted to receive the Eucharist (because she sometimes doesn't).  She was a little hesitant because she let me know that she wanted to go to Confession as well.  Haha, she actually asked me if I could hear her confession, but I told her that I can't do that since I'm not a priest, but I offered to have a priest come visit her at some point sometime soon.  She very much liked that idea.

She ultimately decided to receive Jesus in the Eucharist because she felt that it would help her deal with her restlessness and fear regarding death.  So after humbly obliging to rinsing out her dentures at her request so that she could talk better and eat better, I was able to minister the Eucharist to her.

After she received the Eucharist, she was just incredibly grateful for my visit.  And she was just really grateful for us praying together and her receiving the Eucharist. By that point, I had to leave to go visit other residents, and I assured her that I would continue praying for her and that I would call our parish office to have a priest come by and visit to hear her confession.

I left her room feeling really grateful myself for having had this opportunity.  This was my first time talking about the reality of death with a nursing home resident. They're usually A) asleep, B) wanting to talk about other things or C) incoherent.  It just seemed really providential that it all worked out this way.

I was thinking just now how this little episode visiting her kind of ties in with this past Sunday's Gospel. Would a lonesome sheep not be scared that he is separated from the rest? The woman who lost her coin was probably scared because she lost something valuable.  The prodigal son was probably freaking out once he lost everything and was fearful in coming back home.  Yet, as Jesus shows us, there's much rejoicing to be had whenever the lost has been found.  And when we know this and take it to heart, we have nothing to fear, not even death itself.

I did call my parish earlier today, and a priest will be visiting her soon! :-)

Her name is Judy. Please pray for her! ...that she finds rest and peace in God and that whenever her hour has come, she's ready to come home.

Pax.
- JD

The Return of the Prodigal Son (1773) // Pompeo Batoni, Wikipedia

7 Quick Takes (Vol. 13)

--- 1 ---

I had the fortunate opportunity of going to see Audrey Assad in concert at a local Catholic university last weekend. She recently released her newest album, Fortunate Fall, and is touring around the country to promote her new album.

I have to say...I'm a fan! She's got such a pure voice and to hear her sing is always pretty awesome.  She performed her whole album plus a few crowd favorites from previous albums, and she ended the night with Matt Maher's, "Lord I Need You."

Uhhhh. Can't get better than that!

Oh yeah, this isn't my first time seeing her in concert. There was that one time that I got to see her in a private concert in a house, got to meet her, buy her previous two albums, and get them signed.

--- 2 ---

On Monday I took a "So you've never shot a handgun before" class. Groupon can be a dangerous thing, and it has led me down this path of firearms that I've previously ignored, but am now getting into it.  I think my previous skills and appreciation for archery, combined with my aerospace engineering skills, has increased my love of projectiles. And apparently handguns are the next step after Nerf guns. Oh and after airsoft guns too.

Don't worry. I've taken the time to educate myself on safety, Texas' gun laws, and all that jazz. And I have extreme malice towards paper...like so:

Not bad! ...at 3 yards

--- 3 ---

Napping in my car is now a bad habit. 60-mile commute to work, one-way...and carpooling has been a difficult thing as of late.  Therefore, I have mastered the art of the 10-minute nap so that I'm not falling asleep at the wheel...

Travel-sized pillows are a blessing. And once again...Groupon strikes again! ...because a memory foam travel pillow is that much nicer, especially at discounted price. ;-)

--- 4 ---

But all that napping is due to all that overtime-ing. Things have been hectic at work since I've gotten back from Brazil.  Like, mandatory 10 hours of overtime per week for nearly all of August! Pulling a near 12-hour day plus the commute for several weeks has burnt me out, and the only consolation is that glorious 10-minute nap before work in random parking lots.

Though...all that overtime has been nice. But then I severely lack...time. >_>

--- 5 ---

A good way to de-stress from overtime-ing is to laugh. And I literally LAUGHED OUT LOUD for several minutes like a crazy psycho maniac at this video:

So simple! So hilarious-for-some-irrational-reason!

...and I haven't even delved into the variations on this theme of a waffle falling over!

...I could easily overtime on YouTube for the sake of falling waffles...

--- 6 ---

It's always awkward to have a conversation with a dental hygienist. Well, clarification. It's always awkward to have a conversation with a dental hygienist while they are currently cleaning your teeth. But luckily this past week, I didn't really have to maintain any sort of conversation while I felt the picks and pokes and gentle turns of the brush-drill with the instant flow of water out one nozzle and into the other.

Actually, the most intriguing conversation I had with my dental hygienist was just before she lowered the chair.

Chocolate covered bacon...served with cheese.

-Spanish accent- Repite.

Chocolate covered bacon...served with cheese.

But it was a conversation on the start of football season which ultimately led to the greater conversation of football food traditions.

Though the conversation was short. I ...don't have any football food traditions...unless it's me serving concession stand food along with my fellow Filipinos at a Texas A&M home football game. A bucket of popcorn is exciting stuff. But I didn't get a chance to talk about that with my hygienist because I was already under the lamp.

And the whole time...I was very much intrigued at the idea of ruining my cleanly fresh teeth to have but a taste of chocolate covered bacon...served with cheese.

I must save this idea for future reference.

--- 7 ---
Speaking of football, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Cowboys play last Sunday. Sundays are always busy for me in that I'm usually running around doing stuff for my ministries.  But it was nice to chill after all that was over by going to a fellow volunteer's house to watch the Cowboys play the Giants.

Nevermind that he had a 115" (projector) screen, his couch was comfy, an oversized ottoman was conveniently located near my feet, and a cold adult beverage was served.

And it was glorious!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

- JD

Chocolate covered bacon // Samantha Food Culture, Blogspot