Saturday, 25 November 2006

More on the Birthday Meme

Fr. Tim at the Hermeneutic of Continuity tried out the Wikipedia birthday meme, and if you haven't already spotted it, you can find it HERE.

Gildas, one of those super seminarians at Orthfully Catholic has also taken up the challenge, but decided to avoid using his own birthday... he used a saint's day instead (and I suspect it is something to do with St. Gildas... though maybe I am jumping to conclusions....) and you can check it out HERE.

So, of my original tag-ees, that leaves only Auntie Joanna...

Thursday, 23 November 2006

Blogging Blooper

Oh dear, I've been given a (gentle) ticking off... Apparently the chaps at Orthfully Catholic might want to preserve an aura of mystery... and birth dates would rather put the kybosh on that ! So, ok guys, consider yourselves "un-tagged"... unless you fancy using a favourite saint's day instead (Classical or Novus Ordo calendar!!)
;-)

Wednesday, 22 November 2006

Blogging From Over the Border

I like to explore the blogosphere, but rarely have the time (or patience) needed to do more than check out my favourites: my computer is so slow that it can take me an hour or more just to keep up. I tend to "discover" blogs through recommendations on my favourites. However, occasionally I spot that someone has linked back to me, and I'm vain enough to want to know who that discerning individual is...

Tonight I spotted that PF over at Laus Crucis succumbed to the lure of the How English Are You? test that I put up the other day. PF congratulates me on my good fortune in having a Scottish father, but laments the fact that this doesn't stop me being rated as 90% English... personally I blame my German mother: well, the Queen has German relatives...

Apart from the fact that PF appears to be based in (or near) Glasgow, I haven't been able to find out anything else: the site isn't a Blogger one, so there's no helpful profile to check out. I shall have to explore further... but not tonight.

Dissenters' and Hippies' Prayer Cards

Paulinus posed a question: do dissenters and hippies have blogs? It's hard to imagine that they do... after all, they might actually offend someone if they said something definite... by implication, if you make a hard-and-fast statement of belief, then you imply that other beliefs are, well... wrong!!

They may have blogs, of course, but generally, all the disenters and hippies I have come across have tended to be from the baby-boomer generation... and they are therefore rather unfamiliar with blogs... or email... or the internet... or computers...

...and often seem to have problems with setting video recorders...

Paulinus did put up a very amusing post where he speculated on what a dissenter's version of a prayer card might look like!!

Taking up the Gauntlet...

Looks like Paulinus has taken up the challenge I set him - you can read the results of his birthday meme HERE. He seems to have taken it as a personal affront that so many rock stars have died on his birthday. Could be worse... I had a whole series of wars and battles to choose from!!

My other three tag-ees haven't completed their memes yet...

Tuesday, 21 November 2006

Birthday Meme

I was challenged by one of those illustrious and captivating Catholic Cavemen to complete this birthday meme (I was so surprised to be tagged that I had to double-check that it was me that he meant!!)

1) Go to Wikipedia

2) In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.

3) List three events that happened on your birthday

4) List two important birthdays and one death

5) One holiday or observance (if any)


Ok, here goes:

Three events which happened (decisions, decisions):

1243 - Innocent IV becomes Pope.
1838 - The coronation of Victoria of the United Kingdom.
1919 - The Treaty of Versailles is signed in Paris, formally ending World War I between Britain, France, Italy, the United States and allies on the one side and Germany and Austria Hungary on the other side.

Two births…

1491 - King Henry VIII of England
1577 - Peter Paul Rubens, Belgian painter - the chap who went in for painting women who were on the generously-endowed side and chubby babies. Ok, ok, I’ll stop being so PC… fat women and babies.

…and a death
1914 - Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (and his wife Sophia) were assassinated in Sarajevo by young Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, kicking off World War I

One Holiday or Observance

It’s the memorial of St Irenaeus of Lyons. I would also like to point out that actually it’s the Vigil of St Peter and St Paul as well, the next day being the Solemnity. I’m never one to miss out on an extra patron saint or two…

That's me sorted. Now I tag Fr Tim at Hermeneutic of Continuity, Paulinus at +In Hoc Signo Vinces+, Joanna at Auntie Joanna Writes and any one of those fantastic chaps over at Orthfully Catholic (or all of them if they want!!)

Monday, 20 November 2006

Oooh... A film about Christmas !

Antonia has put up a post about "Nativity Story" - a new film about... (well, you can probably figure it out!!)

Check out the trailer HERE.

How English are You?

You are 90% English.

Congratulations! You may now take your place as a subject of Her Majesty.

"And did those feet
In ancient times,
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
In England's pleasant pastures seen?"

Well, no, but it's a cracking good tune.

How English are you?
Create a Quiz



That's it. My mother (German) will never speak to me again if she finds out. My father (Scottish) will be revolving somewhere (his ashes were scattered over a rosebush somewhere in West London)... so there will be a tornado happening sometime soon...

...either that or he'll be back to haunt me. I remember a brief and pointed conversation with him after I'd been on a school trip to France (I must have been about 12 or 13)...

Dad, fiercely: " What nationality did you tell them you were?"

Me, proudly: "Je suis anglaise"

Dad, incensed: "You're not bloody English"

Me, confused: "I was born in England..."

Dad, tersely: "Just because you're born in a pigsty doesn't make you a pig"

Me, getting bolshie: "So what am I then?"

Dad, firmly: "Half German, half Scot"

Me, tearfully: "But I don't know the French for that...."