A Clue!!

A preview of what's to come.

Cue the maniacal laughter and lighting flashes!

A Cross Posting from 'The Catholic Geeks'

My response to 'Christmas is Pagan'.

The Roots of Christmas: From Pagan or Not From Pagan

I wish I was making this up.

Line Rider - Mountain King

This is great!

Newspaper Articles for Digital Curation VI

These scans were procured at the Middle Georgia Archives from their microfilm collection.

These articles are on the St Joseph Catholic Church in downtown Macon, GA from the Macon Telegraph.

Please do not reuse without citing.

Newspaper Articles for Digital Curation V

These scans were procured at the Middle Georgia Archives from their microfilm collection.

These articles are on the First Baptist Church in downtown Macon, GA from the Macon Telegraph.

Please do not reuse without citing.

Newspaper Articles for Digital Curation IV

These scans were procured at the Middle Georgia Archives from their microfilm collection.

These articles are on the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Macon, GA from the Macon Telegraph.

Please do not reuse without citing.

Newspaper Articles for Digital Curation III

These scans were procured at the Middle Georgia Archives from their microfilm collection.

These articles are on the Mulberry Methodist Church in downtown Macon, GA from the Macon Telegraph.

Please do not reuse without citing.

Newspaper Articles for Digital Curation II

These scans were procured at the Middle Georgia Archives from their microfilm collection.

These articles are on the Jewish Temple in downtown Macon, GA from the Macon Telegraph.
Please do not reuse without citing.

Newspaper Articles for Digital Curation

As with the pictures I am posting scans of historic newspapers for my digital collection for class. These scans were procured at the Middle Georgia Archives from their microfilm collection.

These articles are on the two Baptist churches in downtown Macon, GA from the Macon Telegraph. Please do not reuse without citing.

Pictures for Digital Curation, Part II

Another batch of pictures.

Mulberry Street Methodist 

Mulberry Street Methodist, sign

First Presbyterian Church

Temple Beth Israel

Temple Beth Israel, front door

Pictures for Digital Curation

For my final project for my Digital Curation class I have to create a digital collection. I have decided that I will do a collection on the religious buildings in Macon, Georgia. This was inspired by the quote:

"If you go to Atlanta, the first question people ask you is, 'What's your business?' In Macon they ask, 'Where do you go to church?' In Augusta they ask your grandmother's maiden name. But in Savannah the first question people ask you is 'What would you like to drink?'" -- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt.

So this post is a place holder for all the pictures I have taken for my collection. (© O. Bushey 2017)

First Baptist Church of Christ

St Joseph Catholic Chruch

St Joseph Outdoor altar

High Street Unitarian Universalist Church

First Baptist Church

St Joseph, High Altar

St Joseph, Organ and Rose Window

Darth Vader plays the gurdy.

The things I find on the internet.

Random Quotes

"Baloney is flattery laid on so thick it cannot be true, and blarney is flattery so thin we love it." --Ven. Fulton Sheen

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid." -- G. K. Chesterton, author

"Punctuality is the virtue of the bored." -- Evelyn Waugh, author

“Every once in a while you just have to decide to do something very crazy and very right--just to dare yourself to live. I don't mean doing something stupid and destructive--just something fun and good and beautiful.”  -- Regina Doman, author

Reaction to My Upcoming Last Semester

St Gemma Galgani, ora pro me

I have reached the final semester for graduate school and I approach it with mixed emotions. Relief that it is almost done, wonder at what will happen next, excited, to name a few. But I am struck with a strange sense of . . . quite honestly I don't know. It's a weird sensation in the pit of my gut that gnawing at my subconscious pushing me towards melancholy.

Tonight was the first night for one of my classes. Something was said that left me hollow and uneasy. I know in my line of occupation that there are not many who have similar beliefs or opinions as me. (Life in general feels like that) But I knew that before I hit 'submit' on my application to school. I am not saying I regret going and getting my Masters in this field - I am very glad I have. But I was face tonight with an unexpected reminder to be mortuum mundo and alive to what is good and just.

Maybe this all means that I will need a lot of prayers this up coming semester.

The Fantastic Masculinity of Newt Scamander

Interesting

Random Quotes

“Have you ever noticed this - that people never answer what you say? They answer what you mean - or what they think you mean” -- Father Brown,  The Invisible Man by G. K. Chesterton

“What punishments of God are not gifts?” -- J.R.R. Tolkien

"Coffee has given me unrealistic expectations of productivity." -- Unknown

Love Has Labels

It's been awhile since I posted any of my Youth Group talks. What follows is a rough transcript of it.

If you ever seen the ad campaign ‘Love has No Label’ put out by the Ad Council about diversity and inclusion, I’m here to tell you that is completely wrong.

It has three.

English is a beautiful expressive language that unfortunately our modern lazy usage has heap multiple meanings into one word as is the case with ‘love’.

Book cover of encyclical

Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI (who just had his 90^th birthday) described love best in his encyclical, Deus Cartias Est (God is Love). A awe-inspiring title when you really think about it – God is Love. So, to explain the three labels of love Greek, one of the languages of the Bible, is used.

We have philia: this is a mutual love between friends. So when I tell Lauren and Natalie (note: these lovely ladies work with the youth group)  I love them, which I do, it is philia love.

Next, we have eros: this it is an ascending, possessive love which seeks to receive from another. This is a physical love, or a physical manifestation of love, expressed between husband and wife.

Then we have agape: this is a descending love, oblative love in which one gives oneself to another. This is a selfless love seeking out what is good for another for the sake of the other.

If eros and philia love are concerned primarily with our relationships with others than agape is concerned primarily with our relationship with God as well as each other’s relationship with God. Think about it – in the Greek translation of the New Testament agape is the most often used word for love. This reflects the distinctive aspect of Christian understanding of love. Agape is, essentially, Christian love, which should be shared with everyone no matter how we feel - love isn't just about feelings. God commanded us to love our neighbors and enemies, not to like them.

Agape requires truth to be able to express it. We must know what is right and wrong, what is good, and what is bad for us as humans. Without truth, love becomes nothing more than mere sentiment – it is empty/ no substance. It becomes distorted because it no longer bears any weight.

The hardest part about agape is that it requires us to correct our neighbor when they stumble. We have a great example of this from the Bible in Galatians where St Paul corrects St Peter when he is behaving badly. There is also St Catherine of Siena who went to Pope Gregory XI and said that the Papacy must return to Rome (the popes had been living in Avignon, France – the pope must live in Rome because he is the Bishop of Rome). Can you imagine going to the Pope and telling him - 'Hey you got to straighten up your act'? I be terrified! These actions of St. Paul and St. Catherine are not done out of malice but because both St Paul and St Catherine wanted St Peter and Pope Gregory to be better people. It’s the same as when our parents correct us, they want us to be better.

Agape, Christian love, must be placed be placed above philia and eros, even when people hate us for it.

I will end with a quote from P. Benedict from another of his encyclicals Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth) : “To love someone is to desire that persons good and to take effective steps to secure it.”

On a fun note, when ever I had to say agape, I pointed to the youth director, Lauren, who would say it like Dory in Finding Nemo would say 'escape'. The kids love it and it was a good youth meeting!

Article Summary #10 Digital Visual Asset Management Beyond the Library, a LS 566 post

Trent Batson and Mary Grush in Digital Visual Asset Management Beyond the Library explains that we are surrounded by visual imagery. Images are now as common placed as text-based artifacts yet there are few people assigned to organize a collection or any asset management strategy, thus resulting in a risk of losing them through inaccessibility. Collections have to be maintain that not only protect their digital visual assets but benefit the individual or groups as a whole. While not as established as ISBN or ISSN, DAM is a program that can help maintain digital imagery and there are versions both for the expert and non-expert in DAM. They mention a program, SharedShelf, that could be a useful non-expert DAM system. It is a cloud based system with a built-in VAR core metadata schema, but has the flexibility to let the users develop their own schema based on their own needs. Easy to use DAM systems will allow continuing access to visual imagery for years to come.

Everyone is not an expert in everything. As such having easy to use programs is very important. You can just throw a complex system at a person and expect them to know how to work it. It's unfair to the person and to collection he is trying to maintain. Easy to use system can benefit a great number of people. It makes the job easier and it allows users to enjoy and use the collection where they would otherwise be cut off from it.

Links for CDWA Schema

Not a very creative post, but it let's me keep everything in one place for future reference. More for me than anyone's entertainment/reading.

Readings concerning the schema, CDWA:

The Getty on CDWA

Society of American Archivists on CDWA

An XML Example of CDWA Lite

Projects using CDWA

Article Summary #9: Digital Learning Object Repositories, a LS 566 post

H. Frank Cervone in DigitalLearning Object Repositories discusses issues in developing digital repository for learning objects. Most repositories do not have the functions or capabilities needed to store, maintain, and develop the materials. The objects in these repositories are meant to be reused and in multiple contexts in which they can be customized; on top of that the object has be maintained so that it can relate to the original object. Cervone mentioned the MERLOT repository citing its use of social functionality to provide peer review and evaluation of the learning materials which leads to a form of quality control. He explains that learning object repositories are different from traditional repositories in how the materials are organized, also traditional repositories do not have the levels of support needed for support learning objects. Things have to be carefully constructed and considered with the development of repositories for learning objects.

It is interesting to see the differences in the types of repositories in existence. While the goal of the repositories are essentially the same the methods are greatly different. Cervone provided a good overview of the different issues pertaining to digital repositories. It highlights the fact that they are very different types of digital objects that require different types of ways to maintain them.