Introduction - Who Am I?

While not new to blogging, I have not been all that avid a blogger either. Part of that is because, when I first created a blog on Blogger, it had more to do with a virtual world persona than it did with who I am as a real person. The interest in that blog was spurious and mostly related to that character and the rolepay that he was involved in. In writing this blog, I aim to focus more generally on who I am, what my interests are, and, well I suppose go on the business of trying to tell my real life story - or at least however much of it I decide to divulge.



All that said, this is not a commercial blog.  Albeit, it is a virtual curriculum vitae. That is, this blog is intended to have a certain focus on what I do in life, be it for employment, hobby, or, trying to figure out that abstract of what is my life's calling.

Being not nearly as enthused about blowing my own horn, that, to some degree can make writing this blog difficult. To ease into it, I'll write in a way that I'm more comfortable with. For it is in how I write that is in some ways more important than what I write. In as much as I try to be an author, it seems needless to say that the voice that comes out in how I write has to be distinctive and unique. The way I write is, in a certain sense, my signature. Granted, yes, I do have the regular old handwritten signature that everyone else pins on their checks (assuming I'm not the only one left in the world that writes them out on paper, anyways), the contracts and agreements made during the process of acquiring a job, or if taking a public office, not to mention participating in volunteer work or charities, and other places where one must represent themselves before law and/or commerce. I do have that sort of signature that I write down for those purposes, but I also have the other signature of my written voice that goes much deeper than contract of laws, even to the very core of the matter that St. Paul speaks of in his apostolic letters as the laws written upon our hearts, which refer back to the words of the Lord stated by the Old Testament prophet, saying, "this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel ... I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33, Douay-Rheims translation).

Even from referencing St. Paul and the prophet Jeremiah, as well as the Bible quote given, can you glean off something about who I am. So, indeed yes, I am a Christian. The further note of the particular translation of the Bible used ought to indicate the particular type of Christian I am as well, which is Catholic, and one who enjoys the rich history and resources of the Church and her Tradition. This does not make me a Traditionalist per se. Although I do believe the Traditional Latin Mass is a beautiful liturgy, I do not see it as necessary to go only to a Latin Mass for salvation or solidarity with 'true' Catholics. I believe that the Novus Ordo liturgy that came about after Vatican II is valid, and thus Masses that use the modern liturgy are valid Masses. Indeed, both liturgies are equally valid, and both of them can be made invalid for the similar reason of liturgical abuse, even though the abuses generally would come from opposite ends of the spectrum - that is, between those considered conservative and those considered liberal with regard to understanding of and formation within the Church. The Catholic Church is universal, and so, we do have a full range of people within the Church that call themselves Catholic, regardless how rigid or loose they may define themselves as such. 

As for me? I suppose you could say that I'm the sort of Catholic that enjoys having both liberal and conservative Catholics equally agreeing and disagreeing with me on Church issues. There is no possible way to agree with both ends of the spectrum all the time, so at the very least it is good to be able to agree with most Catholics, left and right, on the things that matter most, especially when it comes to the basics of Christ being the head of the Church and the Pope being his earthly ambassador, and all of us as Christians, both visibly and invisibly, being part of the Body of Christ, which is the Church. We speak of the Church in terms of 'she' because the Church is also the Bride of Christ. Indeed, when we speak in terms of gender with Jesus as the male head and the Church as the Body and female, it is intentionally meant to evoke the image of marriage, of sacramental matrimony. If one were an educator, such a person might call these things scaffolding through teachable moments. In the terms of the Church, we call this formation of doctrine through experiencing the divine beauty of God through participation in the Church. Indeed, it would be impossible for any serious Catholic to recite the Apostles' Creed and deny the part that states that one believes in the communion of saints, so how can it be denied that part of being Catholic is to be part of a community? No, this community is not communist, though the Church herself does reside in communist states, even in the face of persecution by the state government. However, the Church does allow for communes, or cloistered communities, which are a part of monastic life of nuns and monks, as well as priests that have joined particular religious orders associated with monastic life. Certainly, these communities are not like the hippy sort of commune. There are some superficial similarities, but then, you could find similar superficial similarities between a liberal commune and a conservative gated community as well, and neither the hippy commune dweller nor the yuppie in the gated community would claim or accept that those similarities in any way make their particular communities exactly the same as the other. Likewise with the religious communities, who's life in the solitude of the cloistered commune is in stark contrast to both the liberal commune and conservative gated community of the worldly. 

Needless to say after all that how much I care for the Church and who I am as a Catholic. While I care greatly for her, I know that I am not without my failings. As of this moment of writing, I have not had much success in my writing. Yes, I know this is common for most anyone who seeks to be an author. Even further noted in the desire to be an all around artist in singing, playing and composing music, as well as dabbling in the digital arts of our modern day trends. Although, as much as we use computers to create on the virtual medium and canvas, I suppose calling the digital arts a trend isn't exactly correct. The way we go about creating art on the digital platform may be considered a trend, and some of those trends may become their own genre of art one day. However, digital art has matured to a point where it is indeed its own form of art, and further has become formative of art in all aspects of it. We write on a computer, we edit images of photography, as well as scan sketches into computers to either digitally remaster former artwork, or make revisions on the physical drawing to reform it in the digital representation/interpretation that we desire to make of it. Even further, and with the advent of 3D printing, sculpting is being revolutionized to where one can create a 3D model using software like Blender and print out a physical model of that image. Certainly, not only will this change how people may choose to make sculptures, pottery, and other figurines, but it will also change how the various industries may choose to make all sorts of components for their products. Already mechanics in body shops are using 3D printing to be able to replicate and replace parts on older model cars which are no longer produced by the original factory and are becoming increasingly limited in stock.  The factory model that so many have become familiar with, and even received their physical daily bread from is increasingly becoming obsolete. This is not to say that factories and mass production will cease to exist, but that the old Henry Ford model for factories will eventually go out of style as newer modes of mass production come into play. The modern factory is increasingly becoming more computerized, and the mechanic is becoming more of a hybrid between a 'motorhead' engine and mechanical parts guy and a 'geeky' IT computer guy.  

This hybridization is not all that new. Consider the old 1980's TV show Knight Rider, where many of us were introduced to a talking car named K.I.T.T. (a bad use of acronym for Knight Industries Two Thousand in the original, and Knight Industries Three Thousand in the remakes). On a side note, it is interesting that, in the IMDb page for the show, it is impossible to find the profile for K.I.T.T.  This makes little sense, considering that K.I.T.T. is a huge part of the show, and William Daniels is not an unknown actor. Anyone that may watch this show today, and used to watch TV in the 1990's ought almost immediately think of Boy Meets World, since Daniels played the role of teacher, mentor, and neighbor Mr. George Feeny to Ben Savage's character and main star of the show Cory Matthews. But, getting back to the issue of hybridization, the one tie-in I can give between the issue and the side note would be how the fluidity of an actor to play many and diverse parts is similar to what we see happening in industries and subsequent workflows. Sure, while being specialized sounds great on paper, the specialist who can only do one operation is something that is not practical to real world work. Thus, people are more and more going to have to learn how to multitask and take on more than one role in their jobs, regardless what industry one may work in. Before, task managers were standard, now, you have to be your own task manager.  While it is still important to work as a team, your autonomy and ability to be mostly self-sufficient can make or break whether you can be successful, not just independently, but also in a team that looks for you to be accountable for assigned tasks and duties, especially when you agreed that you would take them on in order to do your part as a member of that team. Therefore, while the shell of the industry might change, core values in the industry, especially when it comes to productivity and maintaining a competitive edge, are likely not to change. Companies and industries that do not maintain those basic core values are more than likely to fail and, whatever is left of their innovations be swept up and consolidated by the companies that remain. 

Yet, I do not speak as a business analyst. For the moment, and the foreseeable future, I only speak more like the armchair quarterback, or even just the casual sportsman that at least knows enough about the game to make a something of an informed opinion. Is it the most informed? By no means. For I have no access to insider information, and thus cannot evaluate my opinion to any operations within any specific industry. However, I know enough from personal work and hobbyist experience to have an inkling of an intuition about where things are and where things might go with business, industry, science, religion, and government. It is important to be informed in this information age. Alongside that, it is also important to be discerning of information due to the adverse effects of disinformation in this information age. 

I suppose one of the major reasons that I have decided to start this new blog is to begin focusing my writing and thoughts better. Organization is important when writing, as is reflecting on what I write. Another reason is, while facebook may have its merits for socializing, it is not a good atmosphere for long form writing. Blogging is much more appropriate, and gives me far more time to think about what I write, not to mention taking more consideration regarding how and why I write. It's not exactly journaling, like Live Journal was, but it is similar. In consideration to the similarities, I may eventually retire my Live Journal and import relevant old journal entries here. For instance, I have older notes and concepts for my Harmakhis trilogy that I'm slowly trying to write, which would be interesting for people that might read this blog and actually want to know what sort of progress I've made on the story. Then, there was my old Latin story that I toyed with in my early post-college years that I'd like to revive some day. But, really, this is 'think-typing' on what I might do. What I actually will do with this blog, I really don't know, other than write in it. 

So, I guess this is a little bit about me, who I am, what I think and care about, so on and so forth. And yet, this is more or less a snapshot. As it is said, there is more to come. Until then, pax tecum - peace be with you, dear reader!