ok alright ok alright

So Blog-zoar is a cool word. But in order to ’shake things up,’ I’m moving back to my old home at Learning how to Write (yes, ‘how’ should be capitalized, and I’m not using quotation marks in an American fashion). http://jamesmahoney.wordpress.com/

Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In the Boneyard Creek? The O’Rourke Library? The Back Dining Room?)

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening (1 Samuel 3:9b)

I am in a “Community Bible Study” at Holy Cross parish. I go to the Wednesday morning session, since my schedule at work typically allows for this but leaves me unable to attend the Monday night session. The Monday night session sounds like it has 5-10 members, whereas the Wednesday morning group consists of me and the group leader. We have fairly decent conversations however, and I am thankful. We have been reading from the first book of Samuel, hearing about Samuel’s call by the Lord and his becoming a prophet by total obedience to the word of the Lord.

Samuel’s story makes one want to pray more and to carve out time and space for the Lord to work each day. Last night, I opened an email from the “K-list” which spoke of how college students might find time to pray every day. It spoke of the “Jesus prayer” which is so prevalent in Eastern Christianity: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. It offered some alternatives as well. This statement in the email has worked wonders in my life (more on this later): Monks of old said, “Lord, make haste to help me. Lord, make speed to save me,” all day long. “Monks of old, eh?” I thought, “I know that ‘make haste to help me’ part; that’s a nice alliterative rejoinder, ‘make speed to save me.’ All day long, eh?”

What does it mean to commit for a year?

This weekend I rode the Amtrak from Kankakee to Champaign. I took my bike on the train. Riding my bike to the train station carrying a heavy duffel bag on my shoulder, I felt like I was running away from home. In a way, I was running away from home. My goal was to find a place to rent for a year in Champaign or Urbana.

The men of 436 and the men of Fever (and the significant other of one of the Fever men) were all very helpful in my search, providing understanding ears, sound advice, free lodging, rides to some of the apartment viewings, etc., etc. I will have to repay them soon for their kindness and charity.

After a search that included an extended bike ride through Urbana writing down numbers from “For Rent” signs staked in front of houses and learning that talking on a cellphone while riding a bike is a horrible idea because its highly likely that you will need two hands on the handlebars to maintain adequate control of the bicycle in order to avoid racking yourself; apartment visits to places that scared me, made me feel at home, or were otherwise some form of decent; and being enclosed, after coming close to heat exhaustion from biking all over the Champaign-Urbana area, in the office of a landlady who likes to run her air-conditioner so as to produce, in her word, “arctic” temperatures, I have signed a one year lease on a one-bedroom apartment in Champaign. This is the place that made me feel more at home from the moment I stepped into it than any of the other places I saw. My landlady is a very kind woman who has Scripture quotes on her refrigerator reminding her of the benefits of walking in God’s favor.

I like Matt Muller’s notion that my new place could be something like my own hermitage. Which is not to say it will not also be a place of hospitality and charity. If all goes well, I will be moving in on Saturday August, 18.

Welcome to Blog-zoar

Hey everybody,

Welcome to “Blog-zoar,” the new, hip, and fresh replacement for “Learning how to Write” (which title was never capitalized properly anyways–go read your Chicago Manual of Style).

You might notice the Links section is currently quite deficient compared to that of “Learning how to Write.” Please be patient as I reconstruct that.

Also, you may have noticed that the photograph of the outdoor statue of the atoning sacrifice of our Lord and Savior has been replaced by an artist’s rendering of what the new Newman Hall courtyard, currently under construction, might look like. I like to think the girl in the lower right corner is blogging, or perhaps even reading “Blog-zoar.” This change is in trial stage. It certainly feels strange to replace the Cross with anything else. Let me know what you think.

Again, welcome to Blog-zoar. I hope you enjoy this fruit of the Web 2.0 tree.

The Jitterbugs

Go here to read a write-up on the Jitterbugs, a baseball team that is making its way about Nebraska this summer.  You can find the link to the Jitterbugs very own online journal in the “Links” section to the right.

Mary Carlson Is Here to Sing, “It’s all gonna be ok.”

Dearest friends and music lovers,

Polyflannel Records is proud to announce the third single from Mary Carlson: “It’s All Gonna Be Ok.” You can download the song in a variety of formats by clicking on the “Music” link at the very tippy-top of this page. Many thanks to Adam Prairie of The Hoot Hoots for his help in mixing this song.

Please inform me of any problems you encounter in downloading or playing the song. I would love to hear any and all comments you have, be they positive or negative.

George Bailey Says, “I Wanna Live Again.”

Well, this post was supposed to be about the availability of a new Mary Carlson song, but I left my USB cable at my friends’ house and can’t transfer the file to my computer from my digital music gizmo. Alas. However, I come bearing good news. I had a pretty good weekend: I got to play two covers, Sufjan Stevens’s “Casimir Pulaski Day” and Wilco’s “I’m Always in Love,” in a concert with the band I was in during my high school years, now known as The Hoot Hoots. Several friends from U of I were in town, one on a short roadtrip with some non-UI friends and many others for a party being put on by Nate Dubravec. The road-trippers along with many from the party came to the concert cheer me on. Incidentally, this greatly cheered me up.

Alack, I didn’t get to speak as much with some of these friends as I would have liked to. Navigating the awkward social territory that is an outdoor concert in your hometown is difficult: running into old friends from high school and trying not to ignore them in favor of your college friends and vice-versa, sheepishly trying not to be rude to the band that is playing by talking too much, missing quality conversation time because you decided to help your band clean up after the show so as not to appear a total ingrate for the opportunity to play again… I did get to go to Nate’s party and talk more with some people.

Sunday morning, Nate’s party people (including Nate) drove to Baker’s Square for breakfast. I met them there and also went to Mass with them at Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Bourbonnais, IL, the home of the praise & worship hour led by Pat Bailey.

When I told you I came bearing good news, I was serious. However, I need to get to bed. There are many more things I wanted to write about tonight, but perhaps this incomplete list of possible future post titles will suffice:

Playing Music for Jesus and Mary
Words Once Written Stare Back in Judgment
Being James, the son of God
Looking Forward to Quality Time with my Four-Track
Really, James, What Happened in Princeville?
How Hardcore Can I Be?
Wake UP! Don Can’t You Remember Anything?

Incidentally, this post was largely prepared on a typewriter to curtail my habit of obsessive-compulsive on-screen editing.  For those who worry about such things.

Spanish NOW!

I would like to draw your attention to a new online journal gracing the fair avenues of the Internet’s World Wide Web. Tom Byrne, mentioned previously in these pages, is heading to Bolivia for the summer and wants to tell the world about it. Check out Spanish NOW! in the Links section to the right to keep up with Tom on his South American adventure.

Introducing The Hoot Hoots

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to introduce an up and coming band. You may remember them from a performance as Max Weinberg’s backup band on the April 11 Conan O’Brien show. But no matter. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing The Hoot Hoots.

From their CD Baby page (where you can buy their new full-length album):

The Hoot Hoots are vandals: they gave some uppers to Neutral Milk Hotel, threw out the preciousness of the Shins, kidnapped the Fab Four’s Rocky Racoon and then home-schooled in Catchy Guitar Rock 101.

In the links section to the right, you will find “The Hoot Hoots.” This is a link to their MySpace page which features four, count them, four songs for your listening pleasure. They also have their very own website.

Vocation

Recently it came to me that one’s vocation might simply be this:
Doing whatever (being whatever) makes you be the healthiest member of the Body of Christ you can be.

I would greatly appreciate a discussion on this idea, as to its truth or falsehood and as to its ramifications.