Finals are done

Well I'm glad to be done with finals. My final Aristotle paper took way to much time but it is done now. It was a busy week. At the house here we celebrated Christmas and did a secret Santa. I had a really good soccer game on Wednesday. Scored a hat trick and scored the winning goal with a minute left in the game. It was indoor and I was cherry picking infront of the goal keeper. Got the ball off a pass and poked it in. Well i'm keeping this short. I am very excited because I'm going to the Vikings vs the Bears on Sunday and then I am flying to Tucson. I will be in Tucson until the 19th. I am going to try and see everyone in Tucson. Well I hope everyone is enjoying advent. Don't let Christmas time stress you out too much.

Tucson

Well I attended a funeral on Friday for Fr John Gorman. I also attended the burial. I haven't been to one in a long time thank God. On Saturday I went to a warrior retreat in Darien IL. It was very interesting. The person who led it is a menonite pastor from Indiana. He is also a black belt in Taekwando. He talked about the warrior archetype and how it is ingrained in males to fight in battle or for a cause in which they believe in. Sounds like no days we get into our warrior mood through sports. He taught us some Taekwando and incorporated it into the retreat. He also talked about Peaceful warriors such as Ghandi. He said One time someone broke into Ghandi's house and attacked his wife with a knife. I guess Ghandi grabbed the guys arm, took him down and it scared the so much that he shit himself. Then Ghandi cleaned the guy up and he left. I never would have guessed. He talked about Martin Luther king and many others. As far as taekwando he just taught us some self defense. I really enjoyed it.

 The cousins got into the stickers in the back of the Calendar

Well I then flew down to Tucson on Tuesday for Thanksgiving break. My brother and his wife flew down from Colorado. That afternoon I played baseball with my dad and brother. Then that night I played in a softball game with my old team. I hit a homerun and a game winning triple. It was a really good day. I got in 3 rounds of golf in which I played two of them wife my Uncle and Brother. My Aunt and Uncle flew down from Minnesota. My cousin Lindsey flew down from NewYork and my other cousin Laura who is teaching in Florence AZ drove down for thanksgiving. It was a good full thanksgiving. That night the Johnson's went to Margarita Bay for Karoke. We weren't the greatest but we aslo didn't make peoples ears bleed. So spent a lot of time with family which was good. Camped for a night. Took Fernando to a shooting range. Said Hi to all the neighbors and before I know it I am flying back to Milwaukee. Quick trip. Beautiful whether and didn't want to leave tucson. Of course I will be back December 9th. Looking forward to it.

Pictures of Congregation of Great Spirit

Sweat Lodge

Halloween has come and gone. The guys from Mexico and Nigeria didn't know what trick or treating is so I told them the story behind it and said, We have to go out. It is Halloween. So we went has ninja turtles while Carl went as a nun. Lately I have been Mountain biking even though it is starting to get too cold for it. I went to kettle Morraine state forest. I was very impressed by it. It was a lot better than what I was expecting. It had a touch of everything. Hills to climb, Pine forest, evergreen forest, prairie lands, Granite rocks, thick woods, ponds, lakes, bridges, mud spots, sand spots and more. It was a great ride. However I wasn't too thrilled that I has to first pay to get on state forest land and then I had to pay just to use the bike trail. I have never been to a state like that. Most states you don't even have to pay to get on state forest property. The leaves have mostly fallen which made some parts of the trail tricky because I didn't know what was underneath it.
I brought my bike into a shop because my front wheel can't hold air more than 24 hours. Needed a new stem. They said come back in 30 minutes. I decided to walk to St. Josephats basillica. Beautiful church. An old polish church. Huge, Old, and very detailed paints and mosaics. Very impressive. When I was walking back to the bike shop. I'm not in the greatest area of town. I was wearing my Sweden Jacket. Some one threw a glass bottle at me as they were driving by in a car. Suddenly the glass exploded at my feet. I didn't even flinch. I thought really are you kidding me. Who tries to throw a glass bottle as a drive by on a person with there back turned to the car. Either God is looking out for me that I didn't get hit on the side walk or this guy has really bad aim. I was probably only 12 feet away.  Well I didn't get hit so I let go.
 
I went Mountain biking at Crystal ridge ski hill. It is basically a tiny 200 ft hill that goes down into the woods. Maybe 5 miles or less worth of trail. Not much but it is something. I gave a presentation on Tanzania for a Retirement community up here. The old folks seemed to really enjoy it. I answered questions and some people wanted to donate money to support the community in Tanzania. Classes are going well. Turned in another Philosopher paper on Plato's the Meno and analyzed his theory of Recollection.
Sunday I attended the Congregation of the great Spirit. It is a Catholic church with Native American traditions. I really enjoyed it. To start off the mass there is a small drumming circle behind the altar. They drum and chant in Lakota tongue. Then they do a smudging for everyone and the altar with sage, cedar, tobacco. We then Chanted to the four directions in Lakota. Then the Mass started. It was a very neat mass. At the end they did a blessing for a young native going into the marines. An old Native former vet gave him a blessing. He smudged the young man with the different herbs and waved an eagle feather at him and talked about the challenges and difficult , violent reality he is about to faith. He said, "They will break you down. But remember the spirit is always with you". Then every one came up at once and put a hand on the young man and did a final blessing. It was a very powerful, strong sense of community. They deeply care for each other. It was a beautiful experience. I then went with Ben to think it is was called Katy's diner and had the Cornbeef and hash for breakfast. It was the same Meal Hilary Clinton ordered when she was there in 2008. They had pictures all over. It was very good.

On monday I went to a sweat lodge. The man who started the sweat lodge back in the 70's is in the hospital and they did a sweat for him. Infact there starting another sweat right now during his surgery. The sweat on Monday was for his and everyone's suffering. They blessed each of us by smudging green sage and then did it to the lodge. We then one by one crawled into the the lodge. They rolled in 14 grandfather rocks which have been sitting on the fire for 4 hours. It was black in there with glowing rocks. They sprinkled tobacco, sage, and cedar on the rocks and they crackled and sparked. The first rock they did a chant for all there ancestors , whether they have, two legs, four legs, wings, or fins. They were singing in Lakota and pounding the drum. They kept splashing the water on the grandfather rocks. It got hotter and hotter. After a while I really got absorbed into the Native singing and was trying to participate in the chanting. I was dripping with sweat. They gave me sage to put behind my ear. They said if you start to feel really bad put your head down and sniff the green sage. I never had any problems but I was glad when they open the door flap in between rounds and let the cold wind blow in. The next round was for our prayers we had. While the signing and drumming was going on a rattle was passed around and when you recieved the rattle you would shake it and say your prayers tot he great spirit. They had also added 7 more rocks at that round to heat it up more. The third round they passed around a shupa or a peace pipe. They passed the peace pipe to each person around the circle. One would grab the pipe touch it to each shoulder then head then raise it to the sky for the great creator then you would take 4 to 5 puffs and then pass it to the next person. After that they rolled in 7 more grandfather rocks. This was the thanksgiving round. We sang the loudest during this round and everyone raised up what ever they were thankful for. Then it was over before I knew it. Two hours went by so fast. I was dripping with sweat. I crawled out into the 29 degree whether with the wind blowing. The ground was really cold on my feet. I cooled off really fast. Infact I started to freeze. I thanked eveyone. We then headed inside to the American Indian school for a feast of Venison, summer sausage, Bread, potatoes. It tasted good. There was 8 of us. 1 Lakota who lead it, 1 Mohawk, 1 fondu Lac, and the rest white guys. I felt like I was floating for the next hour. Very cleansing experience. I look for to the next time I get to participate. It is a very powerful way to pray if you ask me. I feel we are missing a lot of these important rituals in our society today. I feel it really forces one to get in touch with Nature and the creator. 

ViKings Pictures

So here is a picture of Keegan with his Panda Backpack. He was quit entertaining.
The top picture is Ryan who I helped Brew an All grain batch when we finished the house work.
Then the Picture of Keegan and I . I had to babysit him for 20 minutes.Dad drove off in the car to get a wheel barrel and he saw dad leave and started crying. He ran to me and I picked him up. Luckily he only cried the first two minutes and then he was quit happy being held. Then for dinner Ryan treated, Kristi, Michelle and me to German food. We got the two German Platters. It was awesome. The food was really good. There was a Kaiser dressed up walking around and down stairs they had a polka band. Then went to the Vikings game with Uncle Dew. The Vikings beat the Cardinals. It was great being in the loud stadium. The half time show was the all Minnesota Mascots vs a kids football team. The kids totally kicked there butts. It was funny when Vikotr the Viking handed the ball to Crunch which is the Timberwolves mascot and it took about 5 kids to jump on him to take him down.It was nice because I saw the sun for two days. Nice weather. I get back to Milwaukee and it is cloudy and rainy again. I need to put together the book shelves for the library. Adios

Plenty of Rain

Well last Saturday I felt normal again. Five of us went to the cabin on Lake Winnebago which means “Stinky Water” in the Winnebago language. It was a fun weekend for us to hang out and get to know each other more. When we got there the sun was going down so we busted out the shakers, rattles and drums. We drummed until the sun went down. The neighbors poked there head out in curiosity to what is going on. Who went this weekend was Carl from phoenix, Ronny from Haiti, Marcel from Nigeria, and Octavio from Mexico. So we had quit a diverse group. Rony did some singing around the fire while a few of us pounded on the drums and dances. We went to the local grocery store up there. Remember this is a small town in Wisconsin. Octaivo whispered to me, “There is only white people in here”. I started laughing. Which of course he is right. Well that night we played this game which I can’t remember what it is called. There is a question that everyone had to answer. So you write your answer down and give it to the person who is going to try and guess everyone’s else’s answer. For example the question was, “If you had to get rid of a dead body? How would you do it? SO I wrote down I would chop the body into many pieces and fed it to pigs. Another person wrote down that they would put the body in a wood chipper. Of course all the questions were really out there which is what made it so fun. If felt I got to really understand the guys a lot more. After a while you can start to figure out who wrote what. But then again there was a person that surprised me everytime. We had a lot of laughs that night. Well our drumming that night brought the rain. Because it rained the whole time for the next two days. Marcel, Octavio and I went to High Cliffs state park and hiked around. The rain actually held off for 2 hours. It was nice to hike around and check out the Indian mounds s that is there. .

I just got assigned a 9-10 page paper on Socrates. . I think this is the hardest assignment I have received yet. Socrates at least to me always seems to change his mind. He will say the Soul never changes it has always existed and will always exist. Then you will read another one of his stories and the soul is changing because that is the only way we can better ourselves. That is why we do good acts to improve our soul thus the soul would change. I feel he is hard to write about because he is constantly contradicting himself. I feel the way he argues is circular. You just go round and round without ever getting a real descriptive answer.

Well I had a fast weekend in Minnesota. I took the Mega bus on Friday. I helped my friend Ryan destroy his deck and then do grout work in his basement, then tore down siding. He just bought a house. It needs work and I was there to help. He then treated me to a good German meal at Gasthaus for the work I did. Then next morning I met uncle Dew at Town hall brewery and we went to the Vikings vs. the Arizona Cardinals game. Vikings defense looked good. AP looked really good too. Ponder looked awful though. It was a fun game and atmosphere to be in. I love the noise inside the stadium and the Purple Viking jerseys everywhere. Many creative outfits with of course Helga horns on their heads. .Then after the game jump back on the Mega Bus back to Milwaukee. It was a fun weekend but now I have to get crackin on my philosophy paper.

Sick

Well on thursday I started not feeling well. There has been a cold going around. Numerous people offered me medicine but I quickly turned them down. I said, "I ahve a strong immune system. I never get sick". Well i was wrong. Then on friend others suggested I take medicine again and I denied saying I will tough it out. Well by friday night I really wasn't feeling well. I spent the second half of the day in bed. I finally took some medicine that night. I spent most of saturday and sunday curled up in bed. I'm slowly recovering now. Still don't feel great. It has been mid 40's and very cloudy. Very depressing weather up here. I wish I was in Tucson now. I could really soak up some warm sun.
Classes are going well. It is interesting going through scripture. For instance there is 2 stories of creations Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. How did I neve realize there are two stories. Then in Exodus Moses telling pharoh what 8 times to let his people go out of Egypt and Pharaoh wouldn't let them go and there was Plague, locusts, frogs falling fromt he sky, animals dying, river turning to blood etc. etc. Why does Pharoh have such a hardened Heart? Why did God give him a Hardened heart. Then how come there is no evidence in Egyptian writing with these plagues. You think this was a big deal and egypt would have written about it. From what I know we only have the Bible to go off of the story of Moses. Then when he leads them out of Egypt it took 40 years. Why did he take the most inconvient longest route way from Egypt. He could ahve taken the people on a much shorter way to Israel. Maybe he wanted to test the faith of the people. Then we read about King David and how he conquered everyone in the land of Israel. All these stories are very interesting but there all legend. I'm sorry if this upsets people. But I don't think we have any other proof than the Bible that Moses existed or King David. There stories. There legends. We had a disccusion class about King David is probably a mdae up person. This really upset some individuals in the class room. Religion is faith. There is no concrete proof, that is why its faith. I might be going off the deep end here but I have enjoyed the stories. I enjoyed reading Isaiah. There are good lessons to learn. I think thats why they are writen. Just as lessons to live by during the time of the people. I can relate some of the readings of the Bible to stuff happening in the world today. That is one itneresting thing about the Bible how it still effects us today. One good say it is a living book becasue the lessons can or will always effect us and what the world is going through.
Ancient Philosophy is going well. Were reading Plato's Phaedo. At first I thought all these Philosophers were stupid but they were actually pretty smart back then. I am starting to see how philosophy plays a huge role in religon.
Interpersonal communication we are reading about how to fight fair. I feel this entire book should be for married couples or couples who are about to get married. Of course it is good for everyone who interacts with people.Conflict is enevitable. It's ok were always going to get in a conflict with someone at some point and that is ok. Lot's of time in the arguement it seems that one person always feels more important than the other persons needs. Of course both peoples needs are important. In society we always have to win the arguement. Just watching the debate Romney and Obama ALWAYS had to ahve the last word. In a conflict why can't we both win. Can't we settle a conflict where both needs are met. Of course as far as Romney and Obama there can only be one president so I guess it can't. But I believe both sides can win in most situations. Maybe I'm just nieve.
I have also been playing catch with a baseball from a guy from Venezuela who leaves in a week which is a bummer. I'm trying to set up pick up soccer games on wednesday. The good thing is I got on an indoor soccer team that starts the end of October.
Well I just want to get healthy and I want the sun to come out. People in Tucson please enjoy the 350 days of sun we get down there.
The best part of the weekend. Watched the GodFather. The Vikings won and the Packers lost.
Sorry no pictures this week, was in bed for most of it.

Visitors

I had a busy week. I went to a society of Nuclear Medicine conference on Saturday in Chicago. The most interesting topic was the first speaker who talked about how the change in the health care system is going to effect the nuclear medicine reimburse rate. Sounds like our best bet is if the bundling program occurs. That is when a patient comes into the hospital the doctor is only allowed for example $10,000 worth of tests for each patient. This forces the doctor to only order the necessary tests. This is to get away from the defenssive medicine. The money that doesn't get used on the patient gets kicked back to the doctor in a cover your ass fund for if someone does decide to sue them. If the patient needs more than the $10,000 worth of testing then they are SOL. It sounds like a good idea but there is some problems.
I then met with old friends from my internship in Evanston with Giordano's pizza. My favorite. Then I headed to mass at St. Peter's in downtown Chicago for celebrating St.Mary's University 100 yr celebration. After that I picked up my friend Leonard from Nigeria. I met him in Tanzania in morogoro. He went to Jordan college University. Leonard is interested in joining the Salvatorians in America. As a gift he brought me a traditional Nigerian clothing. He told me that what were wearing is for royalty.
My parents then drove over from Minnesota to visit for two days. I showed them around Milwaukee and then I took them to my school where they had a cultural fair that day. We tasted many different foods from all over the world. The picture of Milwaukee is from the top floor of the US Bank building which is the tallest building in Milwaukee 42 floors. That day was called open Milwaukee where all the buildings are open to the public for people to explore. We had a wonderful dinner on the Harbour then we checked out the beach and I got a picture of my mom with  a full moon in the background.
The sunrise picture is from Racine Wisconsin at the Siena Center. All of us Candidates had a weekend retreat there. The topic was called transition. It was all about the transition from where we came from to where we are now and what to expect and what feelings one might go through.
Fall is here. This is the street that I live on in Milwaukee. Lots of reds, oranges, and yellows right now. The trees are already starting to shed.  I am going to try enjoy the fall colors as long as they last.

Sacred Heart University and Room

These aren't that great of pictures but it should give you an idea. The first picture is a typical classroom here. Old school chalk board and tables and chairs. It is simple here. the second picture is the outside of the chapel at Sacred Heart University. The next two pictures are of my room. Fairly simple. Classes this week went well. In liturgical class were still learning about antiphons, the common, the proper, psalms and canticles. There terms for the prayer books that we use everyday. Its learning about eh history and where do they come from and why we do it. Interpersonal communication was all about Active listening when someone is talking to you. A lot of it is if your body language portraying what you are saying. Are you rolling your eyes as your talking or crossing your arms and legs when you are listening. A neat fact they said in the book was 7% of communication is verbal.  Then we also got into the different "Hidden Agendas" that we all do when we are speaking to people. Its really a defensive mechanism. Some examples, "I'm good and you're not". so tearing someone down to build yhourself up. "You're good and I'm not" Its like false humilty. "Im helpless" poor me syndrome is what I call it. "I'm blameless" they make excusses for everything, no repsonsibility. "I'm fragile" i'm weak don't put too much on me. "I'm tough" nothing ever phases me. "I know it all" basically unwilling to let others know that you might not actually know something. I know I have encountered all these types in my life at one time or another.
Anyways Ancient Philosophy was my big thing this week with a 6 page writing exam. I first wrote about Heraclitus who wrote, "upon those who step into the same rivers, different and again different waters flow" which is everytime you step in the river the water is different. Then ,"Even the posset separates if it is not being stirred" posset is a drink mixed with barley wine and cheese. I guess when there mixed they taste good but when it settles they separate and it tastes gross.. Then "Changing, it rest" Which is like the glass of the posset settling and changing. So to Heraclitus Change is the only constant. That is what make sup the world= change. Then there is Zeno who says Nothing ever changes. Which I wrote about his philosophy then wrote about Democritus with his philosophy is everything changes by atoms and void. Then the final person was Empedocles who wrote that everything is made up of earth,wind, fire, and water. Everything is this universe is made up of a mixture of these things. What cause the mixture of these things is love and strife. He claim love attracts things together and when you have this knowledge you can live for ever and be immortal. That is the mixture will be held together tighter and tighter by love and the body won't turn to strife or repulsion which the body would then fall apart so love makes one immortal.
Well enough boring you all. Scripture we read the book of Samuel.
Things are going well. Class kept me busy this week as well as painting in the house and chapel of where I live. We are getting ready for a neighborhood block party in a week. I hope all is well. with everyone. Have a good weekend.

Highland games, Lake Winnebago

Things are starting to pick up. In Liturgy class were learning about the breviary or liturgy of the hours book. It is a book of prayer that people pray for different hours of the day. In Ancient Philosophy were into Parmenides who basically says nothing ever changes. Change is impossible. In Interpersonnal communication we are working on how to express yourself. In society today most of our messages are partial and not clear when talking to people. When your are talking to someone of something important in your response should include your observation, thought , feeling , and your need.  For example If a person says, "I see you're getting uptight again". Of course they say this in an annoyed voice maybe covering up hurt feelings. Then you get the 30 minutes of silence after the person has been home. Instead it should be a whole message , "You haven't said anything since I got home, and I assume you're angry. When you withdraw like that I gt angry too. I'd rather talk about it than do this?"
Boy it is going to be a long semester.
Then in scripture we went through the entire book of Genesis in one class.
I will get pictures of the school next time.
The pictures above is me AX throwing at Highland games. Then Patrick and I using the knights weapons. Then the knight on the horse.
The guy Sailing is Tom. He is a retired neighbor next door at the Salvatorian cabin at lake Winnebago. It was great, I went fishing every morning but no luck. Then we took the pontoon boat out and went tubing. Carl was scared because he found out there is prehistoric fish called sturgeon in the lake. Carl is from Phoenix.
Tom took me sailing. We even had enough wind at one point to push out on the floats and the wind held me up. The last picture is Indian Summer. It was neat seeing the Pow wow and I got to enjoy a drumming circle. Lots of beautiful native American goods too. Well that is it for now. Time for bed.