Eight Things

Paul VI tagged me with the list 8 facts/habits about themselves meme.

• The first thing I do when I wake up is to read the Liturgy of the Hours, pray the Rosary, and try to spend some time in contemplative prayer. I do this first thing because I know otherwise I will keep putting it off and then it won’t have prayed at all. Plus I know if I turned on my computer first thing in the morning I know for sure I would never get to prayer.
• I tend to read three or four books at a time. One for morning spiritual reading, another one for evening spiritual reading or theology, some fiction to end the day, and another book of fiction in my iPod that I listen to while driving and at other times.
• I would like to rename my blog to the Contemplative Jester one day, but despite my prayer time and spiritual reading I figure at my current pace this will happen sometime after we actually have flying cars.
• I really like Evelyn Waugh, but I have never been able to finish Brideshead Revisited.
• My first internet connection was a shell account and my first internet site back in 1995 was a Access database driven freeware site for software called "Rage against the Cash Machine."
• I have never had or used an Apple computer. My path to geekdom was Commodore Plus 4, Commodore 64, Amiga, and then PCs starting from an IBM XT. I am not anti-Apple and certainly wouldn’t mind having one of their new machines.
• Even though I am a major SF fan I have never been to a convention. Though I have met Frank Herbert and Frederick Pohl.
• I failed an eye exam on purpose when I was a kid since I thought glasses were cool. My parents never did understand the "miraculous" cure of my vision later.