eek! Time is marching on apace. It seems that after a certain time undertaking valid research my browser seems to start foraging for fonts. Today I have discovered Daily Drop Cap so hopefully this paragraph may grow sufficiently long to provide a chance to use just one more drop cap in this post before I retire for the night. I think that might be enough.
ood Night!
Uncategorized advent, craft, homeschool 7:53 am
Or the advent of Advent.
Nanna has made our boys a beautiful Advent Calendar this year. There are 24 pockets waiting to be filled.
Of course, Catholic mothers all over the world have been thinking of how to celebrate Advent. Maybe next year I’ll be able to contribute a daily gregorian chant antiphon, but today I’m drawing on Catholic Mom’s Advent Activities – a long list of links. In particular the Jesse Tree from Domestic Church.
We are also signed up for the Holy Heroes Advent Adventure. The last one we opted for was a bit much to keep up with, but handy if the opportunity arises.
So, hopefully, a daily colouring in page will satisfy both the spiritual and recreational requirements of the season.
Uncategorized 7:29 am
It might be fair enough to expect that an explanation on the feast called All Souls day would have some explanation of the concept of Purgatory. So Here is an explanation from my favourite reference Defend the Faith from Lumen Verum Apologetics. They have weekly talks that I wish I could attend. A great source of guest speakers too, for all your Catholic faith building meetings.
So for November, month of the Holy Souls, we visit a cemetery. Any will do. It would be good to visit graves of our loved ones, maybe next time we’re in Sydney. Also many have been cremated instead.
You forget how peaceful it can be to visit a cemetery. Even with four boys running around there’s a chance to be solemn. Remember this life is only the trial run for eternity. This mortal life has an end. As long as the days seem sometimes it will come to an end. Fight the good fight while you can. Pray for a good death.
The other thing to see is there is a Someone who made these souls, who will not forget/annihilate them. In life we can chose to serve things like money, or people, or God. Once we start looking for what is best, God will draw us on to the Truth.
And the Truth will set us free.
Reading fonts, typesetting 9:27 pm
Donald Knuth’s book Metafont begins with a warning that fonts can take over your life. There is a really bad pun too, but I do not consider it expedient to dig up the book to share it here with you.
Recently I have rediscovered MyFonts. Here you can browse fonts and learn about the designers, the foundries, the history, the creativity, just about everything about fonts. There are even some free fonts.
I am an inveterate cheap skate. One day when I make money out of publishing I will consider buying fonts. Until then I get by with the free offerings to be found online.
A little known treasure trove of fonts is typOasis where I first came across Paul Lloyd fonts. He lives just across the continent from me, and now keeps up a blog at Greater Albion Type Foundry and sells fonts through MyFonts.
Another favourite designer comes from Germany. Pia Frauss has some spectacular medieval fonts plus great notes on the sources. Her fonts are free for personal use.
From Estonia comes New Renaissance fonts. David Kettlewell has a package of 25 fonts from a while ago to download for free. Unfortunately they don’t work so well. It looks like you need to purchase his fonts from MyFonts to get usable fonts. But the website looks great.
Manfred Klein is also featured ontypOasis. His Fonteria has hundreds of fonts, not very easy to browse, but so many!
Last there’s another gem from typOasis. Dieter Steffman with a great variety of fonts that seem to be all in good working order.
Uncategorized 10:41 pm
Stumbling across this work tracking progress of a book of hours in Latin and English which is also being published on Lulu I learned that Canon Law requires permission for publishing any books of prayers for public distribution. It makes a lot of sense. Even if you’re not saying your work represents the Catholic Church’s teaching, as a Catholic its kinda implicit.
So hymnbooks are on hold until I get permission from my local bishop. Hopefully it won’t take too long, but what’s the hurry? I’ve been trying to get these books to take off since the first edition back in 2001 (I think).
Uncategorized 1:39 pm
The hymnbook is getting out there, slowly but surely. Perhaps not the most lucrative money-spinner, but very educational.
Lessons for today:
* many bookshops expect supplier to pay postage
* selling by consignment may take a Long Time
* there are quite a few costs to factor in when setting prices * making books is fun
A New Book of Old Hymns is getting a little old in itself. After years on the same idea it would be refreshing to start something completely different. Stay tuned for Walter Mitty’s Children’s Mass Book.
Music and Reading gregor 7:37 am
One thing lacking in my hymnbook “A New Book of Old Hymns” was some explanation for people not enjoying immersion in chant. Most people take one look, say “great, but I can’t read that” and go no further. Two solutions spring to mind -
No. 1 looks easier right now. It would be great if the local Schola could do the 2nd for me, but that doesn’t look likely.
I did make CDs of the free recordings from the Benedictine Monastery in Sao Paolo Brazil. One person has found that helpful. I have links to the mp3s on the webpage for the hymnbook brandt.id.au/music/hymnbook.
Anyway, here is the howto via scribd. feedback most appreciated.
Homeschooling and Uncategorized 9:13 pm
The highlight of any shopping trip for me is the local library. Filling up a pram for free and being able to bring it all back, no questions asked, who could ask for anything more?
This week I am dipping into Dr. Claire Weekes book about helping your nerves. It has a great way of describing nervous illness as just fear of the symptoms of nervous fatigue. Letting go of that fear seems the first step to recovery. Of course, easier said than done. She splits up nervous fatigue into physical, emotional, mental and spiritual occuring in that order. Great reading all these things been through in some degree and lived to tell about – or rather try to forget about.
Also reading one on How to Heal a guide for caregivers. Great reading – most advice is really obvious when you think about it, but great stuff to refresh you and keep you going. Healing is one of those things I keep coming back to. Generally you can’t force it, but there are hundreds of ways to impede it. Kinda correspends to the truth that all grace comes from God. Most efficient way is to rely on the Holy Ghost.
Last book is The Truth About Stress which claims the whole concept is flawed. The terminology is vague and the ham-fisted application of stress management techniques can be downright harmful. The author is clarifying the physiological conditions that get broadly called “stress” and talking about how each works. Again, very interesting stuff.
So what’s all this reading in aid of? All this theory on emotional health? I wasn’t aiming for being a mother in my choice of training. Electrical Engineering doesn’t cover this stuff. I don’t think it comes into the HSC syllabus either. The closest I got was memorising Shakespeare: “Give sorrow words, the grief that does not speak whispers the o’er fraught heart and bids it break”. But knowing how human beings function is essential for motherhood. I guess in days gone by I would have grown up with a feeling for coping with life. Somewhere along the line this healthy patrimony was exterminated, so now I read books with long words.
Uncategorized 9:54 pm
The everlasting God has in His wisdom
foreseen from eternity the cross He now presents
to you as a gift from His inmost heart. This
cross He now sends you He has considered with His
all-knowing eyes, understood with His divine
mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with
loving arms, and weighed with His own hands to
see that it be not one inch too large and not one
ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with
His holy name, anointed it with His grace,
perfumed it with His consolation, taken one last
glance at you and your courage, and then sent it
to you from heaven, a special greeting from God
to you, an alms of the all merciful love of God.
St. Francis de Sales
Music catholic, chant, church, gregorian chant, latin, mass 8:31 pm
Learning Latin is becoming something of a lifelong saga here. I missed Latin at school and somehow ended up mothering 4 preschoolers miles from the nearest adult classes so online resources seem the most promising way.
Latin Appreciation Workshop looks great. Lots of familiar things here for one who has been frequenting the Maternal Heart of Mary Church, Lewisham for the past 10 years or so.
And my book of latin hymns is one step closer to printing. On track for launch before the annual Christus Rex pilgrimage at the end of October.
There is a latin course especially for priests hoping to use the extraordinary Roman rite. Simplicissimus from the Latin Mass Society. Good for laymen too. Great for people with some familiarity with ecclesiastical latin – makes the exercises much easier.
