Category Archives: New Media

Clearing your mind of distractions

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There was a commercial that ran on American TV a decade ago. I do not remember for what product. Anyway, it featured Phil Jackson, the Head Coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, as a cab driver. Some high-powered looking lawyer/executive couple (man and woman) had simultaneously climbed into the back seat of his cab and gave differing destinations. If I recall, they were confused about them. Cabbie Phil spouted a New-Agey philosophical observation on “Clearing your mind of all distractions and focusing on the business at hand is pivotal.” (I wrote it down as I was in early sobriety and was keen on extracting bits of wisdom from any source. I copied it into my Big Book.)

Some other time, doesn’t matter when as I watched re-runs of it whenever I could, I saw an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” entitled Birthright, Part II (Via Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki.) In it, there is a scene in which Lt. Worf is doing the “mok’bara”, which I always took to be Klingon Tai chi chuan (Via Wikipedia.). As he is explaining the practice, he says “The form clears the mind, and centers the body.” (I wrote that down too, in my Big Book. Still in early sobriety at the time.)

Perhaps developing a ritual in that which is important come first: Matthew 6:33: “Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Via DRBO.)

Begin the day with prayer and meditation (See: Keeping Your Head on Straight, Part 1 (Regular Daily Prayer) and Keeping Your Head on Straight, Part 2 (Regular Daily Prayer)) Then write and blog for however long until the feeling of “being productive” hits.

Save email, RSS feeds and daily news reviewing as well as social network checking in for some time AFTER a measure of blogging and writing have been done. Same goes for all the “tools” for getting organized. Look at those at the end of the day to get an idea of what the next day holds and then glance at them after the hour or so of creative work.

The “form” clears the mind of all distractions and centers the body, so that focusing on the business at hand is possible. Huh. Maybe.

I just wrote Faithful in small matters. This is sort of a follow-up.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

My contribution to “Catholic Media Promotion Day!”

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As I posted earlier: Today is Catholic Media Promotion Day!

Therefore, here are my picks:

For my 3 blogs:

I will place a dear, sweet, lady first:

Dymphna’s Well, described as “Celebrating beauty in art, music, poetry and scripture.”

I discovered Dymphna’s blog years ago. Long before I had my own computer I had made it a point that whenever I was online her blog would be on the list of sites to review.

Next up:

Stumbling Back Home: “A posterous to document my spiritual journey. – A spiritual seeker’s diary of returning to the Catholic church, after a long time in the desert.”

Anything about “spiritual seeking” involving Catholicism or returning to it draws my attention. Laymonk does a great job.

Then:

Roger’s posterous: “A blog, an eclectic collection of things, an experiment.”

Roger is an online friend of mine, and is helpful and supportive of some of my online doings, namely Recovery for Christ.

I picked Dymphna’s, Laymonk’s and Roger’s blogs as although I read a bunch of blogs and probably communicate on Facebook, Twitter and Plurk with other bloggers more often, these are really the only 3 that I go to without bothering to see their feed in my RSS feed reader first. No disrespecting any other bloggers, it is just how things resonate.

For my 3 podcasts:

First, the “Home Office”: Radio Vaticana. Vatican Radio has some great podcast resources, from the Pope’s weekly audiences and Angelus broadcasts, to English language news and such.

Then:

Where I learn stuff:
Catholic Roundup

Sean’s a wonderful guy, and Canadian!!!!! How kewl is that!

Last up:
Catholic Weekend — An SQPN Featured Show

For my 3 Media picks:

Rob Williams, is the Tupelo Geek: “Using Technology for Personal and Professional Growth!”

And um, Oh My God… It’s Full Of Stars. Just because Chris is cool, too.

Lastly: Catholic Web Solutions:”Bringing the Expertise and Gifts of Catholic Organizations to the Internet”

For random Catholic stuff:

My wife Rose’s site, which feature her photography and other work, including links to her online store. These store are places where you can purchase her work. Yes, as in BUYING MY WIFE’S excellent photography and other artistic endeavors (HINT-HINT-HINT)

ARTIST4GOD: Rose Santuci-Sofranko

Then, a great idea for a browser startup page: myCatholic.com : “Customizable Catholic Homepage”. It has been my home page for years. It is customizable!

Finally, the premier Catholic radio station in the world, after Vatican Radio:
Station of the Cross

For my projects:

There’s my primary blog: Sober Catholic: “Conversion, Penance, Recovery, Sobriety, Scripture, Prayer, Catholicism.” Also The Four Last Things: “Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell.”

I also run a small social network: Recovery for Christ

I’ll cheat and mention a fourth project: CatholicPreachy.com : “Preachin’ da WORD to da HERD :-)”

CP is a joint project I share with Bro Jer, one of my bestest online buddies, and to whom I owe a lot.

Well, that’s all for that. I Tweeted an idea to Sean that maybe this CMPD should be held on March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation. Just a thought!

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

40 Days of Catholic Media Lent

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Sean, over at Catholic Roundup, a blog and website that is a directory and one stop shop for all things Catholic New Media (blogs, podcasts and such) has a new project for the Lenten season. It is the 40 Days of Catholic Media 2011.

Sean’s purpose is three-fold: to use the 40 Days of Lent as a means for Catholic bloggers, podcasters and other community media creators to build community, increase their faith formation, and to get or offer whatever technical assistance that is needed for Catholic media people to improve their projects.

A lot of us who do this are isolated from one another. We blog or podcast from our own little offices or wherever and get little feedback from each other. “Is anybody out there? Is this thing on??? Hello?” So, there is an element of community support and creation in this project.

While many of us know our Catholic Faith pretty well, we are also not Pope Benedict XVI, individually or collectively. And so we always seek to increase our knowledge of the Faith. We have to know it in order to effectively transmit it though our online projects. In this manner we can help each other.

Many of us don’t necessarily have a good grasp as to how to go about all of this (I was clueless about getting domain names, and in using a paid host and not a free account on Blogger- and why it is better. I am still clueless about transferring files from my hard drive to the host -this is called “FTP”-, I still have to use scripts supplied by the host to accomplish things. If you don’t know what I am talking about, then maybe head over to Catholic Roundup this Lent. FTP tutorials are what I’m looking for!). So, there will be technical discussions for anyone in need of learning. Remember, there are no stupid questions, only unanswered ones.

In “More Details about 40 Days of Catholic Media” Sean outlines a weekly plan to cover these three areas. And in “Pardon Me, you seem to have a spot on your forehead” he starts the seasonal project off with something related to what a lot of Catholics are fearful of doing, walking around outside with dirt on their forehead during Ash Wednesday.

Why am I posting this? Well, as I’ve said many times in the past here, and most recently in my interview, I started this blog because there wasn’t anything else out there like it for recovering Catholic alcoholics an addicts. And there basically still isn’t. For some reason, Catholics who get clean and sober do not turn to interactive media like blogs and community sites to spread their Faith and how it impacts their recovery. There is the occasional blog, but their Catholicism seems peripheral to their recovery. They are 12 Steppers who happen to be Catholic, and they might mention their Faith now and then. Several have started, but have gone silent. Not too helpful to other recovering Catholics seeking online community.

So I am announcing Sean’s project and am participating in it so maybe I can see who else is out there. Maybe someone will get inspired and start another Catholic-focused recovery project. I think Sean’s intent is directed to existing members of the Catholic online blogosphere and podcasting community. Mine, too, but I’m also looking to see who else might be interested in jumping in. If they see that there is a vibrant, online community willing to band and bond together and help out with affirmation, Faith formation and technical information, then who knows…

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

Sober Catholic/The Four Last Things Facebook Page

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Updated: I deleted the “Four Last Things” part of the Facebook Page, that blog will have it’s own Page.

I am not sure offhand what I am going to do with this, and it may serve a purpose in promoting this blog, but there is now a Facebook “Page” for Sober Catholic and The Four Last Things, click below:

Sober Catholic/The Four Last Things Facebook Page

I suppose if readers have Facebook accounts and you all want to meet up there and discuss things, that’ll be nice. That may be an advantage in blogs having a Page on Facebook, additional interaction and “community.” If you wish to interact and build community, while maintaining anonymity, there is still always:

Recovery for Christ

Anyway, the Facebook Page will remain, and grow into something hopefully useful.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)

A Catholic New Media Advent- the Catholic Roundup Podcast

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It’s now “Official”, the Catholic New Media Advent Calendar has been announced on the project’s home page here—> A Catholic New Media Advent- Catholic Roundup Podcast 87

(Via Catholic Roundup.)

Click on the link and download the podcast into iTunes or whatever you listen to podcasts on. You can also play it in your browser by going to the “Recent Episodes” box along the right-hand side and click on the “Podcast 87” thingy scrolling along. Just remember to plug in your headset.

Your’s truly was mentioned, as I am assisting him a bit, but that is unimportant 😉

It isn’t too late to get involved. You can email Sean through his blog (or me through this one) and we can set you up with what you need to know and do.

During the podcast Sean brings up a interesting point about those of us who write blogs or record podcasts. For the most part, we do this alone. It is not as if there is an office building where we arrive at daily, sit at our desks and post to our sites. We do this at home. There is a sense of loneliness and isolation due to the obvious disconnection from our readers and listeners. I write a blogpost and you might be reading it years later and thousands of miles away. And I do not know what you look like or sound like. We will probably never meet. And sometimes it’s a wonder if anyone is out there.

There are sites like “St. Blog’s Parish” and “Amateur Catholic- The ‘B’-Team”, but they’re hardly interactive. There has been only recently conventions of bloggers and podcasters, but that costs money to travel to and stay at unless one is held in a city near you.

What am I getting at? Projects like Sean’s New Media Advent Calendar are events that enables us to work together. It brings us closer inasmuch as we become aware of each other’s existence and work. The attention and traffic that it might bring to our online endeavors is important, too. But in working together and reading or viewing each other’s contributions gives us a sense that there is a community of Catholic New Media people out there and we are a part of something wonderful.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)