Snowball Fight Record

Leuven’s students did not have to wait for the winter to start having fun in the snow this year: on 14 October, several thousand students – 5,694 to be exact – broke the snowball fight world record. They smashed the previous record – 3,749 participants – held by Michigan Technological University. Skikot travel agency organised the record-breaking event, for which 120 tons of snow were shipped to the Ladeuzeplein!
Even though it's the oldest Catholic university in the world, they still strive for excellence in an ever widening range of disciplines - or un-disciplines. I missed the historic event, or I guess I could say I boycotted it due to the high environmental cost.... and I haven't seen a flake of snow yet this year.
I've finished a good first draft of my thesis and I'm running it through readers and implementing their suggestions. Then through my advisor and implementing those suggestions. So it's more detail work at this point. I'm pretty happy with the project as a whole. I had hoped to complete it by Christmas, and I've got the first draft 10 days early! I've got about a month to finalize everything and send it to Belgium to get printed and distributed.
I'm looking forward to Christmas with family and community. I've been busy making candy for the occasion. I enjoy doing this and always showing up for parties with a box of home-made goodies.
After the first of the year, things will get a little hectic:
Washington DC Jan 11-12
Shreveport LA Jan 13-Feb4
Milwaukee WI Feb 6-9
Leuven Belgium Feb 20-Mar5 (ish)
Then once I get back home, I'll launch into law practice in earnest. I've been working on the side (just won two tax cases in time for christmas - yay!). But it will take work to get all the organizational / administrative aspect of a Law Office back on track. And of course - I'm hoping I'll be able to build clients as well.
So this Christmas I'm conscious of the presence of God in our world, in my own world, and in and among those with whom I live and work: Emmanuel.
Christmas blessings!
Amy

Thanksgiving....

Someone just asked me if my time in Leuven went fast - well, I guess it did. It was a great experience, but now that it's past, it does seem short. However, I think there are lots of ways that I'm really a different person for the experience. Just having the opportunity to meet, study and pray with folks from so many different places and so many different experiences has been a real blessing. I think it is hard to measure how that will work into the future for me. Another real blessing is the opportunity to do theology while I was over there. I've been doing theology classes one or two at a time for 30 years. Now that is a good way to do things - you learn a lot, and have an opportunity to integrate with lots of life experience. But this time, I got the opportunity to do some things in a concentrated way, and, as I said, with folks from all over the world.
I've been back about four months, and I've found the transition back to be remarkably easy. Several things working in my favor: I have my thesis as my main task, so I didn't have to face getting back into full time work / finding a job, etc. Also, I was concerned about rebuilding a law practice - well, that has been easier than I expected, various clients around the country are connecting. Also, the apostolic visitation is raising questions for folks, and I'm better equipped to help now. (This one is a mixed blessing for sure.)
This year, for the first time in two years, I'll be celebrating Thanksgiving with family and community. That is a real treat. We'll gather at Mom's and Dad's in New Haven for dinner on Saturday. We celebrate Saturday to accommodate all the in-laws schedules, and make it easier for everyone to gather. I'm planning to stay out in New Haven for the whole weekend - depending on when I can get transport. Then Christmas is just around the corner. Can you believe it?
My thesis is coming well. I have two chapters back from my promoter, and another that is written, Julie is proofing it before I send it over. Then I have a pretty good outline on the final chapter. It will be fun to write, but may be a little challenging. It will be on the theology of transfer - probably the spirituality of transfer. But that requires that I first talk about the notion of vocation, and of religious vocation in particular. These are important topics, but somewhat elusive. People have written about them, but often by talking about the externals, or by saying what it's not. But really, what IS vocation - and what IS religious vocation in particular? So that's what I'll be working on for the next few weeks.
I have some legal work - I'm pretty confident that this will grow in the month ahead. Probably my biggest challenge is to arrange everything that's going on in the first three months of next year: conference in DC, internship in Shreveport, presentation in Milwaukee, thesis defense, workshop and presentation in Leuven. I'm still trying to get all this pinned down so I can make travel arrangements. Then when I get home around March 10, things should settle down a little, and I can turn to getting more organized for law practice. Right now I'm still hobbling along on the organization I set up 5 years ago - it's going well enough - but could use some serious 'tweaking'.
HAPPY Thanksgiving All!!!
Peace,
Amy

Karmic Koala, etc.

Last week was the big release of Karmic Koala, Ubuntu's version 9.10. I had planned to wait a week or so, but when my computer popped up ready to update - well, I just couldn't resist. My computer is all full of Karma and it's great. The program is faster and cleaner and there are some neat new bells and whistles. I got an Asus netbook when my laptop died, and it required a few patches to run the last version of linux, but with the new version it's up and running out of the box.
In other Linux news, I've found a great podcast: Going Linux. It has interesting tips and news items. I'm learning more and more how to "use linux to get things done," so goes the program's tag line.
Hard to believe something came before my thesis in the Blog. So the thesis is coming along. I have two chapters completed - they are both out to readers (friends). I have yet to submit one to my advisor - but I will get that out this week, even if I don't have anything from a reader. I've started the "juridical" chapter which is really the last chapter. I'll go back and fill in the Theology chapter - I think that will be more fun to write, so I'm saving it till last.
I went to another national meeting October 20-23. It went really well, connect with a lot of folks that I've worked with in the past, and met new people as well. The Apostolic Visitation is a big stir and topic of conversation. It is a serious issue and there are a lot of unknowns. Prayers are needed for the women under investigation, and for the investigators as well - euphemistically called the Visitator. There are lots of legal problems with the current phase, but I think folks are taking the time to get good advise and the help they need to decide how to respond. I have to say this has really made me see the wisdom of doing the canon law program. Who would have known, but it puts me in a position of being able to help lots of folks. So as soon as I finish my program, there should be plenty of work to do.
At the October meeting, I also made it to the Atlanta Aquarium - which was incredibly beautiful. We had an hour after the general public had already left to go around and see the fishes - very peaceful and really beautiful. It was just amazing to see all the little guys swimming around and the big ones as well. They had a few of the staff people who could explain about the fish and their habits and where they all came from. That was also nice. But mainly it was just so neat to see them all swimming around - just amazing.
Beautiful autumn weather here too - the trees are absolutely gorgeous - they will probably be bear soon, so it the last chance to enjoy them.
Peace,
Amy

Louisville, KY

Reporting live from Louisville KY! I'm at the Canon Law Society meeting. I made it through the opening session and the reception. I connected with a few people that I knew and met a few more people. I did manage to stick my foot in my mouth once - oh well.... recovered now. I'm staying at the 'cheap' hotel down the road (1/2 the price of the convention discount at the other place). Tomorrow will be input sessions. And I want to connect with a few more people. Some people I was hoping to connect with aren't here.
I drove over - just over 4 hours to get here - lots of construction zones, but not much construction going on. I came mid day, so there were no jams. But the fall colors were SPECTACULAR!!! Round every bend was better than the last. I'm hoping for good weather on the way back too, it should be even better. Most places were still somewhat shy of peak colors. But BEAUTIFUL!!! It was definitely better to drive than the two or three hop flight.
I listened to a few more linux podcasts on the way over, and just enjoyed the view. It's really a little short to do a book on tape - well, I could get started. I did download a few extra podcasts, just in case.
Thesis is a little on hold. I actually found a few more articles that I can read while I'm here. Then I might get a little written when I get home. I leave here around noon on Thursday.
All the best - make sure you get out and enjoy the leaves when you can!!!
Amy

Okay, so it's not about word count.....

Granted there's a lot to writing a good thesis, it's not just word count. But that's my current thermometer for seeing how far along I am in the project. I've completed one chapter and it's out with a proofreader - actually with two of them, because the first was incapacitated. That was the chapter that analyzed the survey information on transfers. Really interesting stuff. I enjoyed working with the material and writing up the results. Hopefully that will come across in the writing.
Currently I'm working on the section on history. I had a head start on that because I did some work on the topic last semester. But I'm filling it out and giving some more up-to-date information. The previous work focused on the middle ages.
I'm pretty well settled into Magnolia and I even have a sort of 'schedule'. I'm in my office at Carondelet Mondays and Thursday, and working from home the other days, like today. In fact, someone called today, expecting me to be at Carondelet - so I'm already predictable.... But I'm actually working from home because transportation will work better tomorrow - so much for predictibility. The critter at the left is a neighbor. We have a pair of great horned owls who have taken a liking to our house and can often be found in the trees near the house and can often be heard singing back and forth - it's really cool. I've only actually seen them once - sitting side by side on a branch. We have lots of folks who come around with binoculars looking at the trees around our house. It takes some getting used to.
Fall colors are just starting - I went up for my first plane ride this year on Sunday with my dad. Didn't see a whole lot but I did sort of try a few landings. The leaves should be better in a few weeks. I'll definitely have to get up in the air again.
I'm still getting around on my bike - either joy riding or getting around town. St. Louis is a little bigger than Leuven, but I can do some meaningful travel on a bike. For the rest, I ride with someone or borrow a car or take the bus. Actually bus/bike is also an option because most busses have bike racks. I'm not terrible graceful about getting my bike on and off, but I manage to get it done. And it really extends the places I can go.
Okay, back to a book I'm reading for my thesis - I still have several that are more background material. And continue to find an article here and there that I need to go through.
Peace,'
Amy

It's All About Word Count

Okay so I'm writing my thesis and my life now is all about word count. I need 50,000 words. I'm just over 13,000. The great thing is that I wrote almost 8,000 this week!!! I'm really happy about that.

I'm writing about transferring to another religious institute. I did an online survey and that got great results. This week I've written most of the survey up; really interesting results. Then I've have lots of good ideas for my next chapter which will be on the theology / spirituality of transfer. It will be based on first what is vocation, then what is religious vocation. These are pretty simple questions, but it is not really easy to answer either question. But I have some good ideas and some good authors. I've been talking through my ideas with some friends. I have just a little to polish off on the survey. I'll do that early next week, then probably do some more writing, then pick up the theology / spirituality chapter the following week. I'll put the survey chapter out to readers, then get a social science researcher to read and comment as well.

I'm pretty well settled into a routine of working 2 days at Carondelet - generally Monday and Thursday. Then working the rest of the week from home. That is working well for me. On Monday I rode my bike over to the bus - loaded it on the bus and rode up to Tower Grove, then rode my bike over to the house. That worked out pretty well. Other times I ride back and forth with Barb or Mary Louise, my housemates. I took a short ride around the park today.

---oops - sorry for mistakes....

Amy

New from the IRS

1. Exemption Application User Fees to Change in 2010 User fees will increase for all EO applications for exemption (Forms 1023, 1024, and 1028), postmarked after January 3, 2010. Cyber Assistant, a Web-based software program designed to help 501(c)(3) applicants prepare a complete and accurate Form 1023 application, will become available during 2010. Once Cyber Assistant is made available, user fees for Form 1023 will change again.

2. New Process for Supporting Organizations to Change Public Charity Classification The IRS has modified the procedures for reclassifying section 509(a)(3) supporting organizations as public charities. Announcement 2009-62 updates procedures for such requests to be consistent with new regulations eliminating the advance ruling process.

3. Register Now for Fall Workshops for Small and Mid-Sized 501(c)(3) Organizations These introductory one-day workshops, designed for administrators or volunteers responsible for an organization's tax compliance, will be held in Philadelphia, PA on October 6, 7, and 8, 2009. Get more information and register online.

oops, posted this to the wrong blog ---- it should be on my nonprofit blog: ahereford.blogspot.com