Celebrating Catholic Media Promotion Day

Today is Catholic Media Promotion Day. In honor of this, I am going to share some of my favorite Catholic resources on the internet.

Blogs:

Maria Johnson's blog is funny and thoughtful. She is a real person who likes to have fun and love God.

Sarah Reinhard's blog is full of country Catholic mom mayhem.

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP, PhD's blog is a splash of Dominican goodness. I especially love his Coffee Cup Browsing posts.


Podcasts:

I was introduced to SQPN via the wonderful SaintCast. It's still a favorite of mine.

Catholic in a Small Town is funny and full of real life stuff, Catholic and otherwise.

Since I'm a Lay Dominican and love Scriptures I really really love The Word, which is a podcast of various Dominican family members preaching on the readings of the day.


Other Media: (My favorite Catholic YouTube channels)

EWTN

Irish Dominicans

Daniel Smrokowski


Random Catholic Things Online:

My adopted patron saint

Dominican Catholic News

Bizarre news and speculations


My own projects:

My art on Deviant Art

My Twitter

I am working, slowly, on a possible video game Catholic podcast. But I don't have a website for it yet. I was thinking of naming it either the Faith-Filled Gamer or the Joyful Gamer. Any thoughts or comments on that would be appreciated. In the meantime you can look at my Raptr profile.

Divine Office vs. Praystation Portable

It has been quite a while since my last post. I had all of my points written down for this post on a slip of paper on my desk. The day after my last post I lost the paper. I haven't found it yet. But in honor of Catholic Media Promotion Day I have decided to get courageous and write that planned post off the top of my head. Hopefully I can remember most of it.

Here are the two contenders:

Divine Office (to be abbreviated as DO) is an audio podcast of the Liturgy of the Hours that can be consumed either via their website, via iTunes or other podcatchers, or via their app.

Praystation Portable (to be abbreviated as PP) is an audio podcast of the Liturgy of the Hours that can be accessed either via the SQPN website or via iTunes or other podcatchers.

How they compare:

1. Cantors/Speakers: DO uses multiple speakers in their recordings, both male and female, while PP is cantored by one man only. Because of multiple speakers, the DO format features the back and forth reading between sides that one would experience if reciting the Hours in or with a community.
   
2. Songs: In DO hymns are sung, though sometimes not in a way that one can accompany it. In PP the song lyrics are read and never sung. Both podcasts include all of the verses for each song.
3. Time: The PP podcasts are the shorter of the two podcasts. The cantor speaks quickly and on occasion does not enunciate properly. One example would be the word Alleluia which often sounds like 'Aleuia.' In the DO podcast the entire pace is slower. Speaking is slower and there are longer pauses between sections. Words are usually enunciated very carefully.
4. Feast days: Both podcasts celebrate Feast days and memorials of saints. However optional memorials are not covered by either podcast. Therefore, if you want to celebrate the optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin on a Saturday, you're on your own.
5. Hours: Both podcasts include the day's major hours, with the exception of Daytime prayer which is not available in audio via DO.
6. Office of the Dead: Neither DO nor PP have an audio form of the office of the dead for one to say in honor of the deceased.

I know that I had more points written on my long-lost paper, but this is all I can remember for right now.

So which do I recommend?
Well, I guess it depends on what is important to you. If you want to make sure the recordings fit into a tight schedule then the shorter Praystation Portable is for you. If you want the podcast to mimic more closely the way the Hours are recited publicly then you want to choose Divine Office.

And which do I use?
I actually use both. I download Praystation Portable onto my iPod and often use it. But I also access Divine Office via their website when I am on my laptop.

Which do I prefer?
There is no clear winner for me. The Praystation Portable cantor speaks so fast that I cannot recite the Our Father aloud with him. And sometimes the emotive quality of the cantors in Divine Office just gets on my nerves. Ideally I would like a third choice, but none exists as of yet.

Computer woes

In the last week I have had to replace my family's computer. The old PC has been having problems with the power supply. It would turn off several times in the morning before it warmed up enough to stay on for the rest of the day. Annoying but tolerable. I should have paid heed to the warning though and backed up our files. I thought about it Friday but was going to put it off for a day or two.

A day was too late.

Saturday morning the PC would not turn on at all. No flicker of light, No hum (or even grinding) of the power supply. It was dead. And it took all of our data with it.

I know the data is salvageable, if you know how to put together and repair computers that is. Since I am unskilled in that area (as is pretty much everyone I know) the only option for us was to get a new computer and mourn our data loss.

I thought my iPod would be okay but iTunes won't let me download my songs from my iPod back into the new iTunes library. It only recognizes the songs I purchased from iTunes. So it will take some time trying to get my library back, including all the podcasts I had been subscribed to and all the CDs I had transferred to it.

Today there was a small glimmer of joy when a very important file was able to be recovered from an e-mail. The thought of spending a few hours recreating it was so daunting. Finding that attachment intact made my day.

5 Podcasts

Here is a description of a few of the podcasts I regularly listen to and would recommend:

1. The Word Daily scripture, and preaching on the scriptures, done by members of the Order of Preachers, otherwise known as Dominicans. A good source for meditation on the day's scripture passages.

2. Orange Lounge Radio A weekly video game podcast full of fun. Unlike many gaming podcasts this one is done live on Allgames.com with live chat and phone calls. They address video games and releases around the world and aren't afraid to express their opinions or address controversies. The random stuff that comes up can be hilarious as well.

3. Paranormal Podcast This podcast has interviews with people regarding items related to the paranormal or supernatural. The host is always polite and never makes even the craziest guests seem as crazy as they really are. He also has a respect for religion that other paranormal-themed podcasts often lack.

4. Catholic in a Small Town This is a weekly podcast done by a real-life Catholic couple. They don't try to hide their humanity by only talking about religious topics. This is a podcast that usually has me laughing out loud.

5. The Writer's Almanac This daily podcast, narrated by Garrison Keillor, gives a little snippet of history, usually about an artist or author, followed by a poem recitation. Though a short podcast I usually accumulate several weeks' worth from the feed and let the combination of Keillor's voice and melodic poetry send me to sleep at night.