A break... finally

So basically, it kind of seems like this blog had died. It went more than a month without anything of a substantial update. That's a huge no-no. But even though I let this aspect of my digital life slip, I'm glad that my good old flesh and blood life has been picking up quite nicely.

The pro-life club I'm in is now planning a pro-life conference, which will hopefully turn into a statewide thing. If anyone knows any people in Pennsylvania that are interested in hearing quite a few pro-life speakers and showing their support, tell them to drop me a line. It'll be on Friday, April 4, at Penn State and the next day, Peter Kreeft will also be speaking at Penn State courtesy of another group on campus I'm involved with.

Speaking of that other group, I was recently voted in as the secretary for the Newman club on campus. Newman is a Catholic student organization I've been a part of since my freshman year, and apparently the members think well enough of me that they'd like me to be the secretary this next semester while the previous secretary goes to study abroad.

Onto another club on campus, Penn State's Paranormal Research Society's TV show just started, Paranormal State, and I'm proud to say I know some of the people on the show. So far the show has been good, it's a lot of helping people, not so much running around with cameras a la Blair Witch, like you might expect of a show dealing with college kids and the paranormal. All of the episodes so far are good, but for my more religious readers, the 2nd and 3rd episodes, The Name and The Devil in Syracuse are both fairly religious-y, having to do with demonology and such. There's even a deliverance (a lesser form of exorcism) in one of the episodes. It's usually on Mondays at 10 pm on A&E, but this week there is no show, new episodes are starting back up on the 31st. So, if it's New Year's Eve and you want something fun to do at 10:00, turn on A&E.

Classes and final exams finished for me as of Friday, and I found out that this is the first semester I got all As! Four As and one A- (I probably should have showed up to more mythology lectures.) All in all, a great semester, but even greater for this next reason.

And now, for the biggest announcement, I have a girlfriend. Shannon and I have been going out for almost three weeks now, but unfortunately for me, we live 2.5 hours apart when not at college, so I don't know if we'll get a chance to see each other over the break. Also, our one month anniversary is the day I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out. Now how's that for a present?

The Lighter Dark Side of Reconciliation

So this weekend, I spent all of my time exhausting myself, and most of that time was spent working at Univ-Con, the USA's largest paranormal conference. It was ridiculously fun, but ridiculously tiring, considering pretty much all of my free time from last Wednesday to Friday night was spent helping get this conference working, and I still haven't fully rested back up from how fatigued it made me.

Excluding all of that, we had an interesting pair of keynote speakers Friday night at Univ-Con, Lorraine Warren, wife and partner to the only Vatican-recognized lay demonologist (the late Ed Warren), and Father James LeBar, a former exorcist. I had heard Lorraine Warren speak at Univ-Con last year, and had read a few books about some of her and her husbands more publicized cases, and I was not disappointed in any of it. There is a real existence of demons in this world, and anyone who doubts should talk to one of these people.

That being said, demons are smart, and they know things they shouldn't be able to know (preternatural knowledge, as they call it, I believe). These spirits know the dark things you have done in your life, and may mock, ridicule, and harass you with their knowledge of your sins and the times you have failed God. However, as an interesting note, they don't seem to have any knowledge of sins that have been confessed.

I guess when you go to reconciliation, that old Bible verse really is true.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed his transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)

It's kind of nice to know that when we say "forgive and forget," that God takes it kind of literally, at least in terms of applying it to his angels (both fallen and otherwise).