Category: technology
This afternoon, Orin was a panelist on a webinar put on by http://www.rebuildmychurch.org on the topic of summer youth ministry – ideas, camps, programs, etc. It was a good discussion, with lots of great ideas and insights. Here’s the video of the webinar if you want to see what you missed live:
Orin mentioned by name two camps: http://youthsingpraise.com and http://youngneighbors.org – check them out for quality ministry programs over the summer! Thanks to our hosts for the good work!
Well, here ends another great year for Oddwalk Ministries. We had the opportunity to bring what we do to a lot of great places:
Granite City, IL – Toledo, Ohio – Mascoutah, IL – Breese, IL – Belleville, IL – Davenport, IA – Washington DC – Buffalo, NY – Fairview Heights, IL – Hazelwood, MO – Albany, GA – Savannah, GA – Merrillville, IN – Collinsville, IL – Indianapolis, IN
We also had a good year with the blog. Here now is my list (chronological) of the top blog posts for 2011. Enjoy!
TOLEDO SNOW – In January , Oddwalk traveled to Ohio for a week’s worth of Catholic Schools Week appearances. Due to the same snowstorm that blanketed most of the midwest, almost nothing went right with this trip. Check out the breakdown.
APRIL FOOLS DAY FUN – In past years on the blog, April Fools Day rocked. This year it just Ricked.
DOG DAYS – While news of the Cerneka family getting a dog might not seem like a strong Oddwalk post, I assure you that my kids would disagree. Now if we can get her to stop eating the couch.
VICTORIOUS! – In May, Oddwalk had the honor of being part of the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Victorious Missionaries, providing music for Mass and dinner entertainment.
CONSUBSTANTIAL?!?! – In July, Oblate Media invited Oddwalk to be part of a video they were producing to help congregations get ready for the upcoming changes to the English translation of the Roman Missal. Additionally, Orin’s new Mass setting, “Ever Ancient, Ever New”, was included in the final product!
ODDWALK vs. AIR FORCE – Our friend (and drummer!) Rick works at Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, IL. Some time in October, Rick tried to check out our website from his work computer. Bad move, Rick! Now he knows just how dangerous we truly are.
JEALOUS MUCH? – What would you do if you were a Chicago Cubs fan (shudder) and the band you had hired for your event were St. Louis Cardinals fans. You probably wouldn’t do much. What if, however, the team you followed hadn’t won a World Series in 103 years and the band’s team was only two days removed from winning their second World Series in five years. Would you consider doing this?
LOVE! – In early November, Oddwalk (and band!) had the chance to record a new song, called “Love”. We all really like the song and took the opportunity to offer it as a free download son our website.
A BIG SURPRISE – For years, Orin and I have attempted to write what we hoped would be the theme song for various National Catholic Youth Conferences (NCYC). How great would it be to have 20,000 people singing one of your songs? Eleven songs later, we’re still trying. :) This year, however, we were honored to have our song, “At Your Name”, included as a communion hymn for the NCYC Closing Mass. Cooler than having all those people singing one of our songs, however, was the knowledge that something we had written had accompanied their prayer during Communion. Truly awesome and humbling.
A NEW KEYTAR SUPERSTAR? – During NCYC, Oddwalk offered a new iPod Nano to the the person (or persons) who could grab one of our keytars and take the most rockin’, most face-meltingly awesome pic ever. These individuals then had to post these pics to our Facebook page. Dozens of pic later, we named a winner!
Here’s to more great adventures in 2012!!
Clicky Clicky!
Seems like this picture could use a few captions. You know the drill. Thanks, Michael!
What’s really going on: Pope Benedict XVI checks the new Vatican web portal on an iPad device at the Vatican June 28, 2011. Benedict XVI will launch the site, a news information portal that aggregates the Vatican’s various media into a one-stop site for all things papal, on Wednesday, the 60th anniversary of his ordination into the priesthood. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano
Visit http://www.news.va/en for more!
Scan Me! Scan Me!
A few months back, iLike discontinued the service that provided our app for the iPhone. If you still have it, it works, but we can’t do any updating of it, and if you don’t already have it, you can’t get it anymore either. Bah.
So, we’ve found a free, cross-platform way to bring all of the best content of our full site to you in mobile form! Just visit our site with a mobile browser, or scan that QR code over there with your device’s camera. Whee! And enjoy.
In his annual message for the church’s World Day of Social Communications, Benedict called for the faithful to adopt a “Christian style presence” online that is responsible, honest and discreet.
“We must be aware that the truth which we long to share does not derive its worth from its ‘popularity’ or from the amount of attention it receives,” Benedict wrote. “The proclamation of the Gospel requires a communication which is at once respectful and sensitive.”
Benedict didn’t name names, but the head of the Vatican’s social communications office, Archbishop Claudio Celli, said it wouldn’t be incorrect to direct the pope’s exhortation to some conservative Catholic blogs, YouTube channels and sites which, with some vehemence, criticize bishops, public officials and policies they consider not Catholic enough.
We did some mostly behind-the-scenes tinkering with the blog, let us know if you see anything wonky! The most apparent upgrade is the mobile site is refined a bit, check it out from your favorite iGadget (or iGadget-wannabe).
Exactly what we’ve been waiting for, announces engadget:
This was Orin's life, truly
But why pink??
And have you seen the keytars all over the TV shows Glee and Community lately? Does that mean we can finally buy this shirt? (And wear it with only mild amounts of embarrassment and shame?) And thanks to Chris for the heads up!
mycatholicvoice is starting to get video up now from NCYC, and here’s the video of our warmup before Fr. Tony Ricard’s session – just us, and, you know, 7,500 of our closest friends!
At the bottom right of each Oddblog post (and page, to get technical) are little widgets to help you share items on various sites and in various ways. Hopefully they show up in the RSS feed too, this post will test that, I guess.
Left to right, they are: Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and under the plus sign many many more, including emailing and preparing a printer-friendly version of each post.
Please put them to good use!
