Can I change this?

Currently listening to: 'Nickels and Dimes', from Billy Cobham's 'Inner Conflicts' album.

I posted this as a bulletin on MySpace while back and got a grand total of one response. It has now passed its ten-day expiry date. Unlike everyone else, I think it's worth preserving.

This is one of those things where you're politely requested only to scroll onto the next section once you've done the preceding one...

Section 1: Imagine you were to be digitally stored on a USB memory stick. Which of the following formats would you be saved in? – choose one and one only!

.aac
.bmp
.doc
.exe
.gif
.jpeg
.mp3
.otd
.pdf
.pub
.xls
.zip

Section 2: Read on to find out what the file extension you've chosen says about you as a person. Banish any thoughts that it's just completely made up by someone who should really have something better to do with their free time.

.aac - you like doing things your own way and don't have a problem with expecting other people to fit in with you

.bmp - you're open to other people's suggestions and do your best to act on them when they're helpful

.doc - you're straightforward and adaptable and if other people think you're dull, it's their problem

.exe - you prefer to take an active role in matters rather than sitting by passively
while others assume the initiative

.gif - you have (probably unjustified) hang-ups about your appearance

.jpeg - you like to be looked at and admired

.mp3 - what you say is more important to you than how you look

.otd - you know that you're as worthy as anyone else, but people seem not to pay you the attention you deserve

.pdf - you have hidden depths which others generally don't appreciate

.pub - you put a lot of effort into looking good and it's worth it despite the
compatibility issues which arise

.xls - you like order and prefer objective functions to subjective expressions

.zip - you bottle things up, but there's a lot inside you waiting to be let out
when someone else figures out how

Section 3: Add your first name / nickname with chosen file extension to the list at the end of this bulletin.

Section 4: Copy and paste it as 'The File Extension Zodiac'. If you can be bothered. Even though I didn't say please. Oddly enough, there are no dire consequences for your health, wealth or happiness, present or future, if you do nothing. Nor are there any such consequences for those close to you.

List of names

1: natalie.exe

2: stankers.zip

3. geoff-E-.mp3

I meant to write this last week, but showed my characteristic lack of efficiency. Interestingly, it's ended up tying in with the theme of this week's Gospel in the Catholic lectionary, which contains the famous line 'anyone who humbles himself will be exalted'.

This week just gone (if last Sunday, 26 August, is taken as the first day of said week) has seen the Church remember two people without whom, however tangentially, I don't like to think where or what I'd be. Amongst other things, these were two phenomenally humble people.

First up was Blessed Dominic Barberi CP, Apostle of Christian Unity and the only post-Reformation beatus recognised for work in England without being martyred. A man who dreamed of bringing the love of Christ crucified to the people of Industrial England. A man who showed this love in a life of humble devotion, deep spirituality and tender pastoring. A man who kept showing this love in the teeth of public derision and physical assault, without the slightest hint of pride or arrogance.

Would Dominic mean so much to me if he weren't buried in my local church? Doubtless not - but church and Church have been there for me over the years in a way which the organs of of State and society quite simply haven't been. Going back to December 1995, in good times and bad I've felt that St Anne and Blessed Dominic is a place where I've belonged and where I've had an absolute right to be.

It's purely an accident that I go to Blessed Dominic's church - but a very happy one. Not least because of his close association with the poster-boy of English intellectual Catholic late-comers, Venerable John Henry Newman.

The second to be remembered was St Edmund Arrowsmith SJ, one of the canonised martyrs of England and Wales. As English Martyrs go, St Edmund Arrowsmith has a pretty low profile, even among contemporary Jesuits. It's true that he had little of the big-name glamour of a Parsons or a Campion - but this brings us back to humility. Is pastoring to the prominent and powerful a higher calling than any other sort of pastoring?

As with Blessed Dominic, my devotion to St Edmund Arrowsmith is largely co-incidental. A few years ago, I showed some of the characteristics associated with cliche's 'rock bottom'. Specifically, I was out of work with one failed career and a number of other false starts behind me. Rightly or wrongly, I essentially felt as if secular society, of which the economy is a part, had written me off.

This changed pretty much from the moment I walked through the door at St Edmund Arrowsmith Catholic High School, initially as a one-week temp. For the first time ever, I was in a job where I felt accepted and valued and where I genuinely believed in my capacity to contribute something positive. Recently, I've started thinking that what I'd always wanted in my heart was to go to school for a living. Working as a receptionist is basically that - only the stuff I do is easier than what the kids do in lessons and I don't get homework.

What really makes it for me, though, is the fact that my daily work brings me into contact with so many amazing people - teachers, office staff, visitors and, perhaps most amazing of all, children. These amazing people have said some deeply moving and touching things to me - they know who they are.

Sancte Edmunde Arrowsmithe et Benedicte Dominice de Matre Die - orate pro omnibus.

Current mood: contemplative
Currently listening to: 'Star Trekkin', by Firm