St. Patty's Day Quiz Results

The answers were:

1. New York City on March 17, 1762.
2. Church
3. Chicago, although Savannah claims to have been the first, in 1961
4. 1759
5. James Joyce, Thomas Moore, Jonathan Swift, Bram Stoker, W.B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde...there are more
6. No Irish need Apply
7. Ireland Forever
8. Blarney, County Cork
9. Green, White, Orange
10. Used by monks to hide gold from plundering Vikings

Bonus: There are 4 places in the United States named Shamrock. Mount Gay-Shamrock, W.Va., and Shamrock, TX, Shamrock Lakes, Ind., and Shamrock, OK.

The winner is.....Kristen! She answered 2.5 questions correctly, but recieved an extra point for flattery on the Irish Authors question. Grand total: 3.5

Second place goes to Karlie, who correctly answered 2 questions, but had actually kissed the Blarney stone, giving her a full bonus point. Grand total: 3

And last, but certainly not least: Miss Tiffany. She actually only answered one question correctly, but the combination of a sweet story for the monk tower, having actually seen Chicago's green waters, and complimenting the post gave her an extra point and a half. Grand total: 2.5

Thanks for playing!

St. Patrick's Day

Top o' the mornin to ya!

This day, this fine Spring day is one of my favorites. Not because of the excuse to drink Guinness....who needs an excuse? Not because you get to pinch people not wearing green....but I will pinch you. No, St. Patrick's Day is a favorite of mine because it is a day when everyone you meet is Irish....how could life get better than that?

And now, some St. Patty's history:

Saint Patrick was not Irish by birth. He was in fact from Britain. As a teenager (16 I believe) he was kidnapped by Irish slave traders who took him back to Ireland. There we was enslaved for 6 years before he escaped and made his way back to Britain. In his writings he wrote about God speaking to him and telling him it was time to leave Ireland. He traveled 200 miles to the Irish coast and hopped a ship back home.

No sooner had he returned to his homeland than God began to call him back to Ireland, but this time to spread God's love. He spent at least fifteen years becoming a priest, and then back to Ireland he went. There he began to introduce a mostly pagan people to Christianity. He was a very smart and capable teacher, and he used the belief system already in place in Ireland to explain the wonder of God. He used bonfires at Easter, because they were already a large part of the Spring Equinox celebration. He is credited with the "invention" of the Celtic Cross, imposing the sun, a pagan symbol, onto the cross.

The man's life was fantastic. He left a legacy of love and God's power that still holds much of Ireland today. Even the stories that are most likely not absolutely true show the power of God he portrayed. There is a legend that he, using God's power, ordered all of the snakes in Ireland to cast themselves into the sea. And, there are no snakes in Ireland to this day. While he gets the credit for coming up with running the snakes out, it is God who receives the glory for having the power to do so. There is also a legend that St. Patrick used the Shamrock to describe the trinity (3 leaves connected as one). Historians can show no evidence of this, but it highlights his ability to use the land and customs that the Irish people were used to to explain the wonder of God to them.

So this St. Patrick's day, while you are toasting the Luck of the Irish, reflect a bit on the actual man, and what we can truly learn from him. He was a man who was abused, but rather than hold a grudge against the people who entrapped him, he used the experience to better serve God. He was a man who listened to God's voice. Hearing God say to leave Ireland could not have been that difficult to stomach, but then being called back? And away he went. But it took fifteen years to reach that goal. I am struggling with the thought that I may have to go to school for three years to go where God wants me. From St. Patrick we can learn that in serving the Lord we are on His time, not ours, and it may be better to be prepared to serve fully than to just rush into a situation "In the name of the Lord".

So go, drink you Guinness- I know I will-, but remember today who we are actually celebrating, and send up a toast to him, and a thanks to God.

And now, a St. Patty's day quiz. No Cheating by looking up answers or looking at others' responses!:

1. Where and what year was the first St. Patrick's Day Parade held?

2. Up until the 1970s, where could you find most Irish on St. Patrick's Day?

3. Which American city is famous for dying its river green every year on St. Patrick's Day?

4. What year was Guinness first brewed?

5. Name three famous Irish authors

6. Today, we love the Irish, but what famous sign might an Irishman looking for work have found hanging in windows on the east coast in the mid 1800s?

7. What does the phrase "Erin Go Bragh" mean?

8. Where is the Blarney Stone found?

9. Name the three colors on the Irish Flag

10. What was the tower in the picture below used for?

Bonus: Name the four states in the United States with towns that have Shamrock in their name.

Alrighty my friends, enjoy the day!

LSAT Practice Test 1

I am now officially practicing for the LSAT. I have been studying for a short while, now I am practicing. The difference? I took a test. It was long. My brain hurts. Concentrating for that long a period of time makes me want to smack my head into a wall.

Results:

75 out of 100 questions answered correctly. 25 misses. Raw score: 160

Median score is 152.

I am in the approximate 82 percentile rating.

If I can answer ten more correctly, I will be in the 93rd percentile.

10 more people. Let's do this.

This time around I did not time myself "officially". Unofficially I only went over on one section.

The next practice test will be timed. Anybody want to come watch a movie on my 40'' flat screen blu-ray set up and administer a timed test? Offers on the table.

Guaranteed To Make You Smile

In this week before Kansas State University's Spring Break many of my friends are feeling the midterm push. So I thought I would collect these things to help you when you need a break.

Enjoy.

*note* Anyone not taking midterms, you are welcome to follow these if you too are in need of a fun-filled break

Follow this for a musical moment of joy

Follow this for distractions that can be found in your own home

Follow this if you are writing a paper

Follow this for a nostalgic break

Follow this to have your faith in humanity restored

Follow this when you need to pick a movie

Follow this so you can quote a genius

This too

And this

Follow this to laugh out loud

And finally, follow this to see how much healthier you are now

Sambo

My brother was hurt that he had no featured pictures in the photo post, so here are some of him. Enjoy Sam.

Sam went through a phase where he had to have the world's longest belt.

Family defender

Happy baby

Happy grade schooler

Happy inventor

Purple Pride from early on

He loves me

So that is Sam.

Fake Patty's Day

I love being an Irish-American. I feel closer to my Irish heritage than any of the other "origins" in my bloodlines. Ireland is a land of rich culture, fantastic people, compelling stories, and mystical mythology. It has born some of the world's greatest authors, artists, engineers, pastors, innovators and inventors. The Irish have mixed music and passion to create some of the world's most beautiful music.

I am also proud of my alma mater, Kansas State University. I believe that Kansas State students are some of the hardest working and most brilliant minds available. I believe that the faculty and administration at Kansas State University works hard to maintain a valued, safe, and inspiring community for its students to grow. It is with pride that I announce I am a Kansas State University Graduate.

Lastly, I love Manhattan, KS. It is a beautiful place to live. It provides the excitement of a college town, and the feel of a small town community. It is at the edge of the Flint Hills and home to the Konza Prairie, a special piece of God's beauty. It is a town I could live in for the rest of my life...if such a thing is possible for me.

HOWEVER

When my town Manhattan mixes my Irish heritage and my Kansas State University students, mixes it up with cheap, skeezy beer and a day or drunken revelry and has the gall to call it Fake Patty's Day.....grrrr.

Fake Patty's Day, when the town smells of beer and vomit by sundown. Where idiots who have been drinking from 8am on decide around 3pm the best way to spend their time is to play chicken with oncoming traffic. When thousands of supposedly academic collegiates leave their homes to trash their bodies and the streets of this fair city.

Tomorrow morning there will be so many headaches in this town that stock in Tylenol will be worth 2 points more on Monday. Aggieville will look like the trash removal services in town got lazy and dumped their trucks in the streets. People will be waking up in houses they have never seen before, and many will be waking up in a cell, trying to remember which antic got them there.

I am all for drinking. I am all for celebrating Saint Patrick's day with a fine Irish beverage.

But creating a day that excuses people from acting with any sort of self control or decency in order to make a buck (because as we all know, on Saint Patrick's Day our student body will mostly be out in the world breaking in Spring), that is not working for me.

Using this day as an excuse to drink oneself into a stupor and yell obsenities to all passers-by....also not cool.

Fake Patty's Day, how I loathe thee.

Photo Fun

The Zorn Barber Shop in Texas

I am working on a project for my family. I am scanning in all of the pictures that I could find from my grandmother's vast photo collection, so that we will have them preserved. Here are a few that I have scanned that I find humorous or cool. Enjoy.

My dad knows how to party.

So does his friend Richard.

Grandpa Payne had a wicked cool beard

On the left, my grandma and grandpa

Whose idea was this picture?

And the scariest ancestor award goes to....
The 'rents in high school

Dad and Gypsy...my parents' first dog

A Royals fam from the start.

And to finish, a very suprised baby John.

Well, hope you enjoyed. Now go look through your families old pictures. I can almost guarantee you will find some treasures.