Sunday, 30 April 2017

Third Sunday of Easter 2017 - The Privilege of Altar Serving

Saint Agnes Parish, Waterloo Ontario.





I ended up altar serving at the 11 am mass today. We went to a later mass because one of my oldest's friends were receiving first communion. After mass I noticed the prayer and sign in the sacristy. I had never noticed them before. As much as I am nervous and do not really like being up front it is a privilege and blessing to be able to help out and serve when needed. I wrote a piece almost a year ago today about why I got back into altar serving in my late 40's.


Related Posts:
The Colors of the Church Year
The Privilege of Altar Serving
Serving God, Altar Serving and Learning to Listen
Saturday 18th Week or Ordinary Time
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2017
Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2017

...

Note: Link to all posts about St. Agnes Parish.

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Saturday, 29 April 2017

Exodus 90 at Day 60

Exodus 90 - Day 60 Check In


A 90 Day program for Christian men with a focus on Prayer, Asceticism, and Brotherhood. From Those Catholic Men. And my fraternity is now 60 days in. Here are some reflections on the program.


The second 30 days seemed harder than the first. In part because of when we started. It was easier to apply the disciplines of Exodus 90 during Lent. And then when Lent ended and we needed to keep going it was hard. Our group has stood strong. Each of us has faced trials, and temptations. We have reached out to the other members, and through encouragement, challenge and prayer been able to stay the course. 
Also over the last 30 days we have grown closer. The relationships have deepened. We have been more vulnerable with each other and more intentional about checking in and following up with each other. Because we are a remote fraternity, we do a weekly Video conference but check in a few times throughout the day. Each of us has been facing our own trials, some work related, some family, and some personal growth. Each of us is growing in discipline and in prayer. And are starting to see some results from our efforts, and also more resistance!


Mike Short, from Intentional Encounter, who worked through the Exodus 90 program early on created the fitness guide that is now part of the regime. There are workouts for every day of the program, starting off with simple body weight exercises for time, and in the first 30 days progressing to include AMRAP: As Many Rounds As Possible. Each day you have set exercises and stretches, and every 3rd day is Active rest. This first month we have 5 Exercises and 5 Stretches and a few more will be introduced over the next few weeks.  But by day 60 we have added EMOM - Every Minute on the Minute as another variety in the workouts, and also Max Effort. Also Declining rep sets 21-15-9 and also  10, 9, 8, 7, …, 1. 

 The exercises in the first month include:
Hand Raise Push Ups
Airt Squats
Sit Ups / Crunches
Lunge Steps 
Jumping Jacks
200m Run
Walking Lunges
Plank Holds
Mountain Climbers

 The stretches are:
Tricep Stretch
Samson Stretch
Seated Hamstring Stretch
Pass Through with Broom handle
Inch Worm Stretch
Squat Holds

 The fitness portion really took a big jump this time! And looking ahead we have 4 more exercises being introduced over the last 30 days.

 These 90 days are a time dedicated to growth and change a time to refocus on the spiritual disciplines and also physical disciplines. 



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Friday, 28 April 2017

Inner Geek Updated - April 2017

Inner Geek Updated - April 2017

 It has been a few year's since I updated this thread. I have now changed roles again and am in my third corporate It role. I am on a SysOps team with some great guys at an excellent organisation. With three young children my time to study and certify has changed radically. But I still love learning. I have done courses on Dell hardware, Oracle Software, VMWare VCP and more. So the journey continues. But a lot of courses and exams have taken place over the last 10 years. 

 The certification's I have earned are:

Exams Written:
Implementing an Advanced Server Infrastructure - Exam 70-414
Designing and Implementing a Server Infrastructure - Exam 70-413
Upgrading Your Skills to MCSA Windows 8 - Exam 70-689
Upgrading your MCSA to Windows Server 2012 - Exam 70-417
Apple Certified Technical Coordinator - Exam 9L0-510
Apple Certified Support Professional - Exam 9L0-403
Mac Integration Basics - Exam 9L0-263
MCITP - Windows 7 Desktop Administrator - Exam 070-686
Pro: MS SQL Server 2008 Design, Optimize and Maintain - Exam 070-450
MCITP - Windows Server 2008 Server Administrator - Exam 072-646
MCITP Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Administrator - 070-647
CompTIA Security+ - Exam JKO-015
MCITP Windows 7 Enterprise Desktop Support Technician - EXAM 071-685
MCTS Windows 7 Configuration - Exam 070-680
Implementing Security in MS Win Server 2003 - Exam 70-299
MCTS System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Configuration - Exam 70-403
MCTS Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Implementation & Maintenance - Exam 70-431
MCTS Upgrading MCSE on Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008- Exam 70-649
MCTS Deploying & Maintaining Vista Client Office System - Exam 070-624
Microsoft PowerPoint - Exam 810
Microsoft Outlook - Exam 813
Microsoft Access - Exam 807
Microsoft Excel - Exam 804
Microsoft Word - Exam 801

For the last few years my focus has been training for job skills and not really writing exams. Currently I am working through the Pluralsight PowerShell training path. Also I am working on self study for LPI-1 Linux Certification.

Articles in this Series:

These exams were written either at a Prometric Testing Center or at a Certiport Testing Center for the Office exams. The Exams names that have links link to reviews of the books I used to prepare for those exams. These exams are a mix of CompTIA, Microsoft Exams and Apple certification exams.

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