Tech Tips for Catholics

Technorati, “the recognized authority on what’s happening on the World Live Web,” has a way to search only blogs (very much like Google, but for blogs). It is called Technorati Search.

On that note, We added the Catholic Tech Tips blog to Technorati’s database. One of the neat things about this is that now we can track how many people link us to their blogs. This is what Technorati refers to as authority.

Also, if you have a Technorati account, you can add us to your Technorati faves!

As many of you know, I am a graphic designer. I use Adobe® Illustrator almost every single day.

One of the first things you should do, after you have purchased and installed Illustrator, is to customize your workspace, toolbars, shortcuts, scripts, fonts, and other preferences to your liking. In the weeks to come I will be posting some helpful tips on how to do just this!

The following tutorial will help you customize your starting document (new document). This also works in Illustrator CS2, however the process is slightly different.

To create a custom document profile in Illustrator CS3:

1. Open the New Document Profile file you want to customize in the New Document Profiles folder located in the below directories.
   • Windows: Documents and Settings\(User)\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS3 Settings.
   • Mac OS: Users\(User)\Library\Application Support\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS3
2. Delete any existing swatches, graphic styles, brushes, or symbols you don’t want to retain.
3. Do any of the following:
   • Select the font and style you want as your default font.
   • Create any colors, patterns, and gradients you want, and save them as swatches. You can also import swatches using the Swatch Libraries command and then move the swatches you want in the Document Profile file into the default Swatches panel.
   • Save any graph designs that you want available in your files using the Graph Design dialog box.
   • Create any graphic styles you want and save them to the Graphic Styles panel.
   • Create any brushes you want and save them to the Brushes panel.
   • Create any symbols you want and save them to the Symbols panel.
   • Select the options you want as default settings from the following: View preferences (from the View menu), ruler origins, page origins, print settings (in the Print dialog box, File > Print), and actions.
4. Save the Document Profile file and restart Illustrator.

If you have any questions about this tutorial, please post them here.

Continue Reading »

Cell-phones ringing during Mass.  This is a pet-peeve of mine. I understand that it is easy to forget (which is why I’ve made a habit of  leaving mine in the car).  I understand that some people are on-call and that is excusable, but at least have the courtesy to put it on vibrate!

My Aunt’s cell-phone went off during both my Grandma and my Grandpa’s funerals and it was playing “Super Freak” by Rick James (not the most appropriate ring-tone for a funeral service). Once I could understand, but twice this happened (and just a week apart?)

I was on jury-duty this past week and one of the first things they told us is to “turn all cell phones off.” Our former parish priest would request the same, prior to the Liturgy, and I think it is something all parishes should consider doing. Just a thought.

Am I being too harsh? Post a comment.

I recently found out about this cool new site called PickAFig (www.pickafig.com) from a comment on our site.

Just what is PickAFig?

Think “Digg”, only Catholic!  It is a place where you can “pick” your favorite blogposts, online news articles, and really anything Catholic related.  It is social bookmarking at its finest!

So head over to PickAFig now! (or whenever you have some free time, which is never, so you better go there now ; )

Continue Reading »

Verse 1:
Love. What is it? A solid or a liquid?
The question resonates from inner space to outer limits
Outer space to inner city dwellers timid, not committed
Love just isn’t built on child support and weekend visits
You kill it like strychnine when you treat it like a cancer
You don’t feel it so you spend time seek pleasure, not the answer
In clubs peeping dancers in a jacked-up type of manner
Stuffing g-strings with dollars that should buy your baby’s Pampers
Love’s not waking up with different women every morning
Love’s not beating her down at nine months, with child forming
Love’s not leaving your wife and your seed with no warning
Love’s not, and when it’s raining its pouring
Scoring no points you smoke joints, and toke your life away
You might have another year or two but you really die today
Display respect for yourself, or you can’t love nobody else
The hand you’re dealt requires action, not just something you felt

Chorus:
I know what love is and it just don’t stop
but I can explain it better when I say what love’s not.
Yeah I know what love is, and it just don’t stop
But I explain it better when I can say what love’s not.

Verse 2:
A house divided against itself is prone to utter desolation
So for this generation on the brink of extermination
I pour out a libation, a lyrical libation
In observation of the annihilation of the moral foundation
The desperation of the situation was clearly foretold
That in these last days the love of many would grow stone cold
And if hell is without love
Then all hell has broke loose in this culture
Feel the negativity circling overhead like a vulture?
The inverted priority of the majority, squander the sacred
To give what’s profane seniority
And incredibly we fail to see collectively
The reasons why things fall apart like leprosy
Passion is the fashion taboos are taboo
Do you see through this voodoo
Cause it stinks like doodoo
Yo it’s sad but too true how many don’t have a clue
To the fact we’ll be judged for all we think say and do
From east to west coast and all areas in between
Real love is like a ghost — talked about but rarely seen
Except on TV screens where they flash these caricatures
That on the down low are meant to influence our characters
But love is not love if it’s manufactured for the moment
That makes it more than the physical between a man and a woman
Wisdom is justified by her children in the end
And real love is being willing to lay down your life for a friend

(Chorus)

Verse 3:
Love’s not caught in mug shots or seen in drug spots
Love’s not sex or who you do next Love’s not
Road rage, porno pages in the eyes of a racist
Loves not whoring and love’s not abortion
Of course then love doesn’t bomb clinics to make it finish
Love’s not hate and love’s not a cynic
Love’s not seen on Jerry Springer or expressed by middle finger
And love is rarely captured in the words of any singer
Love’s not domestic violence saying shut up or be silent
And love’s not represented in the way of the police sirens
Abandoned children in abandon buildings
Random killings, love’s not slow to help you, love is ready and willing
Love is patient and kind, love is sight for the blind
Love was borne before the morning, love’s transforming your mind
Love is body and blood, bread and wine, remember the time
Love is God divine, crucified for mankind

(Chorus)

Continue Reading »

I’m amazed at some of the great comments people have been posting on Catholic Tech Tips.  You can subscribe to the comments feed and feel free to join in on the conversations.

I just came across an online trivia game for Catholic Christians.

SmartCatholic.net

“The questions are more difficult than the ones in the board game”, says the designer, so if you enjoy a challenge check it out! They are working on a quiz titled “Women of the Bible.”  They also just published a fairly difficult quiz about Pope John Paul II, along with a quiz about the Gospels and one about the deuterocanonical books of the Catholic and Eastern Christian Bibles.

Can you beat my high-score?