I got this from Steve Ray’s latest blog entry titled “Is It Possible God Did Not Create The Universe?” Steve Ray is famous for his “Footprints of God” DVD series and is a regular on EWTN and Catholic Answers LIVE. Steve and his wife Janet are both Certified Guides to the Holy Sites in Israel, and they frequently organize pilgrimages to the Holy Land.

Fascinating Chart demonstrating the Intelligent Design of the Universe.

Pass this along to anyone who thinks the universe got here by time + chance + matter. It certainly takes much more faith to be an atheist than it does to be a Christian. To believe that this is all just a absurd cosmic accident with no designer or meaning takes not only faith — but a good dose of stupidity.

To see the universe as designed by a personal and infinite God is much more believable and intelligent. Anyway, enjoy this chart!

More resources on the proof of God, etc are also available at http://www.doesgodexist.org/

Tags: blogs, Inspirational

All these days of setting up the new blog at WordPress has led me to writing up this brief review on some of the wonderful plugins which I’ve found extremely useful.

If you’re like me, and have tons of social media sites you have to update all the time, you probably make use of the service Ping.fm. Ever wondered how you can notify Ping.fm whenever you publish a new post on your blog? PingPress.fm is the answer! PingPress.fm is a WordPress plugin that allows you to spread your wonderful blog to 10+ social networks via Ping.fm. You can set it up to update as a “Status“, a “Micro Blog” or a “Blog Post“, or all 3, and have different formats for each. I’ve been using this plugin to help notify my friends across Twitter, Plurk, Facebook, FriendFeed, etc of new blog entries. You’ll have to tweak the settings of the plugin and the settings over at Ping.fm a little, or you may end up with multiple posts (like me )

Ever had the problem categorizing/tagging multiple posts? Currently, you have to edit each post and update the categories and tags post by post. With the Batch Categories plugin, you can now mass update the tags and categories of multiple posts!

If you want to display links to your various social network accounts, but don’t want to clutter up you sidebar, you might want to consider the Social Links plugin. Now you can display a neat little widget with icons representing and linking to all of your social network accounts.

Well, that’s all for now. Meanwhile, I’ll be on the lookout for more helpful WordPress plugins to share with you. If you have some favorites of your own which you’ll like to share, please feel free to let me know.

Tags: blogs, Reviews, technology

If you’re a regular visitor to this blog, you’ll probably have noticed the significant changes to the layout of the sidebar. I’ve removed all almost all of the flashy widgets on the sidebar, especially all the widgets linked to affiliate programs. All those flashy stuff was making the loading of the site very slow, and the sidebar was starting to look cluttered. Besides, the affiliate links was not doing bringing in any sort of extra income anyway. I’ve since replaced those with a series of blog lists to reflect what I have on my Google Reader. I’ve also added a JavaScript widget which features what I’ve been sharing on my Google Reader, which I’ve aptly named “Neko Recommends“. If you have a blog/podcast which you’ll like to share with me and the readers of this blog, please let me know. You may end up on my recommendations feed!

I hope you all will like the new arrangements on the sidebar. Feedback and suggestions are most welcome!

Tonight is a special night because I’ve just received news that my secondary school friend has just given birth to a handsome baby boy a couple of days ago! She just posted the baby’s photos on Facebook, and oh my.. he’s GORGEOUS!!! I’m not sure if you’re reading this, but still, congratulations Deborah & her hubby Mark on the arrival of their first born son, Ethan!

You’ll probably notice by the number of exclamation marks in this paragraph, that I’m very excited. And I’ll proudly admit, “Yes! This is SOOOOO EXCITING!!!!!!!” (I’m always like that when I learn about good news like that regarding my closest pals). Debs is in Saudi Arabia with her hubby who was posted there. She told me about her pregnancy just before she left Singapore, so I’ve been concerned about both she and baby. I’m so glad to see that they’re doing well over there. Hope they come home soon so I can get to cuddle the little handsome guy.

Still on the topic of babies, my best friend, Marilyn’s baby girl will be due early next month. Thankfully, she’s in Singapore. So I probably will be able to catch up with both mother and daughter when she’s enjoying her maternity leave.

Thanks to the wonders of MSN Messenger, I also recently discovered that another ex-classmate of mine is also expecting his first baby. He’s been keeping us “up-to-date” with the baby’s progress via status messages on MSN. Judging from his latest contribution, “there’s something between the legs“, I’m gonna make a wild guess that it’s a boy. Congratulations Kit!

Going by how elated I get when I receive news of “up and coming” babies of my friends, there’s no denying each baby is a bundle of joy to their parents and to all around them.

Tags: Announcements, blogs, life, musings

Yes, your eyes are NOT deceiving you. I AM BACK with another series of podcast reviews (finally)! All thanks to the fact that I’m sick and don’t feel like lunching out. So while my colleagues pack lunch back for me, I make use of some idle time during lunch to do a quick post.

Before I begin with the reviews proper, I’ll like to thank Mary Soukup (a.k.a bear1) for awarding me the “Brilliante WebLog Award“!

Apparently, I’m supposed to tag 7 other blogs that are deserving of the award. But I’m ashamed to say, I’m not much of a blog reader. (I’m more of a podcast person) However, I do know of a couple of really good Catholic blogs to look out for:

• JimmyAkin.org
  If you don’t know of this amazing apologist from Catholic Answers, you must’ve been living under a rock. His blog offers insights (from Jimmy and other contributors) to all the latest happenings to the Catholic church and around the world.
• The Curt Jester
  Catholic insight, with a touch of humor, and a pinch of oh-so-good sarcasm
• What Does The Prayer Really Say
  The famous blog by the famous Father Z! Gotta love him!
• FatherRoderick.com
  From SQPN’s very own Pied Piper himself! What more could you want?

Ok, now on to the reviews.

If you had a blast at the CNMC, or if you simply can’t get enough of Catholic blogs/podcasts and other good stuff. You’ll have to check out the Catholic New Media Roundup (rss) by Sean McGaughey (a.k.a ductapeguy). Sean does something similar to what I’m doing, but in the form of a podcast. He interviews the people behind various up-and-coming Catholic podcasts/blogs (some of which will be reviewed in this blog). If you liked this blog, I’m sure you’ll love Sean’s podcast.

One of the podcasts I discovered via CNMR was Celebrating Saints (rss) hosted by Katie Orsborn (together with her parents Dave & Karol). Each week, a saint is featured on the podcast. Sorta like a junior version of the SaintCast by Dr Paul Camarata.

Another podcast which I discovered is Our Catholic Life Podcast (rss) by my Facebook friend, James Mazzuchi and family. The Mazzuchi family talk about their life as a Catholic family. There’s also a kids segment, much like the Monster Cookies podcast, and earlier episodes of the Catholic Family Podcast. If you’ve like those, you’ll also enjoy both the Celebrating Saints and Our Catholic Life podcasts.

I discovered the Saint Faustina Diary (rss) podcast by John C Curtis, while “surfing” on the iTunes podcast directory. This is a series of readings from Saint Faustina’s diary. I find it to be a great companion to the Divine Mercy Podcast.

This next podcast isn’t exactly Catholic in content. But it is produced by one of our favorite SQPN groupies, Louisa Pittman. In her Accidental Archaeologist Podcast (rss), Louisa talks about her days as a sailor, and how she ended up as an archaeologist. She also talks about some of the interesting stuff she comes across in her line of work. If you’ve always been curious about the life of an archaeologist, this is one podcast you’ll have to check out!

OK, I’ve got to get back to work now. Hope you’ve enjoyed what I’ve shared with you today. Take care!

Tags: blogs, Catholic, Podcasts, Reviews