Author Archives: Mark Alves

Sep 19 2011

Talk Like a Pirate Day 2011 for Christians

By Sune Rievers on Flickr

By Sune Rievers on Flickr

It’s September 19 so it must be, what, Monday of the 25th week in Ordinary Time (or Twitter version)? It’s also International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Celebrate with this buried treasure from ChurchMojo.com we arrrrgh diggin’ up for this here special occasion.

My mateys in crime also delivered:

Jonathan Sullivan shared this gem on Google+ if you want to go pirate and Episcopalian (cursed PDF alas)

Ironic Catholic struck gold again with F’thr Pete the Pirate Receives His First Parish Assignment.

Apr 6 2011

Even More #CatholicRulesForTwitter

Catholic Rules for TwitterForgive me, Father, for I have sinned – I missed the #CatholicRulesForTwitter meme that broke out on Twitter during April Fool’s Day. (Pulling off my competing stunt doesn’t excuse my absence.) Had I fulfilled my obligation that day, here’s what I would have tweeted.

More #CatholicRulesForTwitter

  1. Lent begins on Hashtag Wednesday.
  2. Maximum tweet length is 125 – leave room for #theholyspirit.
  3. #FF actually stands for Fish-Fridays.
  4. When quoting Scripture, be vague and don’t provide a link to the exact verse (the exception, of course, is @todaysreadings).
  5. Yellow–or more precisely, gold–makes the best Twitter background. #CatholicGild.
  6. Late for Mass? Only check into Foursquare if you do so before the Gospel.
  7. If you give up Twitter for Lent, you can still tweet on Sundays.
  8. Learn from the example of Jonah and the FailWhale
  9. Using fake words that start with tw- is as grating as using catechesis instead of education
  10. Tweeting during the homily is okay if you make it look like you’re reading the bulletin

Whew, I feel much better now that I’ve got that off my chest. Here are my favorite Twitter rules for Catholics that have already been handed down::

The #CatholicRulesForTwitter meme is another great example of how the faithful can have some fun on April Fool’s Day. I just wish 1) I thought of it, and 2) jumped on it earlier. So what’s your favorite rule?

Mar 31 2011

Opening Day: Top 10 Ways Going to Mass Imitates Baseball

Baseball begins this year in the middle of Lent, giving us two opportunities for a fresh start. In that spirit, let’s take another look at 10 ways going to Mass imitates baseball.

10. Sometimes you stand and sing, other times you sit.
See the rest of the list…

(If you enjoy the intersection of faith and sports, check out my March Madness brackets for church-goers.)

Nov 20 2010

How to Disconnect a Contact on LinkedIn

This exchange on Twitter showed that it’s difficult to find how to unfriend or remove a connection from LinkedIn — but I’ll show you how below. You just need to know where to look.

The tricky part is that you can’t remove the LinkedIn contact from the profile page. Instead:

    1. Click “Contacts” from the main LinkedIn menu bar.
    2. Click “Remove Connections” from the upper right corner.
    3. Select the name(s) you wish to remove.
    4. Click the “Remove Connections” button.

Larger view on Flickr of Delete a contact from LinkedIn
Larger view on Flickr of completing the process of deleting a LinkedIn connection

Now why would you want to delete a LinkedIn contact? Unless the person is abusive or spamming the heck out of you, I’d err on keeping the connection even if you’ve had a falling out. Why burn the bridge? But, now you know how to do so if you ever need to — or if your pastor asks how to drop a parishioner from his LinkedIn address book.