A brief update as to what I’m up to at the moment.
*midst | as in: ‘in the midst of him’; not a synonym for ‘middle’.
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Reviewing my 12-Month Social Media Exodus. Well, it’s been 12 months since I started my Social Media Exodus and now it’s time to review the year that was. Okay, so starting off, 2023 was World Youth Day year for me. You may have seen some posts here and there on the blog and archived on the website, and possibly also on Facebook (sarcasm). Speaking of the aforementioned social media platform, I think it’s safe to say that (apart from WYD) I haven’t been signed into it any more than strictly necessary. Nowadays it functions, for me personally, as more of an alert-slash-events manager and reference tool for finding people and past events. Since WYD I have been using Messenger far more than I thought I ever would in my whole life. It’s certainly been a change of pace having a social life. Twitter is all but officially mothballed, waiting for a reason (if any) to actively post on it again. Even though most Catholic parish Youth Ministries appear to have highly active profiles, I still don’t ever see myself returning to Instagram. Certainly not under my own name in any case. As for YouTube… oh, dear. Apart from proactively uploading two videos from WYD Lisbon featuring the lead vocals of Fr Samuel French I’ve been passively over-consuming other people’s YouTube videos. My anxieties over travel, packing, and WYD preparations absolutely did not help cut down on my ‘Watch time’ as I had hoped to rein in 12 months earlier. Being stuck in a maelstrom of choice-paralysis over what small new camera to buy to take over with me to Europe for the pilgrimage didn’t cut down wasted hours either. And in any case, I ended up taking more photos with my smartphone than I did with the camera I bought to stop me over-using said same smartphone. Live and learn, eh? I have bought a Peak Design camera strap that should help aid in using the camera more in future. And speaking of the future, I am all too aware of my current (ahem!) “habit” of bookmarking videos and website articles about various different foods, religious sites, and locations of interest across both East and Southeast Asia in the possibility of preparation(!) for 2027 World Youth Day. People are not kidding when they talk about the WYD / Travel-bug. As an aside, I still don’t think that I’d ever be able to learn, let alone read, Hangul / Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. I’ve accepted that a) I don’t have to know everything and b) that I’m going to be especially reliant on those who can and have persevered to learn Korean. Returning to YouTube specifically, I did come across the DF Tube Chrome Extension that has been of some great help in cutting down more video-related rabbit holes than I would have without it. Its main attraction (for me) was the ability to turn off the righthand video suggestion box whilst watching a YouTube video. Admittedly it makes things lopsided visually, but it does mean that I have fewer distractions from the video in front of me. Sadly, DF Tube can’t do anything about my procrastination. That’s all on me. So, to sum up. I have been relatively withdrawn from my social media profiles – discounting blogging about the WYD pilgrimage. I have gained a social life that is aided by messaging applications which come with their own problems – the applications, not the social life. My personal struggles with self-discipline and YouTube over-consumption remain. In part I know that some of this is due to a lack of projects and regular routine. Pray for me. Putting my focus on posting blogs and standardizing parts of this website has helped me feel less pressured than I would have been if I was still only posting on Facebook or Twitter. As well as not having as much comparison-itis with the edited and project lives of other people on social media. This doesn’t mean that I still don’t struggle with comparison, it’s just not as severe as it has been in the past. In closing I think that I will continue as I have done so these past 12 months and with God’s help get a better grip over my YouTube-surfing and other self-defeating habits. Until next time. Vincent Cavanagh 25 Jan 2024 Website refresh for 2024. As you may have surmised, I have once again change this website's appearance. Cosmetically, it is not too much of a departure from the previous design, but it does have one or two improvements on the later. The main one being a dividing line between blogpost titles and the start of the post. (Yes, I am that picky over visual design.)
On the formatting side of things, I have broken down the WYD 2023 Blog Archive posts into Country sections (e.g., Italy, Portugal, etc.) to give a visual break and create landmarks for readers to navigate with. I have also begun implementing sectioning my Artwork pages, breaking them down by Yearly Quarter (e.g., Q1, Q2, and so on.) If for no other reason than being visually neater. Also, I do prefer this new website theme's rendering of hyperlinks with underlining. Visually helpful for someone looking at this site with there phone on black-and-white mode or for those who are colour-blind. Once again, until next and Happy New Year. Vincent Cavanagh 7 Jan 2024 Just a brief update to let you all know that, yes, I am still alive.
I am currently in the middle of a 6-week course on “Theology of Body” by Pope John Paul II which is taking up nearly all of my mental and physical energy and leaving myself with not much left in tank for anything. This is in addition to my general lack of focus and purpose in the wake of World Youth Day Lisbon 2023 and finishing my 2024 Calendar. Currently, I find myself living (read: surviving) from one ex-WYD pilgrim social event/get-together to the next, which are so far averaging about a month apart. Post-World Youth Day Blues? Perhaps. I know that I shouldn’t complain, because before WYD I had never had any social life what is filling up my calendar now. But I am aware of how fickle sudden-social-relationships can dissipate in the blink of an eye unless they are tended to and (hopefully) cultivated into last friendships. Please kindly keep myself and all my fellow “Theology of the Body” course participants in your prayers. Thank you. Vincent Cavanagh 22 Oct 2023 * 2024 Calendars are now Out of Stock *Showcasing various photos from my 2023 WYD pilgrimage to Lisbon. Just a brief post to say that my 2024 Calendar containing a selection of my photographs from my WYD Lisbon 2023 pilgrimage are now available to order for the new year.
— Cost for the 2024 Calendars is $30 AUD, plus postage (within Australia). — For International postal orders we will arrange Air Mail costs appropriately, on an order by order basis. You can place your order through the form found under the Contact page or by messaging me via Facebook, or via LinkedIn (though I am hardly ever on that, at all). Vincent Cavanagh 29 Sept 2023 It's slowly starting to hit me that I'm actually going abroad in 7 days. I'm really feeling the exhaustion, as I write this, after having been out tonight at our Diocese's WYD Pilgrim Blessing Mass. It was a very taxing night mentally, as well as physically. Thankfully, I can report that I am now in possession of both my Diocesan Pilgrim and Pilgrimage Travel Provider Kits. I know have a better idea of what I have to pack as well as how much extra space is now available thanks to the new cross-body satchel. Goodnight. Vincent Cavanagh 17 Jul 2023 Previous WYD Formation Session blogposts: Pre-Session #1 Thoughts Session #1 Session #2 Session #3 WYD Travel Itinerary UPDATE Because that’s basically the only thing that I can control. Our 3rd World Youth Day Formation Session was held last Tuesday (20 June) in the same venue as Session #2. There wasn’t all that much new to talk about. We had confirmation of the multiplicity of different flight paths/times we would all be taking as pilgrim small groups going into Europe and coming out again due to post-COVID-related travel booking arrangements. I've illustrated my own flight path below. Small updates about diocesan-branded WYD merchandise and clothing. The diocese’s WYD app has been approved by Apple, but no mention of Google at all. We had a rough explanation/run-through of how the Rise Up Catechesis session are supposed to run; our diocese will be the Animating Host Team for the English-speaking sessions for a 3rd WYD. Think conversation ice-breakers and running around with wireless microphones to multiple other English-speaking pilgrims from across the world inside as-yet-to-be-determined venues. My rather lacklustre reporting of this is because I’ve only in the last 24hrs found out that I will be the only one from my small group flying out on the first of the 3 flights from Rome to Lisbon on 31 July. I will of course be travelling with other pilgrims from the same bus group; but before this oblique gut-punch, I was already processing that I was being flown into Lisbon by Ryanair. An airline that any aware passenger needs no introduction to. And I am still recovering from whatever laid my low after my cross-border travels from almost 3 weeks ago. Other than that, I am at least slightly closer to starting a picture that’s been waiting since before my afore-mentioned sojourn. Until next time. Vincent Cavanagh 28 Jun 2023 The reason that there hasn’t been much news from me as late is because I have been sick at home for the best part of a week after having done a crazy 5-and-a-half-day round journey with my father from Sydney to Melbourne, to Adelaide, and back to Sydney again, all by rail. I hope to be in a fit state to attend the 3rd WYD Formation Session this coming Tuesday (20 June), God willing. Until then, I have put together this collection of relevant YouTube Travel Videos for my fellow diocesan pilgrims and for anyone else planning on travelling to Italy or Portugal. I do admit that most of these videos are from Mark Wolters and his Wolters World YouTube channel. This is because he and his family are inveterate travellers with a wealth of lived experience and, in comparison to other travel advice channels, he aims to be helpful rather than fear-mongering (case in point: the Scam City tv series, widely available on YouTube).
I would highly recommend checking out Wolters World for further travel advice that I can't share due to how long this post is already getting 😉 #ChisholmWalkSydney
Vincent Cavanagh ~21 May 2023 |
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