Life Teen apparently founded to "get teens"

Myself like many of my friends participated in Life Teen at the Catholic church when we were in high school. Life Teen was founded by Monsignor Dale Fushek in Arizona. The Mission of Life Teen reads: "LIFE TEEN is an international Catholic ministry that serves the Church and leads all teens closer to Christ by providing resources and training that encourage vibrant Eucharistic celebrations and opportunities for teens to grow in their faith." (from lifeteen.org)

However it has recently hit the new media that the founder of Life Teen, Fr. Fushek who is credited with numerous good things for the church - bringing America's young Catholics back to the church, and basically running the pope's youth rally visits to Tempe in 1987 and to St. Louis in 1999, also molested and abused boys who attended Life Teen at his church.

With all the boys who have come forward, there is reported to be a "pattern of recruitment and seduction of teenage boys spanning at least a decade." (from phoenixnewtimes.com)

This is shocking seeing as Life Teen has become such a national program. How many other teenagers have been abused at other parishes relating to Life Teen? I know there are many good priests out there who run parishes, but it is just shocking to realize how many "bad" priests were hidden and moved around the country. Sad too.

Here is the article about the abuse allegations on the founder of Life Teen: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1334726

It's not Christmas Yet Folks!

It's not Christmas yet. It's not even the Christmas season yet. Advent doesn't start until next Sunday. Thanksgiving isn't for 3 more days, and yet, as we drove thru our subdivision this evening there were several houses with Christmas lights up already. One business north of hwy 40 between 270 and Woods Mill had lights up reading "Christ the Savior is Born". Excuse me, but I believe that Christ wasn't born until the 25 of December, and it's not even the 25 of November yet.

The Christmas season is a special time of year, but part of what makes it special is that it only happens for a short while each year. If we had Christmas lights up all year long we wouldn't notice them, they wouldn't mean anything to us.

(As a side note, I don't have any problem with people putting up their outdoor lights when it's a nice weekend, just don't turn them on until at least Thanksgiving!)

PETSMART logo

Petsmart changed their logo recently. (The new logo is on the top, the old logo is on the bottom) I just noticed the new logo last night when I got their latest ad out of the mailbox. I don't like the new logo. I think the old logo was neat because the ball was bouncing on the "s" and it makes it seem like it says "Pets Mart" or "Pet Smart". The new logo still does that but the ball isn't interacting with the words as much as it used to. It seems to be acting as an ' now. They changed the shape of the letter forms as well and also changed the colors obviously and even changed the shape of the little white highlight on the ball.

So what do you non-designers (and designers too) think of this new logo. I'm giving it a thumbs down!