The first thing I do when I receive a copy of Wired is to tear out the ever-growing stack of useless ads and business replies they put in.  Here’s a photo of the latest stack:

This waste of paper makes it all the easier to cancel the magazine.  I’ve noticed its covers have gotten less and less tech-oriented, and way more Hollywood – you can browse their covers here.

The worst was the Pam Beesley “Get naked and…” cover – not necessarily because of the photo, but because the cover was describing an article on a modern “transparent business” (where the business reveals its internal workings) which had absolutely nothing to do with The Office.  The last issue (with an expose on “Manga in America”) seemed a bit light on content and heavy on graphics as well.

One less piece of reading material in my backpack.

A somewhat eerie thing happened yesterday – I bought a ticket for American Gangster on Fandango, and a message popped up saying “Fandango is telling Facebook that you bought a ticket to American Gangster.”

The odd thing was that I hadn’t enabled this feature or added an app. Fandango and Facebook had taken the initiative and chosen to talk to each other without my permission. It was also a bit odd to think that my online activities were being tracked to the piont where my Facebook friends could see what movies I’d purchased tickets to.

I investigated on Facebook, and found that you can change the privacy settings of this feature to have Facebook notify you before posting your purchase to your news feed. I chose to OK it, just to see what the posting would look like.

Strange to think that my various online profiles are sharing information about my behind my back.

In honor of the Feast Day of Blessed Miguel Pro, I’ve uploaded a few images to Flickr showing the site of his martyrdom in present-day Mexico City. The photos were taken in 2005.

Here is a cartoon showing the basics of Blessed Miguel Pro’s life and martyrdom. There are other biographies available on the web, but this gives the basics of his life and martrydom. It also seemed like an appropriate way of showing his life in a visual site like Flickr.

Here are actual photographs of Blessed Miguel Pro’s martrydom.

There are 3 photos (clockwise from upper left):

1. Blessed Miguel Pro’s last request was to be allowed to kneel and pray before his execution.

2. Declining the customary blindfold, Blessed Miguel Pro stands with arms outstretched in imiation of Christ on the cross. As he dies, he yells &161;Vivo Cristo Rey” (Long live Christ the King).

3. When the initial shots of the firing squad failed to kill him, a soldier shot him point blank in the head.

When in Mexico, we tried to find the actual site where this martrydom took place. As you can see in the next photos in this set, it can be somewhat hard to find.

The following photo iis a bank in Mexico – the site of Blessed Miguel Pro’s martyrdom is actually to the left of this building (as you’re facing it), down a side street.

The next photo shows the wall holding the plaque which commemorates the site of Miguel Pro’s martrydom.  It’s somewhat hard to find – the plaque is in the upper left, almost behind a metal pipe which contains electric wires running up the wall.

The next two photos show the plaque in more detail – the first shows the plaque itself, and the second shows the photo as it appeared in 2005.

The plaque is a bit misleading – the actual site of the martyrdom is across the street, below a staircase. Other than this plaque there is no indication that this is the site of Blessed Miguel Pro’s martrydom.

If you’re looking at the plaque and you turn around, you see the staircase shown in the photo below. Blessed Miguel Pro was apparently shot at the spot shown below, just below the staircase.

¡VIVO CRISTO REY!

For more information on Blessed Miguel Pro, see the following sites:

• Blessed Miguel Pro
• Wikipedia entry (with photos)
• Catholic Online entry on Blessed Miguel Pro