Catholic Techie K T Cat

K T Cat has been blogging at The Scratching Post about as long as I have, 7 years. That means he remembers the "old days" of blogging (cue eye-rolling from the up-and-coming kids on the blogosphere), back when "meme" meant a sort of chain-post thing and blogging awards were one of the ways we interacted. Back then, a "carnival" wasn't this linky-fest thing, but something that involved actually reading every post before you posted it by hand into your blog post.

And you know, back in those days, there were a handful of Catholic bloggers and we all pretty much knew each other. Sorta.

I mean, really. Things they have a-changed in the blogosphere! For one thing, we're all on Twitter now (so is he, not surprisingly, as @ktcat).

This is our first Catholic Techie who won't even tell me his real name though we've been acquainted for years and though I'm conducting this interview. I might, in fact, be disinclined to interview K T Cat, except I know he's a real guy (or a real cat?). I can respect the not-sharing-your-name thing, especially when it's done as well as he's doing it.

So let's learn about the illustrious K T Cat, shall we?

Tell us about yourself in five words or less.

Catholic husband and father.

Of your pursuits, what's your favorite?

Blogging! It's got to be.

Outside of that, I have way more passions than I will have time to fully explore. I love watching sports (Newcastle United and the New Orleans Saints), I love to cook, I love Catholic theology (Chesterton and Lewis and Augustine and Aquinas), we like to entertain, I scuba dive with our boys, adore my wife, love my daughter, photograph sunsets and flowers …

When you think of the New Evangelization from your approach as a "Catholic Techie," what excites you? What makes you want to continue?

I love how new technologies give us a chance to explore what we want and connect with each other. Over the last 7 years, my blog has helped me grow as a Catholic and as a person. It has changed the way I approach others about Christ and the Church, thanks to things I've learned from everyone else.

Having said that, I can get Catholicked-out. (How's that for a word?) For me, Catholicism is the foundation of my life, not the central motivating force in my life. It instructs everything I do, but truth to tell, I'd rather watch a Newcastle game while drinking a London Pride instead of reading the latest Jesuitical ramblings. I think that we as Catholics can get way too wound up in the thing.

Backtracking again, I'll note that I'm a Eucharistic Minister and active in our Cursillo community. So I dunno, maybe I'm more Catholicky than I think I am. Whatever. I gave one of Pope Benedict's books a chance on audible.com, but after about an hour, I went back to TalkSport radio and listened to the drive time pair from England argue and joke about Premier League soccer. On the other hand, I can't get enough Chesterton and Lewis, so there's that.

I guess what I'm saying is that for me, theology has to be applied theology.

What's the most rewarding aspect of your work?

I feel like I understand the world much better because of my work as a Catholic blogger. I've gone through many interests on the blog - economics, parenting, politics, religion, science and more. The more I learn and the more I explore, the more I see how Catholicism is true. It just works in every way. I'm trained as a scientist and it bugged the heck out of me to see how many atheists there are in the sciences. I just didn't get it at all. I'm a cradle Catholic and science and religion have never been in conflict for me. I spent quite a while on the blog exploring just what it is the science-atheists think. I was sooo disappointed. It was the most juvenile and shallow nonsense. Here was one post on my path to enlightenment and eventual boredom with the topic.

In your spare time, what are we likely to find you doing? Do you have a gadget in hand or do you go native and screenless?

In my spare time, I can never be found without my Galaxy S3. I love it, love it, love it.

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Copyright 2013 Sarah Reinhard