obedience IS difficult

Obedience is difficult. When I last met with my Dominican liason, she had challenged me to spend 15 minutes daily to meditate on God, and to begin pronto. This was based on the fact that my spiritual director has repeatedly urged me to adopt such a habit. I balked at the challenge because I had failed so many times at this endeavour.

But because I love my Dominican liason and consider her a most wonderful gift from God, I resolved the next day to follow her prompting. I was no stellar performer at this, and at my next meeting with my spiritual director, we discussed the matter some. Then after that meeting, I pretty much fell off the wagon as obligations once again crowded my schedule. So busy was I that there were several nights when I had but a few hours of sleep. But things have now leveled off (for the moment) and I need to try and get back on the wagon.

Today is first Friday, and we have Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at my parish. I stopped by for my 15 minutes with the Lord. (Sorry, I can't do and hour yet.) In the incredibly long 15 minutes, my mind lollygagged hither tither. But it did occur to me that if my Lord had requested that spend 15 minutes with him daily, then I have in effect said to my Lord, "I can't." Now that ain't gonna cut it is it?

What do you do when you fall down? You get back up. And if you fall down again? You just get back up again. So here I go again.

Hopefully I'll have a better report when I meet with my spiritual director next week.

wonderful

I know some wonderful people. The term "know" is used loosely here. I can't help but praise God, for He has made such wonderful creations as these, the wonderful people. The existence of just any ONE of these wonderful people is sufficient for me to declare that this world cannot be a bad place. This world is wonderful simply because you are in it.

cat

fun mail

Oy, mail from friends is always fun. I have received a surprise package from Natty! In her travels she has taken me with her by keeping me in mind. See what she has collected for me (sorry the photo isn't better).

The "...the story of the The Old Cathedral" booklet has a copyright date of 1949 (and an old smell to accompany it). The church bulletin bears the more recent date of June 24, 2007. The back cover of the booklet has a photo of the altar. It can be compared to the postcard to see how it has changed over time. Booklet, bulletin (and offering envelope), and post card are from St. Louis, Missouri. The brochures are from Illinois.

It will be some time before I get to really looking at these things.

Anyhow, THANKS NATTY!

photography knick knack

new vocabulary

KAP: kite aerial photography. A method for obtaining aerial photos by attaching a camera to a kite string and thereby rendering the camera airborne.

Picavet: A method/contraption for maintaining horizontal alignment relative to gravity, suspending four corners using one continuous cord threaded through two pivot points.

This is interesting how they use kites to take aerial photos. Other options include radio-controlled planes and helicopters, or helium balloons. None of these options are cheap for me if I am to render my relatively spanking new A630 camera airborne, which is not usually recommended due to the possiblity of crashing. Also, it's kinda heavy, requiring larger or more powerful "vehicles" which drives up the price.

intervalometer: the functionality which enables the camera to take shots at fixed time intervals

The KAP folks never mention "intervalometer." I bet they would love to have this function. This functionality seems hard to come by. Lucky me, I happen to have bought a camera for which there is a hack (CHDK hack) which provides this function!

Yes, I have tested the intervalometer function. It works! It will be fun to set it on a tripod and let it take pictures every so many minutes ... at the Dominican meeting next week. I will turn off all its sounds so that it does its business rather discreetly. Its little red focusing LED will still shine before each shot, else we can just forget its there.

Labor Day

May everyone have a great Labor Day. I know there are jobs that don't have holidays off. These include hospital, nursing home/home care, law enforcement, retail, and technical suppoort. I feel for you guys. My "summer job" didn't allow holidays off and I have since learned to really appreciate my paid holidays.

May we all have jobs that bring out the best in us and enable us to support ourselves, family, and church spiritually and financially.

I'm a green crayon

Seen at Natty's blog.

You Are a Green Crayon

Your world is colored in harmonious, peaceful, natural colors. While some may associate green with money, you are one of the least materialistic people around. Comfort is important to you. You like to feel as relaxed as possible - and you try to make others feel at ease. You're very happy with who you are, and it certainly shows! Your color wheel opposite is red. Every time you feel grounded, a red person does their best to shake you.

What Color Crayon Are You?

And gee, looky there, Natty and I are complementary. Basically, I snooze while she kicks a**.

another personality thingy

Seen at LAMLand.

quiz here

"ISTJs are very loyal, faithful, and dependable. They place great importance on honesty and integrity. They are "good citizens" who can be depended on to do the right thing for their families and communities. While they generally take things very seriously, they also usually have an offbeat sense of humor and can be a lot of fun - especially at family or
work-related gatherings."
- Portrait of an ISTJ (The Personality Page)

I don't know how accurate this is. It all depends on how accurate I was when answering. I don't remember whether I've gotten an ISTJ result before.

flowers

These are the flowers that were centerpieces for the tables at the party, except at the head table, which had a huge arrangement of these rainbow roses. The other six tables had small vases with 3 or 4 of these roses. We wanted them short so that people can talk across the table. These here were just kinda consolidated so we could take them home.

We had a "fishbowl" vase and I then put as many of these as possible into the vase to get:

This was an extra bouquet; we bought more than we needed for the little centerpieces.

shoes!

Wow. Check out these shoes if you suffer from foot, leg, or back pain. http://zcoil.com/products_technology.html

amateur calligraphy

There ya go. A simple place card.

cool, free software

some free software:
A drawing program that looks to be pretty darn good: InkScape
http://www.inkscape.org/
I will be using it instead of what is probably the very first release MS Publisher. Since moving to the Vista OS, I can no longer make this archaic software work. I will probably eventually ditch all of my .pub files.

An image viewer: FastStone
http://www.faststone.org/
I don't have any fully-featured photo editing software. This viewer will replace the IrfanView I was using. FastStone seems to have a more polished interface. The key feature I needed was to be able to rotate the image and resize without losing image data and this one has them, so I didn't lose those features when I replaced IrfanView.

Photo noise grain remover: NeatImage
http://www.neatimage.com/
I didn't even know this sort of sofware existed. I'm also considering NoiseWare, but have not taken it for a test drive.

Finally a hack for some cameras: CHDK
http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK/FAQ
It seems safe since it makes no permanent changes. I haven't yet figured out how to use it, but have managed to "install" it and set to autoload. I wanted some RAW pictures and my first tinkerings produced no such thing. I'll revisit after I recover from the party activities next weekend.

So I've much learning to do.

ordinary

Kinda difficult to see God in the ordinary. I can "see" God's handiwork easily enough in extarordinary [good] things. But it's difficult to see God in ordinary things. And yet I know God is in everything because [logically] He is everywhere.

having everything

It seems to me that if I have faith, then I have everything. I can't remember the thought process that led me to that conclusion and doubt you'd want to hear it. Much better if you come to the same conclusion yourself.

Faith is a gift. Just like we can't give ourselves life, we can't give ourselves faith. However it is up to us what we do with it, whether to nurture it or not.

not rich enough

At this moment, I am not rich enough to enter religious life. I have been poor for too long. There have been too many years of making my one income work for two people. There were too many years of paying for private health insurance so that the other person can get much needed medical care. There were too many years of trying to give our dogs a fighting chance against cancer, almost losing the house in the process. It was the draining of retirement funds that saved the house. We were too poor to go live in an apartment -- the monthly mortgage payments are less than any but the smallest of efficiency apartments. At this moment, I am not rich enough to pay off my loan that sat collecting interest while we struggled to stay afloat. But I am working on it.

gulley washer

We had a gulley washer. At mid-morning, the sky was covered with dark clouds; it was so dark it could've been night. Around noon it was lighter, and we could see the rain. The rain was coming down heavy, but in small fine drops; it was so dense that it was like seeing through a fog. And as usual, parts of the city flooded. For my part, I was fortunate that I sit in front of a window (and was indoors!) and could watch all this.

tired (again)

Tired. It's been busy. We've this party that we're still working towards. At least we won't have to go out of town to transport this one particular person, though we would've preferred the person's attendance. I was tasked to print up the menu; that was easy enough. I was also tasked to make the place cards. That will take more effort since it's been requested that it be done by hand in calligraphy. I have them cut and folded (I probably should have waited on the folding part). At some other time I will pencil in the guides then attempt the calligraphy; in the meantime I need to drop the effort because I still have to do some house cleaning and need time for that.

Yesterday I've been acting as photographer, taking portrait shots of the guest of honor for the party. I'm no pro but this will have to do. I then spent hours working with the photo of choice and have at least a dozen prints that are "toss outs" before I got what I wanted. Part of it was learning to use the software. In one sitting, I've used MS Paint (came with WinVista), Canon ZoomBrowser (came with the camera), IrfanView (free software download), and ArcSoft PhotoImpression (came with the color printer) in an attempt to get what I wanted. No PhotoShop here. In the end, it took the combination of MSPaint (for adding length to the picture without stretching or cropping it), PhotoImpression (to blur certain areas), and ZoomBrowser (to print). Somehow PhotoImpression just wouldn't let me print right. I forgot which one I used to add back some red to the photo (some qualities were lost when I used MSPaint).

I've not completed the presentation slides and I also still have the party favors to work on.

We're also setting up a will for this other person. Thank God we've found a good lawyer through a referral from someone at church. We also had to go the courthouse for a copy of the person's property deed. We did the lawyer and courthouse in one day; I had to take off from work to accomplish that. I will have to take off again for the return trip to the lawyer to finalize (and pay). Wills are cheaper than trusts up front, but will require going to probate court later and will incur additional costs then. If you don't have alot of assets, then wills are ok. Else, a living trust is a much better way to go.

Tomorrow evening I will visit the Dominicans to participate as a volunteer for their anniversary celebration planning. Tuesday evening I will meet with my spiritual director. Wednesday evening we will attend mass for the feast day of Assumption. At least these will be cool, fun things.

At work, I've these loads of documents to read. And they're all very boring reading. It's exceedingly difficult for me and I'm making absolutely lousy progress. On some of these documents, I have to read with a critical eye and submit [intelligent] comments. On others, I'm supposed to digest and bring back to the team what's relevant. Oh, and I'm also writing my own document, meaning that I have to review my own document too. And yes, all these things have deadlines. My brain is tired; and so is my butt.

I have missed blogland and fellow bloggers. Anyhow, I have to go clean the house now ... there is a weekly deadline for that too.

somebody hire this guy, please

Somebody please hire this guy. Chinese farmer grows robots.

He has no formal education, yet he cranks out numerous robots made from parts recovered from scrap electronics.

Catholic Nuns Today website

New website !!!!

Catholic Nuns Today

Worth a look! :)

favorite magazines

When I was growing up, we had the following magazines in the house:

National Geographic, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, (& Highlights when we were little).

There were others, but the above are the ones I whole-heartedly endorse for all young minds. They're still good magazines, it's just that I'm not doing much reading these days.
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We weren't a Christian household. My first encounter with the "bible" was a children's bible, left behind by previous residents. They also left behind a small, older dog; we got along pretty well. I was in middle school at the time. Since it was a children's bible with "cartoons," I was a little confused about whether the story was real or just another fiction book. And prior to getting a real bible from RCIA, I had always been confused about the chronology of the events. Jesus, Moses, Jacob, Samson, Adam and Eve ... they all existed at the same time for me.

Thank God that's all been cleared for me now. :)

So here is the little tyke. Indeed I couldn't wait to take it for a spin. Considering that both of my feet can be planted flat on the ground even when I'm "sitting" on the bike, I figured that I can use my feet for braking if necessary. It is a bit cramped in the cockpit and my legs complained a little at having to pedal at such odd angles. Also, since it's a relatively short wheel base, it was a bit twitchy. I also have the option to stand and pedal.

It is a small frame, but it's all steel ... meaning it's heavy. I fancied repainting it white with black Dominican logos: on the downtube, shield near the head tube and "St. Dominic" along the length, then on the horizontal bar, the Dominican dog with a red flame. This bike has plenty of surface to allow that. Else it'd be solid white, with black front forks and seat post. But on second thought, if it really is chrome on the bike, then I don't want to mess with that.

projects galore

I've a variety of "projects" I'm juggling at this moment. We've a party to plan for and it's taking much time. Invitations went out a few weeks back, some decorations have been purchased, and I'm working on the presentation slides (it will just run in loops). The presentation is two-fold for me: text and photos. I finished some picture-taking today but will need to spend time tweaking the pictures. Next weekend I also need to do some picture-taking. Else I've over a hundred slides already and am only about halfway through. I also have the task of "personalizing" the party favors. The bulk of the work for the party is being handled by Gumby.

More interesting and fun for me is a recent acquisition. Well, ok, an impulse buy. I've purchased a used 20" boy's bike for $20. It will be my "throw around and have handy" bike. My other bike, although entry-level, cost me several hundred dollars and I guard it zealously. My new acquisition needs some tweaking when I get the chance. Friday night I did fix its rear flat and made adjustments to the angle placements of the levers and bar ends and re-aligned the handle bar. I need to read up on how to adjust the brakes and shifting stuff. But already with the levers and bar ends readjusted, it's looking so handsome and ready for action. I'm just itching to ride it. (But not until I get all the adjustments done.)

I'v other projects but they're not on my mind at the moment. Managing the computer also takes much time. I do look forward to my first planning meeting for the Dominican volunteer stuff in another week. At work, I remain uninspired and am probably a bore at minimum and a pain in the rear for my co-workers. One of my tasks for Monday is to go apologize for my behavior on Friday. Then I need to figure out a way to motivate myself to do some work.

cleaning my !@# off

owww. tired. I rinsed off the outside of both cars this evening. I finally tackled my in-dash radio/cassette player. I had traded cars with my brother some years back for several months. Part of his routine includes taking the young nieces to school and our elderly parents shopping. Apparently our nieces were allowed to snack in the car. I also know that my brother and father drink coffee, often in the car. When I got the car back, it was so filthy I immediately got to work on cleaning the car. I threw all the rugs into a big "tank" with Tide detergent water. One of the rugs had a huge coffee spill spot on it (fortunately, it came out). I wiped the inside non-porous parts with a solution of Mr. Clean. However, for some reason, I didn't get to the radio panel. The cigarette lighter socket had some sort of residue, as did the radio panel above it.

Some time back I discovered that I could easily remove the plastic panel with the cigarette lighter socket. So this evening I did that and took it inside to clean at the sink. Afterwards I went back out to attempt the radio panel. But just wiping it was insufficient; it would be better to remove the radio panel to get the stuff out of the crevices. At this point the screws for the radio were exposed, so I dismounted the radio so that could get at the plastic tabs that retained the faceplate. The faceplate came off ok. But it was more than just the faceplate, it had circuit board too. So I took that inside. It was torturous to remove the circuit board but I finally managed. So now I have the plastic bezel and loose buttons and was able to take those to the sink. After cleaning I shook them dry and also blow dried them with a hair dryer.

By this time it's dark outside. I have a flashlight in the glove compartment so I made use of it. The faceplate went back in ok. The radio went back in ok, except I couldn't find one of the four screws. After some unsuccessful searching, I asked St. Anthony for help and found the missing screw shortly thereafter. The cigarette lighter panel went back in ok. I'll wait until the next day to check the radio, giving it overnight to dry off anywhere that might not have dried off.

Then I came in and cleaned off one of the room air filtering machines. The filter needed replacing and the pre-filter needed cleaning. The machine itself required that the dust be wiped off. Then I took my shower. I was tired.

After the shower I sat for a while, comtemplating dinner. Then Gumby mentioned that the cleaner cartridge in the toilet probably needed replacing--the water was running clear instead of blue. Well, that's easy enough, replacing the cartridge. Except that when I went to replace the cartridge, the old one in there was still very blue. Maybe there's a kink in the feed tube. So I moved it, flushed then monitored the water. It ran blue then clear. Then I did the stupid thing. I untwisted the cartridge to have a look. Dark blue water sprayed everywhere, mostly on me.

So now I have to clean up the mess. Did I say I was tired? I had to rinse the rug, wipe the floor, wipe the walls and wipe the toilet. Then I turned to cleaning myself. "No way in hell," I said, "am I going to take another shower." I worked on my t-shirt and I think I got the blue out. I washed my face and that went well. Then I washed my arms then my feet and lower legs ... in the sink. If any got on my hair, I didn't know it and can't see it and I'm just now thinking about it as I type. If it's there, it's staying for now.

Yes, I did have some dinner. It was rubbery from having been microwaved, but I ate it.

It's crazy stuff such as this that takes up my time and results in my absence from blogworld.

another one from LAMLand

Also At LAMLand is a link to a story about a fella's adventures in his attempts to meet Pope JPII.

Since I have dial-up, I will have to bypass the video adventure.

DaVinci in the news again

Thanks to T.O. at LAMLand ...

Mirror image of the "Last Supper" superimposed on it reveals other characters.

Story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070727/wr_nm/italy_lastsupper_theory_dc
Pictures: http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,23607,5024588-5007150-1,00.html

gift given (finally)

The crucifix gift was finally given to the recipient this past Sunday. The recipient had been out of town on past weekends, plus Yoda wanted to be present at the giving, making the coordination impossible. This past Sunday, the recipient was in town; I gave up on Yoda. The gift was for an occasion many months previous and I was tired of the delay. But it was well worth the wait and the gift really is good at any time.

painless

A few weeks back I purchased a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 TV tuner card from Circuit City. This week they had it on sale for $20 less. I took my receipt back along with the advertisement and said that it was my understanding that they would honor the sale price so long as it was within 30 days of purchase. *Poof* By magic my $20 +tax was refunded. Kudos, Circuit City! By the way, they had some good sales this week.

finally met

I had dinner with my Dominican liason this evening. It was very nice. So I finally communicated what I wanted to communicate weeks ago when I asked for a meeting. It probably took all of ten seconds.
With no solicitation on my part, I was given a "book" to read. I look forward to it. I was also challenged to meet my spiritual director's recommendation: spend quiet time in prayer daily. Specifically, the challenge is 15 minutes daily. Not sure I'm accepting the challenge at this time.
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well ok, more details...
My liason had been out of town, arriving back only the night before. So the morning of the meeting we hooked up via telephone. My liason suggested meeting me halfway. However, having traveled to the Dominican place to meet with the volunteer rep just last week I knew the traffic pattern. It would be horrible for her to drive in my direction, but no problem for me to drive there.

So I had selected a restaurant near them. She was concerned that it wasn't conducive to a private conversation. I knew that not to be true but because she seemed less than enthused, I started scanning the reviews. A recent review left me a bit concerned about the food. Plus it would be cool to find a place that's new for both of us. I then found another place very nearby. It had a reputation of being rather quaint, a good spot for a date, and a slow pace that allowed you to linger. OK, hold your horses, I wasn't dating; it translated for me that it was a good place for private conversations.

I had a dental appointment that same evening. By rare occurence, the dental office was running late. By the time they finished with me, it was time to run straight off to my meeting. I got to the Dominican place just a few minutes early and picked up my liason. (This is when I was loaned the unsolicited book.)

We got to the restaurant in less than ten minutes, just shortly after six. We were escorted to a back room; and at the time, we were the only two in the room. This place is small; the room had maybe 3 or 4 tables total. A guitarist came in a few minutes later, settled into a back corner and provided the music. As luck would have it, neither one of us were very hungry. I then suggested that we split an entree and my liason agreed. It came with only a small side salad and we split that as well. That is just too cool when you can split a dinner.

Conversation was light and easy. I was filled in on a few of the other people who were considering the order and some of the upcoming related activities. We talked a bit about the volunteering thing, a bit about my journey to the Catholic church, reminisced on my first encounter with this Dominican community and also on some of my past discernment experiences. She asked if I thought there were other obstacles and honestly, the only one I can see right now is my finances. I told her of my intention to finish out the finances within 5 years, provided there are no hiccups along the way. We talked about a variety of stuff, none heavy.

We finished off with her having a cup of coffee and I, a flan cake ... long after the entree was finished. The food was good. By that time, the room had filled with people. She didn't take me up on my offer to split the bill. She did agree to let me take care of the tip. I had to ask her how much to leave because I didn't know the total figure. She finished her second coffee before we left; and I got her back before her bed time. In all, I would guess that we met for two hours.

It seems to me that good things always happen after I meet with the Dominicans. On this occasion, on the drive back I saw a faint rainbow among the dark gray clouds. (Yeah, it had rained just about every day that week). Last week on the way back from meeting with the volunteer rep, I stopped to get dinner for both Yoda and I. Lo and behold, I had exactly the amount of money for dinner, minus the pennies. Two factors: (1) dinner cost more than I expected and (2) I had less money than I thought. What I thought was a $20 bill was only a $10. So after pulling out all that I had, minus the pennies, it was the exact amount I needed.

low achiever

There's an intersection by my job that seems a bit risky. Two or three cars may be in the median, waiting their turn. It's always a little shaky as to which car will go first, how fast it will accelerate, and whether they'll be going straight or turning. For the most part, drivers navigate that intersection safely on a regular basis. As for me, I think I'll avoid that risk. I know great achievements can only be had if you take calculated risks, but I don't want to achieve great things while driving.

volunteer

The Dominicans here are planning a major year-long anniversary celebration and they put out a general call for volunteers. So of course I took them up on that. I met with their contact person today. I don't yet know where I'd be of help, we'll just have to see how this unfolds.

checking in

I was up all night, then slept a few hours in the morning, then I've been gone all day. Just thought I'd check in.

I have more than a few choice words for the process of converting VHS tapes to DVDs. It's rather convoluted and though I've made some headway, I've much to figure out. Just getting the video into the computer was a challenge; it was like those college chemistry and physics tests where they give you more information/variables than you need and you have to figure out what values are relevant.

Then just to add some non-technical problem to the mix, when I went to rewind the VHS tape to ready it for playback, the tape lead just came right off the take-up spool. This is a very valuable tape of Tonto's and fortunately, Tonto did not seem to recognize that I was doing surgery on the tape. I had to open it up to re-attach the tape to the spool. The tape is from 1984 and some of the people in it have died and many have moved on to who-knows-what. The tape contains great memories.

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I got the other half of my mouth jack-hammered (i.e. dental deep cleaning) this past Thursday. I think I'll recover.

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It's been raining much in these parts over the past month. I can't remember the last time I washed my car. Tonto drove it one day a few weeks past and was repulsed by its grunginess. Hey, it's not that bad. In the car, it's just road grit from the air and normal dirt from shoes; no foodstuffs.

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I had not heard about Peng Shulin until his past week. The man has only the upper half of his body left after an accident. I can't even begin to imagine how the doctors managed to complete the loop for his circulatory system.

selecting a crucifix

I was at the religious goods store to purchase a wall crucifix as a gift. I have now come to realize that I'm quite particular about crucifixes.

My criteria in descending order of importance:
1) I don't believe Jesus was fair-skinned. Crucifixes with a fair-skinned corpus were quickly ruled out.
2) I don't believe Jesus was chubby. Those few were ruled out.
3) I want a corpus that looked proportional--you know, the legs not too short or too long and such.
4) I don't want a corpus that looked as if Jesus was just hanging around, cooling out ... his neck should be at least a little bent so that his head looks like it hangs a bit.
5) Also, the corpus should have some detail so that it's not just a blob.
6) The wood need not be all that much bigger than the corpus.
7) The hole for hanging should be bored on the back. I prefer not to see the hanger attached and visible above the crucifix.

After spending considerable time in front of the wall of crucifixes, I finally came away with one that was suitable and within my $30-$40 range. The wood is walnut and rather narrow; it would look better if there was more wood, but the corpus looked good and overall it was ok. It was a bit weighty, no doubt from the corpus and not the wood. There were maybe three others that I would consider but they were above my range.

I browsed the store a bit more since it was my first time there. Then my stomach ruined my enjoyment and I had to borrow their facilities. Afterwards I decided I better head home before I was too sick to do so.

Arriving home, I unboxed the crucifix and showed it to Tonto. My choice was affirmed with oohs and ahhs. It should be a fine gift then.

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I don't know who our artisans are for these crucifixes. They could be Religious Brothers, Sisters and Nuns. Whoever they are, I hope that they've not lapsed into mediocrity. Wall crucifixes are large enough to allow us to see flaws. The corpus should be formed with care. The resin ones looked pretty bad to me, and I don't see how those crucifixes will ever sell.

lack of planning

This morning I went to mass then headed downtown to visit a religious goods store there. Except that I got down there and realized that I had no idea where the store was. I must have been sick to not have realized this beforehand. Since when did I start running off with such little information on my destination? I made a loop where I thought it was, then my stomach was upset so I stopped by the cathedral to borrow the facilities. While there I asked for directions.

I made the loop and was unsuccessful in finding. I called my Dominican liason at home and got one of the roomies who was unable to pinpoint the location for me. I headed off on a hunch and was still unsuccessful. I then called a fellow parishioner but he wasn't home. So then I pulled out my silver bullet: I called the Dominican prioress. At her home, no less. On a Saturday. You'd think we were chums.

The Prioress is a very gracious and charming woman. She chuckled at my predicament and said that she was glad that she was at home to be able to provide me this service. When I told her that Tonto would've blasted me for my lack of planning, she promised me safe refuge. "Not to worry, this never happened," she said. She gave me the address and phone number to the place and we chatted a bit before hanging up.

I called the store and was able to get the exact directions, the fellow notes that "You won't be able to see our sign because the city has so kindly planted little trees right in front of it." I arrived in little time.

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I thought it was pretty funny. This is so unlike me. I may not always have the full details, but I usually have a pretty good idea of where I'm going and HOW TO FIND IT.

how?

How are blind people able to plug in electrical appliances? I can't seem to plug into outlets without visual guidance.

cats in sinks

If you like cats. In sinks.

then check out http://catsinsinks.com

kinda wacky. lotsa cute.

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day to all.

As for me, I'm sick. It started yesterday. My stomach was bothering me. I took a two-hour lunch from work to nap. It was cold in the office, but I was probably having chills on top of that. I left work early to go to spiritual direction. Then after that, I picked up the plumbing stuff I needed and dinner for Tonto. When I got home I just crashed, sleeping 12 hours straight.

I'm weak, groggy and maybe a little dizzy this morning. All I had yesterday was a bowl of soup which had exactly one cube of chicken. Sleeping all day is probably not good, so I'm up to see if maybe I would feel a little better if I'm awake. I've eaten two of the little Dole fruit bowls, one was peach the other was mandarin oranges. Let's see if my stomach can handle that.

It is raining this morning. We normally attend the neighborhood parade wherein they throw candy to the people lining the route. If they do that today, the candy would be all soggy and inedible. Anyhow, we're not going to attend this year.

90K

Last week the mileage on my car rolled over into the 90,000-mile range. The car is not yet nine years old, so obviously I am averaging more than 10,000 miles per year.

the other toilet

The other toilet got jealous and wanted new parts too. This weekend it was making dripping noises. Apparently the fill valve isn't shutting off and eventually the water level exceeds the overflow tube and it starts to drip down. I was later than usual to work Monday morning as I tried to rig the thing to still work and not fill continuously.

Monday evening I went and purchased all the parts (so I thought) to the toilet for replacement. Man, this one was a pain in the butt to work on. I had more problems than there is space here to enumerate. I'll only mention some here. The kicker was that I had the toilet put back together and went to install the new fill valve, only to find that a part that went with it is broken. I was disgusted. So okay, maybe I'll leave the project undone and go swap out the fill valve at the store tomorrow.

Except that I go use the other bathroom, flush, and the thing wouldn't fill. Apparently the inlet valve in the other bathroom feeds this bathroom too. For this one to work, I'd have to turn on the other valve. Ouch. That means I have to finish the job. Good thing the broken part doesn't keep the valve from working, it's just one of the hoses in the tank (but not just a simple hose).

So I go to finish the job. I was really tired and my back was hurting a little. I had purchased a new hose to go between the inlet and the tank, except that the nut was too small for the inlet. So I had to go dig the old pipe out of the trash to reinstall it. And here's the part I wanted to avoid: I had to saw approximately one inch off the pipe. I had to do that for the first toilet.

It's now past midnight and I'm on the garage floor sawing the pipe (I don't have a work bench). I've never changed the blade on the hacksaw since I purchased it eons ago. Just two years ago I had used the same blade to cut through a padlock during a hurricane evacuation when couldn't find the key to the padlock on the breaker box. Fatigue and dull blade makes for slow progress but I finally got it.

Toilet now works but there's a little leak. I needed, and had intended, to replace the gasket between the tank and the bowl. I thought the gasket would have come with the overflow/flush tube (or what ever it's called) but it didn't. I reinstalled the old one, but that's where it's leaking now. I'm just very happy that the leak isn't coming from UNDER the toilet. It only leaks when you flush, which makes sense.

The good news is that I won't have to disassemble to replace the broken part. I'll just take the broken hose back and ask if I can get a good one from another box. The new hose will simply push into the fill valve assembly. The slightly bad news is that I'd need to lift the tank from the bowl to replace that gasket--that's going to require some disassembly.

new links

Thanks to TO: http://catholicvu.com/ interesting question and answer section

And I came across this one today: http://www.oneacrefund.org/ I'm so impressed. The founder is a 2006 MBA graduate; pretty darn impressive for a new grad.

toilet

Worked on the toilet yesterday, due it sounding like the water was always running. It had been like that for weeks now. Replaced the fill valve, and replaced the wax ring and the caulk around the base too while I was at it. I hope it wasn't illegal, as in only a licensed plumber was supposed to do that. It was kinda difficult removing the old caulk without damaging the vinyl flooring. In fact, I did tear a part of the flooring, but caulked over it in the end.

Instructions for the wax ring was to apply it to the toilet and then place the toilet over the hole. Not much luck with that. So I put the wax ring over the hole and then placed the toilet over its mounting holes and that worked better, or at least I think it did. There is no way to inspect. I probably need to replace the mounting stuff between the tank and the bowl, but I'll wait until it actually leaks.

A slight miscalculation in tightening the feeder pipe sent water spraying up when I turned it back on. Tightened the bottom connection, turned on the water, and now it sprayed to the floor (top connection needs tightening). Tightened it and it seemed okay, except that there seems to be a slight drip on the bottom connection. Drain the tank again, disconnect the feeder tube at the bottom, applied the magical Teflon tape to the male threads, reinstalled, and that seemed to fix the problem.

I may have been a little too agressive with the caulk. A light touch in forming the seal with the finger is better. Finger needs to be wet. A wet rag nearby for clean up is essential. Rinse the rag often. I think the gap between the bowl and floor is a bit on the big side, requiring alot of caulk and hence a bit more difficult to make a clean looking seal. But it's ok. It looks better than the dingy old caulk.

eye candy from the MoMAstore

I like the pull doggie-like pull toy the best, but at $42, I'd be afraid to let kids play with it.

cool robot

Sony's really cool robots:
http://www.plyojump.com/qrio.html
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/top_nf.html

Checkout the joints on those!

Youtube video of the robots dancing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vwZ5FQEUFg

handsome

zzz

I didn't go bicycling because I was busy snoozing.

mmm

I like Vietnamese sandwiches.

french bread, some sort of yellowish spread, slices of whatever meat, cucumber, parsley, soy sauce, and slices of pepper if you want (which I don't)

I like cucumber in cold meat sandwiches.

I could wrap this thing in plastic and leave it in the fridge for a few days. Then I take it out, heat up the toaster oven real good, then stick the sandwich in there for maybe a minute. The outside gets crispy (I have to be careful not to burn it) and the inside stays soft. Yum.

numb

I have long neglected my dental health, due mainly to lack of moolah. Today I got a deep cleaning in half of my mouth. I am so numb. They numbed it so they can get in there with a jackhammer and really break up and dig out the plaque. Well, okay, it wasn't a jackhammer. I think I can feel the numbness from my nose to my ear and my tongue is unresponsive on that side. I'll be out of approximately $200 total for the completed cleaning; insurance picks up the rest. Unfortunately, the corner of my mouth droops with the numbness. I look, uh, horrible. I guess it will be soup for supper for me.

would've been nice

This is what Target had advertised last week and which I was not able to find on the last day of sale.

blah

I'm having a blah day. Did not go cycling because it was threatening rain; went to mass instead. Then we went looking for this cat thing that Target had advertised and they didn't have it. Got breakfast and came home. Then I got on the computer and was pursuing updating a website we had. I don't know CSS. And I'm impatient about learning. So after spending some time browsing CSS templates, I'm still at square one, as in no progress. I think that project is going to go on the backburner again.

I'm not in a learning mood at all. I've had my camera for a few months now, and I still don't really know how to use it beyond the point and shoot and setting the timer.

Ugh. I think I'll go iron some T-shirts that have been waiting for weeks. It's a no brainer. And yes, it is raining.

I do have profound thoughts for my readers ... but apparently never while I'm sitting at the computer.

yawn

back

Just got back into town. I'm grabbing something quick to eat, change clothes and then head into the office. I think I have a meeting this afternoon. I don't know if it was a fruitful trip, but it sure is more enjoyable than sitting at my desk. Our hosts were very hospitable. However, I'm just as glad that the trip is over. It seems that the only way they can occupy us is to put us in meetings, either one after another or all day long.

Anonymous, I will have to check out that song. If nothing else, I should go to the office just so I can get downloads. :)

My neighbor has fixed my car while I was gone. Yay!

blue jean blues

I must be old-fashioned, because I can't find the blue jeans I want at the stores. I want the plain blue jeans that are normally displayed folded in stacks and then it's just a matter of finding your size. I don't want them faded. I don't want them decorated. I don't want the stretch kind. I don't want flared legs or boot cut. I prefer them to have some weight; the original jeans were meant for the working person--they were rugged and durable. After foraging for four hours, I came home with one pair of blue jeans one size too large. They will do. If baggy jeans are in, then I'm all set.

I did also get one cheap pair of sneakers.

I must also be getting old. My jeans used to wear out at the knees. Now they're wearing out at the pockets, where the hip bone protrudes.

I guess I kinda hate shopping. It's so inefficient. I wear my clothes and shoes until they really are no longer presentable or are practically falling apart. It's so hard to find replacement shoes as comfortable as the ones I've broken in. And it sure is hard to find replacement jeans.

Some of my new shirts (purchased earlier in the year) are nice, but they're hot. My new pants don't have pockets ... or belt loops. Pants without pockets, now that's an alien concept. I bought dress jackets at that time as well; and they too, do not have pockets. grrr.

The next time I find jeans that fit my tastes and size, I better just get a stack.

week recap

Tue Wed and Thur ... spent night at hospital keeping Gumby company then got up early to go home, wash up, and go to work, also to vacate the curbside parking before the pay-for-parking hours start.
This means (1) the house is a mess and (2) quality of sleep sucks.

Thur left work early because I didn't feel well. Came home, took some meds and I was out like a light until Gumby called.

Gumby was discharged Fri nite per doctor's authorization. Hospital staff thinks it's too soon. Gumby will just have to be careful. Follow-up appt on coming Tue.

Replacement PC is here. I was up until almost 4am Fri nite working on setting it up. Looks like I have all the data I care about (i.e. I didn't lose them). Turns out that I had burned photos onto a CD, so I didn't lose those either. I've a stack of CD's and didn't see the photo CD until I dug around for the recovery CD. Replacement PC is not an exact copy of what I sent back; it's better hardware. woohoo!

update: Well, I spoke too soon. I did lose some of my pictures. For sure I've lost all the ones with the CDP Sisters also a bunch of bicycling pictures, and the few I had with the Dominicans. Looks like I didn't get around to burning those onto CD.

Got up this morning and went bicycling. I did extend the distance another 3 miles. Wind to my back sure helps. Photo of after-effects of the rainy ride I had a few weeks back.

hospital

Gumby drove to the hospital and walked into the emergency room this morning. They ran some tests and it looks like they'll be keeping Gumby for a few days. I have to pack and bring Gumby's stuff.

element

Your Element Is Water

A bit of a contradiction, you can seem both lighthearted and serious. That's because you're good at going with the flow - but you also are deep. Highly intuitive, you tune in to people's emotions and moods easily. You are able to tap into deep emotional connections and connect with others. You prefer a smooth, harmonious life - but you can navigate your way around waves. You have a knack for getting people to get along and making life a little more peaceful.

What's Your Element?

I don't know how true it is. It's two in the morning and I'm not sure I was all that accurate in figuring out what I would do in these fictitious situations. I do know that I don't seem to be all that easygoing lately (as in the past two years). I'm a bit more glum and more easily irritated and my temper is starting to show more frequently.

reason to rejoice

We have reason to rejoice: two men were ordained into the priesthood in our diocese yesterday! Thanks be to God.

Some months ago, we also had a huge number (~20?) of men ordained to the Permanent Diaconate. That was a four-hour mass.

no ride, strange habits

I didn't get to ride my bike this Saturday. Some other person obliged me to attend an ordination mass. I have been to quite a few of these ordinations over the past few years. Usually attendance is by invitation only, by virtue of the fact that it's not publicized, probably for crowd control -- can't fit the entire Diocese in one parish. This means that I'm usually an oddball at these ordinations: no, I don't know any of those being ordained. I know a few of the clergy and Religious but that's about it.

Speaking of religious, there were some groups there who were dressed funny. Well, okay they were in religious habit, but they (the habits) were a bit wacky for me. The men had funny hats. The women looked as if they were dressed for a funeral, complete with black lace on their heads. On another occasion, I had seen a group whom I thought were perhaps the cast from "Robin Hood." C'mon folks, let's not pretend that what we wear doesn't matter. I look at these Religious and I wonder if they are aware that we are now in the 21st century. Our dress is not of the utmost importance, I agree, but it most certainly does matter. Just think "job interview;" our dress has a huge impact on our credibility.

I don't mean to make fun of these groups. I have the utmost respect and appreciation for our Religious. I'm just saying that these habits were strange to me and are slightly mind bending; I would have to conciously exhort myself to ignore the visual and related connotations, and TRY to find the individual.

OP evening

Friday evening, I was invited to a Dominican event and gladly attended. I am starting to know some of them by name, much to my surprise. I had certainly looked forward to seeing them, but somehow I didn't feel the excitement on the drive there. I think I may have had a mixture of fatigue and apprehension. "Socials" generally stress me out. Even though I enjoyed the time with them, I didn't stick around to help with the clean-up as would be usual for me and I wasn't on a high when I left. I was quite tired and just went to bed when I got home ... I didn't even read my prayer before bedtime.

My Dominican liason likes to rib me. Sometimes she refers to God as "She" just to tease me. This night she says to me "we might be doing some sun worship tonight." I am happy to report that there was no sun-worshipping going on.

And in case you are wondering: the meeting with my Dominican liason didn't happen due to events outside of our control. I think it may be several weeks before the occasion may be a possibility; I know the next two weeks are out.

culture shock

I've basically been sheltered from difficult people. I'm fortunate that I've never had to work for or with difficult people. So today when I ran into the ladies with the nasty attitudes at the County Courthouse, that was a culture shock. For as long as I had to wait in line, I saw no reason for those ladies to be nasty; all the clients were pretty quiet and just went about taking care of business.

I needed a certain something, and by law, I am cornered into having to go to the County Courthouse. It wasn't an ordinary thingamajig that I needed; I needed one that was X. I explained what I was there for and explained that I didn't know what the procedure was and handed over my papers. As the lady walked off to go get it, I said, "Oh, I needed it to be X." Her reply with an attitude to accompany it: "I know. I know what I'm doing."

I bet sex with her is no fun. You tell her what you want and she gets all huffy and says, "I know. I know what I'm doing." Dang, that spoils the mood.

Well, before she gives me what I was there for, she said she had to check on something. She comes back and pulls a form and tells me I have to fill out the form. This is the County Courthouse way: they give you no information over the phone (I conclude it's because they don't have the knowlege answer your questions), and they make you wait in line just to get a form. The fellow behind me knew he needed a form, but he had to wait in line to get it. So anyways, at this point, I had to leave the counter and go fill out the form. I asked whether I'd have to get back in line and the answer was yes.

I come through the line again. Now it's one of the other ladies. She asks me accusingly, "Weren't you just here?" Well yeah, was there a rule that I can't come back in the same day or something? She looks at my paperwork and asks me questions. I answered honestly (I should have lied), and she starts to tell me I can't do that. I ask her whether I can do so and so, but she doesn't wait for me to finish. I ask again, trying to see if she understood what I was asking. She glares at me and says slowly (as if to a kindergartener) "Now I've told you three times already that you can't do it that way. I don't know how else to say it to you."

My friends, I was pisssssssssed. I will have to go through this again another day. Tonight when saying prayers before dinner, I come to the part about praying for the less fortunate and my thoughts went to those ladies. What poor dried up souls they must be. I had said, "Good morning," to both, and neither was able to return the greeting. I should be exceedingly grateful that they are not healthcare professionals.

Memorial Day

It's pouring down raining this Memorial Day. I took advantage of it: I slept until 11:00 a.m.

Thank you military folks and families for your sacrifices, enabling us to sleep peacefully in our beds and party at will.

I personally know a veteran; he is "gay." Being gay doesn't automatically mean being sexually active. He bleeds the same as any soldier, and he is just as patriotic as any soldier and I'm sure he'd watch your back as much if not more than any other soldier. I know the military has a reputation to uphold and I respect that, but please don't discriminate against your gay soldiers.

In any case, thanks USN, US Army, USAF, USMC, US Coast Guard, and any other US military forces.

ride

I went bicycling this morning. Trying to get back into my Saturday morning rides. As I neared my starting point, the clouds looked ominous. A little while longer and the rain is splattering on my windshield. I see the group riders passing. True, in the direction they were heading, they'll be out of the rain in a little while. I stopped to get my Powerade then parked the car and waited for the rain to subside (it was coming down pretty good at this point). Twenty minutes later it was still raining, but not as heavy. So I hopped on my bike anyways, I didn't drive out here for nothing.

I got soaked pretty good but about ten minutes later, I was out of the rain. The good news is that I finished my usual 13-mile route this time and didn't feel too exhausted. Last week I didn't even quite make 10 miles. I haven't reached my usual average speed of 13mph (uh, that's slow compared to the 21mph of those on road bikes). Maybe next week, I'll extend the distance a bit more.

It was only when I got off the bike that I noticed a black collection of dirt on top of my soaked cotton socks. Apparently the rain ran down my legs and took the dirt with it and the top of my socks stopped the dirt there. It was a sight to see. I have a photo but I cannot upload as of yet, waiting on my new PC to come back. The top of my bicycle pack had a layer of dirt from the rain. Oh, I was pretty gritty myself. For the most part, the bike was dry by the time the ride ended. However, when I tilted it during a lift to put it back in the garage, water came dripping off from under the bike pack.

Another very exciting thing from the ride this morning: R2D2 mailbox! The end of my route cuts through a quiet neighborhood. And there, on a corner, I spotted an R2D2 mailbox. You go now, USPS! I gotta tell everybody when I get back to work on Tuesday (it's near the job).

....yup, drove by there today (5/29) and that mailbox is definitely there

just do it

There are some days (like today) when I want to skip daily mass. After all, it's not required, and I'm reaaally hungry, and I would like to take a long leisurely lunch, maybe even a nap. Well, I talked myself out of that and went to mass. I'm not looking for a pat on the back. I'm just letting you know that I don't attend mass because it's a "high" for me.

Hopefully I don't attend mass because it's "required" as if it were some burden. Hopefully I don't attend mass because the priest is cute; it sure helps, I won't deny it, but I have to question my motives every time when it happens. I have a whole litany of stuff I go through to get my butt to mass:

(1) It's a privilege. (2) People have risked their lives to celebrate mass. (3) If we believe that is Jesus in the eucharist, then why the heck are we not clamoring to see Him?! (4) At mass, we are brought to the foot of the cross. Wouldn't we want to be with Jesus in his suffering? (5) Even if I'm late to mass, I'll at least get to the end. At the very end, I get the priest's blessing. If Esau and Jacob were fighting for their father's blessing, likewise I should value the priests blessing! (6) Now I know it's not true, but I might be the only one to show up for mass aside from the priest. The priest cannot say mass with only himself there; hence I am needed. (7) It's a community thing: the more the merrier.

And there's more if that list is still not enough to get me going.

I'm sorry for those who "don't get anything" out of mass. Most certainly, you need a mass that speaks to you and is life-giving. But for those situations, even if you don't get anything out of it for yourself, at least put in something for God, namely worship. Then keep searching and may the Holy Spirit guide you.

funny

A funny at LAMLand. I love it.

window shopping

The thing about a computer is that you keep needing to spend $ on it ... peripherals, applications, upgrades and the like. I've been trying to find some good deals.

I mentioned http://www.slickdeals.net before.
Here is another one: http://bensbargains.net and its brother, http://dealspl.us/

Though some of the deals are tempting, I've yet to purchase anything. Last week I did purchase some things from local stores: CD-R, CD-RW, photo paper, and keyboard. I'd still like some DVD media, a TV tuner card, a micro-SD, a thumb drive of several Gigs and either an external drive or just a secondary hard drive. An MP3 player would be cool too.

The PC was picked up yesterday. I hope the vendor takes time to work with the box and not just rush to ship me another.

On a separate note, I am once more restless and unfocused and tired. I feel like I'm just thrashing about again. I'm exhausted and yet I can't rest...

kaput

Oy, our brand spankin' new PC up and died. It powers on, but I cannot recover boot. I can't even reload OS ... it never gets there. I might even have lost all my files, considering that I went looking through the backup and did not find certain files. But that remains to be seen. I am now awaiting word from the vendor. I am hoping they'll have me send the PC back and they work on it.

update: I have the PC boxed up. They will arrange to have FedEx come pick it up. They promised a quick turn-around.

The first reaction, of course, is to be upset if all my files are lost (including photos). But then, things of this world are ephemeral. There are many points in life when you have to start back from square one. So get over it and get on with it.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treaure is, there also will your heart be. (Mt 6:19-21)

-----------
Thank you Natty, Lisa and T.O. for your encouragement. I do look forward very much to the meeting with the Dominicans. Aside from just visiting, I do have some things I need to get off my chest.

-----------
We saw Spidey 3 yesterday. Violence balanced with a message of forgiveness, teamwork, and self-sacrifice. I can dig it. Would've liked to see it on Imax, but the drive out there would be hellacious, and we'd like to avoid hell. We went to the theatre by our house instead. Their four big, big screens were playing exclusively Shrek 3, upsetting my movie partner who prefers the big, big screens. This person is also annoyed by wiggly and noisy kids while the movie is playing. I've been tasked to find another movie house for the next movie outting, whenever that may be.

People with perfect pitch hearing are easily annoyed with wrong pitches. So too, people who have great awareness of their surroundings are easily annoyed by distractions such as kids or fidgeting. In that sense, I am blessed with being relatively immune to those things; the flip side is that I can rarely recount to anyone my "experience".

neglected

Yes, I know, I haven't done much maintenance on this blog...stagnant link list, broken links, old or missing graphics, etc.

No, I don't think it will improve any time soon.

maybe

I think I need a heart-to-heart with the Dominicans. I'll see how I feel in the morning.

update: will be meeting towards end of next week
update again: meeting will be rescheduled to a later date

it just hurts

Ow. The news is just so terrible. Grown man shoots an 11-year old with a double-barrel shotgun as the kid runs away. Father microwaves his baby. Ow. Ow. Ow.

When we move away from God, we lose our humanity. We forget what it means to be kind, patient, forgiving, generous, compassionate, hopeful ... all those good things that make us human. Then forgetting our own humanity, we forget the humanity of others.

sheer exasperation

I cannot even begin to count how many times I've run Vista Startup Repair. Many times it's heart-stopping since I can never be sure that the computer will actually boot up. It's amazing to me that Vista boot up can be so easily corrupted. I don't know what corrupted it (very possibly my ISP software). The other night I had Vista make me a backup, since I don't know when I'll just not be able to boot at all. Last night I re-installed Vista as "upgrade" since the other option, clean install, will wipe out the drive. When it finished, it had the audacity to tell me that my copy of Vista is not genuine and wouldn't let me into my computer until I do something about it. One of the options is to activate Vista online, but it wouldn't let me login. Instead, it had the option to set up a connection. I had to dig and find an access phone number for the ISP. Amazingly enough it connected, even though my ISP requires the ISP software. After logging in I dug around the internet to no avail about the authenticity thing, then rebooted and Vista seems to have corrected itself. The computer seemed to be working again. Except today I come home, boot up and it tells me I don't have a bootable device. A press of the key to reboot brings up the computer okay. The last resort is to do a clean install, i.e. wipe out the drive and start from scratch.

all cut

I got the other five sheets of plywood for the windows last weekend. Today I've just finished cutting them. I'm whipped. I was working in the front yard, so naturally I got a few neighborly inquiries. "Are you guys moving?" and "Do you know something we don't. You have predictions?" heh heh. No. and No. I just don't want to wait until the hurricane comes to start trying to buy plywood and cut them. I still have a very narrow window by the door to think about covering, but I'm not too worried about it. And again, I haven't tried them with the Plylox clips, but at least I know the boards fit in the window casing.

the spiritual thing

If you've been following by blog for a while now (you must be very patient indeed), you're probably thinking, "Uh, what discernment? I don't see anything about discernment here."

True enough, I've not blogged much about it, or church or religion or such. I toned it down a long time ago in an effort to not obsess over it. "It" being my desire to enter religious life. Truth is that I think about it every morning upon waking. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about it. And since I think about God most times when my mind is not otherwise engaged for other duties, the thought of religious life goes right along with it.

I don't have much of a prayer life, but it is standard for me to do my formula prayer every morning, say three Hail Marys on the drive in to work, and offer my day to Jesus. Then at night I read my usual two prayers, one for the souls in purgatory and the other to offer God my every breath and heartbeat. Now I did say read ... sometimes I'm not really into it, but I do make it a point to read those two prayers, even when I'm on the road. I try to attend daily mass during lunch but do miss sometimes, and sometimes I'm only physically there--my mind being elsewhere or I'm just outright asleep. It's been a long time since I last went to adoration or cracked open the bible.

And of course, I attend Sunday mass. This has been something of a transitional time. One of my volunteer gigs is on summer break, the second volunteer gig is undergoing some technical change, and I didn't make it to any of my third volunteer gig dates. Our pastors will be leaving the parish after Easter next year; I think they're going to try to take it easy from now onwards. Our parish has dropped one of the Sunday masses for the summer months.

I occasionally listen to one of the Christian radio stations we have in the area. I think I'm reasonably solid in my Catholicism to be okay with a Protestant program. I don't usually pay much attention to their bible teaching. Else there is some good stuff there, some food for thought. The Protestant approach is more focused on practical application--more "how to" for every day situations. The Catholic approach is more focused on worship; that is, orient your whole self to God and everything else should fall in place. Once in a while I catch some Catholic bashing on the station; that's at least a little annoying and for sure it's unproductive.

Back to the topic of discernment: it's ongoing. I have plenty of moments of doubt and discouragement. But for all my discouragement, I can't drop the idea either. On the one hand, I'd be disappointed if religious life is not for me. And on the other hand, I have to remember that ultimately what I want is for God's will to be done. If God deems that I should go to hell, then I hope to willingly enter hell in obedience to His will. So on a lesser scale, If God deems that I should not enter religious life, then may I find joy in following His will. I don't think that I'm hanging on to the idea, I think it's just persisting. If God sees fit to send something to displace this idea (such as a love interest, a handicap, or an illness, etc.) and give me something else to chew on, then may His will be done. Until then, I seem to be waking up every day with religious life on my mind.

two deals

Logitech G5 laser gaming mouse (up to 2,000 DPI) for $25 at Dell. (via Gizmodo via Slickdeals). I have an A4Tech laser mouse that can do up to 1,000 DPI and it's nice. I bet the Logitech at 2K DPI would be even better. I'm not getting it though, being that my current mouse is OK.

Office Depot will have the Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 keyboard for $9.99 next week (sale starts Sunday 5/13/2007). At least it's true for my area. You can also check your area and the Office Depot website.

screwed

I have royally screwed up my e-mail. I went down the path of screwing with stuff that I didn't quite understand. I think I can kiss all my e-mails good-bye. I've spent huge number of hours trying to recover. Results are unsatisfactory.

Update: I seem to have recovered most of my old mail. But whatever was in my Inbox is gone forever.

where is JC?

hmm...where is Jesus? If he sent the Holy Spirit to do the work, does it mean he's chilling out in a hammock under the shade of a coconut tree on some tropical beach? Jesus...not limited by time and space...is He in the tabernacle quietly waiting my visit? Is He helping the soldier concentrate, comforting the patient in pain, keeping the shut-in company, helping the crop grow, blessing a baby, admonishing a priest, correcting a nun, inspiring a poet, giving hope to the poor, encouraging a war-torn people, pleading at the right hand of the Father? Is He right here helping me find the almonds in an unfamiliar store, is He averting an accident that could've happened? Is He listening with mild amusement at my whining? Is He forever there and forever here, ever patiently waiting for me, waiting for my attention, waiting for me to know that He loves me?

hey, you're spending too much time on the computer

Last night, it was pretty difficult to get to the keyboard with this thing in the way. I did try to work around it. It was slow going, fishing for one key at a time.

Into Great Silence

Someone sent me e-mail about the movie Into Great Silence. Looks interesting.

German web site http://www.diegrossestille.de/deutsch/index.html It has the trailer, English page doesn't have it.

showtimes
http://zeitgeistfilms.com/playdates.php?directoryname=intogreatsilence
Reviews
http://www.decentfilms.com/sections/articles/groning.html
http://www.decentfilms.com/sections/reviews/intogreatsilence.html

less than half a million

Just for fun, I decided to see what I could buy with the amount of money I owe in student loans.

I am happy to report that the amount owed is NOT enough to buy any one of the following (any model):
Aston Martin
Bugatti
Ferrari
Maserati

But the amount that I do owe would be enough for me to outright buy just ONE of the following:
2007 Infiniti QX56
2007 Lexus GS 450h
2007 Mercedes-Benz GL-Class
2007 HUMMER H2

Well, at least I don't owe half a million. In fact, I owe less than a hundred thousand. How about that.

nominations needed (top posted)

Sr. Anne of Nunblog posts the following (cut and pasted here for your convenience):

Keep helping NOLA!
Just a reminder that Burger King is doing a promotion-cum-donation event that will determine which organizations in New Orleans and Baton Rouge get what percentage of the "pot." I have been going on every day to "nominate" Catholic Charities and then clicking on the New Orleans button so that the points will add up in its favor, and I invite you to do the same! Here.

take it easy with those stones

I was listening to a talk about Islam. It was supposed to be informative. Some folks wanted to turn it into an Islam-bashing session. Um...and these were Catholics. You'd have thought that they've not ever heard of Catholic-bashing. Someone gasped, "How could they believe that?" in regards to some of the Islamic beliefs. What?!!!! Well, if you think those beliefs are ridiculous, let me tell you what Catholics believe! And heck, I'm Catholic!

wow

Fantastic papercraft