I've just been watching a PBS special on the Apollo 8 mission. It's inspiring to remember. I was only 5 at the time and while I have good memories of Apollo 11, Apollo 8 is a little blurry. The inspiring reading of Genesis at Christmas time by the Apollo 8 crew is one of those moments in history that move beyond words. Sadly, in this day and age the crew could never read a passage from the Bible without being excoriated for their religious insensitivity.

Here's a cool article on The Truth About Hypocrisy. A good message that bears repeating:

I will say this and repeat it: Hypocrisy consists not in failing to practice what we preach, but in not believing what we preach.

Thanks to Mark Shea for the link!

Happy Halloween!

I'm in a strange mood. Marie is home in Las Vegas so I'm not planning on celebrating All Hallow's Eve by doing anything except going to Collegium Musicum rehearsal. At the same time, it's going to be a stressful week at work, and my boss is in town. I made a major breakthrough in my skating today. I'm in a very unsettled mood...

So President Bush has nominated Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court. This looks like a good solid choice. Interestingly enough, a friend of mine is now clerking for Alito in New Jersey. No word on if he'll get to move up or not if Alito is confirmed... talk about being in the right place at the right time, though!

I'm rather amused at the hysteria coming from Planned Parenthood. Some person signed me up for their email newsletter and I've stayed subscribed since it's entertaining. With each nominee they've come out with all kinds of stuff -- mostly (of course) a plea for donations. The thing that I've never gotten a good answer for is, if the American public supports abortion as PP claims, then what's the big deal? If Roe v. Wade were overturned, surely that broad base of public support would ensure that legislatures would enshrine the Right to Abortion as PP wishes?

I had another letter to the editor published in today's Star, in response to a story about a pharmacist refusing to fill a prescription for "emergency contraception". Here's the letter:

Customers and pharmacists have rights

The editorial states, "Employers should require that pharmacists park their personal religious beliefs at the door when dealing with consumers."

It's hard to believe I live in America when I hear such statements. What is freedom of religion if not the freedom from being compelled to violate our conscience? Every soldier has this right, even in wartime. No one should have a right to compel another to violate his conscience by telling him to just follow an order.

It's ironic the left, the so-called champions of choice, are the ones trying to force pharmacists to act in this way. A woman's right to a prescription doesn't mean the right to force another to fill it.

In a multicultural society, it's important we respect the values of others, even if we disagree with them. In a free market, there should be plenty of people whose consciences read the morality of such acts differently. A more constructive approach would find a way to compromise between the consciences of some and the demands of others.

Gordon Zaft

Tucson

I wish I had saved a copy of what I originally wrote so I could show the effect of the editing. I know there was some but I can't say precisely what it was.

I went to the doctor on Tuesday since I've been sick. While there he ordered another round of bloodwork since it's been a few months. Good news -- my weight is down to 210 (which makes me "overweight" on the BMI instead of "obese" --yay!) and my blood pressure is 112/80. My comparative bloodwork:

	June	Oct
Hgb A1c		5.5
Cholesterol	202	188
Triglycerides	222	115
HDL	36	33
LDL	129	132

I don't quite understand the cholesterol numbers. The triglycerides are the first time they've been in an acceptable range -- thanks to Marie's cooking and the near-total absence of fast food from my diet.

The doctor prescribed me antibiotics and eyedrops since he decided I had both generic "creeping crud" and conjunctivitis. Unfortunately, I lost both prescriptions and called and called to get them replaced. Finally they called in the eyedrop prescription on Thursday but not the antibiotics, and I was back at work on Friday and got so busy I forgot to call. End result -- my eyes feel much better, but my throat is still killing me. *sigh*

It's been a long weekend, mostly because I've been sick as a dog. I'm slowly feeling better.

A nice article in today's paper on the local Benedictine monastery -- Nun's haven struggles with age, money woes. I hope that the nuns find a way to stay; the monastery is a beautiful, peaceful place.

I attended the UA football game yesterday -- it was disturbing. Once again the Wildcats snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. We could have, should have won this game, but again it was the same old litany of penalties, fumbles, and interceptions.

*bleah*! I've been sick for a couple of days, had to stay home from work yesterday. Just a cold, I think, but I was pretty miserable. Marie took good care of me though, bless her heart :-).

An interesting article in today's Star -- UA nuke security lax, ABC News says. People always seem to get inordinately excited when they find out UA has a reactor, until they actually look at it. It's very small. It's been there almost 50 years, and it's pretty harmless.

So Marie came home on Wednesday and we had a long talk about our future and some of the issues we have. We were both relieved (and maybe a little surprised) that we were able to come to agreement about them and we can move forward in our relationship. I'm really happy.

There's a collector from Sierra Vista who has been willing to take some of my "classic" machines off of my hands, in my ongoing quest to get the house in some semblance of order. Today I was able to give away my 9-track tape drive and a Q-bus controller for it, as well as an AT&T Unix PC with a bunch of docs and some other miscellaneous docs. I'm still hoping to give away my IBM PC RT and some other smaller stuff to this guy if he's willing.

Of course that still leaves me with quite a lot of stuff to get rid of, but I am making progress. Yay!

Founder's Day

On this day in 1898, 13 young men at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston met to consider establishing an organization to work to build up the men of the Conservatory as musicians and as men. That meeting eventually resulted in the formation of what is now known as Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America, a fraternity for men in music.

I joined Phi Mu Alpha in 1983 as a re-founding member of the Alpha Upsilon Chapter at The University of Arizona®. Sinfonia has had a profound influence on my life, and I'm proud to call myself a member.

Happy Founder's Day to all my brothers in Phi, Mu, and Alpha!

Tired

I'm very tired... mentally, physically, spiritually. It's been a very exhausting few weeks. I'm feeling very poor -- the litany of things that have come up wearies me -- had to get my car fixed ($900), my washing machine just broke, my kitchen sink needs a plumber, and I just discovered that the pipes for my hot water heating (radiators) are leaking at the furnace. I was anticipating getting a raise in July, but didn't get it.

I've not been sleeping very well, it's still too darn warm, and Marie has been gone for 3 weeks. She's coming home in the morning, but when I talked to her just now (she was getting on the bus to come home) she sounded sad and said she was sorry to be leaving her family again.

The rink is still closed (though I've heard it may be open soon) so I've not been skating, which is okay since I'm feeling poor, except that not skating makes me feel cranky, lethargic and fat.

I just feel like I need a break, or something good.

Dutch Legalize Polygamy

Another under-reported story -- apparently a Dutch threesome have engaged in a legal civil union.

Thanks to Catholic Light for the link.

I can't believe there's been almost no coverage on this -- credit card minimum payments will be going up substantially. This is really going to hit people hard. I'm really surprised they didn't go into this more gradually.

Update: Here's another story on this. I'm really surprised there hasn't been more coverage about this.

Netherlands: Government-Approved Killing Since 1998!

Those wacky Dutch are still at it -- now they've approved official standards for when babies can be killed with government approval.

Apparently the Nazi occupation didn't teach them very much about the value of life.

I am feeling somewhat better about things. Marie has been gone since 9/14 and so I've been a bit cranky, plus stress from work and not skating have not helped at all. I think, though, that I've resolved some of my issues and so I'm feeling better. Not that everything will necessarily work out for me as I'd hoped, but that I know where I stand on things.

Another interesting story in today's Arizona Daily Star on the resolution of the Diocese's bankruptcy case. Check it out.

This is pretty cool. Teams from the Mount Graham observatory's Large Binocular Telescope project have succeeded in moving the second of the telescope's 8.4m mirrors up the mountain.

The Diocese of Tucson has completed its Ch. 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The Arizona Daily Star is reporting how the abuse victims' lives will change. This bankruptcy case seems to have been a model for how such proceedings should go -- all concerned seem to have worked together to do what was best for the victims, instead of finger-pointing or grandstanding. It's encouraging.

"I know that nothing can take away the hurt and harm that happened to you," Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas told victims on Tuesday. "You are not at fault and you did not contribute to the hurt that happened to you. But I hope that today will be a continuing of the healing that will take place."

This is disturbing, but not surprising -- Testing doesn't stop HIV spread in porn industry.

Just a quick whine... I'm having a singularly bad week. I'm looking back to last spring and things seem like they were so perfect then, in many respects. *sigh* I'm sure things will improve but right now I just want to scream, cry or beat my head against the wall.

Shameless Plug

Gromagon Press is now taking pre-orders for Marie's book, Red Rings of Wax. While I am admittedly biased, I can truthfully say that it's a very good book and there's some really good stuff in there. Check it out. It's only $11, so buy one! Buy 2!

I went to the UA - Purdue football game last night. It was a very... intense game. We could have and should have won, but we lost 31-24. *sigh* See the Star's coverage of the game. Basically our defense was pretty solid, our kicking game was excellent, but the offense was inconsistent and plagued with costly mistakes and penalties. It was so frustrating! The good news is that most of the problems are fixable. Check out Greg Hansen's column for some good commentary.

Highlights of the evening -- a 51-yard field goal (wow!) by Nick Folk. The stadium was packed (56,400!). At halftime the youth league football players did their thing, which is always entertaining -- 10 or 12 year olds (maybe younger, they are pretty short!) playing football and the crowds going wild in a very supportive way. And the Pride of Arizona's new Led Zeppelin show is terrific.

Phew! This week at work was absolutely crazy. Very, very busy with a couple of projects that were all heating up at the same time.

This morning was a "choir retreat" for Collegium Musicum. We rehearsed for 3 hours, then had a potluck lunch. Our first concert of the year is November 6th I believe.

Tonight I'm going to watch the Wildcats play Purdue. Should be fun!

Marie left yesterday on a trip to visit friends and family. She won't be back until October 5th! I miss her horribly...

In other news, for those that don't read my skating blog, Tucson's only rink, Polar Ice, closed on September 9th. It's unclear when/if it will reopen; so I am on a forced break from skating :-(.

Today is my 42nd birthday... actually, it was my best birthday in many years, as far as I can remember. I slept really late (yea) after going to the football game last night (the Wildcats beat NAU 31-12). Then Marie and I went and had a picnic at Sabino Canyon and opened presents. She gave me a couple of really nice gifts -- things that are very personal and original and that no one else would think to give me. She really is the world's best girlfriend as far as I am concerned.

I've been having some discussions with Marie about Aquinas and his proofs of the existence of God. In researching this to try to understand it better myself and answer her questions I came across this cool article by Peter Kreeft. Check it out!

Whoa! Chief Justice Rehnquist has died. As if life weren't bizarre and strange and mixed up enough right now. This should make life very interesting, especially with the John Roberts confirmation hearings supposed to start Tuesday.

This is very disturbing -- consecrated Hosts stolen in Boston.

Wow, long time no post! Sorry 'bout that. Life has been pretty crazy. School has started, which (since I'm not in school) means mostly that Collegium Musicum has started up again. RCIA starts this Thursday.

CNN has an interesting article on "helicopter parents." Wow. I have a friend whose parents are exactly like this. I've never thought it was helpful. When I was in college I spoke to my Mom about once a week at most, even when we were in the same town. If you can't be independent when you get to college it's going to be a lot harder to be independent afterward -- I've always thought college was the time to make that transition while you still have some kind of safety net.

A friend sent me this link with the subject line "Mario Cuomo is an idiot." Wow, is he ever right. At least, Cuomo's understand of the faith the claims to profess is... nonexistent.

MR. CUOMO: That was essentially the position I took in 1984. And I think it's a good position. Again, let's try being constructive and practical about this. He should answer the question, for the sake of clarity, for the sake of the system. Why? If people believe--especially as a Catholic now, I'm concerned. If people believe that there is a possibility that as a Catholic when you go on the bench or you go into the Congress or wherever as a public official, you would put your Catholic church teachings before the Constitution, then they will not know where you're going to be, because the Catholic church can come up with a teaching any day. They can change teachings, and they do.

It simply does not work in this democratic system to say, "Look, I'm going to be a judge or a legislator, but I want you to know, my conscience comes first and contraceptives, divorce, war, stem cells, abortion, if my church gives me a clear ruling, that's what I must do." That would end our influence in the United States of America politically.

Clearly Mr. Cuomo doesn't let things like his CONSCIENCE influence him, no, of course not. What an idiot.

Happy Blogiversary!

Today is the 3rd anniversary ot this blog! Wow, what a long strange trip it's been... Check out the archives for some interesting (at times) reading.

Looking for music! Our choir director is looking for the Credo that goes with the chant Mass that's in the OCP Music Issue (I believe it's Mass XVI). Can anyone point me at it?

G

This is pretty cool -- scientists have found another large planet-like object orbiting the Sun.

Greg's funeral was Wednesday evening up in Tempe, at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. That's the same church where I made my first Communion back in 1969, and also were Greg and Terri were married and where the girls made their first Communion as well; and Chelsea and Geoff were baptized there. So it was a familiar setting. There was a pretty big crowd there. The Schola from SSPP sang, and they were wonderful. I'll try to post the music in a bit.

Thursday morning Greg's ashes were interred with my mother, at Evergreen Cemetery here in Tucson. There was a short service with Fr. Wagner from my parish. It was nice. My Dad read this piece written by one of Greg's friends:

HARD WORKING HANDS AND A HEART OF GOLD, A SMIRK AND A CHUCKLE THROUGH STORIES HE TOLD. WHETHER RUNNING WITH BULLS OR RIDIN' A HOG, HAVING TEA IN TURKEY OR LUNCH IN PRAGUE, AMSTERDAM NIGHTS OR A SUNNY BEACH DAY, WHAT A JOURNEY OF LIFE HE WOULD CONVEY. HOW EARLY IT SEEMS HE WAS TAKEN AWAY BUT OH HOW MUCH HE ENJOYED HIS SHORT STAY. MAY WE ALL LEARN FROM HIS LESSON ON LIFE, BRIEF IS OUR TIME, LONG IS OUR STRIFE. BREATHE IN MUCH JOY, WHILE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE, WORK WHEN IT’S TIME, BUT TAKE TIME TO DANCE. HE HAD HONESTY IN HIS WORDS AND A FIRM HANDSHAKE, HE WOULD LOOK YOU IN THE EYE AND HIS WORD NOT BREAK. YOU COULD SEE THE LOVE FOR LIFE IN HIS BLUE EYES SO DEEP, YOU CAN HEAR HOW WE MISS HIM THROUGH THE TEARS THAT WE WEEP. WE NEED MORE MEN LIKE HIM, TO MAKE THIS WORLD A BRIGHTER PLACE I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER MY FRIEND GREG WITH A SMILE ON HIS FACE. MAY PEACE BE FOREVER WITH HIM, ALWAYS HIS FRIEND.

Truman Wood (Tempe, AZ )

As you might expect, I've been frightfully busy and not in the mood to post. Greg's funeral is tomorrow and we've all had various chores to do to get ready to celebrate his life and mourn his passing.

My particular chores were to arrange for the graveside service, and to arrange for music for the funeral. My nieces and nephew had picked out some songs, and I picked out the rest to complete the service. The Schola from my parish volunteered to drive up to Tempe to sing for the funeral. Wow... let me tell you, that is friendship. All my friends have been so supportive, and my parish has been great. Fr. Van from SSPP has been very helpful and accommodating, all those things that you need at a time like this. The folks at work have been great, and I'm going to be off work Wed. and Thursday for the funeral and graveside service. And of course, Marie has been so kind and supportive.

Greg's obituary is online with a guestbook. Feel free to sign, and thanks for all your prayers and support.

Grief

I had a call from my Dad last night just after 8 p.m., informing me that my oldest brother Greg passed away yesterday. Needless to say, this is quite a shock. He was only 48!

Prayers for him and for our family would be appreciated.

I thought I'd share some of the minutia of my life...

I'm in cleaning up and throwing out mode a lot these days... right now the big target is old software. I have a lot of really old software that I paid good money for at the time... dBase IV version 1.5, Paradox 7, Paradox for Windows NT, PC Tools (several versions), original copies of DOS and Windows, Microsoft Project, the list goes on and on. I'd give them away if anyone wanted 'em. I'm sure there's little to no market for this stuff anymore, and as far as I can tell I can't even recycle the manuals (according to the handout I have you can't recycle this stuff). So, out it goes. It's a little sad, but very freeing as well. I should have thrown this stuff out a long time ago!

I went to a birthday party tonight for my friend Laura. It was really cool. A small crowd but lots of fun.

It's been incredibly hot. This seems to be turning into one of Tucson's hottest, if not THE hottest, summers. We're at 32 or so consecutive days over 100 degrees, and it shows every sign of breaking the record (39 days). *sigh*

I finally fixed my lawnmower today. The fix, as usual, is replacing the spark plug. Since I don't have a shed to store my lawnmower in, I basically wind up replacing the spark plug every year. This time I bought two so I can just replace it next year without having to run any errands. Yea! Having fixed it, I went on to mow the front lawn. I'll mow the back tomorrow.

There's a guest editorial in today's Star from Bishop Kicanas. As the bankruptcy case is now concluded, it does seem appropriate.

As bishop of Tucson, I again make this public apology. I express the firm resolve that this diocese will do whatever is humanly possible to reduce the risk that a child could be abused at a parish or school, at home and even in the larger community.

Let it be so.

The Arizona Daily Star reports that the Diocese of Tucson's bankruptcy plan has been approved. The case was resolved remarkably amicably and quickly. I think that's good; now the victims can get on with their lives and the Diocese can work on recovering.

I had always heard of the "blame the victim" mentality, but never have I seen it so strikingly displayed as in this post:

If you are American then please either let us get on and deal with
stuff and leave us alone. If you do want to communicate with us then
please write something along the following lines:

"I'm so, so sorry. Our country has caused yours dreadful harm. Please
accept my sincere apologies and please know that the policies pursued
by our deluded government are not supported by myself and many of my
compatriots. Indeed we despise our politicians as much as you do and
can only regret that their perverse actions have resulted in such
terrible anguish for yourselves and the inhabitants of so many other
countries."

[snip]

DON'T YOU GET IT?? IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!! Your horrible closeness to us
is what brought us this problem. I don't want you close to us. I want
you far, far away. I use those very trains, stations and buses which
were ripped apart today. I work at the hospital which took those
casualties. Even last night, before this happened, I wrote a vitriolic
email to another American trying to get me complicit in some other
nefarious activity. I won't go to America, I don't like America and I'm
getting pretty damn close to hating Americans. Actually, I want you
people to get that we hate you. Maybe not all of us, maybe not hate.
But we loathe and despise you and your society and we don't want your
sympathy - we want your contrition, your self-doubt and your sincere
apologies.

Now, granted that the poster is a Brit, and obviously he's very upset about what happened 7/7. Also, obviously one can make a pretty good argument that US policies (which, realistically should include the Clinton administration, not just the current administration) have in some ways made the situation worse than it otherwise might be.

My point, though, is that the poster does not ONCE place primary blame where it belongs -- on the TERRORISTS. No, this Brit seems to be in the fine tradition of Neville "peace in our time" Chamberlain. Appeasement doesn't solve the problem, it just emboldens the terrorists. Fortunately, I'm confident that most Britons are willing to see that tiptoeing around in hopes of "not provoking the terrorists" will not work and will just bring more and more terrorist acts.

All of the above should NOT be taken to say that there aren't any number of non-military things we can and must do to decrease terrorism and bring about real peace. We can and must do more to bring about justice, rule of law, democracy, and economic opportunity to the Middle East -- first, because it's right, and second, because it will make the world as a whole safer. But craven idiots like the above won't accomplish this goal.

Terri Schiavo's parents have issued a statement concerning the autopsy results. I have to say that they have handled themselves amazing throughout this time; I really admire their courage and tenacity in fighting for their daughter's life.

Terror bombing in London

CNN is reporting that terrorists have struck the London tubes (and a bus). How awful! My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families. America is with you!

A story on Datamation shows that DECnet is still hanging on to life and indeed thriving in some ways. I really liked DECnet when I was a VAX system manager -- it was incredibly easy to set up and use and gave transparent access to remote files long before PC networking did. DEC always had great technology.

Here's a really inspiring story a friend sent me about a college quarterback who gave up everything to enter the seminary. It's nice to see that men like Joe Freedy are stilling willing to answer the call.

Wow! Amazing success from the Deep Impact mission. Check it out. NASA is doing some cool stuff!

Hope all my readers had a wonderful Independence Day celebration!

For the 4th I took Marie up to Phoenix to meet my family (Dad, stepmom, oldest brother, nephew, oldest niece). We went to Red Robin for lunch, and had a nice time. Marie was nervous, but she was a trouper and I think my family liked her. It was good. I'd forgotten how yummy the Royal Red Robin burger is (and how filling!). Yummm. After lunch we hung at my Dad's for a little, then went to see War of the Worlds. I enjoyed it a lot (amazing special effects), but there were some definite holes in the plot that leave one wondering...

After the movie we drove back to Tucson, getting in just in time to watch the fireworks. Yea!

My new addiction is Coca-Cola Zero. Wow, this stuff is good. It tastes a lot like Coke used to taste back in the old, old days. Yummy. I just wish there were a caffeine-free version as my tolerance for caffeine seems to have gone south about 2 years ago. *sigh*

My apologies for not posting more -- life has been keeping me pretty busy and I have no idea where this week went!

One of the myths about stem cell research is that embryonic stem cells are far superior to adult stem cells. An article in Science Daily gives the lie to that, though:

In a ground-breaking study, scientists at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh have discovered that adult, or post-natal, stem cells have the same ability as embryonic stem cells to multiply, a previously unknown characteristic indicating that post-natal stem cells may play an important therapeutic role.

Thanks to Rae for the link.

My parish celebrated its 75th annversary on Saturday, with a Mass with Bishop Kicanas and a wonderful dinner afterward. I'll have to back-post the music from Saturday, and also from Sunday. It was a wonderful celebration -- the church was packed, and so was the hall for the dinner. All our (living) former pastors were in attendance along with a number of others -- 10 priests and one bishop in all! The Tucson Citizen had a nice article about the anniversary.

I'm in a strange mood... I've been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and throwing out stuff in a truly amazing fashion. Those who know my house, however, will know that I'll have to keep this pace up for several weeks to really have accomplished something. Still, it's a start. Anyway in the course of all this I've come across all kinds of amazing stuff -- old letters, of course, but also more obscure stuff like my high school grades (!), a gift certificate (still good!) for $20 at Trinity bookstore, wedding invitations, and much more. I've been fairly ruthless but there are some things that are truly hard to part with, even now.

One of the more interesting things to find is various scraps of poetry I've written at various times. Lesson #1 -- when scribbling dates on things, include the year! I found one that said "12/22" and I'm guessing it's from 2000, but it's hard to be sure.

I've been blessed in many ways, and all this poking around is a good reminder that I've had a lot of kind, interesting, and nice people cross my path over the years. It's hard to let go of that sometimes, in a world that can be cold. I'm working on it.

Marie's imminent arrival in Tucson (she's coming on Tuesday) is inspiring me to do a lot of things I've been meaning to do for a long time. So far:

• Fixed the hall closet light
• Fixed the diverter in the bathtub
• Fixed the drain in the kitchen sink
• Trimmed trees in the front yard
• Purchased two window AC units for the house
• Thrown out huge amounts of stuff
• Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning

It's really inspiring. Yea!

Wow, this is amazing. I had an autopay charge on my checking account that I didn't understand and I finally (FINALLY, as you'll see) got around to inquiring what it was. It was for a credit card I'd had. I was mystified since I thought I'd paid it off and closed it a long time ago. After some research at my bank and the credit card company, I discovered that a) I had closed the account in June 1999, but that when I moved to my current address in December 1997 they had not gotten my change of address correct, and so after a few months of statements being returned they had stopped sending them. It also turned out that while I had closed the account, I had not paid it off and in fact I've been making the minimum payment for all this time and STILL owe them $400 or so. Questions that come to mind:

• Why did they get the address change wrong?
• Why the heck didn't I notice?
• Why didn't they get the correct address when the account was closed?
• Why was I so asleep at the switch on this one?

Anyway... sheesh. See, I even blog about stupid things I do! Have to get this resolved. They corrected my address and are going to send me some back statements so I can see some of what was going on.

Bad News -- it was 110 degrees AGAIN today! Aaaaaaah!

Good News -- I went back to Best Buy (but to the other Tucson store) to double-check the price on the portable AC unit I was looking at the other day. I found what I've been looking for for years -- a window AC unit that should fit my incredibly small casement windows, and for only $90! I went home to double-check the size of the windows and yep, it looks like it should exactly fit. I'm going back tomorrow to buy the unit. Yea! Then I just need to get it installed. If it fits I'm going to get a 2nd one for the other bedroom.

Happy first day of summer! In Tucson we celebrated by posting record-setting heat yesterday -- 110 degrees! Eeep. Today's high should "only" be 107.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there, and especially to mine!

I have not forgotten about this blog! I have been travelling. Last weekend I was in Las Vegas to meet a girl that I met on the Internet. We have really hit it off! It's very encouraging. She will be coming to Tucson soon, which will be awesome.

Monday to Thursday I was on an Opus Dei retreat. It was a good experience, as they always are. This one was at Thomas Aquinas College, which is an amazing place. The weather was great, and it was a lightly attended retreat so it was more intimate than if we'd had a larger contingent present. Friday was a frantic day at work, trying to catch up on a zillion things that were going on before I left.

I've been pricing portable AC units for my bedroom -- I've decided my swamp cooler just won't cut it for another Tucson monsoon season. For those not from around here, evaporative coolers don't work well once the relative humidity climbs, which is exactly what happens in monsoon season. I found an 8000 BTU unit for $300 at Home Despot, and a 10000 BTU unit for $380 at Best Buy. 10000 BTU is kind of overkill for the bedroom (it's not THAT large) but it seems like a good deal so I'm considering the larger unit. Plus, the larger one is a Whirlpool and the smaller one is not a name brand I recognize. They both have 5 year warranties though.

I'm also considering chucking Qwest+Dakotacom for Cox, mostly because for about $35 over what I'm paying now I can get faster Internet, phone with 60 minutes free long distance, and digital cable so I could actually watch UA football AND ISU figure skating competitions. Something to think about! Also they have a promotion where there's a rebate for the cable modem.

I've always maintained that President Bush, whatever his failings, is not dumb. One of the themes of the 2004 campaign seemed to be "Kerry smart, Bush dumb." Yet now that Kerry has finally (!) released his records, it turns out his college grades at Yale were about the same as Bush's! Hmmm.

A nice editorial in today's Star by the founder of Humane Borders. HB is a group that puts water stations in the desert to help keep border crossers from dying of dehydration. Why is it that such humanitarian aid is controversial? Hundreds die every year trying to cross our border!

Sorry I have not been posting much. Life has been pretty hectic lately and I'm not getting to write as much as I'd like.

The subject of gnosticism came up in a conversation I had recently, and I was rolling it around in my head a bit. Generally speaking gnosticism seems to come from the perspective that you have to have special knowledge, not available (or perhaps not comprehensible) to the average man. In thinking about this, I wonder if gnosticism is not inherently elitist. I don't know how you can get away from that; but I'm not an expert in gnosticism. Catholicism is pretty much the opposite of elitism since it says that God loves us all equally, king no more/less than pauper, and that we are all called to holiness and have hope of salvation. The Church is sent to all (thus the name "Catholic"!) regardless of their gender, race, class, or intellectual ability.

Discuss!

As probably everyone knows by now, the identity of "Deep Throat" (Woodward & Bernstein's source on the Watergate coverup) has been revealed. Check out this cool article by Woodward about it.

At rehearsal yesterday we came up with some altered lyrics that are more suitable:

Lord, give new life
To this chosen
By the grace of ordination
O Jesus, Son of the Living God
Send your Spirit
In its fullness
On your son here present
Who believes and professes you.

Simplistic but it will do.

Weird weather here in Tucson! It rained cats and dogs yesterday, which almost NEVER happens in May. It's just strange. Wound up going to 5:30 p.m. Mass and was rewarded by getting to see my youngest goddaughter and her family. Aubrey is getting so big! She's 10 months old now. She's a very happy, smiley baby.

On June 4th the Diocesan Chorale is singing for the ordination of our newest priest, and we are singing the Becker "Litany of the Saints." I'm wondering if we need to change one of the verses, though, as it seems too oriented toward baptism:

Lord, give new life
To these chosen
By the grace of baptism
O Jesus, Son of the Living God
Send your Spirit
In its fullness
On your sons and daughters
Who believe and profess you.

Suggestions? Maybe we should just omit that verse entirely.

I went up to Tempe last night to attend my nephew Geoff's graduation from high school. Congratulations Geoff!

Saturday afternoon I met with one of my former committee members to discuss my thesis research and how it might be applied to some problems they are researching. It was a very cool meeting. It's a very heady experience to feel like your work is appreciated and interesting to others and to see how others find it helpful and might want to work with it. It really inclined me to try to work with it some more and extend/revise what I'd done.

I saw the new Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith on Friday with a bunch of my fellow geeks (in this case, former coworkers from NewMonics). We had a great time -- it's a good movie, much better than its predecessor, and thoroughly enjoyable.

If you are using Firefox (and geez, if you aren't, you should be! Click on the link on the right and go get it already, it's free and it rocks!), you should check out the cool FTP client plugin, FireFTP. It's truly awesome!

I went to the doctor today about a nagging sore throat I've had since Thursday. He doesn't see anything worrisome. He did set me up to check my cholesterol again though. Stats: BP 120/82, weight 223 (up 3 lbs since October, hmmph.!).

More signs that Germany is imploding -- Germany's population will plummet by 12 million in the next 45 years. There's no hope for the German economy with numbers like that.

And people wonder why so many are upset at judges lately -- a federal judge has struck down Nebraska's ban on gay marriage. I guess it doesn't matter that 70% of Nebraskans voted for this.

Aaarrrggghh!

Never talk on the phone and be on EBay at the same time. I was INTENDING to bid on an item, similar to one which had just sold for $16. Instead, because I was distracted, I hit "Buy It Now" *and* "Confirm", with the result that I just bought it for $69 instead. Of course, EBay does NOT let you retract "Buy It Now" bids.

I sent the seller a note explaining what happened and begging for mercy, but it's up to him. Legally I am bound. Crud!

I am so stupid. On the positive side, it could have been a lot worse, I guess. Sheesh.

Three words: Aaron Copland rules!

Sorry, was just listening once more to "Fanfare for the Common Man". It's amazing how such a simple piece can be so inspiring.

Happy Mother's Day!

My sister and I went to the cemetery this morning to visit my mother's grave, and leave some flowers. Afterward we went and had some breakfast and a nice visit. It was nice.

A Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!

Fun with numbers. Today is 05/05/05! I love little numerical coincidences like that. I still remember how tickled I was when it was 7/7/77. And of course who could forget 01/01/01?

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Okay, this is the part where we remind everyone that Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexican Independence Day. It commemorates the Battle of Puebla in 1862, when a small force of Mexicans defeated a much larger French (yes, French) army.

Today's Star has a story on a Cinco de Mayo veteran who is buried in Arizona --
Soldier in Battle of Puebla to be honored.

It's amazing how the web can work sometimes. I recently had an email from an old associate, one of the members of my committee for my thesis defense. He's interested in my thesis research. In thinking about that I decided to google my thesis research and found my work mentioned here. (the actual reference is here) Cool stuff!

Tucson is a small place sometimes. My skating buddy Nicole has convinced me to sign my life away er, let her fix me up with her hair stylist for an "image makeover" so to speak. So I go out to the salon with her today to meet her hair stylist and sign up for an appointment etc. As it turns out, one of the owners of the salon is an old friend I'd not seen in a while; we've known each other since 7th grade. How bizarre! But very, very cool!

Incidentally, my appointment is for next Tuesday. I'll blog about it. After that I think Nicole wants to go for new glasses. I'm like her living barbie doll or something! Still, I'll take fashion advice from any reputable source, and I know Nicole would never steer me wrong. Besides, she's having so much fun! It's cute.

More fun stuff:

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

15% Dixie

15% Upper Midwestern

5% Yankee

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Thanks to the lovely Jeanetta for the link!

I took the afternoon off to go see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with a bunch of my fellow geeks -- guys I have worked with and work with now. I really enjoyed it, but I suspect for those who have never read the books it will be more than a bit confusing. It's not "great cinema", but then the books were not Literature. It's fun and if you take it for what it is, I think you'll enjoy it. Check it out.

Miscellaneous reflections... I've been thinking about my life lately, a number of different elements and how they interplay to make "me". One thing that struck me is how differently I am perceived by different people, both online and in person -- perhaps, especially, I should say how differently people on line perceive me than people I know in person. Here's a case in point -- my friend/skating buddy Nicole was teasing me the other day about having a dirty mind, saying something like "yeah, under that oh-so-nice exterior you're pretty freaky" or some such. At the same time, you have online people like CharmingButSingle -- she posted something about baring her cleavage at work and I responded with "we want a picture!" or some such and she said, "I read your blog and I don't think the pope would like you thinking about my rack, as we are not married. Rules are rules, my Catholic friend. Sorry! ;)" Now, granted, she had a :) there -- but the whole thing makes me question a) my integrity, and b) the way I present myself on this blog.

I am not a prude, and I think most of the people that I know in person would agree. I do love God, and the Church, and I try to be a follower of Christ. Of course, I fail often. Perhaps, though, I present too "good" an image of myself on this blog so that people online think I am something other than myself. On the other hand, maybe I'm making too much of this... Dunno. It's just bothering me a bit. It shouldn't bother me if people think I'm "holy", should it? We should all strive for holiness, right? Except that I'm not, at least not yet. I'm quite flawed in many ways, but probably not in ways that are obvious to online folks.

I have also been thinking about my toys. I have too many of them -- computers, mostly. Way more than any one person should have. It's my hobby. Some people collect cars, some guitars or shoes or clothes. For me it's computers. I am picking up a Sun Sparc Ultra 5 today from a guy in town for $70. I'm excited, but of course I already have way too much of this stuff already. I suspect I'm probably too attached to such things, and I need to really look at this. Of course, if I had a love interest I'd probably have no time/interest/inclination/money! for such things. Hmm.

So there you have it; no great thoughts, more just a miscellaneous whine. Anyway, that's what's on my mind -- feel free to comment if you wish (or send email).

A very neat article in National Review Online by Ned Rice -- The Pope Is Still Catholic. I especially loved this:

So if you think this or any other pope is just plain wrong on celibacy or homosexuality or anything else big, and this upsets you so much it interferes with your spiritual life, you’d be well advised to find yourself another church. Otherwise you’re like the orthodox Jew who, in light of recent developments, has taken it upon himself to decide that it’s all right for him to eat pork. You can be an orthodox Jew, and you can eat pork. You’re free to do either one. But folks, you just can’t do both. There are names for Catholics who don’t accept that they can’t do certain things and still receive the sacraments, and one of those names is Senator John Kerry.

Classic!

Check out the Holy Father's homily from his installation Mass. It's quite moving.

How alone we all felt after the passing of John Paul II – the Pope who for over twenty-six years had been our shepherd and guide on our journey through life! He crossed the threshold of the next life, entering into the mystery of God. But he did not take this step alone. Those who believe are never alone – neither in life nor in death.

Sunday was the first time I heard, "... Benedict our Pope" in the Eucharistic prayer. It was a little jolting, in a way (just as not hearing a prayer for the pope was a little jarring the weeks before). I'd gotten so used to "John Paul, our Pope" that it's still a bit hard to realize he's gone.

Here's a cool story from the Arizona Daily Star on the Vatican Observatory. The Vatican Observatory has a Tucson office and conducts research using the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) on Mt. Graham near Tucson.

Today was a long day. Schola rehearsal from 9-10, and then from 10-12 was a mandatory presentation at the parish on child safety and child abuse prevention. I learned a couple of useful things. Just last week I received a letter from the director of the Diocesan Chorale stating that the Cathedral rector has asked her to verify that all members of the Chorale have been cleared through the child safety office; we have to get a letter from our parish stating this and have it sent to her.

While I'm all for safety, asking choir members to do this seems a bit much to me. As it is, practically every volunteer in our parish has to be cleared -- all the school volunteers, obviously, but also lectors, eucharistic ministers, usher, RCIA volunteers, and of course all the actual employees. Our pastor has said he doesn't intend (at this time, at least) to make all the choir members go through the process.

I hope that this doesn't discourage people from singing with the Diocesan Chorale. While some of them will have had to go through the process anyway, not all of them will and some of them will undoubtedly decide it's just too much hassle. It's too bad.

Wow. What an amazing evening. Tonight my choir, the Collegium Musicum, sang in the UAPresents production of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, along with UA's Arizona Choir and Symphonic Choir, Arizona Symphony, and the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus. Here's a feature by the Arizona Daily Star on it.

The St. Matthew Passion is a huge, huge piece -- the concert was 3 hours. I was personally very pleased with our performance of this demanding and inspiring work, and I'm so glad to have had the chance to perform it. Collegium sang the Choir II part, and we had worked on this music since November! So a lot of work, a lot of music to learn. It was rewarding to see our hard work pay off in a good performance.

My friend Rae is going to have to watch out for the paparazzi following her around :-). Some good publicity for St. Blog's here -- Faithful gather at St. Blog's Parish.

Wow. That's all I can say. I just got home from a duo piano concert by Liza and Lena Beriyeva. These sisters have both accompanied our Schola at SSPP, and they are both amazingly talented. They arrived with their family from the Republic of Georgia a few years ago; Lena is graduating in May from The University of Arizona® Liza is a junior. Here's what they played:

• Brahms -- Variations on a theme by Haydn, Op. 56
• Rachmaninov -- Suite #1, Op. 5 -- "Fantasy"
• Chopin -- Rondo, Op. 73
• Gershwin -- Fantasy on the themes from "Porgy and Bess"

It was an amazing concert.

Habemus Papam!

CNN reports German cardinal elected new pope. It's Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. He will be called Benedict XVI. A wise choice, I think -- who wants to be John Paul III?

God bless our new pope!

Today is the 230th anniversary of Paul Revere's Ride. When I was in 6th grade I had the whole poem memorized. I still remember most of it.

Fellow St.Blog's member and longtime e-buddy Rae has made the bigtime -- check out the picture and quotes in this article: Catholics hope for progressive pope. Rae has coined the term "homestyle Catholics" -- those who accept the teachings of the Church in their entirety (as opposed to "cafeteria" Catholics). I really like Rae's term, it makes the point that the Church is a family and like any family meal, some parts you might like better than others but (if you grew up in a family like mine, at least!) you eat what's set before you.

Today is the 35th anniversary of the successful recovery of Apollo 13 after an accident in space. Slashdot has a discussion about it, and a link to a cool article from IEEE Spectrum on the Apollo 13 mission. If you are at all interested in spaceflight you should really read this article!

Work has kept me busy of late, but I wanted to share this from Mark Shea's blog (he's quoting someone else, actually):

It was touching to reflect that the big obelisk in the middle of the piazza was also present when St. Peter died, and for his funeral, which was in the same place.

I'd not thought of this before, but of course it's true, and it is... moving.

Here's one of those classic cases of "what were they thinking?" in a story. In this story about the fingertip-in-the-Wendy's-chili incident, the reporter wrote (as of this writing):

Wendy's maintains the finger did not enter the food in its ingredients. It has offered a $50,000 reward in the case and was keeping open a hot line for tips, spokesman Denny Lynch said.

I suspect they'll re-write that soon.

The Arizona Daily Star's religion reporter, Stephanie Innes, is in Rome and has a weblog -- Rome Report. Check it out.

What the Heck is Going On Here?!?!?!

You might have thought Terri Schiavo's case was so unique that nothing like that could happen again. You'd be wrong. An elderly woman in Georgia is being starved to death DESPITE A LIVING WILL TO THE CONTRARY.

What is going on in our country?!

Addendum: An update here. The situation is still unclear though.

A story from Yahoo on conscience clauses for pharmacists. It's amusingly ironic that people who promote "choice" show no compunction at forcing people to violate their consciences.

Just in case you somehow forgot how stupid people can be -- Man arrested, cuffed after using $2 bills. I don't know who I'd be madder at, Best Buy or the police. How Stupid!

Another dumb idea -- Congress may extend daylight-saving time. Of course, living in a state that does not observe DST one might claim that I shouldn't voice an opinion, but DST affects me all the time -- every time I have to make a flight out of state or call someone outside Arizona.

I think DST in general is a stupid idea, but adding two more months makes it dumber still -- it means being on DST 9 months out of the year! If 75% of the time we're on an altered schedule, why not just change your freakin' schedule?! Have work start at 7 instead of 8, or whatever. Why mess around with the clock? It's just dumb.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that even the Pope's funeral can be politicized -- China Won't Send Envoy to Pope's Funeral. The Chinese won't go because the Vatican has diplomatic relations with Taiwan. They're also in a snit because Italy is allowing Taiwan's president to land in Rome so as to attend the Pope's funeral. It's times like this that remind the world just how repressive the Chinese regime really is -- they try to cut off all contact with Taiwan entirely. Case in point -- it's alleged that they would consider diplomatic relations with the Vatican if the Holy See breaks them with Taiwan. Whatever happened to sitting down and talking?

In case you hadn't noticed, the Vatican website has been updated to show that the See of Peter is vacant.

*sigh*

Mark Shea has some interesting observations on the "coincidences" surrounding the Pope's death and funeral. Check it out.