I came across a Zenit article on images found in the Virgin of Guadalupe's eyes: Saint News - Virgin of Guadalupe's Eyes Tell of Mystery - 17 July 2002 - Madrid, Spain (ZENIT.org). I know that some people either are unaware of the miraculous nature of the image of the Virgin, or are skeptical. I don't see how anyone can read this sort of thing and still be a skeptic, though.

I'm trying to finalize my decisions on who to vote for in next Tuesday's primary races. In particular, I'm in a new congressional district (District 7) that was formed after the 2000 census. I found a cool page that links all the candidate's home pages -- Arizona Chamber of Commerce - 2002 Campaign Links.

Phew! I just drove to Albuquerque and back. For reference, 1) I can fit a MicroVAX II in my trunk, and 2) it takes about 6.5 hours to drive from Tucson to Albuquerque. I unloaded the aforementioned MicroVAX II, an IBM PC/RT, and a boatload o' VMS docs on a collector who lives in ABQ today. YAY! I can see some bare floor here and there....

Actually the drive was very nice in some respects. New Mexico is really quite pretty -- like Arizona only more empty. Also I stopped in Hatch and bought some chiles for a friend. And, I had the opportunity to listen to almost all (except the last 10 minutes or so) of my 6-tape audiobook of Weigel's biography of John Paul II, A Witness To Hope. I have a hardback copy of it too that I haven't read yet, but I really want to now.

Okay, one last blog for the night. I should never, ever read National Catholic Reporter -- it always gets my blood pressure up. Anyway, I came across this article when I was looking at the one I recently blogged about (re: ICEL). It's by an ex-nun who basically seems to think that because she's known some priests who are unchaste, and because so many laymen can't be faithful in marriage, that therefore the Church should not require priests to be celibate. She says in part:

I realize my opinion -- that the majority of priests do not lead exemplary celibate and chaste lives -- is just my opinion, but there are three main reasons why I believe as I do: personal experience, public proof of infractions and knowledge of human nature.

Basically, she's using her own anecdotal evidence, some published instances and the fact that some people will always be unfaithful to their promises and vows to say that we should give up on the whole shootin' match. Somebody said "modern heresy begins in the groin" and there's definitely something to that (although this is not, strictly speaking, heresy).

She seems unable or unwilling to go the extra distance and draw the obvious conclusion. She says that priests can't be faithful to Christ, they will "cheat", so we shouldn't require them to be celibate. The obvious next step would be to observe that since so many laymen cheat on their spouses we should not require them to be exclusive, either, but should allow people to sleep with whomever they choose.

Of course, she can't say that (pesky Ten Commandments gettin' in the way). But it follows. The answer to human frailty and sinfulness is not, has never been, and can't be to just throw up our hands and say "we give up, then." The answer is to continue to hold out the ideal to be reached for, knowing that some will always fail. Christ said "Be perfect, as my heavenly father is perfect." He didn't say "it's too hard so never mind about perfection."

I've been listening to this Rene Clausen CD that I blogged about a few weeks ago. I've noticed that I seem to get really stuck on a particular CD or artist or piece, and I listen to it over and over and over again. I have very eclectic tastes so the things I get stuck on vary wildly from one to the next. Still, I'm wondering if other people do this too, or what. I'm thinking of that scene in one of the early Beverly Hills 90210 episodes (wow, I just outed myself on that one!) where Brenda has broken up with Dylan and keeps listening to REM over and over and over and over again. Hmm....

Tonight was the first meeting of my parish's RCIA program for 2002-2003. I'm really happy with the group we have this year, it seems to be a good mix of ages and experiences. I believe this will be my 9th year teaching. I just hope that I will find a job in Tucson and be able to see it to completion.

Shamelessly lifted from Mark Shea's blog, an article that's, well, too stupid for words, or "why 'niggardly' has no relationship to the infamous N-word"...

And.... just applied for another job, this one at Scale Eight in San Francisco. A program manager job. Could be fun. Apparently they make distributed storage systems.

I know I promised I wouldn't blog anymore but here's yet another job I just applied for... US-CA-Silicon Valley/Peninsula-Director / Manager QA. Looks like a good fit, if I'm willing to live in Silly Valley.

Okay, one last post and I'm done for the night, I promise... this one is too good to pass up, though -- the left-wing National Catholic Reporter whining about ICEL getting its comeuppance from the Vatican: Fearful ideologues ambush liturgical reform. That editorial is referring to this story. Really, the liturgical reform happened after Vatican II, it's not supposed to be an ongoing thing where the liturgists tweak the Mass every year until they get it the way they like it. The quote below is typical:

What has happened is shameful, because a small cadre has decided -- not by dint of persuasion or by choice of most of the English-speaking Catholics, but by ecclesiastical force -- to roll back the work of a host of bishops and scholars who labored for more than three decades.

What these folks seem to have forgotten are a number of important points, to wit:

• The "small cadre" are bishops, successors of the apostles, to whom the role of governing the Church has been given.
  
• The liturgy is not decided upon by a majority vote of Catholics.
  
• It's hardly "ecclesiastical force" for the bishops to decide on something. That's their job.
  
• ICEL is supposed to be a body that does translations. Somehow that little detail seems to be forgotten with ICEL running around composing new prayers out of whole cloth. I guess translating is just not interesting enough for the "host" of bishops and scholars.
  

Hey! Noted Catholic Answers apologist James Akin has started a blog! It's Defensor Fidei: James Akin's Apologetics Blog, check it out!

Another link shamelessly stolen from the Lady of Shalott is Osama bin Ladin's Fatwah. It's worth reading for some real insight into the minds we are up against.

Thanks to The Lady of Shalott for this saddening link: USATODAY.com - Delay meant death on 9/11

For those who doubt that America's university faculties no longer represent anything like a cross-section of American political belief, check out this David Horowitz article.

I had lunch with my friend K. If you can, please pray for her, she's going through some majorly bad stuff in her life right now.

When I got home there was a voicemail from the guy at Benchmark QA apologizing profusely for not calling me this morning, there was a scheduling mixup and he had written me down for Thursday (probably because of the Labor Day holiday). Hopefully we will be able to sync up tomorrow.

At last! MSNBC asks the important question, Why do cell phones make us stupid?. Believe me, I've seen plenty of stupid cell phone users.

YAY! I got my replacement Cisco 678 last night and this morning I finally got it configured and got my replacement firewall up and running at last. My previous firewall/gateway was an old 486-50 running OpenBSD 2.7. My new one is an old K5-PR166 running ClosedBSD. It is SUCH a good feeling to be back on the Web again.

In other news, my friend Travis sent me a link to this job. Wow, I am so qualified for this it is scary, and it's even in Sierra Vista. I applied faster than you can knife a goat.

That's the good news. The bad news (or not-as-good news) is that I was supposed to have a phone interview this morning with the guy from Benchmark QA at 8 a.m. but he didn't call me and still hasn't as of now. I called and left him a message on his office phone.

I went to the movies last night with Jenn and we saw Blood Work. It's a Clint Eastwoof flick. I enjoyed it a lot, lots of suspense and action.

Today was a pretty good day. I went to a reunion gathering for the Amphi Class of 1982. They just had their 20th reunion this weekend and I was invited to join in a small gathering at Chris Yetman's house. Besides Chris and his lovely wife I got to see a bunch of folks, including Keith Saints, Mary Minette, Jack Slavin, Karen Greaber, Marit Nelson and her husband, and Tim Yu. Perhaps the most interesting part was after we'd looked at a bunch of old yearbooks etc., Chris called the mother of one of his students (he teaches at CDO), who turns out to be Elsa Diaz that I'd gone to 7th and 8th grades with at Amphi Junior High. So Elsa came over for a little bit and we all had a really terrific visit.

After that I went to a gathering for Collegium Musicum at Dr. Brobeck's house. It was nice, good food, good conversation. Most importantly I got to talk to Carolyn McCarthy's husband Don, who works at Steward Observatory -- one of the places I've applied for a job. I got some helpful info from him, and some good advice.

The final stop of the evening was Requiem rehearsal from 7:15 to 9:15. It's coming together pretty well, I am very encouraged.

Tomorrow I need to go mail out some stuff I've sold (see below) and then I have a CTAC meeting at 5:30. After that I'm going to the movies with Jenn. YAY! It will be fun to get out and see a movie.

Spending time with my old classmates put me in a very good mood. It was also kind of amusing to look at pictures from the past, especially from junior high. It made me very thoughtful and reflective about how I view myself and where I am going. It's hard to put into words, but basically what I am getting at, I guess, is that it reminded me that we tend to put ourselves in boxes as we get older. A box that says "this is the way I am" and "this is what is possible for me"... I guess I'm aware, especially at this time in my life with the job change and everything, that I can be anything I want, and I shouldn't limit myself. When I look at myself at age 14 or 15 the future was an open book -- and the truth is, it still is an open book. It's as open as I want, as open as I'm willing to be. Really, the sky is the limit!

Major YAY because I was able to sell this old VMEBus chassis on EBay ($8, woo). It's not the money, it's the principle -- i.e. not trashing things that work. Whee! I was also able to give away a bunch of manuals. Of course there's much more along these lines to do, my house is really full of this stuff...

I went to the first UA football game of the season last night, vs. the NAU Lumberjacks. They are Lumberjacks, and they're okay :-). Seriously it was an okay game. Quite clearly the Wildcats have a lot of work to do before their first PAC-10 game. The passing game is in good shape, but the offensive line was not able to open any holes for the running backs, which doesn't bode well. The defense did pretty well, including two (!) blocked punts. I went with my friend Tom, so it was a nice "male-bonding" thing.