Here's the Arizona Daily Wildcat's coverage of the 10th Annual Student Showcase I blogged about before: Teacher showcases third-grade studies.

My annoyance for today... I went to order my business cards at work today. I wanted them to say "Gordon Zaft, MSEE". No biggie, right? Wrong. Apparently company policy is that advanced degrees don't go on your business card. The really stupid thing is that if I had an MCSE they would put it on. So basically they are saying that a stupid MCSE that a trained monkey could get is more important or relevant than my hard-won master's degree in electrical engineering from The University of Arizona(tm).

Words can't describe how much this p*sses me off. I know it's really a small thing, it's just that it's a bad attitude that doesn't bode well.

Hmm. Greg Popcak at HMS Blog reports that the St. Joseph Foundation has petitioned Cardinal Maida for canon law sanctions against Governor-Elect Granholm of Michigan. While this is an interesting application of canon law, I strongly suspect that it will have no good effect, and probably no effect at all. After all, if Granholm really respected what the Church teaches she wouldn't be supporting abortion to begin with. On the other hand it might make people more willing to believe the the Church means what she says.

I was a judge today for the 10th Annual Student Showcase sponsored by The University of Arizona(tm) graduate student government, the Graduate and Professional Student Council. This is a truly awesome event where about 100-120 students, both undergraduate and graduate, exhibit their research and compete for cash prizes. The breadth and depth of the exhibits, the intelligence, dedication, and enthusiasm of the students, and the support of faculty and staff are truly an inspiration. If you are in Tucson, I encourage you to attend tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Showcase is located in the big tent in front of the Main Library, on the UA Mall. You'll come away enthused about the University's role in our community and hopeful about the future of our country with such future leaders in it.

Here's the text of the U.N. Security Council resolution on Iraq. It's a good first step, but it's a lot less firm then the President wanted or than I think is needed. I guess we'll wait and see what happens. The resolution was passed unanimously, which definitely is a good thing. Here's President Bush's response.

Events like this remind me of one of the best things about the Web; namely, the opportunity to read such things for oneself. Before the Web we would have had to wait for the text to be published, probably in some obscure journal that's not easy to get, since most newspapers probably wouldn't publish the full text. It's nice to read for ourselves what the UN has decided instead of having it filtered for us.

Okay, this doesn't matter to anyone unless they are running their own nameserver (like I am) but ... from Slashdot -- the Root Zone Changed for the first time in 5 years. What's the root zone, you ask? Why, the top level nameservers that tell everyone where everything else is.

The Wall Street Journal writes about online dating. The amusing part of this is how many people are reluctant to admit that they met their bf/gf online.

"Online dating seems so blatant. So predatory, almost," says Vanessa VanderVelde, a 33-year-old attorney from Minneapolis who met her fiance online on Labor Day and has yet to tell her parents the truth. "I personally always like to imagine that my special someone was out there waiting for me and we would meet in some very serendipitous, romantic way," she says.

Last night the Diocese of Tucson held its annual Red Mass. The Red Mass is a Mass of the Holy Spirit that is held for the legal community every year to pray that they will be guided by the Spirit in pursuit of justice. As usual I sang with the Diocesan Chorale. This year's turnout was light, unfortunately.

Music for the Red Mass

Entrance: One Spirit, One Church (Kevin Keil, OCP)
Penitential Rite: Kyrie (Chant)
Responsorial Psalm: Send Us Your Spirit (David Haas, GIA)
Gospel Acclamation: Celtic Alleluia (O'Carroll/ Walker, OCP)
General Intercessions: Oyenos Mi Dios (Hurd/Alstott, OCP)
Presentation of the Gifts: All My Hope -- Brubeck
Sanctus, Memorial Acclamation, Great Amen: (Haynes)
Agnus Dei: Jesus, Lamb of God (Haynes)
Communion: Blest Are They (David Haas, GIA)
Communion Meditation: God Bless America (Berlin)
Recessional: Envia Tu Espiritu (Bob Hurd, OCP)

I could have done without God Bless America, personally.

From today's Arizona Daily Wildcat, a brief discussion of a presentation given at the Newman Center -- Catholic researcher says some stem cell research acceptable. Before you get excited, the acceptable kinds of stem cell research are not fetal tissue stem cells.

Another link stolen from ElfGirl. If you liked the movie Rudy, you'll love this. Read the Detroit Free Press's story on Jake Porter's TD.

Bill Bennett has some hard things to say about the Democratic party. I have to agree with him that the party's behavior at Wellstone's memorial service was, well, reprehensible. I am a registered Democrat myself but, as I explain to those who seem shocked by that, I consider myself a Democrat in the Hubert Humphrey model (he is one of my heroes). Bennett says a lot of nice things about Humphrey. It's a shame the Democratic Party hasn't followed Humphrey's (and William Casey's) example instead of Clinton and Gore's.

Blatantly stolen from ElfGirl, it's the latest quiz. I must say I'm pleased with the results.

Which Founding Father Are You?

Football is not the only sport where players occasionally die on the field. Leslie Dawley from Bowling Green State University collapsed on the field during a soccer match on Tuesday. How sad!

Here's a story that should be a challenge for all of us who call ourselves Christians -- Victim's mercy averts prison time for DUI.

So I finally joined the 21st century. Yep, yesterday I went on down to Sprint PCS and got myself a cell phone. Whee! For $40/month I get 300 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited calls to other Sprint PCS phones, free long distance, free roaming, and free wireless Internet. Such a deal! I got the way-cool LG 5350 phone. YAY!

Thanks to The Lady of Shalott for this British take on George W. and how he's not as dumb as some people like to think.

In my copious (ha!) spare time I've been working on bringing up my backup gateway machine running OpenBSD ( I blogged about it here). Anyway, if you are interested in building firewalls, learning about packet filtering, etc., check out these cool, helpful and infomative articles over at ONLamp.com's BSD DevCenter.

I had lunch with my friend Amber Lee today. As we were eating she noticed I didn't touch my dill pickle spear, and she asked me if I disliked pickles. When I told her I never liked pickles, she shared her Theory of Pickle Compatibility (reason #257 why she could never date me :-) ). The TPC says that pickle lovers should date other pickle lovers and non-pickle-lovers should date only other non-pickle-lovers. Apparently every non-pickle-lover she's ever dated has been a disaster, but the pickle lovers have worked out very well. I'll leave it up to you to decide if you agree or not. For myself, I guess I'll be trying to remember the pickle preferences of every girl I ever dated.

On a side note, I'm now experiencing that weirdness that comes about when you type a word a lot and it starts to seem misspelled to you. The word in question is, of course, "pickle". Why isn't it "pickel"? Or "pikel"? Or....

From Slashdot, a review of the famous Design Patterns book. If you are a programmer and you've never read it, you should! Check it out.

The Arizona Daily Star has reprinted a piece that Cheryl McGaffic wrote after 9/11 last year. McGaffic was one of the victims of the shooting at the College of Nursing a week ago. Cheryl McGaffic: Professor's love of nursing, compassion shine in her words

It is 2 a.m. I cannot sleep. This has happened a lot since 9/11. Just like everyone around me, I go on with my daily life, but in the back of my mind I know that the world has been forever changed and that my world has been forever changed.

If you weren't moved by the situation before, I don't know how you could read this and not be moved.