Thirsty

The case has been discussed to death, no pun intended. As the BBC puts it, we are a deeply divided nation. The highest ranks of government are pleading for something that due process is not willing to give. It seems, according to the law, there is now little room for keeping the suffering woman named Terri Schiavo alive. The question being thrown about has been, "Who gets to be Terri's spokesperson?" It's an interesting question. It's like asking, "Who does Terri get to be a slave to?" on the one hand, or, "Who would Terri give her life to?" on the other hand. To me, the deeper question is, How did we get here in the first place? Today, the nation declares, if bregrudgingly, it's acceptance of the precepts of Euthanasia. Today, many people weep for the nation, as it proclaims with one voice, that death is more desirable than suffering. Update 3/30: some details that I've been collecting over the last week... The claim is that Terri i...

Running along the lake this morning with Chris, I told him I felt like I had let down my fellow runners. The winter of '03-'04, I ran off and on throughout the entire season, enjoying the snow, wind, and cold, wearing whatever gear I needed to, or running as hard as I needed to to maintain a healthy body temperature. Chris and I were continually amused at the drastic decrease of runners over the winter, the following summer asking the masses the rhetorical question, "Where were you a few months ago? Where were you when it was about 70 degrees cooler, when we were getting an agility workout trekking through snow?" Well, this recent winter, I was one of those who disappeared with the arrival of the inclement weather. I think today kinda informally marks my return to the streets and the increased blood flow. On a similar note, I found a "this is so me!" article. I love biking in the city. It's gotta be one of my favorite things to do here, even jus...

Whenever someone famous gets in trouble, that is one of the first things the press focuses on. What do his friends do? Do they support him or do they tell reporters that, unfortunately, they had seen trouble coming for some time? One of the worst things a friend can say is what Peter said. We weren't friends, exactly. Acquaintances might be a better word. Actually, we just worked together. For the same company, I mean. Not together, just near each other. My desk was near his. I really don't know him at all. How do you portray your friends? Who gets to be your friend?

It's late, and I wasn't really planning on posting, but I just got back from my first time @ St. Mike's of Old Town , where I attended a great lecture immediately following their 7pm "contemporary" mass. I thought his name was "Fr. Ted", but it turns out his full name is " Tadeusz Pacholczyk ", Director of Education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center. Apparently he meets regularly with Bush's bioethics people - he mentioned that Bush's point man in this area is a Jew! awesome! er, I mean, Jewish, not a Jew, because apparently using the former term is offensive . He also meets regularly with some of the big dudes in Rome. Anyway, here are some jewels I took away from his lecture: Embryonic stem cells do not heal, there are zero reported cases of healing. Because of their rapid rate of growth in embryos, they form tumors when used in animals, which ultimately kill the animal. Adult stem cells already have a multitude of suc...

So this could be this lengthy post on my insane striving to be independent, simplistic, and non-materialistic, but instead it's just a little status alert about Google's popular blogging service, Blogger . As mentioned on this Known Issues page: Users are currently getting "Blog not found" errors when accessing comment pages. We are working on getting this resolved ASAP. Sorry if you've tried to comment sometime in the last week or so. I was wondering what happened to the hoardes of commentors that I usually have... ;-) Blogger is a pretty cool service, not as dependable as spinning your own service, but conversely, more dependable than spinning your own if you'd prefer not to expect to have a consistent income quite yet in your life...

More about that title in a sec. Fear not. Time for a little update. Three weekends ago, I rode with Theresa down to party with her family near Cincinatti. In the spirit of experiencing new things, I am very proud to add that to the list. Very fun! :) They all have very curious relationships with one another. (I mean, they made me very curious, not that they were curious about each other. They know each other entirely too well.) As so many people find nourishment in their families, at the end of the weekend it was apparent how very much she receives (and gives) from her own, in a pretty unique way. On the drive down, I actually got a bit of sleep, which I rarely get in cars. You should consider it a compliment if I can fall asleep in your presence. Not a sign that you're boring. :) Two weekends ago, I rode with JoeJohn and Sean to go out to Crooked Lake for the weekend. Halfway there, I managed to single-handedly destroy JoeJohn's engine, without hitting a sing...

The Master He who has come to men dwells where we cannot tell      nor sight reveal him, until the hour has struck when the small heart does break      with hunger for him; those who do merit least, those whom no tongue does praise      the first to know him, and on the face of earth the poorest village street blossoming for him. Its Secret Time Out of a difficult and troubled season the timely harvest thrusts amid the stones; the dry mind that would claim a thousand reasons melts beneath the Lord's appointed rain. The furred magnolia buds we bring to warmth here in the heated room soon bloom and sicken; the tree without keeps its own secret time. Powerless are we to move God with our clamor, to seize the least fringe of his mystery; but we must wait until the gift is given and poor, walk faithfully the lanes of heaven. To Jesus, in the Spring Oh, break the chrysalis of doubt, plow up the clods of thick despair, ...

Yesterday I came across a very cool free resource... so you know how designers can find online libraries of fonts as well as high quality, high resolution graphics and photographs? These are usually pay sites. Well check out stock.xchng . Wowsers. Don't be scared off by the required registration... it's all free! Looks like I won't be needing to take a digital camera to any of the tourist traps that I plan on visiting in my lifetime, I can just mooch better pics of said locations from this site! Makes for excellent browsing for awesome desktop background images. It's like Webshots on steroids. It's like discovering Google Maps after having just used MapQuest . (ps- Google Local now offers that map functionality fully integrated ..) Stumbling across that site set my mind rolling on free stuff. I just realized how my professional focus on open source software has been an extension of an interest in free stuff that I had back in high school . (for t...

In being accepting of your friends' choices, despite your own thoughts on the worth of those choices, are you stringing your friends along? Are you holding them back from what they could become? Where do you draw the line on what to say?

Assuming or clueless?

God does not condemn us to Hell; God wishes all humans to be saved. He will love us to all eternity, but there will exist the possibility that we do not accept that love and do not respond to it. And the refusal to accept love, the refusal to respond to it, that precisely is the meaning of Hell. Hell is not a place where God puts us, it's a place where we put ourselves. The doors of Hell, insofar as they have locks, have locks on the inside. - Kallistos Ware

We bridled at that last bit, drew ourselves up to our full heights, insisted defensively on our competence, on the respect we were due because of all our hard work. We looked for others whose lives were similarly overstuffed; we found them. "This is just the way it is," we said to one another on the train, in the restaurant. "This is modern life. Maybe some people have time to measure things out by teaspoonfuls." Our voices dripped contempt for those people who had such time. We felt oddly defensive, though no one had accused us of anything. But not me. Not anyone who has a life. I have a life. I work hard. I play hard.

Well, starting last week, I am now the "Network Czar" at my employer. Or something to that effect, it'll probably go down as "Lead Network Administrator" or "Senior Network Administrator" on my resume. I was about 90% surprised at the offer, I had heard rumours, but never took them seriously or counted on them. This was after 17 months as Systems Administrator for a particular subset of my employers operations. The Good: - great resume material. very great. - a means to further accelerate my debt elimination, thereby achieving freedom from financial chains - more professional and career challenges than ever before. more systems, more interaction with more people. more responsibility. more technologies. more logistics. The Bad: - now directly responsible for Micro$oft servers. i must now play more nicely than ever before. - yanked out of the cozy BCK community, and into the sea of chaos. - i replaced a long-time employee. e...

This week's bulletin at my parish included a good mnemonic exercise for praying (well, more of the petition aspect of praying, but you can insert "gratitude" into each item as well, to complete it). It's called the Five Finger Prayer : Your thumb is nearest to you. So begin your prayer by praying for those closest to you. Pray for your family and your friends. The next finger is the pointing finger. Pray for those who teach, instruct, and heal. This includes priests, deacons, religious Sisters, teachers, doctors, nurses, judges, attorneys and all counselors. They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction. Keep them in your prayers. The next finger is the tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for our religious leaders—our Pope, our Bishops and Pastors. Also pray for our President, all government leaders and all leaders in business and industry. These people shape our church and our nation and they guide public opinion...

A new free webmail service called ippimail is currenly in it's beta stage. I found it via Open Source Disaster Relief - by Email ( Smart Mobs ), which linked to it via WorldChanging . Each time you use Ippimail, 10% of profits go to the Open Source Community. Of the remainder, 50% goes to the charity of your choice and 50% is given back to you by way of improving Ippimail. Join us and help us reach our target of raising $1m/day for charities all over the world. I've always looked with disgust on how marketing has literally overrun the internet and most other public forums. But until now, I've never really thought about harnessing that as a "resource" for my own nefarious desires for "good". I can see myself being a little more patient with those flashy ads if I was assured that the pennies paid to gnaw at my screen real estate were kinda like me putting my pocket change in the collection basket. Maybe this site will be a success (how coul...

Dear Abby, I am a crack dealer in Beaumont, Texas who has recently been diagnosed as a carrier of HIV virus. My parents live in Fort Worth & one of my sisters, who lives in Pflugerville, is married to a transvestite. My father & mother have recently been arrested for growing & selling marijuana. They are financially dependent on my other 2 sisters, who are prostitutes in Dallas. I have 2 brothers, one is currently serving a non-parole life sentence at Huntsville for the murder of a teenage boy in 1994. My other brother is currently in jail awaiting charges of sexual misconduct with his 3 children. I have recently become engaged to marry a former prostitute who lives in Longview. She is a part time "working girl". All things considered, my problem is this: I love my fiancé & look forward to bringing her into the family, & I certainly want to be totally open & honest with her. So, my question is this: Should I tell her about my cousin who supports ...

I guess I have no place in thinking about this, because I'm not a woman and so will never be placed in this situation. But this is probably the most controversial degree to which one can hold an anti-abortion/pro-life stance. What do y'all think? It speaks directly to the "abortion only for the safety of the mother" issue. ROME, January 26, 2005 - The official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, wrote on Tuesday that a woman who refused cancer treatment to save the life of her unborn child is a "hero." "She was aware that if she gave birth she wouldn't have had any hope of surviving," the Vatican paper wrote. "Despite that she went through with her choice, the choice of welcoming new life even at the cost of her own death." Rita Fedrizzi 41, who refused the abortion and cancer treatment, joins the ranks of a number of other women praised by the Holy See for their lifegiving sacrifice. Last year, Pope John Paul II ...

LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes How lying marketers sold Roe v. Wade to America http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTI... US Supreme Court Refuses to Reinstate 'Terri's Law' http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewFlash.asp?Page=%5CThisH... Poll: Roy Moore choice of GOP voters http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/b... Dutch baby euthanasia warrants no prosecution http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTI... Abortionist 'flushed babies down toilet' http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTI... New measure requires religious groups to hire homosexuals http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTI... Catholics gather signatures against late-term abortions in Germany http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=2879 Quebec has controversial proposals for Tory convention http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2005/01/23/90... Austrian Catholic Church declines http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satell...

Weekday evenings fly by. I really need to be more productive during them. But it feels so good to lay back and watch TV for a coupla hours. hmm... maybe unplug my TV? Right now I'm blasting Damien Rice, which I snagged from Theresa when she came over this weekend. I also watched two movies; Sneakers is a classic which I always enjoy, but I saw The Village as well, for the first (and second!) time. I actually really really enjoyed it, I think it has become a favorite of mine. There's no snippet or quote that captures what I like about it, it really only exists as a whole. Friday night I managed to get Oracle 9i installed on one of our new servers at work. The biggest problem was that the installer relied on an obsolete version of glibc, so I had to compile a bit of code to be preloaded by glibc prior to calling the installer. Oracle has always been a black box to me so it was pretty exhilirating when I finally got in to the SQL prompt. I'm slowly becoming more...

Guess what I did last night? :) My tailbone hurts, my wrists hurt, my neck hurts, and my arms and shoulders are still weak. You get one guess. I left work a half hour early, and drove about an hour and a half north, with Young, a co-worker of mine here at SMS. He took me to a place he's been to quite a bit, and he had an extra board. So I just had to rent boots for $10 and buy a lift ticket for $20, for 3 hours of painful learning. Every time down the hill I picked up a tiny bit more, and by the end of the evening my legs and arms were shaking, my head was spinning, and I could make it down a run even doing slow 360's and just barely going in every direction that a snowboarder naturally goes! (It took awhile to be able to turn around and kinda go backwards on my toes instead of heels.) There were a couple times that I was sure I bruised my tailbone, or pinched a nerve in my neck, or fractured a wrist. But lo and behold, I'm fine. Can't wait to go again...