Thirsty

The Snowsuit Effort ( info , coverage ) - Getting Detroit's homeless into the blogosphere.

Well, as a followup to my " surge of dialogue awareness ", tonight was the infamous night, and it was indeed pretty powerful. Sheila ran the show, providing us with stories, quotes, pictures, sound clips, and just plain up-close-and-personal details on life in Iraq. A coupla points: Want to build peace w/ someone? Sit at a table with them. Eat with them. Set aside your uneasiness, reach out, and sit face to face. Tables are everywhere. We all eat about 3 square meals per day. Violence is not an option . Live by that credo, and alternatives will present themselves. A little tie-in to my own faith journey: People who profess themselves to be Christian usually have a time they can look back on and point out as being when they started that journey, right? Sure, you are born a Christian, but at some point, you have made it your own, nobody else's. Or at least started the process. Well it happened for me at a retreat for high school members of the P.O.P. in the R...

Friday after work I went down to the Goat for a couple of drinks. The occasion was Sabeena's last day of work with our company and Kelly's almost-last day. I'm going to miss both of them.. I don't work as closely with Kelly anymore, but did with Sabeena. When I worked at McDonald's all through high school, the payroll was constantly changing, the average length of employment seeming to be 2 months or so. It's not quite that at Shared Marketing, but it still resembles it, when I think of the state when I arrived and what it is now 21 months later. Oh well, such is the here and now. Not everyone can maintain the record that my Dad has: the only employer change he's gone through since he graduated from college has been in the form of company mergers, and only two of those I believe. An hour and 2 beers later, I ditched early to bike over to Rehab to spend some time with Barrett. This guy is an inspiration to me, so I'm enjoying the opportunity to g...

If you've got a few free moments and feel like being obnoxious, go over to Wanderings and congratulate Don & Jackie on their new status: married ! So let's see... Thursday Did my thing at the Rehab Institute after work, unfortunately not getting out of there in time for running club @ NikeTown, but did get to meet a pretty cool guy at Rehab who I'll be staying in contact with. Biked to my truck, drove to my apartment, packed, drove to pick up JoeJohn , caught a wee bit of traffic just outside Chicago, made it to my parents' place in Muncie by 12:30... very hard to keep the eyes open! Played briefly with Heidi, who stunk like poo poo. Friday Awoke at 7:30, greeted the parents & Greg, bowl of cereal, traded the truck for their suburban (to truck all the guys together in around FW), and on the road by 8:45, at the Courtyard by Mariott by 10:00, met up with Don, then Nick, then Sean. Picked up, tried on, and paid for tuxes. We all made it to Good Shepherd Un...

Human beings are adaptable. That is the assumption upon which I rest my patient but ever-increasing "research" - if it can even be called that - on the global internet. It started out with the occasional search engine query in high school, to more of that in college plus plenty of geekology, to an explosion towards the end of college ('03) and continuing today. As internet consumption increased globally, so eventually did internet production, and with that production has grown my own consumption. It was once a network of academics, a bunch of geeks illuminating the [techno]logical portion of my brain. I crawled online first through a local dialup bulletin board system, which managed to give me a real email address, not just one local to that system. Now I'm up on the surfboard, riding wave after wave of information pertaining to nearly every aspect of my life. In fact, the raw volume has helped both hone and broaden my interests. My arrival in Chicago ignited a...

Through the last couple of weeks, I've been taking one trip per weekday to my new studio apartment at 1824 N Lincoln Park W with a load of stuff to drop off. One of the benefits of trying to decrease my belongings over time instead of increasing them is that moving is a wee bit more bearable! (Another benefit is not really caring when your car's CD player is stolen... ;-) The last day on my lease is Tuesday, so I've got till then, not including going back to Indiana this weekend to help Don move and maybe see some of the fam in Angola. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! - Revelation 3:14-16 Every day around 6:15pm I get a small scripture verse delivered to my phone. This one came in Monday, and spoke to me. Weekends, and work. Weekends, and work. It's a sign of stagnation when you feel that you are living for the weekend, and that the cycle of a week is just an endless cycle, beginning anew each wee...

Can't really write much at the moment, but just wanted to share a little surge of "dialogue awareness" that has been wafting about in my mind. Firstly, I read a bio on a woman who will be speaking on a weekday evening later in June up near me. There is a collection of some of her reflections at Voices in the Wilderness , and I can post the bio if anyone's interested, you can tell that she cares very deeply about peace and the Iraqi people. I believe she'll be at St. Teresa's on the evening of June 22. Secondly, how many of you have had any sort of introductory ethics course where one of the scenarios is, "You are hiding a Jew in your home during WWII and some Nazis come and ask you if you have any Jews with you. As a lover of Truth, how should you respond?" Get some flesh and blood injected into this generic story by reading how A priest embraces his hidden Jewish roots , found via Christdot.org .

This post will be a reminder to you, gentle reader, that this blog finds it's origins in the typical fare of self-justification. I write this for me, not for you. Sit back, relax, and be happy. Eight days ago I felt a slight tightness in the outter bridge of my left foot. It started sometime in the beginning of the day which I had kicked off with a hard bike ride to try not to be too late to my final Minister-of-Care training. Perhaps I pushed too hard on those pedals, because by the end of the day there was a pretty noticeable burning sensation while walking more than a few paces. It grew more pronounced the next day and ran it's course for three days before showing signs of letting up. I could bike fine, but forced myself to slow down my walking and accept a slight limp to avoid more strain on the strain. After another three days of recovery, there was (and is) no sign of the problem. Possibly tomorrow I'll be putting my first run in since before it happened, to s...

you were born together and together ye shall be forever until death should scatter it wouldn't matter in the memory of God above let the wind of heaven dance between you too allow the space and time to bring you closer to everlasting love cause God moves what do you do God moves through you when love beckons his ways are often hard and steep when his wings unfold ye yield to all he speaks the soul it might be hidden there among his pinions oh you may wear a wound that truly spoke to you believe in all that voice and follow through follow so on and on what do you do when God moves through you what do you do say i do i do just remember love possesses nothing nor would it ever be possessed oh love is love sufficient unto love and you can figure out the rest your children will not be your children they are the daughters and the son of a beginning they'll come through your womb but not be coming from you they will be with you but do not belong to you you may give them your love but ...

"Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all." - Peter Drucker A prize for the first person who explains why I think this quote brings understanding to a sorely misunderstood ethical issue. :)

It seems that an inspirational man has just died. Some of you may have caught a whiff of it on the news, a skydiver who collided with his airplane mid-flight, got his legs sheered off, still managed to make a landing while conscious, and died in the emergency room. Grab a membership at Dropzone.com forums to listen in on the genuine mourning and testaments to the impact Gus had on people, and stop in at GusWing.com for a more structured memorial. He gave us lasting memories of the best times of our lives. His work captured the sheer joy humans are capable of. - Elizabeth May Damn.... My team trained at DeLand 2003/2004; Gus always had time to talk to anyone, in this case me; he didn't need to know who you were. Listening to his stories of early skysurf camera and Grand Canyon jumps and you soon realise the history he has personnally added to the sport. Gus apparently died just a while ago, wow one of the nicest people you ccould ever meet with a great outlook on life, what a t...

"Perhaps the issue is that many American Catholics have strayed too far from the church's values," said Gold Coast resident Debra Gibson. - Patience urged with Pope - Jamie Francisco, Chicago Tribune (get an instant login to the Trib via BugMeNot )

I find myself torn between this being a personal journal to catalog my life, for myself and anyone interested, and an actual "work", a study of Catholicism, a study of a quest for authenticity. Especially recently, I've felt very drawn into the study of the impact of the "Papal bull" on we, the body of Christ, and the world in general. But I don't want to lose my journal either, because that's the entirety of my relevance. This past week I made some progress at work, but only to be replaced with more urgency. Got the company fax server back up and running faster, but now trying to get the backup server/policy all worked out, the only difference being that the Prez is just as interested in this project as the VP/my boss.. which of course adds a bit of tension. :) Oh also worked out an SSL problem that was looking pretty intimidating. Yesterday morning I pulled myself out of bed to go to the 2nd of 3 training sessions to become a "Minister of Ca...

In this scenario, I would be the Dogbert character. :) The only discrepancy being that about 60% of the time, the "freezing up" is in no way my fault. Also, thanks Sabeena for letting me know why I keep gettin' all twitchy: Emails 'hurt IQ more than pot'

We have a Pope!!! I got to watch it all, from the white smoke to the refusal of thousands to leave the square afterwards.

The Prez gave the Press a little attention on his flight home from the big funeral. A Dr. Farrow discusses Bill C-38 (via LSN , drill down with Wikipedia ), a proposed Canadian bill concerning the definition of marriage. A little easy reading, The Selfish Giant , by Oscar Wilde, a simple tale to clear and focus your mind. Biblical proof that all you leftists are fools. ;-) (thanks PZ!)

These past two weeks feel more like two months. After the climax of remembrance called "Holy Week", it was truly time to celebrate. I dropped the dark theme I had installed on here for the duration of Holy Week, and switched back to the normal light colors, along with the Easter red interspersed throughout. This symbolizes the blood that was spilled that we would know how so very much we are loved. Sure, "God loves me", but the notion that Jesus suffered and died for us makes the notion that "God loves me" burn so much more strongly within me. What a life that asks of us! Many have noted how fitting is it that John Paul II would have been given this time to pass on. My initial cynical thoughts were, "yeah, yeah, any time would have been fitting!" Funny though, there a couple of strong objections to that. First, so what if any time would have been fitting? Doesn't that even further exhibit how much of a shepherd he was for the unive...

As the media reminds us of the great impact John Paul II had on the world, let us remind ourselves of the challenge that the new pope will inherit. As the College of Cardinals gathers in obedience to select the successor, let us pray for them, and what they will be loosing upon the world. Let us pray that God's will be done above all. John Paul the Great, thank you everything you were. We pray for your intercession into the hearts of your Bishops, that the man chosen will submit himself fully to Christ within. Take some extra time this week to offer your thoughts and prayers up to this process. This is a moment in history where it is hard to discount the power of prayer. Also, please know that this is not only a moment of concern for the Catholic faithful, but all of mankind, to whose service the pope dedicates his life entirely. Update: 4/5 Public access station WGN will be broadcasting the funeral at 3AM Chicago time, Friday morning. How would you have liked to have yo...

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...