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Month: March 2005

20Q

20Q

Wow, what an excellent bit of coding!  One of the guys on the hilltop got one of these little gadgets as a present and it’s been traveling around the hilltop and amazing people.  It’s a new take on the 20 questions game.  This game comes as a web version, but also has a handheld version and is almost uncanny in its ability to correctly pick things even when the questions it asks seem so unlikely.

Try it and be surprised.  I was thinking about how one might code up such a tool, and had some great ideas of how to automatically generate such a device…  Makes me think of the old glory days of coding. Do I smell a personal

Spring break ends

Spring break ends

Ugh, the end of spring break and I only got 1 paper done that I needed to do.  I still need to get at least one more done by tomorrow.  But it was a great break.

My sister came out and we went to the beach, Portland, Seattle, and snowboarding up on Mt Hood.  They had just opened Meadows for skiing the day before.  It was a late start to the season since there was such a lack of snow.  It was actually really good snowboarding – lots of powder from the night before.  Lots of fun; but now I’m realizing how old I’m getting.  Doing week-long trips of driving around and frantically seeing sights each day has really started losing it’s appeal and take a LOT more out of me.  I used to love making epic, hurried, sight-seeing road trips.  Once I did a road trip from Albuquerque, NM to Durango, CO to Arches NP in Utah, to Las Vegas, and back across Arizona to Albuquerque in one weekend trip – about 1200 miles in 2 days and 3 nights to get about 5 hours of sleep.  Went to work the next day without a lot of difficulty.  Gone are those days.  Hmmm… looks like I have reflection material here.  Perhaps after I get my paper done…

St. Michael Award

St. Michael Award

I won one of the yearly awards from the seminary last night at our annual Appreciation dinner.  It was one of 5 awards given out; and the local Catholic paper put our picture and story in the paper.  I got the St. Michael the Arch-angel award.  This was awarded to the person who faithfully carried out an already existing activity with great fidelity, or came up with a new one that significantly contributed to the life of the community.

I won for creating and printing up a photo directory in book format – think yearbook style.  I worked with two other guys and the Abbey press to get it done; and it was the results of about 2 years of planning and picture taking.  Working with the press was extremely fun and interesting.  They have some amazing binding and printing machines that print, fold, trim, staple and scratch your back while doing it.  It’s amazing equipment.  What’s funny is that next year I will not be at the seminary (pastoral year) so someone else will have to do it. 🙂

Must get through…

Must get through…

Here I sit at almost 9pm at night.  I have three essay questions to write and prepare, and at least 2 chapters of a book to read – all for a midterm tomorrow morning.  Next week is spring break.  If I can only…just…make…it…before…I…expire…. <gasp>

Giftedness

Giftedness

I was just reflecting on how many people talk about their “needs” in relationships.

As I discern my own calling, I realize more and more that love is never about my needs.  I and we all have needs, but it is only Christ that could or does fills all the hopes of my heart.  My life is about how that wholeness that Christ creates in me allows me to freely give the gift of myself to others however they need me and not need anything in return.

Dante, the author of the famous books Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, was madly, and for most of his life, in love with a woman who scolded him that he needed to have full love for God before love of her.  One cannot love, enter a vocation, or marriage until one is free to live without it as well.  Real loving is a gift of self that pours out from abundance, not need or obligation.  If we do not get to love someone or something with this understanding (because circumstances prohibit it) it may hurt, but not more than just disappointment that you are not able to give yourself in that way.  Paul tells us that love never seeks itself or its own interests.  But to love in this way requires that we are totally rooted and free of ‘needing’ something from others – that all our identity is already fulfilled in following Christ.

946,684,800 seconds of life

946,684,800 seconds of life

My 30th birthday is coming up next week. This Saturday (Mar 5th) I’ll be having a little gathering in Portland to eat and share this great milestone. Please email me if you’d like details.

In other news, I’ll be putting up the hacking of my ebay account a year ago and the amazing fun I had tracking the guy down. We ended up getting things squared away and contacting his ISP before he could get his grubby mitts on anything. But the amazing script work and process he used was very informative. I’ll be putting the story and the email/logs I collected up soon.