Archive for October, 2005
Monday, October 31st, 2005
For God So Loved The World…
This last weekend was a great one in many respects. The best part of it was that my Godson Enrique, or “Enriquito”, stretched out his arms to me for the first time. Enriquito is my first nephew, and I was getting worried because he got scared any time I tried to pick him up. [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Best Of, Catholic Life, Love and War by Devman
Monday, October 31st, 2005
Zootopia: Home of the Edge
U2 has had a “Zoo” theme for a long time in their music. I think it began with their ZooTV tour for their Achtung Baby album, and then the Zooropa album followed.
Well, during the concert in Houston Friday night, the Edge started playing the intro to their new song “Miracle Drug”, and Bono, before [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in La Musica by Devman
Sunday, October 30th, 2005
Hello, Hello… Hola!
U2 Vertigo Tour Houston, TX Toyota Center. My first time to go to a U2 concert and it was worth every penny. U2 is known as one of the best live bands around, and they didn’t disappoint. The band was fully into every song they performed and really got the crowd engaged.
You can read the [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in La Musica by Devman
Sunday, October 30th, 2005
La Familia Garcia
Gerardo has an older brother named Enrique, who is married to Veronica, and they have a little son named Enrique, as well as a new baby on the way!
Enrique and Veronica met while at Texas A&M, and I met them there while in school, since the G and I were good friends. Their house [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman
Sunday, October 30th, 2005
To the Aggie Game
After the U2 concert on Friday night, Nathan, Robert, me, and the G drove an hour west to College Station, Texas, home of the fightin’ Texas Aggies to watch the football game against Iowa St.
No Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman
Sunday, October 30th, 2005
U2 How to Dismantle Concert in Houston
Friday night the G, Robert, and I all went to the U2 concert in Houston! Some Jamaican band opened up for them, which we missed most of. Whoever they were, they had one guy up on the stage dedicated to just waving the Jamaican flag around and jumping up and down.
It took about [...]
No Comments » - Posted in La Musica by Devman
Thursday, October 27th, 2005
NO, it is I who will pray for YOU!
Okay, that title has nothing to do with this post and is just a spoof on the funny line I read on Jimmy Akin’s blog, “NO, it is I who will eat you!”.
Tomorrow, the G and the R and myself are meeting in Houston for the U2 concert. How do you dismantle an atomic [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Adoration, Catholic Life, La Musica, Love and War by Devman
Thursday, October 27th, 2005
St. Joseph Comes Through on Yet Another Bug
Last week I made a real low-level fix to my code in order to optimize it for a product we sell at our company that is trying to ship “real soon”.
Well, this fix wasn’t going to get much testing, so I knew that if it introduced new problems, and if I didn’t find those through [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Saints and Angels, Work inspired by Devman
Wednesday, October 26th, 2005
Coming Home
I borrowed the G’s “Self-Titled’ Caedmon’s Call CD again this week. I need to just go out and buy it as I have borrowed it for weeks on end many times!
The CD has great music with great lyrics, and I recommend it to any Christian. The last song is called “Coming Home“, and [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in La Musica by Devman
Tuesday, October 25th, 2005
The Sufferings of the Present Time…
…are nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).
To be glorified with Christ, we must also suffer with him (cf. Romans 8:16,17). There is no way around it nor out of it. Atheist or Christian, you will suffer in this life–the only question is how you will handle it.
Will [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life, Saints and Angels by Devman
Monday, October 24th, 2005
Que Suerte!
I mentioned before that I played soccer growing up my entire life. I usually played midfielder and didn’t score too many goals (typically a few a season).
One thing that I never mastered was shooting the ball hard and in a corner of the goal. When I shoot the ball, I just kick it [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
Cabana-Kresses
During 9:30 am Mass this morning, I noticed sure signs that the Kress family had made a holy infiltration of the parish, as their oldest son Jeffrey was altar-serving and then when Fr. Larry called children up for the kids’ homily, I spotted little Nicky and Jane.
The man I was hopefully going to sponsor did [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman
Saturday, October 22nd, 2005
Potluck Goodness
I am blessed to have many great Catholic friends, and so I finally invited them over for a get-together at the G’s house.
Since I just told people to bring whatever they wanted, there was some fear that everyone would bring salad, so I bought two big packages of Elgin sausage and some chicken thighs, fired [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Saturday, October 22nd, 2005
I’m Slowly Beginning to Believe This
I read one of the Magnificat’s meditations of the day for this past week, and it was a truth that I intellectually believe but struggle to truly internalize in my heart. I am excited, however, because I know God is helping me to trust him in my life more and more:
How is it that [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Best Of, Catholic Life by Devman
Friday, October 21st, 2005
Culver’s Overdose
On Fridays I usually don’t eat meat–something the Kresses convinced me of sometime back, though at times I waffle on the rule if I need to.
Today after my adoration hour, I decided to stop at Culver’s, which, for those of you who don’t have one in your area, is a step up from McDonald’s as [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Thursday, October 20th, 2005
Holy Zoo Station
Since Devin, Robert, and I are going to a U2 concert next week, I thought we needed something to pump us up. How about this pic:
2 Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life, La Musica by Devman
Thursday, October 20th, 2005
Bug Smashed Thanks to St. Joseph
That bug I worked on yesterday miraculously was solved today!
I got things working and went to test my correctly-functioning optimization–and the performance stunk! My optmizations did no good because I had to add back in too much old code to get it to work.
So, I went back an older revision of the function I [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Saints and Angels, Work inspired by Devman
Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
Tough Bug
I worked on a tough bug today at work that only reproduced on an embedded operating system. I must’ve asked for St. Joseph’s help about 20 times today, and in the late afternoon, I made a breakthrough!
The bug turned out to be an uninitialized variable that I was supposed to assign values to but [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Work inspired by Devman
Tuesday, October 18th, 2005
Growing in Virtue Enough to Admit…
…that I am really selfish.
Nonetheless, I trust God to use my honesty and selfish motivations behind good causes to work miracles! Por ejemplo, tonight I was again invited to the annual Texas pro-life banquet. I have been blessed with wonderful friends, and they have always invited me to sit with them at their [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Monday, October 17th, 2005
David Ward’s Tag
I am humbled by the honor of being tagged by David Ward in a meme going around. First off, thanks David for so honoring the Vanguard! Apparently this meme is of the Get To Know Me variety:
Getting to know me…
Five things I plan to do before I die:
1. Marry the beautiful and holy [...]
6 Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Monday, October 17th, 2005
An Exhortation to Jesuit Priests
I have been a Catholic for 4.5 years. In that time I have learned a lot–about the saints, about the Church, about true love, about religious orders.
For two years I seriously considered entering the seminary or a religious community, visiting with the vocation director many times, spending weekends with the Carmelites, Claretians, and Norbertines, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Saints and Angels by Devman
Sunday, October 16th, 2005
“Jello is basically like eating air”
so saith the G, upon helping himself to a second serving of Jell-o that I made tonight. (I even put frozen peaches in it, too–gourmet cookering!).
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Sunday, October 16th, 2005
You Can Teach Me, Lord,
I KNOW I’m not a hopeless case! (U2, Beautiful Day).
For the person who searched google for “u2, beautiful day, parable of sower” and found this site, what is the connection between that U2 song and the parable of the sower? (It sounds cool.)
No Comments » - Posted in La Musica by Devman
Sunday, October 16th, 2005
But If That Don’t Mean Nothing…
… like if someday, it should fall through–you’ll take me home, where your magic’s from, and I’ll be with you! (Alive and Kicking)
Whatcha gonna do when things go wrong?
Whatcha gonna do when it all cracks up?
Whatcha gonna do when your love burns down?
Whatcha gonna do when the flames go up?
Who’s gonna come and turn [...]
No Comments » - Posted in La Musica by Devman
Saturday, October 15th, 2005
St. Theresa of Avila’s Testimony of St. Joseph
St. Theresa of Jesus (or of Avila, as we know her locally), held St. Joseph in high esteem:
“I took for my patron and lord the glorious St. Joseph, and recommended myself earnestly to him. I saw clearly that both out of this my present trouble, and out of others of greater importance, relating to [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Saints and Angels by Devman
Saturday, October 15th, 2005
St. Joseph’s Betrothal to the Virgin Mary
I just read about St. Joseph’s miraculous betrothal to our Blessed Mother in “The Life of St. Joseph”. It is one of my favorite parts of his life.
After God caused St. Joseph’s dead branch to burst into white lily blossoms and sent a dove from Heaven to alight on him, he and our Blessed [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Love and War, Saints and Angels by Devman
Friday, October 14th, 2005
Mac OS X is a superior operating system
Once again, sitting on my couch typing on my Apple Powerbook laptop I am reminded of how much it is superior to the Windows operating system. I spend more time using Windows then Macs, due to the fact that I use a Dell laptop at work. It’s a year and a half newer than my [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Technical, Work inspired by Devman
Friday, October 14th, 2005
We WILL Be Friends–Eventually
God has willed that, at this time in my life, I neither be dating any girl, nor engaged, nor married. To this fact I say, “Okay”.
Over the past few years, I have faced both joys and disappointments in my relationships with God’s daughters, particularly in growing in friendship with them and in one case, [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Adoration, Love and War, Saints and Angels by Devman
Thursday, October 13th, 2005
“I’ve Run, I Can Run No More…”
“…Prodigal me.”
The G has a Shane Barnard CD called “Rocks Won’t Cry” that has a song about Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son.
First verse (e.e. cummings style from Shane’s website):
“what have i done to get me here?
unraveled and undone, i need my father
what have i done? i’ve followed my feet to nowhere
now i’m here! as [...]
No Comments » - Posted in La Musica, Love and War by Devman
Wednesday, October 12th, 2005
Patron of the Dying
I read again today in my St. Joseph prayer book about why St. Joseph is patron of the dying:
1. He died in Jesus and Mary’s arms.
2. As foster-father of the Savior, Jesus can refuse him nothing.
3. The Church calls him the Terror of Demons and Conqueror of Hell.
Imagine having Jesus and Mary at your side [...]