Archive for November, 2007

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

Where Does He Get Such Wonderful Toys?

So asked the Joker with grudging respect after Batman ruined his (nefarious) fun in the Tim Burton Batman movie (around 1989).
I’m asking myself the same question about Microsoft.  It seems all we hear about nowadays is Google–they’re the hot topic and the cool company.  Isn’t Microsoft old and stodgy by now?  Hasn’t Apple gained majority [...]

5 Comments » - Posted in Technical, Work inspired by Devman

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

The Elephant in the Room

The elephant is pornography.
The sin of lust by way of pornography is widespread amongst men in our country, yet we rarely talk about it.
Why? Because many men have lusted after women by looking at pornography and rightfully feel ashamed of it, such that the very mention of the word evokes this shameful feeling.
I had [...]

1 Comment » - Posted in Masculine Spirituality, Theology of the Body by Devman

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

Snow Day!

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Devin and I had a good visit with my family (more about that later) and an adventuresome trip back to Austin from New Mexico. What happened, you ask?
Well, we left Deming, NM on Saturday morning and drove from El Paso to Fort Stockton in heavy snow. We pulled in to Ft. Stockton [...]

3 Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life, Grapevines and Nature by Katie

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

The Rose-Colored Glasses of Childhood Memory

I have great memories of camping with my family as a little girl.  Eating freshly caught trout for dinner.  Telling stories around the campfire.  The boys’ tent emitting various odorous gases, if you know what I mean. :)  So, I told Devin that camping would be a lovely addition to our little family life, and [...]

2 Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life, Grapevines and Nature by Katie

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

Camping At Colorado Bend

I took Katie out on our first camping trip together this weekend!
Many thanks to all of our friends and family who offered to lend us their camping gear and gave us good advice: Katie grew up camping often with her big family, but I only camped a few times growing up, so there was much [...]

No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

Why Was Jesus Baptized?

In a sermon given by my old Baptist pastor about 7 years ago, he made this offhand remark, paraphrased: “The reason I know that baptism does not wash away sins is because Jesus was baptized, and He had never sinned, so it’s purpose could never be to wash away sins.”
On the surface, it sounds reasonable, [...]

No Comments » - Posted in Faith and Reason by Devman

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

Republicans and Nazis

Comparing someone to Hitler or the Nazis has become a standard way of demonizing a particular person or organization because it is accepted by all rational people that Hitler and the Nazis committed heinous atrocities.
Well, it seems that, to the detriment of respectful dialogue between Democrats and Republicans, the leading Democratic presidential candidates are now [...]

No Comments » - Posted in Politics by Devman

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

The Sign of the Cross

I found this blog recently through a series of other blogs’ links written by a man who I think has been an Evangelical pastor and is considering the Catholic Church.
He posted recently about a meeting he had at a coffee shop with a fellow Evangelical pastor and a very interesting exchange when confronted with (what [...]

No Comments » - Posted in Faith and Reason by Devman

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

Fall Bee Inspection

I inspected our bees today and took a 5-minute video of the highlights.
The main goals were to dust powdered sugar on the bees so that they groom off varroa mites and to set a trap for the small hive beetles; both of these pests can decimate a bee hive, and the Fall is an especially [...]

No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

How Can I, Unless Someone Instructs Me?

Those were the words of the Ethiopian eunuch to Philip in Acts, chapter 8 of the Bible.
The eunuch was reading from the prophet Isaiah, and the Holy Spirit prompted Philip to ask him if he understood what he was reading. “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” was his honest answer.
This Sunday’s Gospel reading [...]

1 Comment » - Posted in Faith and Reason by Devman

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

Orcs vs. Martians

My friend and former coworker, whom I will call “The H”, went indie sometime back to work on his own RTS game, dubbed Orcs vs. Martians.
Well, I am impressed to tell you that he has reached the Beta milestone on his game.  I don’t think you can download it yet, or at least I didn’t [...]

No Comments » - Posted in Technical by Devman

Saturday, November 10th, 2007

Mini-map Mayhem

Well, okay, it’s not really mayhem but rather a required feature of any Real-time Strategy (RTS) Game: The mini-map.
I just put in the rudiments of my mini-map for Crescendo:

What you are looking at, in the upper part of this screen shot, is the main game play area, where trees are planted, chickens are flocking around, [...]

No Comments » - Posted in Technical by Devman

Tuesday, November 6th, 2007

Entering the Blogs for Jesus

I read in the latest edition of the National Catholic Register a little article that tickled my funny bone.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the 76-year-old vicar for the Diocese of Rome, spoke at a Pontifical University recently about young people blogging and the conflicting accounts of who Jesus Christ is:
“A priest from Novara told me that the [...]

No Comments » - Posted in Faith and Reason, Masculine Spirituality by Devman

Sunday, November 4th, 2007

Smashing Pumpkins

No, not the popular band that came out with such hits as Today, Disarm, and 1979, but I refer to the kids in our neighborhood who determined last night that we had kept out our pumpkins too long past Halloween in our front yard, and thus they decided to smash them.
The pumpkins former location, next [...]

1 Comment » - Posted in Entertainment, Grapevines and Nature, La Musica by Devman

Saturday, November 3rd, 2007

Adoption Awareness Month

There’s a good article on CatholicExchange.com about adoption, including a link to the author’s first article that covered the difficult side of adoption.
I looked at the portraits of the children on the heart gallery of Texas website today and was struck again by how much each of these children needs to be a part of [...]

No Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

Something Beautiful

“It’s the child on her wedding day,
It’s the daddy that gives her away–father
Something beautiful…”
–Newsboys
I read on the American Papist blog about how well Bella did in the box office opening weekend, beaten in per-theater average seats sold only by one movie, Saw IV.
Bella, a beautiful movie that enriches people’s lives and inspires them to heroic [...]

No Comments » - Posted in Entertainment by Devman

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

A New Farmer’s Blog

Steven, who recently commented on a few posts below this one, sent me a link to a blog by a fellow brother in Christ who is beginning a farm.
I’ve read several posts and am excited to follow his progress.  He seems to have grown up in cities/towns, and so he is similar to me and [...]

1 Comment » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman