Archive for July, 2008
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
Better Days
Just been thinking about all of the poor children who have no parents nor family to love them:
And you ask me what I want this year
and I try to make this good and clear
just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days
cause I don’t need boxes wrapped in strings
and designer love and empty things,
just a [...]
No Comments » - Posted in La Musica, Love and War by Devman
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
Chickens and First Blooms on Coral Vine
The big and little chickens:
The coral vine beginning to blossom (with pink flowers), which the bees are gonna love. My apologies for the bad photo:
No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Foster-Adopt
Katie and I learned during our adoption information meeting that the way in which babies (0 - 1 year old) are usually adopted is through foster-adopt.
Babies are taken from their birth family when they have been abandoned, neglected, or abused; oftentimes the family, very sadly, has a history of harmful behavior toward their children, and [...]
5 Comments » - Posted in Love and War, Masculine Spirituality by Devman
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
Tower Defense: Graphics Getting Finalized
Here’s the latest screenshot of my Silverlight Tower Defense game:
There are currently five distinct tower types and images to go along with them; the cloud-looking things are the first enemy type that has been created, with the life meter directly over it. The clouds animate as they move, getting bigger and smaller (because the enemy [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Entertainment, Technical by Devman
Saturday, July 26th, 2008
The Reluctant Pope And the Eager Candidates
I was struck recently by the difference between the world leader of 1.1 billion Catholics, Pope Benedict, and the next world leader of the United States of America, either Sen. McCain or Sen. Obama, specifically with regard to their motivations for wanting to be elected to these high positions.
My observation is this: Pope Benedict was [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Politics by Devman
Saturday, July 26th, 2008
Forgiveness
Our associate pastor, Father Juan Carlos, left our parish this past week to take a new assignment as pastor of a parish in Cameron, Texas.
Near the end of his farewell talk at the end of Mass, after he had thanked our Lord and also us for our love and kindness to himself, he said something [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life, Love and War, Masculine Spirituality by Devman
Friday, July 25th, 2008
How Old Is “Old” When Adopting a Child?
We have been asking this question since attending the adoption information meeting put on by the State of Texas’ Child Protective Services (CPS).
We have friends who adopted 5 girls, all sisters, through CPS some years ago, and I believe they ranged in age from 1 or 2 years old to maybe 10 years old; we [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman
Friday, July 25th, 2008
The Democratic Senate…
…with the lowest approval rating in the history of our country, refuses to hold hearings to either confirm or reject qualified, nominated judges, whose only misfortune in life is that they have the gall to be Republicans.
This has been happening for a long time now; Chief Judge Robert Conrad has been waiting for over a [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Politics by Devman
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
The Case Against Barack Obama
A new book!
I haven’t read it, but I love it already.
Just check out the subtitle: “The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate”
1 Comment » - Posted in Politics by Devman
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Family Photos
From our recent visit to Katie’s extended family in New Mexico:
With our niece, Ava (or perhaps Addi):
With nephew Adam:
3 Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
When There Is Money to Be Made…
…unscrupulous persons will commit evil actions.
In Guatemala, which has thankfully begun investigations to overhaul their adoption system, people have been abducting babies to put them up for adoption.
Why? From the article:
Before the reform, foreign couples, mostly from the U.S., paid up to $30,000 to adopt children.
The previous system was so quick and hassle-free it became [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Faith and Reason, Love and War by Devman
Monday, July 21st, 2008
Mormon Clothes
It’s tough to find clothing that is feminine, fashionable, and modest, and I was delighted yesterday to stumble upon the website for Shabby Apple clothing. It’s featured in the newly published Eliza magazine, which, from what I understand is an initiative of young women who are members of LDS. They did a great [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life, Faith and Reason, Theology of the Body by Katie
Monday, July 21st, 2008
What I Did Today
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd training. All day. Fabulous. Lovely. I felt like I was at a retreat all day and am amazed by the beauty and wisdom of the Montessori method applied to catechesis. This is going to change me, and I’m glad of it.
4 Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Katie
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
Tower Defense Update
New screenshot:
I have created two new tower types
Poison towers: the green ones, poison enemies which drains their life for some period of time
Stun towers: Brownish-red ones, damage enemies and have a chance to cause them to not move for some time
in addition to the old ones:
Der Basic towers: white ones, can be upgraded to become [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Entertainment, Technical by Devman
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
Mom Gets a Beesuit
My mom wanted to inspect the bees with us, so she bought a bee suit!
The inspection went well; our Ambrose hive is doing well: They are still very gentle bees; they are bringing in some nectar, though it looks like there won’t be much of a harvest this year (we think it is due to [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
The Politics of the Iraqi War
Sen. McCain has put up a video of Sen. Obama’s multiple contradictory statements about the war in Iraq.
I don’t plan to debate details but rather just want to point out that, whether or not beginning the war was just, we now have a responsibility to help them establish a good government and peaceful nation, which [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Love and War, Politics by Devman
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Regnum Christi: Love for the Church and the Pope
I’ve been reading the Getting Started manual for Regnum Christi over the past several months and wanted to share some things I read recently in Module #10, which discusses a central trait of Regnum Christi: Love for the Church and the Pope:
Regnum Christi is not its own thing. And it doesn’t do its own thing. [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Faith and Reason by Devman
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Fr. Neuhaus Explains Why Kmiec Is Wrong
The excellent National Catholic Register has an exclusive response that Fr. Neuhaus made to Doug Kmiec, who is publicly supporting Sen. Obama and claiming Catholics can support the senator.
Here is a good passage from the beginning:
Mr. Kmiec argues that we can’t rank abortion as greater evil or a more pressing social and legal concern than [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Faith and Reason, Politics by Devman
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Removed
After more thought and prayer, I decided to remove this video. Let’s encourage people to make humorous yet non-vulgar or uncharitable videos and such!
No Comments » - Posted in Entertainment, Politics by Devman
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
2nd Text Message
The Pope is learning the l337 (”leet” short for “elite”) speak:
The Pope sent out his second daily text message to pilgrims - “The Holy Spirit gave the Apostles & gives u the power boldly 2 proclaim that Christ is risen! - BXVI”
No Comments » - Posted in Catholic Life by Devman
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
World Youth Day Begins
Pack it up, pack it in, let Pope Benedict and World Youth Day begin!
Isn’t it newsworthy when hundreds of thousands of young people from all over the world convene in Australia to celebrate and grow in their faith, led by an 80-year old theologian from Germany?
Apparently not, because none of the major news sites I [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Catholic Life, Faith and Reason by Devman
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
Oh No! More Adult Stem Cell Successes
“But I thought human life-destroying embryonic stem cells were the ones that were going to help people!”
Nope. Embryonic stem cells have helped–get ready for it–0 people. That is zero, goose-egg, none. Not one person on this green earth has been helped by a treatment from embryonic stem cells, because scientists have not been able to [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature by Devman
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
Conversion
We as Christians believe that people can change, even radically, and turn from evil to good.
How? By turning to the God who loves them and finally accepting His love and forgiveness. What a great story this is to bring that truth home.
No Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
Doesn’t Everyone Know That Obama Is Pro-abortion?
No.
A scarce majority of people know that Sen. Obama is pro-abortion, and less than a majority know that Sen. McCain is pro-life.
Well, let this be one more webpage that helps people know the truth:
Senator Barack Obama: Pro-abortion.
Senator John McCain: Pro-life.
2 Comments » - Posted in Politics by Devman
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
Principles or Politics?
Senator Obama has changed his position, especially recently, on many issues. Why?
His flip-flops have largely been ones that are positioning him more towards “the middle” rather than “radically leftist”, which obviously is beneficial toward trying to appeal to a broader portion of the population to get elected and become the President of the United States.
But [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Politics by Devman
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
Let Love In
Katie and I have been considering adoption, as she posted about recently–thank you for your kind words of encouragement with it–and I wanted to share some thoughts I’ve had with regard to adopting children from foster care.
Sometimes, when I think about adopting, I think of how heroic an act of love it would be and [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Love and War by Devman
Friday, July 11th, 2008
Wishing for Glucose
I’m wanting sugar. Pie. Cake. Muffins. Ice cream. A big fizzy cold Coke. But, I can’t have any, well, much of it. It’s this darned insulin resistance I’ve got, which is tied to our fertility issues, so we’re working on keeping my blood sugar levels down in the [...]
9 Comments » - Posted in Grapevines and Nature, Love and War, Theology of the Body by Katie
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
Another Great Quote
“Up until now, no one in the United States has dared to promote the maxim that everything is legitimized in the interests of society, an impious maxim which seems to have been invented in an age of liberty simply to justify every future tyrant.” (Democracy in America, de Toqueville, 1840)
I like this guy. He [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Faith and Reason, Politics by Katie
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
De Toqueville on Religion and Patriotism in American
Democracy in America, published in 1840:
“America is still the country in the world where the Christian religion has retained the greatest real power over people’s souls and nothing better shows how useful and natural religion is to man, since the country where it exerts the greatest sway is also the most enlightened and free. [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Faith and Reason, Love and War, Politics by Katie
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
Madonna House in Canada Returns Medal in Protest
A very honorable gesture, returning the Order of Canada medal given to their founder, (Servant of God) Catherine de Hueck Doherty, in protest of the awarding of the honor to the father of abortion in Canada, Dr. Morgentaler.
Learn more about the Madonna House Catholic community.