An Excerpt

from Regina Doman's "Black as Night"

Sometimes, it amazes me
How strong the power of love can be
Sometimes it just takes my breath away.

You watched my love grow like a child,
Sometimes gentle and sometimes wild,
Sometimes you just take my breath away.

And it's too good to slip by,
It's too good to lose,
It's too good to be there just to use

I'm going to stand on a mountaintop and tell the good nws
That you take my breath away.

Your beauty is there in all I see
And when I feel your eyes on me
Sometimes you just take my breath away.

Since my life is yours, my heart will be
Singing for you eternally
Sometimes you just take my breath away.

And it's too good to slip by,
It's too good to lose,
It's too good to be there just to use.

I'm going to stand on a mountaintop and tell the good news
That you take my breath away.

At last he receded, and let his picking linger to a stop. When the last string had stopped vibrating and stillness filled the closet again, he looked up to find he had a live audience as well. Brother Herman and Nora were leaning against the wall of the sacristy, listening.
"Beautiful," Brother Herman said. He glanced at Nora, who still hadn't moved.
"Yes," she said at last. She took a deep breath. "Is that a religious song?"
"It's just a folk song from the 70's I learned growing up," Brother Leon said. "No, it's not really religious."
"But it's a true love song," Brother Herman said, patting Nora's shoulder. "And hence, deeply religious."

Birthday fun!

Yesterday was my birthday! I definitely don't feel my age. I always thought people who had lived this long would have acquired some great wisdom or knowledge. Maybe they do and I'm just exceptionally immature.

The day started out in the best way possible - Mass! We were going to leave right after and chill at home, but Deacon Bob had other plans. My brother, who is one of the senior altar servers at our parish, needed to be trained alongside the other senior altar server in how to use the incense. So, I had an "accidental" Holy Hour. But it was really, really nice. I mean, it is only fitting that I spend an hour with the person who caused and is causing me to be in existence. :)

At 11:30 we got home. Mom insisted that I open my presents. The one from my parents was awesome - "The Sound of Music" on dvd. You may find it funny that someone my age would get that movie for her birthday, but it is seriously one of my favorite movies of all time. It might even be my favorite movie of all time.

Mum took me out to lunch with my little brother. The place where we ate has awesome food, but what we did after was even better. Right next door to the restaurant is a grocery store that has intensely good frozen desserts. You just stick 'em out on the counter for a couple of hours to defrost and you have a masterpiece to eat. So we got one. Along with a week's worth of groceries.

The afternoon was filled with watching "The Sound of Music." Like I said before, I love that movie! At about five o'clock I started warming up for my voice lesson. I usually don't warm up for that long, but I had not had a lesson in such a long time, that I needed to get myself back in gear. My lesson went from six to almost seven (we ran quite a bit longer than normal) and from seven to eight-thirty we had choir practice. Now, some people think I'm insane to go to choir on my birthday, but I love all the people and I love to sing. The combination of the two made it the perfect way to spend the evening.

At about nine pm we did cake and ice cream. After that, most of the house went to bed. I normally go to sleep fairly early, but I figured that you only have one eighteenth birthday, so I was going to enjoy every minute of it. My brother volunteered to stay up with me until eleven - after that we had strict parental orders to go straight to bed.

It as a fantabulous day, and I had a blast. Oh, and I got flowers for the first time ever. Dad got me a dozen yellow roses! They're so pretty and sunshiny . . . if the day was a package, the flowers were the neat bow that tied it all up. :D

Memorial Day!

This weekend is supposed to signify the official beginning of summer. However, the sun seems to be having a hiatus in this part of the country. It has been cloudy and pretty chilly for the past week. Hopefully we'll get some sunshine soon. But, living where I do, that really is not a concern. It will warm up...probably too much for comfort...very soon :D

"What, silent still? and silent all?"

"Ah, no - the voices of the dead/Sound like a distant torrent's fall."

Trouble was afoot in the Mesa last night. A rich man, by the name of Rupert Sheinhardt, was hosting a party to celebrate his many accomplishments and marvel at his good fortune. He is the wealthiest man to ever hail from, visit, or even look upon Muncie, Indiana. But, before he could make his appearance, he was murdered!

Since I was invited to this "Murder Mystery Dinner", I was able to take part in the fun and spectacle involved in solving this mystery. Everyone was given a character. Every character (besides the detective - he was there to moderate) had a grudge against Rupert. He had afflicted everyone in attendance by his greed and selfishness. His offense towards myself was that he was inheriting my aunt's estate. An estate that should legally have been MINE. I was a nasty, rich, aristocratic snob. I was terribly mean to everybody. . . for about thirty seconds at a time. I couldn't keep it up much longer than that. Everyone else was much better at staying in character. I guess it comes from attending a media school. . . you witness a lot of theatrics so you feel more comfortable with them. Whatever the reason, the other people were absolutely fantastic in their roles. My raspberry was a stupendous Texan. . . accent and all. My sister was the victim/host's sister, and was married to "the short one." I was unfailingly and consistently nasty to both my sister and her "honey-bunny". (Isn't it funny that it is easier to be mean to people that you know? You think it would be easier to insult people that you weren't friends with. Another phenomenon of the human psyche I suppose)

The evening was stupendously fun. I, being the snob, spent a lot of time with the jerk in the room. We got to insult each other all night. But, in the fun, we let the murderer win. Somehow, and this remains a mystery to me, I was the last one left with the murderer. I had the opportunity to kill him, but I killed the short one instead. Granted, the short one was acting suspiciously and, like Mofia, there isn't much real evidence to go off, but I still feel terrible! I could've killed the murderer! But I didn't! He got away with murdering 30 people! Horror of horrors!

But it was ETMF, and I'd do it again. I want to send out a big "thank-you" to "Effie" the maid, the mother of the host (whose character name I can't remember!), and the cowgirl who didn't officially have a character as far as I could tell.

'Tis the Season...

...for American Idol to be over. The finale is tonight...we'll see which David wins. One of them sings everything but specializes in rock. The other sings lots of stuff...but it all sounds the same. Tonight the winner will be drowned in confetti and paparazzi, but here is a song meant just for the loser. Enjoy!

The Terrors of Anticipation

I have a job interview tomorrow. It's actually the second one I've had. And it's the second one at the same place. If tomorrow goes as well as last Monday (not the nineteenth . . . the Monday before) I should have a job. If it doesn't go well . . . I don't really want to go there.

I'm nervous and terrified and happy and excited. There is one thought that has given me consolation, though: I'm in good company. No matter how terrible or boring or horrendous or (imagine this) fantastic this job is, all the other TACers will be out there, too. I know that summer jobs are a common thing, but that doesn't make me feel much better. But the thought that my schoolmates are all in the same boat with me is of great comfort. I hope August comes quickly!

MK's Visit

We have had the privilege of having a very old family friend in town from Oklahoma for the past couple of weeks. Technically speaking, I haven't seen her except for the past few days, but she has been local rather than halfway across the country.

Yesterday involved surprising my sister with MK's appearance. My sister's roommate helped plan the whole thing. JP has a strict visitor policy which involves paperwork. Generally this is done by the individual hosting the guest, but since we wanted to surprise the host, we were allowed to have the paperwork done by her roomie. Mrs. C was kind enough to drive MK and I over to my sister's apartment before she came home from class. When we spied the truck pulling into the garage, I hid in the closet (to keep her from getting suspicious) and MK hid behind the bedroom door. She placed her purse on the desk as a means of diverting attention.When Andrea walked in, she tiptoed up behind her and placed her hands over Andrea's eyes and said, "guess who?" Surprisingly, Andrea guessed on the first try! The general happenings of hugging and exclaiming and wondering followed.

After MK spent the night at the apartments, we picked her up after she had sat through half of one of Andrea's classes. We then took her over to a fish taco place where another friend met us and we enjoyed a nice lunch together. MK and 3/5 of my family went over to the Museum of Art downtown and we enjoyed the Renaissance/Baroque era art work which was mostly religious in nature. This was more enjoyable than the Museum of Man which I found to be a bit disturbing. Rather strange.

We just dropped her off at her aunt and uncle's house. Tomorrow she starts on her way to the launch pad of the "Crossroads" which is a pro-life event in which young adults walk across the country. We've enjoyed having her...I don't know exactly when I will see her again. But, I am sure that there will be ETMF going on the next time I do. :-)

I have a cell phone!

I got this today. My parents' policy has always been that you get a phone when you leave for college. The purchase of mine was a little earlier than expected, due to the fact that my sister's old phone died. Since we had to go to the phone store anyway, we got both of us phones. Aren't they spiffy?


(That's a HUGE picture, isn't it?)

Nostalgia

I wrote the following about this time last year. Scott had just joined CAP, and I saved these thoughts under the title of "first impressions." Kind of fun to look back on. Even if you don't know any of these people, impressions are amusing things. And it is amazing how wrong one can be. Or, in the case of the following, how ridiculously accurate.

Call-signs according to me:
Corey – “Bogerding” (present day note: long story, inside joke...my sister will get it)
Kler -- “the Chief”
Cadet Saavedra – “has hair”
Goodall – “the singing cadet”
Kennedy – “the one I haven’t met yet”
Capt. Ammann – “the laid back senior member” or “Santa Clause”
Lt Saavedra – “the intense senior member”
Mahalik and Tavan – “the other BTF cadets”
Murphy has always been Murphy
Ellis – “Hollywood” (named for non-reg sunglasses)

Notes about Sq. 144:
Everyone is addressed by their last name.
No one laughs at Capt. Ammann’s jokes.
They are better at drilling than organizing test taking.
C/2dLt Connolly is much more intense at CAP than at school functions. (Dual personalities are apparently a common denominator of cadets)
They have very comfortable chairs.
“October Sky” counts as aerospace education (it has something to do with rockets).
The whole thing is very formal. Uniforms, drill, chain of command; it’s like they’re already in the military.
They call their hats “covers”.
“144, hoorah”
Cadence is always called with a southern accent.
The air force is better at being military than it is at distributing quality uniforms.
Part of PT exercises is ‘bellowing’
Mrs. Murphy is very entertaining when sleep deprived.
Capt. Ammann would win any and every beauty contest.
Ramos looks just like Scott
Murphy looks like she’s 20 yrs old. (she’s 15)

The Problem with Education

A recent conundrum got me thinking. A 16 year old gentleman that I know was assigned a history project. According to the directions, it was due by this coming up Friday. But the facilitator at his charter school isn't coming to pick up samples and things until June. He also hasn't gotten an answer as to whether this project counts for his grade. So he doesn't think he'll do it, since no one is giving him a straight answer. To put this situation in perspective, the project has to be one of three things: write a ten page paper, video yourself giving a 15 minute presentation, or do a canvas painting that incorporates elements of a certain historical event. So, clearly, this is no minor amount to do. If it doesn't need to be done, 99% of people wouldn't do it. Unless he gets instructions otherwise, he isn't going to do it. And it most certainly won't be done by Friday.

But I am one of those people who would do it. Why? Because I find satisfaction in learning things. I truly enjoy learning. In my opinion, this is due to the way I got my education. In the modern public school system, they manage to take every particle of enjoyment out of school. They make it about making the teacher happy. Or the school's ranking. Anything and everything except what it should be about. The student and the expansion of their mind should be the priority. And I believe that in many cases it is. But the teachers have never learned how to communicate that. If the aforesaid young man were to do the project, I am sure he would gain something from it. Something that he will have to get some other time, some other way -- or maybe not at all. You loose a lot of the value when the student doesn't appreciate the benefit he receives. I, thanks to my wonderful teacher (:D), haven't lost that appreciation. I recognize the good that comes out of doing the harder work, of going the extra mile. I could've scraped through school the easy way. I could have done basic coursework. But then I wouldn't have learned the wonders of physics or the charms of calculus.

This, I believe, is one of the most major problems facing the educational system. People don't do things to better themselves. They haven't been taught the effectiveness of self-motivation. I truly love learning. This particular gentleman doesn't seem to.

"The Dumbest Generation"

This is why I'm going to TAC...I'm going to be countercultural!

Can U Read Kant?
By DAVID ROBINSON
May 13, 2008; Page A15 of Wall Street Journal

The Dumbest Generation
By Mark Bauerlein

It would seem that technology and culture both make the present a good time to be young. The digital tools that are reshaping our economy make more sense to young "digital natives" than to members of older generation, an imbalance of abilities that tips the economic and political scales in favor of young people. Meanwhile, aging boomer parents, rather than pass down a fixed, canonical culture to their kids, encourage a modern-day version of their own rebellion, inviting younger voices to disrupt stodgy cultural continuities.

To Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University, the present is a good time to be young only if you don't mind a tendency toward empty-headedness. In "The Dumbest Generation," he argues that cultural and technological forces, far from opening up an exciting new world of learning and thinking, have conspired to create a level of public ignorance so high as to threaten our democracy.
[Can U Read Kant?]

Adults are so busy imagining the ways that technology can improve classroom learning or improve the public debate that they've blinded themselves to the collective dumbing down that is actually taking place. The kids are using their technological advantage to immerse themselves in a trivial, solipsistic, distracting online world at the expense of more enriching activities – like opening a book or writing complete sentences.

Mr. Bauerlein presents a wealth of data to show that young people, with the aid of digital media, are intensely focusing on themselves, their peers and the present moment. YouTube and MySpace, he says, are revealingly named: These and other top Web destinations are "peer to peer" environments in the sense that their juvenile users have populated them with predictably juvenile content. The sites where students spend most of their time "harden adolescent styles and thoughts, amplifying the discourse of the lunchroom and keg party, not spreading the works of the Old Masters."

If the new hours in front of the computer were subtracting from television time, there might be something encouraging to say about the increasingly interactive quality of youthful diversions. The facts, at least as Mr. Bauerlein marshals them, show otherwise: TV viewing is constant. The printed word has paid a price – from 1981 to 2003, the leisure reading of 15- to 17-year-olds fell to seven minutes a day from 18. But the real action has been in multitasking. By 2003, children were cramming an average of 8½ hours of media consumption a day into just 6½ hours – watching TV while surfing the Web, reading while listening to music, composing text messages while watching a movie.

This daily media binge isn't making students smarter. The National Assessment of Educational Progress has pegged 46% of 12th-graders below the "basic" level of proficiency in science, while only 2% are qualified as "advanced." Likewise in the political arena: Participatory Web sites may give young people a "voice," but their command of the facts is shaky. Forty-six percent of high-school seniors say it's " 'very important' to be an active and informed citizen," but only 26% are rated as proficient in civics. Between 1992 and 2005, the NAEP reported, 12th-grade reading skills dropped dramatically. (As for writing, Naomi Baron, in her recent book, "Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World," cites the NAEP to note that "only 24% of twelfth-graders are 'capable of composing organized, coherent prose in clear language with correct spelling and grammar.' ") Conversation is affected, too. Mr. Bauerlein sums up part of the problem: "The verbal values of adulthood and adolescence clash, and to enter adult conditions, individuals must leave the verbal mores of high school behind. The screen blocks the ascent."

What frustrates Mr. Bauerlein is not these deficits themselves – it's the way a blind celebration of youth, and an ill-informed optimism about technology, have led the public to ignore them. "Over and over," he writes, "commentators stress the mental advance, the learning side over the fun and fantasy side." Steven Johnson, in his best-selling "Everything Bad Is Good for You," describes videogames as "a kind of cognitive workout." Jonathan Fanton of the MacArthur Foundation writes that children have created "communities the size of nations" where they explore "new techniques for personal expression." Such assessments, Mr. Bauerlein argues, are far too charitable.

Mr. Bauerlein contrasts such "evidence-lite enthusiasm" for digital technologies with a weightier learning tradition. He eulogizes New York's City College in the mid-20th century, a book-centered, debate-fostering place where a generation of intellectuals rejected the "sovereignty of youth" in favor of the concerted study of canonical texts and big ideas.

Is there any way of recovering this lost world? Probably not. But the future may be brighter than Mr. Bauerlein allows. No matter how frivolously young people may use digital technology now, a schoolchild's taste for play tells us little about what the next generation of intellectual leaders will do with technology's tools. There are glimmers: The new Amazon book reader may bring the best of predigital life forward into the present, and any number of institutions are (gradually) exploring ways to harness the new communications environment for scholarship, innovation and profit rather than idle enjoyment. In short, the children of future years will learn from their elders how to make the most of digital life just as soon as there are elders in place to offer instruction. The "elders" now don't seem to have a clue.

Mr. Robinson is associate director of Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy, a research center for the study of digital technologies and public life.

I'm a Thief

I stole this from my favorite hobbit after Samwise.

The rules:
Bold what you have read, italicize books you’ve started but couldn’t finish, and strike through books you hated. Add an asterisk* to those you’ve read more than once. Underline those you own but have not read.

The ultimate hitchhiker's guide by Douglas Adams
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The kite runner by Khaled Hosseini
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Life of Pi : a novel by Yann Martel
Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
Crime and punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Vanity fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
Ulysses by James Joyce
War and peace by Leo Tolstoy
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Catch-22 a novel by Joseph Heller
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle I) by Neal Stephenson
A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens
The satanic verses by Salman Rushdie
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books by Azar Nafisi
The name of the rose by Umberto Eco
The Kor'an
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Odyssey by Homer
The Canterbury tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
The historian : a novel by Elizabeth Kostova
Foucault's pendulum by Umberto Eco
Atlas shrugged by Ayn Rand
The history of Tom Jones, a foundling by Henry Fielding
The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The sound and the fury by William Faulkner
The Iliad by Homer
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Emma by Jane Austen*
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Sons and lovers by D.H. Lawrence
Gulliver's travels by Jonathan Swift
The house of the seven gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies by Jared Diamond
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Lady Chatterley's lover by D.H. Lawrence
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius by Dave Eggers
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The once and future king by T. H. White
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
To the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Oryx and Crake : a novel by Margaret Atwood
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed by Jared Diamond
The corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Underworld by Don DeLillo
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
The grapes of wrath by John Steinbeck
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
Jude the obscure by Thomas Hardy
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Tender is the night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A portrait of the artist as a young man by James Joyce
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
The divine comedy by Dante Alighieri
The inferno by Dante Alighieri
Gravity's rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Swann's way by Marcel Proust
The poisonwood Bible : a novel by Barbara Kingsolver
The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay : a novel by Michael Chabon
Sense and sensibility by Jane Austen*
The portrait of a lady by Henry James
Silas Marner by George Eliot
The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The man in the iron mask by Alexandre Dumas
The god of small things by Arundhati Roy
The book thief by Markus Zusak
The confusion by Neal Stephenson
One flew over the cuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The system of the world by Neal Stephenson
The elegant universe : superstrings, hidden dimensions, and… by Brian Greene
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
The known world by Edward P. Jones
The time traveler's wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The mill on the Floss by George Eliot
The English patient by Michael Ondaatje
Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
Dubliners by James Joyce
Les misérables by Victor Hugo
The bonesetter's daughter by Amy Tan
Infinite jest : a novel by David Foster Wallace
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
Beloved : a novel by Toni Morrison
Persuasion by Jane Austen
A clockwork orange by Anthony Burgess
The personal history of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Tropic of cancer by Henry Miller

I haven't read many of these at all. But from the titles, that might be a good thing.

"Not the Mississippi River"

The above words were part of Cardinal Pell's description of TAC's Class of 2008. But, at the same time, he said, they were like the water in the ponds on the lower part of campus -- pure and clear.

I am now officially an incoming freshman. TAC's finals finished on Friday, so all of the freshmen are now sophomores and the seniors are the graduates. August seems so far away, but so close at the same time. I'm excited, nervous, happy, and scared all at the same time. It is amazing the wide variety of emotions one can experience at once without exploding. :)

Another favorite quote from Cardinal Pell's Commencement address: "The young people are meant to bring fire to the Church; we elders are here to ensure that they don't burn it down."

It was an awesome two days spent with friends who live halfway across the country, as well as friends who live close by. There was laughter in abundance and enough food to keep even the boys full. A recipe for success, is it not? And all the while we were surrounded by scenes of the following nature:

Blessed Relief

Not for me...for you! (I don't know if that "you" should be plural, singular, or if this, in affect, is like a diary, which no one but myself reads, and therefore that "you" shouldn't exist)

I'm going to be gone for the next couple of days. Where am I going? To TAC for Mike and Matt's graduation. It also happens to be the occasion for M&M's engagement party. We're getting a nice early start tomorrow and you won't hear from me until at least Sunday. And probably not even Sunday...I might sleep all day :)



...oh, btw, I have a job interview on Monday!

"Fairness, idealism, and other atrocities"

From the LA Times, by P.J. O'Rourke. Very funny :D

Well, here you are at your college graduation. And I know what you're thinking: "Gimme the sheepskin and get me outta here!" But not so fast. First you have to listen to a commencement speech.

Don't moan. I'm not going to "pass the wisdom of one generation down to the next." I'm a member of the 1960s generation. We didn't have any wisdom.

We were the moron generation. We were the generation that believed we could stop the Vietnam War by growing our hair long and dressing like circus clowns. We believed drugs would change everything -- which they did, for John Belushi. We believed in free love. Yes, the love was free, but we paid a high price for the sex.

My generation spoiled everything for you. It has always been the special prerogative of young people to look and act weird and shock grown-ups. But my generation exhausted the Earth's resources of the weird. Weird clothes -- we wore them. Weird beards -- we grew them. Weird words and phrases -- we said them. So, when it came your turn to be original and look and act weird, all you had left was to tattoo your faces and pierce your tongues. Ouch. That must have hurt. I apologize.

So now, it's my job to give you advice. But I'm thinking: You're finishing 16 years of education, and you've heard all the conventional good advice you can stand. So, let me offer some relief:

1. Go out and make a bunch of money!

Here we are living in the world's most prosperous country, surrounded by all the comforts, conveniences and security that money can provide. Yet no American political, intellectual or cultural leader ever says to young people, "Go out and make a bunch of money." Instead, they tell you that money can't buy happiness. Maybe, but money can rent it.

There's nothing the matter with honest moneymaking. Wealth is not a pizza, where if I have too many slices you have to eat the Domino's box. In a free society, with the rule of law and property rights, no one loses when someone else gets rich.

2. Don't be an idealist!

Don't chain yourself to a redwood tree. Instead, be a corporate lawyer and make $500,000 a year. No matter how much you cheat the IRS, you'll still end up paying $100,000 in property, sales and excise taxes. That's $100,000 to schools, sewers, roads, firefighters and police. You'll be doing good for society. Does chaining yourself to a redwood tree do society $100,000 worth of good?

Idealists are also bullies. The idealist says, "I care more about the redwood trees than you do. I care so much I can't eat. I can't sleep. It broke up my marriage. And because I care more than you do, I'm a better person. And because I'm the better person, I have the right to boss you around."

Get a pair of bolt cutters and liberate that tree.

Who does more for the redwoods and society anyway -- the guy chained to a tree or the guy who founds the "Green Travel Redwood Tree-Hug Tour Company" and makes a million by turning redwoods into a tourist destination, a valuable resource that people will pay just to go look at?

So make your contribution by getting rich. Don't be an idealist.

3. Get politically uninvolved!

All politics stink. Even democracy stinks. Imagine if our clothes were selected by the majority of shoppers, which would be teenage girls. I'd be standing here with my bellybutton exposed. Imagine deciding the dinner menu by family secret ballot. I've got three kids and three dogs in my family. We'd be eating Froot Loops and rotten meat.

But let me make a distinction between politics and politicians. Some people are under the misapprehension that all politicians stink. Impeach George W. Bush, and everything will be fine. Nab Ted Kennedy on a DUI, and the nation's problems will be solved.

But the problem isn't politicians -- it's politics. Politics won't allow for the truth. And we can't blame the politicians for that. Imagine what even a little truth would sound like on today's campaign trail:

"No, I can't fix public education. The problem isn't the teachers unions or a lack of funding for salaries, vouchers or more computer equipment The problem is your kids!"

4. Forget about fairness!

We all get confused about the contradictory messages that life and politics send.

Life sends the message, "I'd better not be poor. I'd better get rich. I'd better make more money than other people." Meanwhile, politics sends us the message, "Some people make more money than others. Some are rich while others are poor. We'd better close that 'income disparity gap.' It's not fair!"

Well, I am here to advocate for unfairness. I've got a 10-year-old at home. She's always saying, "That's not fair." When she says this, I say, "Honey, you're cute. That's not fair. Your family is pretty well off. That's not fair. You were born in America. That's not fair. Darling, you had better pray to God that things don't start getting fair for you." What we need is more income, even if it means a bigger income disparity gap.

5. Be a religious extremist!

So, avoid politics if you can. But if you absolutely cannot resist, read the Bible for political advice -- even if you're a Buddhist, atheist or whatever. Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those people who believes that God is involved in politics. On the contrary. Observe politics in this country. Observe politics around the world. Observe politics through history. Does it look like God's involved?

The Bible is very clear about one thing: Using politics to create fairness is a sin. Observe the Tenth Commandment. The first nine commandments concern theological principles and social law: Thou shalt not make graven images, steal, kill, et cetera. Fair enough. But then there's the tenth: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."

Here are God's basic rules about how we should live, a brief list of sacred obligations and solemn moral precepts. And, right at the end of it we read, "Don't envy your buddy because he has an ox or a donkey." Why did that make the top 10? Why would God, with just 10 things to tell Moses, include jealousy about livestock?

Well, think about how important this commandment is to a community, to a nation, to a democracy. If you want a mule, if you want a pot roast, if you want a cleaning lady, don't whine about what the people across the street have. Get rich and get your own.

Now, one last thing:

6. Don't listen to your elders!

After all, if the old person standing up here actually knew anything worth telling, he'd be charging you for it.

P.J. O'Rourke, a correspondent for the Weekly Standard and the Atlantic, is the author, most recently, of "On The Wealth of Nations." A longer version of this article appears in Change magazine, which reports on trends and issues in higher education

Tuesday...

It isn't quite raining. The ground has been wet all day...it isn't getting more wet or less wet, at least from my viewpoint. I suppose from the ground's point of view it is getting more wet. It is just getting wet at such a slow speed that it isn't accumulating into puddles before it evaporates again.

These days a perfect for thinking. The sunny outdoors aren't present and therefore not tempting me to "frolic." Not that I don't enjoy this weather...but it is especially nice when you can observe it from under a blanket on the couch.

It is also the perfect type of day for cleaning. One cannot procrastinate indefinitely. So we cleaned some of the house. I personally scrubbed two of the bathrooms into a state of shininess, vacuumed out the book baskets, and sterilized the kitchen. Mom did lots of dusting and laundry. We have been at it for hours, and we get to do more tomorrow. But since the forecast is predicting similar weather for the rest of the week, I'm sure I'll get it done. And enjoy it to. Because I have enjoyed today's cleaning spurt.

There is something satisfactory about making something that was dirty all clean and new again. I have been told that that feeling is an indicator of OCD, but I don't think so. Nor do I think that I should be put in a museum, as on of L.M. Montgomery's characters once stated. I think there is something that appeals to us in the fact that something can be "resurrected" as it were. Some inanimate object, through the effort of either other inanimate objects (such as a dishwasher) or animate ones (such as this lowly bagel) becomes new. A new start, almost. A mini spring time. How much more can we be made squeaky clean? We, in our fallen state, get "dirty", some more often than others and to varying degrees. But we have Someone more powerful than even the most potent cleaning agent available in the market to give us a new start. And He wants to give the new start to us. And many want that new start.

Maybe I'm being way too philosophical about scrubbing burnt food off of stoves. But maybe not. After all, we are made in the image and likeness of our Creator, are we not? Since we take satisfaction in making our own material things clean and marvelous again, could we not assume that He takes pleasure in making His possessions clean too?

Job Applications

I'm getting really good at this whole job application thing. To date, I have applied to the following places:

Catholic Answers
People-Trak
Midland Animal Clinic
Cars Automotive
Jamba Juice
Stein Mart
Henry's
Chipotle
Jo-Ann's
Kohl's
Sears
In-N-Out
Vons

It isn't as frightening when you do it over and over again. I just hope I can stop doing it soon. :D

Crazy Weekend!

But good, all the same.

Saturday was Becca's Confirmation. It took place at the 5:00 Mass but all of the candidates and sponsors had to be there at 3:30. It ended up being a ridiculously long wait, but it gave me a good opportunity to talk to a CAP cadet who is in my brother's squadron. He was also getting confirmed that day. I'm easy for cadets to talk to as I know all of the lingo used in CAP. He could complain about the incompetency of A1Cs and I knew exactly what he was talking about. The concept of "flight sergeant" was one that was known to me, so he didn't have to give me a translation. We spent a solid 30 minutes talking about CAP, which was fun for me. Otherwise, in all honesty, I would have been bored silly.

The head bishop of our diocese offered the Mass for us. He is a very nice, very conservative bishop. He does, however, have a bit of a "canned" homily that he gives at Confirmations. Since I have been to several, what he says has become very familiar. Not that that is a bad thing. With a brain like mine, it is nice to hear things repeatedly. Helps it stick.

Today was a First Communion for a little boy whose baptism I actually remember! There are finally kids who are at that age. I was old enough at the baptism to actually remember the First Communion now. There have been quite a few where that was not the case. The family hosted a very nice party afterwards. There were a lot of people there, but it actually wasn't that chaotic. They have a nice backyard with lots of room to roam, so the kiddies could spread out. Besides, outside noise is always less aggravating than inside noise. Myself and two other girls amused ourselves by giving each other new names. But not just any names -- boy names. It is kind of a long story, but suffice it to say that my new name is Balthazar Aaron. And I am a lilac. It is amazing what a little sugar can do to a few teenage brains.

It was a tiring weekend, but it was nice. I didn't get any pictures...I was too lazy, I suppose. And even if I don't remember any particulars, I'll remember that it was an overall pleasant weekend. :)

Earnestly Retreating

I'm calling it a mini-retreat. Technically, it was an "Evening of Reflection." For Becca's Confirmation.

We arrived at the Church a little after 4:30 pm. The evening was supposed to begin at five with Adoration and Benediction with Mass following at 5:30. But since they have Perpetual Adoration at this particular church on Fridays, we got almost a whole hour in with the King of Kings.

Mass was wonderful...as usual. It was my second Mass of the day, which I tend to enjoy especially. It really gives the readings an opportunity to sink in and take hold of your soul. The priest also gave an excellent homily.

After Mass we went "downstairs" to a room filled with chairs and, soon enough, young people. Being the typical youth group type event that it was, there were some interesting antics going on during the talks and activities. The part that moved them the most? The food. It got them excited and out of their seats quicker than anything :D

The rehearsal was...interesting. Teenagers don't seem to be able to follow directions effectively. Thus, we practiced and practiced and practiced. There will probably be some catastrophe today with the actual Confirmation, but newly filled with the Holy Spirit, the confirmandee can't stray too far.

Then the most awkward moment of the day came at the end. We did affirmation prayer for all of the candidates. They knelt on the step below the sanctuary and all of the sponsors and adults went around and laid hands upon their shoulders. We were supposed to pray for the person either quietly or in our heads and we went all the way around. So every sponsor laid hands on ever candidate. It took a long time, and the candidates were kneeling on the cold, hard, unforgiving stone step. It was also more than a little awkward for my part -- I only knew 3 of the people there (two of them very vaguely) and all of the other guys and girls were total strangers. The guys presented more of a problem. There was a whole section of them who wouldn't stop snickering. Made it more uncomfortable than the touching strange guys issue did. Nice concept, but very, very awkward.

This evening is the Confirmation. Please pray for the candidates as they receive the Holy Spirit and start their journey as soldiers of Christ.

Beyond Adjectives

I can't even think where to begin in describing this book to you. "1001 Ways to be Romantic" is a book that surpasses everything cheesy and over-the-top. So I thought it would be fun to share some excerpts with you :)

On wedding gifts: Plan ahead -- way ahead! Get a friend to buy fifty of the top magazines and newspapers that are on the newsstand on your wedding day. Pack them safely away and present them to your partner -- on your twenty-fifth wedding anniversary!

My comment: cool idea, but 50? A little excessive in my opinion. Maybe one or two...

With Hershey's Kisses: Remove all the little paper strips (that say "Kisses" on them) from a couple hundred Hershey's Kisses. Fill a little jewelry box with them. Wrap 'em up and present them to her.

My comment: WASTE OF TIME. Guys, don't bother.

Then a whole section entitled "A Month of Romance" with an idea for ever day. Excerpts: After you say goodbye, turn back one more time and blow her a kiss. Send loving thought to your lover via mental telepathy. But a lottery ticket; give it to her with a little note attached, "I hit the jackpot when I married you!"

My comment: I, personally, would just laugh at the guy who did the first on. Mental telepathy? why not call or email? and on the last one, it's just cheesy.

And then a subject which one is allowed a little creativity, but some of these are slightly excessive.
Engagement ideas: Sky banner proposals, custom jigsaw proposals, video taped proposals (the point???), Telegrammed proposals, using lit candles to spell out "will you marry me?", painting the proposal on the roof and then taking her flying (!!!). The winner for the most quirky: giftwrapping a stack of twelve bridal magazines and say, "You're going to need these!"
Some cool ones, though: hiding the ring in an unblossomed rose. When it blooms, there's a lovely surprise inside! or, for the business student type, apply for the job of "husband". In other words, write a resume outlining your goals, your desirable qualities, your qualifications, and your relevant experience

I thought these were fun! Any ideas or stranger things you've heard of? Romance is a strange world to navigate...but I don't know if these books actually help. This particular one is going to be relegated to the recycling bin shortly.