Zen Love

An interesting love thought from my Zen book.

The man made of wood starts to sing.
The woman made of stone starts to dance.
This cannot happen through learning or logic.
Tung - Shan

DylanHand

The latest picture of Dylan and his 'hand'. His latest measurements 3lbs. 15oz and 19 inches.

Quote of the Day

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb. Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

The way of the Cross - Rome

Here is a view of the "way of the cross" as celebrated in Rome. The walk simulates representations of the stations of the cross. Apparently the walk traditionally takes place in Jerusalem, but the scene is amazing here at the coliseum in Rome.

John Edwards Podcast

This is an interesting podcast from the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2004. I guess he's sitting in his kitchen talking with his wife. Still political but, interesting.

Baby Dylan

Baby Dylan is having an operation today, please keep him in your thoughts. There's also a few new updates on his website.

What an Alarm Clock

Clocky is a little clock for people who have trouble waking up. When the alarm goes off and the snooze button is pressed, Clocky will roll off the bedside table, run away and hide. Minutes later when the alarm goes off, the sleeper must get up and look for clocky. Clocky is kind of like a troublesome pet that you love anyway. Everyday he finds a new hiding spot.

Zen thought of the Day

Here's a good one to ponder

It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom
Shunryu Suzuki

Easter

Christian and Faith look so excited with their Easter gifts from Grammy. I know Isaac, Denise and I enjoyed the cascarones the best. We didn't get any pictures, but I can't wait to see pictures of the Broughs throwing their eggs.

Quote of the Day

I find this to be especially at my work, often the least considered issue causes the most problems.

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001), Mostly Harmless

Spring Break

We had a tremendous time on Spring Break with Isaac. The list of activities goes on and on. Here's a picture we took at the Austin Rodeo with Shrek. I'm not sure he's the original troll cowboy, but we had a fun time. Thank you Grammy and Grandma for all the good times.

Joke of the Week

Three guys walk into a bar...

Don't you think at least one of them should have ducked.

RPS Rock, Paper, Scissors

I taught Isaac Rock, Paper, Scissors last night. After he understood more of the logic, he wanted to play for more than 30 minutes. Very entertaining time!

I found a professional rock, paper, scissors web site, attempting to bring "... order to the chaos". Our game wasn't quite this profound, but we had a grand time.

Mt. Saint Helens

SPOKANE, WASHINGTON - Mount St. Helens in Washington state has erupted, sending a plume of steam and ash 7,600 metres into the air. Here's a webcam of the volcano.

A new Blessing

Denise and my friends Stacy and Jason had a new boy Dylan on Tuesday, March 1, 2005. He was nearly two months early, weighing in at 2 lbs 13 oz. They're all working very hard right now.

Another Love Quote

A love quote from the interesting Father Roderick in his CatholicInsider podcast sound seeing tour. I believe he gets this quote from some French philosopher comparing magnitudes of size. This guy is an odd assortment of religion, philosophy, and technology, he gets his daily prayers off his PDA.

Love gives us our place in this world between what is infinitely small and what is infinitely big.

New Home Applications

At work we use APIs as a development interface into someone else's program. This lets me have control over Microsoft Office applications, for example, from my program.

Here's a weather company that is developing a weather API through a web service. So now I could write an application which turns on the thermostat or sprinkler depending on the local weather conditions. How cool is that!

Aim High

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood...Make big plans, aim high in hope and work.

Daniel H. Burnham (1846 - 1912)

Writing Poem

I was again discussing with a colleuge, the value of writing. Why not just teach our children to type? They will certainly use it more. Isaac types his own name very quickly, but is still perfecting the small motor coordination necessary to write it. Here's a poetic argument.

Writing

The cursive crawl, the squared-off characters
these by themselves delight, even without
a meaning, in a foreign language, in
Chinese, for instance, or when skaters curve
all day across the lake, scoring their white
records in ice. Being intelligible,
these winding ways with their audacities
and delicate hesitations, they become
miraculous, so intimately, out there
at the pen's point or brush's tip, do world
and spirit wed. The small bones of the wrist
balance against great skeletons of stars
exactly; the blind bat surveys his way
by echo alone. Still, the point of style
is character. The universe induces
a different tremor in every hand, from the
check-forger's to that of the Emperor
Hui Tsung, who called his own calligraphy
the 'Slender Gold.' A nervous man
writers nervously of a nervous world, and so on.

Miraculous. It is as thought the world
were a great writing. Having said so much,
let us allow there is more to the world
than writing: continental faults are not
bare convoluted fissures in the brain.
Not only must the skaters soon go home;
also the hard inscription of their skates
is scored across the open water, which long
remembers nothing, neither wind nor wake.

Catholic Insider

Check out this podcast of a sound seeing tour dutch priest. In this tour, he visits the catacombs of Rome, where the early Christian's were buried. It looks like many interesting tours on his site.

Love what you do (quote of the day)

Katharine Graham: "To love what you do and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?"

I think this includes parenting and loving also (love loving).

Kool-Aid

An article regarding a conversation Mom and I had on the phone the other day.

New Brough

Sounds like a Bernstein Bear line. Everything's looking good so far.

New Word for Me

Ad hominem. Maybe Michael is familiar with this one. I saw it in this interesting quote on a weblog.

I tune out the ad hominems. Try to argue, instead, by complimenting the intelligence and ethics of the person who opposes your viewpoint. Try to understand where they're coming from, and show that you understand. ... Each of us has a different point of view. That someone sees it differently is a good thing, emphatically, it is not a personality flaw.