The Wedding

Father Vito Perrone married Kevin and Nichole yesterday afternoon at the Saint Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church, Pleasanton, CA.

A caveat lector. There won't be any fashion statements and related subjects described in this blog.

The modern cavernous santuary of Saint Elizabeth Seton is well lit with natural light and lacking the artistic heritage traditionally found in the older majestic cathedrals.

The pews faced each other in the worship space. The bride and grooms families and guests seated respectively on one side or the other of the pews. The wedding party and Father Perrone occupied the open area in the middle of the santuary.

The wedding ceremony from the Entrance Processional to the Nuptial Blessing lasted about an hour. The very first hour together for Kevin and Nichole as one on a life time journey of happiness and tears.

For this guest, the definitive moment of a new beginning came after the exchange of vows and when Kevin and Nichole honored their parents. The newlywed couple took roses to the two sets of parents sat facing each other. The bride's parents were the first honored. They murmured and embraced. Then the young couple came to honor the groom's parents. I sat behind the groom's parents on the second row. Nichole's eyes welled with tears as she approached and embraced her parents-in-law. I saw the joyful tears of a new self and sad tears of separation from the old.

On 29 January, 2005, a part of life for Nichole and Kevin closed for ever and a new one began.

Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. -- Matthew 19:6 (KJV)

Lost in Cyberspace

I sent two separate observations on the wedding yesterday. Both messages were sent on the iPAQ using a local wireless connection at the golf club house. They have not been posted as of this writing. Today I sent another test post from home. Nada. All three submissions have not been rejected, however. Something is going on with the Blogger server.

If the posts don't get published sometime today, I will do a replacement.

Orange and Yellow

There was this man in Paris who almost got away with stealing several paintings from the Louvre. After planning the crime, getting in and out past security, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas.

When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then made such an obvious error, he replied, "Monsieur, I had no Monet to buy Degas* to make the Van Gogh."

You thought I lacked De Gaulle to tell a story like this! Well, I did.

And speaking of artists, it was Van Gogh who articulated there is no blue without yellow or orange.

My orange and lemon trees are tempermental this year. There won't be many navel oranges and Meyer lemons to harvest this season. I have to draw the line somewhere.

If they get their act together for one last try this season, all will be forgiven. The request was if they would see the way Van Gogh did with colors, we can make blue. When they heard what I said, there was nary a quiver in their collective branches. Both gave me a noncommittal stare of silence.

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament. There will be blue sky at Kevin's wedding today afterall. The orange and lemon trees are artist-extraordinaire. They would make Van Gogh proud.

*The correct pronunciation for Degas is "day-gaw". For the purpose of the joke, it is pronounced as de-gas.

Raining and Good News

This blog is sent from the HP-iPAQ 5550 using a WLAN.

If it were raining soup, the Irish would go out with forks. So mused Irish poet/dramatist, Brendan Behan. It is raining now, but it ain't soup. Thunderstorm is expected later this afternoon.

Just checked the email here at work. Good news. The groom's father found someone else to do the camcorder duty.

A Wedding I Will Go

My cousin Kevin marries his fiancée Nichole this Saturday. The grooms's Dad, Emma's grandfather, asked me earlier this evening to do some candid movie of the event using his Sony camcorder.

Camcorders are battery hogs. I am sure there won't be a full complement of accessories and extra batteries to go with this camcorder at the wedding. We shall see.

Character

Irish: I shall be on hiatus for awhile.
He: How are the new glasses coming along.

Irish: They should be ready soon.
He: Adversity does not build character. It reveals it.

Irish: You are talking to an Irish.
He: Just the same, given what you've been through.

Irish: Slán go fóill.
He: Take care, lad. Go n-éirí an bóthar leat.

Neighborhood's Been Tee Pee-ed

Two nights ago, streets in our neighborhood were tee pee-ed by some kids or teenagers.* It was rather an amusing site to see the effect of the vandalism in the morning. Anyway, all the neighbors pitched in to clear up the mess. No harm resulted to either property or persons. The whole thing was more of a nuisance than anything else.

*Sorry. The method of this particular act of vandalism will not be described if the reader does not know what it is.

A Lesson in Winter

Here in the Centrai Valley we have been waking up to grey dawns and cold misty fog for the last three weeks. Each day the damp grey sky drapes sullenly over us, chafing our sense and sensibility. How we all long for the prodigal sun to return.

One should be thankful there is winter, regardless. It is winter that nips away the arrogance of our youth and reminds us the fragile presumptions of our lives. It is also winter that amplifies the new hope awaits us when turning over a new leaf in the coming spring.

On George W. Bush 2nd Presidential Inaugural

A fitting saying by another Republican President on W's second inaugural.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." --Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, (1901-09)

Circle of Life

The Chang Jiang River hind waves pressing forward
A new generation succeeding the old
-- an aphorism of Middle Kingdom (L'Envoi translation)

"Where did they get these people?"
I have been muttering this familiar refrain ever since a junior grade intern with a bachelor in Criminal Justice temporary assigned to our division. He has been with our team for three weeks.

When he arrived at work today, we engaged in another session talking about an assignment for the third times in as many days.

I shuddered at the thought of my singing an introspective refrain from the "Mame" movie soundtrack at Richard's leaving:

"Should I blame the times I pampered him,
Or blame the times I bossed him;
What a shame!
I never really found the boy,
Before I lost him..."

Nah.

A Love Story

It's 2:10 AM Monday morning. I just got out of the shower. This thought about Emma's parents came to mind for some reason. Emma had a birthday party a week ago. Her parents are in their early thirtysomething. Boris and Terri are college graduates doing hi-tech work in the Silicon Valley.

When they were in junior high school, Boris pledged to Terri one day he will marry her. He did.

I would like to think there are still men like Boris in the world.

Resignation from a Civic Organization

About five minutes ago I submitted a letter of resignation as a non-paying board member to a local community concert organization. My plans have changed this year, and I won't be able to complete my appointment as intended.

The fun and experience working with this organization and its civic minded citizens I shall remember and carry with me.

Parce que c'était lui, Parce que c'était moi

She: My heart flutters and my mind goes to a thousand directions.
He: Spring comes early this year.

She: You know what I've been through. I still remember what you said the other day.
He: What did I say?

She: Love is short, forgetting is long.
He: You like him?

She: I have not felt so alive for a long time. I like him.
He: He has your attention it seems.

She: Because it is he. Yes.
He: 'Parce que c'était lui, Parce que c'était moi' *

She: Pardon me. Sometimes you say the strangest things I don't understand.
He: I was thinking aloud something Montaigne once said.

She: I am still fathoming love. How I am feeling about him now, is that love?
He: It could be.

She: How will I know?
He: Desire is not love.

She: I admit I am the grasshopper. Don't be so patronizing and clinical. Please get to the point
He: In real love you want the other person's goodness. In romance, you want the person.

She: The many potteries I made in class have nothing in them. I don't want to collect anymore empty yesterdays.
He: Love has a certain inborn suffering to it, you know.

She: Oh, puh-lease... Then again, that's why I like talking with you.

*Because it was him, because it was me

First Mocha, Now Diamond

This blog is the continuing saga of the neighbors' pets. It's a new chapter following the blog on Mocha the cat. This time it is Diamond, the dog. He belongs to Natalie, the other neighbor.

Diamond is a latecomer to Natalie's Animal Shelter (Natalie and son have 5 dogs, 2 cats, 1 turtle and... who knows what else). Being the low dog on the totem pole, Diamond works hard to earn his Kibbles. He barks at anyone and any noise to demonstrate to the chatelaine his understanding of the territorial imperative. The other canines, I am sure, have called him a "silly boy" for making all the fuzz. You see, those other dogs hardly ever bark, except in the event of hearing the wailing siren in the distance. Only then does one hear the poorest imitation of the dog chorus from The Lady and the Tramp.

I shall devise a plan to put Diamond through L'Envoi's Canine Obedience School, covertly, of course. Shhhhhhh.

Julie Andrews Was Right

"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."
-- Carl Sagan, Astronomer, Writer, Philosopher (1934 - 1996)

"If the universe came into being out of nothing without a creator, why not the apple pie?"
-- L'Envoi, Blogger

A blogger who frequents this blog commented on Carl Sagan's view of life, with the latter having said in his Cosmos: "The cosmos is all there is, or was, or ever will be." This is existentialism at its best.

The blogger questions Sagan's world view as does this writer.

One of Carl Sagan's celebrated fictional works is Contact (1985). It was made into a film in 1997. This film is about SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). The movie raises the questions of life, science, and faith. In the ironic end, it is the scientist-protaganist Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) who asks the Congressioanl committe to believe her "contacting" an alien race by faith without evidence. (Actually, there was circumstantial evidence collected she might have made contact with the aliens. The evidence was suppressed because of a religious-political agenda.)

The crux of this Sagan vehicle is this: science is the only truth, faith impedes or stifles truth. This movie is the key to understand Sagan's philosophical bent.

The other side of the Sagan science coin is this philosophy: life and civilizations on earth are only some of the many products spawned by the cosmic conscious. We humans are made of "star stuff." Other star-stuff life forms, heretofore not discovered, are equally possible and plausible. Nothing ever existed or will exist separates from the cosmos, and yet every individual entity is unique. God is the cosmos.

Two years before his death, in his Pale Blue Dot (Random House 1994) Sagan makes his final construct for a new meaning of existence. First, he argues religion, Christianity in particular, is a fraud. God is concocted by the ancients to place man as the centrality of the universe. He claims science has enlightened us what the real universe is. Starting with the Copernican Revolution, science has dethroned the centrality of man and earth. Scientific endeavors are the new centrality of our existence. The new paradigm is to look to the source. Space exploration and colonization of the cosmos, our starry roots, is the only way to develop anew meaning of our existence on this pale blue dot and beyond.

It should be noted, on the one hand he is demoting the importance of mankind and earth. Yet on the other, he is exalting atheistic scientists as the high priests and oracles for our salvation on this planet. They will lead mankind out of the geocentric wilderness into a higher plane of actualization and fullfilment.

A favorite movie of this writer is David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Students of geopolitics and business management should see this film. An insightful and succinct dialog opens the second half of the movie. In this short exchange, the reporter Bentley, advised the Arab leader Feisal, to be leary of the design the British General Allenby had in mind for the good of Arabia.

Bentley: Watch out for Allenby. He's a slim customer.
Feisal: Excuse me?
Bentley: A clever man.
Feisal: 'Slim customer.' It's very good. I will certainly watch out for him...

Sagan's credential as an astronomer, author, and orator has won him acccolades many times around the world. His contribution to the educating of the public on science and astronomy was renown. Carl Sagan's legacy is still reverberating in the halls of secular academia for a deeper reason. He has certified the validity and raised the stature of atheistic naturalism. Sagan is the first scientific materialistic god showing the way to the heavens.

The famous agnostic philosopher, Bertrand Russell, once posted this dilemma: Either the world had a beginning, or it did not. If it did not, it did not need a cause (God). If it did, we can ask, "Who caused God?" But if God has a cause, he is not God. In either case, we do not arrive at the first uncaused cause (God). Carl Sagan says this kind of question is futile and useless in the cosmic scheme of things. His be all end all answer - to the delight of the atheists - God is Cosmos. Sagan is a slim customer, indeed.

Cleverness does not mean correct or convincing. The thorn in the side of the atheist scientists, includining Sagan, has always been the First Law of Thermodynamics.

The First Law of Thermodynamics (Enthalpy), when restated in simple English, says, "energy can neither be created nor destroyed." The cosmos is energy. It obeys this first law. The cosmos can not "Big Banged" out of nothing. Carl Sagan has castigated religion, specifically Christianity. To him it is a grand deceit. God does not exist, and therefore, no First Cause. There is no other alternative position for Sagan but for him to say the cosmos came into being from nothing. Julie Andrews has soothingly reminded us, however, "Nothing came from nothing. Nothing ever could."

To say "The cosmos is all there is, or was, or ever will be" then, is a philosophical statement. Such statement is not based on scientific observation nor conjecture, much less a scientific conclusion. It's Carl Sagan and his proponents' subjective truth. When truth is subjective, it is existentialsm.

For the sake argument, let's say Christianity is invalid. It is a subjective truth created by the ancients, according to Sagan. Then, how can Sagan's subjective truth of the "star stuff" be the real truth over the First Cause truth? It can't. (It is beyond the scope of this commentary to discuss the 'First Cause' and 'Who Made God?')

Furthermore, the existentialist Sagan stresses, that our essence is not held hostage by geocentricty. We need to be emancipated from religion and other mind sets. We are to certify our existence. The way to authenticate our existence is by going back to the roots "out there" to the stars. Only then can we be in touched with our true cosmic potential. A new world order shall arise and free from the tyranny of geocentricity.

The problem, of course, is how do we know when we get "there"? This subjective truth can never be objectively certified. This Sagan authentication of the cosmic-person-self is an epitome of existentialsm contradiction. As Gertude Stein once opined about Oakland, California, for being so an unremarkable a place, "there is no 'there' there."

Therefore, the Cosmos-to-Pale Blue Dot version of heaven renders the existentialist Carl Sagan incapable of evincing his believes to others. Just like his movie creation, Sagan, the Dr. Arroway of our pale blue dot, is asking others to place faith in his truth. If truth is subjective, how could this writer or any other knows what Sagan says is true? If one can't objectively evaluated the truth of the matter, why take a leap of faith into his truth?

Scientists, in particular astronomers and astro-physicists, are very good with numbers and estimates. If the situation applies, they can crunch real and theoretical variables such as distance and time down to the angstrom and nanosecond with smugness. The only equitable thing in Carl Sagan's orbit which he shares with the average person is the number of hours in a day. All live and breath 24 hours a day as does this writer. What we learn and do in between the breathing lessons determine our character. We take nothing from this world but our character into eternity.

These are some of Carl Sagan's last words spoken on his last days "...Many of them have asked me how it is possible to face death without the certainty of an afterlife. I can only say that it hasn't been a problem. With reservations about feeble souls, I share the view of a hero of mine, Albert Einstein: I cannot conceive of a god who rewards and punishes his creatures or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I, nor would I want to, conceive of an individual that survives his physical death. Let feeble souls, from fear for absurd egotism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoting striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

Carl Sagan's has given his answer. His only comfort in life and now in death was in himself, and never in the Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now this down to earth question: If the probability that God exists and God does not exist is p=.50 (i.e. half and half), which would one choose?

----
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (New International Version):

11 He has made everything appropriate in its time.
He has also set eternity in their heart,
yet so that man will not find out the work
which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

----
Isaiah 55:8-11 (New International Version):

8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.

9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Blessed Assurance

8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.

9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;

10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear (revere) him;

12 as far as the east is from the west,

(Psalm 103:8-12 New International Version)

Emma's Birthday

Today is my niece Emma Burtin's first birthday. She is the first child and the only grandchild to both sides of her parents' families. The Burtins threw a big birthday luncheon banquet in Sunnyvale. This was a shindig by invitations only. An nine-course sumptuous meal and birthday cake were served to 80+ relatives and friends.

At my table, I met some hi-tech colleagues of the Burtins and the family's attorney-friend of 40 years, "RC". I practically spent the entire meal talking with a grandmother from Cleveland, Ohio, who went by an uncommon name of "Marose".

It was not all that sunny to and from the party though. Relatively speaking, we Californians are now in the winter of our discontent. This, too, shall pass. Weather wise, we will gripe about something else soon enough.

The childhood season is brief, Emma. May you always carry this precious time with you as you grow. With it, you'll always be young at heart.

It is a Guy Thing

Almost a month ago last December, I wrote about my WLAN in 66_2/3% Solution not issuing an IP address to my IPAQ 5550. Two days ago, I reset the Linksys router and had it's power supply connected to an automatic voltage regulator battery back-up unit. This battery unit was a Christmas gift to myself. Among other things, it was purchased with the BestBuy store coupons I was rewarded in October 2004. The IPAQ is once more linked up to the router and the Internet.

Truth to tell, I really don't need all these wireless gismos at home. Since the agency has provided me such an expensive toy, I might as well get it linked to the Internet.

Now, the IPAQ built-in Bluetooth technology is the only thing left I've not tried to make it work. Some female would probably say to me regarding this, "You don't need it." Guys don't say this to each other.

Whenever a she questions my motives and sanity, my fail-safe answer is to plead guilty to the character fault of the male of the species. The ticket for a safe passage is confess to the inquisitor, "It's a guy thing."

Tango Me

Scenes at a dancing studio:

She: I am here for a refresher course
He: I am sorry. Do you have a lesson appointment today?
She: No. But I'd like one now.

He: It's not our business policy to let space and resource unannounced.
She: I will double your studio fee for just one refresher lesson.
He: You are very determined. What's the hurry?

She: Because I want to.
He: Now, why didn't I notice that when you walked in.
She: Are we going to stand here and talk?

He: One refresher lesson?
She: One lesson.
He: What is your pleasure?

She:Por Una Cabeza
He: Wait a moment. You are in luck. The tango instructor is in the next studio doing some choreographic sequences. I'll go get him.
She: I want you.

He: Tito is a much better Tango instructor than I.
She: I know. You'll do fine.
He: This way then.

*** The Por Una Cabeza starts and the lesson begins ***

Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapShe: Do you like my perfume?
He: Your scent is refreshing and is much appreciated here in the studio.
She: You aren't bad looking yourself, Arnold. Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapHe: You think I look like Schwarzenegger. I think you should concentrate on the lesson.
She: I think the Tango is the best metaphore for lovers. Don't you think? Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapHe: I don't doubt it.
She: Is that so? Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapHe: It is all because how the man and woman tangles.
She: Very funny. Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapHe: That is what this is. A very sensual and provocative dance. Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapShe: If you let it. Didn't you tell me when I start learnng the tango, the dance takes two minds to merge as one, to achieve fluid movement? And that each leg and each hand fits into what the other legs and hands are doing in order for the two to function as a single body. One body, two people and moreover, the opposite sex...
Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapHe: Ero makes promises. Lust is often confused as love. Would you mind not embracing me so closely? It's the studio policy. Thank you.
She: You think you are so smart. You don't have a clue in what I said about the Tango.
Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapHe: We teach dancing. What our customers do with it is their business.
She: The soul of the tango is the dancers. Better yet, if the dancers are lovers and married. It's a dance of affection, not temptation, for married couples. Hold me closer.
He: I think the distance between us now is fine.
Facing each other Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapShe: Tell me, what other dances, with the couple embracing, looking into each other's eyes, or looking away with both facing the same direction?
He: I can't think of one at the moment.
She: What kind of dancing teacher are you anyway? There is none.
Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapHe: What's you point?
She: Face to face as I am now looking at you, gazing at my lover with love like the morning rises, warming his soul. He mine.
Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapHe: I see.
She: That's not funny.
He: I am sorry. It wasn't meant as a pun.
Dancing facing one direction.Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapShe: We embrace each other in the dance, yes. But we embrace what is between us, and leave no room for shadows. Hello?
He: Sorry. Thinking. What is your metaphore for the turning of the heads?
Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapShe: Tito said, to be able to dance tangos the dancers must complement one another, they must cooperate with one another. If they compete, if they fail to collaborate, it is impossible for them to dance, or at least to dance well.
He: Tito knows what he is talking about.
Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapShe: Love is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction. The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but hold hands and dancing cheek to cheek, like Fred and Ginger, as it were.
He: Oh, brother. Did he tell you that too? Ouch! You kicked me.
_TapTap__TapShe: My husband and I are two wings of the same soul.
He: I think he is. I don't doubt it. But why are you telling me all these things about eyes, embrace, Fred and Ginger?
Tap__Tap_TapTap__TapShe:Today is our anniversary, silly. I knew you have forogtten about it. Haven't you?
He: Uh oh. I am so sorry, sweetheart. Forgive me. I have totally forgotten about it.
She: You are forgiven. If you could come home earlier that would be great. Our parents are taking us to dinner.

*** dancing stops ***
He: I didn't get you any anniversary gift.
She: All I want from you is to tango with me tonight. My way.
He: I will tango with you till the end of time. Your way. I love you.
She: I know you do. L'amore fa passare il tempo.

Chiefs and Indians

Today, there is a new Assistant Chief position added to the org chart. This addition will give us one Chief, two Assistant Chiefs, and three Deputy Chiefs. The fun and speculations begin as how these six chiefs are to manage the tribe. So the natives are restless tonight. Not this brave.

As staff to one of the current assistant chief, nothing changes for me. I am still an Indian with one feather. Unlike other braves, I seldom go on warpaths. I eat well and sleep well most of the times. With the tepee under the stars, a simple life is for me.

Engage

"Why is this server running at 100% CPU time for the last 20 minutes?"
"What do you think?"

"Let's take a look."
"Pageserver.exe is taking up the CPU time."
"Ah Hah! Someone is using an unauthorized remote access program on the server."

"Do you know who it could be?"
"No."

"Do you know who it could be?"
"No."

"The person who set up the server could be the one. He's too lazy to come in."
"Really?"
"Really."

"The software is not authorized anyway."
"Start program termination."
"Run trace."

"Engage."

Three Words

He never offered easy answers.
He offered Himself.

What else is there to be gotten on this side of eternity?
As for me, His grace is suffcient.

If

Proposition #1: Suffering proves God does not exist.
If the Proposition #1 is True: Then nothing matters. Nothing. Life has no purpose and meaning. Why be angry at someone that doesn't exist? The question is moot. Case close.

Proposition #2: God does exist, He is not all powerful.
If the Propostion#2 is True: Then God has His limits. There is no hope pain and suffering will ever be eliminated. If God can't, who can?

Proposition #3: God exists, but He is not good all the times.
If the Proposition #3 is true: Then this God, when He feels like it, can add to our pain and suffering. Life is unfair as it is, so we say. Who would want a sadistic and unpredictable God beside?

If we believe any or all of the preceding propositions are true, we are back to nowhere. We are better off on our own, God or no God.

I Will Lift Up My Eyes Unto The Hills

If there were no new years, there would be few or no regrets.

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills
From whence cometh my help
Great is Thy faitfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness
Lord Unto Me