Three Letter Acronyms (TLA)

2008-10-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

TLA is FJC

Father Jerome Cummings

Knowledge of the Father, A Course Of Study For The Twelfth Grade
"Now this is eternal life. That they may know you Father, and He whom you have sent."(John.17:3)
By: Rev. Jerome Lyons Cummings

AUTHORS PREFACE

This course was written by students. It is the result of about thirty years of teaching and attempting to answer student's needs, that this course came about. Hence this is a course that was designed by students for students. It differs from other religion programs principally in that it is designed to meet student's needs at the twelfth grade level. It attempts (after much prompting by students), to give them the TOOLS they need now and for the future especially in the ways of loving God, and the neighbor. It seeks to clarify the "WHAT?" we gave them in grammar school, by giving them now the "WHY?" that they must have to all of God's doctrines and the Church's teachings. It differs also in that it does not spend much time in the areas of religious experience and endless examining current feelings and movements and desires. Not that these are not important, but students at the twelfth grade level have made it abundantly clear that they have identified those things, and now they want to know how to DEAL with them. Upon examination, this is to teach as Jesus did.

It was never my intention to set this course to writing, but so many of my former students (well over four thousand!) have asked me to do so, that I have finally given-in and am putting in writing, some of the things we discussed in class. Its structure follows none of the standard ways of writing a teacher syllabus manual in the traditional sense at least, of covering certain material by priority or theological treatment of imperatives or catechetical approach. It follows rather those sequences which years of teaching have indicated where the students interests and needs are, and has gradually evolved from learning what they want, and making it fit into that framework. More simply, it outlines for them the two paths they must choose between: those of God and Adam. In God's design, the human being is asked to deal with REALITY and TRUTH. In the other path, the student must deal with self-centered existence and the world of FANTASY. Jesus sums up the first way, and the world that we live in sums up the other. They are contradictory as Jesus warned us they would be.

The author is not intending to get into the "methodology wars" that constantly surround any teaching of any subject (especially of religion!). Nor is he seeking "approval" from an accrediting agency or text writers. Long ago the author learned from the teaching method of Christ, that what you put across to your students is in the final analysis, yourself, and not the subject matter. Each teacher therefore, learns that the students are of all the same thought pattern when it comes to learning. They ask themselves one question repeatedly and in various different ways, "does the teacher really believe this?" It is the same formula expressed in so many ways like "love is shown in deeds not in words", etc., that the author has finally learned over the course of some time, that is what the students look to first, in assimilating and choosing a plan of life. Hence the structure of this course follows simply this format: What do the students need, and how did God provide the answers for those needs? The following presentation attempts to address those expressed needs.

No attempt is made to claim my originality for this material. Basically, it is from the teachings of God and then the students themselves who have arranged it in order of their simple human expressions. In most cases it is their thoughts, their ideas that are now presented upon the written page. If there is any humor or sequence of presentation it is simply that of the students, who expressed themselves in some way, or, as we proceeded, their observations that became all too real and funny, and we both had many a good laugh! I was fortunate to in having very good teachers in my life, and they, together with my students have largely formulated and dictated this text and for which I am most grateful. The author willingly submits to lawful Church authority for any correction deemed necessary. It is my hope that this will fulfill the teaching injunction incumbent upon all who are sent by the master to "go and teach all nations." It was never thought or conceived to be an all-inclusive work, but designed principally for the twelfth grade Senior Religion course of two semesters.

The principal sources that have been consulted and guided this work are the Holy Spirit in prayer; the Divine Law of God that have come down to us long before the written word; then the Scriptures themselves as they are written down for us and presented by the long succession of Apostles and teaching magisterium of the Church as it was so given by Divine Mandate. Principally, we have used those official documents of the Church, the Councils, the teachings of the Church Fathers, and of late, the Decrees of the Vatican Council, the encyclicals of the various Popes, the American Bishops, and now at long last, the New Catechism. In addition we have followed the guidance of the teaching of the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas, the insights of the theology of St. Augustine, The New Catholic Encyclopedia, and the Jerome Biblical Commentary. Finally, above all, the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, have been the constant in the author's attempts to give the "knowledge of Eternal Life, that of the Father, and He whom He has sent, Jesus Christ."

I would be remiss if I did not thank all of my students for their help in the compilation of this syllabus. It is again, their work and not mine. I have consulted many of them over the years to be sure that I was on the "right track" with what has been presented, and an overwhelming ninety percent have responded that it was the best course they ever had in high school! I intend therefore not to change anything at their behest. I wish also to thank all those teachers of mine both living and dead, who have by their example and knowledge, contributed so greatly to this effort. The Master will be their reward. Specifically, I want to thank Mr. John Merino of Mater Dei High School, and Greg Winslow, George Fulton, Larry Larson, Tom Klipfel and other various former students who kept after me to its accomplishment.

Rev. Jerome L. Cummings
Feast of St. Joseph, 1993

DEDICATION

Dedicated to the most Blest of all Mother's who by her words taught THE WORD his human knowledge of the FATHER. Her "Magnificant" summed up the whole of ancient Israel's prayer, and leads us yet to Him who is the final "WORD". And finally to all my students who by their good lives and example have helped me to be a better teacher and priest for them.

I. Introduction
1. Why Religion Course in A Catholic School?
2. Theological as a Unifying Principle.
3. Course Requirements.
4. Class Procedures & Policies.

II. The Church and The World.
1. Creation:
A. Starting Points.
B. The problem.
C. Happiness.
D. Two Value Systems.
E. Semantics.
F. Proof.
G. Knowledge.
H. Truth.
I. Law.

2. Salvation:
A. God.
B. Scripture.
C. Religion.
D. Morality.

III. Part II. CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE.
1. General Introduction.
2. Church: Sacrament & Covenant.
3. Nature of Love.
4. Human Sexuality.
5. Dating: Choosing & Chosen.
6. Engagement & Marriage.
7. Birth & Control.
8. Family Life.
9. Celibacy & Single Life.

Part I. Introduction

1. WHY RELIGION COMES IN A CATHOLIC SCHOOL?

Two questions often arise: 1. Why do students have to take a religion course? 2. Why have them as the University and College levels will not give academic credit for them? It seems unfair to include them therefore in the grade-point average.

Jesus proclaimed a "new" way of life. It was not just a philosophy or a set of norms for idealistic living. He came to announce the fact that there was for all people of all times, ANOTHER WAY OF LIFE, which the Father had designed for human nature. It will differ from any given society or culture of any age. That causes tension even in our own day. Jesus gave no attention to the majority opinions or "polls" of public opinion. Neither was he concerned with whether the society of his own day approved of what he taught. Indeed, it was a totally NEW WAY OF LIFE in a spirit of authority. No wonder it causes tension!

To learn about that was to gain KNOWLEDGE OF THE FATHER's design for human nature, and that all humans had the same goal: Eternal life. Though we still live a natural life with all its demands and needs, those are not its goal. It will require a struggle to live that "new" way. According to Jesus, I am God's child on my way back to heaven.

The world in which we live has never accepted that, and has a totally different set of values. The whole reason for a Catholic School therefore is to prepare the student to learn that there are those TWO approaches to life, and that the presentation of what Jesus taught could not be compromised. His teaching envisions that the human has as a goal, the GLORY OF THE FATHER. The world in which we live (of any time and culture) has a goal of simple-enrichment, gratification, and the power of money. The purpose of the first is eternal life; the purpose of the second is this life and that's all and death is the end of all.

Thus the Catholic School teaches:

"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will stand by the one and hate the other. You can not serve both God and money."
-Luke 16:13

Therefore we are trying to be different! No aspect of life escapes the Christian standard. While the grade-points will not be accepted by the institutions of this life, Jesus taught that a FINAL EXAM would be given to all, and that a GRADE would be given by his Father. Those who flunk that exam will be forever marked with a sign of eternal disgrace! Thus, that's the grade that counts!

2. THEOLOGY AS A UNIFYING PRINCIPLE OF STUDY.

Theology has as its goal, the unification of all science. That is so because it studies the highest of all truth and goodness, God. All other science studies aspects of creation and attempts to learn all about the "why" creation is the way it is. To study the Creator is the KEY to understanding how all sciences compliment each other and are a part of the whole of truth. Without the study of theology therefore is to doom us to unregulated scientific and human efforts with disaster as a result! Our society is no different than any other in this regard. Problems in environment, morality, marriage, violence, psychology, etc., the list of human misery is endless, because it's strivings at odds with each other, and threatens the very world and universe we live in because of this disunity. This is the reason the student must have a sound grounding in the efforts of the science of theology. Specifically;

LOVE. The child is born self-centered (thanks to Adam!). The main effort of parents is to wean the child away from the self-indulgence and self-centeredness fixation, and begin the process of learning to love, which is directed towards others. Failure to learn this dooms the child to a life immaturity destructive of all human relationships.

1. Childhood. Awareness of things and others.
2. Adolescence. Awareness of other human beings as persons. Here the person learns to pray as a stepping-stone to learn the "spiritualness" of other human beings. In other words, to LOVE! This will direct his physical body toward the goal of INTIMACY with another. Love is between persons; sex is between bodies. To separate them is disaster for growth of the human person. To zero in God in the student's growth pattern is to soundly ground that person on the notions of "spiritual" and thus prepare them for a mature relationship. Tragically Psychological psychosis will develop in the human who has still a fixation on self-gratification because of arrestment in development, and guilt and depression result from the demand to love and never having learned how. God is essential to a human being's growth.

3. COURSE REQUIREMENTS.

ATTENDANCE. At the senior level, responsibility is emphasized. Consequently, the student must understand the maturity of keeping their commitments. Absence is therefore as serious matter. Consequently, the teacher must be informed beforehand by the student.

TARDINESS. Habitual tardiness is a sign of immaturity. It will not be tolerated. It disturbs the whole class. The student must have a pass from the Principal or his delegate. No faculty member can admit a student directly to class.

ATTITUDE. Attitude and effort are expressed exteriorly. One cannot judge a person's intention but respect for others can be. Observance of all class procedures, school dress code, etc. are therefore a part of participation in class.

COURTESY. A great emphasis will be given on courtesy in this course. Jesus was unflaggingly courteous to everyone, especially his enemies. It differs from etiquette in that courtesy is the same in all times and cultures. Etiquette changes from society to society. The OBJECT of courtesy is "another". This is the beginning of all respect for others. Racism and discrimination cannot be tolerated.

WORKBOOK. The student must have a three ring binder and a supply of binder paper as well as a supply of pencils and pens. A three-hole punch should be purchased as well as a stapler. Continuous borrowing from others is an attitude problem. The workbook should include all the materials given by the teacher. It will receive a grade from time to time, and is a serious part of the semester grade. And at least one page of notes for each day. (Separate sheet of requirements will be given).

GOAL BOOK. The life's goal book has as its objective to give the student the opportunity to go outside of self, and be aware of the world about. It also gives an opportunity to learn a lot about self. Hence it's construction and work therein is a major part of the grade for both semesters. (A separate sheet of the requirements will be given).

GRADES & TESTS. In religion, grades are assigned for knowledge gained and demonstrated; notice to parents of a continuing growth pattern; indication of responsibility of COMMITMENT. Because most of life comes upon us without warning! Jesus used this method: "The son of man will come at the moment you least expect!" So, be prepared at all times. The student is asked therefore to REVIEW CLASS MATERIAL at least FIVE minutes per night. The Semester Exam will be a review of all material, and is 30% of the grade. Parents and students must sign the grade policy sheet and return to the teacher. Cheating results in an "F" for the semester.

ASSIGNMENTS & PROJECTS. From time to time, assignments will be given. Written work is to have a course title page and the FIRST page of text must have the name, course period and date at the top right hand corner. They are to be typed (unless excused by teacher and margins and school composition requirements are to be observed).

TEXTS. "Knowledge of the Father", by Rev. J. L. Cummings "A Man For All Seasons", by Robert Bolt. This text is to be studied and ANALYZED carefully from the first day. Reading and studying are not the same thing! The student is expected to know the essentials of the Text and the play and the distinct roles of the characters, as well as the application of the lessons to be learned.

"The American Bible". (Or one of equal value that gives adequate knowledge of how scripture was written, and introductory comment to its books).

Specifically:

First Semester: Genesis, first 5 chapters. Psalms, Proverbs, Wisdom, Matthew, Mark, Corinthians, Ephesians, Romans, Timothy, Colossians.

Second Semester: Exodus, John, Luke, and Thessalonians. (Current Marriage Text for second semester)

PRAYER. Each class in a Catholic School starts with a prayer. No attempt a proselytyzation will ever be made, but those of other faith traditions are expected to join in. (If a problem see teacher).

CHRISTIAN SERVICE. The school conducts a service hours program and accomplishment and attitude thereof is a part of this course. Also, without a serious reason, each student is expected to attend one of the Senior retreats offered by the school.

4. CLASS PROCEDURES.

The bell starts the class. The student is expected to be at the desk, book back underneath, and workbook on top, ready to begin when the bell ends. The bell does not end the class, the TEACHER does. School handbook norms are incorporated in this class. The object of this is respect for others. All classes begin with a prayer, and all must join in.

When a faculty member enters, students will stand.

Studying for another class is a serious matter and forbidden.

Absence of the Workbook and "Knowledge of the Father" is a serious matter.

Sleeping requires the teacher's express permission.

II Part I: The Church in the world.

1. CREATION.

There are two ways of living life. The first is that of dealing with REALITY, which is to recognize the fact of God and the creation of the real world about us. The second approach is to recognize only the world of my own experience, which finally turns out to be FANTASY. It is this appreciation that this work is about. We shall try to present it in a comparison fashion as we proceed.

Since the dawn of human existence (perhaps Angelic as well) the problem facing creatures with intelligence and will, is that of Epistemology (The nature, scope, and validity of Knowledge). All of the problems of history, and that of our own current day have their roots in epistemological problems. It started with Adam. (One can only guess at Angelic Knowledge at best but there do seem to be hints that their problems may have had a similar basis as well). Without attempting to address the scriptural problems at this point, we can say that Adam was given a command not to eat of a certain tree. That tree is described as that of being one of "knowledge of good and evil". What should be noticed here is that it is centered on the ability of the human nature to KNOW? Even more clearly, it is the very basis of a certain type of knowledge that human nature must avoid: the attempt at fathoming of the divine essence precisely as the ABSOLUTE NORM OF RIGHT AND WRONG FOR THE HUMAN NATURE, for it will permanently disable the mind and have immense effects on the physical side of the nature as well. In a very clear presentation, the book of Genesis is outlining the fact that to try to comprehend the nature of the Divine, one would in fact have to be divine. That would require equality with God, something which a creature could not do. This is not to say that one should not strive for knowledge of God. Indeed, just the opposite is true, for God is anxious to be found and known. Rather the danger lies specifically in attempting "equality" with God who is a Creator, and we are simply creatures. Trying to equalize our knowledge with that of God is tantamount to declaring ourselves equal to nature that tries to do so. Nevertheless, that is what Adam attempted to do. The attempt was to "eat" of the tree of knowledge into oneself (as eating does on a physical level). It was good choice of symbolism, because it accurately portrays, "taking into oneself by the act of seeing, touching, eating" that which on a human level is done with food for nourishment. To become a "knower" of good and evil is to become the ultimate in saying what is "good" or "bad" for human nature, something that would be in the very essence of God. To attempt to "force" such knowledge into the mind of the creature would be like trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Something will break from such a forcing, and it did! Adam "broke" himself apart in the attempt. It caused death. It was the first suicide.

Probably it is for this reason that St. Paul is to write in the letter to the Philippians that, "Jesus did not think equality with God something to be grasped at". What Adam tried to "grasp", Jesus relinquished as a disastrous path for human nature to take. He deliberately wanted to "empty" himself of such an action.

Therefore to the student who does not recognize the existence of God, this course has little to offer. The reason is that there are only two possibilities: God either exists, or does not. If He does not, then there is only one way to live life, and that is to be "God" for oneself. The unfortunate part of that is that every other human has the same starting point, and violence becomes the only way of settling anything. If the maxim "If I think its right then it is right for me" works equally for the other person as well as myself. Thus if that person is bigger or more powerful than I, it can't be wrong for that person to say, take my money, my spouse, kill my children, etc., because that person is doing it because they think it is right for them! This would be an intolerable state of affairs.

A STARTING POINTS

To start anything you have two options: 1) you can start somewhere or, 2) you can start nowhere. Since you cannot start nowhere in anything, we have only one alternative and that is to start SOMEWHERE. The importance of that matter at hand that is to be considered. Additionally, it will have the most important consequences in the result of the investigation. In this life we have to deal with three persons:

GOD, MYSELF, THE OTHER PERSON. Since this subject matter wants to deal with the first of first of these (God), that has to be the most important of all things to consider, and so our starting point must be with the best possible starting point, of the most important thing there is to consider. Thus the best possible starting points with our relationship with God, and since He is an "answer", then we must start with a PROBLEM. This is so because you have again, two alternatives: you can start with an answer, or you can start with a problem. Since one cannot start with an answer, then we shall have to start with a problem. The best problem to start with is one that everyone has, and one that will do the most good to find an answer to, for the most people. The biggest problem that we know of therefore is that of HUMAN WEAKNESS. Why? Well, everyone has it!

SUMMARY: Two places to start anything:
1. Start nowhere. Not possible
2. Start Somewhere. Two Possibilities
A. Start at an Answer: Nothing to solve.
B. A problem: Something to solve.
3. Best problem to solve: One that everyone has.

SCRIPTURE
1. Genesis: Chapter 1
2. Gospel of John: Chapter 1

B. THE PROBLEM

We shall start our examination with a look at "the problem" that is most unique to human nature, namely the fact of human weakness. What makes it fascinating is that: 1) everyone has it, and 2) it shouldn't be there!

It is a very rare occurrence that you can find something that is common to every human being. Yet that is what is found in the problem of human weakness. St. Paul laments over the fact. "The good I want to do, I don't do, and the evil that I don't want to do, I do right out and do". Shakespeare notes it well in the play Julius Caesar, when he says, "the fault dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in ourselves". What we have here is a universal recognition of something common to all human beings, that there is a terrible factor in our nature that entices us to do the very things we do not want to do. Whether it is the thumb sucking in the baby that we try to get the child to overcome, or smoking, or drinking, or drugs, or sexual perversions, they all partake of one common denominator called Human Weakness. We all have it, and apparently we all have a very bad case of it! We can not but wonder at this factor, so universal, and yet so deep in us, and try to not only search for its source and origin, but to see if we can find a remedy. Our investigation then leads to the second fact that we know about it, namely that it wasn't in the original design!

One can discover the purpose of anything by examining its nature. And upon examining human nature we can see that it was designed for among many things, to be essentially happy. This human weakness keeps us from it. Yet upon examining the nature itself we can find no reason for the weakness. The body parts all operate in a wonderful harmony. The biological functions display a magnificent interplay with the nervous and hormonal systems, and interact with the brain and organs in a marvelous order. The weakness we discover is not in the body's design. We look at the Person, and find it also has incomprehensible but very real order of functioning, from the emotions, to the passions, to the intellect and the will. All seems in order as far as the "blueprint" is concerned. One can only conclude that something happened to the nature after it was constructed.

Let us take some simple examples. If the builder gets from the architect the plan that he has in mind, he gets together the tools and the materials and builds the building. If there is to be a fireplace in the center of the wall, that is very specifically noted in the blueprint. After the house is build, and we discover that there is no fireplace, we ask why? After all it was in the blueprint! Something happened somewhere along the line! Or, if a musician writes a musical score, and when it is played by the orchestra, one or another musician is playing some sour notes, one can conclude something happened to the score that was not the intention of the composer. Someone has done something to it that wasn't in the original design.

Now this is what we discover in human nature. It was designed to operate (we can see this in the blue-print itself) to operate in total harmony. If it does not (and it doesn't) then the conclusion is that something happened along the way that was a major disaster to the human nature. This is what we know as original defect or sin. It didn't collapse the building, but it sure made it difficult to operate. Adam is to blame. Instead of operating as he was designed to do, namely to freely choose to love God back as a response, he chose to love himself, perverting the design and causing a fatal flaw in the structure. It wasn't designed that way by the Divine Architect, but it sure is what we have now!

This begins to give us (only begins!) an insight as to human suffering and disease in the world. If the compass is slightly off in its function then the ship is never going to get to its port. Someone must come and re-adjust the compass. Suffering was never intended by God. We brought that on ourselves due to the centuries and centuries of pride and greed. (For instance, there is more than adequate food supplies to feed the whole world, yet millions will continue to starve because of the disproportionate use of the foodstuffs. This is all because of greed and self-interest). Some others may say, "How can God allow suffering to innocent children in the world?" Well it wasn't God's idea. But again through centuries and centuries of humans fooling around with biology and its functions, there have been disastrous consequences; the AIDS disease and hemophilia are but two notable examples. They were something that DEVELOPED because of human beings selfish interference with nature's laws. We all learned in physics, that for every action, there is a corresponding re-action. Well, that is what has happened down through time. Look what we are still doing to the environment! But I don't think God can be blamed for smog!

Sadly, something happened, and we must not it, and then deal with it the best way we can. (Happily, we shall see later on, god came to our rescue and sent us the means to overcome the defects. But that is for a later chapter). We may note however, that there are three most UNREASONABLE effects of this human blunder. They are the fact of 1.) The weakness itself. It just wasn't in the design, and that is totally frustrating. 2.) Ignorance. Scientific discovery has shown that every sensation that we have ever had since our days in the womb, is stored in our brain. Yet try to recall these sensations, and we find it difficult. How often we have had to relearn the same things in school that we have learned many times before. It is all stored up there in our head, but try and get it down and express it is something else! 3.) Death. There is nothing in the design of human nature that one can point to that would argue for the fact that we are going to die, but we will! (Death is understood here in its most common sense of the separation of the material element (body) from the spiritual element (person or soul). It is that coming apart that we are using here as the notion of death). We act this way naturally enough when we are called to a funeral parlor. WE go to see "Uncle Zeke's remains". We look in the coffin and we immediately say, "boy it sure doesn't look like Uncle Zeke"! And of course, we are right! It isn't Uncle Zeke. It's his body. But whatever constituted Uncle Zeke is not there! If he were there, he would get out of that coffin in a hurry! No, the sad fact is that we are going to part with our bodies (only bodies are taken to cemeteries) whether we will or no, and that is called death. The problem with all of this is there is no indication of the slightest, that we were intended to make such a separation! This beautiful harmonious functioning human being comes apart, and for no reason it its design. That is a fact we must all deal with, and has been for every human being of all times and places. That's a pretty significant fact! It is totally unreasonable.

All in all, it can be said that we have a PROBLEM! It is a universal problem to all human beings, and that is the reason we are using that as our STARTING POINT for this course. That PROBLEM is the biggest obstacle to our obtaining our final purpose. And remembering our principle, that the purpose of anything can be discovered by examining its nature, we find that examination tells us that our purpose is to be "Happy". Thus we shall take that as our next consideration, as human weakness stands directly in the way of our obtaining what we most want, which is HAPPINESS.

SUMMARY:
1. The Problem the best starting point: Human Weakness.
2. Three aspects of human weakness that are unreasonable:
A. The very weakness itself: it wasn't in the design or blueprint. But it's there!
B. Ignorance. There is no reason to forget anything.
C. Death. There is no reason why we should die.

PRINCIPLES:
1. Purpose of anything can be learned by examining its nature.
2. The end does not justify the means.
3. God did not cause human suffering; human fooling with God's perfect creation did.

SCRIPTURES:
1. Genesis: If you eat of this fruit, you will die.
2. Genesis: Their eyes were opened to self; blind to God.
3. St. Paul: The Good I want to do, I don't do. The bad I don't want to do, I do.
4. What will a man give in exchange for his life?

MAN FOR ALL SEASONS:
Cardinal Woolsey: "Certainly measures must be taken. Regrettable but they must be taken."

C. HAPPINESS.

What does it meant to be "Happy"? We all use the term with some vague notion of what it means, but it will be essential that we find out at least in essence what it means or will mean to be "happy". We shall take some simple examples to illustrate what is involved.

If a pencil could write, it would tell you that it is happiest when it is writing. Why? Because upon examination we can see that is what is designed to do. (It is not designed to be chewed on!). IF we look at a very fine surgeon's scalpel we can see that it is so finely made that it is the sharpest that human effort can make it, so that the incision will be quick and without the least amount of blood and damage being done. But if one took such a scalpel out and started chipping concrete with it, we shudder to see such a finely honed instrument being blunted and damaged in such a fashion! Certainly if the scalpel could talk, it would cry out, "That's not what I'm made for"! It would be totally unhappy at such misuse. Such is the case with human nature. It will be happy only when it is being used to obtain its object or purpose. To find that purpose we shall examine some of the more common expressions to find out if they indeed do bring us to "HAPPINESS".

1. The first of all things that we are introduced to in life would be that pleasures. Since our very first moments of nourishment at the breast of our mothers, pleasure was associated with contentment and happiness. It became associated in our minds as almost a given that if you have pleasure you are happy! It wasn't long before we discovered how wrong we were. Pleasure is good of course, but upon examination, we discover that the very nature of pleasure is a "means to an end". That is, it is so constructed as to leas us to something that is good for us. The example mentioned is that of eating. There is a deeply satisfying pleasure to eating, as it brings us to nourishment. However, if we eat just for the pleasure of eating (and many do!!) then we are aiming at the means to the end, and not the end itself. (However we may not care for brussel sprouts, they are good for us!). A child, when it is first introduced to ice cream, thinks heaven has arrived! Thus there is a natural desire to obtain more and more, given the pleasure involved. But we soon learn an important lesson. PLEASURE INDULGED IN LONG ENOUGH, BECOMES PAIN! If you eat several hamburgers, the certainly bring pleasure and satisfaction. But about the sixty-fifth hamburger we are in excruciating pain! That is the way that pleasure is designed. It is a means to an end, and when the end has been satisfied, then the pleasure ceases. If continued indulgence is prolonged it will eventually lead to pain. We have learned an important piece of information in our search for what is happiness namely: "AS PLEASURE INCREASES, SATISFACTION DECREASES TO THE POINT OF PAIN". In all simplicity, pleasure is not happiness itself, nor can it be aimed at as happiness. It is just a very good means to an end, but only a means.

2. Our second important piece of evidence is JOY. Joy is something that like pleasure, everyone has experienced. What is most significant about it however, that unlike pleasure, the more we experience joy; the more we are fulfilled, in an ever increasing amount. Unlike pleasure, it is not a means to an end. We can aim at it and never tire of it, or get too much of it! At its basis is the very fact that it is fulfilling our very beings in a way that nothing else does, or can. We marvel at it. We want it. We are astounded by the experience of it. And never once can we say that we have had too much joy. We can always wish for more, and more. That too, is a significant fact in our quest for happiness. Certainly we can say that whatever else happiness is, it will and must be JOYFUL.

3.Time is the greatest obstacle we have to obtaining happiness. Let us take an example. We are reading a good book. The plot is great, the story is well told. We look at the clock and say, "I'll read until ten o'clock." But the story is so good and so compelling we read and read, and when we look at the clock it is 3:00 a.m.! Notice that we were not aware of time passing. Notice also, that we are sad to some degree that we have to stop. Time has interposed itself in the experiencing of some happy activity. So long as we were not aware that time was going by, we were fulfilled. It is the same with all activity that we enjoy. We wish it would never end!

SUMMARY;

1. All things have a purpose for which they are made. If we used them according to this purpose, they operate best and are "happiest". To be Happy is our goal.
2. Pleasure is a MEANS to an end, not an end in itself.
3. Pleasure becomes pain.
4. We never tire of Joy.
5. Time is the greatest obstacle to happiness.

PRINCIPLES:
1. As pleasure increases, satisfaction decreases.
2. As joy increases, fulfillment increases.
3. A need never creates its object.

SCRIPTURE:
1. Beatitudes.
2. Seek first the kingdom of God and all else will be given you besides.

MAN FOR ALL SEASONS:
Thomas More: I die the King's loyal subject, but God's first.

D. THE TWO VALUE SYSTEMS.

Now that we have ascertained at least the essence of what will must happy. We now proceed to find a method of seeking that happiness. That method will be a way of ascertaining the "worth" or "value" of things that will lead us to our goal. In the history of human expression, there seems to be only two ways that humans have ever devised of arriving at the value of anything. It is our quest therefore to look at these two methods of ascribing value, and see which best assists us in attaining happiness.

1. USEFULNESS THEORY. The usefulness theory has some simple elements to it to arrive at the value of anything. To begin with it maintains that the "value" of anything is arrived at by discovering its usefulness. Accordingly, if something has usefulness about it then it has value. If however it loses its usefulness, then it is said to be "useless", and of no value. In a descending scale, as a thing loses its usefulness, it thus becomes less and less valuable until it is totally useless. Further, when a thing has become useless it now starts to become harmful! It is a pretty simple and practical theory of value. An example would be a light bulb. If it gives light, then it is valuable (useful). But when it burns out, it is said to be useless (valueless). To leave it lying around can surely make it harmful. It is best to throw it away. As Jesus said about salt, "once it has lost its savor, it is good for nothing but to be thrown out". This is a very common theory, and fairly well accepted in most societies.

2. INTRINSIC THEORY.
On the other hand, the intrinsic theory looks at value in a completely different way. It maintains that something has value because who ever made it gave the value to it when it was made. This means that the value of the thing is only in what the maker put into it, and has no relation to its usefulness. Thus a painter or artist or sculptor puts his skill into the work, and that is what gives its value. So say a famous painting from Picasso, which you may like, and another dislike, has its true value only in so far as it is the work of this famous artist. That, and that alone, according to this theory, is what the value of something is.

Try as human beings have, so far is human history; those are the only two theories that human beings have been able to engineer as means of establishing something as "valuable". For us it is crucial to decide what method we are going to establish in our own lives as to what the WORTH of anything is. Let us take a closer look at these theories to try to assess, which one is for us in trying to assign value so that we can best attain happiness.

Regarding the USEFULNESS THEORY: Upon close examination, it has some surprising aspects. It sounds good on the surface to say that something is valuable only in so far as it is useful, but that leads into some very important consequences. As an example, let us say that one of your parents reaches 90 years of age and is in a nursing home, and unable to do anything for themselves, and on to make it worse are totally senile and blind. According to this theory they are pretty much useless. Worse still, they have become "harmful" to the extent that they are using up valuable money, and space, and they can make no return or be in anyways "useful" to you or to society. They have become totally useless, and are now harmful. Right away, one can see this has some alarming consequences! It might even be that the State might say to you that since your parent has no become useless to society, then they are going to painlessly (of course!) eliminate their life and that they regret any inconvenience this may cause you. According to the usefulness theory, this is the logical conclusion to this theory.

Regarding the INTRINSIC THEORY: This theory too has some surprising aspects upon close examination. For in the same example used above about one of your parents, even though the individual has lost all usefulness, the value of that individual is still intact because their value depends on the one who made them. Thus even though they are not a non-functioning human being, they are still valuable. They could not be indiscriminately killed just on the fact alone that they are useless and are costing someone a lot of money. (Allowing them to die would not be killing them, but to take their life as in the usefulness theory would be in short, murder!)

The debate over these two approaches to value has been going on since time began. Each has its proponents and each maintains that their theory best answers human attempts at evaluating the worth of anything or any one.

SUMMARY:
There are only two known ways of knowing the value of anything. 1. The USEFULNESS theory. Things only have value only if useful. 2. The INTRINSIC theory. The value of anything is put into it by its maker.

PRINCIPLES:
1. First value system ends always in violence and force the only way to settle things.

SCRIPTURE:
You cannot serve two masters. You will either stand by the one, and hate the other, or you will love the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

E. SEMANTICS

Now that we know how to establish the value of anything, we must learn how to COMMUNICATE it. Since there are various ways that we humans communicate we shall concentrate on one here, and the other in the treatment of marriage.

Of all the gifts that God has given us, the ability to speak to each other is a clear indication of human rationality. Animals of course do indeed communicate through various expressive vocal sounds, but theirs is basic instinct response to a stimulus, awareness pattern. The human being on the other hand can express ideas, generalities, universal deductions etc. Because we have a free will, it is possible for us to CHOOSE some course of action whether it be convenient or not, and may even be painful! Since we must communicate with God and our neighbor, we shall take a very brief look at the science of Semantics.

In its most simple form the science of Semantics can be understood as, "the meaning of meaning". That is, we are attempting to understand what another person is saying by the words that they use. Words can be written or signified in various ways, but principally by speech. Words are nothing more than various symbols that transfer the meaning of the idea we wish to communicate to another. When we write we use letters of the alphabet. These are merely symbols or drawings that communicate a sound. (In some languages such as Chinese, they may communicate by the character itself a type of drawing, which indicates more than just sound but an idea). When we speak, we use these same sounds, putting them together in some agreed on form that will communicate some idea. Thus the "sound" of speaking a given word communicates what the speaker is trying say to another person. The word SEMANTICS itself comes from the Greek word "Sema" meaning sign. It meant that there was a concept that was trying to be made known to another which was on the mind of the speaker. All of this eventually evolved into a science, and it was termed the science of SEMANTICS.

More specifically Semantics can be defined: "Semantics is that science that deals with an 'IDEA OR CONCEPT, VERBALIZED WITH SOUND, TO WHICH WE AGREE, TO SOME DEGREE.'" It is important that we look at this definition if we are truly to understand what others (including God) are trying to say to us.

IDEA OR CONCEPT:
This is what is in the mind of the speaker. This thought is what the speaker wants to get across to the one that is being spoken to.

VERBALIZED:
Here the speaker is making use of the vocal cords to make various conjugated sounds that will be used in some successive order that will bear the meaning of the concept that is in the mind, to the one spoken to. Thus various letters are made "sounds" and these are put together to form a "word". A series of words is spoken to get across the idea. A more complex idea will require more words.

TO WHICH WE AGREE:
In order to get the idea across, there must be a previous statement among the one speaking, and the one spoken to, that the individual sounds of words have a meaning or stand for a meaning of a specific type. Thus word "NO!" must be agreed on first, before an idea of non-agreement or non-procedure can be understood. This is very simply how various "languages" came about. Humans agreed that certain words stood for certain ideas. If there was not an agreement, then there would have to be a search by the individuals or groups involved until they agreed on what certain words meant, and most importantly, what they did not mean!

TO SOME DEGREE:
As time went on, it became necessary to refine certain meanings of words. Thus a whole division of the science came into existence. Thus a general division:
1. Syntactics: The history of words.
2. Semantics: The meaning of words.
3. Pragmatics: The development of words.

While we are not concerned here about the formal study of all this, we are concerned in a very specific way with the science because of two reasons: 1). God's communication to us, which is usually, called revelation. 2). Our communication with other human beings about God's communication which is the "good news" or Gospel. We shall see that there are some very special and specific concerns about these matters, that have bothered peoples of all times, and our society and culture are no exception. In a later chapter, we shall take up such questions as HOW God communicated; WHEN god communicated; and can we be sure it was God communicating; and finally, the human beings that were used to communicate those messages.

For now however, we must concentrate on the essential facts of communication so that we can be clear when we want to understand the meaning of some important matter in scripture or morality.

SUMMARY:
Semantics is the science of the study of meaning. It is defined as: "A concept or idea, verbalized with sound, to which we agree to some degree."

PRINCIPLES:
We must have agreement on the word and it's meaning if we are to understand another person.

SCRIPTURE:
Everyone who wears my words, and understands them will be like the householder who brings forth from his store, the old, and the new. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

MAN FOR ALL SEASONS:
Meg: What difference do words mean?
More: Words mean everything.
Meg: Look. God made the Angels to praise him by their splendor. He made the plants and animals to praise him by their simplicity and purity. But God made man to praise him by his wits. If I can take this oath, I will.

F. PROOF

Adam never had to practice faith. He did not have to believe in anything or have an opinion about something, or not know about something. Objective reality was right before him in brilliant light. He walked and talked with God whom he saw face-to-face. After the disasters fall, Adam found himself having to wonder about nearly everything. The subjective now haunted him, because the best that was possible from knowledge of anything was the lining up of evidence and having to proceed with that. The objective was hard to find and illusive behind a myriad of doubts, uncertainties, and his own opinions terribly influenced by his emotions, passions, and the now darkened Intellect and cavernous sub-conscious. As his descendants, we too must struggle with the problem of certainty and uncertainty about everything! Hence we now begin our study of the next important tool that we will need to have if we are to deal with the three people in our existence that require our attention: God, myself, and the other person. Two very fundamental things are going to plague us for decisions. One of which is our relationship with God, and the other person. Two very fundamental things are going to plague us for decisions. One of which is our relationship with God, and the other with our neighbor. Specifically, we are going to have to know WHAT GOD SAID in Scripture, and what another means when they say to us "I LOVE YOU!Ó Hence we turn our attention to the tool we cannot do without: NATURE OF PROOF. Just as we saw the importance of the tool of SEMANTICS, so now we must be able to prove our values about which we wish to communicate, and thus achieve happiness, which is our objective, and about which the problem is our greatest obstacle.

The general meaning of proof is that it is a line-up of evidence (the word in latin means "clearness"). What the notion of evidence is that it is the lining up of a body of facts in order to make a conclusion. The object therefore is to arrive at a conclusion based on whatever is presented. This means that the judgment is involved. All law is based on facts that are substantiated by evidence. All of our judgments are based on one type of evidence. All of our judgments are based on type of evidence or another. From our earliest childhood we have quickly learned the need to establish important things through the means of the proof process. Probably the first thing we deal with is authority. Thus we are always asking, "Who said so?" We then demand PROOF that they said it. Again, ownership of even the smallest of toys became a source of contention with others, and we were always telling those who disagreed with us, "Prove it!" We must now look at the process of proof for it is the only way we know of in human and divine affairs, for establishing the objective order of right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsity.

THE PROCESS OF PROOF:
The process of proof for anything requires the following.

1. Line up all the evidence FOR something.
What must be looked at is the simple things we know so well, namely witnesses, physical evidence, etc.

2. Line up all the evidence AGAINST something.
We must objectively examine all the evidence that is known about something that is the contrary to what we think, or are trying to "prove". This is the only fair thing to do, and we must discover whether there is something we may have overlooked which may be crucial in establishing our point of view. Not to do so could spell disaster for what we are trying to prove!

3. All evidence that is NEITHER.
Upon examination, it simply has no relation to the issue, but one should nevertheless, examine it if for no other reason, than to ascertain its irrelevancy. It closely resembles that which is claimed below, but it may not be claimed. Yet it must be examined.

4. We must examine all evidence that is CLAIMED about the point at issue.
It may be totally irrelevant, and have nothing to do with the issue, but we must very objectively listen and examine it to see what import it may have on our lining up of evidence.

5. Look for CONTRADICTIONS.
A contradiction is establishing when we discover the complete opposite of something is in fact the case. Thus a contradiction is as follows: "SOMETHING CAN NOT BE, AND NOT BE, AT THE SAME TIME AND THE SAME PLACE, AND THE SAME CIRCUMSTANCES." Thus if a crime took place on Thursday at 9:00a.m. And it was proved that the suspect was a thousand miles away at that time and day, then you have a complete contradiction as to who could have done that crime. Again, a person cannot be a male and a female at the same time, the same place, and the same circumstances. (A male cannot be said to be the mother of a child no matter how he may wish to impersonate a female!). It simply is a contradiction in and of itself.

6. Drawing a CONCLUSION.
Based on the evidence lined up we now must draw a conclusion. A conclusion is an act of the mind that upon examining all relevant information and evidence, would be what a reasonable person would arrive at. To sum up what it all means.

There are two types:
A. MORALLY CERTAIN. A morally certain conclusion is one that one has about the evidence when there is no "REASONABLE FEAR OF ERROR". This means that it is still POSSIBLE that there is some other explanation for the evidence presented, but there is no remote likelihood that it could be so. (But the POSSIBILITY does exist!).

B. METAPHYSICALLY CERTAIN.
This means that there is not even the slightest possibility of error! That is to say, if one has this type of certainty about something, the opposite or any other explanation is NOT POSSIBLE! Rarely does one get such certainty in this life. Usually it entails the defining out of existence of any other possibility to begin with in the first place. Thus one cannot have a "four sided triangle". By definition it cannot POSSIBLY be. There is one final aspect to the proof process that we must consider. That is the POINT OF ABSURDITY. This means that in the line up of evidence one finds present two things:

1. ALL of the evidence can be reasonably presented has been gathered and assessed.
2. There is an ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY!
This means that the opposite side of a question presents no evidence whatsoever regarding that matter. In human communications therefore this situation has been given the semantic term: "absurd". (Thus a person who says, "well I still don't think so", and gives no evidence whatsoever, has reached the point of absurdity. There simply is no further communication possible with them on that given point).

SUMMARY:
Proof is the line up of evidence. One must examine all the evidence that is for; against; neither; claimed; look for contradictions; draw a conclusion. There are two types of conclusions: 1) Moral. No reasonable fear of error. 2) Metaphysical. No possibility of error. One reaches the point of absurdity when all the evidence is on one side, and there is no evidence to the contrary.

SCRIPTURE:
Genesis: God created humans. There is no evidence to the contrary.
John: "If you don't believe me, believe the works that I do."
Romans: God can be known through the things that have been made.
Mark: Go and offer the gift proscribed. That should be proof enough for them.
I Corinthians: There can be nothing of sin in Jesus Christ.

G. KNOWLEDGE.

We have now arrived at the very core center of the study of this course, the ability to KNOW. While the average high school student doesn't spend much time on this subject, yet it is nevertheless, the most important point upon which the basis of their approach to the problems they must inevitably solve. In addition, they will acquaint themselves with the makers and the thinkers that caused the modern mind concepts within which they must live their lives. They must inevitably ask themselves, "How did things get this way in our society? Or, why is it that our culture is following along the course that it is?" To approach those and other questions, this chapter will form the key to the student's quest for a sure and safe guide to thinking in the modern world. (It will not answer all questions with metaphysical certainty as we should all like to have about some matters, but it will allow the student to see clearly the pitfalls and philosophical and theological "mine fields" that lay ahead).

The basic problem of the modern world is Epistemological. (Epistemology is the study of the nature, scope, and validity of human knowledge). This so because we are absolutely bound to find out what we can KNOW? Can we know whether there is a God? What can we know about the world around us? What can be said about knowing about those whom we dwell? And finally, what can we know about ourselves? what is good?; what is moral?; etc. These and other problems of knowledge haunt our daily existence. They must be addressed. We shall begin our study with a simple illustration and try to build thereon. Let us start with a question. Can you explain the color GREEN to a blind man? Color as we know is a refraction of light which is presented to the eye. Upon examination, we can easily see that the object of the organ called, "the eye" has as it's major function, TO SEE. (We discover the purpose of anything by examining it's nature, remember!) Now, as we casually but completely consider this problem, we find that all the evidence we can possibly gain, is that the blind man can NEVER know the color GREEN because there is no means by which the color of green can play upon the optic nerve. Thus the color GREEN (or any color for that matter) can never be transmitted to the brain. Thus the blind man can NEVER KNOW GREEN. We could of course try to tell that person that "green is like this, or like that" but in fact unless his eye operates, there is no sense organ that can tell this person, WHAT THE COLOR GREEN IS LIKE!

Let us move one step further. Suppose there was some individual who was born without any of their senses. That is they had no sensations to the brain from sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing. Would they have anything in their mind to work upon at all? We probably would hurriedly try to say, "Well there must be something they could think about!" But could they? When we make a close investigation of all the senses, and find they are not operating at all, and there is no sensation being transferred to the brain, is there anything there for the mind to operate on at in itself, and ready to operate on anything brought to it, but nothing is being received. Based on the evidence, that person would not be able to know ANYTHING whatsoever, even though they wanted to. They are not "BRAIN DEAD", but simply the brain has nothing to operate on at all. (Like this computer, it is ready to take in what ever is typed into it, but if I put in nothing, the little "cursor" on my screen simply sits there "winking" at me! Absolutely nothing will be put into the data bank, if nothing is typed in!).

We come to an inevitable conclusion: "NOTHING IS IN THE MIND THAT DID NOT FIRST COME THROUGH THE SENSES". The principle brings us to a morally certain conclusion: "ALL REALITY IS OUTSIDE THE MIND!" For, we could not know or think about anything unless it came into the mind from outside. Thus we are faced with an absolute fact: There had to be something outside of ourselves first, so that it could be sensed, and thus transmitted to the mind. Reality thus, is not made up in the mind. We can take parts of reality, and put them together with our imaginations once they are in the mind such as a "Mickey Mouse that talks", or a "Pink Elephant" if we use to much booze, but the fact remains that they (or parts of them) were in reality first, and thereafter we chose to use the imagination in a creative way to put things together which may or may not be in reality.

The basic PROOF for all that we have been saying is rather simple and understandable: ONE CAN NOT HAVE A PURE THOUGHT ABOUT NOTHING! Try as we might like, the mind grinds to an instantaneous halt, when we try to get a concept or idea of "NOTHING". In the 175 million or so years that the scientists tell us that human beings have been on thee earth, the fact is no one has ever been able to KNOW anything except through the senses. Is it possible that there is another way? Perhaps, but so far, no one has been able to find it. It doesn't mean they haven't tried.

A Catholic philosopher RENES DESCARTES (1596-1650) thought so. he tried to reason back to having the purest thought possible to start philosophy and knowledge. His reasoning was that the purest thought that he could think, was the notion that he "was thinking". Hence he stated his classic SUBJECTIVE POSTULATE: "I think, therefore I am!" (Cogito, ergo, sum). It became the greatest blunder in philosophical history! Ignoring the evidence that he would have to exist, before he could think, he backed himself into the corner of asserting that "because he could think, then he existed, and if that were so, then all knowledge depended on what his thinking was". In effect he was declaring that one could not know anything unless on thinks, and so that is where all knowledge begins. It was the fatal mistake, that caused the maker's of the modern mind and their constructs, to drop most of the world into a subjective morass from which it has not been able to extract itself to this day. It wasn't hat some didn't see his mistake and didn't try. One of the greatest philosophers of all time made the effort. This was Immanual Kant.

IMMANUAL KANT (1724-1804) was horrified at what Descartes had done, and tried valiantly to extract human thought from the problem. Unfortunately, he fell right back into the same error! While Kant felt that objective reality outside the mind might be there, he nevertheless postulated that we could never know it for sure, if at all. His failure lay in a rather simple problem. He never could distinguish between what if knowable in itself and what is knowable to ourselves. It simply meant that instead of the "subjective postulate" of Descartes, Kant stated that the mind had to be content with "that is the way things are" and you could never know what you are knowing has any validity or not. It was nothing but an assertion, later called the "SUBJECTIVE IMPERATIVE". Most simply, it took another approach to reality than Descartes, but essentially arrived at the same conclusion. For Descartes, EXISTENCE was adequate proof that we could know anything. For Kant, it JUST WAS THAT WAY.

The difficulty with both of these systems of thought, is that it opened the door for the human mind to be the final decision-maker of what reality was in itself. The disciples of this type of thinking were not slow to adopt it, as history has shown. In the field of Political Science, Hegel and later Karl Marx adopted it as the only way that government could operate. For Marx, it was the cause of all human relational problems. Economics was the key, and whoever controlled wealth and services was what was the norm of right and wrong! (Marx should have known better, as economics is a condition, not a cause!). Who was ever the "boss" made reality for the masses. That was not arguable. In the field of Psychology and Psychiatry, Sigmund Freud insisted that sex drive was absolute and therefore all reality was determined by it in one's personal life. In Theology, personal interpretation of the Word of God became the only way of "knowing" what God said, and cults and "fundamentalism" too numerous to mention have become the popular expression of those who do not want to deal with the fact that there might be on objective reality. Morality was quick to follow the lead. The current notion that "what I think is right, is right" is now in full belief in society. The idea of a free will is only give lip service, or never mentioned. The one thing that we are assured of is that we can NOT BE SURE of anything! Chaos in the law courts, in human endeavors of any kind, are now the rule of the day.

However, one must not think that the SUBJECTIVE is not important. Just the opposite! the subjective is that means (God given) by which we judge the reality of existence, and make our choices accordingly. It is in the choice to conform to reality that we can only be held responsible! Of course, if what I think is right, then I can never be wrong! The number of people like Adolph Hitler, Stalin, etc., are legion, that adopted this thinking. It wasn't long before empirical sciences followed suit. Thus for instance in Biology, evolution ceased to be a hypothesis of process in human development, but rather an EXPLANATION thereof, since we could never be sure of objective reality. Charles Darwin's discoveries became an imperative, and thus science entered the age of "subjective imperative".

While this may seem to be an over-simplification of the study of knowledge, it nevertheless, gets at its roots. We should not be surprised that it started early on in human history. Adam was the first to believe that God was not the author of all reality, but that his own mind construct, was! God said: "I AM WHO AM!" Adam in effect replied, "I don't think so neither does my wife!"

There is of course much more to be said on this age old dialogue about the theories of knowledge. But you and I must come down to the fact of everyday existence and deal with it. Whatever may be said of the various theories, one thing remains clear: "YOU CAN'T HAVE A PURE THOUGHT ABOUT NOTHING!" Thus something, or someone pre-exists my knowing it. That might not "prove" it to everyone, but at least it lets us deal with absolutely everything in life with reasonable assurance. The other option is to spend an endless life-time trying to just cope. But what's worse, if my neighbor thinks that the only certainty is what is going on in his mind, than the only way to settle differences, is VIOLENCE! For if that person is bigger and stronger than I, then they can take my possessions, my spouse, my life, and really, I can have no objection because if he thinks it's right for him to do so, I can't really object, since that is the only way we can deal with reality. About the turn of the century this got translated into the Christian mode of thinking in a philosophy called "EXISTENTIALISM". This "theology" believes that one can never know anything except what is in the mind, and so a "leap of faith" is the only way possible to live. Just believe in one's own thoughts as that is all you can know. Theologians, philosophers, psychologists, counsellors, of every kind and background immediately leapt on this as the "end all and be all" of the individual's right to make his own life. God is what you want him to be, or think him to be. Long ago Aristotle saw the danger of all of this, and stated the contrary very simply: "I know something to be!" (Scio alquid esse). Jesus very carefully said that we could know the Father (the author of everything in being) and while demanding of his followers hat they must make very personal and individual decisions, they must nevertheless make those choices about reality that is already in place.

Maybe that's where we are finally ending up as societal structures begin to disappear. Perhaps "might, makes right"! Whatever may be said, chaos is the result of unrestrained subjectivism. (Of course what we should acknowledge in actuality is the fear hat there might be an objective AUTHORITY other than myself, who might just be the norm of right and wrong. That's unacceptable to Adam and his descendants of any time and age, and to most of the human races!).

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1275) following the lead of Aristotle shows whereof the evidence is: "SICIO ALIQUID ESSE" - "I know something to be". Thus all reality is knowable because one knows only through the senses, which bring in to the mind, reality as it is.

SUMMARY: Nothing is in the mind that did not come through one of the senses. One can't explain the color green to a blind man. This means that the reality pre-existed anyone knowing it and is the norm for objectivity, about which I must make some very important choices. To make up reality, is to be forever caught in subjectivism, without every being able to get out.

PRINCIPLES:
1. Nothing is in the mind that did not come through one of the senses.
2. One can not have a pure thought about nothing.
3. Reality is outside the mind.
4. On the contrary, if all can be known is one's own thoughts, then violence is the only norm of settling anything; morality is what the individual thinks; God is man created.

SCRIPTURE:
If you know me, you know the Father. He who sees me sees the Father.
There are none so blind as those who won't see.
Faith comes from hearing.
God is able to be known from the things that have been made.

MAN FOR ALL SEASONS:
"Some people think the world is round; others think it flat. It is a matter capable of question. But if the world is round will the King's command flatten it?"

H.TRUTH.

Now that we have learned that we CAN know, and that we are able to understand the PROCESS by which we know (knowledge comes first through the senses), and that therefore REALITY IS OUTSIDE THE MIND, can we now learn, if the reality we know is known accurately or, truthfully as it is? Do we have in the mind, the reality that is outside it, accurately portrayed upon the mind as it is in the outside world?

We must study this question upon it depends the whole human effort to know the reality that God has created around us. The only other alternative is to try to create a reality in the mind which we already seen is pure fantasy. This treatment therefore will take three very important aspects: 1. What is truth? 2. Can we attain truth? 3. Impairments in attaining the truth.

1. WHAT IS TRUTH?

The definition of truth will start our consideration. Truth is properly defined as the "exact conformity of the mind, to the thing in reality". What is meant here is that the mind has exact correspondence through the sensations brought to it, to the thing or object outside the mind in reality. That is the notion of truth. That is the meaning of the semantic term "truth". If there is an absolute impairment of some type either in the sense organ, or in the psychological and physiological systems of the mind or body, then of course we can not know the truth of the thing outside our mind. If there is only a partial impairment thereof, then we must look to see if there is at least the essentials of the thing in reality, brought to the mind through the senses. We can state therefore, that to the degree we have CONFORMITY of the mind to the thing in reality, to that degree we have the truth.

2. CAN WE ATTAIN THE TRUTH?

If the human mind can know anything at all, then there are but two alternatives: A. The mind can know the reality outside of itself or B: It can not and therefore is made for total FRUSTRATION! Since the latter is absurd, the former therefore is all that we are left with by process of elimination. This is to say, that the mind is made to attain its object (truth), or it is not. If it is not, then it was made for an object that it could never attain, which would be pointless, ridiculous, and absurd. Whoever made the human mind would have made it for frustration. Since that alternative is not possible, then we are left with the fact that the mind CAN KNOW THAT AS IT IS.

3. IMPAIRMENTS IN ATTAINING THE TRUTH.

The most casual observer will note certain deficiencies either in oneself, or in others as regards their sensing the outside world. An example that comes readily to mind is that of color blindness. If one sees something as read, and everyone else calls it green, there is a suspicion that somethings is wrong! Since we have already seen that the mind is not made for frustration, then it behooves us to investigate to see if there is some EVIDENCE that we are not seeing things as they are. A trip to the eye doctor will readily "line-up" that evidence. We can then understand that there is an impairment to the optic nerve, and we attempt to correct the situation. Impairments to the emotional, or psychic life of the individual present a more difficult situation and challenge. We are use to assuming (correctly) that everything that has come into the senses since childhood, or even before, is accurate. It is a shock to find out through various means, that perhaps we were not well informed, or that we had been exposed to absolute false-hood and or fantasy in some part of our psychological grown pattern. Or it may be, that we have gradually imposed one such pattern on our own psyche. This will produce a varied view of the outside reality of the world, both in the physical sensibility of things, but also in cultural and sociological patterns such as prejudice and racism.

4. ANALYSIS IN ATTAINING THE TRUTH.

The opposite of truth is a lie. It is a "FALSE SPEAKING" (a falsi loqui). It means that the mind knows that something is true in reality, and has conformed to it, and then the individual makes a choice to say "no it is not so!" Because the brain is the greatest organ of the body and contains the greatest ability given by God to the human mind namely FREE WILL, the telling of a deliberate lie is therefore the greatest evil that we can do. (It should be noted that there are various degrees of impairment to knowledge by which the mind can be misled, and thus responsibility is impaired to a degree).

5. It has come about in history that human beings should not tell What is in their mind for two reasons:

A. The person asking has no right to know in a serious matter. Thus if two conditions are fulfilled, then the person can use MENTAL RESERVATION. The two conditions would be:

1. It is an extremely serious matter (only God can say what is serious!).
2. The person "asking" has no vested right to know the answer. Example: Someone asks you have you committed adultery? You may reply "no", meaning as "far as you are concerned." (The person asking has no right to know). If however your spouse was the one asking, they would have a RIGHT to know.

B. When silenced would not be consent. The condition is fulfilled only when the individual has no DUTY to answer. Thus one can remain silent and let anyone construe by that silence anything they choose. However, if you have a duty to answer, then the silence follows the moral maxim: "Silence is construed as consent".

In ordinary matters therefore, mental reservation may NEVER BE USED! One can always however choose to remain silent. You do not have to testify against yourself.

SUMMARY:
We have the truth when the mind perfectly conforms to reality outside of it. We assert we have the truth until PROVED otherwise.

PRINCIPLES:
1. Reality is outside the mind. The mind must conform to that reality.
2. The mind can put two pieces of reality together of things that don't exist in reality.
3. You assume you have the truth until proved that you don't. Otherwise the mind was made for frustration.
4. Mental reservation may only be used when it is a SERIOUS MATTER and the person "asking" has no VESTED RIGHT TO KNOW.

SCRIPTURE:
I am the way and the truth, and life. If you really knew me, you would know my Father also. Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father. Everyone who hears my voice, hears the truth. The truth will make you free. The Devil is the father of lies. He was a liar from the beginning. When he tells a lie he speaks from his very nature.

MAN FOR ALL SEASONS:
"Now explain how can you as Counselor of England can obstruct those measures for the sake of your own conscience. Well, I believe when statesman forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos."

"Your silence must be reckoned as objecting to the oath. Nay Mastery Secretary, the rule of law is, "qui tacuit consentire." If you can construe anything from my silence, you must reckon that I consent."

"I die the King's loyal subject. But, God's first!"

I. LAW
The truth which we can be known, and proved and communicated to express our values to acquire happiness, we can now comprehend the problem which is our greatest obstacle to happiness, which is our human weakness, which is where this course started! We are surrounded by disorder . That's not so surprising. After all, everywhere we look we see the conflict between reality of the order of nature (reality) and disorder (human weakness). In order to begin to get back to the original order and reality in which we call in a general way LAW. This is what God did for his people by giving them the Laws of the Old Testament, especially the Ten Commandments These were always a part of God's order, but they had to be codified into laws so that we in our weakness would have the assistance of a "Monitor" (as Paul put it) to guide us back to the author of all creation and truth (God).

Hence our study of law. We shall start with a definition, and then look at it's divisions, and then it's elements and applications.

DIVISIONS OF LAW

A. Eternal Law. This is the order discoverable in God's being. It never changes.
B. Divine Law. The laws by which God governs all of creation and creatures. It never changes.
C. Divine Moral Law. Laws made by the community of faithful in order to govern the family of God on earth. They do change and must change from time to time.
E. State Law. The laws made by any human society (State, Nation, County, City, Organizations, etc.) that apply to the particular community involved. They change and must change.

Note: Many laws of human communities are also restatement of Divine Laws, and that part of them, bind FIRST, because they are of Divine Law (i.e. oaths, murder, etc.).

DEFINITION OF LAW: "Law is an ordinance of reason, made by the one who has care of the community, for the common good, and promulgated (published)." We should note here that a definition is best when it does two things: 1. It tells you what a thing is; and 2. it tells you what a thing is not. Additionally, it must apply to all things in that category. In this case especially, all laws Divine and human, are included. Let us now proceed to look at the parts of our definition.

1. AN ORDINANCE OF REASON: Only a free will and intellect can create order. Animals follow the LAWS of instinct. Hence they do no create laws, but follow them exactly. There is no greater frustration to an animal when it can not carry out the laws directed by its instinct. Thus this "ordering" by an intellectual mind, is a sign of that intelligence. It also means that because it is so designed by a being with reason, that we must discover the reasons that the law was made, and for which the law applies. Thus laws do not apply when the object of the law has become UNREASONABLE. The law to worship God on Sundays doesn't apply if you are in prison or in the hospital. That would be unreasonable. It was not what the law-maker had in mind when the law was made.

2. MADE BY ONE WHO HAS CARE OF THE COMMUNITY. No on can make a law that does not have the right to do so for the subject involved. God of course can make laws for everyone. But human laws can not be made for everyone, in every place and time. Hence we must look to see if the one making the laws has the AUTHORITY to do so. What is authority? The word comes from the word "author" which means the right to command. Semantically it has been reserved for indicating the person (or persons) who have received the POWER to command in a given area or circumstances. Thus we can see there are various forms of authority. It may be a king, president, congress, republic, parliament, prime minister, etc. They all have received authority to command from some source. It is well to see the principle of Political Science here namely, that ALL AUTHORITY ON THIS EARTH COMES FROM GOD TO THE PEOPLE. Hence it is the community which DELEGATES authority to some form of government to make laws for the people. Whatever the form of government the people choose, they delegate (usually in a constitution) what authority that form of government has. Once the individual is so delegated, then the law must be obeyed unless it becomes unreasonable, or does not apply.

A careful notation must be made at this point. There is a woeful difference in the expression of authority. For AUTHORITY is based on evidence. Hence something I or you may say, is true because of the evidence for it. On the other hand, we must look at "AUTHORITARIANISM". This maintains that something is true because "I said so"! Nothing becomes true because someone says so. It may indeed be true, but it is NOT TRUE BECAUSE SOMEONE SAYS IT IS!

3. MADE FOR THE COMMON GOOD. This is the object of law. It means that all beings in this or that category, must have the same object for which they are striving. The law-maker must know that and make an ordinance so they can best obtain that object without disorder ruling, and also to curb the weakness that is in us, and direct it by discipline to its final goal. Hence the individual's rights may in some cases have to YIELD for the sake of the common good. For example, if the community needs a sewer system because it has grown in size, then an individual's property rights may have to yield for the sake of the common good. On the other hand the law-maker can not make a law for only one individual, and not have the common good in mind.

4. PROMULGATED (Published). One can not obey a law if there is no means by which they can know about it. Hence the law-maker must make it known in a REASONABLE way. This usually means an official pronouncement in the press or other means, so that the community can know about it. One can not be held to laws one does no know about. The problem sometimes comes up that one has made no EFFORT to find out about the law. That may be because they have not gone to the trouble to find out in the usual place, what the law is. For example, speed laws are usually published in various places so we can know what the speed limit is. If one deliberately ignores them, they are still held responsible. Thus "ignorance of law is no excuse."

SUMMARY:
Law is an indication of reason. It is necessary for all humans to follow law by choice. Animals follow the laws of instinct. There are laws that do NOT CHANGE such as God's Eternal, Divine, Natural, Moral laws. There are laws that DO CHANGE such as Church and state, and all other human community laws. Note, however, when these laws involve DIVINE LAWS, then they can not change. Laws of Church and State may be disciplinary. These must and do change. But church laws of discipline should not be confused with DOCTRINES.

PRINCIPLES:
When a law ceases to be reasonable, it ceases to be a law.
Laws must be made by one having authority.
Laws must be published.

SCRIPTURE:
Not one jot or title of the law will be done away with until it all comes true. Heaven and earth will pass away; my words will not pass away. It is not the letter of the law but the spirit.

MAN FOR ALL SEASONS:
"The world must judge accordingly to it's wits. This court must judge according to the law. I die the King's loyal subject but God's first."

2. Salvation.

A. GOD.

It is necessary to deal with three persons in this life: God, myself, and the "other". We now come to the place where we must deal with the first of these three persons: God. Of course it will be necessary for us to semantically clarify what is the meaning of the concept of God. The term means many things to many people. Since we can't possibly deal with them all at on time, we shall start by using one concept about God, and then apply all others to it. (One can't start nowhere!).

For our starting point, we shall look at the concept of God as follows: We are talking about a "being", an existing being, whose nature is TO BE. That is to say we are looking at the concept of a being as differentiated from all other beings, whose nature is "not to be" (that is, a being of some sort that at one time did not exist, and perhaps will not continue to exist by it's very nature). This "being" whose nature is "to be" is precisely different from any other concept. This "being" is one that by it's very nature and essence had no beginning and will never have an end. That is the concept we shall consider first because that would rank such a being above superior to all other beings claiming a divine status.

It should be noted here that an ATHEIST is usually well read on the concept of God, if for no other reason than that person must be very certain about what it is HE DOES NOT BELIEVE IN! An AGNOSTIC on the other hand , while conceding such a being "might" exist, are either certain that you can never know, or lack any way of being certain about it. Both agree however on the concept that they are talking about, and we must be too!

When we use the term God therefore, we are considering a being whose nature is not only "to be" but is the "being" that caused all other beings "to be". To illustrate what is behind this concept, we shall take a simple demonstration of what every child probably has done: setting up dominos in a line so that if one falls, it falls into the domino in front, and they eventually all fall down. We of course observe that "someone" caused the first domino to go down. However, if one set up enough dominos, say through the kitchen and dining room, through the living room, and into one's bedroom, and just as the last few were being set up, one hears a dreaded "clicking" sound! The dominos are going down. One reasonably concludes that if these are going down, something or someone started them going down. We did not see who or what it was, only the effect, and that led us to a morally certain conclusion: someone pushed the first domino. This process is known as the CAUSE AND EFFECT relationship (i.e. that the effect of one going down was caused by another falling against it). Or, another example might be if we find a body all tied up on the floor, and a gun shot to the back of the head, we conclude that something or someone shot the individual. It is clear that the wound was not self inflicted. It is also clear that it would have to be someone that had the ability to cause adequately the effect produced.

We have observed two things: 1). We have seen that effects must have adequate causes. We also have seen that effects don't cause themselves. Thus we can see that a DESCRIPTION answers the question "WHAT" happened? 2). On the other hand, we can see that an EXPLANATION answers the question "WHY" it happened? It is very important that we do not confuse the two, for we are always being offered descriptions for causes. It is ridiculous to say that there is dead body on the floor, and merely say: "Well it just happened!" No a murder took place (that's the effect; the "WHAT" happened). What we must know is the "WHY" it happened! A description simply will not do. We must have a cause.

The world around us is all to evident as an EFFECT of some cause (descriptions will not do). In fact no human being has ever experienced the reality that is outside the mind in any other way except under the sensible formality of CAUSE AND EFFECT relationships. Were there one other experience, this would all be a meaningless consideration. We have got to come to some conclusion of "WHY" the "WHAT" happened. The classical case would be evolution. In the book "Origin of the Species", Charles Darwin argues and very credibly that there is adequate development of all growing things on earth; that there is a evolving process that is going on all about us, and has since things were in existence. However, he makes a fundamental blunder by calling the process or description of "The Origin". A description is simply not an explanation! Evolving or development is not telling us "WHY", but only telling us "WHAT"!

The mind then can follow a simple reasoning process:
1. Effects exist in the world. (If they didn't we have nothing to consider. But they do exist!).
2. Every effect requires an adequate cause. (Descriptions explain nothing!).
3. An infinite series of effects and causes gives no explanation whatsoever.
4. The only other alternative is that there is a cause that did not need some other cause, which was able to cause everything else, and was not caused by another.

We call that cause "GOD".
NOTA BENE: We only have two alternatives:
1. An infinite series.
2. An Uncaused Cause.

Since we have eliminated choice one, we are stuck with choice two. There are not any other alternatives! (This does not mean however, that we can "conceive" of such a thing, but only that we have to have an adequate cause for the effects produced). Also, this does not make it semantically metaphysically certain. It is only morally certain.

This argument (cause and effect) has been termed the "Five Ways" for proving the existence of God. The other four ways are simply exchanging the nouns for cause and effect. Thus the arguments would be:

1. ORDER. Whatever is ordered, is ordered by another.
2. MOTION. Whatever is moved is moved by another.
3. PERFECTION. Perfection requires no limit. But perfections are discovered as limited in this world. Thus there must be one who can so limit them.
4. CONTINGENCY. Whatever is touched by another.

These arguments can all be reduced to the argument of "Cause and Effect".

CONCLUSION:
It is reasonable to say that you can reason to the existence of God, and that it is morally certain that God exists to the point of absurdity for the opposite. But that is as far as human reason can go. This is not however, Faith. (That will be considered under the unit on RELIGION.) It is sufficient however to say that God is reasonable, and that the concept of God while not able to be conceived, is and can be reasoned to as existing.

SUMMARY:
Every effect requires an adequate cause. The world that we know certainly, is always known under the "cause and effect" relationship. Since descriptions only tell us "What", we must have an explanation that tells us "Why" the effects exist. The "Uncaused cause" is an adequate explanation of what we mean by the concept of a being whose nature is "to be".

PRINCIPLES:
Every effect requires an adequate cause. Explanations tell us "Why" things happen. Descriptions tell us "What" happened.

SCRIPTURE:
Moses asked: "Who are you?" God replied, "I AM who AM". God's invisible attributes of power have been able to be known through the things that have been made. Before Abraham came to be, I AM!

B. SCRIPTURE.

Since we can know God, and know that his existence is reasonable, we must now consider the following questions: If God exists, did He say anything? And, if he said anything, what was said? And if indeed He said it, where do we find it? And, if He said it, can we be sure that we now have whatever it was He said. Hence we now come to the questions involving the COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE DIVINE.

Before we make certain of what it is we ARE talking about, we must equally be certain of what it is we ARE NOT talking about. This can be done by a simple example.

A telephone book upon examination, can easily be discovered to have as its purpose the listing of phone numbers. It may well indeed have other information therein, but the phone company is not guaranteeing such information; only the phone numbers. Again a COOK BOOK has as its purpose, teaching one to cook. It may be a sunrise to find on a given page that the line up of numbers for various ingredients for a Chocolate Cake just happen to be one's own phone number, but that is by accident! Also, one might examine the phone book under the letter "C" and fine a listing for a man named "Dutch Chocolate", but that does not mean that one should try to learn to cook from a PHONE BOOK! Every book has its very own reason for being written. What else is in that book besides that main purpose is there accidentally.

The same can be said of any book, and it is equally true of the book called the BIBLE. Upon examination, one can discover that the purpose of the book is: TO TEACH RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TRUTHS ONLY. There are other things stated in the Bible, but they are there by accident, or by reason of the lack of knowledge of the human writer. (For instance it is a matter of science that the sun does not move, but the earth moves around the sun. However, the Bible says endlessly, that the sun "sets". Does that mean the Bible is in error? Hardly. Scientific truths are not the purpose of the Bible. They may be there; they may be accurate; they may be equally be false; but they are not the PURPOSE of the book, anymore than one should be overwhelmed with one's telephone number in one's cook book!). The classic example is the rather ridiculous argument between the "creationists" and the "evolutionists". Evolution is a matter of science. The Bible says nothing about science as it's formal purpose. It would be equally ridiculous to assume that just because one discovers in a Chemistry text that some author exclaims that if you mix certain chemicals together you have a "God-awful" explosion, that the author is asserting the existence of God! That is not the formal purpose of a Chemistry book.

Now that we know the purpose of the book called the "Bible"(Biblios meaning "book"), we can proceed to the problem of whether it can be shown to be a communication from God (and later, to see a further problem of how it was written).

There are two essential ways for approaching this problem: the LONG way, and the SHORT way.

1. The LONG way is to examine all CLAIMED writings and communications from the DIVINE. This would take a life-time, for we would have to examine each writing; learn all the languages that each was written in; compare the thoughts contained therein; analyze whether this could be just from human minds, or whether it would have to be "super-natural" (that is above human beings ability to produce); how it compared with other writings, etc. etc. Needless to say, that would take a lengthy bit of time. Most of us neither have the brilliance nor the time and inclination to undertake such an effort. Happily, for those of us who are not so brilliant, there is another way.

2. The SHORT way is to go through the following logical steps:
a. Prove that Jesus Christ was God.
b. Jesus Christ approved (as God) that the Hebrew Bible was the communication from God. (That is not to say that He excluded "other" writings as coming from God. But, he does say that this one at least is absolutely from God).
c. Since those he sent to teach what he taught, could not be able as creatures, to defeat God's teachings, the Christian New Testament therefore is the communication from God as well.

That all sounds almost too simple a process, and at the same time, a very demanding process. Can it be done? The answer is yes!

PROVING JESUS CHRIST IS GOD.

The same process can be used here as if one were trying to prove that say, George Washington, did all the things he did.

Thus:
1. Prove that Jesus Christ existed as a historical person. (If he never existed, this would be a useless consideration!) By examining the "unfavorable" and the "favorable" historians of Jesus' time. (That is those who were official writers of history at the time in question). The unfavorable would surely love to prove that Jesus never existed. But Flavius Josephus, Tacitus, Pliney the Elder, Pliney the Younger, all agree that there was such a historical person. The "favorable" historians(those who promote Jesus' cause) such as Luke, Paul, etc. all agree, he did exist. Conclusion: they all agree on the fact that: Jesus called the "Christ" was a historical person.

2. Prove that Jesus Christ made a "claim" to be Divine. Again, the favorable and the unfavorable all agree on the fact that he did make such a claim. In fact, that was the official reason that he was crucified.

3. Prove that Jesus Christ said "how" he would prove such a claim in such a way that no human being could prove it.

One of the unique things about Jesus is that he always said that he came to die. He also said that he would come back to life in a way that no one could ever doubt that he was dead, or that he came back to life. (Oddly, it was the "unfavorable" ones who believed him!) Again, the same historians on both sides of the issue are all agreed on the fact: He did come back! (How, and what it meant, they would never agree).

The debate goes on over the centuries as to what all this means, but it certainly is an ADEQUATE line-up of evidence that the death and return of Jesus, is morally certain. Not all would agree, but surely is enough for those who believe in Jesus to have more than reasonable certainty that it is so. (This again, must not be constructed to be an ACT OF FAITH. That is something we shall examine later).

What is important for us however is that this is a simple way for the simplest person, to be content that the Bible as we now have it, is the word of God.

We now must consider HOW the bible was written. To do this as always we shall let a simple example be our guide. Let us consider the CARPENTER and the saw. (How Biblical!)

When a carpenter decides to saw a board, he selects a saw from those available. The selection may be a very fine instrument that cuts a smooth and exact line. Or it may be a dull instrument that is the only one available. But which ever the Carpenter chooses, the work of cutting the board in half is attributed to the CARPENTER and not to the saw.

God is the author of the Bible. He chose various different instruments (some sharp, and some not so sharp) to accomplish the work. The human writing may be prose, poetry, folk-songs, proverbs, stories, etc., but it is God (The Carpenter) to whom the idea or concept is attributed. Some God rejected part way through the work (King Saul, Judas, etc.), and replaced them with others. The thought is that no creature can defeat the Creator's plan of transmitting the message of salvation to the human community.

C. RELIGION

Now that we have determined that God said something, our natural question is "how do we respond?" This brings us to the unit on Religion. It is a word that comes from the latin word "re-eligio", that is to "choose again." It harkens back to the fact that Adam made a very bad first choice! Jesus comes along and makes it possible for s to make another choice. Particularly, it means that we can choose again, the Father and to respond to his love in creating us as His children.

It is our desire to be friends with the Creator. Hence even primitive religions sought divine approval from a any "god" they could imagine. Thus they offered gifts thereto to ask for things or to placate for their wrongs, etc. Since you couldn't very well give "the god" anything, they sought various forms of "offerings" such as incense which as smoke disappears upwards; or animal or human sacrifices which sought in someway to give the greatest gift you could which was LIFE! In all of these, there was a very basic realization that there was a need to become "friends" with the divine. But what can you give God? Thus we study our "choice" to give to God the best; the most "pleasing" sacrifice. Since we know that God's word is in the Scriptures, we now turn to them so that we can see what God would want from us. We shall see that God has very carefully pointed out for us a pattern that shows us what he wants and why. This is the practice of religion.

Our next concern is to grasp the overall pattern and theme of the Bible. We find upon reading any of the books thereof that three major themes present themselves: LIGHT, LIFE, LOVE. These three major concepts are at the heart of the scriptures from the moment God says "let there be light" in Genesis, to the book of Revelations where St. John has the whole symbolism of this book around the Light that is the Divine Essence. St. Paul reminds us that God dwells in light "unaccessible", and finally Jesus identifies himself as the "light of the world". Again, it is Jesus who comes to give "life", and that we must "love" one another in order to attain eternal life.

To put these things in their proper setting, we must understand the PATTERN that is used throughout the Bible. It is a simple pattern but it has its corresponding elements that need to be grasped. They include:

1. Breath of God. The word "Spirit" means breath. In this case it means the "Holy Breath of God". This is the unique thing that God does to Adam (and not to any other creature) namely to "breath" into the human nature something of the very ESSENCE OF THE DIVINE BEING OR LIFE ITSELF!

2. Adam "blew" it back in God's face: That is to say by his action, Adam chose not to have the ability to live forever by his choice to love himself rather than God. It of course brought death. Too long to cover here are the many themes by which God reminds his people that they are to keep ever in mind that they must seek this life again. There is a plan that God uses to re-establish this.

3. Moses is chosen to bring the LAW to the people. The reason is simple. As in Genesis where there is at first "chaos" and the Spirit of God moves over the waters, so order is made by God's command. Moses is to re-assert ORDER (by means of the Law) os that God can once again prepare mankind to receive back the breath of life. Very carefully, God sets the plan in motion by letting the people "eat and drink bread and water" by means of the divine power. This is to catch their attention that even natural life depends on nourishment brought about by the power of God. The "manna" and the "water from the rock" were food and drink, but only for the human body. They still died because this was not bread and drink that would give eternal life. Notice again, the pattern: order, bread, drink, nourishment and the object of life.

4. Moses is to establish a perpetual community of the family of God (the Hebrew people). Moses of course is going to die (thanks to Adam). So Moses appoints Joshua to continue the ongoing progress of the community. He has authority to say what God wants, and what he does not want. (Interestingly the name "Jesus" is practically the same as "Joshua" in Hebrew). The most notable thing we know about Joshua is that of all the most important persons in the Old Testament, we do not find that he ever once failed God! He brought the people into the promise land and governed them seemly without exception without fault before God (Perhaps this is a type of Jesus).

5. Without ignoring the other personage of the Bible such as David, and Isaiah, Ezechiel, Elizha, etc. we now see clearly what Jesus does in the New Testament. God takes on the human flesh that had been designed for the "divine breath" and represents it back to the Father, by putting life back into by destroying death. The very first thing Jesus does after the resurrection is to BREATH ON THE APOSTLES! That was meant to exactly correspond to God breathing life into Adam. Following the pattern God used with Moses, Jesus makes a point out of FOOD and DRINK. This bread and drink however is not for the life o bodies as was all that Moses could do, this bread and drink however "came down from heaven" (like manna) that the "breath" of life could be put back into the human soul to LIVE FOREVER! Thus the pattern and cycle is finally complete. The water that Moses got from the rock, is exactly typical of the water BAPTISM and HOLY SPIRIT (Breath) that is now given to Jesus' delegate "THE ROCK" (Peter) to give an on-going life to the family of God. That was God's pattern and plan. We shall see in the unit on the CHURCH just what the community is to do with the gift of life, and the nourishment thereof (Eucharist).

6. Finally, the Letter of the Hebrews let us know that with most of the people of the Old Testament, God "was not well pleased!" Hence we must seek out the "most pleasing gift" to the Father. We shall see that the "Most Pleasing Gift" to the Father is the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. It gave back the life to God's children.

7. Adam by this mistake lost the "knowledge" of the Father. He was blinded to God's presence, and thus the long wandering by faith. Jesus comes and makes the whole purpose of Christian life one thing: KNOWLEDGE OF THE FATHER. Our faith now means that we are getting an ever "clearer" vision of the Father through the humanity of Jesus. But that faith (knowledge) is useless unless we do the Father's will. Hence Jesus very carefully tells us that the patter of his life is to be our pattern. "I do only what I understand the Father wants me to do, and I speak only what the Father wants me to say." This completes our quest for how to respond to the Divine, or our practice of religion.

This leads us to a proper understanding of FAITH. Faith is a semantic term concept which has been reserved for one idea. It is the BELIEF IN WHAT GOD SAID (assuming we know He said it) BECAUSE HE CAN NOT LIE. The very nature of God in his total goodness is that He could not deceive us. Thus our motivation in believing God's word is the fact of GOD'S TRUTHFULNESS. This is to be very carefully distinguished from two things.

SUMMARY:
Religion is nothing but the attempt to be friends with the Creator by the creature. The best way of all to be friends is to give someone the most pleasing gift. The most pleasing gift we know is Jesus' sacrifice. The Pattern in the Bible of: LOSS OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOD; EAT,DEATH; LAW, ORDER; MANNA, ROCK, WATER; MOSES,JOSHUA; GAIN KNOWLEDGE OF THE FATHER; BREAD, DRINK; EAT, LIFE; JESUS, PETER; MOST PLEASING GIFT.

PRINCIPLES:
1. We must offer to God the only gift that is pleasing and the one that is wanted.
2. God's plan restored eternal life to us.
3. The BREAD OF LIFE is the most pleasing gift to the Father restoring life to his creatures.

SCRIPTURE:
1. In Him was life and the life was the light of man.
2. Now this is eternal life, that you may know the Father and He whom He has sent.
3. Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life in you.

MAN FOR ALL SEASONS:
"If I were a man who did not value he taking of an oath, I would not be there. I pray that if what that man says is true, that I may never see God face to face!"

D. MORALITY.

The three persons we deal with in life we saw are: God, the Other "Guy", and myself. We have now dealt with the first of these three, and now we take a look at the relationships we establish for all "OTHERS". This is the basic study of human nature as it acts and specifically, the behavior of human beings and the nature of what they should and should not do, or the "OUGHT" in their activity.

Morality comes from the latin word "mos, mores" which means simply "custom", or "customary observable behavior". It pertains in its most wide semantic notion to the CONDUCT of human beings. (It should be distinguished from "BEHAVIOR" which normally refers to the operations of animals). Specifically, it refers to that conduct of human beings for which they are held responsible. The definition of morality therefore is: THE GOODNESS OR BADNESS OF HUMAN CONDUCT. Thus it should be noted that this distinguishes it from all operations of animals, or angels, or any other behavior of any other type of creatures. Positively therefore we are speaking about human conduct for which we can and must be held responsible. The use of the term "moral" refers to conduct which we "ought" to do; the term "immoral" refers to that which we "ought not to do".

We can further sub-divide human conduct into ACTS OF HUMANS, and HUMAN ACTS. The former means those acts performed by human beings that are NOT UNDER THE COMMAND OF THE WILL. Thus blinking of the eyes, beating of the heart, sneezes, etc., are performed by human beings but they are not "chosen" or "commanded by the will." On the other hand there are HUMAN ACTS which are actions that are COMMANDED BY THE WILL. These actions are those that I choose to do, or choose not to do, and for which I AM HELD RESPONSIBLE. The key notion here is that human beings have a free will, and because they have that free will, they can and are held responsible for what they do. It should be noted here that much of the Psychiatric world, does not believe in the freedom of the will. Either the Freudian school which believes that the human being is DETERMINED by drives and there is nothing that person can do about certain or all of their activities. Again, the BEHAVIORISTIC school believes that we are all the result of our environment, culture, society, etc. Thus there the human being can not ultimately be held for what they do.

The Judeo-Christian notion of morality rejects this notion as totally unacceptable. It is based on an Epistemological problem which we saw under the unit on Knowledge. They simple do not believe that there is any OBJECTIVE world and hence everything is totally SUBJECTIVE. The Catholic Church has always come down hard on the side of OBJECTIVE morality. We are held responsible for what we do, even though we are greatly influenced by environment or genetic disposition. We can still be held to account for what we do even though it may be under great difficulty. It is important therefore to review the unit on Knowledge here, to understand that reality is OUTSIDE the mind and we must make choices about it. We understand the semantic concept of "FREE WILL" therefore as follows: WHEN EVERYTHING IS PRESENT FOR HUMANS TO CHOOSE ONE WAY, IT IS STILL POSSIBLE FOR THEM TO CHOOSE THE OPPOSITE.

Our choices therefore must be considered as to what will determine the moral or immoral aspect thereof. (We must remind ourselves of our very early principle that we can discover the purpose of anything, by examining it's nature). By examining human conduct we can discover that the "goodness" or "badness" of any human action can be seen by three types of determinants. They are: the INTENTION for which something is done; the OBJECT for which it was done; and the CIRCUMSTANCES surrounding it. Thus:

INTENTION: That which was my choice that made me do the action. We are not talking about our assessment of why we did it, but the actual DECISION that we made TO DO IT!

OBJECT: This is the reason "Why" we made the decision.

CIRCUMSTANCES: These are the interrogatives of what, why, where, who, when and how much?

Thus we must always look first to the intention why we did this or that act. If the intention was good (I need money to eat), the object is good (gain money by working), and the circumstances are good (I receive money and buy food). Then we can say it is a moral action. However, if my intention is bad (I lie about my qualifications), even though my object is good (get some money), and the circumstances are alright (receive the money from employer), the action is immoral, and I may not do it.

Again, my intention might be good (have sex with my spouse), but the object is wrong (pornography), and the circumstances are not wrong (legitimate affection), I may not perform the action, because it is rendered immoral by the bad objective.

Finally, the intention may be good (I take a rope), and the object is good (I need to have a rope for my work on a farm), but the circumstances are wrong (there is a cow on the end of the rope), then I may not take that rope!

But not all moral choices are so easy. Hence we must look closer to human actions to discover their precise morality. Thus we can distinguish between: GOOD ACTS; BAD ACTS; INDIFFERENT ACTS.

1. GOOD ACTS: Those that are purely good in their very essence. "Praying" is a purely good act. One can not say a bad prayer! It will instantly cease to be a prayer.

2. BAD ACTS: Likewise these are acts that are purely bad in their essence. Thus "telling a lie" is a purely bad action. One simply can not tell a "good lie"!

3. INDIFFERENT ACTS: These are the majority of actions we perform. They are neither "good" nor "bad" in themselves. They have some good and some bad in them.

For the human being most of the acts they perform are decidedly in themselves, "indifferent acts". Hence we must do MORAL SURGERY as it were, to find out if we may perform them. This brings us to the principle of DOUBLE EFFECT. This is not unknown to us as we use it many times daily without really reflecting thereon. (Jesus supports the principle by affirming it as a method of procedure).

1. THE PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT.

Let us remember that this principle is only used in those actions of humans that are neither good nor bad in themselves but have some good and some bad in them, called INDIFFERENT ACTS.

The principle has four conditions:
1. We must always INTEND the good effect involved.
2. We may never INTEND the bad effect involved.
3. There must be a GREATER PROPORTION of good to be achieved than the bad to be ALLOWED.
4. The good effect can not come out of the bad effect.

Let us see how this works out. The action I wish to perform is to eliminate mice from my house by using means to get rid of them. I certainly intend the GOOD. Secondly I am not intending the bad effect (death to those mice!) but allowing it. But, I decide to use an atomic bomb! This will get rid of the mice for sure, and a half the state as well! There is no proportion between the good effect and the bad effect. Thus I may not perform this action. On the other hand, if I chose to hire an exterminator company and they gas the mice within the confines of my own home, that would be a perfectly good act. Or again, I wish to get rid of cancer in my hand. The action is of cutting is neither good nor bad in itself, although it has a good effect: save the body; and it has a bad effect: I lose my hand. Can I do this? Well based on the principle we see we can intend the good effect: save the body; I allow the bad (don't intend this) severing the hand; there is a good proportion of good over the bad: the body is more important than the hand; The good effect does not arise out of the bad effect: health of the body remains more important than the losing of the hand. As serious as the loss of a hand may be, I can perform this act as "morally good" by reason of the conditions of the principle of double effect.

It is important to see, that ANY INDIFFERENT ACT no matter how large or small can be judged by this principle, should we desire to find out it's "MORAL WORTH".

2. CONSCIENCE.

In forming assessments of morality, we are necessarily dealing also with our conscience. It is vital for the student to understand what the conscience is and what it is not. First of all it is not a "feeling". One can have feelings about the decisions that we make, but whether they are good or bad, they belong in the emotional and sub-conscious world. They are not our conscience. (If you are hearing "little voices" you may need to consult a psychiatrist!). Neither is it one's conditioning from the society, culture, or family. Those are indeed heavy influences, but they are not conscience. (A caution is to be noted. The psychological term is "consciousness." This means "awareness". The ethical moral term is conscience meaning the assessment we used about some objective moral matter).

Conscience in its most strict definition is : A PRACTICAL REASONED MORAL JUDGEMENT. That is, you make an assessment of the "moral worth" of the action contemplated, and based on that assessment you decide to do or not do the action. It should be very carefully noted here that the conscience is in the INTELLECT OR REASON. Thus the reasoning about something, however serious the matter may be, is not sinful (although it can quickly become some once a choice is made!). On the other hand, sin is in the WILL. That is where we make our choices having taken the assessment of the INTELLECT. Thus all the "reasoning in the world" is not sinful, until we make a CHOICE about doing it.

Some principles:
1.CORRECT CONSCIENCE: One that is in conformity with reality that is good as judged. Thus the OBJECTIVE and the SUBJECTIVE agree.
2. ERRONEOUS CONSCIENCE: The intellect judges something to be good, when in reality its is bad. It has been misled.
3. MORALLY CERTAIN CONSCIENCE: One makes the judgement without reasonable fear of error.
4. DOUBTFUL CONSCIENCE: The judgement is with serious misgivings. Thus something may be judges as "possible" or "probable".

God expects us to follow generally the SAFER course if at all possible (sometimes we just have to go with what we know!). Also, we remind ourselves that a doubtful law, or an unreasonable law does not bind. Thus we consult our conscience over the decisions that we made, BASED ON WHAT WE KNEW AT THE TIME WE MADE THE DECISION.

SUMMARY:
Morality is the evaluation of human acts that are commanded by the will. It is the "ought" in determining what is good or bad for human beings to perform and for which they are held responsible. It maintains that we have a FREE WILL.

Human acts have as their moral determiners the INTENTION, THE OBJECT, and THE CIRCUMSTANCES. There are three types of human acts: good, bad, indifferent. Indifferent acts have some good and some bad effects. Hence we must look to the principle of DOUBLE EFFECT to decide whether they can be performed.

A word must be said here about the nature of CONSCIENCE.

The conscience is not a feeling. Neither is a "little voice" in the back of your head telling you something. (If you are hearing "little voices" you may need a psychiatrist!) Indeed, there may be feelings accompanying human activity, and emotional and biological responses that are attached to certain actions, but they are not conscience. The conscience is A REASONED JUDGEMENT. Thus it is in the intellect (not the will!) and it is the reasoning or assessment of an action to be performed or avoided. It is necessary to "line up the evidence" (remember proof?) about what we are doing. Once the person has adequate evidence in the intellect, then it presents it to the will to make a choice. Thus we do not SIN in the intellect, but only in the WILL. Whatever our thoughts they are not sinful as such until we make a CHOICE about them. If we are badly informed, or simply don't know enough, then we must not act. If however we are deceived or have received bad information, than of course our "choice" is worth only what we knew at THE TIME WE DID THE ACTION!

PRINCIPLES:
1. Humans are held responsible for what they do because they have a free will.
2. The PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT has a four conditions:
A. Always INTEND THE GOOD EFFECT.
B. May NEVER INTEND THE BAD EFFECT.
C. The good effect must OUTWEIGH THE BAD EFFECT.
D. The good effect can not ARISE OUT OF BAD EFFECT.
3. Conscience is a reasoned judgement. It is in the intellect and not in the will.

SCRIPTURE:
If your hand is your undoing, cut it off. It is better to enter into life maimed, then to enter with two hands into unquenchable fire! I tell you, anyone who even looks at another with lust in their heart, has already committed adultery. When the Son of Man comes, he will render to each one his due. I tell you, you will render account for every idle word you speak.

SECOND SEMESTER.

III. Part II.Christian Marriage.

The very first thing that God the Father was concerned about in the creation of the first man and woman was marriage. (In using the term "He" the male pronoun is not the sense of simply sexual gender, but that used by the scripture writers, not out of sociological concerns of the times, but to express real "divine" gender activity to compliment and to become "unionized" with the human beings that were created. The language of the scripture writers is metaphorical, figurative, and poetic. They struggled to find various expressions to correspond to the activities of God in simply human terms. The magisterium of the Church has never understood God's essence to include both genders and hence is not used in any prejudicial way to one or the other gender. To rashly assume that it was used for cultural or sociological reasons by the scripture authors is very poor biblical theology, and remains in the field of an assertion, not a credible evidentiary theory).

God had put his own life into this special creature called human for the precise purpose of creating his own family. In a deeply mysterious but very real way, God wanted to share his life with his creature and did so by "breathing" into that new creature, his SPIRITUS(Breath) whereby the first human beings were forever different than all other angels and creatures of his making. The point was forever emphasized that the human being was essentially and radically different than every other creature precisely because there was "something" in the very essence of the humanity that was of the Divine Life itself. The human being in God's plan was to be distinctly a true life-blood member of God's family. It is this central idea, that the author of this work will use throughout this presentation.

The Doctrinal sources of the Church have been carefully consulted, especially the creedal statements from the earliest statements of doctrine and the Father's of the Church; the official documents of the Councils, and the encyclicals of the Popes down through the history of the Church; along with the major Doctors and Theologians of that history, particularly St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas. The author has made extensive efforts to remain abreast of modern scriptural scholarship especially where it is concerned with the subject matter herein. If any correction is deemed necessary, the author readily admits to legitimate authority for that correction.

Rev. Jerome L. Cummings
Feast of St. Joseph, 1995

C O N T E N T S

1. General Introduction.
2. Church: Sacrament & Covenant.
3. Nature of Love.
4. Human Sexuality.
5. Dateing: Choosing & Chosen.
6. Engagement & Marriage.
7. Birth & Control.
8. Family Life.
9. Celibacy & Single Life.

1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

God has called us to a life that makes us part of His family. It was His intention from the beginning to incorporate us into his ETERNAL LIFE. He so designed us that we can freely respond to his love, by specifically LOVING OTHERS. Thus our whole identity of "who we are" is essentially found in our recognition of "who God is"! To learn that, we must begin to begin to share his life-giving love, and then to recognize it in other human beings. That is how we will best understand in a human way, how God loves us. To do this, we shall take a look at God's pattern of love, which then will help us learn how to love. The pattern that is best known to us is God's community (family) the Church.

2. CHURCH: SACRAMENT & COVENANT.

It was God who decided to make human beings. What is most noteworthy is that God wanted to share his very "inner life" with this creature (It is worth noting that God apparently does not do this in the case of the Angels. Why is not known). The Genesis writer very carefully draws attention to the fact that God "breathes" into Adam. The word "breath" (in Latin: "spiritus") means the "inner life" of someone. Humans have always recognized that when someone stops "breathing" they are dead! So it is this "breath of God" that is being called attention to, and that will be recognized as the IMAGE OF GOD IN US. Because we share in this very inner life of God, we are part of his very being, destined to live forever (this has caused some to think over the centuries that we will be Divine in nature. This is easily seen as to be false and not what God intended. You can't very well be Divine and be "created by another!"). Probably St. John puts it best when he says that we shall "be LIKE Him."

To begin our examination of the PATTERN of God's love, we will consider the essential factors:

1. It is God who INITIATES the action to bring humans into existence. It is a decision. An act of God's will brings "life" into another.

2. It is not just animal life. God wishes to share his ability to love. Now love can not be love unless it is FREE! God freely chose to love us. But love demands RESPONSE. Thus God chose to initiate into being a creature who had the ability to love God in return, freely, and without constraint. but the mystery is that if you are free, you can choose to not love in return! And that is exactly what happened with Adam's choice! He chose to love himself, not God. Disaster was the result, but then it always is when we choose not to love another, but ourselves.

3. God had put into human beings not only his own life, but chose to have us GENERATE life in others, by and through love. Hence we can pass on the Divine life (not from our own bodies) into a child that God chooses to create. (It should be noted here that animals reproduce animals; human beings do not reproduce other human beings! In humans, the PERSON of the child does not come from the parents glands, or genes. The best the parents can do is dispose the matter and God will put a PERSON into it). Thus, "male and female, He created them."

4. UNION. Union was God's choice. He achieved union with humans by placing Divine life therein. Humans were to imitate that union by the fact that as male and female they could physically unite their persons and their bodies. It is an action that is complete and brings forth NEW LIFE. God's action is called COVENANT. It is the union of God and human beings.

5. The COMMUNITY of these different individuals is life the life of God itself. For there is a community of persons, yet a unity that is perfect which we call the Trinity. The fundamental reason why God revealed the Trinity was that it not only showed the intimacy and "oneness" and love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but it shows us just how far we have fallen from the original way God made us. The true desire of the lover is to be completely united in thought with the beloved. It creates a "oneness" in them. When Adam broke his "oneness" with God, he broke the "oneness" with his human family as well. The murder of Abel by his brother Cain, shows how deep the insane whisper goes in our fallen human nature of sheer egotism and selfishness. Now we find that we concentrate on self-love, instead of "love of another". It is very painful to discipline ourselves on order to seek a balance once again, so that our love may be directed towards others. For this reason God established the CHURCH in the Old Testament of "His" people. Five times at least God undertook the effort to bring them back into love and harmony with Himself and with one another. We know from history just how sad were the results. When Jesus came, he was born of a Woman, born under the law with the "Holy Spirit's Breath" in him. He established the community of the Church once again with God and with our neighbor. "Of this Kingdom (family) there will be no end!"

6. The SACRAMENT of the Church is poured out in various different ways, but principally through the seven essential sacraments that are necessary corresponding to our growth. Principally they are:

A. BIRTH. As a baby is born and is the result of the union of the Father and Mother, so in BAPTISM, the child receives life from the union of God the Father with Mother Church. The seed of life is Christ himself. In Him was light (very essence of God's life) and the light was the LIFE of men. They are born not by carnal desire, nor blood, but of God's willing it. There will be enmity between Mary's seed will crush the head of the serpent.

B. EUCHARIST. Every baby no matter how healthy, needs food. Hence the bread of life. The manna in the desert showed clearly that natural food was not enough to return to the purpose for which we were made, eternal life. The bread that Jesus gives is the very flesh that he took from Mary, and having put his DIVINE LIFE into it, give us the nourishment to live forever.

C. CONFIRMATION. All life is growth.

2008-01-27T01:39:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is ACS

Art or Computer Science

I wrote this because I have had writers block with this blog. I don't know if I want to continue writing TLAs or just write on my 365-light-life-love blog. I wrote code to express some of my logic that's been going on in my life. I don't know if this is a new form of art, because this is a working program with working logic, but there are ideas here that are far more interesting than the code itself. I don't know if people will get it. Let me know if you do. This is not some silly esoteric Google or Facebook interview question. I just want to know whether you would consider this poetry or logic. Dang writing this makes me feel like debugging a freaking e-Harmony or Match.com algorithm. And those sites capitalize on the craving of people to have a romantic relationship. I don't know, parts of me says it is just simple CS, but the artist in me thinks there is something that needs to be fleshed out. So for the 2 people who read my blog, let me know what you think.

public class RomanticRelationship {

private Person male = new Person();
private Person female = new Person();

public boolean willThisWork(){

boolean retBool = false;

if(male.getPleasure() == female.getPleasure()){
retBool= true;
}

return retBool;
}

public void initializeIrrationalHumans(){

male.setHappy(new Double(Math.rint(Math.random())).intValue());
male.setPleasure(new Double(Math.rint(Math.random())).intValue());

female.setHappy(new Double(Math.rint(Math.random())).intValue());
female.setPleasure(new Double(Math.rint(Math.random())).intValue());
}

public static void main(String [] args){

RomanticRelationship aRomanticRelationship = new RomanticRelationship();
aRomanticRelationship.initializeIrrationalHumans();
boolean ans = aRomanticRelationship.willThisWork();
System.out.println("Will this romantic relationship work?"+ans);

}

}

class Person {
private int pleasure=0;
private int happy=0;

Person(){

}

public void setPleasure(int aPleasureMetric){
pleasure = happy + aPleasureMetric;
}

public int getPleasure(){
return pleasure;
}

public void setHappy(int aHappyMetric){
happy = aHappyMetric;
}

public int getHappy(){
return happy;
}
}

2007-08-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is MWS.

Microsoft Winblows Sucks

Why does Microsoft windows blows so much? Follow these procedures with any Windows Program (.exe) to replicate some ill-posed behavior. Why do I feel like I have to relearn how computers think. Most POSIX machines don't even have to think about primative thinking about a space char " ".

FAILURE
C:\>cmd /c C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_11\bin\java.exe

'C:\Program' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

PASS
C:\>cmd /c "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_11\bin\java.exe"

Usage: java [-options] class [args...]
(to execute a class)
or java [-options] -jar jarfile [args...]
(to execute a jar file)

where options include:
-client to select the "client" VM
-server to select the "server" VM
-hotspot is a synonym for the "client" VM [deprecated]
The default VM is client.

....

FAILURE
C:\>cmd /c "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_11\bin\java.exe" "C:\Documents and Settings\dev\TestProgram"

'C:\Program' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

PASS
C:\>cmd /c ""C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_11\bin\java.exe" "C:\Documents and Settings\dev\TestProgram""

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: C:\Documents and Settings\dev\TestProgram

So what does this little experiment tell us about cmd.exe? It is really dumb you have to quotize everything in Microsoft world just for a simple " " (space)

IFF you have something called an executable with a full path

c:\a space\in my\someprogram.exe

and you have text file with a full path

c:\a space\in my\file.txt

then you have to escape both strings as part of a bigger string.

C:\> cmd.exe /c ""c:\a space\in my\someprogram.exe" "c:\a space\in my\file.txt""

This is lame. Do we have to think like this in any POSIX machine? I think not!!!!

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2007-08-10T14:27:00.001-07:00

Today's TLA is MWP

Microsoft Wizard Programming

Why does Microsoft have a wizard for setting up a simple command line program? This is by far one of the worst ideas for development. I mean it is a very strict and communist approach to programming. It tries to solve the Makefile problem, but I would rather deal with Make than trying to setup the Microsoft Visual C++ projects again. I mean both tools try to solve the same problem. If I have to say one thing about computers it is that computers are stupid. I don't care what anyone will say, but if you don't put a library correctly your program will not work. This is why we have tools like Make and VC++. They ensure the proper definition of paths for a program. Rules of thumb with regards to libraries.

1) Don't mispell libraries (Be aware of upper and lower case i.e. Alib,ALib)
2) Double check the full path before you copy and paste anywhere. It takes 2 seconds to check the directory. But it could take an hour trying to find where you misspelled some file path. It's the measure 4x but cut once approach.
3) Check your syntax and Google for your errors.

These are just some tips for programming. It annoys me that Windows uses a wizard approach, because you can't change your mind. So what if I originally created a .exe project and I wanted to change it into DLL, ActiveX, or some MFC application. Well you might as well create a new project, because it sucks trying to manually do it. This really annoys the heck out of me, why is there so many boilerplate strings everywhere just for a simple Hello World app for Win32 applications. I really hate the fact that I can't change my mind in the middle of programming. And with programming change is central to everything that we do.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2007-08-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is HGP

Hack-Gile Programmer

This is a nerdy post. OK so I have been a programmer for 7 years now. I want to comment on approaches/philosophies which I have learned. So I have read many different methodologies for working with software. For me the best way to program is something which I call Hack-gile programming. Pretty much it is the only way good software engineers work to produce something which we call "software". Good engineers are innovative and have a knack to fiddle with archaic tools and esoteric code. So they need to fiddle with things in order to deliver proper software behavior. This is the "hack" part of the word. However, good software engineers also need to meet the demands from product managers, third-party vendors, and (in shock and horror) the actual customer in a timely manner. This is the "agile" part of the word. Agility means using good software tools. A great example is Cruisecontrol. It can schedule builds and track your code repository for changes and triggers a build accordingly when a change occurs. This leads me to the core of software which is change. Change is a necessity in the world. And it is central when you deal with software. How to deal with change and how to quickly adapt because of change and how quickly to solve problems when everything and anything changes is a true art form in software engineering. This is when software becomes an art form and one in which I am continuously trying to master, but I am getting better at it. Some software engineers fear change, but as I grow older I welcome it, because it is a great opportunity to learn from a new problem to solve. Learning and incorporating past problems to solve new problems for a changing growing world is probably the best life lesson from being a hack-gile programmer.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2007-07-18T00:10:00.000-07:00

YAF

Today's TLA is Yahoo! AT&T and Flickr.

I logged in tonight to see my Flickr account and it prompts me that I have the free account. I have had a Flickr Pro account since October 2006 and I bought the 2 year subscription so it is suppose to end at October 2008. This is all too complicated, but this is really annoying the heck out of me. Apparently if you have a AT&T DSL account and Yahoo! account this sinister corporation will include a Flickr Pro account. However I bought a 2 year Flickr Pro account independently from this fancy plan. So now, I moved and no longer in need of the AT&T DSL account. I got a prompt saying that I need to unmerge my AT&T DSL account with my Yahoo! account so I did. But this "unmerge" event triggers some DB to turn off my Flickr Pro account. This is bad because, this corporation should know that I already payed for my 2 year Flickr Pro account seperately from the AT&T DSL account. I am thinking of moving photos into facebook, picasa, or some other site. I am just having a bad taste in my mouth with AT&T, Yahoo, and Flickr. Web 2.0 still has bad bugs from like Web 0.2 (alpha).

Regards,
Jonathan

2007-01-27T17:31:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is FIW

Flickr is Web 2.0

I am really liking the flickrj API.

I made this web page with some simple javascript from it. Check it out. LINK

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2007-01-17T11:51:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is SGC

Stained Glass Collage

Check www.sgcollage.com out. It can create a collage of Milo from my Flickr account. This is super cool.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2006-12-04T23:24:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is SHM.

Say Hello M1l0

My baby nephew Milo was born. He came into the world at 8lbs 6 oz and 21.5 inches. He looks very cute. My sister is doing well and I am just so happy for my sister and brother-in-law. May God continue to bless their growing family.

Hello World!

Here are some Ugly Dolls paintings I painted for little Milo's nursery room.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2006-11-29T23:54:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is KGT

Kiva.org Good Technology

Micro-lending is awesome. I have come accross a site called kiva.org. I was intrigued by this site I saw on Frontline world in PBS. It is a site where one can lend money to another person with no interest all by your PayPal account. This is an awesome thing. Typical loans in underserved countries like Uganda, Bulgaria, or Mexico may come from loan sharks who may charge a very high interest. Kiva.org is a revolutionary site, because it partners with local organizations who work with the person receiving the money to keep track of progress. The lender can give the loan freely all via his/her PayPal account. This is amazing. Finally technology is doing something good in the world. This social networking is not just for MySpace, Friendster, YouTube, and to even some extent Blogger. But technology is being used for the improvement in the micro economies of people.

Anyways checkout my lender site

http://www.kiva.org/lender/jonathan6914

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2006-11-07T00:56:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is RJC.

Revolutionary Jesus Christ

When we talk about revolutionaries, we often think of people like Che, Castro, Stalin, Mao, Ghandi, MLK, or perhaps even rich early American land owners like Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin. Do we ever really consider Jesus as a revolutionary? At least not in the romantic form of revolutionary. Jesus was the ultimate revolutionary. After all, He is God. He was radical. He was different. He shook up the Jewish traditions and Jewish leaders of his day. He was about teaching people the way to God. And not the current superficial corporate way to God, but the real authentic way to God. He prayed. He taught at the synagogues. He was telling people to repent for the end of age is near. He died because of his radical religious and political views. And His body has permeated and has transcended through time and through his disciples/students/community. Dang this list is pretty darn revolutionary if you ask me.

He was changing the world, by saving one soul at a time. Jesus was very people oriented. He was definitely not the shy type. He was definitely a character. In fact, He should be the main character in Christian's lives. He shouldn't be thought of as an acquaintance. He should probably thought of as the only trusted confidant. He is not an action item on your Outlook calendar. He should engulf your Outlook calendar throughout all the 30 minute time slots of one's life. He is not an after thought. He is the thought which guides everyday decisions.

I started thinking more about Jesus and the early followers as true models of effective implementations of a revolution. Mike's sermon about "holy wrecklessness" as he put it. This has really made me think. Today America is the most comfortable place to live on this earth. We will never have to hunt and gather food and clothing as long as we have a Walmart/Starbucks/McDonalds in 20 mile radius. We are not persecuted for our religious beliefs, our thoughts, and/or our blogs. In fact, living in America, we are encouraged to have the Masonic self made man view of "pulling ourselves up through our boot straps." Let's analyze this quotation. Pulling ourselves up through our boot straps is not a Christian theory. Christianity is built on the idea of community and Jesus never ever said to practice Christianity by yourself. You need God and the other man to live in this world. No one can survive by themselves. Even if you have a brilliant idea which could change the world like Jesus, you still have to sell that idea to investors, potential workers, and administrators. If not then your idea is just that an idea. But executing on that idea requires God and the other man. I mean let's think about it. Even Jesus had initially 12 administrators/students/marketers/workers to spread His teaching, philosophy, and eventually die for Him.

To me the self-made man idea is just ridiculously idiotic and ill-posed. How can you start a revolution if you are 1 man pulling yourself through your boot strap? Plus it's really hard to pull yourself on your own boot strap. Try it at home, it's really hard. So I guess, my question is how come as Christians we hold back this revolutionary philosophy. You know Jesus' original last name was not Christ. Technically when we say Jesus Christ it translates to Jesus "the Savior." So how was he able to create this revolution and how come Christians today rarely view Christianity as the continuation of the revolution which Jesus "the Savior" started some 2000 years ago. It's not like humanity has changed from 2000 years ago. Humans are still selfish, greedy, and sinful. Are we just tricking ourselves, that since we now have iPods, MacBook Pro's, Gmail, and Youtube that humanity is somewhat better? I think not, I think we are worse. Humanity probably needs Jesus more than ever. We may not have Nero from Rome, but we have multi-national corporations who control money, political power, and resources, because of sin, greed, and human weakness. Today I want to pray and ask Jesus what can we do to continue Your revolution, and to discourage the Neros of our generation?

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2006-10-05T23:57:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is API

Application Programming Interface

Checkout this webpage I created from the flickr API and as well as flickrj to make this html table.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2006-09-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is GRB (vol. 1)

Goal: Read Bible

I just read the first 10 chapters of Genesis and there's a lot of heavy stuff there. First with the fall of Adam, then the story of Cain and Abel, and then goes to the flood story with Noah. Here are some of my notes and thoughts on the first 10 chapters.

The early stories of Genesis deal with nakedness for some sort of reason. The fall of Adam is kinda funny if you think about it. Basically Adam and Eve find out that they are naked, after the serpent tempts them to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam cowardly looks for leaves to cover himself, I mean come on Adam. Dude your the first man on earth. Why should he have had so much shame and self-consciousness? Did Eve have another man to compare to Adam's manliness? Eve didn't have her girlfriends around to talk about him. Was Adam White? Was Adam Black? Was Adam Asian? Did he just get out of the pool? Also, Adam automatically points to the woman (Eve) for his downfall. It's such a typical male response. Basically he said "I didn't do it, she made me do it God..." Adam, what were you thinking man? Men got punk'd because of his lack of leadership, lack of discipline, blaming, and lack of courage. But God's grace was still with Adam. He could have just blasted him to dust right there and there, but he was looking for Adam. God asking Adam "Where are you?" is hella deep. God knows perfectly well where Adam is. God created everything. How can Adam hide from God? How can anyone hide from God after we sin?

Noah's story after the flood also talks about nakedness. Plain and simply one night Noah partied hard. He partied and drank so hard that he passed out naked in his tent. Ham, one of Noah's sons saw Noah naked and told his 2 other brothers. Shem and Japheth covered Noah and made sure they didn't see Noah's nakedness. Noah curses Ham (the Canaanites) and tells Ham that he will be slaves to his brothers Shem and Japheth for seeing his nakedness. But wait Noah, dude if you can't take the heat then don't drink so damn much. If you party so hard that you pass out naked anywhere and someone sees you, dude then it's on. The gloves come off buddy. It's like falling asleep first at camp. You know you're gonna get messed with. But Ham was kinda weird if you think about it. Dude that's your dad... Why would you look? There are things that you just don't do and that's one of them. It's like when you're in the men's room and when someone says hi or what's up next to your urinal, just look straight ahead and acknowledge their existence there's no point looking down...

Cain and Abel is very interesting. My friends would talk and argue about hunter gatherers vs. agricultural societies were the metaphors in this story. Also the line, "Am I my brother's keeper?" That's just one of the most hardcore sayings in the Bible. It just sounds like it should be a line in a Hollywood film.

Anyways, my goal is to read the Holy Bible from end to end in 2 years. These are my notes and thoughts from Genesis 1 to Genesis 10.

2006-09-05T23:40:00.001-07:00

Today's TLA is IAP

I Am Poor

While talking with my girlfriend Erica. She recently told me that there are roughly 11 million millionaires on a planet that has roughly 7 billion people living on planet earth.

11,000,000 / 7,000,000,000

=

.00157

This statistic just really got to me. Let's think about it.
How many of the 11 million millionaires believe in God?
How many of the 11 million millionaires tithe 10% each year?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are pastors?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are Christian?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are Jewish?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are Muslim?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are CEO's?
How many of the 11 million millionaires live in the Silicon Valley?
How many of the 11 million millionaires live in California?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are white?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are black?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are Asian?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are native-american?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are Chicano/Latino?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are politicians?
How many of the 11 million millionaires have a philanthropic fund?
How many of the 11 million millionaires ever give back to the rest of the 6,989,000,000?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are US Citizens?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are work?
How many of the 11 million millionaires own land?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are have a portfolio manager?
How many of the 11 million millionaires have bad credit?
How many of the 11 million millionaires bought GOOG at $85?
How many of the 11 million millionaires own a house?
How many of the 11 million millionaires need an interest only loan?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are miserable?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are happy?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are married?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are divorced?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are aimless?
How many of the 11 million millionaires are bored?
How many of the 11 million millionaires work in Hollywood?
How many of the 11 million millionaires play golf?
How many of the 11 million millionaires own a computer?
How many of the 11 million millionaires have a college degree?
How many of the 11 million millionaires have a high school degree?
How many of the 11 million millionaires have a graduate degree?
How many of the 11 million millionaires blog?

Anyways... as being one of the 6,989,000,000 who is not a millionaire, I am amazed with the fact that such a small percentage of people around the world control such a majority of wealth across the world. Isn't this just wrong? The haves own everything and the have nots own nothing. How are we so different from 2000 years ago when God's only son came to this world? Wasn't His mission to change this statistic? Shouldn't Christianity and we Christians change this statistic? The fair distribution of wealth, equal opportunity and access to capital for a loan with a fair interest, and equal distribution of food and shelter should be common basic services which all people can and should fight for. And also encourage those who are part of the 11 million millionaires to give cheerfully to the rest of us bottom feeders. All this analysis just really got to me, is the American dream to be one of the 11 million millionaires? If so, then dear heavenly gracious God please wake us up from this tragic American nightmare!

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2006-09-01T00:29:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is TTE.

Turning Twenty-Eight

My sister once told me that I look like a giant 8 year old. And I think now that I have turned 28 I am taking that as a compliment. I just hope I don't act like an 8 year old anymore. Although thinking back being 8 wasn't that bad. Let's see 20 years ago, I just arrived here in America. I remember playing tee ball in Eagle Rock. I remembered that I realized my birthday fell in the summer time and was never during the school year. I can't believe 1986 was 20 years ago. I remember my parent's decision to bite the bullet and enroll us to private Catholic schools vs. public Los Angeles Unified District schools. Thanks Mama and Papa for biting the bullet.

I remember that summer vividly, it was the summer before going to school. Our situation here in America was still up in the air. Were we going to go back to the PI or stay in LA? Wow, just writing about this is really sureal. I mean what if I grew up in the Philippines? Who would my friends be? How would God have molded my life if I grew up in Manila? Anyways, as I turned 28, I know that God has continuously blessed me in my life. The truth is that God didn't make me grow up in Manila, and for that I am very thankful to Him. God has given me great opportunites and great relationships growing up here in America. I have so many wonderful friends in Los Angeles and here in the Bay Area. I can't thank Him enough. Life is really interesting that way, and from my parent's perspective probably very stressful back then? Jeez louieez... I am just thinking in the future for my sister's and brother-in-law's baby. What are the choices and decisions they have to make in their children's life. Now that is real grown up stuff. And from that perspective I am still an 8 year old, because well I don't have the responsibility of having a child.

I am praying that it will be a healthier 28th year, my 27th year sucked with regard to my health. I will try to stay healthy and have a more balanced life. I am coming to the realization that I love being 28. It's 22 years away from being 50.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2006-05-29T18:59:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is TJR.

Tito Jonathan Reyes

I am going to be an uncle.

2006-01-23T22:23:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is CFG.

Change For God

I have read Christian books, I have gone to different churches, I have traveled to places where people are suffering and in need, God has given me so many wonderful experiences in my life. But so what? What now? How can I utilize these experiences to not only do good in the world, but to change it for God? God calls his body (the church), to be transformed, to change the world for good, to be soldiers in the fight against injustice, and economic inequalities, to be compassionate in the face of need (real need, not the "I need that new iPod need") and suffering, and simply to love. Why am I writing all this? I am writing all this, because I feel the urgency in life. We all have a finite amount of time on this earth. For the past 27 years in my life, I have been idle, watched too much TV, and simply just gliding through, but these days I feel the urgency. There have been times where I felt that fire of change, I felt it in college, but not since. I feel His presence in me again. But He was always there, I wasn't listening to Him all the time. God is always there, but I easily forget the blessings He has done in the past and I often don't think about what He will/can do in my future. I have been selfish about "my now." But I recognize the selfish now-ness of my world, and I want to change my world, the world, our world. Change it for God!

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-10-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is MRS

Moving Really Sucks

I have moved 8-9 times in the past 10 years. Moving is always a chore, I have so much stuff now. 10 years ago in high school, we had an assignment to document how much stuff you have in a journal and here is what I wrote down.

Personal Inventory Records
-Airwalk Shoes
-4 pants
-11 shirts
-tennis racket
-7 shorts
-computer (486) 25mhz
-Morey Boogie Board
-CD's

10 years ago I left Los Angeles to go to college with that much stuff. Dang, now I think it's going to take me 5 trips to get all my stuff from Sunnyvale, CA to San Jose, CA. What the heck happened? I have too many books, not sure why I have so many. Books ranging from the classic American Literature to math books which I may never read again. I have accumulated too much stuff since college. Most of the stuff are just toys. I think the most recent irrational impulse buy I bought was an electric guitar and amp. After reading Ted and Danny's survey's and describing my dread with regards to moving my stuff, the following will be my survey.

27 years ago: I was baptized in a Catholic Church in Manila, Philippines. I found this out, because of that journal I had from high school, we had to write down, when we were baptized, first communion, confirmation, and wedding day (TBD).

10 years ago: I was entering my senior year in high school. I went to an all men's institution in La Canada, CA called St. Francis High School. I was taking Religion 12 with Father Jerome L. Cummings. Probably the best class I have ever taken in my life, because he would entertain and grab the attention 18 year old kids. He taught the profound teaching of Christ and the Bible. He had interesting lessons, like how to tie a neck tie, how to correctly shave, what to wear when you are meeting your girl friend's parents for the first time, what to wear during prom, the difference between courtesy and ettiquette, setting goals for one's life, and possibly the best thing was to write a letter to my future wife. Hmmmm...I was taking AP Calculus. I think I was going to take the SAT again. I was probably applying to different schools. I was itching to get out of LA.

5 years ago: I was entering my senior year in college. I had an internship at Fujitsu. I turned into a very serious corporate type. I disconnected with Barkada, the Multicultural Center, and even tutoring math. My focus was to get a job, finish school, and pay off student loans. But I did throw a beginning of the year party, but the Santa Clara PD shutdown the party at the house we were renting out. I guess I continued the tradition of introducing Freshmen to a "college party." I got a ticket, had to go to court, and do 40 hours of community service out of it.

1 year ago: I was entering my 4th year at my first job. I traveled to Italy with my family. I found out that I love traveling and I want to travel and see the world. I felt idealistic again, like I was a student again. I started attending LTG small groups at Baylight Church Community. Danny left the job and went to Yahoo. I didn't have anyone to talk to at that gig.

yesterday: It was my mom's 63rd birthday yesterday. I sent her a Bonsai plant at her office. I called my parents to see how they were doing. I got the key to my new place. I found out my sister's dog is missing. I also got a call from a high school friend that a classmate Megho Fidanian passed away during a motorcycle accident. May the Lord be with him in heaven, and may the Lord give his friends and family strength, wisdom, courage, and love during this time of sorrow.

5 snacks i enjoy: grapes, snickers, teddy grahams, ruffles cheddar cheese chips, corn nuts

5 songs i know all the words to: My Way, California Love, Like a bridge over troubled water(Willie Nelson version), For Your Love (Stevie Wonder), Gin N Juice (Snoop Dogg)

5 places i would run away to: Rio de Janeiro, Cusco, La Paz, Casablanca, Manila

5 things i would do with a million dollars: Travel all over the world to fund and create a documentary about the Filipino Immigrant.

5 things i wouldn't wear: tight fitting dress shirt, a kilt, jewelry, leather pants, parachute pants (MC Hammer pants)

5 favorite tv shows: Simpsons, I dream of Genie, Get Smart, Sportcenter (when I had cable), Cartoons from the early to mid 1990's

5 bad habits: not shaving, not eating breakfast, not being expressive, communicating, or speaking up, being messy, being lazy

5 things i'd like to do before i die: Learn 10 different languages, live in a foreign country, love and marry the most beautiful woman for me, love and see my future kids grow up, initiate a scholarship fund for minorities in Mathematics either at Santa Clara University or at other universities.

5 people i'd like to have coffee with: Jack Kerouac (perhaps drink an alcoholic beverage or two and ask him about what effect did God have while writing On the Road), a current or past President or leader of any country (I wouldn't really know what to ask, but maybe just be in the presence of their charisma to lead a country), Shaq (I would ask him if could give me a million dollars to fund my documentary), the Pope, Giselle Bundchen (hot Brazillian super model, just tell her she is hot), oh yeah and of course Jesus. (I wonder if Jesus would like his coffee black or with cream, sugar, splenda, or nutra-sweet, would we meet at Starbucks or Peete's or Coffee Bean?)

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-10-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is MTT.

My Testimonial Today

Here are my talking points for how has God affected my life this past year?

-Living in community with other believers is Christianity. I just wanted to thank Danny, Jieun, Ted, Brittany, Eddie, Hannah, Kenneth, Stephanie, Gil, and Michelle.

-Being one in Christ through our Baylight Church Community

-Praying for one another is healthy and a sign of maturing Christianity (Praying for our pains, worries, our sins, but also praises as well)

-Being God-centric this past year rather than material and self-centric

-Being Christian is not just an hour on Sundays like in Catholic upbringing, but its a daily practice.

-Christ re-awakened me back to my idealistic mentality of my past as a student, rather than accepting the institutionalized psychotic reality of corporate life after college.

-Learning, growing, and emphasizing Christ's grace through the words of the Bible and other Christian books during small groups gave me a lot of clarity and
confidence to express Christian-ness.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-10-09T00:14:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is COD

Celebration Of Discipline

"Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."

I like the boldness of the above paragraph. It is the first paragraph of a book called Celebration of Discipline. Well I don't have anything interesting to write about today so the following will just be the collection of notes I have taken during my reading of the book. It is kind of like a book report. It's too bad. How come as adults we don't have book reports anymore? Like I remember making diaoramas, story boards, mobiles, or poster boards about books I have read. Ok enough random thoughts and shenanigans and on to my notes. I think only DC and DC's friends on jack.html will ever read this entry. Anyway look below, I even made a heading to make it even look like a book report... Dang I am a nerd...

Jonathan Reyes <first> <last>
10-09-05 <date>
Celebration Of Discipline <title>
8A <home room class>

Meditation:
"Christian meditation, very simply is the ability to hear God's voice and his word."

"What we see over and over is God's people learning to live on the basis of hearing God's voice and obeying his word."

"... Jesus has not stopped acting and speaking... He is not idle, nor has he developed larryngitis."

"The detachment from the confusion all around us is in order to have a richer attachment to God... giver ourselves to God freely."

"Meditation is guidance dealing with ordinary human problems."

"Meditation boldly calls us to enter into the living presence of God for ourselves."

"My peace I give to you."

Prayer:

To pray is to change.

...But when we pray. God slowly and graciously reveals to us our evasive actions and sets us free from them...

...to breathe is to pray...

our goal is to learn always to think God's thoughts after him, but we all have times when our human desires get in the way.

Listening to God is the necessary prelude to intercession ... listen for guidance.

We do not pray for people as "things" , but as "persons" whom we love.

We should never make prayer too complicated. We are prone to do so once we understand that prayer is something we must learn.

...Jesus taught us to t come like children

...Jesus taught us to pray for daily bread.

...the imaginataion is a powerful tool in the work of prayer.

We must never wait until we feel like praying before we pray for others.

I want a life of greater, deeper, and truer prayer.

Fasting:

Modern Culture...confuses fasting with mortification.

Satisfy every human appetite has made fasting obsolete.

Throughout scripture fasting refers to obstaining from food for spiritual purposes.

Because of secularization of modern society, "fasting" (if it is done at all) is usually motivated by vanity or by desire for power.

Christ both upheld the Discipline of fasting and anticipated that his follewers would do it.

...Our affluent society fasting involves a far larger sacrifice thant the giving of money.

Purpose of fasting? (Fasting must forever center on God) Food does not sustain us, God sustains us, We are fasting on the word of God.

You are to be a master of your stomach not its slave.

Study:

Good feelings will not free us. Ecstatic experiences will not free us. Getting "high on Jesus" will not free us. Without a knowledge of the truth, we will not be free.

Study in a specific kind of experience in which through careful attention to reality the mind is enabled to move in a certain direction.

What we study determines the kind of habits of thought that are formed, which is why Paul urges us to focus on things that are true, honarable, just, pure, lovely, and gracious.

Four Types of Study:
-Repetition - ingrains habits of thought
-Concentration - centers the mind (no distractions)
-Comprehension - focusses in on knowledge of the truth, leads to growth and freedom
-Reflection - describes the significance, not only understand the subject , but ourselves as well.

We must submit to teh system (of study)

We must be humble.

Arrogance and a teachable spirit are mutally exclusive.

Accumulation of information does NOT equal knowledge.

Three intrinsic rules of study
1) Understanding
2) Interpreting
3) Evaluating

Experience is the only way we can interpret and relate to what we read.

Purpose to study scripture if for inner transformation life transforming truth not just good feelings.

Experience what you read.
-reverent observation ("Butterfly as moth")

love everything == divine mysteries

Pride and fear

We study humanity. Study provides joy!

Simplicity:
God made man (and woman) simple. Man's complex problems are of his own devising.

The Christian Discipline of Simplicity is an inward reality in an outward life-style.

I am learning that a man can live profoundly withouth masses of things.

We have no unity or focus aroun which our lives are oriented.

Because we lack a divine center our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things.

Lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic.

Mass media has convinced us that to be out of step with fasion is to be out of step with reality.

...conformity to a sick society is to be sick.

The Biblical injunctions against the exploitation of teh poor and accumulation of wealt are clear and straightforward.

Jesus speaks to the question of economics more than any othere single social issue.

First seek God to create an inward reality for both personal ans social concerns we shall seek God first.

Wealth does not bring freedom from anxiety

What we have is not the reuslt of our labor, but the gracious care of God.

Refuse to be a slave to anything but God.

Timesaving devices almost never save time.

US less than 6% of population but has 33% of the world's energy?

Solitude:

Inward Solitude has outward manifestations. There is the freedom to be alone, not in order to be away from other people, but in order to hear the divine. Whisper better.

A person under the disicpline of silence is a person who can say what needs to be said when it needs to be said.

Submission:

"If anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

The cross life is the life of voluntary submission....

Wow that's a lot of notes. I figure I might as well write all of these things down somewhere.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-09-27T23:06:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is SST.

Sunday School Teacher

So I am teaching Sunday school at Baylight Church Community. I don't know how I was able to do this the last time. It is really hard to keep kids attention especially about God. I mean look at our "adult" lives. Adults are very much like kids we have trouble with the daily awareness of God and making God our focus. For kids there is a struggle to either listen to the teacher talk about God or be entertain and be distracted with Legos. Perhaps adults don't play with Legos anymore, but adults often struggle with the distractions of toys, entertainment, and trivial stuff rather than making God the center of a mature adult life.

Well anyways, I hope I am giving the Baylight kids positive experiences with regards to their Christian faith. I pray that they may grow up to be awesome mature men and women. I pray that they continue to learn about God and God's power, God's love, God's faithfulness, God's grace, and God's forgiveness in their lives. There is so much influence when you are a teacher. You could imprint great memories or dreadful languishing memories of Sunday school.

One way to imprint great memories is to have fun with the kids. Ultimately kids just want to be happy. And why shouldn't they be happy? They don't have work deadlines, action items, bills, car payments, mortgages, or a diversified 401k plan to worry about. They are just kids. In many ways, they are not institutionalized by our culture. And it's just pure fun to be a kid. I think the lesson I taught was the story of Moses and how Moses' mom put Moses down the river and the King's daughter finds baby Moses. The phrase I taught them was that "God made us." And it's a pretty simple lesson, but it's pretty good too.

Anyways, one technique to make their Sunday school a fun experience was to just play with the kids and ask them questions about what they are thinking and imagining, because every kid wants to express themselves through their imagination. Anyways, the last time I taught Sunday school we had Teddy Bear Graham crackers and I pretended that the Teddy Bear's were talking and I made the Teddy Bear Grahams say "No no, I don't want to go to <insert-child's-name> tummy." Ahh... cheap thrills. It made them all laugh and it was pretty fun.

Anyways, we shall see how I can teach them creatively about God and make it fun for the kids.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-08-22T23:39:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is TTS

Turning Twenty-Seven

Ok so tomorrow is my 27th birthday. And I am not really tripping out as much as when I turned 25. I wrote my Quarter Life Crisis blog 2 years ago when I was turning 25. The concept of being 25 scared me then. But now I just accept the fact that I am getting older and hopefully getting wiser.

I think I am getting better with regards to putting God at a higher priority in my life and I know that's definite growth from 2 years ago. Going through the process of learning is always good. I was able to learn more about my limitations, my potential, my hidden talents, and my creative ideas. In think the past 2 years, I have learned about other people, and most importantly about God. What is really amazing is that I am finding out that I love learning or rather the process of learning.

Also, I am more urgent about my time and what I really want to learn and grow from my experiences. I calculated that there is roughly (23*24*365) 201,480 hours (God willing) till the time I reach 50 years of age. And I can not wait to see what God wants me to learn from these hours. We should look at life with the perspective of what does God want me to do with the hours that God has given me today. Rather than taking for granted the hours God has given me.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-08-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is APT

Another Personality Test

Get to know yourself better

Whoa this test is pretty interesting. I am not sure if I agree about the results, but anyways I do agree I should be courageous with regards to the risk and reward of failure and success. Boring blog. I swear I will write more often.

Your view on yourself:
You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties.

The type of girlfriend you are looking for:
You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:
You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

The seriousness of your love:
You have very sensible tactics when approaching the opposite sex. In many ways people find your straightforwardness attractive, so you will find yourself with plenty of dates.

Your views on education
Education is less important than the real world out there, away from the classroom. Deep inside you want to start working, earning money and living on your own.

The right job for you:
You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.

How do you view success:
You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:
You are afraid of having no one to rely on in times of trouble. You don't ever want to be unable to take care of yourself. Independence is important to you.

Who is your true self:
You are full of energy and confidence. You are unpredictable, with moods changing as quickly as an ocean. You might occasionally be calm and still, but never for long.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-06-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is MTW

My Theological Worldview

I got this from DC's page. The survey tells me I am Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. This is weird, because I have no clue who John Wesley is/was or what he did. Perhaps I should google* him. What is interesting is that I am only 68% Roman Catholic. Anyways, with regards to Christianity, for Christian believers, we should have the idea of being "One in Christ." Then if we have this idea in the back of our minds, then all of these churches/sects should not focus on differences, but rather on the commonality of being "One in Christ."

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavily by John Wesley and the Methodists.

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan

86%

Emergent/Postmodern

79%

Charismatic/Pentecostal

68%

Roman Catholic

68%

Neo orthodox

68%

Reformed Evangelical

50%

Modern Liberal

43%

Classical Liberal

32%

Fundamentalist

14%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

* <When you spell check 'google' within Blogger it tells you that it is a spelling mistake and suggests googol for the proper spelling that's just whack like crack>

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-06-22T10:55:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is NBT

New Blogger Template

Well I haven't played with the Blogger templates in a long time. So I figured I should change it. I added lots of snazzy Java Script aditions to the old template and getting things to look just right for this new template is tedious. For the love of the game. Oh by the way, check out this site called Google-X. It's pretty neat. I am trying to make it such that I can have the OS-X javascript appear within this template with my own gifs and links. That would be a pretty interesting side project. This is a boring, nerdy, and technical blog.

http://hostingproject.info/Zilos/googlex/

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-06-21T16:07:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is GPB

God's Politics Book <Part 1>

I have been reading God's Politics by Jim Wallis. It is a revolutionary book in my opinion. I am only in the early chapters, but I really enjoy his tone in the book. He criticizes both secular/liberal left and the fundamentalist/conservative right with regards to God's Politics. He argues that both left and right political spectrums do not have a vision of/for Christian issues within America. The left doesn't know how to talk the language of religion in politics, while the right has a narrow conservative vision. Wallis puts it well with his quotation "Without a vision, the people will perish." But good and clear visions are not enough for Wallis. For example, Wallis writes an interesting chapter on protest.

He claims that protests should not just be against something, but rather protesters should also have an alternative solution to the problem. I would agree with his claim. I remember in college, the minority students were very angry that the administration neglected students of color by relegating their clubs and ethnic organizations to a dormitory basement. My question was always, how can an accredited university claim diversity, while hiding that very diversity which they market in a dorm basement? Well, as college students we could have complained and protested for years and those ethnic clubs would still be in that dormitory basement if we did not offer an alternative solution.

I remember we had an alternative solution. Minorities wanted to be visible to the general (white) community of that school. So we camped outside a building which was near the central hub of the campus community. It was located near the cafeteria. We camped out for several days and we finally met with the administration and offered them our alternative solution to have our ethnic organizations and clubs have a central location to exemplify diversity rather than hide it under a dormitory basement. And to this day, the ethnic clubs and organizations are still there. So I agree with Wallis, protest is not enough. You have to offer an alternative solution. It doesn't matter how much you know the other side is wrong, if you don't offer an alternative then there will never be a common ground to make peace. Anyways, I really like this book. But you don't have to take my word for it. < From the PBS show: Reading Rainbow >

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-06-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is ILF

I Like Flickr

I have been using Ofoto/Kodak gallery for like 2 years now. But recently I have been playing with Flickr and its a pretty neat application. I created a Flickr Badge. Check it out.

http://www.geocities.com/jmoisesreyes/flickrbadge.html

Also let me know what you think. Should I remove my photoblox from laszlo or should I just use the Flickr tools?

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-06-16T10:15:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is MFS

My First Show

Last Sunday I invited friends and family over to my apartment and to my teacher's studio to view my art pieces at my teacher's art show/gallery. I displayed the Cesar Chavez and Malcom X portraits in the show. I am so happy that everyone enjoyed themselves. I had positive responses from everyone. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came.

As for the pieces in the show, everyone liked the blue Cesar Chavez painting. I titled it "C. Chavez Kind of Blue" . And for the Malcom X portrait, I titled it "X-stacy" . Anyways, back to the Chavez portrait. I have to say it was one of the fastest paintings I have ever painted. The picture I was working with had a sense of concern in his eyes and I just wanted to capture his moment of concern. The painting conveys the most emotion from people. I don't know if I have said this before or not, but the worst thing an artist can do is create a boring/apathetic piece. You gotta make people either hate it or just love it, you can't make them feel apathetic about a piece.

I did not really know God gave me the artistic talent to create paintings which can convey such emotion in people. But I want to thank God for giving me an opportunity to find this studio. I found this studio out of the blue. I made a wrong turn onto a street and to my left I saw the words "Art School." I was shocked that there could be such a cool studio in the city of Sunnyvale. I went in and told Sagi (my teacher), if I can try out a couple of her classes. I told her I don't really draw or paint that well, but I would love to take a couple of classes to ignite my learning to make art. I told her the last time I painted anything was in my art class in high school (10 years ago).

I was second guessing myself when I started these art classes. Basically, I didn't know if my work was any good. But my teacher was very encouraging and she told me in my first few classes that I already had my own style. And I should not compare myself with the really talented young artists in her class. I am finding out that I love learning how to paint and how to capture someone's essence. My teacher Sagi has been great. She knows when to encourage, when to critique, when to correct, when to not think and just paint, when to be creative, and when to motivate. I think that's a sign of a good teacher is to know when to do those things.

Anyways, thanks to my sister, Jed, Ted, Brittany, Howard, Liz, Gilbert, Cindy, Young, Jeremy, Joanelle and Jobe for coming and enjoying the food, the wine, the Popeyes, the Italian cheeses, the Prosecco, the Orangina, confruti (dessert dish from my sis) and the grapes for dessert. I had a blast and I am glad all of you had a blast. I will definitely invite more people for the next show. I already have a couple of ideas with regards to my next pieces I will be working on. If anyone want to see the online pics from my first show, email me and I will gladly forward you my ofoto/kodak gallery link to them.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-06-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is IMC

It's Mere Christianity

I really dig this book by C.S. Lewis. I can see why people who may not have believed in God convert to Christianity because of this book. Lewis was an atheist before, and you can really tell with his writing that he thought a lot about his ideas and why he actually believes in Christianity. I really enjoyed his flow. His flow is very technical, logical, and almost mathematical. His writing reminds me of old complex proofs from college. But similar to very good thinkers, teachers, mathematicians, and problem solvers, Lewis gives awesome practical examples and metaphors for the complex and abstract ideas he is trying to either prove or disprove.

I really enjoy his chapter on pride. For Lewis, pride is when a person looks down on another person because that person thinks he/she is better, cleverer, financially more stable, or has more stuff than the next person. But for Lewis, he eludes to the fact that when a person looks down on another person, that person rarely realizes that there is a bigger person looking down at you, namely God who is looking down at you!

I remember C.S. Lewis from his Chronicles of Narnia books. But his Christianity books are really interesting and make you think. Anyways, I definitely suggest the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Here are some books I have read/still reading this year.

Mere Christianity
Memoirs of a Geisha
God's Politics
World According to Garp
The Windblown World: The Journals Of Jack Kerouac 1947-1954
When the Enemy Strikes : The Keys to Winning Your Spiritual Battles
Naked Lunch

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-05-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is YAC

Young Adult Catholics

I want to specifically write about young adult Catholics today, because well I am one. I would probably identify myself with the label of Christian Catholic. The reason why I label myself as a Christian Catholic is because I have been attending a new church (Baylight Church Community). My Filipino parents were not very pleased when I disclosed this new fact. My mom was simply pissed. "Ano! (What!), Didn't we raise you to be a "good Catholic"? But you went to Catholic school all your life, don't you know anak (my child) 'A Catholic Education makes a difference'!" Granted I still love them very much and they still love me very much as well, and it's not a knock on the Roman Catholic Church at all. But perhaps the Roman Catholic Church has become a bit out of touch with regards to young adults.

First and foremost, why does it matter that I went to Catholic schools all my life? Will I go to heaven because I went to Catholic schools? I don't get the logic. So I have been institutionalized by Catholic schools all my life. So what? Why do Catholic schools matter with regards to my faith and my relationship with God and others? How does attending a Catholic school define what the word "church" means? Anyways, my bold claim is that most young adult Catholics today can not define and are confused by what the word "church" really means to them. Is it a building with nice art and nice music? Is it a spiritual gas station where you just refill for an hour every Sunday? Is church eating the wafer and sipping some of the diluted wine? What does the wafer and wine really mean? What does the word "church" mean and why as a young adult Catholic do you go to "church"?

These are 2 really good questions to ask not only for young adults, but for everyone as well. Are you looking for selfish reasons to go to church? Is it peer pressure? Some may say, "...Well I go to church, because my friends go to church." Some may go for social reasons "...There is that really cute girl who always sits in the third row." Do young adults go to church, because your parents always have gone before, and "it's only natural" or "it's just one of those things you should always do?" Shouldn't we go to church to remind ourselves of God and God's love for all humanity? I mean God did give up his only Son to die for people's sin and suffering. As young adult Catholics shouldn't we start thinking about these things?

For early Christians, the word "church" simply meant a small assembly of believers of Christ. For me church simply means community of believers. Community is at the core of being a believer. What good is it to believe in God and passionately love God if you can't share your beliefs and love with other people? It would be like Picasso or Beethoven creating amazing influencial art and music for their selfish selves. It would be a great tragedy if such talents provided by God were never exposed to other people to enjoy, critique, study and love.

So a loving relationship with others is the key to having a healthy Christian community and for simply being Christian. It's also good to emphasize the belief of God dying for man's sin and suffering through his only Son. For Roman Catholics it's not just a wafer and wine every Sunday. It is the breaking of the "Body and blood" of Christ for humanity. Christ trancends every Sunday to make his body into bread and his blood into wine. God loved us so much that His son died for humanity. The least we could do is not call it a wafer and a wine thing that Catholics do.

Now that we have emphasized our belief, let's take a look at love for others in more detail. This theory takes us back to Jesus' two main commandments. Simply love God with all your heart, mind, and soul. Secondly love others as yourself. So Jesus never said to love a particular building, or even go to church because there is that cute girl who always sits on the third row. And Jesus definitely never meant to go to "church", simply because of your mother and father. For me, it seems like Jesus is just saying church is all about love. Love for God and love for others. So how come the Roman Catholic church can't get these simple ideas? Maybe it's too corporate, institutionalized to make changes. Maybe its too busy with the current sexual scandals to think of their flock and the church in these simple ways. Maybe the Roman Catholic church haven't taken a survey of their young adult members to see their reasons for attending church.

Perhaps it's time for Roman Catholic parishes to go back to the simple idea of having small home churches/communities where you spark this new love for God and a profound love for others to keep the faith. This is not only what young adult Catholics want, but I think this is what most young adults want in general. A sense of belongingness/connection with others and most importantly with He/She/God who always was, always is, and always will be.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-05-19T16:58:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is MBD

Meaning of Birth Dates

Your Birthdate: August 23

With a birthday on the 23rd of the month (5 energy) you are inclined to work well with people and enjoy them. You are talented and versatile, very good at presenting ideas. You may have a tendency to get itchy feet at times and need change and travel. You tend to be very progressive, imaginative and adaptable. Your mind is quick, clever and analytical. A restlessness in your nature may make you a bit impatient and easily bored with routine. You may have a tendency to shirk responsibility. Very sociable, you make friends easily and you are an excellent traveling companion.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Ok I am really getting lazy writing these blogs. I should be writing about more interesting stuff in my life, rather than cutting and pasting these blog survey thingies. Content is key, and I am not making any content right now. I am just creating symbols on a monitor. So I apologize to the 3 readers of this blog. D$nny, H*w&rd, and J*ane&&e. I promise I will write more interesting stuff. I swear.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-05-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is MPT

My Personality Types

Your #1 Match: ISFP

The Artist

You are a gifted artist or musician (though your talents may be dormant right now).You enjoy spending your free time in nature, and you are good with animals and children.Simply put, you enjoy bueaty in all its forms and live for the simple pleasures in life.Gentle, sensitive, and compassionate - you are good at recognizing people's unspoken needs.

You would make a good veterinarian, pediatrician, or composer.

Your #2 Match: ISTP

The Mechanic

You are calm and collected, even in the most difficult of situations.A person of action and self-direction, you love being independent.To outsiders you seem impulsive, surprising, and unpredictable. You are good at understanding how all things work, except for people.You would make an excellent pilot, forensic pathologist, or athlete.

Your #3 Match: INFP

The Idealist

You are creative with a great imagination, living in your own inner world.Open minded and accepting, you strive for harmony in your important relationships.It takes a long time for people to get to know you. You are hesitant to let people get close.But once you care for someone, you do everything you can to help them grow and develop.You would make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist.

What's Your Personality Type?

I wonder if these surveys are biased? How do they actually measure my personality type? I particularly don't get the mechanic type, what does it mean "good at understanding how all things work, except for people." It makes it sound like engineers are just socially inept and disconnected robots who save 529 college funds for their future kids, who will eventually smoke a lot of weed and play video games all day long during high school because of the engineer's inept and disconnected nature.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-05-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is PSF

Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen

I prayed this prayer everyday for four years in my Catholic high school. As students, we would try to say this prayer as fast as we could. We would literally recite this prayer in less than 30 seconds. As a high school student, I took this prayer for granted. The repetition of this prayer probably dulled its sharpness and effectiveness. But now as I am growing older, I realize this prayer's relevance in my life. This prayer is deep now that I stand back and I think about it.

"Lord make me an instrument of your peace."
The first line is interesting. How fitting in a world of strife, conflict, war, and uncertainty, the prayer simply asks God for peace. Peace in our hearts, mind, soul, careers, finances, relationships, and in everything that we do.

"Where there is hatred, let me sow love;"
So many times in the world I see the theory of where there is hatred, let there be more hatred. But this line requests to sow (plant) love and not more hate.

"Where there is injury, pardon;"
This line is saying if I have been wronged or injured, show pardon and forgiveness.

"Where there is doubt, faith;"
This line acknowledges the times of doubt in our lives with the power of God's faith in us and also our faith in God. Faith is always there.

"Where there is despair, hope;"
This line describes the times of despair and times when we are down in our lives, and yet there is hope in God in our lives.

"Where there is darkness, light;"
This line is similar to the previous line. Darkness could possibly be for death, illness, and disease, and yet God's shining light is there with us through our times of darkness.

"And where there is sadness, joy."
This line reminds us that through the times of sadness, there exists joy, which God gives us.

"O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love."

These lines describe the other oriented philosophy of one's life. These lines asks not for the one's self to be consoled, to be understand, or to be loved by another, but rather these lines tell us to console, to understand, and to love the other person. It seems like a great lines for marriages and relationships.

"For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;"

These lines remind us the lessons of Christ's compassion. We need to give of ourselves, in order to receive God's love and grace, and we need to pardon others in order for ourselves to be pardoned by God.

"and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."
This line reminds us the fact that Christ's living grace is living in us. Christ's triumph over sin and death did not end 2000 years ago. It continues and transcends through us everyday. For we too shall die and perish on this earth, but we shall be born and inherit Christ's eternal life.

Anyways, it is a good prayer to pray everyday, and I probably should grow up and not rush through it in less than 30 seconds like a high school freshman.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-05-02T15:34:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is DPP

Dating Personality Profile

Your dating personality profile:

Liberal - Politics matters to you, and you aren't afraid to share your left-leaning views. You would never be caught voting for a conservative candidate.
Big-Hearted - You are a kind and caring person. Your warmth is inviting, and your heart is a wellspring of love.
Funny - You laugh often. People never accuse you of lacking a sense of humor. You don't take yourself too seriously.
Your Top Ten Traits

1. Liberal
2. Big-Hearted
3. Funny
4. Adventurous
5. Religious
6. Practical
7. Athletic
8. Shy
9. Romantic
10. Wealthy/Ambitious

Your date match profile:

Big-Hearted - You want someone compassionate, someone gentle and kind. A loving, nurturing person will fill that hole in your life.
Conservative - Forget liberals, you need a conservative match. Political discussions interest you, and a conservative will offer the viewpoint you need.
Practical - You are drawn to people who are sensible and smart. Flashy, materialistic people turn you off. You appreciate the simpler side of living.

Your Top Ten Match Traits

1. Big-Hearted
2. Conservative
3. Practical
4. Funny
5. Traditional
6. Religious
7. Adventurous
8. Athletic
9. Shy
10. Intellectual

Take the Online Dating Profile Quiz at Dating Diversions

I can't believe this survey tells me I am Liberal, Big-hearted, and Funny. By the way, it should say militant rather than liberal. This survey is also telling me I need a Big-hearted, Conservative, and Practical woman. How come the survery doesn't tell you how to go about meeting a Big Hearted, Conservative, and Practical woman? Also how come the survey doesn't just say I am looking for a warm woman? Or perhaps just literally say a warm latin woman. That would be a pretty cool survey. Oh wells...This survey is probably whack like crack. Que Lastima!

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-04-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is CTS

Chris Tomlin Song

My favorite Chris Tomlin song is "The Way I Was Made"

Caught in the half-light, I’m caught alone
Waking up to the sunrise and the radio
Feels like I’m tied up, what’s holding me?
Just praying today will be the day I go free

[Chorus]
I want to live like there’s no tomorrow
I want to dance like no one’s around
I want to sing like nobody’s listening
Before I lay my body down
I want to give like I have plenty
I want to love like I’m not afraid
I want to be the man I was meant to be
I want to be the way I was made

Made in Your likeness, made with Your hands
Made to discover who You are and who I am
All I’ve forgotten help me to find
All that You’ve promised let it be in my life

It's a catchy tune. The music is upbeat and positive. This song really sums up a lot my mid-20's general thoughts and feelings. It is very poetic. To live like there's no tomorrow, to dance like no one's around, to sing like nobody's listening, to give like I have plenty, to love like I'm not afraid, and to be a man I was meant to be, and to be the way I was made.

Anyways, I usually don't listen to Christian music (shout out: Baylight Music Ministry Team rocks!), but Chris Tomlin's Arriving is the first Christian worship CD I bought and his music plain and simply rocks. His lyrics are clearly about and for God. That's just really cool.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-04-27T11:59:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is ADS

Auto Dealers Suck

Yesterday, I had to take my car to the dealer for it's 30K maintenance. They really know how to take your money. Que lastisima! Volvo's are nice, but maintenance is very expensive. On that note, the next car I am buying will be a Ford Focus or a similar small compact/economical car. Don't get me wrong I love my current car. It is the perfect family car. It is stylish. It goes really fast on I-5 when I drive to and from LA. However, all I need is a child seat in the back and my car will look like a regular soccer mom's car from the suburbs. Also if I had a sticker that says "My child is an honor student at <insert middle school>" I would be set.

Anyways, yesterday's maintenance ordeal made me seriously think about buying a used Vespa. It is one of those scooters which are very popular in Europe. It will have a relatively high initial cost, but the overall cost-savings on gas alone would be huge. But then again, what image do I want to have "a guy with a soccer mom car" or "a dork on a Vespa scooter." Neither one exhibits "the cool single guy" persona. Oh wells...such is life I guess. Wait, what the heck am I complaining about? I drive a Volvo. I am single. I have my own apartment. I don't have real responsibilities (a wife and/or kids). I have family and good friends in the Bay Area. I take it all back, this week I am just pissed about the 30k maintenance expense for the car.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-04-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is NPW

Negative Positive Week

This post documents the ups and downs of my trivial life this week.

Negatives:
Monday - Felt sharp pain in left foot.
Tuesday - Lost my cell phone.
Wednesday - Find out a friend's cousin needs an operation.

Positives:
Monday - X-rays on left foot were negative, the foot is NOT broken.
Tuesday - I start Cesar Chavez portrait for my art class.
Wednesday - I find my cell phone.

I still have 2 days left. Who knows what blessings or challenges I will face for the rest of the week? Let go, let God...

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-04-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is KPQ.

Kaiser Permanente Queue

I went to Kaiser Permanente today to get my left foot checked out. I woke up and I could not put any weight on my left foot. So I have no idea why it hurts, I thought it might have been because it was stepped on during last week's basketball church league game (BTW: why do church leagues become so anti-Christ-like, cut throat, and competitive? Probably another TLA to describe the phenomena) Or I might have agitated it from hitting golf balls at the range. All I know is this morning my left foot was causing me a lot of pain.

I have no idea with regards to proper Kaiser Permanente protocol. I should have called for an appointment to see my primary care physician. But stupid me, I just went to the Emergency/Urgent care unit. The first thing I realized is that you should only go to the Emergency/Urgent care unit if and only if you are dying or bleeding profusely. Then and only then will the triage nurse look at you. The triage nurse was nice. She told me to go directly to the X-ray section to get X-rays of my left foot and then go to the clinic.

I go to the clinic and wait over 2 hours for my doctor. She is a nice lady, I talked to her before. She is young, a Latina, and a recent grad. Anyways, after waiting for 2 hours, she tells me my X-rays are negative. She tells me to not be so active untill the pain subsides. She tells me no running, basketball, or golf. She tells me to take Ibuprofen to alleviate the pain. I am glad the X-rays were negative, but I am still not sure what is causing the pain in my left foot. A boring blog entry about my left foot.

Timeline:
8:30am - sharp pain felt (left foot)
11:45am - hospital arrival time
12:15pm - evaluation from triage nurse
1:00pm - X-rays
3:45pm - see my doctor, X-rays are negative

Ciao,
Jonathan

2005-04-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is VML

Visiting the Mother Land

I am pretty excited that my cousins are visiting from the Philippines in early May. They left for the Philippines, because my cousin wanted to start his own small business in Manila. I really miss their whole family. Its been almost a year since they left. Visiting their house in San Jose used to be part of my weekly routine. I miss playing with my little cousins. I used to ignite their creativity, by asking them to draw something for me (like a bunny or something) and then ask them stories about the bunny. I think kids really like that, because it shows interest on their creations.

The kids are probably super huge right now. The oldest one is in second grade, the middle child is 5 now, and the youngest is a year and half. I can sort of relate with the oldest one, because it sucks having to meet new friends when you are that age. You have a group of first grade friends and leaving them is probably hard.

Maybe I should visit them some time later this year. I really need to go back to the mother land. I haven't been to the Philippines since 97.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-04-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is TTA

Time Twixter article

Ok I don't exactly know when this article first appeared, but I have been thinking about this Time magazine article for a while. I started thinking about my generation. Why is my generation so self-absorbed? Why are most of my friends trying to find out who and what they really want to be? Don't we realize that who and what we want to be is constantly changing and it can never really be defined. Yet who and what we want to be is infinitely possible. What is success? What is failure? Why do these definitions define our generation? Why is everyone afraid to commit? Why are we so afraid of the unknown? Where is God in our generation? Who is God to our generation? Does God even come up with our daily self-absorbed culture? Is our generation scared of God?

It is very interesting, because my claim is that our generation and in fact all of God's generations needs to focus on God and his Word (The Bible). The focus is not money, not personal success, not financial success, not political success, not a big house, not cars, not things, not any of these things. But simply God as life's current focus. The article claims that a big part of being an "adult" is financial independence. Well then, by that definition there are a lot of "twixters" in their 30's, 40's, and even 50's trying to grow into the "adult" world. Reading this article just made me want to pray for my generation.

I think our generation wants to do God's will. We want to do good, but trivial worldly things make the reality of doing good for God difficult and unknown. It was not until I was researching Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) for an art piece I am creating that I realized that God needs to be involved within the "twixter" generation's lives. I came upon this article called "The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life"

I have never read this speech from MLK before, but I really like it. I have read his "I have a dream speech," but this speech really responds to our generation's dilemma constructed within the Time Magazine article. It is a good sermon about a life of length, breadth and depth. This sermon explains the three people we have to deal within the world i.e. self (length), the other man (breadth), and most importantly God (depth). For me the following paragraph really sums up his points well.

"But don't stop here either. (No, sir) You know, a lot of people master the length of life, and they master the breadth of life, but they stop right there. Now if life is to be complete, we must move beyond our self-interest. We must move beyond humanity and reach up, way up for the God of the universe, whose purpose changeth not.
(Right)"

There is so much truth in his words. I think our generation could clear up a lot of angst, worry, and limited thinking about our current trivial lives if we read MLK's speech on a complete life. MLK's speech validates my earlier claim in the beginning of this blog. Not thing centric, not self centric, but God centric.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-04-04T16:21:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is ITA.

Initial Thoughts of America.

Exactly nineteen years ago today, I boarded an airplane that took me from Manila, Philippines to Los Angeles, California, USA. So I woke up today asking the questions, what kind of Jonathan Moises Reyes would I have been if I stayed in the Philippines? What industry would I be working in? What would have been my major in college? What type of person would I be if I stayed? What kind of people would I have met? Would I have a family of my own in the Philippines? What kind of life would I have if I were in the Philippines right now? What would I be doing today if I were in the Philippines right now, instead of typing this thingie in Sunnyvale, California? (Probably "texting" on my cell phone)

As I think of these questions, I want to look back at my initial thoughts of America. The first thing I remember was flying around LAX. I remember seeing the abundant lights from the suburban sprawl of Los Angeles. The tiny lights from the ground were everywhere. I thought that was the most beautiful thing in the world as a 7 year old. I remember turning to my aunt and my older sister and saying "look at all the lights." As a 7 year old, I remember thinking what type of new friends would I meet in the US. However, I also thought about the immediate family and friends I left in Manila. How would my leaving their lives affect their lives. My aunt told me recently that one of my concerns back then, was who was going to make my classmates laugh
when I was gone. I guess I was just a crazy kid like that.

I am sad that my knowledge of Tagalog is diminishing. Perhaps this is because I rarely practice the language with other Tagalog speakers. When I arrived here, I understood English, but mostly thought and spoke in Tagalog. Now I fear that I can only understand Tagalog, but I think and speak in English. I remember learning English from Sesame Street, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Get Smart, and Beverly Hills Cop. We had a "betamax" and one of the first beta
tapes we ever bought was Beverly Hills Cop. Yes that's right, my English skills come from Eddie Murphy's character named "Axle Foley." (probably explains my cursing habit) and also came from a little bit of Max Smart, "Where's the chief 99?" (probably explains my wacky humor).

My experience learning English from American television makes me who I am today. I don't know maybe for some people their identity is complex, ill-defined, and complicated, but for me I consider myself to be a Filipino American. My personal history and birthplace may be in Manila, but I grew up in Southern California during my teenage years and in Northern California during my young adult life. (Westsiiide
represent!) So I have been influenced by a lot of cultures. I still have core Filipino values, while still being flexible to adapt and be integrated to the complicated American culture. I embrace being both, because that makes me uniquely Jonathan, God would not have wanted it any other way. Some people can not embrace both cultures, some people run away from one or the other, some people can only maintain one identity, and some people are so confused that they can not define
themeselves, but rather depend on others to define who they are. For me, I take in all of my experiences to define who I am today.

The second thing I distinctly remember when I arrived in America was the smell. America has a distinct smell. All I remember was that America smelled good. Perhaps it is because Manila smells very similar to what most of the world's big cities smell like. From my recent experience traveling, most big cities across the world smell like gasoline or diesel exhaust, something fried from the food vendors, and a hint of urine. Perhaps, American airports just use a different air freshener which hides this smell. Because American cities can also have that sweet smell of big cities across the world. I am smelling, the Mission District in San Francisco, and the gritty parts of Downtown LA, not the new and nice Staples Center part.

At any rate, I relate this fact of smelling good to cleanliness and economic success within America. My parents and aunt probably had some idea of "success" or rather "increased probabilities for success" for me and my sister here in America. But my parents and my aunt were still divided whether or not me and my sister were going to stay here in the US or go back to Manila. I sort of thought this was just a
"vacation" in the US and I was going to see all my friends in my elementary school in Manila. Perhaps the plan for me and my sister to stay was not fully disclosed to all interested parties (specifically me and my sister). I am still a little annoyed that our care-takers did not tell us, but its all good.

I should focus on the positive experiences I have attained in America. I just want to thank God and my parents for the people I have met here in the US. The accomplishments, the relationships, and most importantly the friendships I have created via schools I have attended, the work I have attended, and my social life here in America have been tremendous blessings in my life. The general experiences and opportunities for immigrants(like myself) here in America are infinite blessings from God which I truly cherish. Its an important lesson we(as Americans) should never forget. Anyways, to sum up this long soliloquy I remember the smell of America and the lights of America. What else do you expect I was 7 at the time?

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-03-30T10:08:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is EWF.

Earth, Wind, and Fire

I just bought the CD "The Essential Earth, Wind, and Fire." This is a great CD. It has 34 songs of "Earth, Wind, and Fire." My musical tastes are turning very KOST 103.5 (BTW, It's a local radio station in Los Angeles). KOST plays the easy listening soft rock hits of the 70's and 80's. Growing up in Los Angeles, the radio station one listens to is very important.

KROQ (106.7) listeners were really into "alternative", generation X kids. KISS (102.7) listeners were the pop music fans who liked Rick Dees in the morning. KPWR (105.9) is the hard core hip-hop station in LA. Check out my homie DJ Vice, he still spins for this radio station. "The Beat" (used to be 92.3) listeners were hard core R&B fans. Think KC and Jojo, Boys II Men, and Luther Vandros in the mix. "Pirate Radio" (100.7) this was more alternative/punk/metal/rock underground radio station in LA.

Since driving in Los Angeles is constant, the radio station sticker you put on your car is almost a certain give away to your personality. As a teenager, a majority of my driving time was spent listening to Power 106 and KROQ. I loved listening to hard-core gangsta rap (Snoop, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G) and then switch to some alternative indie rock bands like (Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots(STP), oh yes and even unfortunately Oasis). I don't really know what that means as far as my personality is concerned, maybe it just means I am very eclectic.

At any rate, I always enjoyed different kinds of music. When I was a kid in the Philippines, before I went to sleep my aunt would always turn the radio dial to the show called "Magic Moments." The show would play classical music all through the night. Perhaps, there is something to that theory of playing classical music for young kids. My cousin plays classical music to my little niece now as well.

As I am getting older and I am listening to better music. I am listening to a lot of R&B, Stevie Wonder, Brasilian bossanova, jazz, salsa, Latin pop music, and even Christian music. Don't get me wrong, I am still down to listen to old school hip-hop, but I guess I am just expanding my musical tastes. I apologize for the 2 readers who are reading my boring sentiments...

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-03-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is CGP

Che Guevara Portrait

I finished the portrait of Che in my art class yesterday. My art teacher was really worried I was not going to pull it off. I initially painted him with a blue suit. And she straight told me, "Che, would never wear anything like that! You made him look like a businessman!" She was totally correct! What was I thinking?

I initially painted his signature beret in green and his hair in green as well. She told me to perhaps use a different color for the hair and beret. When I started the portrait I was not capturing the essence of Che. So I had to modify the painting such that I can capture the attitude, the intensity, the look and feel of who Che Guevara was.

My art teacher was very supportive of me. She hardly said a word to me. She broke it down for me with the following comment, "the artist has to love the painting he/she is working on if he/she doesn't love it, then what's the point?". She told me, if I don't love the way the portrait is turning out, I have the power to change it at any time. I really dig that lesson.

After I completed the portrait last night, she told me that she thought that the portrait was in trouble. She didn't want to say anything, she just wanted me to work through the problem. She did not want to crush my enthusiasm for the portrait, but rather she wanted me to solve the problems I created. She said that every artist is different. Some need more encouraging than others.

She said that our class has different styles of painting. At first, I was intimidated by the fact I was one of the older artists in her class. The young artists in the class are amazing. The average age is 14-15 years old. And my teacher has been teaching them for 6-7 years. They are very talented kids. And I am very lucky to be in class with such really talented artists. I feed of their youthful energy. At times, being normal kids with a short attention span, they don't want to paint. However, when they do the work they create is amazing.

In the end, she and I were very pleased at end product of the Che portrait. And I have to admit, I love the portrait, but most importantly I loved the process of painting it. I like the mistakes I made about color choice, line definitions, and trying to capture who and what Che was all about. I like the fact I had to change the initial good idea to ultimately create a better portrait. I will probably take pictures of this portrait and add it to my photo blog thingie. The next portrait I am working on is MLK (Martin Luther King Jr.). I hope I can capture his essence as well.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-02-14T12:12:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is HVD.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's day has always reminded me of a Simpson's episode called "I Love Lisa". It is the episode where Lisa Simpson gives Ralph Wiggum the "I choo-choo-choose you" Valentine's day card. Anyways, I guess I always identified with Ralph. So like some girl gives you a hint of attraction and then she crushes your heart and you are left defeated and hurt. (I should probably use my inner voice...inner voice!)

I remember in elementary school my classmates and I would always give each other Valentine's Day grams. I think one year, I gave away Scooby Doo cards. It was fun. We used to get those heart candies with the little messages from our teachers as well. How come when we are adults, we no longer give each other cards and little candies and stuff? Do we "grow" out of that stage? How come girls get flowers and all the girlie stuff during Valentines day? Like how come marketers don't capitalize on manly things? Like tickets to a sporting event, new Black and Decker tools, or even perhaps gift certificates for Fry's Electronics. Who am I kidding? I will probably just get a phone call from my mom during Valentine's day.

On a side note: Today's is Gil's birthday. He only has roughly 175,188 hours till his 48th birthday! We were talking about the urgency with regards to time. We were discussing the question: "What would you do with your time from age 28 to age 48?" On a generic note: What should we do with the precious hours from now till we are 48 or till we reach middle age and essentially till the time we die?

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-02-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is TAL.

Traveling And Learning

The following will be my account of several interesting learning experiences from my travels last year's. First, I found out that there are actually Filipinos in Brasil. I met a Pinay in Brasil. She was working at a Kareoke bar in Sao Paolo. The title of the Kareoke spot was "Filipina Kareoke." I had an interesting conversation with her, because I ended up speaking broken Tagalog and broken Portuguese with her. She told me she has been in Sao Paolo ever since 1979. She was from Quezon City and she rarely visits the Philippines. She was a single woman, probably in her 40's or early 50's. Anyways, I never imagined I would ever be speaking Tagalog and Portuguese in Sao Paolo, Brasil, but it happened. Unfortunately, I think I saw the only Pinay in Brasil. I am sure there are a lot more, but she was the only one I saw. I did see a lot of Korean, Chinese, and especially Japanese people in Brasil.

By the way, I did eat some of the best udon in my life at Liberdade, in Sao Paolo, Brasil. Liberdade is the Japantown of Sao Paolo. I found out later on the trip, that Brasil actually has the largest population of Japanese natives outside of Japan, so no wonder they have good udon there. During our flight back to the United States, I sat next to this Asian woman, who was traveling from Brasilia to LA to Osaka to Taipei. She mentioned to me that she has in the import/export business which was located in Brasilia. She told me her trip was going to last 24 hours. I thought my 12 hour flight to LA was nothing compared to hers. She and everyone else in Brasil thought I was Japanese. This is because of my slanted eyes. At that moment, I started wondering how Asian Brasilians are treated in Brasilian society? Do Asian Brasilians experience the same racism, discrimination, and stereo-types similar to Asian Americans?

The second interesting learning moment was when I traveled to Peru. I learned that most South Americans know nothing or know very little about the Philippines. I learned this when I took a train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes to visit the famous Incan site, Machupicchu. I sat next to 2 older gentlemen from Caracas, Venezuela. They were on vacation to see Machupicchu. The most interesting thing happened, because I started talking to them in Spanish. They asked for my last name (apellido). I told them it was "Reyes" and they were shocked I had a Spanish surname for my last name. Then I had to explain to them that Peru and the Philippines were colonized by Spanish Conquistadores. I think it was a pretty cool moment to educate these 60 year old men, about the parallel histories of Peru and the Philippines.

By the way, Machupicchu was awesome! The terraces look like the rice terraces in the Philippines. Peru reminded me so much of the Philippines. The people are super friendly and nice. But the poverty was pretty bad in Peru. Some of the poor locations of Peru reminded me of the of the Philippines. Then I started thinking you know some parts of Oakland and San Jose have a lot of poverty too. Poverty and the disproportionate distribution of wealth is constant whether I am in East Los Angeles, East Oakland, East San Jose, Quezon City, or Peru. That was an interesting and eye opening fact to learn.

The third interesting learning moment was from Roma, Italia. My family decided to go for a family trip to Italy trip in September, last year. I started looking around Roma and I started seeing a lot of Filipinos in Italy. It is probably the Catholic thing, but why are there so many pinoys in Italy? I ended up speaking Tagalog to a Filipino gentleman working as a busboy in one of the restaurants in Roma. He asked me, "Pinoy ka ba." It was a brief exchange, but it really meant a lot to me. The Filipino gentleman I saw was a different kind of immigrant. This might be an over generalization, but the Italian Filipino works as cooks, bus boys, and domestic help. They are not the same as some selfish Bay Area second generation Filipino immigrants I encounter who work as "mayabang"( kind of means "show-off" or "better than you") nurses, clean cut boring accountants, and square engineers.

I started thinking about, Filipinos abroad. Why do Filipinos outside the Philippines contribute to so much of the Philippines' GDP? Is being Filipino a virtual concept? What is the common Filipino experience in Italy, in the middle east, in Australia, in North America, and even in South America? Why does the Philippine culture emphasize education? Yet our own people look forward to move to another country to make money to pay for a relatives' education. Shouldn't the Philippines make it relatively attractive such that our people don't have to hope to go to another country in order to "succeed" (whatever that means)? Why is it attractive for some to leave the Philippines? Why is it attractive to stay for others? Is it purely economical? Is there a statistical correlation between the yearly incomes of those who leave and those who stay? Are those who stay relatively wealthy in the Philippines while those who leave are relatively poor?

Anyways, I really want to document the Filipino Immigrant, whether it is in Europe, in South America, in Australia, in the Middle East, and in North America. I really want to learn what the push factors (perhaps Professor Gonzalves may have taught it to me in the past) and pull factors which lead our people to leave the beautiful islands of the Philippines. I want to perhaps do a documentary in the future, to document and explain what is a Filipino Immigrant. Maybe it has been done before, perhaps not, but I want to combine my traveling interests with my interests in Asian/Filipino/Ethnic studies. I really want to travel and visit the Philippines some day. I am considering a trip with my friends this year to travel from San Jose, California to Buenas Aires, Argentina all by bus. I am calling it my "Che" trip through Latin America. Prayers and wishes are welcome, if I do decide to do it. It might take a while to accomplish. So, I am still considering it. I am also considering a trip to Manila and perhaps even Brasil again later this year.

Anyways, I think what I really learned from traveling so much last year was the common human experience. Whether you are Italian, Venezuelan, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Chilean, Brasilian, Bolivian, Peruvian, Mexican, Filipino, or even an exchange student from Denver a lot of trivial misconceptions about others does not really matter. People can learn so much from other people by simply talking and being respectful in their presence.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-01-26T15:41:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is IWL.

Influential World Leaders

I am recently taking an art course in Sunnyvale, California. Yesterday, I talked to my art teacher and asked her if I can do a set of paintings of world leaders who have influenced me in my lifetime. So here is the initial list of influential world leaders I would like to paint for my collection.

Jesus Christ
Che Guevara
Martin Luther King
Jose Rizal
Cesar Chavez
Philip Vera Cruz
Carlos Bulosan

I will try to explain why I have chosen these men. All the feminists will stone me at this point, but perhaps I should also make a list of influential women world leaders in my lifetime. Ok here is my attempt...

Mary (Jesus' mom)
Hillary Clinton
Oprah Winfrey
...

My initial attempt at such a list is pathetic. Other than my future wife, my future daughters, my mother, my sister, and my aunt, I could only think of 3 women world leaders who have influenced me enough to paint them. I am disappointed, because I should be able to think of more women leaders. Perhaps I should read feminist books and really do some research with regards to women world leaders.

Some of you may not know the last 2 on the list, so I want to explain the last 2 gentlemen on the list. For me, Mr. Carlos Bulosan and Mr. Philip Vera Cruz are influential leaders in the Filipino American community. I am picking Bulosan and Vera Cruz, partly because they are heroes in the Filipino American community who are not well recognized within Filipino America and mainstream America.

Carlos Bulosan

The following is a quotation from his book "America is in the Heart."

"America is not a land of one race or one class of men. We are all Americans that have toiled and suffered and known oppression and defeat, from the first Indian that offered peace in Manhattan to the last Filipino pea pickers. America is not bound by geographical latitudes. America is not merely a land or an institution. America is in the hearts of men that died for freedom; it is also in the eyes of men that are building a new world. America is a prophecy of a new society of men: of a system that knows no sorrow or strife or suffering. America is a warning to those who would try to falsify the ideas of free men.
America is also the nameless foreigner, the homeless refugee, the hungry boy begging for a job and the black body dangling from a tree. America is the illiterate immigrant who is ashamed that the world of books and intellectual opportunities is closed to him. We are that nameless foreigner, that homeless refugee, that hungry boy, that illiterate immigrant and that lynched black body. All of us, from the first Adams to the last Filipino, native born or alien, educated or illiterate -- We are America!"

-Carlos Bulosan "America is in the Heart"

As an immigrant, this quotation really hits the sweet spot for me. It eloquently describes a Filipino American, a person of color's and a new immigrant's experience in 2 paragraphs. To accomplish such brilliance is truly a God given talent. He specifically describes the America of/for immigrants. He describes America not as a land, but as an idea, a feeling, and having a heart. Bulosan's America is lost in our modern times. He describes an America, that immigrants would be willing to fight and die for. We often forget that immigrants still fight and die for this country.

It is not the America of oil. It is not the self-centered America. It is not the "You're fired" America. It is not the America of stock options. It is not the America of blue states vs. red states. It is not the America some speech writer or some clever marketer exploits. However, Bulosan's America is an America of hope. His America is a humble collection of immigrants and refugees. His America is made up from an "Indian that offered peace in Manhattan to the last Filipino pea pickers," His America is an idealistic view of freedom and opportunity, yet shamelessly criticizes the faults, the racism, the discrimination, the alienation, the exploitation, and the dirty secrets of modern American life.

I really dig this cat. For more information about Carlos Bulosan please refer to these links, link1,link2.

Philip Vera Cruz

He is a man that should be just as well recognized as Cesar Chavez. Unfortunately he is only a footnote in Asian/Chicano American history and in American history as well.

"Leadership, I feel, is only incidental to the movement. The movement should be the most important thing. If the leader becomes the most important part of the movement, then you won't have a movement after the leader is gone. The movement must go beyond its leaders. It must be something that is continuous, with goals and ideals that the leadership can build upon."

This is an interesting quotation from Mr. Philip Vera Cruz. It implies that people should not follow just because of a leader, but rather should follow the movement itself. One should use the movement as a continuous link to build leaders of today and tomorrow. My mother once told me that the world is a lead, follow, or get out of the way world. But for Bulosan you must define an important movement to lead, to follow, or to get out of the way from. For him a movement is what is important for accomplishing change and making a mark in the world. Here is another quotation from Mr. Vera Cruz.

"My new dream formed, that equality and freedom should belong to all. You cannot be free to step on somebody's toes. Not everybody will make the "American dream" of being millionaires. Our dream must become the sharing of opportunities and benefits of freedom for all. I think that whatever nationality you are, you should be treated equally, otherwise you don't have equality."

The above describes his idea of equality and the idea of not being "free to step on somebody's toes." It is a unique form of the American dream, which is not a self-centered view, but rather an other-centered view to share "opportunities and benefits of freedom for all." It is a simple paragraph about the American dream. He simply dreams of an America in which you treat people (no matter what nationality) equally, in order to have equality.

For more information on Philip Vera Cruz, please refer to these links,
link1,link2

I want to paint these 2 gentlemen, so that I can show my respects, my thanks, my admiration, and my kudos for them. These two men should be recognized and celebrated not only in Filipino/Asian American community but I honestly believe in the community which we call America as well. I have always wanted to write an ethnic studies centric blog. I think I just finished my first one.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-01-12T10:10:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is TPL

The Personal Legend.

When I first came to this country almost 19 years ago, I had a very difficult time speaking English (with a Southern California accent, dude it was rough), writing English (I still suck, but I am working on it with these blog thingies) and reading English. It is a bit odd, because the primary language taught in the Philippine educational system was English. So its not like I didn't know the language. I still have a very high respect for the Philippine education system. I left the Philippine system after the 1st grade and I was coming in with at least a 3rd grade US reading rate. The US elementary school wanted me to be in 2nd grade, but instead I passed a test and the teachers and principal put me in 3rd grade.

I attended Saint Dominic Elementary School in Eagle Rock, California. I was in Mrs. Ruck's 3B class. Maybe at that time I didn't like reading, or maybe I was just a slow reader, but perhaps I felt discouraged when I came to this country with regards to reading. Mrs. Ruck used to have a reading chart where everyone could see the progress of your peers via happy faced stickers and golden stars, with regards to how many books he or she have read throughout the course of the year. The girls always had at least 50-70 (3rd-4th grade-level) books read. And I, the 7 year old Filipino FOB, who at the time spoke English with a thick Tagalog accent and probably thought and read in Tagalog first, rather than English, painstakingly managed to only obtain 10 happy faces/golden stars.

I still probably carry low confidence and insecurity with my English reading abilities from having inadequate happy faces/golden stars. I should grow up and let that baggage go. Life is not about the quantity of happy faces/golden stars, rather the quality of your accolades/happy faces/golden stars which you give to and receive from family, peers, teachers, coworkers, friends, strangers, and God. What is really interesting is now I really enjoy books. Books give you knowledge, understanding, inspiration, and insight about the human imagination, human purpose, human experience, and human existence.

Continuing with this humanity theme, last night I read "The Alchemist", by Pablo Coelho. In it he talks about everyone's Personal Legend. The following is a quotation refers to this idea of a Personal Legend.

"It's what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone when they are young knows what their Personal Legend is. At that point their lives, everything is clear, and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their Personal Legend."
-"The Alchemist" by Coelho

I really like this book. Coelho reveals that each person must seek out his or her own Personal Legend. When you are young the Personal Legend is infinitely possible, but when you are older something convinces you that it is infinitely impossible. Coelho uses the main character Santiago to experience what a particular Personal Legend can be. Santiago did not have to (but it sure enhanced and learned a lot about his Personal Legend) leave his sheep, become a crystal merchant, travel across the African desert, or go to the Pyramids to find his Personal Legend. It was inside him all along. Anyways, here is another interesting quotation.

"If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own."
-"The Alchemist" by Coelho

Another profoundly interesting claim. A lot of other people (family,teachers, counselors, friends, peers, managers) have an opinion on what you should be, do we ever really ask ourselves what we want to be? That is a very perceptive and interesting sentence. Personally, after 19 years in this country, I am still trying to figure out what I want to be and where to make my stake in human history. All I know is I want to be better and do something with a great deal of enthusiasm, love, and purpose.

Anyways, I hope I made Mrs. Ruck very proud, because I just read "The Alchemist" in one night. Also here is a list of books I have read in 2k4 and 2k5. I hope she gives me at least 10 happy faces/golden stars.

1. On the Road
2. Purpose Driven Life
3. The Four Agreements
4. Who moved my cheese?
5. The Alchemist
6. Tuesdays with Morrie
7. Fredrico Garcia Lorca's selected book of poems.
8. Pablo Neruda's selected book of poems.
9. The Motorcycle Diaries
10. Louis Borges' selected book of poems.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-01-11T15:34:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is TOM.

Theology of Mariage

"In every study in which Americans are asked what they value most in assessing the quality of their lives, marriage comes first, ahead of friends, jobs, and money. In our fast-paced world men and women need each other more, not less. We want, need erotic love, sympathetic love, passionate love, tender, nurturing love all of our adult lives. We desire friendship, compassion, encouragement, a sense of being understood and appreciated, not only for what we do, but for what we try to do and fail at. We want a relationship in which we can test our half-baked ideas without shame or pretense and give voice to our deepest fears. We want a partner who sees us as unique and irreplaceable."

-"The Good Marriage" by Wallerstein

I was flipping through one of my old books from a college class called "Theology of Marriage" last week and I ran onto this quotation. It is a strikingly deep quotation for me, because I really dug the sentence "We desire friendship, compassion, encouragement, a sense of being understood and appreciated, not only for what we do, but for what we try to do and fail at." Wallerstein gets at the core of marriages and loving relationships. I really like her insight, about having someone there during the times when you fail and when you succeed. Someone needs to be there to say good phrases like "good job, you're the best" (for success), "keeep trying" (for failure), or "... those punks, they suck anyways, ..." (for reassurement after a rejection). These are the times when you need that special woman who can say those words of encouragement. Because guys are simple creatures and we need to be encouraged, reassured, disciplined, cared for, and loved. If not, men would still be at an 8 years old emotional state FOREVER!

It is like a relationship with God, if a woman can respect, and accept you as your unique self, then it is like how God respects and accepts you for your uniqueness, your existence, your humanity, your talents, your flaws, your goodness, and even your badness. An internal security about one's unique self is implied. You want someone where you say, "...its ok to be me when I am with her." I think a man needs to find a woman who does that to his very being and existence. If you find a woman who profoundly encourages a man to be themselves. That's when you say, "I need to be with this woman." Because if you have to put some facade, some alternative personality, some fakeness, some crappy whack a** front, then it is just a game. You just have to keep looking for the next woman who makes you want to be you.

Why would I play games with a woman who I could potentially have a long lasting, friendly, and loving relationship with? If I wanted to play games I would play FIFA, Madden, or Halo 2. These games are certainly more entertaining, and also requires less effort, thought, and feeling. BTW, I have a strong disdain when girls play games, it's just a total turn-off. Why do some girls think the world revolves around them? You know when a guy calls it doesn't always mean he has romantic interest in a girl. Sometimes a guy just wants the girl to be a friend and he honestly cares for her well-being. Does the girl even care about what the guy calling is going through? Probably not. Most guys never have "real friends" who are women. Except maybe a mom and possibly sisters and aunts. Perhaps, I am sharing too much, but whatevers. Just keepin' it real, like raw eal.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-01-07T10:43:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is TAS

Tamales and Starbucks
(My tribute to the Tamale lady from San Jose, California)

La abuela de las tamales gathers the corn.
Her labor of love every year, to make her tamales delight.
Generations and generations of brown people are born.
People eat, drink, laugh, and share. They make you feel just right.

La abuela de las tamales waits by her car.
People buy them for a party.
Languid crowds can smell them from a far.
They are made for comfort, for security, for taste, and to be incredibly hearty.

La abuela de las tamales sells them with ease.
A teenage woman is on her break.
Her cautious respectful tone asks,"Twenty four tamales, please."
Starbucks only offers a 15 minute break, Her job is now at stake.

She is a corporate slave at 18 years of age.
The twenty four tamales makes her family Christmas holidays.
Inside her, builds a steady increasing rage.
Working instead of being with her family destroys her in so many ways.

La abuela de las tamales can't rescue her from the situation.
All she can offer is her tamales delight.
But what can the corporate slave do in this capitalist nation.
She eats the tamale and is ready to fight.

La abuela de las tamales reminds us of truth from within.
La abuela de las tamales feeds us fuel for the fight.
La abuela de las tamales gives us strength when we are thin.
La abuela de las tamales, oh how we love your tamales delight.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-01-06T15:32:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is HAC

Hinduism And Cowboys

Another mad poem from my crazy mind. I wanted to make a poem about Hinduism and Cowboys. So here it goes. To some it might make sense, but to others it might seem silly.

Hinduism And Cowboys

We see them all around in Sunnyvale,
Men and women of the Hindu faith
They work hard and are highly unlikely to go to jail
Their contractors from India pay them on the 8th

His name is Sanjiv, and he works 12 hours on a certain product
But suddenly, the company goes under
They lay him off, he's f***ed.
Another company is ready for the plunder

He calls his family from Bombay
The corporate world is cold and utilitarian
He begs to stay with his 3rd child on the way
The human resource lady's name is May-Ann

They are corporate American cowboys
They round up the "Indians" to work on something
All for profit margins, the new i-pod, and other toys
The "Indians" work hard, all they can idolize is the cowboys' bling!

Such a sad state of immigrant American life
Cowboys and "Indians" is not in the past
Bleed and kill hegemony with a knife
Cowboys against "Indians", this will not be the last

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2005-01-04T14:34:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is HNY.

Happy New Year

Well I can not believe it is 2005. Well looking back at 2004, I think it was a very good year for me. It was certainly a year of traveling, learning, growing, edifying, and experiencing my youth. It started off when Gil, Howard, and myself went to Rio de Janeiro, Brasil for new year's 2004. What an experience! Imagine 3 million people jumping up and down, drunk, all dressed in white, and partying all for the count down to 2004. If that didn't awaken some primal excitement, joy, and pure madness in me, then nothing ever will. The trip to Brasil started the addictive madness to travel, see, and experience the world.

Prior to this trip, it seemed that my robotic marginal world of Sunnyvale, California was the center of my human existence. Wake up, get coffee, work, eat some food, sleep and then do it again the next day. I had to change this uninteresting, boring, and vacuous lifestyle. The world is immense and God's work, love, and people exists outside your local area code. I realized I am in my mid 20's, I am single, I work, I live on my own, I don't have a wife or kids, I am young, and I remembered to have fun.

Six months after Brasil, I traveled to Peru, where I saw not only the beautiful ancient Incan site of Machupichu, but the beautiful Andean people and their beautiful Andean culture. In September, I traveled to Italy with my family. I saw the classic works of the masters. Their art is very inspirational. I saw it all this year. I started reading new books and teaching myself new ideas as well as re-emphasizing old ideas which I may have forgotten. I started writing so I can record these new ideas, thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

I found a really good church, (a good, caring, and friendly community of believers) after going through diligent research and study of my own Christian spiritual growth. God may not be my first and foremost priority at all times and at all moments, but He is now in the vicinity. I do not know at what exact moment God started coming back as a priority in my life, maybe it was looking down at the Amazon from Machupichu, or looking down on Rio de Janeiro from Corcovado, or taking in the beauty of Italian Tuscan countryside, but perhaps I realized throughout my travels and experiences this past year that God is always there, God is in all people, God is in control, and God is everywhere. This realization and focus is a definite improvement from the lost years after college.

I am learning how to be a spiritually mature other-oriented Christian Filipino American. I am learning to ignite the flames of my militant and idealistic youth to combine it with my realistic and good-hearted present. But 2004 was only the beginning. I want to continue to learn and grow even more from the past year. I want to set new goals, travel to new countries, meet new people, get to really know people I already know, experience new vocations, enhance my artistic knowledge, enhance my musical knowledge, take adequate and realistic steps towards getting an advanced degree, continue the spiritual maturation process, and love God and all his people. I am learning how to be a better Jonathan Moises Reyes.

My Top 5 moments of 2004 (And the quotations for the moments)
1. Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro (2 classic quotations)
"Gil whispers, 'Run dude, just run... it's the girl with the picture with kids in the background'"
"Howard asks, 'Do you have money?', Jonathan drunkly replies, 'What for?, Don't worry, I got it Howard. I got it.'"
2. Seeing Machupichu "Machupi-what?"
3. Last night in Cuzco "Eres la chica la mas bonita de todo mundo"
4. First day in Il Cioco, Tuscany "This is where my honeymoon is going to be"
5. Making someone smile. "She smiled... and I was happy that she was happy"

My Top 5 goals for 2005
1. New vocation.
2. Find my wife.
3. Be a better son, brother, and friend.
4. Take GRE.
5. Run the 10k in Philly.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2004-12-20T15:36:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is BAG

Boys and Girls

Ok, here is another Jack Kerouac quotation from his book On the Road. It is about relationships. I am just really into his writing, because well all of his experiences came at the prime of his life. He wrote about his travels and adventures when he was between the ages of 25-32. I am at the exact same stage, so I can definitely relate.

"Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together; sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk - real straight talk about souls, for life is holy and every moment is precious."
-Jack Kerouac "On the Road"

I don't know why this resonates for me, but there is some profound truth in what he says. First and foremost, notice his language, he calls men and women, boys and girls, that is very interesting, because it sort of implies immaturity in general relationships. To me, Kerouac suggests the underlying issue that men and women need to know each others' souls before establishing a real and tangible relationship.

Kerouac suggests finding a woman who can talk straight to your soul. This conversation and communication of souls is key to any long lasting loving relationship. If not, then for Kerouac, its just either physical lust or courting talk. I think there is truth in that. Why would you want mere shallow, surface, and superficial talk. If this is a woman who you are going to spend the rest of your life with then at the very least she has to know your soul.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2004-12-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is TAP

Telephone Apple Pie

Okay a while back Bean Moriarty aka Gil or Gilberto, or El Engreido, or El Mujeriego, and Katie "Thugs" Chaidez and I decided that inorder to keep our sanity or perhaps to increase our insanity to email each other poems from 2 completely random places/things/events. Yesterday I came up with Telephone and an Apple Pie. And here is what my mad brain came up with.

Telephone Apple Pie

The telephone rings in the dark, cold, lonely, monotnous night.
She bakes in a bewildered scorn of anger in the air.
Her children laughing, fighting, talking back, and have fear from fright.
Her husband's addiction to sports is all his care.

But oh her sweet apple pie makes it all better.
Its for her survival in this tortuous middle american state.
She has but one hope in her life and it is from her lover's letter.
Oh how she wonders and dreams about her fate.

The telephone rings is this her ticket out?
She answers in excitement, glee, and rejoice.
Her lover's soft warm voice speaks without a doubt.
Her thoughts race to hear his voice.

The warm apple pie is uneaten, still sweet, but cold
Sadly enough her children look in utter terror
Her husband speaks in shock, "How bold!"
She leaves her family without a thought of error

Anyways, I was looking back on other such poems and I created a haiku called

McDonald's and a Fiddle.

Mc Donalds french fries...
Salt, oil, grease on my fingers...
Fiddle playing hard...

How about this haiku called Ice Chest and Church.

Ice Chest and Church

A handy Ice Chest...
Man's burning questions of life...
Sunday Church party...

Check out Katie's poem called Moto-pope... I asked her to write a poem about Motorcycles and the Pope, Santo Papa, its probably heretic rhetoric, but I had my kicks from the poem.

Moto-Pope
by Katie Chaidez

Within the ancient revered stone walls
Silently guarded by ancient saints
Relics, treasures unbound
Sits His Holiness, The Pope
What do you see from your chamber window?
People
Pigeons
Ice Cream Cones
Bicycles and Motorcars
All glancing upwards to your marble tower
You looking down
Upon the world and all its wonders
Like Rapunzel, but
Without all that messy hair

Tell me, true
What is the cost of your solitude?
The microphones and cameras can be a real rush
Sure, as is issuing the newest edicts
Do's and Don'ts
Hand-picking the Holy Leaders
Raising up and bringing down
the Saint-of-theYear
Wih a simple wave of your hand
God's right-hand man
Eyes, ears, mouth
Mary's go-to guy
Adorned in gold & silver
Wearing robes has benefits too
Discreetly hiding last night's pork chops
And mashed potatoes

Do you ever get tired, Mr. Pope?
Does that long white robe of yours ever get dirty?
Does the gold that binds around you ever get heavy?
Do you ever think "Gosh, I wish I'd have asked Susie to the prom?"
Or "Gee, I wonder what wine un-united with Christ's blood tastes like?"
Or maybe just, "Gosh. Jeans really do look comfy".

O Pope! Escape!
Now's your chance
Remove your heavy, dusty cloaks
And ride off to Tuscany
Leave this ancient crumbling world behind
Just you and a Harley
And a girl named Francesca
A bottle of chianti
And the latest copy of People Magazine
In the back pocket of your Levi's

Anyways, yeah random thoughts, random poems, random ideas, random number generators? Are they really random?

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2004-12-15T11:49:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is TTL.

Top Ten List

Well here is a list of 10 things you probably didn't know about me.

10. I was born in the Philippines. I moved to Highland Park, Los Angeles, California when I was 7 years old.

9. I have a habit of trying different hobbies and not really mastering the hobbies. Golf, DJing, Painting, Classical Guitar, Remote Control Cars, working out, drawing comic strips, and obviously writing blogs.

8. If I have time, I enjoy going to my closest Borders Bookstore and reading a book, Maxim magazine, or travel books for a couple of hours.

7. I enjoy singing in my car the following songs Stevie Wonder's 40 years of Stevie CD collection, Juan Antonio Jobim's Corcovado, Jay-Z's H-izo song , Warren G's Regulators, and of course my opening theme song if someone ever made a movie about my life, Bill Wither's Lovely Day.

6. I can communicate in 6 different languages. Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Tagalog, Ilocano, and a little English.

5. I want to say "You are the most beautiful girl in the world." in at least 20 languages. Thus far, I have memorized and mastered 7.(French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Tagalog, English, and Arabic) Hopefully, someday I can say these sentences to my future wife.

4. I was a Math major in college. I really enjoyed studying Cryptography, Cryptoanalysis, and Number Theory.

3. I am a Filipino-American fighting hegemonist philosophy in the world.

2. One of the hardest things and at times one of the easiest things in the world is to make a woman I am attracted to smile during a date.

1. I am a Christian believer.

2004-12-14T14:27:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is IAI

I'm All In

What is it about saying these words in poker? What about saying it at some point in your life other than at a Texas Hold'em Poker game? They are very powerful words. What if you said it for work? What if you said it for school? What if you said it for your relationships with others? What if you said it for your wife/husband boyfriend/girlfriend? What if you said it for a stranger? What if you said it for your friends? What if you said it for your enemies? What if you said it for a woman/man you had some interest in, but you barely knew of her/him? What if you said it for your faith? What if you said it for God?

What would be our expectations and the reactions of those who you said this phrase to? Well in poker you could get called or other players could just fold their cards. But is it the same in life? You could go all in for someone and they could call you and match the bet or they could also just fold because they don't want to play/risk their chips. But what if God started everyone off with a pair of aces? What would you do? Would you pretend you had bad cards? Would you boast about your pair of aces with a big bet which perhaps may scare people off? When would you go all in? Or rather would you go all in at all? How about the issue of winning and losing, about being risk averse versus being a risk taker? Why be afraid to lose, it seems being afraid to lose has the same equivalence as being afraid to win.

But if God wants us to win, then why would we be afraid to win? I think we should take those risks, because we will ultimately win, because God wants us to win. God wants us to win within our hearts, within our friendships, within our faith, and most importantly within our relationship with God. I don't suggest going all in all the time during poker, that would be just stupid, but going all in for your relationship with God and your friends, strangers, coworkers, and even your enemies could be an interesting exercise to say the least. I guess take those risks and go all in, in terms of those enumerated above, I think the potential of winning is far more than the potential of losing.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2004-12-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is EIM

Everyone is mad...

I hear the annoying ring tone of a cell phone. What is it? Why did the owner choose such a sound? Mozart? Beethoven? Why? Classical music as a ring tone? Who is calling the owner of the cell phone? Did he pick that ring tone specifically for the person calling? Why do we own things and feel the need to personalize them? Why spend the 15 minutes of your life to actually try and figure out of how to do that on your Nokia? Will it make you answer the cell phone faster? If the ringtone is Jay-Z's 'Girls Girls Girls', then it means its one of the honeys calling. If it is Stevie Wonder's 'For Your Love', then it is a girlfriend or wife. If it is the old Nokia tune. Then its just a random number. But why are we mad to buy that cell phone with the latest and greatest enhancement? Will it make you feel unique, important, hip, and most importantly cool? Why has our society gone mad? Why are we mad to be paid? Why are we mad to be listened to? Why are we mad to be acknowledged? Why are we mad to be an American Idol? Why are we mad to maintain a blog? Why are we mad to meet someone important? Why are we mad to buy low and sell high? Why are we mad to be cool? Why are we mad to be different? Why are we mad to be the same? Why are we mad to be accepted? Why are we mad to be rejected? Why are we mad to be enforce a religion? Why are we mad to be secular? Why are we mad to believe? Why are we mad to not believe? Why are we mad to care? Why are we mad to be insouciant? Why are we mad to do something?

Why are we mad to do nothing? Why are we mad to go to graduate from school? Why are we mad to be a PhD student FOREVER? Why are we mad to watch television? Why are we mad to look at a screen for 8 hours trying to see where the broken logic is located? Why are we mad to have high speed DSL? Why are we mad for gadgets and toys? Why are we mad to feel like a consumer? Or even worse mad to be a smart consumer? What does that mean? We are still mad to consume? Why are we mad to want bigger, better and faster stuff, because we can? Why are we mad to search for something on Google and ask why Google just doesn't get it? Why are we mad to see and be seen? Why are we mad to write? Why are we mad to think? Why are we mad to read? Why are we mad about America's overeating consumption? Why are we mad about our values? Why are we mad about our looks? Why are we mad about movie stars? Why are we mad about Beyonce? Why are we mad about Brittany? Why are we mad about J.Lo? Why are we mad about people whose paths we shall never come accross? Why are we mad about peoples whose lives always cross ours? Why are we mad to get rich? Why are we mad to get a wife/husband? Why are we mad to get a house? We are mad to be economically viable in the long term? Why are we mad to get what you deserve? Whatever that is. Why are we mad for stuff? Why do we have the urge to buy a unique feeling? Why are we mad to collect, hoard, and buy stuff? Why did I go mad about hearing this annoying ring tone of a cell phone to make me rant about the madness in our society? Have you gone mad reading this madness? I know I have.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2004-12-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is OTR

On the Road

I don't know why I am compelled to write something about Jack Kerouac's book, but I think his quotation below is part of the reason.

". . . I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes Awww!" -- On the road

I wouldn't mind being that mad person who explodes like a blue centerlight pop and everybody goes Awww. I think God made everyone with the ability to have Awww moments. Life is all about those Awww moments. What else should we live for? The quotation asks you to be different, to be mad, to be unusual, to be active, to influence others, and most importantly to be a light that makes others around you to be in utter amazement and delight.

I was talking with a friend today about this very same quotation. And she remarked at how random I am. You know I told her you know I am ok with my randomness. I told her I would rather be random and unique I think God made me that way. I am a crazy intellectual, a Christian thinker, a mathematical philosopher, a software programmer, a Filipino-American, an artist, a Los Angeles Laker fan, a blogger, a Charlie Parker fan, a bossanova fan, a Miles Davis fan, a Tupac Shakur fan, a Notorious B.I.G fan, an old school hip hop fan, a Latin Pop fan, a traveler, a student, a teacher, a salsa dancer, an aspiring cook, an aspiring comic strip writer, a aspiring haiku poet, a good friend, a good son, a good brother, a God fearing believer, a God loving believer, an aspiring other oriented man for others, and most importantly random!

Anyways, yeah no one really reads my blogs, maybe it is because I am too random. So back to my point... Kerouac's book "On the road" is pretty good.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2004-11-30T17:26:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is GUP

God's Urgent Priority

My claim is that God is the urgent priority for Christians. Some of you might say what the heck is Jonathan talking about? Or maybe some will say why is he all of the sudden turning to God? Or perhaps saying Jonathan is religious? Hmmmm I never knew that. I make this claim because its the truth.

Priorities in my life in my early to mid 20's have all been for the trivial, materialistic, and ingenuine consumption driven priorities. Why do I fall for the trap? Am I just a robot ready to consume what the flashing bright colors of the TV and/or Google Ads tell me? I have to analyze this because well I was a Math major in college what good is having a Math degree if I am not using critical analysis to solve this problem. And for me this is a huge problem.

I started analyzing volunteer work in high school. I asked the simple question the other day. Why did people volunteer in High School? Did my generation just volunteer as a front to make it look good for potential colleges? Most of us never ever volunteer again in college and after college. I attended a catholic high school that required at least 100 hours of community service for their 4 years in high school. However, once I attended college I never volunteered. Sure there were probably more resources to do the volunteering and helping out others, but I decided it was not a priority. The priority was to finish school, get that degree, get a job, don't get laid off, contribute to a 401k, get a car, work hard, and then die. I essentially thought of volunteering as a chore or a trivial check mark for an admission officer, rather than a noble act of kindness for others. It was just a means to an end. What kind of f---ed up philosophy is that?

Am I doing things to look good rather than just to be good? Where is the urgency to help out anymore? Why do charities only give out food on certain days? Don't they know there are other days other than Thanksgiving and Christmas. Don't they know there are people who are starving on a random Wednesday in May. Why aren't people willing to give turkey, yams, sweet potato, garlic mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce on a random Wednesday in May? The reason being, God is not the urgent priority in "normal" American culture and thought. I use the word urgency, because without it, a person is complacent, lazy, and pretty much useless. Urgency makes people actually do something. A lack of urgency makes people do nothing.

I want to think about this for a second, throughout school deadlines made me feel urgent. I have to do this assignment or else I will fail, the school will not give me money, I will have to get a blue collar job, I will be stuck in the growing middle class, and rent forever. But this kind of urgency is fearful urgency. This is stupid now that I think of it, because well I live in the Silicon Valley and it does not matter if I have a blue collar job or white collar job, I will rent FOREVER. I am talking about an urgency to do something more. For me, this came during my junior year in college. I once made up a slogan which read, "If not us, who?" I don't know why I made it up, but at the time, I felt this sudden emotional urgency to yell it out. If its not me, then who? The future students? The past students? Why don't I step up and just f---ing do it now?

It is this fearless attitude in taking on problems and dealing with the problems head on, rather than doing nothing and letting problems persist. I didn't necessarily know how to make a movement happen, but back then we knew we were right and the administration was dead f---ing wrong. But for a while I lost that urgency. After that standoff went down, everyone kind of went their own separate ways. Some people got married, some people went to law school and used this experience as a stepping stone for law school, some went to becoming engineers, but as I look back most of us will never have that urgent feeling to make a change in this world again. Why is that? Why do we accept the current world view as normal? I don't think God wants us to follow the normal way of life. I think God wants us to be that annoying statistical outlier that skews a Gaussian or normal distribution (Sorry I am totally Math geekin'out in this sentence). I think people who are "normal" (close to the statistical mean) are often very mean (opposite of nice). Jesus died for us, because he was "not normal." He was different.

Why do people accept things and stand down easily? Why don't we question everything that is normal and put God as the urgent priority? What if people started doing this? Sure maybe will we be wrong at sometimes for being that outlier for God, but I think that is highly unlikely if God is the priority for one's life. I don't know if I will ever master putting God at the top all the time, but realizing that he should be the top priority has to be positive indication and a good start. I think life is like that though, what's fun in mastering and learning something the first time? We learn so much more when we make mistakes, try different solutions, putting different priorities other than God, and then finally learning something. Anyways, hopefully this realization will make me more urgent about things in my life. Who knows? Oh yeah that's right God will know. Let me know what you all think. I think I lost most readers when I started geeking out with the Math.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2004-10-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is TMD

The Motorcycle Diaries

First and foremost, I would like to say that I knew nothing about Ernesto "Che" Guaverra prior to this movie other than he was on a lot of t-shirts worn by suburbanite hipsters... Perhaps I should have since I visited Peru earlier this year.

This movie really demonstrated how beautiful the people of South America are. This movie demonstrated the scenery, the culture, the food, the lifestyle, the poverty, the strength, the thing that made him Che... There is just something powerful about traveling. And seeing how other people survive and live their life. The movie was very respectful to the people of South America. To me that is what was so stunning and captivating about this film. It was well acted and it reminded me of my travels in South America.

There was a scene where they were buying food in either Chile or Peru. They captured that raw feeling of going through the markets in the main street in Puno. To me that was very relevant. I think that is what makes this film different. The relevancy and experiences of what made young Ernesto change into a leader and who fought for people. I too want to know what difference will it make in my life. Perhaps I am not going to be Che and start a communist revolution, but I know I want to make a change in the world.

I know God wanted me to learn something about traveling in South America. I don't think it was just for the experience. I think it was for something more meaningful. I realize that we have a commonality as human beings. Because for every person who might do you wrong. There are always people in the world who want do you right. It could be as simple as cup of mate tea from a hotel owner, to dancing, conversing,
and hanging out with some of the friendliest and warmest women on the planet.

At any rate, I think I am looking for a new opportunity where God can use my old talents of organizing and activism and my new talents in the software engineering to make a difference in our evil and selfish world.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2004-08-24T12:57:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA of the day is HBJ.

Happy Birthday Jonathan

I turned 26 years old yesterday. I am looking back on the past year. And I think my 25th year taught me a lot about myself. I had the opportunity to travel to South America. I met interesting people. I have gained long lasting friendships. I have experienced different customs and cultures in the world. Hopefully I have gained wisdom, understanding, and a different perspective on my life. I don't understand why this realization hadn't occurred in my early 20's. Who was I in my early 20's? Who was Jonathan Reyes? It is a pretty good question to ask all the time. I felt young again. For some sort of reason, the first years after school made me feel "old." There are a lot of factors that made me feel this way. I think I am my past and my present, all that I hope for my future self is that I will be better than my past or present.

My birthday day was pretty uneventful in the morning. I came in really early to work. I had lunch at Ferrari's Deli in Sunnyvale. I had a dinner party of 10 at Consuelas in Santana Row. Special thanks to my sister Carolina, my brother in law Jed, Danny, Jieun, Dave, Katie, Gil, Joanelle, and Howard for dinner last night. I really appreciate sharing my birthday dinner with all of you. Much love. Consuelas was pretty good. I like their guacamole and their entrees. My sister and brother in law gave me AC Milan vs. Lazio Serie A game tickets for Italy. I am totally excited. I am getting more and more pumped up for Italy now.

As for this past birthday weekend, it started on wednesday. My good friend Brian from LA and his wife Natalie were in SF, so I took them to the Cortez Restaurant http://www.cortezrestaurant.com/ . If any of you ever want to eat really good food go to this restaurant. I love their food. Then on Thursday, I partied it up and didn't know how I got home. Aaah good times. I chilled out on friday to recover from the night before. On Saturday, I spent time with my sister and brother in law and their new dog named "Cleo." and I also went Karaoke in San Jose with friends. Yesterday I went to Yoshiis in Jack London Square for the first time. I went to see Ron Carter's Quartet. Yoshi's is a really cool jazz club.

One last thing about turning 26. While reading the second section of Purpose Driven Life by Warren, his book said something very interesting and profound. Life is all about love. That's so true. I will try to update this blog more often as well...

You never accomplish anything if you don't write your goals down, so I guess here are some of my goals for my 26th year in life.

-Live to be 27
-Learn Italian
-Visit Italy
-Take GRE
-Take guitar lessons
-Visit Philippines
-Visit Bolivia
-Go to church more often
-Read more interesting books
-Bike to work at least once
-Play soccer once a week
-Play basketball once a week

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2004-07-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA is UDM.

Un dia mas

Well it has been 5 days since I arrived from the lovely country of Peru. I am sick. I have been sick for almost a week now. I have a sore throat, can't talk, and cough every 5 minutes or so. So I ask myself was Peru worth it? HELL YEAH IT WAS! Why was it worth it? Because of the experience of traveling to a foreign land and having no expectations.
Traveling always makes learn new things about myself and about the world we live in. Traveling makes me open my eyes to a world which does not revolve itself in trivial American things like American Pop TV or even American Sports.

I went off in a spur of the moment thing. I mean when is the last time I am going to be 25 living on my own and have the freedom to go whenever and wherever I want. Its my "Bahala Na" attitude. In tagalog it means "No worries" or "Whatever will be, will be." I think it is a good philosophy to have. Work is not our lives. Our family is not our lives. Our lives is our lives. Life is a series of moments, and how you act on or not act on a particular moment determines whether your life has interesting moments or dull subdued boring momments. And my moment was now to be interesting. I am 25. I have resources. I have vacation time. I am single. I have no wife and kids. And I had my 2 traveling buddies from Brazil to go with again. Only good things can happen right?

The trip started off with a bang. On the plane to Lima, Lan Chile offered the best in flight game ever. They had "Who wants to be a Millionare?" And we had a blast playing it. Although it was the British edition we didn't get the common British questions for 100pts. I sat next to this Chilean Lady from Santiago, Chile. She was sweet. She warned us if we were to hook up with Peruanas to meet their parents. She said "Peruvian girls are nice and don't forget to meet their parents as well." I thought that was pretty funny. We arrived in Lima pretty late, but we managed to do some recon work on the main street in Miraflores, Lima. It was called Calle de las Pizzas (In English "Pizza Street"). We checked out one club called "Son de Cuba" (In English "They are from Cuba"). The next night our first real night in Lima, we went to Son de Cuba and danced a lot there. That was a really cool club in Miraflores. That was a pretty fun night ending up at like 6:30am. The next day was "engreado day."

We almost missed our plane to Cusco. Because I woke up 20 minutes late. At any rate we rush to the airport. But once we get to the airport we find that our flight is delayed for 5 hours. Our flight was suppose to take off at 8:15am but instead it leaves for 1:15pm. Lan Peru served sandwiches and cofee to enlighten the hungry tired passengers. We met this couple the older lady's name was Sandy. She was quite a character. She was a world traveler. We would mention some place in the world and she would be like oh I have been there before. Or would make a comment like but it wasn't as good as this other place... She was a remarkable lady. She was a very cool world traveller. So off we went to Cusco then to Arequipa and then to Puno, PE.

Puno, Peru was cold. The first night there was one of my coldest nights in my life. It was roughly 0 degrees celsius. That is freaking cold man. I had a beenie, my jacket and like 5 blankets and I was still cold as hell. During the day we went off to Islas de los Uros. Uros was a trip because it is a floating island on Lake Titicaca. Every 2 weeks the 20 or so families who lives on the island would gather up "tara" which is some sort of grass/bamboo-like substance and put it on top of the old grass. It is really interesting once you get off the boat. It feels like you are on a trampolene. The people there were hagglers for their quilts. They were like you have to buy, it is our only form of income. So I had to buy some quilts for my sister. Well after this we ate freshly fried fish and rice for like 2 soles. Which was about $0.60. Also I bought the cheapest 12 pieces of bread in the world in Puno. 1 sole for 12 pieces of bread. You can not beat that.

We were thinking of what to do next. Should we go to La Paz, Bolivia or go to Cusco and then eventually back to Lima. We decide to bus it back to Cusco. The funniest thing happened when were about to leave from Puno to Cusco. I accidentally forgot our key for our room in my pants pocket and the Lady from our hotel actually took a taxi from the hotel to the bus station and eventually to our bus. She found me and asked if I had the key. I gave her the key and felt super embarrassed. I gave her some money for her taxi to and from her hotel. I was like damn that's dedication to get that key back.

The bus ride was very long. It was about 6 hours long. The food on the bus was interesting a lady and her child got on the bus and the lady had a Chinese cleaver and some meat. She started cutting up meat right inside the bus. I was like this was the coolest thing ever. Everything was sold in the bus. From Coca-cola to Peruvian instruments to beenies and scarfs. It was a like a mini-market on the bus. We finally made it to Cusco.

Cusco, Peru was some pretty crazy classic times. It all started trying to haggle for our rooms at Balcon Cusquena. We managed to get our room with 3 beds for about 50 soles a night or roughly another $6.50 a day. I was so amazed at the plaza in Cusco. I loved it there. It is a beautiful plaza. There is a fountain right in the middle of it. It is clean. The shops and restaurants on 2 sides and 2 gigantic churches on 2 other sides. Anyways, our first night in Cusco we go this club. I forget what it was called but it had "Mami" on the title. This was the night where I realized what Ruiz (The Four Agreements) was talking about. In it he wrote "you always have the right to ask." So I asked the famous quotation in Spanish. "Perdoname, pero de donde ellas son?" (In english, "Excuse me, but where are you girls from?") And from then on Cusco was off the hook. We partied with these 3 girls. 2 are from Lima and 1 is from Cusco. They were on vacation or something, but they were all very nice and cordial. I don't care what Jennifer thinks about Peruvian girls being "monsters" I still think they are very nice. Anyways, we danced and partied with these girls for a while. We actually partied with them in Cusco for few days. I think I will just put it at that. ;)

After partying so much with these 3 girls. We decided to do some actual site seeing. We saw Machu Picchu. It is one of the world's greatest sites. It is truly remarkable. The mountain and the terrraces were unbelievable. It was such a beautiful site. I was speechless up top the mountain. It was kinda a little drama just to get there. We had to haggle again to get the ticket prices down to a $100 for a train 2 bus tickets and the park entrance fee. But after that it was all good.

What did I learn from partying this much? Well I learned the fact that you have to be pretty dramatic. You gotta say lines like, "Eres la chica la mas bonita de todo mundo!" (In English, "You are the most beautiful girl in the whole world") Believe me it might sound like a cheesy line but you gotta try it. It works in Latin/South America. On the second to the last days in Cusco, I meet the Bolivian girl. She was on vacation in Cusco, from La Paz, Bolivia. She was cool chica. Again we danced and partied. We stayed about 6 total days in Cusco. Aah Cusco.

We get back in Lima and I start to get sick on the plane from Cusco to Lima. What a shame! Que Lastima! The last 2 days in Lima was stuck in the nice hotel room. We finally didn't go ghetto. We also tried to get into the first game of Copa America in Estadio Nacional in Lima, but it was sold out. Instead we ate outside the arena. Anyways I am still sick, but I still want Un dia mas in Peru.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2004-04-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA of the day is PPP

Purpose Produces Passion

I have been reading Purpose Driven Life, by Warren, and this is one of his quotations in his book. It is a good book to realize that we have to lead a God-centered life and not self-centered one. I am on day 10, there are 30 more days, but hopefully a long life to master all the lessons. Anyways, my friend Howard asked an interesting question this week he simply asks "How do you know when someone is the "one" you want to marry?" Here is my response.

//BEGIN
I have no idea how I would know who is the "one" woman for me. Believe me after 25 years, I have no idea. Am I looking for the one? Or the one right now? The quotation from Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind "How come I fall in love with every girl who gives me any attention?" I don't know but that's how I feel at times... Its really bad, but like I take it to 85% all the time, when I should really just take it to 40% or 30% when I first meet a girl... I should really follow my P.I.C. essay. It is a hard, and I am trying to work on it. Anyways, the "one" must be my friend. Friendship is a must virtue, because if that woman and myself can not be friends then why would I want to marry someone who is not my friend. By friendship, I mean not an acquaintance or a girl I talk to once in a while, or a girl who is cute in a club/bar. I think Gil has said before said that in one's lifetime, there will only be 5 true friends. So 1/5 has to be my wife. That is pretty hard. Anyways here is an enumeration of other virtues for "the one". Also, I don't know if this is a realistic list, so here it is.

She has to have a God-centered philosophy, instead of a self-centered one.
She has to be selfless.
She has to have a positive attitude about life, because no one wants to hang out with someone who is always negative.
She has to be good with kids.
She has to have attainable realistic life goals.
She has to have a caring, kind, and compassionate heart for other people.
She has to be a woman I can envision growing old with.
She has to be fun to be around.
She has to know me, and still want to hang out with me.
She has to smile more often than frown.
She has to be smarter than me, because I do really stupid things sometimes.
She has to know what she wants, indicisive passive aggressive girls is just a turn off.
She has to be confident in herself and in her skills.
She has to be a talker, a people person, but she also has to be a good listener.
She has to be a good learner and even a better teacher.
She has to be able to look good even without any make up.
She has to be good with money (saving, investments, etc.), but not money-centered.
She has to like spending quality time with me.
She has to be passionate about something in her life.
She has to be unique.
She has to be driven.
She has to be able to laugh at herself and at funny stupid things I do.
She has to have a spontaneous random side in her personality.
She has to be open with changes in her life.
Finally, I think she has to like me, before she loves me.

On the side, This was my conversation with my coworker his initials are DC.

jozinho: hey i got a personal question for ya, so like my friend asks this generic question for all his single and married friends.
jozinho: he simply asks, How do you know when someone is the "one" you want to marry?
dc: i heard an interesting quote
dc: "If you can live without her, do."
dc: meaning, you know she's the one if you can't live without her.
dc: lots of people ask if they can live with them, that's the wrong question

He has been married for 2 years now and he essentially says, if you find a girl you can not live
with out then you found her. That's pretty profound.

//END

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2004-01-07T07:40:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA of the day is LTF.

Live The Fourth...

I am still in Sao Paulo and it is now the 8th of January...Losing my passport was not the real issue of my trip to Brasil. Leaving has been an enduring effort to say the least. I ended up buying a ticket to LAX from Sao Paulo, It has been a very frustrating effort to have standby tickets... I am farely very very surprised as far as internet infrastructure within Sao Paulo and Rio... The women in Brasil are the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my lifetime... White, Black, Indian, Portuguese, Japanese, and even Chinese are all interacially mixed... However, there still seems to be the ever present social hierarchical economic class issue which face all third world countries. Poor people are still poor, and unfortunately rich people are still rich... and the distribution of the cash is still highly biased towards the rich...Anyways, Rio is the best city on earth, we hung out at a local dive restaurant which served "Praixa de dia" or plate of the day... The food was dirt cheap and really really good. We made friends with the local chef and workers at the dive restaurant and they took us to their local dance club in Guanabarra Bay in Rio. If we contrast Americans and Brasileiros/as, Americans are the mean, fat, and ugly. While, the people of Brasil are the friendly healthy beautiful people. Its like I feel I just graduated from college again and this trip slapped me to a new chapter in my life. I would seriously consider teaching Mathematics, Computer Science, even the cool stuff in Information Extraction / Information Retrieval stuff or even English in Brasil... Oh yeah, did I mention women here are really really good looking...(hahaha) My high school Spanish has helped me a lot during this trip. Although the pronunciation of Portuguese is very very difficult. Its like they are talking Russian or Arabic sometimes its quite confusing. I can read portuguese farely well, but I need to practice pronunciation of words. I was very proud of the fact I could communicate to the local police magistrate to expedite a police report and make copies for the passport so I can leave Brasil. Anyways, I think I want to go to Asia or Africa as my next big trip in my lifetime. Feliz Ano Novo!!!!

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-11-17T18:14:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA of the day is GPS

Global Positioning System

My inspiration today comes from this product . I usually don't care much about technology, but a GPS on a PDA. That is really cool. I don't know how many times I have said this when I am lost "boy I wonder where the hell I am". This is a boring TLA.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-10-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA of the day is PIC

Play It Cool

My inspiration today comes from my recent encounters with women in clubs, or in venues where there are interesting single women around. I noticed that a guy will be more attractive in a woman's eye if he is not so into her or even perhaps ignores her after the first few dialogue exchanges. Women in many ways are hunters themselves. Its not fun to hunt for game which is ready to be hunted. In many ways, Women enjoy the chase just as well as men do. But there is a delicate balance. How (as a man) do you want to show your interest and attraction to a woman and yet at the same time not let her know about your interest and attraction to her without you looking like a piece of game ready to be hunted? Well there is only one phrase: "PIC (Play it cool. Just play it cool)"

There are many ways to interpret "Play it cool." First steps tho, you have to be willing to get her email or number to do these things, cuz if you don't have the balls to ask for a simple number, then you will never find out if she reciprocates the same interests or attraction.

1) Don't call her for a while, (don't call a girl everyday guys should use 2-3 day holding pattern period) It makes someone look really desperate and pathetic if someone calls everyday. If she is excited that you called, then most of the time they want you to call them. There are 2 tones there is the "Oh its you... " tone vs. the "Ooooh its you" tone. Look for the excited tone, if you get the indifference tone, you should let it marinate and play it cool a little longer.

2) Be hella busy this week. If she calls don't call back right away.
It displays the fact that she may not be the center of your life at the moment. Everyone has stuff to do. You just met this girl why would you want to do stuff with her if your stuff is more important than her stuff.

3) If she is busy, let her have her time and space. "So when do you think you will be free again?" If she says 2-3 days, multiply that estimate by Pi and call her in about 6-9 days from the last time you talked. If she asks why haven't u called just use the #2 excuse
"I was ALSO busy with stuff I had to do." It conveys indifference and independence. It sort of says, "I don't have to think about you constantly, we just met".

4) When you finally do talk to her, make it a meaningful conversation, don't be a lump on a log. Find the common interest whether it be sports, her work, her school, shopping, movies, music, basically anything you have in common or not have in common.

5) Don't just go to dinner and movie cuz everyone else does it. Be a more interesting fellow other than a dinner and a movie. Girls usually like interesting gentlemen. Boring normal people suck.

Anyways, I could be wrong about all of this, but the essential lesson is that girls don't really like it if a guy shows too much interest early on. And the only way to fight the urges of showing too much interest early is to "Play it cool."

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-09-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA of the day is FAB

Filipino American Baby

My inspiration today comes from my brand new baby niece. Technically she is my second cousin. She arrived in our world yesterday at a whopping 8.7lbs and 21 inches in length. She is so small, precious, and cute. Her name is Alhanna Laggui. She is our first American born Filipino American in our family. Everyone in my family was born in the Philippines.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-08-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA of the day is QLC

Quarter Life Crisis

My inspiration today comes from talking to my coworker and my college friend about attending a church. It is interesting to analyze that there are so many young urban professionals out there who need to figure out where God is in their lives at this moment. I am probably not alone in experiencing this in life, but I offer you my own research and analysis. I grew up Catholic in Southern California. Specifically, I grew up in Eagle Rock, a mostly Filipino community northeast of downtown Los Angeles. For all of you from the Bay Area think Daly City or Milpitas. Anyways, I started thinking about young adults' spirituality in their 20's. I started seriously analyzing my own spirituality and philosophy. I started thinking about how my relationship with God is quite different from when I was a child, when I was a teenager, when I was in college, and now after I have graduated from College. A little background, I literally grew up Catholic. I went to a Catholic elementary school (Dominican Order). I went to a Catholic high school (Franciscan Order). And finally I went to a Catholic University (Jesuit Order). Anyways, its pretty crazy but I went to Catholic school all my life. Each one of these schools taught a different sense of what it meant to be Catholic and what God's role in your stages of life. Elementary school taught the omnipotent God. High School taught me that God is in good people around you. College taught me that God is transcendent (Its a very ambiguous term but look it up). I haven't seriously thought about this issue about God and his/her relevance in my life since I graduated from High School. Maybe I took too many "Academic analysis courses" of God in College. I took courses called "The Problem of God," "The Historical Jesus," and even "Theology of Marriage." These courses gave me enough to think about in college. And I guess that's what is really missing as someone who is about to turn 25. I have to ask myself what is giving me "enough to think about" in life, as far as God is concerned. I mean college courses and classes are great, because they give a lot of theoretical ideas. However, there is nothing better than learning from real world experiences to hammer those ideas home. I think when I went to college and the subsequent years after, I didn't really think about God or rather I didn't put God at a higher priority. For example, I made excuses for not going to church every Sunday (I still went once in a while). I made excuses like well I have to do homework, or I have a big project, or I am still pretty hungover from the wicked party last night, or I just played golf and I am really lazy right now. At any rate, I think my problem is that God wasn't the priority. I mean I don't want to be a fanatical Catholic or anything like that, I just need to find a healthy devotion to God. My claim is that people in their 20's lose this healthy devotion. They lose who and what God means, because they are caught up with trivial crap that really doesn't matter (what I define as "crap" are money, fame, success, failure, fashion, grades, work, car, and the rest of capitalistic symbols of the world). I guess I am at a crossroad in my life where I should do something which puts my priority back to the big G. And I guess this is what I call my quarter life crisis.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-07-09T10:10:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA of the day is SSF

Scrutinize, Suspect, Fictionalize

My inspiration today came from the fact that our company gave out mugs which read Security, Safety, Freedom. Maybe I am just a paranoid little peon in this company, but I just think people should be leary of these words. If one analyzes these 3 words it implies an implicit algorithm for freedom. First comes security, then comes safety, then comes your freedom. Its a little scary. I don't know I thought the whole point of freedom is being free. I mean the definition of freedom is "The condition of being free of restraints." Maybe I am over analyzing things, I mean these words are all for good publicity and propaganda for our current efforts on the war on terrorism. But propaganda has been used throughout human history to do evil things (look at what Hitler did with propaganda). Now more than ever is the time for people to scrutinize and suspect our government's fiction of certain "facts" displayed for the American people. In my humble opinion, America is still a country of the people, by the people, and for the people. And if the American people aren't more responsible about controling the people in control then there is a potential you might just lose your own Security, your own Safety, and your own personal Freedom.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-07-02T11:49:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA of the day is KIA

Know It All

My inspiration to publish these TLA's come from everywhere. So today,I found this link . This article comes from the onion . It is a hilarious web page about current events and random
stupid things. Its very entertaining. I sort of agree with the article. So what if you got a college degree, and use poly-syllabic words. The important question will being a know it all get you a number of a really hot chick? Some cats can pull this off, but more often than not, people will probably look like an elitist socialite if you come off as a know it all. So I guess the lesson is sometimes it is good to act ignorant when you want to be friendly and get a hot chick's number.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-06-27T12:02:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA of the day is the NBA.

National Basketball Association.

Yesterday was the NBA draft. I am a huge basketball fan, but this year's draft just didn't feel all that exciting. Other than Lebron James and Carmelo Anthony all the other players are just minor league ballers. They are the only 2 who are ready for the NBA. Anyways I think David Stern is the Dr. Evil of all sports franchises. He is the ultimate exploiter of modern day athletes. He is probably worse than Don King. At least Don King has an act. David Stern does it in sly and sinister way.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-06-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

Today's TLA of the day is BFD.

Big F---ing Deal

Our company just hired an intern from Harvard. Maybe I am just drinking my hater-ade on Harvard cats, but I personally think the best thing Harvard has produced is Conan O'Brien. Check out his commencement speech for the class of 2000. LinkThis is the funniest speech in the world. Harvard cats are good writers. I don't know any Harvard cats who do good CS, good Math, good engineering. Personally we should have hired kids from the Bay Area. I mean there is plenty of talent here, Berkeley, Stanford, SCU, SJSU. And there are lots of smart people out of work right now. Hence the TLA of the day BFD.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-06-12T14:14:00.000-07:00

The TLA of the day is POO!

Principle of Optimality.

"If you don't do the best with what you have happened to have got, you will never do the best with what you should have had."

This quotation comes from this website on Dynamic Programing in the mathematical context instead of the computer science context. This quotation tripped me out. It almost implies that you should always try to do the best with what you currently have. Its an interesting philosophy. It is the glass is always half full mentality. It implies even if you are down and out you should always try your best with whatever skills or opportunities you are given with any task in life. Not trying your best implies never maximizing your potential. So in general, one should try your best, because who knows what potential you might recieve from trying your best.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-06-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

The TLA of the day for is GRE
Graduate Record Examinations.

Why do people go to grad school?

My claim is that people go to grad school to prolong the inevitiablity of working and of course to get a better paying job. I don't think a majority of people want to go to grad school for knowledge. I mean knowledge is the pure function of the colleges and universities. They exist to spread and enhance human knowledge to our young people. So this goes back to my enigmatic question why do people want to go to grad school? Time and time again I hear friends say "I want to go to grad school, because the economy is bad right now." Attending schools to get your MBA, PhD, or MA does not necesarily equate to a better job or even a job. It is not a sure thing. College kids these days have to consider grad school as an alternative, because the economy is so bad. A majority really don't want to go for knowledge. Its more of an afterthought. We now have students who are betting that the economy will be better in 2 years when they graduate so that they can get a better job. I don't know maybe I am just an academic purist, but I don't necesarily think this is the reason you learn anything. I guess there is always a value proposition argument in anything in life. Are you a person who believes with the intrinsic value of knowledge for attaining a graduate education? Or are you a person who believes in material values for attaining a graduate education?

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-06-10T11:19:00.000-07:00

Someone sent me this link again.

Mind Reader

So I might as well write down the solution.

Here is the solution for this link.

Hint is "MOD 10"

Given x,y as the two numbers chosen

x+y is the addition of the 2 numbers
the combination of the 2 numbers 'x''y' is actually
10*x + y

so if you do a little algebra

(10x +y) -(x+y)
10x - x
9x

Every number will be some multiple of 9.

The flash recycles the symbols on the multiples of 9.

9,18,27,36,45,54,63,72,81 will ALWAYS BE THE SAME.

Anyways, my TLA of the day will be GOFAI

Good
Old
Fashion
Artificial
Intelligence

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-05-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have not been able to create my TLA's in a about 2 months. There has been so much that has happened in
the last 2 months. America was at the brink of war, and now
America is back to thinking about really important issues, like

Who will be the next American Idol?

I mean come on, is this really why young people died for this country. Did young people die, so that either Rueben or Clay can sing the next big hit which the record executives wrote to make more money.

2003-03-28T11:11:00.000-08:00

Today's TLA is influenced by this quotation.
"The enemy we're fighting against is different from the one we'd war-gamed against,"

The TLA of the day is NSS
"No Sh** Sherlock"

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-03-21T16:47:00.000-08:00

Gallup Poll 76% of Americans Agree with the war?
Results are based on telephone interviews with -- 602 -- national
adults,aged 18+, conducted March 20, 2003.
For results based on the total
sample of national adults, one can say with 95%
confidence that the margin of sampling error is
±4 percentage points.

What is the error rate at 97% confidence?

When did 602 Americans represent all American political opinion?

Where were the locations of these phone numbers called?

What were the specific questions?

What was the order of the questions asked?

What was the gender count?

What was the nationality count?

What was the specific age range? 18+ is a lot of people.

What is the count of those who approve who are 18-25?

What is the count of those who are 25-40?

What is the count of those who are 40 -70?

The TLA of the day is CLT

"Central Limit Theorem"

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-03-20T12:46:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately we started bombing Iraq today.
Here is an interesting link about the war.
The TLA of the day is WAR

"Wealthy Angry Retard"
"Wicked Angry Retard"
"Wasted Angry Retard"

Example Sentence: George W. Bush is a W.A.R.-like person.

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-03-18T17:24:00.000-08:00

My previous blog was about the crappy war. Today I would like to say happy birthday to my friend and coworker Danny Chai. My TLA of the day is a four letter acronym today. When I heard this for the first time it cracked me up. So my contribution to society for today is the following TLA of the day RTFM or in other words "Read The F=) Manual"

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-03-17T13:05:00.000-08:00

03/17/03 America the PMC (People of Mass Consumption).

I swear I was not going to write anything on these blogs. But
I just had to say something about this war with Iraq.

Last week I defined a TLA which was U.S. DHS. Maybe this TLA should stand for
"Department for the Hegemonist State"

Let's define hegemony: The predominant influence, as of a state,
region, or group, over another or others. This word defines the
United States over the past 100 years so honestly that it feels like
a 4-letter word in the context of current US interests. The word seems to belong
to history's "ist" list like Marxist, Communist, and Socialist. One can certainly
argue that the United States is different from these "ist". We live in a democracy and we
abide by Superman's motto to fight for "Truth, justice and the American Way."
In laymen's terms we are the good guys. All those other "ist" were the bad guys. Those other
ists were typical hegemonist states. Communists dominated countries around them to be Communists.
And thus they were considered the bad guys. Prior to communism, the other political
ideologies did the same thing, so we had to consider those political ideologies as the
bad guys. So now I pose this question. Should we consider the US as THE hegemonist nation of the
next milenium? Are we the bad guys? Where have all the bad guys gone? In the past people used
words as empire, imperialists, or even globalization to describe US foreign policy.
Is the US using its own political ideology to dominate over other nations?
Do we want countries to be democratic for democracy's sake
or do we want countries to be democratic for US economic or military interests?
Are we going to war with Iraq so that a future teenager in a new Democratic Iraq can buy
the latest Britany Spears album and play that awful music in his/her new Cadillac
Escalade with the 4 lcd screens on the head rest with his/her embroidered name
"Pimp Mobile" on the driver side and passenger side head rest?
Seriously does anyone want that? Do we really want a people of mass consumption in future
democratic nations in Iraq and Afghanistan? The unfortunate truth is that we
want to go to war to get Iraq's oil. So that American teenagers can ride in their Cadillac
Escalades and bump Britany Spears on their radios. So sad but true.

Anyways, after considering my current rant I think the
the TLA of the day is PMC
"People of Mass Consumption"

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-03-14T13:54:00.000-08:00

03/14/03 This is a great link given to me this is hiarious
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/wlee1433/emergency.html

TLA of the day U.S. DHS
"Department of Homeland Security"

Enjoy,
Jonathan

2003-03-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

03/13/03 My old roomate from college forwarded me an email about blogging. What a great way to write html pages without worrying about where the HTML < br > tags go. Anyways, this is my first blog ever and I have no idea what to say. I guess I will start off by commenting on why I chose TLA as my blogger name to my page. Well I am really tired of three letter acronyms which brilliant marketing majors (an oxymoron) come up with for products, quirky terms, or other combination of obtuse key words. I also thought I wanted to create a page where I will try to create a new
Three Letter Acronym for the day to clutter people's brain with useless and
uninteresting knowledge. I mean if you read what I have written
you can already see some TLA's I have created.

UUK = useless and uninteresting knowledge
OKW = obtuse key words
BMM = brilliant marketing majors

I guess I have accomplished my task for today to create UUK's from OKW's for BMM's

Thanks,
Jonathan