My Schedule

So, here's my day.

My day starts at 9 pm:

9 pm: post solution to today’s @1HaskellADay problem

9 pm: post tomorrow's @1HaskellADay problem

9 pm: curl google.com/finance

9 pm: scrap that, run system, record orders, place order execution for tomorrow’s opening

10 pm: eat a banana. brush teeth. go to bed

…

6:30 am: reveille, pack breakfast and lunch, weigh in, take vitamins, record

7:05 am: depart for 7:14 am bus

8:30 am: work, give them your best, every day

noon: lunch, record actual order executions placed last night, audit returns

5:30 pm: commute home, write, ignore people clipping their fingernails on the bus, ignore people who have the need to share their phone conversations publicly and loudly and for the whole bus ride home.

6:45 pm: walk home from bus stop, pray rosary

7:30 pm: supper

Prayer for healing

For the homeschooling mom of three who has a cancerous tumor in her kidney, may she be healed. For MisYvo's niece, that she have Your love and consolation, I pray in the Name of Jesus, the Christ.

Amen

Skyr

A recipe to make skyr, Icelandic yogurt-cheese.

It's really easy (and I messed it up really badly the first time, so don't give up after the first try)

So many different ways to do this, but the best-best way for me is as follows:

prep: double-boiler, so outer pot fill 1/3 with water, that is, high enough for medium-sized inner pot to fit into the outer pot and have the water up to the lip of both. Half-gallon of organic, fat-free milk, yogurt starter (any probiotic yogurt will do, I use 'siggi's skyr'). Yes, you need yogurt to make yogurt.

Turn your oven light on now, which is late evening, after supper.

1. Bring water to a rolling boil with the inner pot inverted over the outer pot. This sterilizes the inner pot.
2. Seat inner pot into boiling water, pour milk into inner pot, bring heat down to a light boil, heat milk this way for 30 minutes (it will not boil), bringing and maintaining milk temperature at 180 deg F. (it just does this, some say use a thermometer, but there's no need to fuss over this)
3. remove from heat, empty outer pot of hot water, then, in your sink, refill outer pot with cold water, stirring the milk and bringing its temperature down to 120 deg F, which takes 5-10-15 minutes of stirring. Don't overcool it, as it slows the fermenting process too much. You'll get a feel for this eventually.
4. 'Pitch' the yogurt. That is mix a tablespoon of yogurt with a half-cup of milk completely, then pour that mixture into the heated milk.
5. Cover the pot of milk with a towel, place in oven next to your oven lamp, close oven.
6. Walk away.
7. LEAVE A NOTE ON THE OVEN FOR YOUR DAUGHTERS NOT TO PREHEAT THE OVEN FOR THEIR LATEST RECIPES! (lesson learned the hard way)
8. The next morning, the yogurt is ready if you like runny-silky. That's fine for most.I make skyr, however, which is Icelandic yogurt/cheese, so:
9. Place a cheesecloth (I use a sturdy cloth napkin) over a strainer big enough to hold the yogurt, place strainer over big, outer pot, and pour the yogurt into the (cheesecloth-covered) strainer. Stow in the refrigerator. Walk away.
10. The next morning, you have skyr above the strainer and pure whey below. You can discard the whey or make whey-berry-soda if you'd like, but that's another recipe.

A cup of skyr is small, but it's equivalent to 4 cups of yogurt, protein-wise, and with no added sugar. I like to serve my skyr with home-made granola (oats, almonds, dried cranberries, honey) and with a teaspoon of lingonberry preserves. Yummy breakfast!

* need, v: 'need' as in, yes, eventually the milk will generate the bacteria that will consume the sugars and produce yogurt, but an infusion from already-made yogurt gets things moving along very nicely (like, the fermentation-process just takes overnight, not days).

Via, Veritas, Vita

"I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me." – John 14:6

So, this debate has been going for a while, so I'd like to take a moment to reflect on it. The problem, stated briefly, is why do you have to go through the Christ to be saved? If you're a good person, Buddhist, Muslim, Druid, Wiccan, what-have-you, and you live a good life, why are you thrown into the fiery pits of hell when eh-so-so-Christians get a free ride right through the Pearly Gates with a nod and a pat on the back from St. Pete?

Right?

I think, firstly, the argument is a fair one if taken at face value, and has been addressed by the Magisterium: through the Christ is Salvation.

Okay, we're done here.

Or. Are. We?

The question of Salvation is a tricky one, first-and-only, because it is in the provenance solely of Christianity, and that is the context that the neo-pagans and the neo-pantheists miss entirely: they are debating Christian virtues informed by a Christian context and want to be allowed into the Christian Wedding Feast and not be left outside, improperly dressed, without enough oil, wailing and gnashing their teeth.

Because the wailing and the gnashing of teeth is not where the party's at.

Do you see the double standard here?

Salvation belongs to our God.

And when I say 'our' I mean 'our' as in Christian, because no other religion before, and no religion since has the concept of Christian Salvation (which requires its dual: our fallen nature, which Christians and non- are quick to forget for themselves in this debate).

Let me back up this statement.

Before:

Pantheism, Greco/Roman-style: nope. You could be a servant at the dining table, but only if you were a hero of supernatural success, or you were so super sexy Juno wanted to impregnate you after turning you into a goat. That was 50/50, the other 50 was you were flung up into the heavens to hang there, upside-down for all eternity. You want that? I think not.

Your other other alternative was to put a coin in your mouth so Charon could row you into Hades (the place) where you'd forget everything and basically be a vegetable for Hades (the dude) and Persephone to walk over your head.

Pantheism, Hindu style: Okay, talk to a Hindu. Get a synopsis of Hinduism? Great. Talk to another Hindu, get a different story? Great. The great wheel keeps on turning, but the gods don't much involve themselves with us, because there are the gods, doing their thing, and here we are, turning on the great wheel, getting reincarnated. When we attain perfection, we're good, but is there a morality to it? There is rightness and asceticism but every action and thought is permitted so long as you think and do them perfectly, with various conflicting definitions of perfection.

Manichaeism: Good vs. Evil. Except not. Good was pure spirit and light, Evil was physicality, so what did this mean. It meant the body, people, were evil, and the worst thing you could do was capture a spirit into a body, i.e., have a baby. So, you abstained from physical things and tried to be spiritual.

What was the reward? At the end of time, the equally empowered forces would gather in armies and one of the sides would win, hopefully yours. Nothing was said of a reward for fighting (and winning).

In neither case was God: a) present, nor a Father, nor a Savior. Creation was something that just happened, and the gods came from that, just like we did. In consequence, the gods were just like us, only moreso.

After:

Buddhism: Hinduism 2.0

Islam: Catholicism as rewritten by a crazy guy (debate with me in this, but only after you've read the Noble Qu'ran, too, like I have).

New Age Crystals: Coexist, but only insofar as everyone chillaxes with pan flutes

Confucianism/Taoism (or is this New Age)/Shintoism: These are right ways to live now, by respecting your Elders, and there some talk of Shamanism/Spiritism, but what does it buy you or them?

Capitalism/Communism: Same thing these day, bb, be he the State or Business has one thing in mind: itself, and you are raw material, a cog in the tooth wheel to be (re)educated, worked to death and then spit out when you die ... if you're lucky to be worked to death. There's always the firing squad for the Communists or Capitalisms (they call them 'drones'). Both philosophies are well-captured in this past century, as well as their effects. The one thing both lack? Joy. Hope. Love. Whatever you want to call it. Both drain humanity from human. Their color is grey. Read and enjoy Ayn Rand and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I've read both.

It is only in Christianity that God so loves us that He incarnated Himself for our salvation. Not only did He create us, but then, by His Incarnation, He adopted us as co-hiers of His Glory. No other god, before or since has offered this to us, and not because He has to or because we've earned it, but it's something freely offered to us.

The thing is: we have to take it.

He gave us free will. We can look Him square in the eye (we can't, actually, but He looks at us and knows us, better than we know ourselves), and say 'nope,' and take our ball and walk away from Him.

He could force us to love Him. He could make us accept our salvation: robots programmed to face Him always, saying 'Holy, Holy, Holy' all the time, as the Cherubim (freely chose to do, I point out here).

Or, He could let us choose to say 'Holy art Thou, O LORD,' freely, any time of the day, week, year, decade, or never. He could choose to allow us to walk away into whatever the hell we want to do, live the life of self-pleasure, and die that way, sure in our self-righteousness, for obviously, we know better than God.

That's what I choose, every time.

And what is the cost of that choice? Nothing. It's freely given to me.

What is the cost of salvation?

A sacrifice, once, for all, and for all time.

A perfect sacrifice, and only God is perfect, so God had to sacrifice Himself to Himself to pay for all my sins, and everybody else's sins.

Sin, Hebrew: an arrow that misses the target.

If we aren't dead-set staring straight (back) at God, singing 'Holy, Holy, Holy' we're missing the boat.

We're missing the boat.

So that's the cost of salvation.

But here's the reward.

When I lift my head up out of the cesspool of my sins, out of myself, and look up to God, and cry: 'Oh, God, save me.'

God, right there, saves me. Not that time, not the next time.

Every time.

Every time I turn from my sin, and turn back to God, reconcile with Him, God saves me. He saved me once to pay the price of Sin, and He saves me now, to pull me up out of my sins.

And the payoff for God?

Nothing, God doesn't need to save me, it doesn't make Him feel better.

He does it because He is God.

I am the shepherd, He says, and we are His sheep, and He laid down His Life for us and knows us and calls us by name, and He goes out into the wilderness to rescue a lost sheep and bring that lost sheep, me, back to His fold.

Because He is God.

Salvation belongs to our God.

Not because He is a Jerk and only plays with the cool kids who are total jerks, just like Him.

That is not Christianity. There are Christians who are jerks, yes, but Christianity, the followers of the Christ, follow Christ because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one comes to the Father, except through Him.

And in following Christ, are made better by it, even as they start out by being total jerks, even if they end up that way. Put down that stone, please, and first look in the mirror and say: 'Yup, I'm not a total jerk, and I never have been, so I'm free to judge others on their journey.'

Did that? Great: now you can cast your stone at me.

I'll die for it: you, and your beliefs: the stone you throw at me. Happily. To be Christian is to give oneself to God. Totus tuus. And if 21 Coptic martyrs don't convince you (one of who was not a Christian, but became one that day, seeing the faith of the others), then, sure, I'll put myself on your path, so that you might be saved. A soul? Yours? Worth it.

Follow your own way. Follow it to its very end. Find out the reward of your way is. I beg you. Get to the very bottom of it. Know it better than anything else in the world. See its fruits.

Then ask yourself, what is the Christian way? Look at the Church, in all her flaws and imperfections, what is it really there for? Look to God and see Him beyond the hate you have for Him (this hate is not coming from Him, by the way), all the things you've heard and seen that you blame Him for.

Then, ask, seek, and knock.

For whosoever seeks will find, whoever asks will be given, whoever knocks the door will be opened unto him.

God loves you. He is not going to hand you a stone when you ask for bread. He has made you and, seeing what He has made, has declared it very good. You were created in God's image and likeness. He loves you, more than you know.

And I do, too.

I'm praying for you.

"Kids these day!"

Kids these days.

Particularly teenagers. I tell you what!

Well, let me tell you what.

Tweet 1:

"lol the man registering me for irsc was blown away that I have a job, dual enroll, and bought my own car at 16 years old"

Okay.

Now.

Tweet 2:

"Why can't my mother see any of that"

We lament that teenagers are the lost generation, and perhaps they are, but whose fault is that? They want to be heard, we don't listen; they do stuff, we don't notice; they ask questions and demand answers, and we say we're too busy now, can you go back to your iPhone like all you teenagers do?

Perhaps, just perhaps, yes, our teenagers are a lost generation (but nobody asks if our generation is 'found' or 'grounded,' do they?), but perhaps our teenagers are, instead, the abandoned generation.

Ever think of it that way?

We've abandoned them to schools, to parties, to technology time-wasters (they aren't the only ones; I'm surrounded by zombie-commuters, their brains sucked out by their twitter feeds and candy crushes), to their amorality (because we taught them none), then we look at them and shake our heads and say, 'Grow up! Keep acting that way, and you'll ruin your life.'

And our lives are so well-put-together, that they can compare theirs to ours and say: 'I wanna be just like Mom; I wanna be just like Dad.'

Some of you are good parents (okay: justify that. By what measure are you good? How much time do you include your teens in your lives, your decisions, your work, your activities, your hopes and dreams?), so you don't have to read this: your kids are going somewhere because you are and they have a good, well-grounded example to follow.

But others of you … shake your heads at your teens and wonder why they are turning out this way.

How about this.

There's a little girl, a teen, who did the dishes and cooked supper and cleaned her room today, and she did all this, and told you, or didn't tell you, and you said, 'well, what about this, this, and this?' or 'Sweetie, I have too much work to do right now, we'll talk later, okay?'

And the thing about 'later,' is that it never, ever comes.

How about this.

Catch your teen doing something really good, really amazing, something you never did when you were 16, and sit down with her, and say, 'Honey, I'm so, so proud of you. You are an amazing, beautiful person and you really did something there. Something I never did." or "Something I didn't know how to/have the courage to do for years after your age."

Do that. Say that. Catch your teen doing something good, instead of catching them doing the same-old or instead of catching them doing something bad and punishing them.

Reward them.

Do you know what a reward for a teen is?

You put your phone down, and you listen to them, and you acknowledge what they do.

Not a car, not a phone, not a latte. Just that.

Sure, you can share a latte if you're both into it, but turn off the phone, and say, 'Hey.'

Just say, 'Hey,' and 'I just noticed how grown up you are, and I'm so proud of you.'

Just that.

Okay. I'm crying now, because I am so proud of these teens that are stretching themselves to be mature and responsible and hold it all together. And what do we have to say to them for all that they're trying to do and failing, or trying to do and succeeding, and where are we when they shine?

Be there when your teen shines.

"God Knows."

Yes, He does.

Okay, this was ... "fun."

A prayer request went out on twitter for 'special intentions.' I asked what the special intentions were and was told: "God knows."

Yes. God knows.

But what's the problem with that answer?

If God knows, and not I, then my prayers are not for a special intention, but for the general intention.

"Welp, you know, God, so have at it."

I'm already doing this.

Daily.

One Rosary, at least, per day.

Are do, Miss "God knows"?

The other problem is this:

I have access. You lost your job, you want to change your job? God knows, but so do I. You want to get into editing? I have a friend who's an editor. You want to break into the computer field? Well, guess whom you're talking to-m. You failed Algebra II? Guess how we started homeschooling? The daughter of a friend failed Algebra II and she was being pushed up to the next grade, so, ostenibly, she could fail ... sorry, 'pass,' the next level of math?

But you're special intention does nothing to allow me, another member of the Church Militant, to assist you on your path through this life.

What are we here for? To pray for each other, yes, but also to help each other along. You're reticence is not helping me help your friend.

Here's the third problem with "God knows."

Your special intention? "God, I need another hit of acid. Bad."

So you want me to pray for your special intention?

1. God, who loves you, is depriving you of what you want, because He loves you.
2. It is a sin for me to pray for you to fall further into sin.
3. It is a sin for me to support things blindly.

"Please donate to our special, charitable cause!"

What is your special, charitable cause?

Oh, we provide birth control and recommend abortions to teens needing to get on with their lives.

Do you see the problem with me praying for the special, charitable intention you requested of me?

Or, "I lost my job, please pray for me."

What is your prayer request?

"I want to make sure the welfare check comes in."

Are you looking for a job?

"Well, only so I can get my welfare check."

So, you want me to pray for the intention of continuing government-supported welfare for your friend who does not work, so, Biblically, does not eat, and has continued to live in the squalor of low self-worth and is praying that it continue.

A special intention needs to be treated specially: what is your prayer request, what are the graces asked for.

Also, are you thinking only of yourself and your friend?

When I pray for graces, I ask for the intercession of the Blessed Mother Teresa. She needs just one more confirmed miracle to be recognized a saint, but if I pray for your special intention and you get it, and you don't share the graces received, and by whose intercession, that process of sanctification is further delayed, and by whom? You. And do you know why? Because you are being selfish. You are thinking only of yourself and your friend, who is asking for a special intention but who is not sharing what is needed.

"I am hungry."

Here, eat.

"I am naked."

Here, be clothed.

We, my whole family, does do these actual acts of charity, further, we pray for special intentions and graces, but giving you a grace you do not need, are not ready for, did not ask for may actually cause you to fall further into despair and into sin. And, if you are asking wrongly, it is in God's provenance not to give you something that hurts you.

And I do not want to pray against God's provenance.

Do you?

If you ask for a special intention, then ask for that special intention: you will have people pray for you, knowing what they are praying for, and you actually may receive actual graces that actually help from God's agents here on Earth: bingo, people; bingo: me, because you asked for the specific grace.

If you're asking for general intention, know that the whole Church Militant and Church Triumphant is already praying with you. So why do you need to ask for general intentions? Nobody does, as nobody is that stupid to ask for what they know they are already receiving.

A special intention is special: if you ask for it, be willing to say what it is.

If you're going to go up to the bell, ring it.

Nap time: or, why I don't sleep

Sleep, n.: or why I don't

OH on twitter today: why are people up all night, working themselves to exhaustion? Isn't it time for you to take a nap.

No, it's not time for me to take a nap.

I'd love to, but here's the problem with that.

I've got bills, inflation has been killing me now for the last five years, seriously, where my income has been less than my expenses ('outgo' as it's called). That's when I have had a job. There's been times, like that Christmas-time when I and everybody else got fired? When I haven't had a job. Do you know how long it takes to find a new job. That takes time.

Oh, and the new job I got. Every morning, I got to wake up and ask myself: what is the boss going to scream at me, in front of everybody, about today? Do I have an answer for him?

Some days I had an answer. Sometimes, my answer was: I just don't have an answer for you.

I'm an expert in my fields of mathematics and computer science. Me, not having an answer for this guy? Wasn't good enough for him. Lots of times, my answers weren't good enough for him.

So I quit that job. People cried when I left, because I was one of the ones who tried to make people's lives better, not worse. I'm sorry to have left that job, but I had to retreat and take care of myself then.

Left in the morning before dawn, came home to pitch-black night, every day. Worked through a lot of weekends. 'Shouldn't you take a nap?'

Sure. That job paid $1,000 less per month than what our bills were.

So now I'm at this new job, a few blocks south of the old one: same commute. And now I don't know what the hell I'm doing, because I'm planning the work for the next two years. I'm not a manager/planner, I'm a mathematician. I am failing in this job big-time, so how long will I last here before I'm out of a job again, looking for work? Before my first pay-check?

So, I'm starting a business, because you know why? because nobody is making ends meet on their job, and once their productive years are over, they are going to be paid a big fat pension and social security is going to send them a huge check to cover all their expenses for the rest of their lives?

Sure, if they commit suicide right (before) their last payday at work.

People, we all are in hot water, and if you're not, my hat's off to you, but if you are, you're 1) in a lot company, 2) smart if you see the writing on the wall 3) working two jobs to make ends meet and 4) wondering how the hell you're going to survive your retirement.

Oh, take a nap and chillax, the problems can wait.

Sure they can.

And your wife isn't asking you how we're going to pay the mortgage or rent and the insurance this month?

But a nap sounds oh-so-good right about now, doesn't it?

Or, how about this?

Instead of napping, write.

My novel-in-progress? I have received three emails so far of people who said they didn't kill themselves because of something I wrote stayed their hand from offing themselves.

How many lives have you saved today? How many lives will your nap?

I ask myself that every day I don't write: what is your problem? Is it so big that it's bigger than saving somebody's life today.

But you go take that nap and scold me for not taking one myself, so you can justify yours because we all bow our heads to your level.

Instead of napping, work.

The first eight hours of work let you live today.

The next eight hours let you live for tomorrow. What are you doing with those next eight hours?

I'm starting a business that will multiply not only my income, but will also create wealth.

Do you have wealth? Do you have the ability to create wealth?

Yes, you do. You are a human being, alive right now, you have ideas x, y, and zed in your head, or if you're a talkative sombitch, that you're complaining and whining about every day.

Instead of talking and whining, and saying, 'oh, I'll get to that sometime; I'll get to that someday,' … get to it now. Get to it today.

The difference of a successful business owner and a good worker is …

Ta-dah!

Nothing, and less than nothing.

The business owner just takes responsibility for his or her own sphere, including the people of the company. The good worker just takes responsibility for his or her own sphere on the job.

So, do so damn well at work, they start thinking 'we've got to promote this one; this one is actually doing something, unlike all the others.'

And shut up, you've seen it on the job, the 80/20 rule. 80%: tell me what to do, or I'll do nothing. 20%: I did this; what do I do next?

Where do you fit in?

Fit yourself into the 20% on your job. Your life and soul depend on it.

Then, start a business, when you know you're ready, and fit your business in the top 20%.

Then we'll talk about naps.

Okay, so let's talk about naps.

Last night, instead of working through, I took a nap. So my technical indicators system, not ready for prime-time, is still not ready for prime time.

We'll get back to that cost in a minute.

Last night, instead of preparing my lunch for today, I took a nap. So now I need to buy lunch. The cheapest option is to buy some tasteless GMO-crap at Safeway, which, in Bethesda, will set me back $7-$8. So, Chipotle? That's ten dollars. That's the cost of a nap.

Also, I didn't prepare breakfast. I got a free muffin at dunkin donuts because I have a dunkin donuts card from my employer, because I listen and retain. Then I bought my yogurt at Safeway: $1.69 and I got to stand in line behind an idiot, again. And then I bought a small coffee for $2.07.

An additional $4 that nap cost me.

We have no credit left. None. I paid cash.

But I should take a nap.

The last technical indicators system. I worked with the guy who developed it. His partner (not me) sold out on him for a cool lowest bidder of $5 …

$5 million dollars.

My technical indicators system is not ready for prime time. It's making money …

Listen to me … my technical indicators system is making money!

How much work-per-day will I have to do once this system is up and running? Oh, I estimate 30 minutes per day. And then it makes money for me that day.

That system, when it's ready for prime time, and up and running with a proven audit-trail will be worth no less than $30 million dollars.

But, instead of working on it last night, getting it ready for prime time, I took a nap.

My nap? It only cost me $30,000,015.00 last night.

You have that kind of chump change?

1) give it to me

2) then tell me to take a nap.

I will.