In today's Gospel reading, Jesus tells His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise again.  Peter wishes that no such thing would happen and Jesus rebukes him saying, "Get behind me, Satan!"  While Jesus does not want to suffer, He knows that it must be done for the salvation of the world.  Without realizing it, Peter is tempting Jesus to stray from His most holy path.

We, too, are often tempted from what we know we need to do by friends and family who have the best of intentions.  While we probably shouldn't call them "Satan," we need to recognize when these distractions are keeping us from being the best possible versions of ourselves.  This doesn't mean that we should completely ignore friends and family, or other diversions, just that we should not use them as an excuse to not accomplish that which we know must be done.

As a practiced procrastinator, I know that I struggle with this problem regularly.  Just look at how much writing I've completed this summer (not counting blogs and some minor school-preparation, the total is three paragraphs).  I have had a great summer even if I have little to show for it.  I'm not going to beat myself up over what I haven't done, but I need to put my failings behind me and move forward.

One of the biggest problems that I've encountered with playing Dungeons and Dragons as an adult is scheduling.  Especially when including more than one household, trying to find time to get together is quite a challenge.  Some of my ongoing adventures meet only a couple of times a year (usually during summer break) with gaps between sessions of several months (sometimes nine).  This makes keeping track of what the party has done and plans on doing a bit difficult.

When Google Docs became available, one of my friends created a shared spreadsheet where he could input the experience points and treasure that we earned.  Since it was a spreadsheet, he also made it so it calculated an even share for each character.  He later added in a place for notes on the adventure and even a tab for players to put down something about their character's description.

These "adventure journals" have been a tremendous help as we have gamed through the years.  Recently, we have even used them to share maps, images, notes, etc. rather than have the DM provide copies to everyone.  While it still means passing around computers (or tablets) to those who don't have one, it also makes it so players can access the images from home if they want to give them a closer look.

I have a shared the adventure journal that I created based on my friend's original design.  While I have included a link here, I have also put one on the Home-brewed Rules page of this website.  I hope you find it helpful.

One of my favorite philosophical quotes comes from the movie "Back to the Future."  Marty McFly is continually told by his father, "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything."  When he travels to the past, he tells his high-school age father the same thing, only to have it repeated to him again in his present.

As cliche as the phrase may be, it's one that I truly believe.  I have always supported the idea of the Renaissance Man, a person who attempts to excel at everything, one who is both logical and artistic, reasoning and passionate, cerebral and athletic.  In an age when hyper-specialization has become the way of life, this idea is not always accepted.  I often hear from students that they just aren't good at math (or English, or history, etc.) or that they are just like their parent who can't do math (or English, or history, etc.).

I believe that we are capable of succeeding at nearly everything.  There are some limitations in physical and mental ability, but I'm not talking about being the best in the world at everything.  With training, practice, dedication, and persistence, we humans have a nearly boundless potential.  Most of what stands in our way is our own stubborn refusal to try.

We are an amazing species with a grand destiny ahead of us.  We should not let nay-sayers keep us from doing the "impossible," even if the nay-sayers are ourselves.  

I have been reading a book on the lives of saints, reflecting on them on the days given to them (usually the day of their deaths).  Yesterday's and today's saints both had quotations that inspired something within me.

When I fed the poor, they called me a saint.  When I asked, "Why are they poor?" they called me a communist.
-Hélder Câmara

This idea sums up most of what I think about politics and economics.  People claim that they want to help the poor, but they do not want to examine the system that causes poverty in the first place.  Politicians often manage to put the blame of poverty on the people who are its greatest victims instead of accusing the true sources of unequal wealth distribution.  People who do point out the true cause are labeled as communist, socialist, or revolutionary.

Do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe so that you may understand.
-Augustine of Hippo

I have seen so many good people get this idea backwards.  They want come kind of unequivocal proof before they are willing to believe in God.  I believe that the proof is in every breath we draw, in every atom that composes every piece of our world.  Because people deny what they see around them, how can any evidence persuade them?

While were in the middle of watching a movie, Connor told us that the moon was purple, and that we needed to lock the windows and doors because the "blood moon" meant that the zombies were coming.  He wasn't being serious, but was making a reference to the video game Terraria that has especially hooked Trevor.  Janelle went outside to see what Connor was talking about and, after a minute, asked for me to join her.

We didn't see the "blood moon," but the clouds near the sunset reflected a brilliant crimson.  We were standing on the deck, watching the red sky, and for a moment everything seemed ... right.  I looked around our tiny back yard that now seemed to glow in the way that nature does at twilight.  All of the colors seemed deeper.  I looked back into our house through the back windows and screen door, and the sight was one of comfort and welcoming.

That was the feeling I had at that moment: contentment.  Sure there are things that I would like to change, or add, or even do completely differently, but my life is a good one.  This evening, under the red sky, I recognized that fact.  And while the perfection of the moment was fleeting, and mosquitos ended some of the enchantment, it was a good feeling to have.

I'm sorry, but I love driving my new Prius.  I have come up with excuses to do so.  Part of it is the "new toy" feeling that driving Mera brings.  Part of it is that this is the first car that has really been "mine" from the start.  Part of it is that the Prius is just a nice car.

That said, the Prius is designed to beep continuously inside the cabin when put in reverse.  The idea is that, because the car is so quiet, some drivers might not realize that the car is in reverse when they are trying to put it in drive or think it is in park (although I would think this could be a problem with any car).  The beep is similar to the sound made when large trucks back up; however, unlike them, it cannot be heard outside of the car.

The problem was enough of an irritant that I looked for solutions online.  Until 2010, this was a problem that Prius could fix on their own using a complex set of button-presses (which sounded a great deal like casting a magic spell) in set intervals.  Doing so could turn the beep to a single beep that goes off when the car is first put into reverse, or could turn the beep off entirely.  Unfortunately, beginning with the 2010 model (Mera is a 2014), the only way to fix the issue was to interface with the car's computer directly.  For me, that meant taking it to the dealer.  Online discussions on this topic said that Toyota dealerships should be able to take care of the problem at no charge.

I had to pick up my new plates at the dealership anyway, so I figured that I would have this checked too.  It took a bit of haggling (the first two people didn't know it could even be done and then they wanted to charge a little over $50 for a 1/2 hour of labor), but the person in charge of the service area was willing to switch the beep for free.  

Now, Mera only gives a single beep to remind me that I have set her to reverse.  It is a much better arrangement.  While I don't doubt that Mera and I will have future disagreements, I am glad that this one was able to be resolved with almost no trouble.

There are parts of myself that I don't particularly like.  This is a familiar statement to anyone who has looked in a mirror.  There are parts of my face, my physique, even my movements that I would like to change or improve.  This idea is not, however, merely limited to my physical person, but to certain aspects of my personality and sometimes even the way that I think.

These, for lack of a better term, faults sometimes repulse me, even though they are a part of me.  Some of them last only for a short period of time, like pimples on my personality.  Others, I have not been able to rid despite decades of trying, like the belly fat of my behavior.  

We are often told that we need to learn to better accept our imperfections, that our individual traits are what make us unique and special among the vast numbers of humans on Earth.  We are told that to hate a piece of ourselves is to hate ourselves.  Yet we are also told to work towards improving ourselves.

It is such a delicate balance.  I need to recognize the importance of accepting myself, warts and all, while still striving to rid myself of said warts.  Can I better myself without loathing the parts I am trying to fix?  I certainly want to try.

Today's Gospel places Peter in the preeminent role of the Church that Jesus establishes.  Peter is the first of the disciples to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, and for this is rewarded with a tremendous responsibility.  Jesus gives Peter the keys to the Gates of Heaven, an awe-inspiring role if there ever was one.  

This is one of the cruxes of being a Christian: our reward for faithfulness is often more work and responsibility.  There are rules to follow, ideals to achieve, and examples to be set.  Being human, we will fall short from time to time, often to the derision of others.  Yet we need to keep in mind that God knows this.  Jesus handed Peter the keys to Heaven, but yet Peter's faith couldn't keep him above water.  Jesus knew that this same man who proclaimed Him as the Messiah would also disavow any knowledge of Him in His darkest hour.  Yet He still entrusts such a heavy responsibility of him.

While we hope to understand why God does what He does, we need to remember that we cannot see all that He sees, let alone all that He knows.  Today's homily compared God to a parent and us to a child needing surgery.  The child does not understand the suffering of the moment, but the parent (who is also agonizing over the pain and discomfort of the child) knows that the surgery must be done to save the child's life.  God wants to save all of us.  He feels anguish at our sufferings, but promises a greater reward.

I'll keep this simple.  This is Cast-Away on a distant planet.  Explorers in our future come across the long-lost wreck of one of our first deep-space missions.  As the main historian pieces together what happened to the stranded astronaut, the readers get to see through the eyes of the stranded person as the explorer left behind "letters" written to some future rescuer.  The two stories intertwine as the physical isolation of the ship-wrecked person reflects the historian's own social isolation.

So much of how well our days go depend upon how we start them.  For some people, that means starting with the right kind of breakfast; for others, that means having a fresh cup of coffee; for me, it means having my clothes picked out the night before.

More so than any other steps that I take in my morning preparations, picking out clothes in advance saves me the most amount of time and frustration.  For reasons I do not fully understand, trying to pick out clothes in the hour or so after I have woken up is an exercise of frustration.

Part of the problem is the lack of light in the morning.  On most days during the school year, I am the first person awake in my house.  I have to move around in the morning using a little light as I can to keep my wife from fully waking.  Trying to pick out clothes in the dark is at the least frustrating and can sometimes even lead to some rather embarrassing choices.

However, even on days when I have slept in, and the morning light is shining, I still have difficulties when I haven't chosen clothes in advance.  Some of that might have to do with how slowly my tired mind works.  Perhaps it has to deal with being under a time constraint.

Whatever the reason, if I don't take steps to prepare my choice of outfit the night before, my morning just does not move as smoothly.  Actually, I find that front-loading tasks usually works better for me than attempting them at the last moment.  There's probably a lesson to be learned here, but I'm actively choosing to ignore it for the time being.

A month or so ago, the tiny screw that holds my left lens fell out of my glasses as I followed my father into Best Buy while killing time waiting for Qdoba to finish making our order.  I only noticed when the left lens suddenly popped out of my frames and into my hands that had reacted with a speed I didn't think I still had.  For several minutes, we searched in vain for the missing screw in the massive rubber mats that lay in between the two sets of entrance doors.  I spent the rest of the trip with my frame, still holding the right lens, and my left lens both resting in my shirt pocket.

I often forget how bad my vision truly is.  I don't notice a problem when I wake up and walk around the house before I put my glasses on.  I don't suddenly feel as though I have gone from blind to full-sighted the moment I don my glasses.  Yet, in this situation where my sight was suddenly taken from me away from the comfort of my home, I felt strange and helpless.

I think my eyesight is slipping a bit once again.  However, the last time I thought this, the eye doctor told me that the difference was minimal to the point that I wouldn't notice a difference with new glasses.  Granted, that was a few years ago.  I know I should go to the eye doctor a bit more frequently, but I hate having drops put in my eye (although less than I hate the puff of air that they used to use).

All in all, I am grateful for my glasses and often take them for granted.  I usually only feel inconvenienced by them when I want to put on sunglasses.  However, I recently found a nice set of Cocoon sunglasses that can go over the top of my prescription frames.  They seem to have nice reviews, but we don't have the $50 right now to shell out for something that I wouldn't use that often.

I do wish that the big lens fashion would come back.  I generally like how my frames look, but they do give a more limited field of vision than I would like, especially when reading music while trying to watch the choir director.  Ah well, the sacrifices we make in the name of fashion ... 

A few weeks ago, I managed to smash the big toe on my left foot under our rocking chair.  My foot must have been under the chair when I was using the chair as a support to move around it.  I slipped and put a good deal of my weight on the chair, and thus on the toe.  It throbbed and hurt quite a bit at the time, but I've stubbed my toe before and I didn't think much of it.

About half an hour later, I noticed that my sock had a blood spot forming above the toe.  Carefully removing the sock, I discovered that the toe was still quite tender.  It was bleeding out from under the nail; a large portion of the nail was black and blue.

The next day, puss started to seep out from under the nail.  I trimmed the top edge, used anti-bacterial cream, and put a band-aid large enough to cover it on top.  While it was still tender to walk on, the toe's condition seemed to improve from there.

About a week ago, the nail started separating from the toe.  The left side and the bottom were still fully connected, but the top, most of the middle, and the right edge now had a bit of space away from the toe.  A super thin nail-like coating had formed underneath it.

Today, the nail managed to get some dirt and sock fluff underneath it, forcing me to cut away most of the separated nail.  My big toe now only has a bit of nail at the bottom and on the far left.  It makes for a strange sensation and an ugly-looking toe.

Thankfully, I've had the experience of losing a toenail before, so I'm reasonably confident that it will grow back in a few months.  I just to need to be more careful around rocking chairs.

I've been playing Starcraft games for almost sixteen years.  I don't know what it is about the game or its story, but both keep me interested and entertained no matter how many times I play through the games.  I've played through the campaigns multiple times, completing them on the highest level and finishing all of the additional awards in the Starcraft II game.

I had liked Warcraft II quite a bit before I was introduced to Starcraft, but once I started playing the latter, the former never really got attention from me again.  There's something about the concept that grabs my imagination, and the gameplay is balanced enough that I enjoy each time I play.  Well, almost every time ...

It was my brother who introduced me to the multiplayer aspect of the game.  I quickly found that while I was able to do very well at his LAN parties, playing on the wide open  Internet was much more problematic.   As I have gotten older, my reaction times have not kept up with the required curve, and I have not dedicated time to practice an hone my skills as my time is pretty limited as is.

Now, playing Starcraft II multiplayer is one of the main ways that I spend time with my brother (who lives a time-zone away).  Much of the time, I enjoy building a strategy with him and facing off against opponents who are more devious than the game's A.I.  Sometimes, however, it's just frustration.

Last night, I had to put up with a couple of harassing players.  I was already on a losing streak, but this just rubbed salt in the wound.  In the second case, we even won, but a member of the losing team made it a point to tell everyone how terrible of a player I was.  I know that it was just the taunting of an immature mind, but it stung nonetheless.  It turns out that he was "griefing" the game anyway.  I am only ranked at silver (which is only one rank up from bronze, the lowest category, where I usually sit).  He had a master ranking (4 ranks higher) but was playing as "unranked" so he could harass lesser players (such as myself).

The problem is that I revert to my lizard brain when I get that frustrated.  I start yelling and cursing at the game.  I yell at my kids if they're in the room.  I pretty much turn into a monster version of myself.  A part of me wants to quit playing the game entirely as I don't like that side of me, but another part says that I need to keep playing so that I continue my quest to learn how to lose more graciously.

I will keep playing.  There is still the third part of the story that needs to come out, and I like getting to spend time with my brother, even if it is virtually.  Perhaps I need to tape a note to my monitor saying "Deep breaths; it's just a game."  One way or the other, I shouldn't let moronic minds determine my own emotions, or make me stop playing a game that I love.

Yesterday, a friend of mine was explaining how he needed to change one of the questions on the opening survey he gives to students for statistical purposes.  The question was "How many of the Lord of the Rings movies have you seen?"  This summer, for the first time, not a single student in his classes answered "All three".  He asked me if I remembered watching Happy Days as a kid, and if I thought then that the 1950s seemed like they were so long ago.  He then pointed out that the 1950s were closer in time to us when we were watching Happy Days than we are now to when we were children.  Time seems to be moving so quickly now.

This made me think about some other issues of time that make me feel old.  Trevor was born the year before the 9/11 attacks and he's now in the eighth grade.  I have now lived more of my life being married than not, and more of my life being a father than not.  None of my children have lived in a world without the World Wide Web.  I have had my Yahoo email account for nearly half of my life.  Connor and Rowen have always lived in our current house.  Rowen never rode in our Green Silhouette.  Should my daughters have children, those children will probably be closer in age to Rowen than Rowen is to them.

There are some positives to this.  I get to watch Star Trek the Next Generation about every six years.  We're doing so right now since Trevor doesn't really remember seeing them and he's now the age I was when I first watched them.  Considering how little Connor and Rowen stay in the room, we will probably be doing this again.  I will get to do the same with other shows and movies that I love.

It's no wonder that so many of my "pop" references seem to go over my students' heads.  Even video game references which I used to think of as recent (e.g. "The cake is a lie" or "Would you kindly") are met now with a completely blank stare.  It's amazing how fast time has gone by.