photocredit: flickr/aaabbbccc8d

I’m torn on this issue. The first amendment freedom of assembly is extremely important. We, as citizenry, have the right to protest peacefully and that is an absolute cornerstone of the American democratic process.

But, I’m a pragmatist. A protest designed to be indefinite, seeking vague goal (“end corporate greed”) with an unclear reason to protest at City Hall seems silly to me. After reading their own brochure, I don’t understand what, specifically, they’re trying to protest.

I watched part of the eviction by way of OccupyAustin’s livestream team. One women, very upset, was decrying being evicted from “the home they have known for four months.” I’m not part of the 1%. Hell, I’m not in the top 50%. That plaza is my city hall too. It is as much “my home” as your home. This group has monopolized a very visible public plaza for four months. I care about the abortion issue. Could I have organized a protest at City Hall to attempt to impact decisions within the competency of the City around the anniversary of Roe v Wade?

I care about transportation issues. Could I have staged a “bike-in” at City Hall during that time? I care about electricity rates being fair for both Austin Energy and consumers, especially those struggling already. Could I have staged something at City Hall during this time, as Austin Energy (owned by the City), is debating rate increases?

Many will say yes, but it would either be mixed in with Occupy or, by virtue of the limitation of space, be smaller than it could have been. These are issues that the City not only can take action on but is the entity to take action.

Should the City have ordered their removal? I don’t know 1st Amendment law enough to begin to answer that question. I don’t know how absolute Freedom of Assembly is within our legal precedents. Can a protest use a public space permanently? Do I have a legitimate claim that they are restricting my ability to (effectively) protest by hogging City Hall?

What do you think? Leave a comment!

If you know me personally, you know there is much physical chaos to my environments. I like the idea of organization, but I miss the boat when it is time to execute. Being married to Vanessa has helped with execution, but I still need to take a timeout once a week when I realize that my desk became a mental distraction.

photocredit: flickr/CarbonNYC

Olivia is putting away her toys and books each night more and more often, but not yet every night. When I put them away, I become very anal. The train cars must be “parked” in the parking spaces on the city playmat. Each toy veggie must be reassembled and go back to the grocery bag to which they belong. This bin is for wooden building blocks. This one is for the plastic blocks. The boxes slide onto the shelves like this, not like that. Until very recently, each night, I would reassemble and correctly order this alphabet puzzle that has a letter on one puzzle piece and a picture of an item of that letter on another.

Within five minutes of either of the girls being set on the playmat in the morning when making breakfast, the chaos has returned and any semblance of order has been eliminated.

The girls will eventually not pull out every toy for the sake of doing so and they’ll eventually understand the desire for organization and order, but Daddy needs it now.

When Olivia puts away the toys, she can do it anyway she sees fit. When I actively help her, I guide her toward my organization, but am not ruthless about it. As long as some sense of order is achieved, we met the objective.

Being home all day, chaos is the primary state. After breakfast, the floor under the dining room table always magically has attracted crumbs, if not larger pieces of food. The changing area always seem to have a wild sock or wipe that Catalina pulled out of the box lying about. The bookshelves always seemingly reject half of the books and forcefully removed them. But, for a few short hours, we reached perfection.

We can’t micromanage our families. Our desire for organization and order, on some level, will have to be flexible and adaptable. The girls would revolt if I tried to get them to fit into my little mental boxes at every moment. But, there will be those mornings that they awake to find every toy put back into an exact place in an exact position.

photocredit: flickr/brunogirin

WP Engine made me an offer to try them out and I’ve heard too many good things to not explore an Austin company dedicated to hosting sites built upon the same content management system that I primarily work with now.

Touchy-Feely Stuff

I made the switch to WordPress in late 2010 from Moveable Type. I should have made the switch years before, but hindsight is 20/20. A major reason for the move is the WordPress community. It is huge! MT’s community seemed to dwindle down to just a handful. With the WordPress community, if you need peer support, a plugin to do something, a theme that looks somewhat like you already want it, there’s a very high chance someone out there has already experienced the same need and either wrote about how to fix it, or wrote a plugin to automagically do it.

WP Engine is neck-deep in the WordPress community. I’ve read on their blog that they’re going to WordCamps (little conferences across the country/world for WordPress folks, mostly, in that community) across the map. They fully sponsored WordUp Austin, an advanced-level WordPress developer gathering. They are building a dashboard for people, like me, who either own or administer multiple WordPress installs to allow easy access to all of them.

Giving back to the community is a strong selling point to me. No web developer would be in business if they weren’t standing on the shoulders of those who went before them and freely offered their work to the public. If all those before us sold everything under licenses or kept proprietary within a company, the web would be much more sad.

Features

This isn’t fully inclusive. Check out their website to see more about what they offer. They offer managed WordPress hosting. Daily backups are automatically created, in addition to being able to set “restore points” (think Mac’s Time Machine or Window’s System Restore) so you can very quickly “undo” a massive change that goes all to hell, which shouldn’t happen with their staging server.

For my non-geeky friends that made it this far (bless you), when you make changes to your website, it is always recommended to try those changes out on a second version of your website that isn’t facing the public. Before, for me, it would mean either transferring my blog to a WordPress install running off my home computer for design changes or another install on my server for technical changes. While a good idea, the work of setting that up always seemed worse than the glitches that might occur or the damage if my site was offline for 20 minutes to fix something. Client sites are different, but for me and my blog, 20 minutes isn’t the end of the world.

WP Engine, though, allows me to create a second “staging” version of my website with one click that is an exact replica of my site. I can throw anything at the staging site. If I like it, I can merge the edits back or if I screw it all up, one click to recreate the staged version.

Awesome.

What makes WP Engine different than a traditional non-WP-engineered hosting provider is how they’ve built their internal network to support WordPress. The old server had the static files (images, etc), the database containing the content and the WordPress software that puts everything together all on one single machine. If I had a traffic spike, that one machine is taking the entire impact. One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard about WordPress from those not using it is, if you get too popular, your website will buckle under the pressure.

WP Engine has their clients covered. Without diving too much into the geeky stuff, they’re distributed the various aspects of your WordPress site over multiple servers with the ability to easily add more to assist if your website gets popular. If you’re ever went to a site off of Lifehacker, Drudge, TechCrunch, etc and it failed to load, they’re on a hosting provider that didn’t allow them to scale up to meet a quick, seemingly random, and massive increase in traffic.

Included with all services, they offer a content distribution network (CDN). I had one setup on Nexcess that I built using Amazon’s CDN CloudFront system, but had to pay extra for the usage. Avoiding the geeky stuff again, a CDN put the static, unchanging parts of your website on servers throughout the world. Since images are typically changed very rarely and are some of the largest files related to your website, it helps speed quite a bit if a visitor from Europe can get the images from a server in England instead of waiting for the image to cross the pond from Texas.

Their customer service, so far, appears to be top-notch. I have yet to have any critical issues, so I haven’t tested them in a crunch. When activating the CDN when I was ready to go live, they noticed an issue. They opened a ticket and had an engineer working on it before I realized the issue existed.

When grilling them about hosting my site, I spoke with Trafton, their developer champion, on the phone, for nearly an hour throwing every question I thought of his way. He was happy to share their philosophical approaches, their technical approaches, their upcoming and secret features and more.

Whatever, I don’t care… just tell me about site performance

First, with managed hosting, they strive to take care of you. I had a script on my server that was outdated. It was for a plugin I’m not currently using, so I hadn’t reviewed it for a security concern announced to the WP community. Their servers automatically found and patched the defected script. While that action didn’t speed up the site, it make it harder for a hacker to break in and either screw up or take down my site.

Speed.

WP Engine is really excited about speed. I mean, their name is Engine, which produces speed. I ran every variation of speed test possible, mostly through webpagetest.org, looking at total load time. In 48 of 50 tests, WP Engine was faster. In the two that were slowed, it appeared to be due to offsite objects (an ad, a script being pulled from Google, etc) that were being delivered slower than the other tests.

I geeked out with my old social stats textbook to crunch some of the data while running three variations of the test: previous host without a caching plugin, previous host with a caching plugin and WP Engine, which doesn’t allow caching plugins since they handle it themselves already. For the sake of comparison, I used only one connection speed for the summary results, which are typical across the board.

• Without a caching plugin on the previous server, my site is downright slow, by my standards. Approximately, 7s for complete load on the first visit.
• With W3 Total Cache on the previous server, my site is significantly faster at approximately 4.90s for a complete load on the first visit.
• With WP Engine, the site is slightly faster at approximately 4.5s for a complete load on the first visit.

Without question, either use W3 Total Cache or host with WP Engine. But check out the comparison on the return visit. This test assumes a user has visited your website, fully quit their browser, opened their browser and visited your website. It is meant to simulate a return visit after a prolonged absence.

• W3 Total Cache actually took longer, approximately 4.95s for a complete load.
• WP Engine served it up at an incredible 1.8s for a complete load.
  

Without WP Engine, my returning visitors, whom I love so dearly, would have waited 275% longer for my site to load.

The Negative

The only major negative, which is positive too, I’ve found is that they only handle WordPress. If you have other apps running on your site—a Gallery photo sharing site or your e-mail still hosted on your server—they cannot be your only host provider. On the positive, it means they direct all of their energy toward making WP awesome. On the negative, you might not be ready to cut the cord on your previous host.

Summary

If your web presence is built on WordPress, WP Engine is a fantastic hosting provider. They have absolutely defined the niche of the market they wish to dominate and their driven to give you the absolute best hosting experience for your WordPress-powered site. While not the least expensive provider on the market (plans start at $29/mo), they will deliver results that will far, far outmatch anything the screwball host providers can give you.

I strongly recommend checking WP Engine out for your needs. Tell Trafton I said hello.

My wife and I are fundamentally different. My idea of “on-time” is arriving 10 minutes before needing to be somewhere and being able to take my time to get into position, ready to go when I’m supposed to be there. In college, I was the guy that would rather skip class than walk in after the professor started the lecture.

My wife’s idea of “on-time” is arriving 20 minutes or less after the event starts.

Add to the mix Austin traffic and that I-35 from Airport to Oltorf is our most direct route to most of the places we go (work, church). Hello marriage counseling!

Continue Reading…

During a conversation concerning having both girls cry it out at night
Vanessa: There will be yelling in the House of Kraft tonight.

Sleep has been a constant struggle with Olivia. We were those parents that simply couldn’t understand how any type of “cry it out” method was humane. She was just 8 pounds of joy…how could we just let her cry? Her first three months of life, she would not sleep without being held and we were too wimpy to let her cry herself to sleep ever.

We were zombies for a long time.

photocredit: flickr/xlibber

While it had overall improved for both girls, they took a few steps back recently. Catalina shouldn’t still eat at night. Olivia went from not waking up most nights to waking up more times than I have fingers. We would rock her for a minute and put her back down. When she occasionally woke up once a night, that was fine. When it is 10 times, it is just stupid. 

We’re back to tough love. Both girls. We added a digital clock to Olivia’s room so she see the time. From the time she’s asleep until 6:30 a.m., she’s on her own. We remind her that we’re just next door and everything is okay, but she is a “big toddler” and can go back to sleep without mommy or daddy. Catalina doesn’t understand it, but she’s in the same boat. Catalina has always slept better, so the adjustment isn’t as drastic.

Last night, it took her 10 minutes to realize she needed to put herself back to sleep and she was fine. Olivia is a little more stubborn.

The downside is that I don’t know how to go back to sleep myself when Olivia is crying her little heart out, so none of us are getting our now-expected levels of sleep. Thus far, it was only resulted in one complete foul-up of a day. Just do me the favor of not asking how last night’s dinner turned out the first time I tried to make it. Much appreciated.

No leadership concept or realization about being a dad out of this post. Just a little story time.

<satire type=”political judicial”>

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor appeared as a guest star on an episode during the current, 42nd season of Sesame Street. I’m not a follower of Supreme Court activities, but if she is portraying to America’s true her true views, I am in shock!

photocredit: flickr//donkeyhotey

While Justice Sotomayor was having coffee with her friend, Maria, when Baby Bear interrupts with a civil complaint. Goldilocks, allegedly, had entered his home uninvited and damaged a chair. Neither the plaintiff nor the defendant give Justice Sotomayor information concerning any criminal charges levied and the judge did not seek additional information, as this appears to be a prima facie criminal offense.

Goldilocks defense included self-testimony that damaging the chair was an accident. No explanation of why she was in the plaintiff’s home uninvited.

To me, as the untrained legal mind that I am, equipped with one semester of constitutional law as applied in an educational setting from freshman year of college and a semester of a law review in 8th grade, this is clear that Goldilocks is at fault for the damage from a civil standpoint, as well as criminally liable for her trespass and subsequent damage of Baby Bear’s property. Financial retribution to the plaintiff and, using her confession, either probation or jail time as part of a criminal procedure, appears to be in order.

How do we expect the 8th highest-ranking judge in the United States to rule on this case? Would she use this as an opportunity to turn Goldilocks’s life around as it appears this could be a beginning of a petty crime career that could lead to much worse?

No. Not at all.

The judge ruled the only retribution required of Goldilocks would be to assist in fixing the chair. With glue! The chair was split in half! There is no way to repair that type of damage to bring the chair to its original condition.

There is more. If you’re standing, sit down. Put down your coffee. Cover the eyes and ears of the young. The Justice then orders as part of the settlement that Baby Bear forgives Goldilocks. Not only does she only wag a finger at Goldilocks, she required the injured party to forgive the unwarranted and unexplained criminal action of a burglar!

With Sotomayor on the bench, kids won’t be singing “How do you get to Sesame Street?” It will be the throngs leaving Riker’s Island.

In other news, Sesame Workshop announced the 43rd season will be filmed in conjunction with the 25th season of COPS.

</satire>

photocredit: flickr/mike_miley

But, I, um, on occasion, would exaggerate. Brady and I doing a trick with our hats on the field during the last game our senior year would turn into:

You should have seen it, honey. Our senior year. Last game of the season. The entire drumline was in on this awesome gig. We soaked the ends of our mallets and sticks in kerosene the night before the game. During the last song, we lit the sticks and had this awesome flaming stick routine. We were throwing sticks between each other during rests, spinning them. It was incredible. I don’t know if Andrew’s eyebrow ever grew back.

Alright, the exaggeration was never that bad, but I talked a good game about my percussion skills. As far as my wife knows (until she reads this post), I might well have been the best drummer living in Wichita Falls between 1996 and 2002.

The truth is I was good. I loved marching season, choose/assigned an instrument freshman year, loved it and purposely stayed on the same one (largest bass drum—bigger the better and heavier than a cow). No desire to move up to snare, quints or quads. Happy seeing myself as the de facto leader of the bass line. I was in band for marching season. I never actually tried to learn the audition music for varsity concert band, so I was that senior in JV band with a bunch of freshman and sophomores. Happy to be there. Had fun.

In short, I knew my part and knew it extremely well. But, I never had a great diversity of experience or pushed myself to be well-rounded percussively. My wife, though, had nothing else to go on besides my Al-from-Married-with-Children-style glory day talk.

Her school started a drumline this year. The performers, mostly, were new to drums. Good kids who just need time with a good instructor.

Wednesday, Vanessa comes home. “Oh, I almost forgot. You’re going to lead the drumline’s practice tomorrow.”

I did express interest in helping when the line formed, but I know I don’t have the knowledge nor the recent playing experience (null in nine years) to be the guy with the big baton.

Thankfully, Christian, a good friend, offered to help (at nearly 9 p.m. the night before!) and he’s much more knowledgeable than me. He functioned as the director while I took on the assistant’s chair. He’d lead most of the session and, when he needed to work with on something with a specific members, I kept the rest busy.

It worked out great and, both Christian and I had a great time. The kids appeared to enjoy and respond to us. We gave them permission to drum on everything everywhere as long as they didn’t annoy parents or their teachers and kept it still during Mass. I taught them half of the Waco cadence. Good day.

The take-away is clear: the seemingly impossible task will always fall to you. Leaders, in corporates, organizations or at home, plow through and figure it out. Especially as a parent, you’ll find yourselves in situations you never foresaw with a reaction required immediately. When we discovered, the hard way, Olivia’s allergy to milk, we had to act and not panic. Even when the nurse is giving you instructions on what to tell the 911 operator if she starts doing X, Y, or Z before you travel across town through 5 p.m. Friday traffic to Dell Children’s ER, don’t panic, just make it happen. Or that time that Olivia got sick and you had to… um, not all stories are Internet-friendly.

The other take-away, of course, is not to give your wife the impression that amazingly incredibly awesome at something if you’re only just awesome.

The level doesn’t matter. I’ve learned this lesson to be true in every leadership position I’ve held. Every one, from president of a fraternity and a leader in other student organizations, to a leader in the Knights of Columbus, to a leader in numerous church organizations, to a manager overseeing employees, to a father and husband:

Showing respect to those your serve is not charity. Showing respect is a duty.

photocredit: flickr/runran

With the spat with Sen. John Cornyn, his disrespect for a higher office, the Presidency of the United States, is serious issue, but the lack of respect toward a constituent, a person he serves, was more telling of this lesson of leadership. As a leader, sometimes you’re the first among equals—anyone in the room could switch out positions with you without the wheels coming off the axles. Sometimes, you are the leader because your skillset, your knowledge, your abilities are deemed better equipped for the time. Sometimes, you are the leader because you simply are smarter, stronger and have greater ability than anyone else.

In all cases, respect is the cornerstone of an effective leadership platform.

My two-year old provides the perfect test subject for this theory of leadership. I am her leader because I am smarter, stronger and all around better at all things. As her father when she is a toddler, in no area, in which I can defer to her decision. She can have her opinions, but feeding her nothing but cookies in a day, I can never allow.

On my bad days, coffee didn’t kick in (or heaven forbid, run out), both girls protested the peace of sleep all night, they don’t want anything healthy for breakfast, I have my moments of losing it, without true need:

“OLIVIA! STOP! DO THIS RIGHT NOW!”

Her reaction is almost universally the same.

“NOOO!” and breaks down crying. Or her yelling back while trying to hit me.

On most days, I can converse with her to get a resolution. “Olivia, I understand you don’t want oatmeal right now. It’s really good for you though. How about you have just a little bit?” or “Olivia, I hear you, but you have to eat. You can either eat oatmeal with blueberries, or oatmeal with raspberries. Which do you want?” or, what I’ve used as a life-saver when trying to get her sleep on a bad night. “Alright Olivia, do you want two blankets or one blanket?”

Almost always, she responds positively. She gets to make a choice and have some say in the process, which she enjoys, while I get to impose the way which I know is right for her. Win-win.

What struck me about Sen. Cornyn’s attitude toward me is that he sounded like me when I lose it. A quick, snappy response that only results in the other person getting upset while losing their support. Of course, my initial reaction was quick and snappy too, but part of being a leader is to be above when those you serve express themselves in less than ideal ways.

The at-home example: Sometimes, Olivia just gets upset and frustrated. I come over to her and she recoils and is just mad. If I responded to her the same way, I’d alienate her and not begin to understand—much less solve—her original issue.

If I calmly attempted to listen through the tears or the “I don’t like you!” or whatnot, I can usually discover the root of the issue—a toy that she can’t get to work or Catalina constantly trying to steal every thing Olivia has in her hands.

The same is true for all levels. When a member of the fraternity was upset, or a member of the church community was frustrated, in the vast majority of cases, a calm, listening leader is all that was needed. Through the conversation, I understood them better and they understood the position. Sometimes, they were able to convince me that the leadership needed to change, sometimes not. But in both cases, we walked away with a better understanding.

True listening can only happen when respect exists.

Leadership is a privilege. We are all called to some form of leadership: in our homes, workplaces and the civic and church communities. However, positions of leadership are something to be earned and carry a great responsibility.

The present reality in our political system amazes me. If we believe the media and the pundits, “the American people” each fall into a distinct category. We are either liberal or conservative. We are either Democrat or Republican, except for those crazy third-party people to whom no one pays attention.

Our politicians should know better. I know many self-identified Republicans who disagree with the Republican Party on certain platform policies. I know plenty of self-identified Democrats who disagree with their party.

Our politicians, by virtue of representing us before the nation and the world, should strive to be above the mud. I’ll grant that their campaigns are waged by underlings, but the politicians themselves should strive to be the model of decorum and respectful, productive disagreement.

Before I show the example that got me fired up last week, this is not a single-party issue. Both sides have this problem. While I’m about to call out a Republican, I could just as easily done it with a Democrat.

The Honorable John Cornyn, U.S. Senator from Texas, is an outspoken critic of President Obama. His right to be, and truthfully, his duty when he believes his constituents would not be well-served by a policy of the President.

He tweeted this on January 19th:

POTUS in Disneyland today. Not much new here.

January 19, 2012 8:15 am via Twitterrific for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@JohnCornyn

JohnCornyn

For background, he wasn’t there on vacation. He delivered a 13-minute speech on boosting travel and tourism.

Sen. Cornyn mixing up Disneyland and Disney World is quite forgivable. The Senator implying that our president lives in a fantasy land is not. It isn’t helpful. Rhetoric like this, from our country’s leaders, doesn’t serve any purpose. If Sen. Cornyn said that the President’s tourism ideas are wrong or misguided, that’s fine. An empty dismissal of the President is incredibly disrespectful to him and his office.

My dad served in the Air Force for 21 years. He worked in civil service for the DoD for another 15, working until two days before he died. My father’s entire professional life was dedicated to this country. Of the things that he taught me, which were crystal clear, is you never disrespect the Office of the President or the current occupant.

It didn’t matter if you voted for him, liked him, hated him. You respect the President. Disagree with him, but do it respectfully.

I didn’t get the memo regarding senators. I flipped when I read that my senator, one of 100 that lead the upper, more dignified chamber of the U.S. Congress, bashed the President as such. Out of respect for him, I sent him, via Twitter’s direct messaging function (thus private, not public), a few of my thoughts. I admit, I was a bit of a hothead:

Yeah, okay, pulling the plank out of my own eye. I wasn’t very respectful. Honestly, I didn’t think he would read them. I figured a PR staffer handled his social media, dismiss them and call it a day. Something akin to writing an upset letter to a company. I was wrong. The senator replied back on Sunday.

Holy! The United States Senator who, along with Sen. KBH, represents me and 25,145,560 other Texans, replied back personally to me? On a Sunday morning? Whoa. +1 to Sen. Cornyn for having personal dialogue with his constituents. I don’t expect my mayor, much less my senator, to read constituent letters, much less hotheaded rants from them.

But, what did he say to me? That I’m bothered by disagreement and free speech? Wait, what? He just told one of his constituents who was upset that he was being disrespectful that I have a problem with disagreement and free speech? There is an absolute difference.

My freedom of speech gives me the right to say “Senator John Cornyn is a jerk who, I believe, hates puppies.” But, I wouldn’t say that. Not publicly outside my close circle of friends, at least.

Disagreement would mean: “I disagree with Senator John Cornyn’s policies on Tweeting. It is the wrong approach for a Senator.” Disagreement isn’t “The senator lives on fantasy island and hates puppies.”

My response:

(These were sent Sunday. I sent him another message informing him that I’d be writing about this on here. As of 6:55 a.m.  Tuesday, no response).

Without a doubt, I could have handled my initial reaction better. But he is a UNITED STATES SENATOR. People stand when he walks in a room. If he visited a foreign country, he would get a diplomatic passport for the trip. I don’t represent him—he represents me. We pay him $174,000+ a year to lead.

I’m not a Democrat or a Republican.  I’ve voted for candidates on both sides of the aisle. I want government to work.

As a country, we need politicians who are better than this. Both sides of the aisle. Both elected branches.

Proverbs: “Reconstructed” (Gus Dallas, WestBow Press) is an incredible effort by the author to reorganize the Book of Proverbsinto topical categories for easy reference. I enjoy the wisdom in Proverbs and I greatly appreciate the author’s effort to make this book more usable.

Proverbs: Reconstructed by Gus Dallas (WestBow Press)

The book breaks down Proverbs into virtually every possible category—both reasonable (fatherhood, wisdom, justice) and confusing (ant, apple, bear, dog)—and defines each category as “Good” or “Bad”, or divides the proverbs on a topic into each definition, as needed.

It is handy to be able to save time, pick up this book and quickly find a few words of wisdom from this ancient text. I prefer a different translation, but as a quick reference, it’s great. The book is fairly-priced just below $10 for both the paperback and Kindle versions.

I cannot tell from the book itself (and I’m not going to take the time to verify myself) if it contains all of Proverbs, or leaves out any that do not fall into a particular category. There are plenty of categories that have only one or two verses within them, so I assume it is fully inclusive. Nevertheless, an assumption.

Despite some critiques, I recommend this book. In leadership—whether inside or outside the home—sometimes we need just a little inspiration at a moment’s notice. The ancient texts of the Book of Proverbs is perfect for a moment’s reflection and now, thanks to the author of Proverbs: Reconstructed, we have an easy way to access it when we only have a moment.

Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for a review. I was not required to give a positive review. Links to the book in this review are affiliate links. This review is fully my opinion and not a paid advertisement.

At about 10 a.m.
Olivia: How about crackers? (asking for some crackers)
Me: Okay, I’ll give you crackers now, but then no more for the rest of the day.
Olivia: No deal.

This was after Olivia doing something silly.
Me: You’re being a goosey-goose!
Olivia: Don’t call me that! Call me mija! (Spanish slang for my daughter)
Me: Okay, Mija, I’ll call you that, but you’re still a goosey-goose.
Olivia: I’m not a goosey-goose! I’m my own monkey! I eat bananas!

Me: [Telling Olivia she shouldn't do whatever she was doing that she had been told not to before.]
Olivia: (Fighting Tears) Don’t say that! Just stop!

For those wondering, Catalina isn’t talking yet. She’s trying. Hard. She has a solid “Dadadada” and some sign language, but nothing that would translate well to QOTW.

If you haven’t seen it, Jeffery Bethke, a 22-year old poet/performer, released a now-viral YouTube video about how he hates religion, but loves Jesus. Most folks in my Catholic circles are knocking it; to a degree, rightly so, as it jumps to some conclusions and seem to imply more than it should.

But, I really like it.

First, if you haven’t seen it. Watch it:

Yes, there are glaring issues with it. Jesus didn’t come to abolish religion; he says exactly that in Matthew 5:17. Much of what he says could be accurate. Wars, degrading people by judging their sins harshly (i.e. Scarlet Letter) , preaching poverty and serving the poor while purchasing expensive cars and other goods (Google “pastor embezzlement“), etc does happen and much of it occurs under the cloak of religion.

Religion has been abused for thousands of years by people trying to gain power, wealth, prestige. Religion has given beautiful holy texts to the world that have been twisted by people trying to convince others that they must listen to them. Religion has, at times, ignored Jesus Christ.

But not all religion. Not all religious people. Not by a long shot. This is the prime example of a bad apple leading people to throw out the whole bushel. Religion, though, has preserved the message of Jesus Christ for thousands of years.

I’ll give Jeff, the poet, this: he thinks this too.

In digging around, trying to understand this gentlemen a little more, I found a post-viral interview with him at ChurchLeaders.com. He basically admits that he didn’t mean religion, not in the way the vast majority of the world means it. His church, wrongly I say, uses “religion” as “synonymous with hypocrisy, legalism, self-righteousness, and self-justification”.

Take that in account, find/replace his usage of religion in his poem, and I think most critics would change their opinion. Even some of the seemingly obvious digs at Catholicism (nice buildings but not helping the poor) make more sense if you think of it as hypocritical Christians who really do put serving the poor far far below the physical building. The Church has done both really well—create beautiful buildings dedicated to God while supporting the poor.

He has the right heart and the right idea. He just had the wrong word. (Leadership lesson: Make sure your audience understands the message. A grabbing headline is one thing, but to use a common word by an uncommon undefined definition isn’t helpful.) You can’t take his poem at face value and, regretfully, most of his 12M+ viewers have taken it as such.

One Catholic response, made in the same style by Make A Friar, that I enjoyed:

While stereotyping isn’t what it was years ago, there is still the expectation that women can stay home with the kids if she chooses to, but men don’t. There is a massive shift of your self-image in a change like this. “What do you do for a living?” is one of the first question someone asks when you meet for the first time and one that others use to figure out an image of you in their minds.

What do they think of me? Do they think I’m a guy who couldn’t bring home the bacon? Do they think I wear a frilly apron all day? Am I just a lazy bum (although, if you’ve been/are a stay-at-home parent, you know that couldn’t be the case)? What would Det. John Kimble think?

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop (photocredit: Imagine Entertainment)

Related, I have to qualify my stay-at-home status to myself. In reading a couple of books about stay-at-home dads and reading stories of stay-at-home dads, many find their ways to this role after being laid off. I find myself defensive that I was not laid off. I left my job in order to stay-at-home and to allow Vanessa to pursue her career.

This self-image ego thing has to go. Vanessa and I decided that unless there is no other way possible, one of us would be home with the kids. Not every family can do that (not every family wants to do that either!). I shouldn’t be so negatively self-conscience about us making a decision about the structure of our household and actually executing it. How many people dream of something, but don’t make it happen? While working and V was at home, I thought about how rewarding it could be to switch roles, but now that it has happened, I’m self-conscience about it?

While stay-at-home dads aren’t as rare as they once were, it still isn’t well understood. It reminds me of growing up Catholic in a Baptist town. You can’t stay defensive or afraid without driving yourself a little mad. You learn how to explain to other the what and why of your belief and how to correct their incorrect assumptions and stereotypes.

A positive difference between the Catholic/Baptist analogy in relation to being a stay-at-home dad is that the other person won’t try to convert you to their line of thought using techniques they learned at Sunday School!

Doing something against the grain or different from others’ expectations of you is an opportunity to help others understand a different way of thinking.

For most of my life, Dr Pepper or, in more recent time, one of the off-shoots, would be my soda of choice.

News articles are still, days latter, being published around the quick death of one of the most beloved variants of Dr Pepper: Dublin Dr Pepper.

photocredit: flickr/megpi

For those out of the loop and under a rock, so-called “Dublin Dr Pepper” is the same Dr Pepper made everywhere else, except using pure Imperial sugar instead of the now-default high-fructose corn syrup. In the 1980s or so, when the rest of the beverage world switched over to HFCS, the first Dr Pepper bottling company in little Dublin, TX decided to continue making the product with real sugar.

The variation became a cult success. I was introduced to it by my band director in high school. She’d, on a regular basis, make a 300-mi round trip to Dr Pepper’s mecca and purchase a few cases of the drink. A few lucky souls in band were able to get a few ounces of the sugary sweetness from her.

To settle a lawsuit, Dr Pepper acquired the rights to sell Dr Pepper from the little bottler, in short ending the only mainstream drink bottled by them.

The lawsuit, I admit, at face value, was legit. Dr Pepper (corporate) claimed that the Dr Pepper Bottling Company of Dublin violated their bottling agreement by diluting the trademark of Dr Pepper, by selling the drink under the name “Dublin Dr Pepper”, and for violating the territorial aspect of the contract, selling outside their authorized area (e.g. I’m thinking how Galaxy Cafe in Austin had “Dublin Dr Pepper” on tap).

I don’t know how the agreement came to pass. There simply had to be a better solution than end production of the “vast majority” of the small bottler’s revenue source (as corporate admits), in all likelihood, beginning the slow death of “Dublin Bottling Works”, as it will be known now, and the decline of the small town of Dublin.

photocredit: flckr/cmiked

Dr Pepper’s official response to my inquiry for more information tried to assure me that I can still get the same beverage in certain areas around Dublin (no response on my follow-up about if Austin would have continued access to the sugared version). Honestly, I couldn’t care less about that anymore; I’m upset that this is yet another example of a corporation going overboard destroying the fabric of a community. Dublin’s bottling efforts didn’t die out because of lack of customers or them not respond to the needs of their clientele, it was an execution of a small business by their big brother corporation.

(Quick aside: Corporate calls the variation “Heritage Dr Pepper”. Maybe they should look at doing a little marketing toward the segment that rejects HFCS. Jason’s Deli, for example, makes a marketing point out of their decision not to include HFCS in any of their food products).

Ever read Dr. Seuss’ “The Lorax“? While that’s more of a tail of businesses ignoring the environment around them, but perhaps because it is one of Olivia’s current favorites, I draw a parallel: the little guys that have been around long before the corporate structure are dismissed and ran out of town because “business is business”.

If the Dr Pepper corporate violated some law and were busted by the FDA or whomever, would the sentence be the termination of production of their primary product? No way.

Dublin’s plant, yes, may have violated some terms. I don’t know what their contract says or what the local plant was thinking when it did those alleged actions. Perhaps, yes, something needed to change to “protect trademark” or keep other bottlers happy (which is quite understandable). The sentence imposed is too harsh. There had to be a different solution. Dublin just isn’t another bottling plant. It is more of a Dr Pepper town than Waco, where the drink was invented. Hell, for a week each year, the town renames itself as “Dr Pepper, Texas” and throws a huge birthday party for the bottling company that is mostly free to thank the loyal fans of the bottling company and the corporate parent, per the city’s press release.

Additionally, the cult status of Dublin Dr Pepper led to me choosing Dr Pepper more often in other situations. At a gas station on a long drive, I was more likely to pick Dr Pepper over a Coke or Pepsi product because of the connection I felt to the brand. The brand that now rips the heart out of little towns less than 3,000 whose bottler accounted for less than 1% of all their product produced.

In short, screw you Dr Pepper Snapple Group. Dr Pepper is dead to me now. I’m leaving the possibility they can still make this right, but it will be a very long time before I purchase a Dr Pepper or Snapple product.

The Morning Routine.

photocredit: flckr/atomdocs

Previously, we let the girls serve as our alarm clocks. They’d wake up before we’d want to get up, we could throw some clothes on them, stuff some food in us, get out the door to work in plenty of time. What more does someone need to do in the morning? As we evaluated how to improve our home life—get more personal time while not staying up as late—we realized something: our mornings must be more efficient.

Our morning routine:

• 5:00 a.m. –  Alarms go off, coffee machine automatically turns on.
• 5:15 a.m. –  Start being productive. For me, that includes writing, working on my tech services consulting, being a geek, etc. For V, that includes running.
• 6:30 a.m. – The girls generally wake up within 10 minutes of 6:30 a.m. – Time to get them ready.
• 7:30 a.m. – Start prepping breakfast.
• 8:00 a.m. – Breakfast.
• 9:00 a.m. – Lina starts “1st nap”, V finishes getting ready for work if needed.
• 9:30 a.m. – V leaves for work (10 am to 6:30 p.m. work schedule)

Those 90 minutes have been clutch. I never really understood those folks who beat everyone to the office or talked about how much they got done before breakfast, but for us, I don’t see any other way to increase productivity without lengthening days to 36 hours.

The nice thing, too, about this setup is what happened this week. Yesterday, no post went online. I have a few things in the hopper, but nothing is ready for prime time. Tuesday night, I went out and thus didn’t get to my primary nightly duty (dishes). Wednesday morning, at 5 a.m., instead of writing, dishes were done. This schedule allows for evening social possibilities without completely disabling the house the next day due to incomplete dishes, unprepped meals, etc.

That being said, I’m working toward having a few days of posts built up in the queue. I didn’t like seeing this yesterday:

Can you guess which days I didn't write?

After having one of my strongest days in the last month with Tuesday’s Tim Tebow article, I had one of the worst recorded days ever for viewership the next day. Even Sunday was stronger and the virtually all of days when I only wrote once a month were better even though the freshest content was quite stale.

What tips and tricks have you discovered to get a little more time out of your day?

Sunday afternoon, I was off by myself steaming inside. “Vanessa did this and that, if she didn’t, this wouldn’t be so difficult.” “Vanessa made this happen.” “It’s her fault that this didn’t go as planned.” I wasn’t coming to peace.

photocredit: flckr/denverjeffrey

Sunday late afternoon, all was calm but unresolved. I caught the end of the Broncos game—the last five  minutes of regulation and the 11 seconds of overtime when Tim Tebow threw a direct pass to Demaryius Thomas, who himself threw a great stiff arm, and took the ball 80 yards to win the do-or-die game for Denver.

Twitter exploded. “Was he Tebowing?”, the name for his kneeling and praising God after a win. Tebow threw 316 yards (3:16…) and won by throwing to a guy born on Christmas. 

Sunday night, I was brainstorming topics for this week on the site. “The controversy” came to mind. Plenty of people are casting stones at the quarterback for being too religious. I mean, he actually mentions Jesus outside of church and didn’t mean it as a swear! God forbid! That’s when it hits me: Leaders must be positive and take ownership of the situation. 

Leaders should not lay blame. They can be critical, but taking crackshots is not being critical. Do not blame Tim Tebow for thanking God for letting him miraculously win games in the final seconds (which Tebow thanks God for quite a bit more than that). The leaders of the other team can’t say “If Tim Tebow wasn’t so overtly pious, we would have won that game!” No, leaders take ownership, look to determine if there was anything different than they could do to change the impact and leave the circumstances outside their control alone—including the opposing quarterback’s spirituality.

As I was developing this thought while doing the dishes, it hits me: I’m doing exactly the opposite of this with Vanessa.

If I’m to claim some stake in the leadership of this household, I can’t blame my partner for whatever problems I perceive to exist. My duty is to do whatever I can do to move the family forward, taking into account both the strengths and weaknesses of my wife. Yes, she might grossly underestimate the amount of time it takes to get ready, get out of the door and drive somewhere leaving her to be, um, late quite a bit. I can get mad about that, get onto her and make life miserable for both of us.

Or, I can lead the situation differently. Do more the night before. Start the process of leaving long before I normally would have to account for our differences. Whatever the case, I can do only what I can do and I need to be at peace with the rest.

Vanessa and I talked and all is right in the world again. Our marriage was not in serious trouble, but after enough time and with me laying enough blame, who knows. So, no. Tim Tebow didn’t actually save my marriage, but his controversy reminded me of my duty of servant leadership in the home.

Epiphany is our solution.

Benward's Door: Adoration of the Magi. photocredit: flickr/sacred_destinations

Yesterday, after the normal Sunday routine, we gathered near the tree. We read from the Gospel of the day about the Magi visiting Jesus and sang We Three Kings. We explained to Olivia that the Magi brought gifts to Jesus because they were so excited to see him, how a star told them where to go, pointed out the star on the Christmas tree and so on. Then, we give the girls their presents.

We like this for a few different reasons:

• Stability: While Christmas is different every year, we’ll only be in Austin for Epiphany. I’m doubtful that anyone visiting that weekend would have Epiphany traditions that would difficult to accommodate without changing up our tradition.
• Catechetical: While giving us directly the opportunity to teach about that aspect of the Christmas story, in addition to the decorations still being up, it reinforces that Christmas is a season that begins—not end—on December 25th.
• Desecular: Christmas gift giving is crazy. The commercials, the movies, everything seemingly ties getting and giving a truck full of presents every year. We can’t completely fight it. There will be presents on Christmas, no matter where we spend it, but I haven’t seen a movie or story that promotes extreme materialism on Epiphany. We hope not having to compete with the secular Christmas expectation in our society, a small gift could have a bigger meaning.

I like using ritual-style books for ceremonies; hardcover, a simple cover, sturdy. As a domestic church, it makes sense to me that, like a parish church, some books are for use during a ritual while others for study, planning, etc. In addition to having a copy of Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers compiled by the USCCB, we bought a pew hymnal. We have the 3rd edition of Worship, a GIA hymnal that has a 80/20 split between organ-based and guitar/piano-based music. Specifically, we have the pew edition that includes the three-year cycle of Sunday/holiday readings. I picked up our copy with my parish upgraded to these hymnals about 10 years ago, but you can order one online through GIA.

I like having a hymnal so we have the majority of the music we sing at church easily accessible, as well as the Sunday readings, in a format that is obviously geared toward ritual celebration.

The first year of our Epiphany tradition went well and we were satisfied. Do you have any unique ways to celebrate the Christmas season?

<rant>

We’re not big TV watchers, espcially now that we cut the cord and dropped cable. Vanessa loves Bones. I enjoyed the Stargate franchise and “dorky” stuff in that realm. Except for sports, there isn’t anything on TV that I enjoyed enough to make it part of my regular schedule.

Until Prime Suspect.

Prime Suspect is/was a new crime drama in NBC set in New York City. Unlike the NYC cops of Law & Order, these homicide detectives are more human. They have massive character flaws. They get worked up with inner-office politics. They get outright enraged with each other. The main character fights to be respected as a female homicide cop from outside trying to break into the boys’ club of that division’s squad.

I thought it to be well-done and critics agreed. After it debuted, I told a number of people about the show and, if they watched an episode, they agreed that it was fun to watch. We scheduled our workout routine around Thursday nights being an off night (Bones at 8 p.m. and Prime Suspect at 9 p.m. Central typically).

On Thursday night last, I went online to find out if Bones and Prime Suspect were new that week or not. I knew Bones was going to have a weird schedule for part of the spring due to Emily Deschanel’s real-life pregnancy (who plays Bones), but hadn’t seen promos for a new episode of Prime Suspect.

Because NBC stopped production.

The show wasn’t officially cancelled, but without new episodes and needing a pick-up for a second season, I’m not holding my breath. (Would CBS pick it up like they did JAG many years ago?)

This is raised to level of rant by what I read next: Whitney was spared.

If you haven’t seen it, let me explain it in a completely neutral, non-biased way: Whitney is a show written around one female stand-up, Whitney Cummings, surrounded by one-dimension characters that are poorly-written and are only funny because a sound engineer pressed play on the laugh track. Like I said, completely neutral synopsis.

When the Fall lineup was being promoted, Vanessa thought Whitney looked funny (me: eh) and we both thought Up All Night had promise, after all they’re new parents, we’re not-that-new parents. Prime Suspect (all three promo’d together often) looked bad. The badge and gun against the shield of the taxi, while funny, didn’t capture anything of the show’s dramatic element, which made it look like a bad cop drama on a network who cancelled their long-time running cop/court drama, couldn’t find a replacement (Law & Order: LA, anyone see that? Me neither.) and started just throwing badges and guns in front of the camera hoping one would stick.

When premier week rolled around, we watched all three. Vanessa and I were horrified by Whitney. Bad one-line stand-up jokes all piled up into a 22-minute show read by random actors placed in a room and told “go” would be my one-line summary. No chemistry. Not funny, short of the two or three lines promo’d to death by the “marketing” department.

Up All Night. It was decent. The Oprah character was poorly done and enough to get me to not get invested in the show. One of those “Oh, Up All Night is on. Where’s the remote? Over there? Ah, well, this is fine then.” shows.

Prime Suspect. Whoa. Vanessa and I were blown away. It grabbed us. It held us. It made us laugh, get excited, try to figure out who did it, try to figure out the character flaws. Great. Then we kept watching it. The character development over the episodes were well-done. Written well, acted well. The characters, like many of us in real life in challenging office-political situations, would take one or two steps forward and one or two steps back in their relationship.

NBC, the network of “You mean we can’t air Seinfeld and Friends forever?” and the network of “We have the funniest late-night line-up ever! Let’s screw it all up!”, had again dropped the ball. If you don’t believe me, the 1/3rd of the featured items on their online store (visit NBC.com and click “Shop” and a dropdown appears, as of Friday morning) are from one cancelled show (Friday Night Lights) and one show put in “hiatus” (Community, not airing Spring 2012).

My guess is NBC is trying to push people to buy cable to support their numerous cable ventures (A&E, Bravo, CNBC, E!, ExerciseTV, G4, Golf, MSNBC, Oxygen, Sprout, Style, SyFy (which canceled SGU once it actually got a stride going), Weather Channel, USA, VERSUS, among others) since NBC is owned by Comcast and GE.

</rant>

Pershing by John Perry

I had heard the name of General Pershing a couple of times and the only thing I could remember was that he was the all-time second-highest ranked general in the history of the Army, after George Washington was officially promoted above him in the 1970s. When a reviewer’s copy was offered of John Perry’s latest book “Pershing: Commander of the Great War” as part of The Generals series, I jumped at the chance to learn more about this apparently incredible military commander.

For the book itself, I highly recommend it. Perry walks the reader through General Pershing life in enough detail to answer most of the questions the average reader would want to know in the process of reading the book but not too much as to overwhelm or to let the reader become bored. General Pershing, himself, couldn’t do that as his autobiography was 869 pages long with exacting detail.

Reader beware! Don’t look at the pictures until after reading the entire book. There was one particular picture describing a major event of his life included far before the text itself detailed the event. That soured the reading experience a bit.

General Pershing is written to be an amazing man. He entered West Point as a way to get a cheap education toward his goal of becoming a lawyer and ended up never leaving the military. A fair man who, when serving overseas, did not treat native (barbaric in some sense) peoples poorly but with respect. He stood his ground to French and British commanders in WWI when the U.S. was still the new kid of the block. General Pershing was a military statesman.

Even if you are not a military history buff, this book is a great read that give you insight to American’s most forgotten military hero.

Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for a review. I was not required to give a positive review. Links to the book in this review are affiliate links. This review is fully my opinion and not a paid advertisement.

We fell into a bad habit of getting fast food for dinner once a week. Before kids, I didn’t really care about that. Olivia, though, loves french fries. She’d always have dinner before V brought home fast food, but we’d give her a couple of fries since she wanted to eat with us. Anytime “Mom is picking up something”, she’d start getting really excited for french fries. My two-year-old’s favorite food cannot cannot cannot be french fries.

French fries... yum... ::drool:: photocredit: flickr/ableman

Call it a New Year’s Solution started early (secular calendar) or late (ecclesiastical calendar), but we’ve decided to utilize a fitness program we were given for the Xbox and correct some of our eating habits. We jumped into it starting a few days after Christmas.

It almost killed me.

I go through spurts of athleticism and exercise—a marathon in 2008, a half-marathon in 2010, and random other runs. In that, I’ve never done a workout “program”. Always just ran. Until last week.

Between Z-Steps, lunges, and exercises whose name I can’t remember, to use the cliche, muscles hurt I didn’t know I had. The “game”, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved by Ubisoft for Xbox Kinect, is incredibly accurate and corrects you on everything you’re doing not quite in step with your virtual trainer. (Note: The 2012 edition is currently being sold; we’re using the previous version. It, um, took us awhile to take it out of the box to try it….)

I love The Biggest Loser on NBC. As a rule, I can’t stand reality shows, but this one sucked me in. I found myself sitting for the entire two hours each week to watch these folks lose incredible amounts of weight. It left me the impression that a workout routine needed a trainer to be effective. I’ve never given workout DVDs or anything like that any stock. I can watch someone workout from my easy chair, ya know.

Video game systems, furthermore, were supposed to be what caused me to get have the extra pounds in the first place. They’re not supposed to help me lose it. Just give me a NES controller, Super Mario Brothers 3, a six-pack of Josta, some Doritos and leave me alone. The Wii changed that tune for me somewhat. It made you move, but not gym-style workouts (disclaimer: never tried Wii Fit).

This game for the Kinect has reversed my opinions of video games. Much like the rest of the technological landscape, you have to be aware of how you’re using it and ensure that you’re not abusing any aspect of the technology. But, damn, it’ll make you sweat.

One small feature of the new theme is sharing of how effective a Xbox workout routine is at trimming down. I’m going to try to eat a little better and workout via Xbox most evenings. Occasionally (no more than weekly), I might run outside in the real world. I’ll include some delta figures to give you an idea if it is working.

Before this solution, Olivia would watch 15 minutes of TV with me at 7 pm before heading upstairs to begin the bedtime routine. The Biggest Loser became her favorite show to watch during this time. I’d tell her it was time to shut off the TV and she’d respond “No, I wanna watch big people!”

Leadership by example: time for me to stop watching other people get in shape on TV and start having the TV kick my butt.

On January 1st, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith erected the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter for former Anglicans/Episcopalians within the United States and Pope Benedict XVI appointed Fr. Jeffrey Steenson, a former Anglican and now Catholic priest, as the first ordinary.

photocredit: flickr

This is the second “Anglo-Catholic” personal ordinariate established after last January’s erection of Our Lady of Walshingham for former Anglicans in England and Wales. These jurisdictions, in theory, were authorized through the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus of November 9th, 2009 (three years after first suggested being in the works) by Pope Benedict XVI and the creation of these jurisdictions was authorized by him.

The history of provisions to help Anglicans join the Catholic Church spans a bit further.

For many, many years now, some Episcopalians within the U.S., as well as Anglicans throughout the world, have been asking for this. While every person’s and each congregation’s discernment is unique, basically, these folks want to follow Christ and His Church. They had discerned themselves to be doing this through their Episcopal experience, but have realized now that the Catholic Church contains the fullness of truth. For some, it has been reading and praying over ancient Christian writings. For others, yes, recent decisions within the Episcopal world have made them re-evaluate if being Episcopalian was the best way to seek God.

The downside was if you’re a Anglican clergyman who had dedicated your life to the service of the Christian community and had a close-to-Catholic ministerial perspective, but married, you had to sacrifice your vocation. If you felt close to God through the close-to-Catholic liturgical expression of your previous church, you lost it. If your entire congregation felt the call to become Catholic, you wouldn’t be able to stay together in the same way.

While there had been some individual cases of priests from Anglican or Lutheran traditions being permitted to become Catholic, be ordained priests while married, there was not an established system.

These requests came with a particular urgency during the 1970s due to some changes in thought within the Episcopal community (e.g. broader acceptance of divorce, not condemning abortion, etc).

So, within the United States, Pope John Paul II issued the “Pastoral Provision”, allowing Anglican clergy to convert to Catholicism and, after petition and suitable formation, be ordained to the Catholic clergy (while remaining married). Likewise, a new “usage” of the Roman Rite was issued marrying aspect of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer with the Catholic Roman Rite so that former Anglicans could retain some part of the liturgical patrimony. A few “Pastoral Provision” parishes were erected within local dioceses for these new members of the Catholic Church. This was, and remains, only within the United States.

The degree of erection establishing St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Use Parish. Click for a closer look.

One interesting tidbit: Most of the initial work to request such a provision and to make it agreeable to everyone was started in the Los Angeles area, but the Provision was never widely applied there, in terms of Anglican Use parishes and the more communal aspects of this Anglo-Catholic experiment. Texas has become the American capital of these efforts. The first parish established for an Anglican Use community is in San Antonio. St. Mary the Virgin in Arlington, TX had been the Episcopal Parish of St. Bartholomew since 1961 until in the early 1990s, the congregation voted to withdraw from Episcopal Church and seek admittance into the Catholic Church. Most notable is that it was the first (and I think only, as of now) Episcopal parish to completely swim the Tiber–pastor, congregation and building. Incredibly (and as a huge testament to the Episcopal bishop), the parish retained all the property, which typically is owned by the larger Episcopal Church. Their degree of erection is on the right.

And as of a few days ago, the Principal Church (e.g. “Cathedral”) and the contact address of the new Ordinariate is Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston, even though technically, it isn’t part of the Ordinariate yet.

Interestingly, the Book of Divine Worship, the Anglican Use of the Roman Rite as part of the Pastoral Provision, is only authorized for usage in the United States. I bought a copy of the Book of Divine Worship when the current edition was released in 2003 and, although I can’t find a physical copy for sale new online, the full book is online in PDF. The liturgy in ordinariates elsewhere will be the same liturgy that we have each Sunday. There may be a new worldwide “Anglican Use” in the works. Even within the United States, unless the ordinary decrees otherwise, parishes within the Ordinariate are not required to use the Book of Divine Worship and may use the same Roman Missal other Catholic parishes are using.

The Pastoral Provision will continue as it is different from the Ordinariate. The Ordinariate has its own Ordinary (e.g. bishop), it will have parishes, authorized to have a seminary and will function, all in all, as a separate entity within the Church. The Pastoral Provision, however, still applies for Anglican and former Anglican priests who seek entrance into the Church and ordination as diocesan priests within a local diocese and sponsored by the local bishop. For example, if Fr. Anglican wishes to become Catholic and serve the larger Catholic community–not just former Anglicans–he can petition Bishop Vasquez of Austin and be accepted as a member of the regular clergy in Austin. This is the same as it has been since 1980, only some communities and parishes have been established around the provision (under the authority of the local bishop, who could also decide to dissolve the community and have it absorbed by the larger Catholic fold). Now, Fr. Anglican simply has a second option to be a part of this Anglo-Catholic existence. Parishes within the Ordinariate would, in theory, be more stable as they have a support structure that is designed to serve them.

Austin had an Anglican Use parish, St. Margaret of Scotland for some time. I believe it was based in South Austin, possibly meeting at San Jose. I wasn’t in Austin at the time and a rather quick attempt to find more information didn’t provide anything trustworthy. For whatever reason, it was suppressed (e.g. closed) by the bishop. If the matter related to the inability to find a priest willing/able to take over at the parish, the Ordinariate  should help as there will be a national pool of priests very familiar with the unique pastoral needs of such a parish.

As the Ordinariate continues to develop, existing communities are transferred into it and new congregations are established, more will develop about how it functions in practice.

Anything I miss?

photocredit: flickr/lovestruck94

Servant Leadership, as a term, is most connected to the work of Robert Greenleaf, beginning with his book Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness. The underlying idea is that the most effective form of leadership is in the form is service. True leaders do not rule with iron fists, but serve their community (organization, business, whatever social arrangement).

Christians have the prime example of a servant leader in Jesus Christ, but this concept is not exclusively Christian. The Laozi from  ca. 5th century BC China (thank you History of Asian Cultures course) speaks of leadership in a similar vein. Indian, Islamic and other ancient writings, religious and secular, promote servant leadership.

While at the University Catholic Center, our team introduced this philosophy to student leaders and developed their skills toward leading through service. Within ministry or the non-profit world, this model is obvious. While not as obviously applicable to businesses, research is clear that companies based on servant leadership are successful.

What about at home? From my Catholic perspective, the way spouses should treat one another and parents must lead a home from a servant’s perspective. How can the concept of servant leadership, as a formal leadership model, be applied to home life? What best practices exist that help to realize this “leadership structure” within the most basic unit of society?

Being a father is to lead the house. Mothers lead too, but there are plenty of “mommy blogs” out there that speak to the trials, tribulations, best practices and philosophies of motherhood. Fatherhood isn’t as explored online and, being a dad, I can only speak personally to the masculine aspect of domestic leadership.

Over the coming months, I hope you will join me as we explore leadership, fatherhood, rearing kids, spirituality and more.

«José Antonio Navarro»

photocredit: flckr/fotokatolik

The Twenty-fifth day of December

when ages beyond number had run their course from the creation of the world, when God in the beginning created heaven and earth, and formed man in his own likeness;

when century upon century had passed since the Almighty set his bow in the clouds after the Great Flood, as a sign of covenant and peace;

in the twenty-first century since Abraham, our father in faith, came out of Ur of the Chaldee;

in the thirteenth century since the People of Israel were led by Moses in the Exodus from Egypt;

around the thousandth year since David was anointed King;

in the sixty-fifth week of the prophency of Daniel;

in the one hundred and ninty-fourth Olympiad;

in the year seven hundred and fifty-two since the foundation of the City of Rome;

in the forty-second year of the reign of Caesar Octavian Augustus,

the whole world being as peace,

JESUS CHRIST, eternal God and Son of the eternal father, desiring to consecrate the world by his most loving presence, was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

and when nine months had passed since his conception, was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem of Judah, and was made man:

The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.

Too Much Angry Birds?

Me: ::pig noise::
Olivia: No, piggy daddy!
Me: ::pig noise::
Olivia: I throw birdie at you! (throwing motion with her arm.)

Time for Mouthwash for Daddy:

Me: Ah, damn it.
Olivia: No say damn it! Bad word! No say damn it!

Alright, So We’re A Bit Sensitive:

Me: Dang it.
Olivia: No say dang it! Bad word!

What’s In A Name?

Me: What’s your name?
Olivia: Olivia Rose Gonzalez Kraft!
Me: Good, Mommy?
Olivia: Vanessa Gonzalez Kraft
Me: Grandma?
Olivia: Grandma Yoli
Me: Grandpa?
Olivia: Oscar the Grouch

photocredit: flickr/boston_public_library

I’ll post the antiphon for the day at 5:00 p.m., so you can pray along with the Church throughout the world. You’ve heard of most of these before as they form the basis of the seven verses of O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

The origin of the antiphons isn’t clear. There is a reference about them from around 500 A.D., with it believed they have been part of the church’s life since the earliest days. According to Fr. William Saunders, they are important as they serve two functions. First, they each highlight a title for the Messiah and second, they refer to the prophesy of Isaiah concerning the coming of the Messiah. He has listed all seven and the corresponding prophesy.

In some ordos, this begins “Late Advent”. Christmas is sneaking up on us quickly at La Casa de Kraft. May we slow down and prepare ourselves to celebrating the coming of Christ.