This afternoon, I was preparing to send off a package I have been remissed on taking care of until now. I have had all the materials for the past month. I was waiting on nothing except for me to take it to the post office- which I go to daily to check my mailbox- and send it off. Why had I not just sent the package off anytime in the past month? The package was time-sensitive so I needed it to arrive in a short window. That and I simply never did it.

I had neglected to take Thanksgiving into account and so I realized that I had to send it today, else it would be really late. Since today is not a Federal holiday, I figured I could take it to the post office on campus and send it there. The retail counter closes at 4 p.m. and so at 3:45 p.m., I briskly walk to the West Mall Office Building. I arrive just before 4 p.m. to find the location closed. They took today off as well.

Deteremined to get to an open retail location, I ponder my options. I could drive to one of three locations within 15 blocks or so of my location. However, my car is blocked in and I can’t drive. Praying that Capital Metro is running routes today, I head to the stop in front of St. Austin’s. I finally see a bus to indicate that they were running today. Sadly, the bus was not one that I could use.

I board the southbound Route 1 bus to head downtown. It was one of those occasions where I wish those who complain about Capital Metro busses have no ridership could be there. Every seat was filled- and not just with four little kids in four seperate seats. Kids were sharing seats. There were people standing the length of the bus. After our stop, the bus stopped accepting new riders because there was no room. We get to 6th Street and I step off to head towards the location at 6th and Guadalupe.

The retail location is open until 6 p.m. Angels were singing their joyful songs of praise. The location has an 24-hour automated postal center. If you don’t know me, I am the type where if it is automated, I have to try it. The automated center had the Priority Mail envelopes that I needed (and why I didn’t use the online shipping center), a kiosk that had a simple touch-screen interface and a drop container. Within 5 minutes, I had the package addressed, stamped and placed in the custody of the United States Postal Service. It was simple, easy and the best part- open 24 hours a day. Not to mention, I am sure it saves time not standing in line for a retail clerk as well as man-hours reserving the clerks for tasks that truly require them. The package will be delivered on Monday for the low cost of $3.85.

We mock the United States Postal Service about many things but when push comes to shove, I tip my hat to them.

I was reading a bit this morning on Amtrak’s Julie. Julie is an automated phone system that responds to callers in a conversation-style. I know other companies, such as American Airlines and AT&T Wireless, have also dabbled in conversative automatic phone systems. Some of them work rather well while others make me curse out the automated phone system demanding that I talk to a manager. Luckily, for now, the “manager”, what we used to call a company operator, is still a human being, flesh and blood.

Some time ago, NPR did a little piece on it looking forward to where automated phone systems could go. It provides a humorous look at these systems and how they are becoming more “real”.

Listen via RealAudio

It has been almost a month since I arrived back to Austin from my visit to Notre Dame. After spending a very wet week in Austin, I see pictures of the trip and wish to be back. The campus was simply beautiful. The fact that I’m a poorly traveled Texas boy is obvious when I visit places outside of this state.

What is it that makes something beautiful or appealing? There are many answers for the many contexts this question can be asked. Notre Dame’s beauty, to me, was derived from the Catholicity of the campus. In a liturgical sense, a liturgy is beautiful because it seperates itself from the common existence of our day-to-day lives and brings us into the divine.

My visit to Notre Dame was of a related thread. No matter the actual theology being professed at the university now, the campus architects attempted to seperate the ‘real world’ from the academic using the theological overtones known to us by Catholics. The Grotto is amazingly simple. A rocky dugout with a statue of Mary on top of it. An iron fence seperating the world from the enclave. Through the gate, candle racks full of candles, lit for many intentions. At night, the light shines brightly as if a reminder of the light of Christ devouring the dark snares of evil.

The campus seemed at peace. It is still a college campus full of young men and women. The boys still curse like the best of them while playing video games and the students still act like normal college students, yet the environment was at peace. That is what made is a beautiful campus.

As part of my personal mission for the website, I include from time to time various things that I wish to be accessable whenever or whereever I may be in an easy-to-acquire form. Some items I feel could benefit others and thus are also posted to the public.

I was given a Manual of Prayers, a prayerbook from the Pontifical North American College in Rome. It includes a grand collection of prayers from the great depository of our Catholic faith. While I do not have the discipline or the strength of faith needed to reach the full potential of the prayerbook, it has been helpful to me. Below is Prayer Before Sleep written by St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787).

Jesus Christ my God, I adore you and thank you for all the graces you have given me this day. I offer to you my sleep and all the moments of this night, and I ask you to keep me from sin. I put myself within your sacred side and under the mantle of our Lady. Let your holy angels stand about me and keep me in peace. And let your blessing be upon me. Amen.

Tonight was Lambda Omega Alpha‘s Fall Semi-Formal, held this year at Coppertank in Downtown Austin.
Everyone was decked out and looking their best. As for myself, I was wearing a pinstripe three-piece suit with a gray satin shirt with a similar-colored tie. I would describe my date, Maure’s dress, but I am simply not the best at doing such things. It was red and looked quite stunning on her.

I am digressing. Everyone was looking their best and for many of us, we spent a good amount of time and effort trying to figure out what would “clean us up” with the most pizzazz. Did we want to go with the standard blue shirt that I think every guy has? Did we want to go a bit more colorful with a stripped shirt? Pull off a little pink? Did we want to go for a completely new look than our previous attempts?

In preparing for such an occasion, it helps us to recall many things. Why do we get dressed up? One answer is a very blunt and very human reason for doing so: to attract the opposite sex. We may have our eyes on a particular girl or guy and we wish to put our best foot forward hoping that whatever we are wearing will push us into that realm within the other person’s mind. We may not have our eyes on anyone but look with anticipation with finding someone to get to know better. In either case, we dress to impress.

With dressing to impress, that also crosses beyond the sexual attraction angle. Impressing a possibly employer, a parent of a boyfriend/girlfriend, et al. are all situations where attraction is a motivating factor in looking our best.

There are also other reasons why we look past the jeans and t-shirt. Putting the extra effort into looking good reminds us of the importance of an occasion and to indicate our level of respect to the person or the event. Why dress up for Sunday Mass? It is to show our respect to God and the worship of him. Also, it reminds us of the importance of the act we’re committing. While there is nothing “wrong” with not looking your absolute best for church, there is something quite laudable about recalling to mind the importance of the event and our respect for it by taking the extra effort.
There is yet another reason that I think of when reflecting upon looking all GQ. We have mentioned attracting and impressing others as well as indicating our respect for something. Next, we dress up to indicate to ourselves the importance of our own person. To use the expression, we are all beautiful children of God and Temples of the Holy Spirit.

By ensuring we are looking our best, we are constantly reminding ourselves in a physical way of the higher supernatural truth that exists in all of us: We are something that has a dignity by simply existing.
Not to mention, it’s just fun to get all fancy every so often.

There are events in our lives that merit remembering for a long time to come. While we have a common calendar system that exist simply because it must, we have an internal calendar system that exists to help us remember what we have been through.

It is not too often that you hear, “We began dating on the 22nd of November and we broke up on the 7th of July.” More often than not, we hear something like “We began dating right after Semi-Formal and broke up right after the 4th of July barbeque.”

We use special events as milestones in our lives; some are rather important ones: marriage, graduation, birth of childern. Some are rather minor: “the last La Fiesta Party”, dances, initiations, retreats.

Tonight was my third Lambda Semi-Formal and thus my fifth Lambda dance. I have no clue how many dances I have been to since I started going to dances. The after-party was one of countless parties I’ve been to in the past two years. Yet, each event had a special character that seperated it from the others. While a party here and there merge together to one memory of a “La Fiesta Party” or of a Crossing Place Party or whatnot, many of them do stand out.

Whenever one of these events take place, after the music fades and all is stripped away, I cannot help but think of how great (or horrible) was the event. Even though the event was only six hours ago, I wish I could make better use of the memories to record the little things that will be forgotten. I might remember the event for decades to come, I know that I will wish I could remember the small things. The food that was served, what exactly she was wearing, the glimmer of the dress as she danced, the funny comments made and the moments that made me think. It will soon, as all things in the past, merge together into a hazy memory with holes here and there.

In either case, I think it is important to remember these events for what they are: milestones. It may not be a Hallmark occasion but it still an occasion to remember.

Thank you Maure and all those who were at Semi-Formal 2004 for making it a great night.