Tomasino Blog

I’m so happy the warm weather is finally here!

This little book, by Ron Hansen, is a story of a small community of cloistered nuns during the early 1900s who are about to face their greatest challenge.

My programming posts have been moved to my new coding blog - Tomasino Labs.

When a man knows God, he is free: his sorrows have an end, and birth and death are no more.

I read a lot of blogs.

I spoke with the vocation director of the New York Province of the Society of Jesus tonight.

I am awake, but just barely.

In the past I’ve done a lot of things I’m ashamed of.

As the days count down to another move date I find myself getting excited by all the things the future might bring.

I’m fairly certain that there’s nothing more fun than writing.

As wonderful as my other plans might have been, they were my plans.

Expansion, that is the idea the novelist must cling to, not completion, not rounding off, but opening out. - Edward Morgan Forster - Aspects of the Novel (1927) Last year I talked about trying out NaNoWriMo in my blog.

Salt and sea, Of ill stay free, Fire and air Draw all that is fair Around and around The circle is bound - Starhawk (Miriam Simos) - The Spiral Dance In this apartment my bed is lofted about 5.5 feet.

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure in the landscape, the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.

“Remaining” is an essential part… What the Church Fathers call perseverantia–patient steadfastness in communion with the Lord amid all the vicissitudes of life–is placed center stage here.

Fallen from sonship, beggared of grace, Grant me.

It is a time when one’s spirit is subdued and sad, one knows not why; when the past seems a storm-swept desolation, life a vanity and a burden, and the future but a way to death.

In infinite remorse of soul.

To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time. - Leonard Bernstein Every year for the past ten years I’ve toyed with the idea of finishing my novel.

In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.

In fair weather, prepare for foul. - Thomas Fuller - Gnomologia: Adagies & Proverbs (1732) Back as the millennium came to a close, my friends and I had a lot of good humored conversations about the end of the world as we know it.

It’s very easy for me to fall into the little pockets of culture I see day to day.

Summers seem to go by faster than other times.

I’m getting rid of all of my stuff.

One of the greatest things about my Kindle is the ability to wirelessly browse Amazon’s store, decide I want to read a book, purchase and download it, and begin reading immediately.

At the turn of the 20th century, Henry Cowling published this fine little book (about 70 pages) as an autobiography of his life as a young sailor boy in the Royal Navy and the journeys that led him towards the Baptist ministry.

Est autem fides sperandarum substantia rerum, argumentum non apparentium. - Faith is the hypostasis of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen. - Hebrews 11:1 - Translation from the encyclical “Saved In Hope (Spe Salvi)” by Pope Benedict XVI Last n…

I’d like to start off by saying I’m a sucker for a good fantasy book.

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it,–but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. - Oliver

Lee Strobel’s book shows a heavy influence from his time as a journalist, an influence he makes no attempt to deny or diminish.

St.

Last night I went shopping at the Perimeter Mall just north of Atlanta.

In the summer of 2004, after a long relationship had ended, I wrote a secret journal that chronicled my depression and anxieties.

This summer I’ll be going on another Jesuit retreat at the Ignatius House, here in Atlanta.

Typography has one plain duty before it and that is to convey information in writing.

Somewhere between the steel framed bed racks, fluorescent lights and linoleum tile, I lost my sense of self.

A long time ago someone called me predictable in my unpredictability.

Last weekend I took a trip to Atlanta.

The perfect stillness of the night was thrilled by a more solemn silence.

I read an article in backpacker magazine this morning that told the story of [Renata Chlumska][] and her quest to find herself though 11,600 miles of road and sea.

The last two days have been an exhaustive drain on my nerves.

There are some big decisions that aren’t hard at all.

I have so many pet projects from day to day, it’s tough to keep track of them all.

And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. - Revelations 4:7 While working on my book tonight I fell back onto a popular theme of mine.

Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris. - Genesis Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, a day of repentance before God.

Just before Christmas ‘06 I decided it was time to upgrade my computer.

After a weekend full of fun work with XSLT, XPath, Python, and PHP, I figured out how to implement my permalinks like I wanted.

While I mentioned before that I didn’t want to build a whole GUI on top of this blog, I was also a bit disappointed in the default rendering if someone were to look at the XML directly.

Last friday I bought a pair of cross country skis from REI.

I’ve been blogging for a long time, it seems.