August 2005 Archives

This past weekend in Wichita Falls, TX, over 9600 riders gathered at 7 a.m. on Scott Street for the 24th annual Hotter'N Hell Hundred bike race. The event, the largest sanctioned century bicycle ride in the nation, started as a way for Wichita Falls to celebrate 100 years.

As being from Wichita Falls, I've been interested in riding in the event for as long as I can remember but for various reasons, I never jumped into the saddle. This year was a bit different. Christy, who just finished the Texas 4000 ride, convinced me to do it.

I told myself I would train during the summer and everything would be just fine. After all, 100 miles doesn't sound like a nice Saturday stroll on a bike during a Texan August.

The week prior to the ride came and I hadn't trained at all. Thinking back, I don't know if I had ever rode my bike for more than 10 miles at any one time. Nevertheless, we fill out the online registration and packed up for the Falls. We stay at my place there, arriving to a dinner prepared by my mom. We had left Austin too late to make the dinner at the MPEC for the ride. We take our bikes inside and tweak them a bit. In my case, I fully inflated the tires and installed a couple of water bottle cages.

Saturday at 1 a.m. we go to sleep.
Saturday at 5 a.m. we wake up.

We arrive at MPEC a little after 5:30 and stand in line to pick up our registration packets. We figure out how to affix the bib numbers to ourselves, our bikes and our helmets and make our way to Scott Street. On the way to Austin, Christy realized that I was serious when I said about 10,000 people participate in this event. If there were any doubt, they didn't exist by this point. As far as you could see up or down the street was simply packed with bikes.

At 7:00 a.m., they tell us the ride's start will be slightly delayed since they hadn't placed enough toliets at the starting line. They had put out a lot more at the rest stops but they seemed to overlook how many people would all want to use the bathroom all at the same time.

A few minutes later, not long but without a watch I don't know how long it was, there was an Air Force flyover and a large cannon blast marking the start of the ride. The first quarter or half mile was spent walking our bikes. With 9600 people all going at once, it takes a bit to gain enough speed to be stable.

The first 15 miles were uneventful- passed the first rest stop at mile 10 without stopping. I mentioned to Christy that I was in my highest gear virtually the entire time. In addition to not training, I was using the only bike I own. A Giant mountain bike. Between about miles 15 and 21, it rained. Good news- it would be a cool day. Bad news- a bit humid.

We stop at rest stop 2- it's the infamous Wells Fargo "Fruit Salad" stop. They had every kind of fruit I could think of but something about kiwi didn't sound appealing at that moment. Bananas and oranges were my friends that day- along with plenty of the free Powerade.

We leave rest stop 2 refreshed and ready to go. The 100-mile riders broke from the 100K route with a turn that Christy and I missed. We realized it quickly and backtracked. Then, my personal hell started. The rest of the route until rest stop 3 (at mile 33) was on a slight uphill incline with a strong headwind. I realized that I didn't mind hills, I didn't mind the mountain bike but those headwinds I hated.

We make it to RS 3 and realize that we're running close on time.

At mile 60.3, they have "Hell's Gate". A cutoff point that if you don't make it within 5 hours of biking, they reroute you home. In short, that means your 100-mile ride becomes just over a 74-mile ride.

We pass through "Punkin Center" and rode past rest stop 4. We didn't realize that it would be a long way until rest stop 5. I think Christy was fine with that but we didn't get the tailwind I hoped for (we were traveling back in the direction we had just come, only a few miles north) and there were a fair number of hills.

We arrive at RS 5 around 12:15 or so. We heard rumors that the gate's closure would extended due to the late start and the initial "bike walk". I quickly get some fruit and head off. Christy stays behind a few more minutes- after all, I'm the slow, non-trained person on a mountain bike who had just done 50 miles.

We ride through Burk, slow down through another not-well-marked turn. We reach RS 6, at mile 60 just prior to the gate. We arrive and quickly ask if the gate is closed. It is. We missed it by no more than a half-hour.

Dejected, we ride towards rest stop 7. I'm not a happy camper and am tired after the push to try to make the gate. I take a couple of minutes on the side of the road to be upset. I wanted to do the full 100.

We stop at RS 7. Every time we stop, they say the route a few miles longer than the rest stop before. We find out we only have two miles left in this wind that seems to follow us constantly. I ride off early since Christy at this point can't physically ride as slow as I'm going. Uphill with the wind, untrained on a mountain bike. Half of that is my fault, but nevertheless.

We turn off of the IH-44 access road into a neighborhood in north Wichita Falls. At this point, we had remet up with the 100K and 50-mile riders and continued with them to the finish line. I don't know if it was because I was trying to do the 100-mile and so I was used to try to keep up with how fast they ride or what but I starting flying past people.

Then the fun started. The route directed us onto Sheppard AFB. I was born here, it's where my dad worked all of my life before his death. As a little kid, I remember going out there to check out the airplanes, hang out at dad's shop and whatnot. It was a nice homecoming so to speak. The signage for the route was excellent and they even had us ride by the hangers with cargo planes and trainer jets surrounding us. Oh yes, it was downhill also. I made a quick stop at the final rest stop for a banana and kept going. Christy caught up to me as we were leaving the base.

We made the final ride down Burkburnett Rd, turning onto Eastside Dr., Lincoln and back on Scott. The route finished with a couple of turns right to the Lamar St. Finish line. Sadly, I felt like I could keep going.

So no, I didn't do the full 100 miles. I was a little too slow to make it by their cut-off point, which Christy is still complaining about how early it was, but I still did 75. Not bad for an untrained, mountain biker, but not good enough.

We hung out at the finish line and MPEC for a short while and then headed back to my place.

The 25th annual HHH is August 26, 2006- I'll get my full 100 then.

So yes, I have added Google ads to my website. I might keep them; I might remove them. We will have to see. Why have I added them?

All in all, this site doesn't have much overhead. That I can recall, every piece of software is free so I pay for hosting (disk space, server software, bandwidth, etc) and the domain name. It's not much but it's still something while I'm on a tightening budget.

In addition to these Random Musings, my account hosts The Brandon Kraft Foundation, Save Players, the UCC's Computer Support app, serves a testing ground for some new prospective LOA and UCC pet ideas, not to mention my calendar, my project management software (personal and Foundation) and more.

I could make a solid claim that some money from The Brandon Kraft Foundation should pay a small part of the fees but so far, we've been able to file for incorporation, request tax-exempt status, have a website, a PO box and a toll-free 866 number for over a year without using any money that people have given us for a program. (Our hope is that if you give your money for a particular program, every possible cent will go towards that program- not websites or phone numbers.) Now, if you want to make a donation for general usage (administrative overhead like that as well to augment individual programs), feel free to donate.

I'm not looking to make a profit on this and if I ever do make a profit, I'm going to send it to the Foundation anyhow. It would be nice to have the site pay for itself though. Ad revenue is credited to me based on 1) how many "impressions" my site gives (i.e. how many times are ads viewed) and 2) how many people click on the ads. In other words, this isn't a comission system (like the Amazon links on the sidebar) so no purchase is required.

As always, if you have comments or suggestions, you can leave them on this post or send them to web-comments@brandonkraft.com

"Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." He said, "Come." Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

Doubt is what will get us every time. Doubt in your own abilities, doubt in your coworkers, doubt in your relationships. In Peter's case, he has no reason to doubt. Jesus, the one who he knew was the Son of Man, told him to come on the water and to Him. Nevertheless, he doubts and sinks.

What I like more about this passage is that Peter cries out "Lord! Save me!" and Jesus did. Jesus admonishes his doubting and lack of faith but first, he saved him.

This is something I touch upon often but it was not Peter's faith that saved him. It was Jesus Christ. Peter did, however, asked the Lord for his salvation.

In the my last post, I mentioned that yesterday's Gospel was hard because it told us that if we come to Christ early in our lives we receive the same as someone who came to Christ late in life. Hung reminded us, via a comment to that post, that the Christian life is a challenging life.

Part of that challenge is reminding ourselves day in and day out that we must rely on God's mercy and love. Part of that challenge is fulfulling our universal call to holiness in thought and deed. Above those others, part of that challege is reminding ourselves that we must ask the Lord to save us. God's mercy and love is a free gift but we must ask for it in order to fully embrace it. His love will extend to us no matter what, I mean come on now, it's God's love. In our deepest desires, we are not waiting for God's love to be extended to us though. We desire to be embraced fully by that love. The only way to do that is to ask for it and to accept it.

We will forget to ask for it and we will forget to accept it. At times, we'll straight out deny it. We will have our moments of sinking while walking on the waters of our lives, but like Peter, God will save us from ourselves, if we ask Him to.

Today's Gospel reading is hard. Matthew 20 begins with the parable of the landowner hiring workers for his vineyard. He hires some in the early morning, agreeing to pay them the usual daily wage. he hires others in the late morning, at noon, midafternoon and finally at 5 p.m., just with an hour of work left for the day. He agreed to pay them all the just daily wage.

At the end of the day, the landowner asked all to come for their pay- starting with those who started working last. Slowly, they were all paid the daily wage until those who had been working all day- since dawn- were given the same wage as the ones who had been working for just an hour.

They, like what I think most of us would do as well, protested. After all, they had been the ones to actually do the work. It was them that produced the true work. The landowner dismisses them and says that they shall be given what they agreed to- the daily wage.

This is hard because this parable is saying that the deathbed confession is as equally offered all that is the Kingdom of God as to the person who had confessed and confirmed his faith in the dawn of life. Who are these people who can come in at the last moment and get the same as the virtually sinless person? Who do they think they are?

God, in his infinite mercy that we all must rely on, embraces them for their faith; not their lack thereof throughout the years. It seems hard to understand that if we live our entire lives integrated into the life of the Church, we receive the same as someone who sees the light at the last possible moment.

It might not be "fair" but does that matter? No. We are not living our lives following the Gospel message in order to receive this glorious gift at the end. We are living it to praise His glory and praise His name. None of our works can purchase for us the rewards of eternal life; eternal life was purchased for us by the life and death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We live our lives of faith by attempting to be the best examples of the Christian message while spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.

If we based our actions on that- being what we were born to be and not what we can gain from it- then we won't grumble when the workers at dawn are given the same as the workers who were idle most of the day. We will rejoice for that is another soul proclaiming the Incarnate Word.

Assuming we know and understand that, this Gospel is still hard. We use the words of Scripture to guide us in whatever battles we are struggling with today.

When praying over this Gospel, the idea of work, as we know it today, came to mind. I thought of Dilbert and Office Space; I thought of the usual 9-5 grind wishing for the days of a hardwall and not having 5 bosses who know nothing about anything. How often do we just zone out while working? How often do we do just enough to get by? Is this the kind of work the parable mentions in today's context?

While, I haven't been a practicing faithful Catholic my entire life- only seven years- I've been Catholic long enough to go through many phases and cycles of Catholcity. I've been Catholic long enough to know that our faith doesn't exist only in phases or cycles either. Our faith and how we live our lives exist in a dynamic equilibrium.

Sometimes our faith tells us how to act. Sometimes our actions tell us what we believe. (A discussion about why liturgy, and exactly how we pray as a community, is important since we believe as we pray. I digress...) And sometimes, we know our actions and our faith are at odds with one another.

This is us slacking off while at work.

No matter our intentions or no matter that we truly never wished to hurt anyone, we do or don't do something we should have done. We let things go too far. We fail to examine ourselves to figure out exactly what we're doing until it's too late. In short, we screw up.

Is there something to be said about this in light of our Gospel? We talk about those- who many of us would like to say are ourselves- who have been working since dawn. In that long day of labor, did we give our all to the harvest? Did we do it all for the greater glory of God? Or did we slack off? Did we just do enough to get by? Do we truly deserve the "just" wage that we are given at the end of our days? Are we hypocritical?

We rely on the mercy of God. While we are seekers, restless with desire, trying to find our way toward what will complete us, we can never gain ourselves what we seek. We can try to fill that desire with lesser things or we play with things that we shouldn't play with or we fall into despair thinking that there is no way to fill our deepest desires. In the end, whether we are at the highest point of our faith cycle, or in our "God" phase or just in that equilibrium wrestling with ourselves, we can only rely on the love and mercy of God.

Senate Bill 7, a measure that would forbid state entities from using eminent domain for commercial purposes, passed both the House and the Senate and is on the way for Gov. Perry's signature.

The bill, which Gov. Perry has spoken in favor for and there is no veto on the horizon, was crafted after the Kelo v. New London U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded the legal use of eminent domain for economic purposes. The bill was filed during the peak of the UT vs. Players battle, and the bill's wording is obvious of this.

The bill adds Chapter 2206 to the State's Government Code placing limits on eminent domain on state agencies, "including an institution of higher education", as the text reads.

More than that, Section 5 of the bill added Section 51.9045 to the Education Code:

The governing board of an institution of higher education may not use the power of eminent domain to acquire land to be used for a lodging facility or for parking or a parking structure intended to be used in connection with the use of a lodging facility.

In all fairness, the owner's cousin is in the House but if you read the House journal for that day (the text is not hyperlinked so scroll down to the review of SB 7), there are many mentions that state agencies shouldn't take land for free-market ventures- hotels mentioned multiple times in the printed remarks from multiple representatives.

In any case, State law should now protect another UT vs. Players event from arising.

We all have only one life. We are not granted a probationary period, free of responsibilities, like we are when we gain our driving licenses. We all set out on the road of life with a full set of responsibilities. There is no provisional license for life, love, faith or death. This is the real thing. We all carry full responsibility from the very beginning. I do not really need to tell you this, as you will be instinctively aware of it as creatures made by God.

World Youth Day has started across the pond in Germany. This event, held every couple of years or so, is a chance for young adults (not youth in the American usage of the word) to gather from across the world to share witness of their faith.

And because God never releases us, even if we break away from him, we always instinctively remain aware of our origin and destination. Saint Augustine already realized this 1,600 years ago. He summarized this insight in his memorable words: "Our hearts are restless until they rest in you."

Something I just thought about again: World Youth Day is a couple of weeks long.

As mentioned previously, I'm working on a Xanga mirroring plugin for Movable Type. In theory, it is functional but I have to modify the MT base code. I don't like that since anytime I upgrade the base code, I would have to reinsert that code. Once I figure out how to make it a plugin, we'll be good.

I've added minor features that are invisible to you (for example, when hover you over here certain abbreviations- such as NASA, UT- some help text pops up telling you what those letters mean. The HTML tag to do that is done by the program without me having to remember).

I have enabled TypeKey authentication on the comments. This optional function allows you to use the TypeKey system to login before posting a comment. If you post to the site and I know you're trustworthy, you'll be able to post comments without waiting for my moderation. If the comment spam problem explodes again, I may require TypeKey authentication before posting a comment.

I've been playing with some other ideas to expand how I can use MT but nothing ready to discuss here.

I'm playing with the latest beta of Movable Type and so far, all seems well.

I have a final later today and then my summer semester will be over. I'll try to get in the habit of posting again. As always, if you notice any bugs, yell at me.

The University of Texas at Austin announced yesterday that they will not attempt to take our beloved Players by eminent domain. While they're still attempting to buy the property, any deal would have to be reached in "weeks, not months" in order to meet UT's timeline. Since Carlos and Eddie have no desire to sell, I think it's safe to say we're can enjoy Player's combos long into the future.

The garage will be incorporated into the land already acquired by UT.

The Austin American-Stateman reports this in today's edition.

Damn the man! Save Players!

The Save Players effort is getting excited. As you may know, The University of Texas is attempting to take the land that a local burger place, Players, owns. Lawmakers are moving forward on SB 7, a bill to restrict the ability of the state to take land for private economic gain.

The measure passed the Senate 25-4 and the House 140-1, as amended.

Tomorrow might be a bright day.

Tomorrow's edition of The Daily Texan includes a story about Coolio peforming at a fraternity party this past Friday night.

Phi Kappa Psi paid $10,000 plus expenses (which included a VIP room stocked with 20 pieces of fried chicken and honey) for Coolio, most famous for "Gangsta's Paradise", to play a 90-minute set in front of over a 1000 UT students.

We could probably get Coolio to play at a Lambda party if we were willing to give up over a year's worth of dues.

I'm about to upgrade the CMS to MT 3.2-beta-3. I'm currently running 3.16. 3.2b3 is supposed to be a near-final release so I'm secure enough with updating my actual site with it. Just to be safe, I dumped the db to my harddrive just in case everything is corrupted after upgrading!

update: Upgrade complete. Now, it's time to play with all of this...

This comes from an e-mail I wrote last week. I skimmed it to take out personal references but may have missed a couple.

Voluntary poverty, as it seems so far, is not simply a position of Dorothy Day or the Catholic Worker or anything along those lines- it is a calling that we all have through our baptism.

There are, I would theorize, many levels of voluntary poverty. You could have a large home that is open for everyone, sharing the gifts with which God has blessed you with those to whom they truly belong- God in the Mystical Body. You could, as St. Francis did, give up everything and wear a burlap sack. You could make all the money in the world but still live in a very modest home with the bulk of your cash assets being used for charity.

As the Holy Cross Constitution (4.34) says, "If we do not love the brothers whom we see, then we cannot love the God whom we have not seen." Love, in all of its splendor, requires us to live as a community. Of course, there are various levels of that as well (hermits, for example, could live in spiritual community with all those whom they dedicate prayer). Continuing, living with love requires us to share among those we love. When a friend comes to Austin, all that I have is yours. The challenge is to extend that love beyond someone who I'm everso close to but to the least of my brothers in and outside the Mystical Body.

The thought has seemed to change over the years but the Mystical Body is the community of believers. Those who are bounded through their common baptism to the Cross and Resurrection of Christ. So yes, we must extend that love to the least of our brothers and sisters in Christ but futhermore, we are members of the human race. Our love should extend to the least our brothers and sisters in Human Existence.

My point is that while the method that Dorothy Day or St. Francis or anyone else used to live a life of voluntary poverty does not dictate to us how we are to discern that life, we are led by Christ to that life. There are probably infinite ways of actually living voluntary poverty in accordance with our own situations in the specific context of where we live but nevertheless, a life of compassion through action is required.