Santa Matt's ramblings

  On August 19, 2023, God called one of his saints home. She was born September 30 1939 and given the name of Mary Bobak. She would be the first of six children born to John and Pauline Bobak. She grew up in a devout Catholic household and at the age of 16 entered the convent to begin her journey to become Sister Mary John Paul SND. During her 60 plus years as a Sister of Notre Dame, she had many jobs, teacher, principle, health coordinator, whatever the sisters needed Mary John Paul would do. But all of these facts only tell us what she was not who she was. And that is what I want to talk about. I met Mary John Paul in the spring of 1972. I had taken Monica Bobak home to Cleveland at the end of her freshman year of college and to meet Monica's family. I was going to ask John's permission to marry his daughter. After I had permission to marry Monica, we began the pleasant task of meeting her family. Among those I met was Sister Mary John Paul SND. Not being Catholic and hav...

I love Chinese food, especially Cantonese. So, one year, many years ago, my mother bought me Chinese cooking classes. I loved it, making my own dishes. My sister was getting married shortly after I completed my cooking class. The reception would have dishes prepared by the members of her gourmet cooking club. I asked her if there   was a Chinese dish that she wanted and she asked for Crab Rangoon also known as fried crab cheese. I made four dozen and they were all gone after the reception. So I pursued my cooking hobby more. My children bought me cooking equipment for Christmas and birthday and I learned even more. So after my daughter-in-law and son-in-law both published books on Amazon, I decided to make and publish a cook book.  Many people have had problems locating my cookbook on Amazon. I mean how many cookbooks are there by Santa? Oh, that many. Maybe I should help with a link? I am shortly going to publish volume 2 so I guess a little self advertising might be useful. ...

Back in 2009 I posted an early form of "My Rules" along with some background on how they came to be. At a breakfast prayer meeting I said something and Mike mentioned Rule #1. I nodded and agreed. The Deacon immediately wanted to know about "My Rules". I explained to him the background and how my life is simpler and happier when I follow the rules and I showed him a copy. He asked me to write up some of my rules and how I apply them to everyday life to make my life less stressful. He says he wants to make a tri-fold that he can hand out to people. So as I wrote up rules I thought I should share them with you too (in case you don't meet the Deacon). So here is what I handed to him. Rules for a happy life. Here are the main rules of how I live my life. I won't tell you that they will solve all of your problems. But following them in your everyday life will reduce your stress and allow you to be happier. Ultimately, you control your happiness. think of the rich...

 Today I'm going to do something here in my blog I've never done before. I'm going to rant! First some background. I spent the last thirty years of my career writing software. The first 10 of those years I still worked for Midnight Burglar Alarm. When the upper management found out I could write software the stopped using their expensive consultant and I took over hardware maintenance and software development. We had 3 mini mainframe computers based on the Data General Nova series. No graphics just accessed via ASCII dumb terminals. I wrote accounting AR and AP systems, Inventory and CSM systems. Eventually we transitions to a PC network (which I engineered) and purchased software from a development company. In my personal life I worked with Timex Sinclairs, Atari personal computers and eventually PC's, Building, modifying and programing them. When ADT bought Midnight Burglar Alarm I was let go. I immediately got a job with the development company that had provided MBA...

Due to changes in my Christmas schedule I was finally available to appear as Santa at the "YMCA Santa Run". So on the appointed day and time I found myself with Mrs. Claus posing for pictures and talking with the runners as I moved to the area the Y had setup for me. Families would come and get pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus. One of the people that came for pictures was a grandma and three grand children, a brother and sister around 5 years old and their cousin a girls about 7 or 8. It was immediately apparent that the brother and sister were her favorites. She seemed to only want pictures of them with Santa. At one point when the older child tried to be in a picture grandma told her "Get out of the picture. You're ruining the picture." After several minutes of this the little girl was in the corner crying and I was seething but I held my temper in check. When grandma finished getting her pictures she took the two younger children aside to look at the pictur...

 Recently I have had many requests for a how to document to make Pixel Goggles. A couple of years back I made three videos for Factory 2 and they are posted on YouTube. Here is a list of what's available and a link to the videos. Pixel Goggles 1 : The original Pixel Goggles based on welding goggles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl1PMHbrlPg&t=52s Pixel Goggles 2 : A physically smaller set of Pixel Goggles based on sun glasaases or eye glasses, also called Pixel Glasses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHIWygxoNXM&t=6s Soldering 101 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bc7v1sXJXE&t=10s I hope these links help you in your own DIY adventures.

Recently I went through some serious medical issues. While I was teaching at a software conference in San Francisco, I became very sick. For over 15 years I have had a problem with fluid build up in my legs. While I was at the conference my left leg became infected. I had a fever of 103 and bouts of hallucinations. I was so sick that I didn't even know I was seriously sick. My wife nursed me and kept me going. My company said I should go home. But between my not realizing how sick I was and my "Get it done" philosophy, I taught all of my classes. My company did rent one of those powered scooter chairs. When we left San Francisco to come back to Michigan, the airline went above and beyond to help me get home. But I was so tired when we got home, I told my wife I needed a couple of hours of sleep before we went to the emergency room. Being of advancing years I went to the hospital that is supposed to be the local specialists in seniors. They immediately started me on an ant...

Simple Pixel Watch (Update to version 6) This is a simple watch using two pixel rings, a Flora and a real time clock (RTC). I wanted a less expensive and lower power consumption alternative to the NeoGeo watch. So I dropped the GPS and positioning boards in favor of a RTC. Construction is easy and fairly quick. You should have some soldering and leather working skills but this is definitely a beginner's level project. Parts List Flora (Adafruit PRODUCT ID: 659) NeoPixel Ring - 12 x 5050 RGBW LEDs (Adafruit any variant) NeoPixel Jewel - 7 x 5050 RGB LED (Adafruit any variant but it is best to match the pixel ring. IE. they should both be cool white or both be natural white.) Real time clock (Adafruit PCF8523 Real Time Clock Assembled Breakout Board) Battery and charger (Adafruit Micro Lipo w/MicroUSB Jack - USB LiIon/LiPoly charger - v1) Assorted leather strips 2 ¼  to 2 ½ inches wide. (One will need to be long enough to go around your wrist and overlap 2-3 ...

So the whole family gets together for a late breakfast or brunch. All of my kids and grand kids were there and Pam's fiancee' Zack and Monica's brother and his two kids. Quite a few of us and a small table for the grand kids and their chaperon which doesn't show in the pictures.  Here we have Ralph and Angela, Monica's Brother Steve and James Here we have James again and his wife Adrienne, Pam and Zack. In the background you can see Jonathon, Steve's son and the chaperon for the grandkids table around the corner.  I peeled a blue colored egg and it must have had a small hole in the shell. Look at the interesting pattern it left.  Jonathon took turns giving his second cousins piggyback and horsey rides. Here is Sera's turn as soon as she puts down here Easter loot.  Here is Angela and Monica sitting and chilling, talking to James in the picture below. In the background you can see Jonathon giving AJ a ride. I think AJ enjoyed it more t...

Easter is the holiest day of the year for Catholics. We believe that what took place on that first Easter two millenniums ago changed all of creation for all of time. So we try and make it special. Catholics also mark days like our Jewish brethren as sundown to sundown, not midnight to midnight. So starting a bit before sundown on Holy Saturday, we start the vigil for the celebration of Easter. We start outside of our darkened church. There we light a fire against the darkness. From that fire we light the new Easter candle that we will use for the next year. From the Easter candle we light our individual candles and enter the church following the Easter candle and the priest. In this picture are some of the altar servers waiting to start the procession.  Okay, one little flash picture just so you can see the Easter candle being carried by the deacon and father in the background in white and gold vestments. The church is lit only by the candles as...

OK, so I'm a lousy writer. I never seem to have anything to say when I sit down to blog. Wow! Two years since my last blog. Well I've decided to make a change! I will begin with this post to make this a photo blog. I take tons of pictures and I'm going to start post pictures with captions and occasional longer text. So here goes the first one: Every Easter we have a traditional Slovak breakfast. My wife Monica is pure Slovak and pure Catholic. So we have this tradition, we make all of this special food and take it to the church Saturday and get it blessed by the priest. Here are pictures from the blessing.   The basket with the square handle is ours. Father Gary comes out singing lines from "Tradition" from "Fiddler on the Roof"  He reads some of the traditional prayers from the book. Talks about the tradition and then blesses the food with more prayers and the sprinkling of holy water. Most people give him samples of their bakery in grati...

So I'm sitting in church this morning, in the back row with my fellow Knights. You see 11:00 AM Mass today was a Corporate Communion and I, being a Fourth Degree Knight and in the Honor Guard, helped escort Father in before taking our seats in the back. So anyway, I'm sitting on the first seat next to the center aisle, in the back row, and I look across the aisle and I see a little strawberry blond girl maybe 4 or 5 years old. She smiles at me. I smile at her. I wave at her and she waves at me. This kind of thing goes on for a little over half of the Mass until one of the times we stand, she slips out of the pew and comes over to me. The Congregation sits down. She says, "You put a present for me under our Christmas tree." I say "Yes, I know." Then she says "Thank you." and scampers back to her pew, ju st as her parents realize she is gone and start looking around. At the rite of peace I go and give her mom one of my "I saw you being nice...

OK, it has been awhile but it seems there is more to this mystic thing then assembling a new toy for the grand kids. I have read and meditated long on this and I have some observations. My first thoughts were how to achieve my "Dark Night of the Senses". Should I deny all sensual aspects of my life? But then I realized that it is less about denial then changing my perceptions of sensual things. Ignore good food for bland food? No, eat the same but gain an appreciation of where it came from. Think about the person who prepared it. What are their thoughts and feelings as a human being, not just their skill as a cook. Then I thought about how will I know when I have passed through my "Dark Night of the Senses"? Then I realized it is not the destination that was important, but the journey. In an earlier post I talked about my vision of people as spirit guides. I had a vision of me climbing a mountain. God is at the top of the mountain. And as I climbed along the path I ...

More than a year ago, I read an article about the Zen Catholic. I found the concept of a meditative, contemplative Catholic faith fascinating. So I did some research for books on the subject only to find they are out of print and a bit rare. Then a friend of mine gave me a book. He had read it a couple of times and it excited him so much that he bought copies for several of his friends, I being one of them. The book, "The Shattered Lantern" by Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, starts out discussing why we, as a modern people, have such a hard time perceiving God's presence. Why we try to rationalize miracles both the big ones and the everyday ones. It discusses where we lost our child like ability to be amazed by the wonders around us everyday. It is pretty interesting reading. But then, it moves on to how we can regain our perception of wonder, how we can become more mystic . . . Hold on! This is what I am looking for. Fr. Rolheiser pulls from the teachings of St. John of the Cross ...

Mom to Mom Sales! This morning my two daughters went to the Mom to Mom sale at our church. (Even though only one of them is a mom, they like to do things together. Sisters, go figure.) Anyway, Angela took 20 boxes of children clothes, most of it from preemie through 2T. She also had assorted baby furniture, cribs, high chairs that sort of thing, all of the stuff one gathers when one has twins. She also brought two little picnic tables her husband Ralph had made. Angela priced every article of clothing she had a 25 cents. She gave boxes of stuff to Heartbeat (who collects infant needs for mothers who need help and choose life over abortion). All of the big stuff was in a consignment area. The doors opened at 8:00AM and people were lined up to get the bargains. By 10:00AM all of Angela's furniture was sold. At one point a mom and her little girl were shopping and the little girl wanted some Elmo shoes sized for a preemie. Her mom told her, "They won't fit you." To which...

I got up at 6:30 am and if you know me, that is unheard of on the weekend. But I got up and went down to the First Presbyterian Church, met my daughter so we could help serve breakfast. I poured milk and juice into cups and lined them up on the serving line so the guests could pick one up as they went by. Besides hot food, cereal and an assortment of baked goods were also served. So when the guests arrived and passed through the line sometimes I would help them carry their breakfast to their table. I don't know what I expected as far as who would be there. I met obvious street people, those who have been homeless for an extended period of time. And I met the poor, people that had a place to stay some nicer clothes that maybe just needed a little help with their groceries. I met a group of what were obviously construction workers. They still wore parts of their work clothes, out of work and few prospects. And I met the lonely. Once the guests had gone through the line, the workers w...

So I'm sitting in church and I am thinking about Marie, a friend of mine. A couple of years ago I went to, for lack of a better term, a religious retreat called Cursillo. After I had made my Cursillo, I started attending prayer and sharing sessions with other cursillistas, among them was Marie. I knew Marie from around church but I wouldn't have called us friends. But over the course of many months we have become friends and for some reason, listening to her witness about her faith and her responses to my witness has become important to me. I can not fathom why what she shares should seem more important to me but it seems it is. So while I am sitting in church, pondering this realization, I begin to think of all of the people that have had a major influence on my spiritual life. At the age of 12 I would walk to the church down the road, there I met Richie Massey. His friendship was my first contact with the spiritual. My next spiritual guide was without a doubt the biggest infl...