After several weeks of web development and preparation the Vagabond Loafers podcast is now live! Vagabond Loafers is a podcast about theology, technology, politics, and anything else that happens to surface during our exhilarating Skype sessions.. The incredible vocal and technological talent for the Vagabond Loafers is provided by the incomparable Californian, Anthony Martin, and the incomprehensible Illinoisan, yours truly. Let the audio enjoyment begin!

In what can only be seen as a record week here in the Jackson house, I received my third in a trifecta of great customer service experiences today. The first “win” being an unsolicited week of free service from Skype, the second being a direct response to a query from the author of Murach’s Java SE 6 about a missing tutorial, and the final victory today when I received a favorable response to a an exchange request from Audible.

While browsing around Audible for something new from the pen of Dickens with which to aid my slumber, I had the crazy idea that I might try to redeem some value from a book I had purchased, but which was unbearable to the ear due to the droning monotony of the narrator. Specifically, I had purchased Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, narrated by Jim Killavey some months ago, only to find that Mr. Killavey’s voice is exceedingly painful to listen to, and adds no depth to the narration whatsoever. The quality was so dreadful that I was unable to get past the first chapter, and the book has sat un-listened to for months.

As I said, I was browsing around Audible for something new. By chance I ran across the same book, but narrated by Robert Whitfield instead of Mr. Killavey. I sent an email to Audible asking if it would be possible to exchange the Killavey copy of the book for the Whitfield copy. Imagine my surprise and deslight when I recieved an email this morning not only telling me this would be possible, but that my library at Audible had already been updated to reflect the change!

Needless to say, Whitfield is a superb narrator, and has filled my head with countless hours of windmill chasing from the pen of Miguel de Cervantes, and many more hours seeking justice for Nicholas Nickleby. Now, Whitfield will continue to partner with Dickens, and Our Mutual Friend Audible, to bring many more hours of literary enjoyment into my life. Who could ask for anything more?

My brother sent me a link to an extraordinary article at Time entitled, Mother Teresa’s Crisis of Faith. The article speaks of a new book by Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk entitled, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, in which Kolodiejchuk compiles a lifetime of letters from Mother Teresa to her confessors in which she reveals the darkness of her soul.

I have tried to explain this situation to others, and have often been misunderstood. The tendency of those that are not experiencing a “dark night of the soul”, a term coined by St. John of the Cross in the 16th century, often mistake such an experience as a lack of faith, or proof that a person does not believe in a personal relationship with Christ. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are not guaranteed a “feelings based” relation ship with our Lord, and indeed the dark night of one may be a week, while the dark night of another may last a lifetime.

So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them — because of the blasphemy — If there be God — please forgive me — When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven — there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives & hurt my very soul. — I am told God loves me — and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.–Mother Teresa

You are not so much in the dark as you think … You have exterior facts enough to see that God blesses your work … Feelings are not required and often may be misleading.–Archbishop Ferdinand Périer

I can’t express in words — the gratitude I owe you for your kindness to me — for the first time in … years — I have come to love the darkness — for I believe now that it is part of a very, very small part of Jesus’ darkness & pain on earth. You have taught me to accept it [as] a ’spiritual side of your work’ as you wrote — Today really I felt a deep joy — that Jesus can’t go anymore through the agony — but that He wants to go through it in me.–Mother Teresa

I accept not in my feelings — but with my will, the Will of God — I accept His will.–Mother Teresa

The tendency in our spiritual life but also in our more general attitude toward love is that our feelings are all that is going on,…And so to us the totality of love is what we feel. But to really love someone requires commitment, fidelity and vulnerability. Mother Teresa wasn’t ‘feeling’ Christ’s love, and she could have shut down. But she was up at 4:30 every morning for Jesus, and still writing to him, ‘Your happiness is all I want.’–Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk

I’m on a role with customer relations. I’m working my way through Murach’s Java SE 6, and enjoying it thoroughly. At any rate there is a tutorial mentioned in the book that I could not locate on the Murach website. When I wrote asking about it I received the following reply from the author of the book!

 

Hello Aaron,

Well, it looks like we forgot to post the printf tutorial for the Java SE 6 book to our web site. Thanks for pointing this out. We will fix this as soon as possible.

In the meantime, you can download the printf tutorial for our Java 5 book by going here:

http://www.murach.com/dloads/jav5/Printf_tutorial.pdf

The printf method works the same for Java 5 and 6, so everything in this tutorial should work for Java 6 even though it says Java 5.

Thanks again,

Joel Murach
Mike Murach & Associates

With service like that you can’t help but go back for more.