Late Sunday afternoon: service is long over, church is mostly empty, and the sun in the west shines into the Sunday School crafts room — and sometime prayer room, I guess, judging from the cross and candles. By the way, this was a color shot.
Sunday: Sick Cat, Island Hike, Green Curry
Sunday morning before service was supposed to be spent at church eating a Deacons’ Pancake Breakfast to benefit the retirees at Thomas House. Instead, I stayed home, laundering a bathroom rug and bed sheets after Pandora pooped on one and threw up on the other. Don’t worry, she’s feeling much better now, and the poop problem is an old one, and she misses the litter box more than half the time.
After service, some of the young adults joined up for a hike around Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt Island. Teddy Island is always a pleasure to visit — though parking by the footbridge on a summer Sunday afternoon is a nightmare — and we even did a couple of trails I hadn’t been aware of before.
I also lunched on of the best bowls of Thai green curry I’ve ever had, at Bua Restaurant, and I liked it so much I went to Whole Foods immediately after the hike to get myself some green curry mix and free range chicken. Tonight’s the night I make my first Thai-style curry. Wish me luck.
For your pleasure, some photos from Teddy Island:
Wet Parakeet
Here’s how Pickles the Parakeet looked when I came in this morning on neighborly petsitting duty; as with most birds, he dunks his head in the water bowl to clean:
And here he is on my shoulder a few nights ago, about to peck at my smirking mug:
Weblog Tipping Point
I’ve received a link in the weblog tip chain from Andrew, which works like so:
- Choose three or more bloggers you admire and link to them.
- List three reasons why you admire each one
- Add one tip for each blogger.
Here’s a random selection of three out of the many writers (sorry, I still refuse to use the word “blogger” too gratuitously) I link to:
Locusts and Honey. (1) Lots of insight into the world of Methodist weblogs. While I was in Baltimore, I regulary attended at Old Otterbein UMC for a time, and am still fascinated by UMC history. (2) Art! Ever since he highlighted Christ in the Wilderness, I’ve regularly checked in on him for more “Sermons on Canvas” and art-related stuff. Having a painter for a girlfriend is a factor. (3) Caption Contests. Tip: Break out of the 19th Century Neoclassical movement and try checking out some Middle Ages stuff. You ever visit DC, I’ll take you through the National Gallery’s Early Renaissance wing.
I Am Sparticus. (1) Sparticus (real name Mark) often writes on Christianity-oriented topics with a pithy sense of wit. I gain from many of his posts a unique perspective on aspects of faith which I would otherwise take for granted. Like how many Reformed Points various theologians are worth. (2) This pithy wit is often applied to other things, not necessarily faith-oriented, like how to take a MySpace photo. (3) Seeing photos of him and friends at pubs gives me some perspective on just how out of touch with Scripture and real life teetotalling prohiBaptists are. Tip: No more pubs! Know ye not the dangers of strong drink, oh ye alcoholic Britons!
Talk With the Preacher. (1) As the woman Baptist Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Downtown DC, she has a thoughtful response to those who say women can’t be pastors. (2) She regularly has coffee with our pastor at First Baptist DC to talk about lectionary stuff. See, there they are. (3) The Marble System. Tip: Please go ahead and cite your Scriptural proof texts for women as ministers. Bullet-pointed proof text verses are the Baptist conversational currency!
Those of you linked, go right ahead and follow the “tipping point” instructions. I’ll wait here while you do that. Tipping Point Honorable Mentions also go out to: Internet Monk, Real Live Preacher, Sacra Doctrina, OKCalvin, Dispatches from Outland, Cre8d Design, El Caballo Muerto, Novum Testamentum and Mosaic Life, WallJM, and all the rest of you.
Bain Searcher
Hey, I’m curious. Who’s the person at Bain and Co. Management Consultants who just googled me at least three times, once for “brownpau” and then twice for my full name? Is there someone I know at Bain, or does something in my weblog directly affect one of their clients? I’m guessing that since the first search was for “brownpau,” it’s someone who knows me from online rather than from real life, and only searched for me by name after finding it on my site.
Stickam
Stickam. One might be tempted to dismiss it at first glance as just a video-enabled Myspace clone for emo teens with webcams; but looking past that you’ll find a fairly robust and platform-independent Flash-based webcam broadcast and videoconferencing app. There’s a profile page with an embedabble Flash viewer, a full screen personal conference popup with privacy options, group video chat rooms, and hosted galleries for photo, video and audio content. Is this the dawn of Cam Whoring 2.0? Oh, and see if you can catch the Pissed-Off Caveman, actually a webcam pointed at a Robot Chimpanzee Head all day.
As an example, here’s my Stickam conference page (which right now just shows my cat, as I’m not at home). The cool part is that it’s streaming, it’s live, and I didn’t need to set up a cam server or even download software to do it. It’s all running from a browser window.
Update: I have left Stickam and switched to uStream.
Update: As of February 2013, Stickam has shut down.
Pandora Sitting Up
Here’s something you don’t get to see everyday: Pandora, actually sitting up rather than lying down:
The reason she’s so intent is because I had just fed her a bit of medium rare steak, and was slicing off another piece at that moment.
Hurry Poop
These words of wisdom were scrawled on MrMoonPie’s refrigerator:
In response I heartily suggest the mixing of a shot of espresso* into a bowl of quick cook oatmeal**. Believe me when I tell you that it will most definitely hurry poop.
* Caffeine can stimulate accelerated peristalsis in the digestive tract, so that your intestines push out more waste faster. Doctors, back me up on this.
** Oatmeal is loaded with fiber, which, as you may know, makes you poop.
Moth in Cup
I have no idea how this moth got into my room, but it flew up right up to my left arm, slow and calm as you please — so I trapped it in a plastic cup, and got this photo before letting it out the window.
Mayon Building up to Explosive Eruption?
Before anything else, kudos to Estan for the amazing photos of the lava flows currently pouring down the slopes of Mayon Volcano:
(Mt. Mayon eruption, uploaded by estan.)
Mayon Volcano has been undergoing an effusive eruption in recent weeks, with lava flowing down its slopes into the surrounding area since mid-July. Ash columns emerging from the cone have now prompted PHIVOLCS to go to Alert Level 4, meaning an explosive eruption is imminent, and evacuation of the nearby population has begun.
News items on the situation from Inquirer, Sun Star, BBC. I really like this photo showing the locals watching lava right where it’s flowing into the danger zone. Trust Pinoys to go rushing to a dangerous lava flow to make usi (rubberneck).
And here’s a lovely news gem from Fox: Mayon Volcano is in Indonesia!
Yes, the Associated Press text says “Philippines,” and any Filipino will tell you that it’s in the Philippines, and a simple glance at the news will tell you the same; but somehow whoever adds the headlines and categorizes incoming wire stories wasn’t paying attention and gave it that headline and filed it under Indonesia. Way to go, Fox News! (Mark noticed too.)
Update: After several hours, Fox finally corrected the headline. Our long national nightmare is over.