Recent Reading: In The Presence of My Enemies

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In the Presence of My Enemies, by Gracia Burnham. Remember the Burnhams? Missionaries on furlough, they were kidnapped from their beach resort by Abu Sayyaf thugs in 2001, and were held hostage for more than a year before a tragic rescue attempt, in which Martin was killed and Gracia wounded by “friendly” fire.

Gracia’s account of their time as hostages is written in simple and natural language, interspersed with flashbacks to her Christian upbringing, marriage to Martin, and ministry work in the Philippines. Frank and brutally honest about every aspect of the hostage situation, Gracia’s story describes problems from disease and diarrhea to struggles with faith and morality. Gracia readily admits points when they behaved in less than a Christian manner, giving in to faithlessness, despair, distrust, and hatred; yet always finding themselves brought back to faith by little miracles which saw them through to the end of the ordeal. They dealt with struggles of faith as we all do, and were never always perfect, but were constantly reminded that God watched over them, and had called them to live and die for his purposes.

By the way, there were parts where I couldn’t help but smile at how Filipino the story was, from the onomatopoeic first line, to descriptions of food and drink, to retooled vocabulary words and other cultural quirks. In some ways the book is as much a look into the Filipino psyche and culture as it is a kidnap-and-hostage story.

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The End of Cherry Blossom Season

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Withering Cherry Blossom Stems 2

Fallen, withered cherry blossom stems litter the walk around the Tidal Basin. The cherry trees are simple green-leafed trees like any other now, and will be so till next Spring.

Submerged Tidal Basin bank

High tide and pre-storm river surge have swollen the Potomac so that the Tidal Basin has flooded its lower-lying banks near Jefferson Memorial. The poles sticking out of the water mark what should be a waterside walkway.

Photos taken with an Oregon Scientific Thincam.

Oregon Scientific DS6628

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I just impulse-bought a new camera at the Discovery Store: a blue Oregon Scientific Thincam DS6628. It’s about the length and width of a credit card, but a few millimeters thicker. Image quality is just barely okay — a bit fragmented and faded, which I expected — but it’s comparable to my old Pencam SD, and quite decent for a tiny camera. Additionally, and unlike other tiny cameras of its genre, the thincam comes with a plugin flash attachment, which helps immensely for indoor and night photos which most other non-flash-equipped tiny cameras would be unable to capture.

Here’s the first photo, taken at night in my room with just indoor lighting and no flash. (Click to view it larger on Flickr.)

Proactive Utilization of Synergistic Vocabulary

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[stynxno] what’s a good definition for “buzzwords?”

[brownpau] Buzzwords are proactive utilizations of synergistic vocabulary seeking to produce paradigmatic value within a semantic ecosystem of business architecture.

(shamelessly reposted from my LJ.)

Spring Around Dupont Circle

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Maple Flowers

Little green maple flowers budding from a tree on 21st St NW.

Anchorage Building

Anchorage Building at Conn Ave and Q St NW. Higher-resolution counterpoint to this older photolog entry.

Dupont Circle Escalator From Above

Escalator descending into the cavernous maw of the Dupont Circle Metro south exit.

A Walljm Visit

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Jason Wall came over to DC on business, and we’ve spent the last two nights on photo safari, doing the whole tourist thing around the National Mall and the Tidal Basin. My photos here, his photos whenever he comes out of hiatus.

Gadget Splurge

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I just treated myself to an Apple Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. (Discount secondhand blemished units from eBay, but they look and feel brand new.) It’s great: two less cords tangling up on my desk, and I can type this from just about anywhere in the room. (Of course, it’s pointless to type from such a distance that I can’t read what’s on the screen, but it’s still pretty cool.)

The bluetooth input devices needed a bluetooth adapter, so I picked up a D-Link DBT-120 at the Apple Store. The adapter is smaller than my thumb, and it began working as soon as I plugged it into a USB port on my iBook. As I opened up System Preferences and saw the new Bluetooth section pop up, I reflected that this is the Way that computers should work.

I was also missing my old Fire-I webcam so much (the one I lost in Dubai) that I ordered another one. (Again, secondhand from eBay, but arrived looking like new.) The Logitech Quickcam I’ve been using has been a pain in the neck; on most days the video ouptut is jerky or nonexistent until the cam is unplugged then replugged, the “snapshot” button on top is prone to accidental pressing, the lens cover doesn’t attach securely and tends to fall off, the screw attaching the camera to its malleable base comes loose too easily, and the image quality is average at best. Now that a Fire-I camera is once again hooked up to my firewire port, all is well once more with my webcam section.

I also went to the T-Mobile store and tried to buy a new Nokia 6600 cellphone (because my Sony Ericsson T300 is another pain in the neck to use), but the 6600s were out of stock. Just as well, I suppose, since I’ve spent more than enough on electronics this month.

(And this isn’t tax refund money: I was saving up. I did all my taxes and got my refund last month, and it was the tax haiku all over again.)