Eating dinner at JFK now. There’s free wireless streaming out of an airline lounge. What’s this called? Wareating?
Dulles Security Line
Line for security, Dulles Airport. Wah.
Leaving on a Jet Plane
Tonight, I head home to Manila, with two layovers of six hours each in New York and Dubai. I’m flying Emirates, on an Airbus A340-500 for the NY-Dubai leg of the trip, and an A330-200 for the Dubai-Manila leg. (Airliners.net has photos of the plane cabins I’ll be riding in for about 24 hours: A340-500, A330-200.) Emirates’ Airbuses have personal entertainment at every seat, with movies, games, and exterior aircraft views on demand, so I’m looking forward to a moderately fun flight, hopefully in a bulkhead exit row seat.
I’ll be on holiday in Manila for two weeks through Christmas and New Year, relaxing while I spend time with the family. If things work out, we may spend New Year scuba diving in Batangas. My brother tells me they just got DSL at home, so I won’t be out of any loops.
For now, time to pack and rush off to Dulles. Watch this space for mobile updates via Flickr. See you on the other side.
Comment Spam Attack
I’ve just been notified that my host had to disable Movable Type comments because a sudden comment spam attack of DDOS proportions was bringing down the server. That’s why the site has been slow lately, and commenters have been getting Server Error messages. I’m wondering what to do right now; this is exactly the wrong time for it to happen.
See Photodude’s entry on comment spam: MT Plus Comment Spam Equals Dead Site.
The site’s due for an overhaul anyway. I’m off on holiday for the next two weeks; I’ll have time to think about it.
Update: Jay Allen reports on the server load issue. You can be sure I’ll be installing the upgrade when it comes out.
Update: Coments are back.
DC Baseball: Field of Reams
Why.I.Hate.DC details the essentials on Baseball in DC. Having the Nationals would be great, but I don’t think any of us in DC (with the exception of “Bowtie”) want it so much that we’ll spend $600M of our taxes on baseball, at no cost to MLB. After last night, MLB will likely pull baseball out of DC altogether after next season. Can’t have them spending money to make money, after all; they seem to be quite clear that it’s DC’s job to pay for MLB’s profits.
(Yes, yes, I know that it’s business taxes paying for the stadium and the Nationals, but it’s still money that ultimately comes from the common people of DC. Also see No DC Taxes for Baseball.)
FPJ Dies
Oh, the things I miss when I fail to follow Philippine news for just a few days.
FPJ was the classic formula Filipino action star. It’s said that he could never be shown dying or being defeated in any of his films, because the one time it did happen that his character was killed, Filipino moviegoers rioted. I don’t know if that’s true (and if so, what movie was it?), but now the unthinkable has happened: Fernando Poe Jr. has quite suddenly passed away. Without warning: a stroke, a coma, and death, and so ends the career of one of the Philippines’ greatest celebrities. It’s my hope he is remembered for his illustrious career in Filipino cinema rather than for his notorious but mercifully brief stint as hapless political puppet.
More from Salamangkiero, Sassy Lawyer, Psychic Pants, and Click Mo Mukha Mo.
Falsetto Sotto Voce
Yesterday was the Christmas Candlelight Service at First Baptist DC, which, for the choir, meant a full day practicing with two other choirs and a brass ensemble. Musical highlights included Verdi’s Ave Maria (the one with the scala enigmatica, and no, I don’t know what Baptists were doing singing an Ave Maria) and Dirksen’s Welcome All Wonders (which sounded frightfully dissonant in rehearsal but seemed to even out a bit with the brass). The tenors have been lacking in number lately, so I offered to switch up to tenor from my standard baritone, just for the day.
The tenor parts were very, very high. Hence the title of this post.
Empty Sanctuary
Sanctuary of First Baptist DC, empty while the choir practices for tonight’s Christmas Candlelight Service.
Pandora in Bed
Photo taken with a Canon Powershot A400.
Dropping Calvin’s Shuriken
Post-Reformed, Not Post-Reformed: Tim decides to leave the label behind him, while Aaron expounds on Compassionate Calvinism. I wish Brian at Barukatash were still around with permalinks so I could reference the entry where he says he’s not out to “stab people with his five points.”
(Aaron’s post, by the way, includes an excellent quote from Eugene Peterson’s “The Message,” which, though I have criticized it in the past, shines through as a solid and fully applicable exegetical paraphrase in this instance.)