More Social Volcano Spewage

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Some op-ed output from the ‘Pinas on this idiotic “congressional canvas of votes” farce: Amando Doronilla, Rasheed Abou-Alsamh, Max Soliven, and Teddy Benigno. Benigno, of course, is brimming with the requisite “social volcano” gloom and doom scenario, predicting — yet again — that this is what will finally cause the Philippines to boil over into violent mass chaos — yet again. The man’s a great columnist and a brilliant political analyst, but the more he makes these predictions, the less I believe them. Just like when he writes about Iraq and uses the word “quagmire.” (Wolf! Wolf!) Latest word is that Poe’s lawyers have pulled out. Spoiled, obstructionist opposition versus ambitious, power-hungry admin. Guess who’ll win.

I’m happy to see that Philstar has broken out of frames and redone their website a bit. Sadly, they’ve fallen prey to the same marketing clutter that infects the Inq7 front page: a discordant mess of ad buttons — some rather annoyingly animated — cutting through content and interrupting the flow of layout. Large media websites normally set standards on how ad banners and buttons should look, so they integrate well into a design; but hey, if youze gots to make the money, youze gots to take what ads youze can gets. It’s not as though sidebar blogads are any better visually.

Lunch Hour: Instant Replay

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Just had lunch at Chipotlé with Salim, who has been freshly implanted from Boston. Coming from MA, he has delightful things to say about John Kerry — as delightful as the things I had to say about Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Fernando Poe Jr.

Salim, who posts so fast that his entry about lunch was up before I had even gotten back to the office, has some excellent advice on eating at Chipotlé. We’ll definitely be going back there.

On the Priority of Eschatology

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The exaggerated importance of adopting an eschatological position, via Aaron’s link to a lengthy treatise on J. Gresham Machen by John Frame. Oof. I was just speaking with Amy about this a few nights ago. Having “left behind” mainstream rapture-crazy dispensational premillenialism years ago, I’ve been wondering which eschatological outlook to adopt. Postmillenialism’s promise of the church bringing about the new heaven is far too humanistic to be considered properly Scriptural, preterism is too dismissive of prophecies which could not possibly have been fulfilled in the first century AD, and amillenialism just confuses me.

But the “Oof” that I oof above comes from the fact that perhaps I don’t need to categorically fall into a class of eschatological outlook to be a proper believer. Certainly I should not be so obsessed with researching possible “endtimes” outcomes at the expense of feeding the hungry and spreading the good news. “But if I have not love…”

That said, here is the bulk of my eschatology reading for the next year or so. But first, I need to reacquaint myself with the basics.

Update, four hours later: Speaking of eschatology, I failed to mention that ever-indispensable resource, the BLB: Four Views on the Millenium gives a nice, concise summary of the main branches of Millenial understanding, with bible links and bibliographic references.

McDivitt

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Weird blue mannequin inside the spacesuit of James A. McDivitt aboard the Gemini 4 capsule, Air and Space Museum.

Photo taken with a Palm Zire 71.

Enterprise

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Model of the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701, used in the original Star Trek series. It is now on permanent display in the basement of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Store.

Photo taken with a Palm Zire 71.

GMail Contest One: The Dane

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UPDATE: This contest is cancelled. You all lose.

I have spare GMail invites and no need for another couch, so I’m thinking of offering them as prizes in three separate contests.

Contest Number One: First person who can get The Dane to start posting to his blog again, gets a GMail invite from me. Offer void if The Dane himself suddenly starts posting without impetus from any of you. You must show proof that it was you who got him to post. Photos are preferred.

Oh, and I finally mustered up the bandwidth to view one of his “vidblogs,” number thirty. It took me two hours to get the joke.

LHC Decade

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As Anj and Row point out, last Thursday, June 10, marked a full decade since our first day of college. We’ve been friends for ten years. So thanks, Toni, Anj, Row, Ganns, Krn, Bok, Erik, Chiqui, and well, Tiff. Couldn’t have made it through college without you, and I’m glad we’re still in touch after all the changes and transitions. (And if I’ve forgotten someone’s name/link, yell at me in the comments.)

ESV Overboard

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The website of Good News and Crossway, publishers of the ESV, is now done in CSS and Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict, with a clean, clear layout. Very nice work by an excellent Christian book publisher.

I lost my ESV bible last Christmas; it was in a bag pocket which I hadn’t zipped up properly, so when I picked up the bag from the baggage claim, everything that had been in that pocket — just a couple of hangers in addition to the ESV — had fallen out, somewhere between Manila, Hong Kong, Chicago, and Dulles. I only hope someone at some airport picked the bible up and made good use of it. I’ve ordered a new compact thinline to replace it.

Segway, now in Blue

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Meanwhile, at Segway HQ:

“People aren’t buying our Segway! Why?”

“Maybe because it costs $5000 and no one can afford that?”

“No, that can’t be it.”

“Maybe because it’s not blue?”

“Yes, yes, of course! Make a new blue Segway at the same maddeninlgy exorbitant price! That’ll bring in the buyers and change the world!”