Winter’s Heart

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I’ve just finished Winter’s Heart, ninth book of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. Recent installments in this fantasy series were wearing my patience thin, with too many minor characters and subplots, slow and monotonous plot progression, and lackluster character development. Through the first half of the book it seemed to be more of the same, and I was getting disappointed, but things intensify later on, and the [somewhat sudden] ending of Winter’s Heart makes up for past shortcomings. Sort of. At least with this book, I’ve decided not to abandon the WoT series altogether.

Things to look forward to: Now that Rand and Nynaeve have cleansed the Dark One’s taint from saidin, will the nature of the Last Battle change? Has the Breaking of the World been averted, now that male channelers will no longer go mad? Also, since Rand has slept with all three of his lovers now (Elayne, Aviendha, Min), making at least two of them pregnant, will his children also figure in the plot? Or will they die at his hands as was prophesied of the Kinslayer? (Personally, I wish Rand would settle for one of them, and I don’t like Min. But that’s just me.) More importantly, when will Moiraine return?! When will Egwene take the White Tower, and when will Perrin rescue Faile? That’s two plotlines left hanging less than halfway through the book. Grrr!

Characters who did not appear at all: Suian Sanche, Gareth Byrne, Gawyn, Galad, Loial the Ogier. That last one is one of my favorites, and I can’t even remember what subplot he disappeared into.

And has anyone noticed the intricate web of Warder-bonding? The Aes Sedia Alanna Mosvani bonded Rand as her Warder. Rand is bonded to Elayne, Aviendha, and Min. Elayne and Aviendha are bonded to each other as first-sisters. Elayne is also bonded to Birgitte as Aes Sedai to Warder. So Rand has four people in his head now. (Alanna, Elayne, Aviendha, and Min. Five people if you count Lews Therin.) Elayne is a close second (Birgitte, Aviendha, and Rand). And I wonder why Nynaeve hasn’t bonded Lan yet?

Comments from other WoT fans welcome.

Kolvenbach

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Looking past the somewhat irrational haze of anti-Catholic rhetoric, the so-called “Black Pope” Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach has a rich background of work as a Jesuit, and quite impressive credentials. I really don’t know how the sensationalist “Black Pope” label could have stuck to this guy. If I had chosen to remain Catholic and joined the Society of Jesus, this man would have been an excellent model to follow.

Lasingero flame 1

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C:WINDOWS>tracert 208.160.252.174

Tracing route to 208.160.252.174 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 1 ms <10 ms <10 ms xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

2 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

3 43 ms 47 ms 34 ms serial8-1.7513-1LTP1.eastern-tele.com [203.167.96.29]

4 50 ms 65 ms 78 ms fastethernet1-0-0.7507-1LTP3.eastern-tele.com [203.167.95.9]

5 45 ms 20 ms 8 ms CoreRt1.manilaix.net.ph [203.167.95.19]

6 70 ms 63 ms 39 ms moscom-etpi.manilaix.net.ph [202.0.91.25]

7 166 ms 63 ms 133 ms peak-to-etpi.mozcom.net [208.160.240.2]

8 76 ms 67 ms 64 ms 202.47.132.246

9 218 ms 213 ms 228 ms 61.9.3.230

10 55 ms 50 ms 129 ms 208.160.252.174

Trace complete.

Hello there, “Lasingero.” Thanks for texting. Keep it up, why don’t you? I’d love to give Mozcom’s customer service a call.

Index 44 CSS

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Since IE5/Win gets the CSS box model wrong, Index44 proved troublesome in the area of aligning the padded menu DIV below the title graphic. IE5/Win pads inside the DIV, while Opera5/Win (and, I assume, other compliant browsers) pad outside the box, hence making it impossible to align properly across several browsers.

For situations like this I usually use an “inline padding” workaround, leaving the main “.menu” class unpadded, then adding a padding declaration inside the DIV itself. Failing that, a forced “width” declaration inline usually helps. Neither worked in this case, however, so I had to fall back on a more traditional solution: a background graphic.

Pity. I was hoping CSS-based design would help eliminate the need for a background graphic in this case. Truth to tell, it would have, if only the browser majority would start displaying code according to standards. A few more years to wait yet, I suppose.

Tracking my Application Package

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Fedex tracking says my application has arrived, but wait… Mapquest shows that Linthicum Heights is some distance from the school’s address in Baltimore. Man, I hope it wasn’t delivered to the wrong place. I’d better call tonight to make sure. Any Marylanders know what gives?

Update: I just called them up, and they confirmed receiving it! I would do the happy dance, but it’s past midnight and I might bother the neighbors. Thank you Lord!

River of Lava

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Can you imagine a river of lava flowing right through your city? That’s what happened in Goma last month, with the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo.

I wonder if Calamba or Los Baños would be similarly affected if Mt. Makiling were to reawaken. (Or even Manila?)