Doulos

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I joined Tiff’s folks two Sundays ago to visit the Doulos, which (until yesterday) was docked at Manila North Harbor. Wow, I never thought the ship was so big. I had been expecting something about the size of Big Blue (the liveaboard we stayed on in Palau), but this was much bigger, more on the order of a frigate or a small passenger vessel. The only bigger ship I had ever been on in my life was the Queen Mary. (Did you know the Doulos has been in service since 1914? That’s just two years less than the Titanic.)

It being a Sunday, the ship was brimming with visitors. We lined up to climb the gangway along with hundreds of other people, and were greeted on deck by crewmembers from various ethnic backgrounds. (Yes, P. Mark, I know their greetings were sincere. :) From there we went down a flight of stairs and passed through a deck crawling with children, who ran about and clambered through the props of an indoor mini-playground and exhibition.

Out a door and around the corner, and we plunged into the Doulos Bookshop, which that day probably had as many people as books in it. What a mob. I didn’t find a Parallel Study Bible in the Christian section as I’d hoped, but I did get a copy of Dickens’ Bleak House (Jim’s recommendation) for only P100 (that’s just two dollars!), and Tiff snagged a book on Christian perspectives on Advent. We almost got a few C.S. Lewis books, but we found the prices for those were even cheaper at NBS.

Forward from the main bookshop, there was a special discount bin, where, for P200, they would give you a Doulos bookbag, and you could stuff it with as many books as you could. That sounded like a nice all-you-can-eat deal, but to my dismay, all that was left in the crates was Heartsong Christian romance novels. Gag. (I did get a nice laugh out of the brand of crates the discount books were stored in: “The Great Aussie Crate… Mate!” I swear, you Aussies are crazy.)

The M/V Doulos itself is an impressive ministry. There are about 300 people on board, most of them full-timers who live on board with their families. They sail around the world, selling books, going on medical and humanitarian relief missions, and providing support and encouragement to Christian ministries internationally. Now, wouldn’t that make an interesting missionary opportunity…

CGIComments and DotComments

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I’m ba-ack! Miss me?

It’s been rather busy behind the scenes, as I snatch minutes away from work and play to tweak code and add stuff to the site. I’ve just finished a day-long struggle with two different comments scripts: CGIComments and DotComments. My original intention was to use CGIComments for my blog, but it showed a few unsavory kinks which slowed page loading. Finally I opted to give up on CGI and go for the PHP-based DotComments, which I found much easier to handle, and which many of my other blog-friends are already using. It is not without its own share of problems, however, but I got them fixed with a bit of experimentation. So, as you can see, my blog now has comments! Be sure to say Hi to the Sanrio duck.

A lot of code has been cleaned up, with CSS streamlined on older layouts and DOCTYPE declarations added to all pages. Gone is the CGI script which I was using to archive my blog; I opted for a simpler frame-based interface which views old blog entries as unformatted HTML: simpler, faster, more reliable. (I still haven’t gotten down, however, to adding an “ahem” with some protection code for non-compliant browsers.)

New improved links page, and the guestbook has been tweaked and refreshed. As for my portfolio, it’s blank for now, while I design a new one in Flash. Give me a month or two for that, while I consolidate all the pertinent graphic design work.

(Sorry if I’m a bit incoherent in my writing. It’s 3 in the morning, and I haven’t slept.)

Well, it’s good to be back on-line. And just in time, too. It looks like the war has begun.

Lorem Ipsum

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Read about the strange, arcane origins of Lorem Ipsum, the standard pseudo-Latin dummy text we graphic designers use to greek our layouts. Then, get it from here.

Tired, Sleepy, Allergic

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You know what? I’m tired and sleepy and more than a little bit allergic today, and I have lots of work to do over the weekend. I’m going to take a break. See you in a few days. :P

Kirk and Crusher

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It seems there’s some trouble in the future. Captain Kirk and Acting Ensign Crusher aren’t getting along too well. Tee hee! Okay, okay, I’ll stop. I know Uncle Wil isn’t too titillated by continued references to his brief tenure as a Next-Gen-Boy-Genius. Just click here for an entertaining first-hand account of a Vegas Trek Convention, from the lips of old Wesley himself. (Some profanity.)

Christian Blogger Links

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My latest spate of links reminded me that I have been remiss in linking to the blogs of fellow Christians to whom I have been meaning to link for many weeks now, which task I have been putting off for some distraction or another. The omission has been rectified, with the addition of presbytermark, barlowfarms, chinaman’s hat, an expected end, and simply us to my link list. Check them out; there’s some excellent theological discourse going on there, right alongside some engaging personal journaling. I swear, these people will make a Calvinist of me yet if I’m not careful. ;)

An Afghan-American Speaks

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An Afghan-American speaks, showing us the real situation of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan: “starved, exhausted, damaged, and incapacitated.”

New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at least get the Taliban? Not likely. In today’s Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around. They’d slip away and hide. Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans; they don’t move too fast, they don’t even have wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn’t really be a strike against the criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it would only be making common cause with the Taliban — by raping once again the people they’ve been raping all this time.

How can America serve justice and yet avoid playing into a West-versus-Islam world war scenario, I wonder? Is it possible to commence a “liberation” of Afghanistan, invading without killing, and neutralizing the Taliban without destroying the people they oppress?

(And why do GWBush’s hand gestures look so forced? Maybe he should keep his arms at his sides.)

WTC in Flight Simulator

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Microsoft is removing the Twin Towers from future (and present?) versions of Flight Simulator. I myself haven’t played Flight Simulator since the late 80’s (version 1.0, on our 8088 PC-XT), and I readily admit that back then, I crashed planes of all sorts (from a single-engine Cessna to an F-18 Hornet) into Sears Tower, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and yes, the World Trade Center (often in attempts to fly between them).

I promise: I won’t do it again.