how now brownpau
This weekend, I’m going along with some missionaries to Mindoro (that’s one of the larger islands in the Visayas) to visit Bahay Kalinga Orphanage for a couple of days. I’m thinking of devoting my monthly giving to the sponsorship of two children at the orphanage.
This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to care for orphans and widows in their distress” – James 1:27
They did it; the NEAR crew actually landed the thing on Eros! Not just that, but it landed intact and operational, and they might even fire it up and lift it off again! This is exciting. Sorta. You can read more about it on the NEAR project home page.
It seems everyone had a really bad Monday today. I know ******* and I did. Traffic built up in the worst places, things fell off tables, machinery failed, computers hanged, food was served wrong. And in Tiff’s office, for no discernible reason, a panel arbitrarily dropped from the ceiling, almost hitting one of her officemates. And other people are having a rough time today, too.
It’s okay, Mel, things’ll get better. *pat, pat* And here’s a pat for you too, Silvergirl. *pat, pat*
There’s a girl whose marriage really needs your prayers right now. Please ask God to move in her husband’s heart to become more mature, more caring, and more sensitive towards her needs, and also pray for blessing, healing and comfort in her life.
I’ve been experiencing a mild educational streak lately. I learned some Flash ActionScript to enhance navigation around Electromedia last week, and I’ve managed to finish a few basic lessons in Perl/CGI programming. “Hello, World!” :D I hope to be able to handle my own content management system to get PULA.PH up and running sometime this year.
I am the Mighty Mosquito Masher. Today in the bathroom, I singlehandedly snatched two mosquitoes out of the air and crushed them in my fists. The first one died with honor, twitching as I flicked it into the sink. When I caught the second one, I made certain that it would not fly out of some hidden air pocket in my palm by plunging my fist into a pail of water, then opening it up while submerged.
No mercy.
I then proceeded to wash my hands in triumph.
A Windows tip: Isn’t it annoying that when you uncheck “View as Web Page” in the Windows Explorer View Menu, then go to another folder, it just displays as a web page again? What you need to do is uncheck the “View as Web Page” option, close all Explorer windows, then open up Explorer again. The trick also works to retain icon view settings. (i.e. Large Icons, List, Details.)
For lunch today, I ate bopis. For those of you uninitiated into the ways of Filipino cuisine, that’s spicy minced pork lungs. Sauteed with tomato, chili, and onion, bopis has a chunky texture somewhere between the consistency of tofu and cartilage, depending on what part of the lung you’re eating. Sometimes it’s an air tube, sometimes an air sac, sometimes a bit of fat and gristle between. It’s all mixed in there, and you never know what you’re going to bite into next. Needless to say, it is, like dinuguan, best eaten with rice.
My poor old scanner is dead. It must have been jostled too much on the way to the office. :(
On the up side, my Logitech 3-button serial mouse is still working. That mouse has served me faithfully for almost six years, ever since I started using it as a lowly layout staffer for The GUIDON. As I rose through the tiers of graphic design, my trusty mouse remained at my side, comfortably rolling and clicking away, the wheel never sticking, the buttons never jamming. I love that mouse. But its time may soon come; the wheels haven’t been as smooth as they used to be, and the Age of Serial Mice is fading fast, giving way to PS/2, and I hunger for a Wacom tablet.
But even when I finally decide to retire it, my little Logitech mouse will always be my bestest friend in graphic design.
I went malling yesterday. Three things caught my attention:
1.) A little brat pushed a shopping cart down the escalator in SM Southmall. I was walking around the houseware section when a giant racket turned the heads of everyone on the lower floor. As I passed the down-escalator, I saw the much-dented cart rolling away from it, to be caught and pushed away on broken wheels by an attendant. When his supervisor asked what had happened, he pointed and said, “Bata.” I felt distinctly annoyed. I hate little brats.
2.) I also spotted a sign advertising a therapeutic foot massager. The heading said in big, red, bold letters: HEALTHY THE FEET. HEALTHY THE BODY. Cringe.
3.) In one of the restrooms at Alabang Town Center, the toilet seat was down. I opened it up to take a pee, and double-ugh, the back portion of the seat was a mess of gooey brown splatter. The first thought that crossed my mind was: “How could anyone have such bad aim sitting down?!” You can be sure I washed my hands vigorously. With soap.
On February 12, NASA is going to try landing the NEAR spacecraft on the asteroid Eros. Exciting! I sure hope the satellite lands successfully, even if it wasn’t designed for it. It’ll be the first time humans land a craft on something other than the inner planets. (Or have we dropped something on one of the outer moons already?)