Who Strengthens Me

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Well, today’s the last day of leave; I’m getting briefed tomorrow for my new job as a multimedia designer. We’re seeing the office and checking out the equipment for the first time. And on Monday, to Hong Kong for training. I’m a bit nervous about this new career. For one thing, like I said earlier, it means staying here in the Philippines, shelving my plans of leaving for greener pastures in the US. Also, in my first two jobs, I had prior experience in both fields: as a digital video editor, I had entered with the benefit of a brief internship on the same platform shortly before that; and when I started as a web design executive, I had been studying HTML-based web design and making my own web pages for years. But now, this is completely new territory that I’ve never touched. While I’ll be receiving training, I have trouble assuring myself that I’ll do well.

Times like this, it helps to remember the Old Testament examples of Joseph and Daniel, who, despite the desolate or oppressed situations they found themselves in, still prospered and succeeded in everything they did because of God’s love. So I ask the Lord to strengthen my faith in His providence. He will make me able, if I only put my trust in Him and lean not on my own efforts and skills. (Of course I still need my talents and skills, but I do well to remember that it is He who enables me, and ultimately He who is responsible for my progress.)

Now I’m not so worried anymore. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Going to Hong Kong

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I’m going to Hong Kong on Monday! But my schedule will probably be so tight I won’t have time for sightseeing or shopping. That’s okay. Just the fact I’m leaving Manila and the Philippines for a few days to go somewhere else in the world — for the first time in years — is exciting enough.

First X-Men Movie

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I have just emerged from the X-Men movie. Pretty good! Well, it was no great superhero epic that will go down in the annals of movie history like Superman did, but I have to say, the creators did a good job of adapting the comic world to an entry-level movie that satisfies X-Men fans and newcomers alike.

Great casting, great script and screenplay, great effects, great directing. Not as much character development as I would have liked, but then, how much development can you cram into a two-hour movie for that many characters? At the very least they’ve established the setting and the team, and managed to make it parallel the status quo in the comic (more or less), down to the white streak in Rogue’s hair.

Some notable characters from the comic were missing, however: Beast. Angel. Gambit. And Iceman was just one of the students. I don’t think the team would be reasonably complete without the original X-Men there. I hope they can find some way to bring them into the story somehow.

Still, all in all, the movie works beautifully. Maybe a bit too fast in the progression (what action movie isn’t nowadays?) and somewhat contrivedly hanging at the end, but I’m edified.

Gosh, this is the first time in a long time I’ve gone to watch a movie all by myself. Last time I did this was with Star Trek – First Contact. Hmmm. I forgot … there’s a war going on down south; terrorist extremists usually target malls for bombings. Maybe I should get out of here.

Oh, another thing that bothered me about the X-Men movie just occurred to me: At certain parts of the movie, Anna Paquin looked a lot like a baby-faced Demi Moore. I don’t like that; I’m fond of Anna Paquin as an actress, but I’m not particularly fond of Demi Moore.

Blogging from Universe Cafe

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I’m in Universe cafe in Glorietta. Gonna have lunch with Mom now. That’s all. Just enjoying the fact that I can blog from anywhere in the world there’s an internet connection. : )

Lazy day, lazy day

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Lazy day, lazy day. I can’t wait till work starts. I should be going to Hong Kong tomorrow, but the trip got moved. But that’s pretty cool: I can tell people, “I’m going to Hong Kong on business.” Nyerk.

The “sago drinks” hoax

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The “sago drinks” hoax is slowly dying out now; the forwards and inquiries about the forwards have stopped coming. That was so fun. Here’s my compilation of refutals on FB4F — made possible only with much help from other contributors.

Hey, cool! I can use HTML tags! Where was my brain all this time?

The Paper Stack

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Today has been a busy, busy, busy day. Isn’t it annoying how much of modern life is governed by a huge pile of documents and numbers? Tax certificates, passports, licenses, bank accounts… Errands to do, errands to do.

SEND HELP

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Yesterday I saw two of the most tragic Far Side comics I had ever seen. One showed a man on a deserted island writing a SEND HELP note on a piece of paper. Behind him, a coconut had fallen and shattered his only bottle. In the other, a butterfly which had just emerged from its cocoon flew straight into a spider’s web. I don’t know where Gary Larson gets his ideas. Only he can make such futile tragedy seem utterly hilarious with such perfect style. Aw, too bad he retired.

Judeo-Christian Strawman

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I read a little philosophy paper refuting Aquinas’ proof of God as the “ultimate cause,” preferring the explanation that “physical matter is the ultimate cause.” It’s standard sophomoric philosophy taking potshots at the stereotypical strawman he seems to have mistaken for the Judeo-Christian tradition of God. While he makes a convincing argument for “physical matter as a better absolute cause than God,” he works only on the level that God is a mere philosophical abstraction who can only be proven by the semantic logic of causal progression. Fortunately, we have other sources of objective and experiential evidence which, with a mustard-seed-size dose of faith, have proven God to be overwhelmingly real to Christians around the world through the ages.

Wow. Theological epistemology in compound-complex sentences. Life is good.

Bombing the Abu Sayaff

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The Philippine military has begun bombing the Islamic rebels in the south. No, calling them “rebels” is wrong. The Abu Sayyaf kidnapped locals and foreigners and held them for ransom. As the government fumbled and waffled through negotiations, Libya paid the ransom, and hostages were released. Then, emboldened, the Sayyaf went out and kidnapped more: an American and a few Malaysians, then demanded more ransom.

They are mere thieves and bandits: bully-boy cowards who hide behind their twisted perceptions of Islam to revel in their own violence and hedonism. Negotiate with them for the release of victims, and they will only use the ransom to further victimize the country and its neighbors with more terrorism and abduction. The only alternative left is war.

And so the war is on. The Sayyaff bandits have threatened to behead the hostages. Already innocent people are being killed, homes and lives lost. Our economy is likely to plunge, making life harder for an already suffering populace. Here in Manila, despite its distance from the conflict in Sulu, militant Islamic groups are threatening to bomb malls, trains, and other public establishments.

I can only pray that things get better.