Pandora on her little scratching and sleeping rug by the couch. I wish she would get up on the couch to join us once in a while. She doesn’t seem to like it up there.
RLP’s Book
Once upon a time, Real Live Preacher wrote a book. It didn’t sell too well through regular publishing channels, so he started selling the remainder himself. With each order, he would personalize the delivery with a free gift and a pithy dedication commenting on the buyer’s shipping address.
It was then that he discovered a key marketing tip: people like a personal touch. The good news: orders poured in. The possibly-not-so-good news: he would still have to personalize each one.
I’m glad Preacher kept it up. His audience loves his thoughts, and he loves them right back by adding a little extra thought for each reader to call his own. I just got my book in the mail, with a note on the title page about my home near the Capitol, and a little CD of Celtic lute music by his friend Ben Tavera King. That goes on the shelf right beside N.T.
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A flooded street in Foggy Bottom. The rainy days continue.
(FBflood.jpg uploaded by brownpau.)
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Commuters crowded into a dark Orange Line train.
(DarkTrn.jpg uploaded by brownpau.)
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Once upon a time I thought these were some kind of brainlike fungi, but then I saw one fall from a tree by the Capitol and found out that they’re called Osage-oranges.
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Dan (known to some as insomnyuk on Metafilter) came over to DC for the weekend, so I showed him around NASM and took him on the simulators. Here he is with a Federation starship.
(DanTrek.jpg uploaded by brownpau.)
Caturday!
Pandora’s new favorite spot lately: in the way. She’s taken to stretching out right in the bedroom doorway so we have to either step over her or give her a gentle foot nudge.
(Okay, I admit it, I didn’t actually post this on Saturday, I just moved the post date back 24 hours to make it a proper “Caturday” post.)
Schlumbergera Flower
I got this Schlumbergera truncata — popularly known as a “Christmas Cactus” — from a Filipina neighbor who moved out of the building and left the plant with me and Amy. Last week we noticed a little red bud on the tip of a low-hanging leaf, which has now bloomed into a decent flower:
Glorietta Bombing
There was a mall bombing in Metro Manila on Friday afternoon. Eight deaths, lots of injuries. Initial reports that it was a propane tank explosion have been updated — a deliberate TNT or C4 explosive device is now the likely culprit. Update: Now eleven deaths, dubious claims of responsibility via text message, and “accident, no, C-4, no, accident, no, C-4, no, accident…”
The blast was in Glorietta, a major Ayala shopping mall in the Makati Business District, near EDSA. I used to go to that mall all the time (since shopping malls are what pass for recreational public space in Makati) and I often passed through it on my way home to work. I still go there whenever I visit Manila on holiday. Probably not the next visit, though.
More on this from others in the Philippines, links added as I find them:
- Inquirer special section and BBC News story.
- MLQ3 has links and updates
- Noelle was nearby and has a video and photos.
- Disneycute was right there and got some photos of the devastation.
- Recording from local tabloid TV shows a cameraphone video from inside Glorietta.
- Full raw video from a witness.
- GMA News has eyewitness interviews with survivors.
- Cameraphone video of the chaos right after the blast.
- Ganns was saved by lunch with his mom.
- Speculation from Trix, who has written about Jemaah Islamiyah.
- Pinoyexchange thread.
<cynical mode=”sarcastic”>
How could this have happened? They have two security guards for men and women at every entrance thoroughly passing a wand over every bag!!!
</cynical>