RLP’s Book

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RLP.jpg 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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Lock4.jpg View of C&O Canal Lock 4 from the Thomas Jefferson St. bridge on a cold, rainy Thursday morning.

(Lock4.jpg uploaded by brownpau.)

Osage.jpg

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Osage.jpg 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.

(Osage.jpg uploaded by brownpau.)

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DanTrek.jpg 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!

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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.

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(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

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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:

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Glorietta Bombing

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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:

<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>

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OrngCrwd.jpg Orange Line train at Rosslyn, 7pm. Doors have just opened, no one is getting off, platform is just as crowded.

(OrngCrwd.jpg uploaded by brownpau.)