Nostalgic

I was walking along Apacible St. going to shopping center when I smelled a familiar scent. No, it was not the smell of a perfume. It was a smell of a tree. I remembered I could smell that tree scent when I was walking past the bridge going to DL Umali Hall in UPLB campus.

Our office is just in front of a residence hall. Last week, students carrying big travel bags were a familiar sight. I was once a student who carried quite a big travel bag and a backpack during weekends.

Pavements and big trees in UPD bring back good memories of UPLB. :)

Gloomy feel

December... Rain... Listening to a sad song... Hearing a sad story... Alone in a quiet room... A day after Christmas... these bring a certain kind of gloomy feel.

Accomplishing a task... no traffic jam... refreshing breeze after the rain... driving in a traffic-free road while singing along with the fast-beat song ("...you caught my soul when i was struggling to breathe.."), it makes me want to step on the gas even more (hehe!)... remembering the significance of this season ("For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son...")... these bring hope, a releasing feeling; looking forward to another day. ;)

Name those puppies

These puppies are still nameless since Thursday last week. My brother and I couldn't think of any nice names for them. Well, my brother keeps on suggesting wacky names and my brain is in vacation mode.hehe. My mom gave an ultimatum to name these puppies ASAP or else they will be called "Tintin" and "Natnat". Waaah! :)

Tintin thrives in the Arab world despite censorship

Neither censors nor "Orientalist" stereotypes have dampened demand for the cartoon adventures of Belgian boy reporter Tintin, who has stoked the imagination of generations of Arabs from the Atlantic to the Gulf.

Created in the middle years of the 20th century, Tintin spent more time in the Arab world than anywhere else, in four books: "Cigars of the Pharaoh," "The Crab with the Golden Claws," "Land of Black Gold" and "The Red Sea Sharks."

"It's extraordinary that Tintin came here so many times and still has so many friends," according to Tunisian academic Issam Marzouki.

Opium smuggling, the scramble for Middle Eastern oil, the slave trade and more were all sources of adventure and -- to this day -- controversial storylines for Tintin's Belgian creator, the illustrator Herge.

"Reading Tintin when I was a child was like seeing yourself in a magical but distorting mirror," said Marzouki, insisting that "Herge's way of looking at the Arabs kept on evolving, renewing itself."

But the end of the relationship a year ago between Belgian publishing giant Casterman and Egyptian publisher Dar al-Maaref, which had the right to print Tintin in Arabic for 30 years, means the daring reporter with the trademark quiff is no longer available in Arabic.

Read more >>

Bubble thoughts

I like the concept of "bubble thoughts" in cartoons/comics. Sometimes I wish I could read other people's bubble thoughts.hehe. Since I can't read other people's bubble thoughts I'll just share some of my bubble thoughts during my meteor gazing (hehe hangover!).

Bubble thoughts:
- <"If they only knew..."> Our parents were sound asleep while my brother and I were enjoying the meteor shower. We put old plastic mats on the ground and we were lying on our backs ala "sun-bathing" or should I say "moon-bathing" or "star-bathing".hehe. It was a real planetarium experience! :)

- <"How many are you, stars?...What are your names?...Who is Gemini, Perseus, Orion, etc?...You (stars) look so small, you're even smaller than my hands"> Just some of my thoughts while waiting for the shooting stars to show up. I'm always left amazed whenever I gaze on the nightsky. I remember a verse in Psalms that says, "He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name" (Psalm 147:4). In my perspective those stars look so small but if I look at the big picture, it was me who is small. Anyway, God knows each one, great or small and He cares for them. It was just an overwhelming event for me. :)

Sometimes it was not just bubble thoughts but bubble songs (hehe)...
Stars by Switchfoot... Open Skies by David Crowder Band... a fave hymn "How Great Thou Art"... How Great Is Our God by Chris Tomlin... and portions of a song "He's still working on me" - He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be / It took Him just a week to make the moon and the stars / The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars / How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me.

Stars

Last night, I was able to watch the Geminids meteor shower with my brother. It's a "real planetarium" experience for us. We were like kids so amazed seeing falling stars. My brother said seeing 10 falling stars would be enough for him already. I told him I would stay outside as long as I see falling stars.hehe. My body fats couldn't stand the cold anymore so few minutes after midnight I ended my meteor gazing. I saw around 20 falling stars. :)

ebook excerpt

Home automation
Asterisk is still too much of an über-geek’s tool to be able to serve in the average home, but with no more than average Linux and Asterisk skills, the following things become plausible:

Monitoring the kids
Parents who want to check up on the babysitter (or the kids home alone) could dial an extension context protected by a password. Once authenticated, a two-way audio connection would be created to all the IP phones in the house, allowing Mom and Dad to listen for trouble. Creepy? Yes. But an interesting concept nonetheless.

Locking down your phones
Going out for the night? Don’t want the babysitter tying up the phone? No problem! A simple tweak to the dialplan, and the only calls that can be made are to 911, your cell phone, and the pizza parlor. Any other call attempt will get the recording “We are paying you to babysit our kids, not make personal calls.” Pretty evil, huh?

Controlling the alarm system
You get a call while on vacation that your Mom wants to borrow some cooking utensils. She forgot her key and is standing in front of the house shivering. Piece of cake; a call to your Asterisk system, a quick digit string into the context you created for the purpose, and your alarm system is instructed to disable the alarm for 15 minutes. Mom better get her stuff and get out quick, though, or the cops’ll be showing up!

Managing teenagers’ calls
How about allocating a specific phone-time limit to your teenagers? To use the phone, they have to enter their access codes. They can earn extra minutes by doing chores, scoring all As, dumping that annoying bum with the bad haircut—you get the idea. Once they’ve used up their minutes... click... you get your phone back. Incoming calls can be managed as well, via Caller ID. “Donny, this is Suzy’s father. She is no longer interested in seeing you, as she has decided to raise her standards a bit. Also, you should consider getting a haircut.”

page 199 of Asterisk: The Future of Telephony (1st Edition) / page 326 of Asterisk: The Future of Telephony (2nd Edition)

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Asterisk is the world’s leading open source telephony engine and tool kit. Offering flexibility unheard of in the world of proprietary communications, Asterisk empowers developers and integrators to create advanced communication solutions...for free. <www.asterisk.org>

I've browsed over the 1st edition months ago but I haven't noticed this part. Reading this section made me smile. I thought these high-tech applications could only be seen on the cartoon series "The Jetsons".hehe. It reminded me of a local telecom's tagline "making great things possible". Though sometimes it's too good to be true. :)

"For nothing is impossible with God." (Luke 1:37, NIV)

Book excerpt

...We are only ordinary folks who get out of very comfortable beds in the morning, brush our teeth with running water, put on whatever we like to wear, and eat whatever we want for breakfast. Our lives generally don't seem to call for much courage. We are so accustomed to luxury we think of traffic jams as hardship. It ruins our day if the air conditioner quits, or the waiter says they're fresh out of cherry cheesecake. Of course it is only a matter of time before the traffic jam is unsnarled; time and money can fix the air conditioner; we can order a different dessert. We expect to get things fixed -- fast. When we can't, we are at a loss.

Loneliness is much worse than being stuck in a traffic jam or having to do without cheesecake. Perhaps we hardly think of its calling for courage, because we hardly think of it as real suffering, yet it fits the simplest definition I know: having what you don't want or wanting what you don't have. Loneliness we don't want. It comes from wanting what we don't have.

Who can compare sufferings? They are unique as each sufferer is unique. "The heart knows its own bitterness" (Prov. 14:10, NEB). We respond according to our temperaments. Some cast about for solutions, stew, fret, rage, deny the facts. Some sink into an oblivion of self-recrimination or pity. Some chalk it all up to somebody else's fault. Some pray. But all of us may be tempted sometime to conclude that because God doesn't fix it He doesn't love us.

There are many things that God does not fix precisely because He loves us. Instead of extracting us form the problem, He calls us. In our sorrow or loneliness or pain He calls -- "This is a necessary part of the journey. Even if it is the roughest part, it is only a part, and it will not last the whole long way. Remember where I am leading you. Remember what you will find at the end -- a home and a haven and a heaven."

pages 106-107 The Path Of Loneliness Finding Your Way Through The Wilderness To God by Elisabeth Elliot

I Celebrate The Day

I Celebrate The Day
by Relient K

And with this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to let you know
How much you've touched my life because
Here is where you're finding me
In the exact same place as New Year's Eve
And from the lack of my persistency
We're less than half as close as I wanna be

And the first time that you opened your eyes
Did you realize that you would be my Savior
And the first breath that left your lips
Did you know that it would change this world forever
And the first time that you opened your eyes
Did you realize that you would be my Savior
And the first breath that left your lips
Did you know that it would change this world forever

And so this Christmas I'll compare
The things I've felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That you have come to meet me here

To look back
And think that
This baby would one day save me
And the hope that
That you give
That you were born so I might really live
To look back
And think that
This baby would one day save me…

And the first time that you opened your eyes
Did you realize that you would be my Savior
And the first breath that left your lips
Did you know that it would change this world forever
And the first time that you opened your eyes
Did you realize that you would be my Savior
And the first breath that left your lips
Did you know that it would change this world forever

And I
I celebrate the day
That you were born to die
So I could one day
Pray for you to save my life
Pray for you to save my life
Pray for you to save my life

============================

I'm looking for "something-new-to-the-ears" Christmas songs when I found this one. :)
Good thought-provoking song. The lines "And the first time that you opened your eyes / Did you realize that you would be my Savior / And the first breath that left your lips / Did you know that it would change this world forever" are set on a repeat in my mind's media player now.hehe. But the best part is the ending...

Finding _______

I had a series of successful "search and find" moments the past days.
I found the book (The Path of Loneliness by Elisabeth Elliot) I was looking for. It took me almost a year before I found it.
I was able to find the answer for the "backup and restore feature" of Trixbox. The question on that feature kept bogging my mind for days. It was a "mystery" solved now.
I found an mp3 of the Parachute Band song (entitled All My Life) I've been looking for since 2005.
I attended a 2-day IT workshop in Astoria Plaza last Thursday. I can't find a parking space yesterday when suddenly one of the organizers of the workshop saw me and suggested that I could park in the hotel he was staying in. Woah, what a blessing, I felt like I'm a presidential daughter!hehe
This morning, my brother and I was looking for the magnetic coil of my car's compressor. Good thing the owner of the repair shop have many contacts. We found an exact fit. Now it's "freeze n' cool" inside my car. :)

I have some unsuccessful "search and find" moments though. Can't find Vivitar Icecam and an exact fit for my car's brakeshoe. :(

I'm also looking forward to buy a telescope and SLR cam. I'm broke and don't have enough funds until now.hehe. To ease my frustration, I have thought of some "activities" while waiting for that time when I can finally buy them. I'll keep myself busy first in finding the famous constellations using my naked eye and with the aid of binoculars. I'll experiment with the point-and-shoot cameras I found here in our house and will try the pinhole camera more often. :)

Finding things I've been looking for quite a long time really gives me a good feeling.
I was once "lost" before but now I'm found. Being "found" gives me a much more good feeling...a feeling my heart can't contain. Thank God for finding me. :)

Wonderful Wonder

Wonderful Wonder
by Ginny Owens

I don't know the ocean's crystal blue
And I don't climb the mountains for the view
Or wish upon the stars above my head
Or bear witness to a marvelous sunset

But the very thought of things I've never seen
Is all it takes to bring me to my knees

(chorus)
Oh what a wonderful wonder
A display of great beauty and power
Oh what a wonderful wonder
You are to me

I wish that I could see life through your eyes
To gaze upon the canvas from your side
To understand all that you've done before
And to realize the plans you have in store

And when I long to know what I don't see
You give me the courage to believe

(Chorus)

I can hardly wait until the time
When you will turn my darkness into light
And I'll finally find my way to heaven's door
Where I won't need my faith anymore

And when my eyes behold your majesty
I'll join with the angels and we'll sing

(Chorus)

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This is one of my fave songs this past week. Listening to the song's lyrics makes me wonder. The songwriter, Ginny Owens, has been totally blind since the age of two. I was humbled by the first stanza of the song -- "I don't know the ocean's crystal blue / And I don't climb the mountains for the view / Or wish upon the stars above my head / Or bear witness to a marvelous sunset / But the very thought of things I've never seen / Is all it takes to bring me to my knees" What a great faith! Just the very thought of things she never seen is all it takes for her to be in awe of an awesome God. It's not always true "to see is to believe". The Pharisees saw the messiah but they did not believe Him.

Sometimes I'm so full of my "self" that I forget to see the beauty of creation and praise our wonderful Creator. But there are times when I'm driving and I see a nice cloud formation or a beautiful full moon that I just want to stop for a while and gaze upon its beauty. Oh what a wonderful wonder!