I love to laugh at funny stories, to make jokes of my friends, I love to sing and dance and I love to play...

But there are times when it's difficult to smile and we are more likely to weep than to laugh. I think it's important that we get something like the inner peace, which makes, that, when we laugh, we laugh knowing there's much suffering out there, deeply understanding its meaning; and when we cry, we cry knowing that there are good times as well.

Knowing that somebody loves us whatever happens.

Our typical Sunday starts with a mixture of breakfast, bottle feeding, roaming children and bath giving.  It may seem chaotic sometimes especially when one or two of my nieces and nephews are going gaga over which dress or shirt to wear (Mind you, today's kids already have minds of their own.  Even a two-year old already chooses his clothes and gets away with it.).  But once the tension has died down, everything else turns out fun.

Our first stop is the Wesleyan University-Philippines' UMC Chapel. Headed by Rev. Jose M. Flores and ministered to by the Christian Education professors, the chapel is a heaven-sent for families with kids tagging along.  Naturally ventilated, it boasts not only of spacious interior but also of a vast grassland that provides kids quite a playing ground after church.  Arvid loves running around while his cousins catch dragonflies.  I wonder if they also sing one of the songs I sing when I was a kid like them.  It goes "Tutubi, tutubi, huwag kang magpahuli sa batang mapanghi." hehehe, whoever wrote that song must be punished! :-?

Of course, where children are concerned, no parent would miss the traditional yet very helpful Sunday School.  Here, Shaine, Charles, Antoinette, Christian and Arvid listen to stories from the Bible or books which illustrate good behavior.  After the storytelling, the teacher asks questions about the story which prompts the children to think and react based on how they have understood it.  The process does not only inculcate right values but also train the kids' listening and speaking skills.

They sing praises and hymns and play with other kids, too!

Meanwhile, Dave and I try our best to share whatever talent we have (if we have any, hehehe).  :D We sing with a group of older friends and funnily call ourselves "The Chaplain's Forced Choir"! :-) Most of the time, Dave and I sing together except when Arvid doesn't want to be with somebody else.  Dade is a Base while I am an Alto.  He sounds...I don't! hehehehe :-)

After church, we all go together to McDonald's to eat and play some more.  We then head home to meet our Lola Mados and to ask for her blessings by doing the "Mano po" custom.

Simple yet happy and fulfilling - that's our Sunday.  Make yours a bonding day, too! 

The content is always the human imagination. This I regard both as historically constant and as universal among individuals. To present the geography of the human imagination is my aim, with real mountains and cities. (Claes Oldenburg)

We want to make a piece for the streets of London. A game. A journey. A show. Another way of looking at the city.

We want it to be about disasters. About the aftermath. About ghost cities. About the ghost of this particular city.

London seems to exist in permanent state of waiting for something bad to happen. It holds itself in the brace position, muscles tense, anticipating the next catastrophe. The air always has the faintest tang of anxiety to it.

I cycle down streets and this taste imbues everything with chaos. Ambulances, arguments, the muffled banging of rubbish falling down a plastic shoot. I constantly expect to be stumbling into a disaster.

I’m sure that’s why the city seems to deal so well with tragedy. It’s always expecting it.

We want people to imagine this disaster. Imagine themselves as survivors, wandering dazed through the empty streets. We want people to walk through the overcrowded city, along congested roads through bustling hoards of people, past Starbucks and McDonalds, high rise offices, busy bars and expensive boutiques seeing all this as nothing more than a past echo. A place they no longer inhabit. Themselves the last survivors. The designated mourners for a society that is no longer there.

BBC Transcript to be used in the wake of nuclear attack:

This is the Wartime Broadcasting Service. This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons. Communications have been severely disrupted, and the number of casualties and the extent of the damage are not yet known. We shall bring you further information as soon as possible. Meanwhile, stay tuned to this wavelength, stay calm and stay in your own homes.

Remember there is nothing to be gained by trying to get away. By leaving your homes you could be exposing yourselves to greater danger.

If you leave, you may find yourself without food, without water, without accommodation and without protection. Radioactive fall-out, which follows a nuclear explosion, is many times more dangerous if you are directly exposed to it in the open. Roofs and walls offer substantial protection. The safest place is indoors.

It's interesting that this script was created in the early 70s , the heyday of the big budget, world-conquering disaster movie. The script was discussed from 1973 through to 1975. In 1974 the Towering Inferno was the biggest grossing film at the US Box Office, Earthquake was the third biggest. As would become all too cruelly apparent in 2001, these movies give us a way of talking about this inconceivable fear, they give it a structure and a narrative, heroes and villains. The movies gave us our only means of thinking about tragedy, so inevitably when it happens, it feels just like a movie.

The disaster movie is for me the ultimate 20th century genre. A century that began with one ultimate tremor and ended with another. Absurd, inconceivable moments of interruption, physically and psychologically reorganising the world beneath our feet while we attempt to retain our balance.

For a genre that dominated Hollywood in the early 70s and spawned several of the most successful American movies of all time (Towering Inferno (1974), Earthquake (1974), Airport (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), arguable you could also add 1978’s Dawn of the Dead to that list as well), they are generally pretty brutally bleak. From the title and the cataclysmic images that adorn the lurid posters the disaster is foregrounded. We watch the movie not alongside these characters but from above, gazing down on them, or perhaps backwards through time, powerless to stop the impending catastrophe which we already know is about to engulf them.

There’s something very Brechtian about the opening scenes of these movies. We are entirely estranged from these characters. Frozen in the mundane trivialities of their everyday lives, any sense of involvement we might have otherwise felt with them and their romances and squabbles and hopes and fears fatally undermined by the enormous fucking Earthquake we know is about to smash everything to pieces. We know in approximately 30 minutes whether they are cheating on their wife or fighting to secure that big money deal or just walking along they are about to be hit by the most expensive special-effects-laden moment of interruption you can imagine, leaving them all scurrying about like ants just to survive. What would watching any episode of Friends have been like with the knowledge that one (or more) of them would die in an unimaginable act of terrorism at the beginning of series 8?

List of Major Characters from the film Earthquake:

Stewart Graff – retired pro-footballer stuck in a loveless marriage

Remy Graff – A lonely alcoholic attempting to hold on to her husband

Lew Slade – a tough but loveable police sergeant

Sam Royce – Wealthy businessman with a heart of gold.

Denise Marshall – Mother raising her young son alone

Miles Quade – A daredevil motorcyclist

Jody – A psychotic national guardsman

Rosa Amici – a beautiful, rebellious 19 year old

Walter Russell – a Junior seismologist who predicts a disaster is about to happen

We want to make a disaster movie out of the streets of London. The streets will be a become a liminal space, at once the before and after - the real people like shadows burnt into walls, ghosts haunting a landscape of imagined desolation. Yet all this is softened, made strange even playful, because it feels just like a movie. There will be stories to tell, characters to play, heroes and villains.

The disaster will never be stated (terrorism, flooding, war, flesh eating zombies, alien invasion). Maybe the audience will need to invent their own disaster. Maybe it will just be all these things. What is important is this relationship with the streets, with strangers, with the city, with each other: hauntingly local and epically (cheesily) cinematic, before disaster and after it, real and imagined, told and invented. Hopefully we'll forge a space for people to renegotiate their relationship with this anxious city - to love it more, to fear it more, to pity it more, to laugh at it more, to play in it more, to make the landscape of the city a mirror of themselves.

This is, of course, at this stage monumentally theoretically - a mess of hopes and ideas. Any thoughts or contributions (or favourite obscure disaster movies) you have are massively appreciated.

Duet.

Yard sale "new" diggers.

As of Monday the Apple Store did not have any cases for the new iPods.

The bad news is that the Cubs lost their only three postseason games this year and will not be going to the World Series.

The good news is that the cosmos is stable, the economic crisis has not disturbed the fundamental mechanics of the universe, and electoral deceptions do not disrupt the fabric of the most basic truths of life. The Cubs lost--the world is as it should be.

Am I sad? Not really. Oh, I would have enjoyed a Cub run through the Series to victory. I would have savored it.

But I am a Cubs fan. I understand loss. It does not surprise me. I even, to some degree, find my identity as a Cubs fan in the futility, the pain, and the disappointment. There is a sadistic kind of joyo in losing for a Cubs fan. It is the way it is. :-)

I am not a johnny-come-lately Cubs fan. I have been a fan since 1967 (since I was 10 years old)--the years of Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins, Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, etc. I was a Cubs fan long before WGN went cable.

So, my serenity is not disturbed by an early exit from the postseason. In fact, my serenity does not come from sports at all.

If I may wax a bit theological here....are you surprised?....my theology of "play" is not about winning or distraction. It is about enjoying the moment; about taking pleasure in the gifts God has given to his world. To play--or to watch vicariously--is a kind of abandonment to the moment, to experience joy (even when we lose!).

I enjoy the Cubs as a part of my "playing," just as I enjoy other moments of "play" (from playing cards to playing with my wife). They provide moments of life, moments of joy, spontaneous moments that re-create and enliven our stories.

But my serenity does not depend on winning or losing. My serenity comes from playing in the presence of God...just as the Sabbath was not simply a day of rest, but a day of enjoyment, a day to play...just as the Song of Songs was about the playfulness of sexual love between a man and woman...just as biblical hospitality is not merely an ethical obligation but a moment to play as well.

So, the Cubs lost. That's ok. God is stil God--obviously! And my abiding joy--as I continue to learn--comes from a divine presence rather a Cubs World Series victory. To despair over a loss in sports is a loss of perspective about what is truly important and from where true joy comes.

P. S. For those interested in a good book on the "theology of play," read my former professor's The Christian at Play by Robert K. Johnston. Enjoy! :-)

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Then he added a market and a walkway to a shelter (drawbridge raised):

It was still raining, so we all helped to make a hoopla. O had played a Tweenies game on the CBeebies website yesterday containing fairground sideshow type games and he was inspired to make his own. We used the base of a basketball post to make the thingumajig you try and throw the hoops over:

Initially, the hoops (made from an old cardboard box) were too light, so we stuck two together and had much better results. It still took us a while to successfully hook any hoops though!

Later, the rain stopped so we walked to town for a gallery, library and market visit - there were plenty of puddles to splash in which meant W didn't ask to be carried once, all the way there and back! The library is lending two DVDs for the price of one at the moment, so I couldn't resist Howl's Moving Castle -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl%27s_Moving_Castle_(film) -  which is one of the Studio Ghibli animations we had yet to see. O also chose a Pink Panther compilation.

The only disaster of the day was my "slow cooked" risotto, which unfortunately cooked too quickly and now resembles porridge!

I was about age 7ish in this video... u will see me doing funny things like feeding everyone ice cream, playing hide n seek with letter box toys, play tag with my brothers and cousins...

Developer's website You can get SA1 at this site.

SA2 was Featured by Greenhouse and won an award at PAX (Penny Arcade Expo). Penny Arcade is pretty serious about games. They wouldn't recommend it if it wasn't completely awesome.

Accessible games do not need to be crappy. A well-thought-out game can be fun for everyone.

The thing is, Strange Attractor was programmed as part of a contest for one-switch accessible games. Then it became respected as a game by the overall gaming community for its clever design. What turned out to be good for people with disabilities, yet again, is good for everyone. You are going to hear that on this blog like a mantra.

Other one-switch ideas, and other entries to the original contest, can be found here.

(Thistle.   Quail Hollow State Park.  August 2007.  © Robin)

Nature is imperfectly perfect, filled with loose parts and possibilities, with mud and dust, nettles and sky, transcendent hands-on moments and skinned knees. What happens when all the parts of childhood are soldered down, when the young no longer have the time or space to play in their family's garden, cycle home in the dark with the stars and moon illuminating their route, walk down through the woods to the river, lie on their backs on hot July days in the long grass, or watch cockleburs, lit by morning sun, like bumblebees quivering on harp wires? What then?

~ Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods

Una vez fijada la fecha de lanzamiento en nuestro país el 24 de octubre, aparecen nuevas imágenes del juego para PSP. Se tratará de una versión para la portátil con un nuevo motor de juego, combates en tiempo real característicos de la saga, nuevas interactuaciones entre los personajes y un nuevo formato adaptado a 16:9.

October, is "International Walk or Bike to School Month." Each fall, millions of children, parents teachers and community leaders across the globe walk or bike to school to encourage walking and biking in their communities.

Arlington Public Schools (APS) and Arlington County has worked together to create walk-friendly neighborhoods, and this year marks the 10th year of participation in Walk or Bike to School Month. This year they have collaborated with WALK Arlington, Abingdon Elementary and the National Wildlife Federation. These issue leaders encourage families to walk and bike to school while educating them on the health and environmental benefits of walking and biking.

Walk and Bike to School Day also helps us raise global awareness about the importance of pedestrian safety education, minimizing traffic in neighborhoods and around schools, lowering your carbon footprint and creating a healthy lifestyle.

Arlington will celebrate International Walk and Bike to School Day on Wednesday, October 8 this year. Throughout the entire month of October, many APS staff and PTAs will incorporate activities focusing on biking and walking into Arlington Public School curriculum.

Abingdon Elementary will be highlighted in 2008 in recognition of the school's demonstrated commitment to walking as part of a healthy lifestyle.

County, APS officials, members of the media and other guests including RANGER RICK of the National Wildlife Federation will join Abingdon students and parents as they walk and bike their way to school together on October 8.

Educational activities and refreshments will be provided for participants at rest stops en route and at Abingdon when students arrive following their morning "commute." A rally will be held on the school track before students head to class. Abingdon Elementary has long been recognized for its strong advocacy of walking.
REST STOP LOCATIONS:

There will be three rest stops that the Abingdon PTA will be staffing with volunteers serving juice and granola bars. We'll have balloons at each rest stop to help mark the locations:

1. N. Fairlington Community Center location will be at the sidewalk that intersects with S. Abingdon St. (at the parking lot near the tennis courts).

2. Fire Station on S. Abingdon St.

3. Bike Trail intersecting S. 31st St.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Arlington Walkzone Map

WALKArlington

International Walk to School

Bike Safety/Bike Arlington

National Wildlife Federation - Climate Classroom

Ως πρόσωπο καμπάνιας του νέου αρώματος επιλέχθηκε ο πολύ επιτυχημένος, ιδιαίτερα γοητευτικός και αρκετά ταλαντούχος Justin Timberlake...

Here i go again-

Love, sex, kissing, cuddling, biting, pinching, truth unity, all are words with no religion, dreams, rainbow, colors & sounds, I feel they are all too good to frown, life, songs, letters, call, i dont know where to go wid this, so I will end this now!