Still breathing, folks :)
Over the course of the last two weeks, my to-do list at the Desk has ballooned from 20-plus to over 35 items late last week. Today, Wednesday, I have managed to trim it down to 25 ... so far ... but the deadlines are on the hound.
However, before I go insane though, I decided to take a break and write a few warbles (it's a Wednesday, after all) and to let you know that I'm still here, alive and kicking (and getting a caffeine fix to get the gray matter going).
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Initial thoughts on George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones?
I'm only on page 184 of the mass market paperback edition but at this early in the reading, I could say that the plot (and plots and sub-plots and counter-plots) is already beginning to thicken. We're already beginning to see the pieces of the entire machinery of the series starting to move and it could only get more complex (and complexer) as the series progresses. We're getting hints of motives and motivations, of the politics and intricacies of ruleship that define the reign of King Robert Baratheon, of the incoming conflict that would result in the power struggle all amidst the drapery of an incoming winter spell.
Brilliant! Brilliantly written and that GRRM is one heck of a writer. I do hope the rest of the series doesn't disappoint. But judging from the praise the series has received all over (resulting to a TV adaptation), there's little to doubt that the series will disappoint.
After reading the opening chapters, I definitely need to get my hands on the next set of books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series to avoid the "bitin" syndrome.
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How do you explain religious differences toa 4-year old?
I was posed this question earlier this morning by my daughter. Apparently, one of the assignments given by their teacher is that all students should bring a rosary everyday (Ikai goes to St. Paul's College - Makati, even if she is Protestant-christened). And being the 4-year old she is, she has said that she has to bring a rosary because all her classmates were bringing theirs.
I told her that she doesn't need to bring a rosary because she was not Catholic.
"What is Catholic, Papa?"
Uh-oh, cornered.
After a few seconds of thinking about the best way to answer a 4-year old, I sat beside her and proceeded to explain religious schism. I told her that all people prayed and believed in only One God. That everyone believed in Jesus as well. However, I told Ikai that not all people prayed and believed in God and Jesus in the same way. There are groups of people who are called Catholics who pray to God in one way and then there are others called Protestant who pray to God another way. It just so happened that she goes to a Catholic school even though she is a Protestant.
I told her that she doesn't have to follow how her classmates pray to God but that there's no harm if she wants to follow as well.
A bit too much to digest but I think Ikai understood. She's a bright little girl after all.
But to comfort her, I got her diary and scrawled a note to her teacher asking if Ikai, being a Protestant, needs to bring a rosary as well. I told Ikai she has to show her diary to her teacher and that her teacher will answer. If however my daughter still wants a rosary (it's hard to feel different from the rest of your classmates, of course -- she's only 4 after all), we agreed that she will ask her grandparents (my parents, of course) for a rosary.
"May rosary naman sila Lolo Ely sa car, di ba?"
I think someone little is being too tad observant and has one heck of a memory :)
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Walking along the same lines, I think our daughter is having a bit of crisis of faith, in her own way of course. And that's probably partly our fault as we enrolled her in an all-Catholic school.
As it is unavoidable, Catholic students do Catholic things -- pray specificied prayers and do the sign of the cross. They're even taught that. Ikai of course, wasn't taught those things. Even in Sunday School at the UCCP Cosmopolitan Church, there were no set prayers or sign of the crosses. They pray, they sing praises, they do Christian stuff -- the Protestant way.
So, it's a bit confusing for her right now so I guess that's why the talk about Catholics and Protestants this morning might help.
I just thought about this a few secs back because I remember when I accompanied Ikai on her school field trip last month, before the bus left, her teacher led the prayer -- "In the Name of the Father, the Son ..." and I espied Ikai minutely doing the sign of the cross, taking care that I didn't see her making the Catholic prayer gesture. But the small movements caught my attention and she looked sheepishly at me, embarassed at being caught as if doing something wrong.
I smiled at her and told her it was alright if she wanted to do the sign of the cross. No harm done. None offense taken.
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I saw my weighing scale this morning after I got out of the shower. So, I said to myself, let's see if all the calorie-counting I've been doing the past several weeks has been helping.
I adjusted the knob so that the needles points exactly to "0", stepped on the scale and voila -- 200lbs?! I can't farkin believe it. So, I get off again and on again and the needle still points to 200.
So, I step off again and for the third time step on the scale and this time the needle went 202 lbs. Repeated attempts resulted to 202-ish marks. That settled it.
Still an improvement from my 206 lbs. a month ago. I need to rev up the walking regimen and keep on calorie counting.
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Right, time to get back to work now. Ciao!
Talkin' 'bout stuff over steaming cups of coffee. Grab a seat and be part of the chit-chat.
