Invasion

For the second time in a month, our home was invaded by some insect, maybe termites?

Johari me!

Okay, so here's what people think of me so far. Have you weighed in yet? If not just go to this site, and let me know what I should know about myself. Some (all) people seem to consider me logical. Am I Mr. Spock? Or have you caught me slipping into ad hominem attacks or some other fatal error of logic? Let me know.

Arena (known to self and others) bold, intelligent, knowledgeable, logical, self-assertive	Blind Spot (known only to others) able, complex, dependable, helpful, introverted, nervous, observant, religious, responsive, searching, self-conscious, tense, wise, witty
Façade (known only to self) extroverted	Unknown (known to nobody) accepting, adaptable, brave, calm, caring, cheerful, clever, confident, dignified, energetic, friendly, giving, happy, idealistic, independent, ingenious, kind, loving, mature, modest, organised, patient, powerful, proud, quiet, reflective, relaxed, sensible, sentimental, shy, silly, spontaneous, sympathetic, trustworthy, warm

Dominant Traits

71% of people agree that sumpteretc is intelligent
57% of people agree that sumpteretc is knowledgeable
100% of people agree that sumpteretc is logical

All Percentages

able (28%) accepting (0%) adaptable (0%) bold (42%) brave (0%) calm (0%) caring (0%) cheerful (0%) clever (0%) complex (28%) confident (0%) dependable (14%) dignified (0%) energetic (0%) extroverted (0%) friendly (0%) giving (0%) happy (0%) helpful (14%) idealistic (0%) independent (0%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (71%) introverted (14%) kind (0%) knowledgeable (57%) logical (100%) loving (0%) mature (0%) modest (0%) nervous (14%) observant (14%) organised (0%) patient (0%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (0%) reflective (0%) relaxed (0%) religious (14%) responsive (14%) searching (14%) self-assertive (42%) self-conscious (14%) sensible (0%) sentimental (0%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (0%) sympathetic (0%) tense (28%) trustworthy (0%) warm (0%) wise (14%) witty (14%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 27.2.2006, using data from 7 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view sumpteretc's full data.

Q-tip catastrophe

Yes, there was a mudslide in the Philippines lately, and yes, the President declared a national state of emergency yesterday, but what concerned me most this morning struck a little closer to home. I got a piece of cotton stuck in my ear. They have some cheap cotton swabs in the market, and Tiffany bought some when we ran out of the good kind. Since then, we've bought good ones and had others shipped to us. But . . . I was trying to use up the old ones and, lo and behold, I pulled the swab out of my ear and found myself staring at an empty stick. Apparently, the cotton was well inside my ear. Tiffany tried to get it out with tweezers and a flashlight but wasn't making much progress. I was already late to pick up church members in Casanicolasan, so I went ahead with my route. Tiff did some online investigating while I was gone and felt safer about going back in, so with a little digging around and pulling on my ear, she was finally able to retrieve the pesky bit of material.

We had a good crowd in church today. It seems to fluctuate a bit from week to week, but I think, all in all, the church is growing numerically. The youth group had a love fellowship yesterday, and I think more than 60 attended.

Not too much else out of the ordinary today. When I picked the students up in Imus, Joel told me that they had been invited to eat in the home of one of the church members but that Syrel and Arlene were too ashamed to eat. I'm not really sure what that means, (and I'm not really sure how to find out).

When the doctor needs a second opinion

This picture is really apropos of nothing. It's a couple of chickens that were roosting in our jackfruit tree this morning. I just have never posted a picture on my blog before, so I wanted to see what was involved.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Manila with Pastor Rheynil and Pastor Alex. We're going to attend the 2nd Annual Theological Forum, coordinated by Asian Theological Seminary. The topic is something along the lines of "Naming the Unknown God." I don't think I've heard of any of the keynote speakers before, but some of the breakout sessions look interesting.

At any rate, I've been hurrying around trying to get ready, since we need to leave at about 4:00 tomorrow morning. Registration is at 8:00 and the first plenary session is at 9:00, so that should give us enough time. Pastor Alex told me tonight, though, that there are supposed to be 20,000 protesters in the street tomorrow, so we may have to avoid EDSA, which will almost certainly complicate things. I'm not sure how I'll do going to a new place without my regular navigatrix (Tiffany). My GPSr doesn't do me any good when I'm going someplace I've never been before.

Getting ready has mostly consisted of copying some songs from CD to cassette, because our car doesn't have a CD player. No, actually, it's mostly been trying to get the smell of vomit out of the car. Elijah didn't do too well traveling up Kennon Road to Baguio on Saturday. I think it's maybe only the second time he's had motion sickness, but he did it up right this time.

There was an interesting discussion at faculty prayer meeting tonight. One teacher was requesting prayer for a man who is having some stomach pain but the doctors haven't been able to discover the cause. Another teacher jumped in, offering, "Oh, I know someone else who had that problem. And they did an endoscopy and X-ray and everything and found nothing. Then they cut her tummy open and found out that half of her intestines were--what's the word?--rotten." Ugh. Not too encouraging. Then she went on to tell how the doctors invited the patient's mother in to see the problem for herself. I think, if I were the mother, I would take the doctor's word for it. Tiff said it's like when a mechanic points to some thingamajig in your car and says, "That's your problem, right there." Personally, I think intestines always look wrong, so looking at "rotten" ones probably wouldn't help me too much.

After prayer meeting, we practiced singing the WBC hymn, since we're supposed to sing it at graduation. It's even clunkier than most school songs, but we change the words a little bit at each practice. With a few more weeks practice, it will be completely unrecognizable by the original author.

Johari window

Okay, let's see what you really know about me. Not what my favorite soda is or the last movie I saw, but my personality. Actually, this isn't a quiz to test your knowledge. It's an exercise to help me learn more about myself. So, if you think you know me, have at it.

late notice

After chapel, I went up to Manang Becca to ask her about the JS fellowship, specifically about the financial status of the students, and whether we needed to sponsor some of them. Now that I think about it, I never really got the answer I was looking for.

Anyhow, she asked if we would be attending. I asked if the rest of the faculty were coming. She said, "Yes, please come." As the conversation proceeded, she informed me that I was scheduled to give an exhortation on Friday night and the topic was "Because of Love." So, they had already scheduled me to preach without knowing if I was attending.

Manang Becca said, "Didn't the students tell you that you were supposed to give an exhortation?"

I said, "First I've heard of it."

"Oh, I told them last night that they should go and ask you, because I was busy finalizing my sermon for today."

Hmm. My reluctance was pretty obvious. She said, "The students decided it must be you or Madam Tiffany. Anyhow, it's just a short exhoration."

"Like 10 minutes?"

"It can be more. 15, even 20 to 30."

"That's longer than I usually preach in chapel or church."

"It's just up to you."

"I'm trying to prepare to preach in chapel on Wednesday. I've never preached a sermon on love before."

"You can do it."

"Let me think about it."

In the course of the conversation, I also discovered that we are leaving at 4:00 AM on Friday ("to maximize the time"), that I will be driving my vehicle (and carrying some faculty members with me), and several details that didn't really interest or concern me regarding the schedules of other faculty members.

We went home and sat down to lunch. In a few minutes, some third year students came to the door with their best marketing hats on. Tiffany got the door.

"Because we like you so much, we are inviting you to be a part of our JS fellowship this weekend. Will you be able to attend? Oh, you will? Great! Will you be able to speak to us on Friday evening?"

Tiffany agreed to take the responsibility.

"And you will drive your car? And you will take some faculty with you so that you can have greater fellowship with each other?"

Oh, brother!

Monday: The Day We Lost Contact

It seems like I have almost no contact with Filipinos on Mondays now that I resigned my position as church core group coach.

I walked to the bakery this morning to buy pan de sal. I didn't really say anything to the girl, except "Good morning, po." She put down her paper and went and got 6 pan de sal. I said, "Thank you." End of conversation.

And I think that was about the only conversation I had with a Filipino today, other than telling Manang Edita that it was 6:00, so she could go home.

We did get the minutes of the disciplinary committe today. Permit me to share:
MINUTES OF THE DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE
February 5, 2006, 3rd Year Room 2:00 PM

OFFENSES OF ROBERTO MENDEZ* AND JULIA LATRINIDAD* even after they were sternly warned to be suspended they deliberately violated rules and regulations of the school.

1. Roberto and Julia LaTrinidad met at the SM Mall 2 times last Semestral break and the other was when both happened to be home for weekend, they decided to meet at the Mall by sending text message. They watch movie together, play together at the play station and eat together, which they should not be doing since they were warned not to have communication of any form as a disciplinary measure given to them when they first violated the social rule and the fact that they are not qualified yet.
2. They met at places like the classroom where Roberto first embraced and kissed Julia on the lips, then at the attic of the dining hall 2 times at the wee hours of the night and did the same thing, embracing and kissing each other.
3. Exchanging messages through the mobile phone.
4. Julia going to the house of Roberto on December 25, 2005 and the same thing happened, embracing and kissing.
5. Deliberately teling lies and denying to the Committee of the things they have done even when what they have done have reached the Committee already.
6. Receiving gifts in the form of a stuff toy and an identical ring, without informing her Dean.

DISCIPLINARY MEASURES:
1. They will be suspended from school for 1 week, from today February 6, 2006 until February 12, 2006. In the time of suspension, They are expected to do their requirements in the different subjects and review for the Comprehensive . . .

I couldn't make this stuff up.


*Names changed to protect the guilty

Democide

We hear a lot about the death toll in Iraq, and those deaths concern me. But I came across this site today that tells an even scarier story. Soviet Russia, particularly the Communist Party, murdered more than 61,000,000 people, more than 54,000,000 of them Soviet citizens. The People's Republic of China has been responsible for more than 76,000,000. Even in our fallen world, how can a nation become so callous?