Second Chances

The book I am currently reading (one of three, actually) is titled Untold Story (published in 2011), and it is written by Monica Ali, the famed British novelist. What if Princess Diana had faked her death, escaped to the United States, and lived in a town called Kensington -- ha, ha, that was funny -- under the name Lydia Snaresbrook? And, then, picture a grizzled paparazzi, who recognizes Di by her startling ultramarine eyes (she has abandoned her brown contacts years ago). Imagine the result.

Yep. This novel is a page-turning story. The writing is nice, though it lacks Ali's moving descriptions and strong writing (both of which can be found in her bestselling, NYTimes Editor's Choice novel Brick Lane) but the plotline is fabulously fairy-tale-esque. One paragraph deeply moved me.

In this paragraph, Lawrence, Di's loyal private secretary that abetted her and helped her fake her death and move to the U.S., was describing his conversation with Dr. Patel, his doctor (he is dying with a brain tumor; his doctor reckons, at the time of writing, that he has six months or so to go). This takes place in 1998, just a year after Di's "death", and nine years before the events of the present time in the novel (April 2007, the tenth anniversary of Diana's death). Dr. Patel has said that she was a Hindu after Lawrence asks her if she believes in an afterlife, and that she believes in reincarnation.

Me too, I said, I believe in reincarnation. I didn't elaborate. I think I may have offended her; she thought I was poking fun. Maybe what I should have said is, I believe in another chance.

Isn't that beautiful? Very powerful. Check out Untold Story.

Ha ha, Random!

Whoa. Yeah. I'm still laughing about this. (This is a very random post...)

So. During the week of July 18-22, (2011) our church holds a Vacation Bible School (VBS) thing. And just to add up to my volunteering time, I decided to volunteer as a part of their "staff," as my parents also did. Hamy's too young to volunteer. Guess what? I'm the preschool-K assistant......

Just today I was asking my mom about what I was supposed to do as an assistant and we came up with this: show them some love. Sigh. As if working in the nursery wasn't enough.

Anyway, so, my mom had this friend at our old church, where it also did VBS, and he/she (not sure) led us into another church in St. Joseph, which were willing to let us borrow some of their decorations. And so, just a day ago, we had a trip to that church to cram all the decorations in our car......

I suppose people will not get this whole thing if they didn't know:
A) I got a really boyish haircut.
B) I was wearing a blue loose Twin Cities Twosome shirt and cargo pants with a militaryish design. And black flip-flops.
C) According to my mom, I was sitting next to Hamy, in a position like how a guy would sit. On the concrete, where a few feet away, they were loading decorations into our mini van.

Ha, yeah. I was wondering why Hamy was suddenly going, "Uh...."

Later, as we were coming home, Hamy told me what the woman near us said....
"So, how are you boys going to fit in that car?"

Yeah. The only reason why I wasted five minutes writing this post is because I'll probably forget and I don't.

Wow, sorry. This was a total waste of time........

Random Story

Source: http://www.guy-sports.com/humor/computers/index.htm
I take absolutely no credit for this!!

A Funny Story of How the Internet Began

In ancient Israel, it came to pass that a trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot. And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Indeed, she was often called Amazon Dot Com.

And she said unto Abraham, her husband, "Why dost thou travel so far from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever leaving thy tent?" And Abraham did look at her - as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load - but simply said, "How, dear?"

And Dot replied, "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale, and they will reply telling you who hath the best price. The sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."

Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums. The drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever having to move from his tent. To prevent neighbouring countries from overhearing what the drums were saying, Dot devised a system that only she and the drummers knew. It was called Must Send Drum Over Sound (MSDOS), and she also developed a language to transmit ideas and pictures: Hebrew To The People (HTTP).

But this success did arouse envy. A man named Maccabia did secrete himself inside Abraham's drum and began to siphon off some of Abraham's business. But he was soon discovered, arrested and prosecuted for insider trading. And the young men did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung. They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Sybarites, or NERDS.

And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were going to that enterprising drum dealer, Brother William of Gates, who bought off every drum maker in the land. And he did insist on drums to be made that would work only with Brother Gates' drum heads and drumsticks.

Lo, Dot did say, "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others!" And as Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel, or eBay as it came to be known, he said, "We need a name that reflects what we are." And Dot replied, "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators." "YAHOO," said Abraham. And because it was Dot's idea, they named it YAHOO Dot Com.

Abraham's cousin, Joshua, being the young Gregarious Energetic Educated Kid (GEEK) that he was, soon started using Dot's drums to locate things around the countryside. It soon became known as God's Own Official Guide to Locating Everything (GOOGLE).

And that is how it all began.