Uto-uto

I was looking at the other blogs on inquirer.net today and chanced upon the post "KC Concepcion: 'I Love Blogging' on the Blog Addicts blog. KC's first blog entry on her Multiply site, the article said, was about the Subservient Chicken.

Hmmm. Intriguing. And so I went to the Subservient Chicken link.

True enough, the Subservient Chicken can do whatever you want--like how its sponsor Burger King can do your order the way you want it ("Have it your way" is their tagline). To date, I have commanded the Subservient Chicken to jump, run, yodel, wave bye, do jumping jacks, scratch, and even reach his toes. And he did them all. Uto-uto.

This is a great two-minute stress buster for the harried mom who can't get her young child to brush his teeth, change into pajamas, eat vegetables, pack up toys, feed the dog, put on slippers, and so on. For two minutes, there's someone who will obey your every command. Bliss! :)

VERSE OF THE WEEK: Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." Hebrews 13:5

BOOK OF THE WEEK: Thanks to some time to kill, I picked up the little book Stressed in the City: Snippets of the Lighter Side of the Urban Jungle (written by my grad school classmate April Timbol Yap) at National Bookstore last month. By page 2 I was already chuckling at the cat crossing the flyover ("Where did it come from? Where was it going? And why for heaven's sake did it need to use the flyover?") and laughing hard by the time she told the story of the vendor selling beds on the streets ("Miss, gusto n'yong bumili ng kama?"). :)

Wishing for a techie streak

This is one of those days when I wish I were techie. I am at Figaro at The Podium sipping a cup of barako coffee tinkering with Chinky’s tiny Asus Eee PC, that little contraption which seems so heaven sent as it fits the bag of a busy journalist on the go.

Or so I thought.

Despite the wireless connection icon saying I’m connected via AccessZone for the past 22 minutes (signal strength low), I cannot access Yahoo or Gmail. To amuse myself, I opened Microsoft Word to write this little piece, but it’s the Vista version, and I cannot decipher why I cannot type past the header. All these text that you’re reading—they are in the header. How to get out of this header, I don’t know yet, as Mozilla Firefox says it still can’t connect to the server.

Oh well.

It makes for a cool thing to do, though, writing on this tiny equipment at a coffee shop. Makes me feel Hemingway-like as the iconic writer wrote in coffee shops using pen and paper, and I’m here trying (operative word: trying) to make use of my time well.

I’m still inside the header by the way.

Oh well. Ok I’ll turn this thing off now and brave the monsoon rains outside. I might be able to connect to the Internet better back home.

Note: This was written September 10, 2008.

BOOK OF THE WEEK: On an overnight trip to Dagupan last December, I bought the book God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew at Book Sale for the fantastic price of P15. (Fifteen pesos!!!) I've heard about this book many many years ago and was intrigued at this Dutch missionary who smuggled Bibles to communist countries in Europe during the Cold War days. Brother Andrew's willingness to undertake dangerous trips to spread the Gospel sounds like Paul's mission to bring Christianity to Asia and Europe. May we burn with passion for God like they did.

VERSE OF THE WEEK: I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. Job 19:25-26