Incline your ear to wisdom

    & nbsp;  It’s a toxic world out there.  Besides the numerous poisonous substances made by man, exotic hazards exist in nature.  There are 1,200 kinds of poisonous marine organisms, 700 poisonous fish, 400 venomous snakes, 60 ticks, 75 scorpions, 200 spiders, 750 poisons in more than 1,000 plant species, and several birds whose feathers are toxic when touched or ingested.

    & nbsp;  The reason man survives such a treacherous world is because our bodies are designed to protect us from both natural and man-made toxins.  The first line of defense, skin, is made of keratin – so waterproof, tough, and tightly woven that only the smallest and most fat-soluble molecules can get through.  Our senses warn us of noxious substances; if they fail there is vomiting as backup.  Finally, there is the liver, which turns fat-soluble poisons into water-soluble wastes that can be flushed out through our kidneys.  The balance tilts over to toxicity only when we step over the threshold of dosage.  (source:  National Geographic, May 2005)

    & nbsp;  Dangers exist not only in the physical world but also in the spiritual realm.  The Bible teaches us about poisons of the spirit such as selfishness, covetousness, boasting, slandering, gossiping, idol worship, lustful desires, and the love of money and pleasure.  But our loving Father in heaven has also prepared for us a defense mechanism to protect our spirit from these poisons.  The book of Ephesians talks about this armor:  “Put on all the armor that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the Devil’s evil tricks.  For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age.  So put on God’s armor now!  Then when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy’s attacks; and after fighting to the end, you will still hold your ground.  So stand ready, with truth as a belt tight around your waist, with righteousness as your breastplate, and as your shoes the readiness to announce the Good News of peace.  At all times carry faith as a shield; for with it you will be able to put out all the burning arrows shot by the Evil One.  And accept salvation as a helmet, and the word of God as the sword which the spirit gives you.  Do all this in prayer, asking for God’s help.  Pray on every occasion, as the Spirit leads.  For this reason keep alert and never give up;  pray always for all God’s people.” (Chapter 6, vv 11 – 18)

(Note:  I often go to Borders Bookstores or the library to browse books and magazines during Saturdays.  The thing that I sometimes take for granted is this armor that God offers to every Christian.  I sometimes forget that it is not built-in when we are born and we need to ask for it in prayer)

    & nbsp;   Also known as shopping.  Time to go to the shrine of the middle class and reward thyself with the fruits of thy labor.  A new pair of Oxford shoes and some Nautica shirts will be a good start for the wardrobe update.  Those Van Hausen long sleeved shirts will be too warm for spring.  But the Baume and Mercier watch the wife gave me for our anniversary will be too formal, I’ll stop by Massey’s later to see if those Tag Heuer watches will complete that “classy sporty” look I’m going after.  But maybe the Hugo Boss scent doesn’t fit the image, so maybe I’ll try that Davidoff cool water aftershave. 

Now that that’s taken care of, lets see what we can get for the gadget freak in me.  I’ll pass by the Franklin Covey store later to check out that newest PDA they got.  I heard you could store digital music or take pictures with them now.  That reminds me to check out that latest craze the mini Ipod, specially the black-and-red U2 version. 

And let’s not forget about the missus.  How about a nice Thomas Kincade painting or a lamp from Bombay?  Both will be perfect for the spring makeover she is planning for the living room.  Maybe I’ll get her those heart-shaped ruby and diamond earrings she was dying to get last week.   She was hinting about them in a not so subtle way.

    & nbsp;   Ladies and gentlemen, meet my old self.  No I didn’t buy all those things mentioned above.  Some of them I did but most of them I just dreamt of having.  Oh, you wanna meet my new self?  You can find him at my house, watching a movie with the family.  Munching on some cheese glazed popcorn and sipping a bottle of IBC root beer.  He is quite happy I might add, and very satisfied with the transformation.

The secret is not to obsess about what you're doing, but to enjoy it.  The more you enjoy, the better you'll become... Don't try to do too much too soon.  Genuine growth takes time.

    & nbsp;     & nbsp;     & nbsp;   &n bsp;   - Bruce Pandolfini
       & nbsp;           & nbsp;   &n bsp;   On improving in chess

    & nbsp;   This is my mantra towards my goal to become a Scrabble expert.  I do spend some time studying words but I don’t force myself to study too much.  I do enjoy the game so I will eventually and inevitably excel at it.  I also apply this in my other endeavors like writing.  I’m not a natural writer like my blog friends.  I always need to draft a post and it takes me at least two revisions before I feel comfortable to put it up.  Or else, I'm afraid the hurried writing will become too obvious to everyone.  But like Scrabble I find writing quite pleasurable, so I believe that in due time, I will become very proficient at it.

Wednesdays=Scrabble Night.  Every Wednesdays the Utah Scrabble Club meets at a restaurant to play 3 – 4 games.  Club and tournament Scrabble is always played one on one, unlike recreational Scrabble, which is usually played by 4 players.  Our club is blessed with 3 experts, 3 intermediates (including me) and about 6 beginners.  Here’s a game I played against Mike, a promising newcomer.  He started attending club about six months ago and has shown so much improvement since he joined our club.

I started the game with FOOT for 14 pts.  Then he played GEE for 10 pts.  After that I countered with HADJI (n. one who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca) for 39 pts.  Then he played MA for 19 pts.  After playing some more common words, he played K(O)P(J)E for 45 pts!  (Letters in parentheses means that they were already on the board)  I held the play.  You do this by saying, “hold”.   This prevents the player who made the play from drawing replacement tiles.  This signals that you are considering on challenging the play.  When you challenge a play, an arbitrator comes over and looks up the word from a list.  If the play is acceptable, the challenger loses a turn.  If its not, the play comes off the board and the one who played it scores zero.  I decided to let it go, cause I think I saw the word before.  Turned out to be a good decision, for later we found out it is indeed a word (it means a small hill).  Then after that we played some more common words.  Then I hit jackpot.  From an M in the board, I played ASTERIS(M).  This is called a bingo (when you use all 7 letters from your rack), which garners you a 50-point bonus.  I made a total of 80 pts for that play.  We later learned that the word is a property of certain minerals of showing a starlike luminous figure.  You don’t need to know the meaning of a word to play it; it just has to be on the list of acceptable words.  Then he played (A)RVO for 8 pts.  This is a mistake.  Not because it’s not a valid word, it is (it means afternoon).  But because it only scored 8 pts, an exchange would have been a better choice.  We have a rule of thumb that if you cannot score at least 12 pts, you may want to consider exchanging.  In organized Scrabble, you can exchange any number of tiles in your rack anytime as long as there are at least 7 tiles in the bag.  You score nothing, but this gives you a chance to get rid of ugly tiles like duplicate I’s, U’s, or the Q.

Anyway, after that he made some high scoring plays:  SEND for 36, STANDER for 77 and ZAX for 38.  But it wasn’t enough because I countered with ANERGIA for 74, QUIRIN(G) for 54.  Final scores: 430 for me, 344 for Mike.

I hope I gave you a good and somewhat interesting sneak peek of the world of serious Scrabble enthusiasts.

Tuesdays=Amazing Race Night.  I am really hooked on this show.  I guess it’s the adrenaline rush I feel when I put myself in one of the contestants’ shoes.  I can see myself going through all the challenges and more importantly, I can see myself visiting all those places they go to.  No wonder the show’s viewership is steadily increasing, because the audience can easily relate to one of the teams.  There are brothers, sisters, a black couple, a gay couple, fiancés, dating couples, an elderly couple and then.....there’s Rob and Amber.  Honestly, I tried to like these two as much as I can.  When they stole a taxi from another team, I understood it as part of being competitive.  When Rob told a travel agent to lie to the other contestants about booking a flight, I said if the producer allowed it, then it must be within the rules of the game.  When people help them when they recognize them from Survivor, I argued that no one should blame them for being famous.  When they didn’t stop for another team who had a rollover accident, I still thought they had no obligation to stop, I told myself maybe they were pretty sure the show's crew will immediately attend to that accident, and maybe deep inside they were sympathetic to that team.  But I was wrong.  When I saw a smirk on Rob’s face while passing the scene and the teams who stopped to help, I began to think that the guy is a heartless bastard.  And that thinking was reinforced by tonight's episode.

    & nbsp;   &n bsp; In tonight's episode, the 4 remaining teams needed to book a flight out of India going to Turkey.  When Rob and Amber and another team had booked their flights and was informed there was no earlier flights, they had no choice but to wait for the other 2 couples to arrive.  Then when those other couples had secured the same flight, Rob made fun of them.  He asked them if they got into the first flight.  This made the other couples really upset, thinking that they were leaving in a later flight.  But Rob wasn't content in this, he laughed in front of the camera and called the other teams stupid.

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;  So the 2 teams frantically called around travel agencies to see if they can get into the earlier flight.  Turns out there was indeed one, arriving in Turkey 2 hours before Rob and Amber's plane!  You should have seen the satisfaction on my face when they showed Rob and Amber's reaction as they learned that 2 teams where way ahead of them, while all along they thought they were on the lead.

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;  So little children, repeat after me:  "What goes around comes around."  Maybe they should make this the subtitle of the show. 

    & nbsp;   &n bsp; So what do you do when you can’t think of anything to blog about?  Well, just steal, er, borrow ideas from your tblog friends.   Mnash posted how he relates days with a routine he usually do on that day.  For example he calls Mondays bagel Mondays because he buys bagels for people in the school he works for during that day.  He calls Tuesdays announcing nights because he volunteers to announce basketball or volleyball during this particular day.  Then my friend Finalyfree blogged about the things we usually take for granted.  So I decided to combine these two great blog ideas into a single post.  Everyday, starting today, I will post about my usual routine during that particular day and how that routine reminds me of things I usually take for granted.

Monday=Sticky Bed Day and Las Vegas Night.  Easily the hardest day to get up from bed and go back to work.  Especially if you’re an insomniac like me.  But I’m still thankful that I have a great job.  We have flexible hours, if you came late, you can make up the time by going home late.  The nature of our job is thinking which fits my personality like a T.  I am sometimes accused of over thinking which I actually take as a compliment, hehe.   As a computer programmer, we think of ways to improve computer systems and fix them as problems arises.  The reason I say "we" and "our" is because my wife is a computer programmer too.  We work in the same company, which brings me to another thing I take for granted: carpooling.  We don’t need to buy and maintain a second car and this helps a lot in our finances.  I estimate that we easily save $500 a month by just having one car.

And about that Las Vegas Night.  No, I don’t drive (7 hrs) or fly (1 hour) to Vegas every Monday.  I just watch the show “Las Vegas”.  It’s a mini-series about a casino security crew and how they prevent cheating in the gambling tables.  Many of you don’t know that I’m a Trekkie and this show has 3 elements common with Star Trek.  One, there’s always a mystery to be solved in every episode.  Second, there’s high tech involved, and I'm a technology buff.  Last week there was a guy who invented a gizmo that can clean up a room by projecting ionized beams.  (Can’t wait for this thing to be invented in real life, will save me  from a lot of "discussions" with the missus)  This week, there was a security and surveillance expo and this one guy was flying a dragonfly robot equipped with a miniature camera.  He was remotely controlling it and making it hover over some well-endowed guests, happily spying on their big assets (Yes, the kind Pamela Anderson is famous for).  You might be wondering if I also wish this one to be invented in real life.  Umm,  no comment :wink:  The third element is a hot chick in the main cast.  Well, I don’t know about the other guys out there but I think Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi of the Enterprise) was hot.  Ok, you can stop laughing now.  Las Vegas has Marsha Thomason.  She’s the black girl who starred opposite Lawrence Martin in Black Knight. 

    & nbsp;   Whoa, I didn’t know this post would be this long.  But before I forget, let me end it with some good news.  The book “I Blog, Therefore I Am” is published!  This book is a collection of blogs including one of my posts entitled “Why Do I Blog?”  The book is only available right now through the publisher's website bookofblogs.org, but they said it should hit your favorite bookstore or library in 3 – 5 weeks.  So please check it out.

So what do you call a weekend of mid-60s weather, followed by a Monday of mixed rain and snow?  A gift from God of course.  Saturday we took our daughter to the zoo.  This is not her first time to the zoo actually.  Her first visit was at the Audobon Zoo in New Orleans.  Yep, we have a zoo that is less than 15 miles from our home and we took her there after we went to one that is more than a thousand miles away.  Oh well, I know people who live in LA who had never gone to Universal Studios and people from Arizona who had never seen the Grand Canyon.  Its kinda like living here in Utah and never seen the Mormon temple.  But that's another blog.

ANYWAY,  as I've said the weather was perfect but the zoo is, well, half a zoo.  A large part was blocked and being worked on for the new elephant section.  They also blocked off the bear section (a main attraction of the Hogle Zoo are the polar bears).  So no elephants, no bears, no giraffes (they never had one), no zebras!  You might be asking, what the heck did you see then?  Monkeys!  Lots of them.  All kinds of them.  The Colobus monkey, the gorillas (I know they're apes but give me a break), the orangutans, the spider monkeys, the octopus monkey (its a new addition from Ghana, it has 8 limbs!) 

Hey, got a question for you.  How do you find a geek inside a zoo?  He's the one reading all those trivia boards about the animals in the cages.  He's the one who knows that the Colobus monkeys are called so because "Colobus" means thumbless and those monkeys indeed don't have thumbs.  He's the one who knows the difference between a Dromedary and a Bactrian camel.  The former has one hump and composes 90% of all camels, while the latter has two humps and composes the remaining 10%.  He's the one who knows that "hippopotamus" means "river horse".  Yeah, that geek would be me.  And yeah, I'm not ashamed to be one.  And, uh, ummm.....I just made up that octopus monkey.  As they say, better be a geek than a moron.  Or did I just make that one up too?

    & nbsp;  It's the birthday of the man who invented the game Scrabble.  Alfred M. Butts was born in Poughkeepsie, New York (1899).  He was an architect, but during the Depression he was out of a job and decided he'd invent an adult game.  He classified games into three groups-chance, skill and a combination of both-and decided that the last was the most promising.  He went methodically through the dictionary and several popular newspapers and counted by hand the frequency of letter usage to come up with the point value for each
letter.

    & nbsp;   He trademarked the game in 1949.  He had trouble selling it to major board game companies, but a friend of his decided to produce it on an assembly line in an abandoned schoolhouse.  The first few years, only a few thousand copies of the game were sold, but in the 1950's the president of Macy's played the game on vacation and got hooked.  He ordered more for his store, and Scrabble became a great success.

    & nbsp;  
    & nbsp;   Alfred Butts enjoyed playing Scrabble with his wife, who was a good opponent. He said, "Nina knows more words and spells better than I, but my architectural training helps me to plan better."  The game has been beloved by many writers, including the novelist Vladimir Nabokov, who had a special Russian version made for himself and his wife.

P.S.  This was posted in a mailing list I belong by a gentleman named Chris Schneider.

Here are some of my recent discoveries:

Boxing day celebrated in Canada and the UK after Christmas day is not actually about two gladiators going at it because both of them thought the other guy said his mom is fat and ugly. 

Policemen don’t find it funny when you hand them your credit card instead of your driver’s license.

It is really unsettling to lose the TV remote. 

No one ever loses in Vegas.  Every time I ask someone if they won after going always answer yes (accompanied with a wide smile too).

I haven’t blogged enough about my wife, which might make people think I hate her.  That is not true, I blogged about her several times.

You should be careful discussing the movie The Fockers at the office if your not confident with your pronunciation skills.

People avoid you like the plague if they hear you might need their help in moving.

Many Christians still think Satan has two big horns and a tail, has red skin and laughs like this: BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Some people think they received a windfall when they get approved a credit limit increase on their credit card.

P.S.  This post is dedicated to my wife who I love very much.  We celebrated, I mean remembered our 7^th wedding anniversary yesterday.  I pray to God that He keeps our marriage strong and our love for each other even stronger.

    & nbsp;   Just watched a movie called Paul the Apostle.  I might be a little biased but I think the movie was great.  It recounts the most prolific writer of the Bible, apostle Paul.  Here are some of my observations:

    & nbsp;   The apostles risked life and limb to preach Jesus.  And never in the 3 hour movie they were shown to collect money from the people they preach to.  This is consistent with the Bible because Jesus told them to "Go and preach, 'The Kingdom of heaven is near!'  Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, heal those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases, and drive out demons.  You have received without paying, so give without being paid."  (Matthew 10: 7 and 8 )  Hmmm, this is not what I observe from all churches today including the one I belong.  In the movie Peter, John and James were the most prominent besides Paul, and not one of them seems to have gotten rich from preaching.  Again, this is the reverse of what I observe among church leaders in this age.  Can someone tell me why this is so?

    & nbsp;   The conversion of Paul (who was then called Saul) is an amazing story.  But before I share that to you, I have a confession to make.  Before watching the movie, I always taught Paul was one of the original 12 apostles.  Yes, I know its shameful for someone calling himself a Christian not to even know this little information.  I felt so ashamed because this made me realize how little I have read the Bible since I professed my faith in Christ.  But at the same time I thank God for this learning because it encourages me to learn more about Jesus and the early Christians.   Anyway, the conversion of Saul is chronicled in the book of Acts chapter 9.  I highly encourage everyone to read this account because it tells us that however bad we think a person is, we should prevent ourselves from condemning him because we don't know if the Lord will call him in the future.

    & nbsp;   One last observation.   The apostles were willing to die and suffer for teaching that Christ has risen from the dead and now sits in the right hand of God.  Remember that these are the same people who went into hiding after their Master was killed.  How come all of a sudden, they became courageous people proclaiming a risen Messiah?  This 180-degree turnaround should make anyone think twice before doubting the message of these people.  Think about it, did they just suddenly made up a plan to create this myth of resurrection or did they really see the risen Jesus who told them to make people everywhere His disciples?  Would anyone in their right mind propagate a lie knowing full well that they are likely to be persecuted or killed for this lie?

    & nbsp;   P.S.  This post is dedicated to my dad who was imprisoned by the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.  He was a political prisoner for 2 years, enduring physical, psychological and financial hardship for opposing the oppressive policies of the said dictatorship.   We remember him on the first year anniversary of his death.