1983 MIZZOU TIGER

For years I've used an old towel that my dad found left behind at a swimming pool while he was the director of a Boy Scout camp in the late 1980s. I've used the beach sized towel for years and years. When our family went on vacation, we took the towel. When I went and worked at the same camp as as a youth, I used the towel and I hung the towel on my cabin door to keep bugs out. When I went to college at Mizzou, I used the towel in my dorm room. Now that I am in Singapore, I use the towel to dry off at the beach.

Sadly, the image on the towel is quickly fading. The sun is taking its toll and I think I've accidentally washed it in bleach water a few times.

The towel currently looks like this:
Fortunately, I can use my digital image editing skills to save the day. After a few touch-ups using the Gimp editing program, the picture starts to look like this:

However, if I want to get a little cocky, I can make the Tiger look like this with a few more mouse clicks.Ggggrrr!
For an older post about the Mizzou tiger, go here.

AWFUL

This is terrible. I have several friends who live and work in the county where this happened. I've probably driven by this school, located along Colorado Highway 285, over a dozen times in my life. On a couple of occassions I have considered trying to get a job at a school in the area.

Please pray for Park County.

Link
Student Details Colorado School Shooting

IT'S 8 A.M. SOMEWHERE

I know that one of the most stereotypical, self-indulgent blog posts imaginable is about what the blogger ate for supper. However, since I know that my mom is one of the ten people who read this thing with any consistency, (and since she is one of the few people on the planet who actually care what I eat) I'm going to write that post.

Today I decided to take a break from my rice and hawker center junk food diet and make some of my own food. However, since I decided I needed something quick to fix, I decided to do something that would not have wanted to do even five or ten years ago: eat breakfast for supper.

Tonight I fixed hash browns, fried eggs, and bacon for supper. They were almost as good as the stuff I used to make back in Rollins Dining Hall.

I don't know why, but I used to have an aversion to doing that. Breakfast for supper wasn't familiar, and it didn't seem right. However, since last Saturday I ate rice and vegetable curry for breakfast, almost anything else seems more familiar.

ACCORDING TO THE TREASURER

My friend D. from Australia sent me a link to this speech given by Peter Costello, the honorable Treasurer of Australia.  It contains some candid and frank observations about how Christians and Islamic believers should try to communicate.  I wish more American politicians would try to be this sensible.

 

Link

Address to Australian Christian Lobby National Conference

HAPPENINGS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Last year when I entered Singapore, I was so excited and I was constantly taking snapshots of each and every little thing. I'm still excited, but the feeling of newness and my willingness to carry a camera around everywhere have subsided.

Anyway, I thought that I would post a list of things that have been happening since the start of this academic year.

• I have moved into a great new place, and I have people working for campus ministry as flatmates.
• The school has moved to a new, large campus with much better facilities and much more reliable aircon.
• I once spent twelve dollars on a bowl of turtle soup with my church group.
• I've tried three different varieties of crab; this was also with my church group.
  
• I've been trekking in Malaysia and was able to see three waterfalls in one day.
• I helped take student council members on a leadership retreat to Tulunas Beach in Indonesia.
• At the leadership retreat, one of the leaders of one of the largest campus ministries in the world lead the weekend's seminars.
• I've been hiking through the jungles of Indonesia.
• I've been to a staff development weekend at Bintan, also in Indonesia.
• For the second time in my life, I was able to go snorkeling in the ocean.
• While walking on the beach, I saw a team of university science students digging up the eggs of an endangered species of turtle in order to place them in an incubator for protection.
  

SHOCKING PICTURES

"And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: " "And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. " "Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? "
Matthew 6:27-30

I was going through some of the photos in my camera, and I found a few that I had taken back in Springfield, Missouri. The common name for these flowers is the Belladonna Lily, and the scientific name is Amaryllis. However, the name my mom calls this flower, the colloquial name for this species, is the naked lady. I hope posting these pictures doesn't start some kind of scandal!

INTELLIGENT ESSAYS ABOUT RELIGION AND POLITICS

Here's a link to a new blog started by Jim Wallis.  However, it isn't all about Jim; the blog also has a packed roster of thoughtful, intelligent contributors.

Link

God's Politics Blog

THE ONION: Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Gerrymandered To Serve King Friday's Make-Believe Agenda

The following article has been reposted from the humor news site www.theonion.com.

MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD, PA—A plan to radically redistrict Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood to further cement the control of the powerful King Friday XIII political machine is expected to pass this week and deeply affect current taxation structure, voting patterns, and services. "Meow-me-meow can't afford meow property tax as it stands now meow, and meow don't want everything I've worked for to be destroyed meow," said one resident, who asked to remain anonymous. Among the anticipated changes are sharp cutbacks in speedy deliveries, the elimination of trolley routes to such low-income districts as Someplace Else and the platypus mound, as well as the destruction of the Museum-Go-Round to make room for a massive new headquarters for The Electric Company.

UBUNTU CHRISTIAN EDITION JOKES

I've been using Ubuntu for a while, and I learned two weeks ago that there is a 3rd party "Christian Edition" that is being released and developed.  I probably won't use it, because that edition won't be that much different than the regular distribution of Ubuntu.  However, I did find a pretty funny humor website about the whole thing.  (Caution- most jokes require a knowledge of Unix and some jokes may be mildly offensive.)
Link
Ubuntu Christian Edition Facts

 

PLAYING FLASH FILES

Someone at church asked me about these two programs, so I told them that I would post a link.
When used correctly, these programs allow you to download and play flash video files on your computer.

Link
Video Downloader
FLV Player

TEACHER'S DAY

Today was Teacher's Day in Singapore and the local schools got the day off.  Our international school did not get the day off.

I was on tomorrow.sg and found a link to a blog post written by a Singaporean teacher.  It is funny how disillusionment with education is almost a universal cultural trait.

Link
Why I Hate Teaching

For the record, I don't hate teaching.  However, I do believe that most problems in education are not because of the students or the teachers, but rather the result of institutional hang-ups that administrators are not willing or unable to resolve due to cultural, political, and attitudinal pressures.