absolutwillie

Month: October 2008

  • trick or treat!

  • Happy Halloween

    http://youtube.com/v/uG4XEKw08mI

    a small glimpse into my classroom after nap time ;0)

  • the feeling of family

    in tonight’s “ABC Class” – the really young kids – we talked about family.
    okay, so ‘talked’ might be too strong a word – more parrotting , but you get the idea.

    one of the exercises was to draw a picture of your family. one dear little heart made use of the opportunity to make my heart pump custard by drawing the following picture:notice the “extras” outside the picture frame? that would be me and my Taiwanese co-teacher, Christene.

    see how everybody is smiling? i’m positively glowing man *lol*

  • Saw V

    saw-v-20080805111829606_640w.jpg

    i went to see the latest installment of the SAW franchise on friday – under protest, to be sure. i’m not all that big on blood and gore – but i do like a good psychological thriller.

    in one word – the movie was: disappointing.

    apart from leaving me a bit queezy, there was nothing to the movie. to be clear – i didn’t see any of the previous movies. but if this was anything to go by, i’m glad i didn’t.

    sure – people get decapitated, blown to bits and mutilated in various ways – but there’s no real story to it. gaps in the plot irritated the heck out of me – and what passed for character development or unraveling of the “mystery” was seriously under-cooked.

    it seems that Saw V had a few intriguing ingredients, but these were merely slapped together with no thought or cohesion. like making a club sandwich by taking a day-old, white bread crust, piling on some steamed chicken and drowning it in ketchup. dress it with fried sweet potato peels and a 1000 island sauce.

    what makes it a club sandwich?

    exactly.

  • converting 40c into 40 meals


    my original intent with the previous Blog Action Day posts was to donate 10cents for every comment received on those posts, leading up to and including October 15th 2008. the turn-out, despite the effort of the 4 people who posted (thank you all!!), was rather disappointing though.

    i personally feel that it is a shame to only donate 40cents to any cause, seeing as how it is within my power to do more. (don’t get me wrong – if 40cents is all you have – it’s plenty!)

    at the same time – in looking for a specific cause to donate to – i’ve identified Hunger as my main focus.being hungry is not funny – and starving to death must be the worst thing that can happen to anybody. not to mention, the worst thing to happen to a child!

    without going on and on about the topic – i have decided NOT to donate those 40cents to fight poverty. in stead – i am going out and sponsoring 40 meals.

    this still doesn’t solve the world’s problems – but it can sure feed a family.

    as a parting shot: it’s amazing how one little picture can bring new clarity on the reality of starvation – and how our societies rank the importance thereof.

  • extended opportunity: leave your comments now


    the past almost-24 hours has seen 2 comments on my previous post.

    2 comments @ 10c a pop = 20c donation thus far? come now – that’s less than the bank charges involved in making the donation…

    i’ve decided to extend the comment-period with another 24 hours.

    for every comment received on my Blog Action Day post – i will donate 10c to one of their listed causes.

    you’ve got 24 hours – make it count.

  • i'm donating 10cents a pop

    Tomorrow is Blog Action Day – the initiative to help rid the world of poverty. I am following Jacob Cass’ lead (he of Just Creative Design fame) in “doing my bit by leaving it up to you guys to decide how much I will donate.”

    I will donate 10cents for every comment posted in the next 24 hours – starting from the time of this post. Leave a comment saying “I’m helping to rid the world of poverty”.


  • the sound and the fury

    http://youtube.com/v/S_TcfE3lUAM

    ever stood on the roof of an apartment building to look at the lights?

    it’s been quite a day in the south of Taiwan. people from near and far dressed up to parade through the streets of Donggang (TungKang) and pay their respects at every single temple en route. i went to take some pictures at a temple near my home and was amazed at the unfamiliarity of it all.

    later, trying to capture some fireworks from the roof – the encroaching shadow i’ve been trying to shake all week, finally caught up with me.

    my cycles are slow, but consistent. even on the other side of the planet – Fall flips the switch in my head. I can feel my ‘Cold Mind’ setting in.

    i notice that i am paying more attention to the darkness – and yearning for silence…

    i could really do with a cigarette right now.

  • Project 10^100

    http://youtube.com/v/NgSRwOZtDQ8

    Project 10ˆ100 is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.

    submission deadline in 10 days – so click on through, baby!

  • Hell hath… well… nothing, by the looks of it

    You gotta love this guys explanation of Hell…
    The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term.

    The answer by one student was so “profound” that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well:

    Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

    Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

    One student, however, wrote the following:

    First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

    As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.

    With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

    This gives two possibilities:

    1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
    2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

    So which is it?

    If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, “It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,” and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct… leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting “Oh my God.”

    This Student Received The Only “A”.