I received an e-mail from a co-worker in Manila about Mars coming so near Earth in an encounter that will supposedly culminate by end of August and have the red planet looking as big and as clear as our Moon to the naked eye.
If you have received this, too, be warned that this is a hoax. The great opposition of these two planets happened in 2003 and peak viewing for Mars this year will be by end of October, not this month.
A tag from Sepik Mom
Total books owned
I haven’t counted but I figured a lot, counting those that I’ve bought or been given. Many, however, have been lost in the moving and the borrowing and some were destroyed by my son, who is in that phase when they like to rip out and eat pages of books.
Last book I bought
Harry Potter and the The Half-Blood Prince
Last book I read
The Professor and The Madman. Still reading it, though.
Books I like to read
1) Fantasy/science fiction
2) Parenting, marriage, homemaking books
3) Crime, legal stuff
4) Spy thrillers
5) Horror genre
Books that mean a lot to me
1) One Hundred Years of Solitude
2) House of the Spirits
3) Foucault’s Pendulum
4) The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Silmarillon
5) Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
I tag Ayeza, Mike, Agring, and anyone who wants to answer.
I remember Helmut Haas raising this problem when I was starting out as a reporter for Sun.Star Cebu right after graduating from college some 10 years ago.
It did not seem so important then because 1) I had no children and 2) I had just escaped from school and did not want to be reminded of anything remotely connected to it.
But while Dylan and I were reviewing for this week’s first periodical exams, I saw grammar and spelling errors in his books that were just too many to dismiss as typographical mistakes.
I pay a lot for my sons’ health insurance coverage although I won’t mind if I don’t ever have to use it but since “not ever” is not something you associate with growing children, “rarely” would do just fine.
Tuesday was one of those “rare” times–this being the first time this year–that I was forced to go to Mactan Doctors’ Hospital to have my son checked at one of the clinics there. Imagine my surprise when the card provided by our health maintenance organization, ValuCare, turned up as invalid when swiped through the card reader.
I’ve not been keeping up with my writing practice by posting daily here. My last post was July 29, my birthday, and that was already five days ago. I’m tempted to stay I’ve been stumped with work. That’s partly true. However, there is another reason why I’ve not been meeting my obligations at work and at home.
What I’ve actually been doing is playing babble, a hybrid of boggle and scrabble. I’ve not been sleeping well because of babble: despairing over why I’m in the bottom rung of the player ranking and going crazy over words I cannot find but other players swear are there. My life has not been the same ever since I chanced upon this game in metafilter.
If you love word games and don’t mind getting addicted to one, let’s play babble.
