Pinoy Towtrucks

Did you hear about the fighter plane that had mechanical difficulties and was forced to land at the Ninoy Aquino airport in the Philippines? You'd expect firetrucks, ambulances, the works, right? Nope.

"I guess AAA couldn't make it" (photo from www.inq7.net)

Read Today, Read Tomorrow

Throughout my recent bout with the flu I've been fortunate enough to have a load of books that I could read. It all started with Knife of Dreams, the latest installment from Robert Jordan. It's a decent read; more exciting than Crossroads of Twilight, where all you read about were weevils.

Then the library told me that Olympos, the sequel to Ilium was ready for me to pick up. These two are by Dan Simmons, who wrote the excellent Hyperion series (if I ever needed a killing machine, I'll give the Shrike a call). I re-read Ilium, which is loosely based on Homer's Iliad...except it doesn't quite go according to script. More like an alterna-history for Achilles, Hector (who I still see as Eric Bana) and the boys; with a couple of intelligent Asimovian robots thrown in for good measure.

Ilium was a great page-turner, and the battle scenes are stupendous. It really appealed to the seven-year old boy in me; so, when I finished Ilium and started in on Olympos, I was stoked.

In a way, it doesn't quite live up to Ilium; oh, the battle scenes were still there, and Achilles was a bad-ass as usual (Achilles vs. The Shrike. Hmm). However, Olympos seemed to be a bit more tongue-in-cheek, and there was a lot of sex. The kind that's written by horny D&D kids living in their mom's basement. In one instance, the only way to wake an important character up...was to have sex with her. Shades of Ghostbusters--the "Keymaster" and the "Gatekeeper".

Then Feast For Crows, the latest installment of A Song of Ice and Fire, arrived from Amazon just as I was in the middle of Olympos. Then the library told me that Anansi Boys was available for pickup; while there, I picked up Jasper Fforde's latest as well.

So many books, so little time...

Reflections on a funeral

This past week the whole family had to fly to New Mexico to attend a funeral. PJ's uncle had passed away, and we all had to scramble to get tickets at the last minute.

It was a bit sad for me to be there, but I wasn't really close to the uncle, so my tears were minimal. I got misty-eyed watching the reactions of his family, though, especially my mom-in-law and my grandmother-in-law. I especially felt for Grandma; it must be so difficult, burying your children. That hit home with me, because of the twins. I'm hoping I never have to live through that.

When we got home from the funeral, the family just sat around at the dinner table, talking, laughing, remembering him and his happy-go-lucky nature. Also scaring some of the sisters with stories about how he made his presence "felt".

Interestingly, when we got home on Friday night, one of the patio lights was on--and I distinctly remembered making sure all the lights were off before we left. Just his way of saying goodbye, I guess.

The NBA: Nuggets-Lakers

I was watching the Nuggets-Lakers game last night, and one thing that struck me was that Denver has got to have the wimpiest uniforms this side of UCLA. I mean, baby-blue? With gold trim? Doesn't intimidate anyone (e.g. the Spurs with their black-and-silver garb), and isn't classy either (e.g. the Lakers with their "Royalty" colors, purple-and-gold). Kinda funny seeing K-Mart and Marcus Camby, trying to look tough while wearing baby blue.

Oh, and the Nuggets lost because of a last-second shot by Kobe. However, there were two things which led to this loss:

(1) 'Melo throwing up a brick with 9 seconds to go, instead of having Miller and Camby run the alley-oop, which the Lakers had been helpless against; and
(2) "Knick" Bavetta calling a foul on Camby, when he was a foot away from Kobe, and it was Kobe that threw the elbow. Instead, Camby fouls out, and Najera comes in and does nothing.

'Melo is pressing. He's been eclipsed by King James AND Dwyane Wade, so he desperately wants to prove something. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for him during the game.

Anyway, it's only the first game in an 82-game season. I'm not really that fond of the NBA anymore, but it's fun to watch during the last five minutes, especially if it's a tight ball game.

TAR: FE, ep.6

So, the luck of the Weeeeeeeeeeeevils continues (props to SD). I mean, come on! "We were raised not to trust anyone"? "We're above anyone else because we're Christian"? Way to go Weavers. Not surprising that the rest of the teams hate them; they come across as smug, arrogant people who give Christians a bad name.

The Paolos are starting to grow on me; kinda like Rob and Amber from last season (of course, I liked Romber from Day 1 onwards; Rob was a pretty funny guy, and Amber was good eye candy. I hated Lyn and Alex instead). While they still whine a lot, they finish strong, and they play nice with the other teams. Props to Papa Paolo too with his mad skillz in lugging those bananas around. The kids were suitably impressed.

Meanwhile, the Weavers make fun of the Papa Paolo's garbage truck. Um, folks? Those mad skillz helped his family win first place, and get to pick a Segway. All this while your Mom has a near nervous breakdown trying to get out of the mud. So much about being "above anyone else".

Unfortunately for one of the teams, they run into Lena-and-Christie territory with a needle-in-a-haystack task.