Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Though most historians seem to agree that the date is off by several days, Christmas is supposed to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ. My birthday gift was to volunteer at a shelter for the homeless on Christmas day.

I'd been thinking about volunteering for a long time; then I realized that thinking about being good doesn't make me a good person -only what I do.

I also got some gifts for myself -a stereo bluetooth headset and a subscription to The Economist.

Cheers!

Beta

After "upgrading" my blog to the new beta, my URL was gone. I could edit and manage everything through the dashboard, but the blog address was not found. After a few days of messing around and thinking about moving to MSN's Myspace, I was able to recover it by changing the URL to something else, saving the settings, and changing it back. I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner.

It feels good to be back in blogland -like a reunion with an old friend.

Refugee

A great storm affecting Washington and Oregon states has left me -and about a million and a half others- without power. Since everything at my place runs on electricity -including the heating- I cannot stay there. It's been 3 days, and over half the service has been restored -though I am still waiting, so I have to depend on the hospitality and kindness of others, for which I am very thankful. But I wonder if I've been especially lucky; excluding camping trips I have never in my life until now been without electrical power for more than a few hours at a time, even in the developing world.

It makes me reflect on how much we take the comforts and easy life of civilization for granted, and how fragile it really is.

Power

There is no greater power than that of the human mind.
It took me almost four decades to understand that simple sentence.
Well, better late than never.

Light

There is much talk about how much evil there is in the world, and how in this materialistic society everybody cares about nothing but themselves. But there are many -many- who shine like suns, casting light all around them. Rachel is just one of them who made it to the news. I am thinking about all those who, unknown, redeem humanity's soul every day.