Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you.

Cathedral of Praise in Manila (formerly known as Manila Bethel Temple, the “Christ is the Answer Church”) will be distributing aid to members of A/G churches here.Pastor Danny Arceo, a credentialed Assemblies of God minister who is also the vice president of the Development Bank of the Philippines for Southern Luzon, wants to use our church network here to dispense 2 million pesos of aid from his bank. Obviously, our churches and members will benefit from this. Also, Convoy of Hope USA is sending six pallets of water filters, tents, and tarps by Federal Express, which will hopefully be in our hands within 10-14 days. They are also sending two men next week to train local pastors and members in the use of these filters, which will be set up in Assemblies of God churches throughout the region. This will give the churches another form of outreach into their communities. The tents and tarps will be used to provide temporary shelters, with our pastors probably receiving top priority.

A plumber peered into the porcelain bowl - and found a huge snake looking back at him.

The 2m carpet python was living in the septic tank at the property in Howard Springs, 20km south of Darwin.

Parks and Wildlife officer Peter Phillips said the snake had probably poked its head out of the toilet "for a bit of a look around".

He tried to pull it out through the bowl - "but it was stuck around the S-bend".

Our plans to tour dad & the family at the Mall of Asia was tharted when I suddenly remembered I had a conference to attend at 1:00 PM.  Since it was already 11AM the Mall of Asia thing wasn't going to happen.

Our sr. Pastor told the Pastoral Staff to attend a PCEC (Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches) sponsored conference today & tomorrow.  At 1:00PM I made my way to Greenhills Christian Fellowhsip, Ortigas, Pasig City adn upon arrival quickly located the two other Pastors out of the six who were supposed to be there.  the 3 of us sat together.  None of us really knew what the conference was about.  When it finally started, just past 1:30PM, we finally discovered it was PCEC's 42nd anniversary. OIC...

Our local church is a member of PCEC & the denomination we belong to, Phils. general Council of the Assemblies of God also belongs to it.  It's a long story.

Bishop Ef Tendero, current Executive Director, informed everyone that as a thanksgiving gesture to the Lord and as a help to the full time ministers and leaders, the two-day event is free of charge.  I thought this was a nice gesture!  So thumbs up to those who thought of this!

There were many advertisements in the beginning & the ritual shaking of hands took place not once but twice within 15 minutes...  What is it about evangelicals & shaking hands (I'm one by the way, but no the Philippine Idol kind).

But as soon as the prelims were over I sat up & took note of the first two main speakers: Philip Flores & Herman Moldes.  They spoke on Teamwork & Mentoring.  If only for those two topics & the side remarks & jokes made, the conference was worth attending.  towards the latter part of the afternoon, my head was throbbing.  I remembered I didn't have breakfast. tsk! tsk! tsk!

I decided to go home after dinner & said goodbye to my co-church leaders kuya Rodel & Dayang.  I thought it was useless attending the night meeting if my head will be bothering me & possibly get worse.  However, my attempts to get a taxi at drizzly, rush hour Monday afternoon behind Robinsons Galleria was a waste of time.  I called home instead and requested dad (holidaying in Manila before proceeding to APTS top continue his DMin) to pick me up.  Thanks dad.

Now I'm home & thankfully the feeling of my head getting bigger then smaller has eventually subsided...

This post is way late...

Last Saturday more than 70 people died because of a stampede at the Philsports Arena (pop name ULTRA), in Ortigas, MM.  The thousands who had amassed at the venue were anticipating to be part of the 1st anniversary of Wowowee, a noontime game show that give millions away to participants in cash & material possessions.  The space could only accomodate 17k but nobody seemed willing to go home even after that fact was made known.  Once the doors opened people rushed in.  There are varied versions of how the chaos started...  But it was a sad day for abs-cbn... I pray that finger-pointing will not continue & that those, who are grieving will find pesce in God.

related articles: Wowowee A Filipino Tragedy,