Fasting This Weekend

Hello family and friends.

For those of you who don't know, not long ago my work contract unexpectedly and abruptly ended. What was supposed to be another 6 mo. turned into 2 weeks. So I'm currently unemployed and we're rapidly burning through our savings. Though we've looked hard, we've not been able to find any telecommute work that will allow us to stay here in the Philippines - so it looks like if I'm to find work we'll have to move back to the US soon - probably within the next month. We're sad to have to cut what we'd hoped to be a very long adventure into a very short one, but we're resigned to go where ever the winds of fate and faith take us.

This Sunday we're going to have a special 24-hour fast that I'll be able to find the right job in the right place at the right time. There are a few irons in the fire, from Post Falls, ID, to San Francisco, to American Fork, UT, to NYC, NY, to Raleigh, NC and more. There are a lot of opportunities out there though, so finding the right one where the Lord needs us (and is right for our family) is paramount.

For those of you who might not know what I mean by fast... Fasting is the act of abstaining from food and drink for a period of time for the purpose of drawing closer to God. While fasting, you should engage in sincere prayer for specific purposes. When you fast and pray with faith, you are humbled and are more receptive to receiving answers to your prayers and blessings from the Lord. Fasting is private and spiritual, and you should not draw attention to the fact that you are fasting.

We'll be starting our fast immediately following lunch on Saturday the 29th, and ending it 24 hours later after church on Sunday the 30th. We invite any of you who feel they'd like to join us in our fast to please do so. Even if you're unable to do the fast at the same time (or at all), your prayers are still most welcome and needed. Your faith and prayers will greatly strengthen ours and hopefully bring to pass an employment miracle for us, and anything else you may choose to fast about. We're also fasting on behalf of others in my family who are currently struggling.

Thanks for your help!

Brandon, Kristy, Ærowyn & Wrævn

Site Update

Well, we finally updated our family website so go see it!! You can either click the link to the right or click here.

You will notice there is a "Philippines" link at the top so check out all of our pics. Our movies section is pretty lame right now-it consists of 2 short clips-but we are in the process of adding more there. We will let you know when we get those up.

We've also updated the kid's pages with new pics and info so give them a visit too :)

We hope you like it and would love to hear any comments you have.

My cat is on fire.

In these trying economic times and my current state of unemployment - I've taken mycatisonfire.com to the next level - 11. Please take a few minutes to visit the site - look over the translation of MCIOF in 50 languages and counting! Comment on any imperfections, add missing languages and more!

Also, consider visiting the MCIOF store and purchasing some fine MCIOF-branded products. You can pick a language from the blog, then customize your product w/ it! I LOVE the intarwebz!

Oh yeah 10% of everything you spend goes to buy rice for my starving children. Not that they'll eat it - but at least I'll be able to buy it.

Honk! Honk! HOOOOOOOONK!

So - one thing that REALLY annoys me about Filipino drivers is their use of the horn. Using it for an emergency or to avert one is right out the door. It's used for:

• Getting people to ride your Jeepney/Taxi/Bus whatever


• Telling people to get out of the way, I was here 2nd (or 3rd or 4th or 5th or...), but I deserve to be ahead of you because I think I do.


• Driver wanting a candy or cigarette.


• Coming up on an intersection, or driveway, or side street or... so if someone is coming they'd better look out, 'cause I'm sure as hell not going to yield


• I've come home and am now a block away from the house - gotta tell the help to open the gate. Now I'm down the street, better do my special 'shave and hair-cut, 2 bits' honk again in case I was too far away the first time. Okay so now I'm in front of the house and the gate still isn't opened so I'd better honk again, a bit longer now.


• To show off my new air-raid/siren/La Cucaracha/General Lee horn


• 'Cause I'm bored


• No reason at all

So...

Yesterday we're standing near the parking lot at Ærowyn's school talking to this nice German ex-monk studying medicine at Ærowyn's school who has kids the same age as Ærowyn and Wrævn we met at the bookstore in the mall one day. (nice sentence eh?) Anyway - Wrævn breaks free as he is wont to do and heads into the menagerie of cars parked nearby. I tell Kristy it's her turn to go get him (though in all honesty I'm sure I'm like 2000 turns or more in debt, but that's neither here nor there).

I continue to talk to our German ex-monk Dr.-to-be friend. Pretty soon this car just starts honking. And honking. And honking. I'm all like - "Yo! Dude - there's nothing here to honk at. Nobody is moving. Gosh - you people honk at everything." Then I look over and Kristy is still in the middle of the cars, and Wrævn isn't anywhere to be seen. So NOW I'm all like - "No way." And the world is all like "Yes way!"

Yup - Wrævn had found an open back door to one of the cars in the parking lot. The family was nearby having lunch with their student (don't ask, that's another post altogether). Wrævn had crawled from the back to the front, locked the doors and was standing on the driver's seat honking the horn. To be fair, it's not really that surprising to us - we've found we have to be really quick about getting into Taxis because if the driver isn't in his seat (e.g. he's helping us load groceries or something) Wrævn crawls into the driver's seat and starts turning the wheel and fiddling with handles and knobs and stuff - while it's running.

Luckily the windows of the car were rolled down half-way so we were able to unlock the car and get him out. Also luckily, the car-owners had a good sense of humour and thought it was all quite funny - which of course it is.

Maybe I've let him watch Death Race w/ Jason Statham a few too many times... or as Wrævn calls it "Guns!? Cars!? Fast! Vroom-vroom!"

Portfolio v1.0 is live!

In response to my current unemployment, I've finally finished my portfolio that I've been working on for over a year in my spare minutes. It's not full of all the content I'd like, but at least the coding is done and I can continue filling it with stuff as time goes on.

Please have a gander and let me know what you think!

http://www.uxd.me

Oh - yeah, so - in case you didn't know, I'm now unemployed again. My freshly renewed contract ended abruptly due primarily to the economy's effect on our client's cash-flow. So I'm now unemployed and looking for work. If any of you know of anything up my alley (see the portfolio and resume to get a sense of what that is) I'd really appreciate a head's up! ESPECIALLY if it's remote work that will allow us to continue to live here in the Philippines. However, we are looking literally world-wide for any suitable option.

Multi-racial family!

Those of you in the know may remember how dark I get in sunny climes. I give you exhibit a) my 'tiger' feet.



So the other day...

Ærowyn: Mommy - why isn't daddy white like us?

Guess it's time to have 'the talk.' What exactly 'the talk' is, I have no idea, but I guess it's time.