Philip Chen's Blog: The Eclectic, page 4

They Are All Out!

I followed the events of yesterday as did almost everyone else in the world. It was a good day to be alive and to watch this triumph of the human spirit unfold as, one-by-one, the miners were brought to the surface.

But my wicked mind can't stop but wonder. Did they get an accurate count of all the people in the mine? What if someone didn't make it to the same refuge or in the confusion they forgot to count the new kid, who was just added to the shift at the last moment?

Well, as followers of my ramblings know, getting me to thinking ain't necessarily a good thing.

The Chilean Mine Rescue, Part Three

Well, Ole Yonni Barrios is in for a surprise. His wife and not his mistress is at the mine. He is due up next.

The Chilean Mine Rescue, Part Deux

It is 12:50 PM EDT and the Chilean mine rescue is going better than expected; more than half way there. 18 miners have been reunited with their loved ones on the surface. Only 15 mover to go and, of course, we mustn't forget the four paramedics.

I can't wait until miner Yonni Barrios gets to the surface. Yonni apparently opted to be one of the last miners to leave the bowels of the earth and for good reason. You see, Yonni has not just a wife waiting for him on the surface, but ....



a mistress.

If I were Yonni, I think that I would just stay down in what is being called, aptly in his case, the refuge.

The Chilean Mine Rescue

I am watching, as many around the world are doing likewise, the rescue of the Chilean miners from their entrapment in a mine about one-half mile underneath the windswept plains of Chile. The commentators keep saying as each miner emerges that that was one less miner to come up. For example, "Eleven down, Thirty-Two to go of the original Thirty-Three miners."

Ahem, folks ....

In your excitement to get the last miner out, I sure hope you don't forget the four paramedics you sent down there to help in the rescue.

A New Olympic Sport

Someone decided to throw a book at President Obama yesterday in Philadelphia. I guess he knew that the President is a very literate man. However, I got to thinking, which is not necessarily a good thing. This could be the start of a great Olympian sport, the kind that small children around the world could aspire to and dream about their chance to step on to the world stage and take their shot at making Olympic history and get their picture on cereal boxes. What's more, the sport can combine two worthy objectives: healthy outdoor sport with literacy -- who could object to either!



The Eclectic

Justice Prevails, Sometimes It Just Takes Awhile

On this date, October 12, 2010, Eulalia Garcia Maturey of Brownsville, Texas, will take the oath of citizenship. This will fulfill her life long dream to become a citizen of the United States of America.

And what is so unusual about this event?

Eulalia Garcia Maturey is 101 and she has been in this country for 101 years, since being brought across the Rio Grande on a ferry boat from Matamoros, Mexico, in the arms of her single mom. It has taken her 101 years to achieve this status.

And you ask, is being a citizen of this country worth it? Ask Eulalia. Congratulations.

For more on this story see, the CNN article

I Just Got Called a Renaissance Man!

The Patch is a national on-line newspaper comprised of local editions. During its two-year existence, The Patch has grown into a network of these local branches in seventeen states. http://patch.com

The local branch of The Patch just published an article about me and Falling Star. You can read it here.

These Days Jobs Are Harder to Get

Read My Interview on T.L. Haddix's Website

Tabatha Haddix interviewed me about the particular issues that face authors who start writing later in life. Please give her interview a look on her website at http://tlhaddix.com.

10-10-10 is a Bust; So Far

It is now 5:21 PM, Eastern Daylight Savings Time on October 10. 2010. Nothing has happened.

The day can be noted as 10-10-10 or 10/10/10. It was supposed to be a day for cosmic confluence; the planets were going to line up in a planetary harmonization or something like that, but it didn't happen.

This is almost as disappointing as Y2K when all the computers were supposed to go haywire and the internet age was supposed to come to a grinding halt. I waited an entire day for that to happen also. Another bummer day.

On normal terms, it was a pleasant enough day. The temperature was in the sixties, in my little burg. It was brilliantly sunny, and the that sun gave the day a balmy feel to it. Kids were out playing in the park, families strolled along the village streets. Everything seemed bucolic and life seemed wonderful. It was almost as though I could hear Louis Armstrong singing,"What a Wonderful World."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAZqjs...

It was a great feeling to be alive, but....

I feel cheated; something dramatic was to have happened today.

Oh well, there is always 2012.