deebeedee

• Watching Ultimate Fighter. BJ Penn is too laid back as a coach. He’s mostly lounging around in his tsinelas. Train your boys, Island boy! #

Two events in Philippine history happened on this day, the 24th of April, according to Wikipedia.

1521 - Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.
1565 - Cebu is established becoming the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.

• Hey, an image I took with my camera and tweaked in PS is used in the NYTimes: http://tinyurl.com/29mphy #

The following is an excerpt from a letter written by a Pliny the Younger in the year 111 directed to Emperor Trajan regarding the proper way of handling Christians:

Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished. There were others possessed of the same folly; but because they were Roman citizens, I signed an order for them to be transferred to Rome.

…

They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food–but ordinary and innocent food. Even this, they affirmed, they had ceased to do after my edict by which, in accordance with your instructions, I had forbidden political associations. Accordingly, I judged it all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition.

I therefore postponed the investigation and hastened to consult you…

The letter in Latin with its direct translation can be found here.

• Whenever home phone announces “Private Caller!”, I fight the urge to belt out, “I’m a Private Caller, caller for money…!” a la Tina Turner #
• Missing how my toddler son says “pizgetti.” He just started saying “spaghetti” right. I’ll cherish him saying “aminal” while it lasts. #