Origins

It might seem odd that I entitled this blog "Mountaineering" or go by the twitter handle mountaineer10. I don't particularly like climbing mountains. Rather, the name came from a show I liked called Alias where the heroine, Syndey Bristow, a double agent, went by the code name mountaineer.

Initially I used the alias to set up a twitter account to play around with that doesn't have any obvious connections to me. But fast forward to present day, I actually like and use twitter now, so I've made my twitter identity known to the general public. Thus, the name has stuck.

But maybe it's not a bad name. After all, life can be thought of as a constant journey uphill, like climbing a mountain, where we all are mountaineers. I'm just another one of them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

At the mercy of hurricane Sandy

On the heels of Hurricane Sandy, the most devastating storm to hit northeastern US and eastern Canada in decades, all we can do is stand by and wait. You need to see the pictures to appreciate the magnitude of the storm. http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/10/hurricane-sandy-after-landfall/100396/ Damage to Toronto was minimal however we had booked our flight out to Africa via JFK airport, one of the big three New York airports that was flooded and shut down due to the hurricane. I've been monitoring our flights daily the past few days. The clean up effort taking longer than originally hoped, I see flight cancellations gradually trickle on to the next day. And then the next. The day before our scheduled flight out, our long-haul flight stands to be the first flight out of JFK for this airline after hurricane Sandy hit.  This morning, JFK airport has re-opened with limited service, the first plane touching down on its runways since. If we manage to escape this calami
Read more

This is 40!

I'm usually low key about my birthday but this year I feel like I've reached a milestone that I want to express my gratitude for the life that I've been given. I was born winning the lottery to wonderful parents, two amazing siblings, an incredible extended family. From living in a small town in the Philippines, to Manila, then Toronto, and now to California, life has opened up so many opportunities. I have met so many good people along the way that I'm blessed to call friends. As I celebrate my 40th, I remember friends who were gone too soon, people who are grieving the loss of a child or a loved one, friends that are going through challenges and tough times. I pray that through God's grace that you'll see through the other side of this. This year started out incredibly with meeting President Jimmy Carter (who shares my birthday - he turns 95 today!) and sitting in his Sunday school class in Plains, Georgia. Shortly after that trip, we found out that w
Read more

Supporting through thin but not through thick

While reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley, I came across this observation by a young Malcolm about well-intentioned whites. "They'll be there to support you during thin, but not during thick." Malcolm rejects the patronizing compassion of whites towards black. How often am I guilty of the same! I meet a need and I feel good about it, but ask me for more--ask me to hang out, ask me to be your friend--I don't know about that. The best kind of friendship is a mutual sharing of joys and pains, a relationship between two equals. What we need is more friendship, not charity.
Read more