I Beat The Alarm Clock By A Minute

The other day, we had to wake up at 5:30 am because we had to go to the final walk-thru of the house we recently purchased (our first one). So we set the alarm to go off at 5:30 am. Well, I woke up at 5:29 am, beating the clock by one minute (actually, it wasn't even a whole minute). I don't normally wake up early but I guess when you put your subconscious mind to it, you can wake up at the exact time you want (or in my case, even seconds ahead). Or maybe it was the Lord who woke me up. Whatever the case, it was definitely some kind of miracle.

Waving At Airplanes

When I was little, I would wave at every plane I saw flying by. I've been on countless flights and I just realized that there is something that I wish I had done in each and every one of those flights, which is, bring my binoculars and see if there's someone down there waving at me... well, at the plane. It would be real cool if they had their own binoculars and would see me waving back at them.

You Say "ruf ruf" And I Say "ow ow"

It's amazing how two persons with two different native languages hear animals differently, too. At first, I thought, maybe animals of the same species but are in different countries really spoke different languages. But as it turns out, the sound that they make are pretty much the same. It's just the perceptions that are different. Look at the following examples:

Here in the US, when dogs bark, they say "bow wow" or "arf" or "ruf ruf" or "woof". In the Philippines, they simply go "ow ow".
Here in the US, when frogs croak, they say "ribbit". In the Philippines, they say "kokak".
Here in the US, when roosters crow, they say "cock-a-doodle-do". In the Philippines, they say "tik-tila-ok".

This is why when I tell my son a story about a dog meeting different kinds of animals (it's in fact the only story I tell). I would differentiate a Filipino dog from a different one. The non-Filipino dog would say "ruff ruff" and the Filipino one would say "ow ow". Same thing with the frog and the rooster.

Interestingly enough, there is one website that I just found that deals specifically with this topic. It's called Sounds of the World's Animals. Go check it out. I just sent them an email with the above Filipino sounds. Hopefully, they'll publish them. I'm crossing my fingers...

What would my insurance agent be in a meeting for?

I just called my insurance agent but was told that the entire staff was in a meeting. It made me wonder. What could they be meeting about? How to lower the rates? How to further improve customer service? I guess, being in a software company, I'm used to go to meetings about on-going as well as future projects. Do insurance companies have lots of projects, too? What kind of projects would they be? Should I ask them this the next time I call them? ;)