Daily Report: Oh Jesus

Nothing special today: I overslept a bit, got to work and stayed there until 6 p.m., took Tyson for a walk, and then played video games ("Resistance: Fall of Man"; finished it tonight).

I live on a corner of this little village. On the corner across the street is a little shrine. Tonight, the intersection on which that corner rests, was raised a large tarp, lights were put up, and the place was turned into a chapel. Mother Mary was wheeled out of the church across the plaza, and brought to my corner, where the benignant icon would cast her Mona Lisa smile down upon worshippers of a quiet candlelit overnight vigil. This is done every year on the full moon before Jasaan's annual big fiesta.

Of course, when I mean quiet, I mean sermons shouted into microphones and doxologies sung at top volume, drums and horns; when I mean candlelit, I mean bright flourescent lights and everybody holding candles; and when I mean overnight, I mean until 4:30 in the morning.

Here is The Virgin's arrival at the temporary chapel. (The original video has great contrast in the low light... but looks like it got lost a bit when uploading to YouTube.)


Here was one of the quieter moments of the vigil.


Well, I stuffed some tissue in my ears, sandwiched my head between two pillows, and turned the fan all the way up to create some white noise, and that managed to keep the sound out of my ears just enough to allow me to get some sleep.