The Ronald Anthony Diaries

For my son, who hopefully can learn a lesson or two from this fable...


There once was a shepherd boy who was bored as he sat on the hillside watching the village sheep. To amuse himself he took a great breath and sang out, "Wolf! Wolf! The Wolf is chasing the sheep!"

The villagers came running up the hill to help the boy drive the wolf away. But when they arrived at the top of the hill, they found no wolf. The boy laughed at the sight of their angry faces.

"Don't cry 'wolf', shepherd boy," said the villagers, "when there's no wolf!" They went grumbling back down the hill.

Later, the boy sang out again, "Wolf! Wolf! The wolf is chasing the sheep!" To his naughty delight, he watched the villagers run up the hill to help him drive the wolf away.

When the villagers saw no wolf they sternly said, "Save your frightened song for when there is really something wrong! Don't cry 'wolf' when there is NO wolf!"

But the boy just grinned and watched them go grumbling down the hill once more.

Later, he saw a REAL wolf prowling about his flock. Alarmed, he leaped to his feet and sang out as loudly as he could, "Wolf! Wolf!"

But the villagers thought he was trying to fool them again, and so they didn't come.

At sunset, everyone wondered why the shepherd boy hadn't returned to the village with their sheep. They went up the hill to find the boy. They found him weeping.

"There really was a wolf here! The flock has scattered! I cried out, "Wolf!" Why didn't you come?"

An old man tried to comfort the boy as they walked back to the village.

"We'll help you look for the lost sheep in the morning," he said, putting his arm around the youth, "Nobody believes a liar...even when he is telling the truth!"

- Aesop

Aaron thinks this video is a hoot...:-)

So, what's the difference between these two pictures? :-)

Give up? Here's a hint:

When playing Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, Aaron always uses his favorite car, a McLaren F1. This is a drawing of one he made himself:

And here are pictures he chose of the real thing:

Too bad we can't afford the real thing. But then again, can anyone? :-)

Concentrating on his game.


Just a little bit more...


Here I go...


Success!

Aaron may have suckered me into buying this for him. Apparently the game is rated for 16 year-old kids and higher. Hmmm...

From Aaron's last Boracay trip...

Enjoying a popsicle. Aaron just loves popsicles.


Building a sandcastle.

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small.

The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible.

The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah." The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?" The little girl replied, "Then you ask him."

> > > > > > >>

A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they drew. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work.

As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

The girl replied, "I'm drawing God." The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."

Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, "They will in a minute."

> > > > > > >>

The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture.

"Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer; she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael. He's a doctor.'"

A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's the teacher. She's dead."

> > > > > > >>

A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, "Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face." "Yes," the class said.

"Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn't run into my feet?"

A little fellow shouted, "Cause your feet ain't empty."

> > > > > > >>

The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray: "Take only ONE. God is watching." Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.

A child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples."

(Originally posted February 6, 2005 on Quaere Verum.)

Remember my recent post Look closer....? Well, here's the sequel. :-)

My, what big eyes you have.


Burn baby burn...

My son and I usually spend Sunday afternoons together doing stuff, just before he heads on out home to his mom. Last Sunday was no different. After lunch we saw the movie Fantastic Four (see my post on the movie here). After which he got a haircut, then we went book hunting.

Sometimes I think about whether I'm boring my son or not. When he was younger, we went to virtually all the amusement parks, all the malls, museums (Museo Pambata is his favorite), zoos (the Manila and Malabon Zoos), and various parks (like the Quezon Memorial Circle or the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center). Nowadays we don't seem to be visiting such places as often as we used to, though we get to visit the occassional fair or convention when the theme is about something we both like, like toys or cartoons.

Well, maybe my son is growing up. Nowadays he'd rather play with his cousins then go with Dad someplace. Or maybe we already went everywhere, and there's hardly any other new place to go. I guess I should be more creative thinking of things we can do together.

I shouldn't be too worried, I suppose. He seems to enjoy himself whatever we do, or whereever we go. And I guess that's all that matters. Here are some snapshots of our last Sunday afternoon:

For the past several weeks now, Aaron has been asking me where I kept my old magnifying glass. Apparently he wants to use it for certain "experiments" of his. Unfortunately, even though I know I put it somewhere, I can't seem to remember where. Probably in some drawer I can't reach because of all the stuff stacked around the place.

I loved my old magnifying glass when I was a kid. Yeah, it seems nerdy in retrospect, but I put it to good use (in a matter of speaking), either looking closely at objects, or focusing the sun's rays on stuff and pretending it was a laser beam. A lot of ants sacrificed their lives in the name of scientific curiosity because of that magnifying glass. :-) It's been several years since I last did anything of the sort. It was a shame I couldn't my find my old lens. I was looking forward to reliving some of those memories, this time with my son.

Well, as luck would have it, I chanced upon magnifying glasses being sold at Toy Kingdom in SM Megamall. I was looking around for a birthday gift for a Godson who just turned one when I bumped into a shelf full of them. Somehow I'm amazed at the unexpected stuff you can buy at Toy Kingdom. I remember it was also here that Aaron and I bought a telescope. They sell stuff you can't seem to find anywhere else.

And now we have a new magnifying glass. I wonder what sort of weird experiments Aaron will think of using this? Watch this space. :-)