This year, I am going to give Cathy a Mother’s Day present she’ll really enjoy. When she comes back tomorrow from Dubai, she’s going to have a fit.

Why?

I’m going to read Twilight. I’m going to finish it tonight, and when I pick her up, she and I will talk about the book the whole drive home. I don’t know how I’m going to do that, I don’t know how it’s gonna happen, but I’ma make it happen because I love my wife.

Okay, Edward, beat that.

Note, by the way, how Twilight is wrapped in plastic.

This week on Billboard’s Christian singles charts see a new #1, as well as the advent of hot new singles from some of Christian music’s new names. Before that, however, the usual Billboard Christian chart roundup. Click after the jump to read more! Read more

I was shocked this morning when I learned that legendary gospel singer Dottie Rambo passed away this Mother’s Day when her tour bus crashed into an embankment. Dottie Rambo’s I Go to the Rock is one of my personal favorite gospel songs.

Rambo won a Grammy Award in 1968 for Best Soul Gospel Performance; she also won a Dove Award in 1982 for Song of the Year for We Shall Behold Him. She was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. The Christian Country Music Association awarded her the Songwriter of the Century Award in 1994; five years later, she won a Dove Award for I Go To The Rock, which was featured in The Preacher’s Wife and performed by Whitney Houston.

There are so many other awards that have paid tribute to the brilliance and beauty of Dottie Rambo. Thanks to Whitney Houston, I was introduced to the glorious music of Dottie Rambo, and lo and behold, even here in the Philippines, the music of this talented songwriter touches hearts and souls.

RIP, Dottie. The folks in heaven are probably throwing you an awesome ‘Welcome Home’ party right now. I’m gonna search you out when it’s my time and we’re gonna have a great time too.

It’s Mother’s Day and the mother of my children is thousands of miles away. It’s the first Mother’s Day for the kids without their mum, and they’re taking it better than I am.

Happy Mother’s Day to those of you mums who can be with your kids today.are around for you to honor. Enjoy your day!

A little Mother’s Day poster for you Mums.

Night before last, I drove my wife Cathy to meet up with her best friend Jenna. Their objective: talk about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. My objective: to order a Tempura Japanese Grill Caterpillar Roll!

To you uninitiated, the Caterpillar Roll at Tempura is a sushi roll containing unagi (eel), cream cheese, and mango, wrapped in rice and nori, and rolled around wasabi powder. That’s why it’s green on the outside. The explosion of textures and flavors in the mouth, from the spicy burst of wasabi to the creaminess of the cheese to the sweetness of the mango, made even more delightful by the saltiness of the soy sauce - Kikkoman, of course - and more wasabi…

Cathy and Jenna talked for an hour and a half about Edward and Bella. Me, I just enjoyed my Caterpillar Roll from Tempura Japanese Grill along Timog Avenue. It was a good evening.

One thing I have noticed about the leaders in my Philippine church is that they love to read. They devour books like anything. Just the other day, I walked into the Victory admin office and Pastor Jun Aguilar was reading his Bible at 4:30PM. Another time at around 3:30PM, I ran into Pastor Joey Bonifacio at the Victory sauna Every Nation stairwell, and he was reading yet another of the many books on his table. There are books on every pastor’s table, and none of them are dusty. You know what that means.

As a Lit major, it’s pathetic I don’t read more, but I am so inspired by these men. Ergo, my steadfast insistence on finishing at least three books a month - in addition, of course, to my daily read that is God’s Word. Come on!

1. The Blogging Church by Brian Bailey and Terry Storch. Lent to me by Pastor Joey Bonifacio, this book is essential reading for church leaders looking to explore the possibility of using blogs to build or supplement their online community and resources.

As a search engine marketer, I can tell you that search engines place a significant emphasis on blogs for information scraping, but I can also tell you that its social network potential, if handled properly, can generate tremendous positive results in a shorter amount of time - and at less expense! - than traditional ‘brochure’-type church websites. This book hammers that point in.

2. Get with the Program!: Getting Real About Your Weight, Health, and Emotional Well-Being by Bob Greene. I bought this book ages ago but did nothing with it. The book advertises itself as a personal trainer that helps the reader get read about his weight, health, and emotional well-being. It’s a journal-type book, so it’s going to require a little more participation than what makes me comfortable, but you know what? I know it’ll be good for me, so I might as well give it a shot.

I’ll be leading worship this evening at our Greenhills church, so the third book I’ll be revisiting is…

3. Praise and Worship Devotional by Steve Siler. Songwriter Stiler has writen more than 400 songs that have since been recorded by artists including Point of Grace, Scott Krippayne, and Avalon. This particular devotional, given to me by Philippine motivational speaker Chinkee Tan and his wife Nove, contains more than 60 devotionals involving Dove Award-winning songs.

I am unfamiliar with many of the songs here, but I’m sure I can find some of these songs in Victory’s music library. Even if I don’t, I can still be brought a significant amount of inspiration by the lyrics alone.

What books are in your reading list?

For the past three weeks now, my wife has lived and breathed Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight. She talks about virtually nothing else but the Twilight series, and to make matters worse, she has infected my mother - my own MOTHER! - and her best friend with the virus. It’s all Edward and Bella, Jacob and whoever else there may be in this vampire series.

I submit to you, dear reader, to wit, the many discussions we’ve had about Twilight, including:

• Will we watch Speed Racer just to see the trailer? Apparently, there’s an exclusive tie-in right now, so will Speed Racer’s box office fortunes be bolstered by young - and not so young - girls carrying the torch for Robert Pattinson?
• Since Edward’s a vampire with no blood, can he and Bella have sex? Vampires are filled with venom, not blood, so how can he get it up?
• What happens if Jacob and Bella end up together, and he imprints on someone else? (I’ve mocked Cathy by saying Jacob should imprint on Edward, that ought to spice up the series. Or what if Bella ends up with Leah, who’s had weird dreams about her?)
• Why are there so many fan groups? There are teams for each character. Team Edward. Team Jacob. Team Bella. There are groups for your own niche. Twilight Moms. (There are also Twilight Dads, but it seems to have been created by some Twilight Moms.)

As Cathy’s best friend Jenna puts it, she, my mother, and Cathy are in it for the long haul. There’s another book coming out mid-year, the Twilight movie hits theaters in December, and there’s another book out in 2009. It looks like I’m not going to get any reprieve from this fascination with Edward and Bella until halfway through 2009, which is a good year from now.

I’ve tried to be as supportive of my wife’s proclivities - and it has also been good for me in ways that are extremely satisfying - but methinks I’m going to need my own support group. Is there a Twilight moms’ husbands group I can join?

(Photo of the Cullen and Hale families courtesy of Twilight freak Toni.)

Robin Sparkles is back! Hahahaha!

Sandcastles in the Sand features Alan Thicke, Tiffany, and James Van Der Beek! OMG, it’s a sugar rush unlike any other if you’re a kid of the 80s. (Early 90s for you Dawson freaks… I mean Creek.)

How I Met Your Mother is HOT.

Look! A Mario Kart DS pull toy!

We discovered a Bandai vending machine at Robinson’s Manila that dispenses - are you ready for this? - Mario Kart DS pull toys! It’s PHP100 each,which is highway robbery, but you get a toy that looks exactly like the toys in the video game! Nathan got a Princess Peach; I followed that one up with a Yoshi kart.