Vatican Exhibit

Saint Helena of the True Cross.
Click here for a detailed description of the artifact.


Another cold night. Funny how weird the weather is nowadays.. & I'm been getting bouts of runny nose & stuff like that..& I have not been sleeping well..sigh.

Recently, I visited the Asian Civilizations Museum for the Vatican exhibit with most of my RCIA group. Frankly speaking, I was a little disappointed. Why? I expected to be inspired & in awe by the arts & artifacts on display. The artifacts & paintings were especially flown over from Rome itself & some are not even on display at the Vatican Museum! I concluded maybe it was due to the lack of time we had (we went during one of the Friday evenings as most of the group were working & had fork up some of their precious time in order to visit this special exhibition, and we only had 2 hrs) and the “glamour” (I could not come up with a better word to describe) & awe I envisioned as I stood staring transfixed at the relics and paintings…simply did not materialize. Ha! Maybe I was too naive to think of that! Well, I DID find some of the artifacts that capture my attention & left a deeper impression on me.

Below are the following items that I find are quite fascinating (well, we could not take photos of them as no cameras were allowed & they were security guards around, so I have to resort to finding the pictures on the web:

A Crab Crucifix

The Papal Tiara. Click here for a detailed description of the Tiara

Lastly, my admission ticket! =p

Just 2 days ago, I came across an article on the web that is close to my heart. It is about NASA's attempt at another moon landing planned somewhere in 2018. This time round, NASA will be sending the astronauts to the moon in a newly designed capsule that is capable of accommodating more astronauts than in the risky, ageing space shuttle that have been in use all these years. Frankly speaking, it is finally time they should come up with a new type of shuttle or one that is based on the existing configuration but modified to suit further space missions to be more cost-effective, etc. Do you know only the Americans are capable of launching the space shuttle into space as each shuttle launch can cost them millions of dollars & it is very expensive to maintain them as the technology onboard the space shuttle are already 20+years old..the fact that there are numerous accidents in recent years like shuttle crashes and deaths of astronauts and recent groundings of shuttle launches due to technical faults may contribute to the reason why the White House is planning to phase them out in 2010.

Well, I for one am rooting for the idea of the continuation of space exploration programs as it will be a setback for humanity if we do not reach for the stars, so to speak. Given the recent popularity of the Mars landing & the millions of hits on NASAs website the images brought back by the rover that landed there, I can only image the excitement generated this time round! The only time we get to see images of moon landing is way back in 1960s!And Im not even born yet! So, for the Baby Boomers like us (those born after 1980s) we will finally get to see one…as the event will surely be televised worldwide & broadcasted real-time on the Internet..a complete story & a flash video on the future moon mission can be found here.