The Warped Zone

I HAVE MOVED

2007-09-15T13:53:00.000-04:00

Blogger woes made me move to a new home... See you there :)

This blog can be viewed best with FIREFOX !

More on the OFW Brouhaha

2007-09-12T23:30:00.000-04:00

I got this link through MyePinoy's blog, about an article written by Manila Standard columnist Emil Jurado. Very interesting comment of Mr. Jurado, who opines that while the outrage over Malu Fernandez’s bigotry in her travel article From Boracay to Greece was “natural and forthcoming, ” , she also “wrote what she thought and sensed”. He also says "she told the truth. Everybody knows that”. I’m not sure if Mr. Jurado is trying to play knight with the shining mustache trying to rescue Miss Divalicious from the imbroglio, but what truth is he alluding to? The truth that MF is matapobre?

Jurado better stick to the subject when he talks about OFW’s needing to “behave properly and not to give foreigners an impression that all Filipinos conduct themselves the way they do”. We are talking about plane rides here aren’t we? Then why bitch about Pinay domestic helpers being blacklisted in malls in Hongkong and Singapore – what has this to do with the argument? He raises a big stink about Pinoy OFW’s unloading their luggage before the seat belt sign is turned off - well, I have seen this happen in Asian airports and even here in Canada and what’s the big deal anyway? Because his wife was nearly hit with the luggage? If Jurado is hell bent with “educating” our migrant workers with good manners and right conduct to protect the Filipino's image, he better start his sanitation campaign with the Trans-Pacific PAL flights where life vests disappear and with the embarrassing note “ STEALING OF LIFE VESTS IS PUNISHABLE UNDER PHIL LAW” displayed in every passenger cabin. These flights aren’t OFW loaded flights but strange things happen which Mr. Jurado is ignorant of. On a couple of occasions in his article the good author wanted to confront the problem makers but his wife intervened and urged him to hold on to his horses. Come to think of it – if he did confront them and sorted things out, he perhaps didn’t need to write this article. Now Mr. Under D' Saya must thank his wife, that he had to write this article and get paid for it :)

And here’s a classic suck-up, Johnny-be-good colonial mentality of the writer – “ I have nothing about them smelling bad or dressing with their usual uniform of T-shirt and denims with sneakers, because many foreigners, especially Americans, do the same while traveling”. Hahaha ! What a shallow, pedestrian, retarded, incongruous rationale that negated and obliterated any bit of sense this author was trying to make. This makes me stop right here. I have nothing more to say :)

TRAFFIC FINES

How much does one have to pay for a traffic violation? Most countries have a schedule of fines based on the nature of traffic offences but apparently not in Finland , where traffic fines are assessed based on the offender’s net income !

A Nokia senior executive 46.5 mph in a 30-mph zone was fined a whopping $103,000! Blame it on his previous year’s net income of $5.2 Million ! If this happened to Tiger Woods who made some $87 M income his fine would $1.7 million? Ouch.. Now this is something, isn’t it ? The Nokia exec's fine was ultimately reduced by the courts to $5,245 but probably not including the services of savvy lawyers who command ludicrous fees for their services. How much did the lawyers get to soften the fine? Definitely not a good feeling when a minor indiscretion can blow up your piggy bank. In view of their punitive fines I would imagine the Finns to be the safest drivers in the world :) 

PARKING FINES

Here’s a startling stat – the Greater Toronto Area government nets some $80M in parking fines every year. Last year the major contributors are three courier companies – Fedex, Purolator and UPS contributing $1.5M with some 33,000 tickets issued collectively to them ! Now these companies justify the fines as their cost of doing business :) Problem is here you can’t ignore government issued parking tickets. If you don’t pay, they’d hit you with the fine when you renew your car registration – you can’t hide. $80M is serious money – perhaps that’s where they get the money for road repairs every year hehe :)

Awards, Meme Tag and Quotes

2007-09-09T23:00:00.000-04:00

I would like to thank those who had given me recognition as Thinking ( Major Tom, Ipanema, Bing, Verns, Kathy) and Thoughtful ( Ipanema, Bing) blogger. For what it means (up to now I'm not sure if I really deserve it !) it is greatly appreciated indeed and I apologize if I missed a name. The thoughtful part had made me think of changing my avatar for one :) Now let's get to the difficult part - my turn to bestow the awards :) Not that I am avoiding getting in trouble ( and I already did.. once ..haha..), I honestly think that every blogger in my blogroll is unique and gifted on their own right. Everyone has a different style and I equally enjoy reading personal accounts, commentaries on current events, photos, jokes, hilarious experiences - I love them all. As such, I have no compulsion to judge one blogger over another in terms of intellectual content of the blog. It is also fair to say that in our interaction, we tend to develop an opinion of the blogger's personality which is for the most part a case of perception. In my mind I have a virtual personality profile of each of you and I'm sure you do of me too and I hope it is positive :) One day I hope to write a couple of paragraphs on the virtual profile that I have for each of you in the spirit of levity and fun :) Blogging is really a free for all deal to have fun and friendship in such an unregulated medium as cyberspace where the only one unwritten rule reigns supreme - respect.

If there's one award that I can probably criticize it is the Most Influential Blogger Award :) I'm not sure how one can quantify a blog that has the "most telling effect" on people and does negative influence also count ? hehe :) We just love constests and raffles, don't we? We even have raffles on domestic plane flights! The Cebu Pacific flight I took once had raffles galore the entire 45 min flight from Manila to Bacolod. It was hilarious - like someone who can produce a nail cutter gets a free hat. Just imagine the resulting commotion inside the plane hehe :) That's just us Pinoys having fun with our competetive nature whenever we can :)

I believe the last one who tagged me with the "8 random facts about me" was Kathy. Sorry for the late response but here it is :

1. I sported moustache for my entire life but got rid of it about 5 years ago at the behest of my wife.

2. I write down my "blog thoughts" into my Blackberry no matter how spurious so I can work on them later

3. I've travelled to 20 countries in counting but the farthest I had gone south is Dumaguete which is pretty sad indeed. I plan to make up for it and visit our lovely motherland more often.

4. I used to teach at my Sunday school in my church believe it or not. At some point in our lives we embark on that quest for transcendence and I got hooked with religion for a while...until I got discouraged with the arrogance of triumphalism and backed off a bit. I still have my guiding beliefs intact - no need to flaunt it I think.

5. I love falling asleep in the family room couch watching TV, sometimes until morning.

6. The best concert I ever watched in my life was Little River Band and Seals and Crofts in one show, in the early 90's at the then Ontario Place ampitheatre ( open air) for an unbelievable 6 bucks - minus the chair , sitting on the grass hehe :)

7. I befriended an exiled Bangsamoro leader back in the late 80's during the Marcos regime. It was friendship and had nothing to do with politics.

8. I am lousy with my blog grammar. I always discover spelling errors, missing conjunctions and articles after publishing my post which I had to correct countless of times.

QUOTES

George W. had caused a bit of a stir in at the APEC ( Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation)Summit in Sydney, Australa when in his speech he referred to APEC as OPEC ( Organization of Petroleum Operating Countries). He further added insult to injury when he thanked the "Austrians" for their contributions in the fight for Iraq :) And to cap the debacle, he went the wrong way when exiting the stage hahaha :) A case of too much beer at breakfast perhaps ? The Reuters news report playfully refers to the incident as Bush's " gift of gaffe" LOL :)

A car plate on one of the SUV's at train parking lot I saw the other day had this printed on the bottom corner "Pilots make smoother approaches". I'm not sure if it means pilots are savvy, safe drivers or a just subtle show of tacky braggadocio. People certainly have strange ways of expressing themselves but this one kept me thinking - what in the world was the driver ( who I presume was a pilot) really trying to say?

David Lam, former Lieut. Gov. of British Columbia, Canada has this to say : "Tolerance is somewhat of a negative word. It can mean that you smell bad so I must hold my breath. " Hmmm.. A bizzare, unexpected quote from a multicultural guy. In a multicultural society, tolerance is preached left and right and here goes the Lieut Gov. attempting to throw a hammer into the fire by saying that tolerance is tantamount to holding your breath, closing your eyes and letting the stink pass through. Was this the case of truth better left unsaid?

THE CORNIEST JOKES

Have you ever encountered a corny and artless pedestrian joke that sounds funny not for anything but its sheer "corny-ness" ? Here's two that I read in a Pinoy paper here recently which made me curse myself for laughing :)

Joke 1 :

Man A : Pare, ang sama ng paganinip ko kagabi
Man B : Bakit, ano ang napanaginipan mo?
Man A : Pare, nasa beauty contest raw ako, napaligirin ng 50 lovely beauty contestants
Man B : eh, ano naman ang masama nun? Magagandang babae pala ang nakapaligid sa iyo e !
Man A : Oo nga, pero ako raw ang nanalo sa beauty contest eh.

Joke 2 :

Boy : Nay, kamuntik na akong mapiling No. 1 sa klase ko !
Nanay : Siyanga ? E di ang taas siguro ng mga grado mo!
Tatay : Ang galing mo talaga anak. Second place ka ba?
Boy : Sayang, kamuntik na talaga ako kasi ang napili ng titser ay katabi ko sa upuan

On Contentment

2007-09-05T01:06:00.000-04:00

I broke my promise for the second time . I promised to post only 4 topics from the book Rules of Life but here's my sixth post. I'm bad :( I'd be honest to say that my compulsion to post what had been hovering in my brain for the past few weeks is so overwhelming that it defeated my sense of decorum, at the risk of being accused of plagiarism :) Rule 65 - Contentment is A High Aim - is one rule that gave me some sense of perspective when I'm bouncing in and out of the state of quandary, wondering if happiness is ever achievable.

Quote....

Rule 65 - Contentment is a High Aim

If you ask a lot of people what they want in life, they say, “Oh, just to be happy I guess”. Same goes if you ask what they want for their children, “I don’t mind what they do as long as they are happy”. You’d be better off wishing that you or your children could be astronauts or brain surgeons – at least you’re in with a sporting chance then. You can train. They can qualify.

Happiness is such an illusory thing that spending too much time chasing it is not very worthwhile. Happiness is one end of a spectrum – misery being the other end. It is a state of extreme, just as misery represents the other end. If you check back at the times in your life when you’ve been happy – or thought you might have been – I’ll bet there were extreme things involved. The birth of a child? Excitement yes. Wonder yes. Relief at successful birth. Yes. But happiness? I’m not sure.

People think they’ll be happy on holiday when they mean relaxed or stimulated or freed from their cares – and indeed they are. Aiming for happiness is one of those “bigger is best” things. You’re never going to make it because there is no top limit. You just have to go on aiming for even bigger all the time. Instead of aiming happy, it’s better to aim for contentment. Now that’s attainable. Now that’s a worthy goal.

This applies especially to relationships – both to the quest to find Mr or Mrs Right and in what happens when you do. Most of us want to fall madly head-over-heels in love. Big chemistry – fireworks, butterflies, unbelievable feelings. It’s brilliant. It’s extreme. But that intensity can’t and won’t last. You have to go back to reality sometime. You have to get on with your life. No one can live at that intensity, that lofty attitude all the time. Contentment is what you hope for after the elation has worn off and you settle back into a relaxed and happy simplicity. In fact, contentment is the worthier aim because it lasts.

And so if you find you are with somebody where there is no big fireworks display, palpitations and extreme of feelings but there is a baseline contentment and warmth and love – be happy with that.

Unquote.....

If a Buddhist monk or a Catholic priest approaches me to pitch their version of happiness exemplified by the way they live their lives - they win. I cannot pretty much argue with theological reasoning of folks who live sacrificially to attain a higher level of happiness. But I'm not them and they're not me and we must not compare apples to oranges.

People have varying beliefs and opinions of where true happiness come from. Some of us are in an incessant quest for money because it begets power and consequently fame. The problem with material happiness is it behaves like a drug, You need a constant dose of it to enjoy the high. The new things we acquire , be it a car, a house a new computer becomes obsolete rather quickly. The things we use to be giddy about becomes boring after a while and then comes the unstoppable urge to change, add, modify or upgrade so we can get that feeling of excitement again. I went on a cruise and vacation with my family last winter only to find out on my return to the office that the pressure of work is still the same - as shitty as ever. I don't seem to be happy as I was working in this job anymore. This phenomenon is also true with relationships. Over a period of time our partners become boring and unattractive as the aging process takes its toll on the body. Does it mean we have to change our partners once the sparks, the bells and whistles die down?

I am reminded of the story a friend told me about his acquaintance, a man who rode the dot com bandwagon at crest of its success. The company he founded hit pay dirt and made him a millionaire many times over. Despite his tremendous success and wealth, his parents continued to live in their modest bungalow, refusing his offer to move them to a much bigger home. The parents were retired folks who lived comfortably on their pensions and the modest wealth they accumulated in their working years. An offer for a limo ride to a restaurant on their annual wedding anniversary and a free cruise once a year are about the only things they would accept from their wealthy son. The parents are clearly contented with what they have in life and didn't need anything from anyone.

I do agree that religious teachings can knuckle us down and help filter our thoughts and emotions, provide us a much needed dose of a reality check and make us understand of things that count and those that don't. In short, the combination of our experiences and religious beliefs work hand in hand to help us understand the meaning of contentment. I believe that contentment is the magic formula of life I need to learn, if only to avoid the frustration of finding "happiness".

U.S. Americans and The Iraq

2007-08-29T22:56:00.000-04:00

Miss Teen South Carolina Lauren Caitlin Upton pulled up an unexpected brain teaser at the Miss Teen USA pageant when she was asked the question :

Q : Recent polls have shown that a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on the world map. Why do you think this is?

HUH !? say it again ? The startling thing about this episode is one has to write down her statements to be able to decipher some sense of logic and direction . I thought for the moment my brain was infected by a Trojan horse virus.. until I saw one of the YouTube poster's comments was a transcript of her entire answer. Nope it's not me, not my brains pal!

Here's what she said :

A: I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so because uh... some people out there in our nation don't have maps and uh... and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should, our education over here in the US should help the US should help South Africa and should uh help Iraq and the asian countries ( DING DING ) so we will be able to build up our future....for..

Not sure of the exact time alloted for the answer period but that was 1 minute of chatter and wordplay that registered not a single bit of meaningful information in my brain, save for a fitting appendage to the lexicon of Bushism . If George Bush invented new words such as misunderestimate, misjudgemental and strategery- well, here's a new one for the list he might like - U.S. Americans.

ONE LUCKY DOG

Muli-millionaire luxury hotelier Leona Helmsley, known for her aversion to paying taxes which resulted in her indictment for tax evasion in the 80's recently died at age 87. She left the bulk of her cash, some 12 million in trust fund to her pet dog name Trouble. Two of her grandchildren got zilch, nada and other relatives got significantly less than what the dog got. The dog will also have the privilege to be buried alongside Leona in her mausoleum. 12 mil is sure lot of money for a lifetime supply of Purina and frisbees for Trouble :) I wonder if Trouble is also insured and who might be his beneficiary?

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

I read this little write up in a magazine lately :

A friend of mine bought a new fridge for his house. Top get rid of his old fridge, he put in his front yard and hung an sign on it saying " free to go home. You want it, you take it"

For 3 days the fridge sat there with even one person looking twice at it. He eventually decided that people were too untrusting of this deal - it looked too good to be true. So he changed the sign to read : Fridge for sale $50" The next day someone stole it.

I'm one person who shrugs off too good to be true looking deals without hesitation. Maybe I'm wrong by sticking to percentages all the time. Maybe there are sweet deals out there to be had. Maybe there are people who still mean what they say. Maybe it's not all about business all the time. Maybe I need to be prepared to waste my time and bother to ask. Who knows.

Divalicious Babe Gets The Boot

2007-08-26T11:56:00.001-04:00

For the past week the Pinoy blogword was rocking violently in response to the deprecating comments that Malu Fernandez spewed against Pinoy OFWs in her Asia Today article " From Boracay to Greece"published in June 07 . Malu F, self-proclaimed diva, fashion and travel columnist was harshly criticized by Pinoys all over the world for her disparaging remarks on Pinoy OFW's in the Middle East who she disdained to be associated with in the Emirates Airlines flight to Greece. Her reasons for her use of discriminatory language such as " I wanted to slash my wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them " and thinking of riding with these people on the trip was like being "sent by God to my very own private hell" were attributed to her "acerbic wit" meaning trying to be brutally frank and funny at the same time. Her initial apology was tongue in cheek, at best perfunctory when she lashed back that she was just trying to be true to herself ( read : matapobre? So what..) and should not be vilified for her beliefs. The protests grew ever bigger and more vicious and rightfully so which prompted her to resign and issue a proper apology.

There is no reason to beat Malu F black and blue as the hatchets have been buried but if we were to conduct a post-mortem, here's my thoughts on the issue :

a. We know we are not a classless society and no matter what people think such bigotry and discriminatory remarks should be kept to one's self. More often, in our self-examination we can make deprecating remarks publicly to ourselves as Pinoys collectively. We can lambast our politicians and movie stars whose existence are owed to us but not a particular group of people who have done nothing to offend us.

b. Malu F was writing for a reputable magazine and not her personal blog. Why was this atrocious article even published? Does Asia Today have editors? Why sanction such trash to be published and viewed all over Asia ? Whatever happened to responsible journalism ?

c. OFWs aren't a low class trapo that she portrayed them to be. They're a hardworking and proud group of people who deserve to be respected. There are many educated and gainfully employed Pinoys who have gone to work abroad. The protests from OFW blogs that booted her out is a proof of this.

SPEAKING OF " TRUE DIVAS "

Call me old fashioned, mushy, getting older or what not but I dig real music. In this day and age, real music is rare and hard to find. One music that stands out in my mind is " THE PRAYER" , a Grammy and Golden Globe winning song composed by topnotch composers David Foster and Carol Bayer Sager for the animated movie Quest for Camelot and sung by diva par excellence, Celine Dion and blind tenor Andrea Bocelli. The composers and singers are creme of the crop and the product speaks of itself - flawless and immaculate, one of the finest expressions of art. The song is a hybrid of ballad and opera and when watched being performed by a true diva and equally capable partner would, borrowing the lyrics of a famous Josh Groban song, " fly you up beyond the distant stars".

What could be a better combination than Celine Dion and Josh Groban and David Foster himself on the piano ?

Or the lovely Welsh pop and opera diva and superstar Charlotte Church and Josh Groban ?

Who do you think sang it better ? If you think they are superb and awesome, most people think that the original version of Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli would be hard to beat .

Apple Crumble Craving

2007-08-20T00:10:00.000-04:00

Nope, those are not cow dung hehe :) They look so uninspiring , don't they ? They're glorious apple crumble pie. The darker one with a crispy crust of oats and raisins is for me and the lighter one minus the thick crust is for my daughter. Would you drive 125 kms one way to sample a scrumptious, hot and fresh home made apple crumble pie baked before your eyes ? I would and I did ! Last Sunday afternoon that intense craving took me to Big Apple . After a hefty snack of slices of apple crumble pies, we brought home 4 whole pies for the freezer.

It's business as usual in Big Apple. The last time I visited and blogged about the place was in November 2006. Apple pies are still being sold in good numbers. The last time I was there the total number of pies (whole) sold to walk in customers was 2,685,240 and last Sunday's figure was 2, 926, 274. Not bad considering that the winter months are normally very slow periods.

Could you spot something wrong in this picture ? I've noticed 2 glaring errors ! Let's see if you can find it. I noticed that this place is closer to the North Pole than most European cities LOL :) Nope we are not in the Artic tundra hehe :) 5,250 kms is still a good 6 hrs flight to the land of Santa Claus :)

Ang Kasinugnalingan Na Pinakalapit Sa Katotohanan

Ang isang ay hari ay nalulon sa pag-aaral ng Pilosopiya sa pamamagitan ng turo ng mga matatalinong ministro ng kanyang cabinete. Isang araw nagisip ang hari ng isang mabisang paraan upang makapagasawa ang kanyang nag-iisang anak na dalaga. Nais ng hari na makapagasawa ang kanyang anak ng pinakamatalinong lalake. Sa kanyang panganasa na mapadali ang paghanap ng uliran na sinasabing lalake, ang hari ay gumawa ng isang paligsahan na masasalihan lamang ng mga kalalakihan ng kanyang kaharian. Ang lalake na makapagsabi sa kanya ng isang KASINUNGALINGAN NA PINAKALAPIT SA KOTOTOHANAN ay siyang magkakamit ng pinakaswerteng gantimpala - ang karapatan na mapangasawa ang kanyang anak na prinsesa. Subalit ang paligsahan na ito ay mapanganib. Ang katumbas ng maling sagot ay pugot ulo. Ang sagot ay dapat mapatunayan upang maturing na kaaya-aya at tumpak sa pag-iisip ng hari.

Si Juan ay isang matalinong magsasaka. Nang nalaman ni Juan ang paligsahan, siya ay nagalak at nagbalak sumali. Sino nga naman ang ayaw makapangasawa ng prinsesa at maging manugang ng hari! Si Juan ay nagpalista sa paligsahan at humarap sa korte ng hari :

Hari : Magiting na lalake, magsabi ka ng isang kasinunaligan na pinakalapit sa katotohanan. Alalahanin mo na pag hindi tumpak ang iyung sagot sa aking pagaakala ang hatol ay mo kamatayan.

Juan : Mahal na hari, kayo po ba ay pinanganak sa puwet ng nanay ninyo?

Hari : Yan ay isang malaking kasinugalingan!

Juan : Tumpak kayo mahal na hari! Subalit, napakalapit po sa katotohanan. Mahigit kumulang sa isang pulgada lang ang pagitan!

Hari : ( nagisip...) Huh? OO nga ano..t..t..tama ka. Bwaka ng.... Pati nanay ko idinamay mo pa.

Ang matalinong magsasakang Juan ang nagwagi at nagtagumpay sa kanyang pangarap na mapangasawa ang magandang prinsesa ng kaharian.

Tres Sientos

2007-08-15T21:47:00.000-04:00

Here's a video clip shared to me by Noypetes, a segment of the movie 300 dubbed in Bisaya (Ilonggo). You may not throughly decipher the dialect but I'm sure you'll be able to make out a few of it :) It made my day when I viewed it LOL :)

WEIRD MEME :

I've been tagged quite a few times with this meme, the latest being Vic. Here's my previous posts on this tag.

http://buffwings.blogspot.com/2006/08/weird-things-meme.html

Vic tagged me for 6 and although my weirdness seems to increase as the days go by, I have identified 4. I think I have a few more but would too embarrasing to tell :)

1. I go bonkers when I get hooked on a hobby. This spring I bought my third golf iron set not including a new driver, a couple of hybrid clubs and a couple of wedges. I have 3 bags with full sets in my basement, not including a full set with bag I sold to a friend last year. I don't know when this insanity will end. When I got hooked on fishing many years ago, I amassed a total of 20 fishing rods in my garage. I will have to do some serious auctioning on Ebay soon.

2. If I decide to work on the weekend to catch up on my backlog, I like to come to the office at night, around 7pm and work until midnight. I hate to be in the office when the sun is up unless I really have to work on an implementation.

3. When I'm in a plane, I have zero compulsion to talk to my seatmate and I don't care if we are airborne for 15 hours. I hate to be talked to either. It might be due the air pressure or the engine noise but I turn deaf mute for no reason at all.

4. I am a sucker for women with great legs - not thin but sexy legs. Sometimes I think my attraction to women lies in the legs and nothing else hehe :)

THE STATUE

During my last vacation in the Poconos we made a side trip to Liberty Park via Jersey City on our way to my sister's place in Connecticut. It was an opportunity for my daughter to see the Statue of Liberty. I've been here a couple times before but it is always a thrill to take a shot at America's famous symbol of freedom. Security checks for visitors wanting to get inside the statue was as tough as airports.

Here's a shot at the Big Apple from Liberty Park on a muggy afternoon. One can't help notice the conspicious absence of the World Trade Centre towers.

STRAIGHT TALK

2007-08-09T20:02:00.000-04:00

The Heretic Infidel

Not many people could muster enough bravado to duke it out with an Islamic cleric in an all out, no holds barred debate in front of public television and emerge a winner, at least in the eyes of those people who had been keeping silent for many years, except for Dr. Wafa Sultan, a Syrian-American psychiatrist, activist for Muslim women rights and fearless anti-terrorism crusader. Dr. Sultan, who is also a Muslim seems unwary of the retribution that fundamentalist Islamists might exact on her, with her use of unconstrained yet candid and forceful language that prompted the cleric to call her a heretic on the airwaves.The world had been waiting for someone who could confront the issue head on minus the fear of political incorrectness and harsh backlash and Wafa Sultan chose to do it. We still remember the fatwa and the $5 Million reward the Ayatollah Khomeni of Iran offered for the head of Salman Rushdie when the latter published his controversial novel Satanic Verses, considered an affront to the religion of Islam. Fearing for his life , Rushdie was forced to hide for many years and re-emerged only when the tension had subsided. Dr. Sultan's crusade against terrorism seems unabated by the pleas from friends and family who fear for her safety.

You may have already seen this but here's the video of that famous debate on Al-Jazeera TV in Qatar.

When It is Thy Time To Go

When you hear a person slip on a banana peel and break his head and die we refer to such as a freak accident, something unusual and senseless that wasn't supposed to happen. But accidents do happen and the more unlikely it becomes, the more we feel the pain of the tragedy . We dread to see it happen to any human being for that matter. A case of a misstep that resulted in a mishap. Our hearts are filled with a deep sense of loss and our thoughts murmur - " if only he slowed down and looked he could still be alive today". Now here's another scenario. A man driving a car with a passenger in the front seat safely stops at a railroad crossing waiting for the train to pass. He made sure the car was at the right distance from the level crossing. All of a sudden, a speeding Mercedez Benz slams the rear end of his car pushing it onto the path of the moving train. Whammm... Lights out. Theory No 1. It was a Mafia hit. The hit man driving the Mercedes planned the "accident". Theory No. 2 The driver of the Mercedez was talking on his cell phone, lost his orientation and totally forgot he was driving. Theory No. 3 The driver of the Mercedez was drunk. Whatever - but the outcome was regretfully sad indeed. The driver of the Mercedez deserves to be hanged but does it change the outcome? The man stopping his car on the level crossing did everything right. There was no misstep, no miscalculation on his part. There was absolutely no reason for this to happen. It was just his time to go.

BACK TO BLOGGING

2007-08-05T18:50:00.000-04:00

My hibernation is almost over. I'm fully recharged and ready to ge back to action after this long weekend ( Civic Holiday). The entire week had been over 30 degC which prompted the government to issue a extreme heat alert. This weekend will be a lot nicer though - in the high twenties, good enough for the annual Caribana ( Caribbean carnival celebration), where more than a million people trek to Toronto to celebrate the Caribbean culture. This is the 40th annual event, the biggest of its kind in North America. True to my plan, I avoided anything that required thinking :) No blogging, no books, nothing about work :)

COMMUNING WITH NATURE

I'm not quite sure why I prefer to spend my short vacations in mountain areas and not beaches as most people from this part of the world crave to do. Other than my wife dreading the tan ( they say it's easy to spot Pinays in Disneyworld; they wear long sleeves in the dead of summer), I might have been a reincarnated hunter :) The peace and quiet of mountain areas are quite calming and reinvigorating for me.

The Poconos Mountains in Pennsylvania was my choice and boy was I gratified. Here's shots of deer I took just about 50 yards one early morning from the window of our cottage. I was shooting through the glass window hence the poor resolution of the shots. With the lush vegetation of the area, we were literally living with deers that seemed unperturbed with the presence of humans. Any hunter would say this distance would have been a perfect, spot on shot but of course, this wasn't a hunting area and I wasn't on a hunting trip.

The Buskhill Falls is a great place for nature lovers. It's one place where you can walk through the series of falls via the wooden pathways. If you click on the picture notice the pathways creep through the trees and cliffs to give a better view of the falls.

Here's a close up of the wooded walkways. The entire falls system will take about 2.5 hours to negotiate. That's quite a brisk walk, a prefect way to break a sweat, considering the climbing that one needs to do.

In the heat of summer, the mist from the rushing falls is always there to cool you off. We had fun on this trip as my sister's place in Connecticut is only about 2 hours away. They dropped their two daughters, ages 13 and 7 to be with us for the week and they came back the next weekend and we all went to their place for a couple of days. My daughter had an excellent time bonding with her cousins. We hopped through water parks every day to bask in the sun to the chagrin of my wife. The much dreaded tan was simply unavoidable :)

FIL-CAN'S IDOL RUN ENDS

I didn't realize this good looking lass was half Pinoy until I saw a "support Martha Joy" posters in Pinoy stores many weeks ago . The poster urged Pinoys to support Martha Joy Lim ( her mother's surname) in her Canadian Idol bid. Her father is Portuguese. With her youthful and beautiful looks, Martha Joy looked like a runaway winner, if she could pull the singing part together. She's only 16 but her singing skills are fundamentally solid. She made it to the top 10 and my only concern was her penchant for singing Celine Dion songs which I thought was rather risky. It wasn't hard to figure out she was trying to showcase her wide vocal range which could be shrieky at times. The judges' consistent comments about her lack of emotion was one thing that her supporters were hoping for her to seriously work on because an Idol requires the complete package - technical skills and showmanship. One judge also commented that she may have difficulty in singing faster songs.

The ax finally fell at the top 8 segment when she was booted out from the show. I thought it was rather premature for her to go. I was expecting her to reach the top 3 but I guess the judges' comments were a foreboding of things to come. The top 8 segment theme was "unplugged" with Enrique Iglesias as guest and mentor for the contestants. The reason why she was booted out as due to poor song choice and mediocre performance. Her selection of True Colors ( originally sang by Cindy Lauper and recently popularized by Phil Collins) , a slow, boring and lifeless song and I don't care if it is a Lea Salonga interpretation , was recipe for disaster. Let me don the proverbial Simon Cowell cap now.The other reason was her rather tacky choice of sartorial garb. Martha Joy looks like a smart dresser but geez, clothes are supplied free - could she have chosen something a bit more classy and sophisticated? Anyways, here's a clip of the segment 8 debacle. Ye be judge. On the bright side, she's only 16 years old. Darn, she could have waited for a couple more years.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DRzBdeA8I8o

THE BEST DONUT SHOP JOB EVER

Ever imagined making $4,500 a month, free board and lodging for a job at a donut shop ? Well, it does exist - a 6 month tenure at Tim Horton's donut shop within the shelter and confines of the Canadian Forces Base in Kandahar, Afghanistan ! Apparently there's no shortage of risk takers. When the ad was published by the government, 100 applications were received the day after. Come to think of it - would you need a cash register at the base? Me thinks no soldier in a war zone would bother to shell out loonies and quarters for a donut and coffee. Well there you go - the tab is on the government so no math skills required for this job !

Hiatus

2007-07-12T15:10:00.001-04:00

I've been physically and mentally drained with work lately notwithstanding the summer activities and looks like I really need a big, long break just to rest and enjoy this brief passing great summer. I plan to take a couple of weeks off, spend a week in the Pennsylvania mountains and for another week do absolutely nothing that requires thinking :) I plan to sit in my backyard watching the birds, take care of my lawn and pool, watch TV a bit, prune the clutter and sleep a lot ! Heck I may even pass up with golf for a week or two coz it requires thinking hehehe :)

Hope you folks have a wonderful summer :) See you in a few weeks !

A Day At Wonderland

2007-06-24T10:50:00.002-04:00

Our company family day was held June 23 at Canada's Wonderland. Staff were provided free tickets - a maximum of 4 tickets per family including food vouchers, free parking and lots of discount coupons for the stores inside the park. The package was certainly appreciated by everyone. My family comes here every year but it is great when it is free :) We hope this perk happens every year!

Canada's Wonderland which is located in Vaughan, Ontario, suburb of Toronto is rated as one of the top 10 theme/amusement parks in North America. The ride selections - 200 in all with 65 thrilling rides with the most variety of roller coasters are more than enough to statisfy the appetite of those seeking the ultimate adrenalin rush experience. The new Splash Works - a 20 acre water park is a great place to soak up in summer and in the cooler fall(water is heated). It also has an outdoor music theatre where concerts are held all summer long. Another interesting fact is Canada's Wonderland is a seasonal amusement park ( opens in May and closes in October ) and its attendance is tops amongst seasonal parks in North America in 2005 and 2006. It is also a great provider of jobs to high school and college students in summer.

The Wonderland roller coasters riders are wicked and it is pretty common to see hats and shoes flying all over the place, for those that understimate the power of these beasts :) I 've done my time chasing these coasters and I don't want to subject my body to the G forces which gets to the extreme with these modern day monsters hehe . The Tomb Raider which is in fact a flying coaster is one interesting monster. It offers a different sensation - that of flying rather than rolling :) Heck, I'd have to take this ride hungry, with my stomach empty :)

Here's a video of Xtreme Skyfler . The good thing about this ride which resembles a bungee jump is you don't have to take it alone. It can handle up to 3 people which means you can be with your buddies - if that gives you a little bit of moral support - and you have someone to hug and shout till your lungs almost break as you fall within 6 ft of hitting ground :) This is one ride I wouldn't take unless I am between Paris Hilton and Linsday Lohan and they better be scared shit LOL :)

FACTS TAG BY WIL

Will had tagged me for the 15 facts about me but since this blog already contains 12 facts about me, I'll do only 3 this time :)

1. I was hooked up on Chess in my teens and younger years and played in the Inter-Commercial Chess Team tourney in Manila representing my company where I had a chance to play with nationally rated players. I played National Master Ramon Lontoc to a draw in a simultaneous game. I played with Grandmaster Eugene Torre and English Grandmaster Raymond Keene in a simul exhibition but lost in a long end game ( as expected hehe). I have stopped playing chess for many many years now and play very rarely but I still manage to surprise people every now and then :) Napoleon Bonaparte is known to have said " If you want to destroy a man, teach him how to play chess".

2.When I was in my younger years I wished I was much older so people in my office would give me more respect :) At 28 years I was assigned to manage 17 people, most of whom were older than me :)

3. I'm pretty flexible with my palate but I can't seem to eat paksiw na isda. Maybe it had to do with my abhorrence with this dish when I was a kid.

TONGUE TWISTER

Last week I attended a disaster recovery presentation of one of the companies our technology infrastructure supports. The meeting was quite long which took us to lunch. The recovery coordinator was excellent in his presentation except when he touched the section on handling of pandemic occurences and the issue of employee absenteeism was touched. The poor chap couldn't pronounce the word "absenteeism" even after drinking water, taking lunch and downing coffee to stabilize his nerves :) He gave up on the word after way too many attempts LOL :) He was one of us, an employee of the corporation so we took the issue quite light heartedly. Man, if this was a sales presentation it would have been a debacle. And this is a country where English is the first language !

I remember when I was in high school, a few of my classmates couldn't get a handle on the word "executioner". It wasn't so bad because they would ultimately get it in three tries. I am laughing now but I am questioning myself - am I dead sure I could pronounce all the words in the darn dictionary ? Funny tounge twister stories, anyone?

TOO MUCH HOMEWORK?

2007-06-18T22:50:00.000-04:00

While I was strolling at the fast food section at a mall in a predominantly Chinese suburb north of the city Friday night, I chanced upon a bulletin board ad that enjoined parents to explore the power of Image Abacus, a system of brain power development based on the principles of abacus calculation. This method of mental acrobatics supposedly develops all sides of the brain works wonders with the person's intuitive thinking, enhances problem solving skills and memory retention. The program is pretty ambitious. To think that a person's brain can be turned into a human calculator through virtual imagery of the abacus principle is truly mind boggling. Hmmm... I suppose this program makes geniuses out of ordinary kids, which starts at a very young age of 6 years, on to their trek towards the much coveted membership with Mensa International. I was grasping for an answer as to what would motivate me to turn my kid into some kind of a human robot. There is no doubt in my mind that there are people obsessed by the thought that the supreme satisfaction in their mission of propagating the homo sapien specie is to see their offspring become a genius. I wonder if this kind of motivation has something to do with the child or simply an expression of the parent's vanity in that quest for fame, recognition and stature in society.

My curiosity about Image Abacus was still fresh and unabated when a Monday news item of a local newspaper struck me - HOMEWORK OVERLOAD UNDER MICROSCOPE".

"No homework on the weekend, during March Break or even the Christmas holidays. Forget about tests on Mondays. No big assignments four days before exams. "

While the proponents of Image Abacus suggest a rigorous training of the brain over and above the regular school curriculum, some people believe that children ought to be given more time to socialize and interact with family and community. School trustees in consultation with parents have come to a conclusion that school going children are being overloaded with homework and assigments to the point that the quality of their lives are being negatively affected. The trustees came up with a supposedly equitable formula that would balance study and home life - 10 minutes of homework per grade. In short a grade 1 student will have 10 mins of homework ; a grade 6 with 60 minutes. Here's what parents say about the proposal. What is your opinion? Fair ? Not enough ?

IDOL CONTROVERSY

Poor Sanjaya Malakar. Not only did his hometown refuse the Idol producers request to hold a parade or a town hall type meeting to honor him, Ozzy Osbourne backed out at the last minute, refusing to do a duet with him at the Idol finals night. Canadian Idol judge Farley Flex blamed the American Idol judges of screwing up by including Sanjaya in the top 24. Flex said ; "Sanjaya was put in there by the judges, it wasn't the public that put him in there - the public kept him in there, but they didn't put him in there".

The Canadian Idol is on its third week with a big change in the auditions this time. Contestants are allowed to play musical instrument of their choice at the auditions :)

VACATION

Darn, I've been trying to post the pics I've taken on our short vacation at the Adirondacks (Northern New York) on the first week of May. Blogging laziness had overtaken me lately. I did take my laptop on the trip and loaded my photos while on the trip. When I opened my laptop at the lodge where we stayed, I was able to scan an unsecure wireless access point in the neighborhood which I promptly hijacked :) I was able to get to the internet, sent emails and blogged a bit. The wireless access-point had TINKER as its node ID. One day when I was at the golf club trying to confirm my tee off, a couple of elderly gentlemen came in. They were almost late and hurriedly proceeded to confirm their tee off time which was before mine. The pro shop clerk asked - " under what name did you book your reservation? " whereupon only of the guys replied " TINKER". LOL :) I had no doubt the dude was the owner of the wireless access point I hijacked :) He looked like he lived in the neighborhood close to the resort. I just smiled and murmured - thanks pal :)

Customer Service Blues

2007-06-12T18:28:00.000-04:00

People working in a customer service call center are a rare breed. Working with irate and foul-mouthed customers is not only stressful but oftentimes downright humiliating. Other than the missionaries and Jesus workers, this is one profession where people learn how to not to hit back and turn the other cheek, not because of some lofty ideals but all in the name of the almighty green buck. Keeping customers happy at the expense of strained egos and suppressed anger of verbally abused customer service staff seems to be the rule of thumb in this business. Staff are urged not to respond to customer expletives and insults. They shouldn't and they can't because every call is recorded and randomly reviewed by the quality assurance team . Staff are urged to comply with the protocol of gracefully terminating a nasty call and are forewarned to never engage the client in an altercation. An impolite handling of a customer can mean termination. Not an easy way to earn a living. With smoke coming out of my ears and my horns getting itchy when agitated, BW couldn't possibly last for a day dealing with these irate jerks :)

Unbeknownst to many, dumb and ignorant customers can raise the blood pressure levels of customer service folks to the same level as irate customers do. Dealing with an angry customer is as equally stressful as dealing with a numbskull. Sounds odd but true. The psychological impact of extreme frustration can be as equally explosive as suppressed anger.

Operator: "Ridge Hall, computer assistance; may I help you?"
Caller: "Yes, well, I'm having trouble with WordPerfect."
Operator: "What sort of trouble??"
Caller: "Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went away."
Operator: "Went away?"
Caller: "They disappeared."
Operator: "Hmm So what does your screen look like now?"
Caller: "Nothing."
Operator: "Nothing??"
Caller: "It's blank; it won't accept anything when I type."
Operator: "Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out??"
Caller: "How do I tell?"
Operator: "Can you see the C: prompt on the screen??"
Caller: "What's a sea-prompt?"
Operator: "Never mind, can you move your cursor around the screen?"
Caller: "There isn't any cursor: I told you, it won't accept anything I type."
Operator: "Does your monitor have a power indicator??"
Caller: "What's a monitor?"
Operator: "It's the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV. Does it have a little light that tells you when it's on??"
Caller: "I don't know."
Operator: "Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the power cord goes into it. Can you see that??"
Caller: "Yes, I think so."
Operator: "Great. Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it's plugged into the wall.
Caller: "Yes, it is."
Operator: "When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one??"
Caller: "No."
Operator: "Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the other cable."
Caller: "Okay, here it is."
Operator: "Follow it for me, and tell me if it's plugged securely into the back of your computer."
Caller: "I can't reach."
Operator: "Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is??"
Caller: "No."
Operator: "Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over??"
Caller: "Oh, it's not because I don't have the right angle - it's because it's dark."
Operator: "Dark??"
Caller: "Yes - the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming in from the window.
" Operator: "Well, turn on the office light then."
Caller: "I can't."
Operator: "No? Why not??"
Caller: "Because there's a power failure."
Operator: "A power......... A power failure? Aha, Okay, we've got it licked now.
Do you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your computer came in??"
Caller: "Well, yes, I keep them in the closet."
Operator: "Good. Go get them, and unplug your system and pack it up just like it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it from."
Caller: "Really? Is it that bad?"
Operator: "Yes, I'm afraid it is."
Caller: "Well, all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them??"
Operator: "Tell them you're too stupid to own a computer!!!!!"

click.. customer service staff disconnects the call, smiles sheepishly, breaths a deep sigh of relief and experiences the adrenalin rush that reinvigorates her entire being quietly whispering to herself - "you deserve that you stupid SOB " and proceeds to answer the next call in the queue. The recorded conversation eventually fell into the hands of quality assurance for the routine review. The staff was found to have seriously breached the customer service code of conduct and was fired. The staff appealed the decision. There was no complaint from the customer. Was Wordperfect justified in firing the staff ?

A $32 Million BIRTHDAY GIFT

A man bought seven (7) Lotto 6/49 quick pick tickets and inserted them into a birthday card for his wife. Lo and behold, when his wife opened the card and checked the tickets, one of them was the winner of the $32 million Saturday night Lotto jackpot ! The 7 tickets were worth $14, pretty paltry gift for a birthday present for your better half but geez the stinginess paid off big time. Darn, I just bought my wife a new Subaru for her birthday - I deserve to win more than that cheapskate ! LOL :)

Which reminded me of a joke about a man whose business was under threat of bankruptcy. He prayed to God hard for money so he can save his business. He bugged God night and day for a miracle, for that cash infusion so he can get out of financial trouble. Finally God got incensed by his persistence and “ kakulitan” and broke out of his omnipotence and in his humanized form, took the prophetic sounding voice of Orson Wells and commanded the man – “ at least buy a Lotto ticket you dork “ :)

40 Something Women

2007-05-26T19:47:00.000-04:00

Someone sent me this email last week.

Correspondent Andy Rooney (CBS) had this as his epilogue in one of the 60 Minutes eposides :

Quote :

As I grow in age, I value women over 40 most of all. Here are just a few reasons why:

A woman over 40 will never wake you in the middle of the night and ask, "What are you thinking?" She doesn't care what you think. If a woman over 40 doesn't want to watch the game, she doesn't sit around whining about it.. She does something she wants to do, and it's usually more interesting. Women over 40 are dignified. They seldom have a screaming match with you at the opera or in the middle of an expensive restaurant. Of course, if you deserve it, they won't hesitate to shoot you if they think they can get away with it. Older women are generous with praise, often undeserved. They know what it's like to be unappreciated. Women get psychic as they age. You never have to confess your sins to a woman over 40. Once you get past a wrinkle or two, a woman over 40 is far sexier than her younger counterpart. Older women are forthright and honest. They'll tell you right off if you are a jerk if you are acting like one. You don't ever have to wonder where you stand with her. Yes, we praise women over 40 for a multitude of reasons. Unfortunately, it's not reciprocal. For every stunning, smart, well-coiffed, hot woman over 40, there is a bald, paunchy relic in yellow pants making a fool of himself with some 22-year old waitress. Ladies, I apologize. For all those men who say, "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?", here's an update for you. Nowadays 80% of women are against marriage. Why? Because women realize it's not worth buying an entire pig just to get a little sausage!

Unquote :

Okay, I'll take one for the team on the sausage bit LOL.. but what does Rooney really mean ? That women over 40 mellow down? If so, then that's quite encouraging :) Rooney's stat of 80% of women against marriage is quite startling. I wonder if this is supported by a study or purely anecdotal on his part.

GARBAGE BIN AT ENTRANCE OF TOILET

When I went to a cruise last year, the ship management was very wary of the outbreak of the Norovirus that constant reminders of proper hygiene to prevent the outbreak of was all over the place, TV included. One thing I noticed the presence of the garbage bin at the entrance of toilet doors. The garbage bin was meant to be used by those patrons exiting the toilet and not for those trying to get in. The instruction was that every patron exiting the toilet, other than the usual washing of hands with soap and water, must also scrub his/her hands with the antibacterial solution . When exiting, everyone must use a paper towel to open the door knob. Once out, the patron can dispose of the paper towel into the garbage bin. Make perfect sense to me and should be the case for every public toilet, not only in cruise ships. Come to think of it, the door knob of the toilet is being touched by all bodies exiting the toilet ! And you never knew if they washed their hands. Yikes!

THROWING STUFF AT THE AUDIENCE

We all see that familiar ritual of winning a tennis grand slam event. The champ hits all the balls in his pocket to the adoring crowd. On occasion, he would even hurl his tennis racquet into the stands. Nice souvenir ! Tennis racquets and balls are great but sometimes the excited champ takes his sweaty headband or wristband and throws them into the crowd. Nice souvenir ? Not if I don't have a plastic bag, LOL. I couldn't recall who it was but at one point the French Open champ took his sweat filled and clay soiled shirt and hurled it into the crowd. I read once that pro golfer Phil Mickelson gave his watch to a fan to apologize for hitting her with his ball after a drive. Nice gesture. I don't think it was a Rolex but a Callaway sport watch would be likewise dandy. Some pros give away balls, hats or gloves. Pacquiao gave his flaming red boxing shorts he used to defeat Morales to Mayor Atienza who jogged the next day to show it off LOL. Athletes are revered by the fans and the tools of their trade are considered relics... as long as they don't start throwing their mouthguards or jock straps into the crowd :)

Mystery Voter

2007-05-21T18:57:00.000-04:00

Shouldn't election results, even national elections, be finalized within the same day? Expediency is a must because ballot counting that takes days and weeks are prone to tampering as well as "various forms irregularities" that we all fear to be happening even as we speak. My wife was told by her sister on the phone yesterday that a neighbor who voted on election day saw her name on the registration list with a check as having voted. Problem is my wife left Pinas 10 years ago. Who voted in her place? This kind of irregularity is rampant but who knows what else is happening during the long wait for the final results ? The wait isn't only agonizing but it also opens the door to tampering and no amount of watchdogs and foreign observers can discern what's happening behind the closed doors of agency responsible for protecting the sanctity of these ballots.

Pinas must learn from other nations and eliminate the outmoded and corruption prone popular voting. There is no sense in having the entire population vote for a national candidate. The massive ballot count is not only physically taxing and costly but also prone to errors and manipulation. Canada's highly decentralized party system and the U.S. electoral college are examples of systems that streamlines and simplifies the ballot count. Along with the high tech counting system, it is facilitates the expedient counting of votes which are completed before midnight of election day. It is time for Pinas to change - the present system is extremely flawed.

MEN FIRST !

It's Victoria Day long weekend here and the weather had been quite excellent despite the chilly but balmy wind. I'm a happy camper with 17 deg C frankly speaking and I don't really mind the cardigan or light sweater. I love it when the heater and aircon is silent the whole day :) My buddy and I teed-off at a nearby public golf course early this morning and we were paired with a charming Korean couple, probably in their fifties. At the first tee, I casually suggested - " OK, should we have the lady tee-off first?" Without hesitation, the husband blurted out emphatically - " No, men first ". LOL :) Oh well, maybe we should have told his wife directly :) What can I say ? As I said , they were a friendly and charming couple :)

CALGARY, ALBERTA

I travelled to Calgary quote a few times within the last 6 months( work related) and I'd be remiss if I didn't devote half a page of my blog to the Calgary, Alberta - Canada's oil capital and the much celebrated boomtown city. Here's a shot I took of the Calgary Tower, a 626 ft. structure and by no means towering if compared to Toronto's CN Tower ( 1800 ft.) The elevator ride was excruciatingly slow and what could you expect of a structure that was built 40 years ago. It certainly lacks the fast and hi-tech glass elevators but does stand in the right spot with an excellent view of the city and the vast and seemingly endless tract of land that stretches all the way to the oil rich sands in the far north.

I get a chill down my spine when I step on this glass floor and look down. Thoughts of the glass breaking and me skydiving minus the parachute isn't too comforting. This is just a small spot - not the entire floor for heaven's sake :) I know that the glass is darn thick but silly thoughts like the tower shaking and the glass dislodging from the frame hover in my brain the whole time.

Here's a partial shot of downtown with the Canadian Rockies in the background. Calgary isn't a mega city like Toronto but has the distinction of being the cleanest city in the world ( 4 Canadian cities are in the top 10). Opulence isn't something you would easily find here. Their 5 star hotels are spartan compared to those in world class cities. The rooms are small but functional. Blame that on the cowboy, hardworking traits of the founders of this place.

If Toronto has the PATH, a climate-controlled underground walkway at the downtown core full of shops, restaurants, banks, subway stops where people congregate during winter, Calgary has "skywalks" or bridges connecting every major building at the downtown core. Skywalks much like the underground allows people to move around the downtown buildings minus their boots and winter topcoats. One interesting fact about Calgary is their C-trains are free as long as you travel within the down town area.

I'm quite suprised why this wonderful work of art was installed at a most awkward spot - an intersection of a crowded street. It's difficult to get a good shot of this masterpiece with the telephone street box in the way! I've moved back and forth trying to get a good shot but couldn't. Oh well, I'm not a professional photographer anyway so i'm forgiven. Notice the TV camera aimed right at the horse. I wonder what it is for :)

I took the photo of this picture at the Tower. Calgary had its first economic windfall in the 70's when the oil prices skyrocketed. The prosperity didn't hold on for long when oil prices plummeted in the 80's. Calgary learned the hard way and has since then diversified its economy and vowed to undertake the ecomonic challenge head on. The recent oil boom had triggered an economic windfall in the province and Calgary is on the map once again. Hopefully this time the mistakes of the 70's will be avoided. If I was to immigrate to Canada tomorrow, I'd come to Calgary, where jobs are a plenty.

( click on picture to enlarge)

Human Lab Rat

2007-05-18T00:17:00.001-04:00

I've always wondered how new drugs and medicines are deemed safe for human consumption. I know that such drugs are tested on rats, mice and monkeys but at some point they have to be tested and validated on humans before being sold at the counter! For a while now I've been reading these ads exhorting healthy males and females within a specific age range, to volunteer for the testing of new drugs, for an attractive fee. Would you risk your life for money ? They pay you thousands of dollars but what about the side effects of these new drugs? If it doesn't kill you on the spot, what about its long term implications? Kinda scary thought indeed. But there are no shortage of applicants, especially those interested in making a few bucks. A curious newspaper columnist volunteered and chronicled his experience of being a human lab rat which according to him "felt like a relaxing, paid vacation". Sorry, but not my idea of a relaxing vacation :) The idea of growing a third testicle or getting that eerie urge to jump of a cliff kinda scares me :) What about you? Would you take the challenge?

BLOGGING BLUES

I've come back from a short but enjoyable vacation for over a week now and I've been having this inexplicable blogging blues - aka blogging laziness :) Not sure what it is - probably the wonderful spring weather :) The other night - Monday actually, I had prepared my post at the office, emailed it to my personal email address so I could cut and paste it to my blog when I get home. I penned down my one paragraph prediction on the American Idol finals and wanted to post it that night. For some reason, I got glued on the TV and had to finish the darn movie. It finished at almost 12am and I felt a little sleepy so I vowed to post it Tuesday night, right after the Idol show. It had to be Tuesday night because Wednesday night is judgment day for the week and one contestant would be booted out ! After the Tuesday Idol show which ended at 9pm EST, I watched another program for an hour and unexpectedly fell asleep at the couch, still in my office attire and woke up at 4am! Darn, I only drank a single can of Coors light - no reason for me to pass out, LOL :) I went back to sleep and woke up at 6am and did the usual routine of preparing to catch my 7:57am train. I gave up on my post and thought of posting it at a later date. It was either laziness or my inability to extricate myself from vacation mode :)

On another note - aren't you guys fed up with Idol judge Simon Cowell's arrogance ? This stiff-upper-lipped prick has really gotten on my nerves! Did you see his lack of grace and selfishness when he couldn't even compliment last year's 3rd placer Elliot Yamin who sang what I thought was a decent song from his latest CD. His comment on Jordin Sparks singing the classic Shirley Bassey hit " I Who Have Nothing" as old fashioned and should not be sang by a 17 year old was equally preposterous. A classic song can be sung by ANYONE. He was only looking at what kind of songs Jordin Sparks would sing when she cuts her CD and not her singing skills and delivery on stage. So much with this ignorant jerk who I think had gotten the ire of a lot of viewers. Believe me, time will come when people will vote against Cowell's choice just to prove him wrong.

Anyways, here's my prediction which I should have posted on Tuesday night which turned out to be true with Melinda Doolitle leaving. The final outcome remains to be seen :

Let me hazard a guess here . It's going to be a toss up between Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis. The idol default profiles, including prejudiced biases are definitely on their side. Melinda Doolittle rocks but she ain't got the wow factor baby. Unless she performs so magically and flawlessly, that America sees a reincarnation of Aretha Franklin or Ella Fitzgerald in her, she'd be out of the door Wednesday night. I think Jordin Sparks wins hands down.

Speaking of Idols, here's Eva Avila, Canadian Idol '06 - a goddess from Gatineau, Quebec who is trilingual , speaks French, Spanish and English fluently, singing at the finals with the song that she eventual recorded. Absolutely no shortage of star qualities from this 19 year old warbler.

Spring Cleanup

2007-04-24T23:11:00.000-04:00

Spring is finally here albeit late. For the first time in 2007, we tasted the long awaited 20 deg C weather and it came at the time you wanted it to come – on a weekend. I played my first 18 holes on a sunny 23 degree Sunday and basked in the sun for a full 5 hours with my buddies. It sure felt like seeing your girl you haven’t seen in months – pretty intense excitement indeed !

Spring also signals the massive cleanup of the house. Much like my daughter’s stuffed friends getting literally stuffed in one corner of her bedroom, spring time is when you dry clean winter clothes and stuff them in the cabinets, clean the air ducts and fireplace, rake in the dried leaves in the backyard, get the garage in order and throw things you have amassed over the fall and winter and make room for more things !

I haven’t blogged for a while because other than the spring cleanup, many exciting things have been happening. It’s not that I lost interest in blogging but I just didn’t have enough time to blog !The Toronto Raptors are in the playoffs, with their Cinderella type season culminating in winning the Atlantic division. The Toronto Blue Jays had their season opener as well, having about 50,000 fans jumping up and down on opening day. Work had been pretty hectic as usual and I’ve been mulling about replacing my SUV. The golf courses are now in business and the trout fishing season opens on the last Saturday on April. Whew, what else is new? Well, I’m going on my delayed spring break vacation this Sunday, off for 9 days to a place I could relax and renew my energy and revitalize my entire being . I always make it a point to go to a place I’ve never been before on my spring break and it does make me feel excited.

MY THOUGHTS ON MANNY PACQUIAO

One UK newspaper ignorantly called Manny Pacquiao a politician running for “re-election” back in his country. In my observation, people in this part of the world really don’t give a rat’s ass about Pacquiao’s political adventurism back home. Politician or not, it is no big deal. Pacquiao is great and that’s what people pay with their hard earned money to watch – a sly, hard punching and exciting boxer who demolishes his opponents with a never ending flurry of punches right at the opening bell.

Pacquiao’s boxer of the year 2006 award is like the Oscar of boxing. Rarely do lower weight class fighters get the boxer of the year award. Rarely do lower weight class fighters make $2-3 million per fight. Pacquiao is hot . His fights are the most watched these days. Promoter Bob Arum treats Pacquiao, his money machine, like a prized stallion. Boxing analysts from HBO and ESPN as well as fellow boxers unanimously rate Pacquiao as the most exciting fighter in the world today. Hats off to Manny Pacquiao. In this regard, he gets my deepest respect.

On his political aspirations, I can say only one thing. When I see Pacquiao climb on the ring to fight, I get a sense that he is fighting for a much bigger reason than the prize money. I can sense him nonsensically over-burdening himself with that "fighting for his country "feeling. At the end of the day, he probably realizes that his victories have no impact on the plight of the poor that he identifies with, himself having overcome a life of poverty . Running for public office is a wrong move in my opinion. It is the wrong way to help the cause. Pacquiao has more to lose if he wins in an election and I need not elaborate, compared to a wannabe loser like Richard Gomez. Everybody knows that the inarticulate, almost monosyllabic Pacquiao is a bull in a china shop when it comes to sitting in the congress. He is not congressman material – we all know that. The good news is he is a damn good boxer and a future hall of famer and this sets him apart from the rest. I will not chastise Pacquiao for any malicious intent on his decision to run. I don’t think it has anything to do with greed either. I can only hope that the people in his riding puts him where he really belongs – in the ring.

As I was walking at the downtown the other day, a man was handing out this unimpressive, plain looking card(a little fuzzy on the scanner ). Hmmm.. It's kinda hard to think of a $500 a day job that doesn't SELL something. It's probably the spring blues that makes me think un-creatively. What the heck could this be? And why am I asking when the phone number is right there ! I once saw a documentary on TV about a divorced woman and her daughter running a lucrative phone sex business from home. It was making so much money that her boyfriend did all the cooking and the cleaning of the house while the girls were doing their jobs :) But then they were selling something :)

The Prayer Brouhaha

2007-04-10T23:02:00.000-04:00

There’s been a lot of hoo-ha in the Pinoy blogosphere of late in light of people protesting Fr. Stephen Cuyo’s invocation at the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards Night. The protest was not so much on the message, Fr. Cuyo’s “A Blogger’s Prayer.” but on the fact that it disrespected people of different faiths and persuasions who had no desire of listening to Fr. Cuyo’s supplications. Sounds acutely familiar to me, living in a very cosmopolitan city where you find people of all faiths the world has to offer. I live in a country that had passed the same sex marriage law, one of the two countries , the other Belgium, that shocked the world with its radical departure from tradition . This fact alone had religious zealots condemn Canada as hell and a bastion of homosexuality. But as the former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin put it very plainly – “we are a country of minorities”. In a country built by immigrants , hence groups of “minorities”, the unifying factor of people with different faiths and persuasions is tolerance and adherence to political correctness. I have witnessed both the good and bad of the “political correctness” game but I have come to the conclusion however that it is pointless to argue about who is right and wrong in a religious dispute and the only effective remedy to the dispute is the immediate donning of the political correctness suit and retreating to your own domain, to your people who think like you, to your nest. You have not caused a conflict that would end in tragedy and more importantly, preserved unity. Religious disputes are won by the sword and not by argument.

The prayer brouhaha at the Blog Awards night could have been avoided if the organizers had a sense of political correctness in their decision to include an invocation in the program of a technology conference. But again, Pinas is not Canada and church has the ultimate say on everything , even whether condoms are to be sold in the drugstores or not – what do you expect? Do Pinoys understand what political correctness really means?

I am attending this technical conference tomorrow. Will there be an invocation of any kind?

HOW MUCH IS YOUR KIDNEY WORTH ?

As I was driving home today, a radio station was sampling people’s response whether they would be willing donate one of their kidneys for $5,500. The province of Ontario is entertaining thoughts of following the province of British Columbia’s program of reimbursing organ donors some amount of money to cover expenses in form of travel, lost wages and other incidental expenses related to the operation. Result? Almost everyone queried said NO. Others have no problem donating a kidney to a loved one. $5,500 ? Laughable, isn’t it? Don’t you think your kidney should be worth more than a Porsche? Add a couple of zeros to the $5,500 and I’m sure many will have second thoughts. The thought of not getting out alive from the operating table is already scary.

Our Regional Uniqueness

2007-04-07T15:26:00.000-04:00

When it comes to language, we Pinoys never seem to have an issue with our multi-lingualism. We have been quite tolerant and accommodating with our regional language uniqueness because most of us had accepted that a national language, Tagalog or Pilipino rules us all and as long as we are able to communicate, we don’t bicker and compete as to whose language is better. Nope, we don’t have language wars in Pinas unlike other countries. Our multi-lingualism is part of the richness of our diverse culture and certainly not one that negatively affects our unity as a people in my opinion.

In my last post, I had a light-hearted exchange of comments with blogger Rhodora on her mother tongue, the Pangasinan dialect. I’m not a language expert (except sharing a part of my love life with someone from Pangasinan once upon a time which gave me the compulsion to baby talk in the dialect) but of all the major Pinoy dialects, the Pangasinan dialect appears decidedly an odd man out when it comes to similarity of words to Tagalog. Likewise, there aren’t many Spanish words, unlike Hiligaynon or Ilonggo which had integrated an abundance of Kastila words in the dialect. The first shocker would be the supreme antonym, the word “wala” which in Pangasinan means “there is” so when someone tells you “wala”, it means “meron” ! This is one of the words you need to get right the first time. Misinterpret this and your relationship would go nowhere :)

We make fun of our dialects and it can be quite hilarious sometimes. We crack up when a Cebuano calls bird as “langgam” which in Tagalog means ant. The word “titi” ( male genital in Tagalog) is “suso” or woman’s breast in Ilonggo. Now that’s a pretty serious anatomical error, don’t you think ? What were our forefathers thinking ! We hear of the proverbial joke of the egg turning into a bird – Tagalog calls egg “itlog” and a few kilometers up north in Pampanga, they would call it “ebon” but not many people know that if you travel a hundred kilometers further north to Pangasinan, the “ebon” turns into a “manok” or chicken. Yes, their generic term for bird is manok !

There are also words that you need to speak a little slowly. The Tagalog phrase “ano yan” is spoken as “ anto tan ?” There appears to be a preferential treatment of the letter t here but if you speak the Pangasinan variant to an unsuspecting Talagog quite fast, it can be misinterpreted as an indecent proposal :) The small rat is called “utot” which literally means the poor, dimunitive creature is no more than a whiff from one’s behind :) The word slow is “bayag” so in Pangasinan if you are slow, they’d say “ ma-bayag ka” hehe. Tagalog words such as “libag” becomes a strange 4 syllable “karakokab” and the “bolate” becomes the longer “alumbayar”. Strangely enough, the word “kalabaw” becomes the shorter “dweg” and with the trademark Pangasinan diphthong accent in the pronunciation of e , one would argue if the letter w should be there in the first place :) The Pangasinan dialect is truly unique and quite original in my opinion.

We can talk and laugh the whole day about Pinoy dialects and their uniqueness but what about names that don’t sound too appealing in another dialect? We all know that even in the English language, a person with the last name Hunt would think twice naming his son Mike. Speaking the full name Mike Hunt fast enough can be quite disconcerting :) How did we get our Spanish sounding last names? It was said that the Spaniards took our ancestors to the town plaza and had had every head of the family pick a surname. Some declined and preferred to stick to their Pinoy aboriginal surnames hence the Katigbaks and Makalintals , talking of familiar political names. Everyone wanted a good surname and took one that sounded acceptable to the local ear but never considered how it would sound if he went to another region. A guy with the last name Poque would be well advised to think twice of going to a Tagalog speaking region :) Someone with the last name Cobeta or C*ntutan ( yes, it exists) would be well advised to stay in the Visayan speaking provinces for the rest of his life. If he were to apply for a visa to the U.S., better take it in the Cebu embassy. In the same light, foreign names such as Suphot Voratsaya is totally innocuous in Thailand but would be a riot in Manila :)

Now here’s a true story a Pinoy officemate of mine told me. As he was waiting for his immigrant visa at the Canadian embassy in Makati, the visa clerk wanted to announce the name of an applicant to collect her passport but didn’t have the guts to say her last name ! So she called the security guard who confronted the crowd one by one until the owner was identified whereupon he said “ Miss, I’d be willing to spend the money to change your last name – please do it as soon as possible”. It turned out that the girl’s last name was Mastorbacion :) Now that’s deadly and I won’t risk flying to Canada with that name !

A Slightly Different Perspective on Easter

2007-03-30T23:25:00.000-04:00

(click on icon to enlarge)

ANT COOKIES, ANYONE ?

Many of us are familiar with the TV show Iron Chef where celebrity chefs try to outwit each other in a culinary skills contest inside a kitchen stadium - live and under time pressure. I always marvel at these people, how they can concoct recipes that seem to blend the most unlikely combinations of ingredients and come up with the most exquisite tastes that get the nod and praise of the panel of select judges and consequently win the prestigious Iron Chef award.

The Iron Chefs cook food that we all know and eat but Nelson Mendez , a 43 year old chef from Puerto Ayacucho, Venezuela is of a different breed. He is attempting to bring the Yanomami Indian's unusual diet - ants, termites, spiders , smoked monkey and alligator - to the rest of the world. The mere sight of a headless smoked monkey resembling a human carcass would be enough for most people to shudder in disgust I think. These Yanomami dishes would easily qualify in the "extreme cuisine" category. But then again, our very own balut and dinuguan ( pork blood stew) can cause those who are strangers to the dish to vomit ! (Caribbean folks seem to delight in the dinuguan's vinegary flavor, calling it "chocolate pork. They love dinuguan). Unknown to many of us, our very ordinary champorado and tuyo is listed in the weird breakfast food category :) I'm not quite sure if I can peel off and savor a piece of meat from a smoked monkey's arm or an alligator's leg. I'm quite adventurous with food and can step out of my comfort zone when dared. Before I can muster enough guts to eat a seal's eyes raw ( a delicacy amongst the Innuits of the Near Arctic), I should be able to eat smoked monkey meat first. Now I'm doubting if I can, probably after 8 cans of beer, when the monkey would begin to look like roasted turkey :) Could I eat the eye of a seal raw ? I probably can if my other choice was to be pushed off a cliff :)

Experiences on extreme cuisine, anyone ?

Difficult Jobs

2007-03-25T12:36:00.002-04:00

Some jobs aren't easy. They require extreme skill and precision. Errors can lead to catastrophic consequences. Oftentimes solutions aren't readily available and certain amount of research is required prior to launching an implementation. In this day and age, availability and instant access to information is critical to success. Failure is unacceptable and lawyers have joined the fray in ensuring that errors are compensated financially. In short, you screw up, you pay. Oh well, not exactly. You screw up, your insurance pays. Money does allow people to forgive easy.

It is therefore of paramamount that people get trained to enhance their skills in their field of endeavor. Some employers even encourage their staff to widen their horizons and explore the possibility of a career shift to eliminate the boredom in their jobs. Doing the same job over and over for 30 years does seem to make people lose interest and consequently their productivity suffers. Job rotation is another thing that most companies practice these days. Doing something different for 6 months isn't a bad idea. As they say, variety is the spice of life.

Most of us bitch and moan about our jobs not even thinking that there are much worse jobs out there. Quitting isn't always the solution. Sometimes it appears that all we need is a reality check in form of a day off or a vacation or simply not thinking about work when we get out of the office ! We dream about winning the lotto and not showing up for work the following day so we keep on buying tickets until the day we retire and nothing happens :) Man is by nature lazy. We all want a free ride don't we? And why not? Some folks have found out the way to beat the system. It's called going on welfare. (click on icon to enlarge)

BLOGGER'S MEME - 5 FAVORITE POSTS

I've been tagged by SNGLGUY on the 5 favorite posts meme and boy it took me a while to search for these posts :) Again, this meme is kinda difficult to answer because frankly, I find most of the sites I visit are interesting, especially those in my blogroll.

Here are my choices :

1. Alternati - BAH HUMBUG. Rarely would one select a Christmas post but I thought this was one very witty, humurous and pretty that showcases the author's superb writing skills. Alternati is definitely one I would like to have in my team :)

2. Major Tom - BARBER STORY. A post I found nostalgic and made me remember my grandfather who doted on me when I was a young boy. Being the eldest grandson my grandparents literally grabbed me from my parents when my sister was born. Gramps used to take me to the barber and had my hair cut just like his. It was my grandad that pinned my honor medals on me when I was a grader. He was a cool dude and I miss him.

3. Toe - I HEART NEW YORK - A series of posts that chronicled Toe's trip to the Big Apple which I thought was pretty comprehensive, candid and funny at times :)

4. Rizalist - VICTIMOLOGY'S REFLECTION IN A FORK AND SPOON - a thought provoking insight on the Luc Cagadoc story that rocked the Filipino nation and took people to the streets to protest against Canada. I had blogged about this issue (Musings From a Train Ride) and never understood why this was not resolved within the context of parent-teacher dialogue. The story all of a sudden disappeared from the airwaves and one wonders if this was one of those over-hyped stories designed to cast Quebecers as xenophobic morons. By now we seem to have an inkling who the real morons are :)

5. Sassy Lawer- PALANGGA TRIES SOCIAL RELEVANCE - what do socialites and environmentalists have in common ? Absolutely NOTHING! This is one hilarious post of a Pinay socialite's attempt to mix water and oil which as expected, failed miserably :)

Can't Say NO?

2007-03-22T23:35:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday afternoon as I was browsing in a sports store at a mall, I noticed my wife chatting with a saleslady at the sunglass section. I was speculating she was trying on the good looking Paula Creamer line of Sundog sunglasses so I went on with my business checking things out. A few minutes later she showed me the sunglass that came in a little cute bag which I thought was really nice. It wasn't overly expensive and I overwhelmingly approved of the purchase but when we reached the car she told me she really didn't like it and the savvy saleslady coaxed her into getting it ! She wanted to return it the following day but at a different store branch at the other side of the city because she was embarrassed to face the saleslady. I insisted that there's absolutely nothing wrong if a person changes her mind and besides, she had at least 7 days to return it if she wanted to. We did return it at another store branch the following day and she got her $60 dollars back but couldn't the aggravation been avoided if she simply said NO ?

Heck, I thought that saleslady was cool though and I'd like to have her in my team :) Can't blame a person if she's doing a good job. I'm not going to get into the art of saying NO discussion here but aren't we free people living in a democracy ? :) My wife is a very considerate person by nature and sometimes she has that tendency of getting railroaded by pushy sales people. She's one of those who will not attend any sales promotion events for the sake of freebies when she knows she's not buying anything unlike me :) I always think freebies are compensation for my time wasted and I have no qualms about receiving it and whether I buy or not is another issue altogether. She always tells me I'm rude when I tell telemarketers over the phone that I am not interested in what they have to sell and I make excuses that I am having dinner :) It in fact it is my own way of protesting the invasion of my privacy and I'm just being brutally honest and laying down my cards.

Saying NO can be difficult sometimes especially for Pinoys who are by nature very hospitable people. I say the main reason why people feel obligated to purchase something is when they think they have taken a lot of the salesperson’s attention and feel embarrassed when they leave without buying anything. If so, then don’t try on all the shirts in the rack if you’re not intent on buying ! Make up your mind quick with a yes or no decision. Sales attendants in this part of the world are normally paid commissions as incentive so they would try their darnest best to take your money :)

Worst Jobs with the Best Pay

Here’s another category – jobs that suck but pay well ( arranged from highest to lowest pay). According to an article by Business Week, the worst jobs are those “that are typically high-risk, high-pressure, low-glamour, and physically (or psychologically) demanding or all of the above as in the case of crab fishing.“

1. Gastroenterologist
2. Podiatrist
3. Private Security Contractor in Iraq
4. IT ( Information Technology) Worker
5. Crop Duster Pilot
6. Crime-Scene Cleaner
7. Roughneck ( oil driller)
8. Toll Road Collector
9 .Long-haul Trucker
10. Embalmer
11. Sewer Inspector
12. Crab Fisherman

Are you in one of these jobs? Are you now thinking of getting out? Or trying to get in :)

The Most Dangerous Jobs

2007-03-16T22:54:00.000-04:00

I haven't been watching much TV lately and it's been eons since I watched a soap opera- unless American and Canadian Idol shows are classified as such - but I can't seem to pass up on the episodes of Most Dangerous Catchbeing regularly broadcast on TLC ( The Learning Channel). The thought of the deadly and gruelling task of fishing the cold and icy Bering Sea in the dead of the night for giant king crabs crawling in the ocean seabed sends shivers down my spine. The episodes aren't scripted or anything - they're real. Scenes of deckhands falling overboard and fishing boats capsizing and crew drowning into the treacherous waters fall into the category of "disturbing material content" of a TV broadcast. So what the heck are these people killing themselves for? All for that highly prized King Crab whose legs can ding you between $30-$50 a pound. Is the costly pursuit justified? Well, I would take King Crab legs instead of lobster anytime no kidding. The meat is sweet and succullent and you don't need a leg cracker and mess up your hands. A kitchen scissor often does the trick to let you extract that slab of white leg meat that tastes glorious when dipped in vinegar with garlic Pinoy style.

In one episode the fishing trawler departs from port to head to the fishing grounds and the crew each calls their families to say goodbye promising to return much like a soldier going to war. Thinking that lives were lost to catch this delicacy sure does leave a sour taste in one's mouth.

Here's some statistics(U.S.) on the most dangerous civilian jobs :

Rank Occupation Death rate/100,000

1. Fishers and fishing workers /118.42
2. Logging workers/ 92.93
3. Aircraft pilots /66.94
4. Structural iron and steel workers /55.65
5. Refuse and recyclable material collectors/ 43.86
6. Farmers and ranchers /41.17
7. Electrical power line installers/repairers/ 32.78
8. Driver/sales workers and truck drivers/ 29.19
9. Miscellaneous agricultural workers/ 23.210
10. Construction laborers /22.7

BLOGGER YOU WANT TO MEET MEME

I was tagged by Snglguy with this meme. It's a rather controversial meme because we have to put in names but since this is a game ( don't you think so?) I hope people don't get offended aka mag pusong mamon :) I think the creator of this meme wanted to infuse a bit of fun and intrigue on the blogging crowd :)

I have been saying all the while that our anonymity adds thrill and mystery to personal blogging :) It is one feature that provides people the opportunity to express themselves their alter egos without fear of prejudice, embarrassment or backlash. Yes, it is terrific because I can multicast my thoughts in the blogosphere much like searching for alien listeners in the outer space and waiting for feedback :) Having said this, there are quite a few people in my personal circle who happen to know and read my blog and have given me personal feedback. In effect I am not blogging with absolute anonymity.

I believe it is OK to meet with up with bloggers on a personal arrangement but not in a conference type setting. The question I want to ask all of you is – if I show up at the Pinoy bloggers summit and shake everybody’s hands and say – “hi, I’m BW and it is my pleasure to meet you “ will it jeopardize my much valued anonymity ? The summit I’m sure would be great for those who are blogging for literary and business reasons but not for those who desire anonymity. Comments, anyone ?

Now in response to this meme, let’s just say that my criteria for wanting to meet up would be with those who I have blogged with for a long time, to unveil the mystery that shrouds them or consummate the virtual friendship into real friendship with some of them. Very likely, these would be bloggers I have interacted with through email.

Bloggers I would want to meet :

A round of beer with long time blog pals Snglguy-who my wife calls Snuggle Guy :) - to thank him for doing some of the ranting for me about my pet peeves – PLDT monopolistic practices and substandard customer service, actors becoming politicians( grrrrrr..) ; Abaniko, who is able to blog with one sentence and get away with it and Major Tom, one of the very first bloggers I interacted with who I think has the potential to be a fiction writer.

Senor Enrique whose blog is very educational on the history of Manila , to find how it feels like to repatriate himself back to Pinas after living for so long in NYC and Sidney on his semi-retired, seemingly stress free life in Pinas. Since both are photography nuts and intent on pursuing it with passion, a discussion on photography withy these gentlemen would be very interesting.

The enigmatic Ipanema to personally wish her well in the days to come and to find out if she is a medical doctor :)

Verns, my kababayan who I think is very imaginative , self-driven and a sparkplug - someone I would like to have in my team :)

Tin-tin, for her youthful exuberance and self-confidence. At one point I sort of disagreed with her comment and she came back on my next post with .. please. No errors in my comments this time.. please.. I thought that was very cute and I want to make up for my apparent meanness hahaha :)

Alternati who says she’s an architect and who totally impresses me with her writing skills . Her posts are wonderfully crafted with stunning details which gives me the impression that she works as a TV-movie critic for a Fleet Street magazine :)

Jayred who is blogging from Switzerland and who I greatly respect for taking time out for mission work in Ukraine :)

Kathy who I promised an atomic clock [ it is still a promise :)] and talk about her interesting work as a scientist in Japan :)

Noypetes who doesn’t have a blog yet, to talk about the exciting long distance bike cruises he had which I think is awesome :)

Real bloggers Teacher Sol and J. Angelo Racoma who went on to pursue greater and bigger things and have stopped blogging actively. I feel the urge of meeting them and see how they are doing in their respective field of endeavors.

BTW I am posting this from a Calgary hotel where I am on a business trip for the latter part of the week. I’m not going to bitch about the weather this time which is in the + 5 compared to -29 C when I was here in November. At least now I feel I am in civilization and not in the artic tundra :) Nope , there are no igloos around here and people don’t travel in sleds LOL :)

All those in my blogroll are great bloggers and I value their friendship but for this post, I have to select a few names and shoot myself in the foot in the process so your understanding is most appreciated :)

Our mysterious nature is what keeps personal blogging more interesting !

Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

2007-03-11T22:48:00.000-04:00

I promised that I will only blog about four topics from the book The Rules of Life. but quite unfortunately I broke the promise with this post , much like the proverbial politician. The good news is this broken promise will not jeopardize your tax money except for the ignominy and embarrassment on my part which I will gladly accept :) The author of the book may sue me by now for acting as his unauthorized and plagiarizing ad man :)

I feel the urge to blog about this topic because I think there is great wisdom in the notion of opening ourselves up a little bit to explore areas in our life that we consider as "untreaded waters ". Oftentimes it isn't so much as physically venturing into untreaded waters but even entertaining the idea of what might lie beneath those waters may conjure images that are already repulsive to our xenophobic minds which in my opinion comes dangerously close to being narrow-minded.

Here's the excerpt from the book on Rule 29 - Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone:

quote

"Be prepared to be a little bit brave everyday. Why? Because if you don't you grow stagnant and moldy or curl up and wither. We all have a comfort zone where we feel safe and warm and dry. But every now and then, we need to step outside and be challenged, be frightened, be stimulated. It's this way that we stay young and feel good about ourselves.

If we grow too attached to our comfort zone, chance are it will either start to shrink, or something will come along and dismantle it. Fate, or whatever it is that runs things, doesn’t like us to get too complacent and every now and then gives us a great big cosmic kick up the backside to wake us up. If we have practiced stretching the boundaries of our wooly cocoon occasionally, that kick won't have too much impact - we're ready for it - it's much easier to cope.

But it’s more than that. Expanding your comfort zone makes you feel good about yourself. It gives you extra confidence. And the best bit is that you can do it oh so gently. You don't have to go hang-gliding or fire-walking or have sex with a stranger just to test your comfort zone. It might be as simple as volunteering for something that you've never done before and that you feel slightly nervous about. It could be just talking up a new sport or hobby. Maybe it will involve joining something. It could be doing something alone that you’ve only ever done in company before or speaking up for yourself when you would usually keep quiet.

We impose a lot of restrictions on our ourselves that limit us, hold us back. We think we couldn’t do that, wouldn’t feel happy with that. Taking the challenge of expanding our comfort zone brings us out of ourselves and keeps us learning and growing. You can’t grow mold if you’re growing experience. "

unquote

If I didn't leave my first job - where would I be now ? In my case probably nowhere because my first job wasn't particularly challenging and financially rewarding. The author's point however isn't so much as choices we need to make by force of circumstance, i.e. I lost my job and needed to get another one but rather, when things are swell and steady, do I just go with the flow and snuggle up in my comfort zone?

One time I was golfing with a buddy and the rain was threatening to fall and he wanted to back out. I suggested that maybe we should play in the rain as long as it is not pouring cats and dogs, much like those pros we see on TV! I said heck, let's just try it and we were a little wet but boy had fun and from then on knew what was it like to play in the rain :) One time my wife and I were asked by a friend to sing duet at her parents' 50 year anniversary party. I reluctantly agreed because I am not a terrific singer but we tried and it was a success :) They thought we were great! Then a friend of ours asked us to sing at her own wedding party and I said - heck no - perhaps my wife would do it but that's stepping waaay out of my comfort zone LOL :) The horror of becoming a Mr. Keys Me was too much for me to take :)

Many moons ago when I was younger I read Bertrand Russell's controversial if not sacrilegous books - Why I Am Not A Christian and A Free Man's Worship but did it change my convictions ? Not a bit. In fact it even made me understand many things I never knew before. If I slammed the books and tossed them into the garbage bin, I would have only known one side of the story. If you think blind date sucks without having done it - try it. Maybe you will find it interesting but if not, you had a stab at it and you what it is like and no one can fool you no longer :)

Expanding your comfort zone makes you feel good about yourself - definitely. And I might even add that if we don't we expand our comfort zones, we would not achieve much.

Do you agree ?

Living Life to The Fullest

2007-03-06T22:03:00.000-05:00

I've kinda went into a pause mode lately mainly because our office finally restricted the Blogger comment screen from being displayed which means I can't blog anymore! Hehey! This means I can actually finish more work and I did :) Mind you , I can move to Wordpress and continue blogging with passion. Hmmm.. thinking now.

Forgive me for tackling a post that might not be appealing to some of you but after I watched the Paula Zahn Now atheism episode on CNN, something lit up in my brain which I have to air out.

Here's a portion of the transcript of Paula Zhan's interview of Oxford professor and atheist Richard Dawkins aired on CNN on Feb 12, 2007 :

ZAHN: But why do you think they are so remarkably intolerant of atheists?

DAWKINS: Well, I think there's a sort of historic misunderstanding of what atheism is. For some reason, people have been brought up to believe that atheists have two horns and a tail. I mean, there are figures that show that atheists are the most mistrusted group in America, which is pretty astonishing, considering, as I say, the innocuousness of what they actually are. They are just people who hold a different belief system.

ZAHN: Certainly, you have encountered people, though, who are intimidated by your message, that, in some way, it puts perhaps their own faith in doubt?

DAWKINS: Well, why would anybody be intimidated by mere words? I mean, neither I, nor any other atheist that I know, ever threatens violence. We never threaten to fly planes into skyscrapers. We never threaten suicide bombs. We're very gentle people. All we do is use words to talk about things like the cosmos, the origin of the universe, evolution, the origin of life. What's there to be frightened of in just an opinion?

ZAHN: Final question: How would you characterize the overarching public reaction to atheism?

DAWKINS: Misunderstanding, and really missing an awful lot of what's valuable, because, if you're an atheist, you know, you believe this is the only life you're going to get. It's a precious life. It's a beautiful life. It's something that we should live to the full, to the end of our days, whereas, if you're religious, and you believe that there's another life, somehow, that means you don't live this life to the full, because you think you're going to get another one.

That's an awfully negative way to live a life. Being an atheist frees you up to live this life properly, happily, and fully.

ZAHN: Richard Dawkins, we really appreciate your time tonight. Thank you so much for joining us.

DAWKINS: Thank you.

This post is not in defense of atheism but rather an insight into its fundamental belief that this life must be lived to the fullest because there is no life after death.

Do you think that an organized religion, with a central theme of asceticism meaning self-denial or self-mortification as requisite for attaining a higher level of spirituality to appease the Creator to ultimately attain that reward of everlasting life in the hereafter contradicts the very reason why we are here on earth? In other words, are we meant to be in this world or are we here simply to suffer and mortify ourselves so we can be rewarded a much better life in a permanent, everlasting world?

The reason I am saying this is I have seen people who have practically given up on life, even to the point of sustaining themselves because of the belief that misery and poverty will take them to heaven. Must Christians live a life of sacrifice and Muslims kill infidels to inherit a life in the hereafter?

I mean really and truly, what is wrong with a religion that encourages you to live life to the fullest, attain your aspirations of enjoying the material rewards of your endeavors and at the same time being given that hope of a life in the hereafter?

Beats atheism doesn't it? Or is it hypocritical hence impossible?

Is Chivalry Dead?

2007-02-25T16:28:00.000-05:00

What ever happened to men opening doors to women, men giving up their seats in the bus and in this day and age, men paying for the meal on a date ( believe it or not it is now cool to share on the first date) - is chivalry dead? Has the feminist movement / gender equality drum beating dampened the man's spirit to behave like a true gentleman reflective of the time honored tradition of chivalry and and knighthood? Or does chivalry die a natural death with gumpy old men or bitchy old women... ? Well, this news is quite shocking if not troubling. A 76 year old arthritic woman walking with a cane meets a 52 year old man also walking with a cane from a foot injury at narrow sidewalk path. Both claimed the right of way and neither wanted to give way ! Result? A nasty cane fight ala witch and wizard minus the magic spells with both ending up with injuries and convictions in court. For godsakes, a simple sidestep for a couple of feet would have saved both of them from all the resultant physical and mental aggravation ! Question - if we were to point a finger to a "singular" culprit in this incident - who would it be?

Talking About Accents

Talking about regional accents, it is commonplace for Pinoys to make fun of Visayan accents. The fact of the matter is there are a plethora of Visayan dialects which by for some unknown reason, either by convenience or accident or instructions from the gods , these dialects had collectively substituted the letter e to i, at least phonetically :) The strange phenomenon had since then created the now known genre of Visayan accent jokes :) I'm from the Hiligaynon nation myself and I don't take the joke seriously maybe because I have leaned to read e correctly lol.. :)

Here's some Visayan accent jokes from my email archive :)

Joke 1 :
Bisaya 1: " Gara ng kutsi, siguro kay Miyur iyan."!
Bisaya 2: " Dili bay!"
Bisaya 1: " Kay Hipi?"
Bisaya 2: " Tuntu ka man. Kay FATHER iyan. Gisulat niya sa likud o, "'SAFARI'."

Joke 2 :
AMO: sagutin mo ang telepon inday!
INDAY: (baligtad ang hawak) hilo ? hilo ?
AMO: baligtarin mo!
INDAY: lohi? lohi?
AMO: telepon ang baligtarin mo!
INDAY: Puntili, puntili

Joke 3 :

Visayan French :

Overheard two Visayan passengers at the PAL terminal in Manila ...

Passenger 1 : Pa Cebu ka?
Passenger 2 : Oo e.. Pa Cebu ko.

SFARKLING Po Yun !

Remember the controversial Keys Me video that I blogged about last year? Well, I forgot to tell you that Startalk show host Joey de Leon gave the Keys Me star a chance to redeem herself! Yes, Virgina, right in front of public TV - to show the world that the alleged murder of the English language wasn't a case of twisted tounge, loose false teeth , regional accent nor lack of hearing aid on the part of the listener :)

Here's Keys Me 2 and ye be judge ! Has she redeemed herself?

Today's Kids

2007-02-18T11:33:00.000-05:00

I still remember vividly the first day I brought my daughter to the day care. She was only one and a half years old. The thought of strange people around her traumatized her so much that bringing her to day care everyday was an ordeal for all of us. In time she had gotten used to it and made the morning drop off ritual became much easier. Now she's a fairly independent 5 year old. We never had to toilet train her in fact. The day care folks taught her a lot of things in the area of being independent. She was just a gem when she took her vacation with my wife back in Pinas. She didn't cry to beg for attention at all, unlike her 6 year old cousin who can't even go to the bathroom by himself and cried for anything he needed. Not trying to chastise practices from home and I'm one who grew up with the yaya (nanny). All I am saying is we strike a balance between social assimilation which she gets from the day care and the much needed love and care she gets from us at home and it seems to be working, for now at least.

These days we demand too much of academic progress from our kids it seems. Parents are brainwashed with the notion that starting them early with academic skills makes them geniuses in the long haul. Whatever happened to playing ? My parents who were both educators never taught me with homeworks and assignments at home. When I was in high school I was besieged with homework. My bag was so heavy that if I would have become the Hunchback from Notre Dame if the ordeal lasted for a few more years. Once I was having dinner at a Chinese fast food mall and I saw this Chinese boy who must have been in his early primary grade sitting beside his tutor doing the usual session while his mom was sitting 10 tables away sipping tea and visibly monitoring his son's reactions. Man, I would hate to be him doing the darn lessons for hours every night! Why not just give me a brain transplant instead :)

My wife was checking a Barbie footprint PC replete with all the colors and trimmings for my daughter and I didn't agree with the idea. The PC would have been an another adornment to her room. She's still quite young and it would be a little too initimidating for her. Computer based educational toys are just about right for her age I think. Nowadays kids are just pampered with all the hi tech gizmos and gadgetry. It is common to see young kids toting cell phones nowadays. With some phones having GPS features nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised that phones can be fitted with such for tracking purposes only , i.e. to know the whereabouts or the exact coordinates of the cell user, i.e. your child. I heard they implemented this in Pinas for a fee but failed miserably due to inaccuracy. As usual, the carriers were more interested in making money rather than delivering accuracy and efficiency!

News is bouncing around that the song kids love to sing during Xmas - Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer - didn't exactly fare well with Rudolph's sentiments ( Click on icon)

I Don't Quite Get It...

2007-02-15T20:55:00.000-05:00

Here's an incredibly mind-boggling piece of news. How can one lose $12 Billion in hard cash with nary an accounting of its disbursement? The U.S. government reportedly did. It shipped $12 billion dollars by cargo plane to Iraq for delivery to Iraqi ministries and its contractors but no one knows who got what! So where the hell did the money go? Is this the reason why Iraqis are cutting each other's throats - for the money? The sad part is Americans don't really give a damn. The money isn't theirs in the first place. They were the proceeds of the Oil of Food Program during the pre-invasion economic embargo and the recovered frozen assets of Sadam Hussein being returned to the Iraqi people. This war has turned real ugly inside out man. There's just so many twists and turns and no one knows what's really going on. I have no doubt that this war had made losers of everybody.

THURSDAY THIRTEEN

I am scrambling to finish this post before the Thursday deadline imposed by blogger SNGLGUY on the folks he tagged :) Well, here are my thirteen confessions that would reveal a bit about the brighter side ( or the darker) of me :) I won't tag anyone but please feel free to respond to the meme.

1. I'm a salad/ antipasto/ soup kind of guy so I can stop right at the appetizers without going to the main course and I'm a happy camper.

2. I have a unique French sounding first name that people mistake for a girl's name.

3. I am a good friend of a Pinay actress who hails from North America.

4. I once got lost in Austria because the travel agent mispelled the name of my destination.A mispelled letter caused me to stray 300 kms off my destination. Looks like a puzzle but true! Can you figure out the city name? Was I incensed? You bet. I nearly gored the damn agent.

5. I am a clock fanatic. I have 21 clocks in my house. I own 8 wrist watches.

6. I come to work 30 minutes late everyday

7. I am on my second marriage and I married a girl much younger than me. Maybe she was looking for a matured guy, responsible, etc.. or some other things too embarassing to discuss. LOL.

8. I have a crush on my cute neighbor at the train paid parking lot. I told my wife about her :) My wife also tells me if someone makes a pass at her :) Both of us aren't the jealous type.

9. I always wear a magnetic sole inside my shoes because it balances the electrical charge in my body, rids of any aches and makes me a lot stronger :)

10. Re hunting, I'm looking forward to my first deer kill this year.

11. I am supposed to be in Manila next week to play in the annual golf tournament organized by Pinoys from the U.S. West Coast but my wife and daughter had to take the trip in January because a screw up with my wife's vacation sked at work. A buddy of mine from Toronto is leaving for Pinas this weekend to play in the tournament. Sigh.. Tin-tin, hope we are still on for lunch and then coffee at Starbucks :)

12. My waist is precariously enlarging it seems.

13. I manage a technology unit of a multinational corporation, in charge of its Canadian operations.

Thoughts on Valentine's Day

2007-02-13T22:00:00.000-05:00

It's Valentine's Day once again and the world celebrates that special day when lovers express their undying love for one another and pamper each other with all sorts of things, from greeting cards to expensive gifts and outrageous getaways.

Whatever this Valentine day means to you - whether it is a celebration of your relationship, a promise to work on your relationship for the better, a vow to improve your performance or even winning that unrequited love by hook or by crook, this DAY is your day pal!

On this wonderful day I dedicate a very special song to honor your loved one and the wonderful times you have shared together and for those still waiting for Prince Charming or Cinderella, the times that you will share together. It matters not whether it is love gone by, love lost, love still going strong , unrequited love or love still to come. The person you have been with, still with or will be with will be one that would have changed you to make this life worth living.

With this song, soar in the heavens together with your loved one and whisper the words " it means so much to me to be the one who's telling you , that you're beautiful."

( pls turn your speakers on)

BEAUTIFUL by Gordon Lightfoot

At times I just don't know
How you could be anything but beautiful
I think that I was made for you
And you were made for me

And I know that I won't ever change
We've been friends through rain or shine
For such a long, long time

Laughing eyes and smiling face
It seems so lucky just to have the right
Of telling you with all my might
You're beautiful tonight

And I know that you won't ever stray
Cause you've been that way from day to day
For such a long, long time

And when you hold me tight
How could life be anything but beautiful
I think that I was made for you
And you were made for me

And I know that I won't ever change
We've been friends through rain or shine
For such a long, long time

Well, I must say it means so much to me
To be the one who's telling you
I'm telling you, that you're beautiful.

On Computer Literacy....

2007-02-10T08:26:00.000-05:00

Many people who immigrate to North America had been fixated with the notion that a career in the computer field guarantees a quick job placement and more importantly, job security. So they plan a career change, obtain every computer related training under the sun to embellish their resumes. More often than not they get in but only to find out that as in every endeavor in life, there is an invisible ladder.. which means that you cannot just walk in - you have to climb! Remember that it is always OK to climb up but never down. It is always best to find your step in the ladder. It doesn't matter if it is the first step as long as you climb up all the time !

I very rarely go to the bank teller. I try to do all my banking via the ATM machine or the internet. It works just fine - it saves me a ton of precious time. In this increasingly internet dominated world our ours, senior citizens have found online banking to be a real productivity tool. In their advanced age where driving and travel can be a real drag, seniors are increasingly becoming tech savvy. The learning curve however remains high and a challenge to these largely retired hence domiciled folks. A friend who works as a customer associate in an online banking can attest to this. One day she received a call from a senior who had a problem signing on to her account. She told the old lady " maybe you should close Windows and open it up again" whereupon she replied " Oh, I don't really have to close it - I have Venetian blinds on my windows !". This is a true story by the way :)

I have avoided computer shows for many years now because I don't want to know how obsolete my computer is. If I were to play God in rewind mode, I would have reversed Apple's fortunes in place of Microsoft and made the Mac the standard PC we all use today. We wouldn't have to call nerds to help us out. Most of us would be slightly dumber in terms of technical knowledge but more powerful and productive users. Incidentally, blogging had made many people become tech savvy in their own right. I enjoy seeing bloggers tweak their templates for a new look every now and then. I'm sure they're having a heck of a time displaying their creative work :)

And of course, we can't talk about computers and the internet without the venerable email. Who doesn't have an email account these days anyways? Talking about email, I get my daily dose of jokes and who wouldn't mind cracking up on a funny joke once in a while? I received this one a few days ago. WARNING : THIS JOKE COULD UPSET YOU. SOME FOLKS WILL LABEL THIS SEXIST AND VIOLENT. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO OFFEND BUT TICKLE YOUR FUNNY RIB.
Women's Lib International Conference

The first speaker, a lady from England stood up and said, "During last year's conference, we spoke about being more assertive with our husbands.

Well, after the conference, I went home and told my husband, Barrington , that I would no longer cook for him and that he would have to do it himself.

After the first day, I saw nothing. The second day, I saw nothing, but on the third day, I saw that he had cooked a wonderful roast Lamb."

(The crowd cheered).

The second speaker from Russia, stood up and said,"After last year's conference, I went home and told my husband, Ivan, that I would no longer do his laundry and that he would have to do it himself. The first day, I saw nothing. After the second day, I saw nothing, but on the third day, I saw that he had done not only his own washing, but mine as well.

(The crowd again cheered).

The third speaker, a Filipino lady , stood up and said, "Aftir lass year's kampirince, I win hum and tuld dat lazy husband op mines, Pidro, dat I was tro getting his slippers, kuking his meals ol da tyme, washing his undirwir and dat he was guing to hab to do dem himsilf.

(The crowd went wild with cheering and clapping that lasted for five long minutes).

She continued,"Aftir da first day, I see nating. Aftir da secun day, agin I see nating, but aftir da tird day, I could see a little bit out of my leff eye."

Rule 24 Leave A Little Space for Yourself Each Day

2007-02-06T22:11:00.000-05:00

As promised, this will be my last post about the Rules of Life. I'm glad that I've fulfilled my promise and I'm over and done with my unsolicited preaching :) Rule 24 doesn't really smack of bells and whistles in the holier than thou department. In fact it is looks so stupidly simple yet it does wonders when you subscribe to the author's idea and actually do it.

Quote

“Most people think they get this but most people might be wrong. You may think you have little quality time each day for yourself but I bet you don't. You see, even in our time alone we spend so much of it worrying about others, caring for our family, friends and loved ones, that there is very little left over entirely for ourselves. What I am proposing isn't revolutionary or difficult or extreme. In fact it is pretty easy. Just leave a little space for yourself each day. Perhaps only 10 minutes (ideally half an hour) put aside and devoted entirely to yourself. Selfish? You bet. Of course, it is and justifiably so - you are the engine, the driving force, the motivator, the rock. You need the time to regenerate, renew, reinvigorate yourself. You need that downtime to recharge and repair. If you don't, you aren't taking on fresh fuel, your engine will run down and so will you.

So what are you going to do with that time? Answer: absolutely nothing. And I do mean nothing. This isn't the time for lying in the bath, sitting on the loo, meditating, reading the newspapers or sleeping. This is a little space for you, a breather, a time to sit still and absolutely do nothing. Just breathe. I find 10 minutes sitting in the garden just breathing is a fantastic boost a couple of times a day. I sit there, not thinking, not doing, not worrying, just being while I appreciate the pleasure of being alive.

I discovered the Rule when I was a teenager. I found it invaluable as a way of purging myself of angst and worries. My mother used to call out to me. “What are you doing?" To which the reply was inevitably, " Nothing". And she would always reply, "Well, come here and I'll find you something to do". She also used to say :" You’ll never amount to anything by having your head stuck in a book". And the one I loved the most: "No one needs to think as much as you do." How do you answer that?

If I find time spent doing nothing really important and as soon as I complicate it, it loses something. If I add a cup of coffee to my solitude, then it's coffee break and not space for me. If I listen to music, then it's a music break. If I have a companion with me and I chat, then it's a social occasion. If I read the papers, then I have moved away entirely from the concept of a little space for me. Keep it bare. Keep it pure. "

Unquote

I mentioned in my one of my earlier posts that my second favorite pastime when we went on a boat cruise last December was sitting in the lounge chair in my stateroom’s balcony and gazing at the sea. There wasn’t anything magical or spectacular about the open sea but there was that eerie peace and quiet in my being that was thoroughly refreshing and invigorating. I may have daydreamed for a bit but for the most part my mind was in pause mode, not worrying nor thinking about problems. I suspected that my habit was a sign of aging when I remember my grandfather sitting in his rocking chair idling away for hours. The Rules author thinks not and I believe him.

Most of us live a frenzied, fast pace life that the quiet time, that little space for yourself becomes a necessity more than choice. Too much noise, too much crowd, too much talking can also give you that cramped feeling that can be nauseating sometimes. My quiet time is always after dinner when I feel exhausted after talking to my wife for hours LOL. I love women who talk a lot but I can only take so much :) I normally sit in the couch in the family room just idling my time . These days I could light the fireplace and just sit in the couch with one side table lamp on. I would blog for an hour or so, watch TV and go to bed. Occasionally I take a blanket and sleep in the couch until morning.

I am an extrovert by nature and I love to be around people yet I long for that quiet time at night. Do you find the need to be left alone sometimes or are you the type of person who draws strength and stability from the people around you all the time ?

How Do These Ads Grab You?

2007-02-02T22:52:00.000-05:00

Do you see something wrong with this ad? What does this ad tell you? Now let me put my rant cap on. Long distance phone cards proliferate the convenience stores of North America. In a cosmopolitan city like Toronto inhabited by people from all over the world, shopping for a long distance calling card is a thrill. Rates are darn cheap. Here's what I don't understand though. If I can make a 1 cent per minute call to China, why the hell am I paying 13.9 cents per min to the Philippines? If I look at the chart, the RP rate is more expensive than Asian countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, India and Pakistan!

This tells me two things ( click on pic to enlarge) :

a. RP's telecom infrastructure is inferior to the aforesaid countries
b. Monopolistic practices exist in RP's telecom industry

It is a shame that the Philippine government trumpets itself as being a potential powerhouse in the global call center outsourcing arena when its long distance rates are twice as expensive as India and thrice as Bangladesh. It is a shame that the RP government turns a blind eye to the monopolistic practices of the most powerful carrier in the country, whose sole mission is self enrichment and the perpetuation of its strangehold on the telecom market.

This one is a real dandy ad - 2 free Toronto Raptors tickets for the purchase of a large pizza! Problem is, I'm 30 minutes to the closest store in Thornhill and by the time I get there, the tickets would have been snapped by Raps fanatics. The young Raps are first in the Atlantic Division, thanks to the ingenius decision of management to beef up the team with European players rather than cocky NCAA hoopsters. Names such as Andrea Bargnani (Italy), Jose Calderon (Spain), George Garbajosa (Spain) - all rookies except for sophomore Calderon are a fine complement to the 22 year old forward Chris Bosh touted as a potential franchise caliber player. These European boys came to play and not showboat around. Everytime the Raps score more than a hundred in a home game win, the fans get a free slice of pizza from Pizza pizza :) If the stadium capacity is 18,000 and a slice is $2.50, that's $45,000 extra expense! But who cares - a win is a win and they'd gladly pay $45,000 extra for every home game win in the entire season :)

This is ad is kinda' smart. For those ladies with impatient boyfriends, this bag is for you :) You will easily spot your cellphone from the pile - no need to frantically turn your bag upside down. (Click to enlarge)

How do you like to win this house ?This fully furnished house can be won in a lottery that boasts of 1 in 5 chances to win a prize. It also comes with a Jaguar sedan costing $98,000, $610,000 cash to purchase the land to build the house, $50,000 gift card and a $15,000 home entertainment package. If you can't handle the math or simply lazy and unable put up with all the aggravation, they'll give you a check for a cool $ 1.0 million instead :) So which would you prefer ? Remember, you have to buy the ticket first. It's a hundred bucks per ticket. Don't worry, it's for a good cause .

Email Blues

2007-01-30T23:09:00.000-05:00

Email is so ubiquitous nowadays, so indispensable in our daily lives that if Moses barges his way into CNN's Atlanta studio and read God's 11th commandment on his Palm Pilot and shouts with a thunderous voice " Thou Shalt Not Use Email" the overall productivity of this planet will drop to a standstill . Could you imagine life without email ? I mean how can we work in the office without email? Totally unimaginable isn't it? The email inbox and outbox are the two most important folders we work with on a given day. Take away my email for a day and it will be my office cleaning day, i.e. pruning the clutter that had been threatening to infuse that garage look into my office :)

The virus threat had forced most companies to restrict employees to office email only, disallowing access to personal email accounts on Hotmail and Yahoo via the company's internet link. Spam analyzers and virus checking programs are grinding their brains on mail servers to sanitize email traffic from spam and virus bearing email attachments. A great degree of success had been achieved in thwarting viruses but spam messages continue to proliferate and are the harder ones to catch. Spammers are creative in constructing the subject field that ocassionally an email or two selling viagra slips through the cracks. Spam mails continue to thrive because they have not been declared illegal but this is altogether another topic of discussion.

Virus and spam and what not, I can live with them because they're part and parcel of the ills that plague a technology that had for the most part revolutionized the way humans communicated for the last 20 years. I love email. In fact I saved almost all the email exchanges I had with my wife when we were still going out. It's a great way to reminisce the good old days. But here's my beef with email, and has nothing to do with technology whatsoever :

a. Chain letter freaks. For the life of me, I cannot comprehend people who relish the idea of inducing a threat of doom on someone, should the person fail to reproduce and disseminate the letter to 10 other people. The promise of good fortune supposedly rewards the person who obediently reproduces and forwards the emails to 10 other people. Reward? says who?

b. The email hoax freaks. Equally irritating as chain letters, these emails concoct stories of giveaways from Apple IPOD, GAP shirts, Ericsson phone, Honda car, etc. in return for forwarding the mail to as many people as you can. Surprisingly though, some people, the least of whom I expect to believe , had been sold to the hoax !

c. The "forwarding" freaks. These people are like the human version of the mail server. Everything that goes into their inbox flows out of their outbox to the rest of the world. They would forward quotes, inspirational articles, sermon topics, .wav files, funny cartoons, jokes.. name it they'll send it except their own nude pictures. Despite my request to avoid sending lewd pictures , I got a "firecrotch" pic of Britney Spears. Not in my office email, pal.

What should I do with these emails ? I Dump them straight to the waste basket and mark the sender as junk mail originator. In fact I was too quick and included a couple of legit names on the list :) People have to be a little sensitive when sending emails to an office address.

I once mediated with a couple of friends who "fought" through email. Despite our plea for them to have a face to face confrontation and resolve the disagreement, they never did. That was 3 years ago and the hatchets were never buried. Never rely on email to resolve an argument !

Worry Wart

2007-01-26T07:03:00.000-05:00

This is my third post on a topic from the book Rules of Life . I promise I will blog only 4 out of the 100 rules from the book, else I run the risk of spilling out its contents to the world, let alone being accused as a boring, plagiarizing and moralizing SOB. In light of the dynamic nature of our relationship with our fellowmen and the unpredictability of the material world we live in, the fear of uncertainty always threatens our very existence and tempts us to associate gloom and doom to the the phrase - what if? In other words, we worry. We become worry warts.

Note : This post is not meant for people who believe that their destiny is sealed or guaranteed by way of their religious faith. Such a position is unarguable. Rather, this is a brief and lively discussion of Rule # 43 - It's OK to Worry or Know How Not To.

Quote

"The future is uncertain, scary, hidden. We wouldn't be human if we didn't worry about things at times. We worry about our health, our parents/kids/friends/relationships, our work and our spending. We worry that we are getting older, fatter, poorer, more tired, less attractive, less fit, less menatlly alert, less everything really. We worry about things that matter and things that don't. Sometimes we worry about not worrying.

Look, it is really OK to worry. Just as long as there is something to worry about. If there isn't, then all you are doing is putting wrinkles in your brow - and that makes you older you know.

The first step is to decide whether there is something you can do about whatever it is you are worrying about, or not. There are usually logical steps to take to eliminate worry. I worry that people aren't taking those steps, which means they are choosing to hang on to their worries rather than be free of them.

If you are worried then :

- get practical advice
- get up-to-date information
- do something, anything as long as it is constructive

If you are worrying about your health, go see a doctor. If you are worrying about money, set a budget and spend wisely. I you are worried about your weight, go to the gym - eat less, do more. If you are worrying about a lost kitten, phone the vet/police/local animal rescue. If you are worrying about getting older, there is simply no point - it is happening whether you worry or not.

If there is nothing you can do about your worry ( or if you are a persistent worrier, even bordering on the neurotic ), then distraction is the only answer.Get abosrbed in something else.A man with a rather impressive name of Mikhai; Csikszentmihalyi identified something called "flow", where you are so absorbed in a task you are doing, so fully immersed, that you become almost unaware of external evernts. It is a pleasurable experience and completely banishes worry. He also said : " The quality of our lives improves immensely when there is at least one other person who is willing to listen to our troubles".

Worrying may be a symptom that you don't really want to do something about the problem. It might be easier to just carry on worrying - or looking concerned and appearing to worry - rather than doing something about it. It is OK to worry properly, profitably and usefully. It is not OK to worry pointlessly and needlessly. Or at least, it is OK but it's a collosal waste of life."

Unquote

Here's my take on this. If I seriously worry about something , I need to sit in front of the mirror and ask myself the question : "So now BW, what is the solution your problem ? " If I can think of a solution, my problem is legit and I have the right to worry. However, if my problem has no perceptible solution, it means : a. I don't really have a problem b. I need to dress up and see a psychiatrist ASAP to check why I am worrying about a problem that has no solution.

I have seen people needlessly worry about their spouses cheating on them, their teenage daughters getting pregnant, their kids getting harmed or mugged at school... and so on and so forth. But does worrying fix the concern? If we can't take some measure of risk, then we should keep our spouse, daughter and school going kid at home all day ! If after all our years of worry and all went well, think about the collosal waste of time and excruciatingly tense moments we punished ourself with - for nothing. Ouch. Life should have been better. There's a saying that goes : " You may be deceived if you trust too much but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough". Life is all about taking risks. Are you willing to take risks or none at all?

Fat Myth ?

2007-01-23T20:26:00.000-05:00

As I was browsing through Discover Magazine's January 2007 edition running through the brief outlines of the top 100 science stories of 2006, I was drawn to two topics that were of special interest to me. I'm still battling the bulge trying to close down two inches off my belt ; therefore, any knowledge that may help in understanding the ramnifications of diet on our bodies would be beneficial.

Here are the two topics :

53 Low-Fat Diet A Bust?

Everybody had been jumping on the low fat diet bandwagon believing that fat intake causes all sorts of problems, making people susceptible to heart disease, stroke and cancer. Apparently this is no longer true. The problem isn't the fats we eat - it's the getting fat that matters. They've narrowed down the villains as trans fats and saturated fats which have to be avoided whenever possible. The secret to a healthy life now appears to be avoiding becoming fat rather than worrying about eating fats.

38 Lab Cooks Up a Healthier Pig

I've been brainwashed to believe that omega-3 fatty acids found in fish is one of the best things you can feed your body so I make it a point to include a bit of fish in my daily diet. Pork had been unfairly characterized as full of fatty grease, hence bad for health. A reporter in the Pinoy local paper here once wrote an article about the 3 poisons in the Pinoy diet - tuyo, baboy and beer. The good news is pigs can now be genetically engineered to provide omega - 3, much like fish ! That's great news to those who miss eating pork for fear that their arteries might be clogged with fat. It's still a toss up whether the FDA will allow the generatically altered pig to be consumed by the public.

#53 and #38 are welcome news indeed.

Talking about genetically altered food, I once bought a dozen eggs. The price was more expensive than the usual one I'm buying but I shrugged it off. When I tried to make omelette for breakfast, I noticed that the egg was slightly bigger than the ones I normally bought. When I broke the egg, I saw two yolks. This was the first time I saw double yolk ( pardon my ignorance) so I thought this must have been an abnormal egg. When I was little we had a poultry farm and I know some eggs come out funny, in some kind of an elastic brown sac, minus the white shell. The second egg yielded the same two yolks. When I saw the packaging - it had the label - double yolk. I immediately googled the net to check if these eggs were genetically altered or something. I found that the double yolks are an indeed an aberration, in other words abnormal. Double yolks occur in 1 in a 1000 eggs. Boy , if they can come up with dozens of these eggs, they must have a real big farm :)

5 Things You Dont Want Know About Me ; IRAQ

2007-01-21T12:37:00.000-05:00

Here's my response to NICEHEART's meme tag about 5 things you don't want to know about me :

1. I’m not a handyman. I can fix minor faucet leaks, paint the rooms but for any other malfunctions in the house, I call for service. I can certainly fix things for survival purposes but not for restoration and show.

2. I only prepare my clothes the day I go to work which means I iron them in the morning. I don’t want my wife to prepare my clothes either. It’s a tradition since I was single that I am not able to part with for some reason. Amidst the rush, so far I haven’t messed up my color coordination so serious that I needed to turn the car around to change :)

3. I have absolutely no respect for people who have families but don’t work and free load on relatives the whole time. When I go to Pinas for a visit, I purposely show my displeasure to these people by not engaging in conversations with them. I feel that they are reneging on their innate duty to work for their personal survival. I feel this is one of the dark spots of our culture. I have blogged about this last year.

4. When I was in college I had a deep crush on my English teacher. Boy was I ever present in her class, glued to her 100% of the time. One day she asked me to stay after class. Is this the day I’m waiting for ? :) Thoughts of the movie The Graduate was hovering in my brain , imagining her as Mrs. Robinson .. remember that movie ? he he :) Then she said – “could you take these books to the library please ? I hope you don’t mind. “ Ouch. She probably perceived me ogling her from a distance the whole semester :)

5. When I was in college I broke up with my girl, got drunk and telegrammed her that I died :) She finally called my home (didn't want to talk to me again - cell phone wasn't a fad then), I answered the phone and laughed :)

IRAQ WAR :

The war in Iraq is increasingly becoming a fiasco in the eyes of many Americans. The four year old war had already exceeded the cost of $500 billion. The Democrats aren’t thrilled with the idea of sending additional 20,000 troops as reinforcement, to quell the anarchy in Baghdad. The Democrats are hell bent on a drastic cost military cost cutting scheme to put the country's finances in order.

You see Bush is so scared that the SHITE majority in Iraq might form an alliance with IRAN, whose ambition for harnessing nuclear energy might result in disastrous consequences for planet Earth. Not only will IRAN develop nuclear warheads and blast Israel and the United States out of the map, it could also pollute and harm the environment if not careful. The alliance will make Iraq more polarized resulting in an imbalance of power in the region. When Sadam was in power IRAN was wary about intervening in IRAQ's affairs.

Bush is incensed by the Democrat proposal which is tantamount to backing out, making IRAQ war a failure and stamping the ignominy on the Republican performance record , guaranteeing a Democrat victory in the 2008 election. Bush is definitely not pleased.

Cell Phone Conversations on a Train Ride

2007-01-19T23:54:00.000-05:00

I commute to work by train every day and with the rush hour schedule I normally take, the trains are longer hence every passenger is almost guaranteed a seat. The cars are comfortable and quiet, temperature regulated that as soon as the train moves it induces you doze off. Then a weird ring tone chirps a few feet from you and in a matter of seconds a cell phone conversation commences. As your eyes become heavier and drowsiness sets in, you ask yourself the question – will this jerk allow me to sleep?

One time I overheard this guy talking to his wife on the cell about his salary increase, replete with figures and percentages, including this squabble with the HR department about the alleged unfair raise that his boss gave him! How about discussing these things when you get home, dude? In one instance a guy was talking to a colleague about a legal case and he went on blabbering for the entire 30 minutes, talking about the intricacies of the case he was handling. I speculated that he was a lawyer, never obnoxious but boy was he loud and very irritating.

If I get a call inside a packed train and I feel that my privacy is compromised, I will tell the caller that I'm not in a good place to talk and will call back. But I can appreciate the urgency of some calls though. One time I was on the train with a friend who happens to be a recruiter for a talent agency in Toronto. Her job is to call extras and bit players for parts in film shoots and TV shows. She got a return call from one of her clients who was to be a taxi driver in a film shoot and this was the tune of their conversation :

" Thanks for calling back. OK, listen up. Remember do not shave - no denims, no snow boots no bubble jacket. Regular pants, leather shoes, leather jacket is fine. Our Lady of Lebanon church at Queen St at 10am. Got that? "

As she was speaking, I saw all the heads in our train car turning towards her with a befuddled look on their faces as if saying huh? WhoTF is she talking to ? :)

She wasn't trying to show off but had to be frank by force of circumstance ! Talking about show offs, there's this familiar story a girl told me about this humbug dude back in Pinas who tried to impress a girl and her friend. As the pair were eating at the fast food section of a mall, this guy sat at a nearby table chatting on his cell, talking to someone about his job, his new car and the trips he was planning to take. The braggart was doing what looked like a monologue, indubitably embellishing every twist and turn of his story. At the height of his tall tale, his cell phone suddenly blurts.... rrrrrring...rrrring.. :) Can you figure the look on his face ? :)

You see I have long recognized that inside a public transport, there are only three types of cell users :

1. those who turn off their cell when it rings

2. those who are discreet, talk low and fast and try their darnest best to end the conversation quick, or tell the caller to call back

3. those who talk loud, oblivious to the crowd and don’t give a rat’s ass about people hearing the conversation. I generally refer to these people as talking billboards because they seem keen on advertising their trivial pursuits to the world at large

Which are you ? :) Any interesting experiences with other people ?

Because of Blogging...

2007-01-17T06:57:00.000-05:00

Here’s my response to blogger Ipanema’s meme tag, about 5 significant changes that happened to me because of blogging.

1. Blogging had made me distracted and unproductive at work. I try my utmost not to blog at work to comply with company policy but simply can’t. I estimate I waste a minimum of one hour daily blogging and browsing on the net – this is a rather conservative estimate - it could be more.

2. Blogging had reduced my TV viewing and reading time significantly. I miss TV shows I normally watch. I take my magazines and books to the train to catch up but I feel like I’ve been lagging terribly. I have movie DVD's at home I didn't get to watch yet. Since I’m a late sleeper, I like to blog when everyone had gone to bed.

3. Blogging had given me interest in photography. Whereas before I was content taking pictures of people, I am now conscious of sceneries and interesting objects to photograph. My approach to photography however is a little different. I have no compulsion of becoming an art photographer but just one who could shoot quality pictures without worrying about the complexities of aperture , shutter speed, changing lenses etc. I certainly respect those who are into art photography and there are many of them who consistently produce photos of superb quality. But I’m a fan of point and shoot smart cameras that compensate for the person’s lack of understanding of the technical side of photography. It is for this reason that I hesitated buying a true DSLR because given my limitation of time, I wouldn’t be able to harness the true potential of the equipment. I therefore chose an EVF( Electronic View Finder) or ZOOM class camera - one that fills the gap between the compact digital and the DSLR, at least for now.

4. Blogging had made me extra-conscious of things that are potentially “bloggable”. I made a habit of keeping newsbits and articles that are bloggable, only to misplace or lose them more often than not. I’m not the sit down and blog type. Once I embark on a topic, I work on a draft and develop the blog when I have the time. I have a couple of drafts sitting in Blogger since last year of which I am unable to finish. There’s one particular topic I’ve been wanting to write about since I started blogging but for some inexplicable reason, am unable to collectively gather my thoughts on even writing the first sentence :)

5. Blogging had given me friends. As my alter ego dons its horned helmet and journeys into cyberspace, I am in a different world , swapping all sorts of thoughts with my virtual buddies. I had made good friends, even exchanged gifts with some. The reason why I started blogging was rather mundane. For months I was content in commenting on posts until one blogger repeatedly asked me – “do you have a blog? I want to know something about you.” Not if I have to write HTML codes ! I finally decided to have a blog if only to gain respect when commenting :) At one point monotony set in and I thought of winding down my blog and re-emerge as a totally new blogger. Funny because there was a bloggers summit held in Manila two years ago and everyone wanted to attend. Call me corny but methinks a collective eyeball to eyeball meeting only dampens the excitement of the anonymity and mystery that each and everyone of us exudes. It is OK for a blogger to met another blogger on a personal arrangement, I think but not in a collective, conference type setting.

Now, what do you feel about blogging? Do you think it is worth the effort?

I won’t tag any one, but feel free to take on the meme.

Home Alone

2007-01-14T17:45:00.000-05:00

My wife and daughter are now in R.P. on their extended vacation and I'm home alone for the next few weeks. My wife left a boatload of food in the fridge so I don't have to cook while she's away ( I declared the lechon kawale rancid the moment she boarded the plane .. he he). In my desperate battle with the bulge I've been eating the food but minus the rice. Man, it's just barely a month that I had a great time with my daughter during our Xmas holiday. Darn, I miss my little girl.. oh, and of course, her mom too :)

I thought I would have plenty of time to catch up with things but not quite enough, strangely. I've been diligently trying to get to the office early daily so I can get many things done. The first task on the list for me is the stop at the pantry for the coffee. If I'm early, I'd be likely the one to put on the first brew of the day. Darn, I can't seem to get my adrenalin started until I get a dose of that Colombian concoction. Until that first sip gets into my system, the only thing I can do is look through the glass window and check if the long awaited snow had eventually fallen :) I can't seem to muster enough drive to open my voice mails or emails. I feel like I'm half wake and in some state of trance.

As soon as the caffeine had worked its way into the my cerebral system, the action starts. The phone starts ringing, meeting reminders start flashing on the screen, my mind starts hallucinating about deadlines and cutover dates.. in short, the game is on. I can't possibly allow office politics to overwhelm me so I play things smart. Yeah.. After all, this is just a friggin' job isn't it? So I must ride with the flow. I can't keep my mind off a dude's T-shirt I saw the other day at the train station. BORN TO PARTY, FORCED TO WORK. Aha ! My new found motto!

My lunchtime is normally spent at the cafeteria with the folks in my team. I'm not a big lunch eater so a bowl of chili or soup of the day and crackers downed with coffee and an apple by mid afternoon can sustain me until I head to the train station in the evening. I like to do a bit of walking after lunch and I always see our "smoking officemates" huddled in front of the building. They seem to be a declining specie these days :) I would say hello and chat with them for a few minutes. When I was younger I thought smoking was cool. I desperately tried to smoke but my throat couldn't stand it. My system can't seem to take it. As in blackjack, I was forced to good.

At times I would get a call from a friend, or someone I met at a party asking for employment referral. Some would call and ask for opinion on a career shift to information technology. I also occasionally get calls from headhunters who are complete strangers and if I decline the invitation, they would ask me for a referral. I always gladly oblige and give a colleague's name but in retrospect, I'm thinking, how the hell did the headhunter know my existence? A colleague must have given him my name! Hmmm... vicious circle?

At the end of a long day, I would walk a block to get to the Union Station, sort of the Grand Central equivalent of NYC to catch a train home. The 30 minute ride allows me to browse the daily paper and doze off a bit. The drive from the local station to home is also a breeze. I live a little over a kilometer from the local train station. Knowing my wife and daughter are away, I feel I got all night to do things... ah, freedom... thou art sweet :) After dinner and checking out the latest news on TV, I head down to the basement, open my laptop and ta daaa... BW lives again ! My alter ego had donned his horned helmet :) Welcome blogosphere !

( click on icons to enlarge)

Just Thinking....

2007-01-11T20:51:00.001-05:00

Does your astrological sign matter in the way you drive? A study conducted by Insurance Hotline.com on 100,000 drivers over a period of years apparently affirms so. People born of the Pisces sign are the worst when it comes to traffic violations and those of Libra the most prone to accidents.

Here's the findings :

TICKETS

1. Pisces --Worst 2. Aries 3. Aquarius 4. Capricorn 5. Libra 6. Taurus 7. Scorpio 8. Leo 9. Cancer 10. Virgo 11. Sagittarius 12. Gemini--Best

ACCIDENTS

1. Libra --Worst 2. Scorpio 3. Capricorn 4. Aries 5. Aquarius 6. Sagittarius 7. Pisces 8. Taurus 9. Virgo 10. Gemini 11. Cancer 12. Leo--Best

Do you buy this ? Not me. I think it's baloney. I'm Pisces and haven't had a traffic violation in 10 years. I hope the insurance company isn't thinking of factoring people's astrological signs in assessing insurance premiums because if they do, they're playing with the stars ( no pun intended). That's the problem with stats. You can sample the zodiac sign of every person entering the casino, find out if they lost or won when they come out and say the best gamblers are Virgo and the worst ones are Leo and hold your paper up and shout - I've got stats to prove it. Hogwash !
Going for Broke or Bust ? What's in a name? Everything ! This enterprising bottler had chosen to name its high-energy drink something that leaves a sour taste in everyone's mouth - COCAINE. To top it all, it brags with a slogan - "the legal alternative". Quite an audacious move indeed but methinks this product may never make it's way to the supermarket stalls. BW's prediction? BUST.

Long Distance Driving Since I don't have a GPS navigator, I use Mapquest for my travel directions whenever I go long driving. It is pretty accurate and reliable and when you print the driving directions in a colored printer, the interstate highway signs are printed as what they would look on the road, making it easy for the designated navigator, i.e. my wife :) to spot, avoiding getting lost on the road. In fact, Mapquest eventually made my right hand the navigator, holding the paper since my left hand is always on the wheel, thereby eliminating headcount in the navigation department, making my wife a consummate passenger :) I found out that I logged a total of 5,344 kms round trip. If I did this trip again this year, I would have almost covered 11,000 kms, the distance between Los Angeles and Manila :) Huh?

Someone emailed this to me the other day. The title is a little tacky, but what would be the moral of this story? Never trust.. the phone ? :)

CLICK ON THE ICON.

Darn, the Vacation Is Over

2007-01-09T21:43:00.000-05:00

Our cruise started at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida aboard Carnival Liberty,. The 7 day trip took us to the Western Caribbean with stops in Bahamas, Grand Cayman Islands and Costa Maya, Mexico. The 110,000 ton mega liner is quite new, built in 2005 in Italy. It's as long as 3 football fields, has three 12 storey elevators and can carry 3,000 passengers and a crew of 1,200. Checking in 3,000 passengers is in itself a challenge. Passenger registration was done in a huge building that looked like an airplane hangar but it was quite quick and orderly. Checked in baggages were loaded into the boat and delivered to the passenger staterooms.

The ship has a deck with 4 pools and jacuzzis, a large buffet restaurant and dining room, a supper club, fitness gym, spa, casino, day care, a theatre for 1500 people that plays Las Vegas style shows, an internet cafe, dance hall - in essence a floating resort. Food and drinks -juice and coffee are free, except for pop and alcoholic drinks. The buffet restaurant serves the 3 meals but we opted to take the sit down gourmet dinner every night at the restaurant, if only to take a little bit less of food :) and savor the culinary work of French chef George Blanc. The restaurant dress code is casual- no shorts and formal on two occassions. Dang, the one thing I hated was I had to bring formal clothes! I was think of a totally lazy vacation with shorts, flip flops and T shirt.

Some folks who didn't fancy dressing up opted for the informal buffet restaurant all the way. The formal nights weren't that bad as we had our family photos taken ( at a cost ), went to watch the Vegas style show and went dancing afterwards. The great thing was the day care took care of my little girl after dinner while we were enjoying the night. Juice and coffee , ice cream stations are open 24 hours. The deli and oriental counter closes at 11pm. The gourmet pizzeria is open 24 hours. Those caught hungry between meals can order snacks delivered to their rooms. Room service is open 24 hrs.

If you didn't drink pop nor booze the whole cruise, you didn't have to pay a cent for anything you drank or ate. A cruise lasting more than 7 days would be a health risk , LOL. The ship's currency is a card that is pegged on the passenger's credit card or cash deposit. The card can be used to purchase drinks, merchandise being sold at the stores and last but not least, to play the 24 hr casino. The same card opens your serves as your stateroom key. Every stateroom has a phone and TV linked to the world via satellite. My favorite activity was watching a movie at the giant jumbotron TV at the deck at night, beer in hand as the warm Caribbean wind blows into my face. My second favorite pastime was sitting at the balcony of our stateroom, gazing at the ocean, the water, meditating about things. It was throughly relaxing and enjoyable. Darn, I think I am getting old.

I would be amiss if I didn't mention our Pinoy kababayans who worked in the ship. The crew was truly multinational, composed of staff from 60 countries. Our Pinoy kababayans work as ship baggage handlers, stewards, cooks, waiters, maintenance crew, photographers, mechanics, day care staff. My wife and I were throughly impressed with the Pinay day care assistants who were quite articulate and spontaneous as they introduced themselves to the audience at the auditorium. The cruise we took understood the importance of family and my daughter throughly enjoyed the Camp Carnival day care. Overall, other than the waist enlargement, we enjoyed it a lot.

Thso picture was taken at the Port Lucaya shopping bazaar at Freeport Bahamas.

I've always wondered - how do you wash a braided hair?

Taken at the Georgetown Harbor, Grand Cayman Islands as we came down from the small boats that "tendered" or ferried the passengers from the ship to the shore.
Others chose to cruise along the harbor on a pirate ship look alike.

Busy street along the numerous shops, stores and restaurants jam-packed with tourists . We met a Pinay who worked as a jewelry shop attendant. She works as a contract worker along with some 2,500 other Pinoys in the Caymans.

View of the ship that is a few hundred yards from the shore. The shuttle boats were busy servicing about 7 cruise ships that were anchored at the bay at the time. The blue waters of the Caymans is imamaculately clear. You could almost see the bottom
of the sea.

We docked into this deep harbor at Costa Maya, Mexico and had to walk a few hundred yards to get to the resort. The town is about 4 miles from the resort.

Guests being welcomed by folks in traditional Mayan costume

Those who didn't go for the wilderness tours chose to chill in the pools, had a few drinks at the restaurants or shopped around in the stores for clothes and souvenirs, just like my wife :)

Just cooling off as the boats are parked a few hundred yards away

Our next stop was a 10 day stay at a resort at Ft. Walton Beach area in Western Florida, some 8 hr drive from Ft. Lauderdale. The place is in the Central Standard Time zone and about 3.5 hrs from New Orleans. It was a relief to be back to normal, where we had to cook food to eat to detoxify ourselves from the 7 day binge. It was almost heaven when my wife , after a short trip to Winn-Dixie supermart cooked shrimps with beans and squash sauted in cocunut milk. The had a full kitchen at the resort which was great :)

The resort has the same "village" theme as the Mt. Tremblant but this time around a man-made wharf surrounded by shops, restaurants and condos. The pond is stocked with bass and trout for guests to fish on a catch and release mode. This also where we spent new years' where a live band was playing and the place was literally full of people partying and waiting for the fireworks.

This is the beach area on the other side of the resort which is likewise gated, meaning only resort owners, members and guests are allowed entry. The sand is totally white which also evokes an illusion of snow :)

The golf course is artistically designed , sprawling across the good looking houses and the dozens of ponds that fill the area. The resort also has 2 other golf courses, private marina, an amazing biking trail, nature parks, a large conference centre. We had 4 hours of free biking time daily when we were there.

Shot of the Baytowne Wharf at night.

Please feel free to click at any pic to enlarge. I have many more shots of our vacation in my photoblog ( check my blog links ) :)

New Year's Thoughts

2007-01-03T15:51:00.000-05:00

I can't possibly be posting this after a terrific holiday but with the recent news events I couldn't help asking the question - we do live in a confusing world, don't we? With all the religions and cultures that are divergent in values and aspirations proliferating our planet, could we really get along? Is there such a thing as law of absolute right? And if there is such a thing as law of absolute right, what would be its point of reference? Politics, terrorism, organized religion, corporations and globalization, global warming, oil crises, the IRAQ war, Iran and North Korea, the "firecrotch" episodes of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, Pinoy actors turning into politicians - do we ever truly comprehend these things? As I travelled through the U.S. south ,the bible belt of America, passing through churches , Jesus billboards and gas stations that stack up New Testament books at the entrances of restrooms for travellers to grab, I asked myself the question - why did it take centuries for these people to discern that their black slaves were also human beings created by God? Confusing isn't it? My 5 year old daughter illustrates the confusion whenever mom tries to make sure she gets a full meal when she remonstrates - " but you are not supposed to feed a big girl. Besides we are not allowed to share spoons!"

THE BLACK AND WHITE GOAT MYSTERY

" I don't quite get it but this is just between you and me". Don't we behave like the chief sometimes?

I don't normally pitch an overly dramatic new year resolution because I have come to a conclusion that I can only influence but never dictate nor control things happening around me. My two simple and achievable goals this year would be to eat less and run 30 mins a day on my treadmill - translated, lose weight. Dang, is it ever so difficult. But if there's one thing that I wish to avoid at all cost is feeling miserable and that for me is waking up in the morning hating someone ( my wife excluded, LOL). I can't think of anyone I particularly hate enough to rip the living daylights out of the person which is just great because it means I made my peace with the world. I am equally confident that if my mother-in-law doesn't hate me, I'd be fine with others, he he. I was good at this last year and hope to do even better this year :) Remember, bitterness not only kills but makes you look and feel miserable. So what's your new year's resolution?

Cheers and Peace for the New Year !

P.S. I had one heck of a vacation and took hundreds of shots.. tough to select 10 shots for my next post :) I'm done with watching a movie under the stars in shorts and with beer in hand.. back to reality now.

Happy Holidays

2006-12-11T15:17:00.000-05:00

It has come to that time of the year when you hear that buzzword “ year end change freeze” in the IT world. It means that no major or infrastructure changes are allowed until the year is over which literally means prevention of potential screw-ups LOL. For those of us who make a living making these changes, it is truly a reprieve when we can take a breather and simply think about the systems cruising on their merry way until the new year. In terms of blogging, I’ll wait for beta blogger to heal itself. Hopefully Google would be able to prescribe the right dose of prozac to beta blogger’s chronic paranoia. No sense in stressing myself really. It is just a matter of time when super blog templates would be tossed around for free in cyberspace.

Incidentally, I don’t plan to have anything to do with Frosty the Snowman this Christmas holidays :) Nothing personal but I’ve had enough with roasting chestnuts in an open fire, white Christmas and winter wonderland and yes, shoveling snow in my driveway :) I will be celebrating Xmas but with Santa Claus in shorts for a change :) Darn, Frosty will be waiting for me when I get back though :)

I would like to wish you all my blogging friends a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thanks for your friendship and company. I had fun blogging with you guys. It sure was one heck of a year. Although we are for the most part engaged in a virtual relationship, I feel that the friendship is real. I could ask nothing but that you be blessed with prosperity and success in your respective endeavors. I wish you and your family a safe and happy celebration of the holiday season :)

Hope you guys have fun with your loved ones. Don’t be scrooges:) Buy them a nice gift !

Thought for the Weekend

2006-12-07T00:06:00.000-05:00

I probably have a couple of posts left for the year before packing up for a much needed respite. With the teething problems of beta blogger I am thinking of suspending my blogging acitivity during my hiatus this holiday season. The year had been so terribly stressful for me work-wise that I had seriously entertained thoughts of changing careers. I thought of selling my house and all my assets and relocate to a far flung island, live in a shack beside the sea, perhaps work as a lowly groundskeeper in a nearby golf course and do only two things – play golf and fish. I was thinking – what would be the ultimate stress free life a person could ever have? Perhaps there is no such thing as a stress free life unless you go back to being a little child again. Whether you are a company CEO chartering executive jets for $5,000 an hour or a proletarian plying the public transit night and day you are bound to deal with the beast in stress. I am a survivor. I fought a tough battle this year and survived again. Perhaps that’s enough reason for me to smile and pat myself in the back. Strangely, as I was getting ready to finish this post after coming home from work my dentist’s office called to reschedule my cleaning appointment this Saturday instead of next weekend. Cleaner teeth – that’s even a better reason to smile I thought :) I am generally a happy and sanguine person but I think I need to smile more. As the ending of a great Tony Bennett classic song SMILE goes – “ you’ll find that life is still worthwhile if you just smile” :) A smile not only lifts the person but brings sunshine to the person he’s smiling at. Just look at my buddy in the picture ! Isn’t he irresistible?

Have a nice weekend :)

Stalker's Tale - Too Obsessed or Crazy ?

2006-12-03T18:14:00.000-05:00

We are all familiar with stories of celebrity stalkers following their idols wherever they went, sometimes crossing continents just to be in the neighborhood, to stay close. The force of attraction is extraordinarily strange because the odds of the stalker engaging in a face to face conversation with the celebrity is utterly slim if not nil. But the thought of being around the corner is good enough to assuage the anxiety and the hope of an eventual meeting and possibly a communion is ever present, the consummation of which would be tantamount to a trek to nirvana in the afterlife. The stalker never loses hope as in the case of Gerald James Klein , 59 years old and stalker extraordinaire. Klein had been stalking a woman he met at a wedding party when he was 29 years old and has not stopped since. The woman is no celebrity but Klein has vowed never to stop pursuing her until she acquiesces to his marriage proposal. Klein claims that the woman broke her promise to marry him and declared that it would take a "supernatural intervention by God himself" to make him give up his goal. As Klein was twiddling with his thumbs for 30 years hoping for her to come back, the woman had moved on with life and got married, had children, got widowed and remarried. Klein sued the woman 4 times and was recently handed a 3 year jail sentence for criminal harrassment. The man refuses psychological treatment hence the reason for prolonging his agony and the misery for the poor woman.

I am not a psychologist but in my humble mind, I'm asking the question - what the heck is wrong with this dork? I've had my share of going nuts over women but I would never give up 3 decades of my life hoping for someone to like me! Where is the self-respect? It took me a while to realize that summer baseball and the winter hockey leagues that kids go through isn't just for fun. It teaches children how to feel the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. It teaches them how to rejoice in victory and grieve in defeat. It prunes the sore loser syndrome out of their system. How should the state deal with a guy who refuses to accept defeat , appeals his case to the higher courts and continues to harrass and stalk the poor woman? Let me wear the robe and cast my verdict.

BW's verdict : straightjacket, no more appeals - off to the mental institution

On Pacquiaomania :

As I watched the replay of the Pacquiao-Morales 3 fight the other night, I can't help thinking of this scenario - what if Pacquiao enters politics and runs for public office ? Will it affect his career which is at its peak at the moment? Pacquaio today is heralded as one of boxing's top draw, a promoter's golden boy, a boxer who commands a respectable $3-$5 million purse per fight. Whoever advises Pacquiao MUST consider this once in a lifetime opportunity, a lucrative and productive 3 year stretch until he turns 30 where he can make the most money and retire without any misgivings. Pacquiao had been quoted saying that he wants to return the favor of politicians who helped him when he was down. This is the kind of statement you do not want to hear from Pacquiao because it spells only one thing - distraction. Politics can wait but boxing can't. Youth in such a demanding sport is an asset - play it with focus and with fresh, young legs. Unfortunately the crocodile politicians cannot wait. It sickens me to death to see these vultures exploit people for their own selfish interests.

Jimrex Jaca lost the fight with Juan Manuel Marquez. Many thought he jumped the ladder too quickly. The opposition was too strong. The fight was also riddled with contractual controversy. Jaca's Pinoy promoter claims Jaca violated his contract by accepting the fight with a U.S. based promoter. Here's the rub. The Pinoy promoter offered Jaca a paltry $7,500 for the title fight while his U.S. counterpart pledged $42,000. During the pre-fight , TV announcers talked about Jaca getting paid an equivalent $1 for his fights back in RP. Sounds too incredulous to me but the point is made. The poor chap is too underpaid for what he does for a living. The full details of the contractual squabble between Jaca and his Pinoy promoter was not disclosed but Jaca mentioned something about his desire to make decent money for his family prompted him to switch promoters. As long as you did not do anything illegal, good on you Jimrex. Enough said of exploitative promoters.

Ban Cell Phones at School?

2006-11-27T20:53:00.000-05:00

When mall managers banned cell phones from its public washrooms expressing concern that those ones with built-in videocams might start clicking away furtively, infringing on people's privacy, the handwriting was on the wall. Something sinister was bound to happen. The doomsayers' predictions were looking good and became prophecy fulfilled the day YouTube was launched. How about downloading a video shot on YouTube for thousands, if not millions of people to watch? What could be a better expression of freedom than this? The cell phone with its array of add-ons - camera, web access, MP3 player , text, email - as innocuous as it looks is no longer a kid's toy. Students have learned to use it creatively - not only to cheat in exams but to even the score with their teachers as in the case of two grade 9 students in Quebec. One student provoked the teacher to a fit of anger while the other secretly videotaped the outburst with her cell camera and posted the clip on YouTube. Thousands of people commented on the clip, including parents of students from the school. The teacher was utterly embarrassed by her show of uncontrolled rage. Devastated by the embarrassment, she filed for stress leave.

Another publicized case was about a student at Ryerson University who stood up in the middle of the class, accusing his teacher for not teaching some of the topics included in the exam while a fellow student was videotaping the heated exchange. The students downloaded the clip on YouTube eliciting comments from many students from the school. The school management intervened and all the students in the class received a 5 point mark bump and the teacher was relieved and paired with another lecturer during lab hours. Holy crow. What a way to deliver a knockout punch to a teacher you hate. But is it fair game? I think not. Teachers are at a huge disadvantage with the threat of cell cameras recording their every move. I say ban the cameras from the school and preserve some sense of order and respect. What do you think?

DATELINE : Calgary

I was back in Calgary last week trying to finish my project and boy did I come at the worst time but the date was carved in stone and I had no chance to reschedule. Other than the miserable -25 C deg temperature which among all things discouraged me from taking pictures fearful that my new camera would freeze to death, my project was completed. Our new and expanded trading floor system was up and running by the weekend paving way for hiring new traders for our energy trading division. This kind of extreme cold occurs in Ontario in Jan or Feb albeit rarely. It was the first time I've encountered -25 deg weather in Nov, thanks to the crazy Alberta rocky mountain weather that shifts from hot to cold without much warning. I flew back Sunday early morning and on my way to the airport the temp was -29 deg C with a wind chill factor of - 5 deg which felt like - 34 deg I was telling myself - shit , if this taxi breaks down in the middle of the road, I would be toast...err.. iced. I was meeting a friend for breakfast at the airport that morning and I was having his cell number handy just in case an SOS call is needed and he can rescue me with his SUV..LOL.. I was so busy and didn't have the time to meet up with him in the city that I had to ask him to wake up early for breakfast at the airport.. He's a real sport and a good buddy. I couldn't possibly buy him donuts and coffee for the aggravation so I took him to a real restaurant which was fortunately open at 7am , for some heavy cowboy breakfast. I was thrilled to hear of his experience, how he joined the exodus of job hunters from Ontario seeking greener pastures in Alberta. He has gotten an excellent job and plans to move his family to join him soon. The province is debt free and riding high on the oil boom and desperately needs skilled and unskilled workers. I will not be surprised if the federal government grants Alberta authority to hire contract workers directly from outside the country. I hear businesses closing down because they couldn't replace people that left. Sounds quite ridiculous but true.

When I arrived home after a 3.5 hr flight I found out that we had to go to a birthday party at 630pm. I was back to EST from MST time with a +2 hour difference. After all the food I ate in Calgary, with the lunches and dinners with our contractors, I had to deal with a whole slew of Pinoy dishes. The next week will be a detoxification week for me I thought. But I was back home, in a 12 deg weather and it felt really good and for a moment, it was all that mattered.

The Big Apple

2006-11-21T09:08:00.000-05:00

Somewhere along the boring stretch of highway 401 to Montreal, in the township of Colborne, Ontario lies Big Apple, a bakery famous for its wide selection of mouth watering home baked style apple pies. Big Apple is no ordinary bakery. It is one that celebrates apple to the highest degree. It is located in apple country first and foremost, amidst the numerous apple farms and orchards that make Colborne the apple town of Ontario. The big apple dome in the picture is actually a mini-museum that tells you almost all all you need to know about the wonderful fruit. A spiral staircase leads you to the top where you can view the surroundings and take photos.

The billboard visible from the hiwhway shows the number of apple pies sold since they began counting about 5 years ago. These are strictly off the counter sales from the bakery/restaurant complex that sits adjacent to the Big Apple dome/museum. Canadian and American tour buses often stop at Big Apple to sample their savory pies.

A view of the bakery and the baking process and packing of the apple pies.

The scoreboard at the bakery. The numbers are increasing everyday.

Freshly baked and packed pies ready to go.

A sampling of the scrumptious apple crumble that blends well with a nice up of hot brewed coffee

The bakery and restaurant. A couple of mumble crumble pies to take home ends the day at Big Apple.

Note : The pics are much better when viewed in its full size. Click on the pic and click on the arrow icon at the lower right corner.

Camping Out For a PS3

2006-11-18T09:46:00.000-05:00

Would you camp out in the cold and rain of the fall weather just to lay hands on the hot new Sony Playstation 3? I definitely won't but others did when the PS3 went on sale in limited quantities last Thursday. The euphoric and orgasmic high the new gadget brings were just too hard to resist for these die hard gamers.

Here's some startling facts on the gaming genre ( courtesy of National Post) :

Playstation 3

Cost :

C$549 - 20 gigabytes
C$659 - 60 gigabytes

Ebay bid for a PS3 - US$1,550.31 plus $112.75 shipping

C$70 ( or less) cost of PS3 games Sony hopes to have during the Xmas
season

One million - number of consoles Sony hopes to have during the holiday
season

32,000 - 40,000 Number of consoles Sony hopes to have in Canada at
launch

102 million - Playstation 2s sold worldwide

4 million - Playstation 2s sold in Canada

10 million - Microsoft XBOX360 sold worldwide

US$20 billion - games, consoles and gaming hardware sold globally last
year

$800 million - video game market last year in Canada

65% of Canadian households have a video game console

25% of all video gamers in Canada are over the age of 50

44% of all video gamers in Canada are between 18 and 49 years of age

117 million gamers in North America

33 - average age of a Canadian video gamer

The Pacquiao-Morales III fight is on this weekend but it's on Pay Per
View TV and not on public TV here so I'm heading out with a six pack to
watch the bout at my buddy's house with some friends. My buddy works for a
satellite TV provider and is always generous to invite us to watch PPV
events for free. We love this guy. I'm not thinking work this weekend
and I'm shutting down my Blackberry.

You guys have a nice weekend..

P.S.

Here's some shots I took with my new Fuji S6000fd digital camera over the long weekend up north. I'm still in the beginner to serious amateur category so I reckon I need a point and shoot camera with lots of sophisticated features that would make up for my inadequacies. I'm not quite ready for the pricey Nikons and the Canons yet! I couldn't wait for Xmas so I headed to Pacific Mall, the biggest Asian indoor mall in North America and looked for the best price I could score with this baby. The best part was when I registered the camera online, I got a 3 year warranty. For a camera that came out in July 2006, I'm a happy camper with my new acquisition.

Collingwood, ON

The IRAQ Debacle

2006-11-16T00:19:00.000-05:00

The recent Democrat election victory had signaled the displeasure of the American people over their president’s adventurism in Iraq. From now until George W. Bush’s end of term of office in 2008, the name of the game is face saving or salvaging whatever is left to ensure a graceful exit from the Iraq debacle and avoid the dubious distinction of being the worst president America ever had, a label that is seemingly fixated like a halo over his head. When politicians, out of frustration over the worsening violence which had escalated into civil war proportions, throw in the proposal of partitioning Iraq into 3 autonomous regions for the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds with a sharing agreement on the country’s oil revenues, one can’t help to think - what the heck was the loss of 3,000 American lives and a staggering $500 billion war tab all about? Wasn't the plan to liberate and not disunite Iraq? What about the thousands of innocent Iraqis who lost their lives? Was this enough justification to keep America safe? And is America safer now than it is before 911?

Those who wanted to see Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld go had very valid and compelling reasons for demanding the change. Other than the worsening conflict on the ground, Rumsfeld had been accused of blowing the defense budget. Defense contractors were in a non-stop cycle in designing producing expensive state of the art weaponry that weren’t needed for the Iraq war, plunging the government into a much deeper budget deficit. Political analysts theorize that the invasion of Iraq was a plan the moment GWB stepped into the president’s shoes. The invasion was to be the finishing act to George Bush Sr.’s war with Iraq in 1990 , with his inability to conquer Baghdad and topple Saddam Hussain. Old timers Dick Cheney and Colin Powell were supposedly in the executive office to strategize a plan to fulfill the goal.

Be there as it may, conspiracy theories or otherwise, the invasion is clearly a failure. Americans are justified with their change of heart. Iraq is in shambles, under a threat of a civil war and the security of the region is severely jeopardized. The Iraqi Shiites can form an unholy alliance with Iran tipping the region’s balance of power over to the Shiites, a more radical and militant Muslim group, a much more potent threat to America. When G8 allies France, Germany, Canada, Russia and Japan refused to join Bush in the invasion of Iraq, many felt something was terribly amiss with the plan. In retrospect, these countries had the fortitude to see beyond the horizon, that firing guns and throwing money at a problem doesn’t always work. Sadly, if there has to be a meaningful change in Iraq, these unwilling participants will have to roll up their sleeves and help clean up the mess that Bush had created.

Nigeria Scam - Part II

2006-11-13T19:59:00.000-05:00

Just as the world thought or hoped that the incessant and belligerent alert and warning campaigns had sealed the last nails on the coffin on the Nigeria email scam thereby purging it out of cyberspace , a new version of the scam surfaced in Canada. This time it had nothing to do with cyberspace but with the old dirty magic trick – turning paper into money! A group of hustlers claimed to possess substantial inventory of wads of blackened money coming from Nigeria needing chemical treatment in order for paper to turn into legit American and Canadian currency. An expensive chemical was supposedly needed to magically turn the blackened paper into real money. A few gullible prospects who were completely sold to the carefully crafted demonstration and the notion that wads of cash were in the offing forked out thousands of dollars to the hustlers who were to come up with the extremely expensive chemical, the wonder potion that would transform the black paper into real money. A total of $130,000 was collected by the scammers but never showed up to deliver the chemicals. The victims reported the scam to the police who are now hot on the scammers’ trail. It’s just me but doesn’t the overall scheme smack of illegal wheeling and dealing or perhaps even counterfeit operations? What was the trade-off? Give me money to buy the chemicals and we split the booty? The victims may have a lot of explaining to do with the police on the nature of their motive in acquiring money illegally. Remember that old trick at the streets of Manila? Someone pretends to find an expensive ring and asks a passerby if he wants to buy the ring at some ridiculous price? Turns out that the ring is fake.

Lucky Storekeepers?

The latest news of lotto store operators reportedly collectively winning some $500,000 in lottery winnings have raised concerns from the public that these operators have insider information or are scamming the public with their ticket winnings. It is common practice for ticket buyers to have their tickets scanned at the lotto stations in convenience stores and malls and the question is – are they being scanned properly? A win, even for a free ticket registers that familiar slot machine jackpot sound and a printout of the win details is provided to the ticket holder. The hoo-hah was fueled by the celebrated case of an 82 year old retiree who was scammed by a convenience store lotto operator of his 250,000 winnings. The case had been finally resolved after 5 years of legal wrangling, only after the old man sued the operator and the Ontario Lottery Commission (OLC) for fraud and engaged the services of the high profile investigative journalism TV show The Fifth Estate who did an outstanding job in expose’. The sickening part of the whole saga was the brazen audacity of the storekeeper's attempt to settle the case with a 150,000 pay off to the old man. Admission of guilt ? Why the heck would you pay anyone that amount of money if you hadn’t done something? Cash the 250,000, pay off the man 150,000 and keep the 100,000 for yourself? Nice try. The old man wasn’t dumb after all so he declared an all out air strike and sued everyone who needed to be sued and got what he wanted. Good for him. The OLC is now planning to install do-it-yourself scanning machines at lotto stations. It’s about time.

A Stress Free Week for a Change

2006-11-03T23:16:00.000-05:00

As I was walking from the parking lot catch my train to work this morning, the public address system blurted out an announcement twice ; “ To all passengers - the 7:53 westbound train will be late by approximately 5 minutes”. It was about 7:43am and I told myself – it’s Friday and I am on a training course anyways so no big deal. I could afford to be late. A few minutes later, the station bells started ringing, signaling the approach of a train. Could it be my train? Yes it was and it came right on time. Then came another announcement; “To all passengers. The 7:53 westbound train will be late by 5 minutes and is now arriving at track no 1”. LOL.. I boarded the train with a grin in my face and so did everybody. The station manager was quite creative in masking out his booboo!

I was on a training course this week which gave me a break from the stress of office life. The rule of the house was we were to turn off our cell phones and blackberries which made me incommunicado for the most part of the working day. I had a reason not to return phones or emails because I was not to be disturbed. The course ended at 430pm everyday which also gave me a bit more time to pick up my daughter from the day care. The training centre was located at a building close to the Eaton Centre , downtown Toronto’s largest mall. I would hang around the mall area during lunch break browsing the stores and fulfilling my craving for beef sharwama replete with the salad trimmings and pickled peppers. The mall is flanked by Yonge Street , known to be the longest street in the world in the Guinness Book of Records. Yonge St starts at the Lake Ontario, a few blocks down south of Eaton Centre stretching 1,986 kms all the way to an isolated feeder road at Rainy River, Ontario close to the Minnesota border. It would take some 20 hours to drive Yonge St from point A to point Z, the same time it would take to drive from San Diego, Calif to Seattle, Washington. It sure is one heck of a stretch and considering that you'd end up in the same province speaks of the size of Ontario.

I always thought of Pinoys as people of “raffle” mentality, that everytime we attempt to promote a product or host an event we engage in a raffle or lottery to add fun and excitement to the experience. That probability of winning something lures people to participate. I remember many years ago, in a Cebu Pacific flight from Manila to Bacolod the flight crew held a raffle in the plane for fun. The prices weren’t that ostentatious. There were T-shirts and hats and all sorts of giveaways and the highlight was the draw for a couple of plane tickets. With all the safety and security concerns, hosting a raffle in a passenger plane here in North America is almost inconceivable.

Last Thursday, our instructor did something totally unexpected - a surprise raffle in class. The price was absolutely incredible; free technical training course for the student along with his boss and two other colleagues in the company. The choice of the course is entirely up to the individual, to be taken in 2007. Considering that the training company is an internationally renowned institution and the cost averaging 2.5 grand per course, the total package was worth about 10 grand, never shabby by any stretch of the imagination. I put my boss’ name and two of my closest colleagues in the list. Win or lose I would be back next year for another course but an extra week of training would be really nice. Unfortunately and as I have the habit of expecting, I didn’t win. I never ever won any raffle, big or small in my entire life. If I won in gambling, it had to do with me getting involved in making some kind of decision. Perhaps I’m due for a real big one, like the 24 million Lotto tomorrow. LOL.. The raffle odds were pretty good – 1 in 19 chances. The dude that won was all smiles. He would be back next year; his boss will give him a good review and his buddies will be buying him beer the whole year round!

Bottom line, my week was stress free and quite enjoyable. I should get plenty of these !

Rule No. 42

2006-10-30T18:59:00.000-05:00

I’m back home how after a work related trip to Calgary. Nothing beats the comfort of home and as they say, home-cooked food is always the best. Back to the Rules of Life . I don’t intend to spill all the contents of the rules in this blog. I promise I will only blog about four rules in the entire book which I consider to be interesting if not meaningful. Again, I don’t profess to be a guidance counselor. I am just a blogger for god sakes ! Here’s one .

RULE 42 : SHOP FOR QUALITY, NOT PRICE

Quote :

"I have to admit my wife taught me this one, for which I am eternally in her debt. To me it seemed a natural thing to shop for price. Perhaps this is what chaps do. I would work out for what I wanted and go and buy the cheapest items I could and feel really pleased with myself for saving money. And then I was always dissatisfied with what I had. Stuff broke and didn’t work or wore out quickly or looked shoddy after a very short time. I was living in a mess- and a cheap one at that. What I needed to learn was the art of quality shopping.

Basically :

- accept only the very best – second best is not for you, ever
- if you can’t afford it, don’t buy it or wait and save until you can
- if you have to have it, buy the very best you can afford

There, that’s pretty easy isn’t it? Well, for me it wasn’t as easy as that. It took me a while to get to grips with this one. It isn’t that I don’t – or didn’t then – admire quality or appreciate excellence; it was that I was impulsive. I thought I needed something, I wanted it right then and there. And if I couldn’t afford the best, I would settle for the cheapest. In fact, in a very English sort of way, I thought that “getting a bargain” was what it is all about. We don’t like to talk about money and we don’t like to brag about how much something cost, too tacky by far – better to buy tacky in the first place. I think not.

Going for quality doesn’t mean we’re stuck up or a load of toffs or living beyond our means – if you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. Going for quality means you appreciate the finer things, can see the sense in buying well-made, well-produced things as they will :

- last longer
- be stronger
- not break so easily

And this means that they will not need to be replaced so often, which means you may actually be saving money. They will also make you look and feel better.

Now that I’ve latched on to this Rule I really enjoy that anticipation before I buy something. I make sure that it is the quality I am going for and not just the price. I shop around for a bargain though – it’s just now I look for quality items but I’m prepared to find them at the lowest price."

Unquote

Do you agree with the author ? First of all, I think there’s such a thing as value for the price. Since most of us don’t have the capability to buy the best , top quality product all the time, we must make a fair assessment of how much we can spend for a product and its expected value to us. We must look at the anticipated life of the product and say yes , I am willing to spend and change this thing if it breaks in two years or say no, I’m buying something else, even if it is three times more expensive as long as it lasts for 10 years. I can buy a 25 dollar DVD player in my kid’s room and frankly, I don’t care if it breaks in 2 years. If it lasts for 5 years, it a bonus. Just like the author, my wife is also a proponent of quality. The sad fact however is she’s deciding while I’m paying! When we wanted to change our garage door, she selected the thermal model which I thought was pretty pricey. In the end, I realized it was a quite a smart buy.

I definitely agree with the author that the name of the game is finding the lowest price for a quality product. However, in the field of consumer electronics , I could disagree that famous names always last longer. I have a rarely heard Emerson VCR player that is still in my cabinet after all my SONY VCR’s had found their graveyard at the recycling depot. The unit never needed any external rewinder; heck, my kids used to rewind and forward tapes like crazy using the tape unit’s remote. It’s still around albeit used seldom in view of the DVD fad. Never known as a top of the line brand but a true workhorse indeed.

I also believe that there are things we can’t compromise with quality, stuff that we can’t afford to break down because they will make our lives miserable like the home appliances - washing machine, dyer, fridge and stove. There are appliance name brands that are rock solid - industrial strength names that are time tested. I will only go for those, never new entry names and I don’t care what the consumer review report says about them. When I go out on a steelhead or salmon fishing in the shallow streams, I go out with the very best rod and reel combination my money can buy. I see guys hooking a 15 lb salmon only to lose it because the cheap reel breaks (and literally disintegrates) when the salmon runs and jumps like crazy when hooked. Since fishing is my passion , the worst thing that could happen to me would be to pack up and go home in the middle of the trip because my damn reel broke. That’s like interrupted sex for me. LOL..

My slight twist to this rule is , if I demand performance, I’d definitely go for quality.

Mont Tremblant

2006-10-17T23:58:00.000-04:00

Nestled in the Laurentian mountains of Quebec lies the city resort of Mont Tremblant, famous for its all year round outdoor activities; skiing in winter and golf, hiking, boating in summer. It is situated about 90 kms north of Montreal and a good 7 hour drive from Toronto. What is special about Mont Tremblant aside from its beauty is you feel that you have gone to a different country with its strictly French signs and rural folks who could barely utter a word of English. Unless you're singing diva Celine Dion or race car driver Jacque Villenueve, Quebecers don't give a hoot about Hollywood celebrities. It is for this reason that celebrity couple Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones found their sanctuary in a hidden lakefront property at Lake Tremblant. Designer Tommy H also has a large and opulent villa by the lake. Hollywood celebrities are afforded some degree of anonimity giving them much the needed freedom to enjoy the outdoors. ( click on any picture to enlarge).

Mont Tremblant boasts of a village - a complex of inns, hotels, pubs, restaurants and shops at the foot of the mountain, sort of a tourist hub for easy access to the lifts that takes them to the hiking and skiing areas in big mountain. The village also operates a cable car system that serves to ferry people from the base to the top of the village free of charge.

A shot taken from the veranda of one of the inns. Notice the cable cars passing over the complex. The ride is fairly short; not more than 3 minutes. Works for those with wobbly legs.

View from the clouds, right on top of the big mountain. The body of water below is Lake Tremblant.

Approaching the village on the way down from the top of the mountain.

The village preparing for an afternoon concert. It's the first week of September and the sun is still shining.

Kids having fun with the Euro bungy trampolin.

Deserted street corner. Taken past 7pm before sundown. Please click to enlarge to appreciate it better.

And.. the village movie house. Not sure how many this place can sit.. but yes, it is a movie house!

Great golf courses..

I took these shots with a Minolta Maxxum SLR STsi camera, ASA 400 Fuji film and developed them at Walmart directly into a CD and loaded them straight into the blog to minimize loss of quality. Nope these are not digital camera shots. Blogger Senor Enrique and I were exchanging ideas about this alternative, if it makes sense. I can only say that the reproduction into the CD is the most critical part. My shots on our trip to New Hampshire was spoiled by a lousy CD quality. This time Walmart did a better job. I'm a digital camera fan but when I saw this MAXXUM on sale for C$90.00 last Xmas, I thought it was a steal! Digital cameras are great but if you have a dandy SLR camera, don't throw it away.

What Should I Eat?

2006-10-14T19:39:00.000-04:00

The other night I passed by a gas station convenience store section to get myself a cup of hot tea after a hefty dinner at a restaurant. The conversation of the cashier and a lady customer caught my attention. The lady was wearing tight jeans and long sleeves shirt, probably in her mid-thirties and a bit on the chubby side :

Cashier : Hi, I haven’t seen you for a long time. Boy you look so different! What have you done to yourself?

Customer : Really? Well I did go into a workout and weight loss program. I’m glad you noticed!

Cashier : Yes, it's very obvious! What did you do? Did you have to buy a new set of clothes?

Customer : I did lots of workout, ate veggies and healthy food and stayed away from sugar and fatty foods. I donated my clothes to the Salvation Army and Goodwill. Yeah, I had to buy a new set of clothes!

Cashier : Boy, you really look different and I’m happy that you feel and look great! The last time I saw you was around March and it was winter. What a change.

Customer : Thanks so much . I gotta go now. We’ll see each other again!

Cashier : Alright. Take care and see you soon.

As I was stirring my cup preparing to pay, the man turned to me and said. “I can’t believe what I just saw. You know that girl is my regular customer and the last time I saw her she was wide - over 300 lbs! Man, I hardly recognized her this time around. “ I replied jokingly “ Well, she looked like she must be at least 200 lbs but hey that’s more than 100 lbs lost!

I came back to the car and related the story to my wife. She saw the woman walk out and thought she was pretty but couldn’t believe she had to come down from 300+lbs. Like most people, dieting and losing weight seems to be a game of seesaw. When you think you’ve achieved some weight loss, you slacken up. This girl obviously didn't. She's one of those who toughed it out and achieved the results. Good for her.

Losing weight to become healthy and losing weight to look good are two entirely different things although it isn't hard to argue that losing weight to be healthy could make one look good. Besides, if my partner likes the way I look, why should I change? Flamboyant and controversial pro golfer John Daly , a fan favorite because of his long drives and great touch around the green, is every bit an anti-thesis of what a golfer should be – smoker, heavy drinker, pot-bellied, overweight. He typifies the ordinary guy and is nowhere close to Tiger Wood’s lean and mean physique. In his book “My Life In and Out of the Rough” Daly says that his lovely 4th wife Sherrie told him when they first met ; “ I don’t like blonds, and I don’t particularly like golfers but I do like fat boys”. Will John Daly ever try to lose weight?

Lots of exercise and eating right – low calorie, low fat, low cholesterol, low carb, no transfat, high fiber, etc. are just a few of the confusing terminologies that we hear a lot these days. Add to this the seemingly conflicting reports we get from the media on a daily basis. Coffee improves alertness. aspartame and saccharin can cause blindness, hearing impairment, palpitations, depression, etc. Drink 8 glasses of water daily. 8 glasses of water daily is urban myth– it can damage your kidneys. Don’t eat eggs – its full of cholesterol. Nope, there’s nothing wrong with eggs. Quit drinking alcohol. Have a glass of red wine daily. And the list goes on and on….

Perry confusing stuff indeed which begs the question – what the heck should I eat?

Death Penalty ; Funeral Hymn Tag

2006-10-09T20:16:00.000-04:00

I watched the other night the satiric documentary Penn and Teller : Bullshit ! Death Penalty. Penn and Teller are described as “eccentric magicians with a psychotic twist” and the issue this time around is about the death penalty. The duo supports the abolition of the death penalty in the U.S. The movie documentary contains excerpts of conversations with psychologists, law enforcement officers , politicians – both from the pro and con camp. The disturbing news is this - 122 death row inmates have already been exonerated of their crimes with the aid of DNA evidence! Can we be absolutely sure that the person we execute is the criminal? The answer is an unfortunate NO. Another loaded question is – does death penalty deter crime? Stats show that Texas, the state that executes more people than any other hasn’t seen a drop in the crime rate. Having said the above – is the death penalty nothing more than a medieval revenge mechanism, a system that is likely to kill innocent people and devoid of any deterrent value?

FUNERAL HYMN TAG :

In response to Ipanema's tag, herewith are my 5 choices :

I attended a funeral of a colleague a few years ago and his funeral hymn was “ ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE” by the Beatles. The funeral scene wasn’t one with people wailing and crying and fainting but rather, a celebration of the life of the departed. Friends and family spoke about the man – sometimes sad, sometimes funny. When you come out of the service, you felt a mixture of feelings of sadness, acceptance, hope and optimism. A drug dealer in L.A.chose jazzy SMOOTH OPERATOR by Sade as his funeral song. Now that speaks of the man’s savvy !

1) I’ll See You In My Dreams – Joe Brown.. the last song sang at the Concert For George Harrison. Joe Brown did an excellent ukulele rendition backed by the whole orchestra. Prefect song I think.

Lonely days are long
Twilight sings a song
Of the happiness that used to be

Soon my eyes will close
Soon I'll find repose
And in dreams
You're always near to me

I'll see you in my dreams
Hold you in my dreams
Someone took you out of my arms
Still I feel the thrill of your charms

2) All Things Must Pass – George Harrison. Poignant, philosophical, hopeful, simple and pure. Life’s journey expressed in the fewest words possible.

Sunrise doesn’t last till evening
A cloudburst doesn’t last all day
Seems my love is up and left you with no warning
Its not always going to be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away

3) Just a Little Bit of Love – Curtis Mayfield. Darn, would you believe the lyrics are not available on the net? The author has banned the publication! Curtis is no longer around anyways but the song is great.

4) We Are the Champions – Queen…sounds like my life struggle, a reminder of my persistence, my sharp horns, the trials and tribulations I’ve overcome.

I've paid my dues -
Time after time -
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime -
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face -
But I've come through

We are the champions - my friends
And we’ll keep on fighting till the end

5) What’s This Life For – by Creed.. meaningful and intense song by a great rock band. Peace man, peace!

I see your soul, its kinda grey
You see my heart, you look away
You see my wrist, I know your pain
I know your purpose on your plane

Don't say a last prayer
Because you could never find

What's this life for
What's this life for
What's this life for
What's this life for

But they ain't here anymore
Don't have to settle no god damn score
Cause we all live
Under the reign of one king

ONE KING, ONE KING

And To Dust Thou Shall Return..

2006-10-05T13:38:00.000-04:00

I have always marveled at the ancient Egyptians’ view of death, how they attempted to preserve bodies of departed loved ones and stored them inside gigantic pyramids filed with treasures, food and in some cases hordes of living slaves to guard them in the afterlife. My fascination took me to the land of the pharaohs many years ago where I was momentarily taken back in time as I stood in the lonely desert gazing at the elegant and imposing structures which hold the remains of the majestic and enigmatic pharaohs, once upon a time regarded as the most powerful rulers of the ancient world. I had the chance to see the unearthed golden coffins of pharaohs along with the adorning jewelry displayed at the Egyptian museum. The stunning treasures were showcased at a special section of the museum, a large room with a small unit of AK-47 toting soldiers watching visitors forming a single file pass by to get a glimpse of the treasures. The guards watched every visitor with intensity. No one was to neither pause nor stop to admire in awe nor peruse the treasures that lay beneath the glass boxes. Taking pictures was totally forbidden.

On the other side of the museum lay the mummies ripped open and exposed for the public to view, encased in glass. Come to think of it, if these bodies were of the royalty, how come no guards were watching over them? The people were flocking in the other side of the floor scrambling to get a view of the jewels, the golden sarcophagus and the precious stones guarded by heavily armed guards. Such is the reality of death. The things that once adorned us will be worth more than us. It is tragic to think that our strength, the power we once wielded, our beauty and admirable intelligence will become worthless as our body reaches the end of its journey and transforms itself to dust to rejoin the bosom of mother earth to complete the cycle of life. Some of us think that physical death is a beginning of another life but that is another topic of interesting discussion.

I came across this article on the net - 20 things you didn’t know about death and found it quite interesting, particularly the issue of our bodies becoming pollutants to the environment. Embalmed bodies dumping formaldehyde into the soil, cremation polluting the atmosphere hence the notion of “ecological burial”, cows treated with antibiotics killing vultures that feed on their rotting bodies. Finally, how about a space burial ? I am no pantheist by any stretch of the imagination but I think mother earth has way too much free space to accommodate our ashes and I am not worried about pollution in this context. Aren’t some people just over reacting?

More people dying of suicide in New York City than those murdered is a shocking stat. I’m still skeptical but if this were true, might this be the result of too many people living alone by themselves with no families or relatives to count on that stress finally declares total victory over their lives?

Here's the list :

1 The practice of burying the dead may date back 350,000 years, as evidenced by a 45-foot-deep pit in Atapuerca, Spain, filled with the fossils of 27 hominids of the species Homo heidelbergensis, a possible ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.

2 Never say die: There are at least 200 euphemisms for death, including "to be in Abraham's bosom," "just add maggots," and "sleep with the Tribbles" (a Star Trek favorite).

3 No American has died of old age since 1951.

4 That was the year the government eliminated that classification on death certificates.

5 The trigger of death, in all cases, is lack of oxygen. Its decline may prompt muscle spasms, or the "agonal phase," from the Greek word agon, or contest.

6 Within three days of death, the enzymes that once digested your dinner begin to eat you. Ruptured cells become food for living bacteria in the gut, which release enough noxious gas to bloat the body and force the eyes to bulge outward.

7 So much for recycling: Burials in America deposit 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid—formaldehyde, methanol, and ethanol—into the soil each year. Cremation pumps dioxins, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide into the air.

8 Alternatively . . . A Swedish company, Promessa, will freeze-dry your body in liquid nitrogen, pulverize it with high-frequency vibrations, and seal the resulting powder in a cornstarch coffin. They claim this "ecological burial" will decompose in 6 to 12 months.

9 Zoroastrians in India leave out the bodies of the dead to be consumed by vultures.

10 The vultures are now dying off after eating cattle carcasses dosed with diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory used to relieve fever in livestock.

11 Queen Victoria insisted on being buried with the bathrobe of her long-dead husband, Prince Albert, and a plaster cast of his hand.

12 If this doesn't work, we're trying in vitro! In Madagascar, families dig up the bones of dead relatives and parade them around the village in a ceremony called famadihana. The remains are then wrapped in a new shroud and reburied. The old shroud is given to a newly married, childless couple to cover the connubial bed.

13(*) During a railway expansion in Egypt in the 19th century, construction companies unearthed so many mummies that they used them as fuel for locomotives.

14 Well, yeah, there's a slight chance this could backfire: English philosopher Francis Bacon, a founder of the scientific method, died in 1626 of pneumonia after stuffing a chicken with snow to see if cold would preserve it.

15 For organs to form during embryonic development, some cells must commit suicide. Without such programmed cell death, we would all be born with webbed feet, like ducks.

16 Waiting to exhale: In 1907 a Massachusetts doctor conducted an experiment with a specially designed deathbed and reported that the human body lost 21 grams upon dying. This has been widely held as fact ever since. It's not.

17 Buried alive: In 19th-century Europe there was so much anecdotal evidence that living people were mistakenly declared dead that cadavers were laid out in "hospitals for the dead" while attendants awaited signs of putrefaction.

18 Eighty percent of people in the United States die in a hospital.

19 If you can't make it here . . . More people commit suicide in New York City than are murdered.

20 It is estimated that 100 billion people have died since humans began.

The Value of Education

2006-10-02T22:08:00.000-04:00

I have been mulling about this issue for a while now, often asking myself the question – is it fair for someone to be written off and deprived of the capacity to earn a decent living and live a dignified life because he or she doesn't have a college or university degree?

What does university education really buy you? Is education the ultimate passport to prosperity? Does the absence of a university degree diminish one's appeal both intellectually and socially? In the Pinoy culture, it matters not if one is born rich, middle class of poor; the absence of a degree robs the individual of that ingredient necessary to complete his/her metamorphosis into a respectable and dignified person. Society is terribly judgmental on a person without a university degree. It is either you are looked down as poor, unable to pay for university or intellectually dull, unable to progress further into higher learning. The university degree holder is considered the quintessential professional, the epitome of good manners and right conduct , someone who brings honor and prestige to his family and community. When someone an commits an impropriety, we often hear the all too familiar comment , " he is an educated person - how can he possibly do that?", as if an educated person is infallible and moral injudiciousness is a monopoly of the uneducated. We all know by now that this archaic presumption is fallacious and hypocritical, for the sub-culture of graft corruption in government that had gone unabated for decades up until now were the brainchild of the most educated people of the nation.

What is the real value of education ? Is it the financial rewards of academic excellence ? We all fascinated by the notion that superior academic skills bring about instant success in the field of employment so we start with our children early. We applaud our rigorous early education, how our children excel in academics at their young ages but which is more profitable in the long haul, a child who is confident, articulate and spontaneous in expressing himself but slightly lagging in academic skills, or one who knows long division and multiplication, flawless in his grammar conjugation yet unable to speak his mind and communicate his thoughts effectively? Isn't education supposed to be progressive and in line with the person's pace of emotional and physical maturity?

Albert Einstein, in his short article " Why Socialism" had this interesting commentary ......" the experience which has accumulated since the beginning of the so-called civilized period of human history has--as is well known-- been largely influenced and limited by causes which are by no means exclusively economic in nature. For example, most of the major states of history owed their existence to conquest. The conquering peoples established themselves, legally and economically, as the privileged class of the conquered country. They seized for themselves a monopoly of the land ownership and appointed a priesthood from among their own ranks. The priests, in control of education, made the class division of society into a permanent institution and created a system of values by which the people were thenceforth, to a large extent unconsciously, guided in their social behavior".

The legacy of the Spanish class system remains intact and education seems to be the only bridge that allows the have nots to cross into the realm of the haves. Over the years the elitism had gone progressively worse because the elite kept on raising the bar to fend off the bridge crossers, establishing their own posh housing enclaves, upscale schools and trendy supermarkets for the enjoyment and consumption with their own kind. Elitism in education in RP is at its pathetic peak as we speak. Fueled by competition and patronage from graduates from the elite schools who head many of the country’s big corporations, a handful of elite schools had declared themselves the benchmark of educational excellence and set themselves apart from the rest. Except for a couple of publicly funded schools in the list, the most important requirement other than an average brain is money, therefore shutting off the have nots effectively. It is now common practice for hiring companies to narrow down their candidate list to graduates from these elite schools, leaving the rest as lowly bottom feeders to fight for the unglamorous and low paying positions.

Does every job require a university degree in the first place? Should a carpenter or a truck driver make significantly less salary than accounting clerk because he did not slug it out at the university? I remember when I was touring Hongkong a few years ago our tour bus guide when speaking briefly about his country’s economy said that high school graduates are lured by the high paying jobs at the plants and factories that they opt to go to shorter programs at trade schools rather than spending 4 years at a university. In Canada, a little more than 10% of its population finish university . The rest take up diploma ( non-degree) courses or vocational courses. Those who finish high school can become tradesmen – masons, carpenters, truck drivers and earn a decent living to raise and support their families . Life isn’t a write off because you’re only a high school graduate.

The root cause of our economic dilemma has to do with the failure of our society to respect the dignity of labor at the inception of our nation. We may not know or even deny it, the Spanish class system is still very much intact in our thinking. Our laws and practices show it. As long as we continue to trivialize the importance of the labor class and continue the hypocrisy of placing premium on higher education not for its utility but as precondition for societal acceptance and the ultimate means to get ahead economically, we may not be able to avert our journey to self destruction.

Strange

2006-09-30T23:24:00.000-04:00

Three years after murdering his 12 year old brother Jonathon, Kevin Madden had been sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole after 10 years. The culprit’s name which had been protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because he was only 16 when the murder was committed in 2003 was finally revealed in the sentencing. The murder was heinous – the victim was stabbed 71 times. Another youth, supposedly his accomplice was sentenced to 2 years in youth prison. What I find incredulous is the statement of his lawyer on TV and radio alleging that the sentence was unfair because Kevin Madden had been sane and sober and behaving well without incident for the last 3 years. Whoa? Give me a break here. What kind of earthling has the compulsion to turn his hapless sibling into minced meat ?

When a political party is in dire need of a leader, ambitious politicians would do anything to get their sights on the power chair. Joe Volpe entered the Liberal part leadership race and was accused of registering dead people’s names in his petition to run for the leadership. The party then fines him $20,000 for the infraction. I’m not sure if this guy Volpe has his brains in his butt but he is trying to appeal! Huh? Volpe doesn’t seem to realize that he is vying for the leadership for a major political party and thinks that putting dead people’s names into the list and accepting donations from 11 year olds are oh well, no big deal really. Not me - blame my staff for behaving like jerks. Nice try, dork.

The Super-flyweight elimination fight between South African Hawk Makepula and Mexican Jorge Arce on Sept 23 wasn't what I would call spectacular but the pre-fight proceedings was interesting. Arce, dubbed as the Mexican cowboy rode on a Harley from the dressing room to the ring donning a cowboy hat. Makepula on the other hand walked with his arms outstretched and looking up to the heavens, singing along with the African gospel song that was blaring in the background, filling the entire arena. In the dressing room pre-fight interview , Makepula spoke about nothing but Jesus and started quoting verses from the bible. I don’t know about you folks but it seems totally eerie for a person to be praising God and claming he has His power and the next moment trying to beat up and blow another guy’s brains out. It is fine to be religious and people will respect that but gosh, this is a boxing match! With his stature as champion and very well respected in his country, he should concentrate on his ministry outside of boxing matches for heaven’s sake. Late in the third round Arce caught the Hawk with a barrage of power punches that staggered him. In the first minute of the 4th round Makepula got tagged again with a couple of power punches that sent him crashing to the canvas. He stood up but the ref declared him unfit to continue hence the TKOvictory for Arce. I guess Jesus wasn’t on his side that day.

Rule No. 5

2006-09-23T02:07:00.000-04:00

Out of sheer interest and perhaps a sign of getting old as well, I snatched the Rules of Life , a personal code for living better written by Richard Templar. I don’t know Templar but I’ve read positive reviews about the book so I reckon I might learn something if I gave it a read. Having no luxury of time to read nowadays, I prefer those books that don’t beat around the bush and gets to the meat of the matter in bullet point fashion. Such is this book. It contains 100 rules , a rule spreading to a couple pages the most, covering personal, partnership, family and social rules. Rule No 5 grabbed me. Below is an excerpt from the book.

Quote.

Rule No 5 : Know What Counts and What Doesn’t

Being here counts. Being kind and considerate counts. Getting through each day without seriously offending or hurting anyone counts. Having the latest technology doesn’t.

Sorry, I don’t have a downer on technology. In fact, I pretty much have the latest gizmos. I just (a) don’t overly rely too much on any of it and (b) see them as useful tools rather than having any intrinsic meaning in themselves, in a status symbol or one-up-person ship kind of way.

Doing something with your life counts. Going shopping because you’re bored doesn’t. Yes, by all means go shopping, but see what you do as counting or not counting, being real or not being real, being of some benefit or not. This does not mean chucking it all up and going off to some fly-infested swamp to work with the locals and catch malaria – although that in itself would count, but you don’t go to those extremes to make your life meaningful.

I guess the Rule means focusing on what is important, to you in your life, and making positive changes to ensure you feel happy in what you are dedicating your life to. It doesn’t mean long-term plans mapped out to the smallest detail. I means knowing, roughly, where you are going and what you are doing. Awake rather than asleep. A fellow author, Tim Freke, calls it *lucid living* - a perfect term for what we are talking about.

THERE ARE SOME THINGS IN LIFE THAT ARE IMPORTANT AND A WHOLE LOT OF THINGS THAT AREN’T. It doesn’t take too much discrimination to work out which are which. And there a lot more things that don’t count, aren’t really important to choose from. I’m not saying that we can’t have trivia in our lives – we can and it’s just fine. Just don’t go mistaking the trivia for what is really important. Having time for loved ones and friends is important, watching the latest soap isn’t. Repaying a debt is important, what brand of washing machine power you use isn’t. Nurturing our children and teaching them real values is important, dressing them in designer fashion isn’t. You get the idea. Think about what you do that counts – and do more of it.

Unquote.

A radio announcer blurted out this joke on the radio sometime ago…. “ a mother who buys her baby a $1,000 Jeep stroller has an ugly baby”. It is not necessarily true but one can read between the lines and discern the message. Is life all about working to acquire possessions to either show off or keep up with the Joneses ? Do we ever pause and think of things that count and those that don’t? Is the distinction really necessary? Perhaps and the author puts forth a challenge to our sense of values and encourages us to rethink our priorities and focus on things that count. We all have varying personal predicaments , cultural biases and societal pressures that finding out what really counts can be terribly subjective.

A woman I know who had a habit of amassing jewelry back in Pinas found no real use of them when she migrated to North America and settled in a suburban, middle-class community with a few Pinoy families. The people in the neighborhood including her Pinoy friends were quite prosperous but they never seemed to care about jewelry and designer clothes. They wore clothes and watches they wanted. People weren’t putting premium on designer clothing and weren’t too concerned about upscale vs. ordinary. They seemed to be more interested in taking their families to camping trips on weekends and seemingly boring activities such as participating in local baseball leagues in summer and skiing lessons in winter. Suddenly there’s a dramatic shift on what counts and what doesn’t dictated not by her conscience by the new society she moved into.

Nonetheless, we are all guilty of self-indulgence and there comes a point in our journey when are in quandary of our very existence and the need to feel that we are living our lives for a nobler purpose emerges from our innermost being. We don’t need the big splash… just doing more of the little things that count and I agree.

The Hole In One Deal

2006-09-17T23:06:00.000-04:00

You get invited to a customer appreciation tournament or you pay a fee to be able to get to the designated tee off and boom.. you hit the ball and when it goes into the hole you win the most coveted price - a brand new car! People often ask - what's the deal with these cars in the hole in one contest? In an 18 hole course, there is only one hole designated for the hole in one contest. Other than the car being donated by a generous sponsor there are companies that specialize in providing cars for hole in one events in exchange for a fee . If the car isn't won, they keep the fee. In other words, they are in the business of risk taking, betting on the odds that a hole in one is a real long shot. For example, the company might ask the event organizer $6,000 insurance for a BMW 325. If someone makes a hole in one, the car is given away but if no one does, the company keeps the 6 grand. A company rep is stationed rep at the hole as a witness to make sure that the hole in one claim is legitimate.

In some fund raising events, people who want to take a shot at winning the car pay for the chance to hit. In one event a few years ago at a local public club here, a Cadillac STS was showcased as the hole in one price. People were paying the 5 bucks ticket to hit for the car. One lady wanted the Cadillac but didn't know how to play golf so a gentleman, a complete stranger asked if he could hit for her. She obliged , paid the 5 bucks and unbelievably , the stranger holed the ball! The Cadillac was won! The lady was jumping up and down rejoicing with the win- a spanking, brand new luxury car. The following day, the news hit the airwaves and people were criticizing the woman for being selfish. Many callers insisted the man deserved something; after all, it was his shot that won the car.

So what do you think people - was the man entitled to a share of the prize?

Benedict Apologizes

2006-09-17T01:08:00.000-04:00

I’ve been away for an extra long weekend in Quebec and caught up with Pope Benedict’s imbroglio on TV while on the road. I’m not sure if it’s just me, but the double standard I see on the news and TV regarding what constitutes an affront to Muslims is starting to bother and sicken me. The war in Iraq had transitioned to Sunnis and Shiites slaughtering each other everyday and everybody is blaming Bush for it. Oh well, we know Dubya’s stupid. The world openly criticizes the Vatican for its hypocrisy, bash the pope for his view on birth control and gay marriage with total disrespect; some even cast doubt on Jesus’ deity but no one got beheaded - but when the pope utters a quote from a 14th century emperor about prophet Mohammad, the world cries foul! Ben XVI MUST apologize! Benedict should have retorted .. apologize? Whoa? .. who shot John Paul II in 1981?

Shopping Boredom

2006-09-07T10:28:00.000-04:00

The pic is actually a witty-words magnet sticker gracing our fridge door at the moment. Going to the mall and shopping my wife is akin to a journey to the unexpected – remember that sci-fi movie? LOL. We would be store hopping seemingly looking for nothing and if we stumble upon something of interest to her, we would be stuck like a truck with two flat tires. It takes me literally 1 minute to try a pair of pants and make up a buy decision. My pseudo - computerized brain searches for a few variables for a decision– color good? YES. waist fits? YES. Does it look good on me? YES. Price OK? YES. BUY IT! My wife seems to have a large database of variables like.. hmmm.. what’s the percentage of this blending with all my bags, shoes and sweaters in the closet? What would my friends think about this? My friend so and so says she likes this color. The other store sells this cheaper....

My kind of shop are the sporting goods and electronics stores. This is where I enjoy hanging around and checking items out for new models or items that are on sale. I'm bored to death checking out clothing stores with my wife. To alleviate my boredom , I let her shop on her own , make her own decisions while I go my way to my kind of shops. I also told her to capitalize on the generous 30 day return policy of most stores here. No need to waste time - buy it and if she changes her mind later on, return the darn thing. How’s that for a cure to impulse buying? The adrenalin rush , that passion for acquisitiveness seems unstoppable at the moment but when you get home, reality sinks in, the clothes don’t really look that great.. it’s expensive. Change of mind ? no problem, return it. You might end up empty handed but at least you had fun shopping.

Fast and Furious ; Misguided Compassion or Abuse of System?

2006-09-04T18:02:00.000-04:00

Drag racing is becoming as dangerous as ever. The number of deaths arising from accidents as the result of drag racing in increasing. The recent deaths in Toronto this time involving motorcycles is proof of how precious lives can be lost due the mindless urge for the thrill of speed and quest for tacky braggadocio. This particular incident had enraged the public because an innocent life of a person who had nothing to do with the drag race had been snapped in a jiffy in the most senseless manner. Strangely enough, the driver of the errant motorcycle filmed his own death. For some strange reason, a camera was mounted on the Honda R.C.51’s dashboard to film the speedometer. The police used the film as evidence for the illegal racing and the two racers , the dead motorcycle driver included, were charged with the death of a 60 year old man whose car was hit by the errant motorcycle. The film was shown on TV to educate the public on the perils of drag racing. I saw the film. As the speed was quickly incrementing to 248 km/hr, the motorcycle shuddered fiercely and went into an uncontrollable convulsion, spun around and hit a car on the oncoming lane. Looks to me that the incident wasn’t about racing but blowing the bike’s engine. Truly sad and unfortunate when the poor 60 year old man’s life had been wasted by such and irresponsible and inane actions.

MISGUIDED COMPASSION or ABUSE OF SYSTEM

In the recent AIDS conference in Toronto which was graced by high profile guests like Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, the organizers criticized Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper for not showing up. The criticism was harsh; in fact the AIDS sculpture located at the provincial parliament grounds was vandalized by people who were incensed by Harper’s no show at the conference. Whatever Harper’s reason was, many felt it was the manifestation his ultra- Christian, right-wing Conservative stance, viewing AIDS as punishment for the sins of promiscuity. When the conference concluded , 140 delegates out of the 24,000 who attended the conference surprisingly filed for refugee status. And here’s the startling twist to the story. All the 140 mostly from Africa are either HIV positive or have full blown AIDS. Refugees? Are these people being persecuted in their home countries? Not really. The claim was due to “discrimination” from treatment, hence their interpretation of persecution.

My question is – IS THIS FAIR? Is a medical condition a valid reason to apply for a refugee status? The hearing with the refugee board takes about two years therefore a claimant gets sort of a reprieve as he is given a social insurance number to allow him to work and support himself. Statistically, the success rate of being granted a refugee status is around 48%. When the refugee claimant says that he cannot appreciate the meaning of “ stress on the health care system” I believe a Canadian taxpayer can equally say that he cannot appreciate why non-citizens are to be granted a lengthy and expensive refugee hearing when it is glaringly obvious that the reason for the application is not due to political persecution in their home countries.

Absolutely Freaky

2006-08-15T21:23:00.000-04:00

Over the years we have been watching breathtaking performances of David Copperfield, the dapper illusionist who married supermodel Claudia Schiffer and the impossible feats of maestro David Blaine but none had ever paralleled the boldness and freakiness of the grandmaster of them all - Criss Angel. Still in his thirties, Angel looks and dresses like a rocker and literally speaking because the man plays in a rock band besides being a master magician and illusionist. His illusions are top draws, never seen before performances which can range from amusing to mind-boggling to nauseating and terrifying.

Here’s some of his “tricks” :

He lies down on a hanging bed with a with a large , overhead
circular saw gradually descending towards his body. The saw finally sears into his flesh, splits his torso and the metal bed. His body is cut in half and his head and upper part of his body are very much alive, his legs and feet on the other half of the bed still wiggling.

At the park, he huddles with strangers, asks a woman lie down on a wooden bench then requests two people to pull her hands and two feet with all their might, like playing tug of war. All of a sudden the woman’s body splits in two and the upper body part starts crawling around with the hands to the horror of the onlookers. People who were freaked out started running away from the scene.

He walks with an umbrella then stops at the side of the building. He then places his left feet onto the wall, pushes his body using the umbrella so he could position his right foot on the wall, then starts walking upright until the top of the building very much like Spiderman. The stunt defies the laws of gravity hence absolutely mind-boggling.

And many more. How the hell does he do this? All the while Angel knew he had this “power”. He has pictures of him “levitating “ his mom at the house when he was thirteen. Work of the devil perhaps? Why was there no blood when his body was cut? One can also pitch the camera trick argument – heck, this is just television. I would be satisfied if I was watching these things “live” like touching his body as he is walking upright. Whatever , it’s still absolutely freaky!

Best Bang for Buck

2006-08-11T01:14:00.000-04:00

Here's an interesting benchmark on the purchasing power of a country's currency -the amount of hours you need to work to buy a Big Mac. The survey conducted by Swiss bank UBS amongst 70 countries showed that it only takes 10 minutes of work in Tokyo to buy a Big Mac. The global average is 35 minutes. In Kenya, it takes 1.5 hours. "Wages only become meaningful in relation to prices -that is, what can be bought with the money earned." Makes sense.

Talking About Weird

2006-08-04T22:05:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday, while checking out at the supermarket, the young lady cashier, a Chinese Canadian, told my 5 year old - hey, you look like me when I was young, although you're a tad darker. Then she conversed with my wife, and we found out that she and my daughter have the same names! Huh?

As I was driving last night and listening to a popular radio talk show, the topic being discussed was a mysterious segment of a major highway close to the city where the talk show host encountered what he considered a almost paranormal event, when his car, barely one week out of the showroom, suddenly veered to the left lane, almost hitting another car. The most perplexing thing was he wasn't able to control the car. It looked like some kind of a Bermuda triangle phenomenon where pilots of planes and boats experienced loss of control of their steering wheel. Then lo and behold, people started calling in, testifying of the same horrifying experience in the aforesaid portion of the highway. After about 8 callers, a retired professional race car driver called in theorizing that the particular segment of the highway in question had been degraded by large 18 wheelers plying the area and the road is having some imperfections that would cause the sudden shift to the left side when one is driving on the right ( slowest) lane at speeds over 100km/hr. Most peeople don't realize it he said if they're driving slow in heavy traffic. Well, I think the govt ought to fix this damn road! I'm glad it's out of my way but it's kinda scary.

Now, about weird cell phone users as blogged by Abaniko, I have a Pinoy officemate who actually hangs up his landline at home when he goes to work. If you call him at home, you'd hear that dit..dit..dit.. fast busy signal. At the office, his voice mail doesn't announce his family name. No one knows his cell number and he told us that he " borrows" the cell from friend so he can't give out his number. When he goes on vacation, he unplugs his office phone from the outlet ( not necessary because there's voice mail anyway). When you listen to his out of the office voice mail, he won't say when he is returning to work. This guy is single, probably close to 40 lives alone in his apartment, no girlfriend, no car and we don't have a clue of what he does with his salary. We don't know what's up with the guy but we're not surprised why he's still single.

Weird Things Meme

2006-08-04T00:04:00.000-04:00

I guess everyone has his own weirdness, something that sets ourselves apart from others. Talking about my “benign” weirdness ... here’s my response to Major Tom’s tag about 6 weird things about me:

1. I can’t eat inside a train , bus or subway. My wife hates me for this. In the few times that we go home together in the train commute, she would buy us a couple of take home burger combos to munch in the train, I would pass up. I just hate people looking at me eating. I would eat only if we manage to secure the two seater at back end of the train.

2. I’m a watch freak. I own a dozen wrist watches of different makes and models. In my house, I also have clocks all over the place – bedrooms, family room, kitchen, living room, dining room, bathrooms and basement. With the clocks in my microwave and oven range not including phone displays, I have counted 21 functioning clocks in my house. My bedroom has 2 clocks – one LCD on top of the TV that gleams when the lights are all out and one on the wall . When I wake up , the first thing I see is the bright red LCD clock showing the time. The transition from EST ( Eastern Standard Time) to DST ( Daylight Saving Time) and vice-versa is a nightmare for me. I swear I could pay someone just to adjust all the clocks and watches my house.

3. I hate to take lessons. I played tennis all my life but never had a single lesson with a pro. I have been playing golf for about 4 years now, but had just a 1 hour lesson with a lady pro at a resort. I watch the golf channel on TV everyday, subscribe to magazines, bought instructional CD’s, books, customized my equipment but I just don’t feel the need to take lessons. I could have improved more if I took lessons. I’m not sure what’s bugging me . I guess I’m just plain stubborn or lazy.

4. When I get hooked on fishing, I could drive 4 hours to a fishing spot, fish the spot for 8 hours and drive back home for another 4 hours and do it again the next day.

5. When I’m stalled in traffic, I glance at billboards and sign boards and split words in bunches of two, then three or four letters. This seems to be what my mind likes to do when when it is idle.

6. I could live up the rest of my life without eating rice.

Talking about rice, we Pinoys eat rice with almost anything don’t we. My wife can’t survive a day without eating rice. Italians grasp in horror when we spaghetti with rice. Do we care about harmony in food at all? What about harmony of colors and texture ? I think the only beverage that blends well with a Chinese meal is tea. With Pinoy food, I am thinking coconut water. I mean we can serve dinuguan, spaghetti and sinigang in one sitting and it’s perfectly alright! Try eating them without rice – yuck, they won’t blend at all. But put rice on the table and they all taste great. Rice… the great equalizer indeed. Just today I gave my 5 year old daughter rice and dinuguan and two cones of cherry ice cream. I’m just thinking… If I take a photo of a bowl of dinuguan and 2 scoops of cherry ice cream of the side.. arrggh.. well, black and pink seem to go well together LOL.. Culinary disaster or extreme cuisine?

Travel Snags

2006-07-31T15:54:00.000-04:00

Have you ever experienced your travel plans being delayed or abruptly changed by forces beyond your control making you mad with smoke coming off your ears? Well, I hit one very recently. I haven’t blogged for a while because I was working my ass off to finish things at the office before going to a much anticipated 2 week breather I desperately needed to preserve my sanity. On the Friday, the day before heading off for my vacation, my boss suddenly calls me to his office at about noon time to request me to come back after a week because of a sudden shift in plans that required my team’s deliverables completed earlier than scheduled . In short, I was being asked to take one week vacation instead of two. I was planning to take the family for a long drive and spend a week at the mountains of New Hampshire and then on to Connecticut to visit my sister’s family and then drive back home to spend at least 3 days to fix up things in the house. Dangit, I was so upset but mustered enough emotional intelligence to address the situation through a fairly decent exchange of words. OK, the man is almost begging me to come back and he is also my buddy, a good friend I have known for 10 years. I don’t want to screw up my team, my boss and myself duh so I gave him my word that I will come back as requested… I’ll deal with the wifey later I told myself. I’m glad that in my house I am the captain of the ship although my wife tends to snatch my job description occasionally, she hasn’t usurped my authority. I made the decision and broke the news to my wife over the phone. She was quite supportive of me which mad a heck of a difference since I didn’t have to fight on two fronts . But seriously, doesn’t this thing suck for heaven’s sake? Will I ever go through this crap again? &*%^@*&

Anyways, we headed to New Hampshire as planned. It was thoroughly refreshing to park and pause your brain from thinking and forgetting about dieting for one entire week. Office business was completely out of my mind although I received three legit calls from work throughout the entire week. With legit I mean I don’t mind being called for info but don’t ask me to do darn work – I’m on a friggin’ vacation. I’m back at home now and plan to go back to work Tuesday instead of Monday and when I win the lottery on Wednesday I won’t have to go back to work Thursday LOL!

My fondest memory of a travel snag would be the incident that happened aboard an inter-island ship plying the Bacolod- Manila route many years ago during my university days. After the final call for visitors to leave the ship in preparation for departure, the ship finally detached the ramp at the Banago wharf ( Bacolod) and veered slowly toward the open sea for the 19 hour overnight voyage. All of a sudden, at a distance we could hear a middle aged woman in her late fifties shouting at the crew demanding that she be brought back to port. She overstayed a little too long despite the series of announcements on the ship’s PA system. She was either deaf or her relatives didn’t understand English nor the local dialect. We weren’t far perhaps about 400 meters so the captain of the ship obliged and slowly turned the ship around. Putting back the ramp would require a lot of maneuvering so the crew decided to hoist her down to the wharf via the ship’s crane. The crane was fitted with a wooden plank where she stood in the middle, held in balance by three seamen to protect her from falling into the water. She was lowered down in an a slow but intricate maneuver and folks at the wharf and aboard the ship were clapping their hands, cheering her like a celebrity. Then with a few feet to land, one of her sandals fell into the water! Like a berserk dog she began pushing one of the crewmen who had to hold on to the rope to avoid slipping into the water, shouting – WHEE! WHEEE! get my goddam sandal! We were delayed which pissed many passengers for sure but this one was quite hilarious which amused some folks, myself included.

The Bounds of Patriotism

2006-07-14T00:32:00.000-04:00

When he won the men’s 100 meter dash in 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and bestowed that most prestigious honor of being the fastest man in the world, Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey’s response to the reporter’s question as to why he was carrying two flags as he was being mobbed by his adoring and patriotic fans was – “I am Jamaican first and Canadian second”. Brian Viloria, Hawaiian-born boxer of Pinoy parents and current WBC Junior Flyweight titleholder , in his post-fight interview by HBO’s Larry Merchant after his phenomenal 1st round KO victory over Eric Ortiz was introduced by Merchant as an American of Filipino descent. Viloria promptly retorted , as if trying to nullify Merchant’s comment, that he considers himself 100 % Filipino and proud of his father’s roots. Viloria went on to wave the Filipino flag eliciting a raccous response from a highly partisan Vegas crowd. The question is – were their comments unpatriotic? Have these people done a disservice to the countries they represent ?

The FIFA World Cup is one event that brings forth echoes of Bailey and Viloria’s controversial sentiments. When Italy won against Germany, a section in the city of Toronto populated mainly by people of Italian heritage called Little Italy was like a mob scene. Thousands of fans were jumping up and down like crazy shouting and honking their car horns, waving the Italian flag, rejoicing and jubilant in their glorious victory. One man shown on TV was literally crying, still and holding his cell phone oblivious of the party he was having a conversation with, shouting Italia! Italia! The chaotic scene of hundreds of fans taking the streets of Toronto, cheering for the country from where their ancestors were born is no longer considered moot. After all this country is a land of immigrants and a melting pot of many nations of the world. Once every four years that opportunity to celebrate with pride one’s country of origin in such a thrilling and magnificent competitive event as the FIFA World Cup is an absolutely incredible experience. But as soon the euphoria is over, everyone goes back to minding his own business, continuing with the task of respecting each other’s diversity and building the country that nurtures his hopes and aspirations, a country that he is greatly indebted to.

When I think of the 17 “homegrown” Islamic terrorists who were arrested for plotting to bomb strategic government buildings and offices, I ask myself the question – why the destruction? Why cut the hand that rocks the cradle? Those terrorists who were born here are flat out traitors, pathetic ingrates who have no sense of patriotism and it boggles my mind why they would continue to live here, avail of free health care , free education and then destroy the very society that gave them these benefits. Equally treacherous and vile are those that immigrated here with the purpose of destroying the society that is inhabited by infidels who are supposedly wretched and evil. If these people can’t stand the infidels, I’m wondering why they insist on staying. Maybe they should move to their own promised land where they could live without the prejudices and the stress of integrating with people they consider having nothing in common. The hypocrisy is so disgusting and sickening.

Talking about Idols

2006-07-05T00:24:00.000-04:00

The Canadian Idol season is in full gear, the contestants down to 9 men and 9 women. Within a couple of weeks the froth will clear and the cream of the crop, the top ten will battle it out until one man is left standing. But hold it – what’s Rob James doing in this crowd? Rob James, cool dude and the other half of the classy duo of McMaster and James trying to become the Canadian Idol? Luke McMaster and Rob James had hit the top of the charts in 2000 with their bouncy and percussion laden hit song Love Wins Everytime ( makes you think Sheena Easton was on the drums ). They had a bunch of other good songs like Thank You and One Emotion. These guys had been on the road and opened concerts for hot stars like Cristina Aguilera. Should an experienced artist be allowed to participate in the Idol contest? David Moffatts of the group The Moffatts was a contestant last year and made it to the top 10 but was booted out with his lame aping of Stevie Wonder’s Overjoyed. But Moffatts and James are of a different league you see. What knowledge would the judges impart to a guy like Rob James who’s been there, done that and cut hot selling records? The Canadian Idol is produced by Simon Fuller, the producer of American idol and the rules should be no different. My theory is because Rob James and David Moffatts weren’t solo artists and were part of a group, they were given the chance vie in the Idol contest with the hope that a win would launch a much needed solo career. Rob James is Rob James but the 8 other men in the group aren’t pushovers by any means so James has his hands definitely full.

Who really cares about American nor Canadian Idols when we have bunch of hot looking Pinoy Idolswho could bring the house down!

Baby Love ?

2006-06-21T00:06:00.000-04:00

This grotesque baby jumping tradition had been going on for centuries at the annual Corpus Christi celebration in Spain but honestly folks, do you really want your baby to be jumped over by El Colacho or an innocuous clown or even stunt superstar Evel Knievel himself? Heck not my baby. Whatever the origins of this bizarre ritual is, it certainly smacks not of religiosity but stupidity or perhaps stupid religiosity. A slight misstep can result in a mishap that could kill these hapless babies like flies being smashed by a flyswatter. It looks like fun of course but I bet you, there are those in the crowd who believe that this human kangaroo dressed in a clown’s attire is actually immunizing the babies from the curse of the evil spirits. Why can’t people rid of their ancestral superstitious beliefs when they know it defies logic and common sense?

My pet peeve are those email chain letters that forebodes someone’s doom should he fail to circulate the message to 10 other people. What on earth do these self appointed prophets think they can achieve by behaving in a threatening, apocalyptic manner? Whenever I receive such emails, I drag them to the wastebasket. There are also those relic fanatics who would venerate anything that resembles the face of Christ – be it hamburger patty, a cloud formation or a splatter of ink on paper. Why the penchant for such vague speculations? Legends and superstitions are one thing but when integrated with religion it becomes debilitating as it promotes stagnation, immobilizing people to explore and enjoy the beauty of this world, imprisoning them in their folly.

“ I cried out to God asking only his decision, Gabriel stands and confirms I created my own prison” … from the song My Own Prison by CREED.

Pageant Fiasco

2006-06-15T23:18:00.000-04:00

You may have already seen this horrendous blunder on TV. I saw the news clip on TV but never quite understood what really happened to the Mrs. World pageant fiasco until I reviewed the captioned video clip. The short end of the story is, the wrong winner was crowned. Mrs. Russia was supposed to be the winner, but the crown went to the runner up, Mrs. Costa Rica. Alan Thicke, a very experienced emcee and a great actor himself supposedly goofed-up big time by announcing the wrong winner. Then there was the allegation that the ruling was reversed by the Russian program director for a hometown decision. To me, every finalist looked like Ivana Trump and heck, anyone could have won the darn title. But what really happened ? Well, Mr. Thicke didn't do anything wrong - except perhaps for not interrupting the comical crowning - it was the pageant assistant who crowned the wrong person! And worse, everyone on stage was oblivious to what they heard and proceeded with the hugging, the tears of joy with the uncontrolled shivering of lips until the program director shouted at the pageant assistant - Mrs. Russia won the damn contest! Why did you crown Mrs. Costa Rica?

Mr. Alan Thicke who I'm sure was embarrased to his gut had to do a take two and re-announced the winner. The little angel holding a crown had to descend from heaven for the second time to hand over the tiara to the pageant assistant to crown the obviously perturbed and impatient Mrs. Russia. What the heck was wrong with Mrs. Costa Rica? She could have just flatly muttered to the assistant who was crowning her - " I really hate to be sour grapes here sis, but I kinda heard things differently - you sure of what you're doing?" It could have saved her a ton of embarassment.

Winning the Lottery, what was it like?

2006-06-06T21:17:00.000-04:00

$25 million dollars certainly looks more than adequate to make you quit work and live off on the money for the rest of your life – but is it really?

According to statistics, 30 % of lottery winners end up bankrupt and 43% claim that more money had no effect on their happines .

Some say that you should immediately spend 10% of your winnings lavishly - go away and spend money like crazy, light $10 cigars with $100 bills but once done with the binge, get a reality check and change your phone number, move to a different location and handle the 90% like you’d go bankrupt the following month. Work on personal growth rather than financial growth. This is how you must deal with the beast.

Winning the lottery, what was it like?

Body Odour Bylaw?

2006-06-03T00:48:00.000-04:00

Here’s an issue we have been struggling with since time immemorial – what should we do with someone who smells like a stinking garbage can? A woman writes to a daily newspaper and urges politicians to enact a bylaw against body odours, to protect citizens from those among us who consider personal hygiene not a rule but an option and taking a bath nothing more than a weekly trip to a nearby lake or river for the body cleansing ritual. Yes, it this day and age there are those who think that the big city is a sprawling desert strewn with a handful of oasis and water is so damn hard to find.

The woman recounts her 6 hour bus ride experience of sitting beside a woman who smelled of “stinky socks, musty body odour and rotting flesh, all mixed together “. That must be one heck of an endurance flight, breathing with half of your lungs for the duration of the trip. Was the woman carrying a dead cat in her tote bag? Did she sleep on top of garbage bags in a dump truck the night before taking the bus ride? Was she just a skunk that mutated into a human being? Or was she suffering from a rare disease called fish odour syndrome , an incurable disease short of a death sentence, that makes a person’s pores secrete a foul smelling odor resembling rotten fish?

It is known that eating lots of spices can cause our skin pores to secrete the odor of spice. I had a colleague a few years ago who smelled of curry that everywhere he went – his office, the small meeting rooms and even the water cooler area, he left a trail of that curry smell. I could consider this one an exception but the most common problem really boils down plain and simple lack of personal hygiene. You can also throw in the odd Pinoy cultural superstitious beliefs - like taking a bath at night will cause the muscles to atrophy or sleeping with wet hair could lead to blindness. If that were true, Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway would have been a blind jellyfish when he was rescued from the high seas.

Must we just cover our noses or have the person fined or arrested for the aggravation his stench causes to his fellowmen? If we choose the latter we are faced with an even tougher challenge – what exactly is offensive body odor? Must we invent a stench meter to separate pigs from sheep? Is the lady taking things a bit too far?

It's the Bloody Wrong Guy!

2006-05-22T15:31:00.002-04:00

The recent incident of a prestigious, world class TV station such as the BBC interviewing the wrong guy live on air seems unbelievable but yes, it did happen! The mix up happened when a man they thought to be Guy Kewney, an editor of a techie magazine was rushed into the newsroom for a live interview regarding the long standing legal wrangling between Apple Computer and Apple Records. The man wasn’t Kewney but a cab driver named Guy Goma who happened to be in the studio at the time applying for a job! Goma didn’t entirely botch the interview and managed to ad-lib well enough to keep some sense of spontaneity until the ordeal was promptly and gracefully terminated. Goma had to dig deep into his cranial cavity to hang on - thanks to his business studies degree from the Congo! I could imagine the studio staffers frantically screaming to the anchorperson over her headset – it’s the bloody wrong guy. Stop the interview ! I hope Goma got the job he was applying for as compensation for the embarrassment he had to go through.

Talking about the wrong guy, Elliot Yamin was booted out of the American Idol competition in a very tight semifinal race ever in the history of the contest. Yamin garnered the lowest 33.06% of votes while fellow competitors, Taylor Hicks and Katherine McPhee were also in the 33.xx percent level, but just a tad higher. It sure was anybody’s race. Many consider Yamin technically superior over McPhee, but the latter’s gorgeous looks saccharine singing style may have been enough to boot out Yamin , a regular looking guy who had been unkindly described by news articles as a distant cousin of Frodo Baggins from Hobbitlandia and a look alike of Mr. Tumnus, the Faun, that half-man/half-goat creature from the Chronicles of Narnia. Yamin’s best song in the competition I thought was the classy and superb rendition of a Stevie Wonder’s classic-Knocks Me Off My Feet , an all time best, one song you can play in the car on a sunny spring morning that will cheer you up and make you feel there’s a lot in life to live for. My pick in the finals ? Taylor Hicks.

Musings From A Train Ride

2006-05-15T01:31:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I was in Montreal for a project implementation. This time I took the Via Rail train for a change. I left Saturday morning and came back Sunday evening. The train trip was , as I expected , more relaxing than the plane ride. It was a relaxing 4.5 hour train ride one way. The business class had roomy seats, great food service and I was able to read the daily paper quite substantially and even managed to doze off a bit. The plane ride is only 55 minutes but adding up the travel to the airport, check in and wait times, I figured it would be about 3 hours . Add the aggravation factor further – I’d take the 4.5 hours. The bonus was when I arrived at the train station in Montreal, my hotel was just a couple of floors up by the elevator! Dandy I thought. Checking out from your room 15 minutes before your train leaves ? Wicked. But my mind was still fresh with the news of the Montreal Pinoy 2nd grader Cagadoc who was ostracized by his teacher because of his unorthodox habit of using both spoon and fork when eating his lunch. I wonder what my Montreal colleagues, mostly Francophone Quebecers, have to say about the incident. Well, all of them dismissed the issue as unfortunate, caused by some nitwit and ignorant school officials who have no clue of what the world looks like beyond the Quebec border.

The story was also picked up by the Toronto Star and its article had a slightly different version in that the school’s disciplinary action has to do with the boy’s “disruptive behaviour, not slovenly eating”. Whatever the real reason was, clearly this case wasn’t the result of a standing school or government policy but an administrative issue between teacher and student. The story did not make it to the headlines, unlike the controversy caused by the school ban on baptized Sikhs from carrying the kirpan, a small knife male Sikhs carry with them all over the place. This issue triggered a national debate on whether religious practices must prevail over school regulations aimed at protecting the safety of students and teachers. The parents of Luc Cagadoc certainly had the right to lodge their complaint with the Quebec Human Rights commission. The criticism for the use of spoon and fork was irritating but in my opinion, if one had to fight, this case had been a perfect take on, very much like the school yard scrap where two people had to settle the score between themselves. Personally, I would have gained more satisfaction in an “ugly but controlled” confrontation with the principal and lunch monitor first before lodging a complaint with the commission. The boy’s parents are now seeking punitive damages for the discrimination their son experienced. The boy wasn’t suspended nor expelled. I hope they get something more than a mandatory apology.

Must we ban The DaVinci Code movie? Whoa? Ban the movie but not the book? Where’s the logic ? The notion isn’t new. In 1982, Michael Baigent’s book Holy Blood, Holy Grail said it all but no one made a fuss about it. Must we get offended by the movie? Is it an affront to your faith? Not really because the movie doesn’t denigrate the bible but if the church is your faith, then you’re in trouble.

Anna Nicole : Woman in Need or Gold Digger Indeed?

2006-05-04T22:51:00.000-04:00

A young, voluptuous blonde bombshell marries a filthy rich billionaire 6 decades her senior. The old man buys her a couple of houses, pampers her with gifts and lo and behold dies a year after the marriage. The old man’s only son prevents her from inheriting his father’s fortune. She cries foul and goes all the way…. to the Supreme Court to claim her share.

Sounds familiar eh? Well, kind of except that the woman in question is a celebrity, Anna Nicole Smith , former stripper, 1993 Playboy Playmate of the Year and host of TV reality show The Anna Nicole Show . Anna Nicole had been fighting her inheritance case for 11 years now, since her Texas oilman and billionaire husband J. Howard Marshall II died a year after they were married. Anna Nicole was 26 and J .Howard Marshall was 89 when they married in 1994. They met at a strip bar, where Anna Nicole worked as a stripper.

Wait... was Marshall in a wheelchair when he met Anna? Just curious. I mean, what would a shrinking octogenarian be possibly doing at a strip joint? Risking a broken thigh with the lap dancing? Was he on a Viagra overdose? At 89, Marshall would have been dipping his hamburger in coffee so he can ingest it and a bottle of beer would have been a death sentence. Many, many years ago when a 20 year old Muyta ng Pilipinas winner married a 68 year old Australian millionaire ( don’t ask me names because I totally forgot) I thought it was weird if not embarrassing . But yikes.. 26 and 89 simply doesn’t cut it. Just plain obscene.

Anyways, in the brief time that her partner was breathing, Smith was the recipient of a couple of houses and gifts all worth about $6 million. Pretty paltry sum considering the man was worth $1.6 billion but hey, it was a lotto jackpot for Anna Nicole who had to pluck bills from her knickers to make a living. But when Marshall died, she was shocked to find that her name was not in the old man’s will. She sued, insisting her stake on her dead husband’s estate. The old man’s only son defended his father’s will , accusing Smith as a gold digger who was solely interested in his father’s fortunes. The courts ruled in favor of the son but Smith continued to appeal, this time with the Supreme Court. Smith’s claim had gone down from $474 million to $85 million.

Is Anna Nicole Smith entitled to her husband’s estate in absence of a will? Is she a woman in need or a gold digger indeed?

Effects of Privatization?

2006-04-25T22:32:00.000-04:00

This newspaper ad drew a bit of chuckle from me as I remember the nightmare my wife had to go through to get her birth certificate from the National Statistics Office (NSO) in Pinas for her passport many years ago. The experience was plain awful. One would likely waste a full day just lining up and going through the whole application process. The sight of public employees whose service yardstick seem to go no more better than perfunctory gives you the feeling that you must go with the flow and shut your mouth. It was a long and tough road – take it or leave it. I hope the system has improved by now.

The ad says that Ontarians can now apply for the certificate over the web and if it doesn’t show up in the mail within 15 days, it’s free. What’s with this sudden upsurge of productivity? Change of image ? Is the election coming? Not quite. Effects of privatization perhaps? I would guess the latter because the issue of outsourcing the services had been floating around for sometime. And what’s with the cliché “ needs to be privatized to make it more efficient”? Does it mean that government is inherently inefficient?

Oil Wars ; Hate Crime

2006-04-22T00:53:00.000-04:00

The pedi cab with a sign “No one was killed to fuel this vehicle” speaks volumes about the ordinary folk’s sentiments on the invasion of Iraq. What was the real reason for the invasion ? The WMD - weapons of mass destruction? Overthrow of a tyrant dictator and terrorist supporter Sadam Hussain ? The rich oil fields? Iraq was going through a tough UN sponsored economic sanction when it was invaded by the U.S. in 2003. Since its defeat in the 1990 Gulf War, Iraq was limping on one foot , shut down from the outside world and restricted from acquiring things it wanted . Bill Clinton’s Oil for Food program alleviated the situation and gave Iraq a bit of elbow room in that it was allowed to buy food and medicine in exchange for its oil. Iraq’s oil revenues were under the control of the United Nations, one of the conditions of the terms of surrender Iraq signed with the coalition forces when it lost in the Gulf War of 1990. The UN was also tasked to garnish a portion of Iraq’s oil revenues for war reparations to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Sadam was not about to sit on his chair watching his pocket ripped and his conquerors playing around with his marbles. To replenish his dwindling coffers, he started trucking oil tankers across to Syria, Jordan and Turkey selling his oil in the lucrative middle east black market. The U.S. knew of Sadam’s illegal oil trade but did nothing, justifying the illicit trade a boost to the depressed economies of its neighbors. Suffice to conclude that at the time of the US led invasion, Sadam Hussain was already down on one knee. The invasion was supposed to be the coup de grace, the final blow to his jugular vein. Sadam had to be taken down and the WMD was the perfect alibi. Saudi Ambassador Prince Banda bin Sultan was at the White House during the announcement of the invasion and was reportedly apprised of the invasion by Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld before Secretary of State Colin Powell knew about it. Were Bush , Cheney and the Saudis were in this together? We all know that Sadam is history and rotting in jail but the war had gotten nastier than ever with no end in sight. Who’s in control of the Iraqi oil fields these days?

Here’s one really disturbing news. What’s your take on people who take their religious protests to military funerals, holding placards that say “ YOUR SON IS IN HELL” … all because he fought alongside fags or gays in his regiment? GOD HATES FAGS is the battlecry of this deranged group of sanctimonious jerks belonging to a renegade church who calls itself Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka , Kansas. Their leader, 76 year old pastor Fred Phelps is waging an all out war against homosexuality, alleging that the United States is cursed nation and had turned into the land of Sodom by allowing gays to join the military. The hatred is intense and passionate and they’ve taken their battle into of all unlikely places, funerals of fallen soldiers. Sickening ? It would be an understatement. Phelps, a lawyer before he became a minister of faith is unwavering in his hate crusade. He argues that sanctions against his protests is a violation of his right of freedom of speech and has fought back vehemently , with the battery of lawyers who support him, most of whom are family members. Phelps can consider himself lucky that in his act of utter disrespect and desecration of the fallen soldiers, grieving relatives haven’t gone berserk and pumped bullets into his stinky brains. It is so abhorrently illogical to even surmise that a dreadful beast like Phelps will have a stake , even an inch, of what Christians generally hope of heaven. But when you listen to his rhetoric and impassioned pleas, he does act like he loves his god and does his darnest best to please him. What can negate and quash this man’s obtuse and barbaric view of the nature of life? I can’t help wondering – what if a gay face turns up in Phelp’s family – a nephew or a grandson perhaps? What will happen to the poor chap?

Toilet Talk

2006-04-11T23:13:00.000-04:00

Toilets is definitely a weird subject to talk about but I chanced upon thissite , almost encyclopedic, containing everything you want to know about toilets - from ancient to modern to futuristic, high-tech toilets and I can’t help but blog about it. The site has lots of historical perspective on ancient toilets, strange looking photos of loos from all parts of the world, including Winston Churchill’s potty ( yikes.. pity the poor private who had to dump it everyday) in his war room in London. The site also features “Toiletological” linguistics, a list of “ where’s the toilet” translations in various languages . The Afrikaans ( Dutch-South African) version “ Waar is die toilet ?” reminds me of comedian Ramon Zamora’s hilarious antics of speaking forceful sounding but adulterated German in his shoddy Gestapo uniform. We call the toilet many names - washroom, comfort room, water closet, the loo, the john but no one takes the subject of toilet more seriously than the Japanese
.

Japanese folks seem more obsessed with toilets with the variety of adjunct gadgetry they have designed to pursue their passion for toilets for better living. They’ve built a wide array of high tech toilet improvements – heated seats, built in bidets, button controlled sprays and dryers and even urine testers that collect and analyze the person’s sugar level ! Apparently, the system is designed for people to be aware of their sugar level for the prevention of diabetes. I’m quite curious of the accuracy of the instant lab work. The buttons invented for use by shy women to play a recorded flushing sound to suppress the “sound of evacuation” is rather laughable. Must be we be cutesy-cutesy all the way up to the loo?. Who really cares if someone hears you dump your dung like a B-52 bomber? Just go into the men’s washroom and you’ll hear all sorts of sounds. Down with the bashfulness culture!

Sometimes when you get off a gas station in a service area off the highway for a much needed bio-break, you will find the washroom locked, the key with the cashier to be given to customers only. Got to buy something first before you can take a leak? Some countries have coin operated toilets where you pop money for the loo door to open. Others have open access to public toilets in malls but make you pay for use of toilet paper. I remember at the Cairo airport in Egypt a man hands you tissue paper when you get into the washroom. You better darn accept it because there’s none inside! Most of us don’t give a care about toilets do we? When we think about the billions of birds and animals who sow their dung all over the place, we think fertilizer! But there is such an event called theWorld Toilet Summit , the last of which was in Beijing in 2004, to talk about the relationship between toilets and the quality of human life. Time to give the good old loo some respect. Better loo means better life.

Note : Photo courtesy of Dose Magazine

On Ethics and Character

2006-04-03T01:19:00.000-04:00

What if you found a wallet stuffed with credit cards and $60 in cash - would you return the wallet to its owner? In a random poll conducted by DOSE Magazine , 58% of Canadians polled said they would keep it and 42% would return it. Does the poll accurately reflect the a person’s sense of righteousness or ethical bearing? Is keeping the wallet tantamount to theft, making the finder liable to the law for not turning in an item that is not his? What can you say about the rule of finders keepers, losers weepers? Is it fair game ? The 42% figure sounds improbable but a cousin of mine who lost her wallet on three occasions was fortunate enough to recover the item on all counts. She lost her wallet in the University of Toronto library, the subway station and the video store and in all cases, people called her house to give instructions on how to retrieve her wallet. Finding a lost wallet these days is deemed a long shot if not utterly bleak and the line between lost and found rests with the ethics or moral values of the finder. My cousin was incredibly lucky.

The recent convictions of corruption in the federal government had provoked the educators to revisit the reinstatement of the much criticized character education program, with plans of making it compulsory curriculum in its elementary schools. Risking the criticism of imposing their view of morality on children, a more serious question to the educators would be – can ethics be taught ? I remember when I was in grade school back in R.P. we had a subject called GMRC (Good Manners and Right Conduct). It was subject that dealt with the do’s and don’ts and I can say with certainty that the subject never had any influential effect on the student’s character development. Would a classroom curriculum on ethics be effective?

Here’s an excerpt from Albert Einstein’s short essay, :Why Socialism

Quote “Man is, at one and the same time, a solitary being and a social being. As a solitary being, he attempts to protect his own existence and that of those who are closest to him, to satisfy his personal desires, and to develop his innate abilities. As a social being, he seeks to gain the recognition and affection of his fellow human beings, to share in their pleasures, to comfort them in their sorrows, and to improve their conditions of life. Only the existence of these varied, frequently conflicting strivings accounts for the special character of a man, and their specific combination determines the extent to which an individual can achieve an inner equilibrium and can contribute to the well-being of society. It is quite possible that the relative strength of these two drives is, in the main, fixed by inheritance. But the personality that finally emerges is largely formed by the environment in which a man happens to find himself during his development, by the structure of the society in which he grows up, by the tradition of that society, and by its appraisal of particular types of behavior. The abstract concept "society" means to the individual human being the sum total of his direct and indirect relations to his contemporaries and to all the people of earlier generations. The individual is able to think, feel, strive, and work by himself; but he depends so much upon society -- in his physical, intellectual, and emotional existence -- that it is impossible to think of him, or to understand him, outside the framework of society. It is "society" which provides man with food, clothing, a home, the tools of work, language, the forms of thought, and most of the content of thought; his life is made possible through the labor and the accomplishments of the many millions past and present who are all hidden behind the small word "society." Unquote

Einstein’s suggestion that “ the physical, intellectual and emotional existence ; the forms of thought and most of the contents of thought” of a person are provided by society means that his character and ethical behavior are likewise molded, influenced and changed by his society. In this regard, the prevailing ethical conduct of people within a country is largely an expression of societal ethics and not the individual ethics of people. As in the case of R.P., many Pinoys discern right from wrong individually but fail miserably in the playing field .The reason is because corruption is a societal menace, so deeply entrenched and institutionalized that overwhelms the individual to the point of instant resignation. It is futile to expect a president on a single term of 6 years to rid of a corruption. A societal transformation cannot happen overnight. It may take decades or even centuries to extinguish the curse and set things right. Incidentally, it was also Einstein who said – “ the significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking we were at when we created them”. It also looks like sheer will to change might not be enough.

Note : photo courtesy of DOSE Magazine

The War on Illegal Immigration

2006-03-25T02:28:00.000-05:00

With the recent approval of bill HR 4437 at the Lower House, the U.S. illegal immigrant community is shocked by the possibility of a new immigration reform policy that could displace an estimated 10 million of them living in the U.S. today. Bill HR 4437, The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 sponsored by the Republicans in December 2005 is now being deliberated in the Senate and might just pass into law. At an emotionally charged rally of 100,000 immigrants in Chicago, people were carrying placards saying : “ My Mexican immigrant son died in Iraq”, “Do not deport my parents”. The illegal immigrant is truly fearful of the consequences of the bill. HR 4437 would be the most drastic immigration law to be passed because it criminalizes undocumented immigration status as well as individuals and organizations assisting undocumented immigrants. It also grants state and law enforcement agencies authority to enforce immigration laws, an authority which today solely rests with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency . In a 20/20 episode on illegal immigrants I watched a few months ago, state troopers in Georgia expressed extreme frustration with the curent law that prohibits them from investigating the immigration status of an apprehended lawbreaker. The new law would be devastating to the illegal immigrant. A simple traffic violation could trigger an investigation of residency status and could end up in jail time and deportation.

In Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony had already made a vow that he will fight HR 4437 head on. In a TV interview I watched, he declared that everyone in the U.S. other than the aboriginal American Indian is an immigrant and Mexicans who cross the border illegally to seek for a better life have all the right to remain in America. No one will ever question Fr. Mahony’s overwhelming compassion, if his church provides food and shelter to illegal immigrants. Fr. Mahony must not forget however that Scriptures explicitly instructs Christians to obey God and the law of the land as well. Not cooperating with the government violates the law and is contrary to the teachings of Scripture.

The illegal immigration dilemma in the U.S. is a power keg that will burst sooner or later, with dire consequences if left unchecked. The tremendous burden on the health care system to aid immigrants who get sick without health insurance, the erosion of unksilled labor wages in areas where illegal immigrants proliferate are serious problems that ought to concern every American. The immigration policy is not without flaw. The U.S. needs to revamp and improve its immigration system, particularly in the area of family reunion and skilled labor shortage requirements to make it easier for people to join their relatives and immigrate to work in jobs that cannot be filled from within. A streamlined system will encourage people to take the proper and legal steps to apply rather than taking a short cut, staying illegally and soliciting the help of immigration lawyers and consultants who charge and arm and a leg for their services and worst, without guaranteed results.

HR 4437 also proposes a 700 mile extension of the Mexican border fence. The U.S. border is truly porous and the 2,000 mile stretch with Mexico can never be guarded effectively. The Canadian side is even worse, where the border crosses 4 time zones, perhaps twice as long as the Mexican border. A house in New Brunswick, Canada actually sits at the border with the state of Maine. Half of the lot is in Canada – half in the U.S. ! Some border outposts in the Quebec-Vermont border are actually unmanned and periodically checked by the RCMP and this goes true with many border outposts all the way to the west, up to British Columbia. Some terrorists allegedly came to the U.S. via Canada. Fact is, a well financed and organized terrorist group can enter the U.S. from land, air and sea without much hindrances. A German sub that sunk off the U.S. Atlantic coast in WWII was found to contain U.S. beer and food supplies which confirmed that the crew had forayed into coastal towns for their impromptu rest and recreation leaves.

The effectiveness of HR 4437 if passed remains to be seen. Some view it as a Republican election agenda. If the gay marriage issue worked, perhaps restrictive immigration might also work, especially appealing for those Americans who have been struggling to "reclaim" America.

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March Break Thoughts

2006-03-20T00:14:00.000-05:00

After a brief 10 day sojourn with the sun, I'm back to the freezer.. errr.. I meant at this time of the year, the cooler. March break is the time of year when folks trek down to the sunny south to get rid of the freezer burn and I would be brutally frank when I say to live normally again, albeit a few days. Take that blunt statement from someone who was born in the tropics, the Pearl of the Orient to be exact. The mad rush to thaw our frozen bodies was evidenced by the fact that as we were driving to Toronto's Pearson International Airport, the car radio was announcing some 95,000 souls were scheduled to depart for March break that day. Man, I thought this was nuts. With the strict airport security and the fact that U.S. Immigration validation is done at the Pearson Airport, I was thinking long queues and baggage check-in nightmares and thought of leaving my golf bag in the van. But thanks to electronic ticketing , as soon as I got into one of the automated counters after a surprisingly short queue, I was able to print our boarding passes . I remember a couple of years ago, JetsGo, a small, no-frills Canadian airline went belly-up and announced bankruptcy on day one of March break stranding thousands of passengers. That was totally diabolical. Not making the trip with the kids and worse, not getting your money back would be the ultimate letdown.

This time it is Florida as my little girl had turned 4 years and wanted to go to Disneyworld. Our destination was Atlanta, Georgia as we intended to stay a couple of days in the Altanta area and drive down to Florida. As we stepped into the 50 seater Canadian made Bombardier CRJ200, I realized that Atlanta is considered commuter destination. Air Canada shuttles 4 flights into Atlanta daily. I'm a little perplexed - with 50 seats, how the heck would the airline profit from this route? If 50 passengers paid $200 each for a one way trip (okay, business travelers pay more), would $10,000 revenue make a profit on a 2 hour flight? We all know that planes don't fly full house all the time. Man, with the escalating cost of airline fuel, I'm just wondering how much would it cost to fill-up this baby. The flight crew is pretty lean and the service mean - 2 pilots and a single stewardess who does a single serving of pop or juice. Airlines are kind of a brick and mortar business where expenses and competition are high and profitability can be jeopardized by rising fuel costs. No wonder why only the biggies prevail in this business. Alas, as I stepped out of the plane my Blackberry transitioned from Rogers to Cingular Wireless, which meant that I was very much wired and reachable.

I've been to Disneyworld many times and if not for my daughter's desire to meet Woody and Buzz, I wouldn't venture into Magic Kingdom again. The place is just so overrated. Moreover, ticket prices are stiff - $65 for an adult and $53 for children ages 3 to 9. You pay the same ticket price for EPCOT, Disney-MGM, Disney Animal Kingdom, Sea World, Universal Studios and the list goes on an on. You also pay $2.50 for a bottle of pop, if this is any kind of barometer of the rip off. The sad part is it will take you more than one day to enjoy all the rides at Disneyworld. When you queue for an hour to get into a ride, I figure that the most you can do is 10 rides a day. I remember a family friend who 2 years ago brought her two kids all the way from RP to see Disneyworld . She was so frustrated that they only made it to a few rides. I told her that people come to Disney to say that they’ve made it to Disney. Forget about enjoying Disney unless you’re prepared to pay for a hefty 3-day pass. I also thought her problem was compounded by her 4 year old, baby-talking, nanny bred son who was still on the bottle, couldn’t pee by himself, doesn’t have a clue of what society is – lug along this poor kid still recovering from jet lag and you’re in big time trouble city. Just an aside, what the heck are Pinoy parents expecting from nannies and yayas nowadays? Not to the let the kid do anything??

With the temporary suspension of any form of dieting, I gained pounds during the trip. Although our accommodation had a full size kitchen, vacations are times when you just let the belt loose. At a lobster buffet I remember seeing most folks rip the head of and not wanting to do anything with it. Apparently the red stuff, the underfertilized egg or roe is considered exotic food and the green stuff called "tomalley" is considered the lobster’s waste and not generally recommended for eating. What a waste! Eating lobster or crab without the green and red stuff is like eating hamburger without mayo and ketchup!

I'm home and will be back to work, back to battle stress once again. It's another long wait- oh, well, at least a month before I can play golf again.