in retrospect…

40 years ago, today, a baby boy was born to parents Nena and Larry, their first, and soon after, a host of other babies followed… and that was the end of the story of their firstborn…

his life was never outstanding… growing up, he never topped his classes, never got his favorite toy, never did what other children of his age did at the time… and this was because his family was poor… at the age of 9 years old, he became the man of the family when his father died due to mysterious circumstances… at the tender age of 12, he was already working fulltime as a tennis ballboy over at a popular rich kid hangout in Makati… at 15, he learned how to do a peon’s job, a baker’s apprentice, delivery boy, and some other small-time jobs just to have a few pesos at the end of the day in his pockets… when he entered college at age 19, it was on his own… he got a scholarship from a government agency, worked in at least 2 jobs at the same time, and later on, also became the editor-in-chief of his school paper which earned him a second scholarship from his school…

during the years that followed, he worked in dead-end jobs… he became an encoder for a foreign company working in Pampanga, a salesman-cum-delivery man of caskets, a computer technician for a short while, and later on, went on to becoming what will be his lifelong passion, teaching…

he first taught computers in small time schools somewhere in the north, then later came back to Manila to teach in high-end institutions, the latest of which was in a prestigious school in Magallanes, Makati… went to HongKong for a short while, but decided to come back because he missed Manila so much… and now, he is an IT manager in one of the international schools based in Taguig…

all very normal, all very common, never distinguished or prominent, never outstanding…

although i don’t drink [much], i would like to make a toast to the first 40 years of my life, and here’s hoping for the 2nd 40… life begins at 40? well, i have arrived to find out… do i hate my life? no… but, do i love it? let me live my 2nd life, then i’ll tell you about it…

happy birthday to me… *hic*

Ciao, sweetie… *hic*

protecting and sustaining the environment is not a job just for one person or government… this is a big job for all of us living in this one earth… i called up Magic 89.9 earlier today and talked about this with the hosts of the show, Mo and Grace, and Mo brought up one important question: how can a poor person even think of preserving the environment if he has nothing to eat?

again, we do not HAVE to go out there and preach about preserving it full time… there are so many little things we can do, that when you add them up, will have a great impact on the environment… here are a few:

…and a host of other things one can do to help preserve the environment… again, if we do our own little part, that will add up to a great deal…

Ciao, sweetie…

Tags: [ environment | preservation | An Inconvenient Truth ]

An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning

yes, this is the most terrifying film i have ever seen to date, and i have seen almost all of them… i am terrified for my son, for my son’s sons and daughters, and for all future generations that will come after me…

this film, featuring Al Gore, former vice-president under the infamous Bill Clinton, talks about the climate changes that is happening all over the world… changes that happen due to our misuse of the environment and everything that it gives us… and these changes bring us problems, not good tidings…

Hurricane Katrina, Typhoon Frank, Cyclone Nargis, and a host of other natural disasters are happening year after year, and the earth is crying out for help… a little melodramatic, i know, but that is the only description i can find as far as the global disasters happening all over are concerned…

and all of these are happening because of all our technological advances… global warming is due to the presence of 4 greenhouse gasses, namely carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chloroflourcarbons… all of which are man-made… CO2 is brought about by the burning of fossil fuels… car emissions, coal burning, and forest fires instantly come to mind… methane comes primarily from garbage dumps [remember Smokey Mountain?]… nitrous oxide arose from our use of nitrogen-based fertilizers, and finally, chloroflourcarbons or CFCs come from using airconditioners and other refrigerants too much…

question now is: must we leave all technological advances we have made in the past 3 decades or so just to save the one earth we live in?? simply to preserve the future of our future? my answer to that is no, we should not… but we must also learn sustainable development and teach what we learned to everyone concerned… and by everyone concerned, i meant, every man, woman, and child that you come in contact with in your every waking hour… of everyday, for the rest of your life…

i am not saying that you stop driving a car… stop driving those gas-guzzling-big-American-made cars, and go for the environment friendly ones… or better yet, ride in mass transports and save up on gas… decrease your use of electricity and go back to the basics… and many others each one of us can do to help save the environment…

yes, there will be major changes to our way of life, i agree, but if we want to continue living in this one earth of ours, i suggest we do just that… and immediately… nature will NEVER wait for us to wake up and finally do what must be done… it will go its natural way, whether there is a person in its path [and more often that not, there are people in its path] or not… our storms will continue to rise in intensity, our summer heats will continue to rise no matter what, and our hurricanes will get stronger and stronger if we just sit on our fat asses and do nothing… the time to go forward and let your voice be heard is now… blog about it… talk about it amongst your friends… teach about it to your students… spare an hour a day explaining about it to your employees… but whatever you do, DO IT NOW!! before your way of life comes to an abrupt end…

Tags: [ environment | global changes | disasters | An Inconvenient Truth | Al Gore ]

I have always sported a full head of hair, and am very proud of it… at least most of the time… it was all black, really wavy when it gets to a certain length, and really something to be proud of…

but yesterday, as i was combing my hair getting ready for work, i noticed [finally] not that it is already long and needing a haircut… not the gray hairs making themselves a home of my head [slowly edging out all the blacks], and not the dry skin peeling off whenever i scratch my head [no, dear, it is not dandruff]… okay, maybe i noticed all of the above, but what got me more was the fact that i hated that hair…

and so, today, i finally did the unbelievable…

as defined by Dictionary.com:

dare·dev·il (dâr’děv’əl)
n. One who is recklessly bold.

adj. Recklessly bold. See Synonyms at adventurous.

and i am pertaining to those 2-wheeled vehicles more commonly known as motorcycles… drivers of this dang contraptions weave in and out of traffic without care for life or limb… daredevils? yes… responsible drivers? NO!!

just the other day, while on my way to work, there was no traffic as it was still so early in the morning, and i was cruising along Makati Avenue following a white Totyota Altis… when out of the blue, a small blue motorcyle [and with the driver having no helmet to boot!!] cut me just when the car i was following braked!! i almost hit the guy, he looked back, and gave me that devil-may-care grin… i was just so… fuming mad!!! so mad i could’ve went after him and run him over, if not for the fact that running grinning daredevils over with a car is called premeditated murder… but i really could’ve done it just so i can see that grin wiped off his mug…

see, they know that us car drivers will always stop and be on the lookout for them, so they don’t really care… and that fact i hate the most… and the same goes for bicycles and pedestrians…

shouldn’t bigger vehicles have the right of way along streets and highways? should’t smaller vehicles be on the lookout for bigger ones? i still remember the days when we can travel the streets without always looking left and right fearing that we might hit a motorcycle… sheesshhh… where were those days?? tsk tsk tsk…

and you know what? this’ll get more and more worse as days, weeks, months, and years go by if we don’t do something… i dunno, probably our esteemed lawmakers can pass a law banning weaving in and out of traffic?? or designating a lane for them??

of course, there are responsible motorcycles out there, not all of them are bastards… but majority of them are… you will see them everywhere… with babies in front of them, with riders at their backs, or alone, they are everywhere…

i. really, hate. these. people.

bastards…

Ciao, sweetie…

Alam ko masama na talaga ang kalidad ng edukasyon dito sa Pilipinas… alam ko dumadami na ang tangang Pinoy (pasensya na, totoo lng)… alam ko, dumadami ang di natututo magbasa at magsulat… pero, kailangan ba natin ipangalandakan un? at sa world stage pa man din??? taena!!

sa mga namamahala ng Binubuning Pilipinas (pun intended), bakit nyo naman hinayaan na manalo ito?

panoorin sa youtube

BAKKEEEETTTT???

bumaba na ba pati ang inyong mga pamantayan?? kagandahan na lng ba ang kailangan para manalo sa inyong patimpalak?? e hindi pa nga gaano maganda e!! hindi na ba tinitingnan kasama katalinuhan?? o kasama ang kabobohan sa inyong mga criteria sa mananalo???

kung ganun, tang ina nyo lahat!! ipinakikita nyo sa lahat ang kabobohan ng mga Pinoy. eto ang tanong ko sa inyo: sa Miss World ano ang gagawin nyan?? magpapa-cute??? o magtatanga-tangahan na naman sya??

ewan ko ba sa inyo… sana kung wala kayo mapili, di na lng kayo nagpa-panalo!! di ba may mga interbyu kayo ginagawa? nakapasa sya dun?? hindi kaya meron nangyari na di dapat mangyari para lng sya manalo?? wag kayo magagalit sa akin, dahil ako’y nagtatanong lng!!

(To my foreigner readers: I am so sorry if i have to do this in my native language… i am jsut so ashamed of the contents, that i cannot let you be a part of this farce… so ashamed that we let things like this happen to us… so sorry… and if you ever find out what this is all about, please know that not all of us are like her…)

itigil nyo na ang kalokohang itoi!!!

Ciao, sweetie…

the son, not the father…

Ciao, sweetie…

i want to wish my son, Mistral Julian, a very Happy 8th Birthday today!!

Happy Birthday, son… please know that, though we haven’t seen each other for the past 3 years, you are always in my heart and my thoughts… always…

i love you, Ian…

Ciao, sweetie…

just about 2 weeks ago, i went in for an executive checkup at one of the high-end clinics in Robinson’s Galleria, and there, i was raped… thrice… that was an experience that i would like to, as much as possible, avoid in the very near future… possibly never…

but yesterday saw me going into another high-end clinic in Makati, this time, for another executive check up and you can just imagine my apprehensive mutterings when i checked in and handed over my filled up form to the nurse-in-charge… was i going to be raped once again? will i go through that harrowing experience one more time? is this what executives are going through year in and year out??

as you may well suspect, i had no answer to those questions myself… so, blindly, i went through all the procedures once again…

all i can say was that the experience was totally different from my last… a dedicated nurse saw me through all that i need… she was with me the whole time that i never lacked for a companion wherever i went: she took my BP (120/70), took my height (5′9″ or 175 cms), weight (65 kilos), took my blood, checked up my eyes [20/20 still], took me to the x-ray guy, was outside the door while a male (!) doctor was doing my physical exam [side note: this time, i was only made to bend over and looked at my arse hole... never did he look at my balls to examine them... ], took me up to the 2nd floor to have my drug test [side note again: never was i made to pee in front of the guy, with the guy looking at my pee to make sure it was mine... yes, he was there while i peed, but my back was to him giving me a little privacy], and finally, she was there for my dental check up… she even escorted me until the office’s door when i was leaving a little under 2 hours later…

now, that is how a check up should be… everything should be explained before doing anything to you, as one of my commenters said… it is your body and you have the right to refuse something done to you when you don’t want it… all in all, the air in that clinic was short of festive, with free juice or coffee, with lounge chairs in abundance and one can seat anywhere, magazines everywhere [though i still preferred reading my e-book], and all sorts of ammenities short of being a hotel lounge!!

i even saw a female badminton friend [hi Annie!!] undergoing the same procedures as i was, and she and I went to lunch together at a nearby restaurant…

basically, the whole affair was very engaging, and i can imagine myself eagerly going back there everytime i would need a check up… you guys are number 1!!

Ciao, sweetie…

as a child, i have no worries except where to play, when my next meal will be, and what time i have to go home to sleep, no worries for the next day, except more of the same… mundane? yes… simple? at the time? no…

as a teenager, my worries grew to such proportions that i found myself worrying not only for myself, but also for others… i was already working at an early age, i already have scores of responsibility, and i already answer to a lot of people… this went on until college, when i have to work on 2 jobs, go to school, and manage a school paper all at the same time…

and through all these, the only thing that does not change was my idealism… that i will not forsake what i believe in, simply to earn money, or to make friends, or to be liked… that i will not stoop to what i know was wrong, simply to make my betters feel happy about me… i wasn’t an ass-kisser… never was, and never will…

or so i thought…

now that i am a little more older and, i hope, wiser, i was forced to stoop to people who know nothing but to push pencils around as well as push people around… i am being regulated by a lot of corporate shit that i am already up to my neck in it… it wouldn’t have been worse if i really don’t know better, but the fact remains that their solution is far more expensive [and much harder to implement] than mine… but who am i, eh?

i have had encounters before with bosses who don’t know anything, and yet maintain that they need to control me… control my budget? no… more like control what i do… i have proven in the past that my solutions far outweight theirs, but because of “nakasanayan na yan e” attitude (”that is how it was done before“)… and now, i am stuck in this job that allows me only a liitle bit of freedom, gets the most out of me, and leaves me wanting to kill myself at the end of the day…

but do i have to take these sitting down??

no… i can do several things, really…

one is to show them that I can do what i was hired to do… they hired me to do a particular job, then they must trust that i will do it to the best of my ability… the problem is, someone looks over my shoulders everytime i make a move, and that makes it doubly harder, since i feel like i am under a microscope… haayysss

second, i can look for another job… i know, easier said than done… but what can i do?? except…

third, take all of these sitting down… i can just simply go along with the flow, not really caring whether the project is doable or not, whether the things they are doing are correct or not… i will just be manager by name…

now, question is: what shall i do??

what do you think??

Ciao, sweetie…