The Fantastic Four Women In My Life

A day before the official “Mother’s Day” celebration I was so tempted and jealous seeing friends from Facebook expressing and sharing their words of love and gratitude in creative fashion to their own mothers. 

I was in the brink of expressing my celebratory remarks and way of honoring the four important women and mothers in my life – that if I finish would surely be shared in the social network I own - Twitter, Facebook & Instagram are waiting. 

Good graces – my control worked to my advantage. Before the jealousy overtook me, it deviated my focus to spending our day by going for a family bonding in the mall with my immediate family, together with my mother – who is under my care right now.

God -- You Are Sovereign!

"God – You are sovereign and all encompassing. We surrender all to You."

"My tatay had encountered a motorcycle accident yesterday night. We were stunned by the news coming from my eldest sister through FB. It was his third accident with the same vehicle. At first, we’re a bit furious because he didn’t listen to our proddings not to drive when drunk. But minutes after expressing our disgust and disappointment, it is our hearts that melted down in pity with his current situation. He’s the only person left in our house in the province since all of us are miles away from home. My eldest sister is residing in Carmona in Cavite, my two brothers are also in the Middle East ( one in UAE and the other in Western Part of Saudi Arabia). My nanay is under my care here in the Eastern Part.

We were like helpless because we cannot personally attend to him. But, we owe our great thanks and favor from our relatives who closely monitored him after the accident. I’ve been calling him from time to time, not minding the amount of money I already spent calling overseas.

10 Things I Love About "The Philippines" - Repost

Since “attack of sabaw moment” is on, I find it hard to write a new entry for the moment. Another culprit is my being busy in a lot of things. Plus I just came from “under the weather” that practically had my zest to write experiencing rough roads.

And what better way to update a blog by reposting one of the entries I love. This is the kind that sealed the “pinoy spirit” in me. Of course, with few revision and updates.

When the sure-fire hit video “20 Things I Dislike About The Philippines” came out I’ve tried to be objective at most. After all, the guy who authored it has all the freedom in terms of speech and expressing his opinions. But minutes away after I clicked it, I began to be defensive and a bit annoyed. I personally took it at heart. Maybe patriotism and loyalty took its action in me.

Of Friendship: Letting Go Of Some and Keeping Some For Life

Friendship - when started and nurtured in good faith remains for a long time and even for life.  Similar to anybody's life - friendship is tested and a few struggle can end up losing one and ending the relationship. 

I value friendship even if it’s still young – I guess this is one quality inherent in me that even if a person is just a fresh entry in my life's circle, I always treat them as if they’ve been in my life from the very beginning. This quality of mine also borders into danger because some may take advantage of the goodness.

But hey – even then what’s important is that you’ve been a nice person while you’re in the friendship.

Of Lenten Season, Of Summer, and Of Ihaw-Ihaw Sa Tag-Araw

A powerful sneeze has just exploded before I started scribbling this. And I felt like my lungs could also explode any moment. It’s painful to sneeze esp. if it’s a forced one. The urge to release is so sudden. 

I don’t have any plan to write about anything right now – I mean it’s 2AM. Who the hell would wake up at this holy hour? I should suppose to be in my sound sleep. But I was awakened by that powerful sneeze and incessant coughing. It's so disturbing that I can't even go back to sleep again. 

So, what I did was - I went to the kitchen, boiled the lemon grass. After boiling, I pour out into a mug and mixed it with a powdered ginger given to us by my sister-in-law last Friday. 

ThrowBack Thursday: The Pilgrimage to Antipolo

It was summer of 1994. I was about to enter as a college freshman in Manila. And what better way to do fasting for Holy Week than doing an Alay Lakad from Pasig City going to Antipolo Church. 

Distance didn't factor to me as I was then built for longer distance walking - coming from a remote island in Sibuyan - where I practically grew up going to school walking a total of 4 kilometers (twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon) everyday. So that night of Apirl 9, we walked at a normal pace from an assembly point somewhere in Ortigas in Pasig City heading to Antipolo City, Rizal where our last pit stop was in front of Antipolo church.

What I've Been Into Lately?

Does anyone miss me lately?

Errrrr…my posts? Haha. Well, I had been so occupied the past week. As much as I wanted to write but reading both books and stock market updates & online tools had been the culprits for failing to give this blog some worthy posts.

Also reecently, I’ve been giving more time and attention to my stock market exposure as I’m gearing towards establishing a really strong fundamental and technical knowledge about it. I’ve been doing my own financial analysis plans, working on excel on the updates of my account, computing several valuations and target prices and stuff like that. 

Plus, I have a financial exposure that if one would see will say “Oh, that amount is huge” or so I thought. Well, it’ll still depend on how one consider a huge amount. One reason why I'm so focused in monitoring over these stocks.

Quick Movie Review: Miracle In Cell No. 7

I’ve seen quite a few friends sharing it in their timeline but paid little attention. Initially, I thought it's just another movie bordering from lame to boring kind - that made me skeptical to watch. Until a time when a brother in Singles For Christ shared it in his timeline that my interest heightened. So, I clicked the link and started watching. 

Society may not always have our best interests at heart. Laws and regulations are tangled with bureaucracy and riddled with a rigidity that often leaves the individual alone and unrepresented. Modern Korean cinema has embraced the depiction of such societal frustrations, often choosing to downplay authority figures while indulging melodramatics.

Sunday's Reflection: Of Being Not Qualified

So the other day, I got a message on Facebook that said “I love the message of your videos but none of it is coming from you. There are choices you’ve made in your past that render you NOT QUALIFIED to spread such a message. 

And for me that was hard to hear because the HYPOCRITICAL Christian is somethin' I FEAR. 

To be put in the category like that I could think of nothing worst. So maybe there something I should've set first. 

You see, I CAN'T and WON'T and DON'T claim to be PERFECT. In fact - most times - I'm not even GOOD. I'll take responsibIlity for the mistakes I've made and the hurts I've caused I got more than I probably should.

The Woman Behind BALUT MANILA

First meeting in Bo's Coffee in MOA with Arvin last February 2013

Lately, I was thinking how to surprise the woman behind the blog “BALUT MANILA” on her upcoming birthday. Ideas seem rare but some are proving to be worthy.  

Few days ago, making a picture greeting was at the back of my mind. But, I just feel that it’s quite an understatement to a person whom I maintained good friendship with through out my blogging life -not only online but in person as well. 

Undeniably, it's both our "gone-in-the-calendar" age that swiftly in tuned us. She's a devoted mom to a number of children and a loving wife to his only God's gift. While yours truly is a father of soon to be two kids and a supportive hubby to my God's gift as well. 

When she talks I listen and versa. Call it the same wave length - perhaps that's how to describe how we get along so well. She's passionate in writing - the same as I do. Another common denominator between us is our love of reading.  

If I'd go back to recall the first encounter I had with her blog - trust me - you'll be disappointed because I cannot remember when it has started. All I'm sure about was the year - it was year 2011 when her blog captured my interest. I'm particularly intrigued with its name "Balut Manila" - of which when we finally had the chance to talk she told me the back story. As I read some entries, I quickly had the desire to go back and read for more. Her Sundays Quote and Photograph didn't fail to impress me. I realized as well that she's into poetry too, like me.