Most of the people that I know are rushing to make it on TOP even if it means hurting other people along the way. The weaker ones become the scapegoat while the strong and resistant ones become the enemy. I feel like I’m trapped inside a big aquarium full of big and ferocious fishes. The story of Yellow and Stripe on “Hope For The Flowers” is a reflection of what is happening in our society and how we should react to adversities in life.
I choose to walk on the difficult yet right path and I know that I will chance upon many obstacles before I reach my destination. For a time, I tried to adapt to the other creatures’ standards and it made me doubt my existence even more. In all honesty, the good seed that my parents planted on me triumphed over the norms that I wanted to embrace.
The problem with nice people is they fail to acknowledge the evilness of people. That bad people are driven by personal desires to conquer and to rise above all. Nice people are easy targets of manipulators and abusers; being nice doesn’t work all the time because there will always be vultures ready to attack.
A friend told me that he doesn’t have the support of a higher power so being passive is all that he could do. God is my greatest support and He is the HIGHEST power. I don’t expect Him to favor me all the time but I know that He will mediate between me and the people causing me pain. With His healing hands, I know that He will touch the heart of those people. And if that is not possible, I know that He will open new doors of opportunities for me.
Life doesn’t have to be miserable. Life is too short to think about the negatives. Life is giving me valuable lessons to prepare me for a better future.
Photo courtesy of Rappler. She’s every inch a beauty queen.
It was 2004 when I first saw Megan Young on TV. She was a contestant of a talent reality search in GMA 7 (Starstruck). An officemate of mine in Olongapo City knew my fascination with showbiz and that was probably the reason why she informed me about her daughter’s not successful audition for Starstruck at SM Pampanga. She asked me to guess who was with her daughter during the audition. I thought that it was somebody from the office. She corrected me by saying that it was Megan Young who was with her daughter on that challenging day.
Since then, the subject of our discussion was about her beautiful daughters’ interest in joining beauty pageants and showbiz and about Megan Young’s chance at the talent reality search contest. I would often joke about telling her to tell her daughter to tell Megan that I’m her fan.
Winning the 1st Filipina Miss World last Saturday, Megan gave me the goosebumps! How many times have we expected to bring home the crown since the times of Gloria Diaz, Margie Moran, Melanie Marquez, Precious Lara Quigaman and just recently, Mutya Datul? With Megan, we knew from the start that she was an early favorite and perhaps, expecting her to be on the top 5 would not give us false hopes. But Megan won and I’m sure that her former neighbors and classmates in Olongapo City were very happy and proud of her. She gave them the pride and happiness two weeks after Olongapo suffered from flooding.
Known for her sincerity, Megan thanked her fellow Filipinos in Tagalog right after being crowned. Myleen Klaas, who’s mother is a Filipina, looked genuinely happy for Megan. Truly, the Filipino pride is evident wherever a person goes and whatever his/her status in life is.
In these times of the pork barrel scam,MNLF attack in Zamboanga and natural calamities, Megan gave us a breathe of fresh air. Thank you, Megan Young for the 1st blue crown!
(Photo courtesy of FB) I don’t have a Venetian dream.=p
I received a text message from my father on Monday morning to tell me that once again, rainwater caused flooding in Balanga. Surprised, I confirmed if he meant the most recent flooding in August. I had never experienced frequent flooding in Balanga so a text message like this needed verification. A once-a-year flooding is normal there especially when the typhoon strikes but monsoon rains do not usually cause flooding there; there’s got to be some logical reasons behind the frequent floodings in Balanga, or maybe in most areas in Bataan.
Oh, floods, it was our way of life back in the 90’s! I am no stranger to small floods because our area is the catch basin of Balanga. Back then, classes were not suspended because as I mentioned, it was just a small flooding. Monsoon rains were not so destructive unlike these days.
According to the SMA (Systematic Managerial Analysis) principle, if something goes wrong in a product or process, find the drastic change that is implemented to check if it is the root cause of the problem. Government officials must sit down and brainstorm with a consultant about the possible root causes of the flood problem there. A third party who is not affiliated with any government or non-government organizations will better provide an unbiased analysis of the problem.
The people of Balanga and the rest of Bataan should not accept flooding as a way of life. The loss of life, belongings and even productivity are enough justifications for everyone to demand for improvement.
One of the five suspects in the killing of advertising executive Kae Davantes is now under the custody of the NBI. In as much as I’d like to commend the authorities for solving the case promptly, there are still some questions that need to be answered.
1. If the group tailgated Kae’s car, from where did they start doing it? For sure the CCTV’s can answer that.
2. If robbery or carnapping was the motive, why did they cut off the seatbelt? Why did they gag her with a handkerchief? Kae was alone and they could just fled with her car instead of killing her; unless she knew one of the assailants.
3. How old was the Shann Kervin handkerchief that the assailants used to gag her mouth? If it was a pre-meditated murder, definitely the assailant would use something that would not be associated with him.
4. With sticker or without sticker on the vehicle, isn’t it the subdivision’s guard’s duty to record the plate number of all incoming and outgoing vehicles?
5. If Kae was abducted along the way inside the Moonwalk Subdivision, who was driving the car when they went out of the subdivision?
6. The SOCO recovered some hair strands that belonged to a woman (not Kae). Who is that woman and what is her role in the group?
Kae died of stab wounds. Her mouth was gagged with handkerchied, hands tied with seatbelt. She must have crossed path with an old enemy and given the opportunity and number,they ganged up on her. The woman must be an old enemy or somebody who envied her so much. Maybe the motive was just to scare her but she identified the woman so the group took her to a house to liquidate her. Being amateurs and confused, they dumped her to a bridge in Cavite and went back to Las Pinas to get rid of the car.
The homeowners did not care about seeing the missing Altis because probably, it was a quiet neighborhood where crime rate is low or nil. It maybe another man’s Altis for all they knew.
Conclusion, I don’t believe Samuel Decimo’s story. He must be telling half-truths or he is not the killer at all.
The hardest thing to do is to see you crying because of me.
I have always been the spoiler and the giver, I am fine with it. I am comfortable with it. I always want the other person to feel comfortable and loved. At work, I am the type of leader who sees the best in my subordinates. With my friends, I am the type who assures them of my loyalty. In the family, I am the good cop and my husband is the bad cop.
Between our two young boys, the older one is more prone to being disciplined. He loves to break the house rules, he loves to test our patience and he is NAUGHTY in every sense of the word. But I love him and I can’t afford to see him cry because of my spanking.
According to Hebrew 12:11, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
It gives me the vindication that spanking or disciplining my child is not bad at all as long as I don’t overdo it. It is every parents’ goal to raise responsible and good citizens; teaching the young ones what is right and what is wrong from an early age will let them embrace the value from there on.
Six long months, yes it has been six long months since we started scouting for a house. A house is not an investment, I know, but it’s the only piece of luxury that I really want. The kids are growing and I am not getting any younger so I just want to buy something that they can use in the future.
My husband and I are open to buying second hand property as long as the cost of renovation is reasonable. We intend to avail of our PAGIBIG housing loan or bank financing; whichever is more appropriate and cost efficient. The only hassle in buying a second hand property through PAGIBIG is if the owner will not agree to transferring his/her TCT (titulo) to us so as to proceed with the PAGIBIG housing loan.The element of TRUST is very important in this kind of seller-buyer transaction.
On the contrary, buying a house from a developer takes minimum time for the processing of housing loan. The only downside is buying an overpriced unit and probably, the amount of equity that you need to pay. This is however, predictable because developers usually charge 20% of the TCP (total contract price) for the equity. RFO (ready for occupancy) units have a higher equity as compared to pre-selling but if you’re renting a house at a high rental fee, the savings when buying pre-selling units versus the equity of RFO units will probably be just the same.
I have a young child who’s now in nursery so our main consideration when looking for a house is its proximity to schools, never mind if it is far from our place of work as long as our child’s comfort will not be compromised. This is the reason why, despite the tempting offer, we decided not to get the two-storey house in a subdivision here. Not only is it very far from schools but the subdivision itself is inside another big subdivision. When I inspected the units, I found cracks on the second floor and it must be the reason why the units come cheap.
My husband fell in love at first at a second hand house just very near our place of worship. It is also near Adi’s school so it must be the ideal location. The house structure looks strong and the materials used are of superior quality. It has two bedrooms in the first floor and another two at the loft. The living room and dining area are small and the kitchen sink is not big enough. The spiral stairs leading to the loft is non-value adding to me because of safety issues. Plus, how are we supposed to carry heavy furnitures on a spiral staircase? The asking price is beyond its fair market value and the owner is not enthusiastic about lowering it so there, the house is not meant for us. Bye!
Maybe a townhouse will do so we checked two of the many subdivisions here offering townhouses. Subdivision A (SA) is disconnected from the main road and the location of the townhouse is approximately four kilometers away from the entrance. Not a good location if you’re a public commuter. The only good thing about their townhouses is the quality of materials. The garbage collection is poor and hey, I thought that NO PETS are allowed in there? I saw a lot of dog shits everywhere; the homeowners were just cool about it. =p
Subdivision B (SB) looks crowded and the quality of materials that they used look so-so. Most of the homeowners look scary, husband and I want to get out of the subdivision FAST.
Every time my husband and I go home after a tripping, we can’t help but compare the house sizes with the ones that we are familiar with. For example, a 40 sqm floor area of a two-storey house here is just the size of his grandfather’s living room in Bohol. When I thought that a 20 sqm bedroom is too small, well, the bedrooms of the houses that we saw were just 10 sqm!
Location.
Price.
Method of financing.
Neighbors-to-be.
We are far from our house-hunting journey. We’ll get there someday, I hope. =)
I was trying to catch a sleep last night when 24 Oras showed the remains of the 80’s bold star, Claudia Zobel who died in a car accident in 1984. Seeing her lying on her coffin with grayish skin was enough to keep me awake just when I badly needed to get some sleep.
She was 18 years old when she died; too young for someone who could have been the next important actress of her generation. She would have been 47 years old this year if she survived. Her youth was sealed in her mummified face, her niblings would at least have an idea of how their aunt looked like when she was young–yes, there in the “flesh.”
I was expecting some sort of media and occult frenzy but from the looks of it, Claudia’s family would proceed with their father’s burial on the same grave that she occupied. At least her family is not publicity hungry and they would rather let her rest in eternal peace than take advantage of the situation.
The World of Second Chances 