Earth Hour

March 28, 2009, 8:30 – 9:30 in the evening is the world’s observance of Earth Hour and Arvid Matthew’s one of the people in 1,000 cities in the world who turned off the lights to help save the Planet Earth and to promote awareness about the destructive effects of global warming.

For an hour, the street where we live turned black except for the dim flickers coming from burning candles. This reminded me of the nights when a “gasera” or traditional lamp was the only source of light in my grandparents’ house. Those were the times when darkness wasn’t scary even when the houses were mostly made of bamboo. A lot has changed since then…a lot.

Not only were the lamps forgotten, even the olds’ preference to hard work was brisked away by the coming of new age and materialism.

Perhaps, that explains why the turning off of lights now happens only once in a while and is now considered a great part of man’s history.

Bonding time with Lola Fely

1. I wonder how I could play Basketball.
2. Oops, I didn’t do it right.
3. Let me teach you, Arvid.
4. Let’s shoot the ball now. That’s it!
5. Thanks, Lola Mados, I love you po.
6. Now I’m ready to play Basketball.

Note for parents and grandparents: Love is spelled T I M E. Spend quality time with the ones you love now and do it with style – STRETCH some muscles like Lola Fely “Mados” did!

A picture’s worth

Imagine the Sahara desert without any Dates, camels or occasional passersby – that’s what the World Wide Web would look like without any images in file extension jpeg. People in the advertising industry would definitely agree to this because they live and thrive not only on the words they use, but also on the quality of photos they have.

When I was in advertising, I learnt so many things. Aside from learning how to exaggerate things a little bit for our clients, I was also transformed from being a copywriter into a graphics designer. That’s when I came across the words of the trade such as file extension jpeg, photo enhancement, color separation and the like. That’s when I also proved that flexibility is really an asset.

If I didn’t explore and go beyond my limits, I wouldn’t have found out that I have an eye for good photos, too. More than this, perhaps, I would not have discovered that an image should be a file extension jpeg or format for it to be accepted for processing. Nonetheless, I went as far as knowing only the basics of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Quark Express.

Now, look! This blog entry is a picture-perfect example of a boring life without images, doesn’t it? Quite far from the hotel guide I (with the Creative Department Team) made for Alpha Tours. Let’s make it shine a little with a thumbnail.

A bitter remedy for too much sweetness

I am blessed with many mothers. Aside from my biological mom, Mommy Fely, I also have a mother in the person of Mommy Linda, my mother-in-law; Mama Cely, my dear friend’s mother; Nanang Gay, ate Dorie’s mom; and last but not the least, Mom Sandy, my American mom.

You read it right, I also have an American mother. Like any mother to her daughter, she sees to it that I get plenty of guidance; yet believes that I can face the world aright. We have never seen each other in person yet, though, but she keeps me posted about what she’s up to through letters and emails. It’s how I found out she’s got diabetes.

In my last email, I told her it would do her good if she eats “Bitter gourd”. She said she doesn’t know what it is so I thought I’d write something about it. Here’s a taste of bitterness that makes life sweet with the healing power it brings.

Ampalaya a.k.a. Bitter gourd or Bitter melon in English; 苦瓜 pinyin: kǔguā in Chinese; and karela in Indian is a vine that grows in tropical and subtropical countries.  In the Philippines where it is widely grown, Ampalaya is usually sautéed with pork, tomatoes and egg or is used as a main ingredient in the Ilocano’s dish Pakbet or Pinakbet.

The bitter taste of this vegetable is due to the presence of momordicin, a compound said to be effective in treating diabetes mellitus. Below are the other health benefits of the bitter veggy taken from the “Agriculture” magazine, March 2009 issue, page 22. I hope this would encourage everyone to eat the nutritious Ampalaya.

Laking National

One of the things Dave and I have in common is “National Bookstore”. In short, we love books.

Our choices differ when it comes to reading, though. He’s into biographies, Math puzzles and the like, while I’m into poetry, novels and children’s literature. Nonetheless, I was able to convince him to read Paolo Coelho’s “The Alchemist” and mind you, he read it in one sitting! Hahaha, I couldn’t even ask him to scratch my back because he was so anxious to find out what happened to Santiago, the main character, and his journey in pursuit of his dream.

Likewise, Dade Dave has also influenced me to read the kind of books he wants. His recent finds are the ones I’d probably be excited to read, I think. They are definitely far from what I’d read while Arvid is asleep, but they surely got my attention. Quite interesting. I’ll just post a review about each book when I am already through with it.

On top of these, it’s good to know that despite our differences, we agree on a certain level and meet halfway – something that is important in a relationship. This way, we tend to enjoy the simplest activities like reading Francis Kong’s blogs over a cup of coffee.

I just hope we’d find more time to sit down and really “read” together since his job as a telecommunications engineer barely gives him time to breath and relax.