The ActiveTalker

There’s this new Facebook application (read: VIRUS) that is fastly becoming popular because it floods my Facebook timeline and friend’s wall posts. The application posts a message like this:

“In order to PREVENT SPAM, I ask you to VERIFY YOUR ACCOUNT. Click VERIFY MY ACCOUNT right next to comment below to start the process…”

Once you click it, you will be granting it a permission to post on you and your friend’s wall. And instead of preventing spam, the more it’ll spam you and your friend’s wall. It’s a scam that spams.

You can still revoke the apps’ permission to post on you and your friend’s wall if you have already clicked it. You can go to your account settings by clicking the Account tab > Account Settings > Application Settings. Just find the application on the list of applications you use and click delete (the “x” at the other side of the list). You can also use this to delete applications you don’t want to post on your wall automatically, like the Daily Horoscope and etc., and even games like Mafia Wars, Farmville, Texas Hold ’em Up, etc.

Just a reminder, don’t just click on apps you see posted on your wall. Before you do, verify if it’s safe. You can always always google it for information.

The other day, I saw on the news the story of a mother and her 7 year old child who got hit by an oncoming bus when the crossed the Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue. They died on the spot. The bus driver surrendered to the authorities and was charged of reckless imprudence resulting to multiple homicide.

This is something I don’t agree about the law. Although they were killed in the process of crossing the road, they weren’t supposed to be there in the first place. It is strictly prohibited to cross main roads like that, but some Filipino people are just stubborn, and still cross the road.

Filipinos have a lot of excuses why they still cross the road despite the presence of a number of pedestrian overpass. Convenience is one of the few. It will “save” time if they cross the road rather than walk for a couple more meters toward the nearest overpass. Some find it “too tiring” to climb up and down the overpass. If it’s on a stoplight, they find it “too boring” to wait for the green light, and sometimes, they tend to take advantage of the light volume of incoming vehicles.

Illegal places to cross are literally laden with warning signs such as an approximately 5-by-3meter sized sign. And sometimes, the authorities put metal barricades on the center island to prevent pedestrians to climb up and cross the street. But sadly, the Filipino pedestrians are “wise” enough to make a “passage” wide enough to pass through the metal barricade.

Now, if they got hit by an oncoming vehicle in the process of breaking the law, the driver is held responsible for it. My question is why? On a major thoroughfare like EDSA, Quezon Ave., Commonwealth Ave., etc., the vehicles have the right of way and the pedestrians have no business crossing it. They are law-violators, and if they die in the process, they should solely be held responsible for it. I am also a pedestrian and I know when or where to cross the road. Road safety practices are not limited to drivers, but also to pedestrians. So always obey the laws of the road to be safe.

It’s summer again, and the Philippines, being a tropical country, it is quite hot. So the locals found ways to cool themselves by making coolers. These are made with/from ice and are usually sweet.

The king of Filipino coolers is the Halo-halo, a mixture of sweetened ingredients (sweetened coconut, ube halaya or taro, nata de coco or coconut jelly, sweet corn, mung beangs, sweetened banana, jelly, jack fruit, etc. with evaporated milk and sugar) topped with ice shavings and sometimes with ice cream or custard.

Another Filipino cooler is the popscicle ice pop, popularly called “ice drop”. When I was a kid, they used to call it “ice buko-beans” (as it comes with coconut at mung beans). Nowadays, it comes in different flavors, cheese, chocolate, etc.

An alternative cooler (and cheaper) is the ice candy. Its a frozen fruit-flavored juice that comes inside a tube-like plastic.
The usual flavors are orange, strawberry, grapes, avocado, and sometimes it’s flavored milk or chocolate.

Ice candy

Travelling EDSA takes a lot of time, especially if its a rush hour. It’s actually a quarter to go before 10 and its a Friday night. In the Philippines, a lot of the guys come home from work at this time. If you drive your own car, its a painstaking ride. And if you’re a commuter, taking the bus is a big sacrifice, imagine being stuck in traffic when all you want to do is relax at home.

The Metrostar, popularly called the MRT 3, is a great (but a little less convenient) alternative for commuters. You can go Taft Avenue in Pasay to EDSA-North Avenue in less than an hour. You just have to bear cramming inside the coach. And sometimes, its very hard to get out because a lot of undisciplined passengers hurrily enters the train even if there are still passengers getting out. The upside is, its quite cool inside the train.

If you wonder why it’s called MRT 3, you have it all wrong. There’s no MRT 1 nor 2. I don’t know why its called such, but one thing I’m sure of though, is that it opened its doors to public during the administration of former Philippine President Joseph “Erap” Estrada.

Earlier, I gave the car a wash as we will be going to Bulacan later this afternoon. Giving your car a wash is not an easy task. It takes time to do it and for me, it takes me almost about an hour to finish cleaning the car. Here’s what you’ll need before you start cleaning the exterior of your car:

1. Of course you need water, the universal solvent

2. Car soap

3. Sponge

4. A piece of cloth, pranela would be great

5. Stool (if you find it hard to reach the car’s roof)

6. Car wax

Now you got what you need, let’s begin. First, use water to clean of the dust before you use sponge with the shampoo solution. Then you rinse it with water. In the Philippines, a car wash shop use a pressure washer in this process. Before you apply the wax, you have to dry the car’s exterior with flannel, a soft woven fabric. The last process would be applying the car wax to give the car a lustrous shine. You can also use a tire black to maintain the black color of the tires. You can use a vacuum cleaner for the interior of the car.

There, your car is now clean. You can now ride it with style

This is supposed to be the first post in this blog, but I don’t know what to write. Maybe its first time jitters, or worse, writer’s block. I have been blogging for a couple of years now, but now, I will be using my own domain. My old blog was from a free blog hosting site and had its URL changed in a real domain name.

Thanks to my sister, I now have my own domain hosted by Tekkonsult. This will now inspire me to post regularly and I might also import some of posts in from my old blog.

My posts are basically about life, my everyday adventures, people I meet, things I see. I am a bit of a talker myself, so I will be sharing thoughts, experiences, and things that I find interesting (and useful).

The Lyceum of the Philippines University’s (Cavite Campus) annual valentine concert, the Sunset Romance, will feature the Manila Symphony Orchestra, the Angelos, and La Diva. It will be on the 19th of February at the LPU Grounds in Governor’s Drive, Manggahan, General Trias, Cavite.

The Philippine Star’s Editorial (http://bit.ly/90hqBA) last October 5, 2010 talks about Teachers day. According to the article, the career of being an educator is beginning to lose its luster.

When I was a kid, I used to hear the joke that goes, “If you want to be a domestic helper in Hong-Kong, take Bachelor of Science in Education.” -this seem to be quite true, especially nowadays. With the very little compensation they(us) get, some choose to make a career-shift. Exchanging the honorable(but obviously low-income) job, to a lowly, but higher paying job as a domestic helper.

I remember the Smokey Mountain song, “Mama”. It never fail to make tears fall down my eyes. It talks about a daughter longing to be with her mama who has been gone since she was five.

Anyway, here’s the lyrics:

“Mama she wrote me a letter
Saying she’s gonna be fine
Please take good care of your sister
I’ll be home in three years time

Mama it seems like forever
You’ve been gone since I was five
They say you were a good teacher
In the same school where I can’t
survive

Mama’s a maid in London
I want to believe that she’s fine
She could be lonely in London
I want to know why she had to go
I need her, I want to be near her
I’ve got to be with her
And see to it that we’re together
once more

My English teacher she told me
She wants to be where you are
Mama she’s leaving her family
To earn all the money she wants

London, Vancouver, or Hong Kong
Governess, housekeeper, or nurse
What is to happen to all of us
children?
With mothers who travel so far

Mama’s a maid in London
I want to believe that she’s fine
She could be lonely in London
I want to know why she had to go
I need her, I want to be near her
I’ve got to be with her
And see to it that we’re together
once more

Once more…”

Another reason why it has lost its luster is that nepotism, that is prevalent in government institutions, is now also in government funded educational institutions. This is very sad. How can a better and more qualified teacher get the more out of her/his own teaching career when someone who has “connections” get promoted over her/him?

And also, over population has something to do with this lack of luster. Quoting from the article:

“..public school teachers have been staging mass protests and complaining about being among the most overworked and underpaid in the bureaucracy. Over the years the teachers’ workload has increased with the continuing boom in the student population, with no commensurate salary adjustments.”

How can we deliver quality education if the current ratio of teachers to students is something like 1teacher:50/60students. It also produces classroom shortage. Where will you put those students if you only have a few classroms?

The government plans to cut the budget for education + the church calls RHB “anti-life” and calls for Congress to junk the bill = shortage of classrooms and quality educators and, you’ve guessed it, over population.

Some countries really invest on education. How can you get the most out of the population? Make them literate! According to Confucius in his analects, when they visited a province, they saw that the place is greatly populated. His chariot driver asked him what will they do if the population is great. “Make them prosperous,” he said. And the chariot driver asked what will be done after that. “Educate them,” was Confucius’ reply.

Yes, the government gives free education(that’s their job) through the public school system. But how can the students survive the whole school year if their families can barely make both ends meet?

The head of the family has an unstable job. The mother is unemployed as she has to take care of her 6 children. To make matters worse, she’s pregnant with their 7th child.

If that is how a typical family in a slum area is like, how can we move forward? Overpopulation can lead to higher demand. And how can they look for a job to sustain their family’s needs if they are not supplied with skills and knowledge needed? And some, because of being unemployed, they have nothing to do at home. They don’t have a television set to while the time away because they can’t afford one, or they don’t have electricity. So what will they do? Time for some afternoon delight, I guess.

As for my opinion, what our country needs is a better educational system. The government should invest more in the education sector. And passing the RHB will be a big help.

“Instead of supporting the men most useful to the people, he made them useless out of jealousy… he judged the worth of men not by their ability, character and patriotism, but rather by their degree of friendship and kinship with him.”
Apolinario Mabini talking about Emilio Aguinaldo in his short work, “La revolucion Filipina”

That was from Mr. Ambeth R. Ocampo’s article at the Philippine Daily Inquirer last July 2, 2010. It was entitled “Mabini’s Advice.”

It seemed like Mabini is giving advice to our newly installed president. But it had a different impact on me.

He stated in his article that many of our heroes wrote volumes of works, letters, and memoirs for a nation who does not read. Their work remain unread, unless you’re some “geek” or bookworm who does nothing but read. But hey, these are writings that can help us define our personality, heighten our patriotism and increase our awareness of who we are.

Sometimes, during my Philippine history class, I ask my students what they know about history, with regards to our topic that day. I usually get disappointed with their answers. Is history a very uninteresting topic? Is reading the Twilight saga more appealing than reading Jose Rizal’s writings? Are sonnets by William Shakespeare better to listen to than “Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa” by Andres Bonifacio?

Just a curious question, are most of the Filipinos today, particularly the youth, the so-called hope of the nation, still nationalistic? Is there still a spark of patriotism, the one that was burning in the hearts of our heroes who sacrificed their lives to fight for our freedom, present in us?

I leave you this as a point to ponder. And to further make you aware, please read the poem entitled “Like the Molave.”

Overheard from a group of kids:

Boy 1: may nalulunod oh! (something’s drowning!)
Girl: tanggalin nyo!
(take it out!)
Boy 2: hayaan nyo na, mamamatay din yan.
(leave it alone, it will die anyway.)
Girl: kahit na..
(but we must..)

What a sweet gesture! I don’t even like cats, but what the girl wants for the kitten was definitely sweet. She knows the kitten won’t live anyway as it has been abandoned by its mother, I think she still would like for the kitten to have at least a decent death.

What a sweet gesture!