The ActiveTalker

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

A poinsettia is a shrub that is a native of Mexico. These are widely used for Christmas decoration as the color of the leaves represent Christmas. The leaves are colored green and red, and often mistaken for the flowers. The flowers are yellow, bud-like and located at the center of the top leaves. The poinsettia is a member of the family Euphorbiaceae and is classified as Euphorbia pulcherrima.

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The ant is an amazing insect. They may be small, but they pack a lot of “brains”. According to Insect Vista, they have the largest brain in proportion to its size. Ants are also mean workhorses, they can carry about 50 times their own weight. I am also fascinated by their way of communicating with each other, so they won’t get lost whenever they gather food. They leave scent “trails” for others to follow.

I tried to “break” their scent train once by rubbing water over it. Some of them wandered away from the trail, but eventually got back in line after a while as they may have made a new “trail”.

In the Disney/Pixar animated film “A Bugs Life“, it showed how ants work together to achieve something big.

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.”

I was talking to my 7year-old niece a while ago after I had her wear 4 different baller IDs of 4 different individuals who ran for president in the National Elections held last May 10, 2010. I asked her who she voted for in the elections, of course she still can’t vote for she’s still too young for that.

Anyway, she “voted” Noynoy Aquino for president. She also “voted” for Bong Revilla, Ramon for senator (whose surname in the ballot actually included his nickname, so instead of just plain “Revilla”, it became “Bong Revilla”

For mayor, she asked me who were the candidates. Since they’re from Quezon City, I told her it was Herbert Bautista and Mike Defensor. She told me that she would have “voted” for Defensor. I asked her why. She told me that she saw his poster that’s why she’ll vote for him.

It was a case of name recall. The more ads you post, the more air time you get, the more time people see your name and face, the more you’ll be remembered.

That is the main advantage of Pinoy celebrities who run for public office. They are well known and their names are what the people remember first when asked. I not underestimating them, it’s just that some are aspiring for a high legislative position (senator or representative) on their first attempt at entering politics. Some started from low positions, like the case of Quezon City Mayor-elect Herbert Bautista, Manila Vice-Mayor Francisco Domagoso (Isko Moreno) and Bataan Provincial Board Member Dexter Dominguez. They worked their way up the political ladder.

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!