To Those Who Were Born in the 50's, 70's and early 80's

Well, this is just a re-post. This was sent to me thru e-mail and just want to share it because it's true....

T O ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1950's, 60' s, 70's and early 80's !! especially pinoy, pinay!

First, some of us s urvived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne and drank San Miguel Beer while they carried us.

While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine, a te isaw, and didn't worry about diabetes.

Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints, pati na yung walker natin, matigas na kahoy din at wala pang gulong.

We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang), and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads , sometimes wala pang preno yung bisikleta.

As children, we would ride in hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats (yung JD bus na pula), or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts (ngayon lahat may aircon na)

Riding on the back of a carabao on a breezy summer day was considered a treat. (ngayon hindi na nakakakita ng kalabaw ang mga bata)

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle purchased from 711 ( minsan straight from the faucet or poso)

We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this. Or contacted hepatitis.

We ate rice with star margarine, drank raw eggs straight from the shell, and drank sofdrinks with real sugar in it (hindi diet coke), but we weren't sick or overweight kasi nga......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on. Sarap mag patintero, tumbang preso , habulan at taguan.

No one was able to reach us all day ( di uso ang cellphone , walang beepers ) . And yes, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our wooden trolleys (yung bearing ang gulong) or plywood slides out of scraps and then ride down the street , only to find out we forgot the brakes! After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a canal (seweage channel) a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPOD's, no cell phones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, and no Friendsters....... ...WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents. The only rubbing we get is from our friends with the words..masakit ba ? pero pag galit yung kalaro mo,,,,ang sasabihin sa iyo..beh buti nga !

We played marbles (jolens) in the dirt , washed our hands just a little and ate dirty ice cream & fish balls. we were not afraid of getting germs in our stomachs.

We had to live with homemade guns " gawa sa kahoy, tinali ng rubberband , sumpit , tirador at kung ano ano pa na puedeng makasakitan..pero masaya pa rin ang lahat.

We made up games with sticks ( syatong ), and cans ( tumbang preso )and although we were told they were dangerous, wala naman tayong binulag o napatay.paminsan minsan may nabubukulan lang.

We walked, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them to jump out the window!

Mini basketball teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala yang mga childhood depression at damaged self esteem ek-ek na yan. Ang pikon, talo.

Ang magulang ay nandoon lang para tignan kung ayos lang ang mga bata, hindi para makialam at makipag-away sa ibang parents.

That generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, creative thinkers and successful professionals ever! They are the CEO's, Engineers, Doctors and Military Generals of today.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had failure, success, and responsibility. We learned from our mistakes the hard way.

You might want to share this with others who've had the luck to grow up as real kids. We were lucky indeed.

And if you like, forward it to your kids too, so they will know how brave their parents were.

It kind of makes you wanna go out and climb a tree, doesn't it?!

Note From a Friend

Just this morning, oh yah, nearly noontime, I noticed this huge birthday card inside a huge envelope my friends gave me last February of this year. Just because I've missed those kikays, I decided to open it and go through with their messages. I noticed this single sheet of tissue paper. It has a note of one of my kikay friends. Just to tell you, it's 7 months unread...wahihihhi... and so, I read it and I find it funny because everybody's been worried about finding me a groom! Let me show you the note and the huge card, too!

The tissue paper with the note that says :
To AEMS (that's how they call me):
wish you bright future, light, groom & mind all the bright in the world.

I knew the note was just for fun but hahahaha.... the groom thing, it made me really laugh! Everybody's letting me feel the pressure to have that groom when in fact, they can't find one for me hahahahaha... We'll I am not really worried about it because as much as I want to have someone in my life, partly, I'm happy with my life now where there is none. I'm free!

This one's the huge card my kikay friends gave me. The first big card for a big lady! Yay! Hehehehe...

Places I Love (Past & Present)

I’m sure every one of us has places we always wanted to call favorites. I also have mine. And I have always kept those places in mind because they’ve been a part of my life. I visit places harmonizing them to my mood. Here’s a list of places that I go to:

1)HOME. As they say, there’s no place like home. Yes, my hometown is always the first place that I could think about when I really want a total rest. Total means, I don’t have to think of anything. I don’t have to think of where to go while in my hometown because for me, even if I just stay home, I could really relax. I could always be the old me. I don’t have to think about fishing a penny or two in my wallet. Life is so simple there comparing it to the city. In busy cities, you can’t go somewhere without spending a peso or a hundred. In my hometown, when I feel like going to the beach, I could just use my feet or if I want a white sand beach, I could only spend P20. I love my hometown… I really do. I go home twice or thrice a year to recharge the energies I’ve used to make a life here in the city.

2) COFFEE SHOPS. Coffee shops are rampant in the city where I am into right now. I love to hangout with friends in coffee shops since I am not really into boozing. Or when I want to be alone and write about something, I just settle myself in a coffee shop’s couch and put my favorite MP3 on and then type. Or when I discuss a project with an officemate, a coffee shop is always the place that comes out quickly from mind.

3) MEMORIAL PARK. When I was in college and even years after college, when I feel like crying and have a preoccupied mind, I used to stay at my grandparents’ grave. There, I sobbed and talked to them like crazy. It’s a place where I could do some reflections, too. It seemed to be a good place for me because nobody could see me crying so hard except those workers. They don’t know me anyway. I don’t know if I have ever cried in front of someone.

4) CHURCH. After years of spending some time in the cemetery for meditation, I have found a church where I could feel more comfortable, and I love staying there. And from then on, every time I need guidance from Him, I just go to that place.

5) CEBU. Last year was my first trip outside the city for a vacation. It was in Cebu. It was then that I have discovered that Cebu is a city rich in beaches. I have visited one of its beautiful paradises, the Bantayan Island. It’s a perfect place to relax. Nobody familiar, days in a beach, skim board, talk to new faces, fresh air, white sand, fresh foods, hmmm… really a nice place to loosen up.

6) IGACOS. Island Garden City of Samal is the place where I go if I want to go to a beach and swim. It’s the place where most people from Davao City go on weekends. Lots of beach resorts..wow! And there’s this beach where I always wanted to go again and again with my friends. It’s not so crowded and the water is very clear in all tides. It’s far though but yeah, it’s perfect!

7) MY CHAMBER. There’s this one place where I spend most of my time when I’m just home, here in the city – my chamber. I have lots of memories in this place. My room became my best friend. I have spent the moments of ups & downs here. My room is my home inside a home. I could stay all day here. I never get bored staying here. I remembered a sister’s friend saying she likes my room. Small it is but you could find lots of stuffs..comfy pillows, computer with internet, telephone, acoustic guitar, dart board, CDs & DVDs, books, my babies susa & niko, a huge component speaker connected to my computer…and etc. Only a few and not classy stuffs but enough for me. I forgot to mention my bed hehehehe.. it’s because I’m not a sleep junkie.

Nearly Got a Black Eye

I am just home today, as what I have planned. I am preparing myself for work tomorrow. Definitely, I'd be going back after two weeks of rest. I hope my left brow will be okay so that I'd be going back to work in a very good condition.

What happened to my brow? Yay, I nearly got a black eye yesterday at the badminton tournament when my partner in mix doubles accidentally hit my brow with his racket as he tried to hit the bird back to our opponents. Well, God is still good and I'm thankful that He did not allow my partner to hit my eye and I was also thankful that He let me choose to be calm and the game went on smoothly. I am not mad at my partner. We enjoyed the game even if we lose. I don't want anger to rule over me. I don't want anger to produce a gap between me and my fellowmen. I'm okay and I'm thankful because I have overcome the power of anger. ;)

Nice to be Back

Hello friends and readers! Just got back from the province the other day. I had a 2-week vacation. I spent the first week there to totally relax and get some fresh environment. And will spend the rest of my vacation here in the city and join in the city's KADAYAWAN sa DABAW celebration. I will be back to work next week, Tuesday.

I will be posting some pictures in my photoblog. I hope you have already visited that site ;). Again, it's DABAWENYA'S PHOTOBLOG.

Friends, am back and I can now go back to updating this blog. See yah!

Off to My Hometown

Nine minutes more and I'll be on my way to the terminal. I will be going to my hometown for a vacation. I miss the fresh air, the beaches and the people there.

Since I planned to stay for a week in that wonderful place, I guess what I have to tell you is that, I might not be able to update this blog for a week unless I could find an internet cafe there and check mails for a while. Well, I could have lots of time to write something while I'm there. I brought my eepc with me to work on to something. Well of course that if I would look for something to be done.

I'm so excited because I also brought my baby with me. Yay! I hope I could take more pictures and could learn more on how to get good pictures. Well, let's just see. I will just keep you updated through my photoblog.

Hey, guys! I have to prepare myself now. I guess I really have to go. I hope I'd be having a very safe trip. It's raining out there and I do hope there won't be any trouble along the way.

So, just keep on visiting my site. I will keep you updated when I get back.

Bye for now.

New Blogsite

Hi. I would like to invite you to visit my new blogsite. It is actually a photoblog. Friends, please visit:

DABAWENYA'S PHOTOBLOG

I Got My Baby!

I just got my baby last Sunday and until now, we're still at the stage of getting to know each other. I spent the whole Sunday afternoon with my baby. My sister's happy to see me playing with my baby.

By the way, you might be asking, my baby's something that every photographers wanted to have. I'm calling my baby, Niko. Niko is a Nikon D40, a dSLR for photogprahers who are in their entry level(just like me). Niko is just 2 days old and I'm still studying on how to maximize its functions & features. I'm studying with Ken Rockwell as my mentor.

This Friday, 08.08.08, I will be going out for a night shoot with some friends. I hope I could get some good photos.

Next week's the start of my very long vacation. I will be spending my 1st week with Niko at my parents' in Baganga and will spend my 2nd week still with Niko here in Davao for the Kadayawan Festival. That means, I will be spending my whole vacation with Niko! Yay. I said, we're getting to know each other... LOL.

I hope I could take more pictures... great pictures with Niko. And soon, I will formally announce my Photoblog.

So that's it. See yah around!

I Failed Project 365

Sometime last month, I gave up on Project 365. I thought it's just easy but it isn't. I don't always bring a camera with me that is why sometimes I missed to shoot something in a day or two. And I have decided to abort the project resulting to failure. I had been busy mentally. People have seen me so relax and that I go to coffeeshops and anywhere but I'm mentally exhausted. I have a lot of things in mind. Even if I walk, I keep on thinking what to dos and how. And a lot of questions like why? I could no longer think about Project 365 because I have a lot of important issues that I have to deal with before my long break wishing and hoping everything will be okay. I don't want to go for a break when things aren't going well. Just yesterday, I was enlightened. I could finally have a very long break from work! Wow! I have 2 weeks to relax. Yay! Will be spending a week at my parents' (which means I would totally be disconnected in cyberworld) and a week here in Davao to join in the Kadayawan 2008 celebration (will get my 2nd baby today ;)).

So, why totally giveup on Project 365? Because for me, it's just like a class. You have to post something everyday and it serves as an attendance. I have missed more than a week and I consider myself as a dropout, I better try again next year where I could really start on January 1,2009.

Ciao!

Dabawenya's Day Out

Few days ago, during our department's meeting, our team leaders decided that everybody in our department who works inside the office should be exposed outside to be acquainted with the company's electrical installation standards. A draw lot for who should go first was made and to my luck, I my name was drawn first! Well, exposures will be done every Fridays. We are four, so we have to wait for the 4th one before I could have my 2nd exposure. Then the cycle continues.

So, yesterday was my first exposure and wow, got lots of encounters at field. I have witnessed two customers fighting because of the property thing. They were shouting at each other. My field team leader explained to them both that our concern is not to solve their problem regarding the property thing. Our concern is about the metering standard. I remembered my papa, who's a land surveyor. He used to tell us problems about land properties.

To continue with my journey yesterday, we went to an area where you could meet people of all kind. In short, a place where you should be very careful. Okay, we went to one customer's house. While we checked their meter, we found a jumper! It's a catch!

Well, I was very happy because half of my expectations were met. Who could imagine that on my first day of exposure, I would meet jumper! It's nice to be familiar with those things and yes, I have learned how to cover a meterbase and how to lock the meter with a seal. Great experience! It's an additional knowledge to me, really. It's really great!

An Advise

Friends, this is a re-post. A friend of mine sent this to me through my email. This goes out to those who are not yet married and to those who are about to marry. Surely, to all singles hehehehe...

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Eduardo Calasanz was a student at the Ateneo Manila University,
Philippines, where he had Father Ferriols as professor. Father
Ferriols, at that time, was the Philosophy department head. Currently he
still teaches Philosophy for graduating college students in Ateneo.
Father Ferriols has been very popular for his mind opening and enriching
classes but was also notorious for the grades he gives. Still people
took his classes for the learning and deep insight they take home with
them every day (if only they could do something about the grades...)

Anyway, come grade giving time, (Ateneo has letter grading systems, the
highest being an A, lowest at D, with F for flunk), Fr Ferriols had this
long discussion with the registrar people because he wanted to give
Calasanz an A+. Either that or he doesn't teach at all...Calasanz got
his A+. Read the paper below to find out why.


------------------------------------------------------------------
PARTNERS AND MARRIAGE
By Eduardo Jose E. Calasanz

I have never met a man who didn't want to be loved. But I have seldom
met a man who didn't fear marriage. Something about the closure seems
constricting, not enabling. Marriage seems easier to understand for what
it cuts out of our lives than for what it makes possible within our
lives.

When I was younger this fear immobilized me. I did not want to make a
mistake. I saw my friends get married for reasons of social
acceptability, or sexual fever, or just because they thought it was the
logical thing to do. Then I watched, as they and their partners became
embittered and petty in their dealings with each other. I looked at
older couples and saw, at best, mutual toleration of each other. I
imagined a lifetime of loveless nights and bickering and could not
imagine subjecting myself or someone else to such a fate.

And yet, on rare occasions, I would see old couples who somehow seemed
to glow in each other's presence. They seemed really in love, not just
dependent upon each other and tolerant of each other's foibles. It was
an astounding sight, and it seemed impossible. How, I asked myself, can
they have survived so many years of sameness, so much irritation at the
other's habits? What keeps love alive in them, when most of us seem
unable to even stay together, much less love each other?

The central secret seems to be in choosing well. There is something to
the claim of fundamental compatibility. Good people can create a bad
relationship, even though they both dearly want the relationship to
succeed. It is important to find someone with whom you can create a good
relationship from the outset. Unfortunately, it is hard to see clearly
in the early stages.

Sexual hunger draws you to each other and colors the way you see
yourselves together. It blinds you to the thousands of little things by
which relationships eventually survive or fail. You need to find a way
to see beyond this initial overwhelming sexual fascination. Some people
choose to involve themselves sexually and ride out the most heated
period of sexual attraction in order to see what is on the other side.
This can work, but it can also leave a trail of wounded hearts. Others
deny the sexual side altogether in an attempt to get to know each other
apart from their sexuality. But they cannot see clearly, because the
presence of unfulfilled sexual desire looms so large that it keeps them
from having any normal perception of what life would be like together.
The truly lucky people are the ones who manage to become long-time
friends before they realize they are attracted to each other. They get
to know each other's laughs, passions, sadness, and fears. They see each
other at their worst and at their best. They share time together before
they get swept into the entangling intimacy of their sexuality.

This is the ideal, but not often possible. If you fall under the spell
of your sexual attraction immediately, you need to look beyond it for
other keys to compatibility. One of these is laughter. Laughter tells
you how much you will enjoy each other's company over the long term.

If your laughter together is good and healthy, and not at the expense
of others, then you have a healthy relationship to the world. Laughter
is the child of surprise. If you can make each other laugh, you can
always surprise each other. And if you can always surprise each other,
you can always keep the world around you new. Beware of a relationship
in which there is no laughter. Even the most intimate relationships
based only on seriousness have a tendency to turn sour. Over time,
sharing a common serious viewpoint on the world tends to turn you
against those who do not share the same viewpoint, and your relationship
can become based on being critical together.

After laughter, look for a partner who deals with the world in a way
you respect. When two people first get together, they tend to see their
relationship as existing only in the space between the two of them. They
find each other endlessly fascinating, and the overwhelming power of the
emotions they are sharing obscures the outside world. As the
relationship ages and grows, the outside world becomes important again.
If your partner treats people or circumstances in a way you can't
accept, you will inevitably come to grief. Look at the way she cares for
others and deals with the daily affairs of life. If that makes you love
her more, your love will grow. If it does not, be careful. If you do not
respect the way you each deal with the world around you, eventually the
two of you will not respect each other.

Look also at how your partner confronts the mysteries of life. We live
on the cusp of poetry and practicality, and the real life of the heart
resides in the poetic. If one of you is deeply affected by the mystery
of the unseen in life and relationships, while the other is drawn only
to the literal and the practical, you must take care that the distance
doesn't become an unbridgeable gap that leaves you each feeling isolated
and misunderstood.

There are many other keys, but you must find them by yourself. We all
have unchangeable parts of our hearts that we will not betray and
private commitments to a vision of life that we will not deny. If you
fall in love with someone who cannot nourish those inviolable parts of
you, or if you cannot nourish them in her, you will find yourselves
growing further apart until you live in separate worlds where you share
the business of life, but never touch each other where the heart lives
and dreams. From there it is only a small leap to the cataloging of
petty hurts and daily failures that leaves so many couples bitter and
unsatisfied with their mates.

So choose carefully and well. If you do, you will have chosen a partner
with whom you can grow, and then the real miracle of marriage can take
place in your hearts. I pick my words carefully when I speak of a
miracle. But I think it is not too strong a word.

There is a miracle in marriage. It is called transformation.
Transformation is one of the most common events of nature. The seed
becomes the flower. The cocoon becomes the butterfly. Winter becomes
spring and love becomes a child. We never question these, because we see
them around us every day. To us they are not miracles, though if we did
not know them they would be impossible to believe.

Marriage is a transformation we choose to make. Our love is planted
like a seed, and in time it begins to flower. We cannot know the flower
that will blossom, but we can be sure that a bloom will come.

If you have chosen carefully and wisely, the bloom will be good. If you
have chosen poorly or for the wrong reason, the bloom will be flawed. We
are quite willing to accept the reality of negative transformation in a
marriage. It was negative transformation that always had me terrified of
the bitter marriages that I feared when I was younger. It never occurred
to me to question the dark miracle that transformed love into harshness
and bitterness. Yet I was unable to accept the possibility that the
first heat of love could be transformed into something positive that was
actually deeper and more meaningful than the heat of fresh passion. All
I could believe in was the power of this passion and the fear that when
it cooled I would be left with something lesser and bitter.

But there is positive transformation as well. Like negative
transformation, it results from a slow accretion of little things. But
instead of death by a thousand blows, it is growth by a thousand touches
of love. Two histories intermingle. Two separate beings, two separate
presence, two separate consciousnesses come together and share a view of
life that passes before them. They remain separate, but they also become
one. There is an expansion of awareness, not a closure and a
constriction, as I had once feared. This is not to say that there is not
tension and there are not traps. Tension and traps are part of every
choice of life, from celibate to monogamous to having multiple lovers.
Each choice contains within it the lingering doubt that the road not
taken somehow more fruitful and exciting, and each becomes dulled to the
richness that it alone contains.

But only marriage allows life to deepen and expand and be leavened by
the knowledge that two have chosen, against all odds, to become one.
Those who live together without marriage can know the pleasure of shared
company, but there is a specific gravity in the marriage commitment that
deepes that experience into something richer and more complex.

So do not fear marriage, just as you should not rush into it for the
wrong reasons. It is an act of faith and it contains within it the power
of transformation.

If you believe in your heart that you have found someone with whom you
are able to grow, if you have sufficient faith that you can resist the
endless attraction of the road not taken and the partner not chosen, if
you have the strength of heart to embrace the cycles and seasons that
your love will experience, then you may be ready to seek the miracle
that marriage offers. If not, then wait. The easy grace of a marriage
well made is worth your patience. When the time comes, a thousand
flowers will bloom...endlessly.