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A Poem, Dreamland and a Toy Car

mhel — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:58:22 +0000

Last night, when I went home, my son was telling me he needs to memorize the poem “All Things Bright and Beautiful” which they would recite tomorrow in class one-by-one. After cleaning up and eating dinner, we proceeded to the task.

I was amazed how good my son’s memory is. After I taught him the strategy in memorizing poems, in about an hour or less, he was able to memorize and recite the complete poem! Mind you, he even recited it with feelings and right delivery.

Needless to say, I am so proud of him and to motivate his good performance, I asked what he wanted as a reward. He joked, “trip abroad Mama.” I wish I can really, I am hoping to bring my son someday to one of my dreamlands, a vacation in Orlando with its outstanding theme park and amenities. My son would sure enjoy and remember it forever.

But since I cannot, I just bought him a really nice toy car which he loved instantly. I love children’s simplicity and honesty. Don’t you?

Summer Dreams and More

Father and Son Pinoy Team Won Reality Cook Show in US

mhel — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:57:19 +0000

Another good news for Pinoys — a Filipino-American father and son team just won in a popular reality cooking show titled Food Network. shown in the United States of America.

Chef Andrew Dizon teamed up with his father, Ladd Dizon, in facing the challenge called ”24 Hour Restaurant Battle” where the contestants were asked to put up the restaurant of their dream within 24 hours. The winning menu of the father-and-s0n tandem were popular Filipino dishes consisted of oxtail kare-kare, lengua (beef tongue), bittermelon or ampalaya with shrimp, spring rolls and banana turon. The stake – $10,000 or almost half a million pesos.

Chef Andrew and his father Ladd’s objective in joining and winning the challenge was to promote Filipino food to the rest of the world and obviously, he succeeded in doing that. As Chef Andrew’s Aunt said, the team took a risk in choosing dishes people from the audience and the judging panel are not familiar of. Their battle proved taking the risk was all worth it, both for them and the rest of the Filipino people.

Chef Andrew and Ladd’s restaurant was even named ‘Noy,’ guess where they took the name from? Congratulations and thank you for making us prouder than ever for being Pinoys!

Another Home Technology

mhel — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:26:50 +0000

This afternoon when I hitched a ride with a friend, we passed by their exclusive village and I asked him if there were incidences of burglary or such in their community since it’s a common occurrence in high-class residences such as theirs. He replied there were attempts.

Burglaries, unwanted visitors (such as sales people, agents, bank representatives and others) may now be controlled through emergence of devices and technologies which provides safeguard for the homes. One of such is the such as driveway alarm which inform the owner of the house there is a vehicle approaching his driveway so he can react appropriately before it reaches his door or gate.

We got to be careful these days as a lot of new modus operandi are being cooked up by thieves, burglars and other criminal elements. It’s better to safeguard our homes through the use of proper technology.

Philippine Team Won Memory Championships in UK

mhel — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:25:33 +0000

Another talented Filipino emerged and bagged the Silver Medal in the recently concluded 2010 UK Open International Memory Championships. Johann Randal Abrina, a 28-year old registered nurse from Mandaluyong City, memorized a deck of cards in 1.20 minutes in the Speed Cards Category that led to his earning a Grand Master (GM) norm and a Silver medal. He would be needing two more GM norms to achieve the Grand Master of Memory status.

This is the first time that a team from the Philippines was able to join the International Memory Championships. The team was composed of Abrina, his team mate Roberto Racasa, a Marikenyo and a former top chess player of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, International Chess Master Almario Bernardino Jr. as Coach and Aurelio “Reli” de Leon, the Team Manager. The Memory Championships was held at the 4th level of MWB Business Exchange, One Kingdom Street in Paddington, Central London.

The Memory Competitions started in 1991 where Dominic O’Brien emerged as the winner. Since then, the competitions are being held annually. The Philippine Team will advance to the world Memory Championships which will take place in Guangzhou, China in December.

The Philippine Team has indeed shown sheer talent despite facing experienced opponents including the reigning 3-time World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore, Andi Bell, James Ponder, and Richard Bowdler of the United Kingdom and other competitors from different parts of the World.

Let’s all wish them good luck and Godspeed for the World Memory Championships in December.

Welcoming the ‘Ber’ Months

mhel — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:05:32 +0000

The much anticipated ‘ber’ months has started yesterday, September 1. For Pinoys, the ‘ber’ months means celebrations and holidays. This is the start of thinking about parties, food and gift ideas.

If in other countries, people are anxious about shopping for winter and holiday gifts, in the Philippines, the ‘ber’ months is the start of shopping for Christmas presents. In fact, this afternoon, when I visited the mall closed to our town, early Christmas shoppers are already buying in bulk sale toys and bags. I did bought a few too for some of my godchildren.

What about you? What memories or thoughts provoke the ‘ber’ months in you?

A Pinoy Won the Emmy Creative Arts Category!

mhel — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:44:48 +0000

After Miss Universe 4th place winner Filipina Venus Raj, another Pinoy emerged as an international talent in animation — Joseph ”Joe” Mateo who just won an Emmy award for Creative Arts for one of his works with Disney. He bagged the award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation for the television special ‘Prep & Landing’ where he was the toryboard artist.

Mateo received the award during the 62nd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards for technical and other achievements in such category in American television, in Los Angeles last August 21.

His masterpiece, Prep & Landing is a computer animated TV Christmas special about clever elves who work for an elite organization called “Prep and Landing” which organizes Santa’s visit to millions of houses during Christmas eve. Mateo is also behind other Disney movies such as Super Rhino, Home on the Range, Treasure Planet, The Emperor’s New Groove, Tarzan, Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Pocahontas.

May his success motivate more our Filipino animators — professionals, amateurs and would-be-soon — to draw their way to the global arena and make more their country, the Philippines, prouder! Who know, maybe the next animation superstar will come from Marikina CENTEX 2D Animation Scholarship Program. That would be the day!

Read More Interesting Articles.

Sunday Family Bonding

mhel — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:58:27 +0000

Thanks to the long weekend, our family had a longer time to bond before another week of work. We chose the mall for our bonding activities since there’s so much to do in malls including playing games in slot machines and riding carnival rides, window shopping (and actual shopping for those with budget), dining, movie watching, and much more.

Since August is ghost month, the mall is quite adorned with halloween costumes which gave me good ideas on what to buy for my son’s costume for our town’s annual halloween parade.

Needless to say, our family had so much fun eating out and having a good time being together on a fine Sunday afternoon. I wish we can spend a lot of bonding time together before our boy grow up. He’s growing up very fast and soon, he’ll turn into a teen who would have a life of his own and doesn’t want to be tagged along in family bonding activities. If only I can make the clock slower or impede my son’s growth but that would be unfair to him and I would be changing the regular cycle of life.

But there’s something I can do — spend more time with my boy as much as I can, love him more and make him feel it, be there for him when he needs me, make our home a desirable place for him to live in. Just like any moms would.

Sale Alert: SM City Taytay 3-Day Sale + 1 Extra Day!

mhel — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:20:50 +0000

Calling all SM Mall sale fanatics from Rizal, SM City Taytay is holding a “3-day plus 1 Extra Day” sale starting today, August 37 until August 30, 2010.

Selected items will be on sale for up to 50% off its regular prices plus you’ll get a chance to win 1 of 3 Devant LCD TV. It’s another shopaholic day! Happy shopping!

An Academic Frustration

mhel — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 05:52:20 +0000

Right after I took the board exam for teachers, my next plan was to take my masteral, preferably in education or public administration. Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen turn of events, I wasn’t able to enroll last semester which I direly regret.

In a couple of months, the registration for the second semester will start and I am hoping to enroll this time. However, one of my frustrations is that I am having problems with managing my time as my schedule in the last months has been truly hectic. In fact, I even suffered from heart palpitation due to stress and lack of sleep in my effort to finish my work assignments, both from my day and off-office hours job.

Schooling has a rather funny effect on me. While others find going to school boring, tiresome and rigid, I find it relaxing, exciting, and productive. Quite some good reasons for my clamor to go back to school. However, with the restriction I have in terms of time, I may consider reviewing, registering and attending good online schools for their alternative approach to education which would allow me to study and earn a master’s degree while at home.

Whatever I decide on, what’s important is that I, my husband and even my 7-year-old boy understand the importance of education and we are all trying to work on our individual dreams through education for our family.

The Schools of Thought and the Paradox of Life

Miss Philipines is 4th Runner-up, Miss Mexico is Miss Universe 2010!

mhel — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:10:06 +0000

The wait is over, the newest Miss Universe is 22-year old Jimena (Ximena) Navarrete of Mexico. Our Miss Philippines Venus Raj fought a good fight and managed to bag the fourth place in the pageant.

Here is the complete ranking for the Miss Universe 2010:
Miss Universe 2010 Mexico – Jimena Navarrete
1st Runner-up Jamaica – Yendi Phillipps
2nd Runner-up Australia – Jesinta Campbell
3rd Runner-up Ukraine – Anna Poslavska
4th Runner-up Philippines – Venus Raj

Hopefully, Venus Raj and the Miss Unvierse 2010 pageant would manage to steal the limelight from the hostage-taking incident yesterday which would hurt our country’s tourism in the next days. There’s hope after all. Well done Binibining Pilipinas!