We can now dream again -PNoy

I was waiting this afternoon for the "shocking revelations" that the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of the Philippine President will reveal as news were saying. Well, perhaps the so-called "shocking revelations" were not so shocking at all, at least for some.

President Noynoy Aquino's SONA was spiced up with accusations of misused funds and wasteful spending; accompanied by figures and names of some agencies under the previous administration. He exposed anomalies of the release of calamity funds to Pampanga, former President now Congresswoman Gloria Arroyo's town; the controversies of the National Food Authority regarding withered rice due to poor distribution; the extravagant bonuses of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage Systems staff and trustees; among others.

Aquino also discussed peace efforts for the country; particularly ceasefire between rebels and the government; and also of conflicts in some areas in Mindanao. He also called on for peace talks and a forum for suggestions, not just rallying for protests.

I personally believe that the Filipino people are already aware of the anomalies, corrupt activities and other illegal negotiations of different government agencies. I know that Filipinos are knowledgeable of some strategic movements of how greedy many officials and politicians are. And somehow, the speech reflects the situation of the country, and also echoes a little "laglagan" mentality that is innate in our culture.

This is like a never-ending nightmare in a democracy that haunts down every single citizens of the country. But, with someone saying "puwede na muling mangarap," what assurance will it be that this dream will no longer be a nightmare in the succeeding years to come? High hopes, still, but it failed to envision me, what's next?

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The chores vs 'hapontukin'

It has been a busy week. After the long work days, weekend follows with lots of household chores. Of course, the only choice for the chores is to accomplish it with ease. All the cooking, cleaning, tending, and washing.

It is one Sunday morning, and I realized I have nothing to wear for next week. So, I needed to do the laundry. First, prepare things for the laundry. Well, perhaps you need water, detergent, brush, some stain remover, and the 'main ingredient' dirty clothes! Yay! All seems complete so the operation labadami is set on.

Thinking of the laundry, admittedly, is very much tiring. So most of the time you will need the steady help of Mr. Washing Machine. A few spins, flips and turn! Whoah!

Somehow, waiting Mr. Washing Machine finish his business gets me sleepy. Hearing the buzzing sound of it makes my mind go lullaby, lullaby.. then eyes get close.. for a second then open.. then close again. That is a perfect example of hapontukin.

It’s a condition where you don’t have enough energy to last you through the day.

Oh, so that's it. But we can cope with it. You know what, when hapontukin sets in, I make myself busy with other things. One reason we slightly fell asleep in certain things we do is we actually let the others do the things that we must do on our own. Like this laundry chores, you will never get sleepy if you will be the one doing it. Just like me:

And also, you will not be able to do things perfectly if you don't have the energy for it. I mean steady energy that multivitamins can give you.

Just like Enervon (tadan!)...which has combination of vitamins called Steadi-Energy Complex that brings long-lasting energy throughout the day. So no more hapontukin. With so many things I have to do during the day, this keeps me with steady energy that bring me more smiles at the end of the day.

Eclipse, the light, the dark

A very action-packed Twilight saga was the one I saw via its third installment entitled Eclipse. This modern love story of teenager Bella once again challenged with a ravage and danger caused by the 'newly-born' vampires. As this happens, Bella is cornered in an undesired position that will uncomfortably made her choose to either her boyfriend Edward or her best friend Jacob. Another conflict that envelops the whole story was the freaky tension between vampires and werewolves.

The dark. Eclipse delivered action scenes very well. The visuals were very impressive compared to Twilight and New Moon. Although, there are harsh approaches on fight scenes, what you can exactly notice is the details of every battle. Somehow, as what everyone observes also, this movie is quite meatier, edgier and darker. The cast, of course, helped a lot to make it more realistic. All scenes can make you fall from your seat a couple of times. Everything seems strong; from hues, scenes, actors and the delivery. New characters made the story juicier. There are also flashback of where Jasper and Rosalie came from. Dakota Fanning is really a revelation, making the dark vampires even darker. Bryce Dallas Howard did a great job and very fascinating as Victoria.

The light. Eclipse explores the fun and excitement of being in-love. The love triangle among Bella, Edward and Jacob is somehow very realistic. They never failed to tickle the romantic side of the audience especially during the tent scene as both Jacob and Edward had to be in teams to protect Bella. Jacob flaunts his 'hotness' as always. Edward reveals how 'traditional' he is when handling a relationship. Bella captures confusion with different levels of love she feels for both of them.

Eclipse has all to offer; action, suspense, comedy and romance. Just like Twilight and New Moon, a worth-to- watch film deserves a huge commendation.

Rediscovering stupidity

Coinciding with typhoon last Wednesday, I felt the shaking of my nerves looking forward for the electricity to come back. The main reason of course is to log on and check the status of everything that I need to check. The situation is not helping but good thing about it is, my alive cellphone battery - making me exercise my radio station-hopping abilities.

I suddenly got bored, thought of registering to the unlimited texting service of Globe so I could text non-sense things to everyone with the same network. Yay! One group message coming right up... "message sending failed" ...no enough prepaid credits left in the account. Argh! Stupidity #1.

Power was brought back around midnight. With much excitement, I grabbed the internet USB plug-it. The connection is really damn slow, a little bit disappointing, I tried to surf and found myself looking at the SMARTbro website page with a link to update the plug-it. I downloaded and run the program... but failed. Hmm, what went wrong? I opened the attached word file and became shocked with the instruction saying: "Warning: never close the tool when download procedure is running, such operations maybe seriously damage the card permanently!" Damn! Stupidity #2.

The plug-it is not working anymore, I mean, the auto-run is not auto-running (I know, redundancy..fine!) so I tried to launch the program update again but it was not responding anymore. Good thing, SMART has online customer care via twitter. And they were very patient in sending DMs to me to address my situation. In the end, I figured out that I must remove the USIM card before running the update. Lesson learned: read instructions carefully. Whew! Stupidity #3.

Special thanks to the SMART customer care representative who managed to tweet me for a couple of hours trying to figure out my problem and for the constant follow-up they are doing to make sure my concern is properly addressed. Happy ending: I run the update program again, this time USIM was removed and I patiently waited for the program to finish its business. My USB broadband plug-it is now up and running..again!

The aftermath of "Basyang"

Even if the Philippines is frequently visited by typhoons, it is still hard to predict the scenarios it will bring despite how prepared people are in certain weather conditions.

Typhoon Basyang was within the Philippine Area of Responsibility on July 13 and having slow movement towards North Luzon. The weather bureau had a last minute forecast of the storm heading its path in Manila. Strong winds began whistling around Manila and nearby areas around 12 midnight of July 14. A little prepared though because of the shock brought about by Ondoy last year, the city reported slight damages particularly bended billboards and uprooted trees.

Some of electrical devices and equipments of MERALCO (Manila Electric Company) were affected by the high winds having them decide to cut the power supply of the city as well as nearby provinces.Apparently, no heavy rains coincided with it although in some parts of Luzon, there were landslides and floods.

Due to a total blackout that morning, trains of Light Railway Transit (LRT) and Metro Railway Transit (MRT) cancelled their operations. Thousands of commuters were left stranded on that day. All classes were suspended. Business establishments continued their operations, coping with zero power supply. Electricity was restored in different times within that day.

Hurray! Just a happy feeling and commercialization

I got a comment on my post! I am indeed so happy. Now I believe what my other co-bloggers in the blogging world are saying that once you had your first comment on your blog, you will treasure it a lifetime. Why? Simply because the purpose of blogging is not just storing thoughts, reflecting it in words and posting it in letters. The main purpose of blogging is for us to have something to share and have someone else absorb it. With my first comment on my blog, I got inspired even more to have something to share. So on next posts, I will try my very best to make this blog worth reading. Thanks!

Moving on, I happened to notice Bulacan State University (BSU), the only government-run university in our province. The place had a huge development. It evolved to something I never imagined when I was a little. The front gate of BSU before is just an open field. Now, you can see different establishments standing on the area making the front gate hardly noticeable.

A newly-opened Robinson's Supermarket is now up and running. You can also find McDonald's, Gerry's Grill, Mini-Stop and other food store choices. Also, PureGold Supermarket marked a success in months of operation. Below are some photos of the university's front gate. Where is the gate? Ahm... at the mall's right side, literally beside it

You really can never question how change will strike your eye. I remember, one time how old folks would tell me stories on how a certain object was not yet there and suddenly it was build up. And I go, what significance would it bring upon sharing to me these stories.

For a nostalgia, I am now reminiscing how the place look like, before industrialization and commercialization took place in the city. What a...! Am I already getting old..?

It is Eclipse for most viewers

I was excited earlier to watch Eclipse: The Twilight Saga because it is quite a phenomenon in this era. Remember the times of Star Wars, Titanic, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, it seems that in every decade perhaps there will be a such phenomenal motion picture that the viewing public will go crazy about.

Twilight may now be compared to a modern soap opera because of the love-angle conflicts situated therein. I was even fascinated too, on how Bella (Kristen Stewart) will be able to manage the "guys of her dreams." Will it be the cold, shimmering vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) or the warm, flaunting werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner)?

With the eagerness to watch the film, I energized myself to be on time of its screening. As I approached the cinema lobby, it was all jam-packed. There was a long line tailing from the escalator and heading to the ticketing booth. And I overheard this kolehiyala complaining about having lined up in a bunch of Eclipse fanatics wherein she was suppose to watch another movie. Well, I was saddened with the long journey I will take just for the ticket so I turned around and went somewhere else. I will try to catch the movie next time. Eclipse is now on its second week in major cinemas nationwide. Here is the movie trailer of Eclipse:

Another food for thought

After the traffic battles I experienced a couple of days ago, I realized that I was really not alone experiencing the static traffic in the metro. Even the president himself was a victim of this unexpected situation. I posted here my road experience last Friday and was surprised of the news later saying that the president being late in his appointment on that day. Last Wednesday is another traffic extravaganza (what shall I expect) and knowing later again in a news bulletin that our beloved president was late in the mass officiated on that day for the new appointees. Now is the time to further implement again our road rules and create possibilities to ease this non-moving scenario on the road. Do you think it is now quite alarming that traffic causes all Filipinos to be late, even our respected head of state and highest official?

Enough has been said, so moving on, I was walking one day along EDSA (well, on the sidewalk) because I was literally afraid to be stuck again in traffic. As my feet moved patiently towards my destination, I happened to drop by in this food store. Much as into food fascination, I eagerly tried to eat in this karinderia-like-fast food chain. The eatery is a wow, and it is called Manong Pepe.

The karinderia is a Jollibee Foods Corporation subsidiary making it reliable when it comes to food service.The best thing of all, the menu is very cheap. Their rainy season menu (lugaw, sotanghon, tokwa't baboy) unbelievably starts at P15. Their breakfast menu starts at P25 that includes rice. There are also choices for lunch and dinner. Manong Pepe is located along EDSA in Cubao and plans to open other branches in Metro Manila.

I got hit by Toy Story 3

I really could not believe that Toy Story 3 made me cry. It was quite unusual for a cartoon to strike me back, but with this one, I suddenly became a crybaby and somehow, made me think of the realities that all of us are going through. And no matter how hard and difficult times may be, we can't help but simply just move on. A very sad situation that we must accept at least.

The story revolves around cowboy toy Woody and his relationship with his owner Andy who is on his teenage years, growing up and moving to college. And believe it or not, old toys are neglected once childhood days are gone. This is Woody's mission, to let his co-toys believe that Andy will never abandon them no matter what. But towards the end, it was Woody who gave in and faced the consequence that Andy really was a grown-up and should continue his new life as a teenager. There are lots of funny moments in the movie, but it never failed to reiterate that every "separation" tends to be heart breaking.

You will see how Andy was having a hard time giving up his beloved toys to their new owner Bonnie, especially Woody which is his very favorite. Much to my surprise, the movie leap to the boundaries and showed a different flavor of the story. Instead of making Andy and Woody together, as much as I expect too, they were separated and part their ways. It showed the concept of letting go and moving on, in reality. That there are things that may pass, may come, may go, and you can never turn back. The movie really broke my heart.

I appreciate how the third installment of Toy Story is presented. Knowing that it is their last movie on how funny, adventurous, and extravagant the toy's life are, there is also a realization that when something ends, another begins. It may not as funny, adventurous and extravagant than before but the key still is to let go.

Toy Story 3, I might say, is a painful movie. Painful yet heartwarming with full of life lessons that we can cherish for the rest of our life.

Jam-packed traffic

Cars, buses, jeepneys, tricycles... they are all everywhere. As much as I wanted to be early today, I failed to do so because of the one so-called reason, TRAFFIC!

In a small road, you will never imagine how thousands of vehicles were able to fit in, and all in different kinds and sizes. Rush hour starts 7am in our province, where almost half of the population are going to school, work, or just merely traveling from one barangay to another or even leap from one region to another. In my case, I travel from Central Luzon to the National Capital Region (my brain is spreading and overwhelmed with these words) and I approximate my travel time to almost an hour with a continuous ride on a bus.Much to my dismay, it did not work! That was almost three hours spending my time sitting and waiting to arrive in my destination.

It was a Friday morning yet all roads were filled in. How come! Usually, Mondays were expected to be jam-packed as everyone who spent their weekends in the province will rush their way to Manila.But today was a different scenario.

I remember listening to the radio one time, and this announcer was blaming all passenger vehicles as he say were causing the heavy traffic in the Metro. Drivers who just overtake other co-drivers who happened to be so slow on the road; or perhaps blaming drivers that are not on the right lanes just like in EDSA where yellow lanes are intended for yellow-plated vehicles or the passenger buses and the like.

What I noticed today is different. There are few passenger-type vehicles running on the road, merely because it's Friday and there are few passengers waiting for their services. To my surprise is the volume of private vehicles "crawling" on the road with only one load, the driver.

Imagine one car occupying almost five-square foot of the road, that is much of a space. Those critiques are always blaming the public rides and do not see how private vehicles contribute enough to make the traffic jam-packed. This is despite of all car plates are now color-coded which are not allowing them to travel on the road on specific days corresponding their last plate number.

Somehow, I can not paste any possible solution here and I leave it up to the government who tried their very best to ease the packed road. But I think further regulations must be addressed for non-car owners who suffer on the road or perhaps lessen the volumes on national roads or maybe provide alternate routes for private vehicles. I don't know. Maybe.

Hoping for a nice flowing road everyday! and please... no traffic!