Happy Valentine

Happy Valentine to all. Before thinking of becoming sweet on this day, you may want to know the Peanut recall news first. Chocolates containing peanuts that are contaminated with salmonella could still be somewhere else. You might have bought them before and just sitting in your pantry, it could be on sale to some of your local stores or might as well has been imported in your place. The key is to be aware and find out if what you had are in the list of the products being recalled. Thinking of making your partner feel special is good but poisoning or making her ill will be a disaster. I believe ladies prefer flowers instead since most of them are now conscious about their figure.

Try checking on this list > http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/recarapp/2009/2009typhe.shtml .Remember that the list can still be subject for updates for there are products that are still under investigation.

Watch this video, victim of peanut butter crackers.

TV or PC

Do you know that you can also watch TV programs or even movies online? but beware of the risks in visiting some sites you don't really know because some of them might contain hidden viruses and redirecting porn sites. Some antivirus softwares can easily identify if a site is safe or not, so it's better to check on them first before browsing a site. It could also help if you clear your Internet Explorer's or Firefox' cache.

Green means Go!

WASHINGTON (January 26, 2009) -- President Obama took swift action on the environment and energy this morning by supporting state efforts to limit emissions, and increase fuel efficiency.

How can you help in preserving the environment? I don't know about you, but me, in my own little ways, I believe I contribute somehow. I collected all the magazines, mails and other paper stuffs that are not useful to me and put them all in the recycle tank I found near the church where I go to. I'm reusing plastic bags. I preferred to use a drinking glass rather than plastic / styro cups. I don't smoke. I buy local products so as not to support products imported from far places that cost much fuel in getting in our place. I buy organic fruits and vegetables for they were grown without pesticides that are harmful to both human and environment.

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's New Year again?? It's Chinese New Year!! January 26th of 2009.. bye rat! hello ox!
The Ox conveys prosperity through qualities of fortitude and hard work. A stable, fearless and friendly animal, the Ox is calm, patient and tireless, enduring difficulties without complaint. Those born in the Year of the Ox are believed to be born leaders with a hard-wired ability to achieve great things, they know they will succeed through hard work and sustained effort and find no truth or benefit in concocting get-rich-quick schemes.

Famous Year of the Ox births include:
Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana, and President Barack Obama.

YEARS OF THE OX: 1901/1913/1925/1937/1949/1961/1973/1985/1997 and 2009

Obama's Inauguration

President Obama dances with the first lady at the Home State Ball.

Baraks meets Ate Glow(in Manila)

Skittles Commercial 2009- Reflect the Rainbow (Mirror)

Skittles Commercial- Have you ever thought when you are being tailored to fit a new suit, each mirror brings a different perspective of your life? Well, this guy had one perspective where Skittles was very important. One perspective was African-American, the other perspective was Hispanic, and the other one was Asian, Filipino to be exact. The language spoken in the mirror is Tagalog, but the Tailor is speaking Thai.

This video is owned by Mars, Incorporated and its Affiliates. This video can be removed by the request of 2009 Mars, Incorporated and its Affiliates. Thank you!!

I can translate the Tagalog but not the Thai. The Filipino in the mirror is reasoning out that he's hungry that's why he's eating. The rest of what he said during the fight, that, I can't understand anymore.. I just found myself laughing at it.

Dneero Surveys

SpitzTunes -- Right Direction!

Many have asked "Who is Spitz?" Just a Panama City Beach guy, making my way through life. I look back at my time on the radio, in a truck, on the b-ball court, lovin', drinkn', .... and I ask if I've been going in the right direction ... I think so, but I'm not there yet ... looking forward to the rest of it!

Green, Green, and More Green

"You've been meaning to do it -- start a compost pile, buy recycled paper, trade in that pollution-spewing gas guzzler for a cleaner, more fuel-efficient model -- but you've never quite gotten around to it. Well, there's no better time than the present to begin turning your environmental ideals into environmental action." (Natural Resources Defense Council - NRDC)

Our Little Big Secret

I can’t get weary watching all my son’s pictures and videos. Every night, I play them over and over again. It’s worth watching and spending my sleep time since it gives me a sense of relaxation. As I go over it, there was one time I videotaped the two of us learning some letters from the alphabet. In myself, I'm sort of feeling proud for all the things I've taught him in his early age. As I can recall, I think that was 2 months ago, the winter hits us with colds and cough and I had to bring my wife in Patient’s First. That’s also the time we already taught our son about sizes, big and little. He can easily verify if what he sees belongs to a big group or to a little group. Like Big “A” (upper case A) to little “a” (lower case a) or an elephant to an ant. You may ask, what’s the connection? This is how it goes.. when we arrived at Patient’s First, we had to wait for our turn for there were so many sick people who registered before us. I decided to go outside just by the door with my son to keep him away from getting germs inside. My son was so friendly then, he greeted ‘hi’ to everyone who goes in and out of the door. Until there’s a woman who I believed has a weight of between 240-250 lbs approaching the door, my son who saw her afar, pointed his finger like he’s identifying something specific and told me repeatedly, “Big!... Big!... Big!” My eyes got bigger! I don’t know what to do, I didn’t know that he will use those words to people. As the woman gets closer to us, I tried to distract him and divert his attention to something else. I was so worried that the woman might hear him. Quickly, me, not used to do it, opened the door for her to let her in, in as fast as she could possibly be. I almost wanted to push her in, I just said “good morning” to supersede my son’s talk. After that, I took a long breath, whew! I tried to explain to my son that what he did was not a nice thing to do. I can’t blame him, he's innocent about it since he’s just telling what he learned. I might somewhat confused him though, because I did not tell him my praise “Good Job!” that time as what I always do whenever he’s right in identifying big and little things he pointed.. haha I wonder what reaction would the woman be if I did that. From there on, we're careful on the things we teach him, there's always an exception.

New Year's Kaput

I know this is late but I just want to share what kind of new year we had in here last New Year’s eve. In relation to my last blog, about being grumpy, I remember the old man living upstairs of our apartment, I’ll tell you the story about it. I don't know if most people here are not really into Christmas or New Year celebrations because as I observed, they are not really giving much attention to it. Thanksgiving is what they valued most. It's very unlikely in the Philippines, our home town. During these times of the year, families and friends are getting together, workers and students are having their Christmas breaks to celebrate with their loved ones. Food is always present both in Christmas and New Year’s eves. This is not just for the family to enjoy but also to symbolize abundance for the coming New Year. Firecrackers, some great fireworks, and loud music from radio will be heard when 12:00am of the 31st of December approaches. When I was a kid, I used my coin bank and torotot (toy trumpet or horn) in creating noise. It's really loud during New Year ’s Eve in the Philippines, everywhere you go, your ears will not find rest. You can't even hear your own voice because of all the loudness around you. They say that the loud noise will make bad spirits go away and leave along with the old year. We really missed the joy and gladness the season brings in the Philippines. Who said that we can’t bring it here? You will see in our video how happy we were, I put on a little loud music in my computer to give the New Year a spirited welcome. My speaker has its own woofer that’s why you can really feel how lively the music was. That was the very first time I did a loud music (just a little loud actually), I believe it won’t hurt since it’s New Year anyways. But I’m so wrong! Not more than 30 minutes, Mr. Grumpy Old Man from upstairs knocked on our door and said, “Would you mind turning down your radio, it’s really annoying up there!” Eventually, I already turned it off even before he asked for it because we’re about to say our prayer, I said “Oh, I’m so sorry, we already had it off”, he replied, don’t be sorry just turn it down” with a commanding voice like a father to a kid. I’m tempting to say, “By the way, Happy New Year!!” but he already went upstairs. Geez! I thought, it’s just one night and that was my very first time to have the music on! And there’s actually a reason for that music, so inconsiderate!!! It ruined the joy of the night. It made us feel that we did something wrong. My wife said that we should not let that incident affect our happiness. We ended up watching TV while enjoying our food. I wish and pray that Mr. Grumpy will find happiness in his heart so that he will not be so difficult to deal on, having him as a neighbor. Happy New Year to all!!!

new year 2009 - ezekiel

By the way, I found great music playlists from imeem.com. How about you? What kind of music do you prefer?

Righteous church goers

It’s Sunday. We always wanted to go to church every Sundays but sometimes we are making up tons of reasons that made us fail to do it. But today is different, despite of my wife’s tiredness from her night duty, she still insisted to go to church. It’s not just the responsibility as Catholics that prompted us to go but also our willingness to be with the Lord. Some will say that wherever you are, Lord is there, yes, that’s true, but giving up some of your time to dress up, walk a little and visit the church make a real difference. It’s somehow a way of sacrificing some of your precious time and moment to be with the Lord for His honor.

It’s not new to me to see kids inside the church. Some are really adorable and quiet but most are too terrible in their behavior. I remember during my bachelor days, I easily annoyed with the kids crying, playing, running and even eating inside the church. In myself, I said, parents of these kids should be ashamed since they are allowing these kids to do things that are unacceptable inside the church, don’t they know that church should be kept in its solemnity. I even look at them, in my eyes it’s like I’m saying… keep your kid quiet or go out with your kid or just pleeease do something.. sometimes, I stared at the kid’s cookie giving the impression “do they supposed to eat here? Where are their manners? They’re teaching their kids the wrong way.” Hahaha.. That was really an immature, insensitive part of me. Well, that was way way back before.. Things become different, Now, I’m one of those parents. We’re so cautious of those insensitive eyes. I can still see myself in those people who don’t understand what parents are going through inside the church with their kids. I may say that these people might still be single and living all alone by themselves, no experience with kids yet, or they are really strict-to-rules types or just grumpy. Well, if you belong with these kinds of people as I used to be.. Here are the reasons I can give as a parent from my own experience, why of all the approaches available we still can’t prevent some unacceptable kids’ behavior. First, because they are kids – that’s how they supposed to behave, you know.. little attention span, more play less pray.. kid stuffs like that. Second, bringing toys or food for them is for the benefit of the majority.. we wanted them to stay quiet and in their proper places for them not to disturb others through running, crying aloud and making noise. And Last, if we can just entrust our kids to someone while we are in church, we’ll do it, but in our situation, it’s just the three of us living in the house, no relatives in the area and friends were also busy working out their own lives. We also wanted our child to recognize our spiritual way of living. That’s WHY! Hehe.. don’t be so cranky, instead of giving us a look, why don’t you try helping us, or just smiled on us, telling us that you do understand what we’re going through. Anyway, the Lord definitely understands the children as His words say..

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
—Mark 10:13-16

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Merry Christmas to All!!!

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When was the last time you had a date?

Has anyone heard of Desi? You might ask what does this mean. It can also be said as Deshi. They are actually the beautiful people of South Asian heritage, from either Pakistan, India, or Bangladesh. I got to know this from the internet, eager to know how they can be referred since we have nice friends from those countries mentioned. Yesterday, we had a social gathering sponsored by our Apartment’s leasing office; they called it “Residents Holiday Brunch”. Even if I’m not a party-goer, I thought that it’s a good opportunity to meet other people. You don’t live just by yourself, you know. Also, I believe that it’s also a part of our social duty to go out and mingle with others. I remember my college friends used to go out just to meet hot girls in night parties. In the apartment’s function room, with my wife and kid, I was able to meet the husband of our good friend and neighbor, Liza (not her true name). We’ve known Liza not for so long but we sure are good friends already. We both have a toddler that’s why we can relate to each other’s life situation. I always love to meet her husband but we don’t really get a chance till yesterday. Liza is from Denmark while her husband, Ainesh (not his real name) is from India. I already know that information since Liza talked about it the first time we met. The first thing I asked her was, how’d you two meet? They actually met in Denmark; I’ve learned that her husband is so bright that he’s engaged in multiple jobs. As I can recall, Ainesh was in a convention in Denmark during that time. Ainesh is a researcher, doctor and a pilot. Whoa! That’s really impressive you know! No wonder, Liza fell in love to him, not to mention, people from India really has good looks as well, especially those Indian girls. Despite of having English as second language in India, I observed that he still communicates well and with a lot of sense. We found ourselves, listening to every word he says since you will either be inspired or learned from him. He’s also down to earth I may say when he danced with his daughter as if there’s no one’s watching.

Liza and Ainesh are the living proof that no matter where your origins are, two totally different people can still meet and be together, in love and in happiness. You can tell it by just looking at their adorable daughter. This made me think of why are there still a lot of single people around. I can say 75% of our friends are still single. Some of them are just waiting, not doing anything since their principle is “Someone you deserve will come even if you don’t look for him/her”. Some also says, “I still haven’t met the perfect one”. And even one said “I will not look for him, he should look for me”. Tsk.. tsk.., no wonder why they still celebrate cold Christmas alone. Their predictable defense as always is, you don’t need a partner to be happy. That’s how they can say it for now, well, how could I believe them, they haven’t experienced one yet, and if they did, there might be a problem on their selves why it didn’t last. In my opinion, they should do some of the work and not just to depend always in what they called, destiny. In Manila, we have this ancient Filipino saying, “NASA DIYOS ANG AWA, NASA TAO ANG GAWA”, it somehow means "In God we trust, but man must have the confidence to do the things God had entrusted him to accomplish and achieve, for himself, and for others." And if you’re waiting for the perfect one, well, Good luck! I hope you’re still alive when you found one, since as far as I know, nobody on earth is perfect.

There are a lot of ways to meet people and make new friends. To those single men, you might even befriend to some college girls or hot babes if you just know how. One was the event we attended yesterday, bar hopping, going to church, your office or school and other public places, but the easiest way and well known to match people from different parts of the world, that may even connect two different cultures just in one click is the internet! It’s so powerful that I myself met some of my new friends through blogging. One site I can recommend is http://www.desihotpoint.com/ . Man, there are lots of beautiful Desi girls you will find here. I personally met people from India and Pakistan here in US and I can say that they are nice, intelligent and possess good looks. This site will give you opportunity to get to know them better. You can look for a good and decent date of your dreams. The best part is you will know some of their personal information they provided that may define your compatibility, through age, profession, religion, height, weight, hobbies and the likes. It will also tell if they’re smokers or alcoholics, what a great clue! That means knowing their personality without even doing some of the hard work like in courting or hitting hot chicks. Their pictures will tell how hot they really are. This will surely help shy people to have confidence in meeting new people. Another good thing is that there’s no single penny to spend just to meet someone of your interest. You can see members even if you haven’t sign up for them yet, well if you’d like to be known, you can create your own profile though. My advice to all those single men and women to try these ways of discovering new people, these may lead you to might not the perfect one but the right one for you. You are wasting some moments of your younger years if you will still not work for it. You’re not getting any younger, you know. Life is good and beautiful, and even better if you have someone to share with it. Good luck!

Teach him the 'write' way

It’s been 3 days from now when I started teaching my son how to write. People might not know but my very first job right after I graduated was Class Instructor in 3 colleges of STI in Manila to finance my ECE Board review classes. Man, I thought teaching my son will be easier for me since somehow I have background in this area and I told myself before that if I was able to patiently teach other people, I should do it more for my own son with all my best. And that won't be a kept promise. But of course, my college students were totally different from my toddler who is just 2 and a half years old. I really need to be more considerate since it’s like I’m starting from zero. He has no idea at all that what we’re doing is for his developmental growth, for him everything is playtime and fun. That’s why sometimes I can’t get him focus on what we’re doing. Also, toddlers have little attention span, they are long in will but short in skill. That’s why he’s often frustrated and ‘misbehave’. If you know to yourself that you are a perfectionist type of person, forget it! I believe that in parenting, to be efficient you should also know how to be flexible, not everything should be done according to rules, you know, or else you will end up stressed and more frustrated than your child. I mean, it’s not our kids’ fault if they know nothing, we should not expect from them that they automatically know what to do next. Like what happened in our session, he dropped his marker on the carpet, I’m thinking that he will pick it up since he’s not yet done writing, but instead he rolled it over the carpet by his foot. I almost burst in madness worrying that the ink might get into the carpet. Good thing, I was able to get my sanity back and saw that not a single spot of ink was there. I realized he has no clue that what he did was wrong. I gave him a warning on that very moment.

I’m so proud of him, he can now follow the dotted letters in his book all by himself, though it’s still not perfectly done but I can see the progress. This is how we started; First, I let him watch me on how to do it right, then I tried to put the marker in its best possible position between his fingers. With my assistance, we tried following the dotted markings of the letter in his book. It’s like teaching a kid to ride a bike, at first you need to hold the bike while he’s pedaling then once you noticed that he’s doing it right, little by little, without him being aware of it, you let go of the bike. In our second day, he didn’t ask for my hand assistance anymore. Sounds easy, nah! I lost some of my hair in doing these. It will be easier if you have the right materials, what we’re using in teaching him are really effective. Here they are:

First Flurries in 2008

I can't think of anything to do last Friday til I decided to videotape the flurries outside. wala lang.. Here it is.

Another round of Parenting

I guess my son misses the fun at school during the weekend. He always brings home what he learned from his class. Like what he just acted today.

(Click the pix to enlarge)

Clarence gathered all his stuff animals for Circle Time. Here he tells a story, showing pix in the book to each and everyone.

Second Circle time, now Elmo's in the group, singing the Eenzy Weenzy Spider

Singing "Where is Thumbkin"

My kid's way of parenting

I think what I’m doing to Clarence is starting to instill in his innocent little mind. It shows in his acts and words all the things he’s getting from my parenting. Today, I chuckle so much seeing my son doing some silly things he copied from me. Look at the pix below. He's getting it all over his head alright!


Puppy and Elmo got their time-outs! Elmo for not stop laughing, i guess!

Here's when he told Puppy to face the wall and gave a cute command of "Stay there!"

Clarence asked Puppy if he will be a good boy now.. "Gudboy? gudboy? come here!"

Clarence kissed Puppy, gave him a big hug and posed for Daddy saying "Cheese"

Puppy goes to potty

Manners and Etiquettes

Yesterday, my wife was able to chat with her sister from Italy. I got interested when I heard that they are talking about manners and etiquettes. Her sister shared some of the things she read from the book. Though she had some trouble translating it since it was written in Italian but we got the idea perfectly maybe because some of it were true in us. I may say that these can be used as a reminder to all of us because things that we know okay for us might not be good for others. Sometimes, bad things are becoming normal to us especially when we are used to do it. It’s like becoming a habit for us, a really bad habit. Here are some of the dos and don’ts we discussed over chat:

1. While eating, keep your mouth closed in chewing the food.
2. Don’t make a sticky food sound inside your mouth, unless you’re a pig.
3. Cover your mouth if you can’t avoid yawning in front of people.
4. For men, don’t use white socks in dark suit.
5. When someone invited you to a gathering, don’t mind knowing the people who will attend. It gives a perception that you’re basing your decision from it.
6. Don’t go in front of the food table without your shirt on.
7. Don’t talk loud inside the elevator if there are other people with you.
8. If you’re going to blow your nose, please don’t check the napkin of how your secrete goes. Yaiiks!
9. For men, always remember to put back the toilet seat in place after peeing. Though some men don’t even lift it up because of laziness.
10. In eating spaghetti, don’t make a loud slurp while slopping the pasta. You’re not supposed to eat it like a soup.
11. Don’t belch in public. No one wants to know what you ate.
12. Don’t tell to brides “Congratulations!” but instead “Best Wishes!” The former term is for grooms.
13. Don’t go to a gathering so early that the host might not be in proper dress yet.
14. Always flush the toilet after use. Double check if necessary.
15. Don’t stare at people, unless you like trouble.
16. You know that you’re attending in a church; you don’t need to be reminded to turn off your cell phone.
17. If you are to be introduced to someone, take off your sunglasses.
18. For women, initiate the handshake when introduced, men are waiting for it, they don’t want to be refused.
19. If you’re about to enter the house, don’t ask if you may come in when you’re already halfway inside.
20. Don’t laugh so loud in public that it seems you’re looking for attention from others.

Examine yourself and don’t be in denial. I may not state here everything we discussed but I know you can add some more through comments. Feel free to give us your ideas so other people may know that what they’re doing isn’t acceptable for the majority. I intentionally put some for friends who I don’t have guts to tell directly in their face. I hope they can read this.

Bright Side

Despite of having a fever for the past 2 days, I still feel blessed for having a caring wife and a loving son. I used to fetch Lorie from the train station when she's coming home from her night shift work but she chose not to call me and instead walk home just to give me more time of sleep. I’m so worried because the temp outside the house is dropping and I believe riding in the car is really necessary. I don’t want her to be sick too. She even cooked our breakfast not minding her tiredness from all of her night’s work. I really appreciated it and everything she just did, made me feel a lot better. Likewise, my son relieves some of my pains when he did cooperate most of the day. He put a smile on my face when he started doing our night duties. He knew what to do ahead of me saying it. It’s very seldom you see a child begging for his vitamins, racing you to turn on the clean up song, and even assisting in putting his night diapers on. I was surprised when he also did the sign of the cross though he still can’t perfectly do it as of this time, with his trying voice of saying “Hmmn father.. son… oly.. pirit.. amen” . We prayed together and afterwards read his book. There’s no reason for me not to get well. Surrounded by my 2 precious treasures, clear bright side is all on me.

"The Smile Stone Award"

I would like to dedicate this award to my readers and co-bloggers, hehe.. Thanks to Sunny for considering me for this precious award. It was said that this is an award for bloggers who show kindness and spreading happiness around.



Here are my top 10 reasons for keeping my dimples in my face today:

1. It's my wife's special day. Her birthday! Another blessed year for us.
2. I was able to chat with my sister in the Philippines and learned that they are all okay.
3. We bought RC for our son which I always wanted to give to him. He's so happy playing with it.
4. For having blog friends such as Sunny who tagged me for this award. I felt that I'm valued.
5. We went out to celebrate. We ate good food in a Thai Resto.
6. The gas price went down and I was able to fill our tank with extra discount.
7. Our phone doesn't stop ringing because of our friends who wanted to greet my wife.
8. I saw another good deal of laptop offered for Black Friday. Almost half a price, really bargain and this time one of the brands I wanted. We might get it by next week.
9. Rain showers made our car clean again. No need for paid car wash.
10. My wife appreciated my gift to her. I didn't even spend a single peny for it.

By the power vested in me. I would like to share this award to my friends.
1. dulce
2. carla
3. carol
4. ruthie
5. joanne