Deadliest City in America

Error by Detroit makes Baltimore No. 2 in murders

Revised 2008 total pushes Mich. city into top spot among large metro areas
By Justin Fenton | justin.fenton@baltsun.com
4:04 PM EDT, June 4, 2009

Detroit police have acknowledged an error in their 2008 homicide total submitted to the FBI, a change that pushes Baltimore down from the top spot for homicide rate among large U.S. cities.

Rod Liggons, a Detroit police spokesman, said the city in January reported 339 homicides to the state of Michigan, which submits figures to the federal government. But the number that the FBI distributed this week as part of its annual crime report was 306, a difference of more than 11 percent. Liggons told The Baltimore Sun that figure is wrong.

"Three-thirty-nine is our actual number," Liggons said.

The difference of 33 killings is just enough to push Detroit's homicide rate past Baltimore's to reclaim the No. 1 ranking among cities with a population of 500,000 or more people. Baltimore's rate is 36.9 killings per 100,000 people; Detroit's is now 37.4 per 100,000.

-- This is really scary knowing that we are living in the state where the no.2 deadliest city is located. We are really going to pursue our plan of transferring to a different state. Like what Clarence is always saying when he puts his seatbelt on "Safety First!!!"

Video Source > http://wjz.com/video/?id=28369@wjz.dayport.com


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Happy Memorial Day!

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 25 in 2009). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the civil war), it was expanded after World War I to include American casualties of any war or military action. --Wikipedia

In U.S. we remember those that have fought for our freedom ... we don't take freedom lightly, but sometimes we take those defenders of freedom for granted ... jeez, they were there, it's a job, do your thing, let me do my thing ... not quite that easy ... let's not forget that they also fought alongside our friends in many other nations to preserve a peacefully, free way of life for others, worldwide.

Dneero Surveys

Spring has Sprung!

We wanted Clarence to know more about spring so we decided to go to Home Depot and bought things for gardening. As usual, as the saying goes, hitting two birds with one stone, we got ourselves vegetable seeds and plants so we'll also benefit from his first 'planting' experience. I think my wife and I enjoyed it more than Clarence since it's been so long when we had our hands in dirt. We did not spend money in buying a trowel but instead we used Clarence's toy shovel :) In the Philippines, you can just get soil anywhere but here you need to buy specific soil/mix for your pots, digging around our premises might need some permits since we don't know what's under the ground. As one of Clarence's teachers advise, we can walk him outside the house to investigate things he can see during spring time like ants and bugs. Truly, he can now identify some insects and bugs by their actual sizes and appearances that he only seen in pictures before. This will help him develop his cognitive skills. When we are going to parks, he always telling me whatever he sees, like purple flowers, bee, ants, fly and the likes and it is important for me not to ignore him because that’s the time he’s learning to remember different things, and also to give immediate correction when what he’s saying is different from what he sees. I hope you find yourself something to enjoy this spring. Simple things could also be fun especially when you do it with your loved ones.



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Have you been summoned to be a jury? What do you think of it?

One 'Nursing' Mom

Happy Nurse's Week to the best nurse we know...
and Happy Mother's Day too!!! We love you!!!



-Daddy and Clarence

Happy Mother's Day to my loving Nanay too.. I Love You 'Nay!!!

National Nurses Week

To all the nurses esp. my wife,

National Nurses Week (May 6th - 12th) comes just once a year, but it's the job you perform every day that makes this time so important. You are the backbone of the nation's healthcare industry. Your skills, compassion and tireless commitment make an immeasurable impact on our communities – one patient at a time. Happy Nurses week!!!

You know You're a Nurse if...

•You believe every patient needs TLC: Thorazine, Lorazepam and Compazine.
•You know the phone numbers of every late night food delivery place in town by heart.
•You can only tell time with a 24 hour clock
•Every time you walk, you make a rattling noise because of all the scissors and clamps in your pockets.
•You can tell the pharmacist more about the medicines he is dispensing you than he can.
•You carry "spare" meds in your pocket rather than wait for pharmacy to deliver.
•You're uncomfortable in clothes that don't have elastic or drawstring waistbands, because you spend most of your waking hours in scrubs.
•You check the caller ID when the phone rings on your day off, in case it's someone from the hospital is trying to call to ask you to work.
•You've been telling stories in a restaurant and had someone at another table throw up.
•You notice that you use more four letter words now than before you became a nurse.
•Every time someone asks you for a pen, you can find at least three of them on you.
•You live by the motto, "To be right is only half the battle, to convince the physician is more difficult."
•Eating microwave popcorn out of a clean bedpan is perfectly natural.
•Drinking iced tea from a clean urinal is completely normal.
•Your bladder can expand to the same size as a Winnebago's water tank.
•When checking the level of orientation of a patient, you aren't sure of the answers yourself. (What day is it again?)
•Your favorite dream is the one where you leave a mess at a patient's bedside and tell a doctor to clean it up.
•Everyone, including complete strangers, tells you about each and every ache and pain they have.
•You want to put your foot through the TV screen every time you see a nurse on a soap opera doing nothing but talking on the phone and flirting with doctors.
•You can almost SEE the germs on doorknobs and telephones.
•You can watch the goriest movie and eat anything afterwards, even spaghetti with lots of tomato sauce.
•You find yourself checking out other customer's arm veins in grocery waiting lines. (Wow! I can get an 11g in that puppy!)
•your friends call you for medical advice. ( lloyd , avatarj@mindspring.com )
•you have the bladder capacity of five people
•you have your weekends off planned for a year in advance
•you believe that “ask-a-nurse” is an evil plot thought up by satan
•you think that caffeine should be available in IV form.
•you have ever had a patient control his seizures when offered some food.
•your feet are flatter and tougher than Fred Flintstone’s
•your immune system is so well developed that it has been known to attack squirrels in the back yard.
•the hems of your scrub pants are held in with 3-0 chromic or steristrips.
•your idea of fine dining is anywhere you can sit down to eat
•you’ve ever had a patient with a nose-ring tell you “I’m afraid of shots.”
•your family members must have a fever of at least 105 or be missing a limb with active bleeding in order to receive your sympathy.

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I haven't checked Twitter yet, I don't know what to use anymore, I do have Friendster, MySpace and Multiply but the only one I can update is Friendster, Oh well, everybody's in the net!!! You can get anything online even your future partner could be available in just one click. LOL!

Spring break!

We took advantage of the school’s spring break 2 weeks ago by going out to the mall, visiting some parks, playgrounds and even the duck pond or should I say goose pond near our place. I said to myself, wow! We don’t need to go far just to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of the nature. Spring is the best season for me. This is where you’ll get to see cherry blossoms, trees in different colors that seem competing with each other of their extraordinary natural beauties. Grass is greener, animals are everywhere. I was able to see some deer passing by our backyard, there’s a rabbit and foxes too. Sometimes, geese, but they are scared to us. There’s one time, we saw a duck with her eggs near the Tennis court of our apartment complex. We’d like to see them closer so we decided to visit their hang-out, the duck pond. To show you how nice it was, here’s a video from our visit. At timestamp starting 8:14, you’ll see how funny Clarence chasing one of the geese.

Capturing the moments

Time is so fast; my boy just turned three if I will to follow Philippine Time. He was born on April 18, 2006 at The Medical City in Pasig around 2am. I can still remember each moment we had in the hospital. It seemed like we’re waiting forever. I’m so afraid for the two of them that time; I want everything to be perfect. Most of my waiting time was spent inside the chapel trying to calm myself and praying for their safety. After almost 18 long hours of wait, our bundle of joy arrived but the first thing I said when they showed him to me was, “How’s my wife?” since I know my baby boy was already okay. I made a big sigh of relief when I confirmed that the two of them were both okay. Then the second challenge I faced was the hospital bill. LOL! We never missed capturing his growing up moments as days and months passed by. Most of my hard drives spaces in both desktop and laptop are filled with his pictures and videos. We even paid for some studio photo shoots because for us his younger years are a true treasure to keep. I compiled the two studio photo shots he had in a single video for us to compare and see the changes in him. One is when he was just 16 months old and the other is from last April 8, where there’s only 10 days to wait before his 3rd birthday. Both were taken at Time Capsule Studio in Arundel Mills Mall here in Maryland. The price is nothing compared to his adorably charming poses in each picture. The lady in the studio even gave us a deal of getting the 8 soft copies of his pictures in a cd for an additional of 50 dollars (the package only allows us to get 8 hardcopies out of 23 poses he had). Of course I did my bargain of getting everything instead, even the ones that she thinks not worth to be included since my son didn’t smile on some poses. I just said to her, “You know, if it is your kid, every angle is good”. She said okay, since in her eyes it’s like there’s no difference whether she will give up the unworthy poses or not. We got all his poses in a cd and stored also in our computers. If you have time, I’m proud to show to you his studio photo shoots. Check out the clip below.


capturing the moments - ezekiel

More or less

Something "TRUE TO LIFE" to share with you this Holy Week. I got this from email and it did hit me straight to the heart. I had always complaints of what to cook or what to eat; sometimes I even not consume everything in my plate when I really don’t like it. I remember my family and friends used to tell me, “You’re lucky enough that you have something to eat, there are lots of people who are dying in hunger”. Whenever they say this, I’m giving them a silly response in saying, “Could you call all those hungry people and give this food that I can’t finish eating?” Oh, that changes when I saw this short film. It’s really true that I’m so blessed with things that sometimes I’m too blinded to appreciate. Why are there people who have more than enough and those that who have less? And you see those who need more are the ones who are closer to God.

This video is a property of cultureunplugged.com



Chicken a la Carte : Director: Ferdinand Dimadura | Genre: Drama | Produced In: 2005

Synopsis (cultureunplugged.com): This film is about the hunger and poverty brought about by Globalization. There are 10,000 people dying everyday due to hunger and malnutrition. This short film shows a forgotten portion of the society. The people who lives on the refuse of men to survive. What is inspiring is the hope and spirituality that never left this people.

Sweet and Sour

With four straight nights of work, I know Lorie is so tired and needs some time of rest. After having our breakfast, she still gave a little more of her time playing with us. I can see how hard this very sweet woman trying to manage everything just to balance her work and family time. So, when she went to our bed for a sleep, my son and I made sure that we won’t disturb her and that is by playing outside the bedroom. But I know she deserves more other than having a peaceful sleep, so I decided to prepare a dinner treat for her. This will make her want to always be on her rest days… hehe.. I think…

When was the last time you had a vacation?

I’ve been thinking about this and yes it’s true that most of my friends are living in different parts of the world. Now, if I could only have enough money to use in visiting each one of them, I’ll be spending the rest of my life travelling the whole world. I surely miss them all. Each one of them has his own character but I certainly hope that they changed for better. Because sometimes, I’m hesitant to call or visit some of them knowing what their nature really is. There are some who instead of appreciating my visit will be too much in thinking about his unfinished works, and yet not minding that he’s becoming offensive. That’s why sometimes when I plan to visit someone in a different place; I will make sure that not a single minute of my time will be wasted. I’m going to have different agendas in that place and visiting a friend is just one of those. Exploring the place’ natural beauty and famous spots, buying souvenirs and taking pictures or video of me as for my own travel mark will all be on my list. I’d prefer staying in a hotel as much as possible than to a friend’s house, not that I don’t want to be with him the whole time of my visit but because of few reasons. First, I want to experience how the locals of that place serve tourists like me, or should I say, I want to be served in a more special way. Second, I have so many plans and I don’t want to be a burden to my friend, he has his own life and business too, you know. And third, I can do whatever I want if nobody’s around me, and that's for sure!

My next plan target is Tasmania, Australia. I’ve heard from a friend who is now living there for 2 years now that it’s a beautiful place not to mention its good-looking people. I’m dying to see their famous landmarks especially in Hobart, an extremely historic Australian city in Tasmania. Since my friend knew that I preferred staying in a hotel, he immediately recommended some Hobart Hotels where I can be booked ahead of time. He promised me to tour in Tasman Bridge and Derwent River. He said we could do water rafting if I want. Aside from that, he told me that we can go to other cities, like for just more than 2 hours of drive we can be at Launceston if I want to do fishing at Macquarie Harbour, another known tourist attraction in Australia, isn’t that cool or what? The good part is I don’t really need to think in staying in just one hotel since there are also Launceston Hotels that give passes where I can purchase as many nights as I wish. I also heard of the Devonport & Cradle Mountain Attractions, I’m not just sure yet how far this is from Hobart but I hope there will be lots of Devenport Hotels I can choose from when I still get a chance. I can’t wait to see all these interesting sights but of course most especially, my friend, who I haven’t seen for a long time. He’s so generous in his invitation, I can’t refuse to accept.

Having a vacation is a good treat not only for ourselves but also to our friends who misses us. Make time for yourself, don’t just think of finishing your work as always, I tell you, it will never be finished. Don’t let your work finish you instead. Now, let me ask you, when was the last time you had a vacation?

Tasman Bridge

Hobart from the eastern shore of the Derwent River

Cataract, George Launceston

Devenport Cradle Mountains

Alligator, Chicken and Sprinkles??!!

Every day, new and newer things I'm discovering from my son. Time is so fast, and yet there's no significant changes happening to me but a lot of development I can see in my "ahoy' matee" Clarence (he loves pretending as pirate, Arrr!!). He'll turn 3 in April by the way. Sometimes, he'll just surprise us with his owned composed sentence that we don't know where it came from. Making full little sentences with a subject and predicate hehe.. plus some adjectives make him so adorable to be heard. I think becoming used from his baby talk and just few words when he was just a baby made us so amazed when we hear him talking like already a grown-up now. One time, he cautioned me by saying, "Quiet! no talking, mommy is sleeping"..I swallowed my tongue at that very moment hehe. And when we are playing paint in the computer, he'll changed the color followed by a reasoning, "this' much better daddy!". But one thing I definitely know, that he's Spanish counting of uno up to diez was Dora and Diego's liability. I thought, wow! He doesn't need me anymore to learn.. In fact, I don't want him to learn that way of counting before because I don't want him to be confused with the English counting..(he can count and recognize numbers individually up to 50 now) but who am I to judge him... hehe.. I think I underestimated him in that point somehow.. I learned that we should not think or say that our kids can't do or learn things, not unless we don't allow them to give it a try. Kids are so smart not to know what we already know, they just need a little explanation and trust from us. The funny part is when they juggle the words in some of their rhyming words hehe.. Like my son, when we went to the doctor's office which was located in 4th floor, we're playing outside the clinic while waiting for his mom's checkup... he grabbed my hand and pulled me while telling me he likes the alligator... I was so confused till we reached the ELEVATOR and pointing to the button while kept on saying.. come on daddy, alligator! alligator! hahaha... there are a couple of words more.. one is chicken whereas it should be kitchen.. "let's go to the chicken daddy, get milk!" another is sprinkles instead of splinters.. on the playground, he tends to take off his slippers and say, "daddy, Oh no! sprinkles on my socks".. He's adorably funny!!! Then I said to myself, well he still needs me and that is for sure! I wonder what surprises are in store for us for the next 12 months..


Clarence with his art works on the wall

Happy St. Patrick's day!

Did you wear green today? They say that St. Patrick's Day makes everyone just a little bit Irish, do you know why? here's why..



St. Patrick's Day is celebrated by the Irish and Irish at Heart in big cities and small towns alike with parades, "wearing of the green," music and songs, Irish food and drink, and activities for kids such as crafts, coloring and games. Its a time for fun. Some communities even go so far as to dye rivers or streams green!

Prevention vs. cure

In times like these, getting sick is not an option. We already felt the effect of the economic crisis, in terms of income, tax returns, commodity prices and etc. And now from the Physician's professional fee or specialty copay and prescriptions' charges which are really like a steal in your pocket. Prevention is better than cure as always. I'd rather buy some disinfectants and cleaning materials than medicines. What do you think?

Friday the 13th on my birthday?

Yesterday was just like an ordinary day for me, trying to make it special since it happened to be my birthday. I set the alarm clock at 6:45am, enough time to get a shower and put on clothes for the 7:30 am mass. I went alone since my wife is so sick for 4 days now and my son was still sleeping that early. When I got to the church, i was few minutes late even if I drove a little more than the speed limit just to be on time. Oh well. i really don't like it if I didn't get the very beginning of the mass and there's nothing I can do but just to blame the hair gel that we bought, now i know why it was on sale.. gheez! Inside the church I was able to talk with our Creator without any interruptions, without my son crying around, i mean all in its solemnity.. I asked His forgiveness for all my faults and failings in the past 31 years. Gratitude for all the blessings and assistance in our daily living. I feel very relieved after the mass. I even met a very kind lady named Doris, she introduced me to the other members of their rosary crusade and invited me to join them every morning. She told me that I can lead one mystery of the rosary in my native tongue if I want to. I believe that's the best time of the day in my birthday... to be with God in my very special day!

Mom always on the Go!

What is this? DKP! (Diyos Ko Po!)

Black or White

The King of Pop is back. How does the African-American community felt about Michael Jackson's decision of becoming white? That's what I'm thinking before when I'm being so ignorant of what really happened to Michael Jackson. People should know the real story first before giving their disrespectful prejudices. You should know that Michael Jackson had been diagnosed with Vitiligo and this caused the depigmentation of his skin. See this video on youtube > Michael Jackson ~ Vitiligo clips
I saw last night on TV, Kimora Lee Simons said that her hand painted ceiling of angels will be changed because all of those angels are white. She didn't say that she'll replace it with black angels though. I don't understand the wars between black and white. As for me, I'm always in the middle, hehe..


Black Or White - Michael Jackson

The Fruits of Our Labor

The Fruits of Our Labor. Hard Work Never Tasted So Good. "Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!" After a battle week of getting Clarence become used to his newly owned bedroom, we're now harvesting the fruits of it. My wife and I enjoyed every minute of her rest days, every night one or two movies are being peacefully watched by us. Clarence now sees the authorities in us and I'm so proud of him because he responsibly dealt with it really really good. We're all happy, less stress but more caress (If you know what I mean). My wife and I were able to talk as much as we wanted now that Clarence has his own room. There are still a lot of things to know more from each of us eventhough we've been together for almost 9 years (counting our gf-bf time). I love her so much and I wanted her to know that I appreciate all the things she's doing for our relationship. This song is dedicated to her.

think im in love again -

Here I go again, drifting on my own feet
Lately it seems I've been, being old foolish me
Mumble when I try to talk, stumble when I try to walk
Like I'm in a state of shock when I'm with you.

Here I go again, looking just like a clown
Everything I say is wrong whenever you're around
Somehow I got kind a shy and I can't look you in the eye
I come all apart inside when I'm with you.

Chorus:
Think I'm in love again, grinning that silly grin
Look what a fool I've been, think I'm in love again
Lately I lost my mind and I do it everytime
(Guess/Yes) I know all the signs of being in love.

I won't lie to you, I've been in love before
But I think that you're the one that I've been waiting for
Been around I'll admit, but this time all the pieces fit
Something tells me this is it, when I'm with you.

Lorie, if you happen to read this, i want you to know how much I treasure you in my life. You're one of the reasons I enjoy living my life. I love you so much. I know I will always fall for you. I'll make sure to be here beside you every step of the way.

The Oscars 2009

The film industry's biggest stars have gathered in Hollywood for the 81st annual Academy Awards ceremony, recognizing the year's top movies and movie makers. The Oscars is tonight, February 22nd 2009, Live 5PT/8ET at abc.

Nominees are:
Actor in a leading role:
Richard Jenkins - THE VISITOR
Frank Langella - FROST/NIXON
Sean Penn - MILK
Brad Pitt = THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Mickey Rourke - THE WRESTLER

Actress in a leading role:
Anne Hathaway - RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
Angelina Jolie - CHANGELING
Melissa Leo - FROZEN RIVER
Meryl Streep - DOUBT
Kate Winslet - THE READER

Best Picture:
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
FROST/NIXON
MILK
THE READER
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

Separate bedroom for toddler

Here in MD, they require 2 year-old toddler to have a separate bedroom, thus, when we looked for a new apartment we have no choice but to get 2 bedroom unit because of our toddler. As of the moment, there’s no available 2 bedroom in our apartment complex that’s why we’re still stuck in our very first lease (1 bedroom since when we applied for this before, my son was just 11 months old then) I remember the transitions that took place in times when we get Clarence his bed.. From crib, during his infant stage, to cradle, then toddler bed and now queen size bed.!! Could you imagine that? I’ll tell you later why. I’m 100% agree in the idea of separating the kids from the parents’ bedroom because it teaches child to be independent. Sooner or later, my son will need to be in the school class room all by himself with other kids and he needs to be brave in facing that challenge. Clarence became used in sleeping by my side since my wife is working at night. I thought, we’re just two in the house and we both don’t want to be alone during the whole night, that’s why I allowed that kind of sleeping routine. At first, it felt wonderful because it made the bond between us as parent to child really strong. He always looks for me and most of the time preferred to be with me than his mom. Then little by little, time after time, I observed the negative consequences it brings, not only to him but for us. He doesn’t want to be alone in a room, not a single second. He always asked either me or my wife just to be with him to whatever he wanted to do, to the littlest thing he can think of. When it’s my wife’s rest day, we can’t get to ourselves alone because my son always wanted to sleep in between us. In his playgroup activities at school, I noticed that he’s hesitant to mingle with other kids unless I held his hands. To this, we came up to a decision to give him a bedroom of his own. Before, his toddler bed was also in our bedroom but it became useless since he tend to transfer in our bed during sleep time.

Last Thursday, we did some home makeovers, we folded and hid his toddler bed and gave to him instead our queen size bed. Now my wife and I are using the sofa bed in the living room. We put all his toys, books and learning materials in his bedroom so he’ll somehow feel that he owns something and he can tell that it’s his place. His territory. The first night was extremely painful, emotional, heart-breaking, irritating and tiring. It took more than 4 hours of struggle, crying, pleading, bargaining, arguing (me and my wife), and a lot lot more. Clarence almost lost his voice in crying out loud, we didn’t mind if he’s disturbing Mr. Grumpy Old man upstairs because we are strict to our plan even if it did bring us a lot of pain. Well, we have to be consistent, our son’s welfare is at stake when we give up. I’m proud of my wife because whatever I say to her to break her up, she won’t listen and instead gave me a realization of what’s best for all of us. Our strategy was just to stay at the bedroom’s door to let Clarence know that we’re still there but not joining him in bed, since it's his first night. Explaining to him that we already have our own bed in the living room and the big bed is now his. Now is the third night, I can say that there’s a progress since he can now sleep without his body trying to touch and look for mine. I can now little by little, leave the bedroom's door. But it took me 3 hours tonight before he finally gave up. What did you know??, it’s 1:38 am now and he’s sound asleep, how about me? I can’t get my sleep back anymore that’s why I’m now blogging hehe.. One more thing, whenever he cries for my name, I never showed up because he's using his cry to get my attention and make me go back inside the bedroom and when he goes out the bed, I put him and tuck him back in his bed then gave a command to lie down, close his eyes and sleep.. I hope the following days will be a success for us… to make him independent and for us to get our love life back hehe…