Last post from home

This is my last post from home here in Thailand as we prepare to leave for Perth. We’re off to the ISP provider to cancel our subscription. We’ve almost completed saying goodbyes to friends here in Thailand.

We’ve fallen in love with this country and its people and we would definitely miss everything about it–even the coups. Well, I know we’ll do fine in Australia and we look forward to good friends welcoming us and new friends that we’ll build along the way.

Hopefully I could do liveblogging while we travel on Monday.

Watch this site as I blog about Australia news and our adventures. Cheers mate!

Bad Filipino traits I’d Wish to Change

I’ve been lagging behind my tagging responsibilities that I got tagged thrice now. This one’s from Chuckie, then there’s another one from Sir Sonnie and another one from Alma (sorry guys it’s still in the draft, but it will come out in a few weeks). Before my hiatus I had 28 drafts, well I was able to release some only to accumulate two to three more drafts so I still have a few more drafts again. (30 to be exact). 

“Trivial” things made beautiful

A friend and brethren in Christ recently held his first solo photo exhibit outside of UP. Dan was chosen as one of the emerging photography artists in the country by HP Philippines during the launch of one of their supplies. I share the joy of this good friend of mine and share with you his exhibited photos during the HP Supplies launch.

If you happen to be in the Philippines, by the way, he is a wedding photographer so please do contact him if you want to be covered by one of the country’s best!

HP Supplies recently featured Emerging Filipino Photography Artists at Rockwell Mall in Makati City

A view of Vigan by Dan Cercado

Ferris Wheel by Dan Cercado

Dan (left) standing beside one of the hostesses of the exhibit and one of his works of art.

Australia becoming more Asian — census

That’s exactly what the headline says on Inquirer.net. So, what’s the buzz surrounding this issue? My first thought was that they are afraid, they are very, very afraid. Why? Well, another race is overtaking true-blue Australians.

Forgive my ranting but I’m speaking from experience as a random victim of a “sporadic” racism in beautiful Australia back in 2004. While some might consider the cases that I’ve been through as mere coincidence or as nothing serious, it made me think twice whenever I walk the streets of the very quaint and peaceful Newcastle, Australia.

First case. It happened during my first quarter as a student in this developed country. I checked the mail as I usually do and one flyer caught my eye. It was from a certain political group. The flyer was full of Asian bashing arguements like Asians are taking over our jobs, Asians cannot assimilate in Australian culture among others.

The flyer was distributed at every house in our suburb. The following night, stones were raining on our house that we had to call the police for assistance. We saw some youth running away apparently from where the stones are coming from and identified the house where they sought refuge.

We saw the perpetrators but no arrests were made as the parents of the teenagers claimed that they were fast asleep inside the house during the supposed time of attack. We believe we were targetted as we were the most vulnerable Asian in the neighborhood–our house is in a street corner.

I wrote a number of authorities and attached the flyer that I saw and reported our experience. Among those I wrote was Prime Minister John Howard, the secretary of foreign affairs, University officials including Australian Embassy staff in the Philippines. No action was taken as they deemed it as a simple case of random mischief.

Second case. Simple to others but it was a big deal to me as I was shaken a bit–a group of youth on a car followed me and shouted ”go home asian!!” which I did, I went home (to our house, which was nearby anyway).

This experience had shaken me and I just tried to shurg it off after my first experience in the first case. I was warned that I’ll be treated like that someday anyway.

Amazing how some people can be intolerant of others and they ask why there’s murder, rape and terrorism. Or I’m just being too sensitive??? I might be. enough said.

The long overdue underpass came to pass

When I read this news about the comletion of an underpass to QC Circle, it certainly brought back memories when we still resided near the area. My daughter was barely two years of age then.

Every weekend, our usual routine is to spend time strolling around QC Circle. We considered it the last frontier, the only spot (aside from UP) where you can confidently… inhale and exhale (well at least the air is clear in that part of the city). However, before you could do your stroll in the park, you have to brave the road and cross pass speeding motorist, most of whom don’t have any regard whether you’re on the pedestrian lane or even if the traffic light says red (meaning the pedestrian could walk, well it was that bad).

I remember one motorist giving me the finger sign and yelling at me “are you out to kill your family?!!!” while speeding past us–this was even it was a red light for them. Oh well, I might never get to use the QC Circle underpass in the near future but I’m glad that it’s up and running now. Hopefully, Quezon City will be able to maintain it like the underpass in Makati City albeit no airconditioning.

Immortalized

Death in the Philippines is big time. It is the end so make it memorable anyway. Filipinos usually parade the dead on a hearse with loud music, either the most favorite song of the deceased or a classic line-up provided by the funeral services. There would also be a big photo of the deceased sparking more curiosity among kibitzers (well, including me). The last time I remember the trend of music was more on upbeat–a celebration of life.

I remember as a child just staring at a passing hearse wondering how that person lived his life. That was decades ago. Now, you can just blog hop, learn, be amused, be surprised at how people lived their lives be it for goodness or for worst.

When US Peace Corps Volunteer Julia Campbell was reported missing, most people went online to find out who this Julia Campbell, why did she bother to leave her nice work in New York anyway? People learned more about her in her blog and realized that she is a good person. Days later she was found dead.

 More photos of her work in Bicol

Julia’s blog immortalized her and left a legacy for more people to think about volunteerism in the Philippines (and think about the need to increase security not only for expats but locals).

Recently I learned about another death of a blogger, this time a Filipina and an awarded poet. She was a wife, a mother and a teacher. It’s just devastating to learn about these deaths more so if you found out that this person was so important to many people. I may not know her personally but reading the blogs about her, she lived a vibrant life.

Blogs has served its purpose of immortalizing the people behind it whether they want to remain obscure or are certified A-list bloggers.

Rest in peace.

Hell boy fails to enter Catholic school

A boy surnamed Hell has been banned from an Australian Catholic school according to a report on the Inquirer.net. The ban was imposed apparently because of the boy’s surname. The boy’s father was originally from Austria.

The boy’s parents approached St. Peter Apostle School to enroll him as their son was being bullied in his current school. The school offered the boy a place in the school after the boy’s parents agreed to use the mother’s last name, Wembridge. However, the school backed out of its promise after the parents changed their mind and offered the child another school.

The parents, however, decided to take the child to another school. Hell in Austria means “bright”

While not related to this news article, this article reminded me of a tourism campaign initiated by Australia sometime in 2004. The accompanying TV ad, however, earned the ire of conservatives in England that it was banned from being aired–WHY?? Because of the hell word plus the adjective of blood–So, where the bloody hell are you?!

To some, it seems like an ordinary phrase but if you translate it to American English one might understand it this way–So, where the f*****g hell are you?!, thus, the buzz.

Time to reflect

Forwarded email message (originally written in Filipino) 

A rookie soul went to heaven and was in front of St. Peter. The soul and St. Peter were walking around heaven while holding hands in a big room filled with angels.

St. Peter stopped in front of a group of angels and spoke. “This is the receiving room. In this room, we receive all prayers,” St. Peter said.

The soul peeked at the room and saw that everybody was very busy sorting out the prayer requests that came from earth.

They continued on their tour of heaven and encountered another group of angels. St. Peter explained to the soul, “this is the packaging and delivery section, this is where all the blessings and provision are packaged and delivered to the people who requested them.”

The soul noted that the angels are as busy as the previous group. The angels have to cope up with the record number of prayer requests for blessings that they receive everyday and answered that needed to be delivered everyday.

St. Peter and the soul went on with their tour and proceeded to the Acknowledgement Section. The soul can’t help but notice the measly number of angels in the room. “Why is it so quiet in here?” the soul inquired, “don’t they have anything to do here?”

“It’s sad,” St. Peter replied, “after receiving the answer to their prayers, only a few people return an acknowledgement.”

“How should one return an acknowledgment?” asked the soul. 

“It’s simple,” St. Peter started to explain, “just say ‘thank you Lord’”

“What are the things we should be thankful?” asked the soul.

“If you have something to eat on your table, clothes to wear, shelter and bed then you are richer than 75% of the world’s population,” St. Peter explained.

“If you have money to save in your pocket and have spare money to buy food, then you are one of 8% of income earners in the world,” St. Peter pointed out.

“If you got this message on your computer, then you are part of 15% of the world who have access to the Internet,” St. Peter continued. “If you woke up without any sickness, you are very blessed compared to millions of people who died in their sleep because of poverty,” St. Peter said.

“If you have not experienced the fear in the midst of war, sadness inside a prison, suffering and famine, you are much blessed than more than 700 million people living in the world,” St. Peter stressed.

“If your parents are still alive and are still living together in marriage. Your case are just a few.”

“If you can still look up with a smile on your lips, you are not included in the majority who suffer trial and tribulations.”

-Anonymous

 

…in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (New American Standard Bible)

Taking up Lorelle’s Blog Challenge: Describe Blogging

I’m baaaaack!

Thanks to those who checked out Blogbastic for any update these past few days. I am glad to inform you (and I’m much relieved) that the last major meeting that I helped organize at the office is finally over. Next stuff will be report writing and, of course, return to my blogging routine.  

This is my 100th blog entry and I think it is just but fitting to take on a blogging challenge as a celebration. I’m supposed to write this post last June 22, so this is a late reply to Lorelle’s blog challenge. Her challenge is to describe blogging (better late than never??:) ). She cautioned bloggers, however, not to take the task lightly as she’s not only looking for a text book definition but a personal conviction of what blogging is. This challenge is almost similar to what Jayvee of abuggedlife has placed long ago–describe your blogging passion.

So, I’m taking on both challenges.

I remember when I was an elementary student, I was a member of a certain religious group. We were required one time in that religion to write a daily journal, something we can look back and meditate on. Back then, I hated writing manually as my handwriting can’t keep up with what I’m thinking (so, my handwriting end up so bad as in really bad–ever heard the comment, you write like a doctor!–and sometimes I end up composing a bad essay)–I prefer to write using a typewriter back then. It was the rule (write daily) but I couldn’t comply because my hand hurts when I write long journal entries (unless I’m really psyched up to write a nice hand-written article).

It was only early last year when I discovered blogging and it brought new life to my passion for writing. Being a trained journalist I needed some outlet–reason that I became a freelance journalist once. But most of the time as a correspondent (and maybe the reason I wasn’t able to submit so much stories) I just wanted to speak my mind even if it doesn’t make sense and I just wanted to express my outburst about something. So, after just writing for a fee then discovering blogging I blogged at Friendster, Point of View to Padayon, then moved to WordPress, where I became Blogbastic!

Blogging, to me, is writing/broadcasting in general but could specifically be taken as history, autobiography, news article, column, novel, comics, radio/video broadcast (podcasts/video streams) among others. It has become a stress-reliever for me–a way to meet my mind and be at peace with it. I’m doing this for free and, as I’ve said before, stats doen’t matter but it certainly gives me a different high when it’s high. Comments are also a welcome note.

I haven’t experienced any cyberbullying or anything (and hopefully will not) but I found good friends online from Massa P., Alma, Chico, Jun, Sir Sonnie, Jaypee, Sir Danny, Paolo, Raymond to even better known personalities such as Sir Howie, Chuckie, Yuga, Joey, Erwin among others. Blogging has expanded my social network virtually and I can say that it’s not only limited now to Friendster, Facebook or Multiply. It has also improved my ranking on Google!

Blogging as a life changing experience? Well, I’m definitely blogbastic and a certified blog addict so maybe these are the changes that occured but hopefully these are not detrimental–I kept on reminding myself, with great power comes great responsibility. Blogging has empowered me to be heard and write my take on various things. This power, however, has also kept me vigorously reminding myself (as what Massa P used to say, which I think she’s consistently reminding me–live life and never let blogging swallow it).

Blogbastic is currently a news blog where I try to blog about my host country’s news and its Philippine connection. I also try to blog about most pressing issues around the world and also try to look at seemingly trivial news that may not land on the first page of new media or traditional news channels. It still is my pseudo-personal (if I may borrow the term from Jayvee ) blog. I believe Blogbastic also serves Filipinos around the world to connect with their roots in the Philippines.

I’m blogging while I still can and while I still have the sanity and presence of mind.

Someday, I will be looking back and I’m quite optimistic that I’ll be cherising the posts, comments (good and bad) and will be appreciating that I made the move to sit down and blog.