Diligence

On Wednesday night, Fanatical Teacher went to Makati to drop by the office, and also to join a bible study. The topic is about diligence and the passages that was used included Proverbs 21:5 and Proverbs 12:24.

At the moment, fanatical teacher is just writing these things and will edit it later. The topic was really good. It talked about a man digging for gold, seeing opportunities from nothing and even mentioned about being diligent in handling God’s Word, and in wherever God has placed us right now.

The speaker also mentioned about trials, and there was a long question and answer portion about — loving the things we do, about the different businesses that our parents have and children who do not wish to continue in the family business.

Well, that’s about it for now. I just wanted to write these down so that I won’t forget them when I sleep.

Reminiscing the Christmas Party at Art Inc.

Okay, this is a bit delayed, but I just wanted to share some of the pics of last year’s Christmas party at the office. As most of my friends know, Fanatical Teacher works part-time for an advertising company managed and owned by the husband and wife tandem. I’m not sure if they don’t mind revealing their real names but here so I will just call them The Diva and The Man. Here’s a picture of the sweet couple! They’ve been married for more than two decades! Wow! For me that’s really admirable, especially in this day and age that so many relationships break up and end up in a divorce or annulment. Having worked in a law office that specialized in family law and handling 90% annulment cases, Fanatical Teacher has somewhat developed a certain pessimism about relationships. Oh well, enough of this.

So, let’s go with the food! Of all the Christmas parties I have ever been to this is one party that really had the interest of living healthy! We were all kidding about this because the company is involved with the Nestle Wellness campaign. In the process of getting involved with our client, we were slowly changed by the information that we were being bombarded on health and fitness.  The picture below shows three types of pasta sauces. There’s the pesto sauce, then there’s the putanesca and then there’s the garlic and oil sauce. All of them mixed with virgin coconut oil. It was so delicious that

Gymboxer ate a lot of pasta!

I ate a lot and didn’t think about the calories I was indulging myself in. I wasn’t able to take a picture of it, but the fruit salad was also memorable! It had a certain texture to it and a crunchy feeling due to the nuts including in it! That’s truly inventive because it was my first time to eat fruit salad with mixed nuts like almonds! Mmmmm!

Here’s opur lovely nutritionist that is part of the team for the Nestle Wellness! She was the one that mentioned “count your blessings and not your calories!” during the Christmas party! Ha ha ha!!!While Here’s Fanatical Teacher in love with Amarula! It’s like Bailey’s, even better! Fanatical Teacher got drunk with two full glasses of the thing!!!

O course, it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t introduce you to the other fabulous ladies of the office – OfficeGirl and Artsy Perksy! The one on the left is OfficeGirl, the one we ask if we have a check already while Artsy is the resident Art Director. Hmm, what does this picture remind you of?

One of the highlights of the night was that there was a game involving riddles. None of those who were teaching at different universities were able to answer ANY of the clues! Isn’t that funny? Here’s Mailbox sharing the clues.

 So there we have it folks! The Art Inc Christmas Party! Incidentally, we were so busy that we had our Christmas Party last December 29. So it was more like a Christmas Party and New Year’s celebration rolled into one. If you want to view the other pics of the Christmas party, just check out my flickr account name — takethispicture.

Until then, Happy New Year again folks!

Of Deaths and New Beginnings

Today’s the second day of the year, and Fanatical Teacher is already grateful for still being alive. Oh yes, for the Teacher just came from a funeral parlor as a father of a churchmate died. Other than that, I also watched on cable television last night at the spa that there were about 1,000 plus casualties of the recent New Year’s festivities due to firecrackers and also from stray bullets.

Stray bullets! According to the news, the number is more than double this year than last year! From the lasts tally, the number was 37 stray bullets! Good thing nobody was reported dead among the many people injured and brought to the hospital. But man, I left the house at about 11pm just to accompany my friend who wanted to watch the fireworks display in Makati. I didn’t know that it would be that dangerous to go out. Thank God I am still alive!

Yet more than dodging stray bullets, I am also reminded of the many opportunities and possibilities this year. At the wake, I was reminded of what is most important in life. Relationships.

When I think about that, I wonder where would I be a year from now? Will I meet new friends this year as I did in 2006?

2006 was the year that I met fellow geeks who were into comic books. Not to mention, I made friends with a few students from DLSU just by hanging out at Starbucks working on my laptop. More than this, I also gained new officemates as well.

Will this year be any different? Or is this year a chance to redeem “old” or at least rekindle the ones that have alreay waned due to my own limitation and inadequacy as a person? I really don’t know. But I do know this — death reminds me about the importance of life and living it to the fullest. And a new year presents a genesis of hope that one could become a much better person than the one others knew of the previous year before.

Happy New Year!!!

For the second year in a row, Fanatical Teacher celebrated the new year in chaotic Metro Manila. Oh yes, it was indeed chaotic, considering that Fanatical Teacher joined with Gymboxer to watch the fireworks display in Makati City. The city government of Makati organized a fireworks display and concert. It was fun. It kinda reminded me of those videos I saw in CNN of New York City and Times Square. There was a big electronic timekeeper that counted the last 60 seconds of the year! There was a lot of confetti in the air, and the place was filled with people of all ages, both local and a lot of foreigners, ex-pats who live and work here in Manila.

It was pretty cool, of which one of the highlights for me was that I ate Bibingka. I didn’t know that there were two ways of cooking it. The old fashioned way which takes much longer is to cook it using coals and putting the cooking pan in between them. There is this a small coal pot that is placed on top of it aside from the one underneath. According to another chef friend of mine, there are Bibingkas now that are cooked using the modern gas stove but the consistency is different and also the texture of the food changes as well.

Here’s me going for the killer stroke of food bliss! You can barely see it here, but the sugar they used was Muscovado, which is a lot healthier than the white refined sugar as well! The line was so long for the Bibingka that I had to wait for an hour for my order to come out. It was almost 2am when I got mine, at which time mt stomach was already growling from hunger!

While I had my share of Bibingka, Gymboxer took advantage of the Putobumbong being sold on the street! Man, I tell you these are the things that make life worth living for! Of the different food stalls that were there, I was really proud of this one because they are selling authentic Filipino cuisine! We really ought to have more of this out there, and they ought to be more presentable and CLEAN. That’s the main problem that I notice in regards to tourism. Our street foods aren’t really looked upon as realiable as that of Thailand, were tourists don’t mind eating them! Our tourists have to go to the malls and visit places like Dads in order to taste authentic Filipino cuisine, but at a price that could rival appetizers of five star hotel restaurants.

Hmm, the Ninoy Aquino statue. It was facing the concert venue. The fireworks display took place at the back of the Makati Stock Exchange building. I took this picture because I felt it was interesting. People were excited about the New Year, and yet how many people actually remember the past in order to not repeat the same mistakes and sins of our fathers in the future, or in this case the “new year”? Ninoy Aquino died for the Filipino people because he believed there was hope and that we could make a difference. I hope that this 2007 I too will make a difference in peoples’ lives.

After the countdown and fireworks display, many people left and only those into rock and roll lingered to watch the perfomances of the bands Itchy Worms of Hello Moto fame and Six Cycle Mind. The street was littered with garbaged, but what I admired about the event was that there were trash collectors sweeping up the place all the time, and that there were enough policemen in the vicinity monitoring the event as well. In fact, even the patches of green were covered with nets and signages so that one doesn’t step on them and destroy them in the process. This is probably the most organized event I ever attended, because it was able to consider the different needs and factors that would transpire during the entire night.

And so, after the concert we went home and here’s a last glimpse of the fireworks on show that night. Happy New Year everyone! May this year prove to be a challenging year for everybody! On my part, I pray it would be a time of deepening relationships with people. May this be a year that would draw us closer to God, and make our existence more meaningful. Speaking of meaningful events, this New Year countdown that was organized  by the City Government of Makati was actually a fund raising event for those who were affected by the typhoons in Albay. The event was able to raise half a million pesos that night. So it wasn’t simply a fireworks display after all. It had meaning and significance for the people who are still suffering from losing their houses and loved ones. That made me sober, sad and grateful for what I have because I still have 521,600 minutes to live a year full of seasons of love — and yes, I am borrowing words from the musical RENT here.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Belens

Ok, so this is a tad late an entry for a year end blogging, but there were some pictures that I just wanted to share.

This was the Belen at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Roxas Boulevard. Today is their last day for the year literally as they will be close for several months. Yes, the entire hotel will be closed because it will be renovated. I like this belen because it used native materials to create its theme!

 

 

This one was is the Belen at the office, which is pretty small and really cute! It’s also a bit expensive, so all the parts of this manger scene was glued to the table, so that those who visit the office delivering mail and other stuff won’t wisk it away.  Anyway, I will upload some pictures of the Christmas party later. It’s New Year’s Eve and I am still in my room just resting. I wonder what 2007 has in store for me?

 

Yearend Reflections

Wow, 2006 is almost at the end. It has been an exciting year for me. And yet there were a few things that I wasn’t able to do as well.

For one thing, I wasn’t able to work abroad. Oh yes, ever since I was a kid I always desired to work and live abroad even before our country had a mass exodus of Filipinos and before the term OFW was coined. But unlike most people who are leaving for abroad, I do not see that this country is going nowhere. Opportunities abound here, and a case in point to think about it is that the Philippines has a large number of illegal immigrants coming from the mainland China, India and yes — even Koreans are now becoming a great number here throughout the country and a lot of them are illegally staying here as well.

In fact, there are several local newspapers printed in Korean and Japanese! And these are circulated throughout Manila in major financial districts that have a concentration of Japanese and Koreans!

Isn’t it a bit ironic that there are many foreigners that are coming here, and a lot of them staying here for good — while a lot of Filipinos are leaving in droves as they see opportunities elsewhere?

Well, for me, I think that there will always be opportunities here. It’s just that our people aren’t disciplined enough and also  I notice that we complain too much.

But then, I think I will take a break from my reflections and just think about a few things. Then I will come back and write some more.

Merry Christmas theme

WordPress just uploaded a Christmas blog theme! What do you think of it? I love it! Although I wish that somewhere out there a blogger from a tropical country would do a beach Christmas theme since that is more appropriate to a country like ours.

Let’s face it guys, traffic here in Metro Manila is at its worst during Christmas time. I took this picture from the overpass at the MRT Ortigas station on route to Makati. Whew! There are times that I wish I had a car, but there are times when I look at the traffic like this and I’m grateful that I could be spirited away easily from one place to another through the public train system. I wish they would really build more trains and routes throughout the Metro though.

On the same overpass, I came across this lady selling candy. Although the shot is a bit blurry, I like the effect it had on the people that passed by who looked like ghosts. Makes me wonder, do we see people living on the street as ghosts? Or do these people think that we are the ghosts and they are the real people that experience the true grit of life and other mysteries? Reminds me of the depressing story Little Match Girl of Hans Christian Anderson as well.

While other people starved to death during this Christmas season, kids like this one just anticipate toys from their parents and uncles and aunts. This is the kid of one of my friend’s sister, who I happened to tag along at The Podium last night. Did I mention that one of the aunts actually bought the kid a gift right there after looking around? Talk about one lucky kid!

“Wabi Sabi”? What kind of a title for a book is that? Well, it did get my attention when I went inside National Bookstore at The Podium last night. If there’s one thing that a friend of mine could give me this Christmas that won’t fail is that of a good book. I just love reading books and comics! I wish more people are into it so that it also makes them smarter people! You’d actually be surprised at how many things you could learn on your own just by reading — stuff like hacking the internet, disarming a bomb are just a few of the skils that might prove useful someday.

And the best performance of the night goes to — Fahrenheit! They were the ones who performed at The Lounge at The Podium last night. Half of their performance was stellar, the other half is something you would wish to forget as the lady who is singing here gets out of tune at times. I’m not that musically gifted, but my friend Bartok was with me who was a pianist and she was making these strange reactions like someone just pulled her leg when she hears a tune go off the charts.

Nevertheless, kudos to the band! I wish they performed Christmas songs though. How come I hear less Christmas songs these days? The only place I have consistently heard Christmas songs played are the mallwide PA system which one could barely appreciate and hear amidst the cacophony of blabber around.

So that was my day yesterday. It was fun meeting with friends, but it was also sobbering knowing that living with traffic and the urban poor around us is something to think about. Sometimes I feel that offering a prayer isn’t enough. I miss getting involved in socio-civic activities. I used to donate money to a group before, but recently stopped. Perhaps I better do something about that too.

Chrismas is literally just around the corner, and it just breaks my heart that in my own life it has brought more pain than happiness. But when I put my focus on Christ, it puts a smile back in my face that reaches heaven.

Druid’s Keep

Today, Fanatical Teacher went to Makati to accompany Vertivus Bartok to gether certificates at two airline ticketing offices. After that, he went straight to Druid’s Keep. It’s a small comic book and hobby shop for geeks like me, whose kid within full of enthusiam and life them didn’t die out with the advent of adulthood.

It was an exciting day because three filipino artists dropped by to get their comics and toys. The owner – Felix Cua [a story that I would share in another blog entry], informed me thru text yesterday and in my excitement and I modified my schedule just to be able to go there and see them!

Whew! It wasn’t a disappoint at all. I got one comic book signed, and the new shipment of comics also arrived! But what really made my day is that when one of the fans asked if they would be willing to do a sketch, they didn’t hesitate and made ones for those who wanted one and was there at the time! About five of us grabbed this opportunity, and the three artists also made a few for some diehard fans who was still on the road to Druid’s Keep. Here’s just one of the many sketches I got from them!

I know, I know — some of you are probably wondering why I didn’t take a better picture of it. Perhaps I will upload another version later. But for now, this will have to do and I just wanted you guys to see it. This one was done by Leinil Yu, of Wolverine and X-Men fame. He is currently working on the New Avengers of Marvel Comics, and he was featured a few years ago in the television program The Probe Team. He drew a sketch of Wolverine, one of my favorite characters in X-Men.

Another artist who went there to DK was Carlo Pagulayan. He is the illustrator for the comic book HULK, also from Marvel Comics. He is doing a sketch of Wonder Woman, a request from Atty. Tracy who is a big fan of it. She left the shop on cloud nine with two Wonder Woman sketches, one from Carlo and another from rising star Harvey Tolibao. Man, if Diana were real, I’d like her to be like the one drawn by Carlo over here!

Isn’t she fabulous?

Here are the artists doing the sketches at Druid’s Keep. The one on the bottom right of the picture is Harvey Tolibao. He’s currently doing a fill-in for an issue of Star Wars published by Dark Horse Comics. He’s doing a sketch of Conan that I asked. His dream work is to do fantasy comic books. Below is the picture of other comics afficionado ata Druid’s Keep yesterday.

The only lady in the picture is Atty. Tracy. And the big guy with The Flash t-shirt is Felix Cua, the owner of Druid’s Keep and the guy with the eyeglasses next to him is Leinil Yu. The guy wearing another black shirt is Harvey Tolibao. Below is the sketch of Elektra, the flame of Daredevil.

Hmm, it seems that I am getting the hang of taking pictures up close. This is the best picture I’ve taken so far. But get a load of this one! Talk about getting a geekasm!

And here’s the sketch of Harvey Tolibao of Conan The Barbarian. He did this for me.

 

So what do you guys, think? Hope you could drop by here and click on the comments on the artists rendition of popular comic characters. For me, this has been on of the highlights for 2006! Wow! To become a geek again, and enjoy life. This is definitely one of the many things I thank God for. Merry Christmas, guys! Felix, if you’re reading this — thanks for info! It was great to hangout at DK!

More on Civil War

As most of my friends know, I collect comic books. So this particular entry are for those who are into it. But for those who aren’t I will give a little background.

Marvel Comics is currently having this crossover in most of its titles entitled “Civil War” and it has been running for more than half a year now. It’s about the Superhuman Registration Act — all those with superpowers or those who plan to do heroic stuff should reveal their identities and also get registered, otherwise the government would crack down on you and they would put you to prison cell. The series has heroes divided on the issue, with Iron Man leading the Pro-Registration and Captain America with the Anti-Registration.

The following comic strip is a reaction to it. Or rather, what the characters would think. I find it hilarious because in the current Civil War storyline, Iron Man is really out of character. In the following comic strip, we see Iron Man complaining to the editor and then at the last panel Green Lantern butts in. For those who are wondering why Green Lantern said that — well, about a decade ago DC Comics didn’t know what to do with the character Hal Jordan Green Lantern and so they made him destroy an entire city and killed several GLs in the process as well. This was about the same time Batman became paraplegic for some time and Superman was killed by Doomsday.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today’s my mother’s birthday. Ever since I went to college here in Manila, it has been rare that I have been able to go home to visit her and spend time with her during her birthday. So I just send her a greeting card and call her up during her birthday. I will do that later during the day — call her up that is. I wonder how is she going to spend her birthday today?