From an Alien’s Perspective

It has been a long time since I last posted about this series…  Well, at least now I had the time to do so…

This is actually a sequel to my other post about the value of coins.  Apparently, it’s not just those kids who devaluate our coins.  I sometimes fall into that devilish trap by calling the 10 and 5 centavo coins "butones" (because I actually thought of using them as buttons for my blouse) - how evil of me.

Anyway, other educated people, who intentionally devaluate these coins are cashiers from fastfood chains and groceries, and jeepney and taxi drivers.  When your total bill includes centavo amount not divisible by .25, they would usually round it up to the nearest value divisible by .25, or worse, to the nearest peso - like what most of the drivers do.  Sometimes you could be forgiving if they cannot give you the change because they honestly ran out of coins.  However, most of the time, they intentionally round up the bill thinking it’s just fine with the person receiving the change.

"Yeah, it’s just 10 cents.  What is 10 cents anyway?  It doesn’t have a value anymore.  I’m sure the customer won’t mind."  Probably that’s what’s on their mind when they give customers insufficient change after they pay their bill.  But that’s exactly it.  With that mindset, the Philippine Peso is devaluated by the very same people who owns it.

Does anybody still remember the saying "hindi mabubuo ang piso kung walang singko"?  Does anybody who remembers it still believes in it?

To those who are silent victims of this bad habits, your silence on this matter means you are actually tolerating those people who intentionally devaluate our currency.  I hope you keep silent only because you do not want to have arguments in public over a small matter - that is still a forgivable misdeed.  But if you keep silent because you share the same thoughts as they do, SHAME ON YOU!

We haven’t seen that movie yet.  We actually have no plans of watching it.  But our experience last May 5 until May 14 made us think of seeing it just to compare notes (who’s more unfortunate, them or us).

Anyway, our series of unfortunate events do have some interesting, funny, sad, frustrating twists.

Here are some of those unfortunate events that I can still remember (it took me quite a while to actually put this in writing because of one of the events listed here):

1.  We’re going to the province driving my Dad’s car and then we have to stop 500 meters away from Petron station on SLEX because we did not notice that the car was overheating (maximum level).  We are still trying to cool the car down enough for us to drive towards Petron when a tow truck arrived.  After a few talk though we were able to convince them that we would just drive the car to Petron and we immediately did lest they will tow us, and that means shelling out a couple of thousands (which we do not have right at that moment).

2.  We got to Petron safely… Whheewww… My husband was trying to cool it down with water and after pouring maybe around 10 gallons in the radiator, we decided it’s already safe for us to continue.  I called my brother to inform him what happened to us and he said that we have to run without aircon because it’s the one that’s causing the car to overheat.  OK, hot night… No aircon…  Oh well…

3.  We went to the restrooms first before going.  I came to the car before my husband did so he tossed me the keys.  I’m not really a good catcher so it fell and I just heard it slip between metal railings.  Just from the sound of it I knew…  I’m actually standing in front of a grill-covered dry canal.  I just smiled and said to my husband, without even looking down to check where the keys fell, that it slipped through the grills (which were immovable BTW).  He thought I was joking.  I wished I was… I felt like I’m in a Mr. Bean series.  We were so tired and so shocked for that stupid unfortunate event that we cannot even think of any way to get the keys out…  We can only laugh at ourselves…  So we let the maintenance guys there get the keys for us…

4.  Well, they were able to get the keys for us, so we went on our way… We have to stop twice to cool the car down because it still overheats even if there is no aircon (so the problem is probably more than just the aircon).  We got to my in-laws’ house just before 11PM, only to get another unfortunate news.

5.  My son was burning with fever (40.3 C).  His legs is even hotter than his fever.  We have to rush him to the hospital, which was an hour drive from where we are.  We cannot drive fast lest we overheat again.

6.  He has to be confined, but since the doctors and nurses there said that we can still make it back to Manila, we decided to go back and rush him to Medical City.  We were on the road for almost 6 hours then we have to drive again for another 3 hours or so just so we can get him to the hospital ASAP…

7.  We’re on the road again…  We can’t drive fast lest we overheat again… But overheat we did.  We stopped 4 times just to cool the car down.  The 3rd stop, we found out that our rear wheel was soft (almost flat).  We were in a service area in SLEX - no vulcanizing shop nearby…  On our 4th stop, we overheated again so we have to cool down the car and air the wheel.

8.  We finally got to Medical City after 4 hours…  My son was confined Sunday morning.  I kinda figured he would be confined for at least 2 days so I informed my boss that I will be on leave until Tuesday.

9.  By Tuesday, his fever lowered, but he cannot be discharged yet until he stops having fever for 24 hours straight.  So I told my boss again that I will be on leave until Thursday.  On the otherhand, my son’s legs is starting to have "paltos" all over.

10. By Wednesday, his leg became one big "paltos".  When the doctor saw it, she said that it is like a 3rd degree burn and it needs to be seen by a plastic surgeon.  I can’t believe what I was hearing.  I tried not to cry, but I can’t help it.  I don’t know what happened.  He was improving already, but now another problem comes up and it’s even worse than the first.

11. The plastic surgeon came by Wednesday afternoon and scheduled him for surgery to remove all the dead skin - effectively removing almost all the skin on his leg.  If it was an adult, the procedure would just be at bedside, but since he is just a kid, the pain may not be tolerable so he has to be put to sleep.  He went to the surgery room Thursday morning.  He was able to recover quickly and was returned to the room early afternoon.  The doctor said he would have to go through another "surgery" just to dress the wound.

12. The dressing was scheduled Saturday.  After the procedure, the doctor said that we will still have to wait until Monday before she can decide whether he can go home already.

13. We were still in the hospital Monday morning.  Although he was already discharged, the discharge procedure took long enough for us to miss the chance to vote.

Wow… 13 unfortunate events… How unlucky can you get…

Well at least there was that Mr. Bean event to laugh about.  We actually decided to have coffee at Starbucks in Petron just to laugh about it.  we were jokingly discussing how I can write about it here in my blog while sipping our frapuccino.  But of course I never had the chance to do that until now because of the 9 1/2 days hospital confinement of my son.

His leg is now fully healed.  Thank God.  Hopefully, there would be no more series of unfortunate events.

As they say… Time heals all wounds.

What about the mark that was left behind? 

Sometimes its as noticeable as the original wound that even if there is no more pain, the mark makes people remember that once upon a time you had a wound that gave you pain and discomfort.  Everytime you look at yourself in the mirror, you would recall all the hurt it caused you both physically and emotionally.

Sometimes its as if there was no wound there before at all.  You can go on with your as if nothing happened.  People won’t remember that you had that wound before because there’s nothing to remind them.  When you look at yourself in the mirror, you see your old self.  There is a certain level of confidence in the way you regard yourself because all you see is the better looking person that you are with no trace of whatever wound you had in the past.  Nothing to remind you that once upon a time, you had a wound which caused you a lot of pain both physically and emotionally.

Time heals all wounds. Yes.  But it does not erase the mark because it is there to remind you of the lessons that you need to learn from the mistake you did in the past which gave you the wound.  There is no more pain so you can go on with your life and fix all that needs to be fixed.

It was my first time to go snorkling and I enjoyed it very much.  It’s like being inside the Discovery Channel or National Geographic TV shows.

It was so nice to personally see live colorful corals and fishes of all shapes, sizes and colors.

The water was itchy but the view underneath was worth the 1 hour or more that I stayed in the water.

This is definitely one activity worth doing again…

Tagalog muna….

Sa parking lot ng Mega Mall malapit sa supermarket, andun ‘yung pila ng FX papuntang Angono, Antipolo, at kung saan saan pa.  Gabi-gabi na lang halos andun ako kse dun ako sumasakay pauwi.  Marami kang mapaglilibangan dun.  Pede mong panoorin ‘ung tren ng MRT at tingnan kung anong oras dadaan ‘yung tren na inde siksikan ang tao, bilangin ‘yung mga nakapila sa likod mo, abangan kung may matitisod dun sa maliit na lubak dun, makipag bolahan sa mga namamalimos at nagtitinda ng sampagita, kainin ang baon mong Jolibee, Pizzahut, Dunkin Donut, Mcdo o kung ano pa man ‘yang pagkaing dala mo, o kung pagod ka na eh umupo ka na lang dun sa mahabang inuupuan ng ibang mga nakapila at makipag-text sa iyong ‘loved ones’.

Madalas, pinapanood ko kung paano ‘magbenta’ ng sampagita ‘yung mga ’sampagita kids’ dun.  Di ko mawari kung namamalimos ba sila talaga at props lang ‘yung sampagita o talagang nagtitinda sila.  Pero mukhang namamalimos lang sila kse madalas sinasabi nila eh ‘Ate/Kuya pambili lang po ng makakain’.  At dahil namamalimos sila, naisip ko na mahalaga sa kanila bawat sentimo na makukuha nila.  Hindi talaga ako ‘yung tipo ng tao na madaling maawa sa mga ganung klaseng namamalimos kse ilang beses na ako nakakita ng ‘fake’ na namamalimos so ang tendency ko eh i-generalize na sila.  Kung may pagkain ako na dala, minsan ‘yun ang binibigay ko pero di mo talaga ako maasahang magbigay ng pera.

Isang gabi, habang nakapila ako at nanonood sa mga ’sampagita kids’ na ‘yan, may napulot ako na bente-singko.  At sa di kalayuan, sa ilalim ng isang pushcart na sinasakyan ng isa pang ’sampagita kid’ may dalawa pang bente-singko na nakakalat.  Naisip ko ‘wow sayang din ‘to. Pede nila pambili kahit isang kendi man lang.’  So binigay ko ‘yung napulot ko dun sa ’sampagita kid’ na lumapit sa akin.  Sabi ko sa kanya kunin na rin ‘yung dalawa pang bente-singko sa ilalim ng pushcart.  Laking gulat ko na lang nung makarinig ako ng kumalansing na pera.  Sinilip ko ‘yung pinanggalingan ng tunog.  Aba! At itinapon pala nung bata ‘yung bente-singko.  Bwisit na bwisit talaga ako.  Kung ako nga kahit dyes at singko pinupulot ko at wala akong pakialam kahit isipin ng ibang tao sa Mega Mall na masyado akong ‘poor’ at namumulot ako ng barya.  Para sa akin, mahalaga lahat ng coins kahit pa bente-singko, dyes o singko ito.  Tapos sila na namamalimos lang para may makain lang eh itatapon ang bente-singko.  Hindi ba nila alam kung ano ang halaga nun?  Anong klaseng ‘mahirap’ ba sila?  Kung ganyan na hindi nila pinahahalagahan ang maliit na halaga eh hindi nga sila yayaman.  Ang mga malalaki sa maliit nagsisimula.  Kung malaki agad ang hihintayin nila eh good luck na lang sa kanila dahil hindi mangyayari ‘yun.  At kung may dumating man sa kanilang malaking swerte eh siguradong mawawala agad ‘yun kse hindi nila alam kung paano pahalagahan ang mga ganung klaseng bagay.

Just took the personality test of Brainbench (www.brainbench.com) and below is the result.  Not what I expected based on the type of the 60 questions given, but surprisingly it gave a very accurate evaluation.  I don’t know, though, if those who know me that well would agree or disagree.  Can anybody tell if this is really accurate or not?

Thanks.

PERSONALITY EVALUATION:

—————————————————————————–
       Trait       |<–|—|—|—- Range —-|—|—|—>|     Trait
—————————————————————————–
Introverted        |……….X………………………..|  Extraverted
Candid             |…………..X…………………….|  Considerate
Impulsive          |……….X………………………..|  Cautious
Excitable          |…………..X…………………….|  Relaxed
Practical          |……X……………………………|  Imaginative
Concrete           |………………….X……………..|  Abstract
—————————————————————————–
                   |<–|—|—|—- Range —-|—|—|—>|         
—————————————————————————–

Your Social Boldness: Introverted VS Extraverted
————————————————————
You are moderately introverted. I bet you hear this a lot,
"You are so nice."  That is because you do not have a
brash, bold personality, instead you are warm and friendly
and a pleasure to be around. You are not into the wild,
crazy nightlife scene. To you a nice social atmosphere
tends to be a quieter, more comfortable place where you can
spend time with good friends. Your cooperative nature is
especially pleasant in a group atmosphere where decisions
must be made. You may not always be the person who
initiates conversations or talks first in a meeting, but
when you have something important to say you are willing to
share it. At times you can be shy, but this does not mean
that you are being standoffish, just that you are cautious
and need time to assess the situation.

Your Agreeableness: Candid VS Considerate
————————————————————
You are moderately candid. You know how people in a group
tend to agree with each other so that no one is dissenting?
Well, you are not one of those people. You are gifted with
the ability to make tough and objective decisions, even if
it goes against the popular consensus. At work, you are the
maverick with your no-nonsense, self-reliant and
independent nature. You have a realistic outlook on life,
and as a result you are more tough-minded than
tender-minded. You prefer if others are independent,
because going out of your way to help someone who you know
is capable of helping themselves is not particularly
appealing to you. In social relationships, you tend to be
somewhat guarded and will only reveal the real you once you
trust the other person. Your level of self-esteem is
admirable, and you would probably prefer if others were as
confident, so that you would not have to take steps to
boost their ego.

Your Self-Control: Impulsive VS Cautious
————————————————————
You are moderately impulsive. At times you can be
impulsive, but not to the point where you are jeopardizing
work or relationships. You know when to follow rules, but
you also know when to bend rules that are not set in stone.
If your home or work space gets a little messy, you do not
get upset or feel compelled to tidy up. You do not have to
have perfect order in your life to feel good about yourself
or your environment. You tend to be more on the fun side of
spontaneity, and enjoy being flexible with your plans and
your life. In general, you prefer to make short-term goals
rather than long-term goals.

Your Anxiety Level: Excitable VS Relaxed
————————————————————
You are moderately excitable. In trying situations, you
feel somewhat stressed and frustrated. At times you are
able to overcome these feelings, but other times you feel
overwhelmed. This could run the gamut of just being in a
bad mood to experiencing anxiety, anger, or depression. In
general, you prefer a stress-free existence, so that the
possibility of negative emotions would not be a factor. You
tend to be somewhat self-conscious in social situations,
and are worried that people may judge or criticize you. You
may react emotionally to people or circumstances that you
find threatening, because you want to protect yourself.
Every so often you cave into urges or cravings. Sometimes
you feel a little guilty about it, other times you are just
fine with your fun streak.

Your Openness to Change: Practical VS Imaginative
————————————————————
You are quite practical. You want just the facts - keep it
plain and simple. You are practical, pragmatic and well
grounded. You have no time for carelessness and
impracticality. You prefer to keep your emotions to
yourself, rather than exposing your feelings to the world.
Life moves along much better for you when you can maintain
a schedule and have routine in your life. Unexpected
surprises and chaos are a major inconvenience to you.  You
tend to be conservative and are somewhat resistant to
change. Others respect your ability to act properly in your
everyday life.

The way you Think/Reason: Concrete VS Abstract
————————————————————
You are slightly abstract in your thinking. Your thinking
is neither simple nor complex, to others you appear to be a
well-educated person but not an intellectual. You tend to
be intellectually curious and have the uncanny abilities to
distinguish imaginative, creative people from
down-to-earth, conventional people.

INTERPRETATION NOTES

(1) The report sent to your computer screen upon the
completion of this assessment is only a temporary web page.
When you exit your web browser you will not be able to
return to this URL to re-access your report.  A copy of the
report is emailed directly to you when you complete the
assessment.

(2) Personality traits describe, relative to other people,
the frequency or intensity of a person’s feelings,
thoughts, or behaviors.  Possession of a trait is therefore
a matter of degree.  We might describe two individuals as
extraverts, but still see one as more extraverted than the
other.  This report uses expressions such as "extravert" or
"high in extraversion" to describe someone who is likely to
be seen by others as relatively extraverted.

(3) Please keep in mind that scores on a personality
assessment are neither good nor bad.  As with any
personality inventory, scores and descriptions can only
approximate an individual’s actual personality.  Questions
about the accuracy of your results are best resolved by
reviewing and discussing your report with people who know
you well.

Did I just see another Kasal Kasali Kasalo?  Hahaha.  A movie turned real-life story.

How long have they been married? Around 2 years?  And how long have they been together before getting married?  Another 2 years?  Does she not know her husband well enough to give him her trust in matters like this?  Does she not love him great enough to consider working things out for the sake of the family instead of giving up "habang maaga pa".  Considering she’s from a very religious family, and I would assume that she is very religious also, shouldn’t it be her instinct to fight for her family rather than be affected by what the third party is trying to do.  She and her husband are both very popular, very rich, high profile personalities so she should have conditioned herself that somehow, somewhere along the way, different type of persons would try to use them for personal gains.  It’s happening right now, and if their love for each other is strong enough, this should have been a non-issue for them.

Yes she’s a very strong person and she is very much capable of raising her children all by herself, but doing that just because she is not willing enough to stick it out and work things out with her husband is very selfish.  Yes, women should be loved and respected by their husbands.  But don’t husbands deserve to be loved and respected to? 

Husbands, especially those who love their wives, are generally very submissive to wives and would rather shut up than hear their wives argue with them to the point of nagging.  But that doesn’t mean that the wives are always right.  Husbands will never say that their wives are getting fat simply because they do not want to hurt their wives’ feelings.  Loving husbands are usually complacent, non-complaining, agreeable, but that doesn’t mean that they totally agree to everything that their wives say.

Wives, beware when pushing your husbands submissiveness because when they reach their limit, you might not like it when they say enough is enough.  When your husbands do something you do not like, you should be strong enough to ask yourselves "what did I do wrong?", and of course you should be honest and objective enough to answer that. Otherwise, you will end up like the controversial couple whose marriage is about to be extinguised like a cigarette butt.

A very popular showbiz talkshow host, who made headlines last year with her supposedly intentions of running for public office, said [to that effect] that there is nothing wrong with showbiz personalities and non-political celebrities running for public office, especially if they have the sincerest intention to serve the people.

Well, nobody can really question one’s sincerity because it is very subjective.  Everybody has a different perception of what sincerity is.  However, if sincerity would be the only criterion to gauge whether a person is qualified to perform a specific job or not, then the un-employment rate in the Philippines would be much much lower than 11%. 

Why do you think employers put so much effort in enumerating the qualifications that they need from a prospective employer?  It’s because they believe that it takes a very specific person to perform any job.  The profile of a prospective employee should fit the requirements of a job opening.  This profile is, more often than not, a combination of (ranked according to level of importance) technical skills, soft skills, personality, and sometimes even personal preferences.  The best candidate is almost always the one who has all, if not almost all, the enumerated qualification criteria.

It is therefore very frustrating to know that in the constitution, the only qualifications for a prospective candidate for an elective position are nationality, residence and age, which practically lowers the standards in filing for candidacy for a government elective position.  The constitution should be amended to include minimum skills requirements for each of the elective government position.  At least that would ensure the voting public that they have a choice, and good ones at that.

A very good explanation was made by Sen. Santiago in this website.

   http://liberalsociety.wordpress.com/2007/02/05/take-courses-in-lawmaking/

Unfortunately for us, though, even the "legitimate" statesmen are being lured into the bright lights of showbiz.  Although ideally media popularity should not translate into votes, most of the candidates, are now believing otherwise.  Slowly, the "legitimate" statesmen are mutating into a new specie of showbiz personalities.  I hope this transformation can still be stopped and reversed.  Otherwise, the Philippine Politics will be doomed by the time our children gets their right to suffrage. 

A strong woman works out every day to keep her body in shape but
A woman of strength kneels in prayer to keep her soul in shape.

A strong woman isn’t afraid of anything but
A woman of strength shows courage in the midst of her fear.

 
A strong woman won’t let anyone get the best of her but
A woman of strength gives the best of her to everyone.

A strong woman makes mistakes and avoids the same in the future but
A woman of strength realizes life’s mistakes can also be God’s blessings and capitalizes on them.

A strong woman walks sure footedly but
A woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls.

A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face but
A woman of strength wears grace.

A strong woman has faith that she is strong enough for the journey but
A woman of strength has faith that it is in the journey that she will become strong.

Note:  I took the liberty of adapting poem from my friend’s bulletin because of the gracefully strong message it is trying to convey.  My apologies to Rocel, though, if I reformatted it a bit, but other than that, nothing was changed.