Online Dictionary

I came across an online Filipino dictionary and naturally I searched if it had a Cebuano-English dictionary. It seems it has 11000+ Cebuano entries. Not too much, but it has the basic words that non-native Cebuano speakers must know before they go to any Cebuano-speaking area in the Philippines (Visayas and Mindanao).

You can also add terms in it. I added "matud" which means "according" and "tagbalay" for housedweller or homeowner.

The website also has Tagalog-English, Bikol-English, Ilokano-English. Waray-English dictionaries. Feel free to add and edit!

Radio

I miss Cebu-based radio stations. I even miss the radio commercials and traffic reports hehe.. It's a good thing that some stations stream on the internet. Even if you're on dialup, the stream is good.

I like Y101. I stream every day when I can :)

Also, eradioportal also streams lots of Pinoy radio stations. It's so much fun streaming Mix Davao when I'm in Manila. Or listen to DZRH when in Tennessee :))

Movie: Must Love Dogs

Movie: Must Love Dogs (2005 Warner Bros)
Diane Lane, John Cusack, Christopher Plummer, Stockard Channing, Elizabeth Perkins, Dermot Mulroney

This movie was adapted from the Claire Cook book "Must Love Dogs" so it's a chick flick. Basically, it's a story about moving on and gambling on love again. There were many unforgettable moments in the movie (such as the "lancer scenes", watch the movie and you will get me hehe.. the scene where Diane's character Sarah actually answered her own dad's dating ad! and the scene where Sarah gets a visit from a happy gay couple -- i love gay couples they are soo... happy hehe...) . I also love the fact that Sarah comes from a large family kind of like many Pinoy families na maraming nangingialam, but in a good way of course.

It's been reported that John Cusack had a free hand in altering his lines. Well, he can SAY ANYTHING and I will believe him!

What I don't like: The Partridge theme scene. Nothing can duplicate the Say A Little Prayer scene in My Best Friend's Wedding.














“I answered my own father’s personal ad. That’s not dating. That’s sick.”
















Just as Sarah loves Mother Teresa, her brother's dog, I also love my doggie Evita :)

















I totally can relate to this scene! Alone yet not lonely and cold. On the downside, you get fleas and lots of dog hair. But that is a small price to pay :)


PS. Ems and I watched this movie and a gay couple was actually seated at my left. They were ever so sweet and good-looking ha... I just love gay couples, they're like my ideal kind of coupling :)

Note to self: check out Dr. Zhivago... and the book.

Vote Now: The World Challenge

I don't like watching local news sometimes. It almost always makes me nauseous and sick and I just walk away with a general feeling of helplessness at how stupid we, as a people, can sometimes get. And seeing Francis Escudero's face every freakin' night adds a hint of revulsion to helplessness... ugghhh.. Bottomline, I get insomnia.

Goodness knows we NEED something that's positive and good on the tellie. I came across this while watching GMA 7's 24 Oras. For some strange reason pinyapol finds ABS-CBN's TV Patrol revolting. Hmm... but that is another story altogether I think.

A segment in 24 Oras showed how a local agricultural engineer Justino Arboleda has managed to turn waste from cocounut husks into good use. Husks are the hairy fibrous parts you see when you crack open a mature coconut. Our mum mainly uses those for her orchids :) but generally, it gets thrown out.

Now, Engr. Arboleda and his company makes coco husks into COCONET or coconut geotextile, that when laid on a tract of land, acts as surrogate roots and prevent soil from eroding further. Considering our forest cover has gone down to 18%, this is good news indeed. In fact, COCONET is helpful to agriculture, period. His invention has been nominated in The World Challenge, a joint project between Newsweek and BBC, supported by Shell. COCONET is pitted against 11 other practices/projects.

All we have to do is VOTE for COCONET and help spread the good news (note: you will need to submit your email address for verification purposes). And I'm telling you, this is not a hoax, as other good news have turned out to be in the past...

To vote, click on this link. Voting ends 16th October. The winner shall be announced 17th November.

Vote now, mga kababayan ko. Vote now, mga bisdak :)

Julian Beever

Where can I get THAT size coke...? Julian Beever is an English artist who does oil paintings and murals but he is particularly known for his optical street art. His art is hard proof that the brain can be deceived to see a 2D object as 3D. It's all in the mind baby...













When viewed from a wrong angle, this globe is just a plain old street drawing.














When viewed from the right angle, people actually walk around it. He














Check out his homepage for more amazing photos!

Uh Oh

Mahaba-habang usapan 'to!

Worst Job

We all have complaints about our jobs: we are overworked, underpaid, overworked AND underpaid...

The following will effectively shut us up...

Arms Wide Open

No, this does not refer to that song by Creed. This is another Ninoy story.

Ninoy asked his friend to accompany him to the kitchen where Kennedy was shot. Looking at the outline of body still marked on the floor, Ninoy told his friend: "If I get shot on the head like Kennedy, I am not going to go down on my knees. If you get shot like that, you have a few seconds of life left. If that happens to me, I am going to fall straight down and spread my arms so people will know I never gave up even to the last second."

Luis Beltran, journalist

Staying Alive

Today we mark the 22nd death anniversary of Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino.

For some, Ninoy is just that face on the Philippine 500 peso bill. For Makati people, he is that statue over the corner of Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas, an overused symbol for "pakikibaka, " whether paid pakikibaka or not. For others, he was something of a foolish idealist, a savior for quite a few, a threat for a handful others. Like JFK's, his death was a milestone for Pinoys.

"Where were you when Ninoy was killed in the Manila International Airport?" His death was a defining moment for many, a catalyst for action, for change. For apathetic Pinoys, his death was just another shooting spree at a time when "tactical interrogation" meant "desaparecido". Personally, his name always conjures an image akin to myths and legends.

Ninoy's oft-quoted words were "The Filipino is worth dying for." I wonder if anyone of our politicians can actually utter these words with utter conviction now. My guess would be they would rather stay alive.

Demystifying Heroes

I think I have bored people to tears about how I love history :)

So I am again killing them with another dose of history-inspired rambling hehe... After all this is my personal blog. Don't like what you're reading? Git!

If there's anyone in our present time who can make heroes human, it's Ambeth Ocampo. Hi Sir :) Sana high school teachers introduce his books as reference to make Philippine history more interesting and correct some misconceptions about our national heroes. The sad thing about high school history teaching is, it looks like ayaw ng teachers gumamit ng reference books. Kung ano ang textbook na approved ng school, they just stick to it. How sad. I get how underpaid and overworked teachers are. But, where can you NOT find underworked and underpaid employees in this country?

A good starting point would be Ocampo's book "Meaning and History: The Rizal Lectures." It gives a feel of how past gives meaning to the present and how it shall affect the future. History is so romantic. But then, I'm one sick person so don't take me seriously.

Goodbye, Hello

One thing I detest is vacillating men. It's not that I hold a sexist view that only women are fickle. It's just that I don't like it, equally with men and women.

If someone tells me they're going to let go of me, ok, I get that. I'm not stupid. But to have that same person tell me after an hour that they would like to get me back, uhh, excuse me. But did you just say the exact opposite an hour ago?

Infidelity

Comes in all forms. Who hasn't been betrayed in love, at work, by a lover, by your best friend, by your teacher, by a parent?

"When energy leaves the processing location in your chest in love and trust, you are open and connected to all Life. When energy leaves it in fear and doubt, your chest hurts. “Heartache” is more than an emotional state—it is a physical condition."

- Gary Zukav & Linda Francis, "The Heart of the Soul"

Don't Read, Don't Know

I was cruising on Friendster the other day and it just hit me.

People below 20 years nowadays don't like to read. My goodness... That is so sad. They like texting, malling, chatting online, gaming, texting again, malling again, hanging out with friends. The best reading material for them would be FHM and Cosmopolitan (!!!).

Kaya siguro when I talk to *some* teenagers, they bore me.

"Harry Potter? Oh yeah, it's the guy with the many movies to his name! "

Well, the feeling is probably mutual cause I am definitely sure that I bore them too. Hehehe...

Do You Remember?

In a few days, we will be commemorating the 22nd death anniversary of Ninoy Aquino. For present-day teenagers, he will just be a figure on their History textbooks, a face on the 500 peso bill, a name of an airport.

Most young people now (20 years old and below) are more concerned with what brand cellphone they are using, what brand clothes they are parading around in. Politics is too dirty for them. Philosophy is too abstract for such young untutored minds.

But if teenagers don't start remembering fallen heroes trapped in history textbooks soon, kailan pa?

I love History. I am fascinated with it. Bakit? Because I look beyond the dates. I had a 65-year old history teacher in high school and she told me that dates are almost meaningless. Huh? Did I just hear that from a history teacher?! "Yup," she said, "what is more important is remembering the lessons learned and not duplicating the same event/mistakes in the present time. " Or something to that effect, basta she made it sound more profound and eloquent.

There was a time when she gave out an exam with 4 essay questions (unheard-of, in high school history at the time!). That signalled my romance with history and with writing for that matter. Suffice to say I was exempted from taking the final periodic test in History hehe :)

Do we need better History teachers to teach our young? And heck, to teach us all? Do we need to have a dictator all over again for us to remember the heroes who have fallen, blood that has been shed, the mistakes we made in history?

Priceless Hangover

Remeber those Mastercard commercials? This story from pinyapol is priceless... if this happened to me, I would have done the exact same thing the wife did :)

Jack wakes up at home with a huge hangover he can't believe. He forces himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins next to a glass of water on the side table.

And, next to them, a single red rose!

Jack sits down and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed. Jack looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect order, spotlessly clean. So is the rest of the house.

He takes the aspirins, cringes when He sees a huge black eye staring back at him in the bathroom mirror, and notices a note on the table:

"Honey, breakfast is on the stove, I left early to go shopping--Love you!"

He stumbles to the kitchen and sure enough, there is hot breakfast and the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating.

Jack asks, "Son...what happened last night?"

"Well, you came home after 3 A.M., drunk and out of your mind. You broke some furniture, puked in the hallway, and got that black eye when you ran into the door."

"So, why is everything in such perfect order, so clean, I have a rose, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me?"

His son replies, "Oh THAT!... Mum dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you screamed, "Leave me alone, lady, I'm married!"

Broken Furniture - £85.26
Hot Breakfast - £4.20
Red Rosebud - £3.00
Two Aspirins - £0.38

Saying the right thing, at the right time.........Priceless.

Top 10 Reasons Why There Can Never Be a FilAm US President

TOP 10 REASONS WHY THERE COULDN'T BE A FILIPINO-AMERICAN US PRESIDENT

10. White House is not big enough for in-laws and extended relatives.

9. Not enough parking spaces at White House for 2 Honda Civics, Toyota Celica, 1985 Mercedes Benz Diesel, BMW ( Big Mean Wife) and MPV (My Pinoy Van).

8. Dignitaries are generally intimidated by eating with fingers at state dinners.

7. Too many dining rooms in the White House - where will they hang the Last Supper painting?

6. White House walls not big enough to hold giant wooden spoon and fork.

5. Secret service staff won't respond to "psssst, psssst".

4. Secret service staff are uncomfortable driving presidential car with rosary hanging on the rear view mirror or the statuette of Santo Nino on the dashboard.

3. No budget allocation to purchase karaoke machines on every White House room.

2. State dinners do not allow "Take Home".

AND THE NUMBER 1 REASON :

1. AIR FORCE ONE does not allow overweight balikbayan boxes !!!

*Note: Thanks to Sarah! :)

Side Projects

Yup, been busy with projects (on the side) for quite a while now. Probably the reason why traffic has been down at my blog hahaha!

Anyway, someone suggested I attend The Basic Course on Fund Raising organized by Venture for Fund Raising Asia to help me upgrade my currently non-existent fundraising skills. It's a 3-day course that aims to enable attendees to target donors, plan, control and implement fundraising projects.

I truly truly regret I didn't take up that Development Finance elective in college.

Bringing Down the Beautiful But Dumb Cliche

Isn't it nice to find a gorgeous girl with a gorgeous mind to boot?



Georgina Ashley Wilson
A.B. Economics - Honors Program








Francesca Canivel
B.S. Management Engineering

Ain't That A Bitch

Basta sometimes you just wanna say this... I think Steven Tyler and Joe Perry hit it on the nail with this line "Cause love is like a wrong turn, on a cold night." So true.

Shooting Down Urban Legends

Jose Rizal Composed The Cheers
Urban legend, totally. Jose Rizal was killed on the cusp of the 20th century while the first cheers were used in that fateful basketball game in the late 1920s.

Females Were Included
Nope, as with the history of US cheerleading, cheerleading was a man's sport. Strange, but true. You have to remember that in the late 1890s, women still did not vote.

DLSU Inspired the Cheers
Nope, not true. There was no basketball rivalry to speak of between DLSU and Ateneo in the 1920s. Yet. Ateneo and San Beda actually had a rivalry of sorts in the NCAA during the 50s, at a time when San Beda touted its "Great Difference", Caloy Loyzaga.

The Sixth Man

Is it the Blue Babble? Is the crowd? Is it some higher force? Don't really know.

Kahit talunan na yung team, I still believe. And when the hymn is sung with clenched fists, I affirm.

I overheard someone hypothesize that the reason why Ateneans are SO unbelievably loyal (to the team, to the school, to the ideal, whatever!) is the fact that laging talunan yung team. I mean, lookie here, sabi nya "mabibilang mo lang ang years that the Ateneo had strong teams (especially in basketball)."

I never really believed that loyalty crap thingie when I was still in high school. But when you're actually inside the stadium/field, shouting yourself hoarse and getting your ego bruised (a lot!), the feeling is indescribable.

"I don't understand you, Ateneans," sabi ng non-Atenean friend ko. I guess you can only understand how that feels when you've been there and you've done that. When I said that, he said he understood.

History of Cheers

For many oldtimer Ateneans, it's amazing how cheering has evolved from the rah-rah guys in the 1920s to the cute and perky cheerdancers that you see today.

The history of cheering in the Ateneo goes back to the late 1920s when the University of the Philippines was beating the Ateneo basketball team in a rematch. Fr. Austin Dowd noted how disheartened his players were and to boost their morale, he composed the "Jewish Yell" (or the "Fabilioh") and "Fight Fight Blue and White". He then asked Ateneo supporters to gather and yell and cheer their team on.

This signalled the birth of the Blue Battle Battalion and of cheering in the Philippines (not sure about this, I have to ask my UP friends or check UP archives).

A Song For Mary

Among 8 high school friends, there were only 3 of us who decided to break away from the pack. That is, to haul off our arses and head to sinful and smog-filled Manila from Cebu. Our 5 friends stayed and went on to graduate as super-duper loyalty awardees in the same school that we went to ever since we were still kiddies.

So, when talk goes back to our college days, I would be one of three who would sort of be "different" from them. So when I am asked, "what is your college's anthem/hymn?" I would get suprised faces when I tell them it's "A Song For Mary." School hymns usually sound something like, "O Primus University Love Kita" or something to that effect he, he.

When the fire razed the Padre Faura campus of the Ateneo in the 50s, the Jesuits moved the school to Loyola Heights. The hymn was "Hail, Ateneo, Hail" at the time. Perhaps the move was also an end of an era of sorts and this prompted Fr. James Reuter to write "A Song For Mary." So now you know why some sports journalists refer to the Ateneo team as the Hail Mary squad.

A Canadian-born and bred Pinoy friend exclaimed when we first heard the song, "heck, it's like I'm back home!." You see, the music was adapted from the hymn, "O Canada" which was composed in 1880.

However, Canada only adopted "O Canada" as its national anthem in 1980 while the Ateneo adopted its alma mater song 30 years earlier.

The song is fraught with symbolism, poignant (especially to us who have graduated), sometimes even borders on foolish idealism for some.. It is also a prayer, a promise, a leap of faith, a battle song, an affirmation of our loyalties: Win or lose, it's the school we choose.

We stand on a hill between the earth and sky. Now all is still where Loyola’s colors fly. Our course is run and the setting sun ends Ateneo’s day. Eyes are dry at the last goodbye; this is the Ateneo way.

Mary for you! For your white and blue! We pray you’ll keep us, Mary, constantly true! We pray you’ll keep us, Mary, faithful to you!

Down from the hill, down to the world go I; rememb’ring still, how the bright Blue Eagles fly. Through joys and tears, through the laughing years, we sing our battle song: Win or lose, it’s the school we choose; this is the place where we belong!

Mary for you! For your white and blue! We pray you’ll keep us, Mary, constantly true! We pray you’ll keep us, Mary, faithful to you!

Today in History: Marilyn Monroe Found Dead

Norman Jean Montenson-Baker or Marilyn Monroe was found dead lying face down on her bed in her Los Angeles mansion. Probable cause of death: suicide on sedatives. There have been loads of theories as regards the real cause of her death and her personal relationship with prescription drugs but overall, she is one of the enduring icons of the 20th century.

Although she helped perpetuate the cliche that blondes are dumb, she was largely misunderstood and many people point out that she was in fact smart with a Mensa-like IQ. She was a woman in male-dominated 1950s Hollywood where acting on female stereotypes was the order of the day. This is still the order in many Filipino homes and workplaces. Sad, but true.

Today in History: Gestapo Captures Anne Frank

As a young girl, one of my teachers was Anne Frank (besides TV ha ha!). Faced with the threat of being captured by Nazis while hiding in their Amsterdam house, she, through her Diary, told me of heroism, hope and faith in mankind despite the cruelties of war and bigotry. She and her sister Margot died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany due to typhus. The camp was liberated less than 2 months after she died.

We still haven't learnt anything from history. Bigotry, hate and war still reign in our day, albeit sporting new and varied causes and hiding behind varied faces.

Day by Day

This song was made popular "again" by being featured in the TV commercial for the detergent, Surf where the grandmum sings in the choir. It is an adaptation of the St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises #104 and this is my personal motto in fact. Music was set by S. Schwartz. I think this was featured in a musical called "Godspeed."

Day by day, day by day
O, dear Lord, three things I pray:
To see thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
Follow thee more nearly.
Day by day

Request Granted

This is a request that I just can't NOT grant. The lyrics to the adaptation of St. Ignatius' prayer for generosity, music by J. Arboleda, SJ, popularized by the Bukas Palad Ministry.

Dearest Lord,
Teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as I should:
To give and not to count the cost,
To fight and not to heed the wounds,
To toil and not to seek for rest,
To labor and ask not for reward,
Save that of knowing that I do
Your most Holy Will.

Philo Exam

An intrinsic part of student life are Philo/Theo exams. ORAL exams. I still get bad dreams about those up til now, can you believe it? Panel interviews or revalidas don't scare me. Presentations or speeches to an auditorium full of colleagues certainly don't bring on nightmares. But those oral exams still give me the hives.

So, I am bringing an anecdote that is abused in Philosophy classes but certainly holds true. That reality is whatever you want to make of it.

--------

An eccentric philosophy professor gave a one-question
final exam after a semester dealing with a broad array
of topics.

The class was already seated and ready to go when the
professor picked up his chair, plopped it on his desk
and wrote on the board: "Using everything we have
learned this semester, prove that this chair does not
exist."

Fingers flew, erasers erased, blue books were filled in
furious fashion. Some students wrote over 30 pages in
one hour attempting to refute the existence of the
chair. One member of the class however, was up and
finished in less than a minute.

Weeks later when the grades were posted, the rest of
the group wondered how he could have gotten an A when
he had barely written anything at all. His answer
consisted of two words: "What chair?"