wun manong: Alejandro

(Note: here's my very first blog written on my friendster account. Just reposting)

Alejandro is dead!
I have always though that death is a fascinating event. It happens every time, every moment and for me it is the ultimate gauge for short-term change. How death change lives in a second and how it easily turn smiles into grief is an enthralling and intriguing moment. How death brings out the best of true emotions in an individual make me believe that it is significant yet cruel. And so, death is such a fascinating event.
The news about Alejandro being dead provided me a moment to give myself a heavy sigh, that kind of sigh that we do not normally do. I have not heaved a sigh for a long time and thanks to Alejandro for giving me one.
Alejandro was never a friend. Though he belongs to my personal circle, he is one of those people I consider close but a distant one. I could not remember anything significant that we have done together to make me consider him as a friend. He was very distant. I could hardly ask him anything whenever I had questions.
But death is only a word with the blank meaning of a life lost/gone. It is nothing but an indication of a simple loss. Yet it is very mysterious. One moment a man is breathing with life and in split second it is cut and death is around.  Soon enough the music of life fades and the sound of death lurks. Death is such a fascinating and mysterious thing.
He saw me grow up together with my siblings. We used to spend summer days in his place and we would enjoy frolicking in mid afternoon sun. We would play in his garden of mango trees and pineapple patches located in a nearby school. We would climb and harvest fruits of his mangoes and he would be there assisting and instructing us to be careful.
Alejandro is an educator. He knows how to teach people the principles that he knows. He loves reading…especially pocket books. And I know he loves it because he could stand reading a whole paperback on romance and suspense thrillers and could finish one in three days. He is a lover of books and him being an educator, he’s got to be.
Death reminds us of life. It evokes us to value what is beautiful and precious, of what is a dream and reality. Death by any means is all but the destination of mortals and beyond death…..we will never know unless we experience it.
Alejandro too is a war veteran. And that I admire him for.
Alejandro surely knows what is beyond death. He is there. And I know he will always be an educator as I have known him. And perhaps when I too get there, we will be able to revive a friendship that never prospered on earth.

See you when I see you Daddy! And how I wished you finished your essay about your World War II experience. I have with me your unfinished essay…and I will try to bring it with me when I get there.
Alejandro is my grand father. And to all his grandchildren, we ironically call him “Daddy”.
Alejandro is dead. And for him this BLOG was created.

wun manong: whatever happened to friendster

Tired of Facebook? Why not open your Friendster account? And you'll be surprise..really.

Last night, I opened my Friendster account and damn...I have friends that are still hooked up in it. That's really surprising.

More than seeing old friends during that-thing-called Friendster era, opening my Friendster account was a  trip down memory lane..the testis (testimonials) and the old pictures from way back then are still there.

Bit of History. It was founded by Jonathan Abrams in 2002. According to Wikipedia, it was founded to "create a safer, more effective environment for meeting new people by browsing user profiles and connecting to friends, friends of friends and so on, allowing members to expand their network of friends more rapidly than in real life, face-to-face scenarios". Few months after its release, Friendster was a hit. But in 2009, it saw a decline in traffic from ranked 40 to 800 in November of 2010 based on Alexa webtraffic reports.

Before Facebook, most of us had MySpace, Friendster and Multiply. I totally gave up my Friendster in as much as I gave up my Yahoo email address.

Before, Friendster was hit as much as Facebook is today. Add friends, write testimonials, grab pictures and design your own site by putting background music and skins. That was before.

Now, Friendster got a facelift and its green. There are also a lot of new features like shoutouts reformatted, games, treasure chest and more. But really, you'll note, its really not something new..Facebook has it.

One thing I hate about Friendster, there's just too many nude pictures out there that I think it has turned into a soft-core porn-social networking site.

Friendster is still popular in most Asian countries and it is interesting to note  that the Philippines is one of the top users.

I last logged-in to my friendster roughly two years ago. Why I gave it up? Maybe it was due to Friendster fatigue. I just gave it up. I just don't like it anymore. It was a case of i'll-open-it-once-i'm-into-it-agan. But Facebook came, better, more user friendly and it has more features like interactive and level-up games. So I left my friendster behind.

Friendster is where I have posted my first-ever blog..and I'm reposting it.

Check out my friendster account at

wun manong: 'Real men do not buy girls'

On Christmas eve, after the tedious preparation of my vegetable pica-pica for noche buena, I was busy with the TV remote control and accidentally chanced upon a show on CNN awarding this year's CNN Hero of the Year. 

Last year’s edition was a highly publicized event on Philippine media as last year's hero was a Filipino, Efren Peñaflorida, a ‘pushcart education’ innovator who brought education closer to the underprivileged children in the Philippines. With his Dynamic Teen Company, the organization reaches out to the out-of-school youth through pushcart classrooms complete with books and other educational materials. His innovation has prompted the Philippine government to replicate the model classroom to different regions of the country.

This year,CNN honored ordinary individuals with various causes that has changed a landscape in the world - from feeding the hungry, building bridges, medical assistance, empowering women, building houses, education and even weight loss. These heroes are everyday people working to change the world and this year's Top Ten Heroes are:

Guadalupe Arizpe De La Vega (Mexico) -providing quality health-care to the dangerous city of Juarez, Mexico with a hospital she established;

"Our hospital has not been touched. Our doctors have not been kidnapped. This is a miracle of God, believe me"

Susan Burton (USA) -giving ex-convicts a new chance to live;

"Every time I was released, I swore I wasn't going back. But I know now that without the resources and support, it's next to impossible. ... If you don't have a new door to walk through, the only thing is the old door."

Linda Fondren (USA) - helping shape up a city in the fattest state of the Unites States of America;

"People want to do good, but they need help" 

Anuradha Koirala (Nepal) -rescuing girls slavery and human trafficking;

"Families are tricked all the time. The trafficking of the girls is done by people who are basically known to the girls, who can lure them from the village by telling them they are getting a nice job. It's a lucrative business."

Narayanan Krishnan (India) - serves good food to India's most destitute;

"I saw a very old man eating his own human waste for food. It really hurt me so much. I was literally shocked for a second. After that, I started feeding that man and decided this is what I should do the rest of my lifetime."

Magnus Macfarlane-Barrow (Scotland) - launched Mary's Meals that provides meals for school children in Bosnia;

"We began saying 'Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just do one small thing to help?'

Harmon Parker (Kenya) - building bridges for a safer Kenya;

"I've worked all over Kenya. And every community [has] a story of ... loved ones lost."

Aki Ra (Cambodia) - detonating landmines to save lives
"I maybe planted 4,000 to 5,000 land mines in a [single] month. We planted them all over the place."

Evans Wadongo (Kenya) - inventing an improvised lamps to light up lives and lift families out of poverty

"I couldn't compete effectively with other kids who had access to lighting. In every home in the village it was the same. Many children drop out of school for these reasons ... so they remain poor for the rest of their life. All along I was asking myself if there is anything that can be done to improve this situation."

Dan Wallrath (USA) - give free housing to war veterans with his project "Operation Finally Home" 
"It was like someone hit me upside the head with a 2x4. ... I just felt like this is what God wants me to do."

This year's honor was given to Nepali Anuradha Koirala. When her name was called, I felt magic when the presentor put her golden trophy in a box and it turned black. Amazing. And that's how a Hero was proclaimed.

In her speech, she encouraged everyone to help fight human trafficking. And most notably, Demi Morre who presented her during the show said...'real men do not buy girls'. And it felt like that was the call of the night.All stories were too inspiring that after the show, I asked myself "what can I do for the world". And I remember vividly, I may have said it to my wife...'someday, I'll make a difference with my blog'.

foodtrip buddy: Vegetable Pica-pica

Part of my 2010 new year's resolution was to cook a new dish. And I am proud of this to have discovered a new dish that we serve in our coffeeshop. Customers liked the dish and i'm going to keep it as a secret recipe. I called it Tomato-Basil Penne.

I like experimenting on food. There's a different high when you try out something new and that your never sure of how its going to turn out. My mantra on cooking "combine the edibles and your food is going to be edible". I don't care how it tastes for as long as its eatable.

Some dishes I've tried experimenting before was a simple pinakbet with pandesal, scrambled egg with oregano and basil, stir-fried rice with just about any leftover food on the fridge and at one time, and tuna-rambet.

For the holiday, I wanted something healthy and different, so it made vegetable pica-pica with a choice of cream-milk dip, chocolate dip and out-of-the grocery store dip.

Here's how to do it.
Cut cucumber, carrots and apple into julienne strips
Wrap it in lettuce and seal with a toothpick

For the dip
a. cream-milk, this was the left over stock when my sister-in-law made her fruit salad with chocolate bits  (just mix your cream and condensed milk)
b. chocolate dip - buy chocolate syrup ion the grocery store
c. buy any dressing you want, from Ceasar's to Thousand Island

So there!!! Dip and eat....

Fruit salad with chocolate bits by Lorraine Sy

Vegetable pica-pica

The dips: chocolate dip, ceasar's dressing (orange-colored) and the cream-milk (right-side and partially cut)

And there!!! Me and our buffet table for Christmas 2010.

My Sy family

photography: scavenger

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure!!! Scavenger is a term referring to people who rummage on trashes and garbage before it is collected by the garbage collection truck. These are nocturnal people who pick anything from tin cans to P.E.T bottles, used clothes and sometimes leftover food. Scavenging is a job for the whole family, from children to elderly, male or female and anywhere urbanized, you'll get to see scavengers every night. And they never miss a shift.

Note: Picture was taken a few nights before Christmas along Lopez Ave., Los Banos, Laguna with the use of a cellphone camera.

wun manong: christmas carolling

Two days to go... and we'll have the biggest day of the year, Christmas day!!!!

I was out of the house on my way to our coffeeshop for our Christmas party celebration together with our business partner and our staff. Of course there are gifts and yes we will have that 'bunutan' tradition later.

On my way out of the house, there was a group of old ladies, around six or seven of them, singing christmas songs, hopping house to house and yes, asking for something in return. You've probably guessed what they're doing already...Yes, CAROLLING.
The last time I participated in a carolling session was around 9 years ago. I was with my co-applicants for an academic organization in the University of the Philippines-Los Baños. We did it for a fund-raising campaign. And true enough, carolling is one decent way of raising funds to cover for christmas activities during the Christmas season.

wun manong: christmas and that thing called 'bunutan'

Its three days before Christmas!!! And yes, everyone is probably done with Christmas shopping or at least halfway done buying the gifts for friends, families and everyone else.

And just when you thought that the shopping is over, there will come another instance to buy gifts.

On my way home today, I decided let my feet follow the heart and mind.  My feet says, it wanted to go straight home while my heart and mind said, let's drop by the mall and window shop. So I did! 

I wanted to challenge myself.

Last night my sister prepared the list of names for our family kris kringle or bunutan. All of us knows that this is a Philippine tradition of gift giving wherein names are put in a box and everyone gets to pick the name of the person who they must give a gift which we call 'monito' or 'monita'. Then you set-up the minimum amount for the value of the gift.

This way, everyone gets a gift, whether you like the one you've picked or not. Oftentimes, it serves a venue to repair disparities among friends and colleagues.

We've decided on the value..Php75.00 or roughly $1.50 in value. Its cheap yes, everyone can afford the price even our house help.  But the challenge comes into finding a good gift for a cheap price.

I'd say 'good' gift because for us Filipinos, we do not just give our gift just because we like it. The gift we give oftentimes determine how well we know the person. You will be more inclined to giving what he/she likes other what you want to give.

So, I had to challenge myself. Seventy-five pesos, and I have to pick a gift for my mom (I picked her name). That's tough. For someone special and dear, finding a suitable gift for $1.50 is definitely tough.

Just so you know, a t-shirt or a blouse cost Php99.00 minimum or if you have chance to go to Divisoria or tsangges, you'll find some at cheaper price.

Now I know why my heart led me to SM Southmall. I have to find a gift. Initially, I decided on something I can buy from National Bookstore, and the most that I had was a rosary for less than a hundred. Delete option.

Then I had to check out the department store. I checked the kitchenware section..drinking glasses, those damn drinking glasses in boxes of four or six. No, its not an option.

Then to the section where you get to see pillows in different colors, designs and shape. There was one I liked that said "Hug a MAROON for Intimacy". I know you'd guess the color of the pillow.

But I know there's a better gift out there for my mother. I passed by a Watsons shop and I saw a 'buy 1 take 1' offer for a body scrub. That is reserved for someone else. Then there's a body vanity kit sold at Php175.00 for 2 pieces (body lotion and shower creme). I was tempted to buy it. The body lotion goes out to my mother, and the shower creme, I'll offer it to my wife so she has something to give for her monito. Now I had an option.

I was in the mood to shop further, so I walked..and walked...and walked until I reached the activity area and there was a ventriloquist with his puppet performing. I hate puppets, they're like evil creatures to me. So I had to go and continue my shopping.

Then I saw the bags. There were bags made of flour sack with nice prints for Php129.00. Expensive eh! But then there's the second option.

In Los Baños, Laguna, where I take residence, there is a municipal ordinance  banning the use of plastics. Maybe, this is a good gift. Its like paying it forward and that other may follow. Its an option.

Two prospects and countless shops visited, I decided to head home. Not quite happy that I did not get to buy something, because its just going to be hassle if we do last minute shopping, I was contented that at least I gave my heart and mind the chance to lead over the feet. Now, finally, its the feet's turn to be followed.