A Class Act

Dear Sage, Yesterday (Jan. 22, 2006) the earth's axis tilted a little because every Filipino around the world jumped up and down when Manny Pacquiao beat Erik Morales (Pictured in the right) in the 10th round of their Non-title bout. I decided not to put Manny's face in your blog. I would like to honor what Mr. Morales did when he was beaten by Pacquiao: He (Morales) embraced him (Manny)and gallantly smiled despite of a broken nose, and a shattered personal legend. That is what sportsmanship is all about. Morales, even in defeat, stood taller than the politicos riding on the coattails of Manny. Kudos to his Mexican supporters too who burst into spontaneous, respectful applause for Manny after his victory was formally announced.

"You are my adversary,
but you are not my enemy.
For your resistance gives me strength.
Your will gives me courage.
Your spirit ennobles me.
And though I aim to defeat you, should I succeed,
I will not humiliate you.
Instead, I will honour you.
For without you, I am a lesser man."

— “Opponent”, from Celebrate

PS. a year ago I honored Manny when he himself was defeated. His proud but battered countenance graced the other website I made. Beneath it were the words from the poem "INVICTUS." It was a time when Manny's head was "Bloody but Unbowed."

Speaking of Weddings

Dear Sage, I just read The wedding story of my cousin Florante and his wife, Cheryl. I've been visiting their site for quite a number of years now but it's the first time I've clicked on the ABOUT US button.

Anyway, when it was Florante's kid sister's turn to get married, she (Maida) chose him as her maid of honor. And he gamely accepted the role. That's how close they are. I hope you and Sabine and the New Baby will be as fond of each other as these two siblings are.

once upon a time...

Dear Sabine, Once upon a time, your Ninong Robie (the groom below) had the grin of a cat that swallowed the canary. now he has the smile of a seasoned wolf finally caught in the tender trap of love.



Once upon a time I did not like weddings...That was a long, long time ago.





and Once upon a time, exactly 7 years ago, I married your Mom.

Happy Anniversary Ayheen!

Eye of Horus

Dear Sage, This is a 3D stereogram. Your Lola Helen (God Rest Her Soul) Loved staring at these things when she was still here. Hope you'll like this.

PS. Cheesy quote of the day: "To achieve the Impossible, You must see the Invisible."

Your Cousin, Sydney Charles

Dear Sage, this is the picture of your cousin Sydney Decena Charles of South Carolina. According to your Lola Fe's email, she was "8.6 oz, 21 inches with a full head of black hair all straight and spiked up" at birth.

WELCOME SYDNEY!

Nice name. That reminds me, you and Sabine have yet to decide on the name for the baby in Mom's tummy. She's due any time now, y'know. Maybe our friends and loved ones reading this journal could help us(wink)

Not So Veiled Threat.

Dear Sage, some parents threaten their kids with spanking if they want their kids to toe the line. That kind of threat hardly works on you. But this one does:

Sage: Dad I want to watch TV

Dad: (eyes fixed on the screen watching) I'm turning this off after 5 minutes. You have to sleep

Sage: BUT DAD!!! I WANNA WATCH TV!!! (on the verge of tantrum)

Dad: If you don't listen and obey,
I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU GO TO SCHOOL TOMORROW.

Sage: (gasp) huhuhu! okey. Lies down and finally sleeps.

I hope this threat will still be effective even when you're already in Pre-Med

Horshey

Shameless Plug

Dear Sage, The following is a shameless ad I've decided to post in your blog. I promise that all the money from this will go straight to you and your sisters' College Trust Fund. I got this idea from your Ninong Bibs who sent it to me via email. Someday, anak, I hope you'll understand why I had to do this...

" According to a proposed new law that would go into effect January, 2006 you will no longer be able to use a cell phone while driving unless you have a "hands free" adapter. I went to Globe and Smart Business Centers in SM branches and they wanted P2,500 (a little over US$50) for a headset with a microphone for my cell phone. Having a friend in the cell phone business, I talked to him and was able to come up with an alternative, working through a Hardware store.

These kits are compatible with any mobile phone and one size fits all. I paid him P2.50 (a little over 5 cents) each because he bought in quantity. Then we tried it with Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung units and they worked perfectly.

A photo is attached so scroll down & take a look and let me know if you want one. Also, forward this to anyone you know, who has a cell phone, and who may want one!"

Congratulations Ayheen!!!

Dear sage, I love this picture of you and Ayheen (my EX-Girlfriend) tomorrow her fellowship training as a Pedia Nephrologist will be officially over.

Way to GO! I LOVE YOU BOTH!

10 RULES FOR DATING MY DAUGHTERS

Dear Sage, I still can't stop myself from laughing after reading this forwarded email from a friend. I'm sure you'll find it funny too... In case you won't, here's one word I wish will never lose its meaning even after so many years: "CHILL-OUT."

Anyway, someday, if not during your teenage years maybe later on in your 30's, you WILL find this post amusing. Trust me...

Ten Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter

1. If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a package, because you're sure not picking anything up

2. You do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter's body, I will remove them.

3. I am aware that it is considered fashionable for boys of your age to wear their trousers so loosely that they appear to be falling off their hips. Please don't take this as an insult, but you and all of your friends are complete idiots. Still, I want to be fair and open minded about this issue, so I propose this compromise: You may come to the door with your underwear showing and your pants ten sizes too big, and I will not object. However, in order to ensure that your clothes do not, in fact, come off during the course of your date with my daughter, I will take my electric nail gun and fasten your trousers securely in place to your waist.

4. I'm sure you've been told that in today's world, sex without utilizing a "barrier method" of some kind can kill you. Let me elaborate, when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.

5. It is usually understood that in order for us to get to know each other, we should talk about sports, politics, and other issues of the day. Please do not do this. The only information I require from you is an indication of when you expect to have my daughter safely back at my house, and the only word I need from you on this subject is "early."

6. I have no doubt you are a popular fellow, with many opportunities to date other girls. This is fine with me as long as it is okay with my daughter. Otherwise, once you have gone out with my little girl, you will continue to date no one but her until she is finished with you. If you make her cry, I will make you cry.

7. As you stand in my front hallway, waiting for my daughter to appear, and more than an hour goes by, do not sigh and fidget. If you want to be on time for the movie, you should not be dating. My daughter is putting on her makeup, a process that can take longer than painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead of just standing there, why don't you do something useful, like changing the oil in my car?

8. The following places are not appropriate for a date with my daughter: Places where there are beds, sofas, or anything softer than a wooden stool. Places where there are no parents, policemen, or nuns within eyesight. Places where there is darkness. Places where there is dancing, holding hands, or happiness. Places where the ambient temperature is warm enough to induce my daughter to wear shorts, tank tops, midriff T-shirts, or anything other than overalls, a sweater, and a goose down parka - zipped up to her throat. Movies with a strong romantic or sexual theme are to be avoided; movies which feature chain saws are okay. Hockey games are okay. Old folks homes are better.

9. Do not lie to me. On issues relating to my daughter, I am the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have a shotgun, a shovel, and five acres behind the house. Do not trifle with me.

10. Be afraid. Be very afraid. It takes very little for me to mistake the sound of your car in the driveway for a chopper coming in over a rice paddy near Hanoi. When my Agent Orange starts acting up, the voices in my head frequently tell me to clean the guns as I wait for you to bring my daughter home. As soon as you pull into the driveway you should exit your car with both hands in plain sight. Speak the perimeter password, announce in a clear voice that you have brought my daughter home safely and early, then return to your car - there is no need for you to come inside. The camouflaged face at the window is mine.The Surgeon General has determined that violation of any of the above ten rules can be hazardous to your health and in laboratory test has resulted in DEATH

Predictions for 2005

Dear Sage, YES! You read it right. These are predictions for 2005. And I'm writing them on the first day of 2006. Because I'm sure that even when you grow up, scambags will still make a killing this time of the year pretending to give out nebuluous, mystic sounding advice about the coming year.

"The future can only be predicted when it is already in the past." I've learned that from God himself. (Ok, it was just a movie "Oh God!" but George Burns was so convincing as an omniscient...uh...thespian)

So here are my Top 5 predictions for 2005:

5. For the first time, Heaven will welcome SIN.
4. a certain KATRINA will force so many "saints (to) go marching in" to heaven.
3. Michael Jackson will learn greek. He'll know what PYRRHIC means.
2. (This one I'm having difficulty in predicting whether) Prince Charles will either attend a wedding and a funeral... or a wedding that looks like a funeral.
1. UNFORTUNATELY, life will imitate art. Everybody will love big brother and forget about civil liberties, good taste and originality.

Glorious Weather

Dear Sabine, Another Ninang sends her greetings from Sunny Bahamas! To Tita Lalal (left) andNinang Gigi, Happy New Year!

Heroes

Dear Sabine, On Christmas Night (2005), your cousin, Ate Eya, lost her cuddly Chihuahua. "Jasper" apparently took a stroll out in the streets when everybody was busy celebrating the occasion. He is a very, very friendly dog- doesn't even bark at strangers. Ate Eya cried buckets of tears. She was unconsolable. Even you and Ate Sage couldn't stop her from crying. It also didn't help that her mother, Tita Grace, was crying with her because she treated the dog like her own son. Jasper could've been taken by one of those enterprising kids and sold for a few thousand bucks. Or he could've been road kill. Or "Pulutan" (it was Christmas.)

These didn't happen (Hey, it's the Christmas Season. I don't have the stomach to write about something that doesn't have a happy ending.) 3 days later, a stranger responded to the equivalent of an A.P.B. She said the Chihuahua followed her home on Christmas Night, 3 blocks away from home. She is a Cat lover and breeds Persian Cats. She said that Jasper got along nicely with her cats and with the other species in their household. Keeping him for herself crossed her mind but she knew that Jasper belongs to a little girl and that little girl is now crying because of her loss. Years back she also lost a persian cat and also cried an ocean before she was reunited with it after the one who found the cat decided to look for the owner.

She went to the Baranggay Hall and reported the dog she found. Hence the Reunion of Ate Eya and Jasper became possible.

A stranger empathizing with a kid who lost a pet. Hardly the stuff legends are made of. I don't think you'd see her picture in the dictionary under the entry "HERO." But you know what, that is what real heroes are.

Don't let the newspaper headlines tell you who your heroes are. Most of the time those are Press Releases paid for by the ones on the headlines. Don't let the movies and broadcast media tell you what heroes are supposed to look like. Don't let the history books tell you that heroes are GREAT PEOPLE WHO DID GREAT THINGS. If they had met Alexander (the so called "Great") those history writers, who drool over him and his achievements, would probably never like the man behind the myth since history records he was a megalomaniac- same description they use to describe Usama Bin Laden and Michael Jackson.

Simple empathy goes a long way. The girl who returned Jasper was empowered to do the right thing by her experience when she lost her own pet. She was empowered to act "heroically" by a stranger who returned her own lost Cat. Simple empathy could inspire other strangers to act above their own selfishness and pettiness.

I want you to know this because Today is national Heroes Day (DECEMBER 30, 2005)

It's not about Supermen who lived a hundred years ago or some fancy character from a galaxy a thousand light years away. This day is not just about the heroes identified in the newspapers, broadcast media, movies and history books. This day is about Real Heroes. It's about YOU. In fact, everyone you'll ever know has what it takes to be a hero without having to die for it. Just ask Ate Eya.

Dr. & Mrs. Robert Young

Dear Sabine, Your Ninong and Ninang just sent you their Holiday Greetings from across the Pacific Ocean.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to both of you too, Robert & Jenn! Welcome to our Blog!

Peace Be With You

Dear Sage, About a decade ago I saw a very beautiful picture in a news magazine. It showed red haired kids, who were probably your age, shouting excitedly while watching a sporting event (probably football.) It was taken in Northern Ireland. The Kids were both Irish Catholics and Protestants. Theirs was a generation untouched, unsoiled, unbloodied by the violence of the previous ones.

A decade later, Ireland is relatively peaceful (compared to Afghanistan and Iraq.) I can't help but think that those kids have something to do with it.

SeedsOfPeace.Org is an organization whose ideal is to bring Peace to the generations to come. Maybe peace will come slowly, every generation realizing a piece of that dream. Hopefully in yours, there will be more children playing and watching soccer games without caring whether they have red hairs or black, Protestants or Moslems, Children of Southern Developing Countries or Scions of the Northern States.

Blue Bound

Dear Sage, Congratulations are in order for your classmate, Matthew Canonizado. He's the son of Tito Jong and Tita Suzette (Lola Letty's Berks). Just before Christmasday they found out that he passed the highly competitive entrance exam to the Ateneo Prep!

Way to GO KID!!!

NO WAY Virginia.

Dear Sage, At 5 years old when I ask you if Santa Claus is real, you respond by saying that santa is just like a jollibee mascot- there's somebody inside the costume pretending to be jollibee to cheer you up.

I wanted you to know as soon as possible that the Santa Claus in this world is an Idea. And it's not a bad idea but a very, very nice one. Like Jollibee. But it's up to us to cheer each other up just like the man inside the Mascot. Even though he is just a man, you've seen how he lights up Sabine's eyes when she meets him again and again as a Mascot.

I want you to realize that the real star of Christmas is Christ. He is not just an Idea like Santa. He is just like the BEEF in the Hamburger (Jollibee mascot attracts you to the fastfood center but the BEEF is the one that satisfies your hunger, right?)

IN the same way, santa attracts and introduces you to Christmas even before you realize what it really means.
God is as real as the Gifts, as real as Love, Sharing, Joy, Peace and everything that makes you smile during this Season and beyond. Christ himself made this possible for us. One Christmas I will try to explain to you how he made it possible to celebrate this season even after all the stars in the universe have burned up all their hydrogens so that nothing is left to fuel the nuclear fusionwithin their cores. How it's possible to celebrate it even when scientists of the future will need carbon dating to guess how old our remains are. .. Okay, maybe I'll start with Christ's sacrifice on the cross, then I'll tell you about the physics of imploding stars and carbon 14 isotopes later when you're in, uh, the 5th grade?

Following the leader, the leader, the leader...

Dear Sage, Last Sunday during the triple birthday celebration of your cousins (Kuya Darren, Ate Janine and Andre) you were very competitive in playing the party games. But during the game "name that tune" when they played the song "Following the Leader" you did not raise your hand to give the right answer (the tune was from the movie Peter Pan which you have seen for a million times.) When I asked you why you just sat there and watch your seatmates guess the answer, you said that you wanted to give others a chance to win since you've already won quite a lot of toys.

You are also becoming more and more confident in being in front of an audience. For the first time you volunteered to sing in our party last week. I even went with you onstage thinking that you might want to do a duet. But the audience was able to breath a sigh of relief when you insisted on doing a solo rendition of your song.

A sense of fairplay, charity, equal distribution of wealth and confidence...

I'd say that these qualities are becoming more and more evident in you. These are also foundations of character.

The Character of a Leader.

A Chorus Line

Dear Sage, our friend, CL, sent us this beautiful digital picture and linked her blogsite with ours.

Thanks, CL!

GO YANKS!

Dear Sage, this is a picture of Ninong Kevin, Jayden-Kai, and Ninang Jaycee. I'm not exactly a fan of american government's foreign policy for the past uhhh... hundred years. But like this gang, I'm a Yankee fan too. Someday, when the New York Yankee Dynasty reigns again, I hope we can all watch the 7th game of the world series at the Yankee stadium-- and party on once they've snagged the title. Jayden-Kai is wearing a Chicken Little costume. the picture was taken on October 30 this year- Sabine's Birthday!

Always Look at life from Different Angles

Dear Sage, the message of this entry is simple. IN the future, once you've realized what I'm trying to tell you here, then you have really grown up na, anaki. (Ludette, thanks for forwarding this picture!!!)

Happy Birthday Ninang Jenn!

Dear Sage, you are going to have your chorale presentation tonight at the newly renovated auditorium of your school. You'll be singing Jose Mari Chan's "Christmas in our Hearts" and Ryan Cayabyab's "Kumukutikutitap" (actually, that's the chorus. Sorry I forgot the title.) After that we will attend your Ninang Jenn's party at home. I'll try to post pictures of this special day on this site, this weekend - if you don't monopolize the use of our LONE computer.

Belated Happy Beeday Baydee!

Dear Sage, Six years ago...yesterday, Justine Pearl was born. It was also the day Ninang Myra and Ninong Reggie tied the Knot. Belated Happy Birthday! and Belated Happy Anniversary!

In the picture are Baydee, Ate Myka, Sage

Kissing the Sun

Dear Sage, This picture was taken at Roxas boulevard's "baywalk"
You look like you are kissing the famous Manila bay sunset. Despite of the poor quality of the picture, you are both spectacular. But if you'd ask me, even your shadow outshines the sun.

Christmas Truce of 1914

Dear Sage, I wasn't feeling well yesterday so we spent the whole day together. We worked on your assignment, drew a lot (mostly horses) while Sabine practiced her circles and semi linear creations. Whenever I could, I surfed the Internet with you. We came across a news report from CNN about the death of the last survivor who witnessed the Christmas truce of 1914 in the trenches of the Western Front. His name was Alfred Anderson, a Scotsman. He died at the age of 109. I think he died just a few days before my last post (The letter to Sabine below)Now the Christmas story of 1914 has really passed on to the realm of legend.

There are so many kinds of people. I'm sure you will come across some who will test your patience and sanity. You will learn to dislike some people and hate a few of them. Hatred has always been the seed of ALL wars. Just remember that all of us share a common desire deep within the core of our fragile humanity: We all want peace.

That's the Message of all stories this yuletide season. Merry Christmas 2005!