BAKUNA

Dear Kids, you guys received flu vaccine this morning. You didn't cry too much. It was your Mom who gave the vaccine to you. Tristan had two vaccines, Pentaxim and Flu. After she vaccinated you all, including me, I had to give the vaccine to your Mom. Then she also administered the vaccine to your Ate Yaya.

itutuloy...

Dear God

Thank You Very Much!

SUMMER SOLSTICE 2009 (JUNE 21)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO US, DAD!

Woof!

Overheard while taking them to school last wednesday morning.

ATE JANINE: Hey, have you seen the trailer of New Moon
KAY : Yes, Jacob looks so CUUUTE!
SAGE : YEAH, is he a Siberian Husky?
KAY : I think he is a German Husky.

Lady of Shalott

He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott."-Alfred Lord Tennyson








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Mall Of Asia

Dear Sadie, We had Pizza for dinner tonight (June 10) at the MOA. It's your Ninang Joy and Ninong Edsel's wedding anniversary. Yellow Cab had small tables but they can be moved closer together to accomodate big groups of clients. The other occupant of the table just beside ours was a smaller group with a baby who is probably just a year old.

Sadie, you made her laugh so hard while we were there. You played Peek a Boo with her. And you always say "I love You!" She was a complete stranger but after dinner you proudly told me "Dad, I have new friend."

itutuloy...

D-Day

Dear Kids, history commemorates June 6 as D-Day, the allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. To your Mom and Lola Letty, and by extension, to Me and All of Us, this date has a personal significance. Your Mom's sister, Your Tita Adeline "Adhey", passed away due to Diabetic Ketoacidosis. I think she was 18 at that time. That was exactly 20 years ago today.

What made it very painful to your Mom and Lola is that she passed away exactly 40 days after the untimely demise of Your Lolo Loni who was an expat in the US (he had to go away as an OFW to support the expensive medicines your Tita Adhey needed as a diabetic patient.)

Your Mommy and Your Lola Letty. They have been through a lot. They are very tough women. I really do not know how they survived that, how they triumphed despite of the loss of your Lolo and Tita Adhey.

Both are Women of Substance.

To the Goddess of Democracy

The massacre of Students in Tian-an-men Square happened exactly 20 years ago today. The central committee of the Chinese Communist Party authorized the PLA to kill unarmed students and to destroy the Goddess of Democracy. TO their eternal shame, the world will always remember.

We can never forgive what we can never forget...

New Moon Coming

The only reason why I'm gonna watch it is because I want to find out what makes this cullen guy stupid enough to leave Bella unprotected in the middle of the woods. what a blood sucking moron.

This Too Will Pass Away

I really don't know you. I remember my mother-in-law watching you in one of those mediocre teledramas and I always tell her: She's beautiful AND she can act; so what the hell is she doing in that crappy TV series?

Be Strong. Be Strong...




She faced the hardest times you can imagine
And many times her eyes fall back the tears
And when her youthful world was about to fall in
Each time her slender shoulders
For the weight of all her tears
And a sorrow no one hears
Still rings in midnight silence in her ears

Chorus:
Let her cry
for she's a lady
Let her dream
for she's a child
Let the rain fall down upon her
She's a free and gentle flower growing wild...

...Be careful how you touch her for she'll awaken
And sleep's the only freedom that she knows

And when you look into her eyes you won't believe
For the way she's always paying for a debt she never owed

And a silent wind still blows that she can only hear
So she goes...-- WILD FLOWER

Graduation Speeches

Dear Kids, I just read about Obama's wisecrack during the ASU graduation rites:

"Now, before I begin, I'd like to clear the air about that little controversy everyone was talking about a few weeks back... I think we all learned an important lesson. I learned to never again pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA bracket. And your university President and Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS."

Bwahahaha! That last line was so cute. Immediately after delivering that punchline he smiled at them like a naughty gangsta as if saying "Chill, Dudes. I'm just messing with you." Reminds me of JFK's American University speech where he began by teasing his old friend, Bob Byrd:

"...distinguished guests, my old colleague, Senator Bob Byrd, who has earned his degree through many years of attending night law school, while I am earning mine in the next 30 minutes..."

Incidentally, since Dick Chenney, that ugly old goat, is hogging the headlines again, pontificating about the use of Torture and the virtue of pissing on the bill of rights, he would do well if he reads that JFK speech where he said that...

"what kind of a peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave."

Up yours, Chenney. That was the kind of peace you and your neocon colleagues tried to ram down our throats when you were in power. The kind of peace bought by waterboarding and torturing detainees in Gitmo and Abu Ghraib. Just so you know that we will never forget, that kind of policy did not result in peace but in more than

3,000 AMERICAN SOLDIER'S DEATHS UNDER YOUR WATCH.

I really do not like him and his neocon comrades who are still talking their heads off in FOX news network. But before I fantasize about pushing the button to unleash the nuclear bomb on them, I should remind myself that in the American University speech of JFK, he gave a compelling reason why we shouldn't hate our enemies too much to the point of wishing to rain down thermo-nuclear warheads on their asses:

"For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's futures. And we are all mortal. "

ASTIG

Dear Sadie, I took you and your sisters to the last day of the 39th PCP convention yesterday. For a little while I left you in the play area to listen to the Forum on H1N1 conducted by WHO representatives.

When I came back to fetch you guys, your yaya told me that you made a boy cry by hitting him with the plastic ball he was trying to steal from you. Sage said the boy was a typical brat and she did not hit back when he kicked her. He was smaller than her and younger.

But the boy is older than you, Sadie, and bigger. Your Yaya Ning wanted to apologize to the boy's yaya but she told her "makulit talaga yan, buti nga sa kanya."

Your sisters were smiling from ear to ear when they were recounting the story to me. I told them if this happens again you should ask the teacher or any grown up to stop the bully. I didn't condone it.

But we started calling you my "Junior."

One Ring

"One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all

and in the darkness bind them"


Dear Tristan, IN the Philippines of my generation, the ring that rules has Four corners. Good or ill it is capable of forging a common bond between us Filipinos.

Tomorrow I shall be watching, with your Ninong El and Grand Dy, within the Darkness of a movie theater the Fight between Pacquiao and Hatton. In a previous post when he faced DelaHoya I said that it would be the last time I shall be rooting and giving my prayers to Manny since I thought he was going to lose. The Odds against him beating DelaHoya was staggering. That's why even though I really don't like Pacquiao, I wanted him to win.

Itutuloy...

Tristan's Baptism, Sage's BDay (March 28, 2009)

April 20 Happy Birthday, DAD

!

Summer of '69

Dear Sabine, a couple of days ago you sat beside me in the car. I decided to turn the radio on and listen to the only frequency that broadcasts classical music. You looked at the radio then told me "this is making me sleepy." Then you requested to listen to another song. You asked that I play Bryan Adam's Summer of 69. Which makes sense. afterall it's summer. but don't get me wrong. You Love Little Einsteins and that series concentrates on making kids appreciate the classics.

But I really think you love Rock better.

Rock on, Dude.

Night Before Good Friday

I sat on the beach of the man-made lake in Camsur Watersports Complex on the night before Good Friday- On a spot just across the first Pylon of the Wakeboard Cable Circuit. It is one of the Pylons I have yet to conquer. While staring at it and watching the other Wakeboarders easily slide and glide over the pylon and then hit the water again in perfect form, I was at peace: With myself, with my failures and with my small victories made under God's Grace.

It was a beautiful night...



Turn yourself away,
from the garish light of day
Turn your thoughts away
from cold, unfeeling light...
and listen to
the music of the night

TK: Tagkawayan, Quezon

Dear Kids,

Sage the Kneeboarder

DAD: Sage, pag dumaan si Angel Locsin sa harap natin, you don't have to call me Dad. Call me "Kuya", OK?

SAGE: Sure, FATTY DADDY.


Dear Sage, when hot chicks in their tiny teeny bikinis saw me holding a Barbie Body Board while this picture was being taken, I could almost read their minds saying "Nah, he's too UGLY to be gay." Anyway you were the youngest kneeboarder today at CWC (CamSur Watersports Complex). You made it to the 3rd post just before getting wiped out in the turn. You have yet to make the full circuit your own. But that's a goal for another day. Sabi ng ni Mylie Cyrus...



Sometimes I'm gonna to have to lose,
Ain't about how fast I get there,
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb (yeah)



It's all about
It's all about
The climb
Keep the faith
Keep your faith

I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!


and btw, riding a kneeboard is way more exciting than what our friend from abs-cbn news did today (shot pictures of old, boring churches and its equally staid occupants somewhere in TAGAYtay.)

batobato sa langit....





TIKI HUT #4

Wicked History

Dear Sage, Yesterday (April 2) we went to your school to get your grades. They are all OUTSTANDING. So your wish came true. You are graduating with Honors again. 3rd time in as many years you've spent in Grade School. Congratulations! The credit ofcourse goes to your Mom and my in-laws who tutor you without ceasing. My only contribution is that OUTSTANDING grade Ms. Steigerwald gave you for being punctual (I drove you and Kay and Ate Janine to school every morning)

There was a bookfair in the waiting area of Miriam College Grade School. I told you as a gift you can choose any book and you chose to buy a big book titled THE WICKED HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

Tonight you told me that you have already read most of it.

It is indeed a Wicked read. I understand why you couldn't put it down because lately, I've been addicted to the Wicked History of England during the Reign of the Tudors as presented in HBO (ofcourse it helps that the actress playing Anne Boleyn is somebody like Natalie Dormer.)

As you have read in the Preface of the book, what we have learned from history is that we never learned from History. May your generation be different-- Especially when you become the UN Secretary General someday, or the Ambassador to the Court of Saint James.

I'll post an entry about Sabine's Graduation. She Graduated with Honors too like last year. This is her only second year of schooling.

Buti nalang mana kayo kay Sexy.

ISABEL

Hang in there. Surround yourself with Family and Friends and Faith. If you don't have any faith, Trust me, God, Family and Friends have faith in you.

Postscript on the Women's Month 2009

Dear Tristan, it was your baptism yesterday (we celebrated it AND Ate Sage's Birthday) welcome to the Christian World. I really hope you do grow up to be a real gentleman like what your Ninang Dhes mentioned in her blog. Gentleman na medyo bastos.

I really don't know how to make you one but I can help you learn how to treat women properly so that you won't be a sexually inept/insecure individual like CONVICTED RAPIST DAN SMITH who found it necessary to prove his sexual orientation to his army buddies by raping a woman inside their van (maybe his army buddies had adequate reason to suspect that CONVICTED RAPIST DAN SMITH was a beneficiary of the army's "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL POLICY". He's so good looking like George Michael and Rustom Padilla in their prime.)

I found this online. Pls. take time to read it:


A lot has been said about how to prevent rape. Women should learn self-defense. Women should lock themselves in their houses after dark. Women shouldn't have long hair and women shouldn't wear short skirts. Women shouldn't leave drinks unattended. Fuck, they shouldn't dare to get drunk at all.

Instead of that bullshit, how about:

If a woman is drunk, don't rape her.
If a woman is walking alone at night, don't rape her.
If a women is drugged and unconscious, don't rape her.
If a woman is wearing a short skirt, don't rape her.
If a woman is jogging in a park at 5AM, don't rape her.
If a woman looks like your ex-girlfriend you're still hung up on, don't rape her.
If a woman is asleep in her bed, don't rape her.
If a woman is asleep in your bed, don't rape her.
If a woman is doing her laundry, don't rape her.
If a woman is in a coma, don't rape her.
If a woman changes her mind in the middle of or about a particular activity, don't rape her.
If a woman has repeatedly refused a certain activity, don't rape her.
If a woman is not yet a woman, but a child, don't rape her.
If your girlfriend or wife is not in the mood, don't rape her.
If your step-daughter is watching TV, don't rape her.

If you break into a house and find a woman there, don't rape her.
If your friend thinks it's okay to rape someone, tell him it's not, and that he's not your friend.
If your "friend" tells you he raped someone, report him to the police.
If your frat-brother or another guy at the party tells you there's an unconscious woman upstairs and it's your turn, don't rape her, call the police and report him as a rapist.

Tell your sons, god-sons, nephews, grandsons, and sons of friends that it's not okay to rape someone.

Don't just tell your women friends how to be safe and avoid rape.
Don't imply that she could have avoided it if she'd only done/not done x, y, or z.
Don't imply that it's in any way her fault.
Don't let silence imply agreement when someone tells you he "got some" with the drunk girl. Don't perpetuate a culture that tells you that you have no control over or responsibility for your actions.

You can too help yourself.

Rape is not about sex, it's about control and power, and what kind of power comes from taking advantage of others?

The kind of god-like power Ted Bundy had over the women he raped and murdered;

The kind of absolute Power Fritzl, that incestuous product of Hitler's Master Race, had over his daughter when he raped her for 30 years. Starting when she was an 11 year old child;

The kind of impotent power CONVICTED RAPIST DAN SMITH had over his victim as he struggled to rape her in the backseat of the van, aided and abetted by his Marine Comrades who have been trained in the art of mortal combat- but have absolutely no idea how to pleasure a woman.

If you agree, repost it. It's important.





I was moved to repost this after reading Pat Evangelista's INQUIRER column this morning.

By Patricia Evangelista
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:22:00 03/29/2009

You know the story, about the girl who goes for a night out, who is carried off, drunk and helpless, to be raped in a waiting van. You know what happens after, and where she is found: along a pier, disoriented, her pants down around her feet. You know where the story takes a different turn, because the girl, unlike the woman who is raped every hour in this country, goes to court and testifies that she was raped on the night of Nov. 1, 2005. This is what she said in a July 2006 hearing: “They took away my dignity … Smith raped me and his companions even encouraged him. They were enjoying it as if they were watching a private show. Then they just unloaded me [from the van] like a pig.” ... to read the rest of her article, click here

Sabine Accelerated

I just learned from your Mom that your teacher Bessie recommended that you enroll next school year as a First Grader instead of as a kindergarten pupil.

But I still have to clarify with your teacher if they require those accelerated pupils from prep school to take summer classes before entering First Grade. If they will require you to spend your summer inside the classroom baka hindi ako pumayag even if it means forfeiting this opportunity to get accelerated.

We want you to enjoy summer with your sisters and Tristan.

MARCH 21, 2009 Spring Equinox

"He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring
And said, marry me Juliet
You'll never have to be alone"-- Taylor Swift


Dear Kids, it was March 21, 2009 yesterday. Since we are ahead by one day, yesterday was also March 20 in the US and European countries. It's the first day of Spring. People around the world, especially in western countries, look forward to this day.

It is a very special day.

My best wishes to Pseudo & Mini Byte.

And Congratulations to Mr. Byte!
(If you break her heart, we break your balls. Capisce?)





Interestingly, this is what I wrote last Spring Equinox 2008 Click HERE

To Nicole, the victim of US MARINES' violence

"And when you look into her eyes, you won’t believe
The way she’s always payin,
For a debt she never owes..."-- Wildflower

I am not going to recount in my daughters' and son's blog the ordeal you went through in the hands of US MARINE's Lance Corporal DAN SMITH and his other US MARINE buddies a couple of years ago.

I just want you to hear something which I know you've heard before; But mostly from other women like yourself, maybe some of them are victims too like you.

I want you to hear these words coming from a MAN:

You do not deserve to be raped.
No woman does.

You do not deserve to be treated
the way those US MARINES treat women.
No woman does.

You do not owe us, or the "U.S.," any explanation
or debt.

But those U.S. MARINES do.

Even though those US MARINES have no idea
what human dignity means, You Still Deserve
to be treated with respect.

You Deserve Better...

Godspeed.