THE PHILIPPINES DID IT AGAIN

Being a newbie to blogging and finding some ways to earn some bucks around I was loitering this sphere and spent damn sleepless afternoons prodding my keypads.

So after long hours of teary-eyed clicking and reading finally I settled to sign up with IM Card, I heard a lot of good reviews about this marketing community, thus I decided to go with this system, to my dismay look what have the great race of Jose Rizal has done? When you click the create an account link, under miscellaneous question this is what stunned me;

We currently accept new users from all countries except the following:

India
Lithuania
Malaysia
Nigeria
Pakistan
Philippines
Singapore

Unfortunately we've experienced a tremendous amount of fraudulent and inappropriate use of the IM Report Card website from users in these countries, and until we figure out an efficient way to combat this we can't accept users from these countries.

If you are in one of these countries and want to use IM Report Card responsibly, please accept our sincerest apologies. We know it doesn't seem "fair".

Until we figure out a way to efficiently deal with this problem, you're free to use the site as a resource - you just can't post comments or earn credits.

Users in certain other locations will be asked to provide additional information upon signing up, and based on this information the user will be approved or denied.

Please note: Do NOT attempt to use proxy servers or other methods to hide your IP address and/or location in an attempt to circumvent this policy. If you do, we WILL catch you, and you will be permanently banned from accessing the site.

SO THE PHILIPPINES DID IT AGAIN, I suppose the list was written in alphabetical order so I wonder if we land number 1 if listed amongst the most fraudulent ones.

Geeesh! So disgusting! No sourgraping or anything that I was not able to sign-up, but it’s just that, when will we people of this country come to our senses to take things at a fair playing field.

I also take this chance to air my disapproval with IM Cards move to not accept users from the Philippines; don’t be a Joe that will burn the whole house down just to kill a rat. There can be some ways to hunt this fraudulent users and not to lump the Philippines alltogether.

Thanks for reading, see you again for another experience in this side of town.

BEST HEAD PIECE TO THE PROM

Time really fly so fast, it’s again prom months. I was made to write this since my cousin, who lives just across our window has been asking me what best head piece to use that will compliment her outfit. I can remember when I had my prom back then, I just use barrettes on my hair and I’m done.

But seriously though, your hairdo during any occasion really count that will make or break your whole look. As a basic principle ‘less is more’ if you really want to accentuate your hair, small bobby pins will do. Virtual stores can really offer you the best head pieces around that will surely compliment your outfit.

COMING TO REALIZE WHAT A SALON TYPE OF CLASSROOM ATMOSPHERE WAS

I had another session of pedicure last Sunday, but instead of coming to this ‘suki’ salon of mine at 8 in the morning which I normally do to avoid waiting I came later in the afternoon because of some early errands.

As expected it was full packed, the owner do not accept reservations or appointments as it will just made some of their manicurist/pedicurist idle waiting for you if you would not come on the dot, or maybe just their anticipation of Pinoy Time, I understand them having to earn per toe that they had dug.

So, I have to wait for 30 toes to be finished before my turn, reading YES magazine was the best thing I can do to ease boredom, seeing Manny Villar’s enormous house, and talking to myself Wooah! Is this really what you will become of through ‘sipag at tiyaga’? I had been masipag at may tiyaga, how come I’m still a lowly pinoy? Oh yeah! Just me and my reckless thinking.

Somewhat like I’m doing an ethnographic study of the beauty parlor culture during that time I was there. While my eyes browse over the magazine leaves, my ears feast on the speckled stories here and there, there’s a lola that was laughed at by everybody when she stepped out of the parlor door having her toe nails colored in yellow, a Bombay that collects ‘pautang’ from the pedicurista, A boy that opens the door for alms and everybody was blaming the mother for not taking good care of her children, by the time my last toe was being polished the stories ended up with Willie Revillame’s mansion, in which all of them has a very good description of the house as if everybody has gone and has spent a night there.

When I was in college I can remember my professor would say, ‘I encourage a salon-type of classroom atmosphere’ at the beginning of the class. It made me realized that having this strategy for teaching will lead a class nowhere, but at some point this is also a good idea as it encourages everyone to chip-in their story of the moment.

But seriously, this kind of strategy in my class won’t work, students now are visual oriented, they learn more with visuals than mere chats of theories than confine them inside the classroom.

Thanks for reading, see you again for another experience in this side of town.

THEY DID IT AGAIN

I just can’t get over it, this is awesome!

The world renown ‘dancing inmates’ of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), a maximum security prison in Cebu City, Philippines did another record breaking stint, this time with Michael Jackson's long-time choreographer Travis Payne and dancers Dress Reid and Daniel Celera dancing their version of the “The Drill”.

These dancing inmates became a hit when a You Tube video of them dancing Michael Jackson’s hit Thriller spawn millions of hits on YouTube that Time Magazine in 2007 ranked their video as 5th on its Top List of Most Popular Viral Videos.

The end part was absolutely a thrill. Watch it.

FOR ABLED AND DIFFERENTLY-ABLED

My Mellow Yellow Monday.

Just when you thought your society is not fair …

It actually is, it caters to both abled and differently-abled take a look at this; and on top of everything it is budget-friendly.


This is just one of the stores that sprawl around the city selling scraps and junks from Japan and Korea. How come we became junkyard of these countries?

Thank for dropping in this side of town.

OF VANDALISM AND SELF EXPRESSION

When do you draw the divide between vandalism and self-expression?

According to our basic understanding of vandalism it is an illegal, antisocial activity that creates a negative impression of a group of people or a person that ruthlessly destructs or spoils anything beautiful or venerable.

In school campuses, traces of vandals are found mostly in comfort rooms and armchairs. I don’t feel the need to elaborate this matter as those who have gone to school has ample experience on how this activity is expressed into, either you had done one secretly writing your armchair desk airing your disgust towards your teacher …’push this button to blast off the professor’ for boring, blah, blah teacher, or express what you feel via the writings on the wall, I mean on the CR wall.

On the other hand, common definition of self-expression is said to be …. the means by which one's personal characteristics are displayed; showing one's internal beliefs or character by means of external actions/changes.

Taking this definition, vandalism can also be another way of expressing one’s internal belief, thus it is also a self-expression.

And in a society and culture where feelings of love and sex are mostly not talked about openly … where do you run to, to express your internal belief or character?

See these;

Holywood Star loves a local star

What our text culture has done to this country's next generation!

An engraved 'you're a heart breaker'

adding insult to injury
'masakit magmahal, masakit iwanan'

I wonder where was the pair drawn...

The reckless thinker me deduce that it is vandalism when we look at it as an unconstructive doing and it is self-expression when we see it on the positive side.

Thanks for reading and you can vandalize my comment box. See you again for another rambling in this side of town.

JUST A CONFUSED PRIMATE ...

HUMANS ARE BI-PEDAL PRIMATES BELONGING TO THE SPECIES OF THE HOMO SAPIENS in case some have forgotten it so ...


BUT .........

HOW CAN THIS GREAT APE FAMILY BE SO DISCRIMINATING AT ONE POINT AND SO COMPASSIONATE AT SOME POINT?

Thank you for dropping in this side of town.

OH! MY WEEKEND?

My little boy has turned two and instead of feeding people we do not know, feeding those invited by the invited, for which I just realized I have been doing this for the last 10 years every time my children are celebrating their birthdays, the five of us decided to redefine birthday celebration.

So we packed our bags and headed to Eden Nature Park at the foot of Mt. Apo to spend the weekend and celebrate my son’s second birthday. We arrive at the foggy, drizzling park around 3:00 pm of Saturday, we were greeted by roaming peacocks and peahen, Leandro my eldest son really enjoyed the ‘Indiana Jones’ ride, ate a hearty dinner and what else can you do with a two year around, and slept with crickets sound at Camellia lodge.

Luckily, the morning sun showed up, after the ‘bulad’ breakfast we headed for a ride at the skyrider, it was my first time, first times are really exciting and nerve cracking (if you know what I mean) It was an exhilarating 200 meter rope ride above tree canopies, Leandro my eldest son was hesitant at first but when we tried it, it was real fun.

The birthday boy since he can’t enjoy the skyride, find some peace catching some ‘Tilapia’ at their fishing pond. We ate all what we have caught. And headed home at 3:00PM on Sunday tired and smiling at sleep.

BTW, Noynoy Aquino spent a day here during his thinking days, whether to run or not to run for President. Want a peaceful respite when in Davao? Consider this place. You can visit their website here.

Sharing some of our photos;

Thank you for reading. See you again for another experience in this side of town.

WANT A FREE BORACAY VACATION?

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- Three (3) Meals each day, Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
- Boracay Activities - Horseback Riding, Island Hopping, Glass Bottom Boat
- PLUS - 5,000 peso Spending Cash

Read More Information: www.boracay-packages.com

REMNANT OF THE OLD DAVAO

I’ve been wanting to take a photo of this fixture beside Banco de Oro under Agdao Flyover, but it was only this afternoon that I had a chance to have a walk that I was able to take this photo.


As you can see this is an old Fire Alarm Box, a true remnant of the old Davao. I wonder if people of Museo Dabaw, a museum run by the city government or Davao Museum another museum run privately by obviously so many sponsors have thought of culling this thing out and safeguard this as a remembrance of how this city has moved from this phase of technology to the present one.

If this material qualifies for archive keeping, then people interested in keeping this kind of stuff should act now or it will be too late to salvage a decayed stuff.

Thank you for taking time to read. See you again for another experience in this side of town.

THE WAITING IS OVER!

After seven days of long wait AIR 21 has finally delivered it. I received my Ponds and my earring prize from UtotMoPink Giveaways this morning.


Mrs. Kolca you may wonder why it took me this long to receive the package, the courier said there’s always nobody in the house, well, there’s always somebody in the house but as you can see our house is quite far from the gate so it has become the alibi of the courier that there’s nobody’s home. We removed the doorbell since some kids outside has been playing prank with it.

Thank you Mrs. Kolca and more power blogging. See you again for another experience in this side of town.

I GOT ANOTHER AWARD

I’m in luck today, I received some bucks which I have not claimed during the holidays, I got a new shoe, fettuccine for dinner and above all a Kreative Blogger Award from Ms. Ray of Woman On A Journey, A Filipina transplanted in the U.S. and a hall famer of Filipino Blog of the Week.


To Ms. Ray, thank you for passing this heartwarming award to me.

So as a recipient of this award I have to write seven things my friends in this blogosphere do not know about me …. I’m quite a secretive person but for this award I am revealing seven.

1. I have three children, 10 (boy), 5 (girl) and 2 yrs. Old (boy);
2. Has been married for 11 years to a computer buff husband;
3. Being a full time mother, I strictly impose a self-declared day-off and that’s every Saturday.
4. And watch the movie I want on red carpet …. ALONE!
5. I am a Social Science Instructor for three hours a day, that’s 5-8 every night.
6. Making pots with my bare hands (pottery making) is my frustration number 1.
7. I have no religion, but I have sacred philosophies.

And another task is to nominate seven other blogs which I find Kreativ and here’s my magnificent seven in no particular order;

AMINA of It’s My Life
GLENN of Glenn as an Amateur Photographer
GRACIA of Gracia Fashionista
GAGAY of Latest Buzzzz
NURSEABIE of The Sweet Life (My ever Loyal EC Dropper)
BAMBIE DEAR of My Kawaii Prinsesa’s Story
JANUARY of January’s Scraps of Life

And it’s these magnificent seven to write seven things people don’t know about them and nominate also seven others.

THE REAL ROLLING STORE

I’m preempting my post of the crab story for my Mellow Yellow Monday entry.

I was driving the other day ‘to have a good time and not to get on time’, if I may borrow a line from Sally, the blue cutie Porsche from the movie ‘Cars’. I purposely did not turn on the car’s air-conditioning as Davao City’s sun did not show up for the past few days and the weather is perfect for sightseeing.

I was a traffic obstruction that day plying 20kph along Dacudao Avenue, where trees shaded the road and leaves paved the way, I hear honking from time to time signaling me to speed up, but who cares until a garbage truck passed me by, after a while I got a feeling of throwing up sniffing the stench space the truck has left, so I was looking for a ‘sari-sari’ (variety) store to buy some candies to relieve me, when I spotted this store … an ‘IMBURNAL’ (culvert) store.



Call it a blatant manifestation of the real Philippine economic situation or a real Filipino ingenuity.

Now that’s one good real model of what rolling store means.

Thank you for reading, see you again for another experience in this side of town.

SORRY MR. CRABS!

One of the many delights of Davao City. Crab in spicy coconut milk.

I will post the story soon… just got no time to write …Thank you for checking in this side of town.

MIRACLE FRUIT IN DAVAO CITY

For sometime now the older and the younger folks in our compound has been in discussion about this tree that my aunt-in-law planted in our side yard. When it was still an undersize tree nobody cares, but when its branches started to spread out of the fence and started to bear fruit, we were all dazed to see its unusual fruit, unusual because you cannot just see it in the normal fruit stand. My aunt said, it’s a miracle fruit, but when I google it all information points to a red berry for a miracle fruit.

Before this tree was planted, I can remember my mother-in-law brought one mature fruit, the shell was so hard, they even use a saw to cut it half, the fruit meat was white, but when it was boiled it really has a damn knocking foul aroma, everybody went out of the house, I spent two canister of Evian to drive the odor away.

According to those who have tried it, it cures a lot of body ailments. But God knows, if I’m on the verge of death then I will try it, promise, the white meat has turned into a purplish sticky, foul sauce. Then ‘the berks’ of my mom-in-law around our dining table without some second thoughts gulp down that purple concoction, according to them it taste bitter sweet, yeah! my tongue can see, my nose can taste it so… There are at least 5 mature fruits on that tree, I wonder how many Evians will I consume again to drive the odor away in the future as it will happen again, really I’m positive!

Take a look at these pictures… Does anyone know what really this fruit’s name is?

’Ang Punu-an’ (The Tree)

’Ang Mga Bunga’ (The fruits)

’Ug usa pa ka bunga’ (Close-up Shot of the fruit)

Thanks for dropping by, see you again for another experience in this side of town.

BATMAN IS IN DAVAO CITY

Have you been wondering where has Batman gone lately? Well, wonder no more!

Batman, "the Caped Crusader", "the Dark Knight", "the World's Greatest Detective", the intelligent, billionaire playboy, has left Gotham City, sold all his property, decided to live a simple, healthy lifestyle away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Together with Robin, Alfred, Jim and Batgirl, they pedaled to Davao City, can’t find a place to stay, call it lucky but they have knocked at our gateway, this host received them hospitably, parked their bikes at our side yard and is now resting, who knows after here they will dropped by your place too!


Just having some reckless thoughts seeing my son’s bike with Batman stickers on it.

Thanks for reading, see again for another experience in this side of town.

GUESS WHAT!

This is my Mellow Yellow Monday entry.

I passed by this gateway while walking around our neighborhood, can you guess what’s the end words on the white board? Leave your guess and I’ll visit you back!


See you again for another experience in this side of town.

HELP A DAVAO CITY CHILD HAPPY AGAIN!

I got bored watching nonsense TV show so I sneak out of the house this afternoon when everybody has been snoring boisterously, I do this sometimes because when the kids would know you’re going somewhere they will race to the closet to change and left you scratching your head, you know how it is going around with kids, not only it drains your wallet, you cannot just go where you wanted to go. I do have schedule for them to stroll, but today, I just wanted to be alone.

I went to scout for some small towels, I just keep wondering if my children are eating the towels at school, out of two dozens that I bought last June only three were left, I often check the lost and found corner, but they will just tell you ‘I forgot where did I put it Ma’ … ahhh!

After some ‘tawad’ I finally cellophaned 3 dozens, well see how long will these last.

From the infamous DCLA Plaza, Magsaysay Park is just a walk away, I was thinking of taking a shot of the Magsaysay monument for this post so I burned some calories walking towards the park.

I passed by this park everyday, but it’s been a while since I have not been walking inside.

This park is located along the coastline, it’s really a romantic place especially feeling the afternoon breeze with someone, a perfect place for children to bike around, but sad to say this park is poorly managed, for quite a while it was not able to perk up its cheap image, dirty, dilapidated park equipment, undisciplined daters.

I really have no idea why the City government has left this thing out, chances are there maybe issues concerning the park property why the inattention of maintaining.

Calling all concerned agencies in Davao City please help this child happy again.

This child can be happier when this seesaw will be fixed!

The flaked-painted slide!

The forgotten monument of the late President Ramon Magsaysay!

People in the park, enjoying Island Garden City of Samal afternoon view from Magsaysay Park

A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO ALL!

I’m still drowsing writing this entry, but I have to post one as my year opener.

If some cities around the world have displayed their spectacular fireworks to meet 2010, then treat Davao City unique, for some years now, fireworks buying and selling has been banned, totally banned in the city. It’s our cities one noteworthy ordinance to avoid fire accidents, blasted bloody fingers on a new year! Proudest to say, emergency rooms of Davao hospitals are clean, no busy rooms, always a zero-casualty occasion, no firework-related accidents.

And who says we in Davao City have gotten out of tradition to drive away bad spirits by making noise via torching ‘pla-pla’ and triangle? (I really don’t subscribe to this practice, but I allow myself to settle in for the sake of letting my children experience this, I feel more of a connection to driving away bad spirits through silence and meditation where you can think deeply and freely and not by making noise)

But just then, we opt to make noise by using these;


These are recycled Jolibee plastic cups made into ‘torotot’, P5.00 each, a way cheapest than a P10.00 triangle that might who knows will burn the whole house down.

We went to the Sto. Nino shrine this morning to attend mass and lit candles. Say our thanks and pray for good health and blessings up ahead.

This the hand-shined image of Sto. Nino at the Infant Jesus of Prague Shrine in Shrine Hills in Matina, with a new year devotee.

No stores, no restos open so went home straight and did this entry.

Got to get some sleep after being knocked down by 'The Bar' last night. See you then for another experience in this side of town.