Personal Victory on a Conflicting Schedule

I was tested on the 1st habit of the 7 Habit to win my personal victory. I needed to improve on being proactive.

There were 2 conflicting work related schedules to happen in one day both of which I wanted to attend.

1. One is preferred as I got involved designing its pilot and is due for observation at the South of Luzon.
2. The other is a second preference as it involved a replication of an already executed program but in a start up location North of Luzon.

I committed to handle the 2nd preference 1st but I wanted to defer the activity so I can handle it leisurely on another date while completing the South Luzon activity. Dates were not changed which made me decide on a compromised position: Attend to North Luzon in the AM then travel 140 kms. to South Luzon in the PM for the other activity.

I knew it was a reactive behavior because I felt helplessness against the decisions I made. I was executing the activity half attentively. The consequence to the behavior was the feeling of stress, irritability. Had it been a proactive, I would have received the activity with excitement.

The action step I took was a stretch as it required me to travel 6 hours on a rainy Friday afternoon crossing from North Luzon Expressway to South Expressway which could be physically exhausting.



While completing the day, I had to internally psyche myself with my personal values that I have the drive to succeed, to make things happen with the optimism that I will still get maximum results from the experience.

I survived that Friday and Saturday. What helped was the internalized processing the young cadets of a training group I was exposed to taught me: 1.) Make a proactive choice 2.) Acknowledge the feelings of the choice 3.) Project the behavior 4.) Identify personal values to drive the step 5.) Project the consequences. 5.) Accept.

I learned too from them that 1.) to win your personal victory, practice the 1st habit of pro-activeness initially. 2.) to win-win, have the balance of courage and consideration.

There will be more tests like these in the future. I am more determined to handle them better.

Leading to a cross road









Maculot Revisited from another Perspective

This 2010, I had a chance to view Mt. Maculot from another perspective, that of a traveller. Maculot was seen from 2 angles, Mataas na Kahoy from the North Alitagtag from the South.

13 years after, the mountain looked solid and lush from a distance still bringing thrills to those who climb it. Seen from afar, it is only those with a curious mind who will ask, what’s in there. Only those with a sense of adventure will explore it further.

2 post climb activies can now cap a Maculot climb: a swim at a private resort in Alitagtag, about 5 kms. away from the town or a 300 meter zipline cross in a resort at Mataas na Kahoy

Mt. Maculot is All Geared Up For The Holidays Dec 1 1997, 4:00 pm

Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino, rec.travel.asia Date: 1997/12/01

• Climbing Mt. Maculot last 29-30 November, you can say Christmas has come upon this place. At night, you'll drive through several kilometers of Christmas lights in San Jose lined up against darkness in the main road. The lights are punctuated with Christmas decors, sometimes giant wreath, at times bells. It's like entering a tunnel of lined lights continuously for about 10 minutes.
• Upon registering at Barangay Siete, the new registration desk that is just meters away from the Mountaineers Store, you'll immediately sense the cold strong breeze coming from the mountain.
• When you reach the shoulder, prepare your windbreaker. Support your tadpole or geo-dome type tents with guy line and complete sets of pegs. It's as if there's a storm coming. Temperature without the wind factor was surprisingly just below 20 degrees Celsius.
• I have never seen that many campers in the peak, counted at about 380 plus by the Barangay volunteers. Bulk was composed of the Mapuan climbers celebrating their anniversary. The group I was with at the trail (Cebu Pacific and the Greenmeadows group) had to contend with the flat ground between the shoulder and the water source.
• With all the dining, the drinking and the socials that night complemented by the cold weather and the strong winds, you can say Christmas has really come upon this mountain. The smell of latrine though brings you back to your reality that there is still the descend and work that waits for you this Monday.
• Mt. Maculot is in Cuenca Batangas Philippines, a small town 2 hours from South Expressway. It is considered as a minor, weekend climb and a favorite among novice trekkers. Summit is about 700 meters ASL. Trek time from the foot to the shoulder is about 1 1/2 hours. Add another hour to the summit.

Cesar and Gideon

Long before Gideon Lasco (pinoymountaineer.com) dominated the information highway, my source of narratives for climbs and the extreme sports has been Cesar "Gigit" Sulit (thelonerider.com). He writes about situations, lifestyles and places that interest me.  Like Gideon, he provides info and references to better prepare and appreciate a destination. The lonerider has expanded his site beyond adventures: mountaineering/mountain biking and reviews to misc. It is still the adventure and review groupings that I look forward to reading and most recently, at more frequent intervals.

Pinoymountainer is practical-"your guide to hiking in the Philippines," loneride is philosophical-"a nomad in search of . . ." Deep dive into his site to discover if what he is in search for is also what you are looking for.

Balimbing the fruit

A Philippine fruit unfamiliar to today’s generation is the balimbing.

Decades ago, it just grows at the backyard for picking when one fancies for a sour fruit. Because of its several faces, it is more known as a symbol of turncoats.

In rare moments when it is served at the table, fun comes from cutting because of its shape and the distinct taste. Catch it at your local market while it is still around.

Shawn and Resa Nat Geo

They are younger now. Shawn Low and Delazad are travel chroniclers of Nat Geo’s Lonely Planet The Road Less Travelled and A Childhood Memories. Shawn, a 25 year old Singaporean covered a trip in China who from his profile says will “try and do anything at least once.” Delazad on the other hand chronicled his trip from China to Russia and back to Paris in 2 months, 11 countries with his famous photographer father Reza. The world is different as seen from the eyes of these adventurous young travelers.

Shawn presents his travelogue typically like The Lonely Planet’s; background information on sights not popularly travelled and focus on people which represents the uniqueness of the place.

Delazad’s sights and sounds on the other hand take a backseat to the human insights on travelling with his photographer father. The 15 year old son plans for the trips and travel connections while the father challenges the design. It is rich with drama as the son takes this as an opportunity to see what his father has seen at the time when he stays home in Paris while the father rides on the expedition to make his son strong to face the real world.

Shawn leaves the destination feeling good he has done not easy activities for the 1st time. Delazad reaches home happier because he has become more confident, Reza fulfilled because he has known better his son.

Road Less Travelled and Childhood Memories were viewed back-to-back Wednesday evening 13 October in Manila on Sky Cable.

Global English

 I enrolled in Global English, an online learning activity.

The teaching approach follows a logical sequence similar to the traditional process. Participant is pre-enrolled, logs in, and takes an assessment exam where the results are immediately posted. From the results, the participant defines the desired level of proficiency. Courses are then presented for the enrollee to design his own study plan.

Global English improves one’s grammar (subject-verb agreement and correct usage) for better reading, writing and understanding. Once you start doing the exercises which is friendly and easy, I see no reason not to improve. You are introduced to words, read, define, listen and pronounce them and apply them in familiar exercises. Answers are posted right away after the exam for the enrollee to learn the correct usage.

It is convenient and secure too. You can log in using the office's online connection or any other computer online provided you know the website and your log in name and password. Once logged in, you can assess your past records and performances.

I look forward to passing the 10 Business English Courses with about 10 assignments to complete per course.  I thought I am at home with the English language. After my assessment, I realized there are still opportunities to learn. Today I learned the word “envision (verb)” which is to put up with (phrasal verb; inseparable).

Posted in Laguna

Three Movies on CInema One

Three movies in the  Top 100 Filipino films by Critic After Dark shown on Cinema One (Channel 56 on Sky Cable) this September dragged my spirits down.

Hinugot sa Lupa, a film by Ishmael Bernal in 1985 on a woman’s temptation for an abortion portrayed a single’s lady gradual disabling through her trials on relationships, society and situations. After a tragic ending, the film showed Maricel Soriano initially recovering and seeing the light with the support of her close female friend.

Edwin O Hara’s Kastilyong Buhangin (1980) starring Nora Aunor and Lito Lapid traces a relationship from childhood to adulthood ending in a tragedy. Sand Castle, the English translation of the film is an apt analogy to the dreams of the lead man which after experiencing chronic failures ended in frustration, denial and shuttered ambition. His failure to reach his goal eventually led to his destruction.

Sa North Diversion Road (2005), an Indie film directed by Dennis Marasigan adapted from a theatre screenplay written by Tony Perez shows nine situations of a couple in an unfulfilled, constrained and denied relationship.

Films are successful in depicting the hurting themes and in conveying the message of a painful human reality. Surviving life needs gut.

Posted in Laguna

Nat Geo Top Fotos

National Geographic recently shown on Cable TV (Channel 41 on Sky Cable) the Top 10 photos of 2009 printed in the National Geographic Magazine. It was presented last Monday at 9PM as a feature of photography month.

Editor Chris Johns annotates the 1 hour show with narratives and videos on how the photos were taken and selected. Broadly, the criterion is: "a strong emotional power that is moving in some way."

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/12/top-ten-photography

Topping the list in 2009 is Redwoods taken by Michael Nichols of a 300-foot titan tree in California's Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park as subject. Photo is a mosaic composed of 84 images.

Sports Unlimited over ANC 27 likewise announced its winners of the photo contest on nature.  Catch the winners on air.

Posted in Laguna

Nat Geo Shocking Videos

Videos that shocked me:

1. Locked up Abroad on the kidnaping and captivity of the Abu Sayyaf of
Martin and Gracia Burnham was aired in  the National Geographic Channel.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/locked-up-abroad/3806/Photos#tab-Overview

2. Werner Herzog's movie Rescue Dawn starring Christian Bale on the
survival of a US Naval pilot in the jungles of Laos during the Vietnam
war was shown in HBO.

Both videos shown hours apart reenacted the struggles of the Burnham’s in the jungles of Mindanao and Dieter Dengler in Laos. Imagining how to cope with hunger, long and steep treks, rain and harsh heat, dangers in the wilderness and escaping gun fires, I could only admire them for their courage. It can only be grit that made them overcome the ordeal.

Can a travel book do all that?

Articles in Mind:

Banaue Car Repair and Peddling where expert mechanics are all over the place (middle men and hustlers too!), parts in every corner, peddlers selling in a variety of goods from cell phone chargers, auto tools, rags, tint, hub cabs, nuts etc. There is never a dull moment while waiting for the completion of a car repair mounted in the street corridor. Vendors catch your eye span and offer a product or service to sell.  In between procedures, kids from nowhere cut in to scavenge.

Ramon Lee's Fried Chicken tried at 538-540 Ronquillo st. Sta. Cruz Manila in a restaurant named after the owner that started in 1929.

SV Epistola's foreword on Amadis Ma. Guerrero's book posing this question "Can a travel book do all that?"

Sent via email

I will not be able to write like him

Not yet or not even in the near future.

Edward Rothstein describes the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming as “A Cathedral to the Shrine of Nations” in the New York Times. He has a command of the English that even without images, I can picture the geyser at the Yellowstone Park and its movement.

To open the article, “A mist of hissing steam drifts from the mound, but every 90 minutes or so, water starts to spurt fitfully, then more aggressively, until it erupts into a tower as high as 180 feet, whose spray may be spread by the breeze toward the hundreds of viewers gathered to watch the spectacle.”

As an art reviewer, he poses a point of view which only a writer who is at home with the language can craft, “He said it was as if nature had gathered from all over the world “specimens of her rarest fountains, to show in one place what she can do” -an exhibition to which any human curatorial effort must defer.”

It will take a major intervention before I can write like Edward R. To write well, one must have the facility to express, a wealth of vocabulary uses correct syntax and a point of view. At least in my case, I already have the point of view.

Two Travel Books

I recently purchased travel related books on the Philippines at the National Bookstore in Cubao. Some were on bargain and two recently launched: Street-Bound Manila on Foot by Josefina Manahan and Connecting Flights edited by Ruel S. De Vera.

First article I immediately read was my English teachers' "New York First Encounter." This is part of the compilation of travel stories in "Connecting Flights Filipinos Write from Elsewhere." Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo writes about how she was enamored by the place which put "its best foot forward" for her and her husband in 1987.

The pleasure of reading the article is the writer’s vivid description of the dynamics in her mind reconciling the attractions embedded in her memory through movies and pictures and the actual sight of the icon. This is how she describes it in her style “The thing about visiting a place one knows only too well – from books and films and TV shows, not to mention other people’s spirited descriptions – is that it seems to offer no surprises. Even the people one meet’s walking down the streets look familiar. But of course that’s all an illusion, just street magic. New York surprised us. Again and again.”

Upon completing the story, I immediately wanted to email the story to friends and relatives who can relate to the magic of the place, the 1st time around.

Manila by Foot is a practical reference on how to go about and appreciate historical and symbolic icons and attractions in Metro Manila. Tips are given by writer and walker Josefina Manahan who has personally visited the places like University of the Philippines in Diliman, Ayala Museum, Binondo, R. Hidalgo streets among others. Maps, classifications and time frame of the walk accompany each article. Book was written 2001 and may need updating particularly on directions going to the locations. LRT 1 and 2 and MRT can be cited as alternative efficient means of transpo in the cities.

Travel articles that I fancy inform, describe and provide insights. They validate if I share the same experience, open possibilities if I missed some attractions. If I drop the book and hop in to a bus, the article moved me.

Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, “New York: First Encounter,” in Connecting Flights, Filipinos Write from Elsewhere ed. Ruel S. De Vera, 131-142. Manila: Anvil, 2010


Josefina P. Manahan, Street-Bound: Manila by Foot. Manila: Anvil, 2001. Reprint, 2009

Reboot

Each time I reboot, a pop up message prompts me after I log in “Preparing to install Realplayer.”
This shows up despite the un-installation done via the software’s program or through the control panel of the same software.

Searching at google, there were only a handful of entries for the query “real player reinstalls every reboot." Not even Real Player technical support has an entry on the incidence.

With this recurring entry (and irritating one),

• I learned to clean my registry using “regedit under run” both on normal and safe mode

• Resolved registry conflicts using ccleaner program
• Totally eliminate remnants of Real Player files using Revo Uninstaller
• Cleaned reboot using selective start up of “msconfig”
• Updated my Anti Virus software (Symantec)
• Scanned the entire system.

All these were unsuccessful in stopping the activity until I came across an entry suggesting it could be a Trojan worm. I tried a recently launched Microsoft Security Essentials program. True enough, it detected a Virtool: win32/VBInject.gen!GB. Microsoft Security Essentials contained and removed it to my relief.

Finally, there is no more recurring install of RealPlayer every start up. I lost my trackers and predictive entries which I can reconstruct. On the bright side, I did not lose my files and need not reinstall an OS and learned all other options. Thanks to Ronald and Arvil, technicials of open pinoy who helped diagnose and acted on solving.

How does success feel like? Triumphant especially for a difficult case as this one.

Writing in any piece of paper

An article a day keeps Dementia away

An article whether long or short is a result of insight generation.

Insights are drawn from observations, pre-conceived assumptions and relationship of facts and premises. It is a thinking process.

While seated, I cast my sight to a far away distance or to a macro object within range to seed an idea in my mind. When a concrete one is formed, I convert it to a written piece which is scribbled in any piece of paper. It could be in a prescription pad while waiting for a doctor or at the back of a place mat of a fast food chain. In the airport pre departure area or in a plane, I jot the notes in a pocket sized notebook.

Why do I actively document an idea to a piece of article? It is an application of liberal thinking to keep the mind lucid. As they say, what you don’t use, you lose.

Revisiting the UP Theatre

Celebrating Dulaang UP’s 35th Anniversary, a theatre group founded by Professor Tony Mabesa, I dropped by the UP campus on a weekend to reminisce how it was performing the 1st season. Colleague Professor Alex Cortez is now the groups’ Artistic Director and Professors Mabesa and Leticia Tison, the department’s Professor Emeriti. The rest of the crew and actors are complete strangers to me now.

Diliman is still how I recollected it was in my college years. The icons* associated with the university are still strongly suggestive of the institution. The Oblation, Carillion, Palma Hall, Palma corridors, foliage of acacia and the main library are collectively for me my academic scholarship.

Albeit the new structure and new traffic regulations, it still is the same campus that nurtured my learning day in day out for 4 years.

Perhaps I never really left the institution as my mind is lucid perennially still in search of knowledge, in the fields of management or social sciences. (Geographically, I have not left the district as I still live in the city.)

Enjoy viewing the images and the sculptures of Filipino heroes created by the Fine Arts students.

*a sign (as a word or graphic symbol) whose form suggests its meaning

Nat Geo Coffee Table Books

In between chores in a commercial center, I dropped by a Booksale outlet to check what’s in store. These interested me: National Geographic Coffee Table book on the National Parks of North America and a book of images on Work, The World in Photographs and Faces of Africa.

Quoting from the Faces of Africa intro, “Each image unfolds new and revealing perspectives; taken together, they create nothing less than the group portrait of a world that draws strength from shared values and common experiences even as it glorifies in the unique appeal of every individual.”

Work in its foreword quotes Marion Walcott, “Speak with your images from your heart and soul. Give of yourselves. Trust your gut reactions. Suck out the juices-the essence of your life experiences. Get on with it; it may not be too late.”

N. Ramirez Car Wash

The car wash stretch of N. Ramirez in Quezon City

This stretch is a convenient short-cut from Espana to E. Rodriquez avoiding the traffic lights and jeepney plying along Espana, Welcome Rotonda and E. Rod. Well cemented and properly maintained by the local QC Barangay, it is a popular 2 km. access road.

Lately, this residential area is emerging as a business zone. Car wash stalls in household garages and on the street have sprouted tapping water resources from the residential houses and drainage of the local district. Before, the only enterprises here are sari-sari stores which sell an assortment of prime household commodities. Now you already have a service outlet for motored vehicles which evolved to a service outlet serving carbonated beverages.

Nothing will stop the enterprising individual from building the channel if rooted on a real customer need. Satisfied here is a neat vehicle makeover for only P 65.0 on your way home.

St. Lukes and Burger Kin

Burger King in E. Rodriquez beside St. Luke’s Medical Center wowed me. Not with their product but with a service I did not expect from a fast food chain.

While waiting for my cardiologist at the Medical Center to check on a potential hyper tensive condition, I figured there would be time for a cup of coffee.

I’ve always liked Burger King’s Joe coffee which is modestly priced at P 65.0. It is served in an advanced disposable packaging with 2 cup lets of fresh milk. The purchase entitled me to a password to a wifi assess for my email and the morning papers.

Several minutes later, a service crew approached me to inquire if I wish to have my black shoes shined. Since I bought this branded pair months before, I have long wanted to have it brushed but did not have the time to do so. I readily agreed of course.

After the experience, I gave the outlet in my mind an excellent customer satisfaction rating. It was time leisurely spent while waiting.

I returned back to the clinic with the doctor waiting for me. He diagnosed me as still a suspect subject to a change in lifestyle for the next weeks. Having a free shoe shine weekly could be my antidote to temporary deficiency in wellness.  (The doctor likewise gave an advice, a cup of coffee is fine.)

Garden Shots

Shooting natural or a structure? Private domain or public property? Attribute it on the surging ownership of SLR cameras and the visibility of controversies. Unknowns out rightly refuse to be photographed. Attendants of commercial displays disallow their goods to be recorded. Nature makes better subjects, as they are, innately natural.

Top View Araneta Shots

Araneta in Cubao is repositioning itself. The upgrading of facilities and infrastructure is not happening though as fast as other emerging commercial centers in the city in the last decade.

Its changing image is paying the price for its pioneering heritage as it has started to look like a series of structures and paid parking spaces. Even the rest rooms now have a tag.

The affinity it created with loyal Cubao patrons is slowly giving way to the new generations' instant gratification. Araneta  might eventually end up as a stop over rather than a destination.