Anything & Everything

Just got invited to vote on Miss Bus Stop Contest but unfortunately I can't decide yet which one to choose as I feel that I would love to wait for a bus here anytime. I will wait for other representatives, am just truly sorry I cannot share any nice enough bus stop here in the Philippines. I never really had much experience with bus stops since the system of transportation in the Philippines is quite different and less disciplined if I must say. Bust stops in the Philippines are either bus terminals housing not only several transportation buses going to different places but also food stalls and even supermarket so one can buy 'pasalubong' for their friends and loved ones. Or they are random bus stops somewhere in the middle of nowhere or in between stores. The one thing that those working in the corporate world doesn't like about is the fact that when riding the less expensive non-air conditioned bus or jeepney you don't seem to be in control of the passengers and...

Retailers and some online clothing stores never learn. Just a few weeks ago, in time for back-to-school shopping, JC Penney was forced to yank a sweater that read their “ I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother does it for me ”. There was an online outcry and concerned parents, furious moms and disgusted customers made use of petition website Change.org to produce thousands of signatures from people and forced them to take it off their shelves. Cited as not giving kids today appropriate messages but rather sexist messages, these retailers should have learned especially since kids, tweens and teens are their clientele. But no, some have to do it again and force parents and customers to file a petition against them. The recent perpetrator of these inappropriate messages on their cheap t-shirts is Forever 21, a California-based chain of stores that sells inexpensive clothing to teens. The cheap tee shirts retail for $12.80 and really look good with jeans to give teens a relaxed g...

The Americans in the US were not the only ones paying tribute to their loved ones who perished in the different events that made up what we call the tragedy that changed the world, Sept 11. Maybe unbeknownst to many Filipinos, there was one American married to a Filipino who died that day. And her legacy lives on in a once squalid and reeking with garbage slum in Manila turned into an orderly village that bears her name with 50 brightly one-storey colored homes built in her memory by her husband. As the world pays tribute to their fellowmen in the US, residents of Marie Rose Abad GK Village offered roses, balloons, and prayers for their benefactor. According to her Philippine-born American husband Rudy, he had it built in her memory in 2004 as a tribute to their 26 years of marriage and her unfulfilled desire to help the poor in the Philippines. This she saw when they first came here in 1989. After having described to her the Philippines as a paradise, they were appalled to see t...

I am gutted because Rafael Nadal did not win the 2011 US Open but at the same time proud that he really did well on the match. The Rafa of old was back and I am so happy for him.  Though some do question the timing of Noles medical time out we cannot accuse him of doing it to stop the trend Rafa was on...he was serving and being good at it as usual. We have to admit that Novak Djokovic played brilliantly. As one reporter described it and I quote: Djokovic’s style will never be quite as mellifluous as Roger Federer’s, and neither does he have the pugilistic quality of Nadal   At the moment, though, he is a more complete player than either. He has become unbreakable – an agile and beautifully balanced athlete who has developed a near-mystical faith in his own ability.   The certainty of his vision is uncanny. We saw it in the semi-final, where he faced match point on Federer’s serve and whipped an untouchable return crosscourt. And we saw it again yesterday. Rafael Nadal ...

Ten years ago, on Sept 11, it was late at night or should I say almost early morning and I was watching TV alone when suddenly CNN broke the news about the Twin Tower attack. I was shocked that it could happen to a country like the USA. Then when I saw the tower collapsing, I felt it was crumbling, people jumping from the tower and people looking up at them in shock and horror knowing that they couldn't help. I have not always agreed with some of the US policies that affected our political will and human rights but on that day I wasn’t thinking about imperialism and ideology…I wasn’t an activist rallying for change. I was just a human being shocked by the capacity of people to hate that they can do something so horrendous without any qualms. Maybe they had, but I didn’t see it the first time they hit the tower, nor the second time they did, or when they tried to hit the white House or the Pentagon. They didn’t have qualms about killing some 2,819 innocent people. Visit msnb...

Been wanting to write about a lot of things but time has been running really fats for me…at the end of the day all I want to do is stretch out on my bed, put up my legs, and pray I get to sleep the soonest. But alas it isn’t possible with several kids wanting this or that. I have only one son but have several nieces and nephews.  Yesterday though I saw this girl wearing what I thought was a one of those simple plain t-shirts only to realize there was a slogan on the front which was quite small I had to stare at it to read. Then I saw her looking at me, I guess waiting for my reaction which of course she didn’t have to wait for long.  I gave her what my son calls my ‘tiger look’ or the ‘stare that could kill a thousand ships’…oh yes, my own son has different names for it. Going back to the girl…how would you as a mother or a woman feel when you see a girl wearing a t-shirt with ‘ Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful, hate me because I have huge boobs. ’ I did not give her a l...