Poem for Lola Natz

This poem is written by Ate Totit, Mama Natz’ eldest granddaughter. This was read to the public by my cousin Malou during the funeral mass that was co-celebrated by two bishops and three priest.

Poem for Lola Natz

I thank the Lord for the chance
of saying I love you for the last time
I heard your reassuring voice

That everything will be fine.

As I learn of your passing, Lola Natz who is so dear,
I grieve for your loss.
I cried
And I sob. It is so much to endure…

Eventually, I make peace of myself
that you are truly gone and will never return.
I know you are happy now
with the Lord in his arms.

for cooking suman every occasions……thank you.
for teaching us bird dance….. thank you.
for teaching us the nativity skit….thank you.
for telling us your wonderful stories of your travel…..thank you.
for calling us to pray the rosary and the angelus every 6 pm….thank you.
for your unconditional love…..thank you.
for being my Lola, our Lola, our Mama Natz….thank you.
Lola Natz, always you will be part of me.
Lola Natz, you will be missed.

 

My last picture together with my dear grandmother, Mama Natz. I know you have lived 93 beautiful years of your beautiful life. Your passing has caused us all unbearable pain and sorrow. Thank you for everything. Rest assured your legacy will long live forever! I love you so much and forever you will be in our hearts.

In Memory Of…..

The night I left for Singapore, I went to visit and checked on my Granny- Mama Natz as I call her. She had an episode of dyspnea earlier that day. After weeks of being confined in the hospital, we were advised to take her home and so we did. Her room was set up in hospital-room-like in a way that it will be convenient for her care. I never regret that I woke her up and kiss her that night because…… It was the last.

I came home this morning to her in this state. I know your pain has ended and you are in the hands of the Eternal. I love you my Mama .

Thank you for everything Granny! Forever you will be in our hearts.

Baha Ka Lang, Pinoy ako!

Reblogged from Sand on my feet. Sun over me.:

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Anyone would notice that Filipinos still smile even a midst a calamity.  This is one of the best characters of Filipinos, we still smile and laugh even when we are in a bad situation.

On August 7, 2012, the country was hit by a Monsoon wind (Habagat) and it was terrible and left a great disaster.  I live in Pasig and it is one of the most affected areas (state of calamity).  

Read more… 344 more words

Flooding and having to fight heavy downpour without even a typhoon is not funny, not a happy thing and not even good to laugh at. But, we can't help it. We are born Filipinos. We live life to the fullest, we always make up something good out of the worst situations. We are naturally joyful people. Regardless of economic problems and natural calamities that nobody can ever avoid, we Filipinos have this attitude that life must go on. My prayers goes out for all those who are suffering in the evacuation centers and to all who lost their loved ones, who has no home to return to when the flood water subsides. I am not wishing for calamities but I would compliment that the best of Filipino people comes out in times of struggle. Come what may. It's MORE FUN in the PHILIPPINES even if it has more FLOODING in the Philippines!!! Mabuhay!

Unusual Date Ideas

Reblogged from Practical Enrichment:

I found this today on Pinterest, and I MUST share. For anyone quirky (and in a relationship) like me, you'll appreciate it. I'm always looking for cheaper date ideas, something fun, out of the ordinary, and something that doesn't cost a lot of money... So go ahead, grab your hubby, and start crossing these fun ideas off your summer checklist .

Read more… 11 more words

Re-blogging this post from another great blogger that I follow. The list indeed, are something couples should try doing. With this ideas as an option, no date time can ever go wrong . It is fun and it is cheap!

When kids starts to wear glasses

My daughter told me one day that a classmate of hers who is sitting behind her keeps peeping and copying from her notebook. I told her all she has to do is tell the kid that copying is bad. I know she can manage to deal with her peers so I wasn’t alarmed with the issue. I asked her who the kid was, and it happens that I knew who the kid’s mother as she is a very good friend and a former classmate in high school.

Several days after my conversation with my daughter, the kid’s mom who I said is my friend, posted on her Facebook that her kid needs prescription eyeglasses at a very young age. Right there and then I know the answer to my daughter’s concerns as to why her classmate keeps on checking her notebook or paper when they are writing.

I started wearing eyeglasses at very young age too. Nine years old to be exact and I was in fourth grade. I cannot remember how my mother discovered why I need one but I can still recall how I felt before I was wearing one.

1. Having a hard time at school and reading problems

I belonged to a SPED section, it is homogenous selection in terms of general average on grades. Bragging aside, I went to school in a classroom full of genius kids.  I reached the point where studying to cope isn’t fun anymore and I started not to enjoy it. I love reading and even that activity is a struggle. The lessons are hard to understand anymore as everything appears to be blurry or the alphabets on some words are not written as it should be. I can see numbers or other characters I don’t recognize in the middle of the word. I can see number 8 replacing the letter S all the time.

2. Eye Gestures

Squinting, winking, rubbing eyes often , frequent sets of quick blinking, covering one eye or alternately closing one eye from the other can help clear vision. I develop this habit to be able for me to focus more on the image or the board when the teacher is writing something. Normally, our eyes don’t do this gestures. To see the kids having to develop this habit is a way of telling us parents that something is bothering their vision focus.

3. Frequent headaches

I experienced having unexplainable headaches all the time. It usually goes away when I am doing nothing that is stressful for the eyes, like playing dolls or running with my cousins. I complained a lot about getting headaches in school and I usually feel fine after classes. Parents , oftentimes fail to consider this seriously as it could be an abused excuse used by children to avoid going to school or to get the teacher to send them home when in school. I can remember my optometrist back then told my mother that my vision problems is 100% causing my frequent headaches.

 

4. Sitting close to the black board or to the television

Back in grade school the teacher arranged the sitting assignments of the class. I am a small kid back then but not the shortest , so, I was placed in the 2nd or 3rd line and  I always move to the front when I need to copy something from the board. I ended up not writing anything on my notebook if I am told to move back to my proper seat. Worst, I ended up not writing answers on my paper if the quiz questions are written on the board.

Watching television is something I am not fond of as a kid or even now that I have kids. If I do back then, I will be sitting so close to the screen for me to be able to enjoy the show.

 

5. Recognizing people from a distance

I got my first glasses a couple of weeks after I got home from Girl Scout Camping.  I can’t recall exactly but I think I did complain to my mother that the camping gave me a hard time. I was unable to recognize people from a distance. I had difficulty going to my troupe not unless I have a buddy with me. It is even harder to tell who I am really with since everybody is wearing uniforms and my means of identifying people I am with is through the colors of the clothes they are wearing.

I was told a couple of times that I am a snob because I don’t acknowledge those who greet me in a distance  or by those waving their hands at me when approaching. This situation really sucks. As kid, this is confusing.

Eyeglasses are not a very pretty accessory to wear when you are a kid at school. I have my own share of moments being teased and picked on because I am wearing one. Luckily, there are two other kids in class that was wearing a pair too when I started wearing mine. The impact wasn’t so bad and that they were already used to having a classmate with four eyes.

Few days after I saw the Facebook post of my friend, my daughter reported to me that her classmate is now wearing eyeglasses. I asked if he still peek into her notebook and she answered me “not anymore”. I made her realize that the classmate was doing that as he has vision problems. My kids know how important eyeglasses are as I am wearing one and they know how I depended my life to it. I asked her what her other classmates reaction was when they saw him come to class with it on and she told me a lot of the kids called him “Lolo” (Grandpa in Filipino) and a few others were laughing. I told my daughter never to tease the kid as it is not funny. I told her how I felt being picked on and I am sure she understand. I know my friend’s son will get used to it soon and and the classmates as well.

Whether I like or not…. it is time for FACEBOOK TIMELINE!!

Don’t you think the profile owner should have at least a choice with regards to the preference of Facebook Timeline?

I was notified months ago and ignoring it is making me keep my old Facebook profile viewing option, hence I let it stay that way and never click the “Get Timeline Now’ button.

photo credit: Google Images

Certainly, not for long. I was out during the day for important errands. I was eager to fire up my computer and get the on-line society active. I am always happy to see the red colored number by the notifications for Facebook. May it be a game invite, an application message, comments and likes prompts, as long as it is a notification, it surely excites me. It means people remember you and left a notification to let you know they drop by or sent you something.

Earlier, I was informed that my Facebook Timeline is ready. I actually don’t like the timeline. I know it needs time for me to get used to the new feature but like others, I just don’t like the TIMELINE. Period.

HACKED!

 

I am currently maintaining an account each among the four freelance outsourcing companies that I signed up registrations with. All four of them are legit and all four of them I registered as a creative writer and book reviewer.

Among those four I have my favorite site which has a great deal of job offers, easy project transaction arrangement, excellent support system for the contractors like me and convenient financial system as well.

Four days ago, as I opened my dashboard, A red tab on the top of it really caught my attention. The urgent notification served its purpose of notifying me per se. It said, “ Your Financial Account has been temporarily suspended, Please contact Customer Support”.

Four days ago was supposed to be my pay day. The site doesn’t really follow specific days for pay day. It depends upon when your work week started and ended. So, receiving the notification got me worried. As suggested, I contact support and they attended to my report. The deal is, there was a phishing attempt noted and was believed that my account was the target. Who ever the bastard that has the nerve to do this managed to creep into my files and somehow resides where the articles that I’ve written and some other work stuff quietly resides.

It took 48 hours, with a constant exchange of updates and replies for them to resolve the issue. The financial suspension was an action to prevent my earnings and gave me and them an ample time to work it out. The Risk Management Department of the company has advised me to perform a lot of security measures not only for my particular account of this freelance outsourcing company but also to my other email accounts, blog sites, social networks and the sorts.

I know I am always careful. WCW-my husband dear has told me countless of times about online security. I got pissed at him for having such complicated passwords that even locked us out of the account because we were confused of which is which. I appreciate the Risk Management Department of the company for protecting me in their own way. I admit I got rudely irritated when I didn’t get to access my financial account but like they said the action wasn’t there for no reason at all. And with that, I felt I have come to love this freelance company even more.

Lesson learned:

1. Create strong passwords. This can be done by having alpha-numeric combinations. It would help a lot to make use of upper and lower keys characters. Simple words that can be read in reverse are known to be weak passwords and have offers a high risk of potential threat. Change passwords at least within six months.

2. Install an anti-virus software that covers emails, links and all the corners of your computer hard drive.

3. Be cautious in receiving and opening links on emails, IMs, social network messages, chats and tweets.

4.Have a separate email account to be use only for banking purposes and other personal matters excluding social network registrations and other sites that has means and ways that can be viewed by the public.

5. See to it that programs installed are legit and has licensed. It is undeniable that these are worth some bucks but then again, it is better safe than sorry.

6. Be aware of your device’s activity. Perform scans as often as possible. Update programs to the latest version available. Remove spams and tracking cookies. Practice the habit of reporting malicious programs.

There are more ways than I can count of to be safe online. The threats were removed from my system and once again I was protected. The suspension of my financial account was lifted after they were able to make sure I am covered. I was able to work again with my worksheet clock ticking. I just got to do what I have to.

 

book review site

 

The voice that keeps calling is getting louder. The ideas are flooding like how the South West monsoon rains has caused Philippines to flood and to suffer. I have talked about the thought a while back and thinking about it doesn’t seem to stop now.

I wanted to start a new site solely for book reviews. I don’t know if it is a good idea, I am not sure if I am qualified enough do such. All I know is, often times I ended up with something to say after I read books.

Rev, who is a very good friend of mine shared a dream with me about putting up a library in our hometown someday. It was just a topic during our chats over miles across yet I seem to hold on to that particular conversation. We both have collections of books we acquired and we thought it would be nice to let others who can’t afford( I didn’t say that we are well off  enough to easily to buy those) to be able to enjoy the books that we have come to love. We learned so much through reading and we enjoyed this passion. We made the school library a place to hang-out in our free time, in between classes and laboratory sessions during college days. The deadly looks of the pouting, old-maid librarian gave us and our friends every time we enter the library still creates a clear picture on my mind. The worn-out, poorly painted table at the center of the periodicals section, where we love to sit may still have my name underneath  that I wrote defying the rules against vandalism. Yes, we love the library. Not because it has most of the reading materials that we love, not because we can find  the references that we need, which we can’t, as it is incomplete by all means, but because for the lamest reason that the library is air-conditioned. It is conducive for reading and it has wide tables that we can use when we did our Histopathology drawings of everything we get to see under the microscope.

The library is a plan that is impossible to materialized as of the moment. But the habit of reading never stopped. We are not college students anymore that we can hang-out at the library or stay up late at nights in the dormitory to discuss books and other interesting topics such as sex and boys(whatever!). The technology has improved so much that domains are created. Why not make use of these innovations? Blogging has been a good outlet for me to relieve stress, hence, why not make it another outlet to get the passion of reading and publishing gets going.

I want this and I hope to heavens I can do it!

 

Prayers for my Country

 

Typhoons. A calamity that Philippines endures about twenty to thirty times every year. Having most of it deadly and destructive is a scenario feared by Filipinos specially those who reside in greater Manila Area and in Northern Luzon.

I grew up down South in a province where typhoon never gets to hit. We were able to experience heavy rains and rare flooding in nearby towns on rainy seasons but luckily there were less or never any casualties. We are experiencing good weather in my location as of the moment that I am typing this blog while the Filipinos up North are fighting against flooding and heavy rains.

Today marks the 72nd hour, or the third day of heavy rain fall pouring over Manila and its nearby cities and towns. I have kept the TV on for the news and updates which I normally don’t do. The news is depressing. There is actually no typhoon reported but the rain of a nonstop downpour is a killer.

 

Heavy rains continued to pour and the worsts hit parts of Manila on areas where less fortunate lives, where there is a lot, say millions of slum dwellers have built homes along riverbanks, the swampy surrounds of major city rivers, canals and other areas susceptible to flooding.

The death count is rising, millions of my fellow Filipino people have lost their homes and livelihood. Pregnant women giving birth in the middle of evacuation, children getting sick everywhere, the government is working hard, the rescuers getting exhausted already,yet, nobody, no one can ever stop the rain.

My country needs your prayers.

My country needs your help.

(Photos from the Internet)

    

I really do not know if this is allowed by WordPress but I am going to post this anyway. Below is a link for Philippine Red Cross and Sagip Kapamilya Relief Operations. They are accepting donations in cash and in kind.

DONATE 

ABS-CBN  Sagip Kapamilya Relief Operations

DONATE

Philippine National Red Cross

Related articles

• Where I’m from, everyone’s a hero (lifeisgelato.wordpress.com)
• Let’s all pray for the Philippines (amaeguerrero.wordpress.com)

 

GONE GIRL

I acquired the book about two months ago. As a perfect example portraying slow-mo acts, I , queen of procrastination let the copy sit with pages un-flipped.  A constant bugging from friend and my typical walking book review genius, Rev, I got the book starting….and.. Holley Molley!

by Gillian Flynn

This is my first ever reading from Gillian Flynn and after this, I will surely seek for her books. The cover is plain with a dash of white scratches from the left side of it which I actually don’t understand. No, I am not writing a review because of the cover. It is always true, not to judge the book by it.

I was about 25 pages of the book and here goes this line “IT IS DANGEROUS TO LAUGH AT YOUR SPOUSE”. I smiled a few times already on pages before this but this line immensely made me giggle. With that, I tried so hard to put the book down to be able to finish other things I need to attend to because honestly I find it more fun  to burry my nose with the book than to do the chores.

Gone Girl is a novel about married couples with wife disappearing and husband turned prime suspects of the crime. The story didn’t just revolve around how the characters are trying to solve the case but it is digging deeper more than that of what you can think about in a relationship of two people being married to each other. It is drawing a picture of how well you know the person you believed you love and up to what extent are your efforts to prove this. 

If this book was a car, it started accelerating when the husband, Nick, found her wife missing in the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary. In desperate search for truth and answers, lies, cheating and more lies were uncovered as easy as opening soda cans.

The plot is extremely twisted like pretzels and McDonald’s twister fries but very well written and the characters are exceptionally and intensely well drawn. They are all lovable and relatable. Flynn has managed to create characters that are effective and appears to be alive in the minds of the readers. The writing is thrilling, quite vivid  and lucrative in a good sense. The touch of humor made it more lighter yet heavily compelling because the author really knows how to weave a basket of tales.

After reading it, I find the story more about marriage and love sans the missing wife and murder. It is  bounded chapters of Nick and Amy in a narrative voice telling about a love story of emotions and unconditional love. I hate to say this but it is a story that in reality, humans as we are has this dark and evil character wherein lies, insults, pain and hurt can lead a person to do crazy things. Crazy regretful things.

Marriage can be true and honest as it should be or in another spotlight a stage play were the couples are players and actors, portraying drama, living a lie, a facade of pretense presumptions and hoping one day for things to turn out right and fall into its proper place. If Amy and Nick  could have spent extra time knowing themselves better and accepting each other without conditions they could have prevented the lies and problems that came to result a deadly end.

Gone Girl- I say, definitely, is not an easy book to review. Over all, I highly recommend to couples or to everybody. It is a type of suspense-thriller crime story with a little bit of extras. Just the way I like it. As I said it, I will be looking forward to more novels from Gillian Flynn and will seek her other books for a good read.