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Gift #1There is another area of seeming, a genuine seeming where for example a child imitates his heroic model. He does not only emulate the heroic acts of his model over his enemies but his good relationship with other heroes. A case of associating himself for example with super friends or band of power rangers is an authentic manifestation of not pretending but being and being in the company or relation with others.

Contrary to tale, they were neither summoned nor conferred with power. They just discovered they could freely leap, tumble around and somersault. They had imaginary enemies on bed sheets, walls, ceiling, toilet, almost everywhere but nowhere. The sleeping room had been transformed into a rumpus room where one could see pillows piled as bunker or stuck in a bowl and blankets littering the floor or improvised as makeshift tent. Bra-tat-tat-tat-ttttt, tsug-tsug-tsug-tsug mixed with the sound of ray guns and lightning bolts - a real pandemonium. This is the trade off, of sort, when children are kept in a room while adults don’t want to be disturbed talking about the effect of economic crunch, dealing with relatives and raising children.......
Gift #2 Did we ever wonder why a piggy figurine is commonly used as a savings bank? I had been into livelihood projects with the poor in the past. There is really a close association with pigs when you ask them to decide for an alternative livelihood. I always discouraged them on such engagement because it is just like saving and actually earning nothing. Raising a pig is just the same with keeping a piggy bank. With the former, one spends so much time and work saving - not really earning. While with the latter, one saves with ease. It is wiser though keeping a piggy bank than raising just a single or couple of pigs. And most of the time, fattened pigs end up as thanksgiving offering on festivities and birthdays. Well, our piggy is butchered for a number of times already. It has been filled with coins for about six months. Clankity-clankity-clank! We have counted 1,340 pesos savings less some coins which are returned into the piggy, supertitiously to attract more coins and, in order not to starve the piggy for a week because we are going to spend our savings on a planned vacation to Cebu. Saving in the bank is only one scheme and keeping a piggy bank is another and perhaps more effective in teaching kids the value of saving......
Gift #3Kids must be taught with Karatel to avoid troubles in school or in any circumstance where the only option is to be humble enough to rely on karatel. Karatel is the first teaching a Karate ka should learn from a sensei. As a golden rule, a karate ka applies first karatel and then karate, only when cornered. But to my recollection, Karatel is learned at the school backyard and instinctively applied when caught by a K-9 while stealing guavas. By the way, one is supposed to be in class!

For greater impact, Karatel requires slippers; loose ones for better execution.

Now, for Karatel advanced Kata # 10,293,456

1. Imagine that you are facing an opponent. Let us say Gloria Aruy Ko, holding a nun- chaku and o-katana on both hands. You are a meter apart.

2. Now, raise your left hand, as if performing an upward block;....
Gift #4 I was first intimately introduced to djembe when I had my exposure to Songco in Bukidnon. There, a particular tribe of Talaandig struggles to preserve their vanishing culture in the face of modernization and amidst the vast plantations of banana and pineapple encroaching into their ancestral domain. Nothing is really idyllic with the surroundings and interesting with their behavior and lifestyle. But their art and music stand out. They have astounding soil paintings, wood carvings, ornaments and an array of ethnic instruments on exhibit and sale. Familiar to me are bamboo flutes and percussion such as djembes, ashikos, bongos and tambol in different sizes and design. It was one afternoon when I joined a jam session on percussion. Truly a captivating moment, a memorable one, to have had a good sense of rhythm and sound. The tapping, banging and chanting produced a sonorous sound that kept listeners glued to the performers and lost in the rhythm. It was one real experience to say that the performers and the instruments have become one to produce music. I have experienced music in its primordial form and it is a very personal one. ......
Gift #5 At recognition rite, children in kindergartens at ages 3-5, all of them without exception, take home pompous rewards for behaving well, not really well but at least for not ushering the teacher to untimely retirement. Well, parents are always proud of their kids' achievement. The least parents can have as consolation is the knowledge that their kids have learned to write their names, complete names. (In Lj's case, after 2 years of schooling!) Pity those kids with multiple names, knowing frequently that they have just finished writing their names; others have already submitted their test papers. That is why we have Lj for a name. But actually there is a good reason in having multiple names. One can eventually decide such right to choose is not conferred at birth - which name to strut: Agapito, Eustaquio or Brad? Of course, I take Brad if my surname is Pitt and Aga or Eustaq will just suffice for nicknames! But parents beware when you miss the rite and your kids arrive home brandishing something with pride. Check out with their teacher what is the meaning of those words etched in fabrics. I went into serious research (really?) and discovered what the few of them mean:.....
Gift #6 If we feel bored in the pool, there is a nearby river, the Dohinob river, that offers much space for swimming, fishing and romping around. A strong typhoon in the past had changed the course of the river and formed a fork in it. From just about 200 meters, it is now about half a kilometer away from the house. The closest fork to the house has formed into a creek. Using the fallen coconut trunk as a diving plank, kids can do a somersault even on a four-feet-deep water because the current provides cushion on impact. But in order to enjoy the river treat to the max, you must be unmindful of what lies upstream: Carabaos, after toiling or gazing in the field, spend more time rolling in the river until another call for plowing.

There are also piggeries and chicken coops which dispose waste to the river. But these are nothing compared to the kids, adults too, who prefer to eliminate their waste, damned shit, to the river. Really damn shit when you raise you head from the water and it is sitting on your head! Really damn shit that when you return home later, you are served binignit! Really damn shit when after shower, you found out there are still tidbits of it in your hair. But the call of the river is so strong and powerful, especially for kids, to resist.......
Gift #6 We just found out lately that LJ has been learning a trade at an early age! Nanay Jeanet,arriving from office, found him bedraggled with running nose and dirty finger nails, aptly described as gatabisay. Early in the farm and almost every time, he roams the neighborhood at home, he scavenges for discarded metals- mostly rusting nails; plastic containers- mostly soda refills - in the trash, and; cracked plastic basins. After collecting scraps, with a constant reminder to stay on the sidewalk and not to cross the street alone,he will sell them to a nearby scrap buyer. He learns his trade from other kids in the neighborhood. He regards his Nanny Norma as his banker, often for just a short period,because he withdraws his deposits every time he hears the calling of the kutsinta and ice drop vendors. We heard him once talking to his cousins that he would share his sale. In return his cousins help him rummage for scraps. We find out, they keep their find to themselves and Lj is left only with his. Anyway, he is passing his trade secrets......
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Some Hopes for Copenhagen Result

“It’s no deal, it’s just an agreement.”
The outcome of the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change has elicited mixed interpretations from all quarters in the world. While the poor nations rejected the agreements as self-serving the interest of the rich nations, condemned as “monumental failure” by ardent environmental NGOs, lambasted by faith groups as “negotiated without [...]

A Postscript to Pacquiao II

I was lucky not to succumb to any seizure during and after the fight since I was still nursing a surgery wound. I tensed every time Wapacman raised his shoulders, spitting air through his nose while snapping his gloves. Expect a flurry of mitts to follow his opponent on the ropes trying to hang for [...]

Thumb, ta thumb

Once inebriated in a drinking spree, I came to argue with drinking buddies about what makes us superior to other living and non-living things on the planet. We philosophized about our intellectual superiority, the advancement of mankind in space and technology, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the superiority of art in various forms over other [...]

Minding Climate Change

Under the auspices of the United Nations, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen this December to make decisions that will affect the generation to come. They hope to carve a new international agreement on the reduction of green-house gas emissions to address climate change. This deal includes what sort of green and clean technologies should [...]

Hooked on Farmville

This is dedicated to a friend who always has to switch screens while online to focus on writing and, check chores on Farmville: how his plants are growing or whether one of his hired laborers is loitering around or sipping milk from his animals in the barn. It is clear which captured his attention most. [...]

Karatel

Kids must be taught with Karatel to avoid troubles in school or in any circumstance where the only option is to be humble enough to rely on karatel. Karatel is the first teaching a Karate ka should learn from a sensei. As a golden rule, a karate ka applies first karatel and then karate, only [...]