08.31.11
Posted in Uncategorized, family stuff at 7:44 pm by Administrator
It’s been almost a week, but I still feel a bit jet lagged to think long enough for a proper post. So I’ll make an easy one that I want to share of Andrew’s birthday. Funny we celebrated Aaron’s birthday in the Philippines, and now we celebrated Andrew’s birthday there, too. We had a lot going on, so we wanted it to be a simple, easy celebration, which only involved our family. So, we just had dinner at Abe’s. There were eight of us all together. Four on one side of the table, and the other four on the other side of the table. Here’s Grandma with the boys.
Here’s the other side of the table with my sisters, Brian, and me.
One thing I love about the Philippines is the drinks. . .
My favorite is the pineapple-coconut shake, yum!
Since Abe’s is a Filipino restaurant, the “Happy Birthday” song was sung in Tagalog. Unfortunately, I don’t have a recording of it.
Hee, this picture makes me smile to see how my mom is smiling here. Wish Dad were here, too.
And here’s the birthday boy with his dessert. Not as fancy as Aaron’s was, but was still tasty nonetheless.
And last picture is of Andrew after he opened Anna’s birthday card. My sweet friend remembered that Andrew’s birthday would be during our trip away, so she made sure to send his birthday card along so that he would be able to open it on his birthday. What a sweet friend! Thanks, Anna!
Okay, graduation is finished, birthday is finished, we’re now home from being away for 5 weeks. . . time to hunt for a job, Andrew. . . sigh. . .
Marlakins
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08.27.11
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments at 7:39 pm by Administrator
I just got back the other night from the Philippines where just a couple posts ago, I was writing about my concern about the possibility of radiation in rain. I had seen some videos from sources like “Connecting the Dots” who has been driving around trying to monitor the rain water in his area in BC. He appeared to be getting alarming results, but honestly, being the layperson that I am, I couldn’t tell whether the info was accurate or not. But I thought it was at least good to keep an eye on it and just be overall aware of the possibilities. But today I found that Antiproton recently made a video addressing the issue of radiation in rain water and how to properly test for it. I just watched his video and appreciate it very much. For those interested, click here to watch his video.
I really appreciated this video. Thanks, Antiproton! for helping to clear up some of the confusion and mystery out there. I also appreciate how he mentions that internal radiation is more deadly than external radiation. I already knew that, but it’s still refreshing that he obviously takes other sources of radiation and forms of radiation into account. I like to hear about other possibilities as well.
While in the Philippines I listened to an audio interview on Rense.com wherein it was mentioned that China had found radioactivity in the ocean about 800 miles from Fukushima. A lot of fish is served in the Philippines, so I looked up the distance. Apparently, Manila to Tokyo is about 1800 miles away. So I did indulge a little on the fish there. I know that’s not a fail-safe method of determining the safety of the fish! But at least it was good to know that the little fish I was eating was caught locally (relatively as some were not from Manila, but Palawan and such), so I felt a little safer eating them. Actually at the start of this Fukushima nightmare, I had decided that I wanted to avoid fish caught in the Pacific all together. Especially since a lot of the fish that we usually consumed at home was from Alaska and generally the Pacific, I didn’t like the idea of radiation contamination moving there with the currents. The quality of the fish was already questionable in my mind due to the oil spills such as the Exxon Valdez spill and all, now the radiation scare just put the icing on the cake for us. I know the ocean is huge, but I also know that there have been nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, Christmas Islands, etc. That radioactive material is probably still floating around somewhere in there, and now this Fukushima crap that is supposedly releasing many times more radioactive particles into the environment. The problem is the types of radioactive particles that these nuclear tests and accidents release stay radioactive for longer than all our life-times. So the more that spills out into our environment, the more concentrated it becomes. It’s a very depressing and annoying thought. God made such a beautiful nourishing world for us, and we have to go and screw it all up. It’s just all very annoying. Imagine how God must feel regarding what we have been doing to His handiwork–rivers and oceans and skies all polluted. I’ll try to do my little part to help the environment, and in the meantime enjoy it as much as I can (within reason).
Here’s one spot that we ran around in during the rain in Antipolo, Philippines.
You can’t really see it, but it was actually just starting to rain at this point. We continued on down and took a few more pictures in the rain. This waterfall is called, “Hinulugang Taktak.” Apparently, years ago it was much nicer than this, so I was told. There was still a good amount of water as it had been raining so much lately. I didn’t take a picture of it, but not far from the bottom of the falls is quite polluted. See what I mean? Why do we have to ruin such beauty? Andrew took a picture of the pollution, but I couldn’t bear to look at it much.
I can’t help thinking of Japan, and how I’m sure their island has many beautiful places like this, but is now contaminated for centuries because of that stupid Fukushima accident. It’s such a shame.
Marlakins
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08.24.11
Posted in family stuff at 7:28 pm by Administrator
Just doing some last minute internet checks, then off to do last minute errands, and we should be off! Hopefully next post will be from back home in Los Angeles. Yesterday I started sorting through the avalanche of photos we all took here, and quite frankly, it’s overwhelming. I thought I would share some, but I don’t even know where to start, ha! Even pictures that I’ve taken from previous trips or other things are all backed up on my computer somewhere. But while I’m not ready to post any pictures just yet, I do want to comment on how much I enjoyed this trip, particularly all the people that I’ve encountered this time around. The main purpose for coming here to the Philippines this trip was to celebrate my dad’s one year death anniversary. My mom wanted to do it here because there were some people here that weren’t able to join Dad’s reception in the U.S. During those first months after dad passed I was able to meet a lot of his friends in the U.S., but now I was able to meet more of his friends here in the Philippines. It was very enjoyable and special for me as I feel they are all a part of him and a part of what made him who he was and what also made him happy. One of the reasons Dad and Mom would come back to the Philippines every year was to meet up with some of his old friends. And even now that he is gone, his friends have extended their hospitality toward my mom, my son, and me. They took us to Antipolo last Tuesday, and we really had a nice time. I’ll try to share some of those pictures (and stories) later. Signing out from the Philippines!
Marlakins
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08.16.11
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments at 6:42 pm by Administrator
Just checking my email this AM and found this response to Aluminum Studio’s most recent video. Any additional information to help us navigate the dangers in our environment is most welcome. I’ll likely follow “Antiproton” a bit as he seems to have some useful information to impart. Aluminumstudio’s latest video can be viewed here. And Antiproton’s response can be viewed here.
Wish we were getting some radiation info here in the Philippines. So far no one seems interested. No one talks about it, but then again back in Los Angeles, no one seemed to care much either except me and my family! Not even my sisters and mom seem to pay any attention to it, sigh. But one thing different here in the Philippines is I’ve been indulging in real butter again because here I have access to real butter from New Zealand. I stopped using butter and all other dairy products while I was in Los Angeles because of the reports that radiation was being detected in milk there. Who knows what’s here as no one seems to be talking about it at all here. And it has been raining a lot here, too! Practically every day there is some rain. Some days more than others, but pretty much every day rain falls from the skies. I wonder how much radiation is in the rain. As an example of how much rain we’ve been getting, here’s a pic of how flooded parts of the roads were not long ago.
After this shot I rolled up my window because as other vehicles passed by, water would splash in, ack! Ick!
Whenever it rains now, I can’t help but wonder how much radiation is in the water.
Hope everyone is doing well.
Marlakins
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08.13.11
Posted in Book Reviews, Historical Trivia, family stuff at 2:10 am by Administrator
Brian, Matthew, and Aaron have arrived home safely yesterday. So now, Mom, Andrew, and I are left here in the Philippines. Still have a few more loose ends to tie before we head back home in a couple more weeks. But now that it’s gotten a little quieter here, I’ve had a chance to read one of the books I purchased here last February. Actually it’s a book I found in the “juvenile” section in a book store I visited here in the Philippines. Now that I’m reading it, it’s turning out to be quite interesting and right up my alley of study. It’s called, Living with the Enemy, A Diary of the Japanese Occupation. The book is basically the diary of Pacita Pestano-Jacinto. It’s compared to the Diary of Anne Frank, only this woman was older (in her 20’s) and newly married and pregnant. I’m finding her insights quite interesting, and it’s also bringing up more topics or points of interest that I want to research more. Such as the allied prison camps in Capas and San Fernando. Last week we took a trip up to the rice terraces. On the way there we passed Cabanatuan City (where the famous allied prison camp was located in The Great Raid or the prison featured in Hampton Sides’ Ghost Soldiers). I wasn’t aware of the prisons in Capas and San Fernando, although we did pass through both places on our way back down to Manila. During our trip through Banaue and Sagada, I was surprised to learn that fighting had reached all the way up to the rice terraces. . . So, now I must add General Yamashita to my list of things to research. Supposedly he was famous for fighting in that region. We’ll see. . .
So in the meantime, I thought I might add one of the day entries of the book I’m reading. I would add August 13 (since that’s today), but there is not an Aug 13 entry, only Aug 12 and then Aug 23. So, here’s her entry for August 12, 1942.
“August 12
Oscar’s best friend, Hans Menzi, has been picked up and thrown into Fort Santiago. He is Swiss but has Filipino citizenship. his mother says that the charge is guerrilla activities. It does not seem possible but Oscar is afraid there might be some truth to it. He grew up here and has often said that he loves the Philippines even better than he does Switzerland.
The night of my baby’s christening party, he was so full of laughter. He stood godfather to my child. A shiver runs up my spine when I think of what he may be going through. I keep on thinking of how doubly cruel the Japanese can be to a white man.”
Fort Santiago is a prison fort that was used by the Spanish, then by the Japanese during WWII. It is located in Intramuros here in Manila. It is now open for tourists. I’ve blogged about it before on my past visits here. To see some pictures I took there just click here and scroll down to about the 4th picture and following.
Toodles until next time!
Marlakins
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08.08.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:10 am by Administrator
Still here in the Philippines, but managed to get a WiFi connection here in Baguio City. A friend sent this nice email, which I have copied and pasted below. While I assume “it” is referring to our lives, I do believe in the afterlife, so the definition of “end” is questionable to me. However, I like Josephson’s conclusion to “live a life that matters”.
What Will Matter
by Micheal Josephson
Some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no more minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built,
Not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character,
Not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.
What will matter is not your memories, but the memories of those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.
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08.01.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:34 am by Administrator
It’s monsoon season here in the Philippines. We’ve been having rain, rain, and more rain. Apparently, there’s a slow storm hovering above us that’s supposed to clear by this Friday. In the meantime, this is what it looks like from the balcony.
Okay, so the above paragraph and pic was written and taken about a week ago. Quite a bit has already happened. Both my sisters have already come and gone. Well, actually they are at the airport right now awaiting their flight back to California. We all flew out here to the Philippines for my dad’s babang luksa (first year death anniversary). The ceremony was held last Friday the 29th. That marked the end of mourning, so now my mom doesn’t have to wear black anymore. It seems strange to see her in regular colors again. We’ve been visiting with family again and still have a few more dates with them, then we’ll head off to do a little sightseeing if the weather permits. At the moment it’s pouring with thunder and lightening. Apparently, another storm is barreling through. I’m pooped so will probably hit the hay soon and share some of our adventures later on. However, I want to add one more pic just before I sign out. Here’s my sisters and I when we all just arrived.
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