He's my McDreamy first!

I love Patrick Dempsey! I have loved him since I was in elementary. I went crazy over "Can't Buy me Love" and "Happy Together." I guess my mom really liked him because she borrowed all those BETA(so 80s!) tapes.

I'm such an 80's kid! I believe I was 6 or 7 years old when Patrick Dempsey was a matinee idol, and I swear he was already my favorite. Ask my sisters! I was so young and can't understand why I really liked him, but I did. Haaay... He was sooo my MCDREAMY way before all of America decided he'll be theirs.hahaha!

I still love him now. I go crazy over Grey's Anatomy. I have seen season 1 and 2 about thrice already, buti na lang may pirated DVDs!hahaha. I can't wait for season 3. And it brings back old desires to become a doctor. And that's the not so good part because I'm seriously rethinking about pursuing med.ha!

Manang na kung Manang

I’m sorry, but I guess I was born with a strong sense of being conservative. Actually, I make no apologies for being conservative, I actually think it’s one of the best values/attitudes taught to me by family, for the most part by my grandparents.

I’m trying hard to work here in starbucks but this group of students (freshies if I’m not mistaken) has made it impossible for me to do so. I have my earphones on, listening to music and trying my best to work but they are just sooo loud! I don’t need to eavesdrop to hear their conversation, they are practically shouting.

They are even more irritating because of the following facts:

Ø There are like 8-9 of them (1 or 2 leaves then somebody replaces them), and they only ordered 2 pieces of doughnuts. Hello! Pakapalan?! They are conquering a big space in the café, taking in the cold air, sharing the oxygen and they don’t even have the decency to order more? I seriously propose to all coffee places to require customers to have a ratio of 1order/2people to be allowed to stay in the place for more than an hour. Unless, they should be asked to either leave or order more…

Ø Ok, I get it that I have no control over public places, (but you just wait, when I become President, I’m soooo going to control level of noise in public places even if it takes dictatorship!) but do we really have to speak so loud? I mean, there’s just 8 of you, you are not giving a talk to a group of 25 people. And didn’t their parents or teachers ever teach them about sensitivity to other people in public places? They are not the only ones in the place and they don’t own it (I’m sure they don’t, they only ordered 2 doughnuts for crying out loud!)

Ø This young girl, the one nearest to me is the one of the most “haliparot, talipandas” young girls I’ve ever seen. Get this, all of them practically met each other today (I told you they were shouting), the girls have long been friends and so are the guys, and when the mother of the boy she’s flirting with called, she actually shouted, “hi tita! This is ___ girlfriend.” Duh?! (by this time they already left --- THANKGOD, FINALLY!) And all the time they were there, she was asking all these questions to the boy and giving him her number, advising him to shift from smart-globe for unlimited texting purposes, asked for their picture to be taken, viewed the picture and practically screaming, “bagay kami noh?!” The best of it all was this, by 630ish the boy excuses himself and tells everyone he has to go home, haliparot girl asks-“ha? It’s early pa, gimmick muna tayo? Why do you have a curfew?” Argghh! Talk about being desperate! I was practically screaming in my head and I so wanted to reprimand the young girl like I would to my younger cousins. Thank God she’s not my cousin or I would pulled her hair and dragged her out of that café. ANG LANDI-LANDI, DIYOS KO PO! It’s only the 1^st day of school in college, no need to hurry.

Can’t get over that young girl, I just understand how our young girls think these days. I don’t mean to be judgmental but I really don’t like how the young girls here in Manila are trying hard to be oh so grown up and oh so liberated and oh so aggressive. What’s the rush? And all the time and money spent for those clothes and makeup, hay, such a waste.

Amy just stepped in to return my Grey’s Anatomy DVDs because Tetet hasn’t seen it yet. Amy by the way is the youngest sister of my very good friend Pie. Amy’s in 4^th year college now and trying to recover from the group of youngsters, I suddenly remembered how Amy used to be that small little girl we sometimes made fun of. She was in Grade1 when we were in 2^nd year highschool, the first year Pie and I became friends. Oh she’s all grown up, and honestly speaking, I’m proud of the young lady that she is now. I remember Tita Alma, her mom, telling me to take care of her when she was still in 1^st year here in Manila since I was already working for JVP then. I didn’t need to be a strict ate with Amy, she was well raised. Although slightly kikay and slight shopaholic, Amy studies first and has never been that aggressive with boys.

“Ate, akyat ka muna (in their condo at Prince David) andyan sila Mama. Nagaluto siya ng kare-kare, dun ka din daw magdinner.” Amy says.

Shutting down my computer and heading for the home cooked meal. Plus, I intend to share all my manang angsts to Tita Alma.

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At dinner Tita Alma tells me – “Hay, bitaw. Lahi ra dyud mga dalaga ngayon Kang, labaw na diri (in Manila). Better pa din in Davao.”

(wrote this last Monday, June 19)

Delayed Makabayan Blues

Excerpts from my reflection points which I'll email my boss regarding our Study on Spirituality of Integrity. I can't email the entire article, it's too long, it might bore you.

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I was once asked to write for Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan’s newsletter, SILBI, on good and bad governance. It was linked to the video I was working on for Ehem! I come to realize though that even if it was written more to promote the video that we are about to release to aid Ehem! seminars, it was still very much influenced by my other work as a researcher and project coordinator for Spirituality of Integrity. I begin to ponder more on the following paragraphs I wrote for the said article:

“It has to start with a bit of care for the country, with a little love for our respective communities.
With the current state of the country, there should be no room for apathy in every Filipino. It is our responsibility to be informed and to do something good about the information that we get and we know. It is our responsibility to be non-complacent – to demand for a government which we know is just and is working for the common good. However, along with demanding and keeping a tight watch to secure transparency in our leaders, we are equally demanded to work with our leaders toward that progress which we want.
Mediocrity, as well, should neither be tolerated nor encouraged in the various sectors in society. “Pwede na yan” attitude should be barred in the quality of education given to and demanded from our students; should be prohibited in the services offered in the city hall and other government agencies; should be banned in the manufacturing of products, whether local or not, for trade and industry; and should never be allowed in the field of medicine. Innovation and excellence is to be demanded in every Filipino.”

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Love of family is one the main dimensions of integrity that was mentioned by our participants and key informants. Some, most of them parents, even went to the extent of taking note that children play an important role in trying to influence the older generation to live a life of integrity. For how would a parent react if his/her child questions the origin of their wealth despite the fact that they know he is only earning little from his work as councilor or police officer?

I do place a lot of belief in the noted points of all our participants and key informants with regard to Integrity. I agree with the various dimensions that came out in the FGRs and individual consultations. Some of my personal views regarding integrity and public service were resonated by life and work experiences of participants who were and are public servants.

In a way however, it feels like there’s something missing, or that there is something more that ought to be there, in the results of the FGR. I wonder where our love of country is in all of these?

The love for family is a given. As Filipinos our close family ties has always been present in most of our choices. Blood, almost always, is thicker than water and sometimes the consequences are unpleasant. We stick with our relatives even when we know they are wrong or they did something bad. Without questions, we side with our parents and children because we believe we know them best since we live and grew up with them. We try to cover up for the mistakes they did so they’d escape possibility of jail or death.

But how does love of family correlate with love of country? When our kin has committed an offense against a greater majority, against our nation for example, which side do we choose? When we know that our relative’s action created so much injustice, do we still let him go and help him escape the consequences of his actions simply because s/he is family? When we know for a fact that the money spent for the food on our table is the taxpayer’s money, do we genuinely get full and nourished?

We seem to have lost our capacity to truly be nationalistic and show our love for our country. Our life choices seem to have been influenced so much by our personal needs and wants without a tinge of effort to think about the needs of our nation and people in general. “Common Good” is like alien jargon to some of us when we choose to throw garbage on the streets, drive a smoke belching car, cut off trees irresponsibly, choose to buy only imported products and never the ones locally made, and worst when we choose to steal the money that is intended for projects for our schools or baranggays or our whole district.