A week to be Holy

God is so crazy about you. He sends you sunrise every morning, flowers year round, rainbow after rain. He owns the universe but prefers to live in your heart... Isn't it about time we start cleansing our hearts?

Take a break to reflect...pray...

Marcos...still rules (?)

"There are many things we do not want about the world. Let us not just mourn them. Let us change them," Former Philippine Pres. Ferdinand Marcos (and he succeeded, for the worse though).

In early 1997, the refrigerated crypt, which houses the body of the late Phil. President Marcos in his hometown in Batac, llocos Norte was almost shut down…the wealthy Marcoses were not able to pay the more than P5M electricity bill. But no! they had money (billions of it, in fact), what they wanted was a hero’s burial for the old man. Until now the body is still there, well-preserved and in good shape (thanks to the magic of wax).

Imelda was crossing her fingers to have Ferdi buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, and her prayers were almost heard when "Erap" Estrada, a Marcos crony, was elected president (don't ask me why). But the Filipinos welcomed Erap’s decision with massive protests. I don’t know what happened now to that hole…Erap may one day use it (well, if the Filipinos would not revolt).

A few facts about our subject, which I got from the internet (where else?)…the Marcoses are said to have pocketed an estimated $10 billion during their 20-year rule (well, the whole world knows how that regime ruled our country)… and they are still unscathed (Filipinos…warm and loving Filipinos).

Finally, it's (almost) here

Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince is coming this July 16...can't wait to have a copy of it. I've read all five books and so far, I find the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth installment of the Harry Potter series, as the most exciting read. Well, there are 2 more...

The Best Preserved Mummy in the World

This is an old piece of news but I still have to say it anyway…

At the height of the cold war, this was around in 1971, workers digging an air raid shelter near the city of Changsha uncovered an enormous tomb. Inside it they found over 1,000 perfectly preserved artifacts which was later on learnt were from the Han Dynasty. Among these bodies was that of Lady Dai’s, the most perfectly preserved corpse ever found.

Xin Zhui, the wife of the ruler of the Han imperial fiefdom of Dai, or the Lady of Dai, died between 178 and 145 BC, at around 50 years of age. The objects inside her tomb indicated that she was once a woman of wealth and importance, and one who enjoyed the good things in life. But these were not the things that fascinated me but her well-preserved remains which until now has baffled and amazed scientists all over the world.

“The body is so well preserved that it can be autopsied by pathologists as if it were only recently dead,” said a scientist who studied the body. Lady Dai’s skin was still “supple” and her limbs could still be manipulated, her hair was intact; her type A blood still ran red in her veins, and her internal organs were all intact. Imagine that for a 2,000 year-old corpse! (this was shown in Discovery Channel last week and I saw how flexible the mummy’s limbs were).

Experts could not yet fathom the mystery of Lady Dai’s remains. Was it because of her tomb construction that protected bacteria from getting into her body or was it because of the “mysterious liquid’ that the body was immersed in?” …These were just among the experts’ many questions. The liquid, they speculated, could be an elixir of life. Wow!

By the way if you want to see Lady Dai, her body is housed at the art Hunan Museum.

whoever sees my lil baby

Four months ago our family was introduced to this little girl I nicknamed “mini me” (she’s actually baptized minnie rose) as we had the same color, dark. But before that I was really opposed to her coming to live with us coz I was worried my younger sister, who was so eager to baby-sit her, might unintentionally do some harm to the kid. There was no other one to watch the kid so my mother agreed to “adopt” her (on daytime basis only while her mom was teaching and her yaya was still being hunted).

Then her first day to our house came…I was expecting to see a 2-year-old toddler who would run around our nipa hut of a house and destroy everything within her grasp! But I saw a very cuddly baby, an 8-month old “mini me” smiling at me while I was on my way to the bathroom. She was being cuddled by my sister, who like me, adores kids a lot. Forgetting the pre-scheduled “meeting” that day, I took the child and played with her…she was really cute…and she always had that ready smile unlike other babies who are wary of strangers (she probably saw herself in me). What’s so special about her was her being a baby…she was already 8 months but she could not sit without someone or something to brace her back or she would fall backwards…(like all 8-month-old babies I believe).

Then it went on for weeks. I normally woke up at past 9 but when I learnt it was her sleeping time I warned my sister to wake me up before the baby fell asleep. Then every morning she climbed (or my sis let her) unto my bed and woke me up with her giggles…sleepy and all I entertained her (or allow myself to be entertained with her cuteness).

But one day, they found her yaya and took her away from us…huhuhu. I really miss her. That was over 4 months ago, she’s probably 1 now. They used to live just a few houses away…but they’ve moved out to some other place. So whoever sees my lil baby, the cute and cuddly with curly long hair and smiling eyes and dark skin and with two or four teeth “mini me”, please let me know.

when helplessness strikes

How to run away from helplessness? I wish I could…I had wished it several times since I came to know such feeling. It is so damn tough to mend a heart burdened with such agony especially when you don’t know how to fight it.

I have learnt, through the years, to combat against any other emotions including anger and love as never would I allow myself to become a slave to any of these two. But not with helplessness which most of the time leads to guilt, the very reason why I hate being helpless.

One feels helpless when he wants to do something but can’t because of some reasons…

We are only human who commit mistakes either because of our foolishness or it is really meant to be committed, as life according to them (whoever they are) is like a game and like all games there are winners and losers (and I agree with them). And because people have enjoyed the glory of winning the game losing it becomes too hard to handle for them, thus they resort to “stepping on other people’s feet” just so they emerge winners…leaving those who would have wanted to stay in the game stumbling and helpless.

I was left helpless just a few days ago…last Sunday to be exact, and the feeling is still here as I still have to know how my boss is taking it (in short I still have to receive a memo, if ever there’s one). Damn! I was supposed to be painting the town red that day but because of the banners of the two rival papers, which caught my attention on my way to the office, all my strength was drained. I felt like hiding as it was my fault our paper had no such story as I was busy with other things (grrr…) But I could say there was nothing new to the story (I’m still in denial stage) as like us big stories also take their day-off on Sundays therefore papers make a “hill out of a mole” –placing a very simple issue into the frontpage!

The story that Sunday was about Cebu Archbishop Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal reiterating his opposition on the proposed VAT hike. Take note reiterating as he already said it a few weeks back… but reporters, who didn’t have news that day, interviewed him AND DID NOT TELL ME (why should they? in the first place it’s a competition! a game!) As I was saying there are really people whose only intention is to win, like the title of this site…hit the jackpot. I did not win though… that day I went home feeling weak and all…think: defeat

…but it’s not the end of the world, I still have my job and my life 