Alright, the first thing to do if you want to travel abroad is to get a passport.  Weng and I have planned to go to Bangkok however, since I don’t have a passport, I can’t go anywhere whenever I want to just yet.  So sad, but I am planning to get one.  It’s just that it will take a lot longer than the usual for I will need to get an approval from a government agency first for I have signed a contract for my scholarship that I will work in the Philippines for a certain number of years before I can go out of the county.  Oh well.  I guess that travel plan will have to be put aside for now.  Well, at least until I get my passport.

Cerebral palsy is one of the most common brain disorder that I know of. Like most people, I have little understand of what cerebral palsy is. Reading about it, I guess that accounts to a lot of possible causes and different manifestations that one with little medical background like me could understand what it truly is and how it developed. Some people say it’s hereditary but according to some studies it’s not. Some say that it could be a result of medical malpractice for what the experts are saying that most people who has cerebral palsy is due to the death in very early pregnancy of an identical twin.* And some of the babies that develop CP during pregnancy are born prematurely and so some of their organs are not fully developed.* If some cases of cerebral palsy are truly the product of medical malpractice then parents of kids with cerebral palsy and they think that it is so, then I guess, these parents should consider talking to cerebral palsy lawyers for they are experts when it comes to the laws that protects the right of this patients and they also have resources that could truly identify if it was a natural occurrence or if it was caused by incompetence.

*Resource from www.wikipedia.org

October 15 is the birthday of my brother and what a day indeed. We went out to eat lunch at the Manila foodshoppe in Cebu. We had the sweet and sour pork, satimi and shaghai rice. I suggested that we have lunch there instead for a lot of people said that the food is good. However, I was not really happy about their Satimi. The noodles leaves a certain aroma and it was kinda bland. The sweet andsour pork as kinda okay and the shanghai rice was okay too but the used new cooked rice so it was kinda wet. I was impressed by their green mango shake though. It was one of the best I had so far. After eating, my bro and I was about to go home when a shirt on the display window caught out attention. So off we went on our hour shopping spree.

Then later in the afternoon, I went to meet Wena in Ayala for she wanted to meet the tech there for some issues with the OS and she wants it reformatted. Unfortunately, we were not able to see him for we were in a hurry to meet some of our friends from work at Starbucks so that we can go out for dinner. They said Nikko came home from Japan and wants to go out for dinner. I didn’t recognize him at first for he lost a lot of weight. He said that it was because of the extra hours that he put into his job. He said that he is taking the advantage of working there so that he can save money for his future. When everybody arrived we went to The Walk and ate at Joe’s Grill. I ordered the grilled bangus with red egg and I was kinda disappointed with it for the egg was too salty. When it touches your tongue, the salt kinda stings your tongue. I believe the saltiness of that thing if you will take it everyday may destroy your taste bud. Whoah… It seems I have been having some really bad decisions don’t ya think? After dinner, we went back to Starbucks, where we and Weng stayed from 9PM to 2 AM. I had a venti of their green tea frap which so far was the best choice I made today. I got home at around 2:30 AM but didn’t go to sleep yet. I spent an hour hopping around the web and wrote this article.

It’s 4:14 now and since my tasks for the day is done, it is now time for me to get some goodnight sleep. Ta-ta!

(written October 16th 2008)

We all know about the economic situation in the US. And from what I hear the most affected by the issue is the real estate industry. Am not really sure how this affected the buying power of the consumers and how it influenced the decision to buy real estate properties of the consumers though. But if the economic situation in the US is really bad and the real estate industry is truly affected then the American people will really think twice before buying houses. Although homeowners can hold on to their properties and wait for the value of their properties to go up, some might be in dire need to sell for some financial difficulties like the senior citizens. And since most senior citizens are already under pension and are too old to qualify for a loan, reverse mortgage or lifetime mortgage may actually be an answer to their difficulties. However, reverse mortgages are not for everyone. This loan is only available to homeowners who are 62 year old and older. But, those who are interested in getting this type of loan must seek a third party financial counseling approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Developent (HUD) and set an appointment with the institution where they are planning to get their loan to get more reverse mortgage information. This way interested parties will know what are the effects on having this loan on their social security and medicare benefits, what taxes that may apply and etc.

I have finally seen the 2004 version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera which was played by Gerard Butler (King Leonidas of 300).  Altough I appreciate plays, I am a bit choosy when it comes to watching musicals.  Espeially when they are made into movies.  But I would highly recommend that you watch this movie for Joel Schumacher, the director of the film, Emmy Rossum and Patrick Wilson, Gerard’s co-stars were able to appropriately deliver the emotions that the writer wanted his audience to feel.  The muscial scores were great although I believe they made certain changes on the music to make it sound a bit modern (you will have to correct me if I’m wrong for I was young when the 1980’s version came out), the voice of the singers were great (especially the one who sung Christine’s songs, it was so angelic).  After watching the movie, I have realized that The Phantom of the Opera is the most romantic movie/musical that I have ever seen.  Why, it’s even better than Casa Blanca (no offense meant)!  So to the actors, director, musical director and producer of the movie and to Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber…  Bravo! (as what they would say in the theaters) Speaking of which, I wonder if I get to watch the stage play version of this movie.

You know when people says the word pumpkin, the first thing that comes into mind is Halloween.  And the first thing that you will remember are the lanterns that are used to decorate the yards or most American homes.  However, pumpkins are not just for lanterns.  I heard that some Japanese folks eat them raw because of its sweet taste.  But in North America, pumpkins are made into pies.  A pumpkin pie is a sweet dessert like most pies, but is usually made in the fall and early winter.  North Americans would usually prepare it on Thanksgiving, Christmas and of course during the Halloween.  This dessert is so loved and is a seasonal treat (meaning it’s made during special occasions), a lot of companies came up with products that has similar flavor.  And since this pie is usually served after the Thanksgiving dinner, a lot of memories are made while enjoying it with the rest of the family which could also be the reason why there were songs written that mentions it and a lot of people love it so much.

Here is a sample of a Classic Pumpkin Pie recipe:**

I went to the office today even if it was my rest day to monitor some calls for it’s the end of the month and I need to do some catching up.  I have spent four hours of my rest day in the office an hour of which was spent waiting for the tool to open up.  Sheesh!  There were a few people when I arrived for I made sure that it was the end of the shift so that I can get a station to work in.  Penny was there and he called me when he saw me,  I was like “yes…?”  He opened a lateral and handed me a box and a certificate.  I was like what is this for?  He said “read the paper…” (what a friend huh?) He can be annoying sometimes but in a good way.  So I read it.  It’s an R and R for performance from our clients.  It turned out they had an awarding last night and the representative from our clients who arrived from the US brought some giveaways.  Along with the certificate is a Stanley Vacuum Bottle!  What a surprise!  My mom has been bugging me about getting one of these things so that I can have a hot drink everyday and I have been wishing to get one but can’t afford to get one and so God made a way.  God is really good!  He always gives me what I need in the right timing.  Could this be?  Could this be the surprise that my stars have told me that I have wrote about?  Wow!  It is indeed a good surprise.  But I pray that there will be a room for another one for I do have this one prayer that I would want to come true before the end of the month.  My CSat score!  I hope it will increase before the month ends.  I only have 8 surveys and it’s not looking pretty well.  Lord if it’s not too much to ask, please, please give me more top boxes. Please…

4AM, September 17th, 2008.  After eating my “breakfast”, I went ahead and went through my messages on my chatbox and clicked on the links of my fellow bloggers.  And so I was brought to the Technology in Daily Life’s site and saw this refrigerator which reminded me of my friends who complained about missing food that are stored in the fridge.  And the culprits… are the rats that stands on two legs and can look around the fridge without disturbing what’s inside of the fridge.  And since there are a lot of you in the house, you can’t point your finger to whoever because you are not too sure if your charges are correct.  So for those friends of mine, here is the answer to all your worries.  A flatshare fridge with multiple doors so each one of you can actually get his/her space.  With this new model, you will no longer hear lines like “oh I’m sorry, I thought that was mine,” or “it wasn’t me”.  However, am not sure if these doors comes with a lock.  I hope they do.  If not, then I sure hope that Electrolux, the manufacturers of the said fridge will consider adding that into their designs.  Hehehe…

Don’t you ever wonder how people came up with the names of the cosmetic procedures that we have today?  Names like Bangkok Beauty and all that.  I don’t know if that applies to other places but in the Philippines, people will know where you had your procedure done by the name used to describe the new you.  Like when you say Bangkok beauty, it means you had something done in Bangkok.  Which is kinda interesting because it’s not obvious which part of you was enhanced.  So people who hears that will have to make their imagination run to know which part of you was changed.  Although using names like Houston breast implants will be a better way to name the implants that will be used for any procedures.  Because as a consumer, you will have an idea which is the best manufacturer of such products.  Remember that implants are foreign objects that are added into our bodies so it is important that we know that they are safe and of good quality.  It is as important as knowing that who ever will be doing the procedure is a competent doctor.  We definitely wouldn’t want to have the nightmares that happened to some people who have undergone some procedures and ended up regretting that they even thought of going under the knife.  So if you’re planning to get something done like having some collagen added to your lips to have lips like Angelina Jolie, I truly recommend that you research on it before rolling it out.  Keep in mind that we only have one life to live and the reason why we make decisions like these is to make us feel better about ourselves not the other way around.