Middle School Spring Concert

The school named after the first African-American justice is teeming with white heads. All I know about Thurgood Marshall is he was black.

Trails and Photos

Escape to the Mountains

Chasing Pavements at Mount Woodson Summit in Ramona

Pha Khin Tah Ngah

"Mrs. Norbraten, I found your spare tire", Tim Fletcher maintained his best customer service face.
Two hours ago, I called for an appointment and requested for Tim whose name I saw in the invoice from last service of the Pontiac. I was glad i did not tell him that I was calling for a service appointment because his staff forgot to put back the spare tire back on the car when they put a new tire to replace the one that I run flat with no tread left.

Wireless nights and falcon pride

I guess tonight is the neighborhood school area's spring concert night. More than a year ago, the whole household was here to attend the big kid's concert. She was in the choral group and it was to commemorate Veterans day. The master of ceremonies encouraged veterans present to stand to join the singing ifif they hear their song.

Back to the basics

Libraries are cheaper than Starbucks. No need for purchase of cafe macchiato in order to occupy a table and use wi-fi.

The Japan in me

"Japan is much nicer," I retorted to Mr. Watanabe as I left his room. I knew he was trying to be pleasant by telling me that Philippines is a nice country.

I meant it when I told Mr. Watanabe that Japan is much nicer, in fact, much much nicer than my country of birth.  My impressions of Japan came about gradually  like to a second floor apartment dweller sitting by the window everyday  watching and wishing that someday she could live in a beautiful house like that of the Sison's at 11th Jamboree Street. Japan to me was  a rich neighbor who had better education and more academically-inclined. I still look up to Japan as the number one country in Asia,  more like a vision for any lesser Asian to be live up to.

Gratuities

I couldn't tell if Madame Scanlan was really fond of me. I was horrified when she tried to give me money, as gratuities. I thought I wouldn't want to lose my 3D job over $20. I reacted like crazy. I am glad she did not insist or made me accept the $20 or else she would be upset. Truth is, I was humbled.

Madame Scanlan commended me for serving her well. I told her I was part of a team and it was our job to take care of everyone to the best that we can.

I don't know what made her think that she could take me home to take care of her.  But I bade her goodbye this morning promising to get in touch. I gave her my cell and home phone numbers.

I wish I was being commended for my intelligence instead, if any.

Limit everyone from carbon dioxide emissions?

As in no farting allowed?
I don't believe a crap about limiting carbon dioxide emissions. According to medicine.net, individuals free of symptoms of excessive flatulence record an approximately 14 passages of  gut gas per 24 hours.
Nitrogen, the main constituent of air, is the primary gas released during flatulence, along with carbon dioxide. Methane which is a carbon and four atoms of hydrogen is also a component of human carbon emissions.

My Fish Philosophy

Photo was taken in 2007 in Seattle. I was visiting Beng, a former co-worker from the Institute for Labor Studies in Manila.
"What's so special about these fishes being tossed from one worker to another?" I asked Beng.
This was at the Pike Market area where the very first Starbucks was built.
"This is kind of a tourist attraction," Beng explained to me.
I was more attracted to the giant bronze pig.

An Old blog written in 2006

Did you know?

Apr 10, 2006 12:58 am
807 Views

That the World Trade Organization or WTO , the only global international organization dealing with rules and trade between nations was set up in 1995. US, Canada and Mexico all have their membership dated 1 January 1995.

That a WTO negotiation between member countries likes
US, Canada and Mexico in Uruguay led to the General Agreements on Trade and Services (GATS).

That under GATS are 4 modes of trade and services between nations, the most interesting of which that concerns some Americans regarding illegal immigration is Mode 4: the movement of natural persons.

That Mode 4 refers to cross-border migrations. Citizens from a member country like Mexico can enter the territory of another member country like US to supply labor, like agricultural labor.

That on January 6, 2004, President announced the initiative on temporary worker program. The program aimed to protect the rights of illegal workers who live in the shadows and are fearful of coming out of the shadows for fear of deportation. They would get documented and enjoy the same protection that American workers have with respect to wages and employment.

That there is also the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) made by US, Mexico and Canada that aims to strengthen and foster cooperation among the nations involved, among the areas of concern are employment creation and cross-border movement .

That this is getting to be a long and boring blog that I want to go to sleep but since I will be working late tomorrow, I could stay up late. What I was trying to blog about was the popular sentiments and mixed emotions that resulted from the anti-illegal immigration issue. The US congress still has to approve the temporary workers program or the guest workers program whatever one wishes to call. I have the impression however that those politicians, media and all those trying to rant and rave about illegal immigrants increasing the crime rate in US are not aware of what the government is trying to do. I am sure you have heard about the WTO, GATS, NAFTA and the humane side of GWB.

Our Priscilla of the Desert

I tagged our Priscilla in the above photo posted on Facebook by Cindy, a former co-worker in Saudi Arabia now based in London. I was so excited to see Priscilla's name in the billboard and associate cactus and Arizona to a desert. The photo was posted late February of this year. I was so excited when I saw what was photographed seven months ago in person. I took the photo below during daytime, when the lights were off and the cast in this musical are elsewhere and away from this West End Theater in London. I took the picture below in loving memory of our Priscilla who used tell me about the wildflowers of spring in the desert.



I never actually tried the find out what the musical was all about. All it mattered was Priscilla was the queen of the desert. What you don't know can't hurt you but it's too late. I am telling you anyway. The musical tells the story of two drag queens and a transexual. Priscilla is not one of the drag queens, thank God. Priscilla is the lavender bus that take the two drag queens and their transexual friend to Alice Springs, a resort town in a remote Australian desert. The musical was said to be funny and features what used to be my theme song: "I will Survive".
Speaking of LGBT's, the day before Priscilla died, I went to the San Diego Gay Pride Festival to photograph drag queens. Below is a three-month old photo on my blackberry to prove that I did go photograph homosexuals at San Diego's Balboa Park the day before Priscilla died.



Going back to Priscilla who is the straight one, knowing myself better than anyone, one of my fondest memory of her was her coming to my defense upon a rumor that I was gay. We haven't met in person back then. One afternoon as I was set to go for a walk, she called me on my cell phone and told me about how FreshEmerald insinuated in a blog that I was gay among other things. Priscilla never asked, neither did I tell!


There's our Priscilla of the desert above. I took the picture. She brought me to the Phoenix botanical garden, sort of her sanctuary. She looked forward to the wildflowers of spring. She will forever be our Priscilla of the Desert.

Sugar catches more flies than vinegar....

Meeting Vocera in London

I said goodbye to that man with a funny hat at 12:20 pm, London time at London Heathrow Airport. It was 8:20 am in Philadelphia and 5:20am in San Diego. He is an Englishman, obviously. If I was talking to an American who spoke English the way Piers Morgan did, I would have told him he had a fancy accent.
"I come from New England," the American would say.
I was so glad to be back in London after a quickie visit to Turin, Italy. At Stansted Airport, I asked an Englishman at the ticket booth for bus and train which would be the better transportation to take to central London for sight seeing purposes.
He seemed to be listening intently to my question.
"Don Andersten."
Sounds like a Swedish name. I am in EU alright.
"Say that again?"
Instead of saying pardon me, I sometimes phrase my request to repeat what the other person is trying to tell me thinking of a funny way Jules, a former colleagues, used to put it:
"Come again?"
But the Englishman was beginning to look bewildered like he was trying to tell me something in simpler English any Asian would easily understand.
"Don Andersten?"
Hmmm...
Eureka!
I'll have one bus ticket for London Victoria Station, please."
Now I have a name for my Vocera when i return to work: Don Andersten.

Bridges at the Thames River

Cousin Sue said she had never been at the Tower Bridge. She had been living in London for the last twenty-eight years. If I did not visit, she would not be seeing the engine rooms of the Tower Bridge for the first time.
Aunt Pauline, who has lived in London for the last thirty-eight years and Cousin Sue's mom, explained to me that the London Bridge referred to in the nursery rhyme is actually the Tower Bridge. The Tower Bridges folds up to let big sea vehicles into the further end of the Thames River.
There's something literary about Thames River.
More poetic than nursery rhymes:
"London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down...crap!"


I chat with my husband online and tell him that I was at the London Bridge during the day.
"What you saw is a replica of the original London Bridge. The real London Bridge is in Lake Havasu, Arizona", my husband told me.
If my husband says so, as usual it would be a fact that London Bridge is in Lake Havasu, AZ.
"LOL."
"Don't LOL me, google it up."
My babe would be in Ire land if I don't stop ROFL.
I did google London Bridge and indeed, it is in the States, at Lake Havasu, Arizona.


"That would be a silly picture," an Englishman remarked as Aunt Pauline instructed Cousin Sue and I to get our hands closer to make a picture that would look like we were pushing a big building with our bare hands. We were in the middle of the Millenium Bridge.

"Mind your own business, this is a free country," Cousin Sue retorted to the Englishman.

The Englishman just kept walking as other pedestrians did. It was just another busy afternoon in London.

Blogging on a burp bag

This US Airways flight 250 readies for take-off. The exact time as I scribble on a burp bag is 6:55 am. No electronic device is allowed until the plane is airborne. That explains the burp bag. This is the burp bag blogger seated on F by the window. F stands for falcon which pho-eating Asians pronounce as Pha Khin.

Pha Khin burp bag blogger seated on F by the window scribbling on a burp bag!

More pho, Djeline?

I am about to rip the burp bag so I have more space to scribble on. The marks made by a chicken looking for stray grains on the ground would look better than my scribbling.

Pubic address (PA) says we are almost at Phoenix. Pardon my scribbling, I meant public. How can pubic be public? I could hear Ka Orly's favorite reply to my constant queries when I was still his student: "That remains to be seen!"

Ka Orly was my professor in community organizing at Asian Social Institute in Manila. He is now a peace worker on Afghanistan. I was brimming with pride when I learned about his work when I tracked him at Facebook. May he live long and thrive as I hope every peace worker in Afghanistan should.

I just ripped the burp bag so I could scribble on the other side of the durable paper that burp bags are made of. My scribblings now look as good as then scratches made by chicken as they looked for treats of worms and stray grains on the ground. Funny how scenarios from my rural origins in the Thrid World come up alongside the cosmopolitan facade of fellow passengers in this US Airways flight 250 bound for Philadelphia.

Late

"Let's welcome the late Joe Tye Otten!"

What I like most about my past workplaces were the opportunities to improve my heckling skills. There was nothing much to remember anyway being the non-performing ass that I had always been. Arriving late to a meeting and being welcomed as a deceased had always been the favorite routine at the Institute for Labor Studies, my last workplace before I came to America.

Joe Tye Otten was a character who I brought along with me from Northern Mindanao. Maphie Mook and Madge Noon recently joined forces with Joe Tye to celebrate cultural diversity and gay pride in America. Now all immigrants and naturalized Americans, Joe Tie would always be Visayan. No amount of Latter-day Saints' Christianity would change Maphie Mook and Madge Noon who would always be Arabs.

I initially thought of writing this blog to commemorate the birthday of my friend who died forty days ago today. The late Priscilla Decena Pampliega. My Abyan is officially accepted in heaven. I meant this blog to be sober and soul searching to mark Priscilla's point of no return to earth. But I don't want to miss taking note of how I hugged a tall lady wearing her little black dress who I thought was Vilma at the chapel where Priscilla's memorial service was being held in Phoenix.
"I'm Tess, Priscy's cousin. How are you?"
"Ohhh..."
I couldn't think of anything to say.
I hugged the wrong person.

workplace diversity at its best

My ideal workplace. Johannes* (pronounced like you' highness) is such a professional and serious clinician and that couldn't be him goofing off in front of my blackberry. I didn't expect Johannes could come out looking so funny and be captured as such by Chita** in my blackberry.

It was a night of Androids, iPhones and my lowly blackberry curve. Jesus told me it could be his last night working at the unit before he leaves for Northern California. He got accepted to a graduate program at University of California Davis on a scholarship. Wow. My Nelson Mandela personified. Cool. I thought I would never come upon the likes of Lev A. in the American workplace.
Jesus asked me to hold my "plus" sign. I did obligingly and that instant, I became a photo file in his iPhone with my "plus" sign hidden between my thumb and forefinger, and a thyroid in the foreground.

Jesus is Issa in Arabic. Jesus asked me if I am a Christian.
"Why'd you ask?" I could never give a straight answer because I don't have one to the questions of Jesus.
"You're wearing a cross. Christians wear cross."
Jesus is obviously a Christian, what else could he be?
"Jesus, it's a plus sign."
Jesus. Maria. Jose!


*Not his real name.
** Not her real name either.

Social Network

RN recorded the movie in this post title: Social Network! I love it because I could relate with the story. It's my Facebook. Because of Facebook, my social network expanded. My trip to the Bay Area in June 2010 was Facebook-related.