Archive for the ‘people’ Category
Filed under people
I grew up believing that he was a pedophile, that he was gay, that he had himself bleached because he didn’t like his color. At that time, in the 1990s, he had begun to lose his luster, and the child molestation charges against him were what greeted my consciousness. I wasn’t part of the generation that worshipped him. I knew nothing about his genius. The only songs that I could sing to were his Heal the World, because we sang it in class in third grade, and You Are Not Alone, because it was a hit in the mid-1990s. (I realize now that I’d heard most of his songs then, I just didn’t know that they were his). I knew that he was famous, but to me, he was just another name.
So when the news of his death broke out, I shrugged. But as it is impossible to get away from all the coverage on TV and on the web sites that I visit everyday, I got curious about him and dug deeper, and from what I pieced together from bits and pieces, I found a heart-breaking story of wasted genius, of someone who was so good at at what he did but was mocked for being himself.
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Filed under career, people, personal
When I was 19, I attended a career and leadership training wherein the speaker introduced us to the Hedgehog Concept. At that time, like many students about to finish college, I didn’t know where I was going or what was ahead of me. I was very passionate about journalism, but I wasn’t sure where it would take me or if it could support the life that I wanted. The Hedgehog Concept changed that. I applied it to my life, and it hasn’t left me ever since. I still use it in making important decisions.
Today, I think I already know where I want to be for the long haul. I feel immensely blessed that I found my niche early, and that it gives me the challenges that I need and provides for the lifestyle that I want. I am very grateful to that man for sharing what he knew. I was prepared early. I saved precious time.
The Hedgehog Concept is simply a Venn diagram of (1) your passion, interests, and hobbies, (2) specialties and skills, and (3) the job market or the times. Somewhere in the middle, the three intersect, and that is your place under the sun.
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Filed under advocacy, people
These artists are selling their sketches for Pens of Hope, a project that gathers pens and pencils for poor schoolchildren in remote parts of the country. A pen may be a small thing to us, but it is a big thing for kids whose parents cannot even afford one for them.
No matter how often we convince ourselves that poverty is not an obstacle to success, it just isn’t true. A child needs to at least be properly nourished and have some writing materials to learn. How can a child learn to write when she doesn’t even have a pen?
Let us help these kids write their future. The drawings for sale will be put up for an exhibit at Turtle’s Nest, Gorordo Avenue, Cebu City on June 10, 13, 17, 20, 23, 27, & 30. See you!
Filed under culture, family, people, rants
I am of the opinion that a parent should at some point be free of primary responsibility over a child. Say, when you are 18 freaking years old, you should already know how to feed yourself, do your own laundry, and wipe your own ass.
I know we Filipinos like bonding so much that we tend to keep several generations under one roof, but I don’t like it. To me, parents should already be enjoying the sunset of their lives when the children are grown. They should only be enjoying their lazy afternoons and dote on their grandchildren.
A child should move out of the family nest, if not upon reaching legal age, then upon getting married. That is the only way for the child to learn how to handle responsibilities. This might be hard to do in some circumstances, but don’t you think it is only fair that a child who still lives at home at least contribute to the family coffer and not totally depend on the aging parents? It’s not about the money, it is about the backbone. And although a grandparent can help watch over a grandchild, the parent still should have primary responsibility (especially the financial worries) over the grandchild.
I’ve been independent since I was 17, and financially independent since I was 21. I haven’t asked for a centavo ever since. I am not saying though that I am a model child. Far from it. I can’t cook decent meals for myself and I hate doing the laundry, but I don’t ask my mother either to do my chores for me.
What I am saying is that we should at least try to be self-reliant, to unburden our parents of the worries they had when they raised us and watched over us for several years.
You know why our country is so poor? I don’t think it’s because of the corruption in the government. I’d like to go back to the basic, and it starts in the family: so many of us do not have backbones.
Filed under people, personal
It used to be that this big, old house had 12 merry girls living under its roof. Weekday nights were filled with conversation and laughter while we sit around the television and eat dinner in front of it. Oftentimes, in the middle of the night, someone would say she’s hungry, and we’d be happy to have an excuse to order burgers and fries and Coke and boxes of pizza.
Sometimes we would all just go out in our pambahay clothes to eat at the fastfood outlets that abound in this area of the city. Every time there is a birthday, or a promotion, or a regularization, or just about anything worth celebrating, we would hold a party, and because there were 12 of us, we would have at least one party a month. That excludes the big party at Christmas, the weekly official gatherings on Monday nights, and the random getaways.
Things have changed, though, in only a span of few months. There are only six of us now. The others have gotten married, eloped with the boyfriend, left to live with a sick father, or moved back to watch over the empty family home. Of the six of us still here, one is rarely here because her family lives just a town away, and two are always out with their boyfriends. (Should I just get a boyfriend, too? LOL). My roommate is also leaving in a week to prepare for the coming of her baby. It’s sad, but I’m also glad that she is keeping the baby.
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Filed under people, technology
So I just wrote about how amazed I was that Matt Mullenweg, WordPress founder, is only 24. Well, I found out today that the founder of Facebook is as young. He is Mark Zuckerberg, dropout from Harvard, and the world’s youngest billionaire today.
Wasn’t Bill Gates also a dropout? I see a trend here.
Tells us all how wit and initiative can get us farther than old school education, of which I was never a fan.
Filed under human interest, people, travel, trivia
It’s Robert Pershing Wadlow, from Alton, Illinois. He was 8 feet 11 inches tall when he was last measured in 1940, when he was just 22 years old. When he was nine, he was able to carry his father, who was 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighed 170 lbs, up the stairs of their family home.
To illustrate, this is how tall he is, and this is how short I am:
That’s a life-size replica of him at the Guinness World of Records Museum in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, a tourist town I visited and fell in love with last week. (That’s for another entry, though. :)) I am half his height at about the same age!
And this is how my foot compares to his:
I wear an Asian size 5 shoes by the way, which is size 4 in the US.
Filed under Photohunt, people, travel
It’s midnight where I am, and I can’t go back to sleep. I’m still on Philippine time, I guess. I thought I’d better do my PhotoHunt until sleep comes upon me. 
I am featuring here some paintings made by children for the Art for Heart, an exhibit set up by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey for the children who lost loved ones at the 9/11 tragedy. It was intended as a therapy for the kids. Look what they’ve come up out of their loss, and notice the raw emotion in the artworks.
Click the photos to enlarge.
The exhibit, by the way, was put up at the site of the World Trade Center. I’m not sure if the paintings are still there today, though.
Filed under people, personal
One of the unlikely places to hear about the dreams and aspirations of random strangers is at the US embassy. There’s this lounge where you wait for the visa interview. On one side of the room is a line of booths where the consuls are. The consuls decide whether you can enter the United States. People try to look their best and arm themselves with the best English they have.
When your number is called, you go to a window, and then the consul grills you on the purpose of your visit, how long you would be staying there, when are you coming back. They also ask you details about your family, your properties, your finances, even your plans for the future.
Because the place is packed, and because sometimes the consuls probe that deep, visa applicants give details of their plans 40 years into the future. One woman the other day said she would manage a restaurant when she gets there, and hopes that that would be her financial investment. Another woman, who I understand is a social studies teacher, said she will share her knowledge when about different cultures, and said some things that an ambassador or a Miss Universe contestant would say.
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Filed under Photohunt, people
It’s PhotoHunt time once again.
I met this boy while I was doing my undergraduate thesis two years ago in a remote area in Rizal, about an hour away from Manila.
We had to walk up a slope and then cross streams and log bridges to get to where he lived. The area had no electricity and no running water. The main source of livelihood was farming, and most of the residents, including his parents, had no education.
I can’t quite put a finger on what he must be feeling when I took this shot. I just found him cute, looking up at me like that, while I was talking to the older people in the house. He seemed so innocent, so oblivious to what was happening.
