For me, anyone who enters into the political arena is either dirty, corrupt, plain stupid, or a combination of all. I hate people who twist the truth. I hate people who use the media to advance their self-interests (and I hate the media for sensationalizing at times!). I hate those people who are holier-than-thou and always on the lookout for something or anything negative to say about the Philippines (or about someone else!). I hate those people who blame everybody else except themselves.

No matter how hateful I am of politics, and because I am a political animal, as all are Aristotle said, I still maintain a certain stand on certain issues.


I hate myself for not liking Jun Lozada. Frankly, I thought he hasn't told any truth since the start. All he did is insinuate. And the saddest part is that the intelligente in Manila seemed to have accepted his insinuations as evidence of truth.

And I think this is the reason why no matter how many political figures back him up and support him, they will not be able to summon up enough number for any change of guard in the government.


None of those I've elected in the past ever won. But I will be on continuous lookout for someone who'd satisfy my following criteria:

Must be faithful to the marriage. If you can't be faithful to your wife, how can you be faithful to the many?

Must always be truthful. Always direct to the point, no frills, no fuzz, no insinuations.

Must not be a media ass-kisser. In fact, the lesser the media mileage, the better. I hate those politicians who jump at an issue the soonest they get a chance.

Blah...blah...

Better yet, why not we plot a table using Carlos Alberto Montaner's 20 categories in electing a good president (actually he listed only 19, I don't know why, that's why I added the 20th category).

Like so...


Full file is available if you want to copy or download it.

Montaner is a respected Latin American journalist, a professor and President of Firma Press.



[By the way, have you already subscribed to my feed? If you haven't, I'd appreciate if you do. Thanks.]

I thought of joining the logo/banner contest of PEBA but I just can't come up with a decent design of my own.

These are the best I can come up with to show my support to PEBA 2009. My promotional logo design for PEBA.

Please right-click, feel free to get one (in case, you fancy it), post it in your blog, and kindly link it to Pinoy Expat-OFW Blog Awards 2009 of Kenjie. That's http://www.pinoyexpatsblogawards.com/.

By the way, I turned off the comment section of this post so I won't hear you say that I'm great and that my work is a thing of beauty. Because I know it isn't :-(

I'm so uncool, aint' I?

I would appreciate if you would, instead, comment on my faith, fear and peace post yesterday. And of course continue spreading the news about PEBA 2009!

Thanks.

I attended a religious mass yesterday (yes, here in Saudi) and the reading was about Christ's resurrection, particularly, on Luke's narration of how Jesus appeared among the disciplines.

Jesus said: Peace be with you. And then he asked for food (the disciples thought they were seeing a ghost and so to prove them wrong, Jesus asked for something to eat) and the disciples gave him a fish.


The mass eucharistic priest said: "Fear is inversely proportional to faith. You fear because you're faithless. You're brave because you're full of faith.

And you can only have peace in your heart if you don't fear, if you have faith."

Like so...

(Plotted this in MS Excel to show the relationships between fear, faith and peace, i.e. the higher the faith, the lower the fear, the higher the peace.)


I fear of losing my job, I fear about my parents' dying, I fear of my own dying, I fear about losing money, I fear the Saudi police, I fear about getting old.

It's endless.

Now, there's that one thing I fear the most. Losing my faith -- in God, in myself, in others. And so I continually pray that no matter what the future brings, no matter what hardships I encounter, may God continually give me that gift of faith. Give us that gift of faith.

And that gift of hope and that gift of love, as well.

So I can be in peace. So we can be in peace.

Amen.

This is the full reading of the Sunday mass.


[By the way, have you already subscribed to my feed? If you haven't, I'd appreciate if you do. Thanks.]

How many times have you encountered someone who gleefully greeted you and chatted with you, and at the back of your mind you were asking yourself who the guy is, what's his name, where you've met him, the sort?





[By the way, have you already subscribed to my feed? If you haven't and before you forget, I'd appreciate if you do it now. Thanks.]

The 2nd year of Pinoy Expats/OFW Blog Awards will be launched in the coming months and Kenjie, the man behind PEBA, is inviting all bloggers to join in the search for the PEBA award's new banner/badge.

This year's theme is "Filipinos abroad - hope of the nation, gift to the world".

Requirements: Banner/badge size is 200 x 180 pixels and should incorporate the following graphics (I've put a link on the graphics so you can get the artwork directly from Kenjie's site).

Colors of font and background must be reflective of the Philippine flag and/or the custom black and white. (In other words, any of the red, blue, yellow, black and white colors).

Rules: Bloggers who wish to join must write a post about his/her entry explaining why the design should be chosen and its relevance to the theme. The post must include a link to the PEBA Project and the forthcoming 2009 Pinoy Expats-OFW Blog Awards.

Deadline for submission of entries is on 30 April 2009.

For more details, please visit the Pinoy Blog Awards site or email top10pinoyexpatsblog@gmail.com.


The Center for Art, New Ventures and Sustainable Development or Canvas is currently sponsoring a banner writing contest with the topic "What does it mean to be a Filipino?"

This is part of Canvas' Looking for Juan Project which aims to organize "an outdoor art exhibition featuring the works of 200 of the country's best artists, writers, graphic designers and photographers, showcased as banners, all conveying unique personal visual or literary representations of the contemporary Filipino."

Entries must be in 30 words or less; can either be in English or Filipino. If it's selected, it will be included in some of the banners that will line the UP Academic Oval in June 2009, and which will eventually be converted into tote bags that will be sold for charity.

For more details, please visit http://lookingforjuan.blogspot.com/

Put your thoughts into words and email your entries to info@canvas.ph on or before 15 May 2009.

Subtitle: Changing season in Saudi and lotso thank you's.

As I'm writing this, it's raining outside. Perhaps the last in Saudi this season. Tomorrow, there will likely be a sandstorm. It's a clockwork really: cold season is ushered in by a rain followed by a sandstorm (shamal in Arabic). Same thing with the advent of the dreaded summer: rain then sandstorm.

Seasons in Saudi are extreme. During summer, it gets very, very hot; during winter, the cold is biting.

I'm a cold-season guy. In fact, I dread summer, mainly because of the following mundane reasons.
1. I tan easily (translation: lalo akong umiitim);
2. I sweat a lot during summer (I wonder who doesn't) and therefore I laundry more (translation: tamad!;
3. I hate cooking during summer because our kitchen is A/C-less;
4. In summer I need to drink lots of moya (Arabic for water). If I'm consuming 5 galloon a month now, during summer it would be 10. That's an additional expense! That kuripot I am!
5. Because it's going to be hot outside our office building where the smoking area is, I will need to clandestinely steal some moments in the loo to smoke.

I am, admittedly, a shallow person!.

The forewarning of changing season is much like life. Before anything important happens, we get warnings (sometimes obvious, othertimes vague). A sore throat or a slight fever leads to colds. A sudden text from a relative we have not heard of for a long time means an additional remittance. A dream of something ominous means a secret yearning for something spiritual. And an award from a fellow blogger means you're appreciated.

And so I wish to thank The Pope for the Neno Award. What a segue way, huh.


Pope's Palipasan blog never ceases to inspire me -- and I said that not because he gave me an award but because it truly is coming from my heart. I also thank the ever-funny Sardonyx for the same award. (And my heartfelt thanks to Ed of The Sandbox for including me in his anniversary caricature. Cool!)

Shukran jazilan guys!

Why I love blogging? Because the following ad slogans inspire me!
AT&T who said "reach out and touch someone";
Singapore Airline's (it's) "...a great way to fly";
and finally of Coke who quipped: "it's a real thing!".

Seriously, I love blogging because of c-o-u-n-t-l-e-s-s of reasons, primarily to learn and share (I've yet to decipher how I could earn from it. Hehe).

Finally, I pass on this award to the following ten uber superb bloggers:

• The Pink Tarha Team(they actually count four: Sundrenched, Sugar, Mary and Candy)
• Madjik
• Ever
• Super G
• Azel
• Samjuan
• Dennis Villegas

(By the way, you may want to pay a visit to Polyvore, the source of this Nano Award. They offer a free, web-based drag and drop application for mixing and matching images. Haven't tried it but I thought it's kind of cool).

What a long pause!

And what a short post!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Will resume posting my usual blah-blahs tomorrow.

[..

Among the characters sorrounding the passion of Christ Jesus, whom do you honestly identify yourself with?

..]



From today until Saturday, my blog will be on a silent mode, reflecting on the sanctity of the One whose death (and resurrection) we commemorate this week.

God nudges me especially during those moments when my intentions are not good.

Today, I attended a fire drill meeting in our office and while everybody else was glib-talking about how we could make our building a safer place, I opened my mouth to speak.

I said: "During safety, er accident, incidents, people normally group together."

Huh?

Yeah. That's what I said. Totally bereft of meaning. But I honestly heard the coordinator say that I raised a good point. Hu-what?! What's good about my point?! I don't even know what my point was.

Actually, what I wanted to say was: During emergencies, people normally converge with their respective groups hence we no longer need to put a demarcation flag on where each company must go.

Honestly, the only reason why I opened my mouth was be a 'show off'. Before my blunder, I imagined the attendees whispering to one another about how cool I am!

So you see, God nudged me and the faux pas brought me down on the ground.

How many occasions have I felt the nudge of God? A lot!

One day, I was about to insensitively namecall someone because I thought he was not around. I was about to say, where's the fag?! but I ended up asking where's-his name?. The guy responded. And I literally, sighed with relief!. I whispered: Thank you Lord for controlling my sinful tongue.

The other day I asked someone whether he finished the task I gave him and he confrontationally answered that he's loaded with other works and that I'm his last priority. I felt my ears reddened and I almost answered back. But God nudged me and I ended up telling the guy that my question was not, in any way, intended to berate him nor judge his work output. And that I could wait for a longer time because our deadline was extended. He apologized and we still are friends. Thank you, Lord.

One Saturday morning, we were in a car going to the office and no one was talking among us. Weekend hangover? Or perhaps Saudi blues? God nudged me and I blurted out: "Look at those sunflowers. So yellow and so sweet! Flowers are God's ways of smiling at people." They all smilingly agreed. Thank you, Lord.

God, is in fact nudging me now. He's saying that He should be the superstar of this post. He is.

[By the way, have you already subscribed to my feed? If you haven't, I'd appreciate if you do. Thanks.]

For this Semana Santa, I will try to abstain from the following:

1/ eating meat and meat derivatives (soo glad there's no pork here in Saudi!);
2/ blogging in the office;
3/ sounding know-it-all in my advices;
4/ engaging in idle talks (in the office and at home);
5/ smoking in the office loo;
6/ judging the person's character based on what he cooks and eats;
7/ judging the person's character based on his blog;
8/ agitating an officemate or giving someone a coronary;
9/ making faces;
10/ including the words 'ochosera' or 'echos' in my daily conversation with others.

Too shallow a list huh? Believe me in saying this: giving them up is totally difficult for me. Seriously.

(I'm soo glad I have the option to break the list come April 13. Just kidding).