Supernatural Season 4

The thing about ironing a lot of clothes is I get to catch up on my favorite TV series. Supernatural happens to be one of them. It has been running for four seasons now and I have got a lot of backlog to watch!

Come to think of it, I did not believe that this series would last this long. Actually, after the Winchesters killed the Yellow Eyed Demon in Season 2, I thought that this was the end of the adventures of the duo---wrong! It so happened that a whole lot of demons got out before Dean and Sam closed the doors of hell! That became the storyline for Season 3.

After making a deal with a demon to save Sam's life, hell finally catches up with Dean in the Season 3 finale---now how do you top that to do a Season 4? Well, with a stroke of genius---the writers put in Angels to the equation! Now, it's Demons, Angels, and the Winchesters in a merry-go-round of twist and turns!

I just watched Episode 4-10 and boy, it was worth all the mound-full of ironing!

Twilight

Edward and Bella. The Romeo and Juliet of the on screen adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight". One a human, the other a vampire. Hmmm...now where have I heard of this storyline before? Oh, yeah---Bram Stoker's "Dracula". In my opinion, Twighlight is the modern day romanticized version of Mina and Count Dracula!

I just watched the movie with my wife and I would have slept through it if not for her sharp elbowing whenever she'd hear me snore! I guess I've watched too much vampire movies to find this one interesting enough for me to stay on the edge of my seat in anticipation. For one thing, it was more a love story than anything else. It doesn't hold much suspense either! I guess the only part I liked about the movie was from the baseball scene up to the chase scene. After that it was like an F-15 loosing both its engines at 35,000 feet! To have labeled this movie as "action packed" is definitely a misnomer!

No, I haven't had the chance to read the novel yet but I did Google Stephenie Meyer and browsed through her official website. Apparently, her story was like that of J.K. Rowlings---first time writer who made it big! Like Rowlings and her Harry Potter series, Meyer also scored a franchise out of the love story of Edward and Bella with "New Moon", "Eclipse", "Breaking Dawn", and "Midnight Sun"(the last one has yet to be published)! Considering the big fan base that the Twilight series has I am intrigued as to what got lost in the moview versus the book! I liked Anne Rice' book "Interview with a Vampire" but was turned off with the movie with all it's missing side stories! The only thing I like about novels translated to the big screen is that you get to identify a face with to each character! In fairness to the movie, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart did have great chemistry as the star crossed lover. No wonder my daughter Chesca is agog to watch this movie! Actually, she was suppose to watch it today with a friend but got cancelled the last minute.

I'm definitely raising hell if the book will have the same disappointment as the movie!

Understanding Inflation and Interest Rates

The media have been bombarding ordinary folks like us with all this talk of an impending economic crisis next year and, to be honest about it, I did not understand it one bit(with all these babble riddled with technical economic terminologies!).

I chanced upon this article in pinoymoneytalk.com and it gave me a better understanding of two important economic jargons---INFLATION and INTEREST RATES. The nice thing about this article is it also explains the relationship between the two! Have an enlightening read!

What is inflation?
Inflation is the percent change in overall prices between two periods as measured by a price index. The country’s 9.6% inflation rate means, in simple terms, that a product costing P100 last year is now selling at P109.60 this year.
A higher inflation undermines the purchasing power of a currency. This is because one needs more money today compared to last year to buy the exact same thing. So if inflation is rising and wages and personal income are not, the consumer will surely feel the crunch.

What are interest rates?
In the context of inflation, interest rates refer to the benchmark rates such as federal funds rate that the Central Bank (Federal Reserve in the US) uses to control money supply. By imposing higher rates, the Central Bank effectively curtails the ability of banks to lend money to their customers. How? The increased rates force banks to increase their own interest they charge to customers. These refer to interest charged on, say, housing, car, or credit card loans. If, for example, you were planning to buy a house and was thinking of taking out a bank loan, you might back out if you discover that the interest rate on housing loans has increased. In that case, the money that should have been loaned to you is retained with the bank and does not flow to the market.
Banks may also decide to increase their interest on deposit accounts. With higher rates, people might think twice about spending (anyway, it is now worth less than before) and decide to simply save. By saving, the supply of money in the market becomes more limited.

How are inflation and interest rates related?
With less money to spend and weaker purchasing power, people can buy only fewer products compared to before. As a consequence, demand for products declines. When supply exceeds demand, sellers will opt to lower their prices in order to sell their products. When prices are lowered, inflation rate goes down too.
So there, by imposing higher interest rates, the Bangko Sentral can control inflation. That’s exactly what the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas expects to happen when it raised the interest rate yesterday by a quarter of a percentage point (25 basis points).

What are the drawbacks of higher interest rates?
It must be pretty obvious by now. Using our bank loan example again, you’d see that due to higher rates, business activity in the market slows down. The threat of high interest rates make individuals and companies defer taking out loans which could have been used to, say, finance a new business or build a house. Less economic activity translates to slower economic growth. Low growth means reduced company investments, less job opportunities for people, or worse, lay-offs of existing employees. That, certainly, is not good.

What I Learned from my Bus Ride to Work

A funny thing happened yesterday morning as I was on my way to work—I woke up at Ayala Avenue!
I ride the bus every morning and to catch up on some needed sleep I’d snooze it off as soon as I pay the fare. I’m sound asleep as soon as the bus exits the Fairview area. Usually, I’d wake up somewhere in the Cubao area. Yesterday was no different…except…I decided to close my eyes again and the next thing I knew, the bus conductor was yelling “Ayala! Ayala!”
Actually, this is a records of sorts! To tell you the truth, this is not the first time that I overslept on the bus. My previous best was waking up in Guadalupe. Going back home, it was as far back as Tungkong Manga in Bulacan! Don’t worry, I don’t intend of topping the last one!
My call time at work is 7am. I was in Ayala trying to hail a bus ride back to Pasig at 6:50am! Arrived in the office at around 7:25am!
Moral of the story—sleep early!

Winter Solstice

Cooler breeze, longer nights---winter solstice is here! Well, since I’m in the Philippines, snow would be out of the question! But definitely, this time of the year is something looked forward to by Filipinos like me! It’s Baguio-like coldness in summertime! Unfortunately, the long cold nights can be very challenging when it comes to waking up early! Damn challenging indeed!

In our household I’m the one in-charge of preparing breakfast and lunch packs for the kids. That would mean getting up early! My wake up call? 3am. Permit me to explain that.

Diesel engine needs to be heated up before you start it in the morning---I’m like that! Hence, a 30 minute cooking activity can take me a while to do! It would take 30 minutes to drag myself out of the comfort of bed; then there are my daily hygienic and physiological rituals---coupled by TV and internet surfing---would be an additional 30 minutes to 1 hour! Believe it or not, I’d almost always find myself scrambling off to work! Since the office is still in Pasig City, I should be on the road by 5:15 am if I am to skirt the morning rush hour and meet my 7 am call time. And that’s during the humid nights!

Now that it’s cooler, I would sometimes need a slap on the face to keep me moving! What compounds the situation is seeing all my bedmates still bundled up in their blankets and still in dream land! Bummer eh?!

The Hard or Harder Way?

Living life is NOT easy!

From the very beginning, a struggle happens between millions of sperms jockying to penetrate a single egg! Coming out of our mother's womb is even more traumatic! So if you're thinking that life is a FREE ride to Nirvana---you're ABSOLUTELY WRONG!

Now that we've cleared that up, there are two ways on how to go about and making life worth living---the HARD WAY or the HARDER WAY.

The hard way is by LISTENING to the "boring" rantings of your parents. These consists of life experiences that they have gone through which is often preceded by the phrase, "Noong bata pa ako..." Of course, these tales of love, heartaches, difficulties, challenges, trials, success, and triumphs can be daunting to hear since you will be given the reality of life's difficulties. Those who were open to listen and learn basically were given a road map to avoid the rough road. Of course, the fact remains that this journey will be long and filled with challenges!

The HARDER WAY is shunting the councel of your parents and doing things on your own. This would mean that you will make your own mistakes, go through the process of standing up again and hopefully learn from the experience. Many young men and women have chosen to go through this path and apparently, learning from past failures seem to be a very rare commodity! These people almost always end up as BUMS!

May it be hard or the harder way, EDUCATION is a big part of any life plan. If you think that you can just breeze through school and get your dream job---DING! DING! DING!---you're wrong again! The quality by which you went about your life as a student will most often than not determine the job offers that you get. Note: Mediocrity is not a value that any company looks for in an employee!

Planning your life is not just a matter of knowing what you wnat to be. The key engredient to finding success in life is knowing what you want, knowing what needs to be done, and then actually doing it!

My Reading List

During my younger days I used to be a voracious reader! The very first novel I read was "Rich Man, Poor Man" by Irwin Shaw.

At first, it was just a trial read since it was recommended by a friend. But what started out as a curiosity eventually became a hobby! I was so taken by the each book I read that I would take it everywhere I went. One thing I hate is waiting and doing nothing! Reading became my stop gap!

One book came after another: Sidney Sheldon, Robert Ludlum, Harold Robbins, James Clavell, Frederick Forsythe, Anne Rice, Howard Fast, Andrew Greeley, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling and Michael Crichton were my favorites! My recent discovery was Patricia Cornwell.

I'm also into motivational books. Being a fan of the NFL and the NBA I naturally went for the success stories of players like Jim Brown, Kurt Warner, Terrel Davis, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Wilt Chamberlain to name a few.

I guess I got the reading bug from my father. To prove this contagious effect, I seemed to have passed it on to my daughter Chesca. The very first book she read was a present from her Ninang Shannon entitled "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott. Then came the "Lord of the Rings Trilogy" and the "Harry Potter Series". Of course, being a young lady, she's now into the teeny-bopper romance novels "Gossip Girls".

Unfortunately, I no longer have the luxury of time to read like I did before! Now, it's only whenever I'm sitting on the dumpster or if I'm going somewhere where I know would put me on a waiting line.

Phil Jackson's "It's Only a Game" is my current read but there are currently 15 other book purchases that are still in need of my attention stacked in my bookshelf at home and in the office.

Iloilo Tripping Part 2

Day 4
The weather took a slight turn for the better. After having luncheon meat, egg, and fried rice for breakfast, we set off to visit nanay’s grave site around 8am. We were escorted by Lola Ayak, Auntie Judith, Jurome, Noynoy, Kayla and Francis. Visitors were still scarce in Dingle Public Cemetery but the place was already abuzz with workers tidying up the place for the coming “undas”.

Nanay’s grave is still in the same barren state we left it last year. Not for long. My brother-in-law, Nelson, and I made arrangements to have this situation remedied. We miss you Nanay! Rest in Peace!

After eating lunch, we bade Lola Ayak and the rest of the Tingsons adieu! If hospitality had a surname I’d say is has got to be Tingson!

The weather was gloomy and we took the first opportunity to get going before the rain starts again! Unfortunately, we did not have the luxury of hiring an air-conditioned transportation for the kids so we had to settle with a jeepney. Good thing Noynoy was gracious enough to accompany us until Jaro City and help us with the luggage! Daghang salamat, Noynoy!

We took a taxi from Jaro City to Century 21 hotel. We booked for a standard room (since it’s the only room available), reserved a room for Nelson for his arrival tomorrow, freshened up a bit and went to SM City Iloilo to buy pasalubongs! We bought the usual stuff: “biscocho”, “pinasugbo”, “barquillas”, “piyaya”, toasted muffins, and a couple of souvenir shirts.

Day 5
It was an early morning for us. Woke up at 5:30am, got my dose of a long hot bath and started packing up my things.

Ceasar, the taxi driver, arrived at 7:15am. We took our last minute pictures on the hotel lobby and off we went to the airport.

7:55 Am. We bid Ceasar good bye and thanked him for his excellent service.

Tim saw his very first, up close airplane, when Air Philippines air bus landed around 8:15am. As usual, Tim’s voice was the only one heard in the airport! It was a big playground for him and he ran from one end of the airport to the other! I tell you, this boy has got a LOT of energy!!

We only ate left over pizza from the previous night for breakfast so when we finally got settled in the airport, our tummies started grumbling. Good thing there was this coffee shop which offers affordable pastries and extra strong java to boot! The name of the stall is JO Coffee Shop.

Justine on the other hand, sat quietly as he stank up the place with a huge dump! He was, hands down, the best baby in the airport---mainly because HE WAS THE ONLY BABY in the airport!!

9:42 am. Well what do you know, two babies enter the terminal---sorry, STILL NO CONTEST!

The PA announced the boarding orders for Cebu Pacific flight 454 bound for Manila at 10:15 am. Justine was already asleep when we boarded so we only had to contend with Tim and his tantrums. Fortunately, his conniption came out in the latter part of the flight.

I have been flying Cebu Pacific for personal travels and have not participated in their in-flight game. This time was different. The category for the game was famous movie lines. Being a movie buff I found it hard not to join. Actually, I tried closing my eyes to the commotion but when I heard the first line, “May the force…”---I immediately jolted from my oblivion and raised my hand! For all I knew I was the first! Kreesa, the stewardess, may have thought I was asleep and was staring far at the back---darn! That movie was “Star Wars”! Then came the second movie line, “Life is like…” There would be no missing me this time as I raised my hand high in the air! “Forrest Gump!” That earned me a Cebu Pacific pouch! Not contented, I raised my hand once more to snare the third and last movie line, “I can see dead people!” Unfortunately, the crew did not mention the undeclared rule that you can only win once---so the price went to another passenger! Bummer! At least I won!

We landed at NAIA Terminal 3 at 11:45 am. I was supposed to take pictures of the pretty Cebu Pacific stewardesses but they seemed to have vanished when the door opened. Actually, there was one left but I wanted to get all three in one shot. Maybe next time!

This is the first time that I de-planed in this terminal. One thing I can say about the place is that, “It’s huge!” The length of the walk from tarmac to the luggage claiming area was about 4x the length of Terminal 2! Anyway, vacation is over! Hoping to do this again next year!