Who is to Avoid What?

While our elders are being advised by doctors to avoid monosodium glutamate (vetsin), processed meat products, and instant foods, our supermarkets and commercial advertisements are almost filled with products of artificial flavorings, powdered easy-to-cooks, and quick-cook foods. Only selected products nowadays are really healthful.

I have witnessed doctors giving prescriptions against high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high SGPT, high LDL, high uric acid, gastrointestinal diseases, and urinary tract infections.They were in periodical monitoring of their patients with these problems. They were giving medications which must be taken continuously, others perpetually. They were issuing requests for blood tests, urinalysis, etc. Others were requested to have an xray, an ultrasound for some. If pain endures and yet no diagnosis after the ultrasound, they would give another request, this time for a CT Scan. The doctors also gave brochures and flyers about foods to avoid and foods to eat in moderation. These doctors had common instructions to their patients - avoid salty foods, fatty foods, several instant foods, processed meats, liquor, etc.; exclude vetsin in daily dishes; and quit smoking.

Yet these days...

We are bombarded with these products. Loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol yet zero percent vitamins A and C. Less iron, less calcium. The target market? Children!!! Imagine? The very foods doctors tell their patients to avoid. Foods that have caused many people under medications.Yeah... better start giving these now while they are young!

Oh of course, the counter-attack of advertisers - they must be taken in moderation. Everything in excess is not good. Besides, there are also some benefits in eating these foods. I know. I just don't like the idea of giving these to children yet I have seen adults being advised otherwise.



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Sidewalk Vendors

I am not in full favor of the MMDA actions against the sidewalk vendors especially those who really strive to have even a small capital for a small business. I mean, these are people we are talking about. People who try to live as normal as they could in the midst of an economical crisis. How on earth should they pay for space rent if their income is not even close to buy a decent meal? Whose fingernails must they harvest the money to apply for a business permit? Which hand of their ancestors must they dig to start a real life? And MMDA has been very brutal to them. Destroying everything not theirs.

Who!? Who had been complaining about these vendors? Who? I've heard no one, nobody complaining about them. In fact, students and ordinary people, who had been MMDA's reason for clearing the ways, had been unconsciously supporting these vendors by purchasing their goods. If there is any complainant, why not present them to the public as well? Oh yeah, it is the MMDA's authority to clean up the streets and roads of these vendors. And brutally destroy their source of living? Oh come on!

Just scare them away. Tell them to go. Have them leave the site on that very instant. But not destroy or take their goods away. Don't make them hate the government more than they hate it already. Educate them. Inform them. Help them understand. Oh yes they know. They know it's illegal to vend on sidewalks. But in a country like ours, where jobless people to low income earners compose the majority of our population, sidewalk vending is really expected.

I know, I know. MMDA would say they have given all the warnings, time, cautions, letters, threats, whatever to these vendors yet they keep on coming back. Still, I think the government must think of another way of dealing with these vendors.



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Prom Night (2008) - Warning SPOILER

Nothing special. Less than ordinary movie. Every event has been predictable. It's like watching a reenactment of a crime. It's the typical obsession leading to a series of killings then in the end, the killer, at his most promising climactic act, is shot dead. The end. Just that. Nothing enjoyable. Everybody is dead except for the hunted.



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PDA Season 2 - 3rd Performance Night

My stand regarding the third performance night in PDA Season 2.

Sheng is a performer. She doesn't just open her lips and make a sound; she sings. She doesn't just stand and wave her hands here and there; she moves with the music. She doesn't make issues inside the academy; she blends in well. Above all, she doesn't have an attitude problem.

Jet performs. He stands and sings. He opens his arms and flicks his eyes while you hear his voice. And that's just it.

Between the two, I like Sheng. If voice quality is the basis, she also has it. If looks is the basis, she is not a pain in the eyes. If being a good looking guy is the basis, the academy still has Van inside. If performance is the basis, well, I have just described them both. If enthusiasm is the basis, Sheng never mentioned nor indicated even in slightest manner that she wanted to quit the academy, Jet somehow did, he even mentioned not caring if there would be any project waiting for him outside (the academy) as long as he's with his family. If mingling with other scholars is the basis, Sheng never had a problem with that, well, as far as the aired episodes are concerned.

It was a very close fight. 51% versus 49% (rounded) favoring Jet. At least I know that a lot of viewers like Sheng too.



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All About Faye

Hmmm... At first, kala ko snob syang tao. Or elitistang mahirap maging kaibigan. I was wrong.

Sa drawing subject, she recommended yung tech pen na Uni, yung disposable. Laking tulong! Halos di kasi nagbo-blot yun. Hindi pa messy gamitin. While others were annoyed by the occasional stain on their drawing papers, I was saved by the first ever recommendation of my newly found friend.

Noon, di kami magkasama kumain tuwing break. Kasama nya kasi yung mga naging classmate nya before. Ako naman, kasama ko yung mga wala pa din gaanong kakilala.

The first time I saw her picture, naisip ko talaga kahawig nya si Kirsten Dunst. Well, kumontra man ang kahit sino, yun ang sa tingin ko eh. Smile, cheek bones, and hairdo, pareho kasi.

While my friend got Kirsten's looks, she got a mom na kahawig ni Nicole Kidman. Yung aura, yung tindig, just make her blond, Nicole na.

May mga kapatid sya. Her sisters! Napagkakamalian ko sila by name dahil magkamukha sila. Parang twins. And ndi din naman sila snob.

Di ko naisip na mas bossy yung sisters nya to think na mas matanda sya dun sa dalawa. Sinabi din naman nya na parang ganun nga daw talaga.

If I am not mistaken, tatlong bahay na nila ang napuntahan ko. First, yung may lola, kung saan kami nag-practice ng sayaw para sa PE subject. Second, yung nilipatan nila na walang sinag ng araw dahil dulong apartment ito at walang windows. That's where we designed, drilled, etched and soldered our projects. May sleepover din dun with another friend. Third, yung nilipatan ulit nila, fourth floor yun na may intercom pa. We filmed a project there. May walk-out scenes pa nga before.

I saw her cry more than once. One of those moments was my fault. It was about a presentation, she already had a plan but I reluctantly proceeded with mine without asking her if she prepared any. Nagkausap kami after that, the day ended na friends pa rin kami.

I was a bit intimidated by her continuous scribbling while our professor delivers a lesson. Feeling ko may mga hindi ako naisulat sa dami na ng naisulat nya. Di ko tuloy sya masyado madaldal.

We shared the same sentiment about the noise we kept on hearing within two-meter radius from her.

Madalas nya akong tanungin kung ok lang bang gawin nya ito, gawin nya iyan, well in fact, pwede naman nya talagang gawin yun kahit di nya ako konsultahin. I feel blessed because we have grown into a level na halos sobra-sobra yung tiwala at kumpiyansa namin sa isa't isa, na kino-consider namin ang isip at feeling ng isa't isa bago kami kumilos sa kung ano man ang gagawin namin.

She reheared monologues a lot. Bago nya kausapin ang prof or anybody na haharapin nya, nagpa-practice muna yan.

Isa sya sa laging nauuna sa meeting place pag may usapan ang group namin. As far as I can remember, she was never a cause of delay pag may mga meeting kami.

Sometimes, she had an unkempt hair. At least alam nya na pag pinuna na namin.

Gusto nyang isabaw ang ilang piling inumin sa kanin nya. Matamis daw kasi at type nya yun.

Nasanay na syang uminom ng tubig na di malamig.

She introduced to me Werther's Original Candy. Binili or binigay ata sa kanila then she gave me some.

We never had a chance to see a movie together or even with our friends. Kung meron man, remind me.

She told me what a blog is and ultimately taught me how it works and what its benefits are.

Ang ilang movie na ni-recommend ko sa kanya, nagustuhan naman nya. Nagustuhan ko din yung Down with Love na talagang pinahiram pa nya sa akin.

She never failed to give me something pag may occasion. Ganun sya sa lahat ng close friends nya.

We took lunch together na. Unlike before, kami na ang magkasama ngayon. Carpark lagi ang lunch destination namin. Kasama ang iba pang mga friends. Minsan sobrang tipid, minsan todo gastos!

The totality of our moments together and the sum of the thoughts we shared won't fit here. Dami pang pwedeng i-enumerate. Meron na syang ika-apat na pinaglipatan ngayon, sobrang layo naman. May internet at phone man, iba pa rin yung alam mong malapit lang sya at pwede mong puntahan.

Now I miss her.



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