COMPUTER TALK, ANYONE?

SIGNS OF THE TIMES BACK HOME Comment from: longwaybye "I was awed, and Im still continuing to be awed by the power of the computer and its off-shoot, the Internet. Maybe its because we havent it in our time, when our cerebrums were still able to expand with new undertakings. Kids now take it for granted. Walk thru the many Internet and computer shops in Manila, and the wonder what they can do with computers. And I thought the USA was the numero uno! Hell, any AMA or STI graduate will tell you they know more stuff than the average American. I said hhhmmmmm..... but the I love you virus came to mind... Even the remotest barrio can converse computerspeak. And for sure at least one barrio mate has taken some course or another with computers. Maybe Im just late for the times. The other day, I was browsing in the UP library, and I tried to use their computer. A computer with no windows? I thought windows was the OS? Oh they say theyre using Linux. Whats that? Its more powerful and simpler than windows and its free! I said to the young working student, tell me young lady, how many OS are really out there in the world? Sir, you can make your own. Its too much for me, I thought its windows and nothing more, and to be faced with the fact that there is really much to know about computers... I still have that long pile of books I bought but havent read since teenager, I guess I have to doubletime before this hypertension of mine blows me into a paralyzed infirm. And please, can anybody stop this information explosion? I need badly to catch up!"

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I am adding a week end experience to your posting which would really explain further how much the computer have affected our lives..Last week end, Mia my 13 year old grand daughter came to our house to work on a school project. "What is your school project?" "I am making a video re: earth day," she said. " I took the shots with a video camera and I want to edit it.." I shook my head, editing a video on PC is one of the most time consuming things to do. Anyway, we opened my PC. One of the free programs that came in with the machine is the Windows Movie maker. I explained to her the procedure..Download all your shots into the PC, I said..Our PC have 120 Gigs Hard Drive,..It was her first time to use the software, it was my nth time to use it..After 30 minutes, she was able to master how to remove the bad shots fromt he good ones using the software..It took her only 30 minutes to learn what took me 2years to "master.." Actually, in humility, I am still learning the advanced features of the software..She was able to jumble her diffrent video shots ( called clips ) like a pile of blocks and in an hour, she showed me her work: a decent documentary with her and her classmates as the stars..She is still in the Elementary grades..Hell, I said to myself, I wish I had this software when I was in the Dupac Elementary school.. Then I showed her how to finalize her work into a DVD-R..With an IEEE cable, we transfered the edited work back into the Video Camera, ( using a blank tape of course so the original shots wont be erased )..Then we transferred the taped final film into a DVD-R thru the DVD-Recorder's various inputs..Filipino kids here abroad have these opportunites to learn new things. Our Filipino kids back home are as just as intelligent as their counterparts here are..They need just the right environment, schools, computers, softwares, TEACHERS and projects to give them hands on in learning this new technology.Too bad this Computer expansion won't stop anymore---#

ANOTHER JOURNAL WITHIN THE JOURNAL

I opened another Journal I called COMMENTS FROM LONGWAYBYE..To get into this online magazine, just click on the title found on the left side of the newest article of the Asinganian Journal..I received some interesting comments from him.

COMMENTS from Longwaybye

"With regards  to your comments about Rizal and GMA. I said Rizal was a politician in the sense that he was engaging in the running of the country. If politics is as dirty, and primitive as it is here, certainly i could believe Rizal wasnt a politician-dirty. Being a politician isnt bad, it is just that the Philippines hasnt seen a professional politician par excellence.
I am not looking for a saint, just a professional politician who does everything, including wooing voters, in a fair, legal maner. And one when a scam has been unearthed, has the delicadeza to resign.
As for GMA, I dont like her. I really think the garci thing is true. My sister-in-law's family in a town in Pangasinan distributed, mind you, in 50 pesos bills, 20M just for a councilor's position. And the local COMELEC officer ...tut tut "a good friend"
I am not for anybody, and I even go far as say GMA is the best of the lot consisting of the winnables Noli, Ping, Erap,Bro. Mike.  Why couldnt Joker Arroyo, Raul Roco win? Hehe
It is just that there are higher things than economics, unity and progress. And they are truth justice and equality.
Why is it when a scandal breaks out in other countries, the leaders resign, and the people outraged? Outraged that they recall them or dump the party.
But here, kapit tuko. As one politician in the Pampanga area bragged, Madali makaloko ng tao dito, and a lie, if you repeat it many times enough, becomes the truth!

 I remember our community service to a barangay in a tagalog province south of Manila. Jueteng was still in full bloom. The barangay captain, and he is also the jueteng operator invited us to his house , to have a drink. I was with U.P. then, and the politicians were all too happy that we were there, because we were serious in our job, and we get the job done. Hehe where can you get dedicated workers but from the students?
I witnessed with my own eyes when the jueteng draw was made,and the numbers that came out were llamado, the Brgy. captain said, "ulitin ang bola" hahaha lokohan talaga!
And that same captain, who by the way isnt educationally lacking nor intellectually, having been a graduate of one of the top universities in Taft Avenue,hehe,later in the day motioned to us: "Ganito ang mag control na tauhan," he called one of his bodyguards who were drinking in a nearby table and asked him to bring their bowl of pulutan. Thereafter, he got his rubber slippers, sliced them into cubes with a knife, put them into the pulutan bowl, added toyo and suka and said to the bodyguards" O, inom pa kayo, kainin nyo ito!"
Comment from longwaybye - 22/04/06 8:03 PM

Let me share my own experiences, and thoughts about some of the points in this journal.

Going abroad: I went abroad for two main reasons. One for money, two for security, as in safety and justice. You wont get them here, unless youre rich and powerful. Today, with the oppurtunity of going abroad relatively easier via nursing, it is surprising who are taking this route. Doctors, lawyers, mayor's wives(I know of two towns in Pangasinan whose mayors'wives are reviewing for NCLEX) but not yet the mayors themselves or the politicians in general. Mas malaki parin ang kurakot kesa sa $5k monthly! Hehe

About Burnham, GMA etc.  I just want to say these,and these I know to be true, either because I have seen it myself or told to me by someone I know not to be a liar.

When Gringo was wanted during the Cory coups, he was seen casually in Mindanao in a bar, along with military officials.

An MILF camp is near an army barracks in a city in the south.

During the kidnapping, dollars were literally flooding the wet markets of key cities in Mindanao. May bayaran talaga. In one market, dollars were used for ordinary purchases; the dollar weakened in those markets relative to the national market.

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Comments, Political or otherwise...

  RIZAL'S LAST FAREWELL
Comment from: longwaybye
"Being a product of Zaide's Philippine History, and a Leader's and heroes' perspective of history, I naturally find it hard to view history from the eyes of the common people, the followers of the heroes, the idolizers of leaders like our National hero, Dr. Jose Rizal

Sometimes it is worthwhile to point out that Rizal was also first in fact a politician, much like Ninoy Aquino, and Im sure subjected to the same temptations that every man experience.

It is the fact that he did not give in to those temptations is what make Dr. Jose Rizal great! Great deeds must be partenered with principles and values.

For how would it be, if Rizal, along with what he did for the country, also was a rapist, a liar, or a serial killer?

Would he be a hero still? I dont think so, he would be credited for his work in liberating the consciousness of the filipino people, but he would never be idolized; because he has some bad side.


Now the bad side, in determining how bad should a bad side be to disqualify him from a heroes position?
No hard and fast rules, but certainly you cannot be a hero if you are a serial killer, no matter how you fight with a foreign invader, even if you singlehandedly liberated a country?


However, it is not the actual case. In reality, the bigger of your side will usually overpower the lesser. So there is still chance for Joseph Estrada. For aLL HIS LIES, WOMANIZING, HE COULD STILL BE A HERO IF HE SOMEHOW CAN LEAD BACK THE COUNTRY SAY TO... like singapore, or bring the peso back to $1=1 peso.


Thats why, it is not only the lust for power that GMA clings to her seat despite calls by the CBCP for her to resign, She is thinking of the future. For her family, her dad's name, for memory.

She knows that even  with Garci, the patronage politics, if she can raise that economic indicators a few points up significant enough for the ordinary man to feel that his lot did improve, she can still be remembered as a good president.

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my own comments on the comments:

I do not think Rizal was a politician..He is too honest to be one! The "politicians" during his time wanted to make war ( to get the reforms that they want: doesn't this ring a bell during these present days?) but he opted to go on his own way after having arguments with his peers. He tried to do his own agenda, using his books as propaganda against the corrupt Spanish gov't and the equally corrupt Catholic Church. He wanted to use peaceful means to get the reforms from Spain. Leon MaGuerrero in book ( a biography of Rizal ) called him the FIRST FILIPINO..

Joseph Estrada who was a classmate of my cousin at the old Polytechnic College of the Philippines (PCP) near the UE College of Medicine said that Joseph was a good man, a good looking man.Although a few weirdos were picking on him ( because of his Filipino Film images: Raton Barbaro, etc ) he had many friends in and out of school. He radiated charisma that  pushed him up to the Presidency. He could have become a greater hero than his namesake since he was holding the Steering Wheel of his country. But..he blew it!!

I am for GMA. I do not know much about her (except for the news items I read re: her in the Internet )since I have been in Canada for almost 3 decades already. Many people hate her ( the demonstrators, paid hacks who do not know what the hell they are demonstrating about!). But I believe she is a SURVIVOR  and with her the Philippines will survive inspite of what those placards are telling the media. As I have mentioned in a posting in the BB of Pang.Org, the Phil. is just a part of a greater whole ( planet earth ) and if the earth is "sick" then everything in it is affected, the Philippines included. If anything she will be remembered as a lady President who did her best. Maybe she was ill tempered, but she is doing a good job of holding together a country that wants to blow itself apart!---#

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More comments from the same reader:

Browsing in this journal's articles, I have a good idea you're a baby boomer, and you baby boomerd back home.

For example, about your puppy loves. Nowadays, with due respect, kids have sex with the puppies they love.

when you were young maybe, it was looked down, it still is by some, but as for me, having kids myself, I welcome this shift.

You see, our times were repressing times. I admire the kids now that they are able to do what they want to do.

Of course, with guidance as to safe sex, alimony for kids they might produce, and never marry just because they get somebody pregnant or themselves pregnant.

We are going there. Divorce is not yet allowed in the Philippines, but you can annul a marriage anytime now. For 90k to 120k, I can refer you to a lawyer, package deal.


I pity our generation in that we were bound by useless traditions and conservatism. There are some good traditions worth continuing though.


Now, I can happily advice my kids what I only dreamt long ago:

Kids, sex is very nice. But it can have grave consequences, like having a child early. So practice safe sex. Do not rape. Have sex only with those willing. If you find after these years you like your sex partner, marry him or her.

Sex is nothing to be ashamed about. It is a need, as physical as food and shelter. If you can, while still very young, just masturbate first, because maybe you havent mastered the withdrawal and you end being a parent. For you my daughter, your partner could fire it inside and viola! I have a grand son. So maybe you can do-it-yourself.

If not, use condom, because being a parent is not that easy,you might not finish your education early,and hell Iwe are not that rich to care for another baby at this time.

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My comments again:It is not often that I receive an e-mail like yours, it is a good read and at the same time it is educational..I can't add or subtract or modify anything from it..I can only relate a few comments on your ideas which are truly modern if not "shocking"..But new ideas will always jolt us out of stupor or with complacency with decripit beliefs.

Having sex with the "puppies"..I wish I could have done this as a High School Freshman but I was then living in Asingan.Sex or talk about sex was "dirty" according to our elders.And Asinganians do not look highly on May-December marriages....The clergy in the Philippines have been so repressive about sex..Masturbation itself is a sin according to them..Some people said it will cause blindness. Or you will shorten your life..Some said one drop of semen is the equivalent of 10 drops of blood..Having a PLAYBOY magazine in the living room will really send you to the dog house..They will say you have shit in your brain.... When I arrived in Canada and started looking and listening to the sights and sounds of the city. Pretty girls wear short shorts during the summer. Advertising use sex to catch attention. Shapely women dance in the buff in clubs..T-Shirts blare out IF IT FEELS GOOD, DO IT.. They say it is a healthful experience. "Nothing that comes out of the body is bad.." said one psychologist. I guess she must have been talking of body fluids. If one feels guilty about doing good, then that good thing becomes bad. like that, then later on in life, you will encounter problems esp. in Intimate relations with your wife or girl friend will be problematic because one was taught that SEX is SIN.

.Well, it is not, as long as it is done in the right place and the right time with the right person. And telling it to your teen age child could be tough..But it can be done. And it should be done. Sex should be enjoyed by all people from 18 to 80 or beyond. For the Seniors who need help, there is the Blue Pill!---#

 

YOUR KIDS DRIVING YOU NUTS?

God's 1st children

To those of us who have children in our lives, whether they are our own, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or students...here is something to make you feel better.


After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing he said was, "DON'T!"

"Don't what?" Adam replied.

"Don't eat the forbidden fruit," God said.

" Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve...we have forbidden fruit!!!!!"



"No Way!"



"Yes way!"



"Do NOT eat the fruit!" said God.



"Why?"



"Because I am your Father and I said so!" God replied, wondering why He hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants. A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break and He was ticked!



"Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit?" God asked.



"Uh huh," Adam replied.



"Then why did you?" said the Father.



"I don't know," said Eve.



"She started it!" Adam said.



"Did not!"



"Did too!"



"DID NOT!"



Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own. Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.



BUT THERE IS REASSURANCE IN THE STORY!



If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself. If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you?---#

COMMENT ON "SIGNS BACK HOME"

Comment from: longwaybye
"Very funny. But I must add, its not only in the Philippines, you can find so much of these puns in most countries. But yes, those in the Philippines are most amusing to us, because we can relate to them well, and after all, we are Filipinos, hehehe

let me add about taho: we know that its from soya bean right? But as a young man near UP Diliman, I and my classmates didnt know it for a fact; one even debated it came from pigs. So, one morning we called the mamang taho vendor, and while he was decanting those creamy stuff to small plastic cups, we asked him: "Manong, saan po galing ang taho?"

In a perfectly serious voice and demeanor, without batting an eyelash, and without pausing from his decanting of the taho he replied: " Galing to sa Cubao."


Hahahahahahah!


And oh by the way, how shocking it tis to learn that the flourescent is not named after Agapito Flores, its suppossed inventor... that the Tasadays of Elizalde were a hoax, and the Code of Calantiao as well.

When asked reportedly why the fraud of the Code of Calantiao, some one said, you filipinos were thirsty of a civilization before the Spaniards, for national identity and pride of ancestors, ginawan ko na kayo ng history galit pa kayo?

Hahahahaha!"

PAPERBACK VENDORS ( not writer )

Remember the Trash or treasure sale we had in our church a few weeks back?http://journals.aol.ca/mabait42/ASINGANIAN/entries/911

Well, during that day, a newspaper photographer came to our table. He wanted to take a shot of our table and with the 2 girls, Emma and Mia posing as models.  He was from the the York Guardian.

Just last week, during Holy Tursday, the paper came out. The girls photos came out in the front page and in colour too! The picture above was clipped from the front page of the York Guardian, a city wide newspaper chain here in Toronto.

I used the newspaper's  caption but I was not able to copy everything because the template could only allow me 128 spaces-##