Buko Juice

Buko (young coconut) Juice is a healthy thirst quencher. We saw this one positioned just outside the perimeters of the supermarket when we bought our weekly groceries yesterday.

While the Buko Juice peddler sells the juice with its natural container, this one is sold cold at the fast food section of the supermarket at Php10.00 per cup while the one I mentioned earlier is sold at Php20.00 per nut.

Grocery Store

My wife looking for goods at the shelves in one of the supermarkets near our place. I have always this joke when we are in grocery stores.

My role is always to push the cart while following her way while my wife would be talking to me about goods, their quality and their prices, etc. And then when she notices that the good she is looking for is no longer available, she would turn to me to ask if I see some stock. And then I would quickly reply: "Sorry, Mam, that's the last stock we have. Come back tomorrow, new stocks are coming."

Obsolescence

My Casio SLR Cam (manual) and tripod (next photo).

When I worked in 1985, I started my special love for photography and wanted to develop a skill on this field. I had also the opportunity to be the "photographer" of our office. I had also the chance to be trained by undergoing basic photography. Unfortunately, I failed to focus or at least give more time on this hobby as I became  enmeshed  with painting and computer graphic arts. I  seldom had projects needing new photos since more often my clients would just supply for their photo needs. Anyway, my analog Casio SLR (single lens reflex) camera now hangs idle as I am more on cam-equipped cellphone now.

Digital technology has overtaken the use of analog camera. I still have lots of exposed films needing development. Same thing goes to cassette tapes or cartridges. I am a big fan of Earl Klugh, for instance, and I collected a number of his albums. With the advent of computer, internet, digital music, Ipod, MP3, etc, my casette tapes have become out of use. Indeed, the notion that the book entitled "Only Paranoids Survives" (I forgot the name of that guy - who was an intel CEO) applies here or it is so true when it mentioned about 10x force. That is the coming of new technology outpaced the use of the current models. Or in the case of another book I read years ago "The Waste Makers" by Vance Packard, obsolescence and consumerism are at fault here. What can we do? it is how life works.

Marriage Jokes

My friend who is based in Germany now sent me marriage jokes. But I only posted those I like most or those I believed as hilarious. Enjoy. Read on:

Marriage is a three-ring circus: engagement ring, wedding ring and suffer-Ring.

In the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the woman listens. In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens. In the third year, they both speak and the NEIGHBOR listens.

There was this man who muttered a few words in the church and found himself married. A year later he muttered something in his sleep and found himself divorced.

Son: How much does it cost to get married, Dad? Father: I don't know son, I'm still paying for it.

They say that when a man holds a woman's hand before marriage, it is love; after marriage it is self-defense.

WIFE: Let's go out and have some fun tonight. HUSBAND: OK, but if you get home before I do, leave the hallway lights on.

At a cocktail party, one woman said to another: Aren’t you wearing your ring on the wrong finger? The other replied, Yes, I am. I married to the wrong man.

A man inserted an ad in the paper – “Wife Wanted.” The next day he received hundreds of letters and they all said the same thing – “You can have mine.”

When a man opens the door of his car for his wife, you can be sure of one thing - either the car is new or the wife is.

My Confession

The first time I met my wife was during our first year in college (1985). I lost track of her and then our paths crossed again in 1992. Got married in 1993.

At left is my future dancer Maico with her Mama. After church every Sunday, we would drop by a nearby low budget restaurant to take our breakfast.

This infant was our first product (LOL). Her name is Cooky. She is 14 years old now (next photo).

Stock Photos

This is my pretty wife and my daughter Kayra at the dining table enjoying their softdrink.

My grandma taking the center stage of a black and white photo.

One of my computers before as taken with our dining place.

Indoor-to-outdoor shooting.

Assorted Photos

Sephia shot.

This was taken sometime in 1996 in an island called Boslon in Surigao del Sur. The island was belted with white sand.

My carpenter neighbors as they worked on our home.

My former colleague who fell asleep during an orientation conducted at Philippine Rice Institute in 2005.

Former Colleague

I took this photo sometime in 2004. Alex was in a pensive mood when I pressed down my shutter.

Stuck

I spotted this sculpture in one of the stores in Bolton Street downtown area. The idea is nice – a man stuck on the wall or the wall stuck on the man. Hmmm, whichever. Surely, this works attracts every passer-by. It reminds me of situation similar to being stuck somewhere. When we are faced with a challenge larger than us or larger than life that keeps us from moving on.

Back in school, our term then was “mental block” when we could not find the answer from the nook and cranny of our memory that no search engines could find the right answer to a question - a nut so hard to crack. We tried to look for an answer by scanning the ceiling and then found nothing.

It happened to me many times. That’s the moment that we make decision that at times against our will. I never dreamed of becoming a cartoonist, for instance. But when I saw my face on the mirror, I said go to being a cartoonist. My childhood friend also was stuck when he wanted to draw a happy man ended drawing a sad man. Then I told him to draw the reverse depending on the mood he wanted to come up. But of course we cannot allow ourselves to be defeated – we have to move on. We cannot be stuck forever. It would be a pity if we allow it.

I forget who told me but there are only two decisions that are always available to us every time we are in a crossroad – it could be either down or up. That is, when we decide what to do we need to evaluate whether that decision is going down or up. I know this is difficult to judge but this is the most challenging especially when we decide on a good path that is seemingly against our will. Deciding to take the good path is a good decision. Taking a path towards the down direction is a simple suicide whether the results are coming so abrupt or not. As the saying goes, foolishness will go home to your body in the long run. Hmm, I hope I have done justice to the man stuck on the wall. Meanwhile, I’m stuck on my chair blogging. Hehehe.