I am now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In this time of uncertainties at least one of the items that keeps on bugging my thoughts is ticked off from my list. Mental health is such a serious matter in this day and age, and we must grab any little hope we see on the horizon.
Yes the virus does not only bring physical health issues, but mental health issues as well. Being on lock down for more than a year now most of us are desperate to be outside and be with nature again. So the only immediate action we can do, since I believe this pandemic is not gonna end as soon as we would like it, is to be vaccinated.
I know some anti-vaxxers would raise their eye-brows on this but this is the only way we can protect our selves and the ones we love in this trying times. The vaccines may be approved for emergency use only but the benefits out-weigh the risks...
When you pick out a flower bouquet or evergreen plant and place it on the countertop or in a corner of your home, you may not realize how this simple action will positively affect your mood and overall wellbeing. What is behind this phenomenon? Researchers from the National Institute of Health attribute this mood enhancement to biophilia, the theory that humans have a special affinity for natural and living things, also called nature connectedness. The same scientists also emphasized that adding nature to your personal environment reduces stress, boosts attention and is generally beneficial for overall human health.
What is the impact of biophilic design in an environment?
By adding a plant or flower in your home or workspace there is a restorative effect that cannot be duplicated by manmade decor. As early as the 1950s, Abraham Maslow studied the impact of biophilic design in the workplace, documenting that the presence of natural elements in an employee's space could duplicate the same effects as an outdoor environment. Additionally, employees reported a 13 percent increase in wellbeing and productivity with the nature friendly design in their offices, per a study by Human Spaces. Although the theory is relatively new, evidence supporting the positive impact of nature-friendly indoor environments is growing.
Which specific plants and flowers boost your wellbeing?
According to a study in Psychology Today, houseplants help lower anxiety, decrease blood pressure, raise productivity at work and influence perceptions of space in a positive way. Specific plants that especially create this feeling include snake plants, Chinese evergreen and peace lilies. A snake plant filters the air by eliminating toxins and is a relatively easy to maintain; the Chinese evergreen also detoxifies the air and, with time, actually becomes more detoxifying. The peace lily is not only a beautiful plant, but it topped NASA's list for removing the common damaging elements of formaldehyde, benzene and trichloroethylene. Be advised that these plants might be difficult to find at a grocer, so call local nurseries or, more conveniently, order from an online flower retailer.
Other flowers with health benefits include roses (emit a calming scent that combats depression) and lavender (eases insomnia).
Does a biophilic design influence your ability to meditate?
Plants also have the potential to help the practice of meditation. People who meditate say that, because of larger surface areas, houseplants absorb noise and increase your clean oxygen intake. So instead of just one plant or flower, having a meditative garden in your space not only nourishes your mental state, but also improves your physical wellbeing. A meditation garden is an indoor sanctuary to the stresses from the workplace and many look at growing these gardens as a way to enhance nurturing aspects of their personalities by caring for something that will blossom.
We cannot underestimate the impact of biophilic design on our environments. In a hustle-bustle society of screens, everyone needs a place to retreat in a where there are flowers and plants to remind us of the peace and quiet found in nature.
In this day and age of amazing technology and multi-tasking mania, it probably seems as if we should be able to get more done than ever before. But as the Huffington Post notes, technology can actually be more of a distraction than a tool to help us focus. If you feel as if you’re losing your mental edge and that your memory isn’t what it used to be, the following tips and suggestions might help you to regain your clarity:
Limit Outside Stimuli
Although many people pride themselves at being masterful multi-taskers, trying to do more than one thing at once has a negative impact on our ability to concentrate. To improve your ability to pay attention, turn off the TV and any loud music. Eliminate the constant beeping your phone makes when you get a new text by setting it to Do Not Disturb mode when you need to focus on something important.. Focus on one thing at a time. By reducing the amount of sensory input you are receiving, you will be able to bolster your ability to accomplish more things.
Walk Instead of Caffeinate
Interestingly, if you are a major coffee fan who loves your mid-morning or (and?) afternoon latte fix, you might actually be training your brain to rely on caffeine in order to concentrate. While you can certainly still enjoy your java in moderation, consider cutting back on your caffeine intake and boost your daily exercise. Even a brisk walk around the block has been found to improve your ability to concentrate — both for short and long stretches of time.
Exercise Your Brain
As Psychology Today notes, mental challenges like puzzles and games can help to keep everything firing away inside your noggin. Choose puzzles that you enjoy, but also require you to sit down and really concentrate in order to solve them. The iWin website features several Sudoku games that are challenging and fun at the same time, as well as other games that can help to boost memory and concentration. If crosswords are your thing, you can pick up a book of puzzles at your local grocery or bookstore and try to complete one every day during your lunch hour. Trying to learn a foreign language is also a terrific way to give your gray matter a workout. To really focus on what you are doing, set a timer for 20 minutes and work at the new language until the timer dings.
Snooze
If you regularly get less than seven hours of sleep a night, your ability to concentrate will be one of the first things to go. As research has found, skimping on sleep means that you are missing out on spending time in the delta phase of sleep, which can lead to challenges in focusing and a lack of concentration. Do what you can to get at least eight hours of sleep a night for at least 10 days in a row. You'll notice its affect in your ability to focus.
Meditate
When it comes to improving concentration, meditation is an amazing tool. You can either check out a book at the library that teaches some basic meditation techniques, or watch instructional videos online. There are many audio tracks available that provide guided meditation. When you are meditating, focus on your breathing. Breathing alone will teach you how to concentrate on just one thing at a time. As you monitor your breathing, it will naturally slow down, leading to a peaceful yet focused state.
When was the last time you found yourself in the middle of a 1 a.m. Netflix binge on a Tuesday? Finished your last cup of coffee at 4 in the afternoon? Ate a big dinner after 7 p.m.? If you answered recently, but not regularly, you’re probably OK. If you answered every day this week, it’s time to admit you have a problem. Your daytime habits affect your nighttime abilities to fall asleep and stay asleep, so kick the bedtime blues by following any of these three suggestions:
Get Into a Routine
As humans, we like to form habits. Whether it’s reading the news with your breakfast or taking the same route to work, we all have our daily routines. While your mornings may be consistent, how do you spend your evenings? Do you bounce back and forth between late nights at the office and early nights in? The first step to starting a healthy habit is cutting out activities that often lead you astray. Consider investing in an activity tracker to document your movements and see how they affect your overall sleeping patterns. When you see that on nights you walked the dog you got better sleep than on nights you watched extra hours of TV, it will most definitely fuel your habit-changing fire.
Lose the Light
From harsh street lights to blinking computer screens, most types of light can threaten your good nights’ sleep by suppressing the secretion of melatonin. Additionally, according to a 2012 Harvard health study, blue light emitted from electronics and energy-efficient bulbs may be especially damaging. Blue wavelengths are great for helping boost our mood, focus our attention and increase our reaction time, which obviously are the reasons why blue light is bad for our brains right before bed.
To better manage nighttime light, control your bedroom environment. Do any last-minute email checks or Facebook updates outside the bedroom door. Invest in custom curtains that can block any outside light pollution. Keep the TV in the living room. Once you succeed at getting unwanted light out, think about bringing appropriate light in. For example, consider a bedside clock that uses light to simulate the sun and gradually gets brighter before your alarm is set to go off.
Set the Mood with Music
There are several stages of sleep your body must travel through before reaching REM sleep, which is the most restorative and relaxing stage of sleep. If you’re like most insomniacs, the first stage, or the first five to 10 minutes you lie with your eyes shut, is the hardest.
If you can’t relax or clear your head, start the night right with soothing sounds that allow you to concentrate on something other than your stressful day. Apps like Relax Melodies allow you to choose from nature-sound playlists like thunderstorms or winding rivers. If you need something more, try the self-hypnosis meditation app Relax & Sleep. Featuring British clinical hypnotherapist Glenn Harrold, this app offers 27 minutes worth of free audio clips. If you consistently set the mood with music, soothing sounds will remind your mind that it's time for some shut-eye, which guarantees you a better night of sleep.
This time I will get a little too personal... It is really easy to judge other people without us knowing what they've been through, what their history was, or what current condition they might be in. We take it as if we already know them, just based on the first impressions we have of them...
First up, I want to share with you my brain condition. I am not sure if this is a gift or a curse, but I'd like to look on the bright side... Everyone close to me knows I love reading books a lot, but what they don't know is that I immediately forget mostly what the book is about. I forget the story almost always, but what remained are my impressions of the book, whether it is good or bad according to my tastes. I am grateful about this because I can read another book right away without the hangover from the previous one (as if I haven't read a book previously), but the bad side is I would have liked to treasure the details of the ones that I really loved.
That is why you might notice I am not making much of a book review (or a movie review for that matter), because I would not know what to tell the readers except of course my impression of it. I don't want to take notes while reading or watching, because I don't want to be interrupted in any way. Even a small noise while reading chases away the train of the story. Of course, this skeptical world will not take your word for it, unless they have concrete evidence that you have really read or watched what you are talking about, hence I opt not to make reviews.
On the other hand, one thing I noticed regarding my brain condition (I am not sure, but the reason is maybe because the injured part of my head is on the right side), I am not much of an artist, or I cannot remember artistic details just like the plot of a story, but one thing I am quite good at is analytical and mathematical stuff. Which also brings me to my OCD, everything should be in numeric order, that's the least I could say.
Everything, or in case of books, should have the same exact dimensions like width and height (alas, I can't do anything about the thickness). Every book in a series must be there and hopefully each and every book of an author must be complete... Maybe this is due to my analytical side... That's the least that I can share, because it is hard to explain, it's just is.
Now, let me share to you the root of these.... When I was still very young, around ten or eleven, I had a head injury. I lived in an area you call a farm, ranch, estate or "hacienda." I can remember hundreds and hundreds of coconut, mango and other trees, like pili nuts. There were rice fields, corn plots, lines of tomatoes and everything else...
I always ran around these areas, stopping by some shady spot to rest and then ran around some more. In one episode of my resting under a tree, a pili nut in this case, I was hit by a huge rock almost half the size of my minuscule head. For those who don't know, the best way to get the nut out of this tree is to throw some huge rocks at the branches... and that happened to be what some of the grown neighbors had been doing at that time.
That time, I didn't really feel anything. Until, and only then, I found blood flowing down my head, on my face, and to where it will naturally flow down.... In short, a small portion of my skull was crushed, leaving a wide dented area. Luckily it didn't go through at all. I was not mended by a doctor, not stitched at the most. Only two of my nurse relatives, who happened to be on vacation back our town (coming from Houston, Texas), tried to cure me with what's readily available. The city is too far away in those times, but not now, considering the progress as time flies by...
So that's really the story of it. I just opened up about my condition, just because some people try to judge you right away without knowing your background. And for one, I understand because to err is human...
I am doing this blog, because I just wanna share my thoughts and feeling about the things that I have enjoyed, or haven't enjoyed, like books, movies, TV shows and etc. I may be wrong at some of the details, considering my memory, but the emotions presented herein are authentic. This blog is nothing more than to remind me how I felt about the things I enjoyed, because honestly I will forget them one by one as a few days go by... I am not a reporter or newscaster, I just write what's on the top of my head, the tip of my fingers and the bottom of my heart -- sort of a journal.
PS: I still bear the mark of this injury, albeit hidden in a thick mane...
The shocking news of an untimely death of another favorite Hollywood actor of mine reverberated in the expanse of the social media space. His name is Paul Walker. Just like everyone else, I was hoping that it was all a hoax -- who wouldn't, after Jackie Chan had been announced dead more than the number of fingers on my hands.
But the sad realization was that the news was never fake and this unacceptable truth left me speechless for a while. Paul Walker was already a favorite even before he starred in The Fast and the Furious. But then his Brian O'Conner role has sealed everyone's like for him. The following tribute released by the Fast and Furious family brings back the memories that his friends, colleagues and fans will surely cherish.
Read the Fast & Furious - Look Back (In memory of Paul Walker, September 12, 1973 - November 30, 2013), preceded by the trailer of the Fast and Furious 6:
Paul William Walker IV (September 12, 1973 -- November 30, 2013) was an American actor. He became famous in 1999 after his role in the hit film Varsity Blues, but later became best known for starring as Brian O'Conner in The Fast and the Furious film series. His other films include Eight Below, Into the Blue, She's All That, and Takers. He also appeared on the National Geographic Channel series Expedition Great White. Walker died as a passenger in a car crash on November 30, 2013, in Valencia, California.
And to think he died in the hope of helping fellow Filipinos who were affected by Yolanda. Paul Walker, you will greatly be missed.
I looked for the copy of my old journal a.k.a. blog circa Friendster and was able to find some stories I made during those times. I am not quite sure why I did this, but somehow I wanna see how my life was, tried to compare it with the present and what I discovered was a little shocking for me.
A Look Back At The Past: July 28, 2009
AN ODE TO THE MOON
It was raining cats and dogs that night and I made every effort to cling myself to my bed for comfort. With a great struggle, I opened my bedroom window to see how the dark world outside the four corners of my seclusion fared. The wind was whistling like a shepherd on his way back home and the trees were dancing to music only they can hear. Everyone is silent, except for the snore of my tired Uncle next door. It was dark and chilly, so I wore my jacket. Still, the cold seeped into my skin, drenching it with moist air. Maybe everyone felt the same way as I did, shivering in the cold wind of this rainy nights [sic]... A naughty picture of cuddling couples came to mind. With a smile, I let the thought go. And then the unexpected happened. The shimmers of the rain softened and the clouds parted to reveal the moon... Or was I just mistaken... it was the sun that welcomed my eyes with its blinding light. My body shivered that has nothing to do with the cold anymore, but with shock. It was still in the middle of the night and this morning star just arrived 6 hours earlier. I asked my self again and again how could this come to pass, but no straight answer came to mind. I was baffled and confused. Was this one of nature's weird and mad phenomenon.
The only thing I remember that time was how happy I was earlier that day and until that moment. I looked with questioning eyes... on that lovely 'midnight sun' and the confusion somehow turned to joy, a feeling contentment. [sic] As I become entangled with this joyful feeling that giant ball of flaming light followed suit -- it became brighter. It lifted my soul even more, confusion and the old hint of fear now gone. It enlightened my mind -- yes I really thought so -- in any way possible. Then, it struck me like a battering ram. This heavenly spectacle was not the sun after all as I thought it was. But the moon. The moon that I always see at night. The same moon that guided me through the dark night. The one moon that I send all my wishes. Only it shined the brighter tonight... for it reflects the pure light of happiness that was emanating from deep within me.
Living The Present: July 28, 2013 STILL LIVING THE DREAM
A recent weather news has shattered any foundation of known beliefs. Yesterday, July 24, 2013 to be exact, the southern parts of the Philippines experienced a phenomena that is rarely encountered in the area. For 3 straight hours, starting 8 o'clock in the morning, these undivulged areas were left at the mercy of a heavy snowfall. And how do nature cope for something it is not equipped with? Nothing actually, that is why tons of tropical crops have been destroyed.
Watch the very rare snowfall happen in the tropical Philippines. Some possible explanations follow after the video.
Here are a few funny, yet feasible, personal musings and reasons why this phenomena may have occurred.
Hoax Alert: Maximum Level
Many are still screaming that this phenomena never actually happened in the purported location and may have been taken somewhere else. Notice that there's no specific location mentioned only that it happened in the Southern part of the Philippines. This could possibly be the ash fall that happened last May. Notice there's no local buzz for this phenomena?
But then, again, we see a banana that is only native to tropical areas. The original video of the snowfall offers no further explanations and also uses the 'I think' phrase which may signal for a hoax. The internet these days could be a great avenue to spread misleading information either to confuse, seek popularity or create havoc.
We have read incidences of blood rain in some local Philippine areas, as well as fishes falling from the skies, but at least they were proven, or disproved, to be chemical and natural anomalies in the atmosphere or caused by a waterspout. Until we can be ascertain of the details of the news, we cannot rest and be contented that snow has really fallen in the Philippines.
Ancient Alien Machination
I have been watching Ancient Aliens aka Ancient Astronomers in the History channel for quite some time. In one of their episodes it said that aliens have the capability to control the weather, giving them leverage to wreck havoc and destroy parts of Earth, if needed.
It was stated there that once these Engineers, as what they are called in the movie Prometheus, noticed something off on how humans lived (from what we are originally designed) -- overpopulation, fornication and war -- these aliens either use nature and disease to eliminate these treats. The Black Death, Bubonic Plague, Sodom and Gomorrah annihilation, Fall of Atlantis and such.
Human nature is undeniably troublesome at times and Filipinos are no exception. Using this theory, is this a sign that we are about to be destroyed because we are not doing the right things that are expected from us? For how can you destroy a tropical country other than exposing it to the other extremities of weather, one that we are not equipped against with...
All High Fantasy Stories are Real
In most apocalyptic High Fantasy novels and stories, winter or other bizarre weather conditions have always been a device to eliminate human kind. George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time and Tad Williams' Shadowmarch are just a few of them that use this plot line.
For what if these stories are real? What if what we thought as fantasies are actually happening right now, unknown to us all since these events are cloaked ala Rick Riordan's mist in the Percy Jackson series? Real life is stranger that fiction indeed, and this one phenomena may as well prove that.
If we are to consider this theory, then we may still have hope, for although mankind does not necessarily win at the end, it has shown and proven his worth that it was somehow pardoned by the unknown enemy, although crippled at the end.
Government's Technological Testing Ground
This could very well be related to the Ancient Aliens theory, but instead of having Extra-Terrestrials as culprits we have our fellow human beings who sits in power to blame. This doesn't necessarily mean our own government, but it could be any other country's.
If you are watching Under the Dome based on Stephen King's novel, this might be a little to familiar. New technologies need some kind of testing before the final reveal, where the full potential of the device will be put to use.
Think of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, because the device was not tested properly it somehow backfired on the community of the inventor. This could very well happen if these life changing technologies, like this snow-creating machine, are not tested in lower powerage and capacity.
Side Effects of Climate Change
Last year you might have heard that Earth shifted from its axis by a few centimeters after a strong quake in Japan. The world's weather is very much affected by the Earth's position, distance from the sun, rotation and revolution. Any slight changes on these may lead to devastating effects.
Add to Earth's natural changes our bad habits of destroying nature, changing how it works and playing God, then we get so much as a Climate Change. These are now the effects of our generations and generations of neglect. Nature is just taking its revenge on us.
It might be a little nice to have snow in the Philippines from time to time, but what if these conditions worsened and multiplied? Are we ready to deal with it? This may take a few more hundred years, but is that reason enough that we continue our neglect for nature? How would our future generations fare if this happens?
What are your thoughts? Are there anymore possible theories that you think might have lead to this phenomena. Please share no matter how far-fetched and bizarre it may sound.
Art can be much more than merely "art for arts sake," especially in an era as provocative as this one. While it may be the singularly most beautiful thread of creation that connects humanity art can also be a lot of things: a voice, an experiment or a love song to life.
Despite the masses flocking toward whatever recent clich Thomas Kincaid just barfed out for some quick cash the real art world is still alive and as evocative as ever. As much as we'd like, most of us cant afford to tour the world in search of the decades most brilliant and authentic (read: non-sellout) artists, but that probably wont happen for most of us. Luckily, a few clicks of a mouse can introduce you to some of the most evocative, astounding artists to enter the scene in the twenty-teens.
Katie Daniels
Daniels has been in the field for less than 10 years, yet she has already won the Claire Weiss Emerging Artist Award, which will take her delicate patterns and ornamentally charming pieces into the real world with tessellated plastic patterns breathing new life into fences and parks in the New York area.
Katies sculptures and installations might be as breathtaking as they are alluring. She winds beads, pearls and wires up into a twisted, floral garden of thoughts and colors. An exquisitely controlled chaos calls upon the beauty of nature and a hint of fantasy as inspiration.
Stephen Dent
Stephen Dents art peddles the ordinary as something more, not necessarily grand and under appreciatedbut worth examining. His cardboard oil installments are both plain and stunning; as he explains on his site that he wants us to focus on cardboard more than we normally would, and the role it plays in our life, Stephen Dent mentions: The first is that as we see the thing we are paying attention to in more detail the second is that we begin seeing it in places that we had not noticed it before.
Dents other work is one part social commentary, one part relevancy and two parts whimsy. Pieces like I Like Airplanes uses almost violent strokes to compose a stunning piece that would look just as at-home in a museum as it would in a studio apartment in Greenwich.
Ryan Peter Miller
Its tempting to say Ryan Peter Millers message is only trumped by his exquisite talent as an artist ... but it would be a lie, because his pieces are equal in societal relevance and compelling beauty. Millers use of paint transcends paint itself, as he treats the paint like its his own personal element forged solely for the purpose of letting him breathe new life into the art world.
Miller takes us from the age dinosaurs in his series Excavation, to the living rooms of famous porn stars in Mark Making, and manages to break thought provoking ground while doing so. His method of layering paint and letting it harden, then crafting it into a mlange of objects and stories is unique enough to poise him as one of the great artists of the 21st century.
This is a story about the battle against lack of self control. There’s no stopping it. The battle is at an end, and no one can stop the inevitable. The winner is not always definte. At times you will rise up agaisnt the challenge, but there are also moments when the first sign of test and you already give in.
I have won a few battles, but alas the victory for the war is not certain. I may have won today but what about tomorrow. Is there an assurance that I could maintain my good spirits. The answer is also at hand. There is. Just like the fact that God is there to help... also my F&F: family and friends.
It is only in the mental state of our being that we experience depression. It broods and croons until it affects our physical well-being. The mind is a powerful tool that it could overpower our body. That is why when you think you are depressed your body will become depressed, virtually.
It is a wonder why is it easy to fall into depression but hard to get out of it. Maybe it's simply the nature of man to consider that negative things weigh more than the positive ones. Because if it is not so, why would they create means of making things positive. It is just my speculation, as I am quite a pessimistic person myself.
But things had a twist when I discovered the Power of Attraction, described in the book I can't really remember. It is said that what you think makes your destiny. But it follows certain criteria. Its criteria eliminates negations.
For example:
I will not be bored MEANS I will be bored, eliminating the not , which is a negation.
I am beautiful MEANS I am beautiful, (as it is) because there is no negation present.
I will not be happy MEANS I will be happy.
I will be lonely MEANS I will be lonely.
See the power of attraction. For me it implies the principle of mental suggestion, only eliminating negations. What your mind suggests will happen to you because its what your mind focuses about and makes you conscious of that thought. So whatever you will think first, think of the Power of Attraction.
Note: This was an old article and today was the anniversary of its writing 5 years ago.
First of all, I thank the Almighty for this wonderful opportunity. 2012 has been an incredible ride. To all the hardworking people behind Best Cebu Blog Awards, thank you for recognizing the efforts of each an every Cebu Blogger and especially for believing in Kernel's Corner. It is not actually I that deserves the recognition, but these guys who continue to push trough with the vision of empowering the local bloggers of Cebu. Guys, I salute you!
To the sponsors, you are supporting a community full of inspiring stories and people, who are making a difference. So thank you.
Globe Telecommunication
Insular Square Mandaue
Multiply
TMX Philippines, Inc.
Buddies
GT Cosmetics
Diamond Suites
Orange Brutus
Heart Tea Milk Tea
PR Works
Choi City
Starbucks
Geiser Maclang
Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc.
Alvin Asayas Photography
Event Photographers Cebu
I started Kernel's Corner for reasons common to most bloggers: to share and to express our thoughts and feelings. Of course, it hadn't been an easy journey. I think every blogger would agree with me when I say Blogger's Block is the hardest to deal with on days when an update is a must. Personally I get panicky if I don't get to post at least 5 times a week. That sounded obsessed, but for me it's a labor of love. I just can't stop blogging.
And so I thank Best Cebu Blog Awards for recognizing Kernel's Corner as the 2012 Best Cebu Entertainment Blog. Thank you for bringing out the best in us and for the interesting journey that we all have gone through to make this year's Best Cebu Blogs Awards a success.
Corn Kernel seldom seek for recognition (truth be told this is the first time he joined any blog awards), but joy simply dominated the scene when Kernel's Corner was included to the official list of 30 nominees for the 5th Annual Best Cebu Blogs Awards. Let's keep this a secret... John doesn't know I nominated this blog for Best Cebu Entertainment Blog. He will surely be up for a great surprise come December.
Best Cebu Blogs Awards (BCBA) is an award-giving body that gives recognition to Cebu’s best bloggers. It aims to recognize the existence and relevance of blogging in Cebu’s local blogging scene by pooling the finest online publishers in the Queen City of the South. It also aspires to augment Cebu bloggers’ influence in the general cyber community worldwide.
This year, aside from the top ten most popular Cebu-based blogs (rated according to popular votes conducted over BCBA official Facebook page), the Best Cebu Blogs Awards by Niche has been added, giving major awards to blogs categorized to six niches:
Best Cebu Technology Blog
Best Cebu Personal Blog
Best Cebu Travel Blog
Best Cebu Food Blog
Best Cebu Lifestyle Blog
Best Cebu Entertainment Blog
Special Awards such as Yahoo’s Choice, CBSi’s Choice, Special Citation, and Visayas Bloggers’ Choice will also be awarded to further maximize the excitement of the event.
Voting for the Top 10 Famous Cebu Bloggers has already been closed, but the judging for the Best Cebu Blogs Awards by Niche is ongoing. The qualified blogs will be scrutinized and judged until the awarding ceremony and this year's esteemed judges of Best Cebu Blogs Awards by Niche are:
Vincent Tabor (Northern Luzon)
Azrael Deasis Coladilla (Central Luzon)
Nancy Cudis (Visayas)
Avel Manansala (Mindanao)
Get to know them more by heading over to Best Cebu Blogs Awards Judges page.
I am personally glad that the 5th Annual Best Cebu Blogs Awards is sponsored and partnered by the following, making the event possible:
Globe Telecommunication
Insular Square Mandaue
Multiply
TMX Philippines, Inc.
Buddies
GT Cosmetics
Diamond Suites
Orange Brutus
Heart Tea Milk Tea
PR Works
Choi City
Starbucks
Geiser Maclang
Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc.
Alvin Asayas Photography
Event Photographers Cebu
The Best Cebu Blogs Awards 2012 Awarding Night and Ceremony will be held on Sunday, December 9, 2012 (Sunday), 6PM to 9PM at Insular Square in Mandaue City. See you there...
Today must be a joyous moment for every Roman Catholic, especially the devoted Filipinos, as another faithful servant of God has been named a Saint. Saint Pedro Calungsod, who was just recently canonized, became the next Saint of the Philippines, second only to Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, Patron of our beloved country, poor and youth, Filipino overseas workers and altar boys, and most especially of the Tagalogs and Filipino-Chinese.
For us Filipinos Pedro Calungsod will always be the martyr of thirties who was ready to sacrifice his life to stand for his faith. He will always be immortalized as the Filipino Saint who will ever hold a copy of Doctrina Christiana and a palm leaf (symbol of being a cathecist). Henceforth, Pedro Calusngod will be known as the Patron Saint of the Philippines also, and of the Filipino youth, Cathechumens, altar boys and overseas workers. He'll be the patron of the Visayans, Cebuanos and of Guam. His feast day is every 2nd of April.
Who was Saint Pedro Calungsod? Let this iconographic visual give you the his brief story:
On May 5, 2000 the now Blessed Pope John Paul II inaugurated Calungsod's beatification after a thorough investigation the satisfied all the requirements. The beatification is the first formal recognition by the Catholic Church of a dead person's acceptance into Heaven, after proving that said same person is able to intercede on behalf of the people who prayed for his name.
The miracle that was associated to Calungsod's beatification was that of a clinically pronounced dead woman, who was revived after a doctor prayed for her through Calungsod's intercession. This miracle was officially approved and accepted by the Holy See on December 19, 2011.
After a long deliberation, Pope Benedict XVI announced on February 18, 2012 that the then blessed Calungsod be canonized. The act of Canonization is the moment when the Catholic Church declares a deceased person to be a Saint. On October 21, 2012, Pedro was officially canonized to become the Philippines' second Saint.
It is only a wonder to me that despite having millions of devoted Filipino Christians around the world only two have only been declared as Saints after they died.
The past few weeks have become a whirlwind of change. Yours truly has been troubled by these changes left and right that he didn't quite know what to do at first. The effect of such changes has been tremendous and for a while life-shattering. There's a little difficulty at first, but then everything became effortless and a little well-oiled, which surprisingly I started to like and get used to.
There are small changes and big ones, for sure. That is why I decided to sum it up here because somehow I needed to release the stress and the past difficulties I went through. Some changes are necessary and some I feel like I was forced to do. I just hope you could relate with me with these travesties:
From Windows PC to MacBook Pro
It would be a usual scene in the office that people would make fun of me. In past few weeks I have been jokingly discriminated in the office since I still cling to my Windows PC. Everyone uses a MacBook Pro and almost everything are Apple products. My manager said that a rule must be set up: that the office must be Windows free and everyone must use Apple products only. There's no problem of where I am to get a MacBook since it's the company that will provide for it, but what I am not happy about is the difficulty of shifting from one OS to another.
I was a little lax about this at first considering all these a joke, until the MacBook Pro was thrust into my face without warning. I was smiling of course, because everyone dreams to use a sleek and expensive looking Mac. I was ready to show it off, but then I shrank when I remembered that my life revolved around my PC: the files, the applications, and the connectivity we had. Despite having a very short tutorial on how to use it I was a little intimidated. The difficulty is still there, because up until now I feel like a child learning my first steps using a MacBook.
A Change To a Minimalism Blog Theme
Kernel's Corner has been around for quite sometime now, but it is only when I transferred to Cebu that it got my attention. I have only used two different themes before, but nothing really stuck to my taste. I was a little confident that this latest theme will be for good. I have invested my time and patience over it, editing posts improving the out-of-the-box theme and making my own branding for the site, such as the icon, logo and all.
I was lucky to stumble upon Premium Blogger Templates and found a very simplistic and minimalist theme. The theme was actually called Newslayer, a convert from a wordpress theme that has been circulating around the internet since prehistoric times, I think. It's for free, but of course you are not allowed to remove some interlinking attribution at the bottom of the theme until you maybe paid for it. For now I am happy for the theme, despite a little effect on the traffic and all.
In Connection to Personal Change in the Future
I guess these temporal changes are preparing me for the ultimate change in life that I should have done already. They are giving me a foresight of the difficulty that I was about to undergo, but then reminds me that the fruit is sweeter when you have labored for it. Maybe it's time to actually purge my self of the things that are not contributing to me and just drag me down.
I will call this project Operation Purge: a timely project for the New Year. New year, new self, new perspective. I believe I am strong enough to cope, unlike what many of my bitter seniors think of me.
