Kannawidan Festival

Kannawidan Festival is one of the most awaited event here in Ilocos and even here in Vigan. When the said event has come, everyone was wearing their smiles. All of their negative feelings were vanished. This celebration is not just about over-flowing foods, expensive things and countless number of visitors. It is about how you remember the one who is being praised for your festive and for us to be still united and to keep a good relationship with others.

Kannawidan is one way for us to experience, know, learn, and love the different cuisines, cultures, traditions, and exhibits of our own province, of our own place. This festivity has a great impact to us for it shows how our province lived and lives. 

       Kannawidan is the best place to enjoy nature’s gifts, it is the best place to create a coalescing community. Kannawidan is a place for showcasing talents, brains, beauties, and the creative hospitality that we, Filipinos, esp. Ilocanos, have.

My Reflection

“Fourth Quarter”

       There are so many things I’ve learned this 4^th quarter. Editing an image using the Adobe Photoshop is easy to understand but hard to familiarize the tools in using to edit the picture. And making my own video using the Windows Movie Maker is not hard to do and understand.

    In Adobe Photoshop I need to familiarize the tools in editing the pictures. And study well the different uses of that tool. There are a lot of lessons that I learned this 4^th grading period.

      For me, this quarter is much easier than the past lessons we discussed in the past quarters. 

My Dream My Future

“The Time Machine”

            Behold me in a time machine’s cockpit ready to ride into the future. I push the “START” button and the engine purrs into life Next, I punch my name in the built-in computer and below the blinking words ”DESTINATION YEAR”, I enter 2024. Uncontrollably, I fell into a deep sleep.

            The pervading silence jerked me out of my slumber. The year indicator revealed I had travelled ten years into the future. I am, disoriented as to how long I have stayed in the time machine and as to where I am. The surroundings and landmarks are totally unfamiliar. 

            Alighting from the machine I reckoned that it had landed in the middle of a garden of different flowering plant varieties and ornamental trees and about 30 meters away stands a two-storey residential house, with a gazebo and a garage for two cars.

            The front door is unlocked so I enter the dwelling with trepidation. The furniture pieces look moderately expensive. The chandelier is fabulous. The fireplace is an architectural masterpiece. The walls are adorned with several paintings that reflect the owner’s fine taste in art. The floor carpet is so thick it gives one the experience of walking in the air.

            The kitchen is a chef’s delight. Assorted canned foods fill the cupboards. The china and utensils are simply impressive.

            The toilet and bath is spotlessly clean. On the open cabinet are stocked an assortment of soaps colognes and fragrances. Also found are towels and bath robes. It’s immaculate ambience is accented by the flawless while marble tiles used in the walls and on the floor.

            The master’s bedroom is a paradise. The circular bed is a real delight. On one corner are found a wide-screen television and beside it is a state-of-the-art audio device, and video game gadget. The private toilet and bathroom is clean and fragrant. Lighting can be controlled or adjusted and the curtains inspire awe.

            The last place of house I looked into is the den. Thereat I get the shock of my life. I cannot believe my eyes! On the walls are my High School, and Collegiate diplomas. I am a pharmacist by profession. And I have finished a masteral degree too.

            Opening a table drawer I found a pile of personal papers and legal documents. One recites that I was appointed as Supervising Pharmacist in a multinational drug company and my salary is paid in dollar not in pesos. Then I see a contract I have concluded with Chrysler Corporation wherein I purchased my car for $8000 dollars. To my amazement, why is the transaction in dollars? Finally another document came up evidencing that I purchased the house from a land developer and is located at Hagemann Avenue, San Francisco, California, USA!

            I dare not travel back into the past anymore. I have arrived!

New Year, New Me

“New Year, New Me”

Whenever I reminisced the past, I always asked myself, was that the right thing to do? Or did I make the wrong decision? What if I made the opposite of my decision? Would everything turned out to be fine?

Past is not just merely a past. This is a memory which teaches us a lesson. Our past is a warning or a reminder of the things we have done right or wrong. For the wrong doings that we want to make it right for us to make our life better.

There are plenty of what if’s in my head but I do know that if I did good in the past, I can do great in the future. I treasure my present because it is a gift. I can apply the things I learned in the past in my present and maybe, just maybe in my future. I can be a better person in the future.

This 2014 a big change is going to happen. New Year, new me. 

A better me I hope. I learned my lessons in year 2013 and I’m not going to make the same mistakes twice. I may not be perfect but no one is perfect. But this will not stop me to become closer to perfection. My past will serve as my guide and my present should serve as my inspiration, for my future lies in me.

This year will be a better year for me. A better life.

"The Essence of Christmas"

The True Essence of Christmas

        Chapter 1, Verse 14, of The New Testament’s Book, “THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN”, proclaims: "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and (we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten son of the Father) full of grace and truth.

        The “flesh” and “son of the father” alluded to in the aforementioned Scriptural verse is no other than Jesus of Nazareth who was born. “Not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of men, but of GOD”. Not being the being offspring of Joseph, Jesus is referred to the “Son of God”. The sobriquet underscores that Jesus’ mundane existence was made possible through the Heavenly Patriarch’s intervention.

        On account of Jesus Christ’s, primary task of redeeming humankind from sin, He is also described in the Bible as the “Lamb of God which taken away the sins of the world” or “Mesias” or Christ.

        The essence of Christmas is the Celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth and the turning into readily the promise of the Father to send his Son to the World to redeem Adam’s and Eve’s family members from the curse of sin. Critics observe that December 25 is not the true birthday of Jesus Christ but were purposely selected by the Roman Catholic Church to compete with and to discredit the pagan festival of the winter solstice. True or untrue, the fact remains that the messiah existed and performed his redemptive task and commemorate his birth during the Christmas season.

Climate Change

“Our World is Changing”

 

Climate Change is a serious global problem and its “Alarm bell” manifestations can no longer be ignored. It constitutes an immense scientific Diocletian sword that hangs over humankind’s head.

Several factors interact to bring about climate change and among them are greenhouse gasses the increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the incessant burning of fossil fuels.

Although it would be self-deceiving to assert that humans can’t be faulted for bringing about climate change its deleterious consequences the undeniable fact screams than man is the author of his own woes. As global population upsurge remains uncontrolled, more mouths to feed exploit natural resources. Forests, which provide oxygen, are indiscriminately slashed and burned and devoted to agricultural production. Thus with oxygen sources diminished each day the volume of carbon dioxide released increases dramatically.

The burning of fossil fuels in industrial production, power generation transport systems, and other purposes has been attributed to as the principal culprit behind the accumulation of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere which in turn, punctured a hole in the earth’s protective ozone layer as big as Antarctica. As more cities and population centers come into existence, more roads, dams, bridges and infrastructures are built, waste materials pollute The soul water and air, global environment gets inevitably damaged, and in the process, effects climatic change. Thus, man himself is driving the nails to his environmental and climatic coffin.

"Equal Rights Equal Opportunities"

 

Oft. Repeatedly asserted is that Divine Providence Created all men equal and by Omni potential design, every Adam’s son and Eve’s daughter is bestowed with equal rights and correspondingly equal opportunities.

       In a Philippine socio-political context, the equal rights doctrine is constitutionally enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Every Filipino citizen is guaranteed with inviolable rights, privileges and legal entitlements and by implication; equal opportunities are available to all.
       Lamentably however, prevailing social, economic and political conditions provide screaming evidence that the afore mentioned fundamental-law mandate is more honored in the breach than in observance and has actually lapsed into a dead letter. Philippine Society is divided into two interest-conflicting camps-entrenched wealth and grinding impoverishment. The privileged minority control capital, resources, and the means of production, businesses and almost all revenue-generating persuits while the disfranchised majority remains stuck in poverty’s quagmire. This Yawning disparity can be singularly portrayed by the multi-hundred-million-peso mansions in such opulent enclaves as Forbes Park and Dasmariñas Village Compared with the miserable squatters dog-houses precariously perched along Filthy estero banks. Political dynasties and vested interests enjoy a monopolistic stranglehold on elective leadership positions from the barangay to the national level while the opportunity of the unmonied to grab an electoral seat is parodied to be as good as the chance of a show flake.
       Equal rights and Equal opportunities? Hagwash!