How to help typhoon Yolanda victims

Tulong na. Tabang na. Tayo na!

My Amnesia Boy

you broke my heart JLN (Janet Lim Napoles)

Mag-MEMO Plus Gold ka nga

Nega No More

Anti-Negativity Thinking Tips to get your Mental House in order:

(by Mark Tyrrell, therapist and co-founder of Uncommon Knowledge)

 

save the cheerleader, save the world

1) Stop thinking in extremes

Most of life isn't black or white, completely this or that, all or nothing. Negative thinking tends to view bad stuff in the extreme.

2) Stop over-generalizing the negative

Ask yourself: "If something bad happens, do I over-generalize it? Do I view it as applying to everything and being permanent rather than containing it to one place and time?"

take time to look-smell-instagram the flowers

3) Don't minimize the positive

Negative thinking stops people from seeing the positive when it does happen. It's as if there's a screen filtering out positives and just letting in stuff that confirms the 'negative bias'. Magnifying setbacks and minimizing successes leads to de-motivation and misery.

4) Stop mind-reading

Having to assign a meaning to something before you actually have real evidence makes you more inclined to believe what you imagine without question. Holding off assigning (made up) meaning to an ambiguous situation is a key part of overcoming negative thinking. When you become more positive (or just more comfortably neutral), you'll also be able to consider all possible reasons you can think of, not just the negative ones.

5) Stop taking all the responsibility

If you (or someone else) do something good or well, just accept it. Negative thinkers also tend to do the opposite. They will internalize - that is, blame themselves - for all kinds of negatives that have little or nothing at all to do with them. Look at how much control and influence you really have over things that you tend to think negatively about.

6) Stop forcing your own rules on life

This isn't to say that we shouldn't expect anything from ourselves and others, but rather that the rules need not be unreasonably inflexible.

If you feel disappointed or let down, then you must have been expecting something else. Examine what it was and ask yourself: "Was my expectation too narrow?"

toughen up

7) Stop making stuff up and believing it

Imagination is a wonderful thing, but not if you use it to scare yourself. Sometimes we need to be able to 'suspend the functioning of the imagination' (to quote Ernest Hemingway, no less).

Trees

fresh air over LTE

Project: Desensitize

• red facial flushing. check
• dizziness. check
• nausea. check
• increased body temperature and heart rate. check check
• physical discomfort. check
• and lightheadedness. Check

Yes, it is definitely the Alcohol Flush Reaction also known as the Asian Flush when drinking alcohol. With this, I usually get the attention for the wrong reasons - among them is turning beet red and scary-ugly usually without even finishing a bottle of beer or a simple alcomix. What’s odd is that only a very lucky or unlucky few (depends on how you look at it) have it. 

It is carried only by people of East Asian descent. Roughly one third of the eastern Asian population carries this mutation. “Alcohol flush reaction (also known as Asian flush syndrome, Asian flush, Asian glow, among others) is a condition in which an individual's face or body experiences flushes or blotches as a result of an accumulation of acetaldehyde, a metabolic byproduct of the catabolic metabolism of alcohol,” according to Wikipedia.

Technically it’s not an allergic reaction but a genetic issue. What’s actually happening is: “when you are breaking down ethanol in your body, there is a build-up of acetaldehyde. This reaches very high concentrations in individuals who suffer from Alcohol Flush Reaction and results in the symptoms you are familiar with such as red facial flushing, dizziness, nausea, increased body temperature and heart rate, physical discomfort and lightheadedness.”

Further, for people with Alcohol Flush Reaction, your body is not launching an immune response, but is actually suffering damage from a toxin when you are drinking. The Asian flush, sometimes called the “Asian glow,” refers to a common reaction to alcohol among East Asians. This facial flushing was found to be a result of a deficiency of a liver enzyme called ALDH2. This finding was revealed in a 1981 article in Lancet.

So it’s a gift as well as a curse

Acetaldehyde is a carcinogen in humans. Research has shown that facial flushing when drinking is indicative of ALDH2 deficiency, which can increase the risk of developing esophageal cancer by six to ten times. On the other hand, the flushing discourages people like me from drinking too much. Because, “the best practice to avoid these symptoms is to abstain from drinking.”

 

choose your poison wisely

Makulit lang

But,’ the “Asian flush” can disappear for some people later in their lives, especially if they continuously “practice” drinking,’ a related article also revealed. (http://www.gbhealthwatch.com/Trait-Asian-Flush.php) It is just me but I am hoping to still desensitize and ‘outgrow’ this condition soon so I choose to drink at my own risk.

Indeed

So let me think…

Basically Boracay

We braved the bagyo, typhoon Odette also known internationally as Usagi. Reports say that so far, it is the strongest storm to hit the entire planet for this year. So basically, there were just white sand, good food and a not so gentle breeze at Travel+Leisure Magazine’s 2^nd Best Island in the World. No complaints.

press play

white, wide, open

they come in three-s

too windy to sail

are you ready?

photobomber!

National Heroes Day

It’s National Heroes Day.

And today is no ordinary Meatless Monday.

We are zero-ing on PORK!

Randy David: "Here, in our country, I believe that the anger is directed not against any person in particular, but against an entire system—a way of doing things—that permits elected officials to enrich themselves in power, while ensuring their and their relatives’ monopoly on power through acts of patronage. It is a system that feeds on the poverty and powerless of the many, corrupting every modern institution that stands in the way of the selfish agenda of those in power."

Yoki's Farm

Eccentricity at its finest. 

Somewhere in Mendez, Cavite we found a hydrophonics farm, an aviary and a collection of the most exquisite knickknacks- from Venus de Milo to Genghis Khan all in one garden. It was supposed to be just a pre-birthday treat for my father but this turned out really really goood!

was he a Pharaoh?

the Lotus position

How to get there:

Yoki’s Farm

Tabluan Road, Barangay Palocpoc 1, Mendez, Cavite

Tel: +63-922-8014220

Hours: 8:00-11:00am, 1:00-4:00pm

Entrance fee: Php100/person, small children come in free

Coming from Manila, look out for the following landmarks:

 1 .Mushroom Burger

2. Bag of Beans

3. Turn right at the block immediately after Bag of Beans(where you’ll see a sign directing you to turn right to Hacienda Isabella.) It’s around 15 to 20 minutes straight going down the hill. Soon, you’ll spot a sharp U-turn. Take the u-turn and continue on that road. Once you see a small intersection, turn left and then soon enough, another left. You’ll know you’re close when you reach Tabluan Road. You’ll see a big black gate with “YOKI” emblazoned on it. The farm doesn’t have a sign so be careful or you’ll miss it.

the freshest lettuce and more!

exquisite!

lush greens

QWERTY pad

slowly but surely

a Roman gladiator guarding the HUGE Buddha?

alien life in Jade

follow the light

still, another unlikely pair

Palawan is World's Best Island

Palawan was voted as Travel+Leisure's World's Best Island for 2013. I was recently in Coron, Busuanga- one of the many islands in Palawan with some of my best friends from Pagcor and with my best brother, Mark. Because anything less than the best is a felony. (Even if it was Vanilla Ice who sang that.)

ah Coron! Magnifique!

Clarity!

Bulungan Beach. They say that a witchdoctor still lives here.

ofcourse you know where it's at - Kayangan Lake!

the mountain ranges surrounding Mt. Tapyas

mangroves at the Coron Youth Club

There’s more to it than being the country’s last ecological frontier or the Underground River making it to the elite Wonders of Nature list. For instance, Busuanga Airport, the gateway to Coron is smacked in the mountain ranges of the Yulo King Ranch. It was actually a cattle ranch/reserve named after one of former President Marcos’ closest friends, Mr. Yulo. It was put up in 1976 and cows were placed for dispersal in the 140,000 sqms piece of land.

stalled by the cows at the Yulo King Ranch

at the Coron Youth Club, yes it's an island

Mt. Tapyas sunset

just enjoying the view at the Mt. Tapyas deck

docked at the Bulungan Beach for Lunch

here's what you'll see when you reach the deck

approaching Kayangan Lake

waiting for our late lunch at the Coron Edge Bar & Restaurant

In Black and White

I fell in love with photography long before printing or publishing photos in black and white was just an artsy choice but was a necessity. In fact it was the only way to pass my Photography 101 and Photojournalism classes. During the late 90’s (when I was still a freshman at the College of Mass Communication (CMC) in UP,) the use of digital cameras were discouraged. We had to do it the old-fashioned way: load our manual SLR cameras with black & white film, process the negative, project the image on the light sensitive photo paper and finally process and print that projected image. And yes, I have spent a chunk of my time in the dark room and have crashed into someone a couple of times.

Like most film students, Necopan too was one of my favorite brands.

Philippine Post Office, Liwasang Bonifacio, 1998

heavily guarded

The Oblation, University of the Philippines (2001)

I heard the people roar at the Senate grounds (Jericho March, 2001)

Deposed President Erap effigy way back in 2001 at Mendiola.
 But people have short memories--- he is now elected Mayor of Manila 

 It was definitely in my college soundtrack.

The truth shall set you free

Woe to those who rob the poor

we all wanted to change the world

A boy named Jao at the Jericho March (2001)
He'd be around 15yrs.old now if he was 3 then