Adopted Son of the Cordillera Sen. Juan Miguel "Migz" F. Zubiri named DUCAYAG

 The CINDEWOLL (Cordillera Indigenous Elected Women Leaders League) held their 5th General Assembly today at the Benguet State University closed gym, La Trinidad, Benguet. As one of the comtemporary leaders of the country who have extended unsolicited services to the Region specially in the field of legislation for economic development activities, Hon. Juan Miguel Zubiri was invited as the keynote speaker for the said activity.

The senator arrived shortly before 10 AM. Before the senator’s lengthy inspirational speech,  Gov. F. Diazen of Kalinga announced the organization’s resolution adopting Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri as the Son of the Cordillera and be named “Ducayag“. Senator Zubiri indulged the request of the group to have his clothings changed at the backstage. Garbed in a traditional ethnic wear (g-string), the senator went back to the stage where Usec. Dominguez together with Mayor C. Balao of Atok (CINDEWOLL President), and other politicians present helped him in wearing the head gear and other accessories that goes with the costume. The senator took the podium and delivered his speech barefooted and in a traditional Igorot man costume.

“Ducayag“ was one of the great tribal leaders of Kalinga who was known for his leadership potential that gained him the title “Pangat”, a Kalinga title bestowed only to one with proven leadership.

During the organization’s General Assembly in 2007, Senator Loren Legarda was also given the same recognition, giving her the name “Tokwifi“, a local term for a star.   

Free ebooks by your favorite authors

Wow! I practically went gaga when I stumbled across this blog with hundreds or maybe thousands of ebooks by famous authors. The blog owner was even encouraging readers to request for authors or books they have in mind that are not found in her collection…Fully Book’s a blessing to people like me…

Visit the blog at Fullybook’s weblog Name it and you’ll have it: Dan Brown, John Grisham, Sidney Sheldon, Ludlum, Sparks, Clancy, McNaught, Garwood…and everyone in the New York Times bestseller list, can’t believe it myself but they’re all there! I had been scouring the net for for free ebooks by these authors to no avail until quite accidentally I found this site. Then voila! some of the books that are lacking in my paperback collection were there, and some of which the owner promised to upload. Fullybook said that she’s got thousands more of ebooks that are yet to be uploaded. Go now! download and start reading, Enjoy!

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Aimless walking and musings

Walking aimlessly, without focus, with no definite agenda in mind has it’s certain charm. Along the way we meet people from different walks of life, we see places, we notice things, and do things spontaneously that we may not be able to do if there were some agenda at hand. Random thoughts enter the mind and we muse over almost everything that comes across our wandering minds, major or trivialities that had been a part of our life.

For a time I really enjoyed just walking up and down Session Road, alone, and without specific agenda in mind. I would occasionally glance at the goodies spread out on the sidewalk, “wagwag”, accessories, and pirated CDs and DVDs. Oftentimes I would even buy something that was totally out of my budget, call that impulsiveness or spontaneity, whatever. It’s only when my feet start protesting that I would go to either Ionic Café or Dunkin Donuts for one of my addictions…coffee. I would just sit there for hours enjoying the coffee while watching people coming in and out and passing through the café. Nothing can beat the effect of going home late though, feeling tired and sleepy, I would soon fall into oblivion, without the usual restlessness. I stopped doing this nocturnal activity several months ago when again I found myself drawn back to my oldest and most trusted friends…books, but I really missed those times in the café. Losing yourself in books has it’s own charm too, when you get your hands on a really good book and you will find yourself totally captivated with the story, temporarily you will forget all your worries. Either way, it was  a great progress compared to the time when merely getting out of bed is pure act of will.

Life’s like that in so many ways, half our lifetime we walk aimlessly in search of fulfilling our purpose in this world. We face our life by taking it one day at a time, never really thinking what the future has in store for us. Time flies without notice and still we continue the journey. Somewhere along the aimless journey, we’ll arrive to a purpose that warrants our attention. We meet some people who may or may not become a vital part of that journey. In retrospect, some will just leave us high and dry along the way, and very few will steadfastly stand and walk beside you.  Those who left us along the way may leave bittersweet memories that will forever be imprinted in our hearts, memories that will either create joyful or woeful smile on our faces. Those disillusionments will sometimes keep us from the right track, and so comes the need for a purpose to help us get back on track.

Maintaining professional boundaries

Sometimes it is truly very hard to set your personal and professional life apart, especially in the work place. As professionals, we are required to set boundaries for ourselves, setting these ethical boundaries when in a work situation will keep our integrity as professionals. Whatever those boundaries were, our main goal is to maintain our integrity and keep the respect of our colleagues and clients. The following are just few of the situations that were observed in the work place.

Married Couples (Use of endearments in the office premises) - The use of endearments (“mama”, “daddy”, etc.)  between married couples who work in the same company/office when calling the attention of their other half while inside the office premises. I’m sure you agree that this is highly improper and inappropriate even for a boss and most especially for a boss to do in the presence of subordinates.

Bringing personal/family problems to work - One situation that seems to be very common in a work place is bringing our personal or family problems to work. The boundary should be clearly drawn here and the right time for work and right time for dealing our personal issues be clearly defined. In my work place for instance, most of us here unfortunately were not able to develop these ethical lines which admittedly affected our work performance and working relationships. It became a part of our daily life here at work to hear about so and so’s problem. That’s a part of “humanness” I guess, quite understandable but hardly an acceptable reason for doing so. A very sound advice from David Bohl, we should do everyone a favor and adopt this mantra “what happens at home, stays at home”.

Opinion lang po.

Hopelessly McNaughtized

If there’s one author who can make me cry and laugh from the start to end…that could only be Judith McNaught. As McNaught fans called it, I was hopelessly “McNaughtized”, and so are millions of readers who happened to read any of her books. For 12 years since I first read “Until You”, I had been collecting McNaught books, and I considered them the most treasured among my book collections. Unlike other known authors, McNaught wrote only about 20 books in total (including short stories compiled with Jude Deveraux books). And just for the record, all of her books were in the New York Times best sellers list, and it’s really very hard avail a copy for each. Among my favorites are her contemporary series: Perfect, Paradise, and Night Whispers. I won’t go into detail about these books because I’ll just be raving non-stop about those unforgettable characters (with Zack and Julie in Perfect as my favorites). I can only tell you this much, once you tried reading even one of her books, you won’t stop with just one and can’t help yourself looking for more. McNaught is the best, contemporary and historicals alike.

I can’t wait to get my hands on her latest book called “Can’t take my eyes off you”.

Full text of OBAMA’s victory speech

President-elect Barack Obama spoke to the world from his home city of Chicago as he became the first black president of the United States.

(more…)

sCaRy!

Today is Ate Kuklay’s birthday. I ate more or less a thousand calories in just one sitting ugh! gotta do something with this appetite before I’ll turn into “lumba-lumba“.

Sigh! I don’t know anymore how to handle this problem. Funny, but once again I was caught off guard with this person’s question. I entered their office looking for Ate Perlas, and my boss was talking with someone on the phone, then this person who was just a meter away from my boss called my attention and forthrightly asked ” Adda ba grudge mo kaniak? inis ka ba kaniak?” … Golly! Did she really expect an honest answer with some audience around (my boss specially)? I admit I muttered the wrong answer because I said “Awan, Apay?  Sencya gayam a hanak nagreply jay txt mo ta awan load ko”  Hay wrong! I should have said “why? is there a reason for me to be mad at you?”  as what a friend told me to. Throwing back that question would surely make her think. What boggles the mind is that why in hell would she ask me that with my boss within hearing range? close range at that…otherwise I would have answered her honestly. Grabe sa manners as in. This on going rift between us in the office is still without my boss’ knowledge, and I wouldn’t want her to get involve with this as much as possible. My boss’ sister and this girl apparently had differences too for some reason, they were former office mates.

Role of the Electoral College in US Presidential Election

Well, I’m not an expert on how the election process of the United States works, far from it actually. I just found the Electoral College an interesting subject. In smaller countries like our country for instance, people elect the president and vice president directly, it more or less relied on popular voting, and the candidate having the highest vote will automatically earn the office. It doesn’t work that way in the US however, the popular election is just the first step in the process of the election, having the highest votes in the popular voting doesn’t guarantee the candidate winning the election. This year for instance, there were 538 electors in the Electoral College representing the 49 States plus the District of Columbia, the number of electors were based on the number of senators (2 for each State) and the number of representatives per State. The candidate must earn the minimum majority of 270 votes to win the presidency. The electors’ votes will reflect the people’s choice in their respective state, however, not all the States have federal law that mandates the electors to vote for the candidate they are pledged to elect.

Take for example the case of Al Gore and George Bush in the 2000 election, Gore won the popular votes but Bush won the Electoral College votes making him the 43^rd President of the US. That is considered the major drawback in this system as compared to just simply declaring the winner of the popular voting, but nevertheless it also gives weight to the votes of the smaller or less populous states like for instance the State of Alaska which is one of the smallest state. It provides a fair representation for each State. This created a never ending debate over the relevance and fairness of the system. Hilary Clinton in one of her speech suggested the elimination of the Electoral College, saying that the the popular votes or the will of the people be followed.

After more or less 22 months and billion dollars spent in the campaign, America will have their 44^th President. Be it Mc Cain or Obama, it’s a bit premature to say it yet.  Not until the Electoral College will cast their votes on December 15 this year.

However, news reports already declared Obama the winner, with a projected 338 electoral votes over 159 by Mc Cain based on the results of the popular voting. With this wide margin, the democrats will have nothing to worry about…The College will just be making it official this December and Obama would be the first ever African American to hold the most powerful office in the world. The 44th President will be inaugurated come January 20, 2009.

A democrat and a member of the minority himself, Obama as president will surely be an advantage for the filipinoes in the US.

vAmPiRe FeVeR Part 2 (Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer)

 Weekend was boring, t’was the only All Saints Day that I wasn’t with relatives at the cemetery. I spent my Saturday at Ate Jarz’ apartment, we went to the grocery in the morning then cooked pork sinigang and pansit for lunch, then we all watched another boring movie called ITALY before I went home at 4pm, thinking of the vampire book waiting for me.

Warning: The following contains spoilers about the book series. 

I finished New Moon and Eclipse during the weekend and I already started with the last book called Breaking Dawn. New moon was a bit boring compared to Eclipse. I got really annoyed with Jacob the werewolf in Newmoon, with his persistent pursuit and over flowing confidence in wooing Bella, but I’m starting to like him better in Breaking Dawn. Also Bella, with her low self-esteem and extreme martyrdom, aah! it was really irritating but I love her total transformation in Breaking Dawn. I love the characters of the Cullen family though specially Edward and Alice. I was quite fascinated with that “imprinting” thing of the werewolves. Vampires on the other hand fall in love only once in their whole existence and will forvever be loyal to their partners, I wish that happens in real life.

Honestly? The twilight series are far from the best books I’ve read in the past, I’ve read hundreds of fictions and there are better books to read than these ones, I found it a bit overrated as compared to HP books, it certainly lacks the colorful characters of HP, but still I found myself fascinated with these vampires and werewolves characters…a welcome change from thrillers, contemporary romance, courtroom dramas, etc…Still okey I guess, I just started reading the last book and by the look of things I’m predicting for more sequels of the story, perhaps the story will be in the perspective of both the protagonists’ daughter, perhaps. Readers will be asking for more I guess because the characters don’t grow old, they were frozen to the age when they were made vampires. Their adventure as vampires and werewolves continues. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to the movie, I’d like to compare it with the book (I usually do that with books I’ve read with film adaptations), and besides Rob Pattinson is absolutely hot (lol)

Ebooks of the whole series are available for those interested with vampires and werewolves, just leave me a message and I will send it to your emails for free.