Marcus Can Blog

It’s been about 3-4 years since I’ve been fascinated every time I arrive at home and see this fireplace greet us right after we enter our front door.

My father had it built in memory of my late aunt and as a remembrance of his first visit in the cold Canada. And if you wonder if it does work, well it doesn’t. It has logs though and maybe if built with a working chimney it may be fired up anytime – as soon as snow falls in Bacolod. Hahahaha. Now I wonder who else among the average family here has it? My best bet, none.

Mood: 3/10 Honks! (we’re recovering and Marcus now sleeps better every night)

The entry of our kid into our lives however, changed me a bit. So last year was supposed to be the first time we had one, but the work schedule back then didn’t permit me to do so – to build one out of my collected used badminton shuttlecocks, that is. But this year, I have no more reasons not to do it. And so, it has begun…

Smashed shuttlecocks recycled as a Christmas tree. I Started stacking it last Thursday, and now it is almost done.

I think I've already convinced her that shuttlecocks can become one good Christmas tree. She's doing the Belen characters, also coming out of these badminton victims.

 

In the next few days, this art creation, if I may call it, will be painted – which luckily, majority of the green paint was recovered on the floor, after Marcus broke the container and spilled almost half of it probably thinking that it’s how things should get done.

 

***

Looks good, tastes good.

Wifey, as always, prepared a very healthy green salad for our snack this afternoon. Now, this is what I call green, good and real…not like the fake plastic Christmas tree. I can say, she’s loving the tree I made. I haven’t check though if there were worms hidden under those lovely and delicious veggies.

 

By the way, those are leftover Jollibee chickens. She's a creative cook just as I'm a creative Christmas tree designer...hahahaha.

 

 

 

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (lots of things get me excited nowadays.)

Last week, our old analog kilowatt-hour meter was replaced by a couple of guys, whom I thought were from MERALCO, with a digital model. Their arrival came as a surprise for me because it has been months already since I called up their Manila office to report that our meter is already accumulating water and moss. That day I was so thankful that the request which I’ve actually forgotten already was finally attended to even if I got concerned upon seeing that the terminals in the meter base were already badly corroded (due to the prolonged exposure to moist). I was assured however by these guys that it will work just fine.

A couple of days passed and true indeed everything went well. Unfortunately, last Friday, I already began to notice that our lights were flickering but dismissed it as just being caused by normal fluctuations. Sadly, the next day it got worse. This time our PC’s UPS is already emitting alarms which only means that the voltage goes on and off; and upon verifying our TV’s AVR, the erratic needle movement of its analog meter confirmed my suspicion – something is so wrong with our electrical utility.

Since it happened during the weekend, I realized that we will have to wait until the next Monday for it to be fixed. Of course, despite already knowing, based on past experiences, that hotline numbers aren’t dependable, I still tried calling their 16211 number – a 24-hour hotline daw. As expected my call didn’t get through after several hopeless attempts. See?

Having conceded to the odds of solving this predicament, last night I advised my wife that we shut off everything except for the fan and lights. We went to sleep with almost all windows opened for ventilation and with Marcus coated with more than the usual Off lotion.

This morning, after an uneventful night (thank God) and after a quick breakfast, I headed straight to the MERALCO office and directly to their customer service agent. Our discussion was short and casual and guess what? No raised voice, no swearing – I’ve changed a lot, didn’t I? Hehehe.

As promised by the agent, actually even earlier, the field personnel did arrive at home and immediately repaired our kilowatt-hour meter. They replaced the corroded terminals, exactly just what I pointed out when it was opened last week. Kudos to MERALCO Dasma (but thumbs down to the main hotline), now we’re back to normal and once again, let there be light……TV, refrigerator, air-conditioning and maybe even Farm Town – I’m so sure my wife missed this. Hahaha.

***

I learned from those who came by this morning that the first group who changed our meter were from their subcontractor company – which explains why their main concern was just to get over with what is specified in the job order and go. Isn’t that rude, unprofessional and dangerous? What if the house they serviced burned because of faulty electrical connection? A scary thought that left me anxious for nights.

***

It’s either I’ve become more forgiving or forgetful (others will agree that this is more so) that my wife had to tell me about past encounters with subcontractor service personnel. Here are a couple of those poor quality jobs:

Sharp washing machine – spin dryer motor broke down less than one month after it was repaired at home. It was later fixed by someone who came from the Sharp office and who informed my wife that the first one was a subcontractor personnel. Since then, it is still running like brand new.

Pioneer DVD component – I find this service center in Bacoor, Cavite among the list of authorized Pioneer Service Centers on their website. The problem was fixed but not properly – which I discovered myself just when I was almost done harnessing it back at home. I felt so bad and desperate about it that one time when I was in one of the appliances center (just window shopping) and was approached by a Pioneer salesman, I cut him off and said, “I’m not buying, palpak ang service center nyo! (your service centers suck)” Despite my misdemeanor, I was surprised to see him composed and soon told me that where I had my component fixed is just a subcontractor of Pioneer and referred to me another Pioneer real service center. I haven’t visited it though, since I can’t risk my kid having tantrums just because he was not able to watch his Little Einstein DVD.

Next time, I’m checking IDs and all subcontractors will be rejected. Fair enough?

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Turned on) 

Now he can be called trusty.

Today our electric bill was delivered and after seeing that our consumption surged significantly compared to last month’s, my wife and I had a brief but interesting discussion about it during another hearty lunch. She said that it must be our refrigerator that is contributing a lot to the increase. And so I asked why? “Because it is already ten years old”, she declared with a straight face.

I was taken aback by her reply not because of the way how she said it. It’s not even because I know that she knows as well that our kid’s nightly demand for airconditioning has more to do with it. And it’s not also because I sensed that what she’s really trying to say is, “let’s replace it” (women). So what was it then that got me to pause for a moment from swallowing the meat balls in my mouth? It’s because all of a sudden I realize that it is indeed already a ten year-old refrigerator. Once again, I lost track of time.

I can’t believe that it has been almost 10 years already that I’ve been shaking my head in disbelief how a “new” refrigerator can have its plastic coating peel off “so soon”. Yes, since we’ve had it, I regreted having bought it because just a year after we took it home, it already started showing signs of poor quality and that every time I get near it I swear I’d never buy the same brand. So today, the realization that it has actually reached 10 years somehow made me utter, “so tumagal din pala kahit papaano (somehow it reached quite a long service)”.

Now I’m hoping that it will serve us a bit longer especially now that it’s been months since I haven’t frequented opening it after I stopped buying and storing canned beers in it. Ti abi.

***

Another thing that surprised me for forgetting how long it had been with us is the 500-piece puzzle that my wife and I assembled even years before we got married. In fact, if there’s one thing that had witnessed several of our ups and downs we encountered back then, this might be it. Last two weeks ago, after more than 10 years of being wrapped in plastic and kept to collect dust behind our cabinet, my wife finally decided to have it framed along with other cross-stitch and puzzle projects.

Believe it or not, those were chiseled obliques when that puzzle got assembled.

Top: Puzzle set given by wifey's then colleague. Bottom: One of her many cross-stitch projects that finally got framed.

Mood: 2/10 Honks!

Bacolod. Black Saturday. Everyone’s out but us. And there’s not much to do after my morning jog, some house hold chores (inc. fixing the pig pen) and having breakfast.

Marcus felt bored. Wifey was playing with the camera. I’m online – and wondering if I have to blog once more about Bacolod’s garbage problem. Not this time.

Wifey’s creativity eventually got me and baby Marcus do this weird thing. In the end, we all enjoyed it

(originally posted on my blogger site)

Sorry if I’ll write one more on this but I really can’t get enough of the Chip Tsao issue or at least relate some things to it. So out of curiosity yesterday I asked my wife to get me a copy of the Philippine Star on her way home from work. My main purpose? Just to check if someone wrote an article about this most talked about shenanigan. Well, someone did and I was all smiles as wifey handed over the thick Sunday issue.

F Sionil Jose

The writer was no less than the national artist for literature himself, F. Sionil Jose. And not only that, his article, “Why are we a ‘nation of servants’? appeared to be a well-revised composition (no pun intended) of my two recent post about the Chip Tsao issue. And here are some excerpts from that article:

“Such insults hurt profoundly but the pain fades quickly and soon after all that enraged outburst, we settle down to the same complacency, we continue sending more of our women abroad to be raped by Arabs, demeaned by Malaysians and Chinese, heckled by the Brits. What has our sense of outrage brought us?”

Chip Tsao

“Do not kill the messenger (referring to Chip Tsao) who comes to us to tell the horrid truth about us. Ingest his message, then [sic] turn all that outrage, that vehemence, to the Filipinos who turned this beautiful country into the garbage dump of the region.”

***

F. Sionil Jose’s words rang like ever resonant tuning forks in my ears. “…then turn all that outrage, that vehemence, to the Filipinos who turned this beautiful country into the garbage dump of the region…” He wasn’t after all just talking about how most of us reacted to this recent release of racial slur but it was as if he’s hitting two birds with one stone. He’s whipping most of us with what has happened to our environment.

It’s a pity, but while most of us are trying to defend our national pride by loosely attacking someone from outside, we failed to recognize the fact that within us, Christians, and some self-declared devout are people who blatantly made our surroundings like one big trash can. How many times have we seen plastic cups come flying out of rickety tricycles, and heck, even from brand new cars? This just goes to show that neither social status nor educational attainment doesn’t guarantee ones concern of the environment. Our love and respect for Mother Nature needs a conscious effort that we all need to do. And we need to start doing it now.

In my opinion, wearing a shirt with the three stars and the sun, or wailing as if on cue once we feel discriminated, isn’t one way of showing our nationalism. It is by recognizing and acting accordingly to the problems that we face right in front of us, that we earn the respect of other people – especially foreigners. Let’s not just get contented with being labeled as being hospitable, resilient (if this still counts), skilled workforce and religious. Let’s do more than these and let’s show the world that we aren’t a nation of servants, nor we are living in a nation of trash.

***

Wifey, son and I on a candle lit alfresco dinner. If you can still see us, then we'll do better next year.

Looking at the bright side, it’s good to know that at least there are a million Filipinos who heed the call to participate in the Earth Hour celebration – and if it was by choice or not, I actually don’t care. For me, just to learn that most of us have “voted” for Earth even just for an hour is enough. Hopefully, we raise this level of awareness and be a part of the majority (is it?) who starts to recognize that something must be done about the environment.

***

Other tidbits from yesterday’s Philippine Star Sunday edition:

• Finally, I read something sensible in Joey De Leon’s column. Hope he keeps it that way.
• Until now, I still can’t stop feeling the hypocrisy over some charity drives. Bulgari is selling rings intended to help some children. 20% of the P19,000 they say will go to Save the Children campaign. You can do more than that, Bulgari. And why can’t those buyers just give the whole amount instead in the first place?
• This I find alarming: Explosives chemicals were found in US baby formulas. 15 brands are in question for having perchlorate, an oxidizer in solid fuels used in explosives, fireworks, and rockets. Isn’t this the reason why our baby boy seems to act like the infamous coyote who has taken acme stuffs? Hmmm.
• Demi Moore saved one man from committing suicide through her Twitter network. Great Job mrskutcher, crisn73 is now one of your followers.

Photo credits:

F. Sionil – Wikipedia.org

Chip Tsao – gmanews.tv

Carbonnyc

Mood: 3/10 Honks!

My abundance of nothing but time has made me a sucker for social networking sites. And when I saw this morning the article 10 Ways to Build Your Blog Community with Twitter my mouse led me to it as if it was an Ouija board pointer. I was in Twitter.com in seconds. Soon enough I was reading, “What is Twitter?” which was followed by a very brief no-brainer description and the very last line states: what are you doing right now? Hmmm. Here I go again.

I don't know who else can't answer the question.

As simple as it appears, being asked what am I doing right now, has the same effect to me as when cops order their suspects, “Freeze!” That’s because it makes me pause for a bit or so and would actually think if what am I really doing. Or worse, am I really doing something in the first place? For me these are tough questions. 35 days from now, it will be tougher.

I’m one of those people who consider the word doing as something being done with an effort and to give answers such as “I’m surfing the net”, “reading blogs”, “watching TV”, “drinking coffee”, “watching paint dry” or “I’m killing time” gives me guilt – I can obviously do these without even thinking. And then social networking sites entered my life.

Weeks have passed by and I’ve been a regular facebook crowd. So far I’ve gathered a large group of friends, most of which are my colleagues and some are schoolmates. Others are my mafia – if you know what I’m talking about. I’m now one of those itching to type something in the “What’s on your mind?” field. I just don’t know if I’ve sleepwalked just to fill in something new. Hahaha. Needless to say, I enjoy just hanging around. In fact, I love being there that I cancelled my Friendster account at last because I never liked it to begin with.

Today, I find another good one – Twitter.com. I’ve been receiving invites in the past but just like facebook invites last year, I’ve ignored it. It’s the catchy article that got me hooked since I know that I’ll be in the blog world most of the time starting on May. That is, if our energetic baby will allow it; which reminds me by the way that I’m a full time Dad today. Now, if that doesn’t answer the question: what are you doing right now? I don’t know what will. Believe me, to say that it’s done with an effort, is an understatement. Shhh…he’s waking up. Bye for now.

“Cris is now keeping a close watch of the baby.” Ti abi.

 Mood: 3/10 Honks!

Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to. – John Ed Pearce

Imagine you have a very small wooden house. And other than its cramp space, you notice that it has seen better days. Then one day, after several days of careful consideration and discussion with your wife, you finally decided that it’s time to move to a bigger one despite having to leave years of memories behind.

Eventually, you settled to your new house and in just a matter of days you begin to consider it home. You cherish its every nook and cranny and you started believing that what you’ve done is very well worth the trouble. For a couple of months that followed and every day after you wake up, you excitedly grab a freshly brewed coffee ready to do what was considered your daily ritual. You pace back and forth, climb up and down the flight of stairs, and look up the ceiling then down to the floor. And after each thorough yet casual inspection you smile, really convinced that what you have decided months ago was definitely the right thing to do.

But days, months and almost a year after though, you seem to notice that you have had several occasions when you never see your neighbors, friends and above all your family. Your family that what was actually among those you expected to appreciate the most of your now spacious abode during their regular visits. And this is when you once again wonder why. After a couple of sleepless nights you finally realize, you’re all alone in the middle of an island surrounded by the serene yet intimidating sea – for almost a year, you’ve been inaccessible to the rest of the world.

To make things worse, and regretful, you heard that the small wooden house you’ve left behind is sitting on top of a rich oil deposit. Suddenly you remember and said, “hey, I still own that house…I must go back while time is still on my side.” So back you did. Although the story didn’t end with “…and they live happily ever after…” you humbly returned, compromised, and started to recognize (and deal with) its trade offs. And on your first night of your return, you lie back on your old yet cozy bed, look out through the ageing window sill trying to hold back your smile as you kiss your ever supportive wife good night hoping that tomorrow will indeed be a better day…with both of you still living in that small wooden house.

***

The hypothetical story above is just my way of saying that I’ll be regularly posting my blogs back to my Blogger.com account. This time however, I changed its name from killtimedoblog.blogspot.com to marcuscanblog.blogspot.com to leave the negative association. I will be doing some sort of syndication by posting on both Wordpress and Blogger account.

By the way, I composed that story while my wife and our restless son, Marcus, were playing right behind me.

Photo credit: Poonomo

Mood: 3/10 Honks!

Tonight I’m happy…somehow. I have just finished listing and computing our monthly expenses since it is already the last week of February. I’m not expecting anymore regular expenses as we have already bought our groceries and baby stuffs which usually share the largest slice of our expenses pie.

I have actually made a conscious effort to save since the early part of last year. The initial news about our company on April 2, 2008 and the other bad news that followed – including the admission of the then US president Bush about the recession taking place – made it more compelling for me to be thrifty enough. It’s also a good thing that the number of training that our company has arranged, and that I have attended, contributed to my knowledge on how to be in control of our finances. Although it may still not be half-perfect even at this time, at least our drive and urge to save is already there. We just have to start somewhere, somehow.

While there are five more days to go before this month ends, I already feel accomplished in terms of our budgeting. After I have transferred our expenses to the financial worksheet, I compared our current expenses with last month’s. I then marked those that have increased with red. And those that have decreased were marked green. In the end, and to my amazement, the greens significantly dominated the reds. Sweet.

So what was done right then? What have we done to successfully cut our expenses – some items were even cut in half. Let me share some tips.

Dilute, dilute, dilute. I apply this tip to all our cleaning agents for years already. The cleansers we use at home like the toilet liquid solutions and car shampoos are basically concentrated enough to be used in its pure form. Even the manufacturer’s recommended ratio is still strong for the intended tasks that it is a no-brainer that a saving can be achieved if you dilute it with more water.

Be brand-conscious. When I heard Mr. Bengco (of the Colayco foundation) talk about it during his recent seminar at our company, I couldn’t agree more since I’ve been doing it already. What I’m not aware though is by how much is actually saved when you know what you are buying. His example: the bath soap. In his presentation he showed one brand that cost a mere Php 9 (USD 0.2). The next foils showed several other brands that cost twice and even thrice the price just because it promises extra germ killing action, catchy fragrance…and everything there is a TV ads will do just to entice consumers like us. Right now, I try to settle for the ones in the mid-price range.

Buy two brands. This may sound confusing especially just after the previous tip but believe me this is what I’m doing. For almost a year already, I had two different deodorants (Disclaimer: not for the squeamish). I used one that has “superior” action every time I go to work or leave home. Then I use one with the “least superior” action if I know that I’ll be static at home and will be spending time as a couch potato and will just be home alone with the baby – at least he doesn’t know how to complain yet if the deodorant protection fails. Ewww, daddy!

Drive like your grandma. I have mentioned this in my blog – Being a Gas Miser and I cannot stress it enough that one’s driving habit does directly affect fuel consumption. This is where I often fail but I keep on reminding myself to be on track. Until now, I’m still at least within the 13-15 kilometer per liter expected range of our car. Now I’m wondering if I’ll be able to save gas if I stop blaring (if this doesn’t save gas, just at least my sanity) my horns every time I meet a jeepney with only one headlight on – I’ve heard that the reason why its drivers do it is because one headlight on saves gas than having two. Hmmm, sounds like an idea…Nah!

A Honda is a Honda. Well, at least that’s what I’m always telling myself whenever I’m on my Honda 100cc motorcycle instead of our Honda City. That’s because when it comes to saving gas the motorcycle wins, hands down. No contest. But when it comes to saving lives…errr, wrong discussion. Hahaha. Seriously speaking, I recommend this tip for those ready and responsible enough to drive a motorcycle. And if you’re not yet in that mind set, it’s still worth taking a ride in that one-eyed jeepney – I bet, your wife will be even happy about it.

Go slow with the fast foods. So far, this is the biggest savings we had for this month. It was cut by more than 50 percent and it’s a welcome development. One thing that helped us do it is by avoiding the malls. There’s something about the scent of the malls that attracts each individual (or even group) to go and line up in front of the fast food counters. It may be due to poor air circulation or a deliberate ploy to set the minds of the mall goers to go hungry and crave for pizza, burger or doughnuts (and coffee) in an instant. But if you can’t avoid it, and just like what I’m doing, try going there with a full stomach – i.e. take lunch at home. It works for me – I’m now eating Whoppers and half cup of sundae…and large Coke. Ti abi.

Last but not the least, the No rot rule. This is still in the works after I told my wife that we should avoid foods inside the refrigerator from spoiling. Believe it or not, I used to admire people whose ref is so full of foods that most of the times, some of it will rot and end up as trash. Back then, I see it as abundance. Now, it’s nothing but waste – both food and money. So far, I’ve been successful but that’s after I’ve monitored and eaten the leftovers and had my weight build up as a consequence. Ti abi. I think it’s just about time to apply then the “No rot, No fat rule”. That I guess is win-win.

During these times when everyone gets so tired of hearing about the recession (and the rest of the similar tags that’s associated with it), the need to save and finding ways to learn more how to do it is already a must. This is also when sharing what we know – no matter how trivial – and learning from what others already knew (and follow) will help each one of us survive the turbulent ride that the rest of the world experiences.

Mood: 4/10 Honks!

“A coward is a hero with a wife, kids, and a mortgage.” -Marvin Kitman, author and media critic (b. 1929)

Today is my first time to be left alone with some so little yet so handful to be with – our baby. I had to skip work just to see and feel how well I’ll do with this tiny living gift we got just less than a month ago. Likewise it’s my way of checking if the baby routines systematically listed by my wife on the cork board will work out fine if followed to the dot by our neighbor whom we asked to babysit for him while we’re out.

The drowsiness and a bit of headache didn’t keep my enthusiasm to face the day – more than 12 hours ahead with just me and him. And the moment my wife closed the gate and headed for work, I was mentally conditioning myself and was trying if I can remember the routines even if I’m not looking at it. There’s breakfast, vitamin and supplement intake, bath time, playtime and lunch for the first half. The second half upon review shows two more playtimes separated by two other routines. Wow! Isn’t that overwhelming enough for someone who’ll be left alone with such demanding baby?

Now after 12 hours that seems to me like months of workout in the gym – at least there you don’t wipe someone else’s poop – I didn’t realize that I finished everything that is listed. Right after I set the innocent and handsome looking small guy in his colorful crib, with his eyes beginning to show his sleepiness, I was so ecstatic that I feel like calling a celebration. Unfortunately, I can’t shout for joy as I’m so sure it will be like waking a sleeping little giant – who’ll be so eager to get out of his sleeping pen once again to play like there’s no tomorrow.

A dad's mandatory and embarassing picture with the Jollibee mascot. Taken in SM Bacolod.

Mood: 2/10 Honks!