2010/2011

I don’t know about you guys but I feel relieved now that the year is almost gone. It wasn’t really the worst year in recent memory but not the best either; STILL, a lot of anxieties due to continuing global economic crisis dominating the last couple of years although the good news is it seems to be improving lately.

Without a doubt, in 2010 we were all challenged in so many ways but here we are still standing while in the midst of uncertainties and perhaps fears of our future. We will manage all these if only we always keep our faith alive and never stop believing in ourselves.

Someone wisely told me that to have success in life, what we need is opportunity. And with that opportunity, preparation is needed...and no less, hard work and determination.

Well folks, year 2011 is an opportunity...prepare for it!

Cheers to the New Year...and to a new beginning.

A Season of Giving

MONEY Magazine reported last week that Warren Buffett says he will donate 99% of his wealth. Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, have given $14.5 billion to fund vaccines. Oprah Winfrey has given $40 million to start a school for girls in South Africa. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, pledged $100 million to improve schools in Newark. Isn’t that nice?

How about you?

I know I know...none of us have deep pockets like they do, not even close, but there's nothing wrong with contributing 100 Pesos here and 100 pesos there for a good cause like our Night High Scholarship project. Keep making donations, big or small, on a single cause can be more fulfilling. Helping to fund a simple project like ours can often be more satisfying since you'll really be able to see the impact of your pledge donations. Please continue to support our scholarship project.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah...

...and Happy Festivus for the rest of us!

We’ve only just “Vigan”

Yes, friends and klasmeyts, we’ve just begun contemplating on our next bonding trip. After Batad / Sagada in 2009 and Mayon Volcano / Butanding in 2010, a road/food trip to Ilocos Region, specifically Vigan and perhaps Laoag and Pagudpud, if time permits, are on our mind for 2011. 

An official UNESCO World Heritage site, Vigan will take you back in time with Spanish colonial architecture in sight, terracotta sidewalks and cobblestones under, a horse-drawn calesa ride on top and great foods inside our ever hungry middle.

Quiet a drive from Manila, slow down the highway and see the silhouette of Mt. Pinatubo in Pampanga, lunch at the famous or infamous Hacienda Luisita along the way.  The waves in La Union will surely get you stoked so bring your surfboard dude!

So, anyone care to join us?

17-Milllion Dollar Man

I have yet to find out in the news who actually won the recent 741-million peso lottery. That’s 17-million dollar if converted in current peso-to-dollar rate. I suppose it’s hard to imagine someone coming out in public with the winning ticket combination without fear or apprehension knowing everyone’s eyes and ears are waiting. 

Just thinking about it, I honestly don’t know what I will do if I was that doggone lucky winner and have to claim the prize one day. Should I hire the notorious and dreaded Ampatuans to protect me? 

But I definitely know what I will do with the money if I have them at my disposal. Expand our scholarship project, sending more unprivileged kids to school and build my dream library. 

Oh I forgot, I will finally retire and tour the world too!

Every soul I know played that number game hoping this Christmas will be the merriest ever. I don’t feel bad for any of them not winning, after all, lottery is a game of chance, and a game I was never interested at all in playing. Yes, once in a while I buy tickets, usually when I stop by gas station and use the change for one or 2 quick picks. Months or ever years after, you’ll still find those tickets in my wallet left folded and unchecked. That’s how uninterested I am about the game. 

But not my father-in-law! 

He religiously play week in and week out with the same numbers; a collection of birth dates, anniversary dates, death dates, blind dates and what not. That’s the only reason I have daily newspaper subscription in the first place; for him to check the winning combinations and find out if I will be a richer son-in-law. Hehehe. 

In that recent lottery, the 1-in-29-million odds of winning seem overwhelming. The good thing is all that is playing have the same fair chance of getting the right combination numbers, perhaps even have the same dreams of what they will do with the money if found 17-million dollar richer the following morning. 

Sometimes, luck really comes into play in life. Just don’t always depend on it. You’ll be disappointed.