Globe Run For Home 2012

Perhaps this is a sign that I should start taking wellness more seriously. Aside from the fact that running is in vogue nowadays, sweating toxins out of my system (and I'm sure there's a lot) is one great activity I should be doing it to improve my skin's health. Waah! On the record, that's my vanity speaking. Waah! Oh glorious Miriam, you should start running too! 

Anyway, please go over the event details and I'll see you all there! 

GLOBE RUN FOR HOME 2012

March 25, 2012

3km/5km/10km/15km/21km

Cebu International Convention Center

www.globe.com.ph/run

Globe Run For Home 2011

REGISTRATION PERIOD: February 1 to March 16, 2012

ON-LINE REGISTRATION: (payments via credit card only) 

SITE: www.globe.run.com.ph/run

Online registration is recommended for participants who are based outside Cebu.

Delivery fee will be charged on top of the registration fee.

Runner’s kit will be delivered to the specified address of online registrants on or before March 23, 2012.

ON-GROUND REGISTRATION VENUE: (cash payments only)

1st level, Paseo Ciudad, Ayala Center, Cebu

Runner’s kit can be claimed upon registration on February 1 to March 16, 2012 from 10AM to 8pm at the 1st level, Paseo Ciudad, Ayala Center, Cebu.

Runner’s kit will be given once the participant has completed the registration process.

FEES:

21K	Php 700
15K	Php 600
10K	Php 500
5K	Php 400
3K	Php 300

Runner’s kit will include the following items:

• Singlet (sizes will be subject to availability

• Timing Chip

• Race Bib Number

• Finishers medal for 21km

ASSEMBLY AND GUN START:

Race Category	Assembly Time	Gun Start
21Km	4:30am	5:00am
15Km	5:00am	5:30am
10Km	5:15am	5:45am
5Km	5:30am	6:00am
3Km	5:45am	6:15 am

RACE FEATURE: THE FACEBOOK TRACKER

Be the first to auto-share Run for Home 2012 updates to your Facebook contacts!

With the Run for Home Facebook Tracker, you can keep everyone on your Facebook posted with everything that’s happening at the Cebu International Convention Center on March 25. Newsfeed updates and race results will be sent to your profile through the Timing Chip as you run past milestones during the marathon.

How to Activate the Facebook Tracker

1. When you sign up online, indicate your Facebook ID and email address in your registration form.

2. Install the Facebook Run for Home Live Update application by clicking the Install App button.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:

Singlet sizes are subject to availability

Registration fees are non-refundable and non-transferable to another runner.

Participants with incomplete registration &/or unsigned liability waiver will not be given the runner’s kit.

Participants who are late at the gun start forfeit his/her chance of winning but can still participate in the race.

What are you giving up for Lent?

So the question everyone asks everyone is, "what are you giving up for Lent?"

I heard one giving up a meal a day. Marge is giving up Coke. Angel said she's thinking of Facebook (or is it?). And another, I dare not say.

Me? Still thinking. 

It should be something I do or have conveniently that it becomes necessary for living (that ultimately makes it hard to depart from) and that departing from it must make me a better person.

And so, what are you giving up for Lent?

Let me make this universal by attempting a bit of explanation. The practice of sacrifice and more particularly fasting during the Lenten season is fostered by the Catholic Church as a reflection of Christ's 40 days in the Judean dessert known as the Temptation of Christ. 

Colors of innocence

Anika Resort

I advanced summer a bit last weekend with a trip to Bantayan. Mixing business with pleasure is always an exciting proposition, so when Joseph asked me to provide for the PR content for this new resort, I didn't have second thought. We had the most gracious hosts, Nelson and Karen, resort owners, and great company with Kat de Castro, Bobby Yan, Bing, Jaycee, Tatum, Ron and Rod (and who else did I miss?). 

By the way, the new resort is Anika and it is situated along Sta. Fe's white beach just a few minutes away from the pier.

The rooms are of container vans.

Resort's fantastic beach view.

Comfortable and luxurious still.

Bing and her new career in Bantayan

Bobby Yan and resort owner Nelson Yuvallos.

Bayan Productions staff.

Tatum, Jaycee, Joseph and Bing.

I miss my bums

Date with ladies this weekend. Excited to see my Bergie and Michiko. Hopefully we'll have Claudine and Angel too!

(By the way Michiko, I pirated these photos from your blog)

Filipino garden

Our house in Dumaguete looks like a post-Communist era shelter with concrete grounds and confined in high hollow-block fence with potted plants haphazardly arranged here and there. My mother and my sister are fantastic gardeners, thanks to their green thumb (I oftentimes ask them to plant my cuttings) but they lack my vision and keen aesthetic sense (that's my vanity talking).

To make the last day of my New Year vacation in Dumaguete wortwhile, my sister and I marched to beautiful Valencia (a neighbor town of Dumaguete) to buy more plants.

I came across a story somewhere about this garderner who is maintaning a "Filipino garden." What's so charming about this story is that he still has a picture of his aunts while they were still children and on that picture were beautiful foliages. He said that the descendants of those foliages still thrive today in his garden!

Doña Sirikit, Doña Aurora, Mendenilla and Dama de Noche

That story inspired me to create my own Filipino garden. And so, while in Valencia, I was filled with joy to see a beautiful ligh-pink mussaenda plant of the Doña Sirikit kind (named after the Thai royal consort who is a contemporary of our deal Imelda). I got Sirikit and I got a Doña Aurora (a white mussaenda), a fragrant dama de noche (its name translated in English as the lady of the night because of the beautiful scent she releases every night) and a pretty mendenilla.

I can't wait to go back to see those beautiful plants again and I am more than excited to see them thrive! 




Pictures from the Internet

Colorful holiday party

Well, ladies and gentlemen, are the photos of the many others that do not include me in the frame (sorry, my blog). Lexmark Sales and Marketing Operations did have a lot of fun last Dec. 10 at the Harold's roof top. And because I find it quite laborious to write, I shall tell our flash back to the 80s in colorful pictures!

Ingrid did metallic, Angel did satin tiers and I went for preppy color blocking.

Conversation

Remember this conversation? Always lifts my smile muscles!


You : The tongue is mightier than the sword. Wanna bet?
Me : Tongue is mightier than the sword? Agree. But how relevant is that statement in our conversation?
You : That my tongue is a miracle worker.
Me : Let's put that to the test.
You : If you promise not to bore me.
Me : That should go both ways.

Profusion of colors

Can I just tell you how excited I am to see all of the photos of our department's Christmas party? It's a profusion of colors, I tell you! And here's a preview. That's Ingrid, Ezra, Angel and me.

Coronada

Today, the whole Catholic world celebrates the solemnity of the feast of the Immaculate Conception. And for that, I am listing the venerated and canonically crowned images of the Immaculate Conception in the country. (By the way, Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception is the principal patroness of the Philippine Islands).

Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buen Viaje Coronada de Antipolo canonically crowned in 1926.

A Walk in the Clouds

Remember this movie? This for me is the most dreamy, hopeful and most romantic movie. Okay, I will stop attempting to make a little critique and let this loquacious guy say how good the movie is:

"A glorious romantic fantasy, aflame with passion and bittersweet longing. One needs perhaps to have a little of these qualities in one's soul to respond fully to the film, which to a jaundiced eye might look like overworked melodrama, but that to me sang with innocence and trust ... At a time when movies seem obligated to be cynical, when it is easier to snicker than to sigh, what a relief this film is!" -- Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Starring Keanu Reeves and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón

That ladies and gentlemen is A Walk in the Clouds, 1995 directed by Alfonso Arau. The screenplay by Robert Mark Kamen, Mark Miller, and Harvey Weitzman.

This movie for me is important because it reminds me how love can come in the strangest of moments and with the unlikeliest of people.

And yes, I'm walking in the clouds! 

To you, my distraction

It was two years or so and it seems that the wounds are no longer fresh and all that’s left are poignant memories of pain.

You always subject me to compromising situations.

First was when I was caught between keeping my peace and let you be or be a bearer of bad news and confess your indiscretions (which by the way, has long been forgiven).

Now, my agony is between choosing prudence and staying firm on what I believe is more acceptable to my conscience or to let go and let it flow and throw caution to the wind.

How could you be happiness and forthcoming pain at the same time? Perhaps that's the reason why I'm drawn to you.

You are fire, and you are its paradox. You are warm and I want to get near you. After all, I’ve been to many long cold nights. You are fire, yes fire, and I know your intensity will burn me due to this folly.

I approach you trembling. I approach you and sorrow is peeking like the twilight that’s about to cover the sky with the velvet of night. I approach you because even if the promise is bleak, there’s a faint ray of joy and my heart is pulsating to clutch that.

All I ask of you is this, don’t judge me if I’m weak and solicit that emotion. 

Don’t judge me if I let my humanity get the better of me.

Sidestreet Wayfarer reads: Between Heaven and Mirth

BETWEEN HEAVEN AND MIRTH. Why Joy, Humor and Laughter Are at the Heart of Spiritual Life by Fr. James Martin, SJ.

"In Between Heaven and Mirth, James Martin, SJ, assures us that God wants us to experience jou, to cultivate a sense of holy humor, and to laugh at life's absurdities--not to mention our own humanity. Father Martin invites believers to rediscover the importance of humor and laughter in our daily lives and to embrace an essential truth: faith leads to joy."

Weird

Well, let me tell you something that I really can't tell you. For whatever it is, it is weird, scary, promising and exciting. One thing's for sure: I don't kiss and tell. I'm happy. I'm very happy. 

On Gloria, the little girl

I have frustrating knowledge about the whole "incarcerate GMA" hullabaloo or "Put the little girl to sleep" conspiracy theory (which I find most hilarious), so don't expect me to make an intelligent thought on the matter. I've long lost respect for her as a leader, excuse me but that's my belief. I know there are still many Gloria apologists out there and that plunder and corruption accusations are still left unproven (legally), but come on, it doesn't take a genius!

In 2002, or so, I remember her visiting our school bringing hope to countless financially-challenged students to gain access to a scholarship aid (or was it a loan?) named Safe 4 SR (something for a strong republic). Before it can even take off, it died a natural death. After that were a barrage of promises that were never delivered, instead, horrible stories of corruption came about. That is her brand of leadership.

But now, I couldn't care less about detention. Whether she is in prison or out there dining in Manhattan for $20,000, she's just pure trouble. 

Earlier, I had dinner with Jaycee Sevilla, my friend who is wee bit to be my lover (kidding of course), he told me this wondrous things he heard from the news. Currently they are preparing this facility for the madame with the famous mole in that veteran's hospital. Far from the prison cell that befits a criminal charged with blaspheming the sanctity of the electoral process, this facility has six rooms and has it's own entrance! Aside from that, the madame enjoys the luxury of having a throng of security personnel to look after her safety. I don't know about you, but I find it shocking that this government would spend as much to place this Jezebel in custody.

Here's my proposal though:

Perhaps we could make use of one of our antiquated helicopters and carry madam to the middle of the Pacific Ocean where she will be dropped.

After that, her fate is hers alone. If she'll vanish among the ocean foam just like Andersen's Little Mermaid, then heavens be merciful. But if she'll survive and find herself in a foreign land, Lilliput I suppose, then we shall let her be.

Most wonderful time of the year!

It's officially December. And it's the most wonderful time of the year! 

I woke up early today, and as my daily conundrum dictates, as soon as I regained consciousness, I "robotically" (apparently there is no such a term and one of the word suggestions instead is the word erotically) pulled my laptop that is always stationed beside my bed and checked Facebook. I caught Logane on the chat list and learned that she and Emily and the rest of the Sun.Star Marketing Publications team are headed to Starbucks. That pulled me from my boredom.

Little did I know that Starbucks is having a Cheer Party and for whatever purpose they had , that surely made my first of December good. I exploited their photo booth with Ritz and the rest of his pretty and nice colleagues!

Happy December everyone! 

Mara and Kaela's Super Bass

And so while I'm at uploading videos, here's a video of the two ladies I dearly love (we'll Suthai, Dirgy, me and Jef are just extras in this video apparently, so pardon my lousy appearance and performance). Here's Mara teaching little Kaela with the ways of the world. Yes, the likes of Super Bass are the new lullabies!

I shall post pictures of little Kaela's christening and our exploits of Iligan.

Marimba rhythm

So here's how the ladies of my family party. 

Taken during Dumaguete City's fiesta last November 25 at tita Joy's residence. The joy of being with family!

Comments

Receiving and soliciting comments for the contents of this blog should be the least of my concerns, as the number of hits is still dismal. But then again, if you feel like leaving a comment, please do so for the love of living!

You see, comments confirm my blogging existence. They make me feel that not just a tiny speck of dust in that vast blogosphere. And because of that, I've changed my comments' settings to allow those who are not registered to post their thoughts. Of course, I reserved the right to review comments before they appear to malign me.

So there, comments people, are very much welcome and appreciated.

P.S. I will try to post all there is to post about 2011 before this good year comes to a close. Literally, we're just counting days before we welcome yet another year!  

Immaculate Conception

Today marks the beginning of the novena to the Immaculate Conception. And with that, I find it timely to post this lovely drawing of Harold of the Blessed Virgin under the title Virgo Prudentisima (Virgin Most Prudent), one of Her acclamation in the Litany of Loreto (basically, any representation of the BVM that does not hold the Christ Child is considered a representation of her Immaculate Conception, especially when the acclaim has something to do with her purity.) 

I am a member of Esculturas Religiosas en las Filipinas, a group of ecclesiastical art enthusiasts in Flickr. The group holds drawing contests every now and then and the most recent is on the titles of the BVM as enumerated in Her Litany. I chosen as one of the special judges and when I saw this entry, there was no doubt in my mind that this should go on top of my list.

What keeps me going

Part of  The Annunciation fresco by Jacopo da Pontormo (1494 – 1557); layout by the Sidestreet Wayfarer.

Thanksgiving

And so, I'm back in the office after a four-day hiatus gratefully due to the American tradition of Thanksgiving. So I asked Ezra how his Thanksgiving went. "Very thankful!" he said. But of course!

2011 projects

You very well know by now the ironies of my existence--my conservative Catholic views and my liberal concessions to reality, my desire for substantial spirituality and my tendency to embrace the ways of the world, my confused piety and my interest in religious art. But this post shall not about an attempt to introspection, rather, it is a summary of things I've achieved this year regarding my addiction to church art.

Last year, I've commissioned an image of the Immaculate Conception. The image was completed this year in time for this year's Easter Sunday and she'll be ready for next year's Easter and the archdiocesan youth day scheduled April next year. I spent ten thousand for her and I'm afraid that amount will be doubled if not tripled next year for a better set of vestments and crowns. Here she is:

http://sidestreetwayfarer.blogspot.com/2011/04/primera-salida.html

While in Manila this year, I stumbled upon this ivory set of head and hands good for a table top image of the Immaculate Conception. She was up for grab for only eight thousand, so I got her because the price was good. Then I spent P1,500 for the body and base, P7,000 for the vestments, P1,500 for the crowns and P800 for the silk hair, so that's P18,800 plus other expenses. Good thing is that she's done and I'm just waiting for the set of crowns to arrive and she'll be my birthday gift for mama. Here she is:

And then, I got this old wooden image of the Sacred Heart from the shop of manong Barad, a local carver. The image was just gathering dusts so I asked him if he could sell it to me. He said he could give it to me for only P300! I thought he was delirious, but did not show my surprise of course, and nodded on the price. Perhaps he thought of giving it for a bargain because the right arm was missing. I asked him to repair the image and make an arm. I got it for P500 total. I resent the fact that I did not ask him of the provenance of the image (but I'll visit him again to ask for more details). I suspect that it was brought to him for repairs. There are signs of candle burning on the polychromy, otherwise, the carving is good. Someone told me I could sell it for a couple of thousands, but, but, I'm inclined to keep it for myself and have him restored. Here he is:

For now, I'll just enjoy the breaks and holidays before I embark on future projects. My mind is full of exciting ideas for next year. 

Pista ng Pag-Akyat

Joy for me is a vision of an idyllic life in the barrio, among nice folks who laugh during harvests and toil when the rain comes, like that on the pictures of Fernando Amorsolo.

I caught a glimpse of what it must have been to live in the barrio in Villa Escudero, that vast paradise, where time seem to stand still to contain that beautiful age.

Last June, I got invited to witness the Pista ng Pag-Akyat (Feast of the Ascension). It is a tradition of the Escuderos to welcome back to the Hacienda the centuries-old venerable image of the Señor Resuscitado (Risen Christ) forty days after Easter Sunday, when the image is brought out of the Hacienda to the town for Easter's Salubong (the Catholic tradition of a procession that commemorates the meeting of Christ and His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, during the first Easter).

Led by the head of Familia Escudero, the generous and charismatic Don Ado Escudero, the annual feast is a fantastic explosion of sights and culture--a peek of how it must have been back in the good old glorious days.

The venerable image of the Señor Resuscitado. The sumptuous sprays of the sampaguita blossoms not only make the andas (shoulder-borne frame) look sensational, they also release the most fantastic scent. And by the way, the image basically owns eight hectares (if my memory serves me right) of land for his upkeep and to for the yearly feast!

The University of Santo Tomas Orchestra, who occupied the entire second-level of the multi-tiered altar of the chapel, rendered the music for the High Mass. One foreign guest remarked that he never attended a mass like it. As for myself, I will not resent it if they'll lock me inside the chapel for hours just to hear the liturgy said that way.

Don Ado Escudero handing the bread to Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian, celebrant, during the offertory. Before this, hacienda workers presented grains and vegetables as offerings to God.

The Señor being carried out of the chapel for the procession inside the hacienda. Notice the Filipino fresh flower-and-fruit decorations. Moreover, notice how everyone are garbed in traditional Filipino ensembles. (I had to buy a barong the day before.)

Before the procession began, this fair girl danced in front of the Señor in a curious back-bending dance movement.

The children of Hacienda Escudero.

A batch of higantes (giants). There are representations town-folks and the devil and the angel signifying the presence of good and evil in our midst.

The Señor passing through the great arch that is made of bamboo and  coconut leaves where girls dressed as angels await. As soon as the image passes through it, they shower it with confetti.

The Señor passing through the picturesque landscape of the hacienda.

After the foot procession, the Señor is then escorted to the pagoda for a fluvial procession . It was a remarkable sight to see where spectators rush to the other side of the river to receive the image back.

Many thanks to Kevin Bermejo and tito Clifford Chua and Don Ado for the experience.

Krispy Kreme

I woke up today hungry and craving for doughnuts and coffee. And my heart and mind screams especially for that venerable branded doughnuts--Krispy Kreme--that Cebuanos are so fond of perhaps due to the brand's recent store openings in the metro that has been much awaited for so long. 

For weeks now, the lines are still kilometric and there's no sign that doughnut lovers had have enough. In fact, I must confess, I'm craving for those doughnuts but I can't get hold of one piece (well save for that one piece that Mark and Emz gave).

And so, I remember, when I made a trip to the Land of Milk and Honey (and doughnuts) last year, Krispy Kreme was a big part of my diet. Since I can't cook and I can't drive to find food, I usually took short walks (sometimes shivering) to the gas station's store and get those doughnuts. I usually get them in packs of six and have them reheated again and again until I devour all pieces.