Pitlagong Festival

Argao’s famous tuba gave birth to Pitlagong Festival celebrated last September. The pitlagong is used to clean the sugong to ensure the purity and quality of the native drink.

Now on its second year, the festival has drawn contingents from its different schools for the street dancing competition. This year is also the first time that they made the festival a competition with Gov. Gwen Garcia as guest of honor.

Saint Michael Academy won the 1^st place; Canbanua National High School, 2nd place and Argao Central Elementary School, 3rd place. For the minor awards: Colawin National High School, Best in Andas; Canbanua National High School, Best in Instrumentation; Usmad National High school, Best in Costume and Colawin National High School, Best in Street Dancing.

Sky divers opened the festival

After the flight. Most of the divers had a bad landing but at least nobody got hurt.

The basket is primarily used as props.

There are original steps for the Pitlagong Festival but some are adapted from various dances and interpretation as well.

Despite heavy rain, dancers did not mind the uncooperative weather and waited till the announcement of winners.

Lack of sleep may be deadly, research shows

Here's something i lifted over Yahoo Health News on whic I am an avid reader...

For those friends who were deprived of beautiful sleep because they think that they lacked the time to do some other stuffs or because of work or beacause of lifestyle.. please do READ THIS. Remember, prevention is better than cure.

September 24, 2007 06:39:50 AM PST

People who do not get enough sleep are more than twice as likely to die of heart disease, according to a large British study released on Monday.

Although the reasons are unclear, researchers said lack of sleep appeared to be linked to increased blood pressure, which is known to raise the risk of heart attacks and stroke.

A 17-year analysis of 10,000 government workers showed those who cut their sleeping from seven hours a night to five or less faced a 1.7-fold increased risk in mortality from all causes and more than double the risk of cardiovascular death.

The findings highlight a danger in busy modern lifestyles, Francesco Cappuccio, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Warwick's medical school, told the annual conference of the British Sleep Society in Cambridge.

A third of the population of the UK and over 40 percent in the U.S. regularly sleep less than five hours a night, so it is not a trivial problem, he said in a telephone interview.

The current pressures in society to cut out sleep, in order to squeeze in more, may not be a good idea -- particularly if you go below five hours.

Previous research has highlighted the potential health risks of shift work and disrupted sleep. But the study by Cappuccio and colleagues, which was supported by British government and U.S. funding, is the first to link duration of sleep and mortality rates.

The study looked at sleep patterns of participants aged 35-55 years at two points in their lives -- 1985-88 and 1992-93 -- and then tracked their mortality rates until 2004.

The results were adjusted to take account of other possible risk factors such as initial age, sex, smoking and alcohol consumption, body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol.

The correlation with cardiovascular risk in those who slept less in the 1990s than in the 1980s was clear but, curiously, there was also a higher mortality rate in people who increased their sleeping to more than nine hours.

In this case, however, there was no cardiovascular link and Cappuccio said it was possible that longer sleeping could be related to other health problems such as depression or cancer-related fatigue.

In terms of prevention, our findings indicate that consistently sleeping around seven hours per night is optimal for health, he said.

some tunes that came up in my mind....

... on a boring monday morning of battling against indifference.

Norse Mythology

This morning, I received a text message from Hera...

One alone of all I loved. I never had a changing heart."
-- Gurdun to her husband Sigrud

matters.. and my heart bleeds for her...

P.S. Hera, you know that I am always here. We could always talk and shed a few tears together.

My Neopet Addiction

I play Neopet like almost everyday.I always make sure that I get to check my bank account and collect my interest, visit the Coltzan Shrine, the big Omellete in Tyrannia Plateau and most of all play Hasee Bounce and Pteritattack!

And I have passed this addiction to my officemates... Weehhh... But we don't play during busy and poeak hours of office work (of course).

kuya brayan

Brayan is dead.

I could not believe it. Maybe because i looked up to people I know as eternal beings. He died watching a movie. Or he died sleeping while inside the movie house.

They found his breathless body at Oriente (Colon) last Sunday night (09.16.07). He must have died the previous night. I wonder if what was he thinking when he went inside the movie house. Did her ever thought that what if he could no longer get out alive?

His life could probably be spared if he happened to meet a friend outside. Someone could have awaken him in the middle of the night when he struggled for breath. But I wonder if it is OBVIOUS that one is dying in his sleep.

It has been 3 years since the last time I saw him when he checked for my sister and I did not expect that I would hear such news of him. We were all strucked most especially Mama.

Brayan was my sister’s ex-boyfriend. I know him way back in high school. For years, he had been our frequent visitor at home and had treated him as a real brother.

I have read the news at SUPERBALITA today (second page, top news). And I remembered during those times when he would drive us to the church. I remembered the birthday cards he gave me, the novels that he gave us, his smile, his laughter.

Wherever he is right now… I pray for his soul’s eternal rest.

P.S. I would always remember you Kuya Bray!

This disease called PDI

(A classmate in my CPE class emailed a link to our yahoogroup. I am just reposting it for I believe that this is something that we should all be aware of... ENjoy!!)


CONSUMERLINE By Ching M. Alano
Tuesday, September 11, 2007

You may already have it and yet not know it. Scores of people around you may be suffering from it. It’s a disease spawned by 21st-century technology; why, it’s even become an epidemic!

We’re talking about PDI (public displays of insensitivity), caused by PDAs (personal digital assistants such as cell phones, pagers, BlackBerry handhelds, and laptops). In the US alone, 200 million cell phones, 103 million digital cameras, and 19 million PDAs were sold in the last few years. Just last April, Apple made juicy news as it marked the sale of its 100 millionth iPod.

Says writer and blogger for CareerBuilder Rachel Zupek, “While these advances in technology provide Americans with convenience like they’ve never known, they can also be intrusive and obnoxious, to say the very least.”

Surely, PDAs have made life so much easier for a lot of us. They have made it possible for us to multi-task (or do three or more things at the same time) and do a lot of office work at home.

“As with a lot of things, personal digital assistants are excellent resources if used appropriately,” says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of Human Resources for CareerBuilder. “It’s when bosses are checking e-mails during a presentation or a client answers his cell phone at dinner when it becomes an issue.”

According to a recent survey by VitalSmarts, 91 percent of people regularly encounter public displays of insensitivity caused by a PDA.

We don’t have to look far: Imagine a cell phone loudly singing Asereje in the middle of Offertory during Holy Mass. Or your blind date texting and having a love affair with his/her cell phone all through a candlelit dinner. Or can you imagine a guest at a funeral snapping pictures of the dead with his cell phone?

I remember the balikbayan friend of a friend saying that Filipinos have this incurable (and often pathetic) addiction to texting. As a guest of honor at a lunch hosted by her former classmates, this balikbayan said she practically felt unwanted because as soon as they sat down, everybody started texting. Hello! Is anybody home? Everybody was either texting somebody or texting each other some jokes that, like fruit cakes, must have made the rounds. This balikbayan certainly didn’t find this funny at all.

No thanks to these PDAs, we’ve lost the art of conversation or intimate communication. Walk into a restaurant and notice a couple with their children on one table or a group of friends on another table. They have one thing in common: They’re all not talking to each other. Instead, they’re talking on their cell phones to other people.

If you ask me, I make it a point to always turn off my cell phone not only during Mass, while driving or gassing up, but also when I’m dining with family and friends. For me, no call can be more important than spending precious time with my loved ones.

And if I may add, people today are such bad spelers, I mean spellers, no thanks to texting. Fact is, some people now write the way they text.

PDI has got to stop. So, how do you deal with digital bad manners?

According to a survey, one in 10 people speaks up to the offender while the vast majority remain silent by ignoring the behavior (37 percent), giving dirty looks or showing disapproval in other nonverbal ways (26 percent) or just walking away (14 percent).

Says Joseph Grenny, co-author of Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations and Bad Behavior, “Current social norms dictate that you should be courteous and polite, and the advancement of new technologies should not trump these unwritten rules. To maintain a civil and courteous society, we must learn to confront PDIs in a way that addresses the bad behavior without sacrificing the respect each person deserves.”

With all the grace you can muster, here’s how to deal with digital bad behavior, according to Grenny:

• Don’t rely solely on vague and prickly nonverbals. Your dirty looks, harrumphs, and shaking head are often weak and unclear messages that can provoke either no reaction or defensiveness and annoyance. When others fill in the blanks, they may attribute a worse message than you intended. You want the offenders to realize his/her behavior is obnoxious — not that you are obnoxious.

• Speak softly, be tentative. Softer voices are less provocative; require the offenders to pay attention to what you’re saying and offer privacy to salvage the other person’s pride. If you want to try a nonverbal first, use tentative gestures like eye contact, a polite smile or pointing to your ear rather than an angry stare. This will make it easier to become more verbal without escalating to conflict.

• Be gracious and ask permission. When people are publicly insensitive, it’s generally because they are attending solely to their own needs. Start by apologizing for the inconvenience and then ask for their permission to listen to your request. “I don’t mean to put you out but ... ”

• Share natural consequences. Never make demands without explaining them. People feel more obligated to oblige when your request appears reasonable. For example, “Can you please not check your e-mail right now? I’m trying to make a presentation, and it’s slightly distracting.”

• Keep your smile but hold your ground. Maintain eye contact, stay silent, and let them respond. Don’t become aggressive.

• Accept a “no” and move on with your life. If they either fail to comply or quickly return to the obnoxious behavior, let it drop. Unless the situation continues for an extended period of time or your safety is at risk, you’re better off just moving on — and getting on with your life.

Message sent!

HAZING: A Tool Of Death

Last night, I watched "Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho" and was strucked with the video shown... A real video of an initiation where a girl named "Grace" (not her real name, was shoen being hit by a paddle, was being hit in the face, her arms... and hearing her scream and seeing those GUYS who did it to him (who by the way still affords to laugh), who would really ask this question that till now has been in my mind: "Nganong bunalan man gyud? Is it the way to welcone a new memebr in the group?"

Fraternities and sororities... I never had the appetitte to become a part of such groups. Coming from UP, I saw some friends and schoolmates joing APO humilitaed in the campus, running around the soccerfield, laughed and were asked to do horrible things...

Kapatiran? To hell with it!!!!

We only have ONE LIFE? Why waste it on joining such groups who promised a lifetime pact of brotherhood and sisterhood (and is it really true? would they pay for your hospital and much more-- your funeral bills?)

I just can't really understand the concept behind this initiation rites...

From Patricia Evangelista's Column Over AT PDI

This year was his last in the University of the Philippines Diliman, the year he sat in the student council. He was the eldest of his family, and his mother in Tiaong, Quezon believed he would pull them out of poverty.

He was 20 years old. Cris was tall, and thin, and kind, and when he was killed last Monday, his killers ran away and tried to forget who he was. I write this at dawn, six days since he was carried into the Veteran's Memorial Medical Center, battered and bruised purple. The doctors say Cris was dead on arrival.

Cris Mendez left testimony with his friends that he was joining Sigma Rho, and that Ariel Paolo Ante, chair of the NCPAG student council, was his recruiter and initiation master. Ante has disappeared. In a report from this paper, Ante asked Cris' friends to wish him good luck "for the initiation" which was to take place over the weekend. Right now, the men who watched Cris die can still sleep in their beds at night. They remember how his eyes looked those last few minutes. They know if he cried, if he begged; if he said please, stop. They held his broken body on the way to the hospital.

They saw him and touched him and heard him scream, and today some of them still go to class and study human rights law. There are many things I do not understand. I understand that these fraternity men are scholars, law students, people educated by the state in the hope that someday they will give back in service to the nation. I do not understand what sort of twisted logic can make intelligent men believe that friendship and loyalty need to be proven through a brutal initiation.

"Such distorted values," as UP Diliman Chancellor Sergio Cao says, "have no place in an institution of higher learning like UP." Hazing is illegal, and has been for more than a decade. The administration is currently building its case against Sigma Rho, and its officers have been suspended. Last Friday, Cris' friends from NCPAG lit candles and gathered on the steps of the Palma Hall building. There were around 200 of them, less than the numbers of those who protested tuition fee increases, thousands less than those who turned up for last Christmas' lantern parade.

The Office of the Vice President for Public Affairs has received more calls over the streaking of two women during the Oblation Run than he has regarding Cris' death. This is UP. We say we stand for the people. We condemn the violence of the war against terror. We rage against those who mangle the Constitution. We fill the streets with our numbers for the disappeared and the distressed. Yet we continue to work and study beside barbarians who whip unresisting boys into submission.

Today one boy is dead. One life is gone. Many others have been lost before, but were forgotten. Why are we silent now?

Read the entire article at:

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=86071