ninjas and pirates

I really need to blog mobile but while I'm waiting for a super sexy blackberry to come into my life, I'll go old school with a notebook. I used to roll with a huge bag but it's kinda of liberating not bringing anything around with you. Anyway, I'll try to work a happy medium, keeping the larger mama bags, just limiting the contents.

It's around 8:00am at 9:00 I'll start my first round of muraling. I'm so exciting. I'm looking for a mandala for inspiration for the front door.

This morning, woke up at around four, did the morning routines sans yoga...my mats at my "chateau." and picked some veggies from the garden. Organic okra, best pick of the day, it tastes amazing, with just a little of that slippery okra-ness. The best part of its freshness is the texture so CRUNCHY, especially if you're used to it cooked in Gumbo or some kind of soup or stewed, you'll find it a new refreshing take. Crunchy, green, and incredibly delicious.

So, one of the guys here totally suprised me today. He is a secret warrior, no joke...he could be Bruce Lee status if he wanted to. It may sounds like an exaggeration but with only self study and copying what he has seen, he can bust out some olympic caliber lines on the rings, flips, dismounts, all that stuff. Amazing how talented some people are. When people have talent like that, I just want to show them to the world. He told me he's been in fights where he has had to fight
five or more guys with knives and it's just him, armed only with himself and he took them all down or at least lives to tell about it. My fighting vocabulary in Ilonggo is minimal, there were so many words I didn't understand but I'm sure the admiration I had translated.

I may have just met one of the last living real ninjas in the world.
Philippines is officially the land of ninjas and pirates.

I just came back from picking some mangos today, 33.3% return, I have got to work on the cathcig skills. The neck strain is the most painful though. I'm eating a fresh carrot now, the first I've ever picked...it tastes kinda soapy. I miss purple carrots. It's interesting how the orange ones became the chosen ones. I think orange carrots were selected for and bred by the Dutch, a patriotic color maybe?

So I've met a treasure hunter, a ninja...and hopefully one day a pirate.

being in the zone

so I've been defining my passion. One key element I think in finding what you are passionate about is defining the moments and actions in your life when you are totally in the moment. Some examples might be a performer on stage, a writer inspired with the writing bug, a dancer moving their body, etc.

Once a person gets to that place when they are so in the moment, they are not afraid to make a "fool" of themselves and mess up, there is passion there. There is determination, there is presence.

thoughts from the food documentary

Food affects our lives.
Food is an exchange and an expression of love. Even though it would be easier if food came in a pill form, eating and preparing food is fun. Looking at food is an experience. Ascetics as so much to do with our food experience. What we eat defines us culturally and even has changed us genetically.
We are what we eat.
That's just some random thoughts.
Some random facts:
I learned that human adults are naturally lactose intolerant. Wild bananas have big seeds. Modern day wheat is dependent on human technology for its growth.
Pregnant women, fried spicy food usually triger nausea.
more later...watching more documentaries!

Bang Bus and 102+ other stories

I met a cousin this weekend who works at a call center. The very call centers that some people blame for much of the job loss in the great US of A. Well, as she brilliantly stated to a caller complaining that they are taking American jobs, "Ma'am I'm sure if you were willing to be paid about $1.50 an hour, you could have a job too."

One of the first clients for the center was the porn company "Bang Bus." When customers would call into to ask for something "hott" they were instructed to reply "well, how hott do you want it. There was also a commission for each DVD sold. Now, they do customer service for motorola, AT&t, etc. Unfortunately, no free phones or commission or free porn with AT&T.

So much has happened these past couple days and it's hard to remember all of it. I just want to make sure I wrote about the Bang Bus before I forgot.

The call center provides classes for their employees. Since they are working for American companies and engage customers in small talk, there are daily news ticker updates for them. When training, there are also classes such as United States of America 101. This gives call center workers a crash course in American culture. Previously, there was also an accent reduction class but now that most people know these call centers are overseas, they are no longer required to claim to be from "texas" or "oklahoma."

She has so many stories about people freaking out without internet access.
And then,I remember, there are people here living fully sustainable lives without internet access nor the need for it. Albeit, the internet is such a tool for learning, connecting, expanding our knowledge, but it is equally addicting, time consuming and promotes staring blanky into an inanimate screen. Sometimes at parties you'll see a table of pre-teen boys all glued to their PSP, instead of talking and engaging with each other opting for PSP games and stimulus. Sometimes it can seem de-socializing youth from an outside prespective but maybe the PSP can bring these kids together too.

I see some resent searches on my google queue: StumbleUpon, Furniture design, nude Russian Models, ex-boyfriends...The internet is definitely the closest thing to the Genesis tree of knowledge.

Time to write more. I don't know if it's so smart to post goals. Some people claim that talking about things you are planning or changing, deters the effort by making the individual falsely believe they have taken steps for an action by merely speaking about taking steps towards progress and their goals.

I'm already accumulating a lot of stuff, much of it not needed. It was nice with the sparse living for awhile. It's evening now so tomorrow again for the de-cluttering.

Write more soon blogging world, write write for real soon too.

progress

The secret of making progress is to get started. The secret to starting is to divide your complex, overwhelming task into small, manageable tasks, and then start the first.

~ Mark Twain

some updates

Okay my postings have not gone as planned. brown outs and some hindered wi-fi, but that's the past and the present is I'm here, wi-fi ready.

Lots, well relatively, many things have happened. I miss home as much but I'm becoming better adjusted here so if there is a gate theory to longing, there is not much space for missing anymore. This is good. I've also been noticing the healing aspect of time and wisdom. Wisdom as I have learned though is not something to be taught but cultivated through individual experience and effort.

Boxes arrived from America after six weeks on the ocean. My Siddhartha book found me, I'll finish it tonight. I just spent some moments in a bahay kubo but retreated after being feasted on by mosquitoes. There is a rather noisy lizard with me now.

It's about dusk and slowly the sky is dimming. I woke up around one this morning, read and listened to music until sunrise. Music carried me through the morning. Even a little heartbreak music but my heart on track. It's a kind of comical sobering noticing yourself unneccessarily wallowing in a self-constructed puddle of fuck the world shit. This life is not forever and squandering time, hideously idiotic.

I've been pondering attitudes, choices and mantras. So maybe there's a heartbreak. There's the option of holding a pity party in the lonely morning hours, wanting the world to stop and cry with you, there is the denial option or trying to forget by drinking, celebrating, fucking or just simply go on with living. Attitude makes all the difference. Following the attitude or paradigm shift, one could just choose to be grateful for the experience and move on from whatever pain or sorrow to what's next. Thus no failure or fall would be squandered, time well spent living.

It's not about pursuing or acquiring things to make you happy, it's more about changing your attitudes so that no matter what, there is an inner happiness that can't be taken away.

Happiness, inclusive of satisfaction, fulfillment, self-awareness, is rich and so worthwhile. Some really wise people say there is a lot of happiness in devoting yourself to other, maybe in order to contribute the the universal collective of humans or simply just the high of doing something good for others.

Maybe, to whoever reads this, the next time someone comes to you for help see what you can do...and maybe it could be something other than some paper currency but genuine time or care or just a hug and some love.

I've been eating a lot more fiber, my belly feels full and my deuces numerous. A fast should be in order soon.

I will make an effort on the Seneca too, pending a ballroom dance or not.

love.

vibrators and being chewed out

I found vibrators today. I found vibrators and learned about "bomba." I found vibrators (plural), learned about bomba and heard a guy say "dang that's a small vibrator." Then I go and say, "well not if it's up an ariputan (Asshole)." I learned that Itot or fuck is a really really unlady like word. Crass and simply "Doesn't sound good" coming out of my mouth.

I got chewed out today by someone with good intentions and although I wanted to talk back I didn't. Perhaps I could chalk it up to cultural training or respecting your elders but what she said didn't upset me to the point of rebuttle. What I wonder though is if there is a loss of integrity when one doesn't fight back or say something "Sabat".

I wonder as I eat a sweet piece of corn but maybe that doesn't really matter.

I'm learning more about industrial design, what an awesome thing to design things to make them more useful.

Website browsing and building is tiring on top of clearing out boxes of American memories and things that have traveled an ocean for more than 6 weeks to join me. Raw food books, piano book, umbreallas, rainboots, clothes and candles. I'm really excited for the candles.

It's been raining on and off, so I'll start transporting stuff before the next rainfall happens and no matter what the long awaited yoga is gonna happen.

Next entry will talk about Seneca once I finish a brief reading, just another reason I'm not into retiring and posting living to the last years of life.

Seneca is pretty genius. I'm genuinely inspired. There is so much of the planet I want to see, want to do, want to taste, want to be with...

no water

There is electricity now but the water is not running. I ate some leftover crackers from Lola's wake. For the next wake I will definitely fast because YOU WILL GET FAT DURING A WAKE IN THE PHILIPPINES IF YOU LET YOURSELF GO. I just tried to do a round of skipping rope and got winded out. Hopefully, I will digest soon.

Wakes in the Philippines = smorgasboard of cookies, crackers and juices, gifts of lechon and pancit molo at your door, pots of pata soup and a sweet linugao. I've had a wide, delicious variety of treats in my day and the mediocre crackers don't really take the cake but there was something about this week, staying up, drinking, playing games and eating, everything didn't taste necessarily better but with the abundance of food surrounding the place, there was a perpetual hunger. Oh well, that's past and what's now is extra calories to work off. At least I still am rawish....lol, not like I need the label. I've been satisfying and non-existent sweet tooth. I just miss the clarity and elevated feelings from being raw.

WAKES = toxification!!!!!

I have a theory that for some women, when horniness is not satisfied, some turn to food for satisfaction, others fashion maybe, shopping but because eating and sex are both so related to sensual stimulus, I think food is the closest second.

Thankfully, there is music and meditation. Oh yoga!!

dating, mating and sexual maseratis

I recently learned about the practice of textmates. It's the getting to know you part of courtship here that is similar to chatting online. Here's how it goes down: a man will see a woman he finds attractive on the street and will try to get her number by any means possible without directly asking, through a friend, mother, cousin, etc. Then he will txt her and they will talk about simple getting to know you facts and after awhile decided whether or not to meet.

Then I learned about the sex trade, some of it anyway, where for 3000 PhP something like 60 bucks you can have your choice of an attractive female at some massage place in Manila. Prostitution is an old business and even is around this small section of the Philippines. Southeast Asia is known as a cheap sexual playground for interested foreigners buying in euros, dollars or pounds with sex on the brain.

Hunger and Horniness are very powerful physical drives. Meditation can help some deal with the lust for a body or gluttony. Is the consequence of being fat to overeating the same as STDs to unprotected sex? I read online Karl Lagerfeld saying fashion is the number one medicine against obesity.

No wonder food porn and sex porn are so related. When you're a hedonist in your 20s, these urges are surging.

What do you do when women are not educated? Orgasm training, natural cycles, protection, condoms. Some people really don't know some things. You cannot assume anything. What some men don't realize is the advent of women who want sex. Throughout history there have been the siren that have always wanted sex. The sexual revolutionaries downplayed by patriarchal history and double standards.

With the ability for multiple orgasms, no worries about sexual dysfunction, women are goddesses. Women represent fertility and the propagation of the species. Women are sexual maseratis, a ride better than the wind blowing past your fast on a speeding on a ducati.

Woman want sex but I guess there is something about paid sex that can get people turned on. Maybe someone can enlighten me.

Until then, I can educate interested parties on the horniness of women for a nominal fee but eventually, as most of my friends know, I'm really about the promotion of sacred sex and tantric sex. If sexual pleasure is more in the mind, the pleasure of sexual satisfaction with knowing your "mind" and minding your thoughts could be sensation out of this world.

Through sex, some say people can get closer to God.

More later, run pending and yoga.

papa's eulogy v1.0

Lola as a mother
On behalf of my brothers, Rodney, Jerry and Chester and our families, we would like to thank you all for being here. We would also like to send our thanks to Mama’s caregivers and all those who where with us this week and throughout her last days with us.
As the Lord commands, we honor thy father and mother and with this in mind we remember and honor Mama today. Every day we say prayers and thank God for our blessings, like having such a wonderful woman to call a woman.
She instilled many lessons upon us like. 1. The Love of God , 2. Love of Family, 3. The importance of Hard Work, 4. Honesty in your dealings, 5. Respect for other people.
I would like to share with you the humor of my mother. (Pangihi sa cemetario)
From her example, I have learned so much. One thing mama exemplified was not talking badly about other people. If you don’t have any good things to say about other people. Do not say anything at all.
We remember Mama as the strong woman that she was. It was a blessing to have her as a mother, as a shining example of a devoted mother, caring for all of us. We send her to the Lord with our prayers and pray for her eternal peace.

lola's eulogy

Lola as a grandmother
Friends, family and loved ones, Thank you all for being here.
As a child, I constantly misplaced things. You could see me bouncing around, turning the house inside out and upside down looking for a lost toy or book. I would frequently go to Lola asking her help in locating whatever I had lost or couldn’t find. I vividly remember one time when I was looking for a can, running frantically throughout the house and it was just right there in front of me but I couldn’t find it, she handed it to me and told me “Lisa, look with your eyes not your mouth.”
That was just one of the lessons Lola taught me. Now as a grown woman, Lola still had so much wisdom to impart. Even though she had a difficulty hearing, she would always listen to whatever you had to say. So many times, we can hear but not really listen to each other, thinking instead in what ways to respond or about whatever else was important in your life. That was not the case with Lola, when you came to her with a concern in your heart. She made you the priority. Whatever kind of pain or challenge, you could come to Lola and she would help you through it.
She gave me good advice. She was a woman with a sharp mind and great wit, always imparting wisdom and making us smile and laugh.
The greatest lesson she gave me is the one I want to share with you today. It was a somewhat gloomy day and one of Lola’s stronger days. She had just finished a stroll in her wheelchair. We sat together and I looked at her sweet face. We held each other’s hand and she told me “Lisa, life is short.”
That is all she said. That’s all she had to say. Once you know your life is short and not forever, your perspective becomes enriched.
This is the lesson I want to share with you. Whether you are inspired to love more deeply, abandon greed and petty rivalries or jealousy, live life more fully, take risks and chances, find peace, devote yourself to your God or a higher spirituality, please look within and do what you must. The best way to remember Lola would be to live our lives remembering life is short, being people of good character and embodying kindness and compassion as she did.
To everyone who helped Lola and took care of her I say Thank you so much. In a world where many die in hospitals or even alone, I’m happy we had a chance to be with her in her final moments. Now it is Lola’s time for transformation as she moves on from life her among us in the physical world to the next. Let us do our best to live with the lessons she imparted and following her example of kindness, compassion and love. We send Lola off to her eternal rest and peace with our prayers.
Peace and blessing to you all as we continue our journeys through life.