Weekend Warrior

I love war games. I'm what you may call as a weekend warrior. Along with some friends, we play mock assaults and rescues with airsoft guns. It's come a long way, from the gas type to the more convenient and less expensive battery-powered guns. It shoots plastic BBs instead of the lead type pellets which airguns shoot. I was introduced to the sport during my stay in Tokyo. Believe it or not, it's big in Japan because they are not allowed to own guns.

So the innovative Japanese instead developed replicas which used Flon gas to shoot BBs. It was too expensive and the gas wasn't environment friendly. So they developed the battery-powered guns to make it more affordable and easier to maintain. Of course you can also modify these replica guns. You can change the barrels and chambers. You can also upgrade the motor so it can shoot farther and with a higher velocity. You can also buy accessories like red dot sight and laser sights.

But just like the real stuff, you must be responsible when handling it. It may not be lethal but it can do harm to others. This is just one of several which I own. I enjoy airsoft war games and I hope you can give it a try too. By the way, our group has more women players than men.

Jinxed!

I think I may be jinxed. I love to clean my car and seldom do I bring it to the car wash to get it cleaned. I even do the waxing myself. I don't like to rush when it comes to cleaning. I even clean the engine myself using rags and a toothbrush. The weird thing is that everytime I clean the car, it rains. I'm not even spared in the middle of summer. It either drizzles or really rains.

The weather has my number and never have I escaped this in my entire life. My family often teases me about it but I don't like seeing my car dusty or dirty. I want to see it always squeaky clean and shiny. I guess I have to live with this for the rest of my life. I just hope I don't pass this on to my kids. And by the way, did I mention my Dad also experiences this too? I suppose he's the one I should thank(?) for this weird phenomenon.

A Weird Pact Between Friends

Our "gang" was quite big, composed of brothers and sisters, from freshmen to seniors. You could separate the group into three, with ours being the youngest back then. But among our age group, I had Mike and Lee as my closest friends. We were so close that the three of us often hung around separate from our other friends. We would sit around McDonalds or pig out on pizza at D'Marks.

Mike is the nephew of a late comedian while Lee is a daughter of a prominent doctor. We had lots of fun and even spent summers together. Everything we did were spontaneous and often ended with dining out. We never had anything in common and our friends often wondered why we were so close. But time passed too soon with Mike deep into his medical course, while Lee with hers. I on the other hand was too busy with my activism. But we still amanaged to somehow meet on weekends to update us of how the others were doing.

We had a pact. Anyone of us who gets married must not invite the others to his/her wedding. Nor would we try to have any kind of contact afterwards. I was the first to get hitched and I made Mike my best man. He adhered to our pact and did not show up at my wedding. He only dropped by to give us his gift and quickly left. The last time I saw Mike was during my eldest Christening. I found out later that Lee went to Europe where she met her husband. Mike, I think is a surgeon now in a military hospital.

The reason behind our weird pact? We wanted to keep our happy memories intact. We all knew we will all lose them should we continue to get together. Plus we did not want to get in the way of our new families. I do miss them and there are times when I break out in laughter when I remember the funny things we did. Frankly, I miss them. Our favorite hangouts are now all gone, eaten up by developments in the city. I suppose these places too wanted to keep the memories of the times we spent there inyact and also knew of the weird pact this wacky trio had.

EC's Monkey Business

Well, the EC community is abuzz with "TALES" of Monkey Fable's disappearing act. I was surprised when I tried dropping on Monkey's blog yesterday only to find out that his blog has been deleted. Turnipofpower dug deep to get to the bottom of things and blogged about the results. The EC forum is also talking about the mystery and got the truth courtesy of the original writer of Mr. Copy/Paste's posts.

I suppose Monkey knew that his luck had ran out and simply shutdown his blogs to evade humiliation and ridicule. The Monkey Fables had been EC's most popular site for several months according to some members. Well, it seems that he had a lot of people fooled. But my post is not about Monkey Fables dishonesty. I'd like to point out who the "BIGGEST FOOL" is. It's not you and me but Entrecard. We all know about their changes and how some bloggers were kicked out.

One of EC's new standards(?) is that a blog must have original entries. Hehehe, the Monkey Fables put one over them. This a big slap on their faces as they were taken for a ride. I know several bloggers whose memberships were taken away or suspended. Solitude's account was suspended because her blog had a few Pilipino words in it. Ria of It's My Party had her account taken away because she had a pop-up which she quickly removed. She appealed her case to no avail. I'm sure there are others out there who have been banned by EC because of one reason or another.

Piracy of this nature done so blatantly should have caught EC's attention early on. They claim to review each and every blog yet Monkey Fables was able to escape their scrutinizing eyes. Social networks like EC also benefits from us, it's a two-way street as I see it. This fiasco has taught us all a lesson, "Honesty is the best policy". Truth has many ways of revealing itself, so sooner or later, you'll get caught. As for EC, I welcome setting standards, but please be more considerate next time. The web is for everybody, it should not be elitist or discriminatory. We should welcome everybody who has something to write about regardless of how well or poorly written their posts may be, except of course those who steal other people's works.

History And Me

I love history and I've been studying it since I learned to read. Some would not last even an hour reading about it without getting bored. History teaches us where we've been and where we're headed to. Some of you would not believe this but I finished reading about world civilization at the tender age of 8. My passion for information drove me to read and study in earnest the wonderful world of history.

Some of my favorites are Rome and Greece which really captured my interest. Being the cradles of politics and government, it enlightened me on how different ideologies and systems work. I suppose this is where I got my idealism and liberal mindset which continues to mold me up to the present. War is an integral part of history and I have extensively studied the wars from the ancient times to the present. It gave me an understanding of how deep and shallow some reasons of waging war is.

I'm what you may call a history junkie and I'm proud of it. It's sad that not too many people are enticed by it. It is a wonderful subject that we must all be interested in. I suppose not too many of us share the passion as I do and that is why we keep committing the same mistakes over and over again. History is a l part of our lives we should not neglect. I just hope that the lessons of the past point us in the right direction.

Time To Make My Rounds

It's that time of year again that I take the road to make my rounds. It's been like this for almost two decades now. I've done social work in my younger years, mostly in depressed areas. Sometimes with organizations but most of the time, on my own. The less fortunate have a special place in my heart.

It's been our family's practice to feed the the homeless every Christmas. Liza would prepare food bags that my kids and I distribute to people who live in pushcarts. Yes, we have many of these in Manila. It's been my responsibility to drive around and count how many families like these live in our area. While we do have depressed areas, these families do not receive the same attention from organizations and individuals.

With the economic situation we are in now, I'm sure their numbers would have increased. over the past year. Liza would definitely have a hard time in the kitchen this year and I would most certainly have to do more ads in this blog to meet our increased budget for our yearly Christmas Party with the homeless.

Poor Sarah Palin

I never agreed with Palin's selection and I thought it was unwise for her to accept the VP nomination. But that's water under the bridge. I'm sure she has now realized how ungrateful politics can be. Now the blame game begins within the GOP. No one is to blame but John McCain. He should take the responsibility for the loss. It was he who took the risk knowing too well she was not up to it.

Palin helped energize the Republican base. She was the designated hitter so McCain wouldn't be perceived as a villain. She drew crowds that McCain can ever raise. She became the punching bag of everyone. The GOP should take a look at itself. America is changing. It now looks beyond resumes and race. It's sad to see Palin being treated shabbily by the very people who exploited her.

Politics is a very dirty career and Palin is getting the hard lesson from the very party she represents. I'm glad she now knows who her real friends are. At the end of the day, the GOP imploded because of their political stunts that finally blew in their faces. At least Joe the plumber got his fifteen minutes of fame and will be reaping the rewards of his prostitution.

I also hope that the GOP learned their lesson that sometimes it's not what's written on a person's resume but how one inspires the people. That's one virtue the GOP should develop. They ridiculed Obama for being a lowly community organizer, well that community organization experience helped Obama's election.

Palin apologized if she cost McCain a vote or two. At the end of the day, Palin did what was asked of her. I can only feel sorry for her for a debacle some people could not bring themselves to admit. One thing Palin can be proud of is that she's got more BALLS than the entire all boys club of the GOP.

History Has Just Been Made

Barack Obama is America's 44th president! It has been a divisive campaign and in the end, America voted not with race in mind, not with ideology in mind but with America in mind. It was not in the distant past that African Americans had to fight for its right to be an American. America has just demonstrated to the world that it is a country with honor and dignity. America showed the world today that anyone who has dreams can realize them.

America is evolving. It is shifting to a modern America. It had shed its prejudices and can now rightfully claim the leadership of a free world. It has accepted and embraced humanity as a whole. To my American friends, I congratulate you. I hope that as a new beginning dawns on you, you will stand united behind your new leader.

Dramatic F1 Season Ender

So I had to stay up late till the wee hours of the morning just to catch the final race of the Formula 1 season. From the get-go, Ferrari's Felipe Massa Showed the way. Despite a rain delay, the Ferrari team was headed for another constructor's championship. But the driver's championship proved to be the cliffhanger it was billed to be. Should Lewis Hamilton finish 6th, Massa will be the 2008 driver's champion. Hamilton looked liked he had the championship in the bag until the last 2 laps of the race. Sebastian Vettel of Toro Rosso overtook him when he went wide.

Massa drove to the finish line as the Brazilian audience let out a thunderous roar celebrating his victory. For a while, it seems Massa had won the driver's championship. But a slowing Timo Glock of Toyota was passed by Vettel and Hamilton in the last corner. This was enough for Hamilton to win this year's championship.

I felt my heart sink as I watched in horror the final30 seconds of the race. I thought Massa had won. But it was not a bad day for Tifosis like me. Ferrari after all won the constructor's. Looking back at the 2008 season, Massa could have handily won the championship had Ferrari stuck to its tried and tested systems. Unfortunately, they did not which to my personal view proved costly for both their drivers. All's well that ends well. I'm looking forward to next year. I'm sure it will be an exciting season.