Sgt Beans’ 2nd time to have swollen balls

It is almost totally healed but I have been meaning to write about this a couple of days ago.  I also noticed that the articles I wrote about this had seen a spike in hits – meaning that there are people researching the WP blogs for info they can get their hands on regarding the swollen testicles of their precious labrador pets.

Well, 2 weeks ago I noticed Beans’ testicles were red again.  Aaarrggghh I remembered what the vet said “next time it happens, let us cut them off…”

Well, I think my Beans will have to miss out on the mating experience and would just need to remain a virgin if I followed that advice right away.

I immediately gave him antibiotics ( the same one we humans consume) following the advice of the vet previously.  It helped a bit but the swelling was still going on… well any infection needs to run its course eventually but I started applying the antibacterial cream we had from the previous swollen-ness experience.

Beans would not like it at all.

Our neighbor has a guava tree – and here in the Philippines, young guava leaves are used to  help speed up the healing process of circumcision during the summer.  It is what was commonly used as antiseptic and its sap was said to expedite the healing process.    I got some young leaves and boil them for several minutes.  I added salt and let that simmer for awhile.

I would use that (when it is tolerably warm) to bathe his testicles. Make sure that it is not too hot – so maybe you would need to let it cool a bit after boiling.  I would splash his part of the body with that guava mixture and towel him dry.

Trust me… even Beans felt the comfort from that.  I would do that daily or even twice during the day.  After the treatment, he would go back to his house and sleep.

But I also took Beans back to the vet for his proper medical treatment. Once inside the clinic, Beans showed nervousness when he saw the doctor again by hiding his tail behind his legs.  He “remembered” who the doctor was.  That was the first time I saw him act like that.  He would usually be very expressive around other people by clamoring his attention.  But for the first time, he was nervous.

The doctor did not ask me to put the mouth cover on him anymore – but clearly he did not want to approach him either. “He will surely bite if I touch it because that is really painful…”

So I ordered Beans to climb on the chair and when he did, I picked him up and placed him on the vet’s table. Picked him up? You bet and boy, did I really feel those 30Kilos on my lower back!

He got injected twice ( antibiotics and vitamins) and told me to give him antibiotics tablets for 10 days (2x/daily) – I was already giving him cotrimoxazole and he said there is no need to have the antibiotic tablets changed.

I would smash the tablets and mix it in his food. Made sure that he finished his food everytime.

His balls are healed now.

And make sure that during the treatment process that he does not wet that area for a long time. So I stopped throwing balls for several days and just let him stay in his house and I would occasionally let him roam and bark at the stray cats outside the fence.

I asked 2 vets if that will always happen. The 1st one  basically said – “since their balls are exposed… they are most prone to infection caused by bacteria or mosquito bites…”  . The 2nd one (the one who treated the Beans) said that “that is why,  if he is not a stud, why don’t you have them removed?”

Well good thing I could not afford the procedure which would cost  Php 4,500.

Just one of those things that come with taking care of an adult male dog.

Excellent Customer Service of Innove Communications, Inc.

This afternoon, I found my Broadband internet bill hiding inside my mailbox. I was on my way to take care of a bill so I just nonchalantly tossed this bill when I got into the car.

As soon as I parked at the mall where I was going to make payments, I opened the Broadband bill and was pleasantly surprised that it was a little bit lower by about P70.00

Almost P100 less than the usual subscription rate. I turned to page 2 and to my amazement, the mystery was solved.  My ISP automatically gave me a rebate, OUTAGE REBATE amounting to P58.14!

And now I remember, there was a time when there was no internet for about 8 hours. And when I called up their 24-hr customer service, I was able to talk to their Customer Care officer named Peter who asked me questions detailing the technical difficulties I was going through.  He even gave me a reference number so that I can immediately follow it up.  He assured me that the technician will be sent right away.

Well the following day, an outsourced technical company came representing INNOVE.  It was very prompt. I basically just explained that my internet signal is usually affected when it rains.  All the installations and wires were okay so the man said he will check about the internet programming on my subscription ( whatever that means…I was just glad that someone was going to check up on it..)

I forgot about the whole thing until I saw this bill. This is my second bill from Innove since I changed ISP from SmartBro.

There it was, P58.14 rebate for an OUTAGE that they acknowledged. I remember when I was a subscriber of SMART, we experienced 5 days without any internet connection. I emailed them asking for the rebate since I complained that our payment has been made in full every month, despite their lack of assurance that they can give us 24/7 connection.  I thought they really did well when they gave me a P30 rebate to cover the 5-day outage!  Now look at Globe/Innove, it automatically gave me the rebate even if didn’t ask for it.

Just one of the many reasons why it is SMARTER to switch to GLOBE BROADBAND.

Let me detail here why their services are better:

1. Customer service hotline actually works.  You dial it from your handyphone whether it is a landline or not, it is toll-free.  With SMART, once you dial their landline, you are charged accordingly.  Since I was a Globe user, calling a PLDT number, I would minimally spend more than P100 just waiting for the customer service to get back to me and give me some reasonable answer than the usual “there is an ongoing work in your site…” .

2. The outsourced technical company is located where I live.  These companies have been outsourced by Globe to meet the immediate needs of their clients. With SMART, we would need to go to the Wireless Centers and really try our best to explain to their customer service client what the problem was.  Then they will give us the standard answer “paki hintay na lang po..papupuntahin namin, kasi may on-going work po sa site ninyo eh…” Ongoing work to an unknown site which has affected the internet service… whoaaa that qualifies as a pinhead response don’t you think?

And I remember one time when I lodged my complaint when I was a SMARTBRO subscriber and the answers I got were:

- that depends on the area ( when I said the internet signal was intermittent)

- SmartBro is really separate from PLDT ( when I said it took forever for their technicians to get to my place)…

Since I transferred to GLOBE BROADBAND by INNOVE COMMUNICATIONS, my internet connecton has been reliable. I am paying LESS for a MORE SUPERIOR quality of service with a much bigger bandwidth size compared to what had been promised by SMARTBRO ( up to 384kbps)… I did a speedtest on my connection and it has been consistent:

I know that in other countries, this speed would look very primitive. But this is what we have here and this is way better than what my previous ISP – SmartBro was able to give me.

Quality service, superior technical handling and excellent customer service.  These are still some of the non-negotiable core values that should never change.

Now I should let my friends who work at Globe read this blog.

They would be very happy to hear from a very pleased client.

Throwing shoes at the President

I watched again and again the short video capture of the pair of shoes hurled at the outgoing president of the United States.

I am not an American but that scene played over and over again through the news channels and cable news showed two critical realities:

1. The first one is not a strange idea anymore as millions chanted “Change” before November 4th. The image of US has been badly tainted – I don’t need to explain this as CNN and FOx News are better at explaining this.

2. The second reality that the shoe-throwing incident showed was not about the image of the US as seen or perceived by the world.  But the glaring lack of disrespect for the highest position in the United States.

Bear with me please.  Sure the economy is really difficult. Sure there are a lot of things that are going wrong. Sure all these bailouts are difficult. Sure the mess about the Chicago governor is but a symptom of something that has grown endemic ( corruption) esp here in the Philippines.

But what is more sad is that, the throwing of the shoes at the President has been a source of banter, funny antics, joke and even to some, the gesture was even considered heroic.

I will not focus my discussion on that specific man who threw that except that, if it weren’t for the man he threw his shoes at hatefully, he would not even be alive if it was a different Iraqi president. Had it been Saddam Hussein, the video would not be seen at all. And his death and that of his relatives would have been definite for sure.  It was the man he threw at, that fought for the freedom that he is abusing now.

I am saddened by the common reactions in the United States.  If Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (who isn’t well  liked as well in this country due to a lot of irregularities in her administration and business contracts with other countries) was thrown shoes at in one of her international travels, the whole country would be very upset.  Sure, our president is not well-liked, but we will not give other nationalities the “luxury” of insulting her and throwing shoes at her.

After all, George Bush is still the President of the United States. And while President-elect Barrack Obama is doing a lot of conferences now, there is still one president.  And while he may not be liked, there is a call for all americans to still respect the position that such person holds.

The US is growing conscious about its image to the rest of the world.  How about an image where you even “welcome” the idea of your president being “attacked” in foreign soil?  What kind of an image does it send?  How can the other countries respect the US, when it cannot respect its own?  Why should non-americans respect the US, when it cannot even respect its own?

How would the US have reacted if it were Condoleeza Rice?  Or Obama?

If the throwing of the shoes to the President of the most powerful nation on the planet can just be shrugged-off, imagine what they could do the rest of the normal Joe traveling around.  Why will they respect an average american doing their business or on tour groups, when Americans are non-chalant about the attack on their President?  How can americans feel safe everywhere when even their President, when attacked in foreign soil becomes a “laughing” matter?

I know the economy is hard. ( I am from the Philippines… and we define hardship as well over here…)

I know he is an un-popular president that allowed these things to happen during his watch.

I know other nations hate what the US represents.

But it is very, very disconcerting when we cannot give the least amount of respect to the POSITION that this man holds.

You do not need to respect the person perhaps, but we still need to respect the position of the PRESIDENT.

Anything lower than that is not acceptable,  if we want to be better off as human beings.

Do not exasperate the young ones. . .

I was finishing the retreat in Iloilo when I received a series of SMS from Manila concerning a  domestic problem in oneof the families back  home.

It was a case of a young 16 year old being thrown out of the house after a conflict with his grandfather.

As the people were telling me their goodbyes and appreciation for the just concluded retreat, i was on the phone trying to calm this 16 year old boy as he cried while trying to explain to me the incident.

But the family wounds go deep. Much deeper than what I could write here on this blog. He almost retaliated and boxed his grandfather when his grandfather choked him on the neck after some argument over some clothes that were left inside the bathroom.

24 hours later, I was talking to another family who was gracious enough to accommodate this young man’s need for housing.   I could not believe that it came down to this:  this young man who is basically an orphan now, was kicked out of the house mercilessly by his grandfather.

It stung deep when I realized that non-family members could be more gracious, merciful and forgiving sometimes than those who share their same blood in the lineage system.

This young man was already exasperated.  Sent a text message to his mom overseas and told her that he is leaving the house because he could no longer stand it anymore.

The wounds have gone too deep.

I do not know how anyone could start repairing the breach that had taken place, especially when violence has been involved.

But for now, at least this young man, has a place to sleep.  Behind a small vulcanizing shop, he shares a room with a highschool friend.  He may be unloved and orphaned right now – but he is not alone as he has found refuge in the home of some gracious samaritans.

Thank you for these people who did not even ask for the financial arrangement when they took in this young man.

I could hear Jesus telling them…”if you have done it for the least of them… you have done it for me..”

Lord God, be with that young man and encourage him that life does get better. Do not allow him to wallow in self-pity but in your grace, make something out of himself.  Tell him Lord that his past do not necessarily determine his destiny.

Thank you for taking care of him Lord.

The little Anniversary Surprise

December 6th was a stressful day because of the myriad of details that need to be taken care of.

Car needed to be cleaned because it was going to be used a the bridal car. It gave me a good excuse to buy flowers and have it arranged right at the floral shop!

Cake and cupcakes ( made by Wifey) need to be delivered to the venue and then come back for the whole family to attend the wedding which I officiated.

The wedding of Andy and Jorie started at about 30 mins after 3PM.  It was a simple yet very relaxed wedding because I wanted Andy and Jorie to be comfortable by injecting some humorous stuff along the questions I asked them.  Andy was able to get Jorie’s sweet yes 10 years ago, 7 minutes ahead of when I got Sheila’s ‘i love you too…”

I told Andy that we are going to be brothers for life now – since we got engaged on the same day and got married on the same date…(with a gap of 10 years!)

At the end of the reception, my little plan was put into action.  Aron sang “I’ll be” by Edwin McCain as Larry Parane played the guitar as his accompaniment.  I came out from my hiding place and handed the flowers to Sheila as I led her outside to dance as Aron sang that beautiful song…

Hans followed with 2 songs (The Way You Look Tonight) or it could be something else, I need to check my details now.  We just quietly danced as some well-meaning friends looked on approvingly.  Pretty soon, all the wedding photographers were there covering our simple anniversary celebration. Hans sang another song…

When it was over, I led her to the laptop and watched on the projector screen the powerpoint presentation I prepared containing the greetings of friends here and abroad.  Even the Chief Justice joined and accommodated my request for a greeting and sent his the day before the anniversary!

At the end of the presentation, wifey was overwhelmed and turned to me and cried.

It was priceless.

Thank you Lord God for this most awesome gift.

Celebrating a decade of friendship and love. . .

After an instructional flight with Capt Harris and Wifey

Today is our 10th Wedding Anniversary.

I could not even begin thanking the Lord our God for what He has allowed us to experience all these years.  My life has been so meaningfully enriched since we first knelt as a couple and was prayed over as husband and wife.

I remember all the challenges we faced early on and the difficulties that followed when 4 months after our marriage, my wife became an orphan when Mama died.  Her only sibling lives in Malaysia and I remember the late nights and the early morning cries because of the grief her small heart could not contain…

I remember so many moments… precious moments that would be, to borrow Max Lucado’s phrase…”eternal instants…” Moments that made time to stand still.  You just breathe in that moment and savor its detail, and allow its subtle fragrance be infused in your well-being.

Eternal instants… my wife and I have many of those.  Quiet walks, crying over a movie (The Notebook!), walking the dogs, early morning brewed coffee… little things that may seem so ordinary and insignificant.  But when love is in those ordinary and insignificant things – they take on an extra-ordinary quality.

Thank you Lord for sustaining us through.

Ours is a relationship that could only boast of You.

Thank you Sheila.

If God would allow me one wish… then it would have to be this:

“Lord, let me hold her hand for all eternity….”

Lovey, I love you today

More than yesterday

Less than tomorrow!

My 25th Highschool Silver Homecoming Reunion

Last November 15th was our silver homecoming reunion for the Class of 1983.

After months of preparation – it was time for us to gather at the ISO in Ateneo University to meet old friends and teachers we have not seen for 25 years.

It was very heartwarming to see our old teachers who were equally surprised to see who and how we have become.

It was sobering that many of the teachers we were anticipating to see were not there anymore as many of them are already resting in their graves.

It was awesome to hear different stories. To recall memories and feel so young again as we danced to the music of our generation.

It was really good being reconnected after all these years – and as mid-lifers, it was great to see familiar and older faces that have shared some of those wonderful memories through those impressionable years in highschool.

I was asked to give a brief talk on our highschool memories. I got the most applause when i said “it has been 25 years since we graduated from school, and some of us still carry the wounds and the trauma from those years.  It is time move on and to let go…”

Cheers erupted from my batchmates and even our teachers who were present.

In order for us to have a significant walk with our new friends (old and yet new), we need to let go of things that have been said, done, left un-said, left un-done in highschool and embrace each other as people who are right in the middle of this journey called life.

My wife enjoyed the event as well. We had an awesome time.

It was very poignant to hear the Glee Club singing AKO AY PILIPINO which won for them the prestigious honors at the national level.  It was equally sobering to hear them sing a wonderful and emotionally touching Christmas song in Pilipino.

There were 747 who graduated in 1983.

There were about 103 who made it at that event.

There were 2 who died as we were preparing for the event.

There were several who left for their overseas work as we were preparing for the reunion.

Many from Class 1983 are working and have settled overseas.

We sang our Alma Mater song:

“Quirino High School we hail thee

We lead you on to fame and destiny

Quirino High school we serve

We’re all for thy name and victory…

Dear alma mater beloved

our thoughts, our words , our deeds for thee we give

although we’re far or near from thy gates

united loyal and brave we are…..

We were all seriously sobered as we sang it.  25 years ago, we would make fun of that hymn. We would insert words that were inappropriate. But not at that night. We cherished the words. We sang it with pride. We sang it realizing that this was just a once-in a lifetime event.

We ended the program by singing a christian song that spoke of our desire to be connected with God and with each other.

It was inspiring.

It was beautiful.

Definitely a personal highlight for me this year.

To the class of 1983 ” May the good Lord bless you and keep you until we all meet again…”

We have done well….

Congratulations Class of 1983!

The beauty of wireless networks at home…

Since I changed my ISP from SmartBro to Globe Broadband here in Sta Rosa Laguna, I was very much motivated to try setting up a wireless router.

The afternoon after they installed my wired Globe Broadband connection, wifey and I headed to SM Sta Rosa. I was determined to get a router, and I had specific brand in mind.

NETGEAR.

Several years back, when we were still using the primitive dial-up using a prepaid card, I was already dreaming of two things:

1. Solid and reliable internet connection

2. That would enable me to set up a wireless network at home.
Well, guess what. I am writing this in the living room while watching CNN. My NETGEAR WRG614 v9 is already working at its best upstairs.

But it was still a lesson on character development.

I could not install my NETGEAR router.

Someone came to help me and he worked at it for more than 4 hours but when he left, it made the installation more difficult because I would always get a “No internet connection detected…”

Two days of trying… and I was simply ready to just thow the unit outside the window.  I was beginning to feel bad because I felt like I simply wasted some hard earned money.

Even my friend from NEW YORK would chat with me to help install it… (we would chat in the evening as he would be on his way to the office, riding a train. Our chats would be more than 30 mins and he would still be connected… he would just get dc once he the train go through a long tunnel going to New York…)

Friends would from time to time give me some technical details… which would end up frustrating me more because some of the specifications they would tell me, were somewhat contradictory.

Until my brother in law came into the rescue.

It was 10PM and I was already in bed nursing a wounded pride when he sent me sms “are you still up to it?”

Well… through a long and extensive YM chat (ethernet connected)… he walked me through it.  He even got the control of my laptop while he was an hour away from my house!  It was a trial-and error process until at 3am I saw the wireless icon lighted up!

I have never been so excited seeing a wireless icon light up!

There it was…. I was surfing wirelessly. I was even chatting with him wirelessly!

Those beautiful lights from the modem and the routers were dancing so gracefully before my eyes!

Finally, my dream of having wireless internet connection at home came true!

Yesterday, I helped configure my sis-in law’s laptop to our wireless network using her Belkin 802.11 Wireless card.  She now surfs the internet downstairs and her daughter can use the laptop anywhere in the house.

This morning when i woke up at 4am, I turned on my pocket pc and checked my email.  My connection was so good that I was even downloading pocket pc softwares in minutes!  I was browsing through sites with the speed on my pocket pc that I had never experienced before. ( I’ve used my pocket pc in coffee shops but it was agonizingly slow…)

Life is good when those small lights from the modem and my Netgear router are gracefully blinking upstairs.

What in the world?!

What in the world?!
It was an early flight for Dumaguete. My wife and I missed the turn to the parking lot of the new NAIA 3 terminal building for all Cebu Pacific flights.  I dropped her off at the entrance of the building along with our luggages and made another round for the parking area so i can leave the car. Someone from the office will come later that morning to pick it up.
The NAIA 3 looked nice.  We finally caught up in some ways when compared with other airport within the region.  The staff were friendly even though they were charging me for an excess weight I had incurred.
At the final gate, as usual, we removed our shoes and headed for the xray.  Once through, we struggled to find a seat so we can put on our shoes.

There are still a lot of areas that are being worked on.  We settled at the decent looking coffee shop in front of DeliFrance. My wife drinks decaf so we made sure they serve that before settling down. As we were sipping our very bland brewed coffee….(nice place, nice look but coffee was terrible) we could not help but notice a group of 4 young ladies ( college age) as they were laughing loud. It was too much for a public setting and at a very early time at that.

My eyes grew wide when I realized what they were drinking.  They were all  holding San Miguel Beer cans in their hands!  No wonder, and instinctively I looked at my watch 5:50 AM!!!

What in the world????!!!!

Is this how it is done these days as you wait for your very early flight?  You drink beer???
They were all sounding off with their american accents – so it was difficult to assess if they were visiting here ( Filipinos who grew up in the US) or they were a bunch of locals working for a call center.
I could hardly believe it. What is going on?

Well… after the trip in Dumaguete, there was another incident at the same airport.  There were about 3 flights that arrived that evening.  It was very smooth even when 3 plane-load of passengers were waiting for their luggage.

But once you are about to exit the building, you will need to make a decision whether to go left or right. It was another long queue as we waited for 2 female security guards to look at our bags and the airline tags and the corresponding numbers….

Arrrrgggghhh… the place looks awesome.  It could showcase the organization of the place and how we are moving on… but no, it was just a facade, it was as if we were still operating a small regional airport somewhere in the Visayas. . . we waited for more than 15 minutes just to be able to get out of the building.
Michael Defensor ( my classmate in an undergrad class in UP Diliman) had the chance to really make the NAIA 3 Terminal work. But he dropped the assignment for a more lucrative post and bigger investment deals.
The terminal building looks great – but the efficiency level needs to match the physical improvement of the whole place.

The arrogance of our country’s guests

It was just an ordinary morning.  We were running low on dog food and the nearest place to get reasonably priced dog food is about a short 7-minute drive to Paseo.

When I got there, I thought about buying several pieces of mongo bread from our favorite breadshop called The Little Corner Breadshop.  It is one of those few breadshops where the quality of the bread has been maintained despite the price increases of flour and ingredients in recent weeks.

My wife and I have our current favorite – their mongo bread.

There was hardly anyone there so it was really good for me. Usually when I buy bread there at any hour of the day, there is a considerable queue before I could face their bread vendors.

This time there was just a non-Filipino customer waiting. He was an older Korean.  Koreans have widely made their presence known in every part of the Philippines. They are everywhere now, literally. And everyday we see them here where we live.

The bread sales lady, a young woman in her twenties pointed to a kind of bread and said “Cheese roll?” her face directed at the old man.

For some reason, I didn’t know their previous interaction – but this old korean man who was wearing dark glasses and cap screamed “CHEESE BLED!” CHEESE BLEEED!”

I was really shocked. This was my first time to see such inerrant behavior from a guest. And for him to be shouting at a hapless bread vendor was very. very internally provoking.

I felt my jaw tightened and my breathing got harder.  One of the things that can really get my temperature to rise would be any act of injustice.  That was, injustice.

While the old korean man was waiting for his “CHEESE BLED”, I said intentionally to the same lady vendor. I was sure that I stated it in a sing-song pattern that would connote warmth and friendliness…

“Ms… may I have several pieces of your delicious mongo bread.  5 pieces PLEASE?” I said, emphasizing the last word.

The old korean man got his CHEESE BLED and rode off on his small motorbike.

I could hardly believe it.  Filipinos in their own country being maltreated by foreigners who seem to think that they can do just that.

Made me really, really sad because it feel like we have really sold our souls and along with it, our country as well.  They are the ones who are owning businesses here now – and it is so easy for them to do just that. I have wondered if our government has placed any visa restrictions or are we just welcoming anyone (they may even be undesirables, we don’t know…) here in the country.

If you have been to Boracay, just walk along its world’s finest white powdery sand… and you will be hard-pressed to find any locally owned establishments along the beach. They are all owned by foreigners who found the easy way to own properties here.

It would be a miracle to have that old man read this blog – but if you are a foreigner living, studying or doing business here in the Philippines… please be considerate.  The meek nature of the Filipinos are not meant to be abused.  And let us not forget that ultimately, we are all citizens of the world – and thus, all nationality needs to be respected despite their age, education and status in life.  And if you are a guest, it is a common thing to be courteous toward the people of your host country.  Be mindful of the tone of your voice, your sense of space and other behaviors that would show disrespect.

I hope you enjoy your stay. I hope you create wonderful memories during your stay here in the Philippines. But during your stay here, be mindful of your manners.

I got my mongo bread… and I as I was counting my change… the lady vendor said “thank you sir…”

She wasn’t just thanking me for buying. It was deeper than that. She knew how I got flustered when I heard and saw her being screamed at.

The Philippines may not be a powerhouse in terms of might and financial status.  But it is a rich and beautiful country. This is the only one we have so please take care of my country and its inhabitants during your stay.