Sleeping in an Airport - We have the worst airport in Asia (You didn't know?)

Sleeping in an airport

Do you sleep in airports?

It’s official. We have the worst airport in Asia. After years of denial, someone finally realized it’s no use hiding it. It has circulated the web last week and each time I encounter a link to the news, I close my window, turn off my laptop and walk away.  

No I don’t, but you get the idea.

I live near the airport. In Parañaque. Commuting, it’s around 30 minutes inside a jeepney, 20 inside an FX. Unless you’re me, you take the FX. Driving, it’s just 7-10 minutes. If you’re Tto Brt, it’s just 3 minutes.

As a child, I would be fascinated by planes flying over us and be amazed at the hugeness of these planes. As an adult, I get irritated by the noise. Planes cutting you mid a conversation are just annoying. We don’t really live near enough to experience hearing the sonic sound of airplanes during breakfast. But we see planes every time we drive around Parañaque. I have a friend who lost her best friend because one commercial plane decided one day to just skip the runway and land on her best friend’s house.  They live in an exclusive village near the airport runway. I hear these tragic stories every time. One time, before takeoff, a couple of grass self-combusted in the runway and had the entire takeoff operation paralyze for a while.

NAIA voted 5th worst airport in the world

All my life, I’ve been exposed to the killer traffic near the airport, and as I wait on the vehicle to move another inch, wonders of how the foreigners view the Philippines seeing the first things they see outside Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) engulf me. I mean, sitting in the comfort of an airconditioned car, I am already appalled at the scenery, how much will an excited foreigner make out of it?

So the news that we have the worst airport in Asia is kind of, well, not new. I haven’t been to Terminal 1 yet but Terminal 2 is bad enough in the arrival area (I like the departure area, sorry). And I just looooove Terminal 3. It’s new. It’s cold. It’s... new. I love it, but maybe because the budget airlines are there (hee hee) and the cheapness of it all made the big difference.

People in the website http://sleepinginairports.net/, the site that released the airport rankings, were complaining of bad comfort rooms and services in Terminal 2. Terminal 2 suddenly is equated to NAIA itself, so people don’t really know other terminals exist. But that does not have any bearing. They still think our airport is hideous. I don’t know the real score, but if it’s in Terminal 3, I would. I have 2 friends from the sanitation division and I know they do not sleep until all the bowls and sinks are squeaky clean. I know 3 people from the maintenance division and interviewing them, they gladly made out their own version of professional evaluation of Terminal 1. They are the people behind keeping the water drops from leaking into the bunbunan of important international officials upon arrival. I salute these people.

What does the government do about this? I have no idea. I tried googling reactions from the government’s side, but found nothing. Hmm. I didn’t try enough, I know.

If you want a real laugh, try reading http://sleepinginairports.net/. It’s very entertaining, and informative. You’ll get the feel of different airports from different people – who sleep in these airports. I think I will contribute something for Clark (DMIA).

Have you tried sleeping in an airport? I have. It’s super nice.

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Ruminations on Mood

From Brainless Tales

It shifts shape like soft clay and the moment you think it has taken its final form, you will find yourself losing its materiality again.

It has its own phases, pretty much like the moon, and it’s so hard to comprehend, like you are cursed to think and think about it. Mood is a tenacious term and ‘tis sad to think I belong to the gender that carries it randomly as the channels on your cable tv.

Someone told me as a girl, I am bound to reflect the age-long discrepancy between man and woman, and mood – mood swing – is the single most repulsive thing men don’t understand in us.

I guess it’s a fact, but I know it’s not a truth. I am not a moody person. I don’t let others suffer from my own suffering, experience hardship when I feel hardship, experience pain when I have pain. Though I would often be affected by, let’s say, profound things like a dead rat outside our house this morning, which was revolting yet the sadness of the reality that its life has ceased to exist subsisted in my daily memory.

The apostolic response requires people not to act according to one’s situation but according to God’s directives. We are not supposed to be swayed by circumstances, be depressed by problems or just be plainly affected by anything. Our response to things is the shaper of our environment, having been granted the power to do so. This entry is all about that. I don’t like to affect people negatively, but to impact lives in the right way.

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Paris, Je T'Aime (2006) - I am more in love now

I don't write movie reviews. Be it far from me to watch tons of movies and write about them. I like reading reviews though. They're useful sometimes. But on rare occasions, I cannot keep my thoughts on a movie I like to myself. So here goes...

It started with my love affair with the French language. Having finished two levels of the basics and moving on to the subject-verb part, I decided my ears need to hear as much French talkies as I could. I looked for any French gospel songs, but found little (only in youtube). So I was pushed to challenge myself to watch French films without the subtitles.

OK, OK, two levels of the basics, which account for almost nothing, I cannot simply jump into a non-subtitled movie-watching experience. But I had to. I had the urge to do it, being who I am. So I posted a stat message in FB (so that's how FB could be useful!) and asked a few friends to recommend any French films pour moi.

The winner: JsP with Paris, Je T'aime.

One word for the movie: Paris.

It's beatiful, it consists of short films so I'm not obliged to sit through it that long (I can stop and sleep anytime without feeling cut off or something). I watched it in two sittings with a two-week interval, so it was nice. It ended in a song by Feist - one of my favorite secular (French?) artists - and a consolidation of the different shorts in the end.

Beautiful.

Now, I am more convinced to go to Paris. Paris, Je T'aime!

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A break from my holiday posts: POVERTY

I am currently viewing a website for the Philippine elite. It makes me think, "My God, where have all those rich people come from." It makes me wonder whether I am living in the wrong Philippines. Must be have been dreaming for decades. And to think that I came from this "elite" university and sat beside children and grandchildren of these creatures, the reality of their existence only caught up with me just now.

Blame it on the weather or the different news coming in nowadays in my twitter feed, (or my overhearing my publisher over the conference table)  but the catching up is disheartening. Not for me, but for those I see everyday on my way home (I do not at all dismiss the fact that I not poor, I can't lie about it).

I thought the meaning of bourgeois is "high class" or anyone at the topmost level of the societal caste. I was wrong. Miriam-Webster defines it as "characteristic of the social middle class." So I don't know how to call the upper class anymore. I feel more alienated from them now, like they're untouchable altogether.

But these websites serve their purpose. They make wealth something to desire and be depressed with. People, me not excluded, enjoy these sites.

No need to call me anti-elite or fake revolutionary anti-rich. I am positive that in the near future, the light year gap between the rich and the poor will be narrowed drastically. Looking forward to that. But for now, I shall read more on the Tatler.

UPDATE: I read in an article that the poorest countries in the world became rich by a notch. Here's the article.

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Do we need the RH Bill?

Intramuros-2
Originally uploaded by ikeorganus

For the people who actually say something about this, I hope they've read the bill. I hope they actually understand before they say something about it. It will only make them look, er, unintelligent and when things like that happen, I'm saddened. I am yet to read the full text. It think I can find it here. Maybe I'll download it and print it to read it before I sleep.

But I still have a few more chapters to read about the book of Acts. I guess the RH bill can wait.

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Of Love and Other Drugs

Sorry Lovi Poe, but it sure is your fault why your beloved “Cong”  - now that I mentioned it, I don’t actually know how to call him anymore – Singson is going to spend his cold nights behind bars for 18 months.

It was your fight that drove him to do drugs that day. Or Usher. Either way, he’s in, you’re out and left crying over what-could’ve-been’s and whatnots.

 I wonder how your professed love for each other will grow as you get separated by those steel bars (or not, because I have no inkling as to how HK jails look like, most especially for the big names getting jailed for “justice’s” sake.) Will your love, as my old yaya would call say it, grow ponder?

18 months is a long time. Imagine, a woman houses her baby in her belly for nine months, by the time he gets out, you could have gotten two babies, provided of course that you’re not human and are too excited to make babies you disregard nursing your first baby on its first few months.

18 months and a baby is enough to have your baby develop words and ways of communication.

18 months and it’s the birthday of two of my former friends.

18 months and some Filipinos might forget we voted for a president and demand a new one.

18 months and another AFP-related case will be colorfully dissected in the upper and lower houses – unless we find Cha-Cha a nicer topic to stress our already stressed political arena in which case, we’ll be welcoming a possible new contenter for Phillippine domination: her excellency, Gloria MacapagalArroyo. (Oh, she’s not new? But she hasn’t become a prime minister yet right? This one’s different.)

18 months Pacquiao could have fought Mayweather already.

18 months and Donaire could have been the 2^nd pound-for-pound king, after Pacquiao knocking out Mayweather.

18 months and a new singing Hollywood sensation could come out and be featured in Ellen or Oprah (hello to the Fil-Canadian girl who made Lady Gaga cry).

18 months and you could have found a new love, Lovi. Someone who takes after your father (or any of the movie characters he once portrayed.) I’m not saying you should dump him, Lovi, oh no. It’s not in my position to dictate love. I am merely saying this: you might want to spend more of your time focusing on your career, prayer meetings and spiritual reformation. Who knows that in those 18 months, he a reformed man, and you of course, may find yourselves more in love than ever, end up in each other’s arms and make-up for the lost time. By then, you will have said no to premarital sex – which I’m not insinuating you’re engaged in for I know how good a girl you are – and you will have rejected posing for sexy print ads.

Now will not that make a beautiful Philippines?

For related news, please read the following links:

1. Recap of Songson's case (and his love for Usher).

2. Singson pleads guilty (of loving Lovi).

3. Singson sentenced to 18 months (without his Lovi).
4. The source for the image. 

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Tutkals: Another new term emerging the Philippine streets

When was it, when Jke told me he dreamed of street children playing soccer (for him)/football?

Apparently, they call it Tutkals (Tutang Kalye). Well, the weird thought here is that football = Azkals already. Hmm. Source: (The Azkal's twitter page)

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Goals of the Church

The primary goal is not a bigger group, more activities or better services, it is not even benevolent acts, nor greater prosperity, and not even more and better evangelism, neither is it healing or emotional healing and deliverance. All of these and more are the results of the goal of the "ekklesia" (assembly of called out ones). The goal is Christ formed by the Holy Spirit in a people becoming His character and His nature in the world producing the kingdom of God and His righteousness. - Ron McGatlin

The problem with the most churches nowadays is a matter of priority. We, as body of Christ, should know what the Holy Spirit is intending for us to do. Revival, new souls, healing and miracle movements are meaningless if the movers of these have nothing, not even a tinge of Jesus’ likeness and image in them. I’ve heard of people with great anointing who had lives similar to the unsaved themselves, which sends the wrong message to unbelievers. All these things are worthless if Jesus is not seen in us. Our prayer meetings and conferences are mere echoes on an empty hall if our lives are lacking in Jesus’s purposes.

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You think you know? You have no idea.

Note: I've met an awful lot of people who act as if they know everything, only for them to not know that I sometimes know more than them, which makes me not know anything or any more than them based on this article. The the cycle continues. 


It has been scientifically proven that the less you know, the more you think you know. 


This is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. The basic idea behind it has been a well-established rule for centuries. Charles Darwin, for instance, has stated “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge”. It has been empirically proven in 1999, by psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger in their report “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments”. 

This was proven through a study in which participants take tests of their logical reasoning skills, grammatical skills, and humor, and then estimate their own abilities in those subjects. Those participants who scored in the bottom quartile grossly overestimated their own abilities. Those in the12th percentile had estimated themselves to be in the 62nd percentile. 

Overall, Dunning and Kruger found that incompetent people overestimate their own skill level, fail to recognize the skill of other people and fail to recognize their own inadequacy. Also, as they receive training to improve their skills, incompetent people tend become more aware of their own inabilities. 

Read more about the Dunning-Kruger effect in Wikipedia. For a similar, less scientific theory, check out the "Peter Principle".


The original source of this article is here. 

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I don't want to ruin Valentine's Day but, yeah, I want to ruin Valentine's Day

This is not for lovers. Clearly, I am not a lover of anyone in particular, but I write this not out of bitterness but out of shedding light to something I know as truth. (What’s with the heavy disclaimer?)

This day is a day of feast for those with a significant someone whether the significant someone knows its status in someone’s life or not. It is a day of chocolates, Hallmark greeting cards, of dinners and Durex consumptions. It is a day of one’s need to satisfy oneself and/or another but never to celebrate anything this day normally professes – St. Valentine or something.

I don't want to ruin Valentine's Day but, yeah, I want to ruin Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day is not to be celebrated by anyone who confesses himself or herself as a believer and/or lover of God. It is of pagan origin that roots from the need of the early pagan converts to still practice their old ways by adapting their festivities into Christianity. This is tradition to celebrate the fertility of Lupercalia, a she-goat that nursed Romulus and Remus. These two are, according to legends, founders of the mighty nation of Rome.

I don’t think that as believers, we should associate ourselves to old practices of pagans, especially if they have nothing to do with our faith in God. This is detestable for Him (Deut. 12: 29-31). And we, set free from the clutches of sin, should always be wary of these practices to retain and maintain the God-given freedom bestowed upon us for free. God is loving, merciful and just, but He is also all-knowing and powerful that no way can we justify in front of Him our need to celebrate these nonsense celebrations in an ignorant hope of thinking we are doing this for Him.

For more information on this topic, please read here. 

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On Bombings and Natural Disasters

How come that every time something awful happens, it’s the only time people take precautions? And then give it a couple of weeks and the precaution is once again forgotten.

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