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The Proposed P500 Cory-Ninoy Peso Bill (a peek behind the scenes)

The unofficial (but very popular) proposed design of the P500 bill

A day Pres. Corazon Aquino passed away last Aug. 1, a website (peaceloveandrevolution.com) was put up on the web by a very young graphic designer. Within a week, the site got more than 20,000 hits, the idea of the couple on one yellow bill caught the attention of the newspapers, became the talk of social networking sites, landed on a Facebook page and snowballed. The graphic designer was Rev Naval.

At about the same time, a former Cabinet Secretary, who happens to be a good friend, stumbled on the same idea, proposed it to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), and got positive feedback that it was going to be considered in the next redesign of the Philippine currency. This person was former Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez.

Vince Perez(taken from www.vinceperez.net)

At the recent Manila Design Week, I sought Rev Naval out, borne out of a curiosity and desire to meet the guy behind the popular P500 design. He graciously spoke with me for a short while then gifted me with a facsimile of his P500 bill.

On the other hand, I caught Vince enroute to South Korea and asked if he could relate how he brought his idea to the BSP. Luck of lucks, both guys agreed to share their thoughts with me so here it is: Continue reading “The Proposed P500 Cory-Ninoy Peso Bill (a peek behind the scenes)”

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The Biggest Loser Comes to Asia

The Biggest Loser Asia is coming to Asia for the first time and Fitness First is its major sponsor.  Fitness First clubs around Asia (Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia) will be exclusive venues for the live screen test auditions for participants who want to be part of the show. In the Philippines, LIVE screen test auditions were held at Fitness First at SM Megamall from August 15-16, 2009.

Since its debut in 2004 in the US by NBC reality television, The Biggest Loser has become a worldwide hit viewed by millions, airing in over 90 countries and produced in 25 countries. This is the first reality show where obese contestants are challenged and encouraged under guided expert supervision to undergo strenuous physical and mental training in order to shed kilos. The one who loses the most weight not only wins a grand cash prize of USD 100, 000 but also gains a healthier and better quality life!

Produced by Imagine Omnimedia (producers of Contender Asia) for the Hallmark Channel in Asia, Biggest Loser Asia will help change the lives of obese Filipinos who want to take up the challenge of shedding bad lifestyle habits and embracing healthier ones. The Biggest Loser Asia will not just look into the physical challenges of the contestants’ personal journeys but also their emotional and psychological trials and tribulations as they lose the kilos while inspiring and empowering others to do the same.

When my girl C2 and I got to Fitness First, we were met by a long line of applicants, all looking like they really could lose all that extra weight but looking hopeful as well that they would be chosen as one of the wanna-be losers.

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Applicants were ushered into THE screen test room in batches of 6. They were told that the panel of judges could ask them any questions like  why they joined The Biggest Loser or even personal questions that could have contributed to their obesity or desire to lose weight.

Simon Flint and Mark Ellis of Fitness First brief the applicants
Simon Flint and Mark Ellis of Fitness First brief the applicants

Here are some snippets from a jolly group of guys who I thought were friends since they were very animated as they sat around waiting for their turn.  But they all just met each other on that day.

And I did an ambush interview with actress Ruby Rodriguez, who I chanced upon also lining up:

The show is expected to come out on TV by end of this year. Watch for it and see who becomes the biggest Asian LOSER!

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Celebrate International Left-Handers’ Day 2009 Today (August 13)!

Lefthanders in their Right Minds

Left-handers (popularly called Lefties) comprise only about 7-10% of the world’s population.

Up until the last generation, left-handed children were forced to switch to the right hand by most parents. It’s only now that lefties are acknowledged for their uniqueness and creativity.

Based on studies, here are some interesting trivia about left-handed people:

– Some famous Lefty personalities are US President Barack H. Obama, Henry L. Ford, Mark Twain, Jimi Hendrix, Michelangelo, and our very own Rafael “Paeng’’ Nepomucen and Emmanuel “Manny’’ Pacquiao.

– Men are slightly more likely to be left-handed than women.

– When NASA began searching for imaginative, reliable, multi-talented people for the moon, 1 in 4 Apollo astronauts turned out to be left-handed (a figure 250% greater than statistical probability).

– Left-handers reach puberty 4-5 months later than right-handed people.

– Lefties tend to draw figures that face the RIGHT.

– Probably because they use the right side of the brain more, lefties appear to be better in the music and arts scene.

– According to neurologists, lefties adjust more readily to seeing underwater.

– Left-handers seem to excel in sports such as tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing.

– The probabilities of producing a lefty are as follows: 1 in 10 if both parents are right-handed; 2 in 10 if one parent is left-handed; 1 in 4 if both parents are left-handed.

– 4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed.

– Lefties account for a large percentage of those in remedial reading classes.

In my family, three of my kids were born Lefties. Our second daughter, C2, was born left-handed but since I did not know any better then, I taught her to use her right hand so she would not have difficulty in a right-handed world. However, our 2 succeeding children, both boys, also turned out to be Lefties. And to this day, I wonder about this because while we have other lefties in the family (my sister and some in-laws), both me and my hubby are right-handed.

We are fortunate that in the boys’ school, they took pains to accommodate lefties by providing desks with left-sided arm rests. It’s not so bad anymore now that they are in high school because the desks are tables with ample room for you whether you are right- or left-handed. But at home, I still have to contend with bumping elbows with M2 at the dinner table.

In 1990, the Left-Handers Club was established and on Aug. 13, 1992, they launched International Left-Handers’ Day. According to their website:

This event is now celebrated worldwide, and in the U.K. alone there were over 20 regional events to mark the day in 2001- including left-v-right sports matches, a left-handed tea party, pubs using left-handed corkscrews where patrons drank and played pub games with the left hand only, and nationwide “Lefty Zones” where left-handers creativity, adaptability and sporting prowess were celebrated, whilst right-handers were encouraged to try out everyday left-handed objects to see just how awkward it can feel using the wrong equipment!

These events have contributed more than anything else to the general awareness of the difficulties and frustrations left-handers experience in everyday life, and have successfully led to improved product design and greater consideration of our needs by the right-handed majority – although there is still a long way to go!!

Today, I greet all Left-Handers, including my lefty kids and blog readers. You are unique and in a class all your own. You have your own place in this world and can make a great contribution with your creativity and artistic talents.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL LEFT-HANDERS’ DAY!!!

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Goodbye, Tita Cory!

(by Bon Robert Astillo Luzon)
(by Bon Robert Astillo Luzon)

Pres. Corazon Aquino walked her talk.

In the history of Philippine presidents, she is the only one I know who did not seek the position, reluctantly assumed it, stayed faithful to her Presidential oath and to the Constitution, and willingly gave it up to her elected successor.

Yes, she was not always popular to everyone. The 7 coups under her Administration showed the restlessness of some military quarters. After she left government, she supported some issues that did not sit well with some people. Some thought the Cory magic was gone and questioned her moves.

But she proved that what is popular is not always right. She followed her intuition, guided by the Divine, and did what she thought was right. And I believe she has been vindicated. When the people first learned of her cancer last year, the entire nation prayed for her till the very end. And we all came out in droves, in the driving rain and heat, waited patiently in line for hours just to catch a 3-second glimpse of her, brought our children into the streets to hail her funeral cortege wherever it passed, and mourned her loss as though she were our very own mother. We embraced her family as though they were our own. And when they cried, we cried with them.

Tita Cory proved in the end that gentleness overpowers might. Everyone agrees she was the most honest President we have ever had. She never spoke about herself but always asked about others and clearly loved country and countrymen second only to God. As a civilian after her Administration, she continued her quest to better the lives of Filipinos via her microfinance endeavors. For her, uplifting the Filipino women who were home-based and who mostly had no livelihood means not only allowed them to augment their family income but also imbued these women with self-respect and self-esteem.

I have personal reasons for my own deep sense of loss at her passing:

– I was in the States around the time they were in exile and while I never met Ninoy as he made his campus tours, I did get to meet Charito Planas who was in exile with him and learned from her how they left the Philippines, how she coped with a meager livelihood there, and how they all longed to return one day.

– Ninoy was shot on my birthday. Every year since then, my birthday always took on a more somber atmosphere as I could not help recalling that day as the country commemorates his death.

– I was an active Namfrel Operation Quick Count volunteer (in the 1984 elections as well as in the 1986 snap elections). I sat at pre-election meetings with the Namfrel leadership including Joe Concepcion and Gus Lagman to work out the tabulation process (both automated and the manual backup system using CPA volunteers). I remember the days that stretched into nights as we took our duty turns at La Salle Greenhills. I was there when we heard stories of ballot snatching in precincts as well as accounts of cars parked outside LSGH that had paint splattered on them by unknown persons. I was present when Cardinal Sin, Senator Lugar (with his US observation team) and other dignitaries visited to take a look at our operations. I felt the sense of worth in what we were doing when the PICC tabulators walked out in disgust over the manipulation of electoral reports on their tally board which differed from their own tabulations.

– When EDSA 1 broke out, my siblings and I plus our Dad headed for EDSA to be one with the people. We had a tiny transistor radio with us as we monitored developments reported by Radyo Bandido.

On the evening of Aug. 1 (Saturday), my daughter and I tried to visit Tita Cory at LSGH but the hard rains and long lines that stretched from the gym all the way to Ortigas Ave. and beyond Gate 1 near EDSA prevented us from lining up, especially since I needed to be up early the next day. I was resigned to the fact I would have to just watch everything from my TV set.

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On Aug. 3 (Monday), I woke up early, checked my online messages, and found out that my blogger friend Noemi, who was in the media group at LSGH, had posted a message that public viewing was allowed before the 9 AM Mass (prior to the transfer to Manila Cathedral) and that THERE WERE NO LINES!

I literally jumped out of bed and into my clothes, rushed to LSGH, and true enough, breezed right through the gate. In 5 minutes, I was already in line with a few others to view Tita Cory.

Inside LSGH Gym

With Noemi

Falling in line to take one last look at Tita Cory

NAMFREL's 1986 tally board (lovingly preserved by the La Salle brothers) is displayed as one final tribute
NAMFREL's 1986 tally board (lovingly preserved by the La Salle brothers) is displayed as one final tribute

Then the following day, Aug. 4, I acted on a compulsion to visit EDSA Shrine. I bought a single yellow Carnation along the way, with a tiny card, and laid it at the feet of the statue of the Blessed Mother.

And as one final, loving tribute to the only President in recent history who, to my mind, truly loved and served this country the best way she could and without taking advantage of position or power, this is the view from my bedroom window:

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Goodbye, Tita Cory. Thank you for everything you have done for our country and for us individually. Rest now with our good Lord and with your beloved Ninoy. Continue to pray for and guide the Philippines. Mahal ka namin. Hindi ka namin makakalimutan. Sana lahat ng pinangarap mo at pinagdasal para sa ating bansa ay magkatotoo.

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Getting Tagged + the Kreativ Blogger Award

This Kreative Blogger Award was given to me by my dear friend from my Philadelphia past, Kathleen. Thanks so much, Kathleen!

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I am thrilled to have been chosen one of Kathleen’s 7 best-loved blogs and as it is with awards like this, it is now my turn to pay it forward and choose 7 of my own best-loved blogs. Of course, I love more than 7 blogs, most specially the blogs of my mommy blogger friends. But for now, I will list the blogs that first come to my mind.

1. Insightful Personhood – My sister in Christ/kumare (both ways)/great friend Aly maintains this blog. Aly is one of the most creative people I have known. She loves scrapbooking and her Christmas gifts are always a delight to receive because she thinks up different ways to wrap the package and decorate it with twirly colored ribbons or a touch of something like a cut-out Christmas tree or hanging ornaments. In this blog, Aly bares her heart. She writes about her family life as well as her insights in her journey as a daughter of God. If there is one blog I can go to to draw inspiration from, it is hers.

2. Heart of Rachel – Rachel is one of my mommy blogger friends. Her blog is aptly titled because it is ALL HEART. She writes about anything and everything close to her heart. She writes about her family experiences, puts up great household tips and anything that catches her heart. When you visit her blog, you immediately notice how bright, colorful and tasteful it is. It gives you a sense that its owner is a happy optimist. Which Rachel is.

3. Memories in the Eyes of the Digiscrapmom – This title fits Liezl to a T! She is my ultimate digital scrapbooking idol — only because I have tried, truly tried, to keep up with the 4 kids’ scrapbooks and am still an utter failure in this department. I have (by last count), 3 plastic stackables filled with long, brown envelopes of the kids’ pictures, schoolwork and other souvenirs. Maybe I do need to go digital instead of tackling the cut & paste style of scrapbooking in the days of my mom and lola.

4. Flipflopping my way around town – Fran’s a neighbor. A really close neighbor. As in — the street right behind ours. And to top it, she blogs mostly about her food experiences. Her blog is eye candy. Colorful, lots of pics, and very light reading. I love visiting and finding out what new restaurants she tried and reviewed. Food blogs are better than visiting restaurant websites because I get the real deal from people who actually tried the food and service. Fran’s blog is one such site. Of course, she is now busy with preparations to move on to another state of life (woohoo!) but she still finds time to do her foodie posts. Keep ’em comin’, Fran!

5. Wifely Steps – Toni is in the last stages of her pregnancy and is awaiting Timmy’s birth. Her blog is all about her journey as a wife. Just reading her posts makes me smile because it is so easy to empathize with Toni’s experiences.

6. The Journey of a Yogini – Meet Chona, my BYFF (Best Yogini Friend Forever). Chronological age separates us but not our free spirits. When we’re together, we talk, laugh and get into just about any topic. I love being with her. Our souls commune. We are both free spirits (or at least trying to be as free as possible within social norms, haha). This yoga blog of Chona’s shows how far into her yoga journey she has come. She started her yoga practice later than me but now, she is a regular in her ashtanga class. When you read this blog, you see the depth of my BYFF’s thoughts (but hey, she is funny when she wants to be too!).

7. TeacherJulie.com – Julie is a special education teacher. Her blog is unique in that she shares her own experiences and knowledge on special education and parenting. But that is not all her blog is about. Julie is a warm, wonderful person whose sunshine personality shines through in her posts. I love browsing her blog and finding posts that make me think deeply or laugh out loud or lead me to resolve to do something.

Part of receiving the Kreative Blogger award is making up a list of 7 things that I love so here goes:

1. Christmas – Who does not love Christmas? It’s my favorite season of the year. This is the wonderful thing about the Philippines — when September comes around, it already begins to feel like Christmas. We are probably the only country that celebrates Christmas THIS long! And I love it. I love the sights, smells, and the activities. And I love going to the Masses, hear the carols, greet familiar faces coming out of church, spending time to greet one another…

2. Hugs – I am a touchy-feely person. I easily hug and embrace people (probably sending some people who are not used to this familiarity into uncomfortable fits).  And I do love receiving hugs as well. It’s my first instinct when I am around people I love. My teen boys sometimes squirm when I hug them while they are focused intently on World of Warcraft or some other online video game but I am sure this reassures them that I love them to bits. One of the best ways to start a day is to be hugged. They say everyone needs a hug at least once a day. I agree 100% and the more frequently it is done, the better for one’s self!

3. My family – My support system. My life. My reason for being. My loves.

4. Connecting with friends online or in person – This is one of my real loves — being able to connect with friends in whatever way. Lately, I have been trying to find old friends via Facebook and am happy to report that I have been quite successful. Chatting online or meeting up at some mall for a quiet (no, scrap that.  I meant — laughter-filled) reunion really takes years off one’s face.

5. Reading books – Bookworm, bookaholic, bibliophile, bookista. That says it all. I just love books! And it’s contagious. My whole family reads. That’s why we all have bad eyes….

6. Yoga – This is one of my passions now and I must say it has helped my mindset towards many things. Despite being a Type A personality, I am better equipped to deal with stressful situations as long as I have my yoga. I also feel healthier at this stage of my life compared to when I was in my 20s and 30s.

7. Blogging – I have never been able to keep a daily diary like my Mom who has literally filled more than one filing cabinet drawer with her diaries which she started in the 1950s and has faithfully maintained till now. If I want to know what happened, say, on Christmas Day of 1980, she would have the answer. But now I have been caught by the blogging bug and while it is very far from a daily diary, it gives me a chance to put down in writing things and events that I want to preserve for life.

Now, for the owners of the 7 blogs I tagged, it is your turn to pass this award on to 7 other blogs you love and list down as well 7 things that you love.

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Apple’s App Store Turns 1

Today, July 14, Apple’s App Store celebrates its 1st anniversary.

I am the happy owner of an iPod Touch and before I had this gadget, life was pretty fragmented. I kept some contacts on my phone, calendars & music on a PDA, notes stuck here and there on post-it notes and paper notebooks as well.

But my life has become that much easier with this one gadget. I easily sync calendars and contacts on my phone. I have notes, my music and videos in one place.  I surf the  web on a Safari browser. But what is truly a winner is the App Store!

According to the Gadget Lab, the first billion downloads took 9 months. But half that number has already been downloaded in the last 3 months (a sign that downloads are spiking pretty fast).

The App Store (short for Application or even Apple — pretty ingenious titling, if I may say so) now has over 65,000 applications with more being released every day covering anything you can ever think of that can be shrunk into manageable file sizes. Some apps are free; others are offered at fairly reasonable prices.

When you open up the App Store, you find it covers several categories ranging from Games to Productivity Tools and Utilities to Education, Finance, Medical, Travel, etc. I have spent hours checking out new apps or apps recommended by friends and downloaded so many already (including games my kids love to play). I now have 9 pages worth of apps.

Here are some of my favorites and why (and, they’re mostly FREE!!!!):

1. Flashlight – this is a toe-saver, if you get up in the middle of the night to pee or drink water. With my ipod beside me, all I need to do is activate this app and it beams a small light (you can even choose the color) good enough for you not to stumble in the dark. This is what I also bring to the movies to help us find our way around.

2. Facebook, Plurk, Skype, Twitter, Y! Messenger – yes, my social networking sites are on this gadget as well as variations of Twitter (Twitterfon, TweetDeck).

3. Dictionary – at a blogger party once, when the young ones got into an exciting game of Scrabble, I ended up being the moderator using this app to check if certain words indeed existed. This app comes with a Thesaurus feature as well as the Word of the Day.

4. Holy Bible – This is truly a weight saver as far as I am concerned, especially when I attend Christian gatherings where the Bible is needed. I can quickly get to the chapter or verse I want, and even choose the bible version among those available. If you plan to download this, also consider the Catholic Calendar. It contains the liturgical calendar from 1970 to 2300 and beyond, saint feasts celebrated in different countries, and you can now download the Liturgy of the Hours and Mass readings for yesterday, today and tomorrow from the Universalis website (needs internet connection).

5. ER Lite, Sleepmaker, Sleepstream, WhiteNoise and Om – these are some of my sleep-inducing apps for nights when sleep escapes me. My favorite sound is the steady raindrops falling. Second would be the waves crashing on a shore. These apps also have jungle sounds and other interesting ones as well. As for the Om, well being a yogini I have recently discovered its use for my yoga meditation sequence.

6. 9-Toolbox (free version but eventually will cost $4.99) – It has currency conversion, calculator, days until (an event), holidays, unit converters, an inclinometer (measures an object’s incline), loan amortization tool, menstrual cycle calendar, and others. 9 useful tools in all! I installed another converter called MultiConvert.

7. TVUPlayer – free TV, YES!!! When in a free wifi zone, I can put my headsets on and tune in to any of the available TV stations. Right now, some popular ones are Channel NewsAsia, Disney Channel, Classic Movies, CBS, Comedy Central, The Science Channel and Fox News.

8. USA Today, NY Times – oh yes, even online newspapers are apps now.

9. Wikiamo – the Safari-like Wikipedia viewer

10. Ustream – the same app for livestreaming events. I actually got to watch part of the Obama inauguration on my ipod using this app.

11. Remote – ooohhhh this is a cool app. It turns your ipod into a remote control for iTunes. I can activate my playlists or choose the music to play from my music collection just with a tap on the screen.

I’ve got many more apps in this tiny iPod Touch of mine like yoga apps, quotations of all sorts, apps for sending files across to it from my desktop or laptop, first-aid and medical apps for those possible emergencies, and so on.

Given its dramatic success in just its first year, who knows where the next year and the next will find the App Store? It’s truly on a roll!

What are your favorite downloaded apps? Do share with me. I just may have missed a really good one….