09.05.11
Posted in family stuff at 12:55 am by Administrator
Before I share any more pictures of our recent trip to the Philippines, I wanted to share some pics of our family plot where Dad will be placed. After all, the main reason we went to the Philippines this time was for his one year death anniversary.
This is actually the family plot on my mom’s side. I like it more than my dad’s side because it’s enclosed and my mom’s family visits this plot more often (every Sunday, actually). I like the idea that even our departed relatives are not forgotten. I’ve requested that when I pass away, I want to be interred here, too.
I know I have a better picture of the whole family plot, but I’m too lazy to hunt through the avalanche of photos. Here’s my dad’s headstone.
It will be mounted up here where Mom is holding it up. She’s actually standing right in front of my oldest sister’s marker. She died when she was just a baby. The marker on the bottom right corner is my grandmother’s marker on my mom’s side. The marker to the left of hers is another relative on her side of the family, which is the Franco’s.
I have to admit that when I first saw the headstone, it made me cry. There was something about this whole year of mourning and preparing for all the “rituals” that I guess I must have felt some strange sense of comfort, as if Dad was still with us. Seeing his headstone made me feel very sad, and after the babang luksa (his one year death anniversary gathering), it also made me teary to see my mom no longer wearing all black. It’s making me teary again as I type this. I guess the feeling is like we are moving forward now without dad. And that makes me cry. I know it has to be, but I miss him a lot still.
Here’s a pic of our gang at the plot before we left. Mom’s in the middle holding dad’s marker.
Something about this picture seems to make us all look a little dumpier than I thought we look like, ha! Oh well, they say pictures never tell a lie, so that must be how we look, ha!
That’s it for now. Might share some pics of the babang luksa later. Hope everyone has a nice Labor Day.
Marlakins
Permalink
09.04.11
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:26 am by Administrator
Whenever I read something on the news (or anywhere for that matter), I wonder how much of it is really true. It’s sad that we can’t always trust what we read, but such is life. So when I read about the pollution of our environment, no matter how shocking, I always wonder how much of that news is exaggerated. It’s getting to the point where I want to see for myself what’s what. But there’s so much to know, and the world is a huge place that there’s no way that I’d be able to check everything out for myself. One such example is this latest revelation from the Washington Post that our space debris is now at a tipping point. The article is called, Report Say’s Space Debris past ‘tipping point;’ NASA Needs to Step Up Action. It’s disturbing to me to think of how polluted we have made our own environment, so to read about the pollution in our “space orbit” makes me shake my head in disgust.
Yes, I know the above picture is only an artist rendition. I guess space is a huge place and it’s not the easiest task to take actual photos that would show us the actual amount of space junk we’ve put up there. And when I say “we,” I mean humanity as a whole, not just the U.S. I mean, China, Russia and other countries have space programs, too. But, I have a feeling that the U.S is a big contributor to this space junk because I know that our military has been working on Star Wars Projects and I’ve read about nuclear tests in space and crap like that. I’ve read about how much nuclear waste we as a collective have mined and, quite frankly, man seems to be pretty capable of executing very large projects. Even back in the olden times such endeavors like the Great Wall of China was not too large to deter man. Although I think the Great Wall was harmless in terms of environmental pollution, but not so with other large projects likes drilling for oil, fracking, mining for various minerals and metals, biological and toxicological experiments, etc. I know there are some who believe all this is necessary, but there was a time when all that didn’t exist and we weren’t living in caves. Maybe life was slower without all these modern inventions, but what’s wrong with a slower life? Modernization has made life easier for us in some regards, but it has also made things more difficult in terms of stress and lowered health quality (think of the toxic environment we are all engulfed in and what a struggle it is to find clean food free of chemicals, GMOs, etc.)
Is the space debris really past the tipping point? And if so, I wonder what that means to us. Maybe my generation will not find out what the true consequence is, but likely our children’s generation will. I hope it’s not another horror story for them.
Marlakins
Permalink
09.03.11
Posted in Church Issues and Bible Interpretations at 8:01 am by Administrator
This in not my normal topic. . . Just the other day I was reading someone else’s blog wherein the author was describing personal emotional feelings she was having. As a somewhat private person, I found it surprising that some people can express so much online so that everyone and anyone on the net could read. I guess I could see if she was posting completely anonomously, but no, this was “her” blog with pictures and all. Granted she was only discussing her personal life-long feelings of inadequacy due to her physical appearance, so in a way, her post was refreshing because she shared a common frailty that all of us have to some extent–insecurity. The gist of her post was her struggle and attempt to free herself of that insecurity and to learn to be comfortable in her own skin. Now I can admire that. At 46, I’m learning to get comfortable in my own skin, too, but still have issues that are hard to shake from time to time. But that’s life, right? We all go through that. It’s a lesson I try to teach my boys so that they don’t hang on to old hurts and hangups. And also so that they will be kind to others so that they don’t “give” others hurts and hangups that they’ll carry throughout their life-times.
In light of discussing personal thoughts, I’ll go out a little on a limb today with this topic. So, this morning I was going through my usual web searching and came across this article, My Boyfriend Wants a Threesome. Why did that catch my attention you ask? No, thankfully, that’s not an issue for me right now! However, it is an issue for someone I know, and while it was being revealed to me, I just kept my mouth shut because I was told it was “helping” her relationship, and who am I to tell her it wasn’t? I read the “question” and the subsequent answers in the article, and couldn’t help but agree. Now I’m debating on whether to forward that article to the person or not. I mean the “deed” is already being done. . . won’t the result be the same whether I forward the article or not? I thought finding the article was timely, until I realized this. Too bad I didn’t see the article sooner or known about the problem earlier. Sigh. But I do believe everything happens for a reason. Not sure if it’s a good idea, but I “think” I’m gonna sit this one out. . .
I’ve never been much into “self-help” books and articles (part of the reason I don’t think I could stand being a shrink), but more recently, I can see how it can help some people. There may not be anything “new under the sun” as Solomon claimed, but we really do seem to learn something new every day, anyway. But this I can say, I have learned a long time ago not to ask my partner about his “fantasies”. I don’t think it matters how confident you are, either. I’ve seen and heard about a lot of crazy things, to know that not everything is all sweet and innocent. None of us are perfect and we can’t escape life with all it’s wild cards, yet we all have memories that can burn us for a lifetime. My conclusion? Better to not know everything . .
Marlakins
Permalink
« Previous Page « Previous Page Next entries »
