My girls and I are allergic to nuts. In fact we are allergic to so many ingredients that its hard to eat out. We tend to stick to the restaurants we like in town and avoid most of those darn dishes with ingredients I am not familiar with. Mahal magkasakit, err, bawal magkasakit.

I love to sing.  I think Filipinos are naturally music lovers.  We love to sing love songs… We love to rock…  :)

I used to play the piano as a child, but I love the guitar the best.  Although certainly no John Mayer nor a Gabe Bondoc or a Marié Digby, but I love the way a guitar sound and has always loved to sing along with an acoustic guitar as an accompaniment.  My love of music stemmed from my growing up with brothers who plays the piano and guitar.  There was always music when I was growing up.

I used to sing duets with my brothers.  We used to sing all those 80′s music, Roxette, Bruce Springsteen, some Barry Manilow’s and even Basia, Whitney Houston and Bon Jovi.  I started with the piano at the age of 6, and the guitar at the age of 14.  I was professionally taught piano-wise, but self taught with the guitar.  I started learning the guitar when I realized that the guitar is way cooler than the piano.  :)

Tomorrow, I am checking out Perfect Pitch to check the prices of acoustic guitars.   I want a black acoustic guitar.  I am also checking out online guitar sites.  Anyone have any suggestion?

I love books and I love reading immensely.

My love for reading began at an early age.  It started when I found an entire shelf of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys hardbound books at the school library.  No one seemed to bother borrowing them, and although I cannot remember exactly my first Nancy Drew book, I remembered borrowing all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books in our library.  From then on, I would pester my mom and my brother Joemen to get me books every month from the local bookstore.

My brother encourage my love for reading.  Although my parents did not understand it before, and thought of buying “pocketbooks” a total waste of money, my brother– also a book worm explained the passion and the advantages of reading.  He mentioned something about widening my vocabulary and strengthening my grammar and english skills, reading truly has helped me through school.

Reading think chapters from text books and learning the art of speed reading, this has helped me through high school and college, no doubt about that.  Writing essays and book reports was easy for me and has earned me some recognition in school.  I also became good in spelling and along with the passion of working on crossword puzzles, I have learned to be quick on synonyms of words and learned how to quickly answer crossword puzzles from easy to advance level on one sitting.  There was a time that I was so into it that I even have my own crossword puzzle book in the bathroom.  lol  Some keep magazines or newspapers near their crapper, me, I have my Sudoku and my Dell Crossword Puzzles.

My favorite books range from legal and psychological thrillers.  Kellermen, King, Grisham, Scottoline, Crichton are some of my favorite authors.  I continue to horde books here.  But it has expanded to personal finance, web design and some self help books which I have used with my counselor years ago.

I wanted my love for books to pass onto my children.  At early age, my children are rewarded for good behavior with books.  We have a selection of Dr. Seuss and Nancy Drew Books.  My daughters love books and like me, they are drawn to National Bookstore and BookSale.  I have learned to allocate at least P1,000 for books each month.  Books when taken care of last for several years and can be passed on to others.

Here are some of the benefits of reading:

• Reading helps children become smarter.
• Reading encourages your children to have longer attention span.
• It helps teach your child about relationships, situations, personalities, and what is good and what is bad in the world he lives in. Fantasy books provide material for his imagination and free play. Fairy tales fascinate your kid, and help him distinguish between what is real and what is not.
• Reading helps you prepare your children allay your child’s fears or prepare him for changes in his life. For example, you can choose books about using the potty, going to school, or moving to a new house when he is about to have these new experiences.

The best way to teach children to love reading is to be an example.  Let your children see you reading.  Read stories aloud to your children and let them choose the books they wanted to read.  As soon as you show this love and dedication to learning by reading, your children will love books and learn to take care and handle them with care.

I came across this article from Spot.ph and reading it reminded me of my favorite band so many years ago.  Wolfgang.  Back when everybody was into Eraserheads and Rivermaya, I was totally into Basti Artadi, Manuel Legarda and Mon Legaspi.  It was not the coño look, but the long and curly tresses and the unique voice that a few local band has. That long hair’s gone now. Basti is now sporting a clean short cut.

So whatever happened to Wolfgang? Well, they seem to have come back.  Unfortunately, since I am no longer in Manila, I have not heard much about them apart from what I get from the Wolfgang’s Official Facebook Page.  I searched Youtube for their video and found something I have never seen nor heard– Wolfgang with the UP Singing Ambassadors.  How cool is that?

To those who crave heavy metal and the dark tunes of Wolfgang, check the video below:

By night an atheist half believes a God.

Edward Young, The Complaint, or Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality

In front of the house we are renting is a House of Praise. I call it such because they sing with glee each Friday and Sunday of the week. It is actually a ruckus to some, but to me, I welcome the lively singing of songs of praise. Not those songs the Catholics like to sing. Ie. song of forgiveness and sinfulness, etc, but songs about being alive, thankfulness and rejoicing. I love the drums and the upbeat music. It stirs up my soul and makes me wonder why I am not with them and here inside my house. What is up?

I was born and raised Catholics by my parents. My siblings and I were all raised in a household where all rooms have altars and statues of saints and gods. I knew nothing less but what is being taught in the house and in school since we all went to private secular institutions. We went with people who belonged in the same church and went in the same circles.

My parents belonged to a prayer group for awhile, which means people come and go into our home to pray and eat– at least for a young child that is what it appeared to me. When I went to UP for college, I was exposed to other students from everywhere. It dawned to me how cloaked I was in the province being that I was sheltered and had no knowledge about other people, other cultures and other religion nor have any idea how to interact with other people raised in other cultures.

Having taken Philosophy in college with the hopes of proceeding to law. The course was like manna from heaven for me. One of the graces from Philosophy that I got were the fact that it had helped me bring focus my spirituality and beliefs in question and then strengthened. Not only can I justify my own stance and belief in that Being, but the fact that I am able to understand thoroughly where the belief that I had been raised to was from, and the fact that I was able to sculpt my own beliefs.

In the university, while my classmates gladly called themselves, atheists, I gladly called myself an agnostic. This is the belief that it is impossible to know whether or not God exists, while an atheist does not believe in God or deities. Yes, it is impossible to know God exists. In reality, the chrisitian movement was based on stories. It is up to us to either believe in the stories, and I happen to believe in the merits of the stories. Simply because it does make sense. However, I am very selective on what to believe and what not to believe. I believe in world order. I believe in limits and restrictions. I believe that we should not lie, covet, and not steal. The need to respect other people’s bounderies and beliefs is also important. These are some of the ethics I want my children to learn.