Before I was introduced to Blogger, Multiply, Facebook, Friendster, LiveJournal, there was GeoCities which I used to compile all of my memorable stories and pictures. Now, GeoCities has emailed me saying that they’re gonna shot down the site and no one will be able to visit them again. There are suggestions on how to retrieve them so that I would maybe transfer them another site. But I think it will never be the same. I mean, there were pictures there being published on the same months they were taken and it will not be the same when you have to publish them again as some sort of a part of a personal history. I may be so overdramatic here. But GeoCities has served me very well in compiling them that is why I haven’t given up its service.  Now that they are saying “bye-bye” there’s nothing I can do but to pull them out. But first I would like to have the last visit of the site. Come join me:

http://www.geocities.com/jonsaint2002/jonsaintfamily.html

Grant and Fiona, characters from the movie Away from Her, were so in love with each other and has shared their dearly affections for more than 50 years until Fiona was stricken by Alzheimer disease which made her to separate from Grant in a Nursing Institution. To show his undying love, Grant never seized to visit her regularly. This plot is similar to the plot of the film the Notebook: their everlasting love is cut short when the lady forgets. However in the movie Away from Her, Grant’s heart was twitched a little harder when the forgetful Fiona fell in love with a co-patient, a wheelchair bound mute. Realising that her affection to the other guy was what kept her intact, Grant with his unselfish love kept on visiting Fiona and kept on watching her from afar while she nurtured her affection to the other guy even though the only heaven that Grant could get from this setup is knowing that she wouldn’t deteriorate which will lead to a possibility that she can get a glimpse of what she was with Grant.

I have been wishing that MJ would be given another shot to stardom because I believe he deserves to be up there.  I always knew he would pick up because his talent would raise him up to greatness again.  I always looked at Michael to be extraordinarily gifted regardless of what he was in private.  He's gone.  Maybe this is the only way in which most people would look at him in his good side.  The Wacko is dead but the King of Pop Lives!

            Dear Jonathan!

Nice to hear from you again! I am Maria Laura the Argentinean woman friend of Jose Maria, and the whole Latin group, who was always in the party's at Mina with her child ... in that time of 3 years old. Do you remember me? I start to work at IHE 6 years ago and I am very happy to be here, 2 days as Social Cultural Officer and 3 days as Alumni Officer. Of course your group 98-99 is my alumni group, I continue being in touch with most of the Latins and I meet with Jose Maria for a good drinks once a year when a visit Argentina. I am doing very well, my child too, he is now 13 so as tall as me but very nice teenager.

I hope you are also very well and always with your nice humor and character.

Warm regards from Delft!

Maria Laura Sorrentino, Alumni Officer

UNESCO-IHE, Institute for Water Education

Wow! This simple letter returns memoirs when I was doing my masters in IHE, Delft.   I was single at that time and most of the friends I hangout with almost every night where Latinos. There I was introduced to Salsa. We usually booked the function room of the fourth floor of Mina, bringing along a simple CD player with a bunch of Salsa Cds and off we go Dancing Salsa the night away. Then Jorge introduced me to another league of Salsa Aficionados when he brought me to a Salsa Club in Laiden. Then I never stop going to Laiden every Saturday night.

Most of the students who were doing masters in IHE were staying in a big condo named Mina. I was staying in a unit with two rooms that I shared with Jimmy, from Iloilo. Nar from NEDA shared his two-bedroom unit with Lu, a Taiwanese Batchmate who has been part of the Filipino Barkada because of his fondness of hanging out with us. Sometimes Tata and the gang, Filipino Students doing masters in Technical University crashed our place for drinking sessions. Our favorite drink was Raghatti. We were introduced to a gazillion kinds of beer as we learned that there was a lot beer factories there but we all reckoned that nothing can beat San Miguel. An American friend of Jimmy who had been in the Philippines for over 10 years and decided to settle in The Netherlands affirmed that San Miguel is the best beer in the world. Nar’s wife Rollette gave a visit and brought a San Mig Beer Grande which we gave to the American Friend. The American guy placed the Grande in the shelf like a trophy and we settled in drinking Grolls.

The Delft Gang attended the Mass in Den Haag every Sunday. The Church was one of the few Churches which celebrated mass in English. In the church, we got to meet more Pinoys. Then once in a while we crashed the Den Haag gang’s condo who were taking masters in the University in Den Haag. Most of them were females.

Ate Cynthia who was a staff in the University of Den Haag and who was once a Bayanihan Dancer choreographed several folk dances that we performed during the Asian Night. We introduced VST & Company in IHE when the pinoys from Delft and Den Haag joined forces to perform Swing. This swing was not most of the Europians had in mind. They were accustomed to the west side swing. So the DJ from Tobacco branded the dance the Filipino Swing when we had the international dance party. Later I saw in Youtube that the swing that the pinoy knew was actually named the Hustle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez4AsDKDFmk&feature=related). And the hustle that I knew was the dance step being introduced by the Wea Dancers in the 70’s with the tune of the same title, The Hustle by Van McCoy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFz2WkVAk38).

The experience in The Netherlands was not all the time bed of roses or we might say bed of tulips. We had our tough days in the university. I had some cramming for exams that got me imprisoned in my room for several days. I witnessed a classmate passing out during the exam in statistics. Some students gave up schooling half of the year because of the pressure. Preparing for the thesis about a flood design should have been easy when you had an adviser who provided me with what I needed like computer program and textbooks but knowing the panel who had the reputation more ferocious than Simon Cowell placed me in hell. At the end of the year, I found myself graduating. I realized that the reward is sweetest when you’ve gone through hell. I realized that one will shine the best when emerging from tough battle. 

It was exactly ten years ago. The diploma may have lost my reflections in it as I intended to manifest that I don’t have to prove anything. Being rusty may take the sharpness. Viciousness may pan the flame taking advantage of the injury. And since the credential is already imprinted, it’s just a matter of oiling and getting back in shape and sharpness is there again. Pardon if it bounce back. Nevertheless, time is lousy in maintaining youth and energy. The ability may melt down and when that time comes, the good old days are just preserved in your memory. But one thing for sure, I can say this to those who gave up in the middle of the school year, “Maintain whatever you wanna maintain, but I have finished the race.”

That simple email brings back so much treasures that I have forgotten I still possess: friends whom I shared the joy and sorrow with and the sweet achievements.

Thank you, Maria Laura, for bringing back the treasures.

What is good about having a Facebook Account is that you get the probability to touch base with your long lost classmates. It all started when a certain guy which I did not recognize in his default picture by the name of Alex commenting “ If I am not mistaken, you were UST Batch (Bleep) 5 ECE. Right?”   And then he produced a class picture which included me 60 pounds ago. “O yeah, he is Alex from Class 5 ECE. And then a few days after, several of my classmates from 5 ECE sprouted and asking to add them in my Facebook Contact List. Amazing! It’s like I feel young again. There is also a feeling that you want to catch up with them and see how they are after all the decades. Ooops! Years. What do you know? Most of us haven’t been in touch after graduation and after the Besavilla Crash Course for CE Board Exam. 

We were grocery shopping in Raeward. When we were picking up some vegetables, right before our very eyes was a bunch of Sayote. You see tinola is the all-time favorite dish of JC. It has been a frustration when we couldn’t cook tinola in NZ for the reason it has been hard to buy sayote. Not today. All of a sudden we were excited to go home and cook tinola. JC had missed tinola so much. It was obvious in his drooling mouth at the very first sight of sayote floating in that rich tinola soup. We wanted to hoard because we never knew when sayote would be available again. We just bought few of them so as we are able to cook tinola every other day till the next four weeks. Naahh. I am just joking. Rayward is few houses from our house. It’s easy to buy them maybe…..tomorrow again? Tinola, anyone?

I have been aware that ANZAC day has been an annual celebration both in New Zealand and Australia. The question is what is ANZAC? There are several forms of commemorations during this day. Commemoration? What do we need to remember about ANZAC. People should be aware of its importance and as much as possible every establishment should take part in their own ways to commemorate it. For instance, the shopping centers. Well yeah, they help us to be informed about it alright with all those ANZAC sales. If I would be interviewed on TV and be asked about what is good about ANZAC day, I would say that I got my duvet covers for five bucks each. This ANZAC day rocks! So why do we celebrate ANZAC? Well, aaaa, you know, we celebrate it because you know, aaaa, without it, it there is no easier road from pages road to QEII. You know ANZAC road is the route I always take from Pages Road going to QEII. That’s it!   EEEEEEEE! Wrong!

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. ANZAC day is the anniversary of the first landing of ANZAC at Gallipoli in 1915. They were about 2,721 NZ soldiers died in service for that Gallipoli Campaign. ANZAC day is in commemoration of the bravery of those soldiers.

At least when I sleep with my new duvet cover, I feel brave.

I want to practice the Quadrant 2 principle that Covey has thought me. Better do it now before it’s too late. Better do it now when there are no red flags. There should be balance in everything. Quadrant 2 would help me balance everything.

This morning, I craved for a Filipino Sweet Style Spaghetti. And so I told Claire that I was gonna go to the Asian Store in Cashel to buy that Del Monte Filipino Sweet Style Spaghetti sauce. She told me that she wanted to come along so she would see what else she could buy in the store. Then JC has to come along with us. There is one store that might become popular soon for the pinoys in Lincoln called Filipino Mart. However, since I was in hurry to cook and to satisfy my craving, we settled to visit the nearer store. And so we shopped and shopped in the popular Asian Store in Cashel.

Along with the sauce and spaghetti, I prepared grinded meat, Kransky (substitute for the Purefoods hotdog which we do not have here), onions, green pepper, carrots, and garlic. And so I cooked. I was sure I could never go wrong as long as I have the Filipino Sweet Style Spaghetti Sauce. It was almost like I thought that I could do with more or less ingredients and still I could come up with delicious spaghetti. This is almost like I am advertising the sauce. JC loves spaghetti and I knew we would have a blast eating. Slurp!!

The priest in Christchurch Catholic Cathedral gave a good sermon this Easter Sunday. He said that without the Resurrection, our faith is in vain. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, Christianity does not exist. Jesus promised in three days after its destruction he would raise this temple again. He was pertaining to his death and resurrection. Christianity is alive because of the removal of the stone cover, the empty tomb, the broken seal, the Emmaus Walk, Thomas seeing Jesus’ wounds, over 500 hundred witnesses and the lives of the disciples after the resurrection who continually spread the good news despite being bitten, stoned to death, thrown to the lions, tortured and crucified. Jesus Christ conquered death. Jesus Christ has risen and lives among us. 

Could you ever love a robot?

Could a robot ever love you back?

And now, introducing Heart Robot.

Heart Robot has a beating heart, a breathing belly, and sensors that respond to movement, noise and touch. Cuddle him, and he seems to soak up the affection. His limbs become limp, his eyelids lower, his breathing relaxes, and his heart beat slows down.

If I haven’t learned about Heart Robot, I would say the thought that robots with feeling is absurd. A couple of decades ago, the majority of humans pictured any robot to be heartless and just a machine who wouldn’t understand feelings. They were just programmed to function according to the serviceability needs. I grew up watching Voltes V, Mazinger Z, Voltron, Daimos and to me they were just junks of steels and useless without humans navigating them. In the film I-Robot there was this one robot who functioned differently. This robot behaved like a human being. Will Smith found him unique. This was out of the ordinary. Almost absurd. Because of this breakthrough, movies like WALL-E about a robot being in love with another robot make sense. No one will contest anymore that WALL-E can fall in love. The question is: how much feelings can a robot get? To what extent can a robot behave like a human being?  It is a fact that machines can function a million times greater than human can. They can be faster, stronger, more efficient, more systematic and more intelligent. Isn’t that there is a danger if a robot can have feelings too and almost like human beings. Acting like human beings can mean that they can have all the good feeling and the bad feelings. How about pride, envy, greed, frustrations, anxiety, hatred, selfish desires? A robot programmed with superpowers and feelings can aspire to compete with man. And here is when we need the Transformers or Neo Anderson. I mentioned about aspiration and this makes me think about the movie AI. AI, like Pinochio, wanted to become a real boy. And how about the movie Bicentennial man? Bicentennial man, who was an android, petitioned the World Congress to recognize him as human but is rejected on the grounds that so long as he is in effect immortal, he cannot be human. Movies like these conceive of possibilities. And because of Heart Robot the reality of these possibilities is more achievable. 

“The simplest thing is... I loved him. And I miss him. Carter and I saw the world together. Which is amazing... When you think that only three months ago, we were complete strangers! I hope that it doesn't sound selfish of me but... the last months of his life were the best months of mine. He saved my life... And he knew it before I did.”

 This was what Edward Cole told about Carter Chambers before the audience in his Eulogy.

 Edward and Carter became friends because of their common conviction in achieving their to-do list they called Bucket List before their terminal illness completely would fail them in few months. Edward was a billionaire who always found bitterness in the world. Carter was a mechanic with a remarkable talent in answering all the trivia questions, a man of faith, a good husband and a great father to his children. Both shared their influences with one another. I personally like the character played by Mr. Freeman as Carter Chamber, an ideal human being whom I want to be when I grow old. It was very rare to see a leading character in a film nowadays who can be emulated as a good natured and principle centered human being. Achieving to possess a character like that till the end is ideal. The movie is called The Bucket List and it became part of my greatest movie list.

This is the date when my feet have touched the ground of NZ for the first time two years ago. It was in Auckland International Airport. I almost kissed the ground but I was just cautious because of my vague knowledge of the NZ culture or policy regarding being intimate with NZ airport asphalt. I still had freckles then due to the chicken fox I had almost a month earlier in the Philippines which made me delayed my flight by almost one month. Well, no one dared to ask about the black spots because they indeed looked like freckles. Edwin fetched me. It was Sunday so we attended the mass in Balmoral together with his family before he would bring me to Allen’s place where I would be residing. It so happened that it was a Filipino mass and it was just like home in the midst of my excitement to taste a little NZ life. We had lunch in a steak house where I saw Maoris for the first time. And then he brought me to Allen’s. And the rest were the continuous blessings upon blessings until I found myself with my wife and my son in Christchurch.

What am I thinking right now that I am two years old? Well, I am grateful. The fact that I am here in NZ is a blessing. The fact that I was given opportunity to have tasted NZ experience for two years is a blessing. I have given my family a better option to build a future. My wife and I have the same mind when it comes to what’s best for our son. The primary reason of our flight to NZ was really our son. In fact almost all our decision making have been be based on what’s best for him. If not for my son, I would not be here in NZ. Both of our strength (my wife and I) are coming from our son who was given by God as our mission. I believe JC has special place in God’s heart and JC is the reason why we had so much blessings. All we have to do is to use the blessings to fulfill our mission. I know that there are more blessings to come in order to accomplish the greater glory. Why am I here in NZ? NZ is a blessing. And here is where both my wife and I would fulfill the purpose of the blessing.

One of my favorite songs is “He Who Began a Good Work” by Steve Green. God has started something in me and my family. The continuous manifestation of His Love by means of giving me a job, giving us residency, giving us true friends, giving us spiritual growth and maturity is God saying to us that there is more to come and He is not through with us yet from where He started. There may be some trials along the way. But there is no reason to stop because as the song goes, “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.” It is only two years. God is still warming up. There is more to come. But it is up to us if we want Him to go ahead. God will know if we want Him to go ahead by continually showing our appreciation to what He is doing for us. It is very important that we have a thankful heart. Saying Thank You to God will make Him never cease to give more. There is no reason to complain and be weary. The abundance of God’s grace will never be tasted in two years. There is more to come.

I am grateful for the two years that my God remains faithful to the point that He is showing me a better path by continually breaking me to maturity and to the point of giving me a better spiritual sight.

The two years are for His Glory and Honour!