Andie Summerkiss

Christmas, Hannukah, Eu Dil Fitri, Chinese New Year and all major holidays are approaching. If you are thinking of buying something other than the same-old Harry Winston’s wreath, here is something to consider. Buy your love one an island! 

Tips to buy an island

1. Decide whether it is for investment or private use, which will dictate the size of the property you are buying. Sizes vary from 6 ha to over a hundred.
2. Triple check ownership of properties and titles. Check also if it’s a tax declaration. A tax declaration property is as good as ownership as long as annual taxes are paid. A property with cadaster is ready for titling
3. Make sure there is a water supply
4. If you can, buy other properties surrounding your land. This saves you from becoming a “there goes the neighbourhood” victim. You can eventually sell the surrounding properties for a profit to chosen friends, or even to an international hotel chain
5. Every island has on one side a sandy area and a back side that’s the opposite. And all islands, coves and peninsulas have their own advantages and disadvantages. Do not waste time looking for a perfect one.
6. Prices differ depending on the width of beachfront, how many beaches the property has, the terrain of the island, the distance of the property to the mainland and other important factors. Consult professional before forking over money.
7. Use a reliable realtor from the city, who deals directly with the locals. They have been in the island property business long enough. They do all the legal paperwork down to the last detail, such as supplying a permanent watchman to guard and protect your acquired property and submitting monthly reports, and they are very thorough in double-checking legal documents. They also have the best and exclusive listings of properties for sale.
8. When investing, inquire about future development in the mainland like plans for an airport, the expansion of the existing one, road developments, perhaps a future marina or port and other planned infrastructure.
9. After having found one, don’t sleep over it. It could be sold to someone else the next day

This article is taken from Philippine Daily Enquirer. Ironically, with the rising prices of basic goods, millions in the country are barely surviving. But of course, there is always time to learn about island shopping.

Sensitive journalism, I’d say. 

Eighty plus years after its first bi plane took off on May 1928, the Royal Flying Doctor Service is much more technology-advanced. The patients, however, are still the same obscure character off the beaten path in the vast Aussie outback.

These peculiar bushmen are mostly opal miners who are driven by the love of the stunning multi-colored stone. They are very appreciative of the visit by these specialists who come all the way there to help the sick. It makes an incredible different for any small towns which have no specialists phycisians.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service is an iconic image of Australia internationally, provides both emergency medical aid and a comprehensive health care service to people in the outback.

It is a non profit service depends on donations and government grants. The world’s first aerial medical organization and remains unique for its range of services and the huge area covered. During 2007, the 47 aircraft flew an average of more than 59,000 km a day over an area of more than 70 million sq km and attended nearly a quarter of a million patients. 

Image credit from FlyingDoctor.net

The western series by HBO set in 1878 had been a great entertainment piece. David Milch has once again proved to be a great creator. The setting, costumes, props, cinematography, everything is extraordinary, gaining the series wide critical acclaim and winning eight Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe.

The consistent quality of writing, acting and directing has made it one of the best television series ever made. The villain, Ian McShane, had given out such a stellar performance as Al Swearengen, that it demonstrated yet another way how Deadwood blurs the lines between black and white, good and evil. Grays do exist and the area could be the best solution of all situations. Deadwood has its raw points, such as feeding the pig with dead bodies and flaunting decapitated head around, but the human motivation is understandable and certainly well developed. It gives people some insights and ideas about places where the law is failing or even in non existence.

I had been successful in avoiding sitting through Deadwood until recently. We had the first season on DVD and I sat through the whole thing in three days. At first I was startled by the language, but as soon as I began to grasp the story line, I could not stop watching. I had become so engrossed with the show that I started using the “f” word and the “d” word. Nothing more can stop me from using the “c” word. In short, Deadwood has achieved the impossible. Turning me into a western fan.

The bad news is that HBO has backed off from its promise to wrap up the series with a couple of made-for-T movies, something that the fans had been waiting for a couple of years. The fans went on to picketing, swarming HBO’s inbox with hate letters and bugging the casts.

Photo essay on Bicol Resettlement Project in helping rebuilding communities devastated by Typhoon Reming. International efforts, backed by local governmental sector, have helped ease the pain endured by the victims.

A crazy week in Philippines. Church and sex have been making headlines. The church is denying “pro-reproductive health lawmakers” Holy Communion. The politicians called it “blackmail”. 

The Church has been refusing the idea to promote artificial contraception, it stood by its centuries’ old “natural methods”. They also fight over bills to make sex education mandatory in schools. 

The purpose of the government in working on these bills are to curtail the booming population, especially among the young and poor. It is typical sight to see young mothers under 25 with three toddlers hanging around the arms and neck - they are some sort of fashion accessories in the urban area. The whole point is to give the population enough information so they can make informed decision on whether to pursue natural birth planning, or artificial ones. The Church sees this prevention act in the same level as abortion. I think it prevent abortion in some cases. 

As The Church is the holiest institution in the world, they claimed that they are aware of the situation. People can live with leavened bread and watery wine once a week, can’t they?

But the sex will be church-approved activity. So I guess all ends well. 

For me, English has always been a language of inspiration. There are so many “good” words that are complimentary in nature. It is easy to express my feelings in English, compared to other language that I know (as Malay Indonesian and Chinese, the first one is because of the limited vocabulary - that I know off - and the latter one is because I simply don’t know it more beyond day-to-day conversation with my parents).

English picks up new words almost daily as more and more people from different culture and backgrounds using it, and unconsciously they integrate words from their mother tongues into the already rich language. It is so versatile that we need to consult the “latest” dictionary now and then to keep up.

As soon as we see the word used without explanation or translation or gloss, we consider it a naturalized citizen of the English language. If somebody is using it to convey a specific idea and that idea is successfully conveyed in that word, it’s ready to go in the dictionary.

Peter Sokolowski, Editor at Large, Merriam Webster

With the widespread of globalization, world culinary art is the one field that managed to spread its arm around the sphere without any controversy. Understandably, many of the new entries reflect the world’s interest in foreign food context. The others are technology terms and current events.

And surprisingly, blogs are the upcoming birthplace for web-related terms. They are easy, ready to grasp hence give them staying power.

So, welcome Edamame, Prescatarian, Prosecco, Netroots and Webinar! 

People who are bicultural and speak two languages may unconsciously change their personality when they switch languages, according to a recent study. Language is seen as a cue that activates different culture-specific frames. Those who are bicultural switched their personality more quickly and easily than people who are bilingual but living in one culture. 

REUTER.COM

I guess this can explain these symptoms:

• If you are Indonesian, you speak English and Indonesian. You are less likely to litter in the shiny Orchard Road side walk. Of course, you will switch back to your Indo personality when you go to Jakarta, the whole city is one big giant trash can.
• If you are a Filipino, you speak Tagalog and English. While in your English speaking personality, you will make an utmost effort to be on time for lunch appointment with your colleagues in San Fransisco downtown. When you are in your own environment, when anybody says “Please wait five minutes” you will be interpreted that as “You are a fool if you believe me - you are lucky to get out of here in the next 30 minutes”.

If you have any other dual-personality syndrome relating to culture and language, please drop a line in the comment box.

I grew up in a neighborhood where it is considered rude to rant on neighbors. It is normal to hold tons of grudges against my neighbors. Vice versa – I guess.

For one, our right side neighbor is a family of 5, or now 10 I think, with the daughters in law and grandchildren now staying with them. The youngest son was a spoilt brat who would never fail to press horn for three minutes at times until the domestic helper came running to open the gate for him. That happened for years till the hot blooded Mr. Andie got so mad one day (our bedroom is right next to their main gate), he threw a bottle of nail polish at his car, hit it right on the hood. It was a great throw, he didn’t know what hit him.

We are not the award-winning neighbor either. More than once the family complained to our housekeeper that our dog gave out unpleasant smelt. Mushu’s kennel is right next to their front gate. Ha!

Our front neighbor is a house of sin, literally. One of the local club owners bought the property years ago to hold his “working girls” from mainland China. It accomodates about 20 of them at times. We spent hours on boring evening on binocs standing at my bathroom window with Mr Andie to spy on them. They leave for work at 8pm and coming back around 3am. Sometimes they have “guests” over, quite noticeably with fancy cars hiding under car covers. Although we get the kick out of checking out the “latest stocks” when they off-load themselves from airport taxis, we do not enjoy the ugly moments when wives of certain reputation came and trash-talked on their gate. That kinda ruined the lovely neighbourhood, don’t you think?

All that being said, never once we confront each other on what is bothering us, for the whole 20+ years. That is driving Mr. Andie crazy, of course. But it is not very acceptable in our culture to complain about your neighbors. I have heard many stories from our acquaintances how their neighbors drove them literally insane. We handled our problems the same way. By not saying anything.

I am absolutely awed by people who can be so opened and they could rant on others, especially their neighbours. I later found that it is not always the case, when I spotted www.RottenNeighbor.com. Online website where you can rant on your neighbours, categorized by area, counties, zipcode and whole bing-a-bong. You can even post videos and photos to support your claim! Loving it! Too bad it only covers US.

I am so ready to expose my neighbors, and waiting somebody to post Mushu’s mugshot. 

The newest art movement that I found to be the most exciting is Pop Surrealism / LowBrow. Roq La Rue, an art gallery in Seattle, is one of the first that willing to show these rebellious modern artworks.

It showcases a mixture of artists whose outlaw sensibilities and countercultural subject matter was rendered with undeniable ability and vision.

Kristen Anderson – Owner and Curator of Roq La Rue 

This year marked the tenth year celebration and I really like what I see.

This month’s featuring artist is Femke Hiemstra with her amazing mixed media paintings of dark fairytale land where everyday objects assumed its own life and also, different roles. Lollipops as ship captains, strawberries resumed the role of giant wrestlers. Nothing but extraordinary talent and imagination could churn out memorable pop culture art pieces like these. Every piece is a unique portal to fantastic gate of adventures. It is up to the viewer to make up the rest of the stories.

Something amusing to cheer up your Monday Blues. 

WHAT WOMEN WANT IN A MAN (AT AGE 22)

1. Handsome
2. Charming
3. Financially successful
4. A caring listener
5. Witty
6. In good shape
7. Dressed with style
8. Appreciates the finer things
9. Full of thoughtful surprises
10. Romantic

1. Keeps hair in nose and ears trimmed to appropriate length
2. Doesn’t belch in public
3. Doesn’t borrow money too often
4. Doesn’t nod off to sleep when I’m emoting
5. Doesn’t re-tell same joke too many times
6. Is in good enough shape to get off couch on weekends
7. Usually wear matching socks and fresh underwear
8. Appreciate a good TV dinner
9. Remembers your name on occasion
10. Shaves on some weekends

WHAT WOMEN WANT IN A MAN, REVISED LIST (AT AGE 62)

1. Doesn’t scare small children
2. Remembers where bathroom is
3. Doesn’t require much money for upkeep
4. Only snores lightly when awake (LOUDLY when asleep)
5. Doesn’t forget why he’s laughing
6. Is in good enough shape to stand up by himself
7. Usually wears some clothes
8. Likes soft foods
9. Remembers when …. (oops, forgot!)

WHAT WOMEN WANT IN A MAN, REVISED LIST (AT AGE 72)

1. Breathing
2. Nothing else matters anymore

Don’t take these lists seriously. But again, maybe you should. 

The point is, as we grow older, our naivety fades away. Real and more substantial things are the focus points. When we grow much older, we expect less and less. As we learned it the hard way that things not achieved as we were younger, would not likely to materialize now. So might as well move on. Like focussing on matters that can be controlled, such as toilet habit and personal grooming.  

From The Philippine Star column

Facebook is ranked second on a survey concerning college student market, before beer and after iPod. By May 2008, it has attracted almost 130 million unique visitors. With seven thousand applications in total (at least a hundred more are created daily), it is the biggest and busiest social network out there. 

I think online social networking has made us undermine the real meaning of friends. I see some pages where members have at least 300 - 500 friends’ profiles. I can say that my page is very sad. Maybe only 30-ish friends. But it is safe to assume that at least 80% of them are my friends. They fall into at least one of the category below : 

Friend : (1) a: one attached to another by affection or esteem b: acquaintance (2) a: one that is not hostile b: one that is of the same nation, party, or group (3): one that favors or promotes something (as a charity) (4): a favored companion  

Merriam-Webster.com

Friend : (1) a person whom you know well and whom you like a lot, but who is usually not a member of your family: (2) someone who is not an enemy and whom you can trust

Cambridge Dictionary

When we add someone in our “page”, it should be for following reasons : 

We do know that person, as in we have engaged in some way or another in the past - either by email, messaging or some ancient-old way such as spent some time in biology lab or english tutorial. 

We would like to know that person, as in we find that person interesting and one day, not so long from now, we plan to send a private message or engaged in some kind of virtual activity that does not involve throwing sheep or kicking-butt.

We use the social networking system, such as Facebook, for the purpose of personal social branding and self-promoting. In that case, the more the merrier! 

I might be old-fashioned, but when I visit my Facebook page, I would like to see my “real” friends, not some random people who I don’t even know, might not even call, not in a million years would meet up. That would make my Facebook kind of like my Fakebook.

Please, this does not mean that I am passing any kind of judgement. Just my personal opinion and observation. So, don’t send me hate mails. 

Do you have any kind of criteria? What do you do when people that you don’t know are asking you to “add” them as “friends”? Do you eventually engage in a virtual or even real relationships with them? Do you “decorate” or “litter” your page with people you don’t know or would you rather have people you love and care about to be in it? Do you see you “page” as your “home” where you have absolute control of what’s in it or do you treat it as a public display of popularity of some sort? How many of us use our page to sell something, be it your persona or products of any kind?