Another Fruitful Month for LPUCI

             Lyceum of the Philippines Culinary Institute (LPUCI) enjoys another fruitful month as it celebrates a twin positive affairs on this month. The first triumph of LPUCI is its winning major awards on the just concluded Philippine Culinary Cup (PCC). This competition was held on August 5 to 8 and what made this event a more significant one is that it was held alongside another prestigious occasion and one of the country's biggest food expo, the World Food Expo (WOFEX). 

             This event is a major one since it gathers together the country's culinary schools and battle with each other on different categories. LPUCI has been an active and an accomplished participant on this event  during the previous years and this year, it became more successful when it gathered the following awards: seven (7) gold medals, nine (9) silvers and nine (9) bronzes. 

          On this success, Chef Joel Tanjimenez, LPUCI Chef Administrator and over-all coordinator of LPUCI culinary competitions remarked, " We believe that LPUCI participants deserve the honours they reaped from PCC. It was no-piece-of-cake as they invested a lot of time on practice and perfecting their skills and their crafts for this event. Such medals is truly the fruits of their labors as we help mold these future culinary connoisseurs." 

         On the other hand, another source of jubilation for the whole LPUCI community is the hosting of an international baker on two specialized programs. The internationally known chef, Master Baker Chef Peter Yuen, conducted sessions both on Viennoiserie and European Artisanal Bread programs. The said presentations were attended by young culinary apprentices as well as professionals who wished to improve their skills. 

          What makes Chef Yuen's presentation a more enticing one is its approach which is hands on and really centred on students. By so doing, he had the time to personally make a follow up on each individual participant. Chef Dan Basilio, Culinary Director of LPUCI made this statement on this regard, " I have known and witnessed the talent and skills of Chef Yuen for years. I believe that his expertise cannot only help the Filipino baking students and professionals improve their proficiency but also give them an edge in the global setting." 

          On behalf of this successful event, LPUCI announced that Master Chef Yuen will return next year 2016 to conduct another set of specialized programs. This is made possible for the benefit of those aspiring students and also for those who have missed this year's event. 

          For more updates on LPUCI's programs, one can visit their Facebook's page www.facebook.com/lpuculinaryinstitute or pays a visit to their office and campus at Victoria corner Muralla Streets, Intramuros, Manila. For any enquiry, contact +632  318 4000 or send them an email on info@lpuculinary.edu.ph or marketing@lpuculinary.edu.ph

Here are the winners and the different categories:

U.S. Beef Category:
Silver ---- Errine Keith Jaramiel (Student)

Wedding Cakes Category:
Gold   ---- Jireh Rodriguez (Student)
Bronze---- Justine Valdez (Student)
Bronze---- Calvine Dale Magsombol (Student)

Dress the Cake Category:
Silver---- Dan Pausal (Student)

U.S. Pork Category:
Silver---- Justin Joshua Calayan (Student)
Bronze---- Jan Vincent Patron (Chef Instructor)

Sous Vide Category:
Silver ---- Vince Patron (Chef Instructor) and Maria Filipina Lumingkit (Student)

Chocolate Pastry Showpiece Category:
Bronze---- Anthony Sagubiense (Student)

Bread Pastry Showpiece Category:
Gold---- Holly Ann Manuel (Student)
Gold---- Nelson Gamurot (Student)

Sugar Pastry Showcase Category:
Bronze---- Jonathan Miranda (Student)

Fantasy Dessert Category:
Bronze---- Heinz Pelayo (Chef Instructor)

Local Fish and Seafood Category:
Gold---- Raymond Mendoza (Chef Instructor)

Lamb Category:
Gold---- Gyle Gicana (Student)

Young Chefs Category:
Gold----Leroy Borrega (Student) and Arriane Alovera (Student)

Pasta Category:
Silver---- Gyle Gicana (Student)

U.S. Poulty Category:
Silver- Lacel Gem Jacob (Student)

Dream Team Challenge Category:
Bronze---- Heinz Pelayo, Abram Peralta, Junjun Barlan, Grace Obrero Martinez (Chef Instructors)

Filipino Cuisine Challenge Category:
Bronze---- Ma. Louisse Enipto, Angelique Chua, and Mary Joy Gella (Students)

Plated Desserts Category:
Silver---- Angelo Zevasthian Bagos (Student)
Silver---- Maricel Masongsong (Student)
Bronze---- Myca Callo (Student)

World of Bread Category:
Gold---- Earnest Artuz (Chef Instructor) and Kris Edison Tan (Student)

Congratulations to all winners and to LPUCI...

                                  

How Then Could We Find Relevance on Social Networking Sites Such as Facebook?

          Social networking sites nowadays have emerged like mushrooms and to name a few, sites such as Facebook, Linked, Pinterest, Brimble, Twitter, and many more have enjoyed much popularity as each day passes by. To cite a specific interest, we will take one particular site which is very popular nowadays and this is Facebook. 

           As of March this year, there are " 665 million users everyday and 751 million using Facebook from a mobile device each month."  (Reference: https://www.google.com.au/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=xdDXVYIBo-7zB-XZvfgL&gws_rd=ssl#q=statistical+data+of+facebook+users). From this figure, one can find out how much relevance Facebook is having then at the present time. 

          But one may ask, how then could we find relevance in our time using any of these  social network sites? Answers may differ from one person to the other yet the most common relevant matters we could get out of this activity are the following:

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1. checking out one's disposition- Facebook allows us to check out the whereabouts, situations, conditions, moods of our friends most notably that of our loved ones. Though it also solicits vigilance on our part since we need to monitor that others will not exploit nor manipulate our status and our personal state but nevertheless, Facebook enables us to have an update both on our own and others' conditions;

2. making friendships-  through Facebook, we will be able to establish new relationships and friendships with others thus enabling us to expand our connections. As social beings, we are happy when we make more connections since no one among us can deny that we  need each other. On the other hand, it also solicits from us a certain responsibility and that is to take care of each of these friendships. We can't just ignore our established relationships with others hence we should devote time to nurture our relationships. 

3. making one's Facebook experience profitable- online advertising nowadays is one of the most popular forms of earning money online thus with the use of these social media platforms most especially Facebook, we then could earn money if we are able to acquire the necessary skills to facilitate advertisements on them. 

          These are but just a few of the positive things that we can get out of our Facebook experience. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, we also need to be careful with our time and connection on this site. We should refrain from allowing  these sites to interfere with our very basic yet primary relationship with loved ones. Thus, we have to ensure that we devote quality time with them especially to our partners and children before we consume time on these social network sites. 

                                        

Why are We Afraid of Failures?

" Many of life's failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up."- Thomas Edison

          Every now and then, we hear of people saying, " I'm tired of this world.", "I'm such a failure." "I don't want to move on anymore."..... so on and so forth. 

          How then do we gauge our life? Is life merely a matter of collecting successes (and never failures) along the way? Or is it the other way around?

          At times, what makes us think that we are a failure is the standard that we put on ourselves and that of others. As Thomas Edison said beforehand, many among us fail when we are supposed to be at the verge of success. 

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          Actually there are varieties of meaning to failure yet the very common one among them is the reality that no one among us wants to experience that hurt and pain as a consequence of failure. Our willingness to step one foot forward is hold back by the many "ifs" that we have in ourselves. Consciously or unconsciously, we are telling our mind of certain negativity such as "what if I fail?...what others will tell me if I will not attain that grade?....if I will fall down, would I be able to get up and continue the fight?....

          Thus, for us to be able to embrace this thing called failure, we need to convince both our minds and our hearts that it is still alright if we stumble and fail. We need to believe that we are more than the failures that we have in life. After all, and whether we agree or not, life is but a race and only those who are fit and have the will to move forward can finish the race.   

                                                     

Patience is a Virtue

          Sometime last month, I accompanied my wife for her follow up check concerning her coming thyroid surgery. During that day, we waited for four hours before being accommodated. Though we were waiting for such a long time but I made use of my time by coming up with this blog post regarding patience. 

          When our appointment number was displayed, we were ushered to room number 24, back to the reception area and then room 4. While inside the room, she had her physical exams like getting her blood pressure then the doctor also tried to feel her thyroid nodes like those in the neck both left and right sides. Afterwards, the attending physician showed to us the result of her last  blood test and he was telling us that the thyroid seems to be stabilising. 

photo credit: Just when you thought it was over God paints this picture via photopin (license)

          When she was done with all her check up, we went back to the reception area for booking on her next doctor's appointment and proceeded to the ground floor to have her CT scan schedule. All in all, our visit to the hospital made me realise that at times, we tend to become anxious of what lies ahead of us. This is exactly as a consequence of us not knowing what will happen next in our life. 

          On the other hand, I also realise that being patient with life and with everything allows us to gain peace within. While some could become agitated, impatient or disturbed while waiting for their turn in such a hospital setting, what could then be beneficial is by being present to that moment as well as to make use of the time on whatever available resources in store for us to become productive.  

                                    

T.G.I.F......What's in a Friday?

          It's Friday once again. It may not sound true to you but it is just a personal observation that when it is Friday, the atmosphere around and everywhere is that of excitement and thrill. I know that it is probably a matter of mindset but for many people, Fridays means time for break from work, time to spend with loved ones, opportunity to relax after spending much time in offices, shops, workplaces etc.

          From a woman's point of view (my wife), it sounds though much similar to mine like Fridays and weekends are days to spend for bonding, relaxing, having time together for activities that could build further the relationship as husband and wife, as friends, as ordinary people.

          In my workplace, when Friday comes, people are so excited in coming to work and in ending their respective responsibilities also. This is contrasting to what Monday brings to people. Mondays are the opposite meaning some people seems to be still floating in the air having the after effect of the weekend's activities. Others are feeling sluggish coming into work. 

          Anyway, whatever our motivations for Fridays, may it always be for the betterment of our being and that of our relationships with others. To spend quality time with people dear to us is highly priceless. So come..... let us spend this day and the coming weekend in a way that both we and our loved ones will share alongside each other moments of togetherness and oneness. After all, life is meaningful when it is shared with others. 

                                          

Why Some People Take Advantage of Others?

           Just recently, I have read in the news how a huge amount of money from people was lost as a result of a scam. And as far as I could remember, this is not the single case which I heard of involving the same controversy and sad reality. In fact, this very miserable experience is happening not just in one country but I believe that this is also true even to countries such as USA, Australia, UK and the like.

          Examples of these scams could be online shopping and auctions, dating scams, computer virus/malware/spyware, rental fraud etc.   

          Therefore, this is happening everywhere and it is sad to note that many of these victims are innocent ones. While it is true that others fall as victims since they want instant big cash but it is very unnerving for some to undergo a terrible experience. 

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         On the part of these scammers, one of the reasons they are able to go through into such trap for others is the greediness that lies inside their hearts. And what makes it very sickening is the truth that those people who become victims have families of their own, have children to feed, to send into school, to cloth and to provide other provisions.

          If only these swindlers  realise the effect and consequence they are giving to their victims, then they should be able to feel the pain itself being in such a situation. There is really no use for people to take advantage on any way on others, rather we might as well lend a hand to others and be instruments of growth for them. 

                                    

New Day Ushers Us Into A New Way

           Glancing at the chance of each new day, opportunities for growth ushers us along the way. As each new day unfolds, we welcome it with excitement and joy for we know that this new day will bring us into more understanding and learnings about ourselves.

          Why then self discovery is very crucial? It plays a vital role for it enables us to perform positively in our various forms of relationship. Along the way, we come in contact with people whom some could give us a threat in which we have no control. Have you experienced a situation wherein you seems to feel uncomfortable or uneasy with somebody whom you just meet recently or even worse, a total stranger to you?

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          And as you reflect on the experience, you then discover that this person represents somebody in the past who extended and caused you discomfort as well as pain (transference). Good for you if you come into this kind of realisation and bad if you re not capable to do it.  The process then of owning such experience takes a long while. That is why, we need to know deeply each of ourselves so that we will also understand our own dynamics as well as that of others. 

                             

Learn to Overcome Negativity

          Ever since I grew up as a child, little it be known that each day brought us all two possibilities- either good news or bad news. yin or yang, light and shadow. Moments that I cherished the most were those filled with laughters and other pleasant memories while we also tend to delegate somewhere else those not so pleasant ones. You and me, we all have that tendency to cherish the good and reject the bad. However, as I mentioned earlier, life in itself is made up of these two realities- the good and the bad.

          On the other hand, we have various approaches to pain. Others may tend to welcome them and grow positively from them. Some will tend to be overly affected by them that at the end of the day, they seem to have lost their energy to walk "one more mile". Moreover, there are also those who are more inclined to put the blame on others of their miseries. Such trivialities or not as losing one's pen, forgetting one's notebook at home, mindlessly leaving the car key inside when stepping out of it and locking everything etc., they also result to losing their focus and energy to welcome the new day. 

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          Meanwhile, there are also approaches which could enable us to get up from those tumbled moments:

1. Be open- let it be and let it go. Though by nature, this is not an easy thing to do for we have the tendency to internalise either knowingly or unknowingly every painful event in life. However, in order for us to overcome such pain, we need to go down into ourselves and learn to accept it then let it go. Never let the painful experience lingers more in our mind since if we do so, it will surely affect the rest of our activities and may possibly block our desire to nurture relationships with others;

2.  Be alert- in every event in our life, there is no sense to spend so much time on it for it will lead us to nowhere. Instead, step back and learn to evaluate the event then check what went wrong. Start from there then the next step that you will take will surely lead you to the right one.

3. Ask for help- pride is one thing that can make us down. On the other hand, humility also can be our way to grow and become better persons. It's not really bad to ask for other's assistance and comfort during our trial moments. Rather, we somehow acknowledge our own limitation and at the same time, we tap other people's resources to help us move on. 

4. Finally, learn to pray- whoever is your personal god and whatever name you attribute to this divine being, learn to constantly submit everything to Him and ask for graces so as to grow more in His way. 

                                       

Possibilities Abound

          One time while at work, I was listening to the music and at a certain moment, the DJ greeted all his listeners of the day then wished everyone a great new day. While listening to him, I was struck by what he once mentioned that in each of our days, many possibilities are bound to happen. And I moved on with the rest of my day responsibilities, I once in a while thought of it and realised that indeed, what he said is true. 

         Everyday exactly is full of surprises for all of us. And even though no one among us knows exactly what will happen during the course of the day yet it is always beneficial for us to stay positive on things. Learn to say good bye to those bad energies in the past. Allowing oneself to move on is difficult especially if the pain inflicted by another party is deep penetrating. However, if we convince ourselves that we can move on from this pain and rather stay on what is positive out of the experience then most probably we will learn to step forward.

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          In short, let us not allow any distraction to block our way to self development. On the other hand, let us enjoy all the possibilities brought by a new day such as enjoying the company of our family, relatives, friends and others. Sharing time with good and special people in our life nurture our day. Let us also open up ourselves to other possibilities at work like fulfilling all our tasks of the day, or receiving a salary increase from our boss, or helping a workmate at his job, so on and so forth.

          Hence, every new day brings opportunities for growth not just for ourselves but also for others whom we come into contact any time of the day.

                                          

To Be or Not to Be?

          Dreams have always been a part of our life. And they also drive us into more determination even at the steepest road we trek in life. Yet at the end of the day, it constantly goes back to us the answer whether we really want to realise those dreams or just leave them behind as such. 

          As one anonymous author said, " The tragedy of life is that many people have ambition and so few have ability." Agreeing to what he said, I would say that uniquely, we are gifted with resources such as abilities, talents, skills and others that would become our weapons to make true those dreams. 

imagecredit: http://www.splitshire.com/poppies/

          Regrettable as it could be, some of us fail to utilise those tools so that we will reach our goal of success. Don't ever focus on those negative points in your life instead give your full attention to what lies ahead and what is present to you. And the most important of all, learn to express gratitude to those gifts you own since through them, you are and will going to achieve those dreams treasured inside of yourself. 

        Thus, ask constantly oneself, "To be or not to be?" and be ready to embrace the consequence of your choice. 

                                       

LOve and Fidelity

          While listening to the preacher this evening time during our gathering, what struck me most out of his sharing was his mentioning about two qualities that every person must possess so that he will become successful in his relationship with others and these are LOVE and FIDELITY.

          These two comprise the whole package in any positive dealing with one's neighbour. While listening to him talking about those two points, as much as I can, I tried to recall back concrete instances of my life to show those two qualities in my life. Looking around, I could also see affirming faces on the preacher's highlights. 

imagecredit:  Ed Gregory

          Anyway, you and me could identify certain relationships that we have in our lifetime. First and foremost, we have this significant relationship with those persons so dear to us like spouses, siblings, etc. Then next comes our relationship with people outside of our primary space like relatives, friends, co-workers, team members etc. Moreover, we also have this relationship with our environment- all those creatures around us including plants, trees, animals and the like. Finally, we have this grand relationship with someone whom we called our Creator- no matter what name we try to attribute to this one yet He remains the same to you and me- He is the source of everything.

         Thus,  how then could you apply or even experience those two qualities in all those relationships? Love then comes in when we prioritise the welfare of those dear people in our life- sacrificing everything even our own satisfaction, desires, needs and wants. However, on this very complicated and modern world we have now, expressing love becomes such a very challenging one for if we are not that keen and careful, the latest  innovations especially on matters like communication will most probably interfere in our interactions with people primary to our care like spouses and children. 

imagecredit: Ed Gregory

         On the other hand, in order for us to check how loving we are to them and to others, let us confront ourselves with such questions as: Are we ready and willing to be interfered in our other affairs so as to give attention to our spouses and children? Are we willing to offer precious and quality time to them disregarding our other priorities and appointments? Do we go beyond all conditions in our loving of them meaning do we still accept them even if they present their negative qualities to us like failings and weaknesses?

      

    Moreover, fidelity comes in when we concretely manifest loyalty to our pledge to these precious people in our life. That in spite of all our limitations and weaknesses, we are still able to hold on to our promises to them that we constantly regard them everyday and every moment with extra special and remarkable attention as well as care. Such world that we have now could be at times a tricky one engulfed with various stumbling blocks such as temptations and greediness, yet in spite of their presence, we express our fidelity to our partners by overwhelming those stumbling blocks and returning back to our significant others' loving embrace.

         Finally, if we then are able to sustain LOVE and FIDELITY in our relationships with others, we allow ourselves to be positive contributors to their  life and growth. 

                                        

Letting Go and Moving On

            Recently, a friend confided with me that her boyfriend dumped her for no reason at all. Such a terrible thing to happened to her, she felt lost and abandoned. As those two years had passed with her boyfriend, she gave him everything so that he will feel happy and contented in their relationship yet a few days back, he decided to end up their relationship.

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          Until now, she could hardly bear the pain and the heartaches brought about this shocking episode to her life. Days had passed and she continued crying day in and day out. I hope that she will recover soon this bad chapter of her life journey.

          In our life, bad times is a part and parcel of it and no matter who we are at the moment and how we stand in the community, there still are those trying moments in our life. And as each bad day falls on us, all we need to do is let it go and learn how to move on. That's exactly what needs for us to do. However, this is easy to say than done. Definitely true. Seeing other people undergo such stage is easier for us than experiencing the painful moment personally. 

          There comes in the support coming from our family, friends and other people. Lucky are those who have them in their lives. But the biggest factor would be our own capacity to deal with the pain. As we proceed with our life, we learn to adopt to certain situations and we are able to sustain various defences that allow us to stay strong during difficult times. Let us learn to get up and start all over again every time we fall down. In addition, let us also allow ourselves to become wounded healers for others. 

                                                   

SOme Thoughts to Ponder

          Sharing with you today some thoughts to ponder for us as we continue with our various journeys in life. Along with the disparate chapters of our life, we come and encounter different situations and events that some will ask us to arrive at a crossroad then decide what to do next. While these thoughts below may have been carved by distinct individuals yet they all have one thing in common- that is to inspire us all in our daily endeavours.

1. "We rate ability in men by what they finish, not by what they attempt."
Success driven individuals will always aim for the best results in all their endeavours. However at times this will boil down not just by finishing the race but by the quality of the work's outcome. All the successes that we will have in our life will determine how we will manage those life's chapters.


2. " Ability without ambition is like a car without a motor."
Indeed this statement makes much relevance in our life. Hence it is very essential for us to discover our strengths thus when we move on in life,  we have equipped ourselves with the sufficient resources to be successful in life.

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3. " The remarkable thing about most of us is our ability to live beyond our means."
The will to survive- a tool which every one of us must possess so that when we encounter trials and crosses in life, we will also learn how to survive and move on. As they say, life must go on no matter what predicaments lie ahead of us.


4. " Ability is the most important tool in your life."
Learn to discover your various abilities in life and develop your humility also to acknowledge the abilities of others. We are made unique from one another so that we can express our abilities and ask others' abilities also when the situation calls for it.




                                       

Blogging Mogul

          In the blogosphere, there are many personalities and players who make contributions every now and then. A multitude of them just create a mere impact or none at all while some make it to the top. One among the leaders in the blogging world today is John Chow-  known to be a famous writer, blogger, author, speaker, father, and an entrepreneur.

          As one of his followers, it is also my intention to extend with others the inspirations and enlightenment which I received from John. Here therefore are some highlights on his life. 

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          John was born in a small farming place in Mainland China. When he was 7 years old, his family decided to settle down in Canada. When he grew up, he started to try his luck in the world of blogging. Slowly, he became successful on this field and presently, he authored numerous best selling and popular books such as Blogging Secrets and the no. 1 bestselling book on Amazon entitled Make Money Online: Road Map of a Dot Com Mogul. 

          His blog, JohnChow.Com, is one of the top blogs in the world today. Other tremendous achievements of John are the following:

- he has been featured on famous publications such as The Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, Ming Pao Magazine among others;

- in 2012, he won the prestigious Affiliate Marketing Awards, and consequently became a subject of a blogging documentary on CBC Television. 

         Thus, if you want to learn further techniques and approaches on the world of blogging and internet marketing, check John Chow's famous books and blog now. 

P.S.- With much gratitude to John Chow for allowing me to share your success story. If you are eager to hear from John, check this superb masterpiece of him, www.johnchow.com

                                            

Spending Precious Time with Your Loved Ones

          We all have our considered richness in life- health, family, wealth, achievements etc.. And I do believe that one among the stand out among them is the family. Yes we all value each of our families and in fact, that's the very main reason why majority, if not all of us, are working hard and exerting much of our time for the sake of our families. 

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         Indeed, we are unaware that at times, we gain strength and importance from all the significant persons inside our families. How about you, do you spend quality time with your family- with all your loved ones? Moreover we can learn bountiful things from our day to day interactions with our loved ones. All those which we have learned from school about love, understanding, openness, welcoming etc, we can concretised them all first and foremost through the members of our families. 

          How then can we teach LOVE to others if we are not loving all members of our families? How can we speak truthfully about welcoming others when in fact, we disregard one member of our home? To become a worthy example of good deeds to others, we should start first with all the members of our families- spouses and children. And we constantly bear in mind that no amount of material wealth could ever replace the CONCRETE LOVE that we convey to our family members. 

                                           

Generosity Shared

          When disasters strike a place, a community or a nation, I can't help myself but be filled with mixed emotions as I recall how the victims and their families suffer the consequences of such events. I could feel the relief and joy of my heart upon realising how generous hearts extend their resources to those helpless victims.

          In such tragedies such as typhoon, storms, fire, bushfire etc, such huge losses to life and properties are ever extended and befall to the victims. Consequently, I could feel the pain, hunger, meaningless, hopelessness in the faces of these people. 

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          On the other hand, what then becomes consoling is when people of all races, status, denominations and colours join hands together to uplift the plight of the victims. And as the days go by, I am hoping that more people with kind and generous hearts will continue to aid the victims so as to make lighter their plights. 

          After all, we all know that inside yourself and my heart lies the goodness as well as kindness so that we can always think and bear in mind the future and harmony of these innocent people. 

                                               

New Year's Surprises: Resolutions....Resolutions....

          As we start another year, it is one common practice that we prepare a list of new year's resolutions- list of what we want to achieve in our life during the year. Actually this has been an ongoing practice since the time of the Babylonians and even during the knighthood era of the Medieval times.  At certain junctures, such practice offers a positive output to a person for it becomes a guide for him to perform better during the year and surpass what then was achieved during the previous year.

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          We have personally set up our goals for this year. And somehow, this resolution comes out in so many styles and forms like setting a limit to one's exposure to the TV or even in front of one's laptop. Some will aim for a more moderated lifestyle such as avoiding too much alcohol or if one is willing, an alcohol free life during the year. On the other hand, there are those who want to refrain from going out late at nights or others may just want to be a more fulfilled person in relationship, career and others.

          However, no matter how colourful, relevant, challenging our resolutions for this year, if we will not act them out and do them then everything becomes nil and unwanted. Nobody else will commit those good resolutions except we in ourselves. Thus, to be more constructive in our life, let us constantly be consistent in doing our plans. Our firmness, flexibility and openness supplemented by our determination will assist us to make true our dreams, goals and resolutions.

                                     

What is More Essential to Growing Children?: Modern Technology or Engaging on Outside Games

          The fast pace of technology nowadays changes the lifestyle of most youth. They tend to become more dependent on computers and other electronic entertainments. However, others argued that they should also spend more time playing outside sports and games rather than just spending their time on these latest technologies that we have. 

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Siggy Nowak from Ormeau Near Brisbane, Australia

 

          The children need to grow in a positive way on their physical, social and other aspects. It is through engaging on physical activities such as playing basketball, football, tennis, and other sports activities that their bodies become more actively working as well as strong, athletic and healthy. FurthermoreI, it will also develop their social relationship towards other youth and eventually is essential as they are interacting with real human beings rather than just with virtual forms of entertainment. 

           Most common causes of disease for children today is obesity and from the research done by scientists, it was found out that these children are mostly engaged in sedentary lifestyle. They just spend their time playing video and computer games all day long.  Thus becoming active in sports will result them to balance their lifestyle. 

Contributing Writer: Myra Flor Jugan




                                                  

Elements of a True Friendship

          As I spend this day, Friday, I come to think of the many forms of relationship that I have in my life. Then I realised that I am such a lucky person since all throughout my life, I have established friendships with different kinds of people and lucky enough then to have maintained that friendship with them. 

          How about you, can you count through your fingers the friends that you have in your life? Can you claim one friendship that would last forever? Basically, every human being is so complex that it goes beyond eternity to fully comprehend one human person. All throughout the years, our personality becomes moulded by various factors such as upbringings, genes, environment, friendships etc.. Yes, it is very true that our friends make so much impact in our life that without our knowledge, our ways of dealing with others have been influenced by them anymore. 

          How then could we establish a lasting friendship? To answer such question, we could think of numerous factors such as presence, availability, understanding and trust. In fact, there are others that we can think of yet I just would like to focus on these shared items as my most essential ones so as to maintain and sustain a long and lasting friendship. 

A short elaboration for them would be as follows:

a. presence- what makes a friendship lasts is when both friends are generous in sharing his presence with the other party. And this is true not just on rainy days but holds true on days with stormy weathers. On the other hand, this never limits as well on a mere physical presence but somehow, the presence here is the quality one meaning it is being physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually present with the other person.

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b. availability- similar to presence, availability means that in spite of our day to day obligations, duties, schedules, priorities etc., we should still be able to make ourselves available to our friends. As commonly stated, if we truly value our friendship with others, we should also learn to make ourselves available to cherish the friendship.

c. understanding- in any relationship like friendship, the trait of understanding should be developed, practiced and nurtured. Being able to completely understand the other person is rather a challenging task since we carry along with us our different idiosyncrasies and at times, some of these are challenging for others. However, when we truly consider any friend as a real friend, we subsequently are ready to accept everything on him both his positive and negative characteristics. 

d. the last but not the least on my list, the trust element- an important ingredient that goes along with the ones beforehand, trust is considered as very worthwhile since it measured the level of the established friendship. With a true friend, one can be assured that trust is present and that whatever is shared between the two friends are secured and kept hidden just between both parties. The development of trust takes a while thus the moment that it is destroyed, it is burdensome to repair it. 

Hence with all these elements, can you consider yourself now as one true friend? Lucky you are if you can and lucky your friends for having you as one true friend.