Bali-cious! (Part 1)

Last week, I went out of the country again and this time to Bali. Nikki usually has a trip right around her birthday which she organizes and her friends can join as well. This was why I got to travel to Bali this time. To be honest, it wasn't on my list of countries to go to but the opportunity was there and so I took it.

Our trip to Bali trip was jam packed with activities. Our trip started last Monday with a day long layover in Manila. We left for Bali on Tuesday morning then left our hotel Saturday morning back to Cebu. So that's 1 full day in Manila plus 4 days in Bali. I stress the 1 day in Manila as I was able to do two things in my day trip to Manila that I haven't been able to do since I left Manila for good in 2014. So while everyone else on the trip considered the trip to have started on Tuesday, I consider Monday the start of my trip. For this post, however, I'll focus on Bali.

Upon arriving in Bali, I knew I was in a world class airport. Bali may be a small island (though bigger than Cebu) but they got their airport right. We had booked a tour of the temples nearby since we had to wait until the afternoon to check in to our hotel rooms. I noticed they had small roads which made going around by car more difficult.

We went temple hopping on our first day. We saw two, Taman Ayun (which I remember because it sounds like tama na yun!) and Tanah Lot. I enjoyed these two stops but I won't lie. The highlight for me was when I bought a ricecake-like food with a brown sugar syrup inside covered in coconut shavings. Yeah, if you have a free day in Bali and you think, "Let's visit some temples," your time might be better spent elsewhere.

That night, we did go to Potato Head Beach Club and it was here we got our first view of a Bali sunset. We enjoyed a really good meal and even celebrated Nikki's birthday a little early with the waiters surprising her with a small cake - the waitress literally sneaked up behind her. We didn't stay long in Potato Head and we knew he had to get a good night's rest to prepare for the next day's activities.

On Wednesday, we had two "extreme" activities lined up. In the morning, we went for a dive. Three of us already have licenses so we went straight to the dive spot while everyone else had a beginner course in a shallower area. Truth be told, Cebu has better dive spots than the one we went to. The dive master told us that Bali has a lot of beautiful spots but require a whole day to explore. As our time was limited, we had to make do. All the first time divers had a blast though. They saw a lot of fishes and I think some of them now want to get their license as well.

In the afternoon, we went surfing in Kuta beach. We had made the booking through Odyssey Surf School, which I can say is one of the best I've tried. This would have been my fourth time surfing and the instructor was able to have me paddling by myself and catching bigger waves than the rest of our group. Needless to say, that was one of the highlights of my Bali trip.

We ended pretty early actually and when we checked the schedule of the Bali Sea Turtles Society, we found out they were releasing more baby turtles than usual into the sea (partly because of the independence day celebration). We lined up and were able to release 7 of the 1,200 sea turtles they released that day.

I think I'll stop here. I have 2 more days to cover on some other day.

Healthy dose of Skepticism

A couple of months back, my parents and I went to the grocery store to do some shopping. My dad was pushing the cart while my mom walked beside him and in the cart was a huge watermelon. "That's strange," I thought, "we usually get our fruits from the market." My dad had this huge smile as he came up to me and started explaining the watermelon as if he'd read my mind.

He mentioned that when picking a watermelon, you need to pick a round one. An elongated one will not be so sweet. The color is another thing and he goes over his little mental checklist. I pause for a second and think that all these details he mentioned seemed very familiar. I ask him where he got this information and quickly followed with, "Facebook?" He laughed and nodded. My mom was beside him shaking her head knowing my dad doesn't check his sources or verifies what he reads online.

My dad still felt pretty good about his new found knowledge and decided to share it with my sisters. That night, we had watermelon after dinner to see if Facebook was a reliable source for picking fruit in a fruit stand. We all got a slice and as we expected, it wasn't all that sweet.

Dad later claimed that the reason he bought the watermelon was because he wanted to see if what he learned on Facebook was indeed true. Whatever the case, a healthy dose of skepticism is always good. Since I started visiting this atheist website, I've noticed that a lot of people believe things which wouldn't normally be accepted by the vast majority of people. They usually hold on to these beliefs even if logic and history tell them otherwise. And this goes with both atheists and theists.

Sadly, people still hold to the logical fallacy of, "God is real because the (insert religious text here) says he's real. We can believe said religious text because it is the word of God." That line of reasoning may be fine but it only shows blind belief which pretty much means you're willing to put your belief in God on the Spin the Wheel at a fair. When people (rightly) show them that they're basing their belief on a logical fallacy, they simply fire back with, "You just don't see the truth." I'm sorry but even I can't follow truth in a circular argument.

On the other side of the debate, you have atheists who stick to a belief there is no proof for God's existence. When proof is then given, they simply fire back with, "I think that's false" or "I highly doubt that" or even, "You're just making things up" without stating a reason for the statement's falsehood.

One of my favorite atheists on this website -let's call him Joey- loves to shut me up by saying, "You believe in a made up religion/fairy tales," which hurt me at first then I realized why they hurt me. They were attacking my person, not my arguments. I then later began to see which arguments made sense, what fallacies I was making, and so on and so forth. I loved the exchange as it forced me deeper and deeper into my faith. An allegation would be made against my Catholic faith and I'd definitely want to know if that was true so I do my research, being skeptical of both the allegation and the Church's position, and every time, I find myself thinking that the Catholic position on that allegation actually holds more water.

Issues like the Spanish Inquisition, the Galileo controversy, the Crusades, and many many other issues caught me by surprise with how we buy into falsehoods these days. I went into my research with skepticism and told myself that if my faith is proven to be false during the course of my research, I'd leave it.

I won't lie, there are a bunch of points raised by some atheists that I've yet to dive into but I've dove into enough to know that many times, they're basing their "research" on poor to very poor research probably 80% of the time. And half the time they cite reliable sources, they stretch the meaning of the text further than what their sources say.

One of the positive effects I've experienced in myself lately with my new found skepticism is to always ask for sources. We can then try to verify these sources then see for ourselves if these sources can be trusted. The more sources we have, the better. Lies always hide behind a veil of truth but it can't hide all the time. Conflicting stories are usually a red flag for these instances.

My favorite atheist, Joey, once told me that the Catholic Bible has always been changing and that some books were removed when it didn't serve the political purposes of the Church then he gives me a bunch of links to check out. I was curious and upon reading the first link, I thought he had me. He lists a bunch of books which were in Catholic Bibles before the 1600s and were absent after. The names didn't look familiar save a few of them. I read another link he sent which asserted the same thing but placed the date in the 1800s. Now, I was confused. They both asserted that the Church removed 14 books from the Bible so I go through each one and checked it with my own Bible. All of them except one was in my Bible printed in 1987. The last one, I checked was never in the Bible to begin with. Some versions do include, as it's a very good prayer, but state that it was not part of Sacred Scripture.

I told Joey this then he simply shut me up again with his favorite line and added I refused to see the truth. So I ask him in return why he holds to an opinion which is clearly contradictory or can't even stand after the first round of fact checking. He then shifted the topic to something else which he could not prove again.

I realized that the past few months, I have been open to be proven wrong. I have a healthy dose of skepticism and I consider that a gift. Some people don't really have this and they're truly missing out. My parting words for you is this. Check your sources. Be open to be proven wrong. Question everything, even your sources. A lie, if it's hiding, will always pop out of it's hiding place. If none does, maybe you've found the truth.

On Writing

Before any blog post, I usually ask myself what new things happened in my life which I'd want to make a post about. Yesterday, I'd scratched the bottom of the barrel. Most of the things I considered would've been considered redundant to previous posts and other ideas, well, let's just say I'm not ready to comment on them in full detail.

So while thinking about a topic, an idea popped into my head -Writing! I'd write about writing. I realized I've never written anything about writing and how good of an outlet it can be for someone like me. It's a hobby I've picked up, yes. But it's our hobbies which keep us from insanity especially when work becomes repetitive.

Writing allows me to make permanent the thoughts in my head as they flow. I may not have any readers and writing would still be amusing to me. Ten years from now, I could look back at my posts and be either impressed or disappointed in my 2017 self. Either way, I'm excited at the prospect. I may believe in something totally and radically different from what I believe now. My posts may even serve as an eyewitness to this gradual change in belief and I find that exciting.

Writing allows me to pour out into words my thoughts which otherwise would've just stayed there. I believe that ideas are like wine. Before you let them out, you need them to age well. As a result, I hold off writing any essay until a few days before the deadline or hold off writing a blog post about an issue until the issue becomes stale and commenting on it would be useless. Writing allows me to let my ideas free. They never stop aging in the old head factory as they remain my own, but at the very least, they see the light of day.

Writing allows me to think more about my thoughts. You can't tell the number of characters you see in this post is the number of times I press the backspace key. I know I'm not the best typist and that has some effect but as I write these ideas down, I think on their truth value. I think about what difference it makes if I change the word "thought" to "idea" and if I get the thought idea through better that way (Also, strikethrough is a great tool).

Writing allows me to chain certain posts one after another. Let me explain. One of my posts was about the LTFRB disallowing Grab/Uber  from operating in the Philippines. While writing about that issue, I realized I actually want to write about authority. While writing about authority, I realized I wanted to write about mothers and this string of posts will eventually have a big bow wrapped around it in the end. It's addicting really. I'm not changing any lives but my mind feels like it can shout to the world more.

Writing allows the little writer in me to grow. Had you asked a 15 year old Jonathan, he'd probably tell you he wanted to write for a living. After studying engineering for 5 years and working with engineers for the next 4 years, there wasn't much in the way for creative license. Most of my reports involved numbers and I usually just let the figures speak for themselves. Now, I'm getting back to writing and it feels good. It's like the little child in me is jumping for joy at the chance at writing again. 

I can go on and on about how much I enjoy writing and the positive effects it has on my life but I'll stop here. Point is, I enjoy writing and hope one day I can write for a much wider audience. But even if I'm never given such a platform, I'd still continue to write. Maybe to sum it all up, I don't write to be read. I write because it's good for me.

Dipping my fingers into the world of Atheism

Just recently, I've tried participating in some atheist forums. My point was not to convince anyone. My goal was to learn. And learn a lot, I did!

Just to clarify. I'm in no way considering atheism. It's just that in the past few weeks, I've been engrossed by the amount of content that's out there in the internet talking about this topic. I didn't take as many philosophy classes back in college so it was all new to me.

I've learned quite a lot from this atheist blog I went to. All the atheists, save for one agnostic, were very condescending and proud. Very quickly, they would assert things that weren't at all rooted in truth. They'd take one article or blog post and claim that to be true. Statements like, "Jesus never walked the Earth," or "The Bible is a myth," or "Jon, you believe in fairy tales and unicorns." They weren't alone though. Some of the theists were the same saying things like, "They have seen the evidence and chose to ignore it." This does make the threads more heated than they should be. To cleanse my palate, I tried listening to some good and intellectual debates on the issue. This made all the difference to me.

Hiding behind the internet, people can call you "stupid" or "idiotic" without any consequences. I have friends who are atheist or agnostic who wouldn't talk to me like that to my face. I know some of them might talk negatively about my views behind my back but that's true of anyone. We never push each other to the point of disrespect though.

The problem with the belief of atheism is this. When you ask the question of whether aliens exist, you can answer with one of three answers - Yes, No, and I don't know. If you say Yes or No, you have the burden of proving your point that aliens do or do not exist. The only one exempt from any burden of proof would be the one who answers, "I don't know". Now, replace alien with God and you can see that atheists aren't exempt from proving their stance. It's common for atheists to shift the burden of proof solely on the theist to prove God exists. It's very easy for them to win in this case, all they have to do is say, "That's not real evidence" and his position stands. This, however, doesn't absolve the theist from presenting evidence.

I started a thread on this atheist website which goes, "What would constitute as evidence that a god exists?" Some of them were saying things like, they'd have to see a miracle happen during a religious ritual. Some others said that a voice from heaven might convince them. Rather quickly, it turned sour with people accusing me to believing in fairy tales. Some of them were accusing me of using circular argument to prove there's a God when I hadn't even tried to make a case for God.

Some other forums phrased their questions a certain way with the assumption that God does exist. One such forum asked, "To theists: What happens in heaven?" His question was asking if free will still existed given you couldn't commit sin in heaven. I answered the best I could only to be answered back with, "Your heaven doesn't exist - Like your god." This caught me off guard as the question was phrased in a way to assume that God and heaven exist.

I used to hold on to this notion that people who are atheists or agnostic must be at the very least intellectual or intellectually honest. I admired them as I saw that they were a group of people who were honestly trying to find the truth and not accept any religion as true right off the bat. I now know this is not the case. These are the same people who rant about how religion tries to stifle them and here they are doing the exact same thing.

I'm not talking about all though. My previously held positive stereotype of atheists and agnostics was definitely shattered. I might still visit that atheist website from time to time. It still amuses me to read from different points of view.

Momma knows best

I've been thinking about this for some time now. Mothers and fathers and their roles in our lives. I may be a bit late for Mother's day but better a late post than none at all. This post will focus on mothers and how they shape our lives.

I remember this scene from Disney's Tangled from a while back. But this isn't the kind of Momma I want to focus on. Everyone has a mother and most mothers will have a special place in their kid's hearts - no matter how old they are. A meme, which I can't find for some reason, comes to mind. It goes, "No matter how old I get, I always want my mom when I don't feel good."

The past few weeks, I've been noticing how people talk about their moms or other people's moms for that matter. I love going to the mall or eating at a restaurant and watching kids cling to their moms, or seeing how moms would discipline her kids. My mom never really disciplined me. That was my dad's department. But one common theme I find with anyone, is that they can say no to their father but it takes so much to say no to a mother.

Most of my friends (and probably yours as well) will say that mothers don't know much about pop culture or technology. My mom and aunt still ask me how to "give them internet" on their phone. But when it comes to the basic truths, the truly know best. Got a cold? Ask your mom. Remember your favorite childhood dish which you want to recreate today? You know exactly who to ask. Have you had measles already? Or dengue? When was your last asthma attack? Mom's got you covered on your medical history.

They also say that mom's are the first to know if their children have homosexual tendencies while fathers are usually clueless. They seem to know your secrets no matter how hard you try to hide them. It's one of their many talents which belong to them alone. It's as if they have psychic powers like Jean Grey or something. But really, I think they're more powerful psychics than even Sansa Stark Jean Grey.

So about my own mother. She's a super woman. Maybe she forgets hot to use her phone properly but the important stuff, she remembers. She remembers all of her relatives, their spouses, children, and how we're all related to them. She also remembers all of my dad's relatives, their spouses, their children and how we're related to them. She remembers her cooking and baking recipes and can dictate to you the exact measurements while she's out 

Stick her in any group of people and she'll make a best friend right away. She has a knack for socializing while the rest of us don't have that talent. She's the social butterfly in our family. And our family is all the better for it. She's the one who finds people we need the most, like a good pulmonologist, a good vet, a good supplier for something we need in the family business. She's got her powers and I'm happy I have her as a mom.

Mothers in general are able to compensate for what their family lacks as shown by my mom. A friend of mine has a very religious mother. He and his dad are not religious at all. Another friend's mom is very frantic and cautious of everything while the rest of the family is chill, calm and collected. That may not sound good but momma's always right so her frantic opinion does serve their family well. Another friend's mom has more of the authoritarian role in their family while their dad takes the more loving father role.

Mothers never appear in the same shape or form but are always what their family needs. Take some time to think about your mother and how her quirks serve your family for the better.

Our Problem with Authority

In my post about the LTFRB vs Grab and Uber, I mentioned not wanting to rationalize why LTFRB was going after organized colorum instead of going after the abusive taxi cabs, etc. This post will be me trying to rationalize their stand.

This is important. We hate authority. We always have. And I'm not talking about Filipinos. Every single person in the world hates authority. We hate being told what we can and can't do, what's morally right and wrong, what's legal or illegal. I believe it's more the punishment that can't stand. When we're given the punishment, we hate it. When someone who has wronged us gets a smaller punishment than they deserve, we hate it. And with authority, comes the authority to impose penalties and punishments.

This is all reminiscent of a two siblings who get into a fight. This happens a lot with my nephews so I'll be using them as an example. Most of the time, they're the best of friends but if something comes up where they do get into a fight, they can get a bit unruly. Most of the time, it happens when one of them doesn't follow the rule that they should take turns in playing with games on the phone. My sister then comes in, stops the fight and declares, "No one plays with the phone!" One of my nephews will then protest saying, "But he got to play with the phone more!" This complaint is heard but doesn't change the verdict of the judge or the person in authority.

No one will say my sister was in the wrong in using her authority to discipline her children. One of them will say that the ruling was unfair but it doesn't mean the authority of my sister would in any way be diminished.

A common complaint I hear when a government agency takes action is that they should be addressing another problem first. Case in point would be when news spread that this administration would be imposing a nationwide smoking ban. Many critics were quick to point out that smoking poses less of a health and environmental risk than say, smoke belching from old trucks and jeeps that infest our roads. Does this information (even if it's true) take away from the fact that a nationwide smoking ban would be a great idea? Conversely, this also doesn't mean that banning smoke belching vehicles from our roads would also be great idea.

Both are great ideas and in a perfect world, both would take effect yesterday. It just so happens that this administration decided to act on one before the other. Most people view these issues as flowchart where one action should come before another when in fact, it's more like a branching tree where you could successfully implement one or multiple policies independent of each other and still move forward. This is a common theme in any time, under any administration, and in any culture.

We believe we know better than the ones in authority. That may very well be the case, but without actually being that person in authority, we may never truly know if we know any better. Persons in authority, especially in governments will have to weigh several things on their plate and thus they may perceive things differently from the rest of us. While we may think that getting Uber and Grab drivers off the road is a wrong move by the government, we need to affirm their law abiding policies. They saw an illegal activity and answered with a punishment corresponding to the gravity of the offense. Is it unfortunate that it had to fall on a service which the riding public loves? Yes, but we should affirm the government when they protect the law.

This is not to say, however, that we should just let the authorities use and abuse their power. What we must realize is that authority lies in the office and NOT on the person sitting in the office. We should respect the office and all that it hopes to defend. The picture I used in this post is that of Donald Trump. He's not the most popular guy in the world right now and for good reason. You can say all you want that you hate him. Some people might like him. But whether you hate or like him, no one can say they hate the office of the president (this could be another topic I could comment on).

Our duty as citizens/netizens should be clear. We applaud the authorities for upholding the law. We should also hold them to uphold the law equally. Going back to the smoking and smoke belching analogy, we shouldn't be saying, "Catch the smoke belchers first and then smoking can follow." We should say, "Catch the smoke belchers next!" Lastly, we must hold them to truly uphold any and all laws we have. We may not like it but we have laws for a reason and they need to be followed. Even if no one follows it and even if no one enforces it.

Bad Bad Badminton

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not the most athletic person. Never enjoyed playing basketball in any point during my life; Never kicked a soccer ball thru any goal posts as a kid; Never did serious training for running or swimming. My life as a kid was pretty straight forward: Wake up, go to school, come home, do homework, pray, sleep - That was it.

My dad attempted to get me into some sports though. His choices for sports for me were golf and tennis. I quit golf after a golf mate of mine stood me up one too many times in the golf course; Junior golfers aren't allowed to play by themselves so I ended up going home. I quit tennis after everyone in the beginner class promoted to the intermediate class except me.

Okay, enough of the painful memories. After that embarrassing experience, I just decided to give up on sports altogether. I wasn't going to be good at it anyway and no one wanted to play with someone who wasn't good so I never bothered.

It was summertime and I didn't have anything to do for the summer so my mom thought it was a good idea to bring me along to her badminton group in Cebu Country Club. I'd watch them play and never understood the rules even after several sessions. During that time, parents didn't give their kids iPhones to play with when they were bored so when I told my mom I was bored and wanted to go home, she said I should score their games - This, my friends, is class A parenting.

I was hesitant at first but the alternative was to wait in the bench and do nothing so the choice was pretty clear. That's when I started to enjoy watching badminton. I never held a racket or hit a shuttlecock before that but I enjoyed watching the game.

During one of their sessions, one of my mom's badminton friends couldn't go so they would be short one person. At the time, my mom got a trainer with three friends and so they could play doubles with no worries. My mom's solution was brilliant, "Jon can play!" I played my first game of badminton and needless to say, I wasn't very good. After her other friend had left, my mom stayed behind and asked the trainer to do some one on one with me! This became a regular thing for me and I enjoyed it a lot! Some days, we'd come earlier to train before my mom's friends would arrive. Mom even bought me new shoes and I loved how I looked in them.

I remember very little from my interactions with the trainer but I remember him saying I was good at anticipating shots. I remember he told me to take things one step at a time. Footwork was important so he always told me to run to where the ball would be and he'd praise me for simply reaching the area the ball would land. Next thing he taught me was that I has to extend my arms ar far as I could. Smashing came next and he always told me it was better I hit the net than have it go too high above the net. I looked forward to badminton sessions with my mom then all of a sudden, it stopped.

I had finally connected with a sport and because my mom's friends got busy, it had come to an abrupt end. I was sad sure, but this didn't last long as I was able to find a group of friends of my own to play badminton with. Nigel and I became classmates and he was looking for a group and I said I'd love to play. Now, me and Nigel weren't even in the same circle of friends. We just happened to share this one passion. Not too many people played badminton that time so we actually had to ask a teacher to play with us. As for the fourth person, we had to force one of our friends every week to join us even if they didn't know how to play. After some time, our group was more or less the same - Me, Nigel, Mr. Rivera (Buddy), and either Vienna or Sheena. This group continued until the end of high school.

When it was time for me to leave Cebu for college, it would be a temporary good bye to my badminton buddies. I did try out of the Engineering Varsity Badminton Team but that didn't work out so hot for me. So during college, I didn't have much badminton time. Every time I came home though, two things were sure to happen. I'd meet with my barkada but only two of them would show up and the old badminton group would get back together. It wasn't until my 4th visit that I realized none of them played when I wasn't around even if I was the only one who left Cebu for college. lol.

After college, I got a job at a big development company and they had an existing badminton group and just like that, I was back in the game. It felt great being back on the court and smashing balls to my heart's content (Just realized that there doesn't exist a way to say this without sounding even slightly dirty). I did have to leave that job but I continued to play with them at this old badminton court in Makati. They played much better than what was used to and that always excited me.

At my new job, I found out that a few of the people there played badminton as well although they did so very casually. I asked if I could join and we all had a blast. Word spread that the group was growing and even new employees were joining in - new employees, who had been members of their college's varsity team. I got excited every time I got to play with them. That was a good solid two years of badminton fun.

I had to leave and come back home though and it was back to my old badminton group. Nigel, Buddy, and a fourth person, who we'd have to scour our contacts for. Alas, time had taken its toll on us. People were getting busier and busier and that left me again without a group.

I did try out other forms of physical exercise like going to the gym and swimming but without the thrill of a competitive game, there wasn't as much drive for it. When I started to ask my girlfriend out on dates, I found out she likes to run so that became our regular date; a running date. After a few months, I asked her if she wanted to try playing badminton and she just said she didn't want to play. It broke my heart a bit but that wasn't going to be a deal breaker. Eventually, I was able to convince her to try it out. I think she still didn't enjoy it as much until a time when some of her friends started joining us or when we would join her friends.

It then quickly became a weekly thing for us. We play every Sunday morning and have breakfast after. Just recently however, we started joining a group of badminton players on Tuesday nights. While we can't attend every week, we join when we can and since they're more advanced in their skills, it makes me want to improve even more. This is the first time I've thought about getting a new racket as well as new shoes.

Badminton has been a part of my life for the past fifteen years and still enjoy every second of it. Whether I'm playing with new players who are still learning the basics, or playing against pros who could teach me a thing or two, I enjoy every second I'm on the court. And one thing I love even more about badminton now, is that my girlfriend has become as much a badminton addict as I am now. Nevermind his stomach, the true way to a man's heart is thru his hobbies.

I'm really happy how far me and badminton have gone and I can't wait for what the future has in it for me. This is the sport that I can honestly say I can play for hours and hours without getting tired.

Should I go back to Japan?

I just posted a week and half ago about my recently concluded Australia trip. More recently, I was able to visit the International Travel Festival (ITF2017) in Ayala Center Cebu last July 14-16 and although I don't have any personal vacation trips planned in the near future, I took a look around and asked myself, "Should I spend this money on traveling or keep it for my future?"

Traveling doesn't come cheap. Airfare is already pricey by itself (this is only a small percentage of the total expenses) and you'd need to book a hotel, spend for food, museum tours, train rides, etc. I'm still paying for some of the things I bought in Australia using my credit card. I've even told myself on numerous occasions that even if someone offers to pay for my airfare, I still wouldn't travel. Sometimes, airplane seat sales give you this manufactured need to travel and spend money which could be used elsewhere.

My sister has asked me yet again to go with them on their trip to Japan. I'd personally want to try traveling to Osaka for a change but she's got her heart set on Tokyo and I can't blame her. Her kids really want to try going to Tokyo Disneyland.

During the ITF2017, I was looking around for airplane ticket rates, hotel rates, train tickets, amusement park tickets, everything and I might not be ready to go for another major trip so soon. I've already got a Bali trip coming up - I'm excited for this one since it's another country I still haven't been to. But Tokyo, Japan for the third time in my life might be stretching it. I still think it'll be a great experience but I feel like I'd be looking at the same painting from a slightly different angle as compared to saving it up for another future trip where I could see another painting altogether.

I'm going to have to break the news to my sister soon that I won't be able to go with her on their Japan trip. Unless, some generous soul out there would like to sponsor my entire trip, then that would change everything (This has happened before and I was packing my bags right away. Lol).

Call me a cheapskate but yeah, money isn't unlimited for me and I'd rather save my money for a rainy day than spend it enjoying myself.

So that's all. I really do hope I can go to Japan this March and I'll be praying that some generous soul (like my dad) will sponsor my trip as a gift to my sister; I'm their tour guide when they go abroad. It'll also be my first time to get the chance to see some cherry blossoms.

Capital T for Truth

Disclaimer: This is not a post about a specific religious or political view. This is just a post about what I believe Truth to be

Back in college a good friend posted on Facebook asking if there existed a Truth with a capital T. A lot of our other friends answered right away that there was no Truth. Each person has his/her truth but no one could say for certainty that one person's truth should be imposed on someone else's truth. I found this very disturbing especially coming from a lot of my friends who were intelligent individuals. I don't usually comment on posts but I made the exception in this case.

I forgot what I said exactly but it came in the form of, "Yes, there is a Truth. Everything we believe in like Science and Religion exist because there exists an absolute Truth which we feel the need to understand.

She quickly messaged me saying that she knew even before she posted that question and I would be among the people who would say outright that Truth with a capital T existed and she wanted to talk about it. Looking back, I could've explained it better but I was still happy with the response I gave her. I could sense she was truly curious and wanted to know more on the subject. (I think I'll ask her again now, if she believes in a Truth)

I chanced upon this image that one of my friends posted. It illustrated his belief in relativism. He captioned it, "We look at one thing with different perspectives. No one can claim monopoly of truth."

I actually like this image as it explains pretty well what absolute truth is and what it is not. One view of this picture says someone can see the Truth and say, "It's a blue circle." and another person can say, "No, it's an orange square." My friend's point in his post was that both persons can't claim to tell the other they're wrong. Instead, both of them can claim to be true; thus, truth is relative.

I'd like to tweek the text in this picture a little bit. Instead of saying, "This is true," I'd like to replace it with, "This is a perception of truth." There still exists only one Truth but there exist an infinite ways of viewing the Truth incorrectly or shall I say, incompletely.

I'd like to use an example, the Earth's movement around the Sun. Before the Copernican model became accepted, a geocentric model of the universe was considered true. It was never true but that was our perception of the truth given out limited knowledge. In fact, saying that truth is relative, pretty much disregards everything that science sets out to do, which is to get a clearer picture of this absolute Truth. You might say that before, we saw cylinder as only a blue circle and after numerous scientific discoveries, we discover, "Oh! This blue circle can actually sometimes be an orange square and sometimes, it's a mix of both." My point in this is to say, that we may never get to see the actual Truth of the universe's workings but with every scientific breakthrough, we get a clearer and clearer understanding of the Truth and our perception of the Truth comes closer and closer to the actual Truth. Certainly, there also exist people who insist on their perception of the Truth to be true even when they're clearly false (i.e., Flat Earth Society - I still can't believe these people exist.)

Well, how about religion? So far, my very few examples only include scientific truths not religious or philosophical ones. I say the same line of thinking. There exists a Truth about religion. All religions have a perception of the truth which may or may not represent the truth well. Some may even deny the Truth outright and pass it off their perception of Truth.

I will concede that every person will have a different perception of truth. But to say that each of those perceptions is in fact true, would be a step back in our intelligence. Imagine if we allow scientific facts or for that matter, mathematical facts to be subjected to relativism. "This is my truth and you can't impose your truth on me," is a statement I hear a lot and it sounds great but can have a lot of dangerous effects.

This exists a Truth, people and the closer everyone knows this Truth, the better for mankind.

My thoughts on the LTFRB vs Grab and Uber Drama

LTFRB has ordered a hug chunk of Grab and Uber operators to cease operations starting July 26 and their reason is hilarious. Their main reason for this decision is to ensure the safety of the riding public.

This, among all other things, is what's fueling the anger towards the LTFRB. It's as if the members of the LTFRB live in a sort of naive bubble where they say, jeepneys, buses, taxis are all registered with us therefore they must be safe! Nothing could be further from the truth. I've never been personally victimized in these modes of transportation but I definitely do not feel any safer knowing they're registered. I've been swindled by taxi drivers. Buses feel like a roller coaster they move in the highway. Jeepneys stop where they please and are often the causes of traffic especially in Cebu. These, the LTFRB should realize, are all safety risks and hazards. These problems have been around for as long as I can remember and there was no no word of concern from LTFRB on these issues.

I must add, however, that Cebu Taxi drivers are probably the best ones in the Philippines. They don't refuse any fare, they give proper change, they don't drive you around the block several times to get the most out of the ride, and they have a little blue light on the top of their cab as a form of silent distress signal in case something life threatening does indeed happen. Manila, this is how you guys should do taxis. Cebu buses, on the other hand, are a different animal and I'd just depress myself talking about that animal.

I understand the LTFRB's reasons for its decision. Let's call a spade a spade and unregistered Grab and Uber cars are just an app based colorum, which is still illegal. Now, why they chose to go after the safest and most reliable form of colorum is beyond me and I won't even start to try to rationalize it (actually, I will but in a separate post). Uber and Grab need to have play within what is legal if they want to continue operations in the country, which some of their drivers have fulfilled.

On the other side of the same coin, the government needs to step up their game and LTFRB needs to act on the permits of the individual drivers. Uber and Grab both offer a different way to get around the city and one which is very accessible to foreign tourists, who may already have the Uber app on their smartphones.

In my humble opinion, I'd like to forth several things the government must do to win back the favor of the riding public:

1. Enforce all traffic laws strictly.
2. Reeducate the public about the correct traffic laws and the fact that they're LAWS and not suggestions.
3. Make ride sharing legal but in a separate category as other PUVs. Tax them if you need to!
4. Modernize mass public transportation. Wouldn't it be cool to pay your jeepney fare through a tap of a card which you can reload at any 7-11? Seriously, why aren't we doing this yet.
5. Lessen road widening projects and encourage more mass transportation projects
6. Stop renewing the permits of old and dilapidated jeeps, cars (even private ones), and buses
7. Put a stop to all illegal forms of public transport (colorum)

I'll stop my list here but that's were I'm at. Did I wish they did these actions in order? Yes, but in any case, I'm still glad they started with something even if I don't agree with it.

To close, I'll just say that if Grab and Uber are indeed considered colorum, then I don't see them actually fading away any time soon. Our traffic enforcers are all too used to this kind of thing. Starting July 26, they'll apprehend any Uber and Grab drivers on the road. This will probably go all the way until August 25. After this, these enforcers will just ask for an amount from the driver so they won't be caught. After a few more weeks, they won't even catch the drivers anymore and we'll be back to where we started.

This, my friends, is why we don't have nice things.

My Aussie Trip

Last October, me and a friend of mine, Hamilton (Ham for short), bought tickets to Australia. Our primary purpose was to visit my best friend, Lucky. Our secondary purpose was to go sight seeing in the land down under. My tertiary purpose: to visit a country outside Asia.

Yup! This was my first trip away from Asia.

My family wasn't big on traveling when I was young so the furthest I've been up until I went to high school was Leyte. So you can imagine the leap to Australia was a big thing for me. It would mark a lot of firsts in my life:

• First time outside Asia
• First time in the southern hemisphere
• First time to travel to a country during the winter season
• First time I'd see/touch snow
• First time I flew domestic in a foreign land
• First time I'd travel abroad for more than a week

You get the picture. I often say to my friends that whenever I travel to an unfamiliar place, the sense of wonder in my eyes never goes away. I get amazed by the silliest things when I travel and Australia was no different.

I'll be talking about five aspects of my travels... you know, just so I have a guide while writing this post. I'll be talking about the people, the food, the things to do, the sights to see, and one of my favorite things about travelling abroad, the transportation system (I'm not even joking about this one).

People

When we landed in Sydney airport, I can't say I was overwhelmed by their friendliness. I guess there exists a natural law that prohibits immigration personnel from being too friendly. Don't get me wrong; they weren't rude, they were just not friendlier than normal. Me and Ham took an Uber to Central station where we'd meet up with Lucky. The Uber driver was nice enough but it was when we were waiting in the station that I met my first friendly Australian.

She had seen me and Ham with our big bags and asked where we came from. We told her we came from the Philippines and she went on to talk about someone she knows who knows someone from the Philippines. Australians love their small talk and even though we had to leave shortly after we started talking, I won't forget that friendly old woman.

Australians are just naturally friendly, I guess. If they're not, they're just pleasant people to interact with. My only idea of how Australians are was from Masterchef Australia and I always said they seemed like the nicest people... and they are!

From time to time, I'd interact with an immigrant but I can say that the locals are the ones who are really nice people. I'm used to going into a restaurant/fast food chain and being greeted with, "Good morning, sir! Welcome to _________." That's nice and all but to be greeted with a "Hey, guys! How are you?" just seems more natural and genuine. I even felt more "peaceful" when they'd say, "Peace be with you" as mass. By the way, special mention to the priest in the church in Melbourne. He took time to talk to me and ask me about my vacation so far. Ahhhh. Australians, don't change.

Food

This is a tricky one. I didn't know much about Australian food except fish and chips and Vegemite so I don't think there's much in the way of good Australian food. Or maybe I just didn't try it. What I did get to try was authentic Korean cooking as well as Japanese cooking. Korean grill, Raw Beef, Ramen, Sushi, Sashimi, Donburi. These are the things that make me happy.

Now, I must say that Sydney has a lot of Asians. Vietnamese, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese and Filipinos are all over the place. I guess this explains why I noticed Asian cooking more than Western cooking. I did get to try a kangaroo burger, which they say has leaner meat. I couldn't notice the difference much compared to pork. But I noticed they use a lot of beet root in their food. It was a good change for me so at least I got to try out a different kind of burger before leaving Australia.

Street food isn't something you see so often so as soon as I realized that this wasn't going to be a food tripping travel, I was happy and content with the next few items I was looking forward to see in a foreign country.

Things to do

This was a big issue for us when we were planning our trip. Our original tickets had us in Sydney for 11 days. Cebu Pacific then moved our return flight by 2 days so we had to fill 13 days with activities for us to do.Technically one day wouldn't count as it was the day of our flight back home but still. This was not a small task. As a guide, this was how our trip to Australia was planned:

Day 0 - Layover in Manila
Days 1 to 3 - Sydney
Days 4 to 7 - Melbourne
Days 7 to 9 - Sydney
Days 9 to 10 - Thredbo
Days 10 to 12 - Sydney
Day 13 - Go back home :-(

Our fear was basically this: we'd have 2 to 4 days where we'd either have nothing to do, or spend more than our allotted travel budget to fill these days with things to do. Fortunately, we didn't have this problem. We had a total of 8 whole days in Sydney alone and I can't think of a dull time. We were either trekking, walking in the parks, window shopping, going to the beach. Museums were plentiful in Australia but we just opted out of those activities. We did go to a zoo and luckily for us, Taronga Zoo was still celebrating the birth of a baby elephant and I got to see one before it turned one month old.

Just talking a walk in a park or on any of the trails, you'd find little pieces of art. One in particular captured my eye as it showed a free diver and a scuba diver and I enjoy both these activities. Public performances are a common sight in the streets of Australia - a singer, dancer, contortionist, juggler, and even magicians. These performances are really nice to watch and observe and the best thing about them is you don't need to look for them. You, literally, just bump into them.

We did set a day or two for Thredbo. I was already in a country experiencing winter and I was not going to let the trip finish without getting my first hand experience with snow. I could've opted to try out skiing or snow boarding but truth be told, I wasn't in the mood for wiping out during my first snowy experience so I contented myself with sliding down a kiddie slope in a toboggan and getting my picture taken with a snowman.

Yup! Snow. Snow made 5 hour drive to Thredbo and 5 hour drive back worth it.

Sights to see

We had lucked out when we booked the tickets last October to schedule our trip during Vivid Sydney! The Sydney Opera House looked it's best during Vivid Sydney. Even Taronga Zoo had a bunch of installments for Vivid Sydney and although we didn't stay for the night, they still looked pretty awesome! Harbour Bridge looked amazing on our first night out.

We did get the chance to see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge at different times/angles - at night during Vivid Sydney, in the morning on a ferry, during sunset from Mrs. Macquarie's chair, up close and personal when I peaked inside - and each time, it looked new and took a little bit of my breath away. I was seeing a landmark that defined Australia in my head and it felt unreal that I was seeing this structure up close.

Our brief visit to Melbourne saw us drive through the Great Ocean Road on our way to see the Twelve Apostles. Again, it was another sight worth the long drive. One could really appreciate the forces of nature that shaped the apostles over the years. I'm actually curious to find out what they would look like in 20 or 30 years. Many tourists might even be in awe as seeing the Pacific Ocean, looking into the distance and realizing how vast that ocean is but for me, it wasn't something especially breathtaking; Siargao's view of the Pacific spoiled me, you could say.

We also got to see some other things like the Bathing Boxes on Brighton beach, the Eureka Skydeck, and the Etihad Stadium. I'm clumping these three together coz even if I did enjoy our visit to them, they paled in comparison to everything else we'd seen in Australia (i.e., snow. Yes, everything takes a backseat to snow).

One last place I'd like to mention however is St. Mary's Cathedral. We were supposed to hear mass here one time but our schedule forced us to hear mass in another church. This place was amazing. I'm not going to pretend I know the architectural terms for this style so I'll be honest in saying I got my info from Wikipedia. The Gothic architecture just looked so stunning! I love the churches here in the Philippines but this one just had a different feel to it. Inside was so peaceful and solemn, it made me want to pray. I even noticed the some other tourists came in and offered their prayers as well. I'll always think what it would feel like to hear mass there. Oh well, that's something to do for my next visit.

Transportation System

Call me a geek but I seriously geek out over a foreign country's transportation system and I try to memorize it. I get amazed how seamless everything seems to be. A quick check online shows that you need to ride a train to this station then transfer to a bus when you get there before you finally reach your destination. Here, you'd have to think, "The train will cost me X pesos and the bus will cost me another X pesos. When I get there, the jeep will cost another X pesos." There, the system was so ingenious.

It'll cost you X AUD to go from point A to B only, Y AUD from B to C only, and Z AUD from C to D. But if you plan to go from A to D while simply passing through B and C, it'll charge you a totally separate fare which is less than (X + Y +Z) AUD. I still don't get how they do that but the geek in me wants to try to program that thing.

Of course, this thing isn't isolated to Australia. Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan all have these systems in place but Sydney's train system was probably the most complex. I was able to understand Tokyo's trains pretty well and those were in a language I didn't understand. But had I been left behind on a platform in Sydney, there would probably be a 75% chance I'd get lost or ride a train that I shouldn't. This is because the train tracks in Sydney service more than one route.

In Singapore, for example, if you ride the purple line, you'll end up on the end of the purple line and a quick look at your little guide will tell you exactly what station that will be. Sydney is different, some trains look like they'd go the same direction but diverge upon reaching a certain stop. And say, you miss your stop, it's not as simple as going to the opposite side of the platform and taking that one back to your stop. I get why this complication exists.

Sydney has all its trains and they're all interconnected so seamlessly it doesn't become as tourist friendly as the ones in Hong Kong where there are signs everywhere which practically tell you, "You are now standing on the platform where the Red train will stop." Not to say it's more complicated. They actually have a phone app where all you need to do is enter your starting point and destination and it tells you exactly what time you need to be a platform 18 to catch the express train to your next stop where you'll have to transfer to platform 4 where you'll have to wait 3 minutes to ride the train which will bring you to your destination. Pretty handy, I'd say.

Melbourne, on the other hand (from what I saw, at least), went with trams with some train stations for further distances. They even had a Free Tram Zone which we used to our heart's content to get around because free things make everything better. They had the same issue I had with Sydney trains in that I couldn't tell for certain whether a tram would move straight or turn at the corner. As a result, we did have to leave a tram we didn't need to since we didn't know which way it would go. As it was my first time riding trams in a city, I still enjoyed the experience very much.

We didn't ride buses all that much but we did few times. I was impressed with how strict the time table was for their buses. If the time table said the bus would arrive at 3:47PM at that stop, it would. I wish I could've ridden the buses more in Sydney. My only other point of comparison would be taking the buses on EDSA and I think we can all agree that isn't the most pleasant experience.

Wrapping up

I'm actually surprised at how this post unfolded. The transportation system in Australia took up the most space. I must really be that kind of geek. Lol.

I really enjoyed my Aussie trip and I wouldn't mind going back there again and again. I've never said this about another country but I wouldn't mind living there. My heart is still stuck in the Philippines so I'm not leaving any time soon but if I were to live abroad, I'd definitely consider Australia the most.

The Friend Zone

While I was out with my friends last week, we tackled one topic which I thought everyone felt the same about. The Valentines Jollibee commercials especially brought this topic to the table. This, of course, is the FRIEND ZONE.

I have some experience on the friendzone as I have been on both sides. I'm not narrating them though as this post would be much longer than expected if I do. I'm here to talk about the feelings that go through being placed in the friend zone and placing someone in the friend zone. Spoiler alert. Neither feels good.

Being friend zoned usually happens to guys so it's guys who usually feel the "ouch" of friendzoning. My girlfriend and another girl in our group said they don't mind being friend zoned coz "at least you still have each other." The other guys in the group, however didn't like the idea so much. If they were friend zoned, they would just accept it but keep their distance from the girl. They can' just hang out like old friends anymore. What's worse when you remain friends, is when you see the girl you really like / love start a relationship with someone else and you're supposed to be okay with it since you're her "friend".

I thought about why guys are usually on the receiving end of the friend zone. The answer to this question came to me over the weekend where everyone was sharing their personal love story aches. We ended the night realizing two things.

1.     Guys assume.
2.     Girls overthink.

The assuming nature of guys explains how when a girl does something nice for us, we assume that that girl likes us. We might get jealous if she decides to do these sweet little things with other guys around us. Ask a guy about his weekend and he'll assume right away you're interested. Asking a guy to help you out with whatever little project you have is usually taken as, "I really like you," the idea being, "Why does she want me to do this and not any other guy?" I got a taste of this back when I first asked my girlfriend out. She had to bring a plus one to their team building outing and she asked me to go with her. Back then, I didn't know if she liked me back and this is cemented the idea that she liked me. On our way home, we bought McFlurry from McDonalds and seeing I couldn't feed myself since I was driving, she offered to feed me. In my mind, this made the idea of "This girl really likes me," a FACT and no longer just a speculation.

A year later I found out she only asked me to go with her because all of her other friends were busy or couldn't go for one reason or another. And the reason she fed me ice cream? She just felt sorry I couldn't feed myself since she was enjoying her ice cream a whole lot. According to her, that was in no way a way to make me know how she felt coz during that time, I was still not someone she liked... that way.

Compare that to when I first asked her out. I started sending her messages asking about her workout routine and all. She overthought this but she never assumed I liked her and only really knew for sure when I actually asked her out. Guys assume. Girls overthink.

It's because of this assuming nature of guys that we usually feel like a girl is into us so we give it a shot and turns out, she was just being friendly.

Tiz a dark a place, the Friend Zone. Once in a while, we'll hear of news of a guy who broke out of the zone but most likely the stories you'll hear are about being stuck in the friend zone. It's usually sad but like everything else, you have to get up and move on. The friend zone does have a way of making some guys more aggressive the second time around. It has the opposite effect, I've noticed, on girls. Girls build their walls really high once they've tried being in the zone.

Most of us have been there. The secret is to avoid a second or thir trip to the zone. Once is hopefully enough for most of us to know how to avoid the trap altogether. Maybe it's actually a good thing it exists. We learn a lot during our tenure in the friend zone - Do's and don'ts. Just remember to take those notes to heart.

My take on the Road Rage shooting incident

Last Sunday, a piece of news got our regular group chat abuzz for quite some time. One of my friends posted in our group chat the video of the Road Rage shooting incident which happened on the early morning of Sunday, March 19, 2017. He then asked us if the guy in the video looked familiar. Indeed, he did look familiar. We had doubts at first but if we were right we had gone to school with this guy and have at one time or another, exchanged greetings with him. I had personally never been too close with him and the most he got out of me was probably a nod.

The next few hours saw our fears confirmed. His name was posted all over social media and the man hunt started. His house and condo were raided and a hold departure order was issued. Monday saw a reward being posted by Mayor Tommy Osmeña for any information on his whereabouts.Tuesday morning saw his surrender to the police and the rest of the day was all fan fare showing his mugshots, fingerprinting and even a video of him sitting in his prison cell. He also had his time in the spotlight when he was asked about his defense.

This morning, I saw posts from a lot of my friends who were close with him defending him (naturally, you don't abandon your friends during their time of need). Some people online are calling him a "brat" while others are calling for the full video with full audio to be released so we'd know the "full story". Some are saying the nurse who was shot was the original aggressor and that the shooter acted out of self defense. So what really happened that night? What happened before the cameraman pressed record on his phone? So many questions and for some reason, we all want to get the answers so we can form our own judgement.

This is all so very troublesome to me. While I agree the original video (if one indeed exists) should be used as evidence, it is not for us, the viewers to decide whether he was in the right or wrong. It is for the courts. I agree that he should go though the process just like anyone else who did something (or didn't do anything) against the law. It's due process. I know it's hard for us, Filipinos to accept the court's decisions on pretty much anything as money is a very powerful witness in our courts. However, that's really all we have. Should he be allowed bail? Should he be slapped with jail time or just a fine? All of these are for the courts to decide really.

The one thing I find funny online though is people clamoring for "equal treatment" or "no special treatment". I agree with this idea. Rich, poor, American, Filipino, Chinese, college graduate, or street vendors should be treated equally in the eyes of the law. Then it goes downhill from here with video footage of him in his prison cell being posted as "news". The guy is still a human being. He's in a cell now and awaiting charges. I prefer to withhold my judgement of people since I know I for one am not perfect and can never claim to be.

My only wish is for all of this to be put to rest. If this can be handled quietly, so much the better. I hope both parties learn from this experience.

That is all...

My Valentines' Day

It's Feb 14 once again. The day for love. The day for being with your loved ones. If you're single, it's a day you spend with your other single friends coz the ones with significant others will be out tonight or at the very least, will have plans.

Back when I was single, I've always considered V-day as a day where restaurants are packed and flower shops have the license to jack up their prices. But I've always just decided to enjoy the day and what it has to offer (when I could) or avoid the day altogether just escape the traffic and expensive meals the day comes with.

The first time I decided to just enjoy the day and what it had to offer, me and a friend decided to go to the UP Fair together. We didn't have girlfriends at the time and so we just decided to go to the UP Fair on Valentines' day, as if it were a normal day where we would have some roommate bonding. We did have a good time bonding though. We talked about the pressure that the day brings. We agreed on three things that night:

1. That we would never allow Valentines day to pressure us as single guys
2. That if we did get girlfriends, we'd let the day pass as a normal day and reserve the romantic stuff for other days
3. That we had no idea how to enjoy the UP Fair; we decided to call it a night at 10pm (ok, this one is off topic but I remember this so well. lol)

For the most time, we stuck with this formula for our Valentines day. We hung out with friends and that was it. When the traffic turned to be unbearable, we'd stay in and have a few drinks. That was our escape from Valentines Day. Every year, I've always had quite a number of single guy and girl friends so I never felt lonely on this day.

Two years ago though, I stopped being single. I tried to sell my girlfriend the idea of letting Valentines' day pass by without any plans. She did not like it one bit. We didn't end up fighting but we ended up planning the whole day together; our first Valentines' was a Sunday. It was fun and I now get the appeal that most couples find in Valentines day. My girlfriend has this idea that if we were to celebrate Valentines, it should be something that isn't typical - meaning, not just a fancy dinner. Last year, we went wake boarding and this year (we celebrated early), we went trekking.

We had a great day! I can't lie. I genuinely enjoyed the day. By nature, however, I am just a home body. I prefer to stay at home and enjoy the comfort of my four walls. I think I'll be selling her the idea of a simple in-house celebration. I mean, I'm all for celebrating but what made Feb 14 the day to celebrate?

When I was single, Feb 14 didn't come with any expectations. Now, that I'm not, the expectations can be a bit daunting. My girlfriend just told me a story of her friend who always expects something to be prepared on Valentines by her husband and always gets disappointed that he doesn't prepare anything. The cycle happens every year. The girls gets disappointed, they fight, the guy says that he's still as loyal as ever to her, they kiss and make up. The guy even goes on to say that some guys who prepare so much for Valentines might even be disloyal to their partners and that she should be happy he's not like that.

I for one don't compare myself to how other guys prepare their plans. I do, however, compare myself to my last year self. I constantly try to outdo what my last year self did the previous year and since I poured my heart out into last year's Valentines, I had to step up my game this year. In the end, it's all worth it. Seeing her smile at the end of the night. Our pictures from the day didn't disappoint either. We had one of our most memorable experience to date! However, I'd want to try staying in one time. Like a movie marathon with popcorn and ice cream and a couple of two player games (we can get pretty competitive). These kinds of activities are easier on the pocket and definitely more intimate as you don't have another couple just a feet feet away from you.

My sister told me this year that her favorite Valentines date was with her and her husband having dinner in the garden. They had a candle lit dinner and a table set up and everything. A few feet away from their table, a smaller table was setup almost identical to their own for their two sons. They all dressed up, went to the garden and had an intimate family dinner.

I see what my sister liked in that memory of their Valentines dinner. She had her husband and her two boys there. That's all she really wants for Valentines day. Flowers, chocolates, dinner out and gifts are all nice bonuses but one thing that should always be present on Valentines day is your presence for your significant other. Whether you're in Cebu's most expensive restaurant or just at home playing board games, the point of Valentines is to be present for each other. That's all anyone ever wants on this day.

Traveling the world

Ahhhh... traveling.

Working in a resort, I experience a lot of travelers - all are guests are travelers! I like seeing them come in and out of the resort doing all the touristy stuff in Cebu. I really envy the travelers I see everyday. I love traveling. I really do. I love being placed in a country unfamiliar to me and I have to navigate my way through it. I often joke to my friends that my brain is a GPS. The people I travel with (friends or family) get shocked when I tell them exactly where to go, which turns to take and the schedules of things like the lights shows and trains. I really just rely on google for my information which I research ahead of time - that includes google maps!

So when I tell my friends that I've been to less countries than the number of fingers on one hand, they don't believe me. They even try to look for tells on my face that say I'm lying to them but never find any. That's coz it's true! Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore are the only other countries I've been to. I really want to add more countries to my short list but I doubt that's happening any time soon. I've been ton Hong Kong and Singapore twice, China once and just last August, me and my friends visited Japan (it was my second time as well).

So imagine my excitement when my friend who's now based in Australia, invited me over this coming June! And that's winter for them so it'll be my first taste of winter. I've told myself that the next country I visit will be one I have never been to and all was going according to plan. I've rejected some fun trips (even free trips like traveling with the folks to Japan so they'd have a - ahem - cargador). Australia was my next stop and nothing was gonna stop me.

That is until my sister said she wanted to see the cherry blossoms in Japan this April. Conversation went something like this:

Sister 1 : Jon, what's in Japan that the kids will want to do?
Me: Tokyo Disneyland
Sister 1: Okay. And when will the cherry blossoms bloom?
Me: Around March to April
Sister 1: Okay. Coz we're planning on taking the kids to Japan to Disneyland. Wanna come? (She was asking my other sister)
Sister 2: Let me check my schedule...
Sister 1: Jon, you're coming with us coz we need someone to tour us around.
Me: o.O

I love Japan. I can honestly say I'd love to go back there again. But I had just been there a few months ago and revisiting sites I've been to just a few months back might just bore me. I've tried selling the idea of Korea and Lotte World or Osaka and Universal Studios (If I'm going back to Japan, visiting another region would at least be a level up), but I think the kids' hearts are set on a Disneyland.

No doubt I'm gonna enjoy traveling with my family if our trip indeed does push through but I have half a mind to skip the trip altogether. I travel to gain new experiences and if I'm just going to do a repeat performance of my latest Japan trip, it might just not be worth it.

I'm still super stoked on Australia and will probably tire myself out visiting every nook and cranny of that place. And looking for snow. That's a need for a Filipino boy who has never seen or felt snow in his life. This is gonna be fun!