Sounds Nice, Right?

This post will be one where I tackle some laws or pieces of legislation that sound really good but have unintended negative effects. These effects should be enough for us to give these a second thought.

1. Three months maternity leave - Let's start with a big one. This is great for employees! However, employers will feel the burden on this law when their female employees decide to start families. What's the unintended ill effect of this? Simple. Employers will be less inclined to hire female employees. It's not discrimination. It's just math. If two young applicants apply for the same position (one male and one female), keeping all other factors constant, there is no reason why the company shouldn't hire the male applicant over the female one. Reason? Cost! A female employee will cost more to a company as it will have to pay her while hiring another person to do her job for her during her time off.
2. CARP - oh CARP. CARP's aim was to let the farmers own the land they till. Sounds good right? Until you realize that CARP has made it so that big farms that used to produce lots of food now aren't able to produce as much. CARP distributes the land without much thought to the equipment and labor needs for each plot of land. What you end up with is many parcels of land unable to produce to the levels they used to.
3. SOGIE or (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression) - The anti-discrimination bill in congress is one I'm unsure we really even need and one whose implementation might be difficult in light of provisions on religious freedom. In job hiring, I don't know of businesses who discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity expression. This bill makes out the LGBT community to be weaklings who somehow need this kind of law in place and would actually further divide us. Filipinos are generally very accepting of the LGBT community.
4. End ENDO - gasp! Yeah, endo. Years back, I would have fully supported the End Endo movement. Endo might take up another future post all for its own. For now though, here's how Endo could possibly have some ill effects. Regularizing employees is expensive. They have benefits and it makes terminating them difficult if they ever become problematic in the future. What are businesses to do with growing costs of labor? They can go in one of two directions. Raise prices or Go automated. Going automated is what I see the bigger companies doing in order to keep prices low which would all but assure that smaller companies who raise prices would simply lose the competition.
5. Anti-Political Dynasty - for this, I've already made a post about this but in short, an anti-political dynasty law could possibly deprive us of having two completely competent politicians who just happen to be in the same family. I've also explained in an earlier post how to silently kill political dynasties without attacking it directly.

These are just some of the laws in the pipelines I decided to cover in this article. I could be wrong but I just want to put it out there.

Dice Game Probabilities

Every year, around September, the Filipino Chinese community plays a dice game. I didn't grow up with this tradition so it was a real shocker for me. I didn't understand how rolling dice could be so fun. Nikki told me, "What's not to like, you roll a dice and you get a prize!" Now, I'll admit, the whole affair really is fun. People can really get into the spirit of trying to affect the roll by touching someone who's been lucky, or rolling the dice slower or faster, or not looking while rolling. People's superstitions come alive when they roll the die with their left hand when they've had an unlucky streak rolling with their right.

Obviously, the best roll would get the first prize, second best combination gets the second prize and so on and so forth. The winning combinations are set in stone and one need only consult Google to get a copy of the winning combos. Common wisdom would dictate that the rarer combinations would get the better prizes (i.e., a four of a kind would have a better prize than two fours, for example). As such, when I asked a friend how many of each prize to prepare, she gave me a very easy way to remember:

• 1st prize - 1
• 2nd prize - 2
• 3rd prize - 4
• 4th prize - 8
• 5th prize - 16
• 6th prize - 32

Basically just double the previous number. She also said that this isn't set in stone and you can have more than 1 first prize or more of the 5th and 6th prizes as consolation prizes. I generally like to prepare 20 of the 5th prize and up to 50 of the 6th prize - you see, I'm quite unlucky in these games and so I want to at least stock up on the consolation prizes.

In the few years I've played this dice game, however, I've always noticed something odd. I noticed that the last prize to be snatched up is almost always the 4th prize (you need to roll a four of a kind to get this one). The third prize combination (three fours) somehow get rolled way more often than the fourth prize combination (four of a kind). I had a gut feeling there was something wrong. The math wasn't mathing. So I started doing calculations on the probabilities but I realized I had forgotten my lessons in combinations and permutations and so my gut feeling remained a gut feeling.

That changed when I started using ChatGPT as my personal assistant. I threw my question to ChatGPT and all I needed to do was check if the math was sound. It was indeed and I was in fact correct. In fact, winning the 3rd prize is 1.67x more likely than winning the 4th prize. I then asked ChatGPT why a higher premier was put on rolling 3 fours than rolling a four of a kind. The reply was pretty straight forward - symbolism trumps rarity. The number four was simply given more weight.

I'm not one to change up the order - this is tradition after all. So I thought the best way around this is to simple change up how many of each prize to prepare. Here is my proposal:

• 1st prize - 1 or 2
• 2nd prize - 3 or 4
• 3rd prize - 6 to 8
• 4th prize - 6 to 8
• 5th prize - 20 to 24
• 6th prize - 40 up

Most likely the 3rd prize will still be snatched up before the 4th prizes will be taken but at least the wait won't be that long. What do you think? Yay or Nay? Will my Chinese ancestors disown me for changing up the number of prizes? I hope not.

Pia had a little Accident

My little Piababy had a little accident at my parents' house last Sunday evening. It was nobody's fault really. She wasn't being careless, nobody pushed her, no sharp edges were exposed. It's on of those things that just happened. Pia got a cut on her eyelid after she fell after losing her balance and her eye hit the edge of a wooden coffee table.

Me and Nikki were in the dining table just chatting with my sisters when I heard a loud thud then we heard Pia cry. A crying baby is a normal sound for us to hear. What isn't normal for us is the sight of blood. We rushed to her and Nikki told me to stay back - she knows I get queasy at the sight of blood. I stayed back for a bit. I saw the blood on the cloth they were using to apply pressure and keep the wound clean but I dare not see the wound. While everyone around me was running around trying to help Pia, I knew I needed to face the music. I saw Pia's eye and there was a gash on her eyelid that was the length of half her eyelid. I made a conscious effort not to be affected. I had to man up for my kid. I was actually very shocked how much I could put my fears aside when it came to my kid. If it were anyone else, I'd have been vomiting. But my kid needed me to be strong for her so be strong for her, I did.

Nikki had contacted her aunt who was a doctor to ask her what we should do and I had tried to contact our pedia through messenger as she was out of the country. While we were trying to keep a level head, admittedly, we needed someone else to tell us that we needed to go to the Emergency Room. My sister had the driver prepare to leave right away. As I was in slippers and a sleeveless top, I decided to change for the hospital.

It might seem unimportant what I wear to the hospital when my kid's eye was bleeding but I thought this might be one of those times I can make a hospital trip a little bit more fun. I had recently bought socks that had a smiley on the side. I decided to wear those. I found a mickey mouse T-shirt I rarely wear as well and thought of wearing it to the hospital. After changing, we prepared some other things as we knew it would be a long night. We were then off to the hospital. We were told to go to Cebu Doctor's instead of the usual Chong Hua as Cebu Doc is the only ER with an Optha 24/7. We left the house around 7:30pm.

We arrived at the emergency room and as luck would have it, two other people came in with the same thing. All of them requiring a surgeon. We were number 3 meaning we'd have to wait for the first two to be resolved. It was going to be a long night indeed. We were given some gauze for the bleeding. We had to return several times as the gauze was getting soaked in blood.

Several doctors and nurses came in and out of our little ER room. The doctors would come in, take a photo of the gash and send it to their boss. Every time a doctor came in, I felt so hopeful she'd get treated soon but then someone else would come in and do the exact same thing - take a photo, send it to their boss and leave. I later found out that our case was being thrown around from one department to another. To be clear, I wasn't mad. I understand the doctors need to be think through these things and be careful for the sake of the patient. Was a surgeon needed to perform this? Or a pediatric surgeon? The gash is on her eye, does an Ophthalmologist handle this case? She had hid her eye but her eye is in her head, does the neurologist need to see her? In an ideal world, it would've been very quick and painless but I understand procedure.

The case did end up with the Ophthalmologist and as luck would have it, he was a friend of Nikki's brother! And we had hung out a few times. Another one of the doctors who assisted with Pia was a relative of mine. I'm ashamed to say I didn't recognize her but it's been more than 20 years since I last saw my relatives on that side of the family.

They basically gave us two options. The gash would need to be closed up but the option was to do local or general anesthesia. His preference was to do general anesthesia since it would assure that Pia wouldn't be moving so much during the procedure. But the whole thing would mean that she needed to be checked in and the procedure would happen the next day. It would obviously mean that she'd be on more anesthesia and that was something I wasn't willing to do at her age.

Local anesthesia meant she'd be up for the whole procedure but it meant having it closed up quicker and we could go home quicker as well. I knew Nikki well enough to know she'd just go with what the doctor recommends so I asked them to give us time to decide. To be fair, the doctors told us that one hybrid solution was to try local anesthesia and if we see it can't be done, we can opt for general later.

So they left us alone to discuss and I told Nikki that I wanted it stitched up ASAP. Local anesthesia all the way and that we wouldn't stop it for anything. We both agreed and Nikki went out to tell the doctors. Around this time, Pia wasn't as fussy anymore. She'd had a nap in the hospital bed and was being her more normal self. She saw my socks and laughed so much. She said, "Daddy, funny!" I'm glad to know my funny socks worked. Later she commented, "Mickey Mouse!" while pointing at my shirt. Glad to know my old shirt could still bring a smile to my baby's face.

Now, one of the medicines for Pia's surgery was something that could make her drowsy just so she doesn't fight back as much. They didn't have any on hand and it was the only thing they needed before we could start. I had to go out and buy this medicine from a pharmacy but the trickier part was I had to find a pharmacy that would still be open. It was already 11:30pm. I went out and found a pharmacy but they didn't have it. So I asked them what pharmacies would still be open at that time. The pharmacist told me that Mercury Drug on Fuente would still be open. So I called the driver and had him drive me to Fuente. I lined up and I was number 15. They were currently serving number 4 so I thought it would be some time before they'd get to me. I went out of Mercury and saw a Rose Pharmacy nearby and thought I'd go to Rose while waiting for my turn at Mercury. Good call too since the line at Rose was super short. The pharmacist was about to tell me she didn't have the medicine when Nikki called me saying they were able to borrow some from the ICU and to come back.

I was relieved to know the procedure would happen soon and that we didn't need to wait too long anymore. I got to our little ER room and Pia was still up though she wasn't at a hundred percent. It took some more time but the doctors came in and we would start the procedure. They wrapped Pia in a blanket so she wouldn't move so much but Nikki needed to hold her hands. I was in-charge of her legs which were trying to kick me away. My cousin doctor started putting some antiseptic on her eyelid and Pia just cried and screamed. She told Pia that it was just like make up. Pia then shouted, "Remove make up!!!" I thought that was such a smart thing to say for a kid who did not like what was going to happen next. My cousin doctor then held her head for the procedure to make sure her head stayed still. The Ophtha then started sewing up the gash.

Now, I can't give a blow by blow even if I wanted to. Watching a gash being sewn up is still something I don't have the guts to do. But Nikki watched the whole thing and she later said she was so amused as it was just like regular sewing. I was just concentrating on pinning Pia's legs down. I could feel her hands move as well so I proceeded to pin those down too. All I could hear was Pia screaming, "Enough na!" for the whole thing. I could see why some parents don't want to go through that. I still feel a bit guilty about letting her go through something like that. Her screams broke my heart like they could only hurt a dad's heart. She was going through some pain and suffering that I couldn't do anything about and I technically signed her up for it. People tell me I did was I thought was best but it still does sting.

The whole thing finished within 15 minutes. It was sewn up, patched up and everything and we just needed to pay and get the clearance before we'd leave. Pia was tired and so were we. The doctors commented how brave she'd been. She was screaming and everything but she didn't move her head much which made the doctors' job that much easier. I'm so proud of my Piababy. We got home 1:30am. We were all tired but Pia was fast asleep. Me and Nikki took a shower and got into bed. At 2am, I couldn't sleep. My brain was still up and it was hard to calm down. I found out the next morning that Nikki had slept at 4am.

The next day, in the office, Atsi commented that I should've stayed at home since I seemed like a zombie in the office. I went home that afternoon. Me and Nikki just caught up on sleep. For her part, Pia was afraid of anything needing to have her lie down like when we needed to apply an ointment to her eyelid. It would take many more days for her to realize it wasn't painful. What's amazing was that that day, Pia wanted to go to the mall and go shopping. We didn't but it was comforting to know she was quickly going back to her old self.

I won something athletic?

I've mentioned this so many times before but I was never the athletic kid. When choosing basketball teams, I would never be in the running. When intramurals rolls around, nobody ever thinks, "Hmmm, we should get Jon to pay (insert sport here)". I mean, I could run and swim fine but only as a survival skill.

I did pick up badminton way back in my high school days. We played very casually but it was a sport I could play decently. I've mentioned this in a previous post but throughout the years I did get much better. I could never beat varsity players who would play with us but I could hold my own. I could shock them from time to time with well placed shots and I get the occasional compliment so I have no complaints there.

Last July 17 and 18, HRRAC, an association of hotels in Cebu, held a badminton tournament among its members. We registered as we have always joined the badminton mixed double tournament. This happens only once every two years. The first time I joined with Nikki was in 2017 where we were eliminated pretty quickly. I don't recall winning any of our games. In 2019, we joined again and we proceeded to the final round where we placed 5th - better but still not a podium finish.

The next one should've been in 2021 but the pandemic postponed it three whole years. Now in 2024, we joined again. We knew well in advance that we were joining so we practiced a lot. Me and Nikki would go against players we knew we couldn't beat and we always told them to "Give us your best!" They obliged and we were able to come up with a really nice strategy this time around.

Now, of the two of us, I'm the better player but Nikki is a killer doubles partner as well so I knew we had a decent chance to perform well in this year's tournament. I had to skip my normal badminton sessions during that week as I didn't want to risk an injury before the actual tournament date.

July 17 would be the group stage. We would be up against 3 other properties. The rules were that only one team would proceed to the final round per group; format was single round robin. Seeing as that was the rule, it would be very unlikely that we would proceed if we lost even one game. Our first game was relatively easy. They were good but we just knew how to play around with their weaknesses. We really thought our second game would be similar but they gave us a fight. We were leading 17-12 but they were able to make up the difference very quickly. They were able to take the lead numerous times during our match. Good thing we were able to regroup and win the match with a very slim margin. Our last match ended very quickly as our opponents didn't show up. And just like that, we had topped our group and were assured a spot in the final round the next day. Throughout the day, I kept my eyes peeled on the other groups' matches to see who the possible threats would be. I saw three pairs that I thought would be difficult to beat. After all the matches were finished, the organizers announced the five teams that would need to return for the final round the next day. Of the three pairs, only one made it to the finals. Apparently, two of the three were in the same group and so one had to eliminate the other. As to how the last of the three threatening teams were eliminated, I still don't know to this day.

Me and Nikki were excited at reaching the final round would be another round robin among the winners of each group. We all took a number to determine the order of the matches. Our first match on the next day would be the pair I thought would win the whole thing. We decided right then and there that we would try our best to beat them but we wouldn't be too hurt if we lost to them. Both the male and female player played like varsity players. We were very unsure how the other three teams played. So we just rested that day.

Finals day came and it started with all teams doing their regular warm up and practice rounds. From playing in previous tournaments, I knew the mind games can start this early. You can play it one of two ways - psyche out your opponent by playing really well and showing what you're made of or keep your cards close and not show much skill while getting adequate warm up. I decided I wanted to a mix of these two. My sister and mom had reached the finals of the women's doubles and so practicing with them might make the other teams think they were my partner or at the very least hide who my partner was. (The organizers knew but the other competitors might get confused.)

The team we had pegged to be the best pair in the competition since day one decided to show their skills by practicing all their shots in their warm up. I, on the other hand, just wanted to do a warm up and not practice at all. I decided to save the tricks for the actual match. And it wasn't long until we had our first match. Like I mentioned earlier, our first match would be against the varsity player pair. We tried all the tricks that worked the previous day but to no avail. They were really that good. I can say we landed a few good shots in but during the half score mark, we decided that it was best to save our energy for the next matches than to force a win in this one.

Our next match was against a pair who we saw would be pretty easy to beat. I told Nikki that for this match, even if we knew we could beat them handily, I didn't want to pour too much energy into it. My whole mindset for the day was to conserve our energy as much as possible. I think we allowed our opponents points which we could've won just because we didn't want to expend much energy. We ended up beating them handily.

Our next match happened right after the previous one but the umpire allowed us some time to catch our breath. Truth be told, it wasn't something we needed but we grabbed it anyway as this next pair looked tougher than your average bear. During our mini warm up before the match, I wasn't concentrating much on the opponents but Nikki was. She whispered to me that the male player was really good. His forehand was strong and his backhand was strong. Nikki was looking to me for some sort of strategy and I just said that we should use the default strategy - aim for the weaker player and aim for their backhand side.

Our match started and it was neck and neck the whole way. I could tell the male player was varsity level but the female player wasn't. Don't get me wrong, she was good but I think Nikki was a much better player than her. But I noticed that the male player was prone to making several unforced errors especially during long rallies. It then struck me that this could be a varsity player who has been out of practice for some time. He would spend a lot of time in between points trying to catch his breath and so we decided to play the stamina game. I would serve as soon as I could so as not to allow our opponents time to catch their breath. I'd give the ball to where our opponents needed to run back and forth.

We did gain a slight advantage and we got the score to 34-30 (our matches were up to 35). It was the last point for us and it was my serve. I served the ball, and after a short rally, their male player was able to hit a cross court smash which I wasn't able to get - I wasn't even near. I thought we had lost the point but the umpire said the ball was out and it we had just won. Our opponent, however, complained and said it was in. Other people in the court said they saw it went in as well. I personally thought it went in but I didn't have a good view of the line. In my opinion, the umpire, who sat on a high chair and was closest to the ball when it landed, clearly had the best view. Things got heated between our opponent and the umpire. That's when the organizers stepped in and said to just redo the point. The umpire agreed and so did our opponent. It was up to us and while I wanted to seal the win right then and there, we ultimately decided to redo the point. The next point was a short one as well. I gave them a flick serve which they returned to us. I gave them back a lob which their male player jumped to smash. I was getting ready to return his smash when it hit the net instead. Our win was sealed and was now unquestionable. I noticed our opponent was disappointed with the result and I suspect he didn't see us as a threat at all.

After this match, our record was 2 wins to 1 loss and we only had one match to go. If we could win this one, we'd be at 3-1 and that's the type of win record that could only belong to the silver medalist. The next match would be a must win for us. But seeing our next opponents play, we could say that it would be another easy win for us. We had a long break and so we could really just enjoy watching the other matches and that's how we concluded that we just needed not to get injured and we should be fine.

Our last match of the final round rolled around and we had our mini-warm up. True enough, it was going to be an easy match. During the game, I kept giving it to the back of the court where they would commit many unforced errors. I was taking it easy of course but apparently Nikki wanted me to wrap it up quickly as she was getting hungry and wanted to eat. And we did end that game very quickly.

Seeing as our record was 3-1, a second place finish was all but assured. There was only one match left for the mixed doubles category. It was the pair with the 2 varsity level players (let's call them team A) and the pair with the male varsity level player (the one who complained to the umpire in our previous game, let's call them team B). I thought team A could easily beat team B. In fairness, the match was very neck and neck. I then got nervous. If team B somehow pulls off the win, our win records would be a three-way tie with the tie being broken by the points. Going by points alone, we'd be bumped to 3rd.

We then started cheering for team A. Last minute they were able to pull away by a 5 point margin. The male player from team B again questioned a call by the umpire. I was starting to think he does this often. The linesman called the ball out but he insists it was in. Nikki was nearby and could see it was clearly out. That call clearly affected his game and they lost that match. And with that final match, our second place finish was cemented.

Me and Nikki couldn't believe we actually pulled off a second place finish! Neither one of us were particularly athletic back in high school so this was a great achievement for us. We also knew that the other properties had varsity players and younger players. Me and Nikki are already in our mid 30s so this was really one for the books!

The icing on the cake was that Joey and Pia both saw our games. We came home and even they were saying over and over again, "Mommy and Daddy, daug!" I thought I felt proud winning this for myself. it feels so much better winning it for the kiddos. We had a great lunch and just rested that afternoon. We also just hung out with the twins as we celebrated our win together.

Now, Nikki won't agree with me on this but I told myself that I'm satisfied with our second place win this year. Like, I'm fully satisfied. I don't feel the pressure to outdo our performance next time around. If it happens, it happens but I won't be so bummed out if we don't place or win next time.

When Pia thinks of her Dad

Last Tuesday, me and Nikki arrived home late at night as we had our weekly date night. My mom had called me earlier saying she wanted to ask me about some family matter. So from our date night, we both went home and instead of hanging out with Pia, like I would normally do, I went straight to my parent's house next door. We had a discussion which lasted around 45 minutes. And I made my way home.

Now, me and Nikki weren't able to find dessert where we ate and decided to have dessert at home. So while Nikki ate her dessert (some cookies we both really like), Pia noticed I wasn't able to have some cookies. When Nikki finished her share and Pia had had her fill as well, she told Nikki that the rest of her cookies should be given to me. And I saw this little note waiting for me when I got home.

It had one and a half cookies inside which is less than the three that an unopened pack would have but in a way, the cookies tasted better because my lovely daughter decided to gift me half of her pack of cookies so that her dad would have some cookies to eat. And while I didn't hear her actually say the words, I know what it would've sounded like for my Pia to say, "Daddy, eat cookie!" Something tells me she could've even been very demanding about.

Thanks for the cookies, my little Pia-baby. Daddy appreciates it more than you know.

Teatime with Pia

The twins turned two last month and it came with a lot of nice surprises! Pia has learned to enjoy pretend play. She likes to make tea with her tea set or pretend to cook and pretend eat with us. As a boy, I never got the appeal of this pretend house chores things. Since my cousins who were my age were all boys, we just played ball games, jumping games, video games, etc. Cooking or washing veggies did not make the list at all. But Pia enjoys it so much. I think she enjoys it when Nikki asked her to help her make brownies that one time. Pia did such a great job mixing all the ingredients in the mixing bowl.

Anyways, Pia got a nice little tea set with a teacup, a container for milk, and sugar container. She was giving everyone who asked for tea a teacup with a donut inside the teacup for some strange reason. But she consistently puts the donut inside the teacup. One time, Saks asked Pia for a cup of tea but all her cups were served already so she prepared her pretend tea in the milk pourer thing. She gave Saks the tea and she thanked Pia for the tea. Saks then proceeds to pretend drink the tea but a second later, she sprays water and spit on the floor. Pia looks at Saks with shock on her face. It's one of those scenes straight out of a cartoon or a sitcom where the spit literally sprays every which way from the mouth.

What happened?

One of our other aunts had earlier suggested putting some water in Pia's teapot so it has more weight to it - just so she get the hang of it. So we did put some water... into the milk pourer. Poor Saks didn't know of this at all. And Pia didn't really know as well. As a result, we were treated to a lovely little story that I'm now relaying to you all as well.

Lesson learned: Always check what Pia gives you.

Toots or No Toots... That is the question!

When the twins turned one, we got excited since they're able to express themselves more and more. When Joey was one and a half, we heard this weird word he started using - Toots. He'd add it to "Mommy" or "Daddy". He'd say, "Mommy toots" and "Daddy toots" or "Pia toots".

So we'd asked him, "Is Yayi toots?" And he'd say "Toots!" We'd ask him if Nanay was toots and he'd say "No toots." We didn't know what classified as "toots" and "no toots" but Joey knew. And Joey would consistently say a person was toots or no toots but he'd never tell us what made someone toots or no toots. Here are our observations:

• Older individuals (Nanay, Poppop, Bela, Guakong, Guama, Taima) were consistently "no toots"
• People he didn't like or didn't know so well were consistently "no toots"
• It is possible to transition from "no toots" to "toots" without effort on the "no toots" individual
• Transition from "toots" to "no toots" is possible but rare. If you become Toots, it's highly likely you'll always be toots thereafter.
• Joey and Pia have always been toots
• There is currently a scarcity or "no toots" individuals as all the older folks have now been consistently classified as toots.

More study is required to figure out what toots means. Joey will not spill the beans. I suspect he's even forgotten what toots means.

We no longer ask him if a person is toots or no toots but it remains one of the questions we still don't have any answer to and it's highly likely we'll never get an answer to that question.