For 76 years, Herbert Taylor’s four important questions of the things we think, say or do continue to withstand the test of time since 1932. Most probably because it promotes the principle of “doing to others what you want others to do to you” that strongly appeals to society’s majority that enabled its adoption to Rotary Club International:

The Four-Way Test

Is it the TRUTH?

Is it FAIR to all concerned?

Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Healthwise, you have to keep two important things in mind when you’re working a desk job where you’ll be spending 8 hours or so with only your brain, eyes, fingers and arms doing most of the moving the whole time: food and exercise.

I’m not talking about stuffing yourself with chips and chocolates while working at your computer or when you’re feeling stressed out while at work. It’s more on being conscious about the type of food you eat precisely because of the lack of physical activity a sedentary desk job entails. If you’re not careful, you’ll find to your horror that you’ve put on 10 pounds in just a two weeks because you’re not active enough to burn off all those calories you ate and that they’ve started settling in and accumulating in your tummy area.

If you think you’re too busy to deal with it or to sign up for a regular gym session then the best way (based on my personal experience) to start getting the exercise you need is to take every the opportunity that gives you the chance to walk. Not walking in a leisurely manner mind you but a brisk walk is a good start to help burn some of those calories. Going to the sports center on weekends is also a good habit to develop to sweat off those extra pounds you might have managed to put on during the week days.

Ultimately, you could either adopt a regular exercise regimen into your lifestyle to stay fit or stay the course of a sedentary life at work and at home. Looking forward, can you imagine how much you’ll weight in 2-5 years time if you don’t do something about it?

It ain’t easy but I’d rather start sweating it off now and enjoy life more with my family than being a couch potato.

We attended the graduation of our youngest sibling, Armando, this morning. St. Mary’s Academy held it at their gym to accommodate all the graduates, their parents and guests and prior to the graduation rites ceremony, Bishop Antonio Ledesma officiated the mass held as thanksgiving for the event.It was a really special occasion as I never thought I’d see the day when our youngest in family would be going to college. I could still remember playing with him when he was in diapers so this event made me realize that so much time has already passed by since then. Time waits for no man that we all have to keep moving forward and maybe take a glance back every once in a while to reflect and learn from our experiences.

Manix, I’d like to share this quote by Calvin Coolidge for whatever challenges and obstacles that college may bring you:

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, ‘press on’ has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race.”

So press on my brother….press on.

I didn’t realize that the kids would find a different purpose for it when they spilled all the toys to empty the box and they climbed inside to use it as a fort during playtime. When bath time came Audrick (3 years old) also dragged the box to the bathroom as a makeshift bathtub as it has more depth in holding water while playing with his set of rubber duckies.

It brought to mind a line that I overheard when the kids were watching an episode from one of their favorite cartoon characters, Spongebob Squarepants, who said:

“What’s the need for television when you have a lot of imagination?”

Kids, even though they’re just kids, also have something to teach the so-called adults if we just keep an open mind to new learning experiences. We forget as we grow older that some things do serve more than one purpose other than the one we envisioned and that we need to see things and life through the eyes of a child every now and then.

Experiencing a personal paradigm shift from thinking about what cool stuff to buy and regularly hanging out with your buddies to thinking about how you can afford to provide a good education for your kids takes some time to get used to. And let me tell you that it makes you think about how much you might have saved up to that point had you been really thrifty on your personal finances.

Thank God for giving me the chance to meet a savings-minded girl (how I ever managed to hoodwink her into marrying me I can never recall) who slowly educated me to the benefits of saving for the future.

Why should you save as early as now? Let me enumerate some good reasons:

1. For emergencies. What would you do if you suddenly lost your job due to company downsizing? How are you going to pay the hospital bills or medicine if somebody in your family got sick?

2. For travel and vacation. How are you ever going to deal with all the accumulated stress at work if you’ve been working 6 days a week for the last 2-5 years? A good vacation time and some recreation is what you need every once in a while to prevent burn out and that still needs money. You can be so lucky if your company pays for your vacation but what if they don’t?

3. For your kids education. Nowadays, it takes a whole lot of money to put your kids through college and other related expenses from allowances and etcetera. Investing in a college education plan ain’t so bad either.

4. For retirement. Don’t think you’ll always be young and healthy the way you are now. Everybody grows old so you need to save for it as early as now. I know a lot of people in our neighborhood who didn’t save enough that they had to look for work even when they’re 65 years-old to put food on their table.

5. For all the good and better things in life. Don’t you ever wonder why some people went from rags to riches? Its because they don’t spend their money needlessly, saved as much when they could, and invested for their future. They only bought the things they needed to save money and then bought what they wanted when they had more than enough money to spare.

Developing financial literacy is something we could all use to get us out of the rat race we find ourselves into. Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” was a enlightening and educating read for me. I highly recommend you take time to read it if you haven’t already.

Liked the cloth so much I bought a couple of pastel colored-polo shirts. Refreshingly cool!

Talking about comic books, here’s one special series that stands out among the multitude of comic book titles: The Sandman.

Described by the late Norman Mailer as “a comic book for intellectuals“, the Sandman graphic novel series written by Neil Gaiman is the only comic book ever included on the New York Times Bestseller list.

The only comic to ever win the World Fantasy Award, the Sandman series was compiled into 10 graphic novels and written between 1987 and 1996.

Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series is one of the classics of the comics world. Much like an English major confessing that they’ve never read Shakespeare, when you tell people you haven’t read Sandman they give you horrified looks and instantly volunteer their collection. And, much like the bereft English major who has never encountered Hamlet or Macbeth, when you do get around to reading Sandman, get ready to be enthralled.

Sandman is a smart series. It is complex and thoughtful. Like all the best stories it’s about consequences and challenges and change.

This post is dedicated to the memory of my good friend, Ian Kwan, who introduced me to the world of Morpheus by graciously lending me his amazing graphic novel collection.

The award, by the way, is given to deserving secondary school students all over the Philippines in recognition for their noteworthy examples of discipline in their respective schools and community.

It was a pretty cool award considering that all I got when I graduated high school was a recognition certificate for being active with the Boy Scouts.

My brother passed the Nursing Board Exam several months ago and is currently working at the Cagayan Medical Center. The picture above, Enzo with Mom and Riza, was taken during his pinning ceremony.

As her younger brother, I couldn’t help but be proud of having such a popular sister. I still vividly remember looking in awe at the sheer number of medals she racked up and kept crammed in her aluminum box. But while I did some wishful thinking about how I was going to get myself some of those medals, I wasn’t driven enough to really make a serious effort to make that a reality. Probably because I was in a state of contentment then.

Anyway, my sister studied under a college scholarship program at the University of San Jose-Recoletos in Cebu and graduated with flying colors. My aunt, Rosemarie, also sponsored her studies at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) where she made Dean’s List during the 2003 spring Semester. Unfortunately, following that shining example and qualifying for a scholarship was a feat that the succeeding male siblings including myself were not able to duplicate until our youngest, Manman’s turn came.

Manman got an impressive 96 Percentile Rank in the National Career Assessment Exam, proceeded to get 95% for General Scholastic Aptitude in the Ateneo de Cagayan-Xavier University Entrance exam, and promptly qualified for a full academic scholarship program. As thanksgiving, we went to church and lit a red candle to thank the Almighty. Afterwards, we took my brother to Candy’s, a nice posh restaurant at Limketkai Center, and treated him to dinner along with my mom and Riza, my wife.

Way to go kiddo! Looking forward to seeing you maintain that scholarship and finish college with honors like Achie did.

After crossing a somewhat deserted street on our way to Fairmart, a popular local department store in Cebu, we found a policewoman waiting for us at the other side. The city government at that time recently implemented the “No-Jaywalking policy” by fining pedestrian violators with P50 pesos (a rather significant amount then) or placing them in a temporary holding cell if they didn’t have enough money in hand to pay the fine. And let me tell you that a whole lot of people in the hundreds got caught and contributed to the city government’s revenues.

Expecting my grandfather to pay the stiff fine, what followed made me realize for the first time just how crafty grandpa was. My grandfather by the way, usually wears a white polo shirt and dark gray slacks over his slightly stooped, lanky frame. He kinda reminds me of a chinese comic character, Lao Hu Tze, albeit with a pair of glasses and a watch chain dangling from his belt into his pocket.

“I’m sorry officer but we were in a hurry,” he told the policewoman. “I’m having some problems breathing and I can feel my heart palpitating so we’re on our way to see my doctor a few blocks from here. There was nobody else left to watch over him at home so I brought my grandson with me.” (I took the liberty to translate the conversation from Visayan into English)

Let me tell you that I was pretty amazed listening to my grandfather get us out of that jam. The lady officer in question quickly waved us along after which we then proceeded to the department store to buy that pair of shoes he promised me.

I found myself looking at my grandfather with a new set of eyes from then on.