Love and Elderly Care

In our culture, the setup is quite phenomenal because we are accustomed to extended families. We also give special attention to caring for the elderly. We do not send them to homes like in the US and other western countries because we pay homage to what important things they have done in our lives. This is something like paying back what we owe them, because we are expected to care for them as a sign of respect.



The United States, Japan, and other first world nations developed nursing homes and other establishments to take care of their elderly. This is one way of making sure their needs are being given at all times. Qualified staff and state registered nurses mostly comprise the manpower for these homes. It is really nice to know that they will be with other people in their own genre too. Some also enjoy the amenities because they can also be as luxurious as hotels, spas and vacation spots in and around the country. This is the advantage of elderly care because you can also plan for it first. You can also choose what specific location and amenities you would like to have because it is quite easy to do this ahead of time.

There are also web sites that you can go to nowadays to find a nursing home for your loved ones. It would now be easy to still get in touch with your family even if you grow old so this would really be better. Now that even the government has been giving their support to the elderly, it would be faster and cheaper to do this before you retire from work and have completely enjoyed your life. Since they also have medical staff working on the premises, you would not be worried about getting sick or think about who would take care of you when you need it most. The nursing home services in my opinion have been very good investment for the general public. It is one way to show you still love and care for your parents, or grandparents so make sure you get them into one as soon as you see the need to.

SAD DAY FOR PHILIPPINES, CORY DIED BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN!

She was the one who started it all, a revolution in 1986 right smack in the middle of a Marcos regime that spanned 20 years of dictatorship. Here comes a housewife of a Senator (who was shot dead in the airport) who only knew to stay in the house one day and serve her family...and later became President of the Philippines.

After her term, the Philippines still had a huge debt... government officials were still corrupt... and the ordinary Juan Dela Cruz was still hungry and starving because he had no job and no food on the table. Filipinos still had the urge to complain and tell that everything is the government's fault, every president was corrupt but nobody stepped up and said he is going to get rid of the trillions of dollars debt that we have with foreign banks and countries. All of which we just got from past governments.

No matter how worse we became in this God stricken country of ours, Corazon Aquino was still an icon of democracy for us and the International community. We apparently invented the bloodless revolution via People Power. When she died, every Filipino felt we lost a mother. She was selfless, giving and too good to be true to some... and a weak woman to her detractors... but you can never discount the fact that she was more than a woman, the 9 coup attempts was not a joke. I will always remember her for all the good things she did, and continue to do so... I thank Ms Corazon Aquino for the democracy we are enjoying now... and for the good person she is for Filipinos here and around the world. May she rest in peace!

Forms, Surveys and Polls

Photo by Me!

I am a professional forum administrator and I do it for highly technical ones too as a matter of fact. Aside from that, I administer and moderate a couple more groups for photography, gaming, cartoons, social networks and some that are hosted by organizations inside our company. For me it really is worth my time because I have felt first hand how important forums are. This is as important as building a community.

I have a lot of friends now thanks to this addictive form of media. I enjoy what I am doing now because it makes my life complete in some way. Now that I do not have much time for my love life, I always put my time on photography which has been one of my passions since I was a kid. I do not know about the technology and technical know how of a DSLR. The place where I started looking for information is forums. Now that I already have common friends, mentors and peers that are in the same hobby, I will be getting better at what I do because of communities like these. Every web site needs Online Forms, Surveys, and Poll Builders so you would know how you fare in CYBERSPACE. This is how you get feedback from people around the world. It helps you improve your services and nudge you in the shoulder if you are doing a good job. It would really be nice to use these forms too, to improve what you have to offer your viewing public. Information like this is critical to the success of your site, and getting them to be customizable would be doubly better. There is a FREE Online Form Builder that you can use so interaction between you and the rest of your readers can get you somewhere. I am doing polls now for my audience, found information that I should write more for men and have the point of view cut across women. It was pretty time consuming in the beginning but once you get the hang of it, it is easy!

Next Photoshoot: Balete Falls, Amadeo Cavite

Photo grabbed from Google from Armand_Apuntar

It's on the planning stage still but there will only be 10 slots given to this particular event in the weekend. This also will be done by nationally renowned photographer Rolly Magpayo. He will be discussing the tricks of the trade in fashion and glamor photography. This would be a very good thing for me to take up but it might end up non conforming to my actual schedule so I really do not know if it would be possible to get this one going.

I even like the location since it will be in Balete Falls, which locals and tourists alike frequent during the summer. I hope it would be as good looking as the previous shoots that were held there with other photographers. I've got a new trick in my sleeve though. I will be employing a new mode of shooting, and maximize the use of my camera. This would be really fun if I could attend this event. I just hope everything pushes through and the vehicles stay as cool as I want them to be hehe.=) Im currently post processing the pictures from the last photoshoot and finishing the video for the Laguna photo walk. I hope I can finish everything before the weekend.

The Best Web Host

It's almost August and my domain expires on that month. I have to think of a way to either transfer all my posts into a different service or stick with the current one that I have. There is some kind of drawback if this actually expires and I do not do anything bout it. It may affect everything; and I may lose all my content in one blow because I do not know the logistics on how it would automatically credit to my account. Do they deduct that automatically? How do I recover it once it does expire? A lot of questions come to mind.



Service is vital to any web hosting service since it would account content that you have on your web site. It would not be a pretty picture to see your data collated for approximately 4 years just go to waste because the company that you subscribed for did not advise you what to do and how to do it. Getting the best one in this day and age would be hard considering you have thousands of companies to choose from. It all boils down to their differences in service. It is one factor that you have to consider. This is quite important because you have to always make sure dedicated servers are given to your web site so people would not have problems with bandwidth and trouble accessing it. This is vital to the operation of your home page. I would like to recommend Web Hosting Geeks if you need a reliable and efficient company to help you achieve this goal.

Today: July 29, 2009

Today was very very tiring. After work, I ran out and got back to the gym. It was a real pain to get into the treadmill again after a long while. It was doubly painful because I forgot my earplugs so I could not distract myself with the morning TV shows they have on front. Yeah I know nobody needs that but hey it works for me ye know!

I lifted a couple of pounds to maintain the girth of my arms. That would probably amount to like 80 lbs per arm since I use the dumbbells for a dumbbell press. Redundant as that may sound, I felt the need to do it on a regular basis since it looks good on me. I dunno, it maybe just me.LOL...

After that, never getting any sleep because my Mom and Dad suddenly asked me to go to grocery with them. With me picking up the tab, it costed around 3,500 for those which would only last about 2 weeks or so. My family has this notion of eating everything in one sitting, ask my sister about it LOL.

Anyway, my Mom bought me my favorite Chicken Balls and my Dad bought me 2 bottles of Gillette after shave... it was sweet because I haven't seen that in a long time you know!

I was late again in the office but good thing my office mate Vince was already here. =)

So I have to go to work now, see you later!

Take a Seat

It was a fine evening; I had to do reports as usual. Since I am going to sit in front of the computer for almost 9 straight hours for work, the need to be comfortable in my chair was a necessity. This however did not turn out right because the one I had on my work area was used by a co worker and replaced it with a dilapidated one. I was not a happy boy.

I did try my best to get my posture straight and had to resort using pillows for my back and head so I can at least survive the 8 remaining hours of work. I was not lucky, my back still did hurt and my neck became strained for doing that. I guess I had to call another department and have them replace it, but since I was in a graveyard shift the administration office was closed and only open at regular office hours. I was already sarcastic when I asked the utility men and women; I was getting more stressed by the minute. I need better Office Chairs.

A Good Samaritan got up and gave me his chair, from then on I was smooth sailing. I got him breakfast too because of that. The necessity of proper seating is vital for people; I got my point across and got the chair replaced the day after. I'm happy they got me the best one too!

KUMAGCOW FOOD REVIEWS: Quick bite at STACKERS

One early morning at STACKERS Eastwood

This is the day I'll tell you about a meal I enjoyed with friends a couple of nights ago. Since I work in Eastwood City there are close to a hundred restaurants that I could have gone to, but I specifically asked my office mates to eat in an Australian Burger restaurant called STACKERS.

The Stackers Premium Burger...

I already had a full stomach that time because I partly had dinner at home before I went back to the office. Richard just got back from the US and didn't want to eat burgers but I guess we had no choice but to go to the only 24/7 store aside from McDonald's... at least it is something slightly different.

The ambiance was nice since there were only a couple of employees from nearby buildings eating too. I ordered one of their premium burgers since I expect that it would probably be their best and most expensive piece of meat on the menu. Richard ate a Philly steak equivalent of the burger while Bernadette ate the salad with chicken fingers on it. I was not really that impressed when it came out of the kitchen. Service was also not that appealing since they confused me with everything they had on the menu. Their menu by the way was a little worn out, I would have wanted something on the line of laminated or plastic covered stuff but I guess they only had those made in cardboard prints. It was really a little filthy.

Her Salad was a little disappointing!

When Bernadette's salad came, there wasn't even enough effort for a presentation on it. They just put greens and a couple of leaves of romaine on the bottom then put the chicken fingers flat on top of it. They should have at least stacked them high so it would look a little better. I did it myself so it would look nice in the camera.

See what I mean? The sauce was a little Asian inspired but it was not that good considering it would have been easy to prepare that fresh. It felt like it was all bottled and packed so I was not that impressed.

I was not that impressed... =(

The burger? The actual premium burger they served me was so so. I hated the fact that I was actually gearing that this particular one would beat the current king of burgers in the country aka BROTHERS BURGER but I guess I was wrong. Their half pound premium burger was a charbroiled frozen burger inside a bun that occupied most of my plastic basket which they serve this in for. Burgers of this expensiveness and caliber should have gotten close to what the picture actually shows. But no, it was far from it and when I tasted it... it really was not that much of a challenge. I ate it in one sitting but man I was not satisfied. Presentation wise this burger was not appealing because I practically was overwhelmed with the bun than the actual meat itself. For the carnivorous me, it was a failure on 2 instances... first was the frozen mass produced state of it and second is the not so charbroiled flavor. I'm sorry but on this note, it did not beat BROTHERS BURGER.

The false Phillysteak like burger that they had was eaten by Richard. He was not amused by the content of it and did not even know that it was also charbroiled. He could not even tell! I had to tell him about it and since he already ate the Philly steak in Washington, he thought this was a joke... but he says its okay... so for 2 guys and a girl, STACKERS failed.

Ordinary Rootbeer and Sprite, nuthin special!

The drinks we ordered were just lemonade and colas, and I got the rootbeer. The colas were ordinary, and the lemonade was more of a calamansi flavor. It was not something to rave about than the simple iced tea other restaurants had.

In this round of KUMAGCOW vs STACKERS, I will give them one KUMAG for at least trying. I hope someone does research on the food they serve next time. I'll review that if they consider revising their menu.

KUMAGCOW not happy about this one. =(

Life Loved and Lost

This morning was a very sad for most of the people in our neighborhood because of the untimely death of the matriarch of the MEDINA clan. They have been our neighbors for a long time and I grew up seeing her taking care of her sons, daughters and grandchildren. A couple of her kids were also close friends of mine. They own a bakeshop just across the street from our home so it was obviously a factor that we often see each other everyday.

Being a little overweight, she had a great chance to have heart ailments because of her diabetes. She was rushed to the hospital one day because she suffered a stroke. Confined in the intensive care unit, it was really a whole lot to bear just with their family business as a source of livelihood. They even got her to the best and advanced hospital in the Philippines which is St. Luke's Medical Hospital and the bills just piled up to about 7 Million Pesos which is roughly around US$150,000. It was a really huge amount to bear and she did not have life insurance to pay for it. Her family tried to get help through public government offices, but they could only help much. She passed away this morning and we all mourn her death. We were all worried about the family she left behind because they will be the ones who is going to pay for it too. We helped financially as much as we could but that would only amount to a couple of thousand pesos. It was still huge because she did not have her own Term Life Insurance. Things would have been easier for the family if they got one.

It is a good thing that we all have life insurance and paying for it was easy enough in terms. With this as a lesson, I am sure most of you will consider getting life insurance.

The Day is Tiring...

Today was a little hectic, not because I just received news that University of the Philippines Maroons just beat the unbeatable Ateneo Blue Eagles... but because I had to do a lot of editing from this week's shoot. We went back to Intramuros and climbed its walls so we can shoot at a part sky part cityscape type of surroundings. I was very eager to shoot on plants because those are the ones you can easily pop out in a photograph. It was a nice day out with the D60KREW again and I learned a lot of things. Well not there exactly, but I had a small talk with Sir Andy Rodriguez.

I got a few tips to maximize the camera I have and learned that I have not been doing some things that I didn't know it could possibly do. What is it you ask? well, lets just say I haven't chosen some of the options on the post processing part for the camera. One that I should have chosen to do in the last 4 months of its existence! hahah... well we just figured it out how to have crisp pictures than normal ones so you will eventually be looking at better pictures from hereon heheh.

Actually this was a picture that was part of that shoot and I already used it on one of my posts. You'll see a better resolution when you click it so ENJOY!