A Birthday Message

In the beginningless and endless stream of time, night and day, rain and shine, roll endlessly on; they are carried mercilessly on over the universe by flood. The term of living beings diminishes with every day. While being carried forward in the flood, man is surprisingly unaware of his fate; he never spends a thought on his fast declining life-term. He is blind in his ignorance.

Riches and wealth are short-lived; office and authority are temporary; the life-breath is a flickering flame in the wind. Youth is a three-day fair. Pleasures and fortunes are bundles of sorrow. Knowing this, if man devotes this limited term of life to the service of the Almighty, then, he is indeed blessed.

Birthdays are but arbitrary milestones of life's journey on earth. But its significance lies on how you traveled the road, the loved ones you allowed to join you, the humps you surpassed and the people you met along the way.

I want to say THANK YOU to the people who unconditionally joined me in this wonderful journey of laughters and tears...in this meaningful journey called LIFE...my dearest family who has always been my inspiration...my friends who are always there to support me... and to the people I met along this journey who made it more colorful for me to define the real meaning of life.

My New Sport---Lawn Tennis

Just recently, I started to like learning and playing lawn tennis. My friend Elmer is a lawn tennis enthusiast and encouraged me to play by first teaching me the right techniques and strategies. We already finished 2 sessions.

Special thanks to Elmer's wife, a dear friend of mine too, Sandy for taking some of the photos below.

Malacca Weekend Getaway

Malacca (Malay: Melaka, dubbed as The Historical State or Negeri Bersejarah amongst locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south. The state's capital is Malacca Town. This historical city centre has been listed as a prominent World Heritage Site of UNESCO since 7 July 2008.

Although Malacca was once one of the oldest Malay sultanates, the state has no Sultan today. Instead, the head of state is the Yang di-Pertua Negeri or Governor.
The Great Queen's Fountain

A' Famosa w/ friend Sin Hwee

Christ Church Melaka

Portuguese's & Dutch's tombstones

bluecraig's narcissism part 2

Mamang, you're the best!

My Mamang is always with me...

She's the whisper of the leaves as I walk down the street.

She's the smell of bleach in my freshly laundered shirt.

She's the cool hand on my brow when I'm not well.

My mother lives inside my laughter.

She's crystallized in every tear drop.

She's the place I came from, my first home...

She's the map I follow with every step that I take.

She's my first love....

And nothing on earth can separate me from her...

Not time, not space...not even death...will ever separate me from Mamang...

I carry her inside me, inside my heart.

Happy Mother's Day, Mamang!

I love you so much...and it's unconditional, just like yours.

why we need friendship?

Friendship is a gift to mankind. The relation which we get in this world are blood related. But the only relationships which does not related to blood is friendship. Friendship has many forms and shapes. It is like water. If we pour the water into a jug it takes the shape of jug. if you pour the same water into a bowl it takes the shape o bowl. Same way friendships will take a different shapes and sizes according to our heart. Friendship gives pleasure to human beings. Where there is friendship then there will not be any sorrow. When you see a child laughing you will forget your sorrows for a second, same way when you are with a friend you forget your sorrows.

I consider myself friendly..simply because I have bunches of friends here and there. I don't have 1 bestfriend but 6. I always look forward to meeting friends, attend reunions, gatherings, meetings, call and chat with friends, etc.. that is if time permits. Now that I'm working abroad, I miss a lot of friendship gatherings and i really miss it...That's why wherever I am destined, I make sure that I look for new circle of friends, but still keeping the old ones, of course.

Bestfriend Hera

Bestfriend Andro

Bestfriend Sheilamae

Bestfriend Ever

Bestfriend Mariam

Bestfriend Maureen

the LMs (college friends)

the engineers (college classmates)

the farads & maxies (highschool classmates)

the crowners (crown asia officemates)

sg kaberks (singapore circle of friends)

I treasure my friends. I consider them my family...I consider them a big part of me... I love them.

those were the days and look at us now...

(from laurence delina's email...he said i should share it, so here it is...it is untitled so i made a title myself...)
First, some of us survived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyne.

While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine, Linunod, balikutsa, bukhayo and didn't worry about diabetes.

Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints, ang uban kay duyan nga habol gihigtan ug pisi nga inigtabyog ug kusog ma pakong intawon ta sa bongbong.

We had no soft cushy cribs that play music, no disposable diapers (lampin lang sa General Milling nga naa'y faded picture nga nag-salute), and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads, wala pa gyu'y brake ang bisikleta.

As children, we would ride in hot un-airconditioned buses with wooden seats (Bisaya Bus nga pultahan puros ang kilid, Corominas Bus nga senimana ang brake), or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts (karon kay Minibus na nga nindot kaayo ug sounds or Ceres Bus nga bugnaw ug aircon).

Riding on the back of a carabao on a breezy summer day was considered a treat. (karon; ang mga bata wala na kaila ug Kabaw)

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT bottled mineral water sa Nature Spring or Viva, or Absolute Mineral water (usahay gani, straight from the faucet or poso or Tabay!)

We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this. Or contracted hepatitis.

We ate rice with star margarine, bahaw nga gibutangan ug asin ug mantika sa baboy, drank raw eggs straight from the shell, and drank softdrinks with real sugar in it (dili diet coke or Pepsi Max), but we weren't sick or overweight kay.......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on. Syatong, Bato-Lata, Bagol, Dakop-Dakop, Tago-Tago, Ngita'g Kaka.

No one was able to reach us all day ( wala pa'y uso ang cellphone) .. And yes, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our wooden trolleys (katong bearing ang ligid) or Karitong Kawayan nga karaang tsinilas ang giporma nga ligid and then ride down the street , wala ma'y gidungog nga naligsan atoh! After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a canal (sewage channel) a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPOD's, no cell phones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, and no Friendsters. ........ ...WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents. The only rubbing we get is from our friends with the words..sakit bai ? pero kung kontra gani nimo ang imong kadula,,,,singgitan lang dayon ug..Mayra,Gabaan! We played marbles (jolen) in the dirt , washed our hands just a little and ate Pan Bahug-bahug & Bagumbayan (recycled bread man diay to kay wala mahalin!) We were not afraid of getting germs in our stomachs.

We had to live with homemade guns (giporma nga kahoy, gihigtan ug garter ug lastiko) , saplong , tirador ug uban pa nga pwedeng magkasakitay. Pero lingaw gihapon kaayo ang tanan.

We made up games with sticks ( syatong ), and cans ( Bato-Lata )and although we were told they were dangerous, wala man gyud to'y actual nga nabuta bah, bukol lang nuon sa agtang naa.

We walked, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend's house and knocked on the door or batoon ug gagmay nga bato ang bungbong, or just yelled for them to jump out the window!

Mini basketball teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Wala pa nang mga childhood depression ug damaged self esteem ek-ek ra na. Ang maglagot, pildi.

Ang mga Ginikanan naa ra sa daplin para motan-aw ra sa duwa sa mga bata, dili para manghilabot ug makig-away sa ubang parents.

That generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, creative thinkers and successful professionals ever! They are the CEO's, Engineers, Doctors and Military Generals of today.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had failure, success, and responsibility.

We learned from our mistakes the hard way.

It kind of makes you wanna go out and climb a tree, doesn't it?!

kid at heart

I love kids!I love kids! i love kids! i just love them..i don't know exactly why..but every time i smile or play with them, whether they know me or not, there is a special bond that I feel and it feels great, it makes me complete.

My 3 nephews--Pen, Charles and Zach, of course, are first on the list. I always have joy spending moments with them everytime I go home for vacation.
Anfernee Clark, 12 & Charles Matthew, 8
Zach Paul Rafael, 10mos.
Last May 1 when we had our photoshoot at Hort Park, I saw a lot of kids, playing, running, shouting, eating..They really enjoy the place as if there's no tomorrow...this is one thing i love about kids--there's no fake in them...all are real, whether you like it or not...they will play all day long...for them, to play and have fun is part of their daily bread...(I just wish the big ones are like this as well, to make happiness a daily bread of their lives)..During that day, the heat of the sun coupled with thirst and sweat didn't matter as I was having great time capturing the lovely kids...take a look at some of their captured moments...




Don't they look so lovely? Now my mission is to continue capture kids' moments of happiness and innocence and spread this for the world to be inspired and think positively in life. It's still in my wishlist to celebrate birthday with the orphans, travel Africa and have photoshoot session with bunch of kids there, visit and play with kids who are sick.

bluecraig's narcissism

Presenting I, myself, moi and me!




...and there's more next time....