Thrilla in Southern Leyte

Since 2010 when Zip Southern Leyte was formally launched and ever since I saw a video of my cousin braving the zip line ride over Agas-agas Bridge in Sogod, Southern Leyte, I've been dreaming to try it myself too. It is a 1 kilometer ride starting from a high elevation above the bridge. One gets the sensation of "flying" over the bridge. The Agas-agas Bridge is also the current record holder of being the tallest in the Philippines.

It was my first time to try a zip line and it was a ride of a lifetime. I was hesitant at first since I really didn't know what to expect. So far my experiences with thrill rides were only a couple of rollercoaster rides at theme parks in the US but I have read that this zip line ride is quite different. When the safety helmet and harness were attached, my adrenalin started to rush over me. With my little video camera securely strapped on my left hand, to record the whole ride, I was ready to go. With an average speed of up to 110kph downhill depending on the rider's weight, coupled with the rushing of air on my face, flying over hills and trees was an experience I could never forget. I could do it over and over again. The fear I felt before the start of my flight was replaced with the kind of high that I wanted to linger for the longest time. It was a different kind of thrill mixed with the heavenly feeling of flying. By the time I reached the end point way down below the bridge, I declared it to myself that I will do it again. I will be back Agas-agas!

I’m Home Again

I've been planning to go back to my home country, the Philippines to attend my high school reunion. It's been 35 years since I graduated from high school and I still maintain a close bond with my high school buddies. We always have fun together whenever we see each other. This reunion will be something to remember for a lifetime since we are probably the oldest jubillarians to participate in dance contests during the alumni homecoming day. I arrived in the Philippines more than a week before the big day in order to be able to participate in the dance practices. We are now ready but still there are some minute details to attend to in the preparations.

My travel to the Philippines was not without hitches along the way. It was all about waiting. Our flight from Las Vegas was delayed for about four hours due to a medical emergency on one of the passengers. This caused a chain reaction on my connecting flights. When I arrived in Manila, my Manila to Cebu flight was further delayed for another four hours and I have to use Skype from my phone through the airport's free Wi-Fi facility to be able to inform my brother in Cebu about the changes as they were to meet me there.

At last I am home again. I got the chance to have fun with my family and relatives when I celebrated my birthday with them. After my birthday celebrations, I am now focusing on our alumni homecoming. For the next two weeks, I will spend some time for myself together with my close friends in Cebu. There is not always enough time and there are still a lot of places and friends to visit but at least I can try to maximize my time here in my home.

New Year, New Hope

Another year we have lived and gone and another year come. It's just like starting to read a book, the first chapter is the first day of the new year and you still can't know what will happen next unless you start reading from the first page up to the end.

There were a lot of things happening in the past year, some were nice and uplifting and some were not so nice, even devastating. Some relationships were made and some were broken. The only comforting is that there were a lot of things that remained favorable, such as the love of our family and true best friends.

We come to meet and embrace the New Year full of hopes and aspirations and with God's guidance we all can get though life's many trials that comes our way.

Here's wishing one and all the best this New Year 2012 can bring. Hoping it will be much better and brighter.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Cold Winter Mornings

My favorite season of the year is the winter. Mainly because I came from a tropical country where most of the time it is hot and muggy, I always long for cold weather. Living in a desert can bring you extreme temperatures: extreme heat during the peak of summer and extremely biting cold on winters. The only consolation is we normally don't have snow in the desert. For 11 years living in Las Vegas, I only remembered a couple of times that we had snow in the valley.

Cold mornings make me feel lazy and good. It is always the best way to curl up under the bed sheets making me warm and easily doze off to dreamland. I remember similar scenario back in my country. We only have 2 seasons there: the dry season and the wet season. During the wet or rainy season, doing nothing but just staying on my bed with sheets and pillows all over me while listening to the pitter, putter of the raindrops hitting the roof was my favorite thing to do. How I wish I could do that again soon.

Nowadays, since I'm here in the middle of an American desert, doing nothing on a cold morning but just stay in bed is one of my favorite things to do. Well, let me add one more thing: staying in bed on a cold morning and tinkering on my netbook is one of my favorite things to do.

My Usual Christmas

I can no longer count the number of Christmases I spent in my work place. Since my shift changed from morning shift to night shift, I no longer spend Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve with my friends and family.

This year is no exemption. Although Christmas day and New Year's day falls on Sundays which is my off day but I guess the highlight of the celebration is more on the evening when the clock strikes midnight. As usual, I'll be working in the hospital trying to save lives while the rest of the world is partying. Well, its not really that, I missed Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve with my family and friends. I actually missed spending Christmas in the Philippines with all my family and friends.
Someday, soon this will happen. I can just imagine how fun it would be specially if all my relatives could come home and have a huge get-together party, waiting for the clock to strike midnight.

Even if I'm away from my family, except my parents who are with me here in America, my fervent wish is for them to have the best Christmas year after year.

My Michael Jackson Experience

I grew up with Michael Jackson,the King of Pop. I've learned about him when he was still a little boy singing with his brothers during his Jackson 5 days. My favorite song from him was Ben. I lost track of him after that since I was still in the Philippines and we can only hear from him when he had a hit song that was becoming popular in the radio. The next time I heard from him, he was already grown up during his Thriller days. He was very popular already and deep in me I wanted to see him in person. He was always in the news and that was also the time when his physical changes took place. Whenever he had some special tv shows, I wouldnt miss to see it. I had danced with his music and me and my friends thought we were the coolest group since we get to dance an MJ song. My desire to watch him perform live was still growing inside me and I was dreaming to watch his planned "This Is It" concert until that dreadful day when he passed away. When the documentary movie of "This Is It" came out, I was one of probably millions who watched the movie in 3D. I also owned a copy of the said documentary film in BluRay disc.

Last year, in 2010, the hope of experiencing Michael Jackson came alive again by the news of a Cirque Du Soliel production of Michael Jackson's The Immortal World Tour. And it happened here in Las Vegas. Last Dec 3, 2011 I finally got the taste of a Michael Jackson experience even if it was half-baked. Half-baked because MJ is already gone and it was a Cirque Du Soliel show as a tribute to him and his songs. This was a touring company and they came from California before coming here in Las Vegas for the whole month of December.

There are at least 5 Cirque Du Soliel shows here in Las Vegas and I almost saw all of them but in fairness, the touring company was able to come up with a very good show at par with their resident counterparts. As expected from a Cirque production, there were a lot of acrobatic routines. There were pole dancers, gymnasts, dancers and live singers as well. They were able to give justice to every Michael Jackson song. The show was not overwhelmed by just acrobatic routines alone, there were also an equal mix of dancing. Since this is a touring company, they could not fully avail of the automated set changes like their resident sister companies are enjoying here in Las Vegas. The producers were brilliant enough to use portable sets in which the performers could push in and out from the stage. The clever use of light effects including film projections as well as stage pyrotechnics were prominent in the production. Images of Michael were almost always in every scene through the use of film projections. The show will never be a Michael Jackson show without the magic of his music. The production was able to come up with a good list of MJ's music. Live singers and musicians cleverly performed with original Michael Jackson recordings to come up with unique mixes. I really have to download the original soundtrack of the show. The only bad thing I observed from the whole production was that, sometimes there were a lot going on the stage and it was hard for me to capture everything at one time in my line of vision. Maybe this might be caused by my actual seating location from the stage. It may have helped if I was sitting directly in front of the stage, thereby the backdrop videos can blend well with the performers on the stage. As what I have said earlier, the show was very good, cleverly performed given their limited resources in terms of stage set changes.

This was the next best thing that I could have to experience the Michael Jackson magic and his genius. I think the whole production have two goals in coming up with this show: to showcase their Love to Michael Jackson and Respect of his talent and legacy. A fitting tribute indeed to the King of Pop. I'm pretty sure that MJ was with his fans in spirit that evening.

Favorite Moment: I actually have three; Human nature - breathtaking, Smooth Criminal - love the dancing and Thriller - dancing as well as the costumes.

Toxicity In The Work Place

Whenever you're working on a particular task for quite sometime, you tend to get used to it and everytime you do the work, it becomes second nature to you. This is what I realized in my job recently. I've been doing this job for almost 6 to 7 years now and I became comfortable with it. I became so efficient in doing the work involved that I can't imagine myself doing something else. It became one of my life's daily routines.

Recently, the company acquired a new system to replace the system that I was working on for some time. I know that any implementation of a new system is for the betterment towards the company's goals and objectives. It should improve the way we do things at work. But, I guess it is human nature to resist any changes specially if the old system is working fine. There is always that lingering quote "Why fix it when it ain't broken." You really have to undergo a paradigm shift and come to terms with the changes given the fact that these changes will bring about improvement and efficiency of the current job you are working.

During the actual implementation, I had difficulty in adjusting my time with the work load. It seemed we are always busy and non-stop work throughout the whole shift. On my first week, I even skipped my breaktime just to finish everything. It is not only me, the other shift have to adjust with the new process also therefore it affects everyone in our department. After two weeks of this new process, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. The survival instinct in me kicked in and I'm finding my own way of getting through my work more efficiently and on time.