Comparisons

Me and my family are practicing Catholics. Even back in out home country, the Philippines, we'd make sure that we hear Holy Mass every Sunday. Here in Las Vegas, we hear Mass as much as we can, considering that I have work on Saturday evenings so I spend the whole day of Sunday in my bed. We normally hear mass at Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church every 6:30 PM. There is something special about this schedule, they always hold a Filipino mass on this time. All the songs are in Pilipino or Tagalog although there are a few that are in English. In order to be understood by the mixed crowd of churchgoers, the priest has to conduct the mass in English.

There are several instances that Filipino priests come to visit and officiate the mass much to the delight of mostly Filipino parishioners. This is where one could compare between a white or caucasian priest and a Pinoy priest in terms of offiating the mass. I myself could notice during the sermon where these "white" priests tend to read in delivering their sermon whereas these Pinoy priests, specially those newly arrived direct from the Philippines, they tend to just speak without using any draft at all. It seems that these Pinoy priests share the gospel from their heart while the "other" priests are not sincere enough in delivering their sermons.

Although it seems you can see the difference, the bottomline is how the parishioners absorbed the sermon. Those priests who were just reading their sermons, although seems not sincere, actually delivered the gospel and share it to the people with all their hearts put into it. They probably use some kind of aid while they talk in order to deliver the thought and the true message of the gospel in a more understandable and efficient way. In either way, the ultimate goal is to share the teachings of God. Priests are just the instrument of God to bring the good news to all the people and because they are still human, they are not perfect in some ways also.

So the next time I hear mass, I'd focus more on the good message the officiating priest tried to convey and not on their individual style in delivering such message.

Music & Dancing At The Moon

The city of Las Vegas is the entertainment capital of the world. It has everything from gambling to booze, from dining to sex, you name it and you'll find it in Vegas.

We call ourselves The Locals, people who consider this sin city our home. Although the tourists are mostly the ones you find inside bars and clubs as well as in the casino floor and of course restaurants, we locals are predominant figures during the weekends where most of us are off from work. Me and my friends are no excemption. Although we usually have our get-together parties in a friend's house on weekends, we also go out clubbing for a night of dancing and fun.

Last Sunday, me and my friends went all the way to the top of Palms Casino Resort to have a night of fun at Club Moon. Its an exclusive boutique nightclub, featuring spectacular views of the city and a celestial retractable roof. Appropriately named because when the roof is fully retracted, people are literally dancing the night away under the Las Vegas skies. Even if it was a Sunday evening, there were still a substantial crowd filling the whole venue. People are dancing to popular and some rare cuts of techno and house music featuring celebrity deejays at some nights. With the $20 entrance fee, you've got to enjoy everything the club could offer, from cocktail drinks to music as well as the beautiful crowd.

Kaba-Maasin Site Update

Its been 7 months now since I last updated the website that I made for the Maasinhons of Las Vegas. Visitors of that site were already wondering what had happened to the webmaster since the last update was still on September 2007. Many of these visitors may not know the underlying reasons why I stopped doing the updates. The last update I made was about the pictures that I posted online from the Maasin Fiesta celebrations held in August.

Right after our celebrations in August, something happened that disturbed me so much that I don't even know what information I would use to update the group's website. What happened was so upseting even the days following that event. More and more embarassing information came up out of that fateful incident. It really affected my faith with the group, if the group could rise above that embarassing incident. Its not proper for me to put in details what really happened but its suffice to say that it affected the group tremendously.

Deep in my heart, I really wanted to revive the groupd's website. I thought I owe it to the regular visitors who wanted to know what's going on with us here in Las Vegas. There are new developments that recently happened and I think its high time to update the website. Although the website is still accessible online, with no activities for the past 7 months, it seems in a standstill, frozen in a certain time and space.

Currently, I'm gathering new materials that I could use to revive the website. More pictures that needs to be taken, new articles and announcements to write. Maybe I could think of a new updated page design to announce to the world that Kaba-Maasin Las Vegas group is still alive and ready to face a new chapter of its existence.

'Twas A Smooth Workweek

Last week as quite okey for me. Even if I had worked an extra day to cover a coworker, I didnt mind because it was not really that busy in the pharmacy as I have described the previous week. There were no major issues that came out for the Robot machine (named ReX) so the cartfill process for the last 4 evenings were smooth sailing.

Tommorrow, a Monday, I'm planning to bring my car to a Toyota dealership for its 40,000-mile oil change and check-up. The indicator in the control panel has been blinking wildly as a reminder that its due for its regular maintenance. My car is a 2004 Toyota Hilander, actually a mid-size SUV. This is my first car so far that I bought for myself las November 2003. Although this was my second choice, the first was Nissan Murano, also a mid-sized SUV but at that time in 2003, it was the first time that the Murano was manufactured and released. There was no record yet or history of its quality and performance. So far "McLeod" (named after the main character in the Highlander TV series) has served me and my family well. Its gas usage is quite low as compared to a full size SUV or even truck models. I have driven McLeod to San Diego, about 5 to 6 hrs drive from Las Vegas, a couple of times. We arrived in Arizona's Grand Canyon South Rim safely because of McLeod. It was about 6 to 7 hr drive, the farthest so far. I loved this car as I dont have any complaints whatsoever in terms of its performace. As long as I keep it well maintained and do its regular check-ups, this should serve me and my family for a long time. As the common notion goes with all Asian built automobiles, "they run forever".

What A Busy Week

I know, I know....I'm not being true to my promise of updating my blog everyday. Its no longer fit of its title, The Daily Grind.

There are a lot of things going on. Although one may consider them as insignificant but its actually taking my time out from going online and do updates on my blog.

Anyway, last week was one of the many long weeks for me. Aside from the hospital pharmacy was so busy, my co-worker also requested a time off on a Sunday. Sunday is supposed to be the first of my 3-days off from work as I work 4 days a week at 10hrs per day. So last Sunday, I did reported for work. Again it was busy even if it was a weekend. How I wish it would be summer soon as this would indicate lesser patients, meaning we have more time to relax at work. People from the East Coast, specially senior citizens could not stand the bitter cold in that part of the United States. They tend to move here in the South West as the winter is not that cold and rarely snows down here. When summer comes in, these same people could not stand the triple digit heat temperatures that we usually experience so they again would move up to the East where summer heat is more tolerable.

With all these going on, I still managed to have some quality time with my good friend Willie. We shopped at Fry's Electronics for some PSP games for my nephew while I accompanied Willie to do his groceries. We also went out to dine at Roberto's Mexican Grill. What was funny about this was that Willie was actually not in favor of eating in this restuarant because as what he told me, it is not an authentic Mexican restaurant. I would probably agree as we've been in a more authentic Mexican restaurant before with some of Willi's Mexican friends. When we were ordering, we tried some of their menu which we found to be appealing after all. We tried the nachos con carne or with meat like beef or chicken. We also tried some sort of a sandwhich in which Willie decided that during our next visit, he would order that sandwhich because he liked it very much. We also tried their rice cinnamon juice drink and I actually liked it. Its hard to describe it here but you just have to try it to appreciate its unique flavor.

As I said, I only got 2 days off this week and as of this writting, its already Wednesday and I'll be working again for the next 4 days.