PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTOGRAPHY
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Misa de Gallo

“Misa de Gallo” it is a Spanish phrase which means Midnight Mass, more literally it is translated as Rooster’s Mass or its known “Simbang Gabi” for us Filipinos.

These nine dawn Masses, usually starting at four o’clock in the morning, are considered a novena by the Catholic and Aglipayan faithful. Going to mass this early for nine consecutive days is meant to show the churchgoer’s devotion to his faith and to heighten anticipation for the Nativity of the Lord. A traditional Filipino belief, however, many believes that those who complete the novena will have a special wish or favor granted by God.

Simbang Gabi has become one of the most popular traditions in the country. But it is not just a tradition that is celebrated because we need to do so. It is a significant moment not only because it strengthens relationships among family members but also because it is the time where our faith is intensified. This is the time where we mostly feel the presence of the Lord because it is the spiritual preparation for Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. It does not matter if one has the stamina to complete the novena or not, what really matters is what is inside the heart. The blessing does not depend on the number of mass attended, but what is important is the disposition of the person who receives the Lord’s blessing.

After hearing Mass, Filipino families partake of traditional Philippine Christmas delicacies, either during breakfast at home or immediately outside the church where they are sold. Vendors offer a wealth of native delicacies, including bibingka (rice flour and egg based cake, cooked using coals on top and under), puto bumbong (a purple sticky rice delicacy which is steamed in bamboo tubes, with brown sugar and coconut shavings as condiments), coffee, and tsokolate (thick Spanish cocoa).

1st day

My first day in Misa de Gallo was great, because I was awakened by the church’s bell. I felt not sleepy at all. It was cold and humid morning, while we’re on the way going to the church. Our church Has giant Christmas tree outside, and beautiful belen inside.. (hahah just sharing) What I have learned is to increase our faith in God because its purpose is for preparing for Jesus Christ’s birthday or what we call Christmas day..

2nd day

We Filipinos has the longest christmas ever. As father said when the month ending in -ber for us it is the start of Christmas. Thats why we prepare and put colorful decorations on our houses. There are 4 reasons why we love Christmas because good things happens: 1st, because of the bonus that many receives, 2nd, because of gifts that we receive, 3rd, new clothes are bought, 4th, christmas lights and decors everywhere. Even though these are the reasons we must know that Christmas is for giving not for receiving.

3rd day

“We must sacrifice waking up early in the morning so that we can attend the Misa de Gallo”  father said. This is done just once a year. A preperation for the birthday of Jesus Christ. A little sacrifice brings joy to us and for Christ.

4th day

There are 3 things we must know: 1st, we should live in a good life, not because we ask something but because it is expected from us. 2nd, just pray heartily. 3rd believe in God. If we do these things even if we don’t ask anything, god will reward us for what we are doing.

5th day

This day I learned that real service doesn’t need demand something in return. We should sacrifice because great power comes in great responsibilty.

6th day

December 21, this day is my birthday. heheh. Teaches us our real purpose why we live. It will be known on three ways. First, we will know about it in other persons. Second, you will know about it by youself and lastly, in different events you participate in. One of these three will lead you to your real purpose why you live..

7th day

We must learn that 1 never forgets to acknowledge the goodness of the Lord to express our gratitude for him. It’s not that we just ask something for him but if we get what we wanted we forget about thanking him.

8th day

God wants us to know that it’s not always happiness that he gives us. Pain, sufferings and trials, because God wants us to learn something about that experience and we should trust him. Because God will never leave us behind.

9th day

This day is the last day on Misa de Gallo. The summary of eight days going to church. There is only one message to all of us and it is love. Love is the real meaning of christmas, love for friends, families, relatives and to everyone.

HERO Educators

“We need donations for these children, like pens or notebooks, also volunteer teachers.” Says the American. We have passed by this American while buying some snacks. I find him a passionate one for what he is doing because he teaches these young children without any pay. For the fact that he’s an American and he teaches young Filipino men and women.

Do you know Efren Peñaflorida? Well if not let me tell you a little bit background about him. Kuya Ef to some kids on the streets has been a mobile teacher for his “Kariton Classroom” (push cart classroom). Efren is a teacher and a social worker at the same time.

Today, Efren Peñaflorida is one of the top 10 CNN heroes 2009 to vote for the world. He’s made it there because of his excellence with an outstanding advocacy to teach and educate Filipino children in the streets.

Usually, it is the out-of-school youth and often times street gang members who were taught using the said pushcart classes by Efren and his team of youth volunteers.

Peñaflorida is actually a native of Cavite City where he was born. He was still 16 years old when his advocacy to teach out-of-school children centered in his native town. He is the one who initiated the DTC or Dynamic Teen Company.

He reached out to teen in the community and taught them using this organization as his tool to be able to penetrate in different communities, the underserved Filipino youth. He gave them free lessons and different subject tutorials.

It was every Saturday that Efren and his fellow classmates who started and devoted time in teaching kids and children in slum areas. For the 10 years of his dedication along with some volunteers, DTC now had 10, 000 members wherein part of that population at an estimated 1, 500 children receive free tutorials.

Part of DTC’s curriculum teaches children basic reading and writing to street children which to me is one of the best selfless acts that a Filipino has ever made for his fellowmen. “To you Efren Peñaflorida, we give our full support in winning the quest for the ultimate CNN Hero.”

If you are looking on how to vote for Efren Peñaflorida in CNN Heroes 2009, please visit CNN Heroes ( http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/ )and look for his name with a “vote” button. All you have to do is click the “Vote” button. You won’t even need to sign in or any e-mail which makes it easy to help Efren win.

Efren Penaflorida is a Filipino who teaches Filipino youth too, unlike these American who is not a Filipino but teaches Filipino youth. Isn’t it amazing? He is helping Filipino youth cause he believes that they need education to be successful in life and he believes that the young men and women is the future of our country.

Like kuya Efren, the American has the same goal too. They offers Filipino youth an alternative to gang membership through education. “Instead of being discouraged, I promised myself that I would pursue education,” and I will strive hard; I will do my best.” Says kuya Efren.

Samsung M7603 Beat DJ

I just wanted to share what this phone can do. Because for me, I find it awesome. Since I bought this phone last July and its was freshly released that time, I don’t have any regrets of buying this phone. It has all the applications and specifications I needed, including the image quality when using its camera. Here is the full specification of the phone.

Platform

GSM&EDGE Band: Quadband (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
GPRS: Class 12
EDGE: Class 12
3G: HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
Operation System: Samsung
JAVA™: MIDP 2.0

Design

Form: Factor Bar

Size

Weight: 70.2 g
Dimension (HXWXD): 112x 51 x 13.9 mm

Display

External Technology: 16M AMOLED
External Resolution: 400×240
External Size: 2.8

Battery

Capacity (Standard): Li-Ion Polymer 960 mAH
Talk Time (Standard): up to250 H
Standby (Standard): up to 350 H

User Interface

Input Device: Full touch, Half touch

Camera

Camera Resolution: 3.2 Megapixel CMOS
Digital / Optical Zoom: Optical Zoom x4
Flash: Power LED
Auto Focus : Auto Focus
Shot Mode: Mosaic/ Multishot/ Timer
Photo Effects: Black & White/ Sepia/ negaitve/ Watercolor/ Frame

Video

Video player: MPEG4, H.263
Video recording: yes
Video messaging: via MMS (300KB max)
Video streaming: yes
Video telephony: supported (using 3G video call)

Music & Sound

Music Player: MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, AMR
Ringtones: i-melody, mid, sp-midi, polyphonic, WAV
MP3 Ringtone: yes
DRM: v1.0
3D sound technology: Bang & Olufsen Ice power

Fun & Entertainment

Embedded Wallpaper: yes
PodCasting: yes
FM Radio: supported (with loudspeaker function)
FM Radio Recoding: yes
FM Radio: RDS yes

Business & Office

Document Viewer: ACCESS
Mobile Printing: yes
Offline Mode: yes

Messaging

SMS: 160 x 15 characters
MMS: yes
Predictive Text Input: T9 english
Email: POP3 / SMTP
Cell broadcast: yes
vCard / vCalendar: yes

Connectivity

Bluetooth: v2.0
USB: 2.0 (High Speed)
WAP: openwave
Internet HTML Browser: Internet Explorer / Opera
SyncML (DS): V1.2

Memory

User Memory: yes
SMS memory: 500 entries
Phone book entries: 2000 entries
External Memory: up to 8BG

Personal Information Management

Calendar: yes
Clock: yes
Worldtime: yes
Alarm: yes
Converter: yes
Calculator: yes
Memo book: yes
Stop watch: yes
Count down timer: yes
Auto Time Setting: yes

Call Functions

Speakerphone: yes
call time: yes
Multiparty: yes
Dialed/missed/received calls 20 dialed / 20 missed / 20 received

So what can you say about this phone? Pretty good huh? heheh.. 😀

All Souls Day 2009

Every now and then we visit our loved ones in the cemetery,
To let them know we didn’t forget about them.
That we treasure the values and memories they have left us.

Being in the cemetery is also a get together or gathering with our relatives.

But do we know the purpose in going to the cemetery?

Fr. Alcris our parish priest emphasized that going to the cemetery is not having reunion or get together, neither a party nor beer house.

It’s not also because it has been our culture to go there or it has been thought to us by our elders.

But,the main reason why we need to go there is because we need to pray for them and show our loved ones that they are not forgotten.

Yes it’s not bad to have a get together or gathering, to eat and drink there but we should always remember that above all we should pray first. Thats the thought Fr. Alcris teaches the people who went to church last Sunday.

Although my relatives is not complete this year at least everyone did make an effort to go there and pray for my grand father, aunt, and cousin. My grand mother is always the one leading the prayer and we all follow.

Knowing the true meaning of going to the cemetery is very important to know, because most of us are mistakenly interpreting the true meaning of it.

MY PRAYER

Dear God,

I pray for my grand father, aunt, cousins, and relatives which has departed and now who is joining you in your kingdom. I am here praying just to let them know that they are not forgotten. As your son, I also pray for the souls in porgatory that I am still bound by charity to try to lessen the suffering of the holy souls through my prayer and deeds. These I ask to you Lord God. Amen.

Thanksgiving Giveaway of Jaypeeonline

Wow, Jaypee’s got a contest?

C’mon lests drop by and see what is it all about.

All of us are invited,

So what are we waiting for?

Prizes are cool,

They’re not just chickens,

I tell you.

Not a sports contest, nor an eating contest,

Not a spelling contest, neither mathematics.

No battles, no pain, no hard time for this.

All you need to do is subscribe to his site.

Blog this contest, leave a comment on his site

and include the URL to your blog post.

But wait there’s more,

You can earn additional points.

But how will you do that?

hmmm, just Tweet, Write a review for Jaypee,

and join his Fan Page on Facebook.

By the end of November this contest will end,

And by December a winner shall be declared.

Prizes shall be given to the winners,

And you shall receive an early Christmas gift for yourself.

It’s not just the prizes matters,

But it’s a way for you to be known,

And earn friends too.

So what do you think?

Join now!

 

Here’s the LINK:

http://jaypeeonline.net/contests/thanksgiving-giveaway/

 

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2. Pro Theme Design
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4. WP Zoom
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7. WP WebHost
8. Jehzeel Laurente

National Conference on Aging

National Conference on Aging on October 27 & 28, 2009 with the theme of “Promoting Wellness, Improving Quality of Life of Older Persons” in which I have attended. I found this conference interesting even if we have taken up this topic (Geriatrics) as a major subject in nursing. Of course to learn and to gain more knowledge from the speakers. As my teacher says “We do not stop learning, that’s why we learn something new every day because learning is a continuous process, you teach and you learn something at the same time”.

1st Day

On my first day in the national conference they talk about Facts and Myths about aging, Immunization, healthy Nutrition, Exercise Guidelines, Risk Management/ Lifestyle Modification, Applying Principles of Comprehensive Assessment of the Elderly, Interpretation of laboratory/ diagnostic outcomes, Current Laws/ Policies on the Elderly, and Maintaining Quality of Life: Recognizing Emotional, Spiritual & Psychosocial needs.

With all of these things discussed I have realized that we are the primary caregivers among the elderly, the family members. Even if we are not doctor or nurse in profession as long as we love our elderly, we are significant others of the elderly, then we should take care of them more than the caregivers do in nursing homes. They say “What you say is what you are”, so if you tell yourself that “I can do it” then you can do it.

2nd Day

On my second day in the national conference they talk about Wet clinic and Skills Demonstration on Bed Positioning, Stoma Care, Use of Assistive Devices, Mobility Transfers, Preventing Falls, and Rational Drug use.

The second day’s topic was very useful, especially for those who have elderly in their homes. Because they will know the ideal care, ideal assistive device to be used, ideal stoma care, ideal bed positioning and ect.. With this conference the mortality of the elderly will decrease due to the knowledge shared by the speakers. The elderly will live long life because the risk for fall will decrease and proper care for the elderly will be implemented.

Over all I can say that the conference was successful because for me, myself, I learned something new that I did not encounter in our lessons. If this conference will continue all throughout the country maybe there will be more numbers of elderly when time comes. And if that time comes there will be more number of our population.

The Omnipotent Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy) & Parma (Pepeng)

Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) visited the Philippines on the afternoon of September 26, 2009. It was declared an over-all state of calamity in Metro Manila and other 25 provinces hit by the typhoon. Here comes Typhoon Pepeng (Parma) it brings more devastation to the country right after the tropical storm Ondoy caught everyone in the Philippines by a surprise.

Angry winds and driving rains did batter the areas and the effect was disastrous. The combined effects of continuous rainfall and storm surge were exacerbated by clogging of drainage systems, leading to rapid flooding in streets, landslides in mountainous areas, and flash floods along the Pasig and Marikina rivers. Many roads were already impassable due to uprooted trees and bridges had collapsed, while electricity has been cut off because the electricity poles and wires fell into the flood. The first 24 hours of landfall in NCR alone caught thousands stranded in the streets, office buildings, shopping malls, and residences, while simultaneously blocking major thoroughfares in the urban center and suburban peripheries.

Right after the experiences we have gone through, the question is did we all learn our lessons? We learn or we didn’t learn one thing is for sure Typhoon Ondoy & Pepeng like any other natural disasters that hit our country had left us with unforgettable and painful experiences. But there are valuable lessons we should remember from all of them…lessons to keep us all going…

There are the things each family should prepare for before calamity happens. These things will help you prepare in the times of calamity.

Tips to observe with (or without) an impending typhoon:

• Dispose your garbage properly so it won’t clog the drainage and become the source of infection.
• Make sure that power lines are stable or firmly connected; shut down the main power if necessary.
• Boil your drinking water for two minutes or more; save sterilized water.
• Store foods that are not easy to perish.
• Complete vaccination for children.
• Prepare a “first aid kit”, fire extinguisher, flashlight or candle, and battery-operated radio.

In the event of an evacuation:

• Listen only to reports and reminders coming from the proper authorities.
• Calmly follow all the reminders during evacuation.
• Be careful not to step on open manholes and street gutter.
• Avoid the path near or leading to the river.
• Using a rope, head to the part where the current is coming from. Never loose your grip on the rope.

In the aftermath Ketsana’s & Parma’s immediate impact, there is a high level of distress, anxiety, frustration, helplessness and insecurity. The anxiety and distress are attributed to the uncertainty of the internally displaced persons current condition. Many of them have expressed concern that they do not know how long they will stay in the evacuation centers and when they could go back to their homes. Others are even more distressed because their houses have been wiped out and they do not have any other place to go. This uncertainty and the lack of options available to them reportedly contribute to the stress they are experiencing.

The parents are concerned about their children’s welfare—specifically, health, as well as their education—which increases their overall anxiety. The children themselves expressed concern about their education, specifically on how they can go back to school when their books, school supplies and uniforms are all gone. The children, however, cope fairly well by playing inside the evacuation centers and socializing. On the other hand, it is the parents who appear most anxious about the situation, specifically how to provide for their families’ basic needs.

Signs of depression were observable in some internally displaced persons. Others have also expressed feelings of helplessness. The feeling of helplessness is exacerbated perhaps by the internally displaced persons lack of participation in relief distribution and camp management. Their sense of loss of control over their lives is aggravated by their lack of opportunity to participate in activities purportedly designed to protect their lives and well-being. Their dignity is also threatened as they become mere recipients of relief.

The frustration in many internally displaced persons is very evident. This is also manifested in the anger they exhibit as they speak of the issues in the evacuation centers, especially amongst fathers. This anger, unrecognized and unchecked, could lead to aggressive and violent behavior. The internally displaced persons link their frustration to several issues: (a) being asked to leave the evacuation centers and immediately return home—regardless of their fears; (b) people who are taking advantage of them; and (c) issues related to relief operations, e.g. chaotic, unsystematic distribution and lack of information and participation.

• Some survivors still in a state of shock, and seem unable to acknowledge what has occurred
• Some survivors are angry and aggressive and seem to need to blame someone
• Some survivors are sad and teary
• Many survivors are turning to religion, or spirituality, to accept what has happened to them
• Many survivors exhibit feelings of helplessness and hopelessness are evident
• Some survivors, particularly children, are showing resilience through play and laughter
• Some survivors appeared to have made the decision to move forward with their lives and are already trying to forget the experience

What they say or encourage filipino’s to strive harder, they had teamwork optimistically to survive. In a way that, they would help each other in many ways. Some victims would just rely on miracles, donations, rescue, its not so bad. What they need is encouragement, the will to survive. Like a test of being able to withstand ourselves from a massive typhoon. Technically not a test but to endure and change ourselves from our short comings. In simple ways, what goes around comes around.

We witness the attitude of the Filipinos being generous. Helping each other in the times of calamity, donating something for needy. Sabi nga nila “Sino pa ba ang magtutulungan, kundi tayo-tayo lang din”. In times like this, if Filipinos will be as one it will make the country more progressive cause’ helping hand in hand will be a great future to all Filipinos.

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