I got some new toys recently to play with, well, actually, to upgrade our system here at home.
I got a new Linksys Wireless 320N router to replace my really old standard linksys cable router connected to a wireless-G standard wifi hub.
This next pic is obviously the old cable router and wifi hub together. The all-in-one replacement will save us some electricity with the single plug left to be powered.
While I was upgrading the sole PC at home with a new Samsung 19inch monitor, I was also clean upgrading it's Windows XP with my original Windows 7 Ultimate that Miggie gave me last year. Its for mom and the office anyway.
Time to hang up my last gig as poll watcher/watcher coordinator/feeling legal aid and as a diligent son working for mom's campaign ID.
Along with the many other ID's I've had with my many hats throughout the years.
I thank God for the opportunities he has given me to learn, and to be exposed to life. I pray that I may be able to imbibe all that knowledge he has given me the chance to encounter, and that I may apply it wisely according to his will and his time.
I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Mom won her re-election as Barangay Chairman of Dasmarinas Village, Makati.
It was a tough fight, but mom hopes to move forward.
We prayed for a peaceful out come, and as some of the BEI people at my table were saying, DASMA's worse can't be as bad as the storms in non-villages. Dasma had air-conditioning food and water for the BEIs.
Still, the Board of Election Inspectors were our unsung heroes today. they towed the line. I know of one very brave man who refused to be corrupted while being called by a very influential high ranking official one step close to the Palace who told him to do everything to make sure my mom lost.
Sad was the case, but regardless of the outcome, we got most of our team of serbisyong tooo, and will be looking forward to working with our new team members for the coming years.
Whoever made this spin article on Manila Standard which improperly quoted my mom what she said out of context, will surely have some egg on their face with the fact that DASMA DID NOT FALL!!!
As a proud son, she looks beautiful and is very eloquent. Go mom!
Dasmarinas Village Makati Barangay Captain Atty. Maria Filomena "Nena" Legaspi Rosales guests on ANC's The Rundown. ANC is the news channel of ABS-CBN as she is interviewed regarding the 2010 Barangay Elections with her kagawad Martin Arenas.Atty. Nena Rosales talks about how work in the Barangay is about giving back to the community which should be insulated from the negative aspect side of politics. Its about giving back.Atty. Nena is the wife of assassinated Executive Judge Voltaire Y. Rosales of Tanauan, Batangas who was killed due to his refusal to accept bribes from a drug lord whose case was in his court.
A common misconception on how democracy works is that it relates only to the act of voting for leaders. Everything else is expected to fall in place perfectly with a silver spoon to the constituents. Vote for the right person, and absolute justice is expected with a perfect bureaucracy that does not need anything else to work.
Having given my part back to the community I have lived in for more than half my life, I feel it is such an unrealistic perception that creates an immature dependency on others. It feeds the dole out mentality and perpetuates laziness.
Democracy is not a perfect system, but neither is any other ideology. It is only in a democracy though that the people are given the right to participate not just in the policy making of the state, but the procedures that apply such policies. In a dictatorship, one person makes the rules and applies it according to his or her whim. A democracy allows all those willing to participate to create their laws or ask their representative to make the laws they want. If the implementation is bad, the people have the venue of the judiciary to right a possible wrong or prevent such wrong from happening again.
I stress, a democracy isn’t a perfect system, but it’s the best we have with respect to giving everyone a chance to be heard.
That being said, we should take into consideration the balancing of the many interests especially for those that have been vested rights by the constitution. When should people be allowed to speak their mind? To what extent? Can one person lie about another person and get away with it using freedom of speech? Or does human dignity play a role in respecting the rights of a person? People tend to lose their patience with democracy forgetting that it isn’t as simple as fighting for one right. There are many rights protected by our 1987 Philippine Constitution. Some may conflict with others and it is the duty of government to make sure neither rights trample on others.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that for a democracy to work, it requires the active participation of everyone involved, all those who have interests, not merely at the voting state, but at every stage required to implement and protect the rights afforded to these people.
People want instantaneous justice, but sometimes they forget such can be given but at the cost of due process afforded to every person. Due process is there to protect the truly innocent. The philosophy behind that is it would be better to let many guilty people free than to imprison one truly innocent person. Why is it such? Well, I guess it’s a conservative logic to protect the good. I didn’t make that up though. I’m just living by the same rules made by people born long before I was a thought in my parents mind.
Justice, like freedom, is not for free. In a vibrant democracy like ours, JFK’s words ring stronger and even more true when he said “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”.
Three more tests and I'm scot free of this semester!
DataBlitz had a promo, buy 2 games get 1 free. So of course, I indulged and told myself I'd play on Wednesday, but I ended up opening them when Ton and Chuck passed by.
Now I have an eight game back-log composed of Dragon Age Origins, Forza 3, Banjo Kazooie, Viva Pinata, Left 4 Dead 2, Bioshock 2, Red Dead Redemption and NBA 2k11!!!
It's gonna be a packed Sembreak, Hopefully I'll have enough time to finish all the games.
I'm trying to understand why people can be very mean to those they perceive to be "below" them. My father disliked people who were matapobre. He once yelled at an officer of his court for using unreasonable force to move a vagrant from the area. "Wag ka ganun sa pobre!!!" (don't do that to a poor man) he yelled at the officer.
I remember him telling me that true power came from within. Being able to control your anger and diffusing it to something positive was a lot harder than lashing out and acting crass or rude. "The dogs bark when they're mad cause its the only thing they can do, but we are intellectual so we must learn how to speak!"
Which brings me to my point for tonight. Why would someone lash out and try to make someone else feel bad by berating them or talking ill or just by being hostile in general? I can think of two reasons.
The valid reason to lash out is, like my father would do, to protect someone from a wrong or prevent a wrong from happening. You discipline the wrong-doer and you try to make your community better.
The other reason, which may be wrong or right depending on your standpoint, is to give a false sense of power or security. I'm sure we all know of that someone in our community that cannot get by without making sure someone else is put down or feels inferior. That my readers, is insecurity manifested through abrasiveness.
Good breeding cannot be bought, it is learned from years of honing by a person who himself is well-bred. Good breeding does not necessarily mean snobbery or haughtiness, but a certain strength, a security that tells people, I do not have to hurt others or put them down, because I know better, and have been taught to hold myself out to be better and nothing you can say will make me do what is wrong because I know I do not need your validation to tell me what I'm doing is right.
In that sense, it may sound a bit arrogant, but the righteous should be strong otherwise, we'd all end up acting like barbarians.
Adam sent me finished product pictures. I just have to pick it up and review. I'll probably have time on Thursday. Hope there's nothing that needs to be fine tuned!!! :D
Isn't it a beauty? I can't wait to see how the interior turned out. Pictures care of Adam Glen Santos :D
