Thor

Yesterday April 29, 2011 together with my sister we went to watch the movie "Thor" at SM San Lazaru, Manila. Thor is a 2011 American superhero film that is based on the comic book charater of the same name and was published by   Marvel Comics, This is the fourth film release in the Marvel cinematic unive Marvel Cinematic Universe and was developed by Marvel Studios, , The first Film release is the movie "Iron Man" and The Incredible Hulk in 2008 and in 2010 the "Iron Man 2' and now 2011 Thor and the upcoming film Captain America: The First Avenger and finally by 2012 The Avengers.

The movie is about Thor played by Chris Hemsworth which will about to ascend to the throne as king of Asgard  but his reign was interrupted when on his pronouncement as a king by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) the Frost Giants attempted to retrieve the Casket, The casket is the source of all the power of the Frost Giants of Jotunheim and was seize by Odin when he wages war against them to prevent them in conquering the Nine Realms which will start on earth. Thor was in rage when his ascension as a king was stop in the middle of the ceremony  and against Odin's order, his hunger for

war, his arrogance and his will to prove his worth to his father, Thor went to Jotunheim and confronts the Frost Giants and their leader Laufey (Colm Feore) accompanied by his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston),, a childhood friend Sif (Jaimie Alexander), and the Warriors Three:Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Fandral (Joshua Dallas) and Hogun (Tadanobu Asano), battle ensues that fans the flames of an ancient conflict and destroying the fragile truce between the two races, Odin as present King of Asgard force to intervene and save his son's lives and his friends. Thor then was strips of all his powers and was exiled to Earth accompanied by his hammer and source of his power Mjolnir, that is now protected by a spell by Odin to allow only the worthy to wield it. He then arrive at New Mexico and was found by Jane Foster ((Natalie Portman)). On earth he learned the meaning of humility and that his key to wield the hammer and restore all his power and allow him to go back to to his world and save his father in the hand of his adopted brother Loki who all this time was the one who set everything up and reveled his true plan and that is to destroy Jotunheim by the bifrost bridge and prove himself worthy to wield the hammer Mjolnir.

The movie is distributed by  Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment and the film stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins and directed by Kenneth Branagh the director of the movies like Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Wild Wild West and Valkyrie among others. 


What would be my take away in this movie is simply the meaning of humility. According to a quotation from Blesses Giles of Assisi which says "No man can attain to the knowledge of God but by humility, The way to mount high is to descend" we all have path to take and most of the time along this road are the hindrances in reaching our goals in life, these are the hindrances that slow us, anger us and worst that destroy us because what we always to thought is to get even, to get ahead, and to win and when other hurt us we want seek for revenge and we ler our arrogance and pride eat us into one piece of  tools that will destroy others and that will destroy us. Jesus in all the pain he suffered when he was scourge at the pillar, with the mocking hre receive he never feel any certain hate but rather he prayed to the father to forgive us and we know that it will takes alot of humility to do and we know also that we can say that we are not God but question is do we really have to be God in order to learn what humility means, is it should we say to ourselves that we should always practice humility every time and every chance there is because eve the Lord our God was able to lower himself  to mankind how much more to us? as for me I know it could be harder because I am a person whose pride is bigger than my head but it is not impossible to do and I hope I can do it.

Thor - Chris Hemsworth

Odin - Anthony Hopkins

Jane Foster Natalie Portman

Sif - Jaimie Alexander

Loki - Tom Hiddleston

Heimdall - Idris Elba

Hogun one of the Three Warriors

Laslas Gang

Last night on the way home at pass 12 midnight my C3 mobile was stolen or rob to me while riding on a buss going home.  I was so tired from work and kind a sleepy when I seat not so close at the back and seated all alone at the 3 seated chairs of the buss, I feel bit confidence that there will be no people who will gonna seat beside I feel asleep but woke up that there were two people already seated beside me, The guy is not exactly looking like a robber but i was wrong because I didn't feel that they already using there skillful hand in taking out my mobile phone on my right hand pocket without me even noticing it and when i found out about it they already drop out from the bus and with them are my Nokia C3 phone and with me is juts my old pants with a long slit on the right hand side and feeling of defeat and loss.

A mixture of frustration, anger, defeat, loss, pity that i feeling at that time. I feel that I should not be and I was not deserve of anything like this. I think that what happened to me is not acceptable. there were also questions in my mind asking why there were people like this? that they get their living by robing other people. these are the people who are able physically and mentally to work but instead chooses this kind of job? easy money and no sweat anyway and you just have to have of Plenty of courage, skillful hand, and a lot of guts, regardless if you are primary, high, or college under graduate for as long as you are able your are qualified.. these are the people that at first sight you wont be able to notice and I think wont expect that is engage in this kind of work. I also feel sorry for the family on these people that what they are eating, spending, wearing, and anything that they is out of the people belonging that has been rob and was sell to lesser amount. I feel sorry for all of these people's sons and daughters that what they are getting from their parents or father perhaps are come from other people's pocket. I was hurt and I feel angry, and my rage are so great. I feel defeated and frustrated because I wasn't able to do anything but to accept the fact that it was all gone. The mobile phone I bought from the office mate friend who is running a cell phone business and bought it for P5000 plus and paid it partially every month is all gone, its a phone I that I enjoy my self whenever I went places and taking capturing happy moments, listening to the music that I like and save in my music file and getting my self in touch with friends but now it was all gone and what is more difficult to accept is the fact that I wasn't able to do anything.  but then again looking back, what happened to me last night is somehow an experience that i should learned to, an experience to that I can share to others and for others to be aware of these people who was taking advantage of other people weakness. somehow that what is lost to me is just a piece of gadget that I can definitely replace and buy. right now, although I still sad about what happened I just think that God lead me away to any grave danger last night and that this is all happened for a reason as God's perfect plan for all us in his grace and in his perfect time.

All New Friendster

It's been awhile since the Social Networking websites emerge in the Philippines and has become a household name to everyone and been part of the our daily lives. Me, myself is one of those many people that is drawn to social networking as it is nice to meet friends, old friends, common friends, old acquittance, classmates in primary, secondary, and even college, crush, ex boyfriend and almost everyone. you have the chance to meet on a social networking websites.  Social network is define as social structure made up  by individual or organization which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, relationship of beliefs and even sexual relationship through a platform or a site that focuses on building and reflecting a social networks or social relations among people or what we called social networking services. This social networking services has a lot of types or category depending on what location of country you are or what kind of social networking you preferred the like of adults websites. One of the most popular social networking not just here in the Philippines but all over the world is Facebook, Freindster and twitter. 

Facebook is one of the most popular social networking website nowadays. Who would not know this website as everyone was hooked already and you will not be considered "IN" if you don't have any account on this website, There was even a film that has been made just recently which entitled The Social Network, starred by Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, the creator and founder of facebook with his college roomate and fellow computer science students. The film bagged some of the award in the recently concluded 2011 Oscar. facebook was launch on February 2004 and is operated and privately owned by Facebook Inc and according to some reports that as of 2011 this social network has 600 million active users.

On the other hand, Friendster another social networking website was founded to create a safer, more effective environment for meeting new people by browsing user profiles and connecting to friends, friends of friends and so on, allowing members to expand their network of friends more rapidly than in real life, face-to-face scenarios. It is founder by  Jonathan Abrams and Peter Chin in 2002 in Morgan Hill, California before the even the launch and adoption of the websites like MySpace, facebook, and others. It  was went live in 2002 and quickly millions of users respond and adopted the websites.

But upon the arrival of facebook websites many of its active users especially here in the Philippines are one by one transferred to facebook and in my person opinion these are the one of the main reason why the friendster just recently announced that they will be reformatting the websites. according to the report posted in yahoo.com that many of friendster users has only until May 31 to save their accounts contents such as photos, testimonial, and blogs otherwise the user's will lose all of those.  According to friendster notices to its many active users that the the account itself will not be deleted and it will be the same log in and passwords information tot he new reformatted friendster. apart from the friendster log in information that will be preserved are the user's list of friendsn and basic profile information. However the all the photos, messages, comments, testimonials, shutouts, blogs, forums and groups that member have ill no longer be part of account May 31, 2011. and to help the users to save their account content friendster offered an application to help download or export photos and blogs securely to a third party sites such as Flickr or Multiply. Users in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia can expect the application to be available in a few days after April 14. it was stated in a recent report that though Facebook is a site where people can communicate with and find out what their real-life friends are doing, Friendster will be the place where people can meet new friends and play games and enjoy music with them. The pioneering social network will continue to innovate and be at the forefront of the social networking scene. so expect that there will tougher compettion among the two social networking website and amidst all of these tight competition people will be the first to benefit as they will be having more options for social networking.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter every one!! Today marks the end of Lent. Today our Lord Jesus Christ has resurrected to give us, His people a new light, a new hope. After the long week of celebrating of the Lenten and being a God-observing country and as one of the largest Christian country in the world who commemorate this season we are now approaching to the end of the Holy Week feast, that is the Easter. Easter Sunday, is one of the most festive events among Christians worldwide. Here in the Philippines after a long weeks of celebrating the Lenten season which start  on Ash Wednesday,which was patterned to the lunar calendar of Romans to be followed by Palm Sunday, then the Semana Santa or the Holy Week which will be highlighted more on the last 3 days before the Easter which the Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and black Saturday and on Sunday is the final day of holy week and it mark the end of the forty day period of fasting, prayer, and penance and the start of the fifty day period of the Easter season or the Easterlide. Easter is considered a movable feast and is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. In this feast we celebrate Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday. Easter customs vary across the Christian world and here in the Philippines we celebrate the Easter by attending

what we called the "Salubong".this is Easter Sunday pre-dawn ritual that reenacts the Risen Christ's meeting with His mother. Salubong is done in a procession where the men and women are separated and coming from different directions. But they eventually meet in front of the church and a semblance of an angels will fly in most Catholic churches all over the country at dawn to mark the end of the three-day mourning following the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. These "angels" are the little girls who remove the "lambong" (veil of mourning) of the Blessed Mother shortly after processions at Easter dawn, signifying the resurrection of Jesus.  One of the Philippines festival that coincide to the celebration of the Easter is the Moriones festival in Marinduque. this is the most colorful festivals celebrated in the island of Marinduque which the name came from the word "Morion" meaning mask. The town people of Marinduque are dress up as a Roman legionaries and figures from the bible for a long celebration that start on Holy Monday and culminates on Easter Sunday in the re-enactment of the beheading of Longinus.Longinus is the name given in medieval and some modern Christian traditions to the Roman soldier who pierced Jesus in his side with a lance. Legend has it that Longinus pierced the side of the crucified Christ. The blood that spurted forth touched his blind eye and fully restored his sight. This miracle converted Longinus to Christianity and earned the ire of his fellow centurions. The legend further identifies this soldier as the centurion who testified, "In truth this man was son of God". Longinus' legend grew over the years to the point that he was said to have converted to Christianity after the Crucifixion, and he is traditionally venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and several other Christian communions.

Moriones Festival in Marinduque, Philippines 

Another celebration that was being done during Easter is the so called Easter egg hunt. this a game that can play indoor or outdoor and is organize during springtime at the other countries but was widely recognize and organize during Easter wherein many of the decorated eggs, whether a real hard boil egg or artificial egg that is filled with or made of chocolate candies of various sizes and colors are hidden in various places for children to

find. They said that the egg is a symbol of rebirth of the earth in Pagan celebrations of spring and was adopted by early Christians as a symbol of the rebirth of man at Easter. While the origin of Easter eggs can be explained in the symbolic terms described a symbol of resurrection a sacred tradition among followers of Eastern Christianity says that Mary Magdalene was bringing cooked eggs to share with the other women at the tomb of Jesus, and the eggs in her basket miraculously turned brilliant red when she saw the risen Christ.The egg represents the boulder of the tomb of Jesus. A different, but not necessarily conflicting legend concerns Mary Magdalene's efforts to spread the Gospel. According to this tradition, after the Ascension of Jesus, Mary went to the Emperor of Rome and greeted him with "Christ has risen," whereupon he pointed to an egg on his table and stated, "Christ has no more risen than that egg is red." After making this statement it is said the egg immediately turned blood red. We do have different ways in celebrating this very important feast that mark the faith of every Christian country all over the world and regardless of what kind of celebration we do, we should always remember the essence of Easter celebration and that is we commemorate and celebrate the rising of Jesus from the dead, the anchor of the Christian faith and that he was able to rise and was victorious over sin and Satan and his resurrection of Jesus reconciled us back to God and restored our position in God before the fall of man (Adam). Easter Sunday is more than eating, drinking, game, and it is a day of praise God and thank him for his great wisdom for salvation.

Holy Week

Last Monday, a day after the Palm Sunday is the start of the Holy week a celebration that every Christians all over the globe is celebrating this holy feast. Holy week is a very significant religious festival for all Christians especially in the Philippines which  is  one of the largest Christian country in the world. Holy Week in the Philippines is known as Semana Santa (Spanish name) or it's the Filipino name Mahal na Araw. When I was young I remember that during the holy week is one of the boring days that we had as there will be no television programming available because many of local television and radio station was interrupted their broadcast or was replaced a regular programming with more solemn or religious content out of respect for this celebration.

Also during this feast we see others doing the traditional "Pasyon" this are narrative of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ that is woven into an epic poetry standard elements colorful dramatic theme with stanzas of five lines with each line having eight syllables and people will sing solemnly every stanza while reflecting Jesus story of birth, ministry, death and resurrection.  The Pasyon will be marathon chanting in a little makeshift chapels and devout singers are mostly comprised of old ladies who take their turns in singing hymns from the pages of the  bible.

On Maundy Thursday many of the Filipino begin this day with the faithful observance of "Visita Iglesia" meaning church visit. This observance usually involves going to either one, seven, or fourteen different churches to pray the Via Crucis this is also called Via Dolorosa or Way of Sorrows refer to the depiction of the final hour of Jesus. The different churches were being visited by may people in procession on foot. I was able to attend in this kind of pratice as we have walk starting the church of San Roque at blumentrit, Manila until the it's 14 church at San Jose de Trozo Parish in Masangkayu, Manila.

Here are the 14 Churches we visited during the Visita Iglesia procession

San Roque de Manila Parish Church, Blumentritt, Manila

Espiritu Santo Parish Chruch, Tayuman, Manila

 Santisimo Rosario Parish Church, UST, Manila

St. Anthony de Padua Shrine, Sampaloc, Manila

Our Lady of Loreto Shrine, Sampaloc, Manila

Minor Basilica of San Sebastian, Quiapo, Manila

The Abbey Church, Mendiola, Manila

San Miguel de Manila Parish Church, Malacañan, Manila

Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, Quiapo, Manila

Sta. Cruz Parish Church, Sta. Cruz, Manila

San Agustin Church, Intramuros, Manila

Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Concepcion, Intramuros, Manila

Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz, Binondo, Manila

San Jose de Trozo Parish Church, Masangkay, Manila

On Good Friday or simply we called Biyernes Santo is considered a public holiday. During this day me and mother went to the church and have our confession then after that we do the way of the cross. also on good Friday we commemorate the seven Last words of Jesus or the Siete Palabras. Furthermore, the other part of the country do Senákulo or traditional Passion play. This is a processions that include many of the devotees who self-flagellate and sometimes even have themselves nailed to crosses as expressions of penance while other would walk half-naked in the street as they struck their backs with small branches of trees for hours till blood would cover their body.

Holy Saturday known locally as "Black Saturday" or Sabado de Gloria is a time of silence and solemnity as well as reflecting on the Holy feast that we all celebrating. In this time as well many of the churches and its parishioner preparing the Easter Vigil.

Come Sunday, The Easter or what we called "Pasko or Lingo nang Pagkabuhay" The first dawn of Sunday will marked with jubilant celebration as many Filipino will joined the long procession of the images of the Resurrected Christ and the Virgin Mary and will be meeting up at the designated area called a "Galilea", It plays out the imagined reunion of Jesus and his mother Mary after the Resurrection until to the last stop which will at the church and together will hear a mass. this observance is what we called the "Salubong" This are the practices the most of the Filipino people are doing during the time. this holy feast is one of the most celebrated feast in the Philippines as we have ways that make this feast more colorful significant to our religious belief and that show our strong faith to God. No matter what kind of ways we do to participate in this celebration, we should never forget the essence of why we having this celebration, that is to remember God's love to us that he gave up his only begotten son to save us from sin and that Jesus Christ sacrifice on the cross is strong symbol of God's unconditional love and that we used this day to reflect on all our shortcoming and that we started a new day of searching God's purpose to us.

Solemnity of Palm Sunday

Today is gonna be the start of the Holy Week a celebration which every Christian all over the world celebrated. It was celebrated during the last week of Lent and the week of before Easter. And today (Sunday) we all celebrating the"Palm Sunday" palm Sunday is considered a Christian movable feast that is always fall on the Sunday before the Easter Sunday. This is the a celebration that commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, and this happen a week before Jesus death and resurrection. For many Christian churches, Palm Sunday, often referred to as "Passion Sunday," marks the beginning of Holy Week, which concludes on Easter Sunday. The Bible reveals that when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the crowds greeted him by waving palm branches and covering his path with palm branches. Immediately following this great time of celebration in the ministry of Jesus, he begins his journey to the cross. 

Palm Sunday  here in the Philippines are celebrated several churches all over the archipelago for a Palm Sunday services or mass, Me and my family we commemorate and participated in this celebration through attending the first Sunday morning mass. normally before you enter the church there were long lane of vendors selling of what we called "Palaspas"  This is made from young coconut palm leaves, locally called ibus, which have not opened and was decorated and woven into many different designs, ranging from the traditional heart shape,kidlat (lightning), and espada (sword), to bola (ball), ibon (bird), hipon(shrimp), crosses, bows, and even woven into mat-like patterns. The palaspas is then finished off by a touch of color in the form of crepe paper roses attached near the handle. After the mass this palaspas will be blessed by the priest and after the mass it was brought to home and it will be hung on the doors of houses because several beliefs have been associated with the palaspas and the most popular being the use of the consecrated palaspas as a talisman to ward off evil. The Palaspas will be requested by the priest the following year's to be given to the church as they will burned the old and dry Palaspas for Ash Wednesday. 

Palm Sunday for us Christians is not just a a feast that tells us that the "Mahal na Araw" or the Holy Week  is already started but this is also a powerful reminder of our own weakness and the sinfulness that causes us to reject Christ. Palm Sunday is beginning of Jesus painful journey in the hands of his persecutors the very same people who greeted Christ with shouts of joy on Palm Sunday would also call for His Death and Jesus accepted this tough and tall order from God the Father for the salvation of our soul because God's love is unconditional and ever lasting.

Get Together

April 10, 2011 is another fun day for me and to some of my office friends like Cleo, Jeff, Glen, and Mae as we have shared together a fun and exciting day full of laughter, stories, rumors, music and of course food. originally it was plan to have a get together  in one of the resort in Antipolo to where one of my friend (Glen) live and since it was already summer and swimming is the IN thing during this season it looks good to spend this get together summer activity but though it looks exciting at the onset still the original plan never push through as planned because of some changes which I decided not to asked anymore and we just had all agree to have a Kareoke kind of activity that we will all enjoy. Funny thing is that on the day that we should all meet up it slip my mind about the meeting and I still went to the office to attend my work schedule. Initially we agree that since Glen and Cleo, will end their shift at 12:00PM  and  Jeff and Mae end their shift on much earlier time, they will just be rending post-shift OT to wait for Glen and Cleo while me,  I have to come to the office pass 12:00PM and will just gonna meet somewhere else and since I have worked scheduled for today which  will be at 2:00PM  will be rendering a half day instead so that I can still join them but then I did a complete opposite as I still  went to the office so early for the purpose of rendering a pre-shift OT without remembering our plan as I  really forgot the plan. When I'm at the office then, that's the only time I remember it and I was totaly stupid to came early to the office as the bosses were still their but good thing though that some of them didn't see me  and to cut the story short we all still went out to the mall.

We arrive in Trinoma pass 12:00PM it was actually my second time for me in this mall, The first time was with my college friends when we had our get together  and though its location is quit near in my residence because it's strategic location is in the North bound area of Quezon city but I still never visit the mall often and instead I more often visited some of the SM branches there is and needless to say that of my favorite is the SM Mall of Asia,  However this second visit to the mall leaves me a desire to go back again and experience it's magnificent architectural design  which reminds of one the history subject that I have back in High School the "Hanging Gardens of Babylon" which is considered one of the original, seven wonders of the world and true enough the one that  I really appreciated the most was the Garden area of the mall that making you feel the sense that you were close to nature.   

As we arrive in the mall the first thing that we do is we all decided to go to the Red Box Kareoke at the  level 4 of Trinoma. Red Box is not a Kareoke bar per se where in people go onstage and take turns with the mic while the whole "bar" is watching and drinking beer it's somehow gives you a sense of privacy for you and your friends can can sing and dance as it has an individual rooms and mind you a cozy one that your friends can enjoy. We went there first hoping that we could get a room but then unfortunately all room is currently occupied and the earlier time of which  one of the rooms will be vacated is gonna be as at 2:00PM. Red Box has specific schedule and have different rate depending on the time you reserve or enter a room of course during evening the price could be a little bit higher as they have a so called "Happy Hour" and people are entering per batches and as for us  will be scheduled at 2:00PM to 4:00PM for the rate of P149 per head which does not include foods and dirks as you have to order that inside.

We all decided to take our lunch first since our batch at will scheduled at 2:00PM and since it was already lunch time when we arrive in Trinoma. we look for the restaurant to eat and we agree not to eat to any food chain resto for a change as we all have that available near at the office and we agree to eat a lighter meal as we might order some food also in Red Box. Snce we are already at the 4th floor we all agree to have a pasta experience at the Bigolli an Italian Resto that serve  pizzas, pastas, Stromboli and bottomless iced tea and soda and other Italian faves. Me and Mae ordered for Chicken Spaghetti while Cleo bought Spaghetti Bolognese  and Jeff ordered Chicken serve with Spaghetti pesto and Glen just eat Pizza. It was a very sumptuous meal which me and the rest of enjoyed. I singularly  enjoyed it as I was an all time fanatic of pasta and it was one of my favorite and the food which I never stop liking.

Spaghetti Bolognese

Chicken spaghetti serve in pesto sauce

Chicken Spaghetti

After that sumptuous meal we went back to the Red Box and we all enjoy the day while we sing all our frustration out and to the top of our lungs

Me

Me and Glen Singing our heart out

The Rest of us

Me and Mae

Jeff

Cleo and Jeff Singing in Duets

Me and Glen

Jeff the New Birit King

Me singing my heart out

Glen and Cleo laughing at something

enjoying

Me, Mae, Glen and Cleo