Alam mo ba...TRIVIA!! - The country's first airport

As a Team Lead - handling the Nesting (new agents) teams - I'd like to mix and match orthodox activities to non-orthodox ones. One of the usual activities that I hold within my teams is a game based on three very famous gameshows (two of them in the world, one of them here in the Philippines): Pinoy Henyo meets Jeopardy meets Family Feud.

It camouflages itself as a simple-ice breaker activity yet it also serves as an informal review for the agents that teaches them about the importance of probing questions as well as team building. I'll probably talk about that in another blog.

In this game, they get surprised with the many trivias that I share. A lot of them were really just from things that I have read previously. Some of them came from me surfing the internet during times when I am bored stiff.

So, while I was watching TV earlier, I thought it would be a good idea to have a recurring topic in my blog - which is the occasional trivia sharing that I have been able to gather and hopefully gather in the next days and weeks. Starting with:

***

For the first five years of my stay with the company I work with, I have been based in the Makati Business Center. It had been a treat for me to always see the trees in the Ayala Avenue - whether it was day or night. A lot of times, I walk home. Yeah, I woke home sometimes from Ayala Avenue to my house in Guadalupe. Usually, I do this when my shift ends during the night time, when it's cool and comfortable.

In one of this trips, I passed by the Filipinas Heritage Library infront of the Manila Peninsula Hotel. I remember it used to be a restaurant when I was a kid - and wondered why it all of a sudden ended up to be a library. So, I walked through the driveway and I saw that it had a historical marker. I stopped infront of it and read.

The Filipinas Heritage Library, apparently, used to be the Manila International Airport Terminal - effectively becoming the first airport/airstrip in the Philippines. If we go back in our history, we would remember that in the 19th century, we were mostly travelling via boats or ships.

It was during the American occupation that the establishment of an airport/airstrip was thought about. The then Philippine Government was offered part of a hacienda belonging to the Ayala Y'Cia - precursor of the current Ayala Group.

A terminal - that was shaped to resemble an airplane -  was built, together with other airport structures. It was built during the year 1937 - and had also been a school for aviation. When PAL opened around the year 1941, her first flight flew no where else but from the Nielson Airport.

It was partly damaged during the Japanese times -  and was used until 1948. From then on, the airport structures were demolished except for these things:

a. The Airport Terminal
b The Runways
c. The taxi strip

The runways became the two of the threemain thoroughfares in Makati - Ayala Avenue and Paseo De Roxas. Knowing this actually answered my questions since I was a kid - that why was Ayala Avenue so wide that I thought an airplane could have run through it. Apparently, they really used to.

The taxi strip ended up to be part of the Makati Avenue.

The airport terminal, with it's lovely Art Deco design, had a lot of uses through the years. Right now, it is being maintained as the Filipinas Heritage Library.

This library is a one stop shop for anything and everything about Filipino heritage. Don't let it's design and ambiance fool you - it is actually very affordable, and as I shared to an ex of mine before, this is the best place for you to study or relax, especially if you are in the Makati area.

References:

http://www.pinoyphotography.org/ - Front Picture of the Filipinas Heritage Library

http://en.wikipedia.com/Nielson_Field

http://www.filipinaslibrary.org.ph/

Video and Creative Design Needs: Contact Symbolismo Productions!

For your editing/creative design/audio visual presentation needs, contact me at 09175955230/ridgejwm@yahoo.com.

Symbolismo Productions is an upstart Audio - Video Production company established in 2002, specializing in creating AVP presentations made through Microsoft Powerpoint, or video presentations for personal or profiessional clients using state of the art Adobe video editing softwares such as Adobe Premiere Elements, Adobe Premiere Pro.

We also do graphic designs using Adobe Photoshop.

The company started when the owner/editor started presenting innovative presentations in his college years using Microsoft Powerpoint, that redefined at that time the known usage of the Powerpoint Program, and defined a presentation as truly Symbolismo. It was at this time that personal and professional clients took notice, and the first projects took place.

Starting from Microsoft Powerpoint 2000, and after further evolution to the usage of Microsoft Powerpoint XP, Symbolismo Productions followed through with offering presentations in video format, originally using the Adobe Premiere 7.0.

After shortly working and honing that craft at a known Audio - Video Production Company in Quezon City, Symbolismo Productions further widened it client base and offered more innovative and videos with the usage of higher ended Adobe Programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Premiere Elements.

As Symbolismo Productions does not have the means yet to go on full blast advertising, the growth of its client base can only be linked to good hearsay and great impression that the company has given its clientale...both in service and in the quality of the projects it provides.

Other than the clients that the production company has steadily has through the years, Symbolismo Productions has also taken projects from corporate clients...clients who are impressed and have returned to the company for their other presentation needs.

Risks - for me, my family and my partner

My partner and I have been together for almost two years now. Our relationship is the longest relationship I have had with someone  - in a long time. At this point, I also think that our relationship is IT. Admittedly, a lot of my decisions at work revolve around these three things:

1. Ending my financial debts;
2. Making sure that my immediate family's needs are taken cared of - utility bills that is
3. Invest on our future together

It's also one of the main factors why I have decided to not resign from my current job - even though at times, there were instances that almost forced me to. I'd like to say that I have grown a lot more mature about my decision making.

I'm still a risk-taker - always was and I guess, always will be. However, the risks that I have been taking lately have all become calculated risks with the ultimate goal of resolving the three things I noted above.

At this stage of my life, I know I have found the person I would like to spend the rest of my life with - thus my partner has become a factor of a lot of my decisions the past two years. I'd like to say that we have been able to create and make good decisions together. I know that we will have a lot more great decisions ahead.

Going to Borcay? Go to Boracay Tropics!

This summer season, if you'll ever need to relax, frolic, and enjoy the summer heat and sun - then this hotel in Boracay is the best for you.

One of the best videos I've ever made - and one of the better resorts I've stayed at

Happy Easter to Everyone!

Happy Easter to everyone! Hope you'll all remember the true meaning of this celebration/event...and it definitely is not about the easter bunny! It's about the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen to that!

Friendship...Relationship...Love

I just want to share with you guys one of the more pivotal moments that had happened to me, this past week. I had this oportunity to talk with this really close friend of mine, whom i haven’t really seen and talked to for the longest of time…so it was almost given that we would have a lot of catching up to do.

After the usual catching up of life, regarding life, work, family…we went into a topic, which i have kept to myself for the longest time…his sexual preference. I don’t really want anymore to go into details to who, what, where and how this person opened up this revelation to me…because as anybody coming out knows, it is as hard as it can get.

Yet i ask this question to you guys? Why would ‘normal’ society think that being gay, lesbian, bisexual or whatever sexual preference you have be a hindrance to growth, an abnormality, a sin? More conservative people would say that it is not normal, and it is keeping you from who you are meant to me.

But isn’t it, that coming out and being true to who and what you are is the most basic foundation of freedom and normality? How can you be normal if you don’t know yourself? How can you say that you are free if you don’t even know who you really are? For the sake of society’s "normality,’ people would have to stop people from being who they really are, and we say that we are living in a free world?

How can we live free if we ourselves don’t allow people to live free?

I don’t wanna be ultra_conservative. I don’t even want to think that it’s against faith. I am in terms with my faith with God, and I know I have a relationship with Him that NO ONE or NOTHING can take away.

Yes, God did make Adam and Eve, maybe not Adam and Steve. Yet does that mean if you have an alternative preference, you’re going to straight to hell? What would happen then to all the people who live an alternative preference, and are more human and loving than those who are straight? Does that mean that they go straight to hell because of their preference, notwithstanding all the good they have done? Aren’t they just being true to themselves?

Being gay, lesbian, bisexual or whatever isn’t a sin, in my opinion. Too much indulgence in sex, okay…that’s a sin. But don’t straight people do that too? Two timing other people…alright, that’s a sin. But don’t straight people do that too?

These people are not sinners. It is simply being true to who you really are. That is the essence of a REAL and TRUE freedom…something that most people in the world would just dream of having.

A real sense of freedom. A different kind of relationship. The purest form of love.

Good food that we may have forgotten

Good food that we have probably forgotten:

For most of us who were born the in eighties, we’ve all grown up to the famed fast food/dessert shops that have since re-evolved themselves to either greater versions of themselves, closed down, closed down but revived or shadows of their past glorious selfs…

After ‘tripping’ wikipedia into looking if Ma Mon Luk actually had an article there (and by God there was), i was suddenly brought back into a wave of images and events in the past 20 years (just like the thing that happens to one when you’re about to die)…

and believe it or not, it’s a whole damn lot…

Let’s start with those who are simply shadows of their old self…

1. Ma Mon Luk

Those of you who pass by Quezon Boulevard would agree with me when i say that you no longer even notice the sign of Ma Mon Luk in Quiapo. This restaurant, which spearheaded the Chinese Fast Food Restaurant boom the past years (re: Chowking, Hen-Lin, Dimsum and Dumplings, Luk Yuen), as we all know is the entity the started the food that is so endeared to filipinos as rice and chicken, Mami. Reading through the articles, it seems that only two remaining stores of Ma Mon Luk are open…in Banawe and in Quezon Boulevard…and they are only SHADOWS of their glorious past.

How Ironic that in sunny california, there are about 4 stores of Ma Mon Luk open, known as "Asian Noodles - Home of the Ma Mon Luk family from Manila Chinatown." How Filipinos completely forget their past.

2. Tropical Hut

During the 80’s, I would say that the top three burger chains then were McDonalds, Jollibee, and Tropical Hut. They were like everywhere. Now, you can actually just count the remianing branches of this burger chain. Well, working for people support, we have Tropical Hut as a neighbor…and being that my Mom used to work at a travel agency directly infront of the Buendia Branch, I can say that the Tropical Hut there was basically the same way it was when was kid…literally. No changes, no renovation…no nothing.

Maybe the owners just don’t think about expanding anymore. That’s sad. They have a good product. After all, they are the only burger chain left who actually uses real hamburgers. Go to Tropical Hut and see the difference.

I really hope they realize their niche and stop being simply mediocre.

3. McDonalds

Two things. McDonalds is a burger chain, not a chicken chain. I can say that’s McDonalds here in the Philippines is the only McDo (as we call it) who pushes the chicken more than the burger. That’s stupid. You wouldn’t believe how many burger varieties have been lost and never to be seen here through the years. If they plan on just pushing chicken, then just close shop and be a Ronald Mcdonald’s Fried Chicken store for crying out loud.

Second, everyone who has had Mcdonald’s in other countries or back then will understand the difference between how their products were in the 80’s, 90’s, or how McDonald products are in other countriues than how they are here now. It is simply pathetic.

Sure they’re expanding. Sure they have a delivery service that I am just thankful to be fast.

But sadly, McDonald’s is really just a shadow of their past. At least, Jolibee has stayed more or less the same or greater.

4. Cindy’s

The outlet that could have easilly been #4 burger chain in the 80’s is simply down to, like, three remaining branches. Actually, the only branch i know left is at Galleria. (Which is no longer existing) Never ate there anyway.

Now let’s go to those that has been revived:

1 Yoshinoya

Didn’t think about it eh? The very very original Yoshinoya was located at the ground floor of Robinson’s Galleria is…just infront of Chowking. This was in the 90’s. That was probably just a test, and after some years, they just disappeared.

Well, now they’re back, and back for good. That’s great. Don’t you just adore the chicken bowls?

2. Dairy Queen

All this news about Dairy Queen closing shop, I didn’t evem get to feel it, cause all along, there was this Dairy Queen in Galleria that was open. Guess they were still working as Dairy Queen even if Dairy Queen was already out of the country. It eventually became Snowstorm, and it sucks. I don’t like the taste of the Ice Cream.

Thank God the real Dairy Queen returned. Better as well that there now is a branch in G4…and the ice cream’s now non-fat, so it give me less guilt…though i know that it has more calories anyway, since i used to work for an ice cream shop myself.

Now to those that are greater versions of themselves:

1. Pizza Hut

I just simply adore the Pizza Hut Bistro right now. Slowly, all Pizza Hut restos are becoming the Bistros now…and its for a good thing. I just love the pizza and pasta now. They don’t seem smaller than they used to. Admit anyway, since the depreciation of money in the 90’s, a Family size pizza doesn’t seem family size anymore.

2. Shakey’s

I like the fact that they went back to their original marketing plan, and logos and stuff. Brings notalgia and stuff, which works them great. It gives them real identity. Yet, what makes it stand out is the fact that they now have faster, better service, which is what I have been critizing them about ever since. I don’t know if why everytime I eat there, their service just sucks.

Lastly, to the one food entity that I know a lot of you guys miss a lot.

1. Coney Island Ice Cream

Eskimo Roll. Pistachio and Bubble Gum Ice Cream. Damn. I absolutely loved the Eskimo Roll, even through it’s transparent to the aluminum packaging. When I was a kid, I never really ate their Ice cream because I really only ate the Eskimo Roll. Ive heard of stories from a lot of other people about their ice cream flavors though. It’s a pity i was to young to enjoy it.

Things are changing really fast. The way Burger King is losing their branches, who knows how many more years they’ll be lasting.

For the mean time, enjoy the picture from the Classic Mami of Ma Mon Luk in California.

and realize how we forget our past, and let go of a legacy that we can actually call our own and call great.

My politically correct blabbering and shit

Wow. It has been a while.

It’s been about half an hour since I finally activated this blog…and to catch up when I last wrote my last blog, I decided to visit my original blogsite: http://symbolismo.livejournal.com/ … and wow…it has been five years since i have been able to write a note.

Reading through it, it has been a whirlwind ride the past five years. A lot of things have happened.

For one, at least, now I have someone who gives me happiness, so that’s now least of my priorities…

I also now have a stable work, which has kept me well funded to pay the debts that I had gotten, since I quit my last job. I’m just about almost debt free… (Considering that it bloated itself to be almost PHP240,000.00...now it's down to around PHP50,000.) I know I had been really. blessed by God.

Now, I guess I look forward to once more writing about my thoughts and blabbing about everything and anything…after all, thats what i do best. Why do you think I ended up in a call center?

Haha.