OK SO now the first holiday, Christmas, ahs come and gone, and this year I didn't feel as festive as in year's past. It seems that my two boys, Josh and Jeremy, are oblivious to the true meaning of Christmas, at least in the religious sense. The little one especially, is more interested in the presents he received rather than the reason that Christmas is celebrated. Perhaps next year the gifts won't be so free flowing.
This can be attributed to the statements made in my last update, that being of the commercialization of the birth of Christ. Everything is a sale. Ther is a pre holiday Christmas sale, the after Christmas Sale, and the New Year's sale coming up. It seems that the global push of capitalism has caught up with me, at least in my thinkings. I have had experienced some good Christmases, where the spirit is there, and I've celebrated some bad Christmases where the Christmas spirit was dampened by those who I celebrated Christmas with. One of best Christmas days by far I've had was in 1986, when I was in the Philippines at my uncle's house and I was able to witness a part of how he celebrates it. Back then, my uncle opened his gate and let people in. He would then give sacks of rice and slippers to the people who came to greet him. Thise people were indeed grateful. When I was there I witnessed it in the morning, and by noon, he was all out of rice, and retired to his room. But around 1:30, I remember seeing a crowd starting to gather in front of his gate, and I went up to his room and told him that there are still many people who would like to receive gifts, but my uncle told me that he had no more rice to give. So I took matters into my own hands and stopped a fish ball vendor as well as a dirty ice cream vendor and proceeded to give those who were waiting some small gifts of ice cream and fish balls. They thanked me and I heard virtually no complaints, though one woman asked me to ask my uncle to open the gate again. I tapped out both of those vendors when another ice cream vendor came along and I hired him as well. My uncle caught wind of what I was doing and then opened his gate again and proceeded to have the employees of his film company to hand small gifts of money to the people. After it was all done. My uncle looked at me and smiled. He asked me why I did what I did and I replied, that it was the least I could do, and I asked him why he did what he did, and he said that he heard that I hired the food vendors and wanted to see what was going on, and in the process, he decided to again hand out small gifts as well. Never had I experienced the gift of giving like that and still, I don't think I have experienced anything like it. Today, its all about Starbucks gift cards, dirt bike gear and remote control cars and Louis Vuitton handbags. . .
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
The Crass Commercialization of Christmas
This holiday season, I've been to several church related functions. The first of which was my son Joshua's Madrigal feast. Josh is in the men's Ensemble at his high school, Mater Dei in Santa Ana California. For the Christmas concert, they held a Madrigal Feast at the Doubletree in Orange. it was quite an event. There was a king and Queen, a Court, and the common folk. Josh being a mere freshman, he served as commoner and in addition to the singing duties, he also was a food server. We were basically wined and dined for three hours that night and it was quite an experience.
The second Church related function was my niece and nephews Christmas Pageant. My niece Alexis, had a duet with another girl, and that is what I came to hear. The problem was, the parents and relatives at the Church, St. Edwards in Dana Point, California, seemed oblivious to the fact that it was a singing affair. The parents were to put it bluntly, rude, talking and jabbering on about such unnecessary nonsense as stereo systems and what their neighbors bought that it ruined it for me for the most part. When Alexis came up to the stage to sing, I just shhushed a bunch of people so I could hear her sing. They shut up at that point, but the point was they should have been enjoying the singing rather than worry about their neighbors. And on top of this, all things Church related, my brother in law mentioned to me that a few months ago, the church was asking if the congregation could dig a bit deeper into their wallets to support the church, and my brother in law had his suspicions about the request, which was confirmed a few weeks later when the Diocese of Orange settled a series of 87 sexual harassment lawsuits filed against the Diocese for more than $100 million. The whole thing that truly pisses me off about the whole thing is that they asked for more support, to make up for their years of denials, playing musical parishes with priests who should have been, at the least defrocked and banished from the church for their sexual misadventures, But the Church just moved them around and hence, the $100 million settlement.
This settlement dwarfs that of what the Diocese of Boston settled last year. The Diocese of Orange, which is probably like most dioceses around the world, engaged in denials when it came to sexual misdeeds of priests, and even high school teacher sexual misconduct (my son's high school had to deal with the fallout of a series of Orange County Register articles during the summer of 2003, dealing with a whole bunch of teachers alleged to have engaged in sexual activities with high school students during the 1970s to the 1990s.) What appears is that the Diocese again gave these people a way out without having law enforcement get involved. This kind of conduct, teachers having sex with underage students, if reported to law enforcement, would have resulted in jail time. I read in the paper just this week of a basketball coach at a public high school receiving 8 years in prison for having sex with a student over the course of two years.
But I digress and must get on topic, which is the crass commercialization of Christmas. For those of you who don't know, the United States of America is fast becoming un-united. Christian leaders in the south have advised their followers not to patronize stores that don't have merry Christmas signs in their displays or whose employees don't greet them Merry Christmas. it is truly sad when these religious freaks have to resort to this, this economic persecution. I mean, this is the United States of America, where religious beliefs, or lack of religious beliefs, is accepted. All faiths are supposed to be accepted here, and if there are those who would rather say Happy Holidays" than Merry Christmas, then they should be able to say Happy Holidays, rather than merry Christmas. This country is fast becoming the United States of Jesusland.
The second Church related function was my niece and nephews Christmas Pageant. My niece Alexis, had a duet with another girl, and that is what I came to hear. The problem was, the parents and relatives at the Church, St. Edwards in Dana Point, California, seemed oblivious to the fact that it was a singing affair. The parents were to put it bluntly, rude, talking and jabbering on about such unnecessary nonsense as stereo systems and what their neighbors bought that it ruined it for me for the most part. When Alexis came up to the stage to sing, I just shhushed a bunch of people so I could hear her sing. They shut up at that point, but the point was they should have been enjoying the singing rather than worry about their neighbors. And on top of this, all things Church related, my brother in law mentioned to me that a few months ago, the church was asking if the congregation could dig a bit deeper into their wallets to support the church, and my brother in law had his suspicions about the request, which was confirmed a few weeks later when the Diocese of Orange settled a series of 87 sexual harassment lawsuits filed against the Diocese for more than $100 million. The whole thing that truly pisses me off about the whole thing is that they asked for more support, to make up for their years of denials, playing musical parishes with priests who should have been, at the least defrocked and banished from the church for their sexual misadventures, But the Church just moved them around and hence, the $100 million settlement.
This settlement dwarfs that of what the Diocese of Boston settled last year. The Diocese of Orange, which is probably like most dioceses around the world, engaged in denials when it came to sexual misdeeds of priests, and even high school teacher sexual misconduct (my son's high school had to deal with the fallout of a series of Orange County Register articles during the summer of 2003, dealing with a whole bunch of teachers alleged to have engaged in sexual activities with high school students during the 1970s to the 1990s.) What appears is that the Diocese again gave these people a way out without having law enforcement get involved. This kind of conduct, teachers having sex with underage students, if reported to law enforcement, would have resulted in jail time. I read in the paper just this week of a basketball coach at a public high school receiving 8 years in prison for having sex with a student over the course of two years.
But I digress and must get on topic, which is the crass commercialization of Christmas. For those of you who don't know, the United States of America is fast becoming un-united. Christian leaders in the south have advised their followers not to patronize stores that don't have merry Christmas signs in their displays or whose employees don't greet them Merry Christmas. it is truly sad when these religious freaks have to resort to this, this economic persecution. I mean, this is the United States of America, where religious beliefs, or lack of religious beliefs, is accepted. All faiths are supposed to be accepted here, and if there are those who would rather say Happy Holidays" than Merry Christmas, then they should be able to say Happy Holidays, rather than merry Christmas. This country is fast becoming the United States of Jesusland.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Dream 4: Chinese guy and Shark Tales
Last night I had a dream that I was surfing with this guy who surfs the same break as I. In reality he rides a 5'8 or so red twin fin. In my dream he was riding a gray 6ft twin, with his trademark no leash. The thing is, we were surfing and he bailed on his board and swam over to me for help. You see he was being followed by a shark, and needed a lift back to shore on my longboard, so I gave him one, and that was the end of it. Weird huh.
Coincindentally, my neighbor, Sally, who walks five miles a day at all times of the day, was walking by my house this morning as I was putting my board into my truck and told me about her son's shark encounter up in Monterey. Monterey is up the coast a bit, just south of San Francisco. If you are familiar with John Steinbeck's body of work (Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, and my all time favorite book, The Pearl), then you'll know the significance of Monterey.
Anyway, Sally's son was surfing off Monterey when he was targeted and followed in by what he estimates to be a 12ft Great White Shark. As she relayed this to me, I was thinking about my dream of the night before., And to top it all off, as I was driving to the beach to surf before work, I happened to be following a Toyota pickup truck that had a custom license plate on it that read SHRK DVA. This could have meant alot of different things, but to me it meant Shark something. So I was tripping pretty hard by the time I got to the surf, The last thing I needed to hear was the lyrics to Dance with me to really freak me out. I associate the lyrics with the movie JAWS. Anyway, I suited up and went surfing anyway. The waves were pretty good, about overhead but more crowded than ever. But at least there was surf. I caught several good waves, including a good backdoor shot that unfortunately closed out, but the drop in was worth it. If anyone tells yuo that surfing is better than sex, believe it. It was such pure enjoyment today, better than what was not happening the last few weeks both in and out of the water.
Coincindentally, my neighbor, Sally, who walks five miles a day at all times of the day, was walking by my house this morning as I was putting my board into my truck and told me about her son's shark encounter up in Monterey. Monterey is up the coast a bit, just south of San Francisco. If you are familiar with John Steinbeck's body of work (Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, and my all time favorite book, The Pearl), then you'll know the significance of Monterey.
Anyway, Sally's son was surfing off Monterey when he was targeted and followed in by what he estimates to be a 12ft Great White Shark. As she relayed this to me, I was thinking about my dream of the night before., And to top it all off, as I was driving to the beach to surf before work, I happened to be following a Toyota pickup truck that had a custom license plate on it that read SHRK DVA. This could have meant alot of different things, but to me it meant Shark something. So I was tripping pretty hard by the time I got to the surf, The last thing I needed to hear was the lyrics to Dance with me to really freak me out. I associate the lyrics with the movie JAWS. Anyway, I suited up and went surfing anyway. The waves were pretty good, about overhead but more crowded than ever. But at least there was surf. I caught several good waves, including a good backdoor shot that unfortunately closed out, but the drop in was worth it. If anyone tells yuo that surfing is better than sex, believe it. It was such pure enjoyment today, better than what was not happening the last few weeks both in and out of the water.
Freakin Fdisk
Computers are a wonderful instruments of modern society. They do everything. They help you to balance your checkbook, enable you to go online to check the surf (www.surfline.com), enable you to search for lost friends and relatives, enable you to edit video and burn that video to a DVD, and edit images (Gosh what would I do without Photoshop?). But when they break, life truly sucks especially if you depend on the computer to do all those things. For me, it is the main tool that I use to make a living. And my computer has been broken for the last several weeks. I couldn't get online at home, unless I used the notebook or the G5. Finally today I had the time to fix it, by reformatting the hard drive. Now that may seem like a severe thing to do, but I actually do it several times a year. because of the way Windows works, throwing all manner of data all over the drive, instead of in an organized fashion, an HD wipe is good for the hard drive every now and then. But anyway, I've been rebuilding the computer for the last several days, reinstalling all of the apps that I use and all that good stuff that comes with an Fdisk. But I lost all my favorites, because I never figured out how to export and save them to a file.
Thursday, December 02, 2004
PNB Bank Scam?
This is a very interesting story if true. My mother sent this to me in hopes of sending it off to newspapers in the Philippines, but I decided not to because it is difficult to prove these things, especially since it is hearsay for me at least. I told her to send it off to her cousin, who was at one point the president of PNB to see if he could do anything about it. Anyway read on. If true, another sad state of affairs in the Philippines. . .
Forwarded Message:
Subj: FW: Recent Scam Inside a PNB Bank
Date: 12/1/2004 4:08:48 PM Pacific Standard Time
To you guys, especially Ewitt sobrang daming pera, watch out at baka masyadong mag-trust eh mawala lahat ang pera. Sad this happened, I think this is an inside job. Can’t imagine naka uniform sa loob ng bank tapos di nila kilala? This is really a SCAM, sobrang nakakahiya tayong mga PINOY.
Luv ya,
Rosalie Mercado
General Accounting, AV
Fluor Corp.
----Original Message-----
From: Damito, Noemi
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 2:05 PM
To:
Subject: FW: FYI - RECENT SCAM INSIDE A PNB BANK!!!
Hi everyone,
Just want to share this with everyone specially those going home this
Christmas Season to the Philippines. Be extra careful! This happened to my
cousin just lately and we are trying to pass this on to as many Filipinos
as we can. Please continue passing this around. Thanks.
Estee
Here’s the SCAM story.
Just want to share some sad news with all of you that might benefit you, as well as your relatives, friends and anyone you know back home in the Philippines. I will be sending a more detailed email of the incident later that we can all forward around to share with our Filipino community as a WARNING to as many people as possible, but here’s quick summary:
My uncle went home to the Philippines to plan their retirement and he had P550,000.00 (US$10,000.00) to start building their house out there. They have an account in PNB so last week he went in to deposit the money.
He came in to the PNB bank and asked a security guard for help so he can speak directly to a Manager so he can deposit the money. The guard pointed for him to go to an area inside the bank where a personnel would help him. He was approached by a woman wearing the bank uniform and all. So my uncle started dealing with this lady. She was working with my uncle to deposit his money...she sat with him and started doing the transaction. Once in awhile she would leave the desk to go to the back to get a Manager’s signature or talk with someone. Well my uncle dealt with this lady for more than 45 minutes, while she goes back and forth to him and the ‘Manager’s office’.
Within that 45 minutes, she kept having him filled out forms for the deposit and all the process, then took the cash and my uncle’s savings book BUT NEVER RETURNED. When she never came back, my uncle went to the guard and other employees in the bank to ask where this lady is (she even gave a name) and all of them told him that she is not an employee of the bank, and she ran off with his cash just like that! My uncle asked for the Branch Manager and he was told that they couldn’t help him since he was dealing with a person that did not work for their bank.
This lady was allowed to scam my uncle for 45 minutes inside the PNB Bank, wearing their uniform, had access to the back and all of a sudden no one has seen her or know about her. Talk about something ‘fishy’. My uncle confronted the bank to call the police and he was denied the request. Again their reason was because he should not have trusted the lady and they couldn’t do anything about it because its not
their employee. He even asked to play back what the surveillance camera might have captured since the whole thing was going on inside a restricted area inside their bank, but he was told that they do not have a camera. Hmmm, isn’t it weird that a bank as big as PNB does not have a surveillance camera, but other small stores like 7-11 does? So my uncle had to be the one to call the police and file a report. This incident is under investigation right now and PNB supposedly is trying to figure out what happened but its pretty clear that the whole thing was an inside job because they are all covering for one another. Its so easy to get away with such a scam when its in cash and can happen inside PNB.
My family knows Vic Lima (he has his own radio talk-show in the Philippines) and they are doing a coverage on this because there’s other stories about PNB that can also be considered a SCAM.
If you have an account with PNB or know people that have business with them - please WARN them that something like this can happen to them and to be very careful. You can’t even trust their own employees! Its such a shame that things like this still goes on back home. So its no wonder the Philippines is considered one of the most corrupt countries around. Kahiya no?: If anyone knows someone who works for Filipino newspapers here in the USA or in Canada, please let them know so that they can share this news with the local Filipino community, and more people will be aware of this type of scam inside a PNB Bank.
Forwarded Message:
Subj: FW: Recent Scam Inside a PNB Bank
Date: 12/1/2004 4:08:48 PM Pacific Standard Time
To you guys, especially Ewitt sobrang daming pera, watch out at baka masyadong mag-trust eh mawala lahat ang pera. Sad this happened, I think this is an inside job. Can’t imagine naka uniform sa loob ng bank tapos di nila kilala? This is really a SCAM, sobrang nakakahiya tayong mga PINOY.
Luv ya,
Rosalie Mercado
General Accounting, AV
Fluor Corp.
----Original Message-----
From: Damito, Noemi
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 2:05 PM
To:
Subject: FW: FYI - RECENT SCAM INSIDE A PNB BANK!!!
Hi everyone,
Just want to share this with everyone specially those going home this
Christmas Season to the Philippines. Be extra careful! This happened to my
cousin just lately and we are trying to pass this on to as many Filipinos
as we can. Please continue passing this around. Thanks.
Estee
Here’s the SCAM story.
Just want to share some sad news with all of you that might benefit you, as well as your relatives, friends and anyone you know back home in the Philippines. I will be sending a more detailed email of the incident later that we can all forward around to share with our Filipino community as a WARNING to as many people as possible, but here’s quick summary:
My uncle went home to the Philippines to plan their retirement and he had P550,000.00 (US$10,000.00) to start building their house out there. They have an account in PNB so last week he went in to deposit the money.
He came in to the PNB bank and asked a security guard for help so he can speak directly to a Manager so he can deposit the money. The guard pointed for him to go to an area inside the bank where a personnel would help him. He was approached by a woman wearing the bank uniform and all. So my uncle started dealing with this lady. She was working with my uncle to deposit his money...she sat with him and started doing the transaction. Once in awhile she would leave the desk to go to the back to get a Manager’s signature or talk with someone. Well my uncle dealt with this lady for more than 45 minutes, while she goes back and forth to him and the ‘Manager’s office’.
Within that 45 minutes, she kept having him filled out forms for the deposit and all the process, then took the cash and my uncle’s savings book BUT NEVER RETURNED. When she never came back, my uncle went to the guard and other employees in the bank to ask where this lady is (she even gave a name) and all of them told him that she is not an employee of the bank, and she ran off with his cash just like that! My uncle asked for the Branch Manager and he was told that they couldn’t help him since he was dealing with a person that did not work for their bank.
This lady was allowed to scam my uncle for 45 minutes inside the PNB Bank, wearing their uniform, had access to the back and all of a sudden no one has seen her or know about her. Talk about something ‘fishy’. My uncle confronted the bank to call the police and he was denied the request. Again their reason was because he should not have trusted the lady and they couldn’t do anything about it because its not
their employee. He even asked to play back what the surveillance camera might have captured since the whole thing was going on inside a restricted area inside their bank, but he was told that they do not have a camera. Hmmm, isn’t it weird that a bank as big as PNB does not have a surveillance camera, but other small stores like 7-11 does? So my uncle had to be the one to call the police and file a report. This incident is under investigation right now and PNB supposedly is trying to figure out what happened but its pretty clear that the whole thing was an inside job because they are all covering for one another. Its so easy to get away with such a scam when its in cash and can happen inside PNB.
My family knows Vic Lima (he has his own radio talk-show in the Philippines) and they are doing a coverage on this because there’s other stories about PNB that can also be considered a SCAM.
If you have an account with PNB or know people that have business with them - please WARN them that something like this can happen to them and to be very careful. You can’t even trust their own employees! Its such a shame that things like this still goes on back home. So its no wonder the Philippines is considered one of the most corrupt countries around. Kahiya no?: If anyone knows someone who works for Filipino newspapers here in the USA or in Canada, please let them know so that they can share this news with the local Filipino community, and more people will be aware of this type of scam inside a PNB Bank.
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
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