Let's not Forget

I came across this on cnn.com today, it reminded me that we need not forget our son and daughters out there.

Thanksgiving

Maybe it was the slice of turkey, or the 4 slices of ham (1 for me, 1 from my wife, and 2 from my daughter), or the pansit, or the other 5 or so dishes I ate during Thanksgiving Dinner. Whatever it was, it was obviously painful that I ate way too much, the picture below is evidence of this crime. Ugh.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey Everyone, where ever you are, I wish you a very very Happy Thanksgiving from myself and my family. There is much to be thankful for:

1. I thank God that he is in our lives every single second of the day.

2. I am thankful for my family who I love with everything I have.

3. I am thankful that our sons and daughters volunteer their time and life to protect our freedom, God bless them.

4. I am thankful that my wife has very stable profession while I struggle to get back on my feet having been hit by the layoff.

5. I am thankful that we have two wonderful children who are healthy, loving and a joy to be around.

6. I am thankful that my family across the world is in relatively healthy condition and are living their life to the fullest.

7. I am thankful for my friends who have stood by us no matter how silly we get in matters of life and friendship.

8. I am thankful for Lebron James who is giving Cleveland Sports the only hope for a Championship they've had in decades.

9. I am thankful for those mentors in my life who have inspired and molded me to who I am today.

10. I am thankful for my parents and ancestors.

I don't have a photo for a day, but I found this funny video on Youtube, check it out. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Dan Brown - The Lost Symbol

I just finished Dan Brown's latest book the Lost Symbol. You may recognize him as the author of the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, movies that were recently created from his novels.

In this book, the Lost Symbol, the main character Robert Langdon is again thrust into an adventure to uncover the secret location of some lost treasure that is kept secret by the Masons, a secret society of well known individuals in world history.

What was different about this novel, as compared to the previous ones, is that it is formatted similarly to James Patterson books, where the chapters are very short (some less than a page long), but are numerous and the endings always lead you to the next chapter.

The other notable is that the entire book took place in less than 24 hours. It was thrilling and yet a little disappointing at the end for me. Only because Dan Brown continues to insult the Catholic religion attempting to now persuade you to think the Bible has a hidden meaning or secret and that God, our Lord that the Bible refers to is not some entity almighty that created the world, but a power within all of us.

Having said that, if I had to compare his novels, I still enjoyed Angels and Demons the best. But after reading his last few chapters in the book basically admonishing everything we have come to believe in as Catholics, I really doubt I will purchase another Dan Brown novel. He could have written these books without desecrating what Catholics believe in and still be a terrific novel.

A special thanks to Father Elmo who gave me this book during his stay with us.

A Photo a Day

Sometimes you get side tracked, distracted, confused, or perhaps you sometimes just forget. This blog is suppose to be about what is going on with me, my photography and my family. While some of my recent postings had some of those topics involved, it hasn't been consistent. So I thought and reflected and think it's time to challenge myself a little.

So the challenge to myself from today until the end of the year, is to put up a Photo a day on this blog. No guarantees! But I will try my best. I have lots of Photos I have taken in the past few weeks/months, but have not blogged any of them unfortunately. So I start today, until the end of the year, a photo a day.

What are these group of people doing in this picture below?



Well of course, watching the Manny Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto fight on HBO over our cousins house. If you didn't get a chance to watch it, you should find a way to! It was an amazing fight, I thought Cotto could be the one who would finally challenge Pacquiao, but in the end he went down just like the others. Here's the last few minutes of the fight.



So my kids are into Club Penguin. It's an online, real time place where your children can safely interact with each other through Penguins. There are parental controls which you help you choose your comfortable level for your child, through how they interact or what they can do on the website. It's a lot of fun for the children, and they get to interact with their friends from San Diego where it is too far to see them in person.

Well, our children had this idea that we should do with Club Penguin like we did with Flat Stanley. Everywhere we go, we can take a picture of the Penguin to show where all the places they have been. If you go on the Club Penguin site, there are alot of people who took pictures of their Penguins from all over the world, from the Eiffel Tower, to Big Ben, to the White House, and other historic locations. So we decided to do that today, but on a much smaller scale, a tennis court, aren't they cute? :)



So Andrew has this school project. To do a paper on something that can contribute to our city/society/well being. The topic he chose was recycling. He decided to save all of the plastic bottles we use and turn them into a recycling plant. We will then use the money we get from it and donate it to the Red Cross to help others in need. He will write about his experience and why he chose this endeavor. Today we turned in approximately 4 garbage bags full of water bottles.




Well, that's it for now, a Photo a Day. That is my promise to you.

Tuesday's Topics

Hi All, it's been a while since I've blogged. Fe Lyn, my tireless worker of a wife worked 16 hours last night, so while she's getting her beauty rest, I thought I would blog something.

First and foremost, our son Andrew had a successful surgery last week as his tonsils were removed. He is out of school for a week, and is enjoying every minute of it. Things went really smooth, Fe Lyn and I were a little worried as expected before the surgery, but were very relieved to hear the Doctor afterwards telling us that everything went fine. Thank God!

Fe Lyn and I saw a couple of movies this week. First one was My Sisters Keeper with Cameron Diaz. It's a heart warming family story about one sister who has Lukemia, and another sister who was a test tube baby so that she can donate parts (blood, bone marrow, kidney, other things) to keep her big sister alive. The little sister ends up suing her parents so that she can refuse to undergo further donations of her parts to her sister. Cameron Diaz played her part perfect as the Mother who refused to give up her fight to save her daughter.



The other movie we saw was Paranormal Activity. We watched this one after the kids went to sleep, and boy was that the right decision. While it wasn't scary all the times, it reminds you so much of your home, especially because it was based in San Diego where we use to live. The house was somewhat similar to ours. Definitely a movie you would want to watch on DVD when it comes out and it might even be worth watching while still in the theatres. The movie is about a couple who fight a demonic haunting in their house. The female has experienced this haunting since she was 8 years old, but now the demon who is haunting her is getting stronger, actually being able to physically move/touch things as well as possess. Check out the trailer and give it a go when it comes out on DVD.



I hope you all have a great rest of the week!!