Pinay WAHM

The picture speaks for itself. The oil spill that has been going on for 44 days now is not going away anytime soon. Everyday it seems to be getting worse instead of getting any better. British Petroleum or BP tried different ways to stop the leak but nothing has worked so far. We can't help but wonder if they will ever be able to stop this humongous oil spill. In the news today, it's being reported that the oil is nearing the waters of Florida. The forecast is it will hit the white sand beaches in the panhandle as early as this Friday. Manpower has already been deployed to try and stop [minimize] the damage the thousands of tar balls will potentially create in the beaches. People have been flocking to those beaches in the last couple of days in fear of not ever seeing the beaches the same way ever again.

Not me...him! I'm not sure what to make of this but according to the news there is this billboard along Interstate 35 near Wyoming that bears the image up top with that same caption. The owner of the billboard space wouldn't reveal though who paid for the billboard. Rumor has it they're supporters of the present US president but some are not convinced. Supporters of the president believe though that the people behind the billboard may be supporters of the previous president pretending to be supporters of the present president. What do you think of it? Do you think it should be taken down?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's what the headline [in some news] is saying today. This was brought by the death of Senator Ted Kennedy who was diagnosed with brain cancer a few months ago. He was 77 years old. A couple of weeks ago, his older sister Eunice Kennedy Shiver also died at the age of 88.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately I'm not friends with them. I wish! Anyway, I just find this interesting news so I'm blogging about it. According to ABC's Good Morning America , some of the wealthiest people in the world held a closed door meeting not too long ago. What were they meeting about? How to help charities that are having a hard time during this time of economic turmoil. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mayor Bloomberg, Oprah Winfrey were only 4 of the billionaires who were present in the meeting. Not quite sure how many were there but according to the news , those that were at the meeting have total worth of about $125 billion. Whoop! whoop! Here's a picture I grabbed from the video about this meeting. Here's another one that I find cute. The "Billionaire Super Friends in Costume"...hahaha... Seriously though, I am hoping they can do something for those that need their help badly. Pictures from: ABC Good Morning America

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm talking about the letter that the Bush twins - Jenna & Barbara - gave the latest First Kids , Sasha and Malia. In the letter, they offer the little girls pieces of advice since they've been there, done that...twice. The twins told the Obama girls that they should enjoy their time at the White House and be as normal as possible. Here's an excerpt of the letter : _Surround yourselves with loyal friends. _Trick-or-treat down the plane aisle if you're traveling on Halloween . _Cherish your pets "because sometimes you'll need the quiet comfort that only animals can provide." _And this: "Slide down the banister of the solarium, go to T-ball games, have swimming parties, and play Sardines on the White House lawn . Have fun and enjoy your childhood in such a magical place to live and play." Isn't that a nice gesture?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We know that if there's a place where you can find anything and everything on the face of the earth, it has to be ONLINE. This goes without saying that ANYBODY can sell ANYTHING online. Take this 22-year old for instance. She's actually selling her virginity online. According to the news, the bid has netted to $3.7 Million already. Why oh why would she do something like that? Is it for the money? the fame? or just for the heck of it. Whatever her reason is, I hope she does not fall prey to some wacko out there. But then again, if the news is accurate, I guess only a wacko would actually pay $3.7 Million for that, right? Whatever.... story here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's one of the headlines in Yahoo News this morning. It says that in the next 10 years, schools here will need about 200 thousand, yep, 2 hundred thousand or 200,000 teachers for these 2 subjects. Why? Because of retirement, overcrowded and people teaching out of their field. Ha! When I first came here, I actually considered teaching. Of course. That's the only thing I knew then. I filled out an application for the county and got not 1 but 2 forms from them in a matter of days of sending the application forms. Why 2 I have no idea. I was not able to pursue the application because I got pregnant. I have no plans of applying again in the near future BUT if worse comes to worst, why not, right? I just hope the schools here get the much needed Science and Math teachers soon. Why? Because sooner or later, the little one will be attending one of these schools.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This has to be one of the saddest news I've read in a while. Leafil Alforque, a 22 year old Filipina, was swept to sea during a proposal by her future husband. It happened at place in Oregon called "Proposal Rock". According to Oregon News , Scott Napper took her to the site to formally ask her to marry him. Unfortunately, she slipped when a tide came to them and literally swept the 93-pound Filipina off her feet which caused her to fall in the water. Sad. Here's a link to the Yahoo News about it. Links: Yahoo News Oregon News

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Wal-Mart employee got trampled to death by eager shoppers at a New York Wal-Mart store. This is what I read in the news this morning while I was doing my usual news surfing. If I am not mistaken, this is not the first time something like this happen. I really don't know what could be in stores during this Black Friday madness but I know one thing...it isn't enough reason for somebody to be trampled to death. The guy was just doing his job but because some people can't wait to get their hands on those so-called deals, they didn't care if someone gets hurt in the process. According to the news, they are now reviewing the surveillance cameras at that Wal-Mart store. I don't know if they will ever find all those who contributed to the death of this man [since there were about 2,000 people barging in the store when it happened] but I hope to God that they would. The man was the only one who died but there were a few people who were broug...

Mother and Son I thought I'd stop posting about Michael Phelps but after seeing this picture at US Magazine website, I can't help but grab and post it here. I can only imagine what kind of sacrifices his Mom had to go through so her son can go this far. I've only seen a few of his events but at the end of those events, I would always see him go to his Mom to give her a kiss. This is one of those moments.... Picture courtesy of USMagazine

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's what we're trying to watch out for. It's still a tropical storm right now and is about to make landfall in the Florida Keys....it's still Tropical Storm Fa y right now. According the news, we may start feeling its effects as early as tonight. This is the sixth storm of 2008 Atlantic hurricane season and it certainly is not going to be the last. Sigh.... Fortunately in the 7 years I've here, I have not experienced that bad of hurricane. There was 1 which almost made us evacuate. We loaded our things in the back of our car and waited for the advisory. Good thing it never happened. That's what stinks here in the sunshine state. There is ALWAYS that chance of another hurricane Andrew .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's where this Golden Boy is now!!! He won his 7th gold after winning the 100-meter butterfly by 100th of a second clocking in at 50.58 compared to the 50.59 of the second placer. Whew! He finally tied Mark Spitz's record of 7 medals in the 1972 Olympics. So the quest to break that record continues. So from..... will he be able to win that within reach '8th' GOLD????????? I surely hope so! GO MICHAEL!!!! PHELPS....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Let me just say that having a child is and will always be one of the best things that happened to me. But having 18 of them??? Ummmm....not quite sure about that. But this is what a couple in British Columbia has now...18 children in all. The mother is Livia Ionce and she's 44 years old. But she and her husband are just second to the Duggar couple who has 19 children of their own. Wow...I know that children are the greatest gift a couple can have but I'm not sure about having more than 10, wait...not even more than 1 at this moment...LOL! But, hats off to these couples. I'm sure they have one heck of challenge ahead of them...well, maybe not. They say that once you have 2, having 3 or 10 will just be the same. Is it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Do you get these Political Calls? I'm sure you do. I guess it's part of the coming election to be bombarded with these kinds of calls. During the Primaries, I would get about 5 of them a day. I'm not a registered voter because I'm not a citizen yet but some of the callers didn't seem to get that. Anyway, for the past 2 weeks I've been getting calls that says: Political Call on the caller ID. I answered a couple of them and they were looking for the husband. He's registered that's why. All I did was to tell them he's not home and they'll say bye-bye. It's the weekday. My husband works. You would think that after hearing a couple of times: He's not home, they will stop calling...at least at those specific times I told them that. But no! They would still call. So I stopped answering the phone when I see "Political Call" on the ID. Anyway, a few days ago they called at a time when the husband was home...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As it turned out, the fainting spell that happened last week to Senator Edward Kennedy was not a result of stroke but a seizure. The bad news is the seizure is now being blamed for a malignant brain tumor known as glioma found on his left parietal lobe. According to the news, no kind of treatment has been decided yet as that will be done after some more series of tests. Their spokesperson said that the Senator is in good condition overall and that he is walking around the hospital around the hospital. He would remain in the hospital for a couple more days for the tests they still have to on him. Just recently, Senator Kennedy pledged his support to Democratic Presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama by endorsing Sen. Obama's candidacy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keyboards, of course! Well, that's according to a study by British magazine "Which" . Okay before you panic and start throwing your keyboards again, read on.... The magazine used 33 keyboards, a toilet seat, and a toilet door handle. According to their findings 4 of the keyboards were said to be potential health hazards and 1 keyboard was even removed [and thrown away probably] because it has 150 times the pass limit of bacteria and was 5 times filthier than the toilet seat! Take note though that the study was only done in 1 office location. If this study was done where thousands were swabbed, then I'd probably panic. There was no information whatsoever as to what kind of an office these keyboards came from...so, I'm not really sold to their findings...but that's just me. Already then. I won't be questioning the findings...BUT I have one thing to say though: FIRE THAT PERSON WHO USED THAT KEYBOARD!!! Oh...but did you know what ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you go to Yahoo News right now, I'm sure that you will see a picture of a newborn baby girl there. This is not your typical newborn baby though. Why? Because she's born with 2 faces. She's got 2 [or 2 sets] of everything on her face but her ears. At first I thought it's probably like those cases of Siamese twins. But according to the article, she's born with an extremely rare condition called craniofacial duplication . I always feel sad whenever I see or hear or read cases like this one. First, because I'm sure those in such situations will never have a normal life if they indeed live through it. Secondly, the exploitation is just unbelievable. I wonder how much those reporters got for those pictures they published of her. The little girl looks like an angel. But how I wish they would take down those photos of her because it's just heartbreaking to see her in that condition.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I just saw this in the local news here. I am browsing the net while I am waiting for the news itself and guess what?? I came across the 'pregnant man'! Well, legally he's a man but he is a transgender so he's originally a woman. He's married to a girl. He has not been having his menstrual cycle for 8 yrs when they decided to do this. This is the second attempt as the first one was not successful. According to the news, this is a healthy pregnancy. I wonder what those pills he had been taking to become and stay a man will do the the baby??? Anyway, I remember the time when there was a similar news in the Philippines about a gay man being pregnant. It turned out to be a hoax as he was REALLY a [gay] man. If you want to see the pregnant 'man'. Here's a link to his picture.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ...is diagnosed with colon cancer. I actually just read in Lena's blog about it. So I went looking for it at Philippine Daily Inquirer and I came across one story in the Entertainment section about her daughter, Kris Aquino. There it was mentioned that the former and the first woman president in the Philippines is undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer. I'm not sure how she is but I remember the days that lead to her office as the first Philippine president in 1986. I was in second year college at St. Scholastica's College in Manila when that happened. It became a big deal in my school because she used to go there when she was in elementary, I think. It was just last month that the 22nd anniversary of EDSA revolution was celebrated. Former President Corazon Aquino became the 'figure' of that historic bloodless revolution. Hopefully, she'll come out victorious from this personal challenge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ... resulting to some serious health problems or even death is a crime I cannot tolerate. I guess it's normal for mothers like me to feel that way but I'm pretty sure that even those who are not mothers feel the same way. Having said that, I just came across a news about a mother in Chicago who is now facing trial for doing that. A lot of other mothers and even fathers had done this in the past but some did not make it to the headlines. Some of them even resulted to the death of the child. What's different with this one? For one, nothing bad happened to the baby. Great, right? Not quite...especially not for the mother. So what happened? According to the news, the mother left her 2-year old baby sleeping in the car while she walked her 2 older children to the bell ringer to pour coins in a Salvation Army kettle. She was only a few yards away from her car and was gone for a few minutes. Why did she leave her child in the car? It was sleet...