Yes you read it right.
I’m part of a choir that sings regularly in our nearby church and I’ve known most of the members for almost thirteen or fourteen years now. You see, we were former members of the oldest boys’ choir here in the Philippines and having graduated from college, we joined this “adult” choir which is composed of former members of the boys’ choir. Redundant.
Anyways, I’d like to share in this blog what we, as choir boys do, most of the time we’re together. It ain’t much for some but here’s what’s definitely keeping us up (and sometimes down) and the perks we’re enjoying:
1. Singing
It’s obvious. We won’t be called a choir if we were not singing. Well, bands sing but we’re not a band. Err, makes sense? Anyways, singing along with the guys has always been FUN.
2. Drinking
It’s like standard protocol that whenever we have weekend rehearsals, drinking should be next. I can’t even believe that I would start missing beer after a month of not drinking. But who doesn’t love alcohol? 
3. Jamming/Videoke
Wherever we are, whatever song they’re playing, drunk or not, the boys always sing their hearts out – with 4 or more voices. This prolly helped us build our “good” reputation. 
4. Drinking
Oh yeah, drinking after, during and even BEFORE jamming/videoke is possible. Wait, I don’t think
5. The shows!
One perk of being in a choir is that we get to watch cool shows – from concerts to musicals. Good thing we have our “kuyas” who provides the venue for us to learn and appreciate – the classy way.
6. Sports?
Well, it doesn’t apply to ALL of us – some play basketball, some play badminton and some just sleep all day. It’s that diversity that would probably make us different.
7. Women
You’d be surprised that our girlfriends and the numerous girl friends get along well – and they’re always game, supportive and understanding. 
That’s probably it. I hope that some day, we can take our music to greater heights and inspire more people to do the same like above – well we can leave the drinking out. But what I do hope is that people would start considering joining church choirs and stop thinking that it’s some lousy stuff for lousy people like what most people think.
————————————————–
Ad
If you want to have us sing at your event, send me a message and we’ll arrange that Here’s our TV performance on a local TV show.
Baby, just ride the bike!
It’s the second week of working out at Gold’s and the second time that we’ve joined the Monday class of Precision Cycling – and man, we”re really enjoying the class.
What makes it so different? Well, for me:
1. My feet doesn’t ache!
I’m flat footed and I my doctor said I shouldn’t run a lot because the bone on my foot will go lower and will often cause foot aches <<<< Good ol’ excuse
2. I can last for an hour with cycling!
I can’t last for more than 30 minutes of running/jogging – even when I have someone to chat while doing so.
3. I’m having a lot of fun while doing it!
I can be that the music we’re using is energizing and the routine works with it well OR the routine’s fun and varying and can give you that variety you’re looking for OR probably both
In any case – Gold’s Precision cycling class makes working out (every Mondays) really enjoyable.
Here’s our results for the second week. You can check out our previous weights here.
Qny - ??? lbs. (she was sick last Monday)
DHK - 206 lbs.
Won Won – 174 lbs.
————————————————–
Side Story
I did this fitness test they’re offering for newbies in the gym. I’m happy with the results – low body fat, normal fitness level, NORMAL weight but CAN”T believe that the freakin gym instructor thought that:
1. I was twenty-nine – WTF?! Am I THAT stressed? Di kaya! Was it because of my handwriting?!
2. I was a girl – WTF?! Was it because of the stupid long messy hair? And he was actually gauging my results (at first) on the women’s chart until I corrected him.
X_X
DISCLAIMER: I am not a psychologist and I have no intention to become one.
You are stressed.
You just came from an hour-long meeting that started at 8am and wherein almost, if not all of the next steps are tagged to you.
You sat on your chair hoping for a breather but a customer of yours called you up asking for some help that she could have done himself if he has read the email that you sent yesterday.
While on the phone with the customer, another one just sent you a message via chat asking about some error she’s seeing on her screen and that she can’t proceed with his work until it gets resolved… and you told her to hold on for a sec.
You just finished helping the one on the phone and were about to type the steps the one on messenger needs to do when your boss asked you to go over his work area for some clarifications… and you again asked the one on messenger to hold on for another minute.
Your boss wanted to know what’s the status of the issue that happened last week – that’s when you remember that you actually forgot to send an update for that one.
So you made everything clear with your boss but when you checked your mail, your customer that previously asked your help thru messenger sent an email escalating her problem to her boss, and unfortunately, your boss, so you tried finding her thru chat but she’s offline. You tried looking up her phone number and called her – oops, phone’s unreachable. You tried investigating and you found out that she was simply pressing the wrong button on her screen – clearly, she was not listening when you trained her how to use the system. You sent a message with LOTS of screenshots – hoping that would help.
You were surprised that that consumed your entire morning. It was now lunch time and you still haven’t done a quarter of your real work.
You came back from lunch an hour later and with burning desire to finish all the things you need to do in about 4 hours, you opened your email and saw that around 30 emails added up – and because it’s your principle to read and reply to all messages within a day, you started the effort to read through them.
Then you stumbled on an email that’s related to the follow up you sent to a teammate and remembered that that teammate haven’t replied for a week now. You walked to his area and asked him for updated and he told you that he’ll get to it after daily work.
You were able to answer all emails and saw that you now have an hour to finish your real work. You checked your work queue, you have sixty requests to finish and your day has just began.
Amazing right? This kind of stuff is actually what most people rant about. Aside from the stuff at home, the TV shows, the movies, the neighbor, the kids… the wife, almost all people rant about their work – and I say that’s OK… sometimes.
Why do you need to rant?
Almost all people de-stress from ranting. More often than not, people would like others to know what are the hardships they are going through – to get sympathy, understanding and a lending hand (or a shoulder to cry on for the girls).
Ranting nowadays is viewed on a negative note though. When people rant, the other people hearing them would think that he has nothing to say but crap. More often than not, it can cause a LOT of trouble specially when you’ve beat the crap out of someone just by mere words.
But ranting, for me, gives people a chance to show that they need help – that they too are bombarded with a lot of stress and that they can NOT do it alone. It shows how sensitive or tough people are.
However, always ranting is never a good sign. Ranting without action will leave you helpless and incapable of resolving your issues in life. When ranting, one must know that it’s the perfect time to gather your thoughts and think of a ways on how to solve what you’re ranting about – you’ve already uttered out all of the tiniest details.
We must escape from that victim mentality and think of the challenges as opportunities – no matter how hard it can be. Yes, you might be the victim of overtime, of company politics, of stress and hassles – but if you compose yourself and take that time to think it through you’ll be surprised that the hardest option for you before is now the simplest and probably the only way for you to do now.
So just don’t rant and rant – do something about it, it’s you who’s troubled anyways.
I was able to catch an interview of a senator who’s rumored to be running for president next year in a morning TV show. The interview was all about the calamity that the two typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng brought to the entire Luzon province. After all his yak, he was asked to give his thoughts and action plan for the calamity let the people know how good a senator he is. He says:
1. It was all the dam supervisor’s fault why the entire province of Pangasinan.
2. Pass ALL students affected by the calamity for the semester/grading period… even those who volunteered to help.
3. It’s not time to talk about politics but focus on helping the people.
You would think that ONLY 3 makes sense – but would you REALLY believe it if it came from somebody who spurred out 1 and 2?
Why blame the management of the dams for releasing around 5,000 cubic meters of water during the typhoon? Since he can’t blame the rain for pouring down so much water – he’s putting it on the management since they’re more tangible. Was he thinking they should have built the dams to hold more water? Or would he expect management to just keep the water locked until the dam breaks and floods every province in Luzon.
Why would you pass ALL the students just because they volunteered or they’re not having classes due to flooded/destroyed classrooms? Would that make our education BETTER? Would that make them adept in math, science, english or history? I was astonished on how much confidence he had when he suggested this inconceivable idea. It’s mocking the country’s education system!
What made my day was an announcement by the Department of Education that they will not accept the senator’s call for an across the board passing of students. Good job DepEd!
I don’t mean to offend any supporter of the senator (you know who you are) but this further proved that I’ll never be a supporter of someone who keeps on yakking without doing any REAL action.
I’ve found my new gym buddies – Qny and DHK. With one goal of losing weight and firming up in mind, we started working out yesterday.
FACT: I was intimidated when I first entered the gym because most of the people working out are not THAT fat. Well, that, in a way, boosted my confidence that I can really be… healthier with the program that they’re going to give me – with the proper diet, motivation and commitment, of course.
Anyways, we’ve tried Precision Cycling from 6:30 to 7:30 in the evening. If you’re wondering why it’s that long, well, I’m still wondering about it too. The routine/group exercise consists of 3 stages where your stamina and strength are measured and challenged individually then at the same time. It was one hell of an exercise! I was sweating profusely and my eggs and legs hurt – until now (except the eggs).
I’ll be returning on TH for my tests and the program they’ll give me. The gym guys wanted me NOT to eat 5 hours and NOT to eat/drink caffeine 24 hours before my scheduled test. Well, hope it works out fine for me.
MYTH: It’s not true that eating 2 pieces of wheat pandesal after a workout will keep you satisfied the whole night. You must eat!
I’m planning to document our progress through this blog and for starters, here’s our initial weights. No pictures as we’d want to make this blog as anonymous as possible.
Qny – 138 lbs.
DHK – 203 lbs.
Won Won – 178 lbs.
Ham, Bibingka, Chicken, Lechon, Beef, Queso de Bola, Puto Bumbong, Wine, Crispy Pata, Beer, Chocolates, Tuna and more Beer? Admit it, the season of happy and carefree eating will stumble upon us in around 70 days. By that time, all of inches, pounds and whatever unit of measure you’re using to gauge your weight or figure will be gone in an instant.
Oh Christmas! It’s that happy time of the year when everybody just seems to have the season of joy and gift giving as reason to pig out on every food they see on the table and after that, they pig out some more. But who cares right? People will start flocking the gym by January of the next year and hope that they’ll have that summer body they can flaunt at the beach by March or April.
Not!
One thing I’ve learned while working for this global company is to BE PROACTIVE. Yes, I am reapplying learnings from work to my daily life – and so what? Anyways, being proactive is being cautious and preventive – taking every possible way to avoid something bad from happening.
Having lost seventeen pounds early this year (because of the company’s fitness challenge program), I told myself that I needed time to rest and recuperate and enjoy for a while until I woke up and learned that I’ve grown back eight of the seventeen. I was alarmed – to think that I have just asked someone to make me some new pants (with a slimmer waistline).
So I looked for my old gym buddies. I don’t want to start by January and line up for a turn on the treadmill – nor do I want to spend my entire Christmas bonus buying new office clothes that are a tad larger. Unfortunately, my old gym buddies retired already – either due to project work or plain laziness. But I needed the push and motivation to start doing a program again! So, a few weeks back, I’ve started doing push ups, sit ups and squats. A few days back, I’ve cut my rice intake to half cups per meal again. A few days back, I’ve painstakingly tried to ignore the cakes, chocolates, sodas, and every known contributor to diabetes man knows.
I know it isn’t enough.
Tomorrow, I’ll be starting to work these flabs out again – earlier by 2 months hoping that by December, I can say to myself that I deserve to eat a lot because I’m not that fat anymore. X_X
Wish me luck!
Have you ever tasted Bamboo shoots?
Bamboo shoots are native to Asia and they come from new bamboo culms and are used in various countries and cuisines. Here in the Philippines, it is commonly used in soups with shrimp, meat, other vegetables and fish sauce. Our family just loves having it every time it’s raining!
But aside from tasting great, bamboo shoots are actually medicinal – no wonder the Chinese use it too. Did you know that Bamboo shoots are HIGH IN FIBER, LOW in CALORIES and a great source of Potassium – OK don’t mind the K mineral.
Here are some great health benefits you can get from Bamboo shoots:
1. It will help prevent constipation since it’s high in fiber.
2. It will ease bowel movement since it’s high in fiber.
3. It is a good diet food because it’s low in calories!
4. It will help prevent high cholesterol since it’s high in fiber.
5. It can be used as a remedy for minor respiratory problems like coughs
6. It’s a good disinfectant both internally and externally
7. Potassium! This mineral helps promote smooth muscle movement and supports the functions of the heart and kidneys
The list can go on and on but bottom line, when you drop by Asia or Manila, just in case, try asking for a meal with “Labong”. It will definitely give you the go to roam around the streets happy, very satisfied, healthy and of course, not bloated.
Resources:
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/potassium-000320.htm
http://nutrition.about.com/od/fruitsandvegetables/p/bambooshoots.htm
http://hubpages.com/hub/Health_Benefits_of_Bamboo_Shoots
Finally! Here’s one American show that I’ll look forward to in the coming weeks (hopefully months).
Glee!
I’ve only watched two episodes (and have three more to catch up on) and so far, it’s pretty good. The show’s featuring BETTER voices than High School Musical and the story’s more engaging for me.
Glee is airing through Jack TV here in the country every Mondays at 8 PM. Replays are every Sunday at 9 PM. If you still fail to catch it at these times, try watching it here.
Check out what others had to say