The Daily Matters

I don’t feel up to doing anything today other than thinking about some concerns in my family back home. There are things I prefer to keep to myself rather than telling anybody about it right now. I have yet to find the right timing and the right person to address these things that bother me. I can’t help but feel sorry for myself to be helpless and perhaps a bit frustrated about certain things.

I know I’m not alone and this too shall pass. Oh life! In the meantime, let me share this little something just to switch the atmosphere of this rant for a moment. It’s a forwarded e-mail that I got from the hubby from his friend. I wish I could give it a good laugh but maybe next time. I’ll just leave the laughing part to you and yours or to this laughing image for that matter!

On the first day, God created the dog and said:

‘Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.’

The dog said: ‘That’s a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I’ll give you back the other ten?’

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said:

‘Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I’ll give you a twenty-year life span.’

The monkey said: ‘Monkey tricks for twenty years? That’s a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?’

And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said:

‘You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer’s family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.’

The cow said: ‘That’s kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I’ll give back the other forty?’

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created man and said:

‘Eat, sleep, play, m arry and enjoy your life. For this, I’ll give you twenty years.’

But man said: ‘Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten
the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?’

‘Okay,’ said God, ‘You asked for it.’

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information. I’m doing it as a public service.

Today, I will be processing some photos I took previously. I have decided to get a pro account in flickr soon and will be uploading photos there more often. I would love to join communities over there and perhaps learn more about photography from other people’s works. I enjoy looking at photos and how I like some that were processed artistically.

I do love to tweak my photos with actions on Photoshop and it’s quite rewarding actually if you get to make friends online and give you comments of admiration to your work. Gosh, I have yet to print photos of my son as a baby and put them up on frames. I got too lazy when it comes to printing. Well, I think it’s getting outdated to be printing photos now that digital age is getting more and more appealing. Oh well.

I was thinking of broiling pork ribs tonight for dinner, but I changed my mind. I am making a sinigang instead. I don’t really have all the ingredients on hand but I think I can make it work. I miss having sabaw with rice and pork ribs so this is a good chance for me to make it again. It sued to be my favorite sud-an to make back home and I take pride in cooking it. In fact, it’s the only recipe I can really be proud of. LOL! I just find it hard to cook sometimes when you are very limited when it comes to the knowledge of cooking. I have to depend on the Internet to see what might be interesting to cook or else I’ll end up with the microwave a lot. I am sharing this recipe that I found online so here it goes.

Sinigang na Baboy by English Patis
(Sour Soup Pork)

500 gm boney pork
3-4 medium tomatoes - sliced
1 big onion - sliced
1 Tbsp sea salt
1-2 green chilis - pointed ends cut off [optional]
6-8 cups water
souring agent (tamarind puree, lemon and/or lime)
1 aubergine (eggplant) - sliced 1 inch thick and quartered
1 bunch long string beans (sitaw) [optional] - cut into 2 inch pieces
2 taro roots (gabi) - peeled and quartered
spinach leaves or kangkong - washed and plucked from stems

1. Combine tomatoes, onion, and sea salt in a big pot. Mix and mash them a little bit with your fingers. Add chilis (optional) and pork.
2. Pour just enough water to cover them and bring to boil. Cook for about 3 minutes. Mash the tomatoes with a sandok (cooking spoon).
3. Pour in the rest of the water, bring to boil and simmer until pork is tender (about 1 1/4 hours).
4. Add taro, aubergine and sitaw. Bring to boil and simmer until taro is almost cooked (about 5 minutes).
5. Add the souring agent and spinach (for tamarind puree I use about 1/2 cup of it plus a squeeze of lemon/lime). Cook for 1-2 minutes. Taste soup and adjust seasonings accordingly. Serve.

The Canon Normal EF 50mm f/1.8 II Autofocus Lens seems to take pretty good portrait shots. I wish to take practice more on taking portraits but my model seems to be uncooperative. LOL! He is too young to know what photo shoot is all about and sometimes runs towards the camera instead. I keep trying to be a bit distant just so I could take candid shots without his attention but for only a very short time. Hehehe. Kids are undeniably hard to take a good picture of especially with the young ones. Time comes and Casey will be old enough to become my model.

Last Sunday, the hubby dropped off Casey and me at the town’s green to watch a free concert. A lot of things are happening in this town and a concert every Sunday is just one of the fun outdoor activities that residents take advantage of on their family day. I’m glad I had gone there even for once before it ends in August. The music was good. They had cool performers. Families had picnics. There was barbecue, ice cream and burger stands in the green.

Some women and kids dance to the tune, too. I wish we had known someone there it would be nicer to watch the concert with friends you know. I got bored and Casey got out of hand when he wanted to run around where there was a lot of kids. I didn’t want him to get in trouble so I decided to walk him to the golf range to see the hubby. I don’t think I’m going back there next Sunday though but it was a good experience rather than staying at home most of the time. In the end, Casey enjoyed the freedom at the golf range with is dad when he was allowed to run around a big space all to himself. Got to show some pictures later.

Some if not all of us are familiar with scams over the Internet. It’s about time that those that are still naïve about the tricks that some crooked individuals do to take advantage of some people’s kindness or frustration over money should be halted if not prevented. I want to share this and re-post a particular blog post I wrote months ago on my other blog just so to spread this message to others.

Long time Internet users are presumed to be familiar with scams online, but there are still a lot who have not encountered one. Sad but true, it is still going on and I have no idea how many people are victimized every single day. Whether you found some website that says this or that and sounds convincing, you better think twice whether to believe in it or not. If it sounds too good to be true, then it is not worth believing.

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I have so many things in mind that I would love to get started doing but only time is not enough. I should prioritize some stuff especially making our business’ site. Hubby has been bugging me about it for quite sometime now. I have taken several pictures to be used on the site and I look forward to organizing them. First of all I have to plan what the website is supposed to look and then come the information that needs to be posted in there. Well, I have a son to look after who is also interrupting me once in awhile that’s why I can’t focus on anything and ends up achieving only a few things. Life indeed, if only I have someone who could help.

I think I should be sharing more of the pictures I took in the previous days or weeks. I’ve been pretty passive about it. I just get too lazy and sometimes it can get time-consuming to scour on my photo files. Talking about determination in the first place in my photography hobby — where is that? LOL! I’m sharing some macro shots from my new lens and I’m still learning.

Nah, I will have to practice more when the weather gets friendly. Oh well, when is it going to get friendly anyway? When fall or winter comes? I sure hope not. I do want to take advantage of the warmth of summer. I just can’t stand the heat sometimes. My skin gets itchy.

These have been added to my photoblog, too.

I feel badly sorry for Casey yesterday. His finger got caught in the drawer. It got swollen and turned blue. He’s been playing with the drawer pulling it in and out before and what I was afraid of happened yesterday. I can’t avoid getting mad at him and to myself. He still doesn’t understand what I’ve been telling him, so I have myself to blame. LOL! He cried really hard though.

I could imagine how painful it was. I didn’t even know what to do with his finger. Oh well. He’s such a handful. Last night hubby volunteered to clean up the table after dinner and washed the dishes. He said he would rather do that while I watch our boy because he gives him a heart attack. I don’t blame him. Hehehe!

In about an hour, we are going to get ready to go to NY. The hubby is going to attend a meeting of an association that he is volunteering for a fund raising every year. He has to do an errand as well so it would be a good time for Casey and me to take the ride so we don’t get bored instead of staying at home a lot. Besides, it’s a long trip and it should be a fund ride for us. I just hope Casey cooperates. He is usually a good traveler though. He just gets cranky when he is tired sitting for a long time in his car seat.