Your PM

Your PM: "Good Evening, I've been reading your wall today and as you answer a lot of questions I thought of asking you as well. There are a lot of things that are bothering me. First, I'd like to ask if I should stay with my current job, I feel that the company itself is unstable, but the benefits I am receiving now is good.

"2nd, about my lovelife, we are facing a lot of problems and I dont know how to handle it. For the nth time we are apart again, Im abroad and he is is Philippines.

"here is out photos, his full name is ___________________ birthday ___ __, 19__

"mine is ____________________ birthday ___ __, 19__

"3rd, how can i help my daughter, she is suffering and confused because of our situation. thank you"

My answer: Hi _______!

1) Now close to retirement, here is what I will ever say about jobs: There is no such thing as an ideal job, there is no such thing as an ideal supervisor, and there is no such thing as an ideal work situation. If you do not believe that you will simply wander from job to job only to discover, in the end, what I already discovered a long time ago.

Your job is what you make it. Primarily it should pay your bills and allow you to save some money as well. You can actually design it in such a way that it can give you and others deeper meaning and a more extensive outlook on life.

2) It is a bad idea to love someone and be apart from him at the same time. Everything must be tended with care: a plant, a pet, a flame, a work in progress--so why not a human being as well, especially someone whom you are in love with?

3) Children are more intelligent than you think, except that they are never given the right information, which confuses them.

Inform your daughter:

--Why you love your lover, on all levels.
--All of the loves you ever had in your life, leading to this one lover.
--What love is to you.
--What lust is to you.
--Your lover's shortcomings.
--Your own shortcomings.
--That a relationship is a psychological contract between two consenting adults, and that the children need not feel guilty about not being involved in it.
--That you will never make your daughter promises that you cannot keep.
--That you will not dream for your daughter, and that you will allow her to dream for herself.

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Interior Design - Lobby

This is an Interior Design for a Redevelopment I did a few months back. Looking at it again makes me realize that there are hit and miss in this design. I do like the play of lights and shadows for the textured back wall for the reception area. I like the choice of materials, a mix of dark wood stained accents, a glossy marble flow and even the 2-tone reception counter. I like how it all came together and set a cozy relaxing mood.  What I didn't like is the display cabinet and seating area under the stairs. A seating area would be fine, but that display cabinet is absolutely horrible. It should not be there, the scale is wrong, the placement is wrong, the ergonometrics is wrong.

I realized one thing, that for me to get better in what I do, I should criticize myself more. I should go back to the things I did and try to learn from it.  If we think about it, the same rules apply when it comes to life. We will only learn and get better as a person if look back and try to see the mistakes that we did, to understand it more and to analyze.  In lieu of that, I would like to set Friday as my day to look back at my previous Interior Design works and criticize myself. I am excited of the things that I will learn.

How about you? What do you think are the hit and miss in this rendering? Which part do you like and what are the things I should improve on. I appreciate your comments. Let me know your thoughts.

My Answer to Maria Kang

This photo has gone viral on facebook, a picture of a 23yrd old mom of 3 boys, fit and sexy in her skimpy exercise gear.  I would have not noticed this since I am busy with work but my own boyfriend posted a this on his wall which forced me to take a look at MariaKang. I dont know what other moms feel about this, and usually I will just let this pass me by. But since my own boyfriend, who is the father of my child posted this, I felt I had to answer.

Rough Translation: Filipina's are extraordinary. Maria Kang you are a legend. Hope a lot of moms will follow you.

First of all, I am not offended by the "whats your excuse" tagline on her photo. I admire her that she has kept her body looking like this. In my own experience, it is not that hard to look this good after you give birth. I myself looks this good when I just gave birth.I gained weight years after that.  A lot of moms, was giving negative comments about her posing like this and with that tag line. It is as if, other moms who doesnt look like her is just giving an excuse to not look that good. She is proud of her body, and she should be. It entails a lot of work to look that good. I am happy for her.

Since my boyfriend posted this on his facebook wall. I would like to answer her tag line. "whats your excuse?" and this post is specially dedicated to my boyfriend.

1 year after giving birth

2 months after giving birth

1. I looked this good when I was 23. In fact, I just gave birth to your daughter at 23.  You cant expect my 32 year old body to look like that. Yes age is a big factor, as we grow older our metabolism slows down, thus making it more difficult to lose weight. Just look at my 23 year old pictures, I can wear that same skimpy gear and look as sexy, only I am prettier than Maria Kang.
2. If you have 3 kids in 3 years, like Maria Kang did, yes it is much easier to keep that body. Breast feeding is a natural fat burner and if she was breast feeding non stop for 3 years yes she will still look that good. She didnt even had to exercise that much. What the exercise did was the body toning for her 6 pack abs, but breast feeding will keep the weight off even without exercise.
3. Since you are an "absentee dad" , i had to work to keep our baby alive. That means, I dont have time or money for gym or other exercise, make myself look good stuff. Heck, I wasnt even getting a hair cut for a long time. So spa, mani/pedi, facial, make up and getting a photoshoot is not in my budget list. Maybe if you were there to support us. I could have pampered myself.
4. In my opinion, yes she is pretty and sexy in that photo. But I am as pretty and sexy as her, some some say I am sexier than her, even if I gained weight. Just check out my photo below.

This is me Now! If I am not pretty and sexy for you, then there is something wrong with your eyes!!!!

I still have a lot to say, but I have to go now and spend time with what matters most, family. I will continue this post soon...

Advice from Tony Perez

Your PM: "Good evening. I hope you can help me get a better view of my relationship. I am in a crossroad, i dont know if i should split up with him or keep going. We are not together now, i am working abroad. My bf is suppose to join me here soon, but i dont know if it is a good idea. He doesnt have a work here so thats a big risk. We have a kid together and i really want it to work out. My questions are the following: does he really love me? We'll we be happy together when he gets here? Are we going to be happy as a family? Is he the man i am going to marry? I hope u answer my questions. If there are other things thay you sense about us, hope you can also share with me. Thank you.

My answer: "Hi _______! Yes, allow your boyfriend to join you there. He will eventually find a job, and working together to save money is always a good idea. You will be doing this not only for yourselves but as a duty to your child, whom you are both responsible for and who deserves a good future. You took the risk of falling in love and having a child. Venturing forth in a foreign country is yet another risk, but one worth taking for the sake of your family.

"At this point 'Does he really love me?' is immaterial because you are a family, whether you are married or not and whether you like it or not. It is not romance but a deep friendship that bonds together a healthy family, and that is something you have already.

"Yes, you will be together as a family. Whether you will be happy or not is not up to me but up to the three of you. You will eventually have two more children.

"Yes, he is the man whom you are going to marry, keeping in mind that marriage is not a bed of roses but a commitment that entails many sacrifices."

TONY PEREZ is a creative writer, playwright, poet, lyricist, painter, portraitist, fiber artist, and psychic journalist and trainer. He is one of the 100 Filipino recipients of the 1898-1998 Centennial Artists Awards of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Filipino Beggar in Brunei

OK! He is not a beggar, in fact he is a scholar, but their strategy makes him look like a beggar.

His name is Nino, I met him while having a quick lunch at The Mall, Gadong. He approached me while I was eating my chicken joy. He introduced himself as a Filipino Scholar, now in Brunei to raise funds for other scholars.  He asked me in english and I answered him in tagalog, so he will instantly know that I am a Filipino as well. As he explained to me why he is in Brunei, I asked him, is your story true? He said, for me to help out, I can buy the pens that he is showings for a whopping $10 for 2 pens. That price is really high for pens, meaning 1 pen is almost Php200? With that story and with that price, who would believe him. So I asked more questions, where he is staying, how many are them in Brunei, how long are they staying; and he was able to answer all my questions. He even showed his ID and all. I asked him, who's idea is it to go to other countries just to roam around and beg people in the mall to buy their over priced pens. He said, it was the school director's idea. To which I answered, it is a stupid idea.

I told him to tell that director/ mentor that his strategy of begging people to pay for over priced pens in a foreign country is not only stupid but also degrading for the Filipinos.  There are thousands of Filipinos working here in Brunei and we are working very hard to get respect from locals and other nationalities. I am proud to say that Filipinos here are regarded as smart, hard working and very good with whatever job we are in. In fact, Filipinos are favored for all work positions, and compared to locals and other nationalities we are also one of the highest paid in this country. Simple because we are good in what we do and the employers  know, that even if they pay a little higher for a Filipino employee the money there are paying us is worth it. We are regarded the smartest and most reliable in any field of work here in Brunei. Some may even say, that Brunei cannot function well if Filipinos are not here, the palace itself has about 90% Filipino employees, that's how much respect they have on Filipinos when in comes to work.

So to see a Filipino, roam around the mall asking people to buy overpriced pens in simply ridiculous.  We have worked our as* off to show to everybody here that Filipinos are professionals, smart and very good in what we do, and as we show them that, we also gain respect from locals and other nationalities.
Seeing a Filipino "beg" for money is degrading and shameful. There are a lot of other means on how to raise funds, if the director/mentor has commonsense I am sure that there are a lot of other ways to raise funds.

Filipinos are intelligent and talented, something that we can showcase all over the world. Im sure if they have done their homework and coordinated with the right people they will get a lot of support from the Filipino community. If they coordinated with Philippine Embassy, I'm sure they can point them to the right direction.  They could have staged a show, I mean I would rather dance "tinikling" in front of a crowd rather than beg for money. If they only did their homework, I'm sure the whole Filipino community will be more than eager to help them out. They can get support from Expression Music which are mostly Filipinos, or some refreshments from Reyni's or Jollibee which is  known Filipino Restaurants. Even the children from SMS-IS are mostly Filipinos. This way we could have shown Brunei and the rest of the world (since there are a lot of other nationalities here) what "Bayanihan" is about. I am sure they could have raised more fund doing it this way, with so much pride, rather than going around the mall and begging for money.  Worse, if people would think that it is just a scam and they are trying to trick people into giving them money.