It Works!

Previously, I searched for ways to improve my hair texture and bounce, for my hair has gone dry and limp and bad.

What I did, I combined three eggs, two tablespoons of olive oil, and one teaspoon of vinegar, and applied the mixture on my dry hair which I covered with a plastic shower cap for 30 minutes and rinsed the hair thoroughly using a mild a shampoo (I learned those with less alcohol are better and you would know that by reading the label or simply just smelling the shampoo. Shampoos which are "too fragrant" are usually those with more alcohol.


And yes, it worked. Well, at least for me.

Next time, I'll do the olive oil overnight technique. Done with expensive salon treatments! Ganun? Parang commercial? :P

Bad, Bad Hair Day!

It is one of those days I wish I were bald.

Below are things I got from the web which I hope will help:

Instead of turning to the many different commercial products found at the supermarket and pharmacy, more and more people are considering the use of natural cures for dry hair. A few effective options to consider include:

a) Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids: Adding salmon, fish oil, flax seeds, nuts, and walnuts to a diet helps deliver omega-3 essential fatty acids, which promotes strong and healthy hair. These substances also return sheen to dry locks.

b) Vinegar: Refresh dry hair with vinegar, which is known as a great conditioner that elevates shine and cleanliness. Add one tablespoon to your hair for an effective rinse. The remedy also controls dandruff when mixing 2 cups of water with 1/2 cup of vinegar. Using vinegar also combats frizzy hair.

c) Avocado and Banana: Combine a small overripe banana with avocado and spread into your hair. The remedy remains in the hair for up to one hour, where it is then rinsed out using warm water.

d) Eggs: In lukewarm water, whip an egg and apply to the hair to create lather. Rinse out the remedy with lukewarm water. In the end, you will enjoy cleaner hair with extra shine. A deep treatment for dry, damaged hair using eggs is made when combining three eggs, two tablespoons of olive oil (or safflower oil), and one teaspoon of vinegar. Apply the remedy to your hair and cover with a plastic shower cap. The treatment should remain in the hair for 30 minutes, followed by a regular shampooing.

Another egg recipe includes one teaspoon of baby oil, one egg yolk, and one cup of water [2]. Beating the egg yolk until frothy, add the oil and beat once more. Next, add the water and then massage into the scalp and throughout the rest of your hair. A thorough rinse should follow.

e) Oil: Rubbing a small amount of oil into the scalp makes an effective treatment for dry hair. Olive oil is suggested, but coconut oil also works well. After rubbing the oil into your hair, you should cover with a cap and leave in for overnight. When you awake, rinse the remedy out with shampoo, concentrating on removing the oil.

f) Aromatherapy: Some individuals have improved their dry hair by combining six drops of lavender, bay and sandalwood essential oils with six ounces of heated sesame or soy oils. The mixture is then applied to the hair and wrapped in a towel for 15 minutes. A rinse follows, which helps ease dry hairs.

g) Hot Oil Treatments: To add moisture back to dry, damaged hair, hot oil treatments have proven quite effective. A suggested approach is to place 1 or 2 drops of safflower oil in your palms (rubbing them together), and then scrunching the mixture into hair. This is considered a rather effective leave-in treatment. You may also massage two tablespoons of warm olive oil (or almond oil) into the hair, followed by wrapping the head in a warm, damp towel. Wait 30 minutes and then rinse. Hot oil treatments are most effective when applied to the hair at least every 3 to 4 weeks.

I will try one of the above and will blog if it works.


(from http://www.natural-cures-for.com/remedies/dry-hair)

Nothing that I Need

One of Coelho's tweets: "Don't hate God for not giving what you want. Thank Him for giving you what you need."

I have a pretty long list of the things that I want. But right now, I cannot, for the love of fries, enumerate what I need. I have this opinion that a need is a need if you don't have it. And today, there is nothing I need that I don't have. Need is something you must have to live and breathe NOW. I'm still alive, so you see everything I need is all here. I always live in the NOW. As for tomorrow, may God help me.

I am living out a dream. I just I have to declare that to the universe.

Easy Cong, Bibin-jing Ur-Ar, Enti-ting

My sister and I were teaching our nephews Filipino nursery songs using Youtube. On to our third song, my two year old nephew got bored and said, "Tita, easy cong kanta." Anong "easy cong?" I asked. "Easy cong," he repeated. "ABC?" my sister asked. "Easy cong!" "Ano ngang "easy cong?," my sis and I both asked.

"Easy cong Bruno Mars!" Ahh!

My nephew is a certified crazy Bruno Mars fan. He wants Bruno Mars on the radio, on music videos, on Youtube, on television.

He can name three of Bruno Mars' songs in one note, namely: Bibin-jing ur-ar, Enti-ting and Easy Cong.

Must you know what those songs are, they are "Just the Way You Are," "The Lazy Song," and "Grenade," respectively.

Wisdom Tooth Fairy (WTF)? Go figure.

(And yes, he can pronounce the singer's name perfectly well.)

To The Birthday Boy

It's been 150 years. I guess you will be remembered forever without dying old. Isn't that grand?

It must suck big time to have almost everything while surrounded by people who had almost nothing. In a country you thought was yours, you were made to feel a second class citizen. Well, I have some news for you, almost nothing has changed.

Never mind the gadgets that we have. They don't amount to anything that helped you achieve what you did. Never mind fast cars and fast lanes and jumbo planes, they may send us to places fast but they cannot take us to the journeys you have made when time moved slow - a good thing if one is to experience life in vivid color and texture. We have become an impatient breed, we cook food in microwaves.

We may have some good things in our fingertips, in remote controls, but we are our own slaves. We bury ourselves with work. When we run out of it, we invent more. We have a scheduler for everything from feeding the dog to going to the gym. Walk in the park? We walk the dog in the park. Dogs are special creatures now. They have their own cemeteries, own doctors and hospitals and beauty salons and dress shops.

There are more poor people in our midst, about 80% of the 90 million population. There are more corrupt government officials than you can imagine.

Despite great advancements in technology, we still cannot fly. Well, airfares have become cheap. But we fly in bulk and on specific periods.

I read the gruesome stories you wrote in your novels. About Sisa and her sons, about Juli and Basilio, about Elias, Maria Clara and Ibarra. I'm sure they were real people you have breathed life into in your novels. I'm afraid to say, these people didn't die with you. We have them all here right now.

And you, you were killed and turned into what you are more than a century later: a national hero.

May I ask you to come back and tell me what you think of all these we've done with Filipinas.

And oh, happy birthday, Jose!

Day of Independence

Like air, we take this for granted. We have become too accustomed to things that we disregard their importance because as far as our lifetime is concerned, they have always been around anyway. Not having them seems legendary, beyond our reach and understanding.

Truths about them are stored safely and conveniently in books, movies and memories of the old folks. Let them stay where they are. Thank you.

I am guilty of feeling the same. I cannot see the importance and logic of remembrance and commemoration of the past. We have the present to mind. The present is not the result of what was done in the past. That I dare say. It's been a hundred and thirteen years since 1898 when this country's independence was declared. What we have now - a shameful state of what we have become - cannot be attributed to that fateful year.

What we have now is the result of what we have allowed to happen, of what we have tolerated to continue. Not even Superman with the Justice League in tow can change what we refuse to change: ourselves.

For only he who holds the knife to his throat can put the blade away.

George Harris and Elias

Finally, I picked up Uncle Tom's Cabin from the bookstore. I have meant to do it since grade school when my teacher mentioned in passing that Jose Rizal read Uncle Tom's Cabin and served as one of those books which ignited more flame in his soul.

And there lies the similarities. Reading George Harris laments about his being born black as dead-end as dead-ends could be, I can hear a not-so-distant sentiment brought forth by the character of Elias in Noli Me Tangere. The soul-wrenching drama that words form into an intense soliloquy, never mind that George is supposed to be unburdening to his wife, can only come from someone who has witnessed the coldest a heart can get and the most evil a man can be.

Nineteenth century literature acting as mouthpieces of a society that saw injustice and decided to shut their eyes comes back to us alive but competing with fictitious vampire series, historical romances and conspiracies. I saw a Noli Me Tangere copy under the Bantam Books series the other day. It looked like one of those Bantam released classics all right. I am hoping it would be picked up not just by a high school or college kid taking up a Rizal course. Noli and El Fili need to be read not as a school required reading, but a required guide book by our citizens.

I'm dreaming wide awake again.

Wala Itong Goal

Hindi masamang magkamali. Walang may kinalaman sa mga bagay na hindi mo ginawa o gagawin pa lang. Mabuti pang huwag ng magsalita o magsulat para walang masaktan. Masaya ang buhay kapag lahat iyong nakukuha, di ba? Maraming bagay na pangit sa mundo. Maraming hindi mo masikmura. Meron ding mga bagay na pwede mong kunin o gawin pero huwag na lang. Walang kwenta rin naman pagkatapos mong makita ang totoong kahulugan nito. Hindi mo kailangan magkaron ng saysay - ang iyong gawa man o ang iyong mga salita. Wala lang lahat dahil lahat din ay mauuwi sa wala, di ba?

Subukan mong sumayaw ng wala sa kumpas o kumanta ng wala sa tono. Magsulat ng walang ibig sabihin kundi maging kabaliktaran ng nakasanayan. Kaya mo bang maging pangit? Madaling maging maganda. Ngumiti ka lang pwede na. Pero pag maganda ka talaga kahit sa pag-iyak mukha ka pa ring dyosa. Paano bang maging hindi na ikaw?

Ewan ko ba. Dapat wala ng pinatutunguhan ang mga tina-type ko na 'to. Pero parang mga paa, basta lumalakad pagkatapos may makikitang kakilala. Kakausapin ng may konting katuturan. Alangan namang suplahin mo.

Just go with it daw sabi ng kanta. Ang hindi ko maintindihan bakit walang kasalanan ang turing sa mga taong laging tama ang ginagawa. Bakit ba parang lagi na lang silang tama? Hindi ba pwedeng magkamali? May pulis ba palagi?

Madilim sa labas. Tinamad na naman magsindi ng ilaw ang kapitbahay. Nagbayad na ba sila sa Meralco? Sabagay hindi naman ikadadagdag ng yaman ng Meralco ang pagbabayad nila. Hindi rin ikalulugi ng kompanya ang di nila pagababayad.

Dapat walang patutunguhan. Parang buhay ko minsan. Minsan nakatanga na lang ako sa pader na mataas. Parang nasa Bilibid. Hindi mo naman iniisip kung ano ang nasa likod ng pader. Ang alam mo lang mas mabuti pang tumunganga kaysa mag-isip ng kung anu-ano. Gusto mo na lang nakanganga, humihinga sa bibig. Kaysa naman huminga sa mata. Masarap nakatigil na lang ang mundo, kahit yung mundo mo lang. Wala kang pakialam. Nagba-blog ng ganito. Bakit ganito ang sinusulat ko? Gusto kong matutong sumulat ng parang hindi marunong mag-isip. Yung parang walang nabasang libro o natutunan sa klase o sa trabaho o sa buhay. Paano ba maging hindi ka na ikaw?

Paano bang bigla nalang naniniwala ka na uli sa RH Bill? O kaya bilib ka pa rin kay Noynoy? Paano ba?

Masarap maging mababaw. Na basta may cellphone at ka-text masaya ka na. Ano kaya, basta bagong sweldo, pagkatapos mangalahati ang sweldo mo sa pagbabayad ng utang, gigimik kayo dyan sa murang gimikan sa kanto. Pero mababaw ba yun? Paano kung nasa tuktok ka na pala sa lagay na yun? Dahil noong araw, nagkakalkal ka lang ng basura at nakatira sa kariton kasama ang labin-lima mong kapatid at ang nanay mo na papalit-palit ng kabit.

Paano mo masasabi na okey na ang buhay mo? Wala namang okey na buhay di ba? Si Manny Pacquiao nakabili na ng 300M mansion sa Forbes Park. Oh di ba? Masasabi mo na ba na okey na ang buhay niya? Kung tatanungin natin si Pacman, sigurado ako sasabihin nya marami pa siyang gustong makamit at magawa. Wala talagang katapusan kaya walang okey.

Madilim talaga. Pero sa kalayuan maliwanag naman pala. Limitado lang pala ang aking pagtingin. Ang nakikita ko lang ang nasa paligid ko. Hindi kasama yung natatabingan ng pader na kahit na kung aabutin ko pwede ko pang masampal kung may tao man sa lugar na yon.

Sana huwag na lang uli umulan. Kawawa naman sinampay ko hindi na naman matutuyo. Kung kailan naman umuulan dun pa nasira ang spin dryer. Nasira din syempre ang washer nung isang linggo. Nag-handwash tuloy ako. Kung kailan naman nabasa ko na lahat ng lalabhan saka pa tinopak ang washing machine. Kaya pinanindigan ko na. Ilang araw din masakit ang dulo ng mga daliri ko lalo na sa gilid ng mga kuko. Nalaman ko tuloy na hindi pa ako matanda dahil mga daliri ko ang sumakit hindi ang balakang at likod ko. Dahil kaya mahilig ako sa gatas in my 20s? Wala rin akong wrinkles. Dahil kaya second year high school pa lang ako nagmo-moisturizer na ako?

Ganito kapag nagsusulat ng wala naman objectives. Ang gusto ko lang kapag natapos ang buong album na pinapakinggan ko tapos na rin itong isinusulat ko. Hindi dahil may goal ako dito. Wala. Gusto ko lang malaman kung paano ito matatapos at ano ang pwede ko pang sabihin sa loob ng pakikinig sa isang buong album. Ano ang pwede kong maisip at isulat habang may kumakanta sa nakasalpak na headphones sa tainga ko.

Si nanay pinabayaan si tatay na magluto ng gusto niyang ulam - isda na pangat sa dahon ng gabi. Hindi siya laing kase wala syang gata. Isda sa panahon ng fishkills. Okey din mag-trip. Sawa na daw sya sa karne at manok at gulay. Kahit na bumili ako ng Andok's liempo mas pinili niya ang isdang pangat. Paninindigan na niya. Niluto na niya yun e.

O, last song na ng album. Sana may mapala ang pakikinig at pagsulat ko ng sabay. Pero dahil wala naman talaga akong objective sa ginagawa ko ngayon, may kaibahan ba ito sa paggawa ng bagay ng buong puso at kaluluwa na wala rin namang kinahantungan?

Eminem's Latest Song Mentions Pacquiao

"Classic cow, always down for the catch weight like Pacquiao," raps Royce Da 5'9" in a collaboration with Eminem and Bruno Mars in the song called "Lighters."



Not exactly flattering for Pacquaio to be called a "classic cow." I wonder if Mayweather or his father or some other hater co-wrote that part of the rap? :P

Running Serious

Starting this weekend I am going to take up running again.

My last visit to the weighing scale (last week care of my doctor) reveals that my whole physical body (is that redundant?) amounts to 104 lbs. to my 5'3" height.

I count myself lucky I'm improving in that department. I used to never hit a hundred pounds.

Now, my goal is to stay at 104 with rounder and firmer limbs and a healthier respiratory system.

Thus, I'm running again.

Good luck to me.

Another Case Against RH

This morning, I interviewed Anna (not her real name), 16 years old, and an applicant for a scholarship grant my company provides to less fortunate children.

I asked her to tell me about her family. She said she is the eldest in the brood of two. Her brother is seven years old and that makes him 9 years younger than his Ate. Anna's father is 37 years old. Simple Math will tell that he was 21 when Anna was born. Her mother is 35 years old. Another simple Math will confirm that her mother was 19 when Anna was born. But enough of Math. Anna's mother is a self-employed manicurist; her father a laborer in a construction firm. Both of her parents didn't go to college. They didn't have to, to know that more children will make life difficult. They didn't have to, to know how to be responsible parents. They don't need some law to tell them how to do those either.

Fine. Let's make laws for people who give a zilch about human lives, about family values. Let's waste money debating on them, too. It is no different from DOTC and LTO giving evil drivers improved health and working conditions plus incentives on top of above minimum wage to motivate drivers to drive carefully. But that's another story so let's go back to Anna.

Difficult times make it impossible for Anna to attend college. Her parents' meager earnings are hardly enough to meet their daily needs. Her high school grades aren't spectacular. But she has spectacular dreams. She wants to send her brother to college when the time comes and help her parents when they grow old. For a child like her, those are dreams matched only by the promise of Heaven.

I shall leave to smart people the debate on RH Bill. But I and the company I represent will do something for the community sans the spotlight provided by TV cameras or the sanctity of the pulpit.