Many, many people are starting to speak out against this increase in their electricity; apparently, the Philippines charges some of the highest per-kilowatt rates in the world, and it doesn’t look like it will get better. With summer getting hotter, no evidence of rain anywhere in sight, and another price hike scheduled in April, we’re looking at near-crisis levels here. Gasoline isn’t getting cheaper, basic goods and services are getting too expensive for the majority of my countrymen to afford, and I’m upset that only three of my 12 senatorial candidates made it the Magic 12 of Pulse Asia’s latest survey.

This is simply unacceptable. More than 20% of our income goes to taxes to begin with; how much more sacrifice is expected of the middle class? I understand that the weather isn’t cooperating, but come on, this is insane. Many, many people may not have the money to pay for the sudden steep increase in their electricity bills, and the only option would be to either a) borrow, which would put them (further) into debt; or b) lose their electricity and plunge into total personal crisis. There is no pagmamalasakit here; there seems to be no sympathy on the parts of the people whose salaries are paid by us, the people.

Have a heart!

If you want to join the increasing number of people seeking to petition Meralco to reduce electricity rates, click here.

Regardless, however, of our lot, I know we will make it through. I have faith in God and our own inimitable scrappiness as a people, to survive with smiles on our faces and a disposition that would make Him proud. God knows us by name, He knows the number of hairs on our heads, and He will be a strong tower and refuge to those who run to Him for relief and shelter.

So we work harder, we try to find extra income, and we do our best to lessen electricity consumption. It’s an opportunity for us to be greener; let’s welcome the opportunity and help save the planet!

There are good days and there are bad days. In either case, the Name of the Lord be praised.

My wife loves the Korean boyband SHINee. To death. All the CDs, ordered from Korea, or Taiwan. Pictures. Posters. Videos. Obviously, we can’t quite afford to go to Korea to watch them in person, so when she heard that they were going to come to the Philippines for a free concert, well, we were ecstatic. We first heard that it was a first-come, first-serve arrangement (so those who line up earlier will get better chances of scoring tickets), but we then learned later on that the tickets to the concert were to be raffled off, lottery-style, via Arirang TV. And that’s when it got ugly.

Far be it from me to complain, but I’m a little upset. The international Korean channel opened up tickets to the upcoming Filipino-Korean Friendship celebration at the CCP using a lottery system, and according to them, 8,000 applications were received, all vying for just 360 tickets. The odds weren’t good, obviously, for a particular person to get in, but we’re all under the impression that it’s fair game. The online application form didn’t make it clear exactly how the network would conduct the draw, nor did it indicate how many tickets would be given away. It did request for us to fill in all the blanks completely; these included first and last names. So we did that. Yesterday, we saw the results of the draw. Wifey didn’t make it. Neither did I.

What took me by surprise was the presence of some statistical oddities. What are the odds that out of 8,000 people, four persons surnamed Ayson would make it? Or two Salomes, whose first names both begin with Z? Or several “lucky winners” who entered the competition with only one name, thereby showing they did not fill in the form properly, and therefore should have been disqualified? I’m no statistician, but I imagine that the odds would be greater that there would’ve been more persons surnamed Cruz, Santos, or somewhat-or-other common name would’ve been winners other than the less-popular “Ayson” or “Salome.” Not to take away from these lucky, lucky, lucky ladies. Congratulations to you; I really hope you enjoy the concert. I also hope you and the other 354 winners won’t take it against us for feeling a wee bit miffed. Maraming bitter diyan, at kasama kami.

Meanwhile, I won’t lie to you, readers; I’m quite bitter. Our seventh year wedding anniversary is coming up, and nothing would’ve thrilled me more than to take my wife to the concert of her favorite Korean artists (and you know how crazy Wifey is about K-Pop; the fact that K-Pop artists have infiltrated my weekly Top 10 is proof enough that it’s getting enough airplay in my home). If it were a paid concert, I would’ve shelled out no matter how much money was required to get her front-row tickets. But that’s not the case. This is a free concert, and we were unfortunately left out. We don’t know of any other means to get tickets. (NBN, Sky Cable, and Global Destiny have no information available for us, and we’ve called, surfed, did whatever we thought possible to make it happen.)

I have no backup plan for the SHINee/Mighty Mouth/Winterplay concert. I had anniversary plans, but this would’ve been the real jewel. So I hope that what I’ve prepared for the Wifey will be a consolation to her. If you’re reading this, Caths, I’m sorry I couldn’t pull through for you, babe. Someday, honey, we’ll go to Korea. Then you’ll get to watch SHINee, or maybe SS501, or maybe Shinwa, once they’ve reunited from military service. It’ll be an experience we’ll never forget. That’s a promise.

In a nutshell: I hate physical exams!

We’re scheduled to have our annual physical exam this week, and let me tell you in no uncertain terms: I hate physical exams. I’ve been able to avoid physical exams for the most part. Unfortunately, as we get older, we need them to help us stay healthy. So we gotta get ‘em. That doesn’t make ‘em any easier.

I have had body issues since I can remember, which is why I can’t stand them. I hate having to collect stool and urine samples; the obsessive-compulsive person in me, the one that has to have everything neat and clean, can’t stand holding the little plastic cups. Also, I hate any element of nakedness; just taking my shirt off makes me cringe.

The biggest thing about the physical exams is what comes afterward: the inevitable waiting and wondering. We pray for the best of health, that our cholesterol’s okay, that we don’t have cancer and all that. Notice I didn’t say I was worried – what will it do to worry, after all? Tomorrow can take care of itself – but, of course, we pray for the best.

I was thinking of taking my camera along, but, dear God, who needs to see pictures of rolling acres of fat anyway? Yuck. (One person on the latest PostSecret, though, says that “fat guys wearing white briefs look sexy.” Too bad I don’t have white undies. LOL) I know I’d feel differently if I were 150lbs, but I’m not. I’m 215. Oi vey.

At the end of the day, here’s the rub: we should be comfortable with the skin we’re in; God loves us no matter how we look. What we do with what God has given us, though, is a testament to our trust in Him and how much we value the stewardship role of whatever He’s given us. This includes our bodies. Kaya takbo bukas. I have a few more days til the exam; maybe I can burn off two pounds or something. *groan*

I hate physical exams!

Yes, I admit I’ve fallen off the train.

But I’m going to get back on it, by God! I’m 208 right now, and this is unacceptable. Thanks to David Guetta & Kelly Rowland, I have a great new song to run by! However, since it’s the first time that I’m going to run in a while, I’ll probably go for a brisk walk for an hour, and see how well I do. (It’s going to mess up my Nike+ progress bar, but I think it’s something I have to do. Or I can leave it behind! LOL)

I am angry with myself, and angry is a good place to be.

There are no words.

Anyway, it was being billed as a healthy, weight loss-supporting drink. It even had L-Carnitine, which is fast becoming a byword amongst health-conscious dieters, despite some evidence that shows little to no effectiveness in assisting weight loss. So I took a quick look at the nutritional facts on the bottle’s label and was aghast to see the amount of sugar in the juice drink.

To compare, a can of Coke has 34.5 grams of sugar in it (plus a host of other chemicals). The Fab mango juice drink had a whopping 43 grams of sugar! The Fab pineapple is an even stronger sugar bomb: it carries a shocking 53 grams of sugar! That’s roughly twelve teaspoons of sugar in one bottle! (Conversion source here)

Some people like it, and I won’t take that away from them. However, Nature’s Harvest – even Del Monte’s “Fit and Right” – pack in insane amounts of sugar in their juice drinks. And we know too much sugar is bad for you. I don’t resent Fab for its sugar; I resent Fab for propagating the myth that L-Carnitine and sugar bomb drinks are the best way to fitness. I’m not even 1/3 of the way there, but I know that permanent, healthy weight loss comes with exercise and proper diet. Period.

The healthful benefits of fruit come into full effect when you eat the fruit, because you get the fiber with the fruit in all its fructosy goodness. Remove the juice and junk the pulp, and that’s just vitamins and sugar. The fiber is just as important as the rest of the fruit. I have fruit every day in the mornings, and that’s all I have til lunch. It rocks my world.

If you want to drink healthy, stick to a chilled bottle of distilled water. Water. The truly FAB drink.

My Nokia 5300 Xpress Music, a gift from my beautiful wife, is designed for the music lover. When I first received it, I used the PC Suite it came with to sync the phone and transfer music in and out of it, which worked fine. Unfortunately, when I transferred jobs, I was assigned a Macbook Pro (named Macky), and I could no longer sync Noah, because, apparently, Nokia doesn’t produce similar software for Mac users. (Why use a Nokia phone and mp3 player when you can have an iPod and iPhone? Blast you, Steve Jobs, for your savvy future-telling skills!)

Noah has a ‘data storage’ function that enables it to upload information and the like via USB. For some reason, though, the Music folder, when synced with my Mac (and Cathy’s subsequent PC), doesn’t reflect the songs in the memory card. They’re like 180MB worth of ghost songs!

The end result? Noah has 51 songs totaling almost 180MB that I want to erase to make room for new songs, but can’t, because they doesn’t show up on the USB. I reinstalled the Nokia PC Suite software last night on Cathy’s PC to see if I could erase it using the legit software, but even that isn’t working. When I removed the memory card from Noah, the phone told me it had no songs in its memory, which tells me this is really a memory card issue.

*sigh* So my next action plan is to bring the memory card to Nokia’s service center to have them look at it. Seeing as I’ve had this phone for less than a year, I’m hoping that any issues I may have with the card can be resolved with their simply replacing the card. Hopefully. If not, I’m going to have to either buy a new memory card or just deal with this one, which sucks because 180MB is a lot of space.

The latest fuel price hike was the ninth for gasoline for a total of P5 a liter… The price hike brings premium unleaded gasoline prices to between P39.07 and P41.77 a liter.

Today, on the way home, I realized fuel is now selling for as much as P55.47 a liter. The cheapest fuel in my immediate vicinity is Petron’s P54.97/liter. This means that in just 12 months, gasoline prices rose P15.90, an incredible increase of almost 30%!

I know the world is reeling from skyrocketing fuel prices (thanks a lot, China!). For Filipinos who are getting by on the barest minimum, these high gasoline prices hit them hardest where it hurts – their stomachs. It boggles my mind that parents have to scrimp on their children’s food and education just so they can go to work!

Take us for example. We live very near the border of Caloocan and Quezon City. Cathy works along Taft Avenue; I work in Taguig City. Without traffic, I can get to work in a little under an hour; during rush hour, it can take as much as two and a half hours. The trips are approximately 60km, back and forth; we finish a tank of gasoline in approximately one week. At P54.97, filling up our 45-liter gasoline tank will cost approximately PHP2475, or a staggering P9,900 a month in gasoline! That’s a significant chunk of my salary right there, just to get to work. (Luckily, I love my work, so it’s worth the trip, kinda like Dunkin’ Donuts.)

I am so believing God for Nathan to make it to a good Chinese school in Makati, Taguig, Pasay, or Malate, then we can move houses and save money on both gasoline and time. We can’t live like this, we just can’t. Why can’t we stop the rise in gas prices? I don’t know how the corrupt in government can stomach squirreling millions of pesos while the middle and lower classes scramble to just make it by.

Here are some of the more important Sky Cable announcements that matter:

1. Praise God, Crime/Suspense is still around! It replaces RPN-9 on Sky Cable Channel 14. While the news and current affairs programs will continue to air, it’s wonderful to know we still get Bones!
2. ETC! and Second Ave are still alive. ETC! will air on Channel 16 (replacing SBN-21), while 2nd Avenue will air on Channel 19 (replacing RJTV 29, but that channel’s RJ’s Talk Show and Music Concert shows will continue to air on 2nd Avenue).
3. Lifestyle Network is now on Channel 52. Good to know we can still watch How Clean is Your House?
4. Disney Channel is now on Channel 47. (Big deal; we still don’t get Disney Playhouse.)

We paid our Sky Cable bill in full last year, expecting to receive all the channels we subscribed to at the time. Isn’t removing some of the channels that were being broadcast at the time of our subscription, including JackTV, Solar Sports, and Discovery Travel and Living, against our contract or something? Boo, Sky Cable, boo!

After I filled out the shipping address information, to my consternation, a pop-up box told me that EMI will not allow the shipping of its items to a non-US address. It told me to remove the EMI CDs from my shopping cart. So I reviewed my shopping cart and found out all three CDs are distributed by Chordant/EMI. In other words, I could not buy any of the Christian CDs I wanted!

Far be it from me to rant against corporate America, but this isn’t fair. I can’t imagine American CCM piracy escalating to such a level that merits such harsh penalties on non-American Christian music lovers. Even if it has, why punish the majority for the sins of a few?

I have purchased several EMI-distributed CDs in the past, including both my autographed copies of Avalon’s Stand and The Creed (my only non-autographed Avalon CD since Michael Passon’s departure is Faith), Mandisa’s True Beauty, and Britt Nicole’s Say It. Most of these were purchased off MusiChristian.com.

I imagine I could buy off Amazon.com, but I prefer to support Christian online retailers (especially since MusiChristian.com gives me a premium with its autographed collections), plus, as in the case of Mandisa’s Christmas Joy EP, the price differential between Amazon.com and MusiChristian.com is a whopping US$3 in favor of the latter. Why pay an extra US$3 to Amazon when I can get the best price at MusiChristian.com and support a Christian retailer?

The last thing I want to do is slam corporate Christian America, but it is plain wrong to alienate someone based outside of the United States who is willing to pay full price for your CD and not download it for free off the Internet. Yes, there will be those who will cheat you, but there are those who will not. It’s not right to leave foreign fans out in the cold, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not. :(

Update: I received an email from MusiChristian.com. The email said:

Unfortunately for us, EMI Distribution does not allow us to ship their products outside of the USA. Any items that state “Distributed by: Chordant (EMI)” under its Product Details section we cannot ship outside the USA. However, we can ship all other items outside of the US.

Please let us know if we can further assist you in any way.
Thank you for your support and have a great day!

No, you cannot assist me further because apparently, everything I want is distributed by EMI Chordant. Something to Say is now available for purchase – with Matthew’s autograph! – and I can’t order it! GAH!