Blog! blog! BLAG!!!

Been busy with work and other stuff and I hardly get to blog. Tango has been with me for about 2 months now, and Samba came into my life a month ago.

They are both pure breed Shih Tzu, though Tango is being tease as a Lhasa Apso or half breed because his nose is a little longer compare to Samba. However his paper is a certificate of his breed from the Asian Kennel Club of the Philippines (http://akcupi.com/) while Samba’s papers was from the Philippine Canine Club (http://www.pccionline.org/).

I don’t know the difference between the two club. From what I hear, a member of ACKUPI cannot be transferred to PCCI, while from PCCI to ACKUPI is allowed. If you will breed an ACKUPI member with PCCI, only ACKUPI will accept their puppies to be registered and not with PCCI. PCCI has been established longer but there was a lot of anomaly as they say and it forces a new club to rise, thus, ACKUPI. While PCCI is considered by other international Kennel Clubs, ACKUPI is trying to do the same. And I heard a rumor that by next year, Tiendesitas’ Pet Village will only sell puppies registered from ACKUPI because the Owner of Tiendesitas’ is the President of the ACKUPI or something, I’m not sure.

The two clubs confuses me a lot. I really don’t care whether PCCI will accept Tango and Samba’s puppies in the future, there’s still an ACKUPI they could register with. As long as those wiggling tails continues, I’ll be happy.

They are my source of happiness. Whenever I feel so let down on work and other things. I come home to those wiggling tails, licks and barks then I get that burst of happiness. Shih Tzu being high maintenance is not just having them groom every week, but showing them your love and compassion. In return they will give you their, trust and loyalty, and happiness.

Below are pictures of Tango and Samba, their stuff and litter.

Below is Tango and Samba’s area in the room

The food and water station.


Lets open their cabinet and see what’s inside.

Necessities.



For grooming and making them look good.



More pics of Tango & Samba

According to Clair Danes—back in the 90’s when she visited our country— the Philippines smells like cockroaches. And she was banned from our country.

“Can I just check those diplomas because I just want to make sure that they are not from some med school in the Philippines.” That’s the line Teri Hatcher delivered on the hit ABC television series Desperate Housewives. And she issued a public apology for the Filipinos.

A month—or two—ago. Hong Kong based columnist Tsip Chao wrote on his article that our country is a land of servant. Filipinos rally and marched againts Chao, he then publicly apologized and bow his head inside the Philippine Embassy-Hong Kong.

Now the Emmy award winning star of 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin said “I’m thinking about getting a Filipino mail-order bride at this point… or a Russian one.” He joked to David Letterman that cause another fiasco.

I thought Claire Danes was just being honest, Teri Hatcher was just delivering her line, and Alec Baldwin was just making a joke. Why do this simple statements make Filipinos go ballistic?

While local gag shows do impersonations of Chinese and doing “knock! knock! ano sa intchik ang…” you don’t see Chinese people reacting to our silliness. Our law makers also speak out and insult nations yet you don’t hear them firing back. In America, there are lot of Mexican discrimination on T.V. as well on films yet you don’t hear them reacting to it.

Lets not be hypocrites. I thought Tsip Chao is arrogant, sarcastic, racist but direct to the point. We are labeled as servants because a lot of Filipinos are working as servants in Hong Kong. Back in our country, the population of Chinese business man giving employment and salary to Filipinos are larger compare to actual Filipino business man.

When Tsip Chao ended his controversial article by saying “With that money, she would pay taxes to her government, and they would fund a navy to invade our motherland…” I thought otherwise. The taxes being paid to our government is being used to create castle-like houses, air fare and pocket money for a trip around the world, and bets for cock fights.

I saw Ping Lacson’s commercial regarding our country being listed by the World Bank as one of the top corrupt country in the world. Its sad that Filipinos doesn’t see what other nation sees us. Whenever we are called like this-and-like that by other nation, we cry foul raise our eyebrows and say “don’t mess with Filipinos.” As if! This are the only times that Filipinos get united. To fight those criticizes our country. While the fight for graft and corruption continues.

Sen. Bong Revilla need not to react on Alec Baldwin by saying “Let him try to come to the Philippines and he’ll see mayhem.” As a law maker, you have other issues to worry about than a silly joke made on a late night television. I heard Cavite has a big issue on traffic, aren’t we both from there?

We are a 3rd World Country. Filipinos biggest dream is to live the American dream. In order to do that, we either become caregivers, nannies and servants. There is nothing wrong with that.

Why can’t we just accept what other nation sees us and start a wave of change. We are already in the map, punched by Manny Pacquiao, belted out by Charice Pempengco and Lea Salonga. And whenever we get typecasted as nannies remember what Precious Lara Quigaman said on Ms. International. Even though it was only a rumor. The speech is worth it to be a reminder.

“I take no offense on being typecasted as a nanny. But i do take offense that the educated people of the world have somehow denigrated the true sense and meaning of what a nanny is. Let me tell you what she is. She is someone who gives more than she takes. She is someone you trust to look after the very people most precious to you – your child, the elderly, yourself. She is the one who has made a living out of caring and loving other people. So to those who have typecasted us as nannies, thank you. It is a testament to the loving and caring culture of the Filipino people. And for that, I am forever proud and grateful of my roots and culture.”

Everyone was sited on their own spot, eyes on the television watching and cheering Pacman. The lucky singer who won the bidding to sing for the coveted fight starts with our National Anthem. The television network covering the fight gets all the rating and all the commercials are squeezed in. It was bigger than the announcement of becoming a President.

It was a fiasco! Politicians flew in Vegas to see their cock win. It was a million-billion money event. Not just by the cost of handling it but in combination with all the bets. This was the moment when all our money paid in our taxes is put by greedy politicians into a game of chance.

Everyone in anticipation and hopes for Manny to win, in return, we should hope to shed a light to those politicians greed-fully used our money to somehow return the amount they bet.

Luckily, Pacman scored. He won by knocking out Ricky Hatton on the second round. It was a very short fight. It should have been played longer.

For that short moment of time our country was in Peace. The crime rate went down as previously reported on every Pacman fights. The malls are vacated and the street of The Philippines are clear. The only digits that went up are the television rating, the exposure and the bets.

I wasn’t able to see the fight live, but I was able picture what happened clearly. It was the greatest fight on earth. And with the help of Youtube.com, below is a video clip on how are man Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao knocks out Ricky “Hitman” Hatton with his left punch.

I also found this clip, a compilation of Pacman’s knock out fights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4of6eZJzVg

Ever since I can remember. I have been an animal lover. From dogs to cats, from fishes to turtle, from rats to rabbit. I’ve experience having them as pets.

When I was a little boy. Whenever I hear stray kittens crying. I would look for them and bring them home. Even though my mom disagrees with these actions she allows me to keep them. However kittens that young usually don’t survive a playful child.

We had a dog named Brownie. A mongrel white house dog living way back in our old place in Anabu, Imus, Cavite. The dog was older than me. I grew up with her. She was a companion and a playmate to me. Our house stands near the highway. So It was no surprise that she got hit by a car eventually.

Katya, named by my brother after Katya Santos. Was given to me by my cousin when we moved in Palico, Imus, Cavite. Being the new kid in town, I didn’t know anyone and I remember playing with her all the time. She was my best friend. A very trusted dog and a good guard. Katya passed away during the time there was a lot of robbery happening in the village. Our neighbors’ dogs are suddenly passed away and Katya was one of them. My mom thinks the dogs were poisoned.

A friend from High school came from a field trip in Laguna. She brought with her a very cute rabbit with blue eyes. I wasn’t able to join the field trip and it was thoughtful of her to give it to me. My mom named him Kim. A very lovely rabbit that sleeps next to my mom. She was very fond of Kim. Whenever she goes around the house Kim would always follow her. Kim died when my brother placed him outside the house.

I also experienced having white rats. Dagang Costa as they call it. I got them from a Perya (circus). Which I eventually let go after a few days of having them.

When I went to college. I decided to try aquatic pets. I bought a 15 gallons aquarium and filled it with different fishes. Knowing different kind if fishes don’t live well together, a lot of them died. So I focused on one kind of fish, the Frontosa, a family of Cichlids. And upgraded my aquarium into 40 gallons.

During this time. I also had a turtle named Neptune. He was a red ear turtle I bought. He grew big however his life cut short when, once again my brother placed him outside. We think he got bitten by a rat or something having marks on his shell and some part of his skin.

I lost interest with aquatic pets. They are delicate, hard to maintain and you can’t play with them. My aquarium was taken over my brother and placed two flower horn.

After years of not having a pet, except those maintained online like the moshi monsters, or the ones in facebook. My interest of having a pet came back when my best friend wishes a dog for his birthday. We planned for him to have a female shih tzu to be named Samba, and I would have a male shih tzu named Tango. So when the two grew up, they’ll have babies we could profit from.

His birthday is happening soon. But before it happens, we decided to buy a male shih tzu first. Male shih szu are less expensive than females and since I had money that time, we figured we should get one rather than spending the money for some other stuff.

We went to Cartimar, we looked around and found this really cute shih tzu slightly expensive than the others. But he was the most playful to us and so we thought of getting it. What’s an additional cash worth for years of happy moments? right?

So we got him, a princess type male shih tzu and as previously agreed on. I named him TANGO.

Eric feels that his photography skill are getting rusty. So last weekend we went to U.P. Diliman and took the gang for an all day photo shoot. It was our first experimental photography collaboration.

Our inspiration came from a photo Eric saw online with a summer-vintage feel on it. It became our reference for the shoot.

It wasn’t all Eric who took photos. I also did some shooting and had some satisfying results

You can check out the rest of the photos over at:
http://bluepanda87.multiply.com/photos/album/72/In_The_Prairie

The A-Lounge Photography and Design team is a tandem of photographers Apy Arevalo and Ardin Tuga. They had a project shoot called Translucence. It was held last February 28 at the Indios Bravos studio.

I was there after noon. I had a chance to meet Apy and Ardin. They were very professional and accommodating. They were able to make me feel comfortable—a trait every photographer should have. I thought Apy was very pretty and Ardin looks like Ely Buendia, that makes him good looking as well. Kinda like me.

They showed me the frames on every takes. It was a real delight. They explained to me what will happen after it run through the post processes. And it was exactly what I anticipated. Although, I thought my charms are slightly stripped off as I see the photo very manipulated. But I still like it. It was a real nice experience.