Michelle had to have her bridesmaids(?) gown for Khae’s wedding fitted so we had to head over to Angeles in the middle of Quiel’s wrath. Fortunately, for us anyway, the typhoon is a bit up there in the north so there wasn’t too much happening down south. Still, the rains have been going on since Pedring a week back and there’s quite a lot of flooding. Exactly how much, we saw when we passed the Central Luzon plains area, specifically the Candaba area which is known for its swamp so the area is really low-lying and prone to flooding.
Gretchen, Michelle, Jeanne, and I went to mass at UP today. Afterwards, we went to the Sunken Garden, spread out Jeanne’s Nemo comforter on the grass, and had picnic lunch of lechon and rice. It was a great day and the sun was shining. We walked around on the grass as dragonflies buzzed around, we picked up and played with sticks, and Jeanne got an ice cream. I was able to catch a dragonfly and Michelle fed it a blade of grass while Jeanne watched. We let it go after a while. Later, Michelle and I lay down and watched the sky and the sun through the treetops. It was sooo relaxing.
After mass and lunch, Michelle wanted to watch Crazy Stupid Love. I decided to skip it. It’s not exactly a movie that takes advantage of the big screen so I was planning to watch it at home. Nor would Jeanne appreciate watching it whether on the big screen or at home. And she would have had to pay full rate. But Michelle and Gretchen went ahead. It later turned out the movie was no longer showing in MegaMall or Galleria and they ended up watching Johnny English.
As for my dad, Jeanne and I, it was the Podium. First, we went to the bookstore where my dad looked for a C programming book. But there was none available so he just got a newspaper and a Winnie the Pooh book for Jeanne. We then headed to Cinnabon for coffee and cinnamon rolls. We drank and ate while reading: my dad a newspaper, Jeanne and I the Pooh book. Then, of course, a requisite visit to the toy store. Always a good stop. She actually didn’t want to leave until I asked her if she wanted to go to the grocery at which point she put back the ball she was playing with and let me carry her.
As there is no grocery at the Podium, we drove over to Hypermart. I got ingredients for different kinds of sinigang (prawn, salmon belly, pork, veggies), and orange juice. Jeanne was well-behaved and sat on the cart all throughout so we were done quickly. We then headed home. Great bonding time for 3 generations.
I recently read that not so long ago, debtors who were unable to pay their debts were imprisoned until they were able to. This doesn’t make sense really since how can you work and make money to pay when you’re behind bars? Supposedly, we have progressed beyond such medieval practices. But looking at Greece, you can’t help but wonder if we really have progressed much. Greece has a huge debt and is in risk of being unable to pay. So it needs to earn more (taxes), spend less (budget cuts), and borrow more. But lenders would only lend at a higher rate to reflect the increasing risk of default. This makes it harder to pay back the new debt. The European Community has also been providing bailouts in the form of cash and/or debt restructuring. But there are the strings in the form of austerity packages tied to the bailouts. These austerity packages include decrease in salaries/pensions, increase in tax rates, denationalizing companies, and selling government property. And again, these austerity packages, by possibly slowing down economic activity, makes it harder to pay back debt. Caught in this vicious cycle, you’d probably wonder if a prison cell is better.
The post title is lifted straight from this Philippine Star article. What can I say? I have to agree. Most schools are focused more in raking in the tuition fees so it’s more of knowledge pumping, rote learning, more semesters, and less years, than really instilling critical thinking. After school, you probably end up working with an outsourcing company where the work being sent over from onshore is mundane and mindless grunt work (precisely why it’s sourced out, but we’re seeing improvements here). And every day we are exposed to crap on the newspapers (because crap is what’s happening), to drivel over the radio (apologies to friends who are Chico and Delamar fans), to retarded noontime TV shows, glorified tsismis (gossip) over SMS, Friendster, or Facebook (one reason why I quit those, at least Google Plus is still relatively clean), talk about showbiz over lunch and dinner, more TV (it’s not called the idiot box for nothing). Yeah, it’s no wonder why we are shallow. But there is always hope.