Thursday, August 16, 2007

Zodiac repurcussions...

LEO, The Lion
July 23 - August 22


The Leo type is the most dominant, spontaneously creative and extrovert of all the zodiacal characters. In grandeur of manner, splendor of bearing and magnanimity of personality, they are the monarch's among humans as the lion is king of beasts. They are ambitious, courageous, dominant, strong willed, positive, independent, self-confident there is no such a word as doubt in their vocabularies, and they are self-controlled. Born leaders, either in support of, or in revolt against, the status quo. They are at their most effective when in a position of command, their personal magnetism and innate courtesy of mind bringing out the best of loyalty from subordinates. They are uncomplicated, knowing exactly what they want and using all their energies, creativeness and resolution to get it, as well as being certain that they will get whatever they are after. Their followers know where they are with Leonians. Leonians think and act bigger than others would normally dare; the ambitiousness of their schemes and idealism sometimes daunt their followers, their practical hardheadedness and ability to go straight to the heart of any problem reassures those who depend on them. If Leonians meet with setbacks they thrive on the adversity.

On the whole they are powers for good, for they are strongly idealistic, humane, and beneficent. They have powerful intelligence and are of a broad philosophical, sometimes religious, turn of mind. Those who are devout may become very obstinate in upholding traditional beliefs and will cling tenaciously, but with complete sincerity, to practices and doctrines which liberal thinkers regard as absurdly out-of-date. These will be found as the 'lions' of industries, and in the forefront of the cutting edge of technologies.

Their faults can be as large in scale as their virtues, and an excessively negative Leonian can be one of the most unpleasant human beings imaginable, displaying extreme arrogance, autocratic pride, haughtiness, and excessive hastiness of temper. If jealously suspicious of rivals, they will not hesitate to use cunning, lies and trickery to discredit them. Self-centeredness, greed for flattery, boastfulness, and bombast, pomposity, snobbish superiority, and overbearing, and intolerant disdain of underlings; to whom they will nevertheless delegate the carrying out of minor details in their grandiose schemes, and from whom they are not above borrowing immoderately if an occasion necessitates it. Any of these can be characteristic of Leo.

--

VIRGO, The Virgin
August 23 - September 23


Virgo is the only zodiacal sign represented by a female. It is sometimes thought of as a potentially creative girl, delicately lovely; sometimes as a somewhat older woman, intelligent but rather pedantic and spinsterish. The latter impression is sometimes confirmed by the Virgoan preciseness, refinement, fastidious love of cleanliness, hygiene and good order, conventionality and aristocratic attitude of reserve. They are usually observant, shrewd, critically inclined, judicious, patient, practical supporters of the status quo, and tend toward conservatism in all departments of life. On the surface they are emotionally cold, and sometimes this goes deeper, for their habit of suppressing their natural kindness may in the end cause it to atrophy, with the result that they shrink from committing themselves to friendship, make few relationships, and those they do make they are careful to keep superficial.

But the outward lack of feeling may, in some individuals born under this sign, conceal too much emotion, to which they are afraid of giving way because they do not trust others, nor do they have confidence in themselves and their judgments. This is because they are conscious of certain shortcomings in themselves of worldliness, of practicality, of sophistication and of outgoingness. So they bring the art of self concealment to a high pitch, hiding their apprehensiveness about themselves and their often considerable sympathy with other people under a mantle of matter-of-factness and undemonstrative, quiet reserve. They are still waters that run deep. Yet in their unassuming, outwardly cheerful and agreeable fashion, they can be sensible, discreet, well spoken, wise and witty, with a good understanding of other people's problems which they can tackle with a practicality not always evident in their own personal relationships.

Their minds are such that they need the stimulus of practical problems to be solved rather than the mere routine or working to set specifications that need no thought. They are careful with money and their interest in statistics makes them excellent bookkeepers and accountants. They also make good editors, physicists and analytical chemists. They may also find success as welfare workers, ministering to those less fortunate than themselves. They can be doctors, nurses, psychologists, teachers, confidential secretaries, technologists, inspectors, musicians, critics, public speakers and writers especially of reference works such as dictionaries and encyclopedias. Both sexes have a deep interest in history, a feature recognized by astrological authorities for at least two hundred years. If they go in for a business career their shrewdness and analytical ingenuity could tempt them into dishonesty, though they usually have enough moral sense to resist temptation.

Their faults, as is usual with all zodiacal types, are the extremes of their virtues. Fastidious reticence and modesty become old-maidishness and persnicketiness; balanced criticism becomes carping and nagging; and concern for detail becomes overspecialization. Virgoans are liable to indecision in wider issues and this can become chronic, turning molehills of minor difficulties into Himalayas of crisis. Their prudence can become guile and their carefulness, turned in on themselves, can produce worriers and hypochondriacs.

(excerpted from www.astrology-online.com)

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Mateyo Kidlat Watch 2007 has begun!!!


WOOWEE! We're counting down to one month until the big day! Cindy feels like Mateyo will make an early entrance but that remains to be seen. He's kicking like he wants out, so she could be right...let's call it a mother's instinct. Anyways, for all of you who didn't make it out to the baby shower we really missed ya...for a taste of the festivities click here. (thanks gigi!)

I will be sure to let you know if anything happens soon, but keep checking over the next month.

Love yall,

Laks

Monday, August 6, 2007

by the rivers of babylon...

Psalm 137:1 - By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat down, yea, we wept,
when we remembered Zion.

Psalm 137:3-4 - For there they that
carried us away captive required of us a song;
and they that wasted us required of us mirth,
saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the LORD's song
in a strange land?

--

By the rivers of babylon
Where he sat down
And there he went
When he remembered zion.

For the wicked, carry us away
Captivity require from us a song
How can we sing king alphas song in a strange land?

So let the words of our mouth
And the meditations of our hearts
Be acceptable in thy sight
Over i

By the rivers of babylyon
Where he sat down
And there he went
When he remebered zion.

For the wicked, carry us away
Captivity require from us a song
How can we sing king alphas song in a strange land?

- lyrics by The Melodians

Thursday, July 26, 2007

aswang spotted...


A manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman (as opposed to an aswang), capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings to prey on unsuspecting, pregnant women in their homes; using an elongated proboscis-like tongue, it sucks the hearts of fetuses or blood of an unsuspecting, sleeping victim. The severed lower torso is left standing and it is said to be the more vulnerable of the two halves. Sprinkling salt or smearing crushed garlic or ash on top of the standing torso is fatal to the creature. The upper torso then would not be able to rejoin and will die at daybreak. The name of the creature originates from an expression used for a severed torso: Manananggal comes from the Tagalog, tanggal (cognate of Malay and Indonesian tanggal) which means to remove. Manananggal then means the one who removes.

Monday, July 16, 2007

come to the baby shower!


in case your in town, we'd love to see you.
food! music! hot summer sun! raise it up!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

two month warning...


Well..Mateyo's debut is only two months away now, give or take. Cindy's sister, Abbie, predicts September 9th as the day of er..judgement. Cin's doing pretty good, starting to feel the weight and the fatigue of carrying a 3lb little boy around. And he's headed for a growth spurt this next month...noooo! In any case, she is holding up pretty well.

As for me, all I can say is don't put a guy with severely heightened nesting instincts near any power tools or construction materials. Basically, I tore out my little bathroom and have been in the process of drywalling and tiling over the past two weeks. Back off punk, I've got a home depot card!! Needless to say, I'm a little beat, but I don't mind...its actually a welcome distraction from sitting behind a computer all day.

So strap up your boots and your flak jacket, grab your blast shield helmet and get ready...cuz the next two months should be interesting.

Laks

Monday, July 2, 2007

sicko...


Cindy and I saw Michael Moore's new film, "Sicko" yesterday. I was a little hesitant at first feeling like I didn't want to be depressed or angry on a day when I was supposed to be relaxing, but weighing the other options (fantastic four, knocked up, live free and die hard), I figured it couldn't be that bad. With Cindy heading into the far-flung Medical industry shortly, it just seemed to make sense that we understand the current problems in health care. Also, with Mateyo on the way, interacting with the Medical industry is something we just can't avoid.

The film turned out to be quite entertaining, heart-warming, and did succeed in getting me somewhat depressed and angry, but I guess in a good way. It was definitely the typical world that Michael Moore is good at portraying, one in which the government and corporations fiendishly exploit the American people for profit, while other countries' views on health care are lauded with rose-tinted glasses. The thing that really got to me though was the earnest portrayal of peoples' stories, most who were cheated by the health care industry in some shape or form. One thing Michael Moore is never recognized for is his ability to get unguarded, honest testimonies from people of all walks of life. I could relate to all their stories, especially with the horrible accounts of neglect at places like King-Drew medical center and others.

My one health story happened a week before Cindy and I were married. I came down with a case of strep throat, and since I had just moved down from the Bay area, was working freelance and had yet to buy health insurance. I figured I'd do what every person without insurance does and head down to the county hospital in Pacoima to get checked out. I knew all I needed was a bottle of penicllin --- 6 hours of processing, a 10-min check-up, and $10 later, that's what I got. A month after my honeymoon, the bill came...$350.

What I also took out of it is that you can blame the hospitals all you want for not taking care of the torrents of uninsured patients at their doorstep, but what it really comes down to is the motivation that a lot of these hospitals are driven by. As opposed to Britain for example, which pays their doctors more when their patients are healthier (ie. bonuses for helping patients stop smoking, lower cholesterol), health insurers like Humana, Cigna, and Blue Cross get incentives to "refuse payment for care" in order to make their private corporations more money.

Hmm...refusing care to make more money....doesn't sound like a good formula for health, but a great one for business.


I urge everyone to watch this movie and check it out. The picture I placed up above is from a Havana clinic in Cuba. Moore takes several ailing 911-rescue workers to a similar clinic in order to get them the health care they just couldn't afford in the States. The last I heard, the U.S. government was threatening to put Moore in jail for violating our sacred trade embargo. It makes sense that finding a system that actually help people would wind up being illegal, let's hope that we can make a change in this country for the better and show the cronies in power that you don't have to be rich to be treated like a human being.

By the way, there's a bill in the California Senate that might be interesting for those who want to know more.

400 years,

laks