Monthly Archives: September 2011

The Love For Dancing – Tips and Thoughts

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Just like music, dance or dancing is also a form of universal language. It's one way of socializing with other people of every race, nationality, religion or other ethnic groups throughout the world. In dancing, there is a natural expression of joyful feeling that is being drawn out from our inner selves! I'm not sure if you've experienced this but in my case dancing exudes a certain aura of peace, happiness and confidence and it also encourages other people to  join in the merry making. It's simply contagious! Dancing makes us fit and happy, and that's the reason why we put a smile on our faces when we start frolicking on the dance floor. As a matter of fact, we are able to overcome our shyness and at the same time forget our problems especially when dancing along with large crowd of people .

Despite the differences in culture and tradition, people can flock together and dance in the same manner as they dance in their own native lands. Basically, everyone is able to seize the spirit and movement of each culture and tradition through dance whether one is a newcomer or already a dance expert or the so-called D.I. or dance instructor.

This blog site previously gave you a glimpse of how line dancing specifically was relevant to a certain community and how the people benefited from it (please go to http://www.myusefultips.com/?cat=12&paged=2 , "The Fun and Fitness of Line Dancing…"). As mentioned before, a dance activity in a certain community could serve as a venue for raising funds to support a certain project.

In this blog, myusefultips would like to share with you how people in various communities were able to express themselves and react to the rhythm, beat and boom of the music through dancing. There was this community gathering and a wedding of a friend I've attended where dancing played a very important role in making the said events memorable. Likewise, the Ay Borongan Association which was earlier featured in the 2011 San Lorenzo celebration in NYC recently concluded its festivities by holding a fiesta celebration at St. Paul's Assumption Church Auditorium in Staten Island, NYC. And yes, that was their first time ever to hold the celebration in NYC area.  As expected the solemn religious gathering was followed by merry making with plenty of traditional food and dancing, you name it they have all kinds of dance (e.g. ball room, disco, salsa, rumba, meringue, tango, boogie, soul, chacha or even the vintage limbo rock dance and the  native curacha) to the tune of music from 70's to latest craze in town. What a treat from the sponsors, organizers and officers of this event!

Here take a peek of how awesome these people were that even the kids had their share to display their happy feet, so to speak! They merely showed their love for dancing!

 

Note:

Photos are copyrighted and therefore not for reproduction. Thank you. 

2011 NYC San Lorenzo Ruiz Celebration – “Rooted in Culture: Guided by Faith”

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A Guest Feature Article

For many of us, Lorenzo Ruiz may not ring a bell, but for Filipinos all over the world, San Lorenzo as fondly called, is the first Filipino saint ever been canonized so far in the church history. During the canonization ceremony, Pope John Paul II referred him as the “most improbable of saints”. He was a simple ordinary married man, just like some of us, struggling to make daily ends meet in every aspect, including his spiritual needs. He was not a person of stature in terms of financial wealth, educational attainment and professional growth.  In fact,  he was a helper in  their local church, then later as  clerk which afforded him to support his family's basic needs. This could perhaps be one of the rationale why His Holiness described him as the most improbable saint as it could have really been unlikely for a troubled ordinary man to be elevated and exalted as one of the honored saints in heaven. 

Because of San Lorenzo's loyalty and unwavering faith in God, he had done something extraordinarily impossible for an ordinary man to do. You see, when San Lorenzo was about to be tortured and persecuted, he was asked to renounce his religious belief. Instead of acceding to the demands of the persecutors, he courageously responded that even given with a thousand lives he was ready to die and offer his lives to God. The torture given to him was pretty harrowing and scary which for some of us in these modern times, could be forced to yield to the demands of the persecutors in order to be saved. Some of us may reason out that San Lorenzo could have simply renounced his faith “in words” for self-defense, so that if he was lucky enough, he could have been saved (which we doubt very much), thus extending his life on earth, confessed his sins and make amends thereafter and go back to his daily norms, serving God and at the same time be able to be with his wife and children again. But for San Lorenzo, it was an entirely different story, he had strong conviction from the very start, not to utter anything that would not be pleasing to God. Because of this extraordinary qualities which made him a saint, he was “hung from a gallows by his feet, his body falling into a pit”, and it was only after two days that he expired due to bleeding and suffocation, based on various accounts .

San Lorenzo Ruiz has also been officially given by the church the title of patron saint for migrants all throughout the world, particularly for Filipinos. Thus, Filipino community in every nooks and corners of the globe will definitely commemorate his feast day, no matter what! Similar to any feast day celebrations, San Lorenzo Ruiz feast day in NYC started with a nine-day novena before the actual feast day mass held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan.  The novena was sponsored by individual or family devotees , or  group of individuals or local associations and communities. One of the sponsors for the said novena was the Ay!Borongan Association led by Grace Baquilod and family with their guests Ambassador Mario De Leon, the Philippine Consul General to New York and his wife, Eleanor De Leon who support the cause of the Association, the former Justice Leonardo Quisumbing and his wife Dr. Purificacion Quisumbing, who is actively involved in the UN Advisory Com/Human Rights and Msgr. Pepe Quitorio, spokesman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and concurrently the Director of the CBCP Media.

Fortunately, www.myusefultips.com witnessed and participated in the said momentous event. For the Ay! Borongan community, it was their first time ever to get involve in San Lorenzo celebration in NYC and to hold mass in the San Lorenzo Ruiz chapel in Manhattan, the only church in the U.S. specifically designated for Filipino community. Such a memorable day for them!

The actual feast day mass subsequently took place at St. Patrick's Cathedral on September 18th and it culminated the San Lorenzo celebrations. It was a high con-celebrated mass led by no less than the Archbishop of New York, Most Reverend Timothy Dolan, his first time to officiate mass for Filipinos and for San Lorenzo feast in his term as NYC's Archbishop. In his homily, the Archbishop expressed his gratefulness for the Filipino communities important role in evangelizing the catholic faith all throughout U.S.A. After the mass, some of the San Lorenzo devotees were lucky to get caring hugs from the Archbishop, even Rev. Dr. Joseph G. Marabe, JCD who spearheaded the event got his share too.

He also thanked the amazing choir who rendered the liturgical music during the mass. It was indeed a miracle for the choir to show such powerful performance as one group as they only got the chance to be together and harmonize hours before the mass.

(choir warm-up rehearsal before the mass at the Consulate office)

The consolidated choir came from various choir groups: the Kalungsod ni San Lorenzo of San Lorenzo Ruiz Chapel in Manhattan, the Himig at Alay of Our Lady of Snows in Queens, St. John's the Baptist Filipino choir in Manhattan, the Sta. Maria Choir in Bronx, the Holy Child Jesus Filipino Choir of Richmond Hill, Queens,  Singles For Christ and  Ambassadors of Christ Through Mary both in Manhattan, and the guest choir, Music Ministry of Oxon Hills of  Maryland.  These guys were awesome!

By the way, www.myusefultips.com is a staunch supporter of these choir groups! 

Despite the odds, the event turned out a success and it was truly God's blessings, through the intercession of San Lorenzo Ruiz!

Being Fashionable vs. Being Comfortable: 2011 U.S. Open

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Some people don't mind multi-tasking especially in this high-tech age. It is much easier and possible to actually do anything at the same time. It just occurred to me now while drafting a report, my eyes were diverted to the live final tennis match of Spain's Rafael Nadal and Serbia's Novak Djokovic for the coveted men's title of the U.S. Open being shown at the right side of the 25-inch computer monitor and listening to a favorite ipod tune, all at the same time. I am not an avid fan of lawn tennis but I have a heart for it as my Dad used to play this game locally in his heydays and in fact had won trophies for being good at it. But guys, you see I am not going to delve on the technicalities of the game, let's leave it to John Mc Enroe and other tennis gurus who may be competent to comment on the strategies used by said top notch players.

I was not paying much attention to the players' performance as my eyes were glued to the sports outfit the said players were wearing, which to my opinion affected their performance and compelled me to write something about it. Normally, tennis players these days would want to look at their best during the games. In this case, Nadal was sporting a slightly tight fitted blue jersey-like Nike shirt while Djokovic was in his Sergio Tacchini cotton-like white tailored shirt. Although at first glance during the start of the game, Nadal's slightly tight fitting blue shirt was fashionably a “killer” which showed his very well structured athletic body and big muscles, Djokovic's white tailored shirt which appeared unfashionably flat and boring, on the other hand, became a “savior” at the end of the game! Why? Here's the culprit!

During the second set of the game, Nadal had already sweated profusely because of too much effort, running from side to side to his defense and unfortunately to the point that he was dripping wet from head to toe, obviously captured by camera was his wet hair and shirt, which adversely affected his overall look! While Nadal was already experiencing such discomfort, Djokovic in contrast still appeared cool and sassy enjoying his lead in the match. Apparently, his immaculate white traditional tennis shirt miraculously helped him in a way absorbed the accumulated heat in his body, causing him to sweat less!

While Nadal's somewhat tight fitting blue shirt may look great in sports fashion wear and runways, it could have been far better if his fashion designer and strategist advised him to wear something comfortable during the game or probably they could have adopted  a good balance between fashion and comfort. The objective to look good in the tennis court became a blunder and caused Nadal to feel uncomfortable because of heavy sweating and the tight hugging wet shirt. The sweat falling down from his forehead  to his nose was also a bothersome, forcing him to wipe it from time to time. It was good that he did not suffer from dehydration and exhaustion in view of too much perspiration.

The fashion and the sweating aspects were absolutely not just the grounds for Nadal's failure to win in the game, but in my view the said factors played a role. These guys are currently the world's top 2 incredible tennis players and it could have been anybody's game! In this match, Djokovic's championed the game once again and bagged the 2 million dollar reward! His outfit during the match, although not so fashionable, provided him the needed comfort all throughout the game!

 

A First Look At The “Ber” Months: Tips and Thoughts

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“Irene's” alarming sojourn's to the East Coast this week provided me at least a brief respite from the daily norms, specifically giving me adequate time to sit down in front of a television closely monitoring on the whereabouts of the slow-moving hurricane. I felt I was like Governor Christie of New Jersey and NYC Mayor Bloomberg who were ever visible on camera and ready to give updates, advices or even stern warnings to their respective constituents, particularly those to be potentially hit and affected by the so-called hurricane, which surprisingly have been downgraded by several notches when it hit the ground. Was there a lapse in judgment from the weather forecast experts side? Or was there an overkill on tv coverage from the local media, which elicited viewers like me to react to a higher degree! Regardless of the reasons, it is sad to see that there were some families who were not able to escape from Irene's “bittersweet” lashes and for them, I would like to express sympathy to those who have lost lives and uninsured properties and still picking up the last recoverable pieces of their personal belongings.

The said long week-end likewise afforded me the opportunity to ponder on future courses of action of my blogging activities, as I had this mixed feelings, for the second time, of more disappointments and less satisfactions. Nevertheless, the graces received and the many wonderful activities that are still in the pipeline gave me specifically (thanks to my very few and close colleagues' help) the needed “push” to go on and which urged me go back to the computer and start hitting the keys of the keyboard. What is amazing though is that when I started writing, the thoughts in my head kept on working, just like a time clock machine and it only stopped when everything was used-up!

The first thought that came randomly to my mind is about the remaining (4) “ber” months of 2011. The months of September to December are the critical paths in completing all of the pending projects for the year. The initial part of the “ber” months for instance, the month of September could be the time for any forms of preparation, a time for planning and formulation but a time for merry making as well. It is the period when people starts to save money from the early perks and bonuses while at the same time spending it for the upcoming holidays in a row, from Labor Day, Columbus, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, up to New Year's Day.

Effectively, the month of September likewise kicks off the spending habits of some families and embracing new life for some of us.  The kids during these times would brag among themselves about their Halloween costumes, fun stuffs, and the potential gifts and presents they would receive from their parents and god parents, especially on Christmas day. For some U.S.-based incoming freshmen college students, it could be their first time to be away from their families and a time to look for a place to stay in or outside the university campuses, be it a first class dormitory/condominium for the elites or a cockroach and bed bug infested areas for the struggling middle class and the have less. It is the time for them to meet new school chums who could probably  put a degree of influence on their choices and preferences which may or may not jeopardize their values in the long run.

The month of September for some of us would gradually prepare us to be fit for cold season after experiencing the heat of summer. For those who tend to be on  the “gainers” (fats measurement) side, we start to be conscious of our weights and push ourselves to follow a certain diet and exercise so as to achieve the needed curves and abs and get rid of the “beer” bellies and  to acquire that opportunity to fit in the much-longed-for get-up for the party holidays. The cooler “ber” months is an opportune time to fall in love during the fall season, spend alone with someone special, and possibly tie the knot for those into serious relationships during the winter season! Hmmmm.

In the corporate world, we expect to see busy bodies during the “ber” months as everyone is engaged to complete the tasks before the year ends. High level meetings are scheduled to discuss on what has been accomplished and what remains to be done. Big heads of large organizations will hold briefings to launch their preliminary annual or development reports focusing on global outlook and economic recovery. The “ber” months is also the period where offices and businesses will prepare the required year-end financial statements, annual reports, and operational budget for the succeeding year. Although there are some of them who will attempt to massage the figures so as to avoid paying huge taxes and related fees for the period covered.

Regardless of our status in life, each and everyone of us has agenda and priorities. As such, undertaking the same with a big bang at the end of the year is something laudable, particularly so when we have successfully overcome the obstacles along the nodes of the critical paths. But we all know that in any quest for success, we may have to encounter certain hitches along the road and that is part of the game. What is deemed important is that we were able to weather any storm or hurricane, have moved on and tried our best to the very least to reach the apex of whatever we want to achieve for the year.