Personal Genealogy

The blood of these families flow in my veins (and arteries and capillaries, I suppose):

PATERNAL:

Aleonar - (Bohol via Carcar, Cebu)
de Veyra - (Tanauan, Leyte)
Tegley - (Barili, Cebu; now spelt Tigley)
Rodecindo - (Cebu City)

Alegado - (Carcar)
Alo - (Cebu City)
Barceló - (Carcar)
Benedicto - (Leyte)
Campugan - (Carcar)
Dandan - (Barili)
Estrada - (Barili)
Lauzón - (Leyte)
Mercado - (Barili)
Ricaplaza - (Barili)
Tamaca - (Leyte)
Vergara - (Barili)
Villahermosa - (Barili)

MATERNAL

Yap - (China via Cebu City)
Tapia - (San Nicolas, Cebu City via San Fernando, Cebu)
Castillo - (Bohol)
Gerasta - (Boljoon, Cebu via San Fernando, Cebu)

Alía - (Tagbilaran, Bohol via San Fernando)
Florido - (Cebu City)
Geniblango - (Talisay, Cebu)
Duterte - (Spain via Cebu City)
Salamoren - (Boljoon)
Sacel - (Dauis, Bohol via San Fernando; now spelt Sasil)
Suárez - (Cebu City)

If Borat met Manny Pacquiao

15-Nov-2006:

I heard Borat the journalist (Ali G) movie is a big hit. But some friends of mine write each other the same way. But now I'm a huge fan of Borat. Sample from what I wrote our group :

While we take a breakdown from seriousness, I think Pacquiao will win.

But sometimes the Filipinos do not win the second time, when the first was already the Alcano on the pool. Let us faith, hope and charity that this feng shui rule will avoid our country this time so that Pacquiao can be allowed to massacre his boxing enemy on this Sunday the day of Rest…

My friend, President and CEO of corporation, writed me: “Almost sure dat Pacman the man from Gen san will won this three times around. Morales has to loose around ten lbs. to hit 130 lbs.and that will surely drain him and energy lost in short time frame. Pacman in six rounds will won!”

I writed in the return: “This Pacman boxing enemy is a cheapskater. He is losing only ten pounds to hit 130 pounds? What is ten pounds or 130 pounds, they will be winning the million dollars. I writed my friend why is this Morales the boxing enemy losing in pounds, he is not the British people, he is the Mexico, and they are fighting in the United States for its dollars!”

If he is like that, millions of the Philippines people are right to pray to God the merciful that this Pacman boxing enemy will puff in the face and eyes, and his nose will break up and divide and blood will spurt from his face and run down his body and his boxing short pants, and he will fell to the floor from suffering the boxing blows of Pacman. Please, God the merciful…

Pacquiao will win the million dollars, and including the Alcohol advertisement in the television commercial, earn as big the income as many provinces in the Philippines. He is building his house, larger than the subdivisions, his bedroom is 120 sqm, which is two lots in the subdivision.

He will share his blessings and million dollars and his boxing genes as he continue to father children from his girlfriends, and give the girlfriends the money as silent form. His generosity knows no bounds!

Pacman will win in the short time frame of 6 rounds.

Baseball and the Juice

I don't like it when I hear people call Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa "cheaters" to be excluded from the Baseball Hall of Fame and their homerun records annotated. Cheaters, I suppose, compared to those who weren't known to have used performance enhancers?

Homeruns are just between batter and pitcher. Ruth and Aaron set their records against the pitchers of their times. McGwire and company blasted theirs against the pitchers of theirs. The latter three cheated against their pitchers? Ruth and Aaron never faced the pitchers McGwire, Bonds and Sosa faced. Are we sure those pitchers weren't "cheating" as well? Thus, steroids vs. steroids, those homeruns should stand.

Genealogy and Heritage Societies

From the mountains to the city. In a related development, Cebu heritage buffs are initiating a revival of old Parian traditions.

Trouble with this inward focus is it sets back Cebu Society to the dozen or less families of the Parian of the 1800s. Veloso, Osmeña, Rallos, Garces, Regis, Velez, etc.

Thus, if you want to identify with this old Parian, my guess is you'll just have to establish your lineage to these families. Unless it's back to the fringes for you--not much movement from your ancestors a hundred-forty years ago.

Philippine Genealogy

Most families have their legends, urban or rural. This is so true with Philippine families, no thanks to those Spanish surnames which have led many to believe they're descended from Spanish ancestors. And so, off they go searching for their ancestral houses in Spain.

A common claim would be that their ancestor was a Spanish priest from whom they got the name. That's an urban legend. Trouble with this legend is that a child from a Spanish priest would not get the latter's surname. Illegitimate children just didn't get their father's name. It's possible? I wish somebody would show me how they could go about circumventing this rule.

Did Clavería have any inkling? A year after his 1849 decree, he had asked how the implementation was going on, and the report that came back to him said, among other things, that a result of the decree was that many indios even in the mountains were now bearing the same surnames as the illustrious Spanish houses of Alba, Medinaceli and Osuna. From all indications, these three houses to this day have maintained their illustrious-ness. And from all indications, too, those indios are still up there. But with a rural legend; what else can you call it?

Nursing Care

If nobody else, I can understand Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s decision to order a retake of the 2006 nursing examinations. National cost outweighs benefits, which of course is only spread to some thousands of individuals.

The test leakage had President Arroyo on an unenviable executive spot: Be just to a clear majority of examinees who had passed with nary a whiff of the leak, or risk having everyone of this year’s batch under a shadow--or worse, having the entire nursing licensure system under the shadow--internationally.

Meanwhile, the benefits would have covered Arroyo herself politically, she whose administration, day by day, has to pass scrutiny through a microscope. She chose to be an executive on the side of the long term on this one.

Was that the real cost-benefit equation? That’s where the debate is centered on now. Yes, the long term advantages or disadvantages are not all that clear, as they are all subject to conjecture.

Judgment call, they call it in sports. As it is, this turnaround caught many people by surprise. Nobody looks on this president, decidedly proportionally disadvantaged physically, to be any good at sports. But nobody has ever faulted her with not having a giant heart either.

But still, there’s no two ways about it, the passers (and their families of course) are the ones who suffer.

If there are people who should suffer more, it’d be those who had something to do with the leak. The national investigative bodies have reportedly zeroed in on review centers who got hold of those exams. Understandable enough, those people were the bribe givers.

But an even more powerful message sent across nations would have been to scuttle everyone in the nursing regulations commission. Commissioners, examiners, checkers, everyone on their respective staffs, the commission clerks—everyone. Those people were the bribe takers. They were the ones who had cast the entire nursing licensure system under that awful shadow. They were the custodians of that national resource who… botched the job, to say the least.

Every single one in that department is more guilty than any single board passer.

Either bar every one of the former from ever practicing his or profession, or have them do a retake, too.

We take care of our own nurses, hear?

Usernames: Intemplate

Nobody prepared me for this: Just to choose a username is a tedious experience. I applied for some choices and the program kept telling me, “Sorry, Username is not available.” So I went for cute and tried Username, but Sorry, bla-bla-bla. Would have settled for User, but then the name struck me as having too many uses.

Wait, the message’s been addressing me as Sorry; I can take a hint. So, Sorry it’s gonna be. Guess it must have recognized me because “Sorry, Username is not available.” Umm, knew me but no deal. What’s a novice to do?

I clicked on Help, but it had none that helped. Went for Frequently Asked Questions, but again none for my case. I was getting mighty frustrated and shouted: FAQ2. “Sorry, Username not available.” I noticed there was a button for Templates. I couldn’t even find a name, what do I know of templates? I’m a total zero about templates.

So, I told it I’m zero about templates: Intemplate. And it accepted me. Must have felt sorry for me already.

This is tiring. Who said newspaper deadlines are the pits?