FB Burn your Underwear! Wait, We Need Those...

Ahh the 70's. Not only is it the decade I was born into, it was also the decade of booming economies (that came crashing down when the oil crisis started) and enviromentalism. I distinctly remember seeing an old newspaper article with a picture of a woman throwing her brassiere into a trash can. I remember that there was this air of change around everything even as we ran to our gates just in time for curfew.
Women were demanding equality with men. They wanted to break through the glass ceiling at work, pay for their own meals during dates and have the husband take care of the kids just as often as they do. I wonder what those women would say to the current generation of women. This article (requires a login ID and password) could shed some light on that.
To be honest, Schatz and I have never dated when I was still courting her. I wonder what would have happened if I had told her that all our dates were going Dutch.

FB Where do you want to go, live, earn a livelihood, etc...

I am pretty sure most of you know about brain drain. When I was in high school I looked forward to the time I would be working in the Philippines and helping "stimulate" the economy and society. Now I am living in the US and I have yet to take part in helping. Hmm, the only help I've given so far is the intermittent remittances I send. I hope one day I could help out in another way. Here is an article (This link may ask you to create a username and password) about how developing countries are affected by migrating college-educated workers.

FB Collage of NIT Class 2005 students

FB Jay and I at the graduation ceremony for NIT Class 2005

FB Viel gemacht

So many things have happened to me, to us, the past weeks that I have not been able to post anything. It's been a month, I think. But I've got loads to tell and I promise to share them stories with you when I settle into my new rhythm, find the time and get the more pressing matters out of the way.

A quick rundown of what has transpired the past month is as follows:

1. Finished my thesis and successfully defended it, finishing both my MSc and MBA programmes with a grade of 1.3 for the 20-credit subject. That grade is next to the highest one of 1.0 using the German standard. Yahoo!

2. Jay flew over for my graduation ceremony two days later. As always, we were on Cloud 9. No more studying for me and we can now focus on the wedding preps. We are getting married in March!!!

3. Participated in the graduation rites and co-delivered the class speech with my good friend from Tanzania. Mabuhay ang Pinoy!

4. Packed my things, cleaned out my room, bade my classmates and Germany goodbye and flew home last Wednesday. Jay also flew back to the US so he went west while I east.

5. Arrived in Manila Thursday night and slept for most of Friday.

6. Ran errands with my folks, met with our wedding coordinators at the bridal fair and visited relatives the whole of Saturday and Sunday. Super hectic!

7. Trying to make sense of this blog's squished status and hoping that it'll get fixed soon.

That's it for now. I still need to clean my room, take a shower and do my laundry.

Welcome back to the Philippines to me!

FB Still squished...

Here I was thinking after a couple of weeks, or at the very least after we part ways temporarily again, that this blog would be back to it's normal unsquished self. Alas, everytime I look at this blog I feel like I'm slowly getting squeezed between an immovable wall and a unstoppable force. Anyway I sent support@myblogsite.com an email on Sept 27, 2005 and then again on Oct 5, 2005 about this problem. I'm still waiting for a response or a change on this blog.

Schatz also just informed me that everytime she tries to open our blog, her browser eventually times out. Dial-up really 5uck5! After using broadband for so long, using dial-up throws me back to the stone age. I do hope she gets a better connection somehow or else any posts she wants to put up will have to go through me.

FB Ever Ready!

Considering that a disaster can befall you or your family at any time, have you thought about what you need to have on hand if you have to leave your home in a hurry? I've always kept any important docs that I have in a couple of places in my room. While I was reading this article (you will be asked for your DNA) I suddenly realized if a tornado hit my area I would probably miss a couple of key documents. Since scanners are cheap nowadays, I should get one and start transforming my paper information into its electronic equivalent. Hey its a lot easier to grab a USB drive wrapped in plastic and tape than it is to grab bags of paper that will most likely get wet or damaged or worse blown away by a sudden gust of wind.