Class '70 at Gigster

We've had our cable TV for three years now and we've never had satisfactory service. While watching a movie, the screen will turn blue, all of a sudden for some reason, most of the time during a suspenseful scene or right before Bruce Willis blows something up. Lately what we do when that happens is unplug the power cord, plug it back in after a few seconds and that usually restores the picture. All through one movie, the screen turns blue on average, about 7 times or so. Yes, it can get pretty annoying. We've had technicians from Satellite Cable Network (SCN), the local cable company, come over to check things out. One of them told us the signal weakens by the time it's traveled from the street to where our box is located in the bedroom blaming the electrical cable somehow. One of our neighbors suggested to have the box replaced. This is our 2nd box and the problem still exists. Sometime last week, I was fiddling around the back of the TV (looking for my glasses or something) and a roll of cable, the end of which is hooked up to the TV, fell off the top of the dresser where the TV is sitting on. It was on at the time. The cable (I think it's called RC cable) is actually connected to the box. A second after it fell, the screen turned blue. So I wiggled the connections behind the TV a bit and we got a good signal which told me that there's a loss connection around those things that plug into the TV. I heard somebody say once that these RC cables are sold in different qualities and some have gold connections. Donna said we have something like that stashed away. How she knew this escapes me.

So today, she replaced the cables with the golden connections. Guess what? She's been watching for the last several hours, it hasn't turned blue yet! Better still, the picture seems clearer, colors crisper. I think I can safely say the mystery of the blue screen has been solved. Oh yeah!

By the way, you may be wondering why she's watching so much TV. She's been nursing this cold for the last couple of days. She hasn't gone to school, she hasn't gone out at all. She's been coughing a bit and for a couple of nights now, she's been rubbing Vicks on her soles and wearing socks before going to sleep. So far it's helped. Fortunately, she hasn't run a temperature. Hopefully she'll be rid of it in the next day or so.

And on to my blog...

During our last meeting with JASHS Class '70, someone mentioned Gigster restaurant at Villa del Sol on OG road as a good venue for our reunion next year. Susan the owner, incidentally is our treasurer Raquel's sister. And last night was Susan's birthday. To check the place out, Raquel invited us to have dinner over there.


The hall towards the back of the building is surely big enough to accommodate us. It has a stage big enough for a band set up. There's ample parking and best of all - it's air conditioned. On our next meeting, I think we'll make a decision to have our reunion over at Gigster. I may need to have our reservation for the Rene Medina Hall at PHS cancelled.

Ari Ning Parnaso

Through the efforts of Holy Angel University's (HAU) Center for Kapampangan Studies (CKS), a new Ari Ning Parnaso (King of Parnassus) got elected last Saturday, August 8, 2009.

This indeed is a historic event in terms of Pampanga's culture. As I've mentioned in a previous blog, the Ari Ning Parnaso is a lifetime position. And I'm so proud to have been a witness to it since I was representing the new Ari Ning Parnaso himself, Renato Alzadon.

Here he is between Pids Rivera and Josie Henson during the launching of his book of poetry, May of last year, Kasapunggul a Sampaga.


The new Capampangan College of Poets Laureate have to give CKS credit for hosting such a dignified, almost royal event. We had to march to the election chamber with each poet wearing his/her laurel crown with the HAU's rondalla flanking us while they were playing Capampangan music. We had to stop a bit to listen to Dr. Tec Sanchez-Tolosa recite a poem by the previous Ari Ning Parnaso, the late Vedasto Ocampo before proceeding to the actual chamber.



There was all kinds of media to witness and record the event. Here's the illustrious Tonette Orejas herself, a Capampangan and regular contributor to The Philippine Inquirer.


Here is my brother Poet Laureate Rafael Maniago during his turn to take the oath to keep the election proceedings a secret.


We had to break for lunch when we couldn't come up with the required vote.


Watch here as the new Ari ning Parnaso, Renato Alzadon, is proclaimed by Josie Henson, after which the new Prinsipi ning Parnaso, Romy Rodriguez read the poem he wrote the night before, "Ing Parnaso Kapampangan".


The new Prinsipi ning Parnaso, Romy Rodriguez chaired an impromptu meeting after the election and discussed issues that needed immediate attention.


And then, it was picture taking time!!!!


Everyone's looking forward to the Ari Ning Parnaso's coronation on August 28.

Mr. Joe Velez

Tang Joe Velez was the President of the Greenfields Homeowners' Association during the time we built our house in 2006. He's also one of our morning walking buddies.

Here's Tang Joe on Donna's left.


Last July 29, his wife Mrs. Lina Velez gave him a surprise party for his 74th birthday. Mrs. Velez is a member of Andy Alviz' ImaArti group so there were quite a few of them who came and sang some Capampangan songs for him.


Even Andy himself serenaded the birthday celebrant with a few songs of his own.


There were also quite a few of our neighbors who attended the party.

Those who've seen it were talking about how good my music room is so we invited them for a Karaoke night. Unfortunately, the air conditioning unit in the music room failed and a circuit board had to be ordered through Panasonic to get it fixed. I had to have the Karaoke night rescheduled for a later date until such time the AC gets fixed.

Today, I received a text message from the Panasonic technician saying the circuit board came in. I told him to install it as soon as possible. He took a buddy with him and got the AC working late this afternoon. I've tested it, turned it off and on a few times and so far it's still working. I'll probably let the Greenfields singers know Karaoke night is on this week.

Misc JASHS Activities

We've been having meetings (two so far) with our JASHS Class '70 alumni association here in the Philippines trying to plan for our 40th Grand Reunion next year. The date has been set - February 6, 2010. Donna and I had the Rene Medina Hall of PHS reserved through the kindness of the school Principal, Mrs. Imelda Macaspac, who by the way waived the fee for us. From the results of our meeting last month, however, the venue may change. We'll have to talk about it some more. Our President Willy Sapnu, suggested we meet every last Friday of the month to focus on our reunion. I've requested the annual December 30 get together be postponed for this year so we can have our united effort for next year's reunion.

In the mean time, my USA group had their annual picnic held at the Cerritos Heritage Park last month.

"It was held last July 26, 2009 at Heritage Park in Cerritos. As always we had a lot of food. Everyone was happy to see each other despite seeing each other almost every week for most of us. The park is a scenic one with water falls, vast beautiful lawn/garden, tower and separate cottages."
Elaine Castillo-Lababit

Below are pictures sent by Elaine.


We have a classmate over here, Precy Manalastas (couldn't remember her married name) who's been ill and in and out of hospitals for the last several weeks. Donna and I visited her recently at her home in San Jose along with classmates Myrna, Beth Simeon and Consorcia Santiago, all of which including Precy, I went to elementary school with.

Here she is during our get together August of last year when another classmate, Rolando Canlas, visited from the UK.


And this picture was taken in our music room during our get together last March when another classmate, Erlinda Simeon (foreground, in white), visited from Italy. Precy is in the background, in yellow.


Precy has now lost quite a bit of weight. Please include her in your prayers.


As promised, before Boy Dizon, wife Remy and daughter Mary Jo left for California, we took them to one of our favorite spots here, the Monasterio de Tarlac. Since we've known in the past that they don't sell food at the site, we brought some lunch with us. We left at the usual time, 8ish, to make it at the daily (except Thursday) 10:30 am mass. I noticed the road on the way up to the mountain has gone considerably worse.


On the way back of course, we passed by Capas National Shrine, the WWII Memorial similar to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C.


When we left California last May, we took some of our funds to continue refurbishing the PHS classroom which JASHS Class '70 USA has since adopted. We had the room painted and floor tiles installed. Last week, the two fans and one window type air conditioning unit have been delivered. Hopefully, we may have some money leftover to get one, maybe two, more PCs.


Incidentally, we recently found out, Rolly Yumul, our main contact in the school who's in charge of the class room, is the first cousin of our classmate, Imelda Yojuico-Danganan. Small world, indeed.

This week, I'm planning on dropping by to see if the AC has been installed.

Erwin and Allan's 2009 East Coast Visit

A few years back, we know of a couple who retired here in the Philippines same as we did. They had a house built and moved here and everything. A bit later we found out, they moved back to the US and one of her gripe was cockroaches. She said she tried to keep her house spotless but danged critters are still all over the place.

We've lived here three years and I have yet to see a roach in the house. I've seen them sometimes on storm drains but not in the house. Our problem, however, is the proliferation of ANTS! Mostly the small red ones, the big ones stay outside for some reason and they sometimes feast on Indo's food. There's a couple of varieties of the small ones, the quick ones and the slow ones. They have two things in common; they bite and they're annoying! The quick ones emit a stinky odor once they get squished. If we leave anything edible on the table or the kitchen counter, they'll be all over it even in just a few minutes. It's amazing how they get through food in zip locked containers. They even attack breakfast cereal IN zip lock containers! The safest place for food around here is either in the fridge or on the table but on top of a bowl with water in it that serves like a moat! Anyway, on to my blog...

Jalandoni (Allan) Sanchez and his wife Neneng visited the US recently with their youngest son Carlo. They came back to the Philippines, a day or so after we arrived in California last April. Their older children, Jegs and Betsy, are already in the US. Jegs (short for Diego) is from the West Coast while Betsy lives on the East Coast. While on the East Coast to see Betsy, Allan and Neneng took advantage of the situation to see our classmates over there; Ras Cruz from Philadelphia, Gene Munoz and Angel Sicat from Virginia and Art Capati from Maryland (?). From the looks of their pictures, they had a blast.


Erwin Doria and his wife (sorry forgot her name) and their children I believe live in Central California. They used to live in Suisun, not sure if they're still there. He retired from the US Navy, but I'm not sure what he does now. Most retired sailors in the US don't stay retired. They keep on working, mostly doing part time work and going back to school using their GI Bills on the side. Anyway, Ras said they went to Philadelphia to have a taste of the famous Philly Cheese Steak and to soak up some culture, among other things.



Note: Both sets of pictures are courtesy of Ras Cruz with whatever camera he used. Thanks a lot, Ras, for letting me use your pics.

Sorry, I didn't get any pictures from the West Coast get-together.