How much is a Merry Christmas?

Since being a young child, I have always wondered, if someone could ever give a price for an amazing Christmas.

After all, what could be the recipe for a happy and jolly Christmas. A pancit guisado costs no more than 500 pesos. A hamon is right around a thousand at most. A spaghetti is now almost too affordable, 200 pesos can go a long way. And add a cake, some chocolates and a macaroni salad for a surprise, then you have a wonderful time. However, there's still one question in my mind; "How much is a merry Christmas?"

Well first of all, how much is a complete family?- I understand that the concept a whole family is different in my perspective, than the eyes of others. Surely, it's not their fault that I am less fortunate than them. For me at least, it takes a father, a mother, me, and a few of my other relatives to make a complete family.

A father- the first ingredient. They say you need to be content in what you have, and what life gives you, afterall, I have my Lolo to stand as my father figure. Still, it is not enough, I want a dad, who can teach me sports, and teach me how to ride a bike, to be called a "daddy's girl". I want to become a daughter for once, sadly; I never met my father, he left mom, when she was pregnant. Until this day I resent him, but somehow, I still want a father. A father for a Merry Christmas.

My mother would be an easier problem, but this Christmas I asked if she would come home to see us. My mother works away from home, and she told me through messenger that she would not make it, she said she was busy; but I know the real problem, the truth is we need the money from her work.

Even though I know I couldn't afford a complete family, I still ask what is the cost for unconditional love. I know my family loves me, but sometimes I second guess, I remember last November, it was our recognition program, but sadly no one couldn't make it. I decided not to go, but reluctant, I went without a guardian. In those days, I feel like love has the greatest price, that it is a luxury I can never afford.

Lastly I would like to ask: How much is a smile for Christmas?- A lot of kids will say, it's easy to smile, but in this world full of bitterness, we couldn't see the difference between true and fake happiness. Merry Christmas, it's in the name actually, how can you be merry if you do not smile? Well, happiness has a higher tag than money itself, it needs genuine emotions, true love and care, happiness is hefty in price.

So how much would a merry Christmas be?- simple a merry Christmas is worth as much as a hug from a family, a love without regrets and a smile beyond boundaries.

How much is a Merry Christmas?- It depends on you!

We have equal rights

If men where to play Barbie dolls as boys, and if women where given guns and cars as girls. Imagine what difference does it make for both of the parties.

There is always a social stigma between effeminate and masculine. Even in the clothing isles, you still see products targeted at specific sexes at present. Mama is supposed to care for the baby, and papa, should work for the family. It's a historical, cultural, social, and ethical norm for many families. Women are for houses, and men are for the workforce.

In our community, we notice that women are not given proper opportunity and equal respect than men. It is crucial to have professions and sciences in a living environment, but it is highly dangerous to have gaps between the professionals and amateurs, scientists and sophomores. We are seeking a better life in the sense where skills are appreciated regardless of it's power and sex. A professor will never underestimate his student's ideas but respect it and help him develop it to benefit other. People will not look at a woman with high accomplishment, and undermine her capabilities as a person.

We should strive and begin to create an equal environment for both young and old, rich and poor, man or woman or any gender for that matter. In such in equal environment, people will not be treated based on their ethnicity, religion, or physical abilities. This will bring everybody to the same dinning table. Everyone has a spot in this world and by having equality we sustain our humanity.

The basic construct of the human institution is fascinating, bacause it is not based on conformity, but actually it strives for belongingness.

Cultivate

I bright star, falls down from her throne in heaven. She glimmers against the black of the night sky, she represents hope, faith and courage, she is the generation of tomorrow.

Where we come from is coherent to what we may want to go. It's a simple fact, that we, trace our roots, and find understanding in ourselves by doing so. As we go further back, the more we learn, but if we know where once we came, shouldn't we know where we'll turn?

Look at a tree, and you'll notice that you never get to see most of the roots, but the young leaves and flowers that bloom make it pleasing to the eye. It gives a sense of hope, for the onlooker to see. This is what we see, this is the future generation. Young minds, of intellect and talent, nurtured by many years of learning, but young and fresh. They know the past, the stand because of it, but they are significant, for they are what is shown.

Children who feel celebrated and welcomed are more likely to look back, and give back. The children we take care of, and nurture will bring prosperity and growth. Them, who we love dearly, and cherish, will be the first to stand against hopelessness, and stand with courage.

Truly, the freshest leaves are always the ones first plucked, the brightest flowers are always first smelled. This is a symbolism, that reminds us, that youth doesn't last long, but if we have given the shortest time to celebrate them, then they will forever grow strong and independent, to achieve flowing success and happiness in their chosen paths.

Guiding and nurturing, loving and caring. We are in the responsibility, to develop these little flowers, into fruits of the future.

Raise Our Cups To Our Colorful Ablaze

Raise the banner of a new day, the dawn creates a rainbow of hallowing clouds. It is my generation, a flurry of sunset's and galaxies, forming bright colors, depleting the atmosphere.

My generation is not a person, but an actual fixation. An addiction, only cured by wordly envies, a poison ravaging the already alive system. My people are zombies, manipulated and controlled by the vast knowledge, of everything we want to discover.

"I-gen". A generation that separates the millennial frame, from the tech relying future. We are called i-gen, because of our presence in the internet. We are fueled by posts, likes and captions, the colorful place we love so much, where we feel we belong.

My people, are the people of the future, no distinction of race, ethnicity or color. We are the proud generation who cried equality, where almost half of us is part of the LGBT. Colorful, that's the best way to describe us, an explosion of many ideas, and experiences, all shared through the internet.

In a vast highway, we all drive, we are connected in all corners, but we are disconnected to our borders. This is the generation, where instead of calling family and friends, we opt to find only the newest trends, wether it be a malicious scandal, or a reputation wrecker. We thirst for intrigue, but we lack responsibility.

We as a generation, are killing our way through the internet. With the use of WiFi, we forget our who's. Who is our culture, who is our family, who is our freedom and who is our limits. There is no cure for my generation, because the cure came with the plague, we came with smartphones, and we can leave them as we can.

The cure is within us, if we fight the urge to text, or post, maybe we can also let go of our poison. Or maybe we can adopt, use the technology wisely, and campaign for a better tomorrow. Maybe, if we try, then we can. We'll use the internet for the sake of development.

We are a generation of many to celebrate, and as we raise our cups to our colorful ablaze, let us not burn through tomorrow's oil.

Trove Of Discovery

What if we tore each page - letter by letter - making it worthless and obscene. What if we don't need to destroy the pages, to burn it's worth.

Wouldn't it be worthwhile, to freely surpass any plane in the sky, and dive under the deepest trenches. Would it be so worthwhile, if everything we ever did, was only to be seen worthless; Yes, worthless, in fact it has no purpose at all. 

A book is a trove of discovery, each gleaming page is a place of breathtaking scenery. Painting what the writer sees, in the eyes of his audience. He connects the rainbow, with the golden pot in the end. 

Yet what if we never knew, what we've never known. That us, as a generation can't stand on it's own. That we are loosing the way the past has learned, and making it seem like we are all know-it-alls. 

We take for granted, the knowledge burned through a piece of paper. A cry, we would never yearn, or even just learn to know. We aren't destroying the book, but we destroy it's soul- to be read by many, and to be heard by all.

How can we?- A generation so smart, advanced and intelligent, be dumb enough to be dumbfounded?- It lies in our non-chalant ways, in our lack of empathy thereof. A distant disconnect, to the delirium we call the unknown.

We act as if we know everything, but when we sit and read, we listen; we listen to the words of knowledge, of growth, and of understanding. When we read, we become trees, ready to spread the paper, and create our own books. Chapter by chapter, we fill in the pages. We bruise the paper, by the ink of the pen. 

Knowledge begets knowledge, a wanderlust discovery, trapped in the four corners of a book. Let's burn the pages, but burn them through our minds.

Fight With Our Rights

What are your rights?; What if I told you you had no rights, that you are alone and miserable, without any excuses. What if... I violate you to the extent of inhumanity?
Just thinks of that situation where you are trapped inside a box, with nothing with you. Your actions dictated by another person, and uncertain on when you will eat, or even if you will even eat ever.Crazy right, what if I told you that some people go through that experience. That somewhere out there a human, like you, is treated less like an individual, but more like an animal?

We always turn a blind eye to the things we do not see. Sometimes we are oblivious to the fact that discrimination exists, racism exists, homophobia exists, that evil exists in this world. However I am here not to taunt or scare you, I am here to enlighten you. How can a human experience his true fulfillment? - simple, by freedom. If everyone is given the freedom to practice his own rights and celebrate his own individuality, then he can be fulfilled.Man cannot escape the barrier of society, and the pressure that is set upon him, to act and do a certain way. But there is loophole, actually one large and obvious loophole. If the same society that limits man to his conformity celebrates his potential, then we see that man together with society, forms a chain where everyone is part, and there is no difference in the heart, but only a difference in uniqueness and diversity. We come in all shapes, forms and sizes, and we value the social or cultural norms set in the society. Once in a while we notice a change in the system, but are we really the virus who will corrupt the system? In this world that feels like a cage, never let yourself be caged by others, and never let others be caged as well. We hold the key in between. We are free to have rights, we are free to be human. A being of flaws and marks, humanity is both unique and uniquely diverse. That's what makes us special, we are different but we are the same because we are different

Teachers; Truly Our Heroes

When you think of the type of teacher you'd like to be, who comes to mind? The math teacher that helped you conquer fractions? The English teacher who wrote great comments on your stories? The teacher that helped you discover a new sport, hobby, talent--or maybe even nudged you down your current career path? Teachers follow students through each pivotal stage of development. At six to eight hours a day, five days a week, you as a teacher are poised to become one of the most influential people in your students’ life. After their parents, children will first learn from you, their elementary school teacher. Then, as a middle school teacher, you will guide students through yet another important transition: adolescence. As children become young adults, learning throughout middle school and into high school, you will answer their questions, listen to their problems and teach them about this new phase of their lives. You not only watch your students grow you help them grow. We think of teacher-heroes that taught us the academics but we don’t often think of those teachers that taught us life’s lessons. Teachers are founts of experience. They have already been where their students are going, undergone what they will go through and are in a position to pass along lessons, not only regarding subject matter, but lessons on life.Those are the teachers we're celebrating through our world teacher's Day celebration, My Teacher, My Hero. Together, we're paying homage to the teachers that have played such an integral part in shaping our lives, and to their importance in shaping the next generation of educators.

Accentuating Potentials

     Science Month is celebrated all over the world to give focus and appreciate the exertions of every individual that worked in favour for the advancement of technology. Science is also the reason why every single thing has explanation why it worked or it happened.

         

     “Wavefront: Accentuating Potentials, Activating Technological Advancement” helps us to show our talents, to hasten our aptitudes and make an advancement about technologies that may help us in things. We cannot deny that discovering something or working on some complicated stuffs like on how to make a motorcycle work without fuel is hard, right? But, through science and technology, and through the help of wavefront, it can decipher that delinquent. Curiosity can make us question things deeper and deeper and that’s why science is there to answer it all. Technology makes our works faster and in easier way.

         

     Wavefront accentuates our potentials and will make us wiser discovering and solving things. Wavefront shape us and also for us to become the nation’s hope.

The Genius of the Filipino Poor

When you think about the Philippines, you probably think about it's white sand beaches, the rich cultural diversity, the flavorful cuisine, but what you probably never see or never hear about, yet is so widespread is its poverty stricken communities. I set myself on a quest to find out what really is the problem lying behind these horrid conditions. The dumpster diving people, eating "pag-pag" and drinking unclean water. I set myself on this journey to answer this question; "What makes the Filipino Poor so resilient?" It doesn't take you far in the Philippines to find these "squatter sites" or "poor villages". The conditions of which are such a manifestation of unsanity and low-class living. The multitudes of people you find in these communities, range from the low-lying crooks and criminals, to the hardworking and persevering people trying their best to survive. However bad the cases maybe, I found three things in these communities that may just be the secret to the genius of the Filipino Poor. What you need to get a sense of when you come to the Philippines is that there is a strong sense of community. The spirit of the "Bayanihan" that fosters each and every member of the society. The strong sense of togetherness, creates a place that you expect to be outcasted, filthy and full of criminal acts is turned into a peace haven that brings out the closeness of each and every person. I do believe that the relative conjunctions of the Filipino Poor's house becomes a source of their closeness, rather than a lack of space. Because in the end what we truly need to see is not the adverse effects of these tight living spaces, rather we should see the positive dispositiona it brings to the community. When you finally come into terms with the fact that Filipinos are together as one, the you can learn a product of this mentality. "Walang Iwanan", or No one gets left behind, easy to understand right? Maybe, but not quite; the Philippines' understanding of this saying is hugely different. If you get a community that fosters "Bayanihan", you do not expect loose bonds among the people. Here in the Philippines, your neighbors are your family, your brothers and sisters from another mother per se. When times of hardship and difficulty emerges, expect that these people will come together and build a shielyof love and hope. Maybe it is also the reason why Filipino Overseas Workers are best at doing their jobs, because they know people they left behind are counting on them, mix that with a little Bayanihan and you will also notice that Filipinos have the largest communities that come as one overseas, and that's the thing that is beautiful about "Walang-Iwanan" and "Bayanihan" together. If you're still looking for the Genius behind the Filipino Poor, surely you need to believe, because in the Philippines, believing is important to reach success. Wether it is their belief in God, belief in each other's greatness or when they believe in themselves. It is believing that pushes these people to success and faith on God or one another. Believing makes the Filipino Poor, do everything he can to support his family, provide shelter, or to accomplish anything he believes he can do. We should not close our eyes to the problems that our country is facing, but when we do open our eyes to these problems, let us never forget to look at the Genius Of the Filipino Poor, that makes him truly resilient and empowered, that makes him different than the rest of the world.

CHALLENGE 2

Search the Internet for the following facts and information. Write your answers in the table below.

1.            What is the context of "embedded journalist"? When was it first used? Who created the term?

2.             _______________ is the only pope honored by Turkey a Muslim nation. His statue stands at center of a city square of ______________.

3.            Who designed the tallest building in Hong Kong?

4.            In September 11, 2001, two commercial airplanes commandeered by terrorist crashed and destroyed the World Trade Center in New York. Is this the first time that an airplane crashed into a skyscraper in New York?

5.            __________ is the tallest building in the world. It is located in ____________. The construction started in ________ and was finished_________.

6.            What is the meaning of tundra? Why is the Bush administration so interested with exploring and exploiting the tundra?

7.            Draw in a diagram form the metamorphosis of an "urban legend"

Item	Answer	URL	Search Engine	Search Technique
1.	Embedded journalism refers to news reporters being attached to military units involved in armed conflicts. While the term could be applied to many historical interactions between journalists and military personnel, it first came to be used in the media coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The United States military responded to pressure from the country's news media who were disappointed by the level of access granted during the 1991 Gulf War and the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. The practice has been criticized as being part of a propaganda campaign whereby embedded journalists accompanied the invading forces as cheerleaders and flacks.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embedded_journalism	Google.com	Phrase searching
2.	Pope Benedict XVI (Latin: Benedictus XVI; Italian: Benedetto XVI; German: Benedikt XVI; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger; German pronunciation: [ˈjoːzɛf ˈalɔʏzi̯ʊs ˈʁatsɪŋɐ]; 16 April 1927) served as Pope and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2005 until his resignation in 2013. Benedict's election occurred in the 2005 papal conclave that followed the death of Pope John Paul II. The Vatican announced his post-papal title as Pope Emeritus shortly after his resignation.[2][3]	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI	Google.com	Phrase searching
3.	Kohn Pedersen Fox, Wong & Ouyang (HK) Ltd.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_ buildings_in_Hong_Kong	Google.com	phrase Searching
4.	No.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks	Google.com	Phrase Searching
5.	The tallest building in the world is Burj Khalifa in Dubai . Construction of the Burj Khalifa began in 2004, with the exterior completed five years later in 2009.	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa	Google.com	Phrase searching
6.	Tundra is the level or rolling treeless plain that is characteristic of arctic and subarctic regions, consists of black mucky soil with a permanently frozen subsoil, and has a dominant vegetation of mosses, lichens, herbs, and dwarf shrubs; also : a similar region confined to mountainous areas above timberline	https://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/tundra	Google.com	Phrase searching

NUGGETS	ANSWER	LOCATION	VALUE: Sources/Author/Date Published/Sponsor/Copyright	Search Engine	Search Technique
1. Sometime in 1991, a chief scientist at the NIIT, named, started an experiment hole in a wall.	Dr. Sugata Mitra	India	Edited by Paul Judge on March 2, 2002	Google	Phrase Searching
2. What does NIIT stands for?	National Institute of Information Technology	Neemrana Rajasthan in India	https://www.acronymfinder.com/National-Institute-of-Information-Technology-(India)-(NIIT).html	Google	Phrase Searching
3. It was implemented at a slum area in New Delhi.	Through this hole, a freely accessible computer was put up for use.	Kalkaji, New Delhi	http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/Beginnings.html	Google	Phrase Searching
4. His team carved a hole in the wall that separated NIIT campuses from slum areas. Why did they carve hole in the wall?	The acquisition of basic computing skills by any set of children can be achieved through incidental learning provided the learners are given access to a suitable computing facility, with entertaining and motivating content and some minimal (human) guidance.	India	Sugata Mitra February 3, 2012 https://www.edutopia.org/blog/self-organized-learning-sugata-mitra	Google	Phrase Searching
5. What was the significant finding of the experiment?	ICT teachers now are using PC sets to their students. In this way, students easily learns thru hands-on technique as how in the ‘Hole in the Wall” aimed to do.	India	http://www.infodev.org/articles/quick-guide-icts-education-challenges-and-research-questions	Google	Phrase Searching
6. What could be the implications of this finding to existing teaching practices especially those that are related with the use of ICT in learning?	This study aims to observe or investigate the effects of  using the Information communication Technology in the field of education specially to teachers and students.	India	http://www.infodev.org/articles/quick-guide-icts-education-challenges-and-research-questions	Google	phrase searching