THE HALL PASS

Sketch of himself - Ink Bureau of Public Libraries - Sent to Dr. Blumentritt in 1887 " Men are born equal, naked and without chains, They were not created by God to be enslaved, neither were they endowed with intelligence in order to be misled, nor adorned with reason to be fooled by others, It is not pride to refuse to worship a fellow man, to enlighten the mind, and to reason out everything. The arrogant one is he who wants to be worshipped, who misleads others, and who wants his will to prevail over reason and justice." ( Jose Rizal - "Message to the Women of Malolos" , Europe, February 1889)

Looking at this, there's still a big part of the country I think I'd like to visit... Palawan? Batanes? Davao? My Lakbayan grade is C! How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan ! Created by Eugene Villar .

I could say that there have been some "considerate" improvements to driving around Metro Manila these days. Some streets are even showing some little improvement and organization. Now, we've got road safety signs, barriers and dividers to make driving a little easy for us. Of course it does take a while to get used to them but at least someone's making an effort to make them aware to the motoring public. What's gotten my irk though is the current color scheme they're following. Heavens, PINK ?! BLUE ?! What are these people thinking about? At least they should have the decency to color the concrete barriers/fences in yellow . That color's easier seen whether in a dark road or during foul weather. We regularly tune in to the morning shows on TV every morning. Road accidents concerning cars being flung from concrete barriers or ramming on to the steel fences have somewhat become a regular feature on the shows. Whether it may have been the driver's fault

A couple of years ago, my wife's friends encouraged us to join a badminton club. Since I've been thinking of getting serious with the sport, we joined without much hesitation. Just like any club, we met and played with several folks, some became very good friends. Aside from that, we were able to hone our skills thanks to training sessions and tips from member-coaches. Last Saturday, I was one of the players from our group who participated in the annual inter-club tournament. Players from their respective mini-groups called pocket e.b.'s (eye balls) were matched with other pocket e.b.'s from the club's ever-growing roster. The whole idea of the event was meant to foster camaraderie among fellow members and not so much on whose team had the most wins. Alas, somehow the whole event reminded me of an inter- barangay basketball league gone bad. Well, at least no such things as fisticuffs and the dreaded patayan ng ilaw (setting up a free-for-all by turning the light