Futsal is a Spanish word which is futbol de sala, it is an indoor football (soccer), and today i will be playing goalkeeper. It is my first time to play competitive futsal. Already 34 years old, but still kicking or rather keeping goals.

I hope will shut out all of the goals that our opponents will try to shoot to us at.

God please help me as you always do! Hehehe…

My other blog, Crunchsite.com has been online for more than a month already.  I custom designed this blog, still in Wordpress.

The blog’s content is practically about making money online. I might also include traditional businesses.

My present profession is web designer, but how did I become a licensed architect?

As long as I can remember I was already scribbling on any paper or surface I could find, be it newspapers, at the back of black and white photographs, my sister’s notes and of course, the walls of our house much to the chagrin of my mother.

My family and our neighbors who noticed my “talent” in the visual arts would constantly ask me what I wanted to become when I grow up. I answered “engineer” and at times “architect.”

I joined art contests and I won some of them. My supportive parents enrolled me into an art school back in Mindanao.

I immensely enjoyed doing what I love doing. Girls like boys who know how to draw.

In high school, I chose architectural drafting as my elective subject. There were several elective subjects to choose in our school. Most of the girls took up something related to housekeeping. Some boys choose electronics and automotive subjects.

After graduation in high school, I was in a dilemma in choosing which college I would take, Architecture or Fine Arts.

My parents were no longer indirectly supportive of my artistic skills. They wanted me to become a nurse. Mother told I looked good in polo, the usual uniform of nursing students. No offense, but medical courses disgust me.

I asked a friend who was currently in the third year in Architecture. Which one is the best course to take, “Architecture or Fine Arts?”

His reason was architects make a lot of money than fine arts graduates. Hmm, that makes sense, I thought.

I finished architecture in seven years. Architecture is five years. I was not really into it. What I enjoyed the most was the “art” side of Architecture, the mathematics and other scientific subjects bored me.

I officially took oath as an architect in August of 2006. It was a dream that came true nonetheless. But I should have taken fine arts.

A piece of advice from me. Go for the things that you love doing, NOT because it makes lot money. Because you’re productive when you do the thing you love doing, and consequently you make a lot of money in the end.

There was a topic posted at Pinoyexchange about a new call center being setup in Cebu City. Then a member replied taunted the Cebuanos’ English accent basically saying that American clients are harsh if they find out that the technical support are outsourced somewhere in Asia.

That ignorant member could be watching too much racist tagalog movies where an uneducated Visayan housemaid with weird accent is made the center of bigot jokes.

I found a video on Youtube. A call center agent with an obvious tagalog accent was trying hard to sound American (required on most call centers), but fell short. She even told the caller that she is a Fil-American in California…..in Ortigas Center! Hear on the 4:30 part of the video. Better if you listen to this from start to finish.

My conclusion, don’t make fun of other people’s accent. It’s just simply a racist thing to do.

This cute little boy is one the kids who live in makeshift houses (if you call it a house) in Cubao, in Quezon City.

I enjoyed being around with the “homeless” friends of mine. Some of them used used to literally beg on the streets. A friend of mine is helping them get out of the poor me mentality and bible reading and it has been a success so far. A few has their own small time business like selling foods and soft drinks on the streets. Just so inspiring.

This is what i learned in life. If you are taking things foolishly and lazily easy today, you will be hard pressed tomorrow.

During college, life was a breeze. Booze here and there, a party or two or even three every week. No beer for a week was a miracle. Going college was just secondary for me. Just practically wasted my parents’ money.

Consequently, grades were not good to look at. Had to retake some of them the following year. I took the board exam for architects thrice. I had to go through the eye of the needle when looking for a job. Had to humble myself and go for a job that pays peanuts.

Take this as an advice especially for the teenagers.

Just as i have written previously. Erap Estrada would only serve a short time in jail after his conviction.

Gloria Arroyo should also pardon those relatively unknown and poor convicts that are in jail for stealing a few hundred pesos.

Related Joseph Estrada books and articles:
The Fall of Joseph Estrada.: An article from: Journal of Contemporary Asia

The fall of Joseph Estrada: The inside story

I first knew about her during my elementary years. A classmate influenced me to buy comics, and one of those is the biography of Helen Keller.

Helen Keller is a popular intellectual celebrity during the 1920s to 1940s. Her life story got me inspired. She was blind and deaf most of her life. She was not born deafblind though, but became one when she got sick by a serious disease at age 2.

Although she was blessed with a well off family, but this is probably not the reason why she overcame her physical limitations. A positive and supportive family is enough.

She was the first deafblind to graduate in college, and magna cum laude at that!

She is also an author, who wrote a total of 12 books, and several articles.

Radicalism also got her into, advocating equal rights to workers. This part of her life is not highlighted in biographies and movies about her since some people find it controversial.

Any negative odds can be prevailed over no matter how difficult. I’ve heard this a long time ago that “Everything has a solution.” It may not be easy sometimes, but here is no reason to sulk in self-pity and despair.

Everything is possible!

Thanks to Wikipedia for the image

Related Helen Keller Books, VHS and DVDs

Is this the start of something big? A movie or modeling offer soon? Hahaha…Not really. Just excited. This thing seldom happens to Jeffrey’s 34 years life on earth.

My name and photos appear on today’s issue of a national paper Philippine Daily Inquirer in the 2BU Lifestyle Section. No photos in the online version though, but a pose or two in the paper version. Thankfully, the article is not about me or some unknown rabid fan might gang up on me as a result, hehehe, nothing wrong to dream, right?

The article’s title is My Cup of Life written by Andrea and it’s centered around her new found love in football.

Shall i hire a showbiz manager or a bodyguard? Again, nothing wrong to dream, hehehe.

Me on red shirt and green shorts.

I have come to realized that complaining to a “racial” slur is worth nothing.

We sometimes respond in hate to a hate. We blame the government for all the social problems, accuse them of corruption. Religious debate here and there. Upset because our salaries are too little.

All of these are just trivial. There are more important things in life.

My selfishness disappears every time i watch this video.

The television show Desperate Housewives rocked the whole country and other Filipinos abroad just recently because of a single sentence uttered by one of its characters during its September 30 episode.

Ironically, some Filipinos whined to high heavens after hearing that “insulting” line, but have overlooked their own crap right under their noses. Racial discrimination is as normal as breathing in the Philippines.

It’s high time for the whole of the Philippines’ to be taught to respect other races’ or ethnics’ culture, accent (when speaking tagalog or English), skin color, clothes.

In Philippine television and movies, racial discrimination has been going on unchecked and consequently accepted as normal by the general population. Philippines shows are even harsher and racist compared to shows in the west.

Bisayans are depicted as ignorant and dumb and ridiculed for their accent when speaking tagalog, the Philippines’ first official language. Even the Batanguenio accent is not spared, though it is considered the pure tagalog. Please read my previous related articles School Bukel I and School Bukel II.

I must admit that making fun at dark-skinned people used to be one in my joke list. Now matured and have learned to be considerate of other people’s feelings, making fun at peoples’ skin color should now be always avoided.

So anyone of you reading this especially if you have the connection to people who are in the Senate, Congress, or any politicians please relay the principle of this blog post that they create a law against discrimination.

To those who are in the entertainment, please avoid making stories that poke fun at peoples’ skin color, race, accent, sexuality, appearance and culture.

Thanks to Yahoo! for the image.

This blog post is not about the trial itself, but how a woman who could earn easy money or ruin a man’s reputation by falsely accusing her enemies with sexual harassment.

I already have a similar post about women who spread lies in court using the weapon of sexual harassment accusation if women are put on an embarrassing situation.

One of whom is the former New York Knicks marketing executive who was fired because of incompetence.

Even the basketball players and the other executives rallied against Anucha Browne Sanders who was incompetent in handling budget matters.

The jury ordered the New York Knicks to 11.6 million dollars to the former lady executive, and the jury even believed the sexual harassment charged against Isaiah Thomas.

I think her accusations which I think are fabricated and was the result after she felt insulted and embarrassed when the New York Knicks fired her.

I have been passively following this trial when it started.

Here is the news entry by Associated Press:

Knicks trial ends with $11.6M jury award
By TOM HAYS

NEW YORK - In an end to a salacious three-week trial, a jury ordered the owners of the New York Knicks to pay $11.6 million to a former team executive who endured crude insults and unwanted advances from coach Isiah Thomas.
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The jury of four women and three men found Thomas and Madison Square Garden sexually harassed Anucha Browne Sanders, but it decided only MSG and chairman James Dolan should pay for harassing and firing Browne Sanders from her $260,000-a-year job out of spite.

The result: The Garden owes $6 million for condoning a hostile work environment and $2.6 million for retaliation. Dolan owes $3 million. Though Thomas is off the hook for any damages, he leaves the case with a tarnished image.

Outside court, a beaming Browne Sanders insisted her victory was more about sending a message than the money.

“What I did here, I did for every working woman in America,” she said. “And that includes everyone who gets up and goes to work in the morning, everyone working in a corporate environment.”

Earlier, Thomas emerged from the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan with his trademark smile but flashed anger as he reasserted his innocence amid a crush of reporters and cameras.

“I’m extremely disappointed that the jury did not see the facts in this case,” he said. “I will appeal this, and I remain confident in the man that I am and what I stand for and the family that I have.”

MSG said it will appeal, also denying wrongdoing in a case widely viewed as a public relations disaster for a franchise struggling to regain credibility. The team hasn’t won a playoff game since Thomas was signed as president in December 2003 and has wasted millions this decade on a series of free-agent busts.

The verdict also amounts to another blemish on the resume of Thomas, a two-time NBA champion whose post-playing career has been marked by one failure after another.

NBA spokesman Tim Frank said the league’s policies “do not encompass civil litigation.”

Jurors, who needed roughly two days to decide on the allegations but only about an hour to determine damages, declined to talk about the verdict or how they came to their decision.

In a lawsuit filed last January, the 44-year-old Browne Sanders sought $10 million in punitive damages, but the jury was free to deviate from that figure. The verdict also means the judge will determine and award compensatory damages in the coming weeks.

The harassment verdict was expected after the jury sent a note to the judge Monday indicating it believed Thomas, the Garden and Dolan sexually harassed Browne Sanders, a married mother of three and former vice president for marketing.

Browne Sanders is currently an associate athletic director and senior woman administrator at the University of Buffalo.

“All of us in the Division of Athletics are thrilled to know that Anucha has been vindicated and that both her and her family have wrapped up this very difficult ordeal,” the university said in a statement. “We look forward to seeing her soon and, most of all, are elated that she can move on with her life and career.”

The jurors had heard Browne Sanders testify that Thomas, after arriving as new team president, routinely addressed her as “bitch” and “ho” in outbursts over marketing commitments. He later did an abrupt about-face, declaring his love and suggesting an “off-site” liaison, she said.

Thomas, while admitting to using foul language around the plaintiff, insisted he never directed it toward her.

Degrading a woman in the workplace “is never OK,” said Thomas, a married father of two. “It is never appropriate.”

Dolan and a string of other executives also took the witness stand to deny they tolerated or witnessed sexual harassment. They testified Browne Sanders was fired because she was incompetent on budget matters, and because she later sought to undermine an internal inquiry into her allegations against Thomas.

The trial also made headlines with its testimony about an admitted tryst involving star Knicks guard Stephon Marbury and an MSG intern, an encounter the plaintiffs’ attorneys argued demonstrated the organization’s frat house mentality.

At the Knicks training camp in South Carolina on Tuesday, Marbury and other players said it was time for the team to move past the off-court controversy. Thomas was expected to arrive Wednesday.

“It’s a tough situation and the only thing we can do now is go forward,” Marbury said.

Forward Malik Rose predicted the team would rally behind Dolan and Thomas.

“We all know what kind of guy ‘Mr. D’ is,” he said before the jury awarded punitive damages. “We all know what kind of guy Isiah is and how they treat us. I’m sure all you guys agree this is a first-class organization.”

MSG is owned by Cablevision Systems Corp., based in Bethpage, N.Y., and Dolan is Cablevision’s CEO. Shares fell 35 cents, or 1 percent, to $34.71 in afternoon trading.