Dive-Monster Rhoody

I don’t know if it is political correct to make a website for an 8 year old girl with the website address www.picture-monster.com, but to be honest, I absolutely don’t care. I bought this domain and weather Daisy will use it for her diary, it is mine and I would have other ideas with it if she is losing interest (what I definitely don’t believe)

The name picture monster comes from my friend Kim, also known as the Beermonster when meeting Daisy a long time ago while she was taking hundreds of pictures about just everything and thousand more of herself… of course she is Filipina…

The primary reason why I bought the domain is simple. I want to introduce her early to work with a computer, starting with simple tasks like writing small stuff in Word, learning how to “play” around with pictures (color management, cropping, and and and) … just to make her familiar with the way things are working; to teach her how to write things (yeah I know I am not the best in it, but still about 17,63 times better than the crap some people try to teach about computer at local education facilities to students)

For the moment she writes some stuff and I will upload it in her diary. In a few weeks I will teach her how to do that by herself. Mama and I are controlling it but do not take any influence on her style to write and express herself.

If she stays interested I am sure that it will be a great diary when she looks back in a few years. Additional I am thinking to include some small advertising on the page. Each single centavo it would earn goes into a bank account where Daisy has access when she is 18.  I do believe that this fund can fulfill quite some of her dreams then in 9 years, when she reaches that age.

Daisy just started 1 week ago it takes her a time to find all the letters on a keyboard and the right words, but it is great to watch her enthusiasm. For sure much better and more useful than watching Wowowee and all that useless waste of time on TV… ooops I forgot, we don’t have a TV at home anyway ?

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I had a dive student last week here in Dumaguete. Her name is Michelle Tricca and she is a professional photographer working out of Florida. After the last dive Michelle Tricca asked me if she can take some pictures of my little little one and I agreed.

Michelle picked up her camera, which was surprisingly a small digital camera and looked more like point and shoot and not like a monster-SLR I was expecting. She took pictures of my little one for about 10 minutes or so.

Well, seeing the camera I did not expect a lot, but I asked if I can have a copy of the shots. Two days later Michelle handed me a flashdrive with over 200 pictures.

I want to share some of them here. They are all raw (meaning like taken… no Photoshop or any work on it)

Why I am scared of the future? That little cutie is 8 years. I guess in about 6 years or so boy’s falling in line in front of my house and Rhoody can’t work anymore as he has enough to do to get rid of them. Maybe I will build a electric fence around my home, or look on ebay for some of this self-defensive shooting thingies I can install on the walls and fences.

anyway, lets see what the time brings. I just wanna thank Michelle Tricca for her great work.  If you guys wanna see more of her impressive work, feel free to visit her website : http://michelletricca.com/

cheers

Rhoody

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I thought I could have a quiet night in Cebu and sleep early after I got a text from Kim that his flight arrives around 11:30 at night. I welcomed him and Mike at the front desk at Eddies Hotel. They looked pretty tired but the decision was done to have a quick drink in a bar. Still safe as it is not Angeles City … The bars in Cebu closing at three.. We went to Vikings and ordered some beer . For what ever reason the bar did not close and we were there way past 5 am… Welcome to the beermonsters world.
After a good sleep we had our pickup arranged by Exotic Dive Resort in Malapascua at 12 o’clock. The driver and we were a kind of in time and were on our 4 hour trip to the north of Cebu.
After we arrived there and our luggage was unloaded the driver left and we were surrounded by porters who pointed us to a little boat at the end of a “pier” made out of a pile of rocks. There was nobody there who identified himself as send from Exotic Dive Resort and so we carried or gear to that funny little boat. We put it down on the end of the pier, maybe 2 meters away fro the nose of the small bangka. The boatcrew did not move one centimeter to help us. So we paid 200 Peso that the porter carry our bags the 2 meters.  We basically had no other choice at all and a big thunderstorm was about to come in.

The transfer of Exotic Dive Resort is charged over 11,000 Peso and you have to carry your own crap around. That’s a bit strange, but the story continues. We checked into our rooms and the room is large and convenient with balcony,  the bed is a little hard but big and ok, and the chicken and dogs under my door are obviously all here to welcome me at Exotic Dive Resort

more to come

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It’s been long time that I logged on to make the continuation of my report of my visit in Tacloban. Its just make me feel bad because its make me more thinking of my son.

it seems like my son is just here with me, because when I was  passing at the public market, the young boy  vendor  want to sell some rags  and native fan ,he’s eye are showing  of  bagging  and so emotionally.

The young vendor is about in my son’s age, I don’t want to buy  any of  the sale item he have ,but  I  also ask how much per small round rag he have and also big rags, as a start of our conversation. We had small talk, I ask him if he sold  out more of this rags ,  how long he is on the street selling  those things and some personal questions…All  of  my questions he answered.

When I get home , while I’m  arranging  all of my plastic bags from shopping ,suddenly  the rag vendor boy came to my mind, his answer and stories about why he do the summer job. Instead of having summer class or enjoy his summer vacations from the school..

It made me thinking more about my son, because the rag vendor helps  his Family  for there every day  living ..  They are five kids in the family, he is the second.

He is already 2 years late in  his studies, instead of grade 5 this coming school year he just in grade 3 if  possible that he has a chance to go to school…

All the stories he had as a little kid helping their parents, I also experience that as older sister in the Family, I grow up as helper of my grandmother for everything.  She build me into a hard working  kid, she  teach me how to take care of the house  and selling food on the street, also to take care of our small fast   food in our barangay, in Tacloban. We sale   barbecue in the public market each night  and sometime I cant go to school because I’m so tired and don’t have enough sleep, a reason why my grades are not that good.

Same as the little boy vendor, when I’m in his age too I don’t have enough time to play, enjoy being  a kid.  I consider  that this boy is luckier because at least he is with his parents and the whole family is just there…  this boy  make’s  me feel  lonely that at the moment  I’m so far to my son, that I cant see how he is,  and help him for what he needs..  My son is the reason why I visit in Tacloban.

I know there is not so much about my trip to Tacloban, just some thoughts crossed my mind while sitting here. I promise that the other parts Tripreport to Tacloban and Manila will continue… some when soon

Truly your

Maldita

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“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

I came over that quote while reading a book on my Off-Sunday laying at the beach. I couldn’t stop thinking about it as it brings quite some truth with it. Somehow It could have been be said on a TV-show just yesterday or 10 years ago.

It made me thinking a couple of years back when I left Germany. At that time people were demonstrating for the 35 hour week and retire with 60… I never had that. I was working in the music-business 14 - 18 hours daily since I was 19 and spend all weekends, Christmas, new years-eve, birthday’s somewhere in a crowd or a dark backstage area. I still loved my job and still don’t wanna miss a second.

Since I am 12 I write diary. As a typical German I also wrote down my working hours, places where I have been and a lot of statistical stuff. For example in 2000 I had 21 off-days the whole year and spend some of them in the outskirts of Bari, probably on of the ugliest towns in lovely Italy…

I quit my job and company early in the 30 to move to the Philippine. When I went to my tax-officer in my hometown I could not resist to tell him that I have already more working hours than he will have in his entire life with his 8am to 4pm job (37 hrs-week, and I know in English it’s a 9to5-job) in case he will live that long and can retire one day with 62.

His face expression was that of a deer standing frozen on a lonely road in pitch-black night, facing the fast closer coming bright headlights of a 40-ton-truck.
(Btw, you can get the same face-expression asking a local beauty if the moon or Berlin is closer to the Philippines… hmmm I can see the moon, but Berlin ? anyway what is that…)

When I went to the Philippines I reduced my time on Job to about 12 hours a day with 1 or two off-days a month and 10 days vacation (of course unpaid). Even now I easy beat the 40 hours a week on job.

So lets put my taxman in numbers for a year (365 days, 5 working days or 37 hours a week)

104 days weekend
30 days vacation
7 days sick (average in 2006, when I left Germany it was 9.5 days sick a year)
10 public holiday (normally 17 but some are on Sundays or fall depending on a year on a sunday)
3 other (days like Christmas eve where people work only half day and other stuff like socialising trips of the company and celebrations where nobody works)

That means there are 211 working days left, or a total amount of 1,561 working hours in the whole year. I reached this number in 2000 in less than 100 days.

There is obviously a reason why I can read a book at a beach surrounded by lovely people and pretty girls, great diving and cold beer. For my part, I won’t accept if my tax-officer whining around that he need to pay more money for his medicine and other stuff.

oops, sorry I almost forgot about it.

The quote above is more than 2000 years old and from

Marcus Tullius Cicero - 55 bC

Deja Vu

Rhoody

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A week ago or so I was writing about depression or something… It all happened in the middle of a cold or fever I caught. Being sick and feeling dizzy all the time just turned out to go into the second week now. I already feel way better than before and made my first short trips into Dumaguete for some hours.
I can’t explain how I feel being trapped at home. I need to be out and roaming around, meeting people and having fun.

During all that time at home I tried to be a bit healthy and did not drink any SMB. I finally  bought a scale for my bathroom (after 1.5 years) just to find out what I knew anyway… Fmucking hell, I am getting way too fat. … I still can see “my little Rhoody” while taking a wee without bending forward but it’s time to start the Project UHU.

UHU means simply “Under HUndret” and is in direct relationship to my weight…  so what is involved in that project?

First is no SMB for a while, water and coke light will do.
Plenty of vegetables and fruit, to get my daily Vitamins and all that crap… (I hate taking vitamin-pills and stuff in a country where there are fresh Mango, Banana,Pinapple,Coconut  and much more.)
Eating small portions… I am normally a plate licker… no matter how full my plate is, I will finish it completely. I won’t leave one rice corn on it (normally no need to wash my dishes…)
I’ll do some workout to get my boobs in better shape again, my shoulders even wider (six pack won’t work out with me)
and I’ll do some more stuff to get back on gwapo-track

UHU is about halftime of what I plan to reach in the next 2 month.  I may have some days in between, where I am going out and eat all I can just satisfy my brain. No Rhoody can life on that healthy stuff over a period of 2 month.

A funny sidenote. I was drinking way too much when I was going out, I am pretty aware of that. I was suspecting some kind of problems with stopping SMB. I did not go out each evening, but about 3-4 times a week, so I count myself as a kind of alcoholic. But guess what, I don’t feel  any difference or any demand that I need a beer now. I was with good friends at Mikes place yesterday and stuck to Coke-light without problems.

Guess I am just a stubborn german fat fart, hehe. It’s about 250 hours without SMB and the only problem I had were the complaints of some local places that they can’t pay the salaries due to lacking income. I’ll keep you posted how Rhoody’s project UHU will continue.
Cheers
Rhoody

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I guess most of you valuable reader know that great board-game “Monopoly”. I think this board game is not really known in the Philippines.

Monopoly has that action-card: “Go to Jail… don’t pass go….” transfering that to the PI and make it simple and understandable it would be : Go from A to B …. don’t do anything else, be focused on the task.

After 8 years in this wonderful country I still use my daily “Why ?”-Question in the first few minutes after waking up, so the rest of the day is just accepting what is happening. While a couple of years ago my blood-preasure was slightly raising, I am pretty calm by now and most of the time I just smile and shake my head.

3 days ago the chain of my bike cracked while riding. As it was close to home, I pushed the bike home and went to sleep. Next day I went to one of the biggest shops witch my broken chain and asked for a replacement telling the model and showing my old chain. They had one and as the shop is known for good service I went home just to find out that the replacement was about 15 cm too short.

No problem, there is another day and I can change that…. So next morning 9am Rhoody was standing in front of the salesman and explaining that the chain need to be extended. He said “no problem, Sir.” I left my broken one as a sample there and came back in the afternoon, just to find everything exactly in the position I left it that morning.

No, my “Why ?” question was already used so I smiled and asked if there is a problem. “Sir, you need to buy the extension”. “Errm… I am pretty much aware that chains don’t grow on the tree and I can just pick them, sure I buy it, that’s what we were talking about this morning… ” “ok Sir, come back tomorrow…”

“NO man… I will watch you doing it right now and will take it home when you are finished”

“Sir you have to buy it first”

“Ok ..,. how much”

“I don’t know yet”

“So how can I buy if you don’t …. nah, forget it. give me a 2nd new chain and you use as much you need”

“Ok, SIr”

6 Minutes Later I was on the way home with my new chain, exatly how I need it, plus about 1,20 meter chain brandnew what I can use for torturing the street-dogs around. The whole 2 day drama had a value of 700 Peso plus 4 trike-rides.

Now I am about to create the “Go to Jail” action card with Photoshop, where all advices,commands,tasks will be written axactly and accurate… The only thing I fear is, if I write something like:”make new chain exactly like sample” somebody would most likely take a hammer and smash it until it has the same cracks as the old broken one.

cheers

Rhoody

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