No space for microwave

The microwave oven plays a big role in living at teh ACeS office. We use it to cook anything from instant noodles, omelette, even tocino :p (hopefully I can blog about what mutants are soon)

I really kinda miss that device everytime I'm here at home. It'll definitely be useful around here, especially since Mom's not cooking in the morning.

Problem is, there's no space for a microwave oven. Our house is really in dire need of renovation. Or maybe it's time to have a new house built? :p

24

Nah, this post is not about the TV series. Let's just say this is a feeble attempt at search engine optimization :p (and that last bit is supposed to be a joke).

Owkay, enough with fooling around. It's just that since yesterday, I'm officially 24 years old! :D

So my birthday celebration went fine, even if we started the house preparations a bit late. Anyway, I had only three guests lng naman since not all the other six members of the Kropeck Gang are available. As expected, we had the usual catching-up chats over lunch and merienda.

Actually, the preparations were delayed since I had been busy the day before. I went to a PC retailer and had a new CPU assembled as my birthday gift to myself :p (will upload a pic of the PC when I get back to the office, since I have forgotten the drivers that'd allow me to transfer the pics from the phone to the PC) And now I'm using the new rig to write down this post. Hehe.

Where was I? Oh, yes. Now that I think of it, 3 members of the Kropecks are already 24yrs old! We're not getting any younger!! :p (pretty soon we'll be counting gray hairs, measuring how much our hairlines have receded, and stuff like that).

Oh well, it'll be another year from now before I add another digit to my age. I just hope this year will be a fruitful one. That, and I'd get to save up for my own house and car :p

Update: Here's my PC (and yes, that's an RO Juno tarp on the background).

A Hidden Getaway

I really needed to do some workout. Hehe. Owkay, so I had been pigging out during my two weeks of training and I had not been to the gym for a long time now.

Anyway, my officemates also wanted to do a bit of jogging so we decided to use our spare time yesterday afternoon to do just that. So by 4:30PM we made our way towards one nice location in Subic Bay which is still rarely heard of around here. By the way, I think I have to stress that a bit of jogging is an understatement. More on that later.

This was our destination:

They say that this place is indeed named Tago (Hidden) beach, since it is rather inaccessible. Well, didn't I say that we went there just for a bit of jogging? I must say it had been a two-hour hike! Hehe :p From our office in Group 5 of the Naval Magazine, Tago beach is around 5kms away. We arrived at the beach after running/jogging/walking for an hour.

For those who are familiar with Subic Bay, Tago beach is quite near Kamayan beach and Ocean Adventure. To get there, one will have to take a left turn on a rather inconspicuous road shortly before arriving at Kamayan point. The road goes through a short forest trail (that got incredibly dark when we were on our way home, hehe) and opens towards a cliff. You'll have to take a path down the cliff's face to get to the actual beach.

I'd say the place is perfect for picnics and a bit of swimming. I haven't tried going to the waters, but my companion said that it doesn't get too deep until several meters beyond. Also, the site is good for pictorials, hehe. I'd put some pictures here if I had gotten more nice shots. Sadly, we stayed there for only 20 minutes or so as it was getting dark. *sad*

Furthermore, I wasted a few precious minutes trying to get a snapshot of the two mudskippers happily jumping from the water on to the rocks.

I failed. T-T

Anyway, it was already dark when we were halfway back to our office. Walking in the dark ain't that bad, as you know you're INSIDE Subic Bay (it's safe) and there are lots of fireflies! ^_^ Several trees looked as though they were donned with Christmas lights. The fireflies are nice to look at, but of course you can't take a picture of them in all their pristine beauty. Well, you can't have everything, right?

So there goes one more of my travels. Stay tuned for more of Jherskie's journeys. ^_^

In our own personal ways

Perhaps the best way to deal with our current environment problems is for everyone to get involved. The personal contribution of each member of society is necessary if we are to move forward in our battle for a healthier environment.

What can we do? Yes, that's a good question which, I think, many others have provided an answer to. I personally believe that whatever we do for the environment need not be in gigantic proportions. Rather, it is sufficient that we take the battle for a greener environment into our daily routines.

Simple actions like conservation of energy in our homes, as well as paper and other materials in our offices and the constantly-called for "reduce, re-use, recycle" of various matter are what everyone should do. Not only do these help the environment, it also helps that particular person, too, to save on unnecessary costs such as on electricity, among others.

While it might be true that the combined "little" efforts of the common people will not actually compensate for all the waste coming from big-time pollutants such as factories, I say that the collective effort can stimulate something else: environmental awareness. Thinking green, if done by everyone in a community, can serve as a vital safeguard to ensure that the succeeding generations will pick up from where the current leaves behind. In other words, planting the seeds of environmental awareness now will yield a new breed of people who will strive to continue what we started in the future.

Furthermore, if everyone thinks green and patronize only the companies and commercial establishments that do not bring harm to the environment, I believe that those "huge" corporations will sooner or later yield to their calls. It's just best to start acting now, in our own personal ways.

Let's start now

There is, indeed, an evident need for everyone to start thinking of the future and work hand-in-hand to take care of our environment. The best time to start is now.

Environment problems, such as pollution and rapid deforestation, will most likely destroy the planet if left undeterred. The ill-effects of these menace are now being felt everywhere; climatic changes and aggravated natural disasters have already claimed, and are still taking, lives.

The catastrophic flooding in Luzon a few years back and the infamous Ormoc tragedy have presented how serious the problems of deforestation are. These also showcased how many innocent souls will have to perish to pay for the greed of a few.

The numerous environment risks raised by pollution are now affecting a great number of people. Health problems are becoming more and more serious because of the contaminants in the air, and the waters around the archipelago are slowly being defiled.

With dark clouds ever looming in the horizon, the right time to do our part in taking care of the earth is never tomorrow nor the day after. We must start acting now.

Maraming Salamat po!

This is one of those bit-overdue posts, but several circumstances had prevented me from expressing my gratitude properly. Anyway...

THANKS GUYS!

As much as I would want it, I'd write down the names of all the people from whom my 205 votes came from. Well, that is quite impractical to say the least (and rather impossible, too) :P

Nonetheless, I'm grateful to all those who answered my plea and helped me win in GM Tristan's group writing contest. So I say this:

To all Sikatorse's (I'm always proud to be one of the 57 Sikats)...
To all the CDS people and my Smart family...
To all Sysnet and Ericsson employees...
To all my comrades at Ragnaboards Fanfare...
To my Genre buddies...
To my co-WUPians...
To my co-Paulininans...
To my group, Team ACeS...
And to my family...

MARAMING SALAMAT PO!