POST 94

NOV14 UP CAMPUS

Some mixed postings/diary notes I should have posted in the past...

TITLED "CLIMATE"
My mother whispered to me something which I could not understand because of the strong rainfall... She said that at about this time in the past her sister my late aunt used to do SANTO ROSARIO/rosary series in some Manila churches and after that month the weather became drier,,, But I told her the global climate had changed... Reminded me of another strange happening in the past which I shall relate later - concerns "JC", Cardinal Sin, etc

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TITLED "SCIENTIFIC METHOD"
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
The core of the meaning of the word "science", or the notion of 'science' is embodied in the so-called SCIENTIFIC METHOD. A simple example will clarify this meaning. Consider the drying of clothes hung on a clothesline. To simplify matters (the IDEALIZATION/MODELLING/SIMPLIFICATION step of the scientific method) consider only one case: a plain handkerchief drying. The PROBLEM is: what accounts for the drying of clothes - particularly the drying of a single handkerchief? This is the problem which is stated in language in the form of a question. The scientific procedure is to answer this question by employing the scientific method. To do this one needs to form a tentative answer, a HYPOTHESIS and carry out an EXPERIMENT to test the hypothesis. Depending on the result of the experiment, the answer is accepted or a new hypothesis is raised and tested, The procedure is simply repeated until a satisfactory answer is obtained. [In this sense, all scientific facts or truths are TENTATIVE at most and all scientific
accounts are THEORIES - There is nothing ABSOLUTE or FINAL at all in the genuinely scientific sense.] Going back to our case, a proposed solution to the problem or answer to the question is that the handkerchief dries because the water it contains falls off and drops to the ground and this gravitational process dries the handkerchief. To test the hypothesis that drying is the result of water drop due to the pull of gravity, one sets up an experiment by putting a basin or better a graduated wide-mouthed glass vessel under the handkerchief as it hangs. Then one can measure the amount of water that hypothetically falls off the cloth. But (to anticipate the result) one will discover that almost no water is collected in the basin. Therefore, through reasoning or inference, one concludes that the hypothesis that gravity-induced water drop accounts for the drying is incorrect or wrong. It must be rejected (as unfruitful). A new HYPOTHESIS is needed. THe SCIENTIFIC METHOD is re-employed. To cut the story short, the correct answer is that water evaporates in the air. An experiment to test this is more complicated as the notion of evaporation is a more complex notion. The point in the whole affair is that one eliminates a proposed answer to a question about the world or nature by conducting an experiment. The combination of PROBLEM, HYPOTHESIS, EXPERIMENT and others
constitute the SCIENTIFIC METHOD. Strictly speaking, a discipline that does not adopt the scientific method is not scientific or is not a science. Compare other academic disciplines or other human endeavor like art, religion, etc.

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TITLED "DIARY111508" (wrong advanced date!)

FOOD(S?) OF THE GOD(S)
MY ONLY ALLOWED SELF-INDULGENCE/SIN: EATING
(BUT AM NOT REALLY A GLUTTON)
DELICIOUS CAPITALIST FOODs
(PROMO-ADVERTS FOR FREE/unsolicited unpaid)

NOTE VERY WELL that I am writing this YEAR 2008 several years after the closure of the American military bases in the Philippines (Subic & Clark including smaller ones like Camp JOhn Hay, Wallace station, etc etc... SM North-EDSA for example is built on the former JUSMAG? land or US communications facility where there were then a few radio antennae of V.O.A.(?)

I am just wondering NOW... YEAR 2008 when the U.S. has just elected a 'black man in the white House' (headline of an RP newspaper), an HISTORIC FIRST... When the U.S. was very strong then in RP 1950's-1980's the common claim was that 'America controlled RP's economy'...whatever that meant. I am just wondering NOW: Then why is it ONLY NOW that I am able to buy & enjoy the U.S.-original (that's what I believe) MINUTE MAID orange drink
which I believe is the best orange juice commercially available (no bitter aftertaste characteristic of other orange juices like SUNQUICK etc.) The really fresh orange juice I enjoyed once in a long while when I was young were those available in some US facilities & in one Makati shop or eatery of old (Makati Automat?) The last time I enjoyed fresh real orange juice was in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where one can get the freshly-squeezed juice relatively cheap.
Why is this Minute Maid orange juice drink appearing in RP markets only NOW when the Americans have already departed from RP (allegedly?) & their economy is crumbling???

Of course, MANGO juice is more delicious than orange juice. The TROPICAL fruit is sUPERIOR to that temperate citrus.

Also: the excellent candy ALMOND ROCA which my late aunt used to buy in cans is apparently available only in Greenhills UNIMART and is very expensive... I have not tasted this EXCELLENT candy for a long time already but its delicate taste & texture I can still remember... Why is it NOT readily available here? unike this ROCHER candy? - is this the SAME candy repackaged or a different low quality imitation? IS THERE REALLY SUCH A THING AS A "FREE MARKET"???

Some EXCELLENT affordable products still available to masses:
-MINUTE MAID orange drink (by Coca COla Co., a conspiratorial co.!)
TANG used to be an excellent product in the 1970's but now
that it is owned & manufactured by KRAFT FOODs it seems they use Aspartame artificial sweetener which I hate... There is no substitute for cane SUGAR... Maybe Corn SYrup or Honey
& other NATURAL sugars like PALM sugar...
My mother claims DATES is not bad for DIABETICS - Is this correct?
When a company changes hands/ownership, sometimes product-quality is affected...
-MAYA Farms HOT CAKE MIX (around 25 pesos) - an excellent buy.
-plain STAR margarine or Dari-Creme or ANCHOR butter
-DAGUS excellent egg meringue (10 pesos per pack) from Quezon province sold along the highway of Laguna & Batangas
-GARDENIA wheat bread for guaranteed REGULARITY/CONSISTENCY of product
[Cuenca, Batangas bakermen-baked bread in our hometown taste better (Bonete, Pan de Agua etc) but these are getting rarer also if not totally gone. It seems the trade-secret/technique is not passed on to the next generation] I was told about the one real reason:
wood-fired clay pugons produce tastier bread than gas-fired modern ovens
-ROSE BOWL sardine (still same taste after all these years)
-7-UP uncola (my favorite soda pop except for TEEM in KSA which is MUCH better, ROYAL canned Dalandan here also OK)
-DEL MONTE or even DOLE plain pineapple juice (healthier/better than any powdered juice drink even if you detest these 'big CAPITALIST companies')
-SNAPPLE strawberry or kiwi? my fave in KSA though disliked by some of my friends there
-plain dried Raisins (Sun-maid?)
-NESTLE chocolate candy which I prefer to Hershey (too sweet) or Cadbury or Toblerone
[I had a cousin who worked for GOYA Phil.s whose chocolate bar with raisins I enjoy at 15 pesos only ]
-Chinese canned LYCHEE (SO DELICIOUS) MY FAVORITE
-Chinese peanut bar candy from Navotas/Malabon? whose price inexpicably suddenly jumped up even ahead of Global Financial Crisis
- a long, long time ago I enjoyed freshly-cooked SAMOSA dumplings & cool, sweet LASSI drink
from an Indian eatery in Manila but this is no longer available.
I think the business folded (up) because of dirt cheap pricing!
-fresh TAWILIS fish from TAAL lake (many FAKES here in Manila sold in the malls). It remains delicious after all these years but I miss the most delicious MALIPUTO (500-1000 pesos per kilo) TAAL's high-sulfur/mineral-content water makes these natural food so tasty.
-SOme M'ranaw dishes in QUIAPO like CHICKEN KUNING, RENDANG, TAWSUG SATE & TYULA HITUM & sweets etc.
-plain TAHO
-plain BANANA CUE (2 pieces of PLANTAIN give enough energy for 12 hours?)
-plain COCONUT JUICE in plastic
-plain SAGO & GULAMAN cool drink [simple food yet so difficult to find)
But I believe this country shall have reached the INDUSTRIAL level/stage if it can produce its own bottled (glass from its own Pinatubo sands) CARBONATED BUKO JUICE softdrink (sweetened Coconut Water Soda Pop) named "KATIPUNAN" or "PAMATID-UHAW".
I have long wondered why nobody is producing this... I imagine myself as a rich magnate/owner of such company... Just add water and little sugar to coconut juice then carbonate the combination... I should have asked my mother to buy a little carbonator machine when she was in the U.S. for a brief visit...

I SIMPLY cannot be convinced that MALL food tastes any good...
JOLLIBEE MCDO KFC KENNY ROGERS CHOWKING PIZZA HUT SHAKEYS etc etc etc
How can it be? - it's all flour/thickener & cooking oil & salt+vetsin & you don't get your money's worth. - How can beef hamburger be sold cheap (P20 MCDO, buy one take one) if it's not earthworm or agar-agar or bananaheart-thickened! Worse it might be rat or cat meat like in SIOPAOs - PHWA!
-I think food prepared by distraught/dissatisfied, overworked underpaid profit/money-motivated cooks, waiters & servers do not make for truly good nutritious eating. Since YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT, you know what eating food prepared by "service-oriented workers" implies...
The PRANA or 'spiritual essence' contained in food is completely LACKING in commercial food.
Even the MALAYS (Orang M'layu) of Peninsular Malaysia believed in the SEMANGAT contained in the rice plant and grain...

Apparently, one cannot offer good food & run a profitable business at the same time here in RP...
I simply CANNOT UNDERSTAND this...

I think I have a PRINCE's or Monarch's taste I developed after getting inured
as a child to excellent imported & stateside products in the 60's & 70's
but now I have a Pauper's pocket... CANCER SA BULSA! I NEVER patronize MALL eateries...
...except for FREE LUNCH HAR!HAR!

THOSE WERE THE (GOOD OLD) DAYS, MY FRIEND...

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TITLED "KNOTS"
Sunday Nov 09
THought "THE KINGDOM" is already showing on HBO... Thought it's already Nov 15 - where did I get such a very wrong notion? Wrong/Erroneous sense of time!!! Even set the wrong date in my computer which I re-formatted & re-installed - its date is SUnday Nov 16 AM really getting out of touch with the conventional time of my locale Is this a problem in my phyiscal/mental constitution or am I the victim of scientific remote mind-control or occult-mystical SIHR (witchcraft)? I can only pray as defense...

SEE this video of RUQIYA in Saudi or Jordan... It may be scripted/fake or genuine/real (50-50)... I've seen the real one in KSA in the past. One usual option of the 'ALIM is to ask the JINN to convert to ISLAAM. - Note in the video that the being is asked if it is a JINN or a SHAYTAN (EVIL JINN) NOT ALL JINNS are evil/malevolent because there are MUSLIM and even CHRISTIAN? JINNs. SEE how IGNORANT many people - even religious ones about the reality of the JINNs - They always automatically classify all spirits as demonic/devils... NOT so!
And even some allegedly religious miracles might be produced by evil JINNs!
EXTEMELYY IMPORTANT: HUMANS are ranked HIGHER than JINNS...
RUQIYA is ISLAAMic medicine/cure/treatment using plain QUR'AN recitation This physical aspect of ISLAAM is my reason for allowing the possibility that ALL melodious sounds, especially MUSIC, MIGHT really be HARAAM... QUR'AN is vocalized/uttered aloud & any other sound competes with this.

One of the earliest advice I learned as a new revert to ISLAAM was how to deal with a snake inside one's house. One is not advised to immediately kill a snake because it might be a JINN and this will lead to more problems. The advice is to address the snake & utter aloud to it to leave at once, three times (e.g."GET OUT" or "LEAVE MY HOUSE"...) [Snakes have no ears?]
If it is a JINN then it will leave but if not then it will remain so one should treat it as a material/biological snake & kill it, capture it or if you are really in control of the situation then even let it in for some time to eat all the mice & rats in your place -the snake is the best rodent exterminator!.

Early morning past midnight I searched some MUSLIM sites about MAGICK (NOT MAGIC as in CONJURING/SLEIGHT-OF_HAND) & RUQIYA. The most popular account I see in the net is the use of KNOTS to cast SPELL. I remember when we were still young in Batangas60's-70's.
One time, my sister was playfully chased by a neighbor's puppy (We really NEVER had a dog as pet in BATANGAS when the old folks were still alive.) & she run in fright under the BATALAN which had a dirty, slippery stone surface & she slipped & slightly banged her head in the ground. My LOLA administered some kinda "first-aid" which was the only time I saw her do something of that sort. I remember she was seated one rung/step above my sister in the open stair beside the BATALAN & checking her head. Then my grandmother took a copper coin? or some metal & let her long hair (twisted in a bun) loose & wrapped the metal using some strands of her hair. She then positioned this on the afflicted part of my sister while uttering some sort of prayer on the hair & the metal & blowing thru this over the BUKOL/swollen part of my sister's head. I did not
take then the matter seriously & was watching without any real interest. I did not examine my sister's head but both she & my LOLA claimed that the BUKOL shrunk in size... But now years after that incident & after reading about this KNOT & magick I realize my LOLA & some other old people in our town might have known some MAGICK of some kind. One trademark of our town is the tiny ALITAGTAG cross made of a special wood claimed to have miraculous powers which was considered as a TALISMAN or AMULET (Two different things - I'll let the reader find out the difference for herself.) Superstition (native or induced by Spanish friars)? or genuine occult knowledge? Some of my MUSLIM friends claim that MAGICK in Malaysia & Indonesia is more impressive... My LOLA's brother had a reputation as being extremely "easy" with women & there was general opinion that he possessed some secret GAYUMA potion or knew some prayer or technique or magickal device... One TSISMIS - He'd take a train ride to a neighboring QUEZON (BALER province of old) town (He lived in HONDAGUA & LOPEZ) & by the end of the brief ride he already had picked up an attractive woman who would willingly go with him! Some of his male descendants (4 on my count) apparently inherited this alleged CHIX-ABILITY...
Plain/Common Physical or Rare Magickal Ability???