A Business Graduate's Random Blog on History and Gossip

GeeksforGeeks I remember the dread of having to study the periodic table. Then again, wasn't school really a dread because of one thing--the fact that the system cares more about grading for the sake of grading instead of grading based on learning . Chemistry is one subject I had some disgust during the second grading (since I personally dislike doing stoichiometry problems). Sure, I can overcome my fear of stoichiometry by watching videos on how it's used but I still feel doing those problems can be a chore. I would like to revisit another wonderful tool in science--the periodic table. Sure, I hated memorizing it back when I was a child. I had to memorize it at 10 years old. We had to restudy it at 3rd year of high school under the K+10 system. Doing the history of science makes science a lot less tedious. I remember my hilariously stupid line of asking, "Who invented math?" back in 4th year of high school. It's part of growing up or not? I looked at the inventio

As a Chinese of Hokkien descent, I'm really not going to deny how often the word "si" or "death" was used in connection to exasperation. I hear the expression "ya si yo" to express how one is sick and tired. I remember saying "Ya si yo" when meeting people I knew I couldn't get anything out of them except useless gossip .  The meme I got from Bahay Tsinoy also made me think of using "death" to overemphasize. I don't think it's just limited to Fujian Chinese. I got into Chinese Grammar Wiki and found this interesting note: In English, you might use the expression "you scared me to death!" In Chinese, 死了 (sǐ le) is used similarly to intensify an adjective with an unpleasant connotation. It's pretty much a hyperbole . A good example would be like: 我 饿 死了. (Wǒ è sǐ le) which means "Hungry to death".  This would be another important tool in studying the Chinese language and culture. More often, the Ch

Okay, I'm no political analyst or historian. That doesn't mean I should just shut up and not share my opinion. I felt like I needed to publish this piece. This is where I want to examine another issue. I've noticed some people on Facebook are sharing the quotes of Atty. Hilario G. Davide Jr. Some would try to do Ad Hominem attacks on me because I'm no constitutionalist (which I admit that I'm not). Just because I'm not a constitutionalist, doesn't mean, that I can't quote from the experts . Do I really need a degree in law at one of those prestigious universities in the Philippines? Sadly, some people are supposedly smarter than me but are the ones spreading nonsense.  Understanding charter change We need to see the definition first to understand why so many Filipinos, especially boomers , are so against it. The Philippine Star   gives this definition of charter change: Charter change, simply, is the process of introducing amendments or revisions to the

Back in college, I recall having the idea of exercise being "too complicated". It doesn't have to sound complicated. I have my journey from 2013-2023 where I really lost much weight. After having a Mi-Band, I thought about how losing weight was something.  I ended up running into the video of this attractive blonde girl. I admit that I watched it partly because she's pretty. Then again, some videos with really ugly-looking people are entertaining when they have very good content. I watched the video and I could really laugh (and cringe) at the stupidity of the fat people in the video. Hearing them whine is really that annoying. The girl really talks about some sense in many of her videos. A lot of people are simply trying to become what they're not and try to defy the facts. It's just so stupid how fat acceptance people even shame people who are trying to lose weight. I've watched some weight loss stories and found out some of them had suffered a lot of he

10 years ago, I remember Typhoon Yolanda, which was when a lot of refugees from Tacloban to Cebu. Cebu was hit but didn't get as much damage compared to Tacloban. Years later, Cebu was hit by Typhoon Odette and I'm among the survivors. I think about how storms in the Philippines hit when it's near Christmas . It was also that time when there was some politicking and taking things out of context (like the incident between Manuel A. Roxas Jr. and Alfred Romualdez of Tacloban ). Take note that Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is a relative of Romualdez. It was also verified that the late Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III and Romualdez both exchanged angry words . After recovering from Odette, I remember having talks about how I and some people had talks while repairs were going on. I could remember a conversation where we talked, after surviving Odette and being caught rather unprepared in some way, that the people of Tacloban were ill-prepared. Even during the Christma

Here's another Taiwanese indigenous song that never got out of my head. Searching these kinds of songs caused me to land on the Indonesian song Tolu Sahundalan which is "Three It Will Be Alright". The lyrics are purely sung in an Aboriginal language. The dance steps are, as always, similar to Malaysian aborigines and Filipino aborigines. The DNA of the Ami tribe is closest to Malaysian .  Here's a more lively of the Ami Welcome Dance. Sure, the first version is good but I think I like this version better. 

Another song that gave me an earworm is the Ami Tribe song "Song of the Ocean" (海洋之歌). Not surprisingly, the Amis Tribe has its members near the ocean. This excerpt from Vice gives some information on the Amis Tribe: The Amis tribe in Taiwan is the largest aboriginal group on the island. They are known for their connection to the sea, and it is for that reason that every April they host an Ocean Festival, where the community gathers at the beach and pay respect to the god of the ocean . In Chinese, the ceremony is called Hai Ji (海祭), which directly translates to the Ocean Festival. In the Amis language, it is romanized to Pafafoi, which means to sacrifice a pig. The word pafafoi almost sounds like the Filipino word for pig, meaning baboy. The Malaysian word is babi. The words are rather close. The song has a very unusual jingle. I remember enjoying the Ifugao and Mindanao drum beats during a Buwan ng Wika program back in high school. 

  While looking for an Aborigine song that gave me an earworm--I found this interesting aboriginal song. By looking at this video, I suspect that this song is actually a love song between a man and a woman,. It does sound very Ifugao-like as well.